Introducing Sue Featherstone...

... journalist and fellow Yorkshire writer who knows a good few things about writing.  Hi Sue, thanks for being here and tell me, what are your 7 pieces of golden advice about writing?

 
One way or another writing has been my job for a long, long time.  How long exactly?  Sorry, that’s a secret between me and my teeth.  Suffice to say I don’t yet qualify for a bus pass, although that’s largely because politicians keep moving the goalposts. However, since those early days as a gawky news reporter, when newspapers were still printed on hot metal, I’ve learned a lot about what readers want.  And what they don’t.  So here are seven things I know about writing.
1. The late Terry Pratchett once described the first draft of a novel as the author telling him or herself the story. This is a polite way of saying first drafts are full of waffle and hopelessly over-written.  It is also true.
So, write, revise, edit, re-write.  Repeat, as often as necessary.  And, yes, the post you are reading now is a revised version of the original.
2. Multi-voiced narratives can be challenging.  Some readers enjoy piecing together the threads of a story through the viewpoints of different characters, others feel it’s too much like hard work.  So, lighten the load for those readers by following the rules.
3. The first rule of a multi-voiced narrative is to make each voice distinctly different and easily recognisable.

In my Friends series with co-author Susan Pape, one character is reasoned and restrained, the other is more volatile and impulsive.  In our current work in progress, one viewpoint is presented by a first-person narrator using the present tense, whilst the alternative point of view is that of a third-person narrator, told in the past tense.
Readers should always know, without having to think about it, which narrator is speaking.
4. Rule two: don’t switch narrators mid-chapter.  The aim of a multi-voiced narrative is to let the reader see inside the head and heart of two or more characters.  Since those voices should each have their own tone and style, it’s confusing for readers if paragraph one is the voice of narrator A while paragraph two swivels to narrator B.
5. Where possible, be sparing in the use of possessive pronouns (I, me, my etc.). This can be difficult in a first-person narrative, but too much I or me or my jumps off the page like a toddler having a tantrum in a sweet shop.
The bonus is that in re-writing to eliminate these words, your sentences will become stronger, more succinct and direct.

6. Individual narrators only know what they are thinking or feeling.  This means narrator A cannot tell readers character B is confused or sad or angry.  But they can show. For instance: B scratched his head and sucked his bottom lip between his teeth.  ‘I don’t know…’  His voice tailed off.  ‘What do you think?’
7. Paint word pictures.  This is an extension of the show don’t tell rule and done well allows readers to intuit something important about the story being told without the writer having to spell it out in words of one syllable.  It takes practice to get right and the best way to learn is to do as Shakespeare did and borrow, and adapt, from the work of other writers.
Start by keeping a running collection of word pictures.  I keep a list on my mobile phone.  Some of the best come from magazine and newspaper features and opinion pieces.  For instance an earthquake described as a ‘tidal wave of masonry’ and a politician who spoke through ‘teeth so tightly gritted a snow plough wouldn’t have got through.’  Other favourites include ‘as flexible as a pencil’ and ‘the personality of a finger nail’.
I’m reluctant to share an example of a word picture from my own work – what if I haven’t pulled it off?  But here goes: an example from my current work in progress.
 
‘When he’s gone I remain in my seat, my stomach slithered down to my toes, my mouth’s dryer than a Saharan door mat, and my brain’s awash with a tidal wave of emotions as I re-imagine probably the worst day of my life.  The day I did the stupidest thing in the world and which I’ve been regretting ever since.’
 
I’ll probably tweak it some more before the book is done but I hope the reader senses the character’s turmoil.

 
about the author… Sue is a former journalist-cum-public relations practitioner-cum-university lecturer, who now writes women’s fiction with Susan Pape.
The pair wrote two journalism textbooks together - Newspaper Journalism: A Practical Introduction (also published in Chinese) and Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction – before deciding to turn their hands to something a bit more creative.
They’ve now published three novels in their Yorkshire-based Friends trilogy – A Falling Friend
(published 2016), A Forsaken Friend (2018), and A Forgiven Friend, published just one year ago in November 2019.

Reviewers have described their writing as warm and funny, and describe the books as an intelligent and sassy take on the friendship between two women on the cusp of middle age.
Next on the agenda is another Yorkshire trilogy, provisionally titled The Friday Night Knitting Club.
When she’s not writing, Sue enjoys reading, daydreaming and Nordic walking – which is a bit like skiing without the snow.
 
You can follow Sue on her Blog on Twitter  and on her Facebook page

You can get Sue's books using these links :  A Falling Friend  A Forsaken Friend  and  A Forgiven Friend

 

And if you are an author, with a connection to Yorkshire and wish to know more about Promoting Yorkshire Authors or to join us then check out our Website