I am delighted to welcome author TM Logan to my blog today to talk about 'From News to Novels'. TM Logan's book Lies was published in e-book by Twenty7 on 17 January 2017.
From News to Novels
By TM Logan
Authors come from every kind of background. For me, it was
journalism. I always knew I wanted to write, and that instinct led me to spend
eight years as a newspaper reporter including a stint on a national daily in
London. In many respects I think it’s a good preparation for a writer – here
are a few of the ways that journalism helped me in writing my debut novel LIES.
1. Respect the reader
A constant refrain during my training was that if the reader
didn’t understand what you’d written first time around, it wasn’t their fault,
it was yours. In other words, the point is to communicate – to be clear –
rather than try to show off. Whatever you’re writing, your words should be a
bridge to connect with the reader, rather than a barrier. As the writer Amy
Hempel put it: ‘Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make
someone want to read the next one.’
2. People are going to change what you write
There’s (almost) always a better way to write what you’ve
already written. When I was a reporter, it was absolutely routine for
everyone’s copy to go through one or more sub-editors on its way to the page.
They would tighten it, sharpen it, improve it, and come back with questions
that needed answers or elements that ought to be added. This gets you used to
the process of revising and copy-editing a novel – to make it the very best it
can be.
3. Getting used to deadlines
This is both a blessing and a curse. I spent so long working
to daily deadlines, filing three or four stories a day, that I became used to
the pressure and accustomed to writing against the clock. Which is helpful when
you have to meet a short writing deadline. The flipside, however, is that when
the deadline stretches out for months – such as writing a 100,000-word first
draft – it can be difficult to retain your focus. My solution is to have
self-imposed wordcount targets, and to write every day to meet them.
4. Writing as a way to make a living
In some ways, writing is like a muscle – the more you
exercise it, the more effective it becomes. Being a journalist, and in my
current role in communications, there is an expectation that you will be
writing every day, and this is not a bad preparation for the writer’s life.
Every day you start with a blank page, and every day you fill it. Journalism
showed me that I could do something I love – writing – and make a living out of
it
5. ‘Write it as if it’s true'
I had quite a few weird moments as science reporter at the Daily Mail. One day I was assigned a
story about strange lights in the sky that looked like alien spacecraft. Could
they be visitors from another galaxy? I duly rang around various astronomers
who explained to me what caused this phenomenon (not aliens, unfortunately). I
told the assistant news editor the story was a dud. His response was a furrowed
brow, followed by: ‘Can you write it as
if it’s true?’ But it’s not true,
I said again. It was one of the weirdest instructions I ever received as a
journalist, but it has some merit for fiction writers. Because if you can write
your story as if it’s true, as if
it’s really happening to someone, somewhere, then it will feel all the more
real to the reader – and that’s something I’ve tried to do with LIES.
About TM Logan
T M Logan
is former Daily Mail science reporter, covering stories on new
developments in a wide variety of scientific fields. He is
Deputy Director of Communications at the University of Nottingham and lives in
Nottinghamshire with his wife and two children.
About Lies
Lies
By TM Logan
Published by Twenty7 (E-book out now; Paperback in May 2017)
ISBN: 978-1785770555
Publisher's description
When Joe
Lynch stumbles across his wife driving into a hotel car park while she's
supposed to be at work, he's intrigued enough to follow her in.
And when he
witnesses her in an angry altercation with family friend Ben, he knows he ought
to intervene.
But just as
the confrontation between the two men turns violent, and Ben is knocked
unconscious, Joe's young son has an asthma attack - and Joe must flee in order
to help him.
When he
returns, desperate to make sure Ben is OK, Joe is horrified to find that Ben
has disappeared.
And that's
when Joe receives the first message . . .
