Great Places to Write (Part Four - In Sri Lanka)

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

THE GALLE FACE HOTEL, COLOMBO

The Galle Face Hotel overlooks Galle Face Green

My novel The Mask Slips opens with the main character sitting on a planter’s chair on the veranda of the Galle Face Hotel. The scene is almost shamelessly colonial, something I wanted for the start of the novel, which is about a young Englishman’s struggle to remain dispassionate and unaffected by the people he meets in Sri Lanka. Whenever I read that opening scene, I taste salt in the air.

That the Galle Face is the setting for this colonal scene is in no way a criticism - or at least, not of its stunning veranda. The famous checkerboard area reflects the sunsets, and the salty breeze coming in off the Indian Ocean swishes through the palm trees, lifting, if only temporarily, the humidity.

The Galle Face’s list of famous guests is long, and ranges from Yuri Gagarin to Mark Twain. Arthur C. Clarke stayed there while he finished 3001: The Final Odyssey. The front of the hotel overlooks Galle Face Green, a long patch of grass that runs parallel to the sea and comes alive at night with people gathering to fly kites and play football and cricket. Colombo itself is a great city for shopping - Paradise Road and Barefoot are my favourite shops - and you can pick up some great bargains.

It’s about six years since I last stayed at the Galle Face. Writing this makes me think that could be six years too long. But then, I’m only thinking of sitting on the veranda, staring out at the sea and the checkerboard area, inspired by the exotic setting. Time has a habit of casting a golden sheen over memories, like the sunsets over the checkerboard. The room we stayed in at the Galle Face was noisy and shabby, and the corridors and great staircase were faded remnants of their past glory. There was nothing faded about that veranda, though. Like I said, the colours were golden. And black and white.

Tags: Colombo, Sri Lanka, The Mask Slips, writing
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Great Places to Write (Part Three - In Egypt)

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

The Old Cataract, Aswan

My favourite hotel in the world; Princess Diana, Winston Churchill and Agatha Christie all stayed there. Part of Death on the Nile is set in the Old Cataract’s grounds.

The Old Cataract sits on a headland overlooking the River Nile and Elephantine Island. The Agha Khan loved Aswan so much his mausoleum stands on the opposite bank of the Nile. You can see why when you sit on the Old Cataract’s veranda. Elephantine Island’s black rocks stand in stark contrast to the white-sailed feluccas drifting up and down the Nile. Beyond the river, the desert undulates towards the hils on the horizon; just before them, sits the abandoned monastery of St. Simeon. Sunset is my favourite time to look at the view from the veranda. Silhouettes of palm trees frame the Nile, whose waters sparkle like liquid gold, and feluccas glint as the sun sinks below the desert hills.

Sunset on the Old Cataract

 

With such an inspirational view, and such relaxing surroundings, writing on the veranda is easy; I planned out an entire novel there, in great detail. A thriller, set in London, Lisbon and Cairo. I never finished writing it, but the structure is still there for me; waiting.

If you need a break from writiing, or want to do something more active than just staring out at the view, Aswan has plenty of attractions. I did all of the items on the list below, but there are many more things to do:

• * Trek to St. Simeon’s monastery (by camel, preferably. Trust me on this. I’ve walked to the monastery and gone by camel; Camels hooves have evolved to hold their grip in the desert sands. Human shoes haven’t.)
• * Wander through Aswan’s souks ( I bet you can make it to the end without spending any money)
• * Visit Philae temple
• * Hire a felucca as often as possible - there is no better way to relax than floating down the Nile.
• * Visit the Tombs of the Nobles
• * Visit the Nubian Museum

The Old Cataract is currently undergoing a complete internal overhaul, but according to the Sofitel Group’s website the building will retain its original character. I hope so. I’d hate to think everything will be modernised for the worse. And that veranda had better be the same next time I go…

Tags: Aswan, Egypt, writing
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Too Much Dialogue

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Yesterday, a review of Elmore Leonard’s latest book said it was good, but left the reviewer feeling like there was too much dialogue. I know from Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing that he doesn’t like huge great chunks of prose - and neither do I; the temptation to skim them can be irresistable. I certainly do my best to avoid writing them. But I have to confess that the last time I read an Elmore Leonard book, I thought there was too much dialogue.

I use plenty of dialogue as well - and at times, when I’m reading it back, it feels like too much, at which point I try to delete the unneccesary bits. Deleting dialogue is hard, though. If you stick religiously to the rule that everything on the page should move the story forward, you might find it easier. But maybe not, because dialogue is surely just the other side of the same coin as story. If plot is taken as being the way a story is told, using dialogue is just a form of plot; telling the story in a certain way. Elmore Leonard chooses to tell his stories through lots of dialogue ( so do I, although I am not in anyway comparing myself to him). But I suppose any one plot device, when used heavily through the course of a novel, can drag the story down.

For me, that’s most obvious when I read huge sections of descriptive writing. I remember David Gemmell saying he’s not interested in what a room looks like - just what happens in it. In most cases, what happens in a room will surely be dialogue. So at what point does dialogue stop being action and start being self-indulgence? When the reader feels like it’s too much, I guess. As a writer, I suppose the trick is to try and predict when that will be.

Tags: creative writing, dialogue, writing
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Massacres

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

The book I’m currently writing is going well. Real life keeps intruding, of course, in various ways, but all in all I’m fairly pleased with it. It’s still early days, of course, and I really wish I was better at thinking up titles, but it’s getting there. I’m pretty much entering the middle phase of the first draft now. 230 A5 pages written. I wish I had the maths skills to work out how many Microsoft Word pages that translates to.

My cousin commented on how violent The Tale of the Birds is. This one isn’t bloody like that, but lots of dark themes are cropping up…neglect, single parents, obsessive behaviour, drug abuse and the like. It’s certainly making it interesting to write, but it’s not exactly the light, frothy children’s book I was expecting it to be. Still, at least I’ve managed to resist the urge to include any massacres. So far, at least.

The other thing this book is doing is getting me back into writing after a fairly long break. I made a start oon the sequel to The Tale of the Birds a while back, but it came to nought. The other day, though, while writing a scene for the children’s (?) book, the entire prologue for The Tale of the Bird’s sequel flashed before my eyes. It’s perfect, because it explains just about everything that needs to be explained from The Tale of the Birds in an active, progressive manner. And you know what? There isn’t even a massacre in that scene, either. Yet.

Tags: author, book, children's novel, fantasy, first draft, the Tale of the Birds, themes, writing
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