Like Storyist, Scrivener lets you plot out your novel as an outline or a series of note cards on a virtual corkboard, then flesh out those steps into full chapters. Best of all, Scrivener doesn’t try to lock you into any one method of writing it just hands you the tools and lets you decide how you want to use them. If you don’t believe in the world you’re creating-whether it involves elite New York City chefs, the armies of ancient Rome, or the windswept deserts of Mars-your readers won’t either. A little research can go a long way, providing the small details that will lend your novel the ring of truth. Today, anyone can serialize a novel-in-progress through free, easy blogging sites such as SCRIVENER VS STORYMILL SERIALĪnd since reality often is stranger than fiction, research can be a writer’s best friend real-world details may suggest new twists in your story, or provide deeper thematic parallels.Īuthors as diverse as Charles Dickens and Stephen King have tried their hand at serial novels, publishing one chapter at a time to keep their readers hooked while they work through their narratives. I thrive on deadline pressure, so I’ve blogged both of my previous NaNoWriMo attempts. I did my best to post a chapter (or part of one) every day, driven by the thought that someone might be waiting expectantly for the next installment. Getting encouraging comments from both friends and total strangers was great motivation, too. That said, there are plenty of valid reasons not to blog your novel. If you’re shy or insecure about your prose, letting it hang out for the entire world to see can be paralyzing. You’re also running the risk that some enterprising plagiarist will rip off your hard-won ideas everything posted on the Web is implicitly copyrighted to its author, even without a specific copyright notice, but that hasn’t stopped thieves in the past. And some writers have valid concerns that publishing their novel on the Web first could ruin their chances of eventually getting it published in book form. p&p of £1.99.If you think blogging your novel will help you write better and more consistently, I say go for it. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. To order a copy for £11.43, go to or call 03. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic Books, £12.99). The pair of them outshine their story, which ultimately tries to do too much and so never quite delivers on the promise of its audacious conceit. The real joy lies in the characters: Ayoola is a delight, waltzing through Lagos with supreme self-confidence: “Only the guilty go to jail,” she reassures herself, confident that she doesn’t fall into that category. It all adds up to a distinctive but uneasy mix of morbid humour, love story, slashfest, family saga and grave meditation on how abusive behaviour is passed down through the generations. Nigerian culture is alluded to subtly, as with the sister father’s wooden cane: its intricate carvings capture the past, but its legacy of violence stretches out into the future.īy the final chapters, the book has so much going on that it becomes difficult to tell how the various storylines are intertwining. The traffic jams, the cops, the rain that breaks umbrellas – this novel makes full use of Lagos's characterīraithwaite lives in Lagos, and she makes full use of the city’s character – the traffic jams, the cops, the rain that breaks umbrellas – to give the story a remarkably strong sense of place. ![]() In a different sense, it may well turn the doctor inside out, too. “Seeing them together turns me inside out,” Korede laments. Once the tears start to flow, it all gets a bit schmaltzy. Initially, though, Braithwaite pulls her punches on the serial-killer storyline: Korede spends more time being scared that Ayoola will steal her crush than that she’ll stab him. ![]() It’s a classic love triangle, with the added twist of the knife Ayoola takes with her on dates.
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