Jay Fortune's Blog
October 7, 2022
Why did you write that?
Warning: this post has references to violence in books that you may find distressing.
It’s always interesting, eye-opening and exciting to receive feedback from readers.
One reader recently told me that they loved All Fall Down but (yep, there’s often a but!) there was one scene that really affected them. Without going into too much detail, one of the characters in the book attacks a homeless guy’s dog. This is a graphic scene and the reader in question asked me why I had put it in the book, wondering if it really needed to be there.
(For those who’ve not yet read All Fall Down, you can get a signed, dedicated copy with FREE UK shipping direct from my store.jayfortune.co.uk, or order it from your local bookstore via hive.co.uk)
This gave me the opportunity to explain the motivation for this particular scene and why it was in the book.
I’ve been reading horror books since I was a teenager. I remember once my dad took some books back to the library as I had brought home titles that were pretty extreme. I think I was about 12 when I brought home The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty! Unlike films, books aren’t rated, so the librarian didn’t blink.
This love of horror and the macabre led me to binge read all the major horror authors, your King’s, Koontz’s and Barker’s. (The latter also had a huge influence on my art, another story for another time.) One of my favourite go-to horror authors is Shaun Hutson.
Hutson often has scenes in his novels that are hard to read. They’re like the supposed car-crash; you don’t want to look but some dark part of you cannot help it. Hutson has written certain scenes that have become iconic to his fans. One is of a cat being crucified by a gang of teens with a nail gun.
Why would someone want to read these things? Or perhaps more poignantly, why would someone choose to write this stuff?
On the former, I give the car-crash theory; it satisfies some dark part of ourselves. With fiction it is, of course, more pleasurable as it is made up. On the latter; I can only speak from my experience but it isn’t ‘me’ that writes it. This isn’t an excuse! When I write, I ‘see’ the action in my mind’s-eye and I simply write it down. Maybe for other authors it is the same?
Back to the scene in All Fall Down my reader wrote to me about. This was a homage to Hutson, yet not a scene I set out to write. When it fell onto the page one day, it fitted the character perpetrating the violence. It was the kind of act that he would do. It fitted him like a well-worn pair of Levi’s.
Yet, I did see how it could be a scene that almost didn’t belong in the final book. Yet somehow it did. Sometimes that square peg does fit the round hole. In fiction anyway.
Have you read All Fall Down? If so, please do let me know what bits you liked and what you didn’t. Once you know my motivation for why certain scenes happened, or why certain characters acted the way they did, it makes for a deeper understanding and perhaps a new perspective on the story itself.
And its author!
Read All Fall Down today. It’s been called ‘Unputdownable‘, ‘5-Stars‘, ‘Superb‘ and ‘Thrilling from beginning to end’ by readers. What will you think?
It’s always interesting, eye-opening and exciting to receive feedback from readers.
One reader recently told me that they loved All Fall Down but (yep, there’s often a but!) there was one scene that really affected them. Without going into too much detail, one of the characters in the book attacks a homeless guy’s dog. This is a graphic scene and the reader in question asked me why I had put it in the book, wondering if it really needed to be there.
(For those who’ve not yet read All Fall Down, you can get a signed, dedicated copy with FREE UK shipping direct from my store.jayfortune.co.uk, or order it from your local bookstore via hive.co.uk)
This gave me the opportunity to explain the motivation for this particular scene and why it was in the book.
I’ve been reading horror books since I was a teenager. I remember once my dad took some books back to the library as I had brought home titles that were pretty extreme. I think I was about 12 when I brought home The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty! Unlike films, books aren’t rated, so the librarian didn’t blink.
This love of horror and the macabre led me to binge read all the major horror authors, your King’s, Koontz’s and Barker’s. (The latter also had a huge influence on my art, another story for another time.) One of my favourite go-to horror authors is Shaun Hutson.
Hutson often has scenes in his novels that are hard to read. They’re like the supposed car-crash; you don’t want to look but some dark part of you cannot help it. Hutson has written certain scenes that have become iconic to his fans. One is of a cat being crucified by a gang of teens with a nail gun.
Why would someone want to read these things? Or perhaps more poignantly, why would someone choose to write this stuff?
On the former, I give the car-crash theory; it satisfies some dark part of ourselves. With fiction it is, of course, more pleasurable as it is made up. On the latter; I can only speak from my experience but it isn’t ‘me’ that writes it. This isn’t an excuse! When I write, I ‘see’ the action in my mind’s-eye and I simply write it down. Maybe for other authors it is the same?
Back to the scene in All Fall Down my reader wrote to me about. This was a homage to Hutson, yet not a scene I set out to write. When it fell onto the page one day, it fitted the character perpetrating the violence. It was the kind of act that he would do. It fitted him like a well-worn pair of Levi’s.
Yet, I did see how it could be a scene that almost didn’t belong in the final book. Yet somehow it did. Sometimes that square peg does fit the round hole. In fiction anyway.
Have you read All Fall Down? If so, please do let me know what bits you liked and what you didn’t. Once you know my motivation for why certain scenes happened, or why certain characters acted the way they did, it makes for a deeper understanding and perhaps a new perspective on the story itself.
And its author!
Read All Fall Down today. It’s been called ‘Unputdownable‘, ‘5-Stars‘, ‘Superb‘ and ‘Thrilling from beginning to end’ by readers. What will you think?
August 18, 2022
Putting yourself out there is scary!
It's scary.
I'm a magician and performed on stage at events for thousands of people.
I'm an artist and have work in galleries and collectors worldwide.
But none of that compares to the sheer thrill and fear that comes with releasing my writing into the world.
I've thought long and hard over quite why it should be so different to performing or painting. The reasons are many. Here's a few - see how many you can relate to;
1 - you've no mask to hide behind. As a magician, I relied on comedy to win over my audience.
As an author? Heck... there's no hiding. Mainly because...
2 - it's YOU in each story.
Your heart, your life, your ups and downs. I believe that if you're an authentic author who writes from the heart as well as the head, it is an act of love. And, when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, our heart can be broken.
3 - their minds can already be made up without them ever having read your work.
If you see a photo of one of my artworks, it takes a split-second to make your own mind up. With a story, you have to commit time, energy and sometimes cost, to absorb yourself in an author's work.
So, many times, we simply don't bother, relying on others reviews to make the judgement for us.
Personally, while it's nice to get good reviews, I prefer to make my own mind up about things I choose to explore. I wouldn't avoid going to, say, India because someone told me it was not a good place to go! Likewise, I wouldn't NOT choose to read a particular author because someone else - usually a stranger - tells me they didn't enjoy it.
Well, there's just a few of my reasons why it can be particularly scary to let your writing go out into the big, bad world.
Ultimately though, we have to have courage as writers. Otherwise it would be a boring, bland planet on which to live and write.All Fall Down
I'm a magician and performed on stage at events for thousands of people.
I'm an artist and have work in galleries and collectors worldwide.
But none of that compares to the sheer thrill and fear that comes with releasing my writing into the world.
I've thought long and hard over quite why it should be so different to performing or painting. The reasons are many. Here's a few - see how many you can relate to;
1 - you've no mask to hide behind. As a magician, I relied on comedy to win over my audience.
As an author? Heck... there's no hiding. Mainly because...
2 - it's YOU in each story.
Your heart, your life, your ups and downs. I believe that if you're an authentic author who writes from the heart as well as the head, it is an act of love. And, when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, our heart can be broken.
3 - their minds can already be made up without them ever having read your work.
If you see a photo of one of my artworks, it takes a split-second to make your own mind up. With a story, you have to commit time, energy and sometimes cost, to absorb yourself in an author's work.
So, many times, we simply don't bother, relying on others reviews to make the judgement for us.
Personally, while it's nice to get good reviews, I prefer to make my own mind up about things I choose to explore. I wouldn't avoid going to, say, India because someone told me it was not a good place to go! Likewise, I wouldn't NOT choose to read a particular author because someone else - usually a stranger - tells me they didn't enjoy it.
Well, there's just a few of my reasons why it can be particularly scary to let your writing go out into the big, bad world.
Ultimately though, we have to have courage as writers. Otherwise it would be a boring, bland planet on which to live and write.All Fall Down
