I’m very excited to introduce my guest today, debut New Zealand author, Maree Anderson. Maree’s book Even Demons Get The Blues came out on the 1 June, and now that I’ve turned in my current work-in-progress I’m off to grab my copy from Red Sage Publishing. Check out the blurb of this intriguing book about demons here. Today Maree is telling us how to write a prize-winning novel!
The Recipe for a Prizewinning Novel
Those of us who’ve been to writers’ conferences know that aside from awesome speakers and catching up with friends, you usually score loads of books. Free reading material for the next few weeks? Woot! And of course, because they’re random giveaways, you’re bound to be given a genre you wouldn’t normally buy, by authors you might never have heard of.
For me, one such score was Jaclyn Moriarty’s I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes, which turned out to be a complete delight! One of the characters in this book is an erotica writer named Fancy, who discovered what she thought was a recipe for writing a prizewinning novel. Here’s the excerpt from the book:
“Having read several prize-winning novels, Fancy was confident that she now knew the recipe:
1. Write a simple narrative.
2. Make a long list.
3. Scatter the contents of your list throughout your narrative.
So, for example, in the prize-winning novel that Fancy had just read, the author had done the following:
1. He wrote a simple narrative in which two people fell in love, then the man left the woman, and the woman cried.
2. He made a long list of leaves.
3. He scattered the story with his leaves.
So, ‘Tears fell from her eyes’ had become:
‘Tears the shape of sugar maple leaves fell (like so many blackjack oak leaves falling on an autumn day) from her eyes.’
Voila! A richly-textured (prize-winning) novel all about love and leaves.”
A recipe for a prize-winning novel? Mmmmm. I wonder if there is such a thing?
Now I’ve had a few goes at doing this already—just for fun, of course. And the results were…ah… interesting! So here’s my challenge to you: have a go at cooking up Fancy’s prizewinning novel recipe and post your result in Shelley’s blog comments.
Just for the sake of consistency, try to keep a similar sentence structure to the one Fancy has used. Make a list or whichever object takes your er… fancy. And BTW, to make it even more fun, make your “list” or “object” the absolute first thing that pops into your head!
Just to get you started, I’ll list the two I’d already done plus I’ll add a couple of extra off the top of my head. Feel free to laugh and poke fun at me—I can take it *grin*.
Simple narrative #1: Man and woman are stuck on an aircraft which is about to crash into the sea, they finally admit they love each other.
List: insects
From something like this: Tears of regret shone in her eyes.
To this: Wistful tears the shape of tiny larvae shone (like the dew-kissed carapaces of beetles) in her eyes.
(BTW: Just couldn’t bring myself to use what first popped into my head, which was “tears the shape of maggots”….eeeeeuuuuwwwww!)
Simple narrative #2: Man meets woman. He completely misunderstands her. Conflict. Resolution. The end.
List: tart fruit
From something like this: It was a beautiful spring morning but the sour tone of his voice dampened her delight.
To this: His lemon-sour tone spoiled (rather like biting into a sweet Pacific Rose apple and tasting instead, an unripe Granny Smith) her delight in the spring morning.
Simple narrative #3: Woman meets man, falls in love, then is horrified to discover he harbours a dark secret.
List/Object: chocolate
From something like this: Horrified tears slid down her cheeks.
To this: The horror lurking in her bitter-chocolate eyes overflowed (like warmed Belgian chocolate oozing down the sides of a cake) to smear her cheeks.
Simple narrative #4: A hungry werewolf is sent to feed her boss’s cat, it doesn’t end well!
List/Object: stilettos
From something like this: The instant her hunger eased, she began to feel terribly guilty about eating her boss’s Persian.
To this: Stiletto-sharp guilt stabbed (like the honed steel tips of her prized Manolo Blahniks punching neat holes in a cheap linoleum floor) through her hunger-fuzzed brain as she coughed up a fur-ball.
Yes. Well. Okay then. I don’t know that I’d win any prizes with these, but they’re definitely worth a few smiles.
And talking about prizes, Shelley will pick one commenter’s prize-winning novel recipe effort and the winner will receive a pdf final proof of my Red Sage Presents debut release, Even Demons Get The Blues. So get cooking because we can’t wait to see your results ;-)
Cheers!
Maree Anderson
EVEN DEMONS GET THE BLUES, Red Sage Presents
www.eredsage.com
www.mareeanderson.com
www.writersgonewild.blogspot.com
Related posts:
Hi Maree and welcome! I have to laugh about your #4 example – about the werewolf sent to feed the cat.
I’m coming back in half an hour or so to write my own masterpiece and will post it soon.
And I’m looking forward to reading your book. I have it on my hard drive all ready to go.
by Shelley Munro June 10th, 2009 at 12:20 amSimple Narrative: The alien kidnapped the woman. They fell in love and made mad, passionate love.
List: wine
From something like this: One look at the charasmatic alien, and she could think of nothing except having her wicked way with him.
To this: His red eyes mesmerized her (the color reminiscient of a rich claret and packing a like-wise punch) to such an extent, her willpower floated away, and she dragged him to the nearest horizontal surface.
Ooh, this required some deep thought
by Shelley Munro June 10th, 2009 at 12:38 amShel, I love it! No wonder your books sell like hotcatkes ;-)
by Maree Anderson June 10th, 2009 at 1:02 amSimple narrative
Girl is kidnapped by a smuggler and has just been told he is going to sell her to help pay his debts
List: Tea bags
She stared up at him, her brown eyes soft with tears that trickled from her dusty cheeks and plopped onto the linoluem, (like the dregs of two teabags dripping into a rather dirty cup…not gumboot tea, but a nice English Breakfast served with lemon, not milk).
Oh dear. Now look what you’ve done, Maree! And I’m supposed to be WORKING!!!
by Gracie O'Neil June 10th, 2009 at 1:45 amCool idea.
Larvae isn’t much better than maggots.
I’ve got to try this.
Simple narrative #3: Woman meets man, falls in love, then is horrified to discover he harbours a dark secret.
List/Object: Frogs
From something like this: She put her bowl of cereal down, looked at his lap, and swallowed hard. “I did it with THAT?”
To this: She hopped into the room with her bowl of cereal, eager to resume the wet, murky, green dreams sensual delight to find the man of her dreams standing by the bed. His parts hung like a tadpole out of water. She swallowed the frog in the throat and croaked, “I did it with THAT?”
Ok, I cheated. I couldn’t figure out how to make it work with “lettuce.”
by Alice Audrey June 10th, 2009 at 8:04 amI have to think this morning? Gee.. I’ll be back!
by Catherine Bybee June 10th, 2009 at 8:52 amI like your way of thinking, Maree thats why your books are HOT!!!
by Connie B June 10th, 2009 at 10:40 amHey, guys, these are fabulous!
Gracie – tea bags? How on earth did you manage to work a sentence like that from tea bags? I am in awe!
Alice – oh, those frogs and er… tadpoles *snort!*. Love the bit about wet murky green dreams and swallowing the frog in the throat. Absolutely inspired *VBG*
by Maree Anderson June 10th, 2009 at 12:30 pmLOL – I like these. Who’d have thought teabags or frogs could produce such excitement?
by Shelley Munro June 10th, 2009 at 1:00 pmI’ll just read everyone else’s attempts which are quite good.
by Barbara Martin June 10th, 2009 at 1:06 pmOh, go on, Barbara, be brave and put one up there! Just let your imagination go wild – the sillier the list, the better :-)
by Maree Anderson June 10th, 2009 at 3:12 pmGreat idea! I would love to do something here, but have to think about it first, lol. Everyone did a wonderful job.
by Kaye Manro June 10th, 2009 at 4:15 pmKaye – please don’t think too hard. Half the fun is crafing something from whatever first pops into your head! Dying to see what you come up with….
by Maree Anderson June 10th, 2009 at 5:01 pmLOL!! How fabulous, Maree! And kudos, Shelley and Gracie and Alice!
Hmm…
Simple narrative: Boy meets girl; they fall in Love, and go off into the happy sunset.
List: packing and shipping material
From this: George and Martha dashed through the shower of rice and cheerful congratulations to the waiting convertible, already bedecked with a crooked “Just Married” sign and peach streamers, and waved as they drove off towards the setting sun.
To this: George and Martha burst through the shower of packing peanuts and bubbling congratulations to the waiting UPS truck, already bedecked with a crooked “Married on Time!” sign and tracking barcodes, and waved as they zoomed past the scanner towards their delivery destination–honeymoon happiness.
Ack… That was goofy! Not enough brain power to try again
by Fedora June 10th, 2009 at 5:12 pmFedora – ROFL! I can totally visualize that scene…packing peanuts and bubbling congratulations – love it!
by Maree Anderson June 10th, 2009 at 5:24 pmFedora – I love that one! Great job.
by Shelley Munro June 10th, 2009 at 7:05 pmWINNER ANNOUNCEMENT
I did a random pick and the winner is FEDORA.
Congratulations, Fedora! Maree will be contacting you soon.
Thanks to everyone for posting their recipes and visiting us today.
by Shelley Munro June 11th, 2009 at 2:37 pmWoo Hoo Fedora!! Happy reading! And thanks Shelley and Maree for a fun time.
by Gracie O'Neil June 11th, 2009 at 3:57 pmCongratulations, Fedora! Thanks for cooking up a recipe and hope you enjoy reading Even Demons Get The Blues.
by Maree Anderson June 11th, 2009 at 5:02 pm[...] First up is Fedora, who was brave enough to cook up her own “recipe for a prize-winning novel” and share it with us on Shelley Munro’s blog. [...]
by And the winners are! - Maree Anderson | Author June 12th, 2009 at 3:15 am