Developing Tension In Fiction, Storms and The Pathetic Fallacy

The Pathetic Fallacy…attributing human feelings and characteristics to inanimate objects, pets, or nature (e.g. the weather).

Clearly, the technique has advantages and disadvantages.  In terms of scene setting and plot, the technique can bring about greater tension and intensity through foreshadowing:  hinting at what is in store.  On the other hand, people can often overuse a technique to the point where it becomes a cliché – hence, lazy writing that reveals nothing new.

I admit to liking the Pathetic Fallacy, especially in regards to stormy weather.  In the sample below from my current novel in progress, central character Gavin (18), a classical musician on a prestigious summer school piano course, has gone off for the day following complications with a girl on the course, Philippa.  Philippa has expressed a romantic interest in Gavin before springing a nasty surprise on him, and Gavin can’t cope with the humiliation. The scene is set in the north of the UK and the thriller falls in two genres; teen fiction and mainstream adult thriller. 

By this time next week, I’ll be back in South London, I told myself as I watched the river. It will as though none of this ever happened. By this time next month, I’ll be getting ready to go to uni to study music. Philippa will have gone from my life totally.

The sky changed colour, taking on dark overtones, and a blast of wind charged at me. I hurried on through light drizzle to the main lane near the railway station, searching for cover as lightning streaked across the sky, followed by downpour.  Shards of rain pelted the ground, stinging my face and hands, and the wind worsened, almost blowing me over. I ran to the tea shop near the Hiker’s Pub and took shelter in there, ordering lunch and drinking tea while bursts of thunder sounded over the area and the rain went grey and wild.

Meanwhile, my debut novel Secrets by Lawrence Estrey is available from Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

Check out the reviews for  Secrets.

Newspaper article on author.

Local musician publishes crime thriller

EggHead by Lawrence Estrey: Questions And Answers

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EggHead by Lawrence Estrey: Questions And Answers

EggHead by Lawrence Estrey – A Review

February 19, 2013 by lawrenceez | Edit

Received this awesome review on my second novel EggHead, a psychological thriller set in the UK.  Teen Fiction/Young Adult:

5.0 out of 5 stars suspense in a grim northen landscape 17 Feb 2013

By ***

Format:Paperback

Egghead is a youngster stranded in a grey windswept northern seaside town. He got involved in something horrible three years before and has had to hide here. We get mysterious glimpses of the past in flashbacks. The scenes are vividly painted and the characters are gradually revealed. You’re kept on edge as the story races on. You can’t put it down. The atmosphere is dark and menacing, and you are swept forward to what seems an inevitable grim conclusion

 

Lawrence  Estrey (lawrenceez)  is a musician and a writer from the UK.    Recently, he published his second novel EggHead, a psychological thriller set in the north of England.  Here, he answers some common questions about EggHead and his life in general:

 

Why did you choose to write teen fiction?    Several reasons.  First of all, my debut novel Secrets contained several scenes told from the perspective of children and teenagers (in this case, a ten-year-old boy and a sixteen-year-old girl), and I’d enjoyed the experience of writing from these perspectives.  

 

Second,  having read a great deal of adult fiction, mostly crime/thriller, I’d observed a type of stalemate situation in the personal lives of the major characters – i.e. they were often disillusioned in some way (especially crime investigators) or recovering from major problems like PTSD. I felt this tendency often created a tired feel, and in many case I would abandon reading a story about half of the way through.  In teenage fiction, however, the protagonists generally have far more energy and are prepared to take all sorts of crazy risks.  That’s what I like the best…craziness, risk taking - plus, raw emotion.

 

Anything of yourself in EggHead?  Not exactly, though I lived in a coastal resort for a few weeks, and like central character EggHead, I wandered around aimlessly during that time. I also drifted into lots of trouble in my teens, so I can relate to some of EggHead’s experiences.  In the story, EggHead is a heavy smoker, just like I was for years and years, but I managed to quit smoking completely while working on the final draft of the novel.  Haven’t touched a cigarette since.

 

Did you find writing a second novel easier?  In certain ways.  For instance, the novel took just nine months to write while Secrets had taken about six years.  In other ways, though, I found the writing far more difficult.  I had higher standards.  I kept going back through the manuscript and pruning, cutting out sections that I didn’t feel were good enough. 

 

Are you working on anything else?   Yes, another psychological thriller about music students set in the north of England.  Like the other two novels, this latest involves an element of cross over with some of the scenes written from the perspective of a young adult and other sections from when he first goes to study in a university environment, aged eighteen. I’m also a musician, having trained in classical piano, and so can relate to a lot of what happens in this next novel.

 

Meanwhile, my debut novel Secrets is available from Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

Check out the reviews for  Secrets.

Newspaper article on author.

Local musician publishes crime thriller

 

 

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Spring Has Come, Prolific Writing

Spring has finally come a bit later than usual, with warm weather and sun.  And the difference the weather makes.  London streets look cheerful rather than bland and grey. 

I’ve been working on my third novel, a psychological thriller called Silent, and churning out pages of work.  The novel, set in the Lancashire/Yorkshire borders, follows the story of pianist Gavin as he struggles to come to terms with a tragedy that took place five years earlier during his student days at the stately Harlesden Hall.  The Hall had a disturbed past, and during Gavin’s brief stay there as a student, secrets from the past exploded, bringing about a devastating conclusion. 

In the following section of the story, Gavin has returned to the area of Harlesden five years on and finds himself stranded and the target in a murder investigation:

I order another pint, then go out to look for him. Empty lanes. Fields and an evening sky with a setting sun, red like a fire. Towering hills in the distant, cairns, gates. Breeze. You can’t see Harlesden Hall from here, but I stare in the direction of the ruins anyway, scanning the horizon – and as I do, a cold feeling passes through me, a sense that madness and tragedy are about to strike yet again on those grounds.

Meanwhile, my other two novels – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey and EggHead - are available from Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

Check out the reviews for my debut novel Secrets.

Newspaper article on author.

Local musician publishes crime thriller

Read Full Post »

April Showers

Easter came and went with frost and chills.  Now, the weather has got warmer, but the grey skies continue, along with rain and gloom.

Meanwhile, I’ve written 50,000 words of my new novel, Silent, a psychological thriller set on the Yorkshire/Lancashire borders, featuring a group of young pianists who have come together for a week of piano workshops.  In Silent, central character Gavin falls for one of the other students on the course, Philippa, a Goth from Kent, but their relationship becomes obsessive and destructive, leading to disaster…  As a classically trained pianist myself, I feel particularly qualified to write this story.

In the following sample, central character Gavin has started to struggle with his surroundings:

Sitting up in bed, I remembered other stuff from yesterday evening. Shadows and footsteps. A man smoking a cigarette by the fountain behind the practice Cells. Watching in the narrow semi-lit corridor. And then, that awful place by the river with its chilling atmosphere.     

Meanwhile, my other two novels – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey and EggHead - are available from Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

Check out the reviews for my debut novel Secrets.

Newspaper article on author.

Local musician publishes crime thriller

Read Full Post »

Easter Freeze, A Blast From Siberia

Spring came a week and a half ago, and the freezing temperature continues here in the UK, thanks partly to a blast from Siberia.  We had snow just before Easter, and elsewhere newborn lambs have been dying from the cold.  The forecasters reckon the freezing weather will last throughout the month of April.  Most people I know are getting pretty depressed from the constant chill and grey skies.

I’ve spent the last two weeks working on a new novel, Silent, a psychological thriller about a group of piano students brought together for a week of masterclasses in a stately hall in Yorkshire.  The hall, owned by the Harlesden family, has a tragic history, and during the week of piano classes, past events come to the surface, presenting danger to the five students.  As a trained musician myself with more than ten years experience giving piano recitals, I felt particularly qualified to write the story. 

In the following section of the novel, central character Gavin goes to a party and meets a couple of local lads, but senses straightaway that the lads are hostile:

I climbed through the window space again, cutting my finger on the nail. I tiptoed round the back and started making my way up the steep mound behind the line of factories, clawing through hedges and branches on all fours, into a field. I continued up, across the grass, looking for the path, tiptoeing like a girl in order to avoid creating any noise. I found the path and quickened my pace, putting more distance between me and the two lads.  Part of the way up the hill, I started running towards the fence. Up and over, and I was on the other side. Safety. Just five more minutes to go, and then Harlesden Hall and a pint of lager. Not long at all. Just concentrate on the job at hand. No dithering, or you’re dead. I ran up hill as fast as I could, but eventually I had to slow down before stopping for half a minute or so to gather my breath. I looked around. Silence, dusk turning to evening. No sign of the two lads. In future, I would stay in at night, avoid the village of Harlesden altogether and give any further parties a miss, unless the parties were at Harlesden Hall.       

Reaching a second path that veered left to the lane leading to the driveway, I passed a tree and thought I detected a flicker of movement nearby.

‘Oi, Gavin,’ a voice called. ‘Oi, oi, oi.’

A pair of hands gripped me.

Meanwhile, my other two novels – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey and EggHead - are available from Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

Check out the reviews for my debut novel Secrets.

Newspaper article on author.

Local musician publishes crime thriller

Read Full Post »

Out of Actions For A Few Days

Freeze and snow and sharp winds reminiscent of a supermarket freezer.  I have limited access to the internet this week, but basically, I’m working on a third novel, a psychological thriller, about a group of music students bought together in the north of England.  In the following excerpt, central character Gavin returns to the scene of a crime five years after he first met the other students:

I stop by the abandoned factories and mills, remembering the night of that party five years ago…how it ended…what it led to…the guilt that has followed me everywhere since then.  The crumbling buildings stand in a line, damp-looking and reddish-brown, with boarded up windows. They’re surrounded by broken fences and gravel and rubble and rust.

Meanwhile, my other two novels – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey and EggHead - are available from Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

Check out the reviews for my debut novel Secrets.

Newspaper article on author.

Local musician publishes crime thriller

Read Full Post »

Brief Writing Sample From My New Novel, Silent

Early March, and awful weather. The weather here (UK) has taken another dip with bland grey skies and a constant chill.  A difficult time for SAD sufferers.

Currently, I’m working on another novel, Silent.  Having trained as a classical musician, I feel equipped to write the story. A psychological thriller set on the Lancashire/Yorkshire borders, Silent focuses a group of piano students brought together for a week and a country house with a tragic history. During the course of the week, past events come to the surface, leading to a shattering conclusion for the students….

Halfway along the corridor, I stopped and glanced back, aware of an atmosphere in the basement area. There was no one there, though. The others were either in the main hall or in their bedrooms. This is stupid, I thought as I continued on – but again, I stopped and looked around. 

Silence, apart from snippets of piano playing and laughter from the main hall upstairs and the adjoining bar. Leaves blowing around outside in the wind. An overcast dusk sky, promising rain.

Fresh shapes formed on the pathway outside. A gust of wind. Wisps of movement.

A large shadow positioned in between a couple of trees.

A surge of muggy heat burst in across the empty annexe, and I noticed that the fire exit door was open. Nearby, a man stood by one of the concrete fountains with his back turned, staring into the evening.

Meanwhile, my other two novels – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey and EggHead - are available from Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

Check out the reviews for my debut novel Secrets.

Newspaper article on author.

Local musician publishes crime thriller

Read Full Post »

Short Writing Sample: Silent

The Internet connection remains problematic, as do the grey skies and cold weather.  I’ve been working on a third novel, Silent, a psychological thriller set in the north of England. In Silent, main character Gavin has to return to Harlesden Hall, the scene of several murders five years earlier.  One of the survivors has sought Gavin’s help but has disappeared and Gavin is trying to find her.

I text, hey, cheers for your help and sorry to get you up here for nothing, but let me get on with it, okay? Speak soon.  

I switch off the phone and continue on my way, taking in deep air in the hope of catching a scent from those student days of five years ago. A rhythm, the hint of a voice or laughter. Perfume.  But I only catch the silence of the fields and the river and the bleakness all around me, the traces of memories; the echoes of a chilly breeze, despite the fact it’s summer. The abandoned mills and old factories at the foot of the side hill leading up to Harlesden Hall. The overwhelming scent of manure in the air. Thundery clouds reflected in the surface of the river. The silence that is rarely calm. Echoes and traces of death and sorrow  from more than a century of suffering.

The climb up the hill takes me about ten minutes and I have to keep pausing to catch my breath, thankful that I’ve never taken up smoking. I arrive at the long driveway to the house and walk down, past the tall hedges and the bushes, stopping suddenly by the hilly mound at the bottom of the grounds.

Someone’s watching me in the driveway. It’s pretty obvious this time. I hear a branch snap. Feel the intense gaze directed at me.

A game. Cat and mouse.

Except I’m not playing the mouse.  No way.

 

Meanwhile, my other two novels – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey and EggHead - are available from Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

Check out the reviews for my debut novel Secrets.

Newspaper article on author.

Local musician publishes crime thriller

Read Full Post »

EggHead by Lawrence Estrey – A Review

Received this awesome review on my second novel EggHead, a psychological thriller set in the UK.  Teen Fiction/Young Adult:

5.0 out of 5 stars suspense in a grim northen landscape 17 Feb 2013

By ***

Format:Paperback

Egghead is a youngster stranded in a grey windswept northern seaside town. He got involved in something horrible three years before and has had to hide here. We get mysterious glimpses of the past in flashbacks. The scenes are vividly painted and the characters are gradually revealed. You’re kept on edge as the story races on. You can’t put it down. The atmosphere is dark and menacing, and you are swept forward to what seems an inevitable grim conclusion.

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

More Snow

Snow hit the UK again earlier in the week, but most of it has gone now.  Below are some of the photos I caught in Highgate Wood, North London.

In the meantime, I’m working on a new novel, Silent, a psychological thriller set in the north of England about a group of music students brought together in a house with a disturbed history.  My other two novels – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey and EggHead (teen fiction) - are available from Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

Check out the reviews for my debut novel Secrets.

Newspaper article on author.

Local musician publishes crime thriller

Read Full Post »