Wednesday Wonderings - Book Review: Room

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Picador (23 Dec 2010)
• ISBN-10: 0330519026
• ISBN-13: 978-0330519021
• Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.8 cm
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (297 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
• #2 in Books > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

Jack is five. He lives in a single, locked room with his Ma.

I have written a lot of book reviews, and never before have I been more stumped on what to say. If anyone has read The Other Hand (recently re-released as Little Bee) by Chris Cleave, they will know from the jacket that there is no blurb for the book. All they say is it is a remarkable read, but they don’t want to say too much or it will spoil things for the reader.

This is the same case for Room.

Room is the most unique book I have read in a long time. It took my breath away. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of The Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas, with a young boy leading us through the story.

The character of five-year-old Jack was moving and sweet, head-strong and stubborn. A bit like any child, really. Except Jack isn’t like other children his age.

We get to see the world through Jack’s eyes – how simplistic things really are, and how complicated Outside can be.

The use of language in the novel is truly perfect – every word, every sentence, constructed as though by Jack himself. It pulls the reader into his world, and before you know it, you feel like you’re seeing Outside with brand new eyes, too.

I cannot recommend this book enough. But like the jacket for The Other Hand, I won’t say too much. I will say that Room will take you on a wild journey of emotions and can guarantee it will keep you up at night. You’ll see the best and worst of humanity, the scary parts of the world. And I dare anyone not to agree with Jack that a lot of the world is just a repeat. A truly haunting read. 

Rainy Days and Mondays - Where you from?

Dialect: a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language.

Great, so how do you get a dialect across in your writing? The best way I’ve found is by using the KISS theory. Keep It Simple Stupid. There is no need to start rattling off Scottish or Spanish phrases to prove your character is from another country. In fact, since it’s a braw, bricht, moonlicht th nicht, why don’t we explore this a bit more?

Did you just stumble a bit there? Probably, I know I did even as I wrote it. (Scottish translation courtesy Pamela Wench – it’s a cold, bright, moonlit night tonight) A few key words will let the reader know this person is from somewhere else without making them struggle to find meaning in the words. Stumbling your way through an accent so thick you would have trouble understanding it even if it were read aloud to you, can turn your readers off – fast. Personally, I read fiction for the pleasure of becoming lost in a world of someone else’s creation, not for language lessons.

Example

“Wipe that silly smirk off your face, I will not be found like this!” Her voice came out in a strangled hiss. She tried to make her way to the far side of the stream, to the concealment the bushes there offered.

Iain found himself chuckling, “Och, tis a fine temper ye have. I knew yer passions would run deep.”

A mischievous grin hovered near the corner of her mouth, one brow cocked. “Not as deeply as yours. Now help me out before the whole of the world knows what we have been doing.”

Pleasure at her unabashed response filled him and turned his chuckle into a laugh. He boosted her up onto the steep edge, taking the time to give her bottom a gentle caress. “Dinnae wander too far. I still have questions only ye can answer. Ye ken?”

The man is from Scotland, the woman from England. His every word does not ooze Scotland, but enough do for the imagination to seize on them and fill in the rest. I’ve chosen to leave out the accent for her so I don’t overwhelm readers with two distinct dialects. For her I try to convey her nationality by how she phrases things. So, there are various ways to express different accents and varying degrees of them as well.

Use the internet. There are so many sources out there for writers. Just Google, ‘How to write with a (fill in the blank) accent’ and search through what comes up. Tap any friends you have who have lived, or been to the place you want to capture. Getting a dialect right can add another layer of reading pleasure, putting the reader in a whole different environment and giving them the chance to travel vicariously to new locales.

Whether your characters are from Brooklyn, the Deep South, Rome or England, let a bit of their local color shine through in how they speak. Just a touch will do.

Rain :)

Sunday PicNic ~ Rain's Reign (Poem)

There’s nothing like the taste of rain;
the sprinkling drops delight my tongue.
Beyond the biting wintry days,
the long awaited spring has sprung.

The sprinkling drops delight my tongue
and splash upon my upturned face.
I’m bathed with heaven’s cloud cascade
and clothed in glistening liquid lace.

Beyond the biting wintry days,
when waking earth is vernal-kissed,
the warming clouds spill beads of joy.
I relish in the mist I’ve missed.

Sumshine Saturday~*~Through the Wringer

Impatient for the washer to finish, I lifted the lid.  I watched the clothes slowly come to a stop, and wished my life would come out of a spin cycle, if only for a day.

Does creative energy dissipate when life whips insanity into the mix? No, I can't say it does. Not for this writer anyway.

Writing about the day, be it a happy or hectic, puts things in perspective.  Stress seems to release its clutch on my insides and flows from my mind, spilling its agony, craziness or pure ecstasy onto my paper. Usually, while scribbling the events of the day in my journal, an idea sparks… then flames.

 Burning to create whatever my mind just conjured, I flip open my laptop and begin to type, forgetting about the spin cycle of life. That is what is so great about the life of a writer. Stress is a means to a wonderful novel, blog or short story.

When you feel like pulling your hair out (or someone elses) try starting a story instead. You'll feel better and create something to share. 

Wednesday Wonderings - Outlining - Friend or Foe?

As I’ve said before, all writers do things different. Some like to plan each chapter with excruciating detail, some write blind. Some do intricate character developments, others get to know them as they go. Sometimes, writers just write and don’t give a thought to anything but the words flowing out of them.

But, there is one topic that seems to raise more than a few heads in the writing world.

Outlining – friend or foe?

I did NaNoWriMo last year (2010) and for the first time, I did proper, real, honest-to-goodness outlining. I hardly ever do that. In the run up to November, I started to freak myself out a bit. What if I hit a wall? What if I couldn’t think where to go next? What if my character turned out to be a douche and therefore wasn’t leading man material?

So I planned. And planned, and planned, and planned. And it was like pulling teeth writing that book.

Usually I’m laid back when it comes to preparing. A fresh idea will develop in my mind. It will normally come from part of a dream, or just a random thought that floated into my scary mind one afternoon. More often than not, I’m working on something else when the idea arrives. This gives the idea time to grow and evolve in my mind before I do anything serious with it.

Okay. Other project is finished. Now it’s time for Shiny New Idea. I write a brief (and by brief, I mean like one or two pages tops of an A5 notebook – sometimes just a paragraph) outline of the story. For example, for my second book, Sex, Lies & Vegas, this is what I wrote:

Start with Vegas as back drop – group of girls unwinding, having dinner. One meets guy, bumps into him at a club later – leads to hotel nookie. Both go separate ways – meet in NYC. Vegas guy is best friend of girl’s fiancé.

And that was it. Seriously. That was the backbone for my book. Oh, all this happens within the first 70 pages and it’s only the beginning for what happened with the characters. But it was all I needed. Think of it as the foundation for a house. Or as I like to think of it, the skeleton for the body of my book.

Once I have the bare outline, I tend to daydream a lot, and this is where I do most of my planning. I think about exciting scenes and scribble notes on them when they are more fully formed.

For character development I sit down and write about them. What they like, what their interests are and what impact they have on the story. If they are being slippery customers and I can’t get a handle on them, I write a scene from their point of view. Trust me, nothing helps more than this.

So that’s it for my planning skills.

How about you? I love hearing about how other writers operate. Let me know!

Rainy Days and Mondays - Speech Tags

He Said, She Said...

Have you ever read something, maybe even something you’ve written, that is loaded with speech tags? I know I have. As useful as they can be in say, a group situation, they can really detract from what your characters are trying to communicate. Following a question mark with ‘she asked’, or an exclamation point with ‘he bellowed’, is redundant. The punctuation already lets the reader know the tone in these cases.

It is more effective if you can give your characters something to do, something that separates them from others. A woman can fiddle with her skirt. A man can twirl his moustache. Show your readers who is speaking, don’t tell them. Your writing will be stronger for it. This gives you a chance to let people know so many different things, things only you know about your characters. Do they have habits or foibles that are specific to them? Guzzling coffee, nail biting, hair twirling, finger tapping, or pencil chewing any of these things can be an indicator for who is speaking. What do they do when they are upset? Happy? Annoyed? Hurt? Physical descriptions can be accentuated and cemented into people’s minds.

With Tags

Back story: In a corner booth at the back of a seedy bar, Mary seeks the help of a man named Jim. They attended high school together years before. Jim has always held a special tenderness for Mary, but he is hurt and angry over her assumption that he is involved with illegal activities. She tells him who she suspects of robbing her, a group of men she believes he hangs out with.

“So, will you help me recover my grandmother’s ring, Jim?” Mary asked.

Jim replied sarcastically. “And you would be suitably grateful for my help, I’m sure.”

“You don’t have to be such a jerk about it, you could just say no.” She said and stood up to leave.

“I’m sorry, please don’t go.” He begged. “Look, I’ll help you if I can, but what makes you think I know any of those guys?”

Without Tags

Mary twisted her napkin again, trying to judge his reaction to her story through lowered lashes. “So, will you help me recover my grandmother’s ring, Jim?”

His mouth curled up on one side. Something flashed through his eyes before their soft blue turned icy. “And you would be suitably grateful for my help, I’m sure.”

“You don’t have to be such a jerk about it, you could just say no.” Throwing down the napkin, she slid out of the booth. Jim reached out as if to stop her, then let his arm fall back to the table.

“I’m sorry, please don’t go.” Furrowed lines appeared across his forehead, he leaned towards her, his hand outstretched. “Look, I’ll help you if I can, but what makes you think I know any of those guys?”

I hope the above example gives you a better idea of what can be done to enhance your story if you take some time to give some personality to your characters. Did you notice anything else while reading? In addition to giving more information on how Jim and Mary are behaving and reacting, all those extra words slow the scene down. The extra words can create greater emotional impact, but too many of them during a fast paced scene can detract from the action. Use your judgement on how much information to convey.

Next time you’re talking with someone, take note of what they do as they speak. As a rule, human beings are not stationary when vocalizing. They are not two dimensional. So it stands to reason that to create believable characters for your story, they need to move as well.

Happy writing J

Rain

Picture supplied by Dreamstime

Sunday PicNic ~ Dreaming in English (Book Review)

Dreaming in English

by Laura Fitzgerald

Tamila (Tami) Soroush leaves a repressed life in Iran to find opportunity and freedom in the United States. Her plans to find a husband on a visitor’s visa change drastically when she desperately escapes an arranged marriage and rushes into a Las Vegas wedding with Ike Hanson; an American man she truly loves.

Uncertainties build as life in America becomes weighed down with stress and fear. She longs for her parents, who are dominated by fear and won’t leave Iran, worries about her sister’s high-risk pregnancy, is discomforted by her husband’s frustrations, and angered by her mother-in-law’s refusal to accept their marriage as one of love. To top it off, an ominous immigration interview is approaching with a mountain of evidence against her.

Through her struggles, Tami continues to appreciate the freedoms that are hers to grab, liberties never afforded her by Iran’s regime. Yet her dreams of starting a business and a family with Ike turn into a nightmare. She questions if she has the strength it takes to live out her dreams when she discovers living in the land of the free comes with a price and never without a fight.

PROS:  As an American, this book illuminates the things I too often take for granted. Walking in Tami’s shoes clarifies the dreams and struggles of those who weren’t born here. Being born into freedom is a gift we should cherish. Not only does this story demonstrate the struggles for freedom, but entices us to search within ourselves for our strengths, our passions, and our dreams… before it’s too late.

CONS: The story is good, but I found the dialogue tags very distracting.