Blog | Alison Morton Author

Trust your reader!

When we write, we hope that somewhere, in some way, somebody will read it and embrace the message we are sending. When we receive an email from a reader saying they ‘get’ our concept and book world, or when a reader comes up to us at a book event and says it to our face, we experience a flow of delight and satisfaction.

Not only have we delivered and met those readers’ expectations, but we also feel we’ve formed a connection with them. They trusted us to produce a book in which they were prepared to invest precious reading hours (and taxed money!)

But how did we induce that reader to trust us?

The key is how we visualise potential readers as we’re writing. For me, anybody who picks up a book and reads it is already a smart person. But do we see a potential reader as bright and fully capable of intuition, discernment, and depth of feeling? Or do we think of her as a bit slower and less sensitive than us? Do we trust him enough to resist over-explaining everything we want her to feel?

Yet there’s a tendency, common to new writers but also affecting multiple-book authors, to punctuate every action with an interior reflection about what an action or decision means, evokes, or portends. It slows the pace and risks annoying the reader. (Confession: I often do it on my rubbishy first draft.)

Experiencing is much more powerful when one hasn’t been told a moment before what one is going to feel or is supposed to feel. This extra telling diminishes the power of what preceded it. If the writer has dragged me to the spot and insisted, repeatedly, that I look where she’s pointing, I feel as if I’m being lectured. Much better if I’m so engrossed in the story-world she’s created that I can’t not feel it.

So as I write, I keep saying to myself: ‘No, the reader smarter than that. Don’t patronise them with lazy prose or an easy notion.’

How to avoid (or remedy) overwriting

When writing and even more when editing…
• Take a red pen to your words and mercilessly circling or crossing out every place where you’ve conveyed a point more than once.
• Stop and imagine a smart, sensitive reader. Would they understand my meaning if I offered it simply and directly, in fewer words?
• How could I make those fewer words more powerful rather than adding more words?
• If you need to add a back-up sentence to explain a word in the previous sentence, then use a different word in that previous sentence, then you can cut the back-up.
• Use dialogue – a tried and trusted technique which will feel more immediate to the reader.

The opposite danger is under-writing

While I’m a huge fan of the Hemingway school of pared-down style, there’s a balance to be struck between being so succinct that nobody has the foggiest idea what your work is about and wandering, overdone prose. Underwriting assumes that we’ll automatically feel everything that happens to the protagonist exactly the way they would. But if we fail to give context that points the reader towards the character’s desires or woes, the reader will feel disconnected from the character. We’ll have to explain it later, or the reader may misperceive the entire story and throw the book at the wall in frustration.

Trust your reader!

Exposition works only when it challenges, surprises or in some way takes us, emotionally and mentally, somewhere new. Respect the reader enough to participate in your story and its world by giving them something additional to process.

It’s winter and it’s snowing. For some reason, your protagonist isn’t wearing a coat. He’s soaked. He trudging through slush. Then you write that he’s feeling miserable. There’s no need. Trust me, readers will work it out.

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.

Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines and taste world the latest contemporary thriller Double Identity… Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

The political author's dilemma

Reposted after update 2024

Bit of a tricky one, this.

Whatever genre you write, something of you, the author, creeps into your work. Perhaps it’s shades of your opinion, your wishes or even your frustrations. Perhaps you are writing a story that you wish you were living in a far, far away place and time.

At the very least, your ways of expression imbue your story. Your language and selection of vocabulary will slide in, sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously. And your choice of worldview, the slant you put on events, will be there.

Now that’s all fair enough; you are the creator of your book and its world. Some readers will love it, some it will leave cold, others will hate its guts (Hopefully, not too many of those!). We would be a very boring people if, sheep-like, we all liked the same thing or the same book.

Coryn Redgrave as Sir Walter Elliot (BBC)

Inside the book, characters can express every kind of view – political, moral or social. They can outrage, amuse, annoy and give joy to the other characters. An author can have enormous fun playing around with characters and their ideas and values.

Short of outright offence and hate speech, you can have them say anything obnoxious and politically incorrect as long as it serves your story.

One character I would have LOVED to have written is the pompous and self-absorbed Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall (Persuasion, Jane Austen). She must have had such fun writing him (and sending him up!). I have to admit there are aspects of him in Lucius Mitelus Superbus in PERFIDITAS. 😉

So, that’s the book world where you can do virtually anything.

But what about you, the author?As readers have bought your book and paid to come to an event to see you, it’s your duty as well as commercial sense to be pleasant and approachable. I love chatting to readers, and I can talk about the world of Roma Nova until the cows have come home, been milked, slept and gone back out to the fields the next day.

This is a total pleasure for me, but for some shyer authors it can be difficult as they are often incredibly modest and self-deprecating about their work. But that’s part of the author’s job and readers are often curious about the writer’s life, ideas and values.

Being anything but authentic as an author is not a good idea; it’s deceptive and unfair to your readers.
They want to read about and meet a real person. I imagine it’s quite hard work keeping up a false persona and you’re bound to come unstuck at some point. But an author doesn’t have to reveal their inside leg measurement, number of fillings or how often they did their child’s homework for them. They can sift what they want to tell readers, but what they make public should be true and genuine.

But should they express political views, especially in these febrile political times?

My EU hat in 1999. I won a competition with it!

Passionately held values and ideals are part of anybody’s personality; they are often what makes somebody unique, or at least remarkable. Many things contribute to these – upbringing, education, experience at work and in relationships – and however careful an author is publicly, something will slip through. That’s being human.

However, expressing strong views whether it’s about Brexit, American elections, financial scandals, climate change and other large-scale events can be a double-edged sword. Some readers, whether in Real Life or on social media, will like you standing up for a cause, some will disagree and some quietly unfollow you. Others will buy all your books, or vow never to touch another one. That’s the risk.

But if you stay neutral on everything, you run into the danger of looking characterless; a person of no view and no emotional side to them. And the second possible risk is that you may look rather bland and as if you bury your head and have no interest in the world around you.

Given the inflammatory nature of social media, and some of the unspeakable people who lurk there, I can understand the reluctance and sincere wish not to become embroiled. But that’s not me. Being a ‘political animal’ from my earliest years, I do tend to get involved in things. As I get older, I find the urge stronger. I aim to be calm and polite, analytical and informational and rant only very, very occasionally.

I am an author who likes to sell her books, and I hope I don’t put anybody off, but the freedom to express my views is such an intrinsic part of me and a privilege which I’m not giving up any time soon.

Refusal to contemplate either the extreme left(LFI) or the extreme right in France(RN) in 2024

Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

Aged writers?

Probably done through ignorance, carelessness or thoughtlessness, this graphic aroused some strong reaction in the digiverse.

Some thought it silly, others were mortally offended. Most were insulted.

I think it springs from a sincere wish to attract mature writers, those who haven’t been able to write a creative work because of family or work commitments or a lack of confidence.

The genre is speculative literature, presumably along the lines of Ursula Le Guin or Margaret Atwood. So we’re looking at, for example, science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror, dystopian, magical realism and steampunk. Basically, anything that bends reality.

Yes, these genres may seem superficial and trashy to some people, but in the famous words, “They know not of what they speak.” I don’t think people would consider Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go or P D James’ Children of Men as trashy.

INCEPTIO in Waterstones (me at 62 years, 7 months)!

As a writer of alternate history thrillers that (I hope!) have some thoughtful moments, this is my field. My first Roma Nova thriller, INCEPTIO, published then by SilverWood Books, came out in 2013 when I was 62. In no way did I consider myself an older writer. I was just a super-thrilled writer holding her first book.

So what upset people about this cartoon graphic?

The Older Writers’ Grant has been awarded annually since 2004 to writers who are at least fifty years of age at the time of application to assist such writers who are just starting to work at a professional level. So far so good. This could give all sorts of a boost to such writers especially those taking writing up as a later career.

But… (You know I always have a ‘but’.)

Is the image in the advert a true idea of how people, especially younger people, see women and men over 50?

I consulted some of my fellow writers. These two comments sum up most of them:

“I’m 72. And the image in that ad is complete bollocks. My friends are in their 60-80’s and are superb! Filled with youth and energy!”

“This might work if eligibility started at age 100.”

Several posted photos of themselves at 67, 73, 70, nearly 60. I won’t repost as I haven’t asked their permission, but they’re on my Facebook author page. Gosh, they’re a fit and youthful lot. Most are wearing jeans or sports kit.

Ageism something that’s hard to avoid in any line of work, in the arts, and in every aspect of our culture, which is a great pity. It can inspire, especially when you’re told to take it easy now you’ve retired. (Falls over laughing.) Such a remark tends to spur me on. I mean, who doesn’t like a challenge?

Perhaps agents and publishers would prefer to publish a first novel by a 30-year-old writer with a potential career ahead of several decades than by a 75-year-old veteran writer, no matter how distinguished the latter’s career. Unless your recent book or books have sold exceptionally well, it’s a rough market for a new book, no matter its quality.

But older writers have secret assets: they’ve lived a long time and gained many insights through experience, something many 30-year-olds haven’t had time to accumulate. They’re also more crafty, patient and persistent. They’ve had to be as they’ve survived life so far.

But my core argument is not about age itself, but the perception of age. Yes, you can laugh off the image at the top as a silly joke. The couple in the image are cute and endearing, but totally unreal. It’s somebody’s limiting and rather patronising view of two older people.

In Real Life, we wear jeans and trainers, go out dancing, drink, drive sporty cars and work ridiculous schedules. We’re often looking after our children’s children or our own parents. Either requires stamina, patience and an agile mind, Yes, we probably get a little more tired, but most of us are not at the slippers and knitted rug stage, if that was ever a thing.

I applaud the initiative of the Older Writers’ Grant. I applaud any grant that supports writers, but I believe the Speculative Literature Foundation should really rethink their PR. This daft image does nobody any credit, least of all them.

And let’s just see writers as writers. It’s what they produce that counts, not the count of their years.

Cheers!

Writing retreating

Left to right: Me, Carol Cooper, Jean Gill, Jane Davis, Karen Inglis, Clare Flynn, Lorna Fergusson in April 2024

No, I don’t mean retreating from your writing, but going on a writing retreat.

A retreat implies withdrawing from the world.

A writing retreat implies getting away from the everyday and being able to sit down and write without Real Life intruding.

How does this work?

Retreats can be single person ones. I know a number of writers who book themselves into a local budget hotel where they can get basic food on tap, where somebody else cleans the room and where they are left alone. They are in their home area, but do not have the distractions of making meals, taking dogs for walks or children to school or being tempted by household chores. (Believe me, sometimes loading the dishwasher is a great displacement activity!)

Fully catered retreats usually take place in a special writing venue or even off peak university accommodation. A little more upmarket from a budget hotel. You may know some of the others on the retreat or nobody else, but you do come together for meals.

Self-catered joint retreats are with a group of writing friends, usually at the same level of experience, but not necessarily in the same genre. One person books it with a property owner and everybody chips in with the food expenses and takes turns in cooking and tidying. You have to know the other people reasonably well…

Why do it?

Your mental health – you are a human being who needs contact with like-minded souls
Sharing experiences and information about competitions, agents, the ever-increasing number of routes to publication, conferences, writing and book events
Obtaining thoughtful critiques from other professional writers
Honing writing techniques and approaches to work – not just how to sling words together, but about characterisation, the senses, novel or poetry structure, research and, increasingly, technology
Um, having writerly fun which includes excursions to inspiring places.

Working!

But you do have to do some writing. This is not a jolly or a holiday.

I recently organised one lasting a week near Tours in the Loire Valley. We achieved word counts between 2,000 and 15,000. Some did in-depth marketing, others tech projects, others extensive research. But we all went home inspired.

We did manage some excursions – this was the Loire Valley, after all.

Château d’Amboise – dull weather, but a chance to touch (royal) history

La Mothe-Chandeniers – a romantic ruin

Château de Chenonceau – the castle of women

Why not organise your own retreat to spur on your own writing? It’s well worth it!

Jane Davis and The Bookseller's Wife

Today I’m delighted to welcome writing friend Jane Davis back to the writing blog. I’ve loved her books; they regularly appear in my best books of the year round up. Her first novel, ‘Half-Truths and White Lies’’, won a national award established with the aim of finding the next Joanne Harris.

Further recognition followed in 2016 with ‘An Unknown Woman’ being named Self-Published Book of the Year by Writing Magazine/the David St John Thomas Charitable Trust, as well as being shortlisted in the IAN Awards, and in 2019 with ‘Smash all the Windows’’ winning the inaugural Selfies Book Award. Her novel, ‘At the Stroke of Nine O’Clock’ was featured by The Lady Magazine as one of their favourite books set in the 1950s, selected as a Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choice, and shortlisted for the Selfies Book Awards 2021.

Interested in how people behave under pressure, Jane introduces her characters when they are in highly volatile situations and then, in her words, she throws them to the lions. The themes she explores are diverse, ranging from pioneering female photographers, to relatives seeking justice for the victims of a fictional disaster.

Jane lives in Carshalton, Surrey, in what was originally the ticket office for a Victorian pleasure gardens, known locally as ‘the gingerbread house.’ Her house frequently features in her fiction. In fact, she burnt it to the ground in the opening chapter of ‘An Unknown Woman’ and in ‘Small Eden’ it was the gardener’s cottage. When she isn’t writing, you may spot Jane disappearing up the side of a mountain with a camera in hand.

Now she’s letting me grill her about her latest, The Bookseller’s Wife.

What was the seed of the story in The Bookseller’s Wife?

In September 2022, I took a small research trip to the ancient church of St Mary’s in Merton. Small, because it’s only a ten-minute walk from my mother’s house. As a child, I took ballet lessons in the parish hall, but I rarely ventured inside the church, which dates from the tenth century. My intention was to visit the place where Nelson worshiped and see his custom-made bench, now heavily alarmed, but which one of my aunts was given special permission to sit on when she was a seven-year-old bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding. Walking among the gravestones, one caught my eye.

DORCAS, WIFE OF J LACKINGTON
Bookseller, Finsbury Square
Died January 27th 1795, aged 46 years.

What could be more intriguing? I read in the church guide that Dorcas was an avid reader of novels and took a leading share in running her husband’s book shop – The ‘Temple of the Muses,’ Finsbury Square. I had to know more!

Where did your research lead you?

A model for Dorcas? Mrs Ralph Izard by Thomas Gainsborough

I learned from parish records that Dorcas was the sole survivor of six children born to Jemima Turton and her husband, Samuel. The statistic seems shocking now, but in 18th century London only one in five children made it to the age of five.

As always with historical research, it’s easier to find information about a man than a woman, and so I turned first to her husband. James Lackington left us with two memoirs, written primarily to promote himself as a successful entrepreneurial innovator in the world of bookselling. While his writing must be taken with a liberal pinch of salt, there is substance in dates and key events.

James Lackington’s memoirs tell us that Dorcas’s mother, Jemima Turton, was grand-daughter of the Honourable Sir John Turton, Baron of the Exchequer and Justice of the King’s Bench. She was so proud of her lineage that she kept her maiden name in the only way a woman could – by marrying a man with the same surname, possible a cousin. Since Samuel Turton had a fortune of his own, the family should have been comfortably off, but owing to ‘an unhappy turn for gaming,’ he was forced to turn to trade. Even after setting himself up as a saddler’s ironmonger, he couldn’t give up gambling. These days we would recognise addiction rather than weakness of character. Jemima Turton didn’t live to see her husband’s financial ruin, dying in early 1773. Dorcas then supported her father, setting up a day-school for girls and taking in needlework.

How old was Dorcas at that time?

We meet Dorcas when she is twenty-five, a pivotal age for woman. Jane Barker wrote in her 1688 poem, A Virgin Life, that she hoped was able to remain ‘Fearless of twenty-five and all its train, / Of slights or scorns, or being called Old Maid.’ With the average age for marriage standing at seventeen, she would be passing from a young single woman to old maid, and very much aware that her marriage prospects were rapidly decreasing.

You mention that Dorcas set up a day-school for girls. What kind of education would she have received?

While sons of her class were often sent to boarding schools, girls were might be sent to ‘dame schools’ but more commonly were taught by governesses at home. Lessons might involve reading, writing, languages and music, but the chief emphasis was to prepare girls to become to become wives and mothers.

A popular book at the time was The Governess by Sarah Fielding. It begins with an introduction:

‘The Design of the following Sheets is an endeavour to cultivate an early inclination to Benevolence, and a love of Virtue in the minds of young women, by trying to shew them that their True Interest is concerned in cherishing and improving those amiable Dispositions into Habits and keeping down all rough and boisterous Passions, and that from this alone they can propose to themselves to arrive at true Happiness in any of the Stations in Life allotted to the Female Character.’

I don’t know about you, but already I find myself chaffing – and that is before we learn that ‘Mr Teachum was a very sensible man who took great pains in improving his wife.’

Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie

But changes were afoot. Towards the end of the century, support for the education of daughters was mounting. The growing merchant class saw the importance of educating daughters so that they could take active roles in the running of family businesses. Early campaigners that daughters’ education should equal sons’ included Mary Wollstonecraft, the mother of Mary Shelley.

Like Dorcas, Mary Wollstonecraft was born into prosperity to a father who squandered the family money. And like Dorcas, Wollstonecraft opened a small girls’ school. She would go on to write A Vindication on the Rights of Women and Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, arguing that daughters who were raised from an early age to prize physical beauty and personal charms made poor citizens, inadequate companions to men, and even ineffective mothers. She insisted that education should be universal and freely accessible, so that women could cultivate their minds, learn skills and gain financial independence. I like to think that although Dorcas turned to teaching out of necessity, she would have shared those views.

The other thing that we learn from James Lackington’s memoirs is that Dorcas was immoderately fond of books, and would frequently read until morning… Who having acquired a few ideas, was at that time restless to increase them. The picture we get is of a young woman who is curious, intelligent, practical and resourceful.

Thank you, Jane. These are particularly pertinent thoughts during Women’s History Month.

And Jane has given us the treat of an excerpt from The Bookseller’s Wife:

As she brushes out her hair Dorcas mulls over the evening’s conversation. Is there one among her pupils who could do great things? Judith, perhaps? In her mind’s eye, she sees John Milton’s Eve, peering into a pool of still water and falling in love with her own reflection. But it’s unfair to single out Judith. Are her girls even aware of what possibilities might be open to them? Though there are constant murmurings of a cultural revolution, Dorcas reluctantly concedes that her father was right: Bassi was an exception. So too are almost all of the remarkable contemporary women Dorcas can name. Would Elizabeth Caslon have been in a position to put her name to a company had her husband not died without making a will? Dorcas’s brush snags on a knot. She takes a fistful of hair close to her scalp so that she can work at it. Whenever a woman is strong or intelligent or steps away from the hearth, it is said that she possesses masculine qualities. This is the world her pupils must navigate. One that is hostile to women who dare to display confidence, fail to fawn, and when cut off mid-sentence by fathers or husbands, do not lower their doe-like eyes in submission.

Yet these obstacles shouldn’t deter Dorcas. Provided her pupils’ conversation sparkles, provided they know when to be sweetness and light, there is nothing to prevent her from introducing examples of remarkable womanhood into their lessons. How else shall they develop ambitions of their own? After all, earlier this century a female monarch sat on the throne. Is that perhaps a suitable question for discussion? Why a female monarch failed to promote the education of women, so that they might be admitted to universities and thence to the professions? Dorcas sets down her brush. It would be a start.

What’s The Bookseller’s Wife about?

Books have been her only solace. Now they’re about to change her life.

London, 1775: The only surviving child of six, Dorcas Turton should have been heiress to a powerful family name. But after her mother’s untimely death, she is stunned by the discovery that her father’s compulsive gambling has brought them close to ruin. With the threat of debtor’s prison looming large, she must employ all her ingenuity to keep their creditors at bay.

Fortunately, ingenuity is something Dorcas is not short of. An avid reader, novels have taught her the lessons her governess failed to. Forsaking hopes of marriage and children, she opens a day-school for girls. But unbeknown to Dorcas, her father has not given up his extravagant ways. When bailiffs come pounding on the door, their only option is to take in lodgers.

The arrival of larger-than-life James Lackington and his wife Nancy breathes new life into the diminished household. Mr Lackington aspires to be a bookseller, and what James Lackington sets out to do, he tends to achieve. Soon Dorcas discovers she is not only guilty of envying Mrs Lackington her strong simple faith and adaptable nature. Loath though she is to admit it, she begins to envy her Mr Lackington…

Based on a true story, Jane Davis’s latest historical novel is for book-lovers everywhere, delivering unforgettable characters, a portrait of Georgian London on the brink of change, and a love song to the life-changing power of the written word.

Buy now at your favourite ebook store: https://books2read.com/thebooksellerswife (universal link)
Paperback release date: 16 April 2024

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Connect with Jane
Website: https://jane-davis.co.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaneDavisAuthorPage/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/janedavisauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6869939.Jane_Davis
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My thoughts

Absorbed by Dorcas’s character and values as I was, I found Jane’s vivid and detailed description of her life, her environment and her decisions outstanding. Here is a young woman as intelligent and capable as Jane Eyre, and as principled and determined as Lizzy Bennett. Faced with penury, she gathers up her inner strength and sets to in a practical way to make her life possible and passable. Resolute is a word that could apply to her, especially in respect of her tiresome father.

Every page is a treat – the writing is excellent. I thoroughly recommend this thoughtful and clever read.