Mo Fanning - British writer and comic

Editing

Stories of New York

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New York City

When I decided to try writing a story set in New York, rather than one of the cities I knew intimately, I wasn’t sure it would work. My last story was set in Brighton. But New York is amazing, and has so much personality and so many layers, and so many different atmospheres. I love the energy of the city, and how it can change from block to block. I love the mixture of people from all over the world who live there.

You can be in the middle of a busy street, with skyscrapers all around you, and then step into a tiny Italian restaurant and find yourself eating next to a table of guys speaking in a language you can’t understand, and the table next to them is people from Oklahoma.

New York in the 1950sI also wanted to set a story that starts in one place and moves to another. I’ve always loved stories like that. And I love the idea of a city that’s like a character in a story. That’s how I feel about New York. I love the idea of being “in” the city, walking down the streets, and the buildings seem to come alive around you. I love photos of the city taken from the air, especially those from the 1950s, when you get to see all the lines and shapes of the streets. A history that changed so fast.

New York connections

I love the idea of the city being so alive that the people who live there talk about it like they might any friend or neighbour. The past, the present, and the future all co-exist in one place. The city itself feels alive, and the people who live there feel alive, and the two things seem to be connected.

So I decided I wanted to write about a man and a woman who travel from New York. One in search of a relationship with his son. The other looking to reconnect with her younger self. Someone who took risks.

It’s nearing its final draft, ready for an editor to tear apart, and I can’t wait to tell you more.

Writing: it’s my job to point things out

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Writing for writers

A frequently quoted ‘rule’ for writing is to write something every day. No matter if it’s good. No matter if it’s bad. Set yourself a window – anything from ten minutes to every waking moment – and sit in front of a screen or an empty piece of paper and write. The idea being if you do this each day, a habit forms and something good will come. As advice goes, it sits up there with ‘sometimes, even a blind squirrel finds a nut’.

Writing isn’t a natural thing for us as a species. For most of evolution, nobody wrote anything – fair enough there’s the odd cave drawing that historians insist are early attempts at storytelling. On that basis, bus-seat sharpie-penned pledges of Kazza luvs Jez carry equal value.

Writing for many years was the preserve of the elite. Even now, it remains a strange way to communicate.

When I stand on a stage and tell jokes, I see faces. The feedback is instant and I sense when an audience needs me to clarify or drop planned patter and jump to another topic. When I write a story, my words vanish into a void. Short of the occasional Amazon review, I don’t know who reads my books or how much they understand of the worlds I create.

Writing short set-ups

I try to find something interesting and point it out. I’ll ask you to look at someone or something and understand the flaws and persuade you that what I see is of interest. When learning the language of stand-up comedy, I picked up on how the shortest set-up works best. If a comic needs to explain the premise, chances are it’s unfamiliar.

It’s not the job of a writer or comedian to ram information into the brains of an audience.

The worst writing (and comedy) happens when those in charge abandon ‘joint attention‘ in favour of trying to sell their audience into an idea or world. It’s incredibly hard to do surreal comedy or writing and do it well.

Some of the worst writing advice is to create words for yourself and never consider the audience. For me, the audience comes first. I am part of the audience, but I’m also aware when what I find funny might be too personal. I’m not here to impress with clever plot twists or elaborate language and don’t care what you think about me. I’m not in the book. When I’m on stage telling jokes, you see a version of me.

What I aim to do is point out what’s there … if you look in the right places.

This is how we function as humans. Side-by-side we scan those around us, our landscape, the absurdity and improbability.

It’s my job to point things out.

The art of doing two things at once

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If I could choose a superpower, it would be multitasking. I can do two (or even three) things at roughly the same time, but I won’t pretend I’m doing anything other than dividing my focus. Each task gets a slice of my brain, nothing gets the whole twisted deal.

When I tried my hand at stand-up, I set goals. I would see if I had it in me to tell jokes in front of two hundred people and make them laugh. I’d also find new ways to sharpen my writing.

I performed in front of 200 people last December.

Since then, I’ve continued the quest to write better material, and believe I’ve made headway. But it’s come at a price. My next novel stalled.

Back to the edit

This week, I blew the digital dust off my latest draft and set to work editing. After an enjoyable hour or two of writing new life into the opening scenes, I sat back satisfied and rediscovered the happy vibe of an author who’s totally nailed his story.

With comedy class a day or two away, I put my story to one side and set about writing something new to try out in front of fellow comics. Once more, things went well and the words flowed.

I was multitasking.

The next day, I tried to edit my story some more, except I wasn’t feeling it.

Fair enough, it’s been a while.

I switched back into stand-up mode. An hour brainstorming ideas that would become jokes that might make it through the ruthless edit of class is still time well spent.

Except I wasn’t feeling it.

Multitasking fail

My novel needs my full attention. There are threads to juggle, characters to shape, dialogue to shave, elaborately familiar pictures to write. Stand-up demands choppy delivery. Sketches drawn in five words or fewer. Specific personal attitude. These two different styles of writing don’t fit with multitasking.

I spent a day back in my Amsterdam home town this week. Along the way, I talked to old friends about writing, and what I heard was me admitting something has to change.

I’ve enjoyed the comedy classes. They’ve taught me how to write sharper jokes, but right now, I need to tell stories. And that’s forbidden in the style of comedy advocated by my current mentor.

In July, I’ll take my final stand-up bow (for the time being) and return all focus to writing ‘The Toast of Brighton’. When the nights grow long and I’m itching for validation once more, who can say. Perhaps I’ll find some other comedy class with a different focus. Perhaps I’ll find a different distraction.

Until then, here comes the summer.

Notes from my editor

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Writer's Block - Mo FanningMonday was one of those nail-biting days. An email arrived with the first thoughts from my editor. She’s quite a big deal name in commercial fiction, so I’d been ready for a mauling. I expected her to brand my efforts as a mismatched jumble of bad ideas and inept delivery.

Thankfully the broadside was gentle, but much of what came back gave me reason to think. And it’s stuff I want to share, as if you’re writing commercial fiction, it might save you a lot of ‘find and replace’.

As much as we tell ourselves this is our story, that we have total freedom over what we write, if we ever plan to publish (self or otherwise), we’ll want someone to read what we write.

Market trends matter. If what we publish doesn’t fit, it goes unread. Everything can influence reader attraction – even down to the names you give your characters.

‘Think about your main character’s name,’ my editor said – I’d opted for Sally. ‘Of course, you can name your character whatever you feels suits them best, but I would suggest looking at some alternatives to help the character feel more contemporary. It would also be good to aim for a memorable name, which is easy to spell. This will go a long way to ensuring that readers remember her.’

She went on to suggest currently in-vogue names and share a tip that when writing commercial fiction, surnames that include colours or flowers do well.

Because my character’s family is Italian, I was limited, but after much thought Sally Cotelli became Evie DeRosa.

Her next naming change concerned the central setting. I’ve based the story in Brighton, in a tumble-down cafe. It’s name was one I never quite liked, it was a placeholder until forced to find something better – The Purple Pig. I thought this felt a bit out of date, suitably crass. I hoped that she’d see I used this name to indicate its failure. She didn’t.

‘A name inspired by the seaside would lend itself nicely,’ she said, and the Beachcomber Café was born.

So two easy changes later and she’s right, things already feel better.

She also offered valuable tips around how to pitch the finished work, and I’ll share those in my next blog.