From the Personal

I started off in writing fiction assiduously avoiding anything that remotely resembled autobiography. To me using one’s own life felt like the practice of a writer who’d run out of good ideas. But when you’re young and bursting with inspiration (oh, and not lived all that much) you scoff at those would-be novelists who think their life is interesting enough to be documented for the general public.

Nowadays it’s never as simple.

Autofiction really is a thing in literary circles. Not that my past is so interesting that I should plunder those experiences as if they were gems to be marvelled at when represented in some shinier form. Fiction for me has been about, well, making stuff up. Although it is said good fiction always contains a kernel of truth.

My last novel, The Chosen, reads mostly like a memoir. But to believe it you’d have to accept some extraordinary events. That’s not to say it’s all made up, or even – to use that cliche – telling a lie to reveal a deeper truth. The art is in extrapolating from real experience.

I wonder if in this age when facts (empirical evidence notwithstanding) have never been so much in question – never so challenged by beliefs and opinions – that fiction has a useful role. Maybe some readers only trust what seems plausible rather than the ‘Experts’ view. Perhaps this is especially true of my genre of science fiction. And indeed two centuries ago most scientists never imagined their ‘facts’ could be overturned.

As well as providing an escape from the worst of reality, I think fiction has a crucial role to question accepted truths and conventional wisdom. Ideas of a good life, of beauty (superficially at least ), of normality have changed noticeably in the last two decades alone (although I accept that is a personal perspective – the ageing process). And maybe that questioning can be done more powerfully through a protagonist’s thoughts and experience. Even if it’s someone you may not like.

My published books:

World’s Beyond Time UK Worlds Beyond Time (US)

The Captured (US) The Captured (UK)

Download The Chosen for free while it’s still available.

If only….

If only i’d thought of that sooner – could be my epitaph. A typical perfect-vision hindsight that taunts me.

In life you get many chances to make amends for mistakes, and move on without dwelling on it. In writing this is true in an even less consequential way. Up to a point. I would contend writers are more obsessed with their mistakes than non-writers. It could be a confidence thing, maybe tending to be more conscientious, more cautious. More neurotic. Because, perhaps like many an artist or artisan, we see perfection to be an attainable reality. And so getting it wrong and realising too late, when that book has been published or submitted to an agent/publisher, those mistakes linger in your psyche prominently as any life regret. The older you so wishing you could pass down that knowledge to the younger: ‘just leave it one more day, look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow’, despite originally feeling you’d been procrastinating.

Even authors of the most acclaimed novels wish they could rewrite them. But this noble aim for perfection is no more realistic than seeking nirvana. It’s always out of reach – just, it can feel. There will never be that masterpiece, never that feeling of peace. And yet: always striving for better, always feeling you’re falling short, I don’t think is a bad thing.

The next novel usually does seem like the better one – The One – regardless of whether it is or not. Just another step towards that elusive magnum opus.

And while those writing mistakes can live on to be viewed by anyone who cares to. Is it not worse when you do get it right and no one really cares?

My published books:

World’s Beyond Time UK Worlds Beyond Time (US)

The Captured (US) The Captured (UK)

Download The Chosen for free while it’s still available.

Power of Imagination

One morning asleep with the radio on I dreamt she appeared instead on TV – engaged in some discussion of business and financial matters. Well, I hadn’t taken in what was being said, just remembered this young woman in a faux-leather biker jacket, light frizzy hair tied back, and a noticeable gap between her front teeth – one of those attractive imperfections (unlike the ‘uncanny valley’ perfection of an AI generated image). But what was curious is that – as far as I know – i’ve never before seen this person or anyone who looks like her. I was captivated.

All in my mind?

I sometimes feel like my dream-world is more vivid and, yes, better than reality. But I wonder if I try to conjure up people that seem convincingly real, to compensate.

Is this what we fiction writers share in common – a need to compensate for what’s missing in our lives?

Most of us dream of those we have lost, be it human or a pet. But of those that have never existed…?

Writers always strive for authenticity (or at least verisimilitude), the life we’ve had or never likely to have and make you believe it all really happened (or some variation). Sometimes it feels like I really have lived that life – feel a biting nostalgia when seeing a 1960s car that I know I have never even sat inside.

I don’t believe a good imagination is the same thing as the ability to visualise another’s description. I’m not great at that – I can get frustrated at pages of detailed world building common to SF. It’s what you visualize on your own terms, when maybe a suggestion is enough, that maybe sparks some connection – and even fulfils a need. That’s the power of the imagination.

My published books:

World’s Beyond Time UK Worlds Beyond Time (US)

The Captured (US) The Captured (UK)

The Chosen now available for free on D2D for a limited time only

http://adriankyte.com/

Making the Effort

Reading fiction takes effort. Reading science fiction often takes more effort. But it should never feel like a task. Anything that says “rewards the patient reader” I would tend to avoid, even though some truly are rewarding.

I downloaded two volumes of a book by a well known author at discount, which got off to a promising start. Now I’m struggling. After reading the excellent Upgrade by Blake Crouch – an intense page-turner – this latest novel feels comparatively like hard work. Maybe it’s because i’ve become lazy and my attention span is not what it used to be. After all, the voluminous space saga was never a problem for me in my 20s, 30s and slightly beyond. Those Peter Hamilton doorstoppers, I ploughed through them all – gladly. Yet here I am now getting bamboozled by the welter of characters, their roles and histories, the detailed descriptions of bizarre aliens and their environments. It feels like I am failing in not properly envisioning the scenes. And yet, if you ask me what’s wrong with the writing, the plotting, world-building, I can’t quite put my finger on it; there are no bad sentences. The writing is as agile as the action scenes.

I have, however, noticed a change in style generally in constructing a successful novel that’s altered over the last decade, that a debut author should probably adhere to, to sell. The previously best-selling have the latitude of loyalty from the reader that will invest – and likewise from their editor. There is the risk of the writer having a clear vision of their book and wanting to add authenticity by adding reams of detail. And therein lies the alien description conundrum; you, the reader, have never seen that strange world or that multi-limbed creature, so the author can’t just skip over it to get on with the plot. Maybe that is why earth/human based novels have wider appeal.

Still, there is the art of finding the familiar in the alien that a skilled SF writer can achieve. A challenge I’m not sure I’d pull off.

My published books:

World’s Beyond Time UK Worlds Beyond Time (US)

The Captured (US) The Captured (UK)

Download The Chosen for free while it’s still available.

http://adriankyte.com/

Fix the Unfixable?

There is no achievement so imbued with pride than publishing your first novel. Invested with high hopes and what feels like your entire being into this monumental project. Even if it turns out to be a failure, rejected and unappreciated, it will always hold that special place in your heart. Yes, a lot of emotion tied up with that debut work. So it has not been easy to confront the admittedly very considerable failings of The Hidden Realm.

Twelve years from first published I finally removed it. Well, mostly; it ended up on numerous sites since I made it free. Possibly exceeded 10k downloads. Clearly some readers liked it, but unfortunately those who didn’t made it known. This was in the days when competition on virtual space was nowhere near as fierce, so getting attention was far easier. But that kind of attention carries risk. And my request to delete all reference to it on Goodreads was rejected.

Here’s the dilemma. Should I do an extensive re-edit/rewrite of THR? Or just carry on with my fifth novel (second, third draft etc)? It’s a question perhaps only I can answer. A cursory re-read of my debut I soon got a sense of its failings: too many character POVs with all their narratives; clunky dialogue – which has been my weakness for many years. In the end I did my best to tie everything up to what felt like a neat resolution. Written in the noughties, maybe it seems dated in more ways than just the science&tech.

The most common problem with that first novel is, bursting with ideas, you want to throw everything in, without the patience to think: I can leave that character’s story for the next volume. So the next (Time Over) was like a reset in the series.

Anyway, I hope not to simply disregard THR without some attempt to salvage it. Because, surely, you can never forget your first.

My published books: Worlds Beyond Time (UK) Worlds Beyond Time (US)

The Captured (US) The Captured (UK)

Success, Finally?

Imagine. You’ve been used to failing for such a long time. Then success, finally! That day when you can go out and celebrate, and all your friends and family (who, frankly, doubted you could achieve such greatness) will congratulate your marvellous achievement.

But what does it mean to have made it? Finding an agent? Getting that publishing contract? Those first four-figure sales? The good reviews?

Perhaps there is no point where you think I’ve made it! And in any case there is something in my British psyche that would tell me: now hang on just a minute. You’ve been making it clear, at least to anyone who cared to ask, that writing is what you do. But haven’t you implied to them: “I am special, I have talent, I was born to write novels, that is what sets me apart (from you no less); and now that declaration (however subtly I implied it) is going to be rubbed in your face – because you doubted me and I’ve proved you wrong.”

So there is something in my psyche that fears the downside of success. That the possible sacrifices I have made – the relationships never pursued, the work (employment) never sought – cannot be enough to make it worth while. After all, success means exposure, the spotlight of scrutiny with the inevitable criticism it brings. Sure, everyone, however acclaimed, has to be prepared for the dissenting voices; you are told as a writer how important it is to develop a thick skin. But many of us writers are naturally sensitive creatures.

I wonder if fear is holding me back somehow. Stuck in a certain belief because of bad experiences or just bad luck.

Failure is familiar, an old friend unafraid to dish out a harsh dose of reality – to keep you grounded. Success is the exciting stranger, promising to take you to incredible heights. But one day that stranger will tire of you, and leave you precariously on the mountain ledge.

Finally, I wanted to come up with some definitive advice – to others, and hopefully to myself. But all I could think of was the following. Don’t let that old friend failure drag you down; overcome the fear of success.

Links to my fiction:  The Captured (US)  The Captured (UK)

Time Over (UK)     Time Over (US)

http://www.adriankyte.com/