Sarah Duncan's Blog

Drama Doesn't Have To Be Noisy or Fast

2012-02-13T06:43:00.000Z

At the Get Writing Conference at the weekend I did a workshop for young people on creating story lines and was talking about pace and the need to get stories moving forwards. One of the students asked about this, citing Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as an example where nothing happened ie there weren't any gun fights or car chases.

Now, that's not pace. Yes, a car chase is fast, but pace in writing is not about the rate of speed, it's more about the tension. The latest James Bond Quantum of Solace had its quota of car chases and explosions but I actually dropped off to sleep while watching it because it lacked any tension.

Think about doing a jigsaw puzzle (or a crossword, or a Sudoko puzzle or anything similar). You start with a great mass of pieces all jumble together and slowly, slowly, you begin to work out which bit goes where. There are small moments of triumph when you get the corners fixed, and huge satisfaction when that piece you could never find a place for suddenly slots into its rightful place. It's completely absorbing while you're doing it and when the puzzle is finished you sit back with a sense of completion and a happy sigh.

It's that sense of satisfaction, that 'ahh' moment that we're trying to achieve as writers. The story unfolds as things fall into place, and they don't have to be noisy or fast to have tension or absorb the reader.

Working with An Editor

2012-02-10T06:40:00.000Z

When I sent my most recent novel, Kissing Mr Wrong, off to my editor it came back with the request that I 'looked again' at the opening scene. It's a big party scene, with lots of people and two plot-important conversations (A and B) interspersed with an inconsequential - but I hoped, funny - interchange (X). So the scene went, intro, X A X B. The editor wanted for the X scenes to be joined, or cut, or moved, or in some way changed as she felt the flow wasn't right.

I started a long email explaining why I'd chosen that configuration. There needed to be a run up to conversation A, and you couldn't have A and B right next to each other, so X A X B was the absolutely perfect order. As I wrote my justification, I thought as a concession I'd try X A B, but that obviously didn't work. I tried A B X - no, it definitely needed the X in-between. A X B was on the surface the straightforward choice, but that would mean rewriting the intro, rewriting the X interchange, writing a completely new run up to the A conversation.

As I wrote a length email to my editor explaining why my first choice X A X B had been the right one, I realised: I didn't want to change the order simply because it meant more work. After a short bout of internal wrestling I deleted the email and wrote another, shorter one. You're quite right, I wrote to my editor. I'll do it.

That's what an editor should do - poke/prompt/nudge/direct you into writing better. I did all the work (which actually was very enjoyable once I'd decided to go for it) and the book now starts intro then A X B. And it's much, much, better for it.

Being a Flexible Writer

2012-02-09T06:24:00.001Z

I like doing Sudoku, the harder the better. The trick is that when one part of the puzzle appears impossible, stop struggling and move on to another section. Be flexible.

Flexibility is a useful tool for novelists too. When you get stuck in one particular section, move on to another which looks more promising. When I was writing A Single to Rome it was ages before I knew what Natalie, the main character, did for a living. So I skipped through the work scenes and came back to them when I'd decided - more than half way through. Similarly the characters Teresa and Olivia were originally one person. And Bob kept changing sex throughout the book before I realised he really had to be a man.

For me, the really satisfying moments in writing are the ones where the difficult piece that didn't seem to fit anywhere at all suddenly slots in and the whole picture becomes clearer. So, once I knew what Natalie's job was, a lot of other scenes fitted into place, and a lot of future scenes became clearer. It takes faith, of course, to believe that if you leave a scene half written or sketched in it will resolve itself later. Apparently, when Mike Myers is gets stuck he simply writes 'And then something amazing happens', and carries on.

I think you have to be flexible and trust to the magic of writing that something amazing will happen. Because it will, it really will.

Writing a Synopsis (III)

2012-02-08T06:23:00.000Z

The last two blogs were about assembling the raw materials, this one will be about putting it all together. Synopses are always written in third person, present tense. Start with an opening paragraph that says what the novel is about and the story line. It should be clear from this what genre it falls into. Also make it clear if the structure is non-linear, for example, there are two or more parallel plots, or multiple voices. Let the reader have a good idea of what is coming.

Now write out the plot, concentrating on the most important story points and summarising the rest - 'After an unpleasant encounter at school, Jennifer decides...' The unpleasant encounter may have been worth a chapter to itself, but the important bit is the decision. Be bold, be brave, be ruthless. You can't get everything in (because then it would be the novel). It might inspire you to go to the cinema, as films often come with sharply written synopses covering the main plot points, the characters and the themes into one or two short paragraphs.

7 things to look out for...

1. Tone. The tone of the synopsis reflects the novel, so if the novel is humorous, so should the synopsis be.
2. Verbs. Use the most active verbs you can. Characters shouldn't go anywhere, they should rush, run, sidle.
3. Time. Because you're concentrating on the best bits, it's easy to make vast leaps in time that give the synopsis a stop-start impression, or completely lose...
4. Logic. Which can all too easily go out of the window as you cut, cut, cut. My first synopsis included the line 'Suddenly she realises she's having an affair.' What - she was just walking down the street when, whoops, it happened?
5. Genre shift. It starts out techno thriller, ends up as romance. Or vice versa.
6. The End. If the butler did it, say so.
7. Confusion. You need a willing volunteer for this. Get them to read it, and if they're confused at any point, you need to rewrite.

And there it is. Easy peasy.

Writing a Synopsis (II)

2012-02-07T06:21:00.000Z

The thing of delight and enchantment that is your synopsis should be written after you have finished and polished your novel to the point where it will glitter in the slush pile like the Koh-i-Nor in gravel. There are three reasons for this:

First, you're hoping an agent will demand to see the rest on the strength of your initial submission so why start your relationship by disappointing them? (Especially when there's plenty of time to do that later on.)

Secondly, your novel is bound to change and evolve in the process of writing it, but should by some incredible chance you be taken on on the strength of the sample chapters and synopsis you're stuck with that story. It'll be like writing the rest in a straitjacket.

Thirdly, you (and they) need to know you have the stamina and discipline to write a whole novel. Unless you're a celebrity, of course, in which case the publishing pixies will be called out to assist your stumbling process. But that's another story.

So, you've written the novel. You are now going to write out the plot of your novel. This stage has three rules:

1 - It must be done from memory with NO consulting the mighty tome.
2 - Each sentence you write must start on a new line.
3 - Each sentence must start with the words 'And then...'

Following the three rules forces you to stick to the plot. You can't divert yourself into all the intricacies of the background or the setting because the sentences have to start with 'And then...' And because it's done by memory, and it's impossible for even the author to hold every twist and turn in their heads, you will concentrate on the more important plot points. And then...

And then, when you've done all that hard work, pick up a highlighter and mark out those key scenes which are the most important to the story. Mr Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth Bennett would be one, the Netherfield ball wouldn't. Frodo accepting the ring quest is, Shelob isn't, nor is Galadriel. It's tough playing Sophie's Choice with scenes but it has to be done.

And then, when you've done all that, your plot should be clearly defined. This, along with the work on theme and character, will be the basis for writing your synopsis into a wonderful piece of selling prose...tomorrow.

Writing a Synopsis (I)

2012-02-06T06:19:00.000Z

If the covering letter seems hellish, it's nothing compared to the particular torture that is the synopsis. I have heard agents say brightly, 'Oh, I never read them, it might spoil the story.' To which one can only answer 'Why ask for them then?' before running them through with an unsharpened toasting fork. Because ask for them they do. So, as a writer desperately seeking representation, you will have to resign yourself to condensing all those months and years of hard work into a page or two of pithy prose.

First things first. Remove the toasting fork with a twist, then shove it straight back in, because there's no consensus among agents as to exactly what they want from a synopsis. One page or two, or ten? Single or double spaced? To include character breakdowns (to possibly accompany your own) or not? Look up the details for each agent you're sending sample chapters to check if they have any particular demands. If nothing stated, shorter is better than longer. One side of A4 is usually enough, maximum two pages, spaced as you wish but in a clear font such as Times New Roman in 12pt. Whatever length and spacing you go for, fill each page - the ones I've seen that go over to two sides, but only by one paragraph look as if you either ran out of steam or lost confidence in your writing.

Stick to the main characters - having workshopped lots of synopses I know that people get confused if there are many more than four names, I'd say a maximum of six before most readers lose the plot (literally). If pushed, use generic names for minor characters - waitress, chauffeur, teacher, children. Try a few telling character details: a leather arm chair of a man, a cool blonde with an eye to the main chance, rock n roll anarchist.

Pin point the genre. If in doubt, where will it be shelved in Waterstones? If still not sure or going for 'fiction', then who do you write like? Then go and look where they're shelved in Waterstones. That's your genre. One thing I can guarantee is that you haven't come up with a whole new genre. Crossover is a cop out. Now think about the theme - coming of age, redemption, the worm turns. Write a sentence on the theme. Now the plot - bored housewife takes series of lovers to escape humdrum life in provincial France. You might need a couple of sentences for this.

Tired? And we're still on the opening paragraph. We'll look at the rest tomorrow.

What Duvet Covers Have To Do With Writing

2012-02-03T06:27:00.000Z

Changing the duvet cover yesterday led to the same old argument as to the best method - I'm a 'feed the ends in, hold tight, then shake it down' person, my other half is an 'inside out and flip it over' afficionado. It struck me this is a little like writing a novel. Do you plan extensively, or simply go with the flow?

Each method has staunch supporters. I once read an article about Ken Follett that said each novel started with a full synopsis - full being about 300 pages. Stephen King, on the other hand says that he sets out with an idea and sees where it leads him. I'm somewhere in the middle. I like to know a few key moments that I can aim for - woman falls in love, woman falls out of love, for example - but the how and the why and the what are all mysteries to be solved along the way.

I've only once tried fully planning a novel, and the result was that, although I loved all the planning and plotting, I never actually wrote it up. It lurks in all its colour coded wonder at the back of the writing cupboard, having absorbed all my writing inspiration into its perfect plan. For me, extensive planning was a substitute for actually writing a novel.

Other authors can't imagine embarking on writing a story, let alone a novel, without having it plotted out in great detail. I remember when I was speaking at my first writing conference and talking about my non-plotting approach, immensely successful romantic novelist Kate Walker - who was also on the panel - was amazed with my levels of re-writing. She didn't have time for all that faffing around, she was too busy with the story telling.

My method does take time, but there you are - it's my method and so far it seems to be working out. In the end, it doesn't really matter how you change the duvet cover, so long as the bed gets made.

11 Reasons Why 10 Minutes Writing Works

2012-02-02T06:11:00.001Z

If you do nothing else, try to write for 10 minutes a day. Everybody, no matter how busy they are, can find 10 minutes.

1. Grab what time you can for writing - at a bus stop, on a long train journey, while waiting for the kettle to boil.

2. Don't ask permission - "Do you mind if I just nip off and do some writing...?" Go. Become sneaky if you have to.

3. If there are children in the house become doubly sneaky.

4. Lock yourself in the bathroom if desperate. It takes ages for anyone to wonder at how long you're taking.

5. Do not check your email/Facebook/Twitter first. Do the writing.

In your 10 minutes, write like mad. This should be easy because you do your thinking about writing at other times, such as when you're taking the dog for a walk, doing the washing up, or cleaning the floors, on the school run. But if it isn't coming...

6. Anything you write can be made better, so it's worth writing rubbish.

7. If stuck, write description: what your character can see, hear, touch, feel, smell. Where are they? What are they wearing? How do they feel? What are they thinking? It's usually good for a couple of hundred words.

8. You often don't know what you're writing until you've written it. The act of writing unleashes all sorts of imaginative ideas and connections. Don't think, write.

And the reason you're writing 10 minutes every day is because

9. It keeps your story fresh and to the forefront of your brain.

10. Getting started is the hardest part - do 10 minutes, and the next 30 will be easy.

11. Maths. Most people can write about 150-250 words in 10 minutes. Multiply that by days and you should have a first draft completed within a year on just 10 minutes a day.

But It Really Happened - The Perils of Writing Real Life Events as Fiction

2012-02-01T06:05:00.001Z

At some point in every term I know someone is going to give the feedback that an incident in a story is unbelievable, at which point the writer will say, 'But it really happened.'

The fact that something is true doesn't automatically make it believable. Firstly, truth really is sometimes stranger than fiction. Weird coincidences happen. People behave dramatically out of character. Chance strikes families for good or bad. Life is random.

Secondly, if it really happened - and to someone you know, or even yourself - then the chances are whatever you write will be coloured by your knowledge of the ins and outs of the character details, the location the event takes place in, the effects and repercussions that are relevant to the story today. You will probably write something that is utterly clear to you, but lacking in the information that will make it live for a complete stranger.

We need concrete detail. It's not enough to say Uncle Bob's house, because that means nothing. We need inter-war semi, chocolate box cottage, country mansion. We need to know if it's crumbling or in perfect order. What is it made of - brick? stone? What are the windows like? Do they let in much light, or are they small and dirty? We need all the information that we might use if you were making Uncle Bob's house up.

We also need meaning. Yesterday I was talking with my mother about Call the Midwife. I knew that my mother had trained as a midwife in Edinburgh after the war and wondered what her take on the programme was. It turned out she hadn't bothered to watch, so that was a bit of research lost, but she told me a story about going to a home delivery and, on her way back to the hospital, leaving the placenta on the bus, and having to collect it from Lost Property. Great story - to me, because it's my mother, because I've heard it before, because it's family history.

It's a lousy story, actually, because nothing happens. She just collected the placenta from a mildly startled Lost Property man and took it back to the hospital. There's lots of meaning for me, but none for you. If you were to fictionalise it, you'd have to find a meaning somewhere - perhaps she learns to be more confident, perhaps she learns the dire consequences of being forgetful, perhaps she falls in love with the Lost Property man, perhaps she's mistaken for a mad axe murderer, perhaps she's blackmailed by Satanists looking for suitable material.

Which leads to the next problem - inhibitions. You may be reluctant to embroider a story that features a real family incident starring a real member of your family. You may not want to tread on toes. You may feel that it's cheating, somehow, to alter the facts. And above all, you may not realise that what's a great story to you (because it really happened to you or someone you know) might not be a great story to me (because I have no connection with it).

So tread carefully round the truth. It's almost certainly unbelievable, but not necessarily in a good way.

Writing the Book of Your Heart

2012-01-31T06:02:00.001Z

Just before Christmas I went to see Hugo. This was taken from the graphic novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Selznick was a successful illustrator but like many in that business he had become disillusioned and depressed and had stopped working. Then he met Maurice Sendak, the author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are.

He talked to me about my work, which he said showed great promise, but he steadfastly maintained that I hadn’t come close to reaching my full potential yet. These words resonated with me very strongly. I think I had secretly felt the same way. I talked to him about how lost I felt, about how I didn’t know what I should do next. His words were simple but powerful: “Make the book you want to make.”

At the time Selznick didn't understand him, but gradually a book unlike any other came into his head, a 550 page long picture book. He had no idea if there was a market for such a book but it was the book he wanted to make. So he did. The result was The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which received the Caldecott Medal, and it's from his acceptance speech that the above quote comes from.

I say to students all the time that they should write from the heart. Creativity has to come from the heart, and not the head. There's no point in trying to write a particular style or for a particular market if it's done for cynical reasons. Everything in writing has already been done - every plot has been covered, every character has already appeared. The only thing that hasn't been done is your story told in your way, with your whole heart behind it.

On Readers, Writing and Macaroons

2012-01-30T06:35:00.002Z

Every year at Christmas I make macaroons. Old fashioned ones, not those fancy coloured French things piled like jewels in patisserie shops (and selling for practically the same price as jewels). Mine are big, chewy things with a crisp exterior and a soft interior, with rice paper on the bottom. They are damn fine macaroons, even though I say it myself.

At Christmas the kitchen is scented with almonds and as I prepare yet another batch, occasionally I dream of a macaroon making empire where I will supply the world with my macaroons. But the reality is that, while I enjoy my cooking stint, if I was preparing macaroons every day the charm would fade fast. It would become just another job.

I was thinking about this because someone wrote to me about the difference between writing for oneself alone, and writing for a reader. To paraphrase, writing for oneself you could do what you liked, but once a reader was involved you had to be aware of them and pay attention to things such as pacing, structure, characterisation and so on - the stuff I teach.

I agree, up to a point. But then, what about my macaroons? I have no intention of ever trying to build even the smallest of macaroon empires, but I strive to make them as good as possible - even if it's just me who is going to scoff the lot (it has been known...). I think we can write just for ourselves, and yet also want our writing to be as good as it possibly can be, even if we're not intending to show it to anyone else.

So, no macaroon empire for me, but I still enjoy the making and the baking and the satisfaction of doing a good job. Even if we have no intention of ever showing our work to anyone I think we can try to learn to be the best writer we can be. Apart from anything else, the journey is such fun.

The Writer's Process

2012-01-27T06:36:00.001Z

I had two conversations about the writer's process yesterday. One was with a student who was amazed to hear that I went through many drafts before considering my work finished (the never ending book has, in fact, had two endings so far, but I'm about to write number three), and the other was with a fellow writer who mentioned that he had the same process. "I think of the first draft as just getting my ideas down," he said. "It's only after that that I 'write' the book."

I daresay that there are some writers for whom the words just flow in perfect order - like Mozart taking dictation - but for most writing is a process. Some will plan and then write, others will write and then plan. It doesn't matter what your process is, and it may take some time and plenty of trial and error before you work out what your personal process is.

There will almost certainly be several phases:

A thinking phase.

A writing phase.

A planning phase.

A re-writing phase.

A fine tuning phase.

But the order in which you tackle each phase is personal to you. So, some people go chapter by chapter, thinking, planning, writing, re-writing, fine tuning. Others will write a whole mad first draft in a great burst of energy, and then start the thinking and planning processes. The order you do things in doesn't matter, so long as you do them.

My mother told me not to fret about when my babies walked, or talked or was potty trained, on the grounds that they'd all manage it by 18. It's the end product that matters, not how you get there.

Agents and Statistics

2012-01-26T06:55:00.002Z

At an agent talk before Christmas, the agent casually announced some statistics. He received 5,000 submissions a year. Of these 4,800 weren't what he wanted (he was actually more blunt than this). Of the remaining 200, he asked to see a full manuscript once a month. He took on half of these.

This could sound very depressing, and the person who actually attended the talk had thought they were damning statistics. However, I thought they were actually rather cheering because the implication is that he's very good at weeding out the manuscripts that he knows he's not interested in for whatever reason - subject matter, genre, writing style, author approach. For him to take on half - half! - means that he's good at spotting 'his' thing.

And that's what you want, an agent who thinks you're 'their' thing. You don't want to work with someone who doesn't believe in you. You don't want to work with someone who has to have their arm twisted in order for them to take you on. You want the agent who thinks your book is fab, the one who is bursting with enthusiasm to sell it, the one who utterly believes in your work.

And it's also encouraging for anyone who has received anything other than a standard rejection. Yes, you're one of the rejected, but the final 200 out of 4,800 doesn't sound so bad. You're in the top 2%! You've been picked out as worth of special merit, but this time - and with this agent - you're not moving on to the next level. However depressing, it's also a strong sign you're on the right lines.

Rejection is tough. Of course it is. But we all go through it. The writer who has never been rejected on the road to publication is a rare beast. I possess a letter from one agent who told me not to bother with writing as I was wasting my time. (I had a good publishing deal with a Big 6 publisher a few months later, so not entirely wasting my time...)

Take heart! Push on through the rejection, and try again. Try better.

Character Wants and Needs

2012-01-25T06:20:00.001Z

Characters should have both wants and needs, but it's sometimes hard to tell which is which.

Let's suppose your character is an aspiring politician. They want to be elected as a Member of Parliament. The reasons behind that want are the need - they need to have power over others to hide their own self doubt, they need to win to gain the approval of a never satisfied parent, they need to show the bullies at their secondary school that they can succeed.

Your character, in the telling of the story, might gain their want, but not satisfy their need - for example, they become an MP but realise they don't have any power, or the parent still isn't satisfied or the bullies don't care.

They might lose their want, but gain their need - for example, they lose the election but realise that they'll have more power outside formal politics/they don't need to have power over others, their parent says they're proud of them, the bullies are humbled.

In An Officer and A Gentleman (oh yes, I go for the most high brow examples) the Richard Gere character, Zach, wants to become an officer to gain the respect of others, but what he needs is to learn to become a team player and not to just look after himself. He wants to get the fastest time on the assault course because he wants to win. Towards the end of the film he tackles the assault course but when the finishing line is in sight and it is certain he's going to get the record, he stops to help a struggling team mate and they cross the finishing line together. He loses his want - the record - but gains his need (friendship, he's no longer alone), and in turn gains his other want that of truly deserving to be an officer and a gentleman. Oh, and he gets the girl...

Cue music, the factory, the hat, the uniform...

Holding a Reader's Focus

2012-01-24T06:04:00.002Z

I hate it when I'm deep in a book and get interrupted. Woe betide you if you phone trying to sell me double glazing or PPI insurance protection. But then, what to do about the author who constantly interrupts me reading their story?

Anything that interrupts my reading focus is an interruption which is why you need to edit and edit and edit to make sure that there's nothing to stop the text flowing. This is where beta readers come in, friends who will read and note any places where they had a hiccup in the reading experience. Hopefully they'll pick up things like this, seen in last Saturday's Times:

"Freddie Max Wright was born on November 18, 2011. Freddie was born with a full head of hair weighing 8lb 3oz."

That's some hair! If you were reading it in a story you might blink, smile, and then carry on but even that momentary loss of focus might be enough to break your commitment to the story. If there are repeated mistakes, then the reader will give up. That's why it's so important to make sure the text is as clean as you can make it. No typos, no grammatical glitches and nothing to stand in the way between your text and the reader.

Coincidences and YouTube

2012-01-23T06:21:00.001Z

There's a video about a road rage incident in Bath currently going viral on YouTube. It's not me, but a coincidence that we share a name and live in Bath.

Coincidence happens all the time in real life. Sarah Duncan isn't an unusual name, and I expect there are several Sarah Duncans in Bath who are currently fretting in case anyone thinks the video features them.

But coincidences in stories...now, that's another matter. You can get away with a coincidence at the beginning - the initiating incident perhaps - but any further on and the reader will feel cheated. Put your coincidence at the end, particularly if it solves the overall plot, and they'll be furious.

I think it's because coincidence can makes the story all too convenient. We know they happen in real life, but fiction isn't real life, it's pretend real life. The author is choosing what to include or exclude, and most of the characters' 'real life' will be excluded: you don't often see characters doing the boring stuff like getting dressed or cooking every meal. Everything in the story has therefore been especially selected and choosing a handy coincidence to solve the plot feels like the author being lazy.

I believe that one of the reasons we read fiction is to see how other people handle problems. We like matching up our solutions against theirs. We also like to see characters working to achieve solutions. If the problem is solved by coincidence, then the reader is deprived of those two very basic pleasures and whatever the genre, that certainly isn't a happy ending.

Video On Youtube is NOT Me!

2012-01-22T18:19:00.002Z

Just to clarify - the video of road rage currently going viral all over the net has nothing to do with me. It's a coincidence that the shop and I share a name, and we're both in Bath.

I don't drive an Audi, have short dark curly hair and never wear green. And I hope I'm not so daft.

Writing When Tired

2012-01-20T06:31:00.000Z

It's January. The house is cold and looks a shambles. I'm commuting 200 miles between Bath and St Ives. I've just started teaching again. I got a flat tyre yesterday. Am I writing? Er....No.

What I want to do in the evenings and at weekends is grab a cup of tea and snuggle down in front of the fire with a re-run of Wycliffe. The last thing I want to do is write. Creativity and tiredness are not easy companions. But. But. But. Tiredness can also be an excuse. Most of us are tired, but if you want to write you have to find the hours when you can.

I had two young children when I wrote my my first novel and to be honest I don't know how I did it. I remember getting up early, staying up late, writing while dishing up supper (watching out for spag bol on the keyboard). I wrote that first draft while my busy life carried on around me. Tired? Yes, of course, but the motivation to write kept me going.

It's always the first ten minutes that are the hardest. Once you're underway, the writing warms up and soon an hour has gone by without you realising it. And by the end of that hour it strikes you that a) you don't feel so tired and b) you feel proud of what you've achieved. You pushed through the tiredness and now have something to show for it. Hooray!

So forget the tiredness: you'll never get anything done if you wait until you feel fully refreshed. Just get on with it - even if it's only for ten minutes - and enjoy the glow of achievement when you've done some writing.

Picture Book Text Format

2012-01-19T06:42:00.003Z

Picture books follow a particular technical format. This is because books are made by printing on enormous sheets of paper which are then cut and folded into 32 pages. (Longer books are made by glueing those 32 pages together - if you check the spine you can usually see the folds.)

With a picture book the first couple of pages will be taken up by a title page, and the publishing information page, the end pages will be perhaps more information on other titles. That leaves between 24 and 28 pages to play with, which translates to 12, 13 or 14 spreads.

You have to work out how your story fits into those spreads. It can be useful to make a dummy book - 8 sheets of A4 paper folded in half will give you 32 pages (page 1 is the front, p 32 is the back). So, pages 2,3,4,5 have title info etc, Spread 1 is p6 and p7, Spread 2 is p8 and p9, Spread 3 is p10 and p11 and so on. The text is presented like this:

Spread 1

Jennifer heard a noise outside the window. She looked out and saw an enormous dinosaur.

Spread 2

It ran towards Jennifer saying "I'm going to eat you up!"

We also have to imagine the reading experience. So each spread should invite the readers to continue reading.

Spread 1

Jennifer heard a noise outside the window. She looked out and saw....

Spread 2

An enormous dinosaur! It ran towards Jennifer saying "I'm going to eat you up!"

You don't need to give the illustrator instructions unless it's not clear what should be in the picture. For example, it's clear from the text that Jennifer sees an enormous dinosaur so you don't need to tell the illustrator this. It's not relevant to the story what colour the dinosaur is, so you don't need to tell the illustrator that. It is relevant that Jennifer is a wart hog, and not clear from the text, so you do need to tell the illustrator this.

Spread 1

Jennifer heard a noise outside the window. She looked out and saw....

(Illustration: Jennifer is a warthog)

Spread 2

An enormous dinosaur! It ran towards Jennifer saying "I'm going to eat you up!"

And we have to think in pictures. If Jennifer is inside, the dinosaur is outside, how are we going to show this? Will we see the dinosaur running towards Jennifer from Jennifer's POV or the dinosaur's? And will it be that scary if Jennifer is still in the house and therefore protected from the dinosaur outside? (That Jennifer is a warthog and living in a house is just fine by picture book standards.)

Spread 1

Jennifer heard a noise coming from behind the termite mound. She looked up and saw....

(Illustration: Jennifer is a warthog)

Spread 2

An enormous dinosaur! It ran towards Jennifer saying "I'm going to eat you up!"

(NB I'm assuming in the above scenario that the illustrator will read 'termite mound' and 'wart hog' immediately place the scene on the plains of Africa, not on Willesden High Road, so it doesn't need mentioning.)

And so on until you've told your story in 12, 13, or 14 spreads, no more, no less. Add a word count and your contact details at the end, and you're done.

I think picture book texts are the hardest form of writing EVER, and the editing process is gruelling - with so few words to play with, everyone can have their say about whether it should be termite mound or ant hill. Added to that, because the form is short, lots of people try it so competition is stiff, and because full colour illustration is increasingly expensive to produce and print, fewer picture books are being produced.

If you want to try them, why not, but it's a long journey from having an idea to getting the text right, to getting that phone call from an editor. 100,000 word novels, in my opinion, are so much easier.

Is Telling The Facts Unkind?

2012-01-18T06:00:00.002Z

A writer presented a picture book text for workshopping. Now, picture book texts have a particular format and as a result they have various technical issues that must be addressed such as word limits, working in a fixed number of spreads rather than pages, and so on. Above all, they will need to be illustrated, and therefore the text must imply pictures. You can't really illustrate certain things, like sound or thoughts.

The text presented was one continuous piece of prose. I gave a brief run-down on how picture book texts were presented, and we tried to see how the text would work within spreads rather than pages etc. It became clear that a lot of the text did not translate into images and that the action was static ie located in one place without forward movement. In other words, the text was not working as a picture book text - which is not to say that it wasn't working as a piece of writing or a story, just that it didn't fit the market that the writer was aiming at.

This seems to me to be a matter of fact, not opinion. Publishing is full of facts like this. If a short story comp states a maximum of 2000 words, then 2500 is too long. Full stop. The writer can choose to cut 500 words, or send their story to a different competition, that's up to them, but the parameters are clear. If someone is looking for apples, they don't want pears, no matter how beautiful the pears are.

I don't think it's being unkind to present these facts. If anything, I think it's unkind to pretend that these facts don't exist. Sadly, I believe the writer misunderstood 'the text does not fit in with the technical requirements of the format you're aiming for' and heard it as 'this text is no good' and was hurt. For that I am sorry. But it still doesn't stop the facts being the facts.

Golden Syrup Is Not Character Building

2012-01-17T06:32:00.001Z

One of the reasons the film of War Horse didn't grab me was the lack of character development. Everybody stayed exactly the same and their characters went nowhere (it must have been depressing for the actors - if you were cast as 'mean landlord' you were stuck as 'mean landlord' and even an actor of the calibre of David Thewlis couldn't do much with that).

The original book is narrated by the horse, who changes in the original story from an innocent colt to a survivor. But the film chose (for understandable reasons) not to be narrated from the horse's point of view. This transformed it from being a linear character journey into a circular story, a series of episodes before finally coming full circle and reuniting the horse and his first owner.

This meant the human characters had little opportunity for development. The chosen solution was to bring on the violins and dollop out the sweetness. Most of the characters Joey the horse encountered were 'good' - incredibly good. There was no shade to their radiant goodness. The other non-good characters were, surprise surprise, utterly bad. There was no light to their brutish badness.

We all know this to be untrue. People are never wholly good, or wholly bad. They are multi-faceted, and fictional characters need to reflect this. And if ever there was a time when characters are tested it's war. Essentially good people are put in positions when they are compelled to behave badly or selfishly. People who have got into the habit of behaving brutally find a chink of humanity.

Ambiguity in characters is eternally interesting because a) we don't know which way they'll go next and b) it's the truth. Smothering characters in golden syrup is no substitute for character development.

Anticipation is Crucial for Story Telling

2012-01-16T06:43:00.001Z

At the weekend I saw two films, War Horse and Iron Lady. War Horse I had neither read the book nor seen the stage play. Iron Lady I knew the story well, as it was the story of my own life as I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s. So, which was the story that had me gripped, the one where I knew the plot or the one I didn't?

Iron Lady was the answer. War Horse was so filled with cliche that you knew what was going to happen at every turn, and your anticipation was never wrong. Will the horse and his boy ever meet again? Well, what do you think? I don't want to give the plot away, but every plot question was answered in exactly the way you expected.

Iron Lady, on the other hand, had the clever device of switching between Margaret Thatcher in the present (elderly, with the onset of dementia) with her incredible history. You may have known the history, but you didn't know the present, nor when there were going to be parallels between the past and the present, nor when the switch was going to happen.

When we read, we often anticipate the ending - the guy gets the girl, the murderer is uncovered, the jewels are found and restored to the rightful owner. Anticipating the ending doesn't matter; in fact, we'll be disappointed if we don't get the answer we expect. What we enjoy is not going the route we were expecting, but still ending up in the right place. That's the trick of story telling: giving us what we expect but not in the way we expected it.

Why Should Writers Be Grateful?

2012-01-13T06:06:00.000Z

An offer is made - the writer should feel grateful. That seems to be the overwhelming feeling, whether it's an offer of representation from an agent, or a deal from a publisher, or for an appearance at a literary festival. You should feel grateful, and let's face it - usually we are.

But gratitude doesn't pay the rent. In all of the above situations, what the writer is being offered is a business deal. The person making the offer isn't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts but because they think they're going to make money from you. Perhaps we might start being a little less grateful...

Take literary festivals. The organisers are paid. The brochure printer and website designer gets paid. The venues get paid. But there's often no mention of payment for the author, or it's a nominal amount. And you'd have to sell 1000s of books to get back in royalties the cost of a lost day's work.

The agent and publisher - yes, they're taking a gamble, but they're doing it for business reasons. Lovely that they think you've got potential to make money for them, but unthinking gratitude? Why shouldn't you question the terms and conditions?

I was talking to a friend about garages and cars (I've had car problems recently). He said he wasn't interested in either, he just wanted his car to go. At his last visit the garage asked him to rate the service he'd been given. As he didn't tick "exceptional" he was phoned up to ask why. He said they had done the job they'd been asked to. That wasn't exceptional, that should be normal.

It's a bit the same for writers. You've done a good job and you're getting the appropriate response for it. You shouldn't feel grateful, but normal.

When Infallible Heroes Work (And When They Don't)

2012-01-12T06:28:00.001Z

The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth's first novel, was turned down by many publishers because - as it concerns an assassin who is after General de Gaulle - they reasoned that readers wouldn't be gripped as they would know the main character doesn't succeed in his aim, and therefore there would be no tension.

They were wrong - it became an international best seller and a tension-packed film. Why? We know the main character won't succeed, because de Gaulle wasn't assassinated. So why are we waiting to see if he will be?

The main character in The Day of the Jackal is an exception to the usual rule. He is an Infallible Hero. Every setback he's already planned for. He's got lots of passports, knows how to disguise a car and smuggle guns through customs. He's ruthless about killing anyone who gets in his way. He runs rings around the poor old police, plodding along in his wake. He appears invincible. We know he won't succeed, so instead of the more usual: Will the hero succeed in their quest (the answer usually being Yes), the question becomes, firstly, how can this Infallible Hero be stopped? and secondly, Who is this Infallible Hero?

We're not stupid, us readers. We know most stories start at A and end with Z, whether they're a romance (which always ends with a kiss and Happy Ever After) or a murder mystery (the detective finds out who dunnit) or a thriller (the secret is unmasked). It's how we get to Z that matters, not what Z is. The more Z appears impossible to achieve (the lovers have a quarrel, the main suspect is murdered, the trail goes cold etc) the more we like it.

The easiest way to make Z impossible to achieve is to make the main character fallible. They muck things up. They get it wrong. They forget the important gadget. They go off in a huff. Or make a bad decision. Just like us, in fact. They are fallible, but achieve their goal in the end.

We often pitch our fallible characters against apparently infallible antagonists, often authority figures like parents, head teachers, megalomaniac bosses or evil corporations. Think of The Terminator. Arnie's robotic character is unstoppable but the poor fallible humans have to stop him somehow. How will they do that? It's impossible! But by the end they do. They get to Z (against all the odds, as the cliche has it).

If our main protagonist was infallible, and got everything right AND achieved their goal, how irritating would that be? We'd be utterly fed up with them. So we need to know that the apparently infallible hero won't succeed a la Day of the Jackal. Similarly, if our apparently infallible antagonists turn out to be infallible and the poor hero fails utterly, then the story is limp and ends unsuccessfully. (How to make apparently down beat endings up beat is the subject of another post.)

It's the struggle we like. We hope that in real life our struggle will be rewarded by success. If there's no struggle, then we hope the rewards won't follow. Sadly real life isn't fair like this, but fiction can be. As an author part of our job is to make it so.

Planning or Sailing into the Mist?

2012-01-11T06:08:00.004Z

I had the idea for my A-Z of Writing at the end of November. Great, I thought, frantically scribbling down an alphabet on the back of an envelope. If I do an A-Z, that will keep me supplied with ideas for blog posts all the way through Christmas and into the New Year. I won't have to think, or be imaginative, or creative at all. I will concentrate on shopping and Christmas instead. That was my plan.

What actually happened was that I changed my mind about my blog posts all the time. T was going to be about Talent not Totalitarianism, U was going to be about Universality not Unicorns, Y was going to be about Youth not Yippedee-doo-dah. Perhaps the A-Z would have been better for sticking to the initial list I scribbled down in 5 minutes, but I think not. They were a bit obvious and boring. Well, they seemed obvious and boring to me, which didn't bode well given I was the one who was going to write them.

I'm the same with planning what I'm going to writer my novels. I can plan with the best of them - in fact, I can think of nothing nicer than spending several days faffing around with index cards - but when it comes to actually writing material to flesh out my plan I zoom off piste pretty quickly. The only time I've tried to stick to The Plan I got so bored I gave up.

For me, the planning comes best AFTER I've written a first draft, not BEFORE. I use the index cards to whip that stodgy wodge of material into a decent shape. This may involve lots of new writing, but that seems to work as I've already got a reasonable framework down on the page.

Some people need the plan first to anchor them and provide security. I believe Ken Follett does such detailed synopses of his books that it really is only a matter of fleshing them out a little. Each to their own.

I know that I need to have at least something down on the page before I start planning, but the further I have written into the novel, the more detailed my plan becomes. The plan and the story grow organically together. But that's my method: it may not be yours.

Part of the process of becoming a writer is to work out what works best for you. Maybe you're a planner, maybe you prefer sailing into the mist. Be open minded, try both, and learn from the experience. Keep learning. That's all you can do.

Z is for ZZZzzzz

2012-01-10T06:23:00.002Z

As a reader I love books that I simply have to finish. They're the ones that I'm so absorbed by that I carry on reading late into the night, even though my eyelids are drooping and I'm finding it hard to focus. Books that make a long boring journey happen in seconds. Books which take my mind off domestic problems and whisk me away to more interesting places.

Different types of books are going to work for different people - what makes me an insomniac may turn you into a narcoleptic - but I think a primary aim of an author should be to interest the reader to the point that they forget their circumstances, whatever that may be.

The most basic method is to pose a 'Will they, won't they' question - will they, won't they discover the truth/get together/find out who dunnit. Part of the skill is for the answer to appear obvious, so the reader thinks they know what they're getting, and then to do something entirely plausible but completely unexpected. That'll keep them reading.

A mistake many new writers make is to believe that the action has to be big and dramatic to make it unputdownable. I read Family Album by Penelope Lively a couple of months ago and was riveted, even though it's a very small story on a limited domestic scale. The characters were real and consistent, but never predictable. What was going to happen next? Where was it going to end? I never knew and that kept me reading late into the night.

So if you want to keep your readers from going to zzzz then keep them guessing the answers to your story questions, and then give them answers they weren't expecting.

Y is for Yippedee-doo-dah

2012-01-09T06:08:00.003Z

Hooray! You've had the call from an agent wanting to represent you. Or you've had an offer from a publisher. Or you've won first prize in a short story competition. Time to break out the champagne!

And why not? So long as after the bubbly's been drunk you stop and put a more cautious hat on. Most of the time the offer will be entirely genuine and no need to read the small print, but that's no reason to trust them. This is a business arrangement and you need to stop feeling grateful that someone wants you - which is how we all feel, of course - and get real.

Take a friend of mine. A multi-published author, her agent presented her with some contracts to sign selling her e-book rights to her publisher. She did so without thinking - she assumed her agent would have checked that it was all OK. And it was, up to a point. Except, she sees her extensive backlist up on the publisher's website all at the same price as her paperbacks, with no additional marketing by the publisher and no advance up front and 25% of the non-existent royalties doesn't seem such a good deal. Especially as she's just been dropped by that publisher.

Take another author. First prize in short story competition - hooray! Publication in an anthology - whoopee! But copyright was handed over in the small print - which was a pity, given the anthology has been sold to the US with a vast print run (which the author wasn't notified of and only discovered accidently) so no royalties will be forthcoming. I've recently seen several short story comps which demand assignment of copyright as a condition of entry, which is outrageous - read the small print.

And then there are agents. I'm not talking about the obvious scammers - anyone can set themselves up as an agent so you have to be careful - but what about the legit agent who offers to represent your novel on the basis of, say, a win in a short story competition? I've heard of agents who seem to trawl the MAs and comps offering representation - a bit like talent spotters I suppose. There's no doubt that they're bona fide agents and get good deals for some of their clients, but an author should think before they commit themselves. Would they have chosen to approach this agent regardless? If yes, then fine. But if they would have been second or third (fourth, fifth etc) choice, why sign early, especially if you haven't yet started approaching other agents?

Finally, publishers. Publishing has changed dramatically over the last few years and continues to change so find out a bit about the publisher's background before you say yes. There are lots of small independent publishers around, but not all of them are as successful as others. Some are set up by well-meaning people who believe in good writing but have little idea of how to run a business. They may cope financially only because of grants (eg from the Arts Council), which might be removed. If a publisher goes bust, or only sells a few copies of your novel, then it will be unlikely you'll be able to get another deal for that book (though once you've got the rights back, you could always self/e-publish).

So, enjoy your moment of glory, but always read the small print and don't get carried away just because somebody wants you.

X is for XFactor - the Magic Ingredient

2012-01-06T06:50:00.001Z

I listened to Adele in concert over Christmas. Wow, what an amazing voice she has - and still so young. It's sickening how talented she is.

I was so inspired I went onto her website out of curiosity. She's had to cancel some concerts recently due to vocal strain. I checked out the list of venues - my word, practically every day she was scheduled to perform in a different city in the UK and USA. Adele may be incredibly talented but she also works hard.

I wish I was as naturally gifted as Adele is. But I'm not, and there's no point in fretting about it. What I can do is work as hard as she does. Stephen King says he writes 2000 words a day, every day, including Christmas and birthdays. I don't, and my output reflects that. Regardless of how talented you may or may not be, if you don't put in the time, you won't get far.

So my tips to getting the writing X factor would always start with putting the time in. Then I'd add:

- learning about writing through reading.

- matching your voice to the right form.

- being persistent.

- keeping the faith

- being patient.

To be honest, even if you're as super-talented as Adele is, unless you have the other elements it won't make any difference how talented you are. Becoming a writer is all about a package of factors, and not just one arbitrary element called talent.

W is for Writing

2012-01-05T06:39:00.001Z

To be a writer all you have to do is write.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? I know I'm not alone in that, while I love writing, I find it very hard to actually DO some. Once I'm going it's not hard, but those first words on the page before I've settled down are grim.

Writers write.

If only that were so, there'd be a lot fewer angsty writers around. I don't know a single writer who doesn't fret about their writing practice to some extent. What we do is develop strategies to get us writing - planning ahead, setting word count targets, working in spaces without internet access. Routine helps for most people, although that routine varies from writer to writer.

The only secret formula in successful writing is summarised by one 5 letter word beginning with W...

You know it. I know it. You can spend a lot of good writing time fretting about how much you really ought to be writing. You can spend a lot of good writing time reading blogs, following writers, agents and publishers on Twitter. You can spend a lot of good writing time doing the ironing or watching TV...

Writers write. That's all there is to it. I wish it wasn't like that, but there it is. To be a writer you've got to write.

Dammit.

V is for Voice

2012-01-04T06:05:00.000Z

A lot of new writers worry about their 'voice'. Understandable, given that debut novels are often heralded with comments like 'a stunning new voice' and agents write rejection letters with feedback such as 'didn't like the voice' or 'didn't believe the voice'. I think I was lucky in that I didn't register the term until after I was published, because I'd have been fretting about my voice (or lack of it) and would have become very self-conscious.

Voice is simply the way you write. It's about your choice of vocabulary, your word order, your writing style, your subject matter. It's as individual as your speaking voice and comes as naturally. You can tweak it, in the same way you can tweak an accent, and you can develop it through reading and writing, but essentially it is what it is. Your voice is you, and there's not a great deal you can do about it.

But sometimes your voice doesn't match your chosen form. When I started I wrote literary short stories. I had some success with them, but the natural home for my voice is contemporary women's fiction and when I started writing in that style - by accident! - it just clicked. That's one of the good things about writing exercises; they force writers to go outside their usual genres. Sometimes that suits the author's voice better.

Writers with very distinctive voices have to be doubly persistent. They can struggle to find a form that both shows off their style AND fits into a publishing category. I'm afraid that publishing is a cautious business and they like work that can be neatly slotted into marketing boxes. Work that sits outside the usual categories struggles to find a home. Kate Atkinson and Terry Pratchett have such distinctive voices that they have developed genres all of their own, and there are many other similar examples.

Sometimes authors find their work being published in areas they didn't expect - last year I met a Costa winning author who hadn't expected to be marketed as YA, she just wrote a book. I've heard other authors who thought they'd written one thing, but were marketed as another eg Louise Welsh and The Cutting Room. Jill Mansell once told me that she'd tried writing for Mills and Boon, and kept on being turned down because she had too much humour. She finally changed to chick lit and rom-coms and became one of the top selling UK authors.

So, don't worry about your voice - it's there regardless - but search for the form that suits it best. It may not be what you think it is.

U is for Unicorns

2012-01-02T06:09:00.001Z

Am I the only person who hasn't read the Steig Larsson trilogy? I haven't because I've heard they're extremely violent, and I don't like reading violence. But my avoidance doesn't seem to have made much of a dent in their popularity. I've not read much misery lit either, or science fiction, and even in genres I do read I have big gaps.

One writer I like reading is Anne Tyler. My least favourite book of hers is Breathing Lessons. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1989, so obviously they didn't feel the same as me.

I once brought into class the opening scene to Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, as an example of writing a compelling suspense-filled beginning. Most people agreed but it wasn't a 100% success - one person said they'd got fed up with all the hinting and would have stopped reading.

Three examples where different people have different reactions to books. All the books have been hugely successful, all have their detractors. The book that everyone loves is as rare as...well, a unicorn.

So feedback has to be taken with a pinch of salt, as does any prescription or formula for writing. There isn't some perfect standard that we're all aiming for, a universal book. There is only the best book that you can write at this time (which may be quite different from the book that you write next year, or the year after that).

T is for Totalitarianism

2011-12-23T06:58:00.002Z

I often begin classes by announcing that they are not democracies but dictatorships: my personal fiefdom. It's meant to be a joke (and does usually get a rather nervous laugh) but it's also a truth. What I teach is about writing as I see it. What I say goes.

The trouble is, I might be wrong.

I don't think I'm wrong for me - though I hope I'm always open to new ideas - but I'm certainly wrong for some people some of the time. For others, I'm wrong all of the time. That's just the way it is. For every writer who plans, there's another who doesn't, and another who does some of the time, and then there are those who are just muddling through writing ideas on scraps of paper. There really isn't a right, or a wrong way to write, just your way.

But there are people around for whom a totalitarian approach isn't a jokey comment at the beginning of a class. They tell you what you should do in no uncertain terms. Do this, do that - and if it doesn't work for you, then you have a problem because it works for me and I'm published and you're not.

Well, phooey.

All I - or any other writer/teacher - can do is make suggestions for things that have worked for us, and we might know have worked for others, and hope it works for you. It seems to me it's always worth having a bash and seeing what happens because it's no big deal if one method doesn't work; there's always another to try. I'm perfectly happy when a student says "I tried to to what you recommended, but it didn't work, so I followed what someone else said and that was brilliant".* I want people to enjoy their writing, and how they get there isn't about me, it's about them.

Anyway, that's enough for me for the time being. I'm taking a break over Christmas and might come back next week and finish off the alphabet, but certainly normal service will be restored after New Year. Happy Christmas everyone, and here's to a great writing year in 2012!

*Actually, not being a saint, I'm not 100% happy, it's b****y annoying and don't ever, ever do it to me - OK? Or it's time in the gulags for you.

S is for Self Promotion

2011-12-22T06:36:00.004Z

At a writers lunch this week, one of us asked if you HAD to be on Twitter, Facebook etc. The others there, including me, had all been told to Twitter etc by their publisher, but once on, enjoyed it. We all had different strategies to stop it eating into our writing time - limiting the number of people one followed, using a timer, not having writing computer linked to internet, having internet 'cut out' software, using a Facebook author page rather than a normal account for spreading the word.

The next question was: did it make a difference to sales? Again, we all agreed that it wasn't about sales so much as raising one's profile in the industry, which led to journalistic commissions and offers to speak at libraries and lit fests.

And another thing we all agreed on (it was a very harmonious lunch) was that obvious self-promotion was a turn off. We simply stopped following anyone who appeared pushy. One of us - not me BTW - had a problem with a friend of a friend who was emailing to ask her to re-tweet his posts of self-promotion. Unfollow, we all advised.

All of us had gone further and taken against authors who relentlessly promoted their books. We'd also made judgements about who we liked or didn't like on the basis of their on-line media presence. It may sound crass to base your reading choices on the personality of an author, but we'd all done it. I had been going to buy one particular novel, and then decided against it because the author seemed such an opinionated, judgmental person on-line. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but their media presence made me not buy.

As an author myself, this makes me slightly uneasy - just because someone promotes themselves well, it doesn't follow that their book will be a good read. But hey, aren't all purchases based on flimsy things like a good blurb, or personal quirks of preference. I once did a first page exercise in class using the Booker Prize short-list where several students rejected one particular book because a sailing ship was mentioned in the first paragraph and they didn't like books about the sea.

Back to the lunch. Our advice can be summarised:

1. Engage with others, and don't just be Me! Me! Me! all the time.

2. Don't expect to see direct results in terms of sales.

3. It can eat time, so you need to set up strategies to make sure it doesn't.

4. You don't have to do everything; I don't 'get' Facebook, but love Twitter, it was the opposite for one of the other writers.

5. If you're writing for children, you may have to be inventive about how they follow you - there are age restrictions on some social media networks.

6. Don't do anything you don't like, but on the other hand, don't dismiss it immediately - it takes time to settle in.

7. If you blog, update it at least once a week or don't bother at all.

8. Group blogs, where you blog once a month, are useful if you don't have much free time (or much you want to say - not my problem, ahem).

9. On Twitter, get to grips with various areas like mentions, hashtags etc. I didn't realise about the mention facility at first, and spent hours scrolling through in case I'd missed someone talking to me.

10. Have fun!

R is for Rights

2011-12-21T06:33:00.008Z

Here's a brief run down on why rights are important to authors and how the money stacks up.

You automatically have copyright on anything you write, be it your magnum opus or your shopping list. You don't have to claim or register them in any way. You wrote it, you own it. Your words could be sold in a variety of formats - hardback, paperback, audio, large print, digital, serialisation, film, condensed etc - and each of those formats could be sold to all the countries in the world.

Basically, what you are selling is the right to publish in a particular format in a particular territory for a particular period of time. Usually, so long as the book remains in print, the publisher retains the right to publish. If it falls out of print (deemed as the publisher having fewer than a certain number eg 250 copies in stock), after 6 months the author can ask for the rights back, and the publisher must hand them over.

At that point the rights could be sold again to another publisher, or the author could self-publish - there are quite a few authors with a back list of titles which have gone out of print, so the rights have reverted, who are busily putting them out as e-books.

If you are offered a deal by a Big 6 publishing house (ie the major international conglomerates such as Random House or Hachette - who own Headline, my publisher) the minimum they will ask for hardback and paperback rights in the home country. A smaller publisher may only publish in a single format, therefore they may only want the rights in that format - it used to be commonplace in the days before conglomeration for an author to have one publisher for hardback and another for paperback.

The publisher may also want the rights in other territories so, for example, USA publishers get Canada, UK gets Australia and New Zealand. I once had a deal almost founder because both my UK and my USA publishers wanted the rights to distribute the English language version in Europe. It was settled by the UK getting the EU countries, and the USA getting the non-EU countries.

If you have an agent, they usually retain the world rights in the hope that they can make deals with lots of different countries. Otherwise, you can sell the world rights to your publisher, and their rights department will do the selling in the same way an agent would. If you're selling a picture book, because of the expense of printing in full colour the publisher will expect to recoup the costs by selling around the world, and world rights usually go to the publisher as a matter of course.

Selling to a publisher in another country will mean a new contract and a new advance. The size of the advance will reflect the size of the country - Germany will pay a lot more than Norway, for example. This may not be ££££ but it all adds up.

In exactly the same way as the rights to different countries, audio and large print may be included within the publisher, or retained for sale by the agent to specialist publishers. Condensed books used to be published by Readers Digest. They printed awesome amounts of copies, and got huge discounts so the author got a few pence for each one. Book clubs were the same - high volume but at a high discount. This market used to be more important than it is now.

Nowadays, publishers are after the e rights as well. The standard deal being offered by print publishers is 25% of the royalties. A lot of authors think this is a poor percentage, given that the publishers aren't offering an advance or additional marketing for example, and the chair of the Society of Authors recently called for the % to be revised. It's worth pointing out that you don't HAVE to sell any of your rights - I've hung onto my e-rights, for various reasons. A specialist e-publisher usually gives a higher % of royalties.

Serialisation rights are relevant when the book is sold to a newspaper or magazine for them to publish extracts over several issues. It's less likely to happen with fiction, unless you are a publishing superstar. When you hear of a celebrity book being bought for £500,000 that's because the rights department of that publisher has already done a deal with a newspaper. Essentially, the newspaper is going to pay for the advance, rather than the publisher. So a celebrity book can sell only a few copies and still make money for the publisher because the advance and at least some of the publication costs have already been covered by the sale of the serialisation rights.

You can, of course, do it yourself, but it's in the rights selling that an agent earns their keep. Agents either have branches in different countries or, more usually, have agreements with agents based there. They're called co-agents. The commission is usually 20%, ie 10% for your agent, 10% for the co-agent. Quite a few agents have come from rights - my own agent, for example, used to run the rights dept of a Big 6 company. I'm pretty sure that my books are sold to so many countries (14) and in so many different formats because she's a demon at selling rights, rather than my writing having some fabulous global appeal. (I wish!)

How the money stacks up...each individual sale of rights is unlikely to be the stuff of your wildest dreams but they add up. I'm getting around £1000-2000 for most rights sales in different formats and the smaller countries, much more for the larger countries, and there is always the potential for royalties on top of the advance for each sale. It's very nice getting an unexpected royalty cheque from audio sales or Brazil, for example. The most rights sales I've had from a book is over 20 (doing a quick count in my head), the fewest about 5 - and that's all on top of my original advance from my publisher.

When you consider the potential for income within rights sales, it becomes clearer why most conventionally published authors are a bit arms length re e-publishing. An author's income isn't just about the basic deal, it's also about the sales of subsidiary rights. Include those in the equation and e-publishing doesn't look quite so wonderful in terms of income generation because it is only one format. I'm a teeny fish in the publishing pond - consider the subsidiary rights deals some of the big fish are getting...

Sorry, this has ended up as a long post, and I've still only touched the surface. I could have included a rant about Google misappropriating authors' rights, and it's worrying that so many people seem to think that authors only want to be read and don't want to be paid for their work and therefore won't mind when they help themselves to it (what authors usually call stealing).

The chances are you won't need to know much more about rights because your agent will do it all for you. But if you don't have an agent and you get offered a deal, read the small print carefully. The Society of Authors will check contracts, and that alone is worth the membership fee - and a whole lot cheaper than getting a lawyer to do it, plus their rights department has all the expertise.

Know what you are selling and don't passively hope it will turn out OK because you might not be doing yourself any favours. Don't forget - you have rights! Sell them, or hang on to them, the choice is yours.

Q is for Quest

2011-12-20T06:44:00.003Z

The Writer's Quest (by way of The Hero's Journey)

Act I

1. Ordinary World - Limited awareness of problem

The writer decides to finally write that novel they've been meaning to do for ages. It can't be that difficult - after all, 1000s of books get published every year.

2. Call to Adventure - Increased awareness

"This isn't quite as easy as I thought," the writer realises, as yet another week goes by without much progress being made on the novel. They start to read published novels with a sneaking sense of envy - what have they got that made them worth publishing? How did that author make it to The End?

3. Refusal of the Call - Reluctance to change

The novel is finished, and it's perfect. It is - and there can be no doubt about this at all - the most wonderful and incredible book in the history of the universe. A quick scan using Spellcheck, and it's ready to send out.

4. Meeting the Mentor - Overcoming reluctance

The novel is rejected by every agent and publisher in The Writers and Artists Yearbook. The writer finally signs up for a writing group and gets feedback on their magnum opus. Some of it's good, some of it's not but no one seems to think this is the most wonderful and incredible book in the history of the universe. This is a surprise. The writer stomps home where another rejection letter is waiting for them.

5. Crossing the First Threshold - Committing to change

The writer turns up at the writing group again. Perhaps they do have something to say worth listening to.

Act II

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies - Experimenting with first change

Some people in the writing group exclaim at how wonderful and unimprovable the novel is, others are more critical. The writer learns to give feedback and understand about things like POV and head-hopping, over use of adjectives, character consistency. Gradually it dawns on the writer that some of those problems might be in their novel too. They start to listen to the more critical members of the group a bit more.

7. Approach to the Innermost Cave - Preparing for big change

They get some external feedback from a book doctor. It suggests making various changes, most of which are obviously stupid. They re-read those rejection letters. Perhaps their novel isn't as perfect as they thought...perhaps there was a reason why all those agents and publishers rejected it...They re-read the book doctor's feedback - it's still wrong, but they start to think about what 'wrong' means and what 'right' might look like.

8. Ordeal/Crisis - Attempting big change

One evening the writer decides to lose 3 sub-plots, and half a dozen characters. It's not what the book doctor suggested but it feels 'right', even though it means cutting 50% of the novel. They do it.

9. Reward - Consequences of the attempt

The writing is flowing better now, the writer feels in command of the story line and characters. They ruthlessly cut anything that doesn't fit in with the overall story, however much they think it was brilliant writing. 90% has gone from the original version, but they don't care.

Act III

10. The Road Back - Rededication to change

The writer joins writing associations, goes to writing conferences and talks, reads everything they can about writing, learns about the submissions process, makes contacts. They realise that publishing is a big business which has to be taken seriously. They now see themselves as professional, and cringe at their early amateurish attitude. All the time they are rewriting the novel, polishing it, leaving nothing that needs fixing.

11. Resurrection (Climax) - Final attempt at big change

The writer selects a short list of 6 agents to send the new ms out to. They polish the covering letter and synopsis, tighten up every phrase in the first three chapters, then put the submissions package in the post and cross their fingers...

12. Return with the Elixir - Final mastery of the problem

Two days later they get a phone call. 'I've read your novel. I'd like to represent you...' They sign with an agent. A publishing deal follows. They see their novel in the bookshops. They have become a published author. Life - ordinary life - doesn't change much. They make a living from their writing, but still live in the same house, still have the same routines. But they've learned so much more than they did at the start of the quest, about publishing, about writing and about themselves.

(Based on a true story...)

P is for Perfection

2011-12-19T06:51:00.000Z

Perhaps, somewhere out there is a perfect manuscript. If you ever see it, do let me know because, as far as I'm concerned, there is NO SUCH THING. Yes, there are books we love to bits and can read and re-read with as much pleasure every time, books that make vivid pictures and create characters we believe are real, but perfect? No.

Reading is so personal that there can never be a perfect book for all readers: what I love, you may think is so-so, and your friend may not bother to finish. This may seem obvious as a reader - you probably have direct experience of reading a book that a friend has raved about and wondering why. It might seem so obvious that you may be wondering why I'm bothering to write about perfection.

The trouble with the idea of perfection is that it can be crippling to writers. First, it makes it harder to begin writing. The book in your head is so perfect, it can come as a shock to discover it doesn't turn up as perfectly formed on the page. It can also be crippling to discover that, if you manage to get something written, not everybody else thinks it's as wonderful as you do.

Perfectionism stops you getting work finished, because then you have to DO something with it - and risk it being rejected. So much easier to say you're still working on your ms, getting it perfect...

Here's my cure for perfectionism:

1. Join as many critique groups as possible and submit work. The sooner you stop being fussed by feedback (good, bad or indifferent), the sooner you'll get over the perfectionism issue.

2. Join a book group or ask some friends for their opinions on books you love. Take on board that not all books please everyone.

3. Write for your own pleasure, and not for any other reason. That way you can't fail - if you like it, that's all that's needed - other people liking your writing too is a bonus.

4. Join a writing class which does exercises. Approach them in a playful spirit - it's only an exercise after all. Some you'll get 'right', others won't work for you, but that's not the point.

5. Work out if your inner editor has a face and/or name. A lot of writers are nervous around writing because of a negative experience with a parent or teacher in their childhood. If that's you, develop a method of telling your inner editor to shut up and go away - quite a few people find that simply saying 'shut up' is enough.

6. I hereby give you permission to write rubbish. In fact, I think it's compulsory. Think of it as creating the raw material for the piece you're working on, like a sculptor kneading the clay and making the maquette for the final bronze sculpture or an artist making preliminary sketches. If you're in any doubt along the way, tell yourself that it was good enough for Raphael and his cartoons: it's good enough for you.

7. Never go back until you've written The End. This is nigh impossible for former teachers, especially English teachers, who have the impulse to mark all work with a red pen, including their own. It must be resisted.

8. Remember that nothing good was created without the risk of failure or making a fool of yourself.

Finally, remember that in many areas such as recording music and typography, perfection can be achieved because of computers and digital methods. But us humans aren't perfect, and we don't like the chilly coldness of perfection. We prefer the warmth of fuzzy edges, and designers and musicians are now finding ways of putting imperfection back into perfection.

Truth is, perfection is boring. So throw caution to the wind and write your ms with all the imperfect heart you can muster. It'll be so much better for it.

O is for Ordinary

2011-12-16T06:28:00.002Z

When writing it's important to establish what the ordinary world is for your characters before changing their lives and so developing the story. Without ordinary world, we don't know what's at stake. It could be a good situation - a happy family, for example - or it could be a bad situation - people living under an oppressive state system - or simply a rather, erm, ordinary one - ordinary life as most of us know it.

It doesn't matter what your setting is, past, present or future, write what your characters consider to be every day life. Set up a happy family, and we'll care when something happens that threatens is. Set up an oppressive state system, and we'll care when the main character challenges it. Set up an ordinary life, and we'll care when it becomes extraordinary.

A bit like Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi intoning about there being a disturbance in the force, stories shift from the status quo, have some disturbance before settling back into a new status quo (which may be only subtly different from the old status quo, but it will be different).

The instruction to start in the middle of the action is misleading. Yes, stuff needs to happen, but it only has meaning if we know a bit about the people it is happening to.

In retrospect, I should have started A Single to Rome with Natalie coming home with the takeaway, a happy young woman with a successful career and a settled relationship, thinking about moving in with Michael without any hint that he might not welcome her. That way I'd have a) established Natalie as an essentially happy person and b) what she was about to lose. Instead, by starting with Michael dropping his bombshell that he needs space, Natalie was seen from the beginning as a miserable person who, for all we knew, deserved to be dumped.

Hey ho, we live and learn. I won't be making that mistake again - and nor should you after reading this!

N is for Names

2011-12-15T06:09:00.006Z

Imagine a character called Doris. How old is she? What's her background? What clothes is she wearing? What are her shoes like? Where does she live?

Imagine a character called Bert. How old is he? What's his background? What clothes is he wearing? What are his shoes like? What is his relationship to Doris?

The chances are that you saw Doris and Bert as being elderly and not particularly well off (that's unless you live in Germany, where Doris is a much more up-market, younger name). They could be married to each other, or might be brother and sister. They live perhaps in council housing - they've certainly lived there for some time. Their clothes are conventional, sensible in colours like blue and grey. Doris might fancy wearing an orange scarf from time to time, but doesn't...

Names can be used as shorthand to signal things to the reader, such as age, class, nationality, education levels etc. You might want to play against that - a giant of a man known as Titch, for example - but you can go too far playing against type: if I read about this hairy hulking bloke called Rupert, I'd never be able to reconcile the conflicting images that are conjured up. My mind would snag on Rupert's name each time.

I'd also be wary of any name that was difficult to pronounce. I occasionally get to read student work featuring characters called things like Lan'Bxort. Again, my mind snags on that each time I read it. Another character whose name snags is Sir Leigh Teabing, chief baddie of The Da Vinci Code. Teabing? Who on earth is called Teabing? (It is, of course, an anagram of Baigent and Leigh, who wrote Holy Blood, Holy Grail and sued Dan Brown for plagiarism.) It's not unusual to hear people say that they find Russian novels hard because characters are called so many different names, depending on who they are with.

Watch out for characters with similar names - Ron, Dan, Don etc - which potentially could confuse a reader. I have a particular propensity for this and have to be ruthless at checking having gone in for Pat and Patrick in the same draft, along with George, John, Jenny, June and Justine. Now, when I've finished a novel, I write out an alphabet and put down each character's name beside the appropriate letter, starting with the main characters and working my way through to the minor ones. This ensures that no two characters have similar names. It also means that minor characters get randomly assigned names that I don't remember - at an event this summer, someone asked me about a character called Crystal and I hadn't a clue who they meant.

For practical reasons, I'd also suggest avoiding long names (a bore to keep typing out - though useful if you're running short on the word count and have a character called Mary Jo Barlow Smythe) and names ending with S, because they can get tiresome when you have to add a possessive apostrophe, or pluralise them - the Davises stole Cerys's hat.

Some writers make the names a particular feature. JK Rowling does brilliant character names, such as Rita Skeeter for the dodgy journalist, Gilderoy Lockhart for the self-admiring teacher, Crabbe and Goyle for the schoolboy thugs. Scarlett O'Hara, from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, sounds both feisty and special from the start, in a way that Pansy O'Hara - her original name - would not have. And of course, Dickens was famous for his names, from Sir Leicester and Honoria Dedlock to Uriah Heep and Wackford Squeers.

But it depends on your writing, and your writing style which names you choose. In general, make them character appropriate and easy to write and say.

M is for Moving

2011-12-14T06:54:00.001Z

It's high praise when someone says a book moved them to tears. But what, exactly, is it that makes us cry? It isn't just a sad situation.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, for example, is about people in a very sad situation, and yet it left me cold. I was furious at the father's fecklessness at drinking away any money he got instead of spending it on feeding and clothing his children, appalled at the pious self-righteousness of the Church, and irritated by the spinelessness of the mother.

You need four elements for people to feel moved.

1. A sense of the struggle.

If everything falls into your characters' laps, tiddley pom, without them having to make any effort for it, then I'm afraid most readers will switch off fast. A character who struggles and is then rewarded, however, we engage with. The bigger the struggle, the bigger the problems, the more we engage, and the more we feel moved when they finally achieve their goals. (BTW big, in this context, means something that matters to the character big time. It doesn't necessarily mean 'big' by any other standards.)

2. The darkest moment

The struggle will be highlighted if it looks as if the character is going to lose whatever it is they are fighting for. I'm not a fan of the Hero's Journey formula when it comes to being a useful tool for actually writing a novel, but it does remind us of important features such as the darkest hour, when the character hits rock bottom. Seeing them struggle out from the pit gives us readers hope that we too will be able to get out of our own darkest moments. That's why happy endings often have us crying away.

3. Character identification

Characters need to be like the readers in some ways. They need their good and bad points. If they live in places that are far from the reader's experience (the past, the future, another planet...) then their humanity mustn't be forgotten (even if they're actually aliens).

4. Specific characteristics

Certain things are guaranteed tear jerkers....

Triumph over disaster

Self sacrifice

Bravery

Endurance

Loyalty

Examples for me include A Tale of Two Cities, The Incredible Journey, Children on the Oregon Trail, I Am David, Lord of the Rings among many others. Films are too numerous to mention, but perhaps a less obvious one is An Officer and A Gentleman, in the bit when he gives up his chance of winning the top prize (self sacrifice) to enable his class mate to succeed (loyalty). And of course the end scene - endurance, love conquers all, triumph over disaster and virtue rewarded.

And the film that inspired me to write this blog, about the rescue of the Bonita by the RNLI 30 years ago. Astounding bravery, endurance, self-sacrifice and triumph over disaster - please watch.

L is for Lycanthropy

2011-12-13T06:49:00.001Z

Every other book that gets published seems to be about wolves. Or fairies, vampires, trolls, dragons, angels, ghosts... Sometimes I feel very dull for sticking to relationships between ordinary humans.

Relationship novels are also taking a hit, apparently, with sales dropping dramatically recently so sometimes I feel very stupid for sticking to writing about relationships.

Dull and stupid, yup, that's me.

If I was really clever I'd be writing about - well, obviously anything that I'm not writing about at the moment. There seems to be a flurry about the Holy Grail/Mary Magdalene/Freemasonry every ten years or so, so I'm sure that the fashion is about to come round again. Werewolves who are freemasons? That can only be killed with splinters from the True Cross piercing their heart? That sounds quite cool.

Truth is, I write about relationships because they interest me. I don't write about werewolves because they don't. If my genre goes out of fashion - and there's no special reason why my genre should be an exception - then I have to adapt to that and write to my other interests.

What I can't do, and shouldn't do, is write because I think something is currently fashionable. That would be daft. Firstly, my heart wouldn't be in it, so the writing wouldn't work. Faking it makes for awkward, poor quality writing.

Secondly, if I started to write a novel now, I wouldn't get it done for 6-12 months. Getting a deal in a new genre might take another 6 months. Then getting the book onto the shelves would be at least a year. Okay, if I went for e-publishing the lead times would drop, but there's still the time taken for me to write the novel and by that time the fashion would have moved on.

Thirdly, I believe that while fashions come and go, people will always want to read about other people. I think relationship novels will be around for ever, even though they may not be packaged by publishers as such. And if I plod away with my books, with luck I'll still be there when the fashion comes round again. L may be for Lycanthropy, but it's also for Longevity.

K is for Keeping the Faith

2011-12-12T06:05:00.000Z

I heard a few weeks ago that a writer friend, Liz Harris, has had her novel accepted. I emailed my congratulations, and she wrote back, including this phrase:

"It's very strange what an acceptance can do. I've been writing for seven years, and the day before I heard from Choc Lit, it felt all of that seven years; the day after, it feels like only a day."

I'm thrilled for Liz, whose novel will be coming out in 2012. Also out in 2012 will be another writing friend's book, a memoir this time. I met her on my MA course back in 2001. She's waited ten years to get that deal.

To be an over-night success usually means years of toiling away at your craft or business. When I was acting, you knew that the very next casting might mean an instant change - it happened to me when one Monday I hadn't heard of Only Fools and Horses, by Tuesday I was auditioning for the role of Rodney's girlfriend, on Thursday I had the part, on Friday I was in wardrobe for a photo shoot, and the following Monday I was on set.

Writing's the same. One day you're unpublished, the next day someone has offered you a deal. Hooray! But when we hear of the success stories, we forget all those years that the writer has quietly kept the faith with their creativity, working at their craft, improving, learning to write better.

Keeping the faith is hard, especially as family, friends and work colleagues often don't understand. It's easier if you can be part of a community - I know Liz through the Romantic Novelists Association, which is very supportive and welcoming to new writers. Read books, join classes, subscribe to writing magazines - anything that keeps you connected to writing will help you keep the faith.

J is for Jargon

2011-12-09T06:22:00.001Z

I'm a writer. I talk about things like POV all the time, I know what an ISBN is, and the difference between verso and recto. They're all bits of my writer-ish jargon. Most professions have their own language, complete with acronyms and the like. Put the right bits of jargon in the right character's mouth, and you've instantly added to their characterisation. Someone who tells you that they're outcome-driven is telling you a lot about themselves (or opening the kimono).

(I've always wanted to write a character who uses lots of business/office jargon and have a book called Ducks in a Row: An A- Z of Offlish by Carl Newbrook (Offlish being jargon for Office English) which yields all manner of goodies from Blue sky thinking to Running a flag up the pole. The nearest I've come to it was Marcus in Kissing Mr Wrong. It was a small moment of personal triumph to get 'athermal birefringent filters' into the text.)

The trouble with jargon is when it becomes incomprehensible to outsiders. I haven't a clue what 'athermal birefringent filters' are, but nor does viewpoint character Lu and it's not important to understanding the text. There's nothing more frustrating than being deep in a story and then getting dragged out by not understanding a particular word. Jactitation is a great word, but I don't imagine many people know what it means (restless tossing in illness, twitching or convulsion) let alone a jactitation of marriage (the pretence of being married to another). Every time the reader goes out of a story, you potentially lose them.

Foreign language is another form of jargon. All jargon potentially excludes readers, but using foreign words potentially alienates them. Your French/Greek/Latin/whatever may be fluent, but mine certainly isn't and I hate reading bits of foreign language in a novel which I don't understand. Providing a direct translation is convenient, but breaks the illusion that the novel is real life. Make the meaning of your foreign words clear from the context. These are from A Single to Rome.

'Buon appetito,' she murmured as she put a plate down in front of Natalie.

'Ciao, Natalie, come stai?' It was Teresa.

'Va bene,' Natalie said, pleased to have at least mastered the polite exchange of greetings in Italian, but then had to lapse into English.

Alternatively, have your characters translate for each other (and the reader).

'I used to be a lawyer,' Natalie said.

Bettina looked puzzled. 'Avvocato,' Claudio chipped in, handing out drinks.

Later on, I used the word avvocato without translation, hoping that it's stuck in the reader's mind.

Finally, don't forget that using jargon isn't rocket science.

I is for Italics

2011-12-08T06:18:00.003Z

There are several reasons why you might use italics....

1. To indicate a foreign word or phrase:

'I'm fed up with the lot of you. Basta!' Silvio said.

2. To indicate the title of a book or film:

'Have you read A Farewell to Arms?' Catherine asked Edward. 'I hear it's good.'

3. To show the intended stress:

'I thought it was you,' Tiffany shouted at Roland, indicating the car crash.

One to use rarely - it should be clear from the context where the stress should be.

4. To show a different form within the prose, eg a letter.

She took out her notebook and started to write.

Pool - bridge over? Or stepping stones? Rocks - check cleft. Pilgrim's Progress? Date? Reference? Seven steps down. Significant?

She sucked on her pen, trying to think what it reminded her of.

5. To show interior thought:

Everything desirable for men seemed related to size. Bigger car engine, bigger skyscraper, bigger boobs. She looked down at her own. Perhaps I should get a Wonderbra.

'Would you -' She caught her breath. Go on, say it. 'Would you like to come in? For coffee?'

BUT....both the above quotes were taken from the US edition of Nice Girls Do. Italics are liberally scattered throughout the book, none of which I put there, and none of which are present in the UK edition. I checked out a couple of the other foreign editions of NGD and didn't see much presence of italics. Different countries, different styles.

If you're working for a specific publisher they may provide you with a house style sheet to follow. If you're writing on spec, then read some books in the genre and try to get a feel for when/how much they use italics.

PS I was going to write about I for Imagination, but I couldn't think of anything to say.

H is for Heartfelt

2011-12-07T06:00:00.002Z

The thing is, every plot you can think of has already been done. There are various theories about the number of plots there are - depending on who you read there are 27, 12, 7 or 2. Shakespeare is credited with creating several of them, but given part of his genius was taking stories that were current and making them entirely his own, I'd take that with a pinch of salt.

So you can't write an original plot. You can't write original characters - someone else has already been there. Recognise any of these embarrassing things?

- A man whom one loves gets drunk and keep repeating himself.

- Parents, convinced that their ugly child is adorable, pet him and repeat the things he has said, imitating his voice.

- In the presence of a skilled musician, someone plays a zither just for his own pleasure and without tuning it.

- A man recites his own poems (not especially good ones) and tells one about the praise they have received.

- To have spoken about someone not knowing that he could overhear.

They're all taken from The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, written over 1000 years ago in the court of the Heian dynasty in 10th century Japan. It's about as far away from us as it's possible to be, but we recognise it. There are no new characters, no new observations.

But. Yesterday I wrote: No one else can write a Sarah Duncan novel. What you can do that is new and fresh is write your take on the world. No one will have ever done that before. Write with authenticity and your writing will be unique. Write from the heart - it's the only way.

G is for Generosity

2011-12-06T06:33:00.002Z

One of my favourite quotes comes from Peggy Ramsay, legendary theatrical agent for - among many other playwrights - Joe Orton and Harold Pinter. She said,

"If you believe you have talent, be generous with it."

I like that quote. I believe I have talent, and I try to be generous with it. Instead of anally hanging on to work that's below par I believe that I not only can do better, I will do better. Cut cut cut. And then I re-write, and the re-write is always better. Being generous with your writing works.

I'm generous with myself, and don't beat myself up if I have a day when I'm not working. I allow time to recharge the batteries. I'd rather have a novel that took a long time but was as good as I could make it, than churning out one just because I knew it would be accepted for publication at something less than my personal standard. It has to be said that this isn't a good policy with publishers, who would like authors to produce novels to a regular schedule, but I believe that in the long term quality will win over quantity.

I also try to be generous with other writers. Quite a few people have expressed amazement that I give away the information in the blog for free. I accept that it may be total madness in this money grabbing world of ours, but there it is. And I try to be generous with helping others on the path to publication. The only time I've had a real fight with another writer was when one took me to task for helping more writers get published - increasing the competition, she called it. Grrr. How can it possibly increase my competition? No one else in the world can write a Sarah Duncan novel.

I don't believe I have limitless talent - if anything, I'm afraid that my talent is a small and rather weedy thing - but I do believe that it is there. So I try to be generous with it, to my writing, to myself, to others. After all, if it's good enough for Pinter, it's good enough for me.

F is for Funerals

2011-12-05T06:11:00.002Z

A funeral appears to be a great way to start a novel. You gather all the main characters together at a time of emotional stress so confrontation and conflict are inherently likely. A death is the end of one life, but it's also the start of a new life for those who remain - what could be better for your novel than to explore the repercussions of loss? And then there's drama in the burning question of who inherits the money, and potential for discovering information about the one who has gone. Yes, on the surface, a funeral seems a great way to start.

But it isn't.

A funeral is by its nature a reactive scene. The action - the death - has happened off stage. And because we don't know any of the mourners, we don't really care about their reactions. The grieving widow, the bereft daughter, the relieved son, the grasping nephew...we don't know them so their reactions are a matter of indifference to us.

You can tell us what a great guy the deceased was or what a tyrant, and we're not that interested - they're dead, so we're not going to get to meet them further. Now, it may be that in your careful plan, the deceased IS going to play a major part, but I'm talking about the reader's experience. At the beginning they don't know that because they haven't yet read the rest of your story. They are reacting to what they're reading now without the benefit of being the writer with it all planned out.

Funerals are all about something that has gone. Even the future is framed by the past eg how will I manage without X? The reader wants a promise of what's going to happen in the rest of the novel. They don't want to hang around waiting for the story to start. If you're writing for film or television, you have a small window of opportunity while the viewer decides if they're going to carry on watching (no one walks out of the cinema in the first two minutes, so you've got up to ten minutes to hook them).

But it's different for books. The first thing the reader looks at before parting with their cash and time is the beginning, whether that's in the bookshop or as a downloaded sample. They won't buy if the opening doesn't grab them and funerals, as reactive, not active, scenes don't.

Plus, a lot of people read for entertainment and don't want to read about death and grief. Your novel actually may be a rip roaring romp, but the reader won't know that when they start reading, unless they've been given the book by a friend who gives a quick resume, or have read a lot of positive reviews saying that.

Other bad starts include having the main character waking up or staring at themselves in the mirror thinking about the night before (that's reactive - start with the night before, make it active), and characters setting off on journeys (you're going to have to explain why they go which makes it reactive, so start at the moment when they decide to go, which is active).

There are of course exceptions, and I'm probably going to be deluged with titles of good books that start with funerals. But I'm going to suggest that they work because the funeral itself isn't that important to the characters and the characters aren't reactive, they're active eg they're a gate-crasher or the detective investigating the death. So, Holly Martins turns up at Harry Lime's funeral in The Third Man, because he came to Vienna hoping Harry was going to give him a job. He has to be active, because the job isn't there and then things don't seem to be straight forward about Harry's death and - am I the only one humming the theme tune?

(Cue zither music....)

E is for Effective

2011-12-02T06:26:00.002Z

There's no such thing as bad writing, or good writing for that matter. There is only effective writing. That's why feedback is so important. You may intend one effect, but you produce another. If you write something that you intend to be funny, and everyone thinks it's sad, then your writing isn't effective. If you read some porn and there's a stirring in your loins, then the writing is effective.

A writer such as Dan Brown is effective for people (and there are many of them) who want lots of action and aren't too bothered by characterisation or style. I like to get involved with characters, so I'm not keen on his work, but I can't deny that it's effective.

I think we can best produce effective writing by knowing what effect we're looking for. I know that sounds like stating the obvious, but not many people think about it when they start to write. Now, it's not helpful to be too self consciously striving for effects when you're writing, certainly not for the first draft.

But as part of the editing process you probably ought to spend at least a little time on thinking who your audience is going to be, what effect you want to have on them, and how you can achieve or heighten those effects. So, in my genre, while I hope people enjoy reading the plots and I hope they like the added layers of history, art knowledge or location that I usually put in, I know that most will be reading for the central relationship and how it develops. I need to make this relationship as effective as possible for the reader.

If I were writing historicals, I'd be focussing in on the period detail. If I were writing crime, I'd focus on the violence/repercussions of violence. If I were writing a detective story, I'd focus on the mystery element, and so on.

Having focussed in on my area, I'm looking for ways to heighten the reader response. For me that means putting believable obstacles in the way of my central relationship, and working through the characters' emotional responses in some detail. That would be quite out of place in a crime novel.

And finally, part of being effective is realising that you can't be everything to everyone. There are cross-over novels, but there are many, many more which are aimed at a single audience. Be as effective as possible within your kind of writing and you won't go far wrong.

D is for Dialogue

2011-12-01T06:43:00.002Z

There are 3 aspects of dialogue to consider: technicalities, what is said (and what isn't) and what surrounds the speaking ie the context.

1. Technicalities:

Dialogue attributions.

He said, she said are always preferable - we hardly notice them when we're reading. The other attributions that work are related to volume eg he whispered, she shouted. Ditch all the others - people can't smile speech, or giggle it, and it should be clear from the words spoken and the context whether someone is for example answering, or replying or asking etc. (This is contrary to what you're taught in primary school BTW.)

Fashion.

'Right now,' she said, 'using "she said" is preferable to "said she".' Too many "said she" in your text will give you an old fashioned feeling.

Another fashion is in the use of quotation marks. Current UK practice is single quotes for speech, with quotes within speech given a double quotation mark.

Punctuation.

'It's got to be like this,' she said. 'Start with a quotation mark and a capital letter, finish with either a comma, full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark followed by a closing quotation mark.'

If it's a full stop, then there shouldn't be a "she said" afterwards, as you're starting a new sentence. You can, however, have a new sentence that is: She smiled.

If it's a comma, then you haven't yet finished the sentence. You need to put a 'she said' afterwards.

If it's a question mark or an exclamation mark then you can treat them as either a comma or a full stop - in other words, they don't need a 'she said' afterwards, but you can put one in.

Paragraphs

A bit of speech from a new or different character always starts on a new paragraph. If it's the same character speaking then you can continue the same paragraph.

If in doubt, get a good book on grammar. I like The Elements of Style by Strunk and White for this sort of thing, but there are lots around.

2. What is said (or not)

Good dialogue can do things such as pass on information, but it should always be characterised for the speaker. I did an exercise in class a few weeks back where I took an extract from a book and cut it into speech and actions. The students knew nothing of the characters, beyond there being two of them. They had to put the dialogue into the right order and tell me about the characters. I was impressed that everyone managed to do this and get the characterisation right, just from a few lines. They also managed to guess the relationship between the characters. That's good writing.

Sub-text

What isn't said is as important as what is said. People rarely answer questions directly:

'Did you sleep with Jack?'

'Who said I did?' or 'Why would you think that?' or 'Don't be ridiculous' are all more likely answers than a straightforward Yes or No.

Well, do you think they slept with Jack? If so, you've been reading the subtext that says answering a question with a question or an accusation would imply a positive answer.

Try this one:

'How much did that dress cost?'

Which is/are the most likely answer(s), and fill in your own subtext...

'Oh this old thing, I've had it for years.'

'It was in the sale.'

'Isn't it great - I'm going to wear it to the Christmas party.'

'It was quite expensive, but I'm going to get lots of wear from it.'

'£149.99.'

3. What surrounds the speaking

I think the actions that surround the speaking are actually more important than the speech itself. Consider -

She threw the coffee cup across the room. 'I hate you,' she said.

She twined her fingers in his hair, and breathed softly into his ear. 'I hate you,' she said.

The actions tell us about the intonation and intention behind the words more clearly than the words themselves do, even with the addition of some adverbs.

'I hate you,' she said angrily.

'I hate you,' she said seductively.

Actions can also be used to provide thinking space, to allow the character a change in thought direction. 'Let's go into town,' she said. She looked around at the bodies slumped in front of the television set. 'You're all losers.'

So those are the basic areas to consider when writing dialogue. Listen to people in real life, hear your characters speak, and you won't go far wrong.

C is for Craft

2011-11-30T06:50:00.002Z

Mozart was a genius. His talent flowed without apparent effort. But Mozart had to learn his craft before he started composing. Same with writing, but the road to creative writing craft is less clear cut than learning scales and arpeggios.

Now, you don't have to have creative writing tuition or read shedloads of How To books to learn craft, and there are plenty of people out there who have successful writing careers without a single bit of formal teaching. What those people do is what writers have done over the past hundreds of years: read.

Most writers (all writers?) are fervent readers. Read, read, read and unconsciously you pick up a lot of craft techniques. There are other ways of learning craft techniques. Most writers (all writers?) are listeners and eavesdroppers. Most writers (all writers?) are curious about people and the world around them. Most writers (all writers?) are communicators - that's why so many have early careers in professions like acting, teaching, journalism.

For some writers, reading, listening, communicating etc is enough. For others, formally learning craft - whether from a book or a teacher - is a short cut. By craft I mean techniques such as:

Chapter ends and pacing, to control the reader experience.

Ways to heighten tension eg sentence/chapter length, action

Using action to enliven essentially passive description

Dialogue as a tool to convey character and characterisation

Language to add interest and colour to prose

Editing skills

Reading aloud to learn about rhythm and cadence

Knowing when to dramatise and when to summarise

Find yourself a teacher who can and will teach craft (not all creative writing teachers can or do). Failing that, read some books. My favourite book on craft technique is Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. Flair, talent, the stuff that Mozart was made of is something else. You get born with that. But we can all learn craft and, while we may not all be Mozarts (I'm certainly not) we can all be damn fine writers.

B is for Baggage

2011-11-29T06:27:00.001Z

We've all got it, even if we think we don't. Baggage is the mind set we carry around with us, also known as hang-ups. Sometimes it's good - an innate confidence for example that makes us persist in the face of rejection. Sometimes it's not as beneficial - an innate confidence that makes us reject any feedback from others.

I think writers benefit from acknowledging their baggage and learning when it's useful and when it's detrimental and how to maximise the former and minimise the latter.

My baggage:

I tend to stick with what I know and have to push myself out of my comfort zone. When I'm writing I have to stop myself from trotting out the same situations/locations. Now I often leave out those details on the first draft so I can spend some time thinking up different set ups from my first reactions. When I'm teaching I often get the students to come up with words, or situations rather than coming with them pre-supplied. I'm always surprised at the range of what they suggest.

I was brought up with the idea that pushing yourself forward was bad. I don't like self-promotion, either doing it myself or hearing it from others. I vaguely hope that by being as good as you can be, somehow the magic universe will notice you. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a believer in self deprecation and not shoving oneself to the front, but I've also learned that the magic universe doesn't automatically notice you. You HAVE to get your work (and often, yourself) out there. If this doesn't come naturally to you, you need to find ways to get round it. I like chatting, so Twitter suits me, especially as overt self-promotion will lose followers. I don't like parties and schmoozing so I avoid those situations even though networking is good for careers.

Confidence, lack of. And the flip side of this is being overly impressed (and then depressed) by other people's achievements. Letting what other people achieve affect you is daft, but it's an easy trap to fall into. When I was doing my MA there was one person who became obsessed by other students' marks. It visibly corroded her belief in herself and her writing as she grumbled and complained about X getting a higher mark for their writing than she had done. I could suffer from this...instead I mentally stick my fingers in my ears and sing La La La when someone has just got some mega deal or sold shedloads in Tesco. It's irrational - just because X has succeeded doesn't mean I won't, so there's no reason to skulk back to my laptop thinking 'what's the point in carrying on?'

This post could go on and on and on, but I'd better stop for fear of boring you - which of course is yet another bit of my baggage...

A is for Action

2011-11-28T06:39:00.002Z

Action is everything for a writer, both in terms of their writing and in what they do. Action in writing is simply the stuff that happens - it's not necessarily all singing, all exploding, car chases, fights and the like, it can be interior stuff such as realisations or changes in attitude, as well as external actions like going shopping or meeting a friend.

The sort of action you find in a novel determines the type of novel it is. Something by Anita Brookner, for example, has very different actions compared to a novel by Dan Brown, but both are full of actions.

But action in itself doesn't make for interesting reading. It has to be action with meaning, action that carries change with it. When you're starting out writing it's often easy to forget this aspect of action. Characters may be doing lots of things, but they can be staying in the same place, whether it's on a action filled journey that is just one event after another, never moving the story forwards, or a character hanging about thinking things over but never moving on.

I think it's also one of the reasons people get stuck at about 30,000 words. The initial burst of energy gets them quite a long way along, but then the action begins to dry up. Characters and the writing get stuck. The solution is to move the action along through change. Raymond Chandler is supposed to have suggested having a dame enter holding a smoking gun, Terry Pratchett suggests a naked woman bursting in brandishing a flaming sword. Not necessarily advice to be taken literally (especially if you're writing a contemporary rom com) but the point is to change the situation dramatically.

Action is also important in a writer's life. If you don't DO stuff, then nothing will happen. Doing means writing, then putting the writing out there (if being read by others is what you want). Even if you're famous you've got to make some effort (a celebrity once came to one of my novel writing classes, complete with an agent and a publisher, but was stuck at doing the writing - several years later, there's still no sign of a novel).

Do it, without fretting too much about the end result. Do it, get it done, and then fret - but do it first. As Goethe said, 'Action has magic and power in it.'

Really, Really Wanting It

2011-11-25T06:34:00.002Z

I find it worrying how many times you hear on reality talent programmes how the contestants really want it, it being whatever the prize is. They really, really want it. Really, really, really want it. You see this on X Factor and America's Next Top Model and - oh, anything that involves a judge deciding who to pick and who to drop. Sometimes the judge even says approvingly, 'A really wants it'.

I must admit my reaction is 'So what?' Sure, if A really wants to win, they'll perhaps work harder, spend more time on whatever it is they're trying to achieve, and that's good, but just wanting it? Is that supposed to out-weigh talent, and ability and skill?

I worry that 'wanting it' leads to a feeling of entitlement. 'This is what I want (and I really, really want it), therefore I should have it.' If you want to be a singer or a model then you're not going to get far without the support of people already working in the industry. Really wanting it, in real life, doesn't get you far unless you also have talent, ability, skill, persistence etc.

Until recently, that's been true for writing. You write a novel and yes, you've always been able to self-publish, but before e-publishing finances dictated small print runs and limited access to distribution networks. Now, e-publishing has taken those barriers away, and for good measure, Amazon and the rest will deal with all your invoicing and payments. All you have to do is the formatting, marketing and spending the money received.

I think e-publishing is great. I think it's creating opportunities for writers (although there are also some worrying signs that it could be financially disastrous long term).

But I do worry that feelings of entitlement might lead writers rushing in to self-publish before their books are ready on the grounds that they want publication now. Just because you feel ready, just because you want it really really badly, doesn't mean you are in fact ready for publication.

When I started writing fiction I had no idea of the amount of work that went into bringing a short story, let alone a novel, up to scratch. And I'd spent the previous ten years writing and editing non-fiction for my living. I was genuinely surprised that my short stories didn't automatically get short listed for every competition they went up for. Gradually I learned...

But I was still convinced that the first version of Adultery for Beginners was amazing, and was equally amazed that no one wanted it. No one even asked to read more. After a long period of sulking, I re-wrote and ended up cutting 90%. Yup, that's how good that first version was.

I've heard that feeling repeated by other authors. They look at their first writing (often because they're thinking of e-publishing earlier works which are now out of print) which at the time they thought was brilliant and shudder.

Self-publishing blogs you can read comments like: I'm going to e-publish when I'm finished because I don't want to go through the hassle of submitting, or I don't like people commenting on my work, or I can't be bothered with rewriting it. And the response is sometimes things like: good for you, and go for it, and conventional publishing is dead. Luckily there are also people who comment saying, are you sure it's ready? Because a writer may really, really want it, and think their book is ready, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is.

One of the great things about e-publishing is how easy it is to tell friends about a great book you read. It's also very easy to tell someone about a bad one. You and your book may be ready, but is the readership ready for your book? The question isn't about how much you really really want it. It's about how much the readership really, really want it.

Pacing In A Novel

2011-11-24T06:54:00.000Z

Learning how to pace your writing is an important skill, but the basics are simple: Sometimes go faster, and sometimes go slowly.

If you go fast, fast, fast, fast you begin to lose impact. It's like someone shouting all the time; after a while you switch off. If you go slow, slow, slow, slow, your readers will begin to drift off.

You need to go forwards in a mixture of fast and slow scenes, though not in such an obvious pattern as fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, slow which will become predictable. And as you get towards the end, the chances are that you'll have more fast scenes than slow ones.

So, what makes a scene fast? Usually lots of action and dialogue, and exciting things happening. A slow scene will more likely include a lot of internal thought and reflection on what's just happened.

If you're unsure, try listing your scenes on index cards. Then lay them out on the floor or a big table along an imaginary central line. Scenes above the line are fast (and the further above the line, the faster they are), scenes below the line are slow (and the further below the line, the slower they are). Ideally, your index cards should zig zag across the floor or table in a varied and unpredictable way.

This is an easy way to check your pace and see if there are any places where nothing much happens for a while (ie several cards together below the line) or if there are clumps of action and excitement (ie several cards together above the line). You can do it for each scene too, and it should show a similarly varied pattern.

And finally, you can check that all your best bits - the ones that you rate highest up the excitement scale - are spread out throughout the novel.

Everything needs to have light and shade and a change of pace to them. Think of a film like Die Hard. Yes, there are bangs and explosions and exciting stuff happening. But there are also sections where Bruce chats to the policeman in a reflective way, the calm before the next storm. Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow or quick, quick, slow, quick, slow, quick - it doesn't matter what the order is so long as it is there.

Using An Egg Timer For Writing

2011-11-23T06:53:00.003Z

When my children were small, every writing minute counted and I was quite ruthless about getting on with it when I had the opportunity. Now my time is less regimented by the school run, and I have a tendency to let the minutes and hours drift away.

It's been a couple of weeks now since I brushed the dust off my Swiss Army Egg Timer (not nearly as iconic as their penknife) and began to use it regularly. First and foremost, I use it to limit my on-line time. I can't say I've been particularly disciplined - I have a habit of setting it for 15 minutes, then when the time runs out, setting it for another 15 minutes - but the theory is sound, and I'm more aware about how much time I can spend on-line.

As well as using it to limit on-line time, and time spent on domestic chores, I've been using the egg timer for writing. I've been having concentrated bursts of just writing anything down connected with the book, such as ten minutes on what the main character is wearing right now or what her bedroom looks like. I may never use the information, but writing it down is triggering other ideas and thoughts, and I'm sure it will add to the depth of my descriptions. And hey, it's only ten minutes.

I've also been using the timer for my main writing. I find I have random pockets of time, perhaps half an hour before I have to go out. Before my egg timer I would faff around, perhaps doing something domestic or grabbing a cup of tea, or randomly looking at stuff on line. With my egg timer I now sit down and write, knowing that I'm against the clock. It's surprising how much you can get done in half an hour, and how those half hours add up.

It's the great cliche - I'd write a novel if I only had the time. Well, most of us do have the time if we limit all the other stuff. And I'm find my trusty Swiss Army Egg Timer a useful tool to help me do just that.

Workshoppers and Readers - Why You Need Both

2011-11-22T06:31:00.002Z

I am a BIG fan of workshopping - giving and getting feedback is the quickest way to develop as a writer, in my opinion. But it shouldn't be used as the only method of working on a novel.

The problem is that workshops, by their nature, can only look at small pieces at a time - a chapter or maybe two would be the maximum. You can (and should) edit each section thoroughly but be careful of losing sight of the bigger picture. The question 'Does the story work?' can only be answered by looking at the novel as a whole, not in little sections.

So, you need to find some people who will be readers. It's a good idea if they can be different to your workshoppers so they can come to the story fresh. It's good if they're writers too, but they don't have to be, so long as they read your genre. That's essential. Ask them about the story, ask them about how the characters are coming across, ask them about pace. Don't ask them to do a line edit - leave that for your workshop group.

I know several people who have spent years workshopping their novels, when IMO they'd be better off sending it out to readers. I understand why people do this - no one wants to ask a friend (let alone a book doctor) to commit several hours of their time to reading your novel until it's as perfect as you can possibly make it - but at some point it has to be done.

The perfect pattern would be: workshop until the first draft is done. Then send it out to readers, to check the story as whole works. Then back to workshopping to refine the text. Repeat as required.

Think of your editing as beautiful embroidery on a dress. There's little point in doing the finest work if the fabric of the dress is poor, or the style is wrong. Getting that right is what a reader will help you to do, and the workshop will help with the embroidery.

Feedback is Personal And Shouldn't Be Taken Personally

2011-11-21T06:33:00.000Z

We were doing some workshopping last Friday in class, and a discussion sprang up about a specific area in a piece of writing. What struck me was how personal to the feedback-giver some of the comments were - by which I mean, their comments on a piece of fiction were coloured by someone they knew personally in real life.

Other people had had a different experience, so their comments were different and so the discussion merrily rolled along. Of course everybody was right, even though their feedback was in conflict, because it was their personal take.

So, what is the poor writer to do? How are they supposed to react? Person X says one thing, Person Y says another, Person Z has a third take. There are several choices:

1. Ignore everyone because they're all saying different things. Fair enough, but it's not going to move you forwards.

2. Listen to everyone until your head aches through trying to reconcile all those different opinions. Not advised, you'll probably lose confidence in your own judgement, and even in your ability to write.

3. Decide whose opinion you most trust and go with what they say. Understandable, especially if you've found them to provide good feedback in the past. The drawback here is that this time they may be really commenting on how they find the person/situation in real life rather than your writing.

4. Listen to what the majority are saying and use that as your guideline. A good approach, if you can disentangle what the majority are saying.

5. Can you work out if there was a specific word that is triggering this feedback? This may sound strange, but I've done enough workshops to know that a single word can send readers into all sorts of directions that the writer never intended. For example, put a man in a vest* and as far as I'm concerned he's at least over 70. I will find it hard to shake that image off, however much dashing about the character might do.

6. Decide they're all idiots. You may be right! On the other hand, you may not be.

7. Did you have a particular reaction in mind when you wrote those lines? If so, are you getting those reactions? In other words, is your writing effective? Is it doing what you want it to do? If not, how can you change it to make it get the reactions you want?

Your reaction will depend on how you feel about your writing. That bit is personal to you. But you should always remember that feedback is coloured by the experiences, both in life and of writing, of the person giving the feedback. It is personal to them.

Feedback in my experience rarely says anything about you personally. I've only once come across someone saying something personal about the writing. It was on my MA, and someone wrote all over a piece of my work that I obviously had huge issues with my parents to deal with. Er, no - but I'm pretty sure the feedback giver had.

Sometimes, feedback says more about the giver than it does about either the writing or the writer. It's personal to them. Don't take it personally.

*apologies to American readers who think a vest is what we call a waistcoat. I think you'd call our vest a singlet. Bruce Willis wears one in Die Hard, so perhaps it's not just for the over 70s in the US.

Why Chapters Can Be Like Malteasers

2011-11-18T06:15:00.005Z

A book has two potential actions attached to it: being read, and being written. Before we start writing we are readers (I hope - if you're trying to write a novel and you don't read, quick, quick, stop reading this blog and pick up the nearest novel in your genre).

So, our initial experience of books is as a reader, and as a reader we find chapters useful because they divide the text - which may well be over 100,000 words - into useful chunks. We need the text to be in useful chunks because it's rare one has the opportunity to read a book from cover to cover in one sitting. More usually we're reading until it's lights out time, or our bus stop approaches, or our name is called in the waiting room. Chunks make it easier to leave the text and start doing whatever it is we need to do next.

Chunks of text have other benefits for the reader. I heard on the radio recently a discussion about an author's books - I think it was Peter James, but I'm not sure - and one man was saying how much he enjoyed the books because the chapters were so short. It gave him a sense of achievement that he was reading so many chapters. The other man commented that when he knew the chapters were short he felt more like reading them, because he wouldn't get trapped. The first man agreed, but added that he often read more than he'd planned because of exactly that reason - because there was a let out clause, he would try the next chapter, get hooked, read on, try the next chapter, get hooked, read on etc.

Obviously to him, chapters were like Malteasers to me - only 16 calories each, so an allowable treat. Yeah, right - and whoever ate just ONE Malteaser? I can get through a whole packet in no time at all.

When we're writing we need to remember our experiences as readers. As writers we choose where to put our chapters with that in mind. One writer chooses lots of short chapters - they're probably only a scene long. My chapters are longer, perhaps containing several scenes, but I work hard at trying to create great chapter ends, ones that lure the reader into reading on.

I don't think it matters how you work your chapters. Just so long as you get the reader to eat the whole packet.

3 Ways to Make a Depressed Character Interesting

2011-11-17T06:03:00.000Z

A common story arc is to start a novel with a main character who is down in the dumps and to show their recovery from whatever it was that was depressing them in the first place. For example, a woman who's recovering from a bruising divorce will end up triumphant with a new life that was much better than the old one.

Triumph over disaster, hope springs eternal, never say die, the worm turns - they're all good themes to use for a novel. However, there is an inherent problem. A depressed main character can be, well, depressing to read. Once they're on the road to recovery their lives will be more fun to read about, but those beginning pages when it's established just how miserable/sad/downbeat their lives are can be miserable/sad/downbeat for the reader too. And that means the reader may never get to p 25 when it all picks up.

There are three solutions, and ideally you'd apply all at the same time.

One is to make the character self-aware. If your character lacks self confidence, then make them aware of that. Let them acknowledge how pathetic they're being, let us see them struggle to try to get out of the mire. If their well meaning friend suggests something, then don't have the character immediately stamp on the idea (it'll never work, I can't do that because...). Have them think about it in a positive way before being knocked back.

The second solution is for them to have some area of positivity in their lives. Yes, everything else in their life may have crumbled but their painting, garden, wood-working, whatever is still a source of pleasure and consolation. Make them skilled, knowledgeable or gifted in some way and show that there is some positivity in their life.

Thirdly, let them display positive qualities outside their depression. Just because the character's situation is sad, it doesn't exempt them from humanity. Actually the opposite applies - we may pay lip service about being nice to the sad and depressed, but not many of us actively go our of our way to spend time with them unless they are our nearest and dearest (and let's face it, we might well be staying with them out of duty rather than pleasure). So while the character may be sad, let them also be resourceful or ingenious. Let them be generous to others. Let them be loyal, brave and kind. Best of all, let them be funny...

Positive people planning with purpose is my motto, so while your character may be depressed work hard to make them depressed in positive way. Put bluntly, no one wants to read about someone who is moaning. So don't let them.

The Writers Cheatsheet

2011-11-16T06:18:00.001Z

Peter Halanz developed his Writers Cheatsheet when he was doing NaNoWriMo last year. He put everything he felt he needed to know onto one double sided sheet of A4. It's the distillation of things like The Hero's Journey, or Desmond Morris' 12 steps to intimacy, and is definitely worth downloading, especially as it's free.

My problem is that it's all very well reading lists such as Reaction Order (Cause, Emotional response, Action, Speech) but unless you understand them they remain just that: lists. You can follow the Seven Point System, and you might produce a novel, but it's still a system and novels are about so much more than systems.

Systems and lists are reductive. They make writing into a tick box process. But knowing that, for example, The healing/redemptive power of love, is one of the classic romantic plots won't make it any easier to write. Or, if it gets written, more satisfying to read.

Writing should be a creative process, not something that can be parcelled out in chunks like a time and motion study. I have a horrible feeling that sticking to a plan is a means of controlling the beast that is the novel, instead of letting it roam freely.

Part of the sheer joy of writing, in my opinion, is when one's subconscious pulls the proverbial rabbit from the hat and goes off-piste, or when suddenly a link occurs between two characters or situations, and the whole plot suddenly makes sense, like adding the right bit of the jigsaw puzzle.

Having said all that, I do think that using a ready-made structure such as 3 Act Structure can act as a useful security blanket when starting to write. Knowing the Male and Female Archetypes or the Six Virtues can give you a good place to start with character development. But as all children know, security blankets have to be ditched after a while.

So, use the Cheatsheet, and other systems to get you started. Just don't hang on to them for too long in case they stifle your creativity.

Competing in the Writing Olympics

2011-11-15T06:21:00.000Z

Several of the Olympic teams are training at the university sports centre here in Bath. I've been going for my lunchtime swim and marvelling at the speed of the swimmers in lanes 5-8 compared to those in 1-4 (especially 1 - the slow lane, where I pootle up and down for 30 minutes). They swim fast!

Yesterday I asked the life guard exactly which team it was in training. 'It's the swimming club' she said.
'Not the Olympic team? Not the British team? Not the county team, not even the university team?' I said, clinging to my hopes that I was sharing the same chlorine as an elite athlete.
She smiled at my ignorance. 'The elite athletes come in at 5am for training, then again in the evening. They do about 4-5 hours a day in the pool, and then land-based training on top.'

Which explains in part why I'll never be much of a swimmer. 30 minutes is one thing, 4-5 hours is quite another, especially at 5 in the morning.

On the other hand, it perhaps explains why I'm a writer. Make that 4-5 hours a day of writing, and reading on top, and I'm definitely at the Olympic writing level of training. I suspect that if you want to compete on a serious level at anything - local politics, cake decoration, dog breeding - you have to consistently put the hours in.

But if it's your passion, then you don't mind the hours spent on it. You find the time. You squeeze every minute you can to write in. When not able to write, you think about writing. When relaxing, you read a book and part of you works out what the author has done and why. If you want to write at a consistent publishable level then you have to put those hours in. Simple as that.

And the great thing about writing is that it's available at all levels. Paddling up and down the pool a couple of times a week won't win me any races, but writing a little every now and then might well produce a story that will win a competition or get published in a magazine. And it will be fun and interesting along the way. Going to a weekly writing class or critique group or even taking an MA won't guarantee a publishing contract, but it's a first step along the way.

Write a little, write a lot - the Writing Olympics are open to every one. The only thing it won't do is help you lose weight and get fit but then, you can't have everything.

5 Reasons Why A Full MS Might Be Rejected

2011-11-14T06:56:00.001Z

It's a question I've been asked a lot and it's a difficult one to answer. However I've been asking around agents and editors, and this is a summary of the answers given.

1. Structure...

Problems with the story line, or pace (usually too slow rather than too fast).

2. Good premise but...

It wasn't developed, or used familiar plots and situations.

3. The writing...

Unfocussed, language flat, nothing special about it.

4. Characters...

Caricatures rather than real people, didn't believe in them, inconsistent.

5. A good book but...

Didn't feel passionate about it, couldn't think where/how to sell it.

Agents and editors have to be passionate about the books they represent or they can't do their job - the agent to sell it to the editor, the editor to sell it to the sales and marketing team. An editor recently told me that she was being asked about each and every book she brought to the acquisition meetings: do you love it enough to stick your neck on the line for it? Lukewarm enthusiasm is not enough.

The problem is that one person's opinion may not coincide with another person's, leading to conflicting feedback. However, if you fix the first 4 points, you are probably also fixing the 5th.

Using Speech Tags To Change The Stress In Dialogue

2011-11-11T06:37:00.002Z

He said, she said. Such simple words, yet they can be placed to make subtle differences to the meaning of your dialogue. "I believe Nancy is a good writer." That seems a straightforward sentence. Now read through the next three sentences...

"I," Sarah said, "believe Nancy is a good writer."

"I believe," Sarah said, "Nancy is a good writer."

"I believe Nancy," Sarah said, "is a good writer."

Each sentence now has a different subtext according to where the break is.

"I - and this is my personal belief even if it's not yours - believe Nancy is a good writer."

"I believe - but on the other hand I could be wrong about this - Nancy is a good writer."

"I believe Nancy - but not Jemima, Jim and John - is a good writer."

The belief is altered by the stress on the sentence, and the stress is indicated by the last word before the break.

That is a word that I use too much (That is a word I use too much is more succinct) but it does have its place from time to time...

"I believe that," Sarah said, "Nancy is a good writer."

In this case the 'that' is acting like a drum roll, making us wait to find out, gripping the table with the suspense of it all, who exactly does Sarah believe is a good writer. And the stress ends up with Nancy. Having said that, the original sentence - I believe Nancy is a good writer - doesn't need the addition of a that - I believe that Nancy is a good writer.

People tend not to speak in a monotone, so changing the stress is one way we can indicate the rhythm of their speech patterns. It's a good idea to say your characters' dialogue out loud so you can work out which words need to be stressed, and whether you need a break to indicate this. Mind you, anyone in earshot will think you're bonkers, but I reckon that's a small price to pay.

Are There Really Rules For Writing?

2011-11-10T06:58:00.004Z

Yesterday it was announced that Cat's Ahoy by Peter Bently, illustrated by Jim Field, had won this year's Roald Dahl prize for a funny book written for under 6's. Good for them - it sounds wonderful fun.

But the reason I'm writing about it is that it's written in rhyme, and picture book writers are warned to never write in rhyme. So what's going on - how does a book that breaks the rules not only gets published but also wins prizes?

The reason new picture books writers are told not to write in rhyme is a practical one. Picture books are expensive to produce and publishers aim to recoup the costs by selling them abroad. A text in prose is easier to translate than one in rhyme so foreign publishers tend to avoid rhyming texts. Therefore, a rhyming text will be less likely to recoup costs than a prose text - in other words, it becomes a riskier proposition for the publisher.

I think every Rule about writing is more of a guideline, but because the Rules are based on practical considerations you are usually better off complying with them than not. Take book length. We can all point to texts that are longer or shorter than the Rules say they should be - JK Rowling being a case in point. But while there are exceptions to every rule, the new writer should be aware of the reasons behind the rules (such as paper costs, reader expectations etc) and know they will be part of of the decision to publish (or not).

To take one of my personal rules, I actively discourage students from writing flashback. This is simply because it is rarely well done and is often either confusing or boring - or both. I have no problems with flashback well done, but I don't see it often so it's simpler to say there's a rule and if students choose to break it, make sure they're doing it for good reasons and doing it well.

Will breaking the rules make you unpublishable? No, so long as your work is still readable. But given that most of the rules are common sense aimed at improving readability - too many characters called very similar names is obviously likely to confuse the reader, or double spaced work is easier to read - it seems advisable follow them when you can.

Not Squished Yet

2011-11-09T06:13:00.004Z

A funny thing happened to me on Saturday morning. From about 8.30am the phone in Cornwall rang, and kept ringing with calls for me. The same morning I also picked up quite a lot of emails via my website address. And there were unexpected DMs on Twitter. When I got back to Bath and retrieved my mobile (which I'd accidentally left behind) I'd had a string of missed calls and texts.

All were wanting to know the same thing: are you OK?

Thank you everyone who knew I usually travel between Bath and Cornwall at the weekends and got in touch about the motorway crash last Friday evening. Yes, I was on the M5 that evening, it was very dark and foggy, and fireworks were going off, but I didn't see any smoke. I was ahead of the crash by a short time, and on the southbound, not the northbound, carriageway, so oblivious that anything had happened until the first call on Saturday.

But it has made me think about how transient life is, and how vulnerable we are. Carpe diem! Seize the day! If we don't do it now, then when? Goethe wrote: 'What ever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it.'

It made me ask myself why I was pussy footing around with this current novel, which has been in the making for so long. And yes, I've got a lot of demands on my time, but not much of it is top priority and certainly not compared to getting this novel written.

On Saturday afternoon I had a twenty minute chunk of free time before we were supposed to be going out in the afternoon. The Saturday before I would have read the paper, but instead I decided to snatch even that little bit of writing time. The twenty minutes stretched to over an hour, and I got a decent amount of writing done. Yesterday I wrote more than I have done for ages, and I loved it.

I don't know why it takes a 34 car pile up to shake me into thinking about what I really want to do, but there it is: it has. I'm a writer. That's all there is to it.

Tell No One...

2011-11-08T06:35:00.001Z

If I'm teaching a How to Get Published or How to Write a Novel course I always start by discovering what genre people are writing in, so I know if I need to include any genre-specific info. Most people say they're writing contemporary women's fiction, or sci fi, or thriller - whatever - and leave it at that, but there's always someone who launches into describing what happens in the story. Arghh! No! Stop!

You should never ever ever tell someone the plot of your novel unless they're an agent or editor and have just asked. (And even then it shouldn't be a blow by blow description but a pitch - but that's for another post.)

Why the sweeping embargo?

A friend of mine confessed that after their partner left them, they kept telling people they met their story. Strangers at the bus stop, friends at parties, family get-togethers...it didn't matter who or where. After a while they started to notice people's eyes glazing over, and a little bit later they realised they were boring themselves, let alone others. They stopped having the need to tell their story (which was probably a good thing for them - and those around them).

Story tellers want to communicate to others. More than that, they need to communicate. Until they've communicated their story, they can't rest. But once they've told their story enough times, the desire goes. As a writer, you are a story teller. But the form of communication you're using is words on a page, not speech.

Writing a novel takes a lot of time and dedication. You're writing 80,000-100,000 words - that's a serious commitment. If you tell your story to people, you dissipate the desire to tell your story on the page. Eventually you may even become bored with the story you were telling, at which point you will stop writing altogether.

So keep it to yourself. If friends and family ask, simply tell them you'd rather not say. If they persist, you could always say that you're hoping they're going to buy a copy when it comes out, so you don't want them to know the plot before. Remember - tell no one...

Don't Give Up, Keep On Going

2011-11-07T06:09:00.002Z

A few years back I went to a reunion of my writing group. We'd all done the MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa together, and eight of us had continued meeting and critiquing work. But one by one, four had dropped out. So there we were, four actively writing, four not.

Of the four actively writing, two are now published. I'm one of them and was lucky enough to get a publishing deal a year after graduating. The other one had to wait nearly ten years for her publishing deal, but she's got there in the end. The third in our group has had so many near misses - representation by top agent, discussions with editors - that I'm sure the deal will be there for her. The fourth has extremely limited time to write, but is now nearing completion.

All the four who weren't writing said they missed it. They wished they hadn't stopped. They expressed sadness that their creativity wasn't being expressed. One said that she'd been at her happiest when writing...

We often hear about people like me who get published relatively quickly, and forget that for most people it takes much longer than that. They say that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill, so why do we think writing a novel will be any different?

I wouldn't recommend plugging away if you really hated writing - that would be daft. But I think if you're still enjoying the process then don't be too impatient. Enjoy your writing, allow yourself time to develop your skills and above all, be happy.

Platforms Are For Trains, Not Writers

2011-11-04T06:26:00.002Z

There's been lots of discussion about platforms recently on the forums that I follow. 'You MUST have a platform', many blogs announce. 'You MUST use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn...you MUST blog...you MUST have a website.'

I've read people saying that publishers check out how many followers an unpublished author has before they'll consider representation and therefore unpublished authors MUST have a media presence or they won't get published.

Hmm. Well, all I can say is Piffle.

There's no MUST about it. Yes, if you like doing these things, by all means go ahead and do them. I know of at least one person who credits getting her agent to her media platform (and that led to a publishing deal). I suspect the quality of her writing was more important.

Put simply, writing a good book is how you get published. No one is going to spend money on a rubbish book however many followers someone has. Having said that, if you have thousands of followers you must be able to write well and have interesting stuff to say, so it may look as though:

thousands of followers = the publishing deal,

but I think the equation actually looks like:

good writer and interesting ideas=thousands of followers=publishing deal.

And I think you can also write it:

good writer and interesting ideas=publishing deal.

Social media is a powerful tool to reach people, but many authors are unconvinced that it actually sells books, especially if you're conventionally published. I was told by my publisher about two years ago that I MUST go on Twitter, Facebook and start blogging. This blog, and my Twitter account (@sarahduncan1) were the result. Personally, I like Twitter, so I do that, and I like blogging (most of the time!) so do that too. Facebook I can't get the hang of (not helped by them changing the format often), and LinkedIn is just a step too far...

I think it's made a difference in the sense that I've been asked to give more talks and write more articles over the past two years than I had before, and it's probably sold a few more books. But what I know has sold most books has been getting shortlisted for prizes, getting good reviews, and getting selected for retailer special offers. All those come from the quality of the book (tho it has to be said that the cover plays a huge part in being selected for the special offers).

If you don't want to get involved in social media, don't. Every day people who haven't got media platforms or any followers sign publishing deals. Yes, it may make you more attractive to a publisher - especially an e-publisher - because publishers like authors who are good at marketing themselves. But at heart it's about the book. Always.

So, if your choice is writing a great book or building a media platform, then writing a great book wins every time.

The Importance of Pushing On

2011-11-03T06:20:00.003Z

I heard lovely news the other day - a former students has been shortlisted in a major novel writing competition. The novel was started years ago, first in one of my novel writing classes, then in a critiquing workshop I ran. She worked away at it when possible, always refining, always developing. Some people - me! - felt she should send it out and not wait for it to be perfect (because there's no such thing as a perfect novel).

But it has to be up to the author when they feel their work is ready for sending out. Novels are the writer's precious baby, and everyone would think twice before placing their baby on the floor and inviting kicks.

And yet we have to do it if we want to be published. We have to accept that our beloved babies will probably not be appreciated by everyone that claps eyes on them. Writers have to have both a sensitive soul and the hide of a rhinoceros. The truth is that not everyone will like everything, and the best thing for us to do when we come across some negative feedback is to scoop up our baby, dust it down and move swiftly on.

And actually, rejection isn't so bad. Oh yes, it hurts at the time, but it inspires you to do better, to try harder (that is, if you don't give it all up). It teaches you to investigate what isn't working and what is, and how you can make the former bits more like the latter. I now know the novel I first sent out was simply not good enough. Rejection made me pull it to pieces, and then rebuild.

Whichever route you take, either editing more and more or risking sending it out before the novel is ready, you have to prepare for rejection at some point. But you only lose if you stop writing. Keep at it, whichever your path. Push on!

Even Derren Brown Is At It

2011-11-02T06:51:00.000Z

Following on from Open and Closed Stories, yesterday evening I got round to watching last week's Derren Brown programme. For those who don't know, according to his website, "Derren Brown is a performer who combines magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship in order to seemingly predict and control human behaviour, as well as performing mind-bending feats of mentalism."

The programme hoped to demonstrate how crowds, when they think they're anonymous, behave much worse than they would if they were individualised. The set up was a fake gameshow. The audience believed they were there as audience, rather than the subject of the experiment. The gameshow featured hidden cameras watching a ordinary member of the public in a bar. All the other characters were either friends in on the set up or actors.

The audience were offered 2 scenarios: one positive (=A), one negative (=B), and asked to vote on which scenario they wanted to happen next. Invariably the majority of the audience chose the negative option, which was then carried out, all watched by hidden cameras. This, according to Derren, showed mob behaviour in action. However, as a writer I disagree. These were the options.

1st Choice - X in bar:

A: have a pretty girl flirt with X

B: have girl accuse X of touching her bottom and call over her angry boyfriend.

2nd Choice - still in bar:

A: Angry boyfriend apologises and buys X a drink

B: Barman accuses X of not paying his bill and demanding money, or he'll be thrown out.

3rd Choice - X leaves bar and goes to a shop.

A: He's the shop's 5,000th customer and gets bag of goodies

B: He's accused of shoplifting; the police are called.

4th Choice - Police arrive, look at CCTV footage (offstage):

A: X is let off, there's nothing on the film

B: The film points to X's guilt - he's arrested.

5th Choice - phone call from work colleague, she tells him:

A: She's won a TV, and is going to give it to him

B: He's going to be made redundant on Monday

6th Choice - dropped off back at home by police

A: He gets £10,000 for taking part

B: He's kidnapped by masked thugs.

All the A choices were Closed choices. The story either ended at that point, or would continue in a predictable manner. All the B choices were Open choices, in that you didn't know where the story would go or that it was adding more drama not closure. All the B choices also involved conflict.

So, instead of demonstrating mob rule and a natural propensity to cruelty, I would argue that the programme showed people want excitement and conflict and on-going situations. Good story telling, in other words.

Open and Closed Stories

2011-11-01T06:27:00.003Z

Recently I had an interesting exchange on Twitter about Jane Austen, and how she wrote exclusively about the run up to marriage, rather than marriage itself. In 140 characters it's hard to explain yourself as well as you'd like, so I thought I'd have a go at doing it here.

The run up to commitment story has, in my opinion, more possibilities for story development than a post-commitment story. Character A might choose X or Y or Z - or none of them. Or A might choose one of them, only for them to refuse. As a writer, there are more places to take the story telling, more possible twists and turns.

If A is married to B, then essentially the story can only go in one of two directions: by the end, A stays with B, or A leaves. What happens en route will vary, but essentially these are the only 2 choices. If A leaves B at the very beginning of the story, there are still two options: the story ends with A emotionally leaving B, or getting back together.

If A leaves B at the beginning of the story and has a high old time choosing who they're going to go with next out of X, Y or Z then we're back into the run up to commitment story, not the commitment story.

Basically, the options for a run up to commitment story are Open, when the options for the commitment story are Closed.

I've written two commitment stories and three run-up to commitment stories (with a fourth on the way), and the run-up stories are frankly much more interesting for me to write. You can go anywhere! Your characters can do anything - and anyone. Whereas, once your character is married, if they want out there is a known legal process to follow. Even if the character simply walks out, as in Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler, the story is still at heart about whether the marriage holds or fails at the end.

That's not to say that stories with Closed options are essentially less interesting than stories with Open options. But because the reader knows where a Closed option is leading to, I think the writer has to work much harder in keeping the reader's interest going.

Hints for Anyone Going in for NaNoWriMo

2011-10-31T06:28:00.002Z

Tomorrow sees the start of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel from scratch over the course of the next 30 days - that's 1666 words per day. The aim is for quantity rather than quality.

I think it's a good idea - if the pressure doesn't make you feel stressed, or a failure if you miss the targets. Try to keep it as a fun thing, and not another chore.

Here are my tips for keeping on writing:

1. Start with at least 3 major plot turns. I did a class last week where everybody got 3 at random and had to outline a novel length plot. Examples of the plot points were Someone reveals something, someone discovers something and someone succeeds at something. Whatever it is, it has to mean a major change for the characters.

2. Use names well. Jane is not as good as Mary Jane, which in turn isn't as good as Miss Mary Jane. Remember you're going for word count targets. Ditto place names. Kingston on Thames, anyone?

3. Don't waste any time looking up words in a dictionary or thesaurus. The same goes for metaphors and similes. Oh, and cliches are fine. Use the first thing that comes into your head - it's about quantity, not quality.

4. Description of what people are wearing can add a couple of hundred words easily. Also describe locations in loving detail.

5. Plot ninja is a new term for me, but it covers an event that acts like the literary equivalent of a ninja leaping out of a cupboard - the story spins into a new direction. Get a store of plot ninjas before you start and write them out on cards. Then, when you get stuck, pick one at random. Examples might include: an unexpected letter turns up, the phone rings with an unwelcome message, someone turns up at the door, the electricity fails, the car breaks down. When in doubt, introduce a new character (and a whole new set of clothes/personal habits/quirks to write about).

6. Remember that dialogue can be as aimless as it often is in real life. Long rambling conversations that go no where are just fine for NaNoWriMo.

The overall idea is to release you from your inner editor and critic and just get writing. At the end of the month you may have 50,000 words of tripe, but there will be some nuggets there - there may even be a story. Use the month for having fun and giving it a go and seeing what happens. And remember, whatever you write can always be re-written later on.

Personal Habits and Writing

2011-10-28T06:11:00.003+01:00

I used to smoke when I was in my teens, but gave up in my mid-20s and haven't puffed since. So I don't think about characters smoking. I've only once had a reference to smoking, when a character wishes they hadn't given up because now would be a really good time to have a cigarette.

But I have written about diets and calories and all the paraphernalia about losing weight. I made so many references in one book - I think it was A Single to Rome - that my editor asked me if the main character had a weight problem as all she seemed to think about were calories.

What can I say? I don't smoke and have a tendency to put on weight, and my writing reflects my preoccupations. My characters are often stroking and touching things which reflects my own tactile habits, but rarely fuss about what they're wearing (unless it's a concern that they've got it wrong). We had a discussion in class about using the five senses, and many of us (including me) said they had a poor sense of smell so rarely included that, whereas for others it was as important as the visuals.

I do a certain amount of manipulation so my characters have habits and characteristics other than mine - more have had straight hair than curly, although I'm hazy about what using straighteners implies, so try to avoid too much hair description - but I'm sure my real concerns and preoccupations shine through. When I read Caitlin Moran, and in particular her recent book How to be a Woman, I often feel like saying: not all women suffer from cystitis. That's you, not me.

James Joyce once wrote that all fiction is autobiographical fantasy, and perhaps there's more autobiography in fiction than many of us would care to reveal. But I think we just can't help ourselves.

What Does Explicit Sex Mean Anyway?

2011-10-27T06:47:00.001+01:00

Think about real sex and fictional sex made me remember being taken to task by someone at a workshop I ran earlier in the year. Someone had asked about writing sex scenes, and I'd done my usual no body parts, no instructions spiel. At which point someone else perked up and said, 'But you write explicit sex.'

I was surprised, because I think I don't. So I asked when had I written explicit sex. He cited the beginning of Adultery for Beginners. I frowned, because I don't think that's explicit at all. In my opinion, there are no body parts, no instructions, the word sex (or any synonyms) isn't used at all. I hope - as I hope for all my sex scenes - that if you know what's going on, you know what's going on. If you don't know, you wouldn't be any the wiser.

But maybe I'm wrong. With trepidation, I'm going to copy the beginning paragraph here, and see what you think...

Damn, Isabel thought, feeling a cooling trickle of stickiness on her inner thighs. Neil lay heavily on top of her, as if the effort had given him heart failure. The huffing and puffing seemed to have expelled all the air from him. Perhaps he wasn’t breathing. His body, hairy, sweaty, still rumpled with sleep, swamped hers. She felt her arms and legs sticking out from under his body, flat as a gingerbread woman. The tissues were out of reach, supposing there were any left in the box. Damn, damn, damn, she thought. I only changed the sheets yesterday.

So, what's just happened, and what's happening now? I think it's clear, but I also think that it is implicit rather than explicit - nothing is spelled out: if you've never been in Isabel's position I don't think you'd know what's going on. (In passing, I wonder how many men have, in real life, had the thought about sheets, compared to how many women.)

Implicit or explicit? Over to you...

Real Sex or Fictional Sex?

2011-10-26T06:58:00.001+01:00

As I bid farewell to a friend the other day I cheerily said, 'I'm off to write a sex scene.' Their response was, ' Will it be real sex or fictional sex?' And I've been pondering the question ever since.

My thoughts so far...

Real sex, if it's good, takes place in the present. In other words, it's very hard to capture because while it's happening you're not referencing it to anything else past or future, or external to what is happening right here, right now. So it's hard - if not impossible - to capture that and put it into words, whether you're trying to remember that wonderful night of passion while waiting at the bus stop, or recounting it to a friend, or putting it onto the page.

The best you can hope for is for the reader to be so caught up in the experience they get a sense of what's going on. But reading about sex is never going to be like having sex. It can't be. The most the author can hope for is to stimulate the same emotional and physical responses in the reader that they would experience if they were having sex.

At which point the author has another problem. What emotional or physical responses I personally experience may not be the same as those you experience. What I like from sex may be quite different from what you like. So if I write my real experiences of sex, you might be going mmmm or yuck or somewhere in the middle.

So, I think you can't write real sex. When I write about sex I'm deliberately vague as to what is actually going on. No body parts! No instructions! What I'm hoping to write is something that makes the reader think back to good sex they've had, how it made them feel both emotionally and physically. It's more like an impression, an outline for the reader to colour in by adding their own personal details.

Now, some people might think that's a cop out, like photographing porn through a soft focus lens. But I believe that, through having to do some of the work, the reader engages more readily and the fictional experience of sex can come closer to their own experience of real sex, without the distractions of the author's experience. So I hope my fictional impression of sex recalls real sex in the reader's mind.

Be Careful of Your Default Settings

2011-10-25T06:03:00.002+01:00

Last week I asked a friend to read my current work in progress (and it IS progressing, albeit slowly). She returned it and I waited for the feedback. She started with: "What's the pizza fetish about?"

I certainly hadn't been expecting that. What pizza fetish?

"Well," she said. "He goes for a pizza on p5, she's thinking about getting in pizza on p8, they're at a pizza restaurant on p10, her mates are heading off for a pizza on p17..."

Oops. My default setting when I think of food eaten outside the home is obviously pizza. Which is weird because I hardly ever have one, but it's obviously my default setting: when in doubt, let them eat pizza.

I think we all have our own personal collection of default settings, and it's a good idea to become aware of them. Character gestures - biting lips, running hands through hair, running fingers round the rim of wineglasses are all some of mine. Scene settings - my characters often settle down for tea in their kitchens, one of the dullest settings possible. Food - pizza, obviously, but also mushrooms and red wine because they're the two food stuffs I can't stand and I want to make it totally apparent that the characters aren't me. (If only it were that easy...)

One of my writing friends has a tendency to have her characters take long, long baths. Another has characters looking at their hands in minute detail as their fingers stroke things, or stuff nestles in their palms. I've seen short stories featuring Ron, Don and Ben, with the author blissfully unaware.

When the first draft is being written you're trying so hard to get the story down you grab at the first thing that comes into your mind. That's fine, but but you have to be prepared to go back and eradicate any sloppy gestures, settings or whatever you've given as a default position. So, expect no pizzas in my next book. It's going to be fish and chips all the way.

Depth Not Breadth

2011-10-24T06:46:00.005+01:00

Recently I was looking at someone's short story and was struck by how many problems the main character had. Girlfriend problems, work problems, boss problems, family problems...he had the lot and they were cluttering up the main story which was nothing to do with girlfriend, work, boss and family. I asked why they'd chosen to give the character so much to deal with, and they answered that they'd wanted to make the character 3D by giving him lots of conflict in his life.

Well, yes. And no.

What was happening was problem overload, none of which was dealt with in any detail - it was a short story, there wasn't time - so it was coming across as a series of cliched situations. There was none of the specific detail that makes a character seem real. The writer had gone for breadth - lots of problems - but not depth, so the character appeared shallow.

I learned that lesson when I was writing Adultery for Beginners. I wanted people to feel sympathetic for my main character, Isabel, right from the start because she was going to have an affair (there was a clue in the title). So I needed her to have an excuse to stray from her husband, one that people would forgive her later actions. I knew they were going to be ex-pats; I'd been told that in Syria, there was abortion on demand, but you were also sterilised at the same time. That sounded like an interesting situation, so I gave her a backstory that involved her being pressurised by her husband to have an abortion because they'd already got two children.

But I couldn't really make it work. So I gave her a backstory that involved her having a baby out in Africa and it dying because the husband didn't take her concerns seriously. He was a civil engineer, so I tried to add into the scenario some issue around water shortages. That didn't work either. I tried a few other things, but all the time I was pushing ahead with the actual story.

By the time I got to the end of the first draft I ditched the backstories because I didn't need them. I knew the characters so much better - deeper - I didn't need to bolt on some invented scenarios. They were ordinary, flawed people in a long term marriage who were tempted to stray. That was all I needed.

Giving characters extraordinary problems doesn't make them interesting, nor does giving them interesting hair, strange deformities or quirky habits that seem inconsistent with what the characters do.

Get to know them well through their actions, and their deeper character will reveal themselves. Go for depth, not breadth.

World Creation

2011-10-21T06:51:00.002+01:00

All writers go in for world creation, it comes with the territory. What is contained on the pages is fiction, the product of the writer's imagination. So we all create worlds - that's part of the fun of it. Even novels set in the reader's own time and place are fantasy recreations of the real world.

World creation is also one of the reasons we read. We want to know what life was like in, for example, C18th Paris, or Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War. We want to imagine pretend worlds, such as that created by Tolkien - how many visitors to New Zealand are really hoping they're going to end up in The Shire?

We like world creation as readers, and it's part of the writer's job to re-create a world, whether imaginary or real.

What sometimes happens is that the writer gets carried away by their world. Every little thing, every tiny detail gets given the same loving focus as the main features. If writers are sensible they keep the marvellous details out of their main works, and publish them separately eg The Silmarrillion by Tolkien, or Quidditch through the Ages by JK Rowling. Tolkien and Rowling are both wonderful story tellers and they know that too much detail weighs the story down.

So fantasy novelists have to guard against adding just the right amount of detail - enough to create a fantasy world, not enough to get in the way of the story telling. Any novel which involves research has to watch out for this too - social history is fascinating, but will your description of the manufacture of manglewurzel cutters add anything to your story?

And even contemporary writers have to guard against the temptation to describe every little thing in detail - I once read part of someone's short story that spent two whole pages describing a bureau and its contents, none of which was really relevant to the story but had taken up about 500 words. That's a high percentage of a short story to spend on 'creating atmosphere.'

So if your short story or novel appears to be endless, try going through and marking with a highlighter pen essential bits of action. Then be ruthless and cut the rest.

Never Ending Stories

2011-10-20T06:25:00.001+01:00

There are some people who don't finish stories because they run out of steam. Others don't finish because they have too much steam! Words flow out of them as freely as water gushing over Niagara Falls - on and on, words, words, thousands of words. They never finish stories because there always seems more to say. In a workshop they say things like, 'It's already 157,000 words, and I haven't yet got anywhere near the end.'

It's not a problem I personally have ever had, but I've come across it often enough to know it's a real issue for some people. Short stories never finish, novels start spreading into two, three, four book series. What I think happens is one of two things: the writer gets event happy or falls in love with their world.

First things first: what do I mean by 'event happy'?

Let's suppose I'm being chased by a couple of baddies. I run into a deserted house, they run after me. I run to the roof, and manage to jump across from one house to another. I've got away - hooray! Oh no, there are some more baddies, so I start running again, down the stairs and into the street. I think I've lost them but - oh no, some more baddies. Off I go again, run run run, into a church, baddies close behind. I hide in the crypt, they go away, then I come out and into the street, when - oops, the baddies spot me and off I go again...

OK, that's essentially ONE event - Sarah gets chased by various baddies. Nothing has changed for me except the location where I'm running. Because nothing changes, the scene stays the same. This is although there is lots of action, lots of events. Nothing changes, so the story doesn't actually move on.

You see the same effect in some action films, for example, Quantum of Solace, the last James Bond film I saw, which was one darn explosion or car chase after another, with little meaning behind any of it. The second Matrix film was another example - lots of CGI, but no real point to any of it.

I've seen it in (unpublished) historical novels where our main character sits through various tea drinking meetings and social soirees, perpetually commenting on what people are wearing, drinking, saying, without the story moving on at all. I saw it in 'The Shakespeare Secret' which, despite relentless activity, never moved the characters on at all. And it turns up a lot in fantasy novels - recently an acquaintance complained of having to critique a fantasy novel which was nudging the quarter of a million word mark, and yet had nothing to say.

The solution? Change! Make things change for the main character on some deep down emotional level. Give them a choice to make that has serious implications. And finally, decide what the point is of all these words. That should give you an idea of where the ending is. For example, if the theme is 'Love Conquers All,' then go out there and make it happen.

I'll talk about world creation tomorrow.

Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow?

2011-10-19T06:52:00.001+01:00

Down on Porthmeor Beach in St Ives last weekend the surfers were struggling to catch the waves. They were small and irregular - the surf was elsewhere. When the surf is good the surfers paddle their boards way out into the bay and wait to catch a wave. The really good surfers ride the wave for a while then drop back off it just before it breaks, so they don't get either caught up in the surf or washed far onto the beach - it's a long struggle through the waves to get out to the point where you started from.

It's beautiful to watch the good surfers. They have a rhythm and fluidity in the way they ride the waves. Short stories can read like a series of waves coming into the shore, each wave starting small then building up into a crescendo. A good short story will have a series of those waves running throughout the narrative, each wave separated rather than crashing into each other all in one whoosh, then leaving the surfer stranded without impetus.

It can be summarised in one word: pace.

You need the slow build up, then the crescendo - a moment of drama or tension. Then another slow build up, then another moment of tension, and so on. Sometimes the crescendos might be close together, sometimes further apart - you don't want the rhythm to be too regular or it'll become predictable. But that's the basic principle: slow build up; moment of drama; slow build up; moment of drama etc. Or, slow, slow, quick! quick! slow.

But - and this is where it gets complicated - you want the drama to be part of the slow bit. Imagine your character is going to open a box that may (or may not) contain a poisonous snake. They would slowly approach the box. They might listen for hissing. They might try the weight of the box. They might put on gloves. They might slide their hands over the box. They might imagine what will happen when they open the box and the snake flies out...

All this is slowly building up to the moment of drama when - quick! quick! the lid of the box flips open and the character sees: nothing. Tension drops, and we're back to slow, slow again.

What it isn't is slow, slow as we hear about the character's bus ride into town and how rude the conductor was to them because they didn't have the right change, and then they trod in a puddle on the way to the office, and the receptionist blathered on about what they'd done that weekend, and then they got to their office, scanned the threatening letter attached to the box and quickly flipped open the lid to discover a king cobra. Which bit them.

For the surfers, choosing the wave to ride is part of the skill. Choosing where to go slow and where to go fast is part of the skill of being a writer.

Two Projects at One Time?

2011-10-18T06:57:00.003+01:00

When I was in my teens and early twenties there always seemed to be several New Year's Eve parties going on. You'd start the evening at one party, but it was hard to enjoy yourself when you had the sneaking suspicion that the other party was the really cool one. So after a while you'd hop on a bus and head off to the other party.

I celebrated quite a few New Year's Eves sitting on the number 22. And then, when I finally got to the right place, it would be just the same as the party I'd left - except I'd missed all the fun at midnight.

Over time I learned that it's better to commit yourself to one party and stay there, regardless of what you think might be happening elsewhere. For me it's the same with writing projects. It's better to stick with the one you've got, regardless of how enticing another project might seem to be, because it's better to be singing Auld Lang's Syne at a party than stuck on the bus while the rest of the world celebrates.

That first draft you're working on doesn't have to be well written, it doesn't even have to be competently written, it just has to be written, and written until you get to The End. That might mean some bits are pretty sketchy - they might only be in note form - but at least you've got there. And once you've got a first draft, you can always make it better.

There are of course some writers who can keep several projects on the go at the same time. There are also some people who win the Lottery every week. I think most of us know we're not going to win the Lottery, and I think you probably already know if you're the sort of person who can handle multiple projects and see them all through to completion.

I know I can't. I have to accept my limitations, and stick with the party I chose in the first place. I have to commit or I'll end up with lots of projects started and nothing being finished. And the sad truth is, an unfinished piece of writing is no good to anyone.

Totally Lacking Inspiration

2011-10-17T06:54:00.001+01:00

Which is my current state regarding this blog. When I do talks and people ask 'how do you manage to blog every day?' I always say, 'I don't know; I'm waiting for inspiration to dry up, but it hasn't so far.' Well, today it has.

So instead of coming up with some cunning technique about writing craft, or a bit of cheer-leading for the writing process, here I am, tapping away and wondering where on earth I can go next. I often write like this, particularly when I'm starting a novel. Off I trot into the blue, fingers moving while my brain is chattering: this is a daft way of making a living.

And what happens is that, although inspiration may be lacking, somehow the words turn up. Pages are filled. Characters do things. They start interacting. They begin to be interesting. Gradually the story draws me in and before I know it, I've written a few thousand words. And then the next day I do it all over again.

There is a magic in just writing. You trust that somehow it WILL happen, and off you go. I see it often in my writing class. People who have braved my wrath to tell me that they haven't written anything at all that week are told to write. They bite their pens then, hesitating, start to write. Then their heads go down and the pens scratch away, and suddenly I'm saying 'ten minutes are up,' and still they write on. I quite often have to get firm and stop the class, and reluctantly they put down their pens.

So next time you're not feeling like writing, next time you haven't got any inspiration, next time your pen/keyboard feels as if it's stuck in mud, just get going. You may find that, through the magic of writing, you've ended up by writing something. Something, perhaps, like this blog post....

Hooray for Libraries!

2011-10-14T06:21:00.001+01:00

Last night I was speaking at the new Patchway Library. Yes, you read that right - in an age when we hear of libraries being closed left right and centre, it's a NEW library. Hooray!

And hooray for all the librarians who run libraries, and look after the books, and the book lovers and the reading groups and everyone else, even the people who've wandered in by accident.

And hooray for all the books in all the libraries. It makes me furious when people speak of libraries as if they were luxuries. They are escape routes. Escape from lives that are boring or predictable, escape from lives that are limited and conventional, escape from lives that - for whatever reason - lack alternatives.

I escaped to other worlds where I could be someone other than a fat, bookish child. Every Saturday I pedalled to the library on the bike my father had fished out of a ditch. I had a basket on the front, and I filled that with library books every week - I had my own, children's card, and both my parents' adult cards - so I was entitled to 24 books to devour at a time.

I read and read and read. Anything, everything. My favourite children's books were about a ballerina called Drina, my favourite adult books were Westerns - I was so disappointed when I saw the film Destry Rides Again: my first experience of how the adaptation doesn't live up to the beloved book and fantasy (Michael Moorcock and Roger Zelazny - just the name was impossibly exotic, and you got to take something out from the Z shelf.)

Reading is the breathing in, and writing is the breathing out. If I hadn't read so much as a child, I wouldn't be a writer (this seems to be true for many - all? - writers). Without libraries I wouldn't be a writer, and you wouldn't be reading this.

So hooray for libraries, especially the lovely new one at Patchway and hooray for librarians, especially Emma and Carol who invited me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Bumping Off Your Main Characters

2011-10-13T06:24:00.001+01:00

Over the summer I read two novels in which one of the main characters is killed off near the end. The first novel didn't signal this sudden death and it came as a surprise - a real 'I didn't see that coming' moment. The second novel told us almost from the start that one of the characters wasn't going to see old age. (I'm not going to say which novels, as they're both current.)

With the first novel it's easy to see why a writer would choose to kill off a character - it's an unexpected twist. The drawback is that, because the death comes close to the end, after the character is killed off, the book loses impetus and fades out a bit. This is because the unexpected death doesn't tie in with any particular theme - except possibly the randomness of life (and death). The writer in me suspected that the author used the death as a convenient plot 'Get Out of Jail Free' card, and the reader in me resented that.

However, I think bumping off a main character unexpectedly can work - if you get the timing right. Do it early enough in the book, and the reader realises that this book could go anywhere - Absolute Power by David Baldacci is a great, page turning example of this. (And in Executive Action, a daft film where Steven Seagal - known super hero - dies right at the beginning, leaving saving the universe down to Kurt Russell.)

With the second novel, I'm assuming the writer wanted to add tension to the story - yes, this character is going to die young, but when? how? The drawback for me was that, I disengaged with the character at that point. Put crudely, if she was going to snuff it, why spend much of my attention on her? And in plot terms, knowing beforehand actually reduced the mystery of the plot as it explained why and how two apparently loose ends were going to be tied up.

But it can be done well. At the very beginning of The Secret History by Donna Tartt we learn that one of the friends has been murdered by one of the other friends - but we don't know which one. The novel unfolds with this big question throbbing away underneath it: who dunnit? why? At the very, very end we discover the answer.

I've not killed off any of my main characters - so far. But when I teach I'm always talking about change being the engine for moving a story forward. The absolute removal of a character is about as complete a change as you can have and one which can, unless you're careful, stop the story completely. One to be handled with care...

PS If you want to know which novels I am referring to, email me sarah@sarahduncan.co.uk and I will Reveal All.

We're All On The Same Road

2011-10-12T06:27:00.002+01:00

Term has started, and I've got quite a few new students to add to my regular attendees. Some have written lots, a couple haven't started writing anything yet, but at whatever stage, joining an established class can be daunting - possibly intimidating.

I know that when I first went to a writing class I was awestruck by the standard of the writing and felt very out of place, given my inexperience. But writing isn't a competition with other people. The only competition is with yourself: trying to be better each time.

I think that being a writer is like starting a journey. We're all on the same road together - you, me, everyone. Some of us are a bit further ahead than others. Some of us are travelling fast, others are going at a more leisurely pace. Sometimes people have a great patch and start zooming ahead, overtaking like mad, only to slow down and be overtaken in turn. Sometimes you can hit a patch when you think you've gone into reverse...

But whatever your speed, regardless of whether you're driving in fits and starts or going a steady pace, you are on exactly the same road as all the other writers. And like all the other writers, there isn't actually a final destination. The road goes on and on, and the writers carry on, hoping to improve their skills, their ability to communicate. The road only stops when you stop writing.

So, whoever you are, and what ever your level, don't compare yourself to other writers. We're all on the same road. All you have to do is enjoy the journey.

Anyone in Bristol/S. Glos area? I'm speaking at Patchway Library on Thursday 13th at 7.00 - Details here!

Managing an Info Dump

2011-10-11T06:46:00.002+01:00

There are times when you simply have to give the reader a wodge of information, also known as exposition, also known as an Info Dump. How best to go about it?

The obvious response is to include it within the dialogue - A asks B questions, B answers, giving A - and the reader - the necessary information. There can be several problems with this approach:

1. The amount of information needed means the exchange has to go on for pages - remember that dialogue plays out in roughly the same amount of time on the page as it would in real life.

2. A can look like an idiot as they keep having to give little prompts: Go on, what happened next, and then? It's like those interviews on TV where you keep cutting to shots of the interviewer nodding away (these are even called 'noddies' in the business).

3. If A is also likely to know the information they look even more like an idiot. You sometimes see it on programmes like Time Team when one of the experts interviews another expert: So, when did the Romans leave Britain? Around the UK you can hear people shouting at the TV saying, You KNOW that.

So what to do instead?

1. Be up front.

Have A asked the initial question, then allow B to give all the information needed in a big chunk. Yes, people don't usually give long monologues in conversation, but there are occasions when people shut up and listen and it's often better than chopping the info into speech sized pieces.

2. Use summary.

'So, did the Romans use concrete?' A asked.

'They were masters at making concrete,' B said with a smile before launching into a long monologue about how Roman concrete was stronger than any concrete used until the end of the C20th, how they used special materials from volcanic regions to make the strongest concrete, and how the formulae had only recently been uncovered.

3. If your viewpoint character knows the information, then put some of it into their thoughts rather than in dialogue.

'So, did the Romans use concrete?' A asked.

'They were masters at making concrete,' B said, wondering if A was genuinely interested, or only being polite. Roman concrete was stronger than any concrete used until the end of the C20th because they used special materials from volcanic regions to make the strongest concrete. But would A be interested in all that? Or even some of it? 'They've only recently discovered the formulae the Romans used,' B said, watching A to gauge their reaction.

If you've decided against hiding the info dump in dialogue, there are alternatives:

1. You could have A read a newspaper/magazine article which contains the information. This would mean you'd have to write it through A's eyes.

2. You could print the newspaper/magazine article in its entirety. Then the reader decides what they make of it - you often see this when A is stupider than B, so B then has to explain the significance.

3. You could use the authorial voice to give the information. If you take this option, then make sure the authorial voice is nuanced just as you would a character's voice. John Irvine is a good example of a writer using the authorial voice to give information. Dan Brown is not.

I think I've used most of these techniques in my time - just remember that the reader needs to be entertained as well as informed.

Anyone in Bristol/S. Glos? I'm speaking at Patchway Library on Thursday 13th at 7.00 - Details here!

How Does The Money Work

2011-10-10T06:44:00.002+01:00

OMG! You've got a deal with a Bix Six publisher! It's a one-book deal for £20,000 - break open the champagne and book the holiday of your dreams.

STOP!!!

Sadly, while you should definitely break open the champagne, hold back with the big spending. A publishing deal doesn't mean you getting the money in one wodge, it's a staggered payment. Plus, your agent is going to be taking a cut from it, 10% or more usually nowadays, 15%. That's £2000 - £3000 gone immediately. You're now playing with £17,000.

This is likely to come in several stages:

1: Signature of contract
2: Acceptance of manuscript
3: Publication of hardback
4: Publication of paperback

There are variations on the stages: if your manuscript is already completed, Stage 1 & 2 are combined so there are only 3 stages; if it's only coming out in hardback or paperback, then again that's down to 3 stages.

So if it's 4 stages, that's £4250 per stage, 3 stages is £6333. Nice money, but it doesn't have the same woo-hoo qualities as £20,000. Especially when it may be spread out over a couple of years.

I signed my deal in October 2002, when I got Stage 1. I had to wait until January 2004 for Stage 2 for hardback publication, and May 2004 for Stage 3. In other words, the money was spread out over 20 months.

Let's suppose you've signed a £40,000, 2 book deal. Woo-hoo! Book A is finished, Book B is just a synopsis. It's October 2011, they've decided the perfect time for your book to be published is April. It takes about a year for a publisher to produce a book so that's not going to be April 2012, but 2013. That means that Book B is scheduled for April 2014. Because Book A is finished, it's on a 3 stage payment. Book B is but a couple of pixels on your laptop, so it's on a 4 stage payment. Here goes...

October 2011: Stage 1 (of 3) signature/delivery Book A = £6333, Stage 1 (of 4) signature Book B = £4250
November 2011: Nothing
December 2011: Nothing
January 2012: Nothing
February 2012: Nothing
March 2012: Nothing
April 2012: Nothing
May 2012: Nothing
June 2012: Nothing
July 2012: Nothing
August 2012: Nothing
September 2012: Nothing
October 2012: Nothing
November 2012: Nothing
December 2012: Stage 2 (of 3) hardback Book A = £6333
January 2013: Nothing
February 2013: Nothing
March 2012: Nothing
April 2013: Stage 3 (of 3) paperback Book A = £6333
May 2013: Nothing
June 2013: Stage 2 (of 4) Delivery of ms for Book B = £4250
July 2013: Nothing
August 2013: Nothing
September 2013: Nothing
October 2013: Nothing
November 2013: Nothing
December 2013: Stage 3 (of 4) hardback Book B = £4250
January 2014: Nothing
February 2014: Nothing
March 2014: Nothing
April 2014: Stage 4 (of 4) paperback Book B = £4250

Hopefully at some point in 2013 you're signing a deal for Book C and Book D, so more money will pitch up then. And other rights sales may help out, as will royalty payments if you get them, and PLR from the libraries. But I hope you can see why people say "Don't give up the day job" when you sign your first deal.

How Much Money Might I Get?

2011-10-07T06:49:00.000+01:00

I was part of an industry panel recently and at the Q&A bit someone asked how much they might get if they sold their novel. There was lots of umming and ahhing, and the concensus was 'it depends' and 'how long is a piece of string'.

This is true - you might get offered anything from a few hundred pounds to a few hundred thousand pounds. But I thought it might be worth putting down some sweeping generalisations about money.

When my first book was about to be sent out to publishers back in 2002, my agent told me that she wouldn't accept less than £10,000 for commercial fiction, and £2000 for literary. Those figures reflect roughly the minimum expected sales figures for a first novel from an unknown writer published by a Big Six publisher (that's the major companies like Random House and Hachette).

At that time, however, there was quite a bit of money around so hearing about deals for new writers at around £25,000 - 30,000 per book (literary or commercial) wasn't unusual. I'm not hearing that for new authors now - half that seems common. Very occasionally there'd be a mega deal for a first time writer, up into 6 figures. Rare then, rarer now (although it does happen).

Outside the Big Six publishers, expected minimum sales are lower, and the advances also lower. There are several established publishing companies that routinely offer advances of around £500 per book. It's not a way to get rich quick!

The level of the advance will determine the level of marketing spend the company means to give your book. A high 5 or 6 figure deal means a serious marketing spend, including advertising, special deals at supermarkets. My first book went out to reviewers in a red foil padded envelope and included all sorts of freebies the highlight of which was a specially printed pair of knickers (this is TRUE!) and there was also a deal with La Senza and WH Smiths.

This level of spend guarantees good sales. However, even good sales can be disappointing if a lot of money has been spent both on buying and marketing a book. I've met several authors who were dropped after getting great deals because their sales didn't live up to the money spent.

At the other end of the scale, traditionally low advances meant no marketing spend. However, this may well not be true for some of the new independent publishers who make up for the low money up front by having imaginative and enthusiastic marketing campaigns. If my choice was between a new publisher or an established (but not Big Six) publisher, I'd very much be looking at the marketing plan, rather then the money offered up front.

After all, an advance is an advance against royalties. If the book sells well, you 'earn out' your advance and receive more money. A small advance means you'll earn out quickly, and get more money.

Then there are other rights. These include foreign rights - you'll get some money from every country your agent sells your book to: small countries mean small cheques, bigger countries bigger cheques - large print rights, audio rights, serialisation rights. (It used to be that hardback rights and paperback rights were sold seperately, but now most publishing deals are for both together.)

So, in answer to how much money you might get, it depends, how long is a piece of string, a few hundred to a few hundred thousand. But, like winning the lottery, you're more likely to get a tenner than millions.

Setting Writing Goals

2011-10-06T06:40:00.001+01:00

I'm a sucker for management speak, I am. So when I first heard about making targets SMART I loved it. SMART stands for:

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-framed.

So, instead of saying, I want to write a novel, you say: I want to write 2000 words a day of my novel so I have a first draft by Christmas.

(BTW If you started this particular SMART target today, you'd actually end up with 140,000 words in your Christmas stocking. Now, that is an encouraging/scary thought.)

However, it's important to remember that some goals are not under your control. I will never be a super-model, how ever hard I might want to be, because I'm simply too short and the wrong build, and no amount of wishing or hard work will make me taller or a slimmer-build.

So when you set your goals, as well as making them SMART, make them under your control:

- Getting a publishing deal or agent isn't under your control, but sending out 6 submission packages every month is.

- Writing 2000 words while your toddler is having a day time nap is, sadly, not under your control, but organising a baby sitter is.

- Getting 1000 followers on your blog isn't under your control, writing good blog posts and commenting on other people's blogs is.

Having goals that are out of your control is depressing. Make sure achieving your goals is essentially up to you.

Is A Writer's Notebook Essential?

2011-10-05T06:26:00.001+01:00

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer must carry a notebook around with them at all times, preferably a Moleskine notebook as used by Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin.

Um, no. At least, not this writer. I have tried carrying around a notebook, and it's jolly useful for jotting down a shopping list. I've also added brilliant ideas for books and articles, and amazing titles. I've dutifully written down hilarious snatches of overheard conversation. And then either I lose the notebook or I forget about it.

If I do find it, I discover that the snatches of conversation make no sense out of context, or simply aren't funny. The brilliant titles aren't that brilliant, and nor are the articles and book ideas.

For me, carting a notebook around is adding yet another bit of stuff to my handbag. That's not to say you shouldn't do it, because if it works for you then yippee and hooray. But it doesn't work for me.

All writing advice should be taken with a hefty dollop of salt. Try everything, but don't feel you have to stick with it if it doesn't work for you. Some of us need detailed plots before starting, others write into the blue. Some of us need silence, others want noise when they write. Some of us write thousands of words a day, others struggle to complete a few hundred.

Who cares how you got there and what tools you used? There isn't a 'right' way to write, there is only your way. All that matters is you get there in the end, notebook or not.

The 80:20 Rule and How To Make It Work For You

2011-10-04T06:58:00.001+01:00

I was having a cup of tea with fabulous children's author Liz Kessler (I mean, she's fab, tho I suspect her readership is pretty fab too). She was saying how she starts working at 8am, and goes straight through to 3pm. Pretty impressive stuff. Then she said that all the stuff she was busy doing was promotional work, such as answering fan mail, organising appearences at lit fests, speaking at schools, Twitter etc. By 3 in the afternoon she was exhausted because she'd been working non-stop - but somehow she hadn't done a smidgeon of actual writing.

Oh, how I agreed with her (while feeling faint at the thought about starting at 8 and going on to 3 - I mean, how could I possibly miss Bargain Hunt?). I can cheerfully spend my working day doing the following:

Twitter

Sorting out my blog - posting and comments

Reading other people's blogs

Commenting on other people's blogs

Reading articles on books/publishing

Facebook (tho I'm not very good at it)

Email - fan stuff, OFAH stuff, agenty, editory, publicisty stuff, organising meetings etc

Reading other people's novels

Reading other people's writing

Plotting and planning my brilliant career (Ha ha)

Writing articles for magazines

Writing short stories for magazines

All of it is relevant and essential to being a writer, and while I'm doing it I'm patting myself on the back that I'm busy at work, but none of it actually contributes a single word to my main project: the new book.

Round about this time of year there's usually a helpful article in the paper about how women wear about 20% of their wardrobe all the time, and the remaining 80% never. The article then goes on to advise decluttering and sorting clothes into keep, store, charity and chuck.

I think it's all too easy for us writers to spend 80% of our time on all the peripheral stuff, and about 20% on the actual writing. I made a conscious decision last Spring to declutter my working day. My equivalent of keep, store, charity and chuck went like this:

No Twitter until lunch time

No Twitter in the evening

Don't read all those articles about the death of publishing

Don't read everything about epublishing

Make notes about blog posts at the weekend so they're ready to roll when it's time

Post on the blog Monday-Friday rather than every day of the week

Make notes on future projects but don't actually DO anything unless the word target for the day has been reached

Set a timer for reading other people's blog posts - max of 30 minutes a day

Stop being neurotic about answering every email the second I get it

Minimise Facebook and don't get sucked into LinkedIn

Now mornings are for writing, and everything else has been shunted to the afternoon or evening. I still haven't got an 80:20 split in writing's favour, but it's getting better - more like 50:50. And has the world come to an end? Nope.

Any other good tips for getting the balance round in writing's favour?

Does Your Age Matter?

2011-10-03T06:54:00.000+01:00

Someone who came to one of my recent talks said that they'd been told not to bother - they were too old to get either an agent or a publisher. They wanted to know if I thought this was right. My immediate reaction was No!

Firstly, several people who I know are OAPs have come to my classes and have received book deals from mainstream publishers. I don't know exactly how old they are, but definitely beyond retirement age (I believe one lady is well into her 70s). I've also heard from other first time 65+ authors who have recently had book deals.

So age doesn't appear to matter - if you have written a good book. Where I think age may count against you is if your book is borderline good, so you need to do all you can to counteract this. The relevant factors are:

Career span - how many more books are you going to produce? Money is made from authors writing more than one book, so if you're older you need to stress that you've got more than one book in you. One of my former students has had 9 books published and is busy writing number 10.

Marketability - yes, photogenic is useful, but so is a good story. If you're older, you should have some interesting life experience that could be used for publicity (beyond OAP writes book, which has been done several times before). Think about what you could use from your life story to sell your book.

Self promotion - like it or not (and most of us don't) authors are expected to do a lot of self promotion. It's becoming a factor that sways decisions. No one knows how old you are on-line, and there's nothing to stop you blogging/Twittering/building a social media platform. If you say you're too old to do all that, then you may have to accept you're too old to get published. If, on the other hand, you're prepared to throw yourself into promotion, then you're not to old. It's your attitude that counts here, not your physical age.

Finally, why would you (or anyone else) mention your age on a submission letter? It never occurred to me to give my age. I don't think either my agent or my editor know it now, and I don't know theirs. It seems especially daft if you think it might deter an agent. Why do it? Yes, if they like your manuscript so much they want to meet up, then you'll have to reveal yourself, but by that stage they'll be pretty keen and it's unlikely to be an issue.

I think the real answer is to write a good book that no one can turn down, and then you can be any age you choose.

Good, Bad or Effective?

2011-09-30T06:05:00.002+01:00

People talk about good writing, or bad writing. Then there's trash. Personally I think using words like good or bad aren't helpful when it comes to writing the stuff. The word I prefer is effective.

Effective writing does exactly what the author wants it to do. If you want them to laugh, then effective writing will make it happen. If you want them to cry, or be scared, or be stunned by your use of language, your writing is effective if it gets that result.

When I'm looking at student work, I'm looking to see how effective it is. Is it doing what the author intends it to do? If, for example, it's fantasy I might be looking to see how effective the author is at creating the milieu of the invented world. If it's a thriller, I'll be checking to see that there's tension running through each sentence and that the pace is right. If it was a more literary piece of writing, I'd be looking at the effectiveness of the language and character creation.

Writing is all about communicating. You have an idea or a story, and you want to pass it across to me. Because we're not telepathic, we have to use writing as an interface between our imaginations. The more clearly your idea or story is expressed on the page, the more easily it reaches me.

Tell me this story you have in your head, about these characters. If I understand it just the way you intended then your writing is effective. If I get out of it just what you wanted me to do, then it's effective.

I think writing has to be judged by its own standards. Does it achieve what it set out to do? Not good, not bad, but effective.

How Much Writing Success Should Your Writing Tutor Have Had?

2011-09-29T06:46:00.001+01:00

This was raised on another blog, and I thought it was an interesting question. I don't have any answers, but these are my thoughts, in no particular order.

1. I'm a better teacher now than when I started teaching, but it's not my personal writing success that's made me so, it's my experience as a creative writing teacher plus lots and lots and lots of thinking and reading about creative writing.

2. When I started going to writing classes, I wanted someone who'd had some success with their writing. I didn't have confidence in someone who hadn't achieved publication in some form. I still feel that way, and cringe when I hear of someone teaching who hasn't actually been published (unless they've got other professional publishing experience, such as having been an editor).

3. When I was on my MA some of the feedback the other students gave was excellent, some was not. There was no correlation between the quality of the feedback and the student's previous success or experience. However, those people who gave good feedback went on to have publishing success while those who didn't, didn't.

4. There is publishing success and publishing success. Self publishing a book, however you dress it up, means you have sidestepped the quality question. I'm not saying all self published books are bad, just they haven't been through an external quality assessment process and backed by someone else's money. I've seen people announce that they are published, when actually they mean self published, or published by a vanity press.

5. I am successfully published by most people's standards, but I could no more give useful advice on poetry than I could run a marathon. If poetry was your thing, you'd do better with an unpublished but knowledgeable tutor than you would with published but ignorant me.

6. I have high standards and want my students to set themselves high standards too. Even if I'm teaching a leisure course I want them to work hard. That's not for everyone. Some people are happy for their writing to be way down their list of priorities, and that's fine - but I may not be the best person for them.

7. Similarly, I'm not a great person for touchy-feely navel gazing, although I hope I'm sensitive to people's vulnerabilities and encouraging to the tentative. Some tutors are touchy-feely and like navel gazing, and if that's what you want, why not? In other words, the personality of the tutor may be more important than their publishing history.

8. If you were writing to go through a lot of personal stuff then you'd be better working with someone who has experience of this. There are courses around of writing for therapeutic purposes, and there are people trained in this area. Their experience would count far more than their publishing history.

9. Some tutors are very sniffy about some forms of writing - I've heard of students on MA courses in particular having their work dismissed as not worthy, simply because of the genre they wanted to write in. It would be more important to have someone as a tutor who was open to what you wanted to write but was perhaps not a super successful writer themselves, than someone who was a starry literary name, but dismissed your work and undermined your confidence.

10. Related to the above, you may be sniffy about what the tutor writes, in which case you won't have confidence in what they say. You may be right, you may be wrong, but if you don't have confidence in them, they are the wrong tutor for you.

OK, so that's my thinking. What do you reckon?

Watching Late Night Films

2011-09-28T06:25:00.001+01:00

Oh dear, we've all done it. That film that we've quite fancied watching is on TV but quite late in the evening. We decide to watch 5 minutes, just to see how it goes, and hours later we're still glued to the sofa, bug eyed and desperate for bed, longing for the film to end but somehow unable to stop watching.

Unless it's on Film 4 or some other commercial channel, which gives us handy cop-out sessions in the form of commercial breaks. It's one thing to leave a film when it's in full swing, quite another to leave when the programmer has decided to break it into sections and give us ads for insurance companies in the breaks.

Novels have breaks too, in the form of chapters. As writers, we want to keep our readers glued to the book late into the night, so we don't want them to use the excuse of the chapter break to put the book down. This means we have to think about the ending of each chapter very carefully.

Does it make the reader want to read 'just the first page' of the next chapter? Once we've got them reading the first page of the next chapter they're bound to carry onto the next, and the next. Ways to make the reader stay with the book are by using what could be crudely called cliffhangers. Examples of a cliffhanger could be the arrival of an unexpected character or the making of an unexpected announcement. It could be something that is unresolved, a niggling question, or a statement that is left hanging in the air.

It doesn't matter what it is, so long as it doesn't help the reader put the book down. Examples of things that help you put the book down would include questions resolved without new ones being raised or characters going to sleep (this works by suggestion).

But chapter ends are only the most visible form of break. There are usually spaces after scenes, so you really need some hook to get people reading on after a scene ends. And readers can break away from the text mid-scene for example to check something someone said earlier, or if they're puzzled over the use of a particular word. Any time a reader gets confused and pulls away from the story world you've created for your novel then potentially you've lost them.

Your writing should be so smooth that before they know it, they're the ones stuck on the sofa, bug-eyed and desperate for bed, but unable to stop reading. In effect, your aim as a writer is to induce sleep deprivation in your readership.

JMW Turner Has Advice For Writers

2011-09-27T06:29:00.002+01:00

One day the artist JMW Turner was out sketching. An admirer offered to buy his sketch which Turner agreed to, saying the price was 60 guineas.

'60 Guineas! But it only took you 10 minutes.'

'Ah yes,' JMW Turner is supposed to have replied. '10 minutes, and 40 years of experience.'

I'm dredging my memory of my Art History degree for this anecdote, so it may not be 100% accurate, but it came to mind when I was giving feedback to those 40 first pages a couple of weekends ago. I've given feedback to so many writers over the past 15 years that it doesn't take much time for me to analyse a text and spot what may be holding the author back. People sometimes are amazed that it only takes a few minutes for me to see something that they haven't despite hours of slaving away at their work. Well, a) I'm an outsider and b) I've done it before. 10 minutes, and 15 years experience in my case.

As well as reading other people's work, I've written quite a few words of my own - well over a million I think, given my prediliction for cutting vast chunks out of my early drafts. The more I write, the easier and quicker it is to write. Similarly writing this blog. Posts took ages at the beginning. Now ideas come often, and take less time to write up.

People sometimes ask me for a possible timescale to publication, and the immediate answer has to be: no one knows. A deal could turn up tomorrow, or never.

But I think JMW Turner suggests another answer. The time it takes will be directly related to the amount of time - writing, reading, giving and getting critiques, researching the publishing business, promoting yourself etc - that you put into it.

Little Hooks Catch Bigger Fish

2011-09-26T06:34:00.000+01:00

Last week I wrote about the importance of establishing 'Normal World' before having something super-dramatic happen. When I give this as feedback people often say, 'But I've been told to start with a hook, that's why I started with the car crash/presumed dead father turning up/announcement of pregnancy.'

But the event itself is not a hook. The hook is the promise that a dramatic event is in the offing.

Think about these scenarios:

1. You are told that thousands of people have just died in an earthquake in Paraguay.

2. You are told that your neighbour has been in a hit-and-run incident and is in a coma.

We are upset by both these events, but the chances are that the one that really affects you is the second because you know your neighbour and also because it could have been you. You are directly involved. It's not the size of the drama that matters, it's the degree of involvement.

So, if we were writing this, we'd need to establish the characters, whether they were the neighbour or a Paraguayan. This sets up the dramatic event - remember, it's knowing the characters that makes it dramatic, otherwise it's just another headline in the papers.

But the event is not the hook. The hook is a promise that there will be an event.

I haven't watched Casualty for ages, but it always started with the viewer seeing a series of characters doing things - crossing the street while talking in a mobile phone, about to climb a ladder to fix a roof tile, getting into a car saying 'It's all right, I'm not over the limit.' Part of the fun was guessing which one was going to end up in hospital. That was the hook.

Hooks are usually small.

'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.'

(From Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.) Where or what is Manderley? Why is the character dreaming of it? Then we learn that Manderley is a ruin - why? What's happened? And all the time we're learning how the place is ruined, we're also learning that the narrator knew it when it was a great house. We want to know what happened - that's the hook.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that..." I probably don't have to carry on for you to recognise this one from Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen). The same is true for:

"All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." (Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy.)

These are not dramatic events. But they're promises of what is to come. We know that P&P is going to be about getting married well, and AK is going to be about unhappy families. Detective stories start with the body - dramatic, yes, but the hook is that we're going to discover who dunnit. It's not about the body.

The order runs: Hook (the promise), the characters (so we care), then the event. Remember: The hook is the promise of the event, not the event itself.

Keeping Description Going

2011-09-23T06:21:00.003+01:00

Description falls into the same category as exercise and meals when dieting: little and often.

At feedback feedback sessions I frequently see pieces of writing which have no description whatsoever in them. I suggest some would be a good idea; without it, the reader can't place the characters who are so busily talking to each other. It's as if they are floating in time and space, disembodied heads nattering away.

The writer says that they've already included lots of description in the bit that comes just before this. (This is often stated in an end-of-subject way.) But having a wodge of description on page 10 and then nothing for the next 4 pages simply doesn't work. Readers like to do some work, but it's asking too much of them to hold an image of the location in their heads for so long. Besides, they might not read p9 - 15 in one go; it's not impossible that they will put the book down and go off and do something else. When they come back, they will be looking for clues as the location.

The answer is to feed in description throughout the action. Keep on adding little snippets about the location and the characters so the pictures are fresh in the reader's mind. In the medieval Great Hall from yesterday's post I've already mentioned the hammer beams supporting the ceiling. I could add: oak floorboards, stained glass, gargoyles, lions on coats of arms, flags and tapestries, candles...

And I could also be adding active verbs to all of them: oak floorboards (creaking), stained glass (sun shining through), gargoyles (leering), lions (rampant, of course) on coats of arms, flags and tapestries (waving, fluttering), candles (flickering, guttering)...

John stared up at the massive medieval hammer beams supporting the ceiling as he entered the Great Hall. "Wow!"

Melissa dragged her feet across the creaking oak floor. "I'm bored," she whined, flicking her long plait back over her shoulder.

John decided to ignore her. He went further into the hall, concentrating on the shields hung around the whitewashed walls. There, among the lions rampant and the unicorns couchant on many coats of arms, he might see the golden balls of his ancestor.

"Heraldry sucks big time," Melissa muttered behind him.

He spun round. She was standing in a shaft of sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows, her discontented face coloured red like blood....

Little and often, little and often.

Today! In the library! St Ives! 11.00 am. Me!

Creating Pictures as You Write

2011-09-22T06:20:00.002+01:00

One of the problems of starting out as a writer is similar to one of the problems of starting out as a driver: you over compensate. If a new driver realises they're veering too much over to the left they yank the steering wheel round to the right, then have to yank it back again to the left.

Sometimes, if you point out something to a new writer, they behave in a similar fashion. Tell them they could do with a little more detail about the location and they immediately assume you mean pages of description. But you can actually create a picture about a place from very little description.

John entered the room.

Well, there's not much there to go on. Try this:

John entered the hall.

There's a bit more information, but the picture it creates is hazy.

John entered the Great Hall.

One extra word and the capitalisation might be enough for you but...

John entered the medieval Great Hall.

...you might need some confirmation.

John stared up at the massive medieval hammer beams supporting the ceiling as he entered the Great Hall.

This conveys far more information and becomes easier for us to imagine the room that John has entered and a little bit about John's attitude, especially if we add...

John stared up at the massive medieval hammer beams supporting the ceiling as he entered the Great Hall. "Wow!"

Okay, it's more words than we started with, but it's still under 20. So you don't need to add that much description to enable the reader to create a picture in their heads of your story world.

Anyone in St Ives for the September Festival? I'm giving a talk on Friday 23rd September at 11.00 am in St Ives Library. Go to t he website for more info.

Have Aliens Beamed Down Into Your Novel?

2011-09-21T06:43:00.002+01:00

Sometimes people write to find out what happened to characters in my novels after The End. It sounds strange, but I know what all of them have gone on to do - although none of their continuing stories have been interesting enough for me to make into an new novel. But when you're writing a novel it's much more important to know what had been happening to the characters before the start of the novel.

Another common problem in the 40 first pages I read at the weekend was that characters appeared to have beamed down from outer space into the story. They'd been hanging around like featureless homunculi ready for some alien force to dump them into the action. They had no pasts or presents, only futures.

I'm a real person. As I'm sitting typing this I'm thinking obviously about the blog post. But at the back of my mind I'm thinking about last Saturday's event, and the couple of first pages that had characters that were tabula rasas and how I explained the alien concept to the writers. I'm also aware that my partner's going to pitch up quite soon. Later on, I need to make a few phone calls. Oh, and there'll be some writing to do - I've got a tricky scene to get stuck into. So all this is bubbling away in my head as I type. If a letter arrived now announcing that I've inherited a million pounds...

Yes, the stuff that's bubbling away now would be put on hold for a bit, but it's still there. My life exists independently of the exciting bits. The same is true for characters. They have to have stuff bubbling away, plans that they're making for the future, thinking over things in the past. It doesn't have to be on a grand scale - perhaps this is where knowing what a character had for breakfast could come in handy - but it has to be there to make the character appear to have a life outside the story.

It's this life outside the novel that makes character appear real.

Anyone in St Ives for the September Festival? I'm giving a talk on Friday 23rd September at 11.00 am in St Ives Library. Go to t he website for more info.

The Importance Of Normal World

2011-09-20T06:12:00.002+01:00

I was speaking at a Writers Day at the weekend. As part of the day we asked participants to bring in their first pages, which they got feedback on. 40 first pages later, and it was clear that certain issues were common to many of the first pages. Some were just down to editing, but one issue was Normal World, or rather, the lack of it.

Imagine these starts to a novel:

1. A character opens a letter - they've inherited a million pounds! Now they can go on the holiday of their dreams.

2. A character is having breakfast when they hear the letterbox rattles. They collect the post - a few bills and a letter. It contains the information that they've inherited a million pounds! Now they can go on the holiday of their dreams.

3. A character is talking to their family about their forthcoming holiday trip to a caravan in Norfolk. They've worked over-time and saved every penny to afford the two weeks and it means everything to them. One of the children is rubbishing the holiday - all their friends go abroad. The character defends the holiday: it will be miles better than abroad will be, lying on a pool by a lounger is awful etc. The letter box rattles and they collect the post, but they can't open the letters now, they've got to do the school run and then go to their job doing something that is poorly paid but gives great personal satisfaction. At lunch they remember the letter. It contains the information that they've inherited a million pounds! Now they can go on the holiday of their children's dreams and give up the badly paid job. But should they?

Normal World is the world of the main character before the story proper starts - in this case, the inciting incident (as the film world calls it) is the discovery that the character has inherited a million pounds.

Example 1 starts with no information about Normal World at all so the incident, while exciting, doesn't have much meaning. If the character was incredibly rich, for example, a million wouldn't have much impact at all.

Example 2 offers a little bit more information about Normal World - we'd be able to place the character by the sort of breakfast they were eating, the house they were living in, but we still don't see much meaning in the discovery.

Example 3 establishes Normal World. We learn a little bit about the character - hardworking, proud, parent etc. This means that the reader can appreciate that the discovery will have a huge impact on the character's life. It also suggests that the discovery might be negative or positive.

I learnt this lesson with Another Woman's Husband. I started with the discovery that will rock the main character's world, but my editor wanted me to establish Normal World because the reader needed to know what the character was risking if she strayed. What was Chapter 1 became Chapter 3 in the published book, and it's all the better for it.

Anyone in St Ives for the September Festival? I'm giving a talk on Friday 23rd September at 11.00 am in St Ives Library. Go to t he website for more info.