Writing East Midlands: Archive

Richard: Insanity

Einstein said that a definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Now I don’t want to contradict a man with a hairstyle as wild as that but I do have to take issue with that idea. I think many people would counter that statement by suggesting that by doing the same thing over and over again what you are aiming to do is improve, whether...

Feb 1st

Richard: Writing a novel in 124 words

When someone asks me how I write my novel, I say “124 words at a time.” Okay, if I’m being truthful that’s not quite right as nobody has yet asked me how I write my novels. When someone learns I write their first question is more typically “Have I read anything you’ve written?” and when I say “It depends how much horror fiction you’ve...

Dec 16th

Richard: The power of persistence

I had a short story accepted recently and it made me think about what it takes to succeed in writing. I think I can distil it to three requirements: Imagination – which I believe is as much the ability to *identify* the potential for a story as it is the imagination to create the world, the characters, the situation etc. Technical skill – the ability to write in an engaging way that communicates...

Nov 11th

To market...to market...

There are no fat pigs in sight but there was a fat envelope when I sent “Bloodie Bones” off to TLC. But this was where I came unstuck as I sent the first three chapters and calculated I had a couple of weeks to type up the last few amendments before anyone would be close to asking for the rest of the novel. How wrong I was! Within a day TLC contacted to ask if I could send the full typescript. Cue...

Oct 27th

Richard: On the other side of the table

I haven’t blogged for a while as my work on Bloodie Bones has been low profile (editing, editing and more editing) but now I’m coming to the end of that I thought I’d better explain what I’ve been doing. I have just returned from a weekend at “Fantasycon” in Brighton where authors of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror meet. I’d never attended Fantasycon before (I don’t write Fantasycon, so it was...

Oct 4th

Richard: push on through to the other side

At the moment Bloodie Bones is taking a rest while I wait for the response from the second reading to come in from The Literary Consultancy. So I could kick back and catch up on some TV and books. Nah I started my new novel and I’m roughly 1/3 of the way through (32,000 words) after a month. Now comes the tricky part. In my experience the opening of a novel is fuelled by the white heat of...

Jun 1st

Richard: Glass jaws and all

I spent an afternoon in York with Mark Morris reading through Bloodie Bones. After four hours in a pub poring over 600 pages of manuscript my neck ached, my eyeballs ached, my heart ached, but I had a much better understanding of where Bloodie Bones sat in the great scheme of things. I would recommend the process to any writer. Having someone else read through my entire novel, someone who...

May 24th

Richard: Fornits

I’ve been to my fair share of writing classes and writing workshops and writing groups, and one thing that comes up regularly is how to come up with ideas. I have to say, for me this isn’t a problem - the problem is how to recognise which story ideas are good enough to use and how to focus on one idea to the exclusion of all others for the duration of the project. Now that last one is...

Apr 27th

Richard: The art of growing a thick skin

I’ve received my initial feedback from one of the readers who has received Bloodie Bones and I’ve now agreed with TLC who their reader will be. To recap: I’m receiving a read from TLC as part of the mentoring scheme (Kindly sponsored by Writing East Midlands… just to give them another plug!) but I had concerns that they wouldn’t be able to allocate a reader with experience of the horror...

Apr 15th

Richard: Literary prize winner!

With all the furore over the printing and submission of “Bloodie Bones” last week it completely slipped my mind to declare (in big letters, with a smattering of fireworks and a fanfare of trumpets) I have won a literary award! I hear you ask, “how could you forget to mention this?” I also hear you cry “but the Booker shortlist is announced in September and your name...

Apr 7th

Richard: Baby steps, and more baby steps

I’ve just realised that in previous posts I often talk about these huge leaps I am taking: I started off in February last year with a leap of faith and finished my last blog talking about great leaps into the unknown. Apart from making it sound like I’m some moon-bound superhuman lolloping all over the place, it’s not true. Writing isn’t about great leaps (at least, not for...

Mar 30th

Richard: What next?

…and now the end is near, and so I face, the final curtain… Or something like that. Well, I’ve managed a year under the mentoring scheme (Or should that be that the mentoring scheme has managed a year with me?) and I’ve had the final session returned to me by Miranda. I thought this was an opportune moment to look at what happens next: Find an agent. Get a multi-million...

Mar 4th

Richard: A matter of balance

This is what I have on my writing plate at the moment: Editing Bloodie Bones Editing the following short stories: Sweets, Inside/out, Tag, The Watching Post, The Heart Stone, Retreat, SkyDogs, The Ballad of Pete Fanshaw Submitting stories for publication Finishing the short story I’m currently writing Writing my section of the short story I’m collaborating on with Stuart Typing...

Feb 15th

Richard: Motivation

With session 6 on its way to Miranda I thought I’d take a moment out to consider another favourite topic. It’s a tough gig, this writing game. You labour on a novel for years and, at least for me, I’m the back of my mind is the evil little voice saying ‘what’s the point? A handful of agents might read the first page, some of them might even read all three chapters,...

Jan 25th

1 note

Richard: Review of the year

I couldn’t get Miranda Hart or Jools Holland, and I know it’s a bit late, but I thought it was worth doing a quick spin over 2010. For me the highlight was probably the World Horror Convention. As well as meeting everyone who’s anyone in the world of horror (Well, almost everyone…) I had the opportunity to read the first two chapters of “Bloodie Bones” to a captive audience. Hot on the heels of...

Jan 3rd

Richard: recurring themes

I was going to write this about the selection for my next session (session 5 of 6) and then I realised I’ve written about that before, in fact it feels like I’ve written too often about the angst of what to cover. I started thinking instead about why it seems so important. For me, perhaps the greatest lesson I’ll take from the mentoring scheme so far is how to assess my own...

Dec 8th

Richard: Research

I tend to be “research-lite” but one of the key pieces of feedback I’ve received from Miranda has been in respect of the need to make the location real. At this point I’m now regretting setting the novel in Yorkshire (where I don’t live) and partly in the Medieval ages (where I have never lived!). The subject of research is an interesting one - I tend to avoid...

Nov 21st

Richard: Who am I?

This may seem like an odd subject for a blog.. but bear with me! I’ve recently been reading (in a Cemetery Dance article) about the need to establish your identity as a writer, in particular the need to have a name which can be recognised by your readers. For example, if I were to write a story under the pen name Stephen King there’s a possibility that an editor might assume that they...

Oct 6th

Richard: Draft 5 - distance

I finished draft 4 of “Bloodie Bones” in August and left it to rest for a while. This allowed me to get on with a few other projects (short stories screaming to be written and a short children’s novel) but more importantly it allowed me to put some distance between me and the work.. and that has paid dividends. It’s worth considering that there are some passages in Bloodie...

Sep 25th

Richard: Half term report

I started on the mentoring scheme in January so I thought now would be an opportune time to review the first six months. So what have I achieved so far? This year I’ve had short stories published in Morpheus Tales and Midnight Echo, and I’ve had another two short stories accepted for publication in other magazines. I read the first two chapters of ‘Bloodie Bones’ at the...

Aug 9th

Richard: A busy week

On my last post I spoke about developing an action plan following my time at Alt Fiction as the weekend. So one week on, how am I doing? A quick run through my “to do” list and I can cross off some of my tasks: I’ve written this post (when I finish it!) , I have signed up with the British Fantasy Society, and I have started to look at my web presence. This is a strange phenomenon and could come...

Jun 29th

Richard: Action plan!

I’ve been to Alt Fiction this weekend in Derby (an event supported by Writing East Midlands!) and I’ve come away with my head full of plans and ideas. Perhaps the greatest “lightbulb” moment I had was something that Stephen Jones said: which is this for a genre writer attendance at conventions/conferences such as this are absolutely essential. (I had been coming to the same...

Jun 15th

Richard: Change of plan

In my last post I outlined my plans for my third session: a 10K extract focussing on the the relationship between Reverend Jenk and Agatha. Well, a lot can change in the world of writing in the space of a few days. I put the plan to Miranda and she was happy with the suggestion so I had my target of finishing session two by today and then starting work on draft 3 of the novel, initially focussing...

Apr 30th

Richard: Selecting extracts

Under the mentoring scheme I have 6 sessions with Miranda, each session comprising work of up to 10,000 words. Now this creates a challenge as the novel I have written is somewhere around 120,000 words so even my O’ level maths tells me that during the course of the mentoring scheme Miranda will see half of the novel. As I’m just about to send me second session across...

Apr 22nd

7 tags

>Jamie Extract 5

This is a short blog post. I don’t want to tempt fate. I received back an excellent report from my mentor. By some miracle I’ve pulled off all the things we were looking at. He says the opening is now a quantum leap from where we started. All the problems with overwriting and empathy and structure and show v tell are no longer there. I am happy with the first 20,000 odd words now...

Apr 13th

Richard: I know how it ends!!

This may come as a strange admission… but although I have finished writing the first draft of my novel I didn’t know how the story ended. All I did know was that the ending I had for the first draft didn’t work and needed some major revision. The second draft of the novel has resulted in significant change to the structure and content of the novel; with whole chapters being culled and new...

Apr 13th

6 tags

>Jamie Point of View

Since I received my 4th extract back from my mentor I’ve been thinking a lot about point of view. What is meant by point of view in regards fiction writing? Well, this should be obvious, it is through who’s eyes you see the story. The same story can look very different depending upon who is doing the looking. There are a few different types of point of view. First person. The novel...

Apr 6th

6 tags

>Jamie Mentoring Day

Along with the 6 extracts we get to submit we have the opportunity to attend a mentoring day in the Big Smoke. Apart from the industry figures that we got to meet there was the benefit of meeting up with the other mentees. Writing is essentially a lonely job. You spend a lot of your time on your own, making stuff up and then typing it out, deleting it all and starting again. The mentoring program...

Apr 3rd

Richard: Attending Conventions

I write within a genre (well, two actually… horror and fantasy) and that brings with it a number of advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages tend to be the way people look at me when I tell them I write horror, and start to shuffle backwards and check for hairs on my palms or the bloody axe half-hidden behind my back, and the reaction from many “mainstream” publishers and agents who look at...

Mar 31st

Richard: Pitching a novel

At the beginning of the World Horror Convention I had the opportunity to make a pitch to a number of publishers and agents working within the genre. Having never made a pitch before I did my research; I read up on all the participants, made notes on their interests and read and re-read this on the train down to Brighton. I entered the room; a small, awkwardly shaped bar where they sat behind...

Mar 27th

Richard: Reading aloud

In my last post I discussed the common advice of “reading like a writer” and my discovery of audiobooks that help me to “listen as a writer”. Well, tied in nicely with that is my topic this week: reading (aloud) as a writer! At the end of this week I shall be attending the World Horror Convention 2010. As part of that I will be reading the first two chapters of my novel...

Mar 24th

6 tags

>Jamie Extract 4

So, I’m nearing the end of my mentoring process. I’ve sent Tim 4 extracts and each time he has come back to me with something that has made me think about my writing, most of the time has taught me something and on 2 occasions has caused a major rewrite. This extract was a piece from the centre of the book. In this extract Maximilian has locked Grace in a room and is trying to piece...

Mar 16th

Richard: Reading as a writer

As an aspiring writer you’re often exposed to regular aphorisms intended to help you improve your craft: write what you know about, show don’t tell, etc One that I have always struggled with is the instruction to “read like a writer” with the warning that once you become “ a writer” the way you read a book will alter so that you will never be able to enjoy a book as you did before. I understand...

Mar 5th

Richard: First feedback

I’ve just received my first critique back from Miranda. It was based on the first 5 chapters of the novel and the issues it has identified have caused my head to whirl. The following morning I was awake at 4.30 with ideas and plots and any other number of points racing through my mind. I’ll probably expand on them in greater detail in later posts but I thought I’d mention two...

Feb 17th

Richard : C******d

I have an interesting dilemma. I submitted a short story to a publication last year and have received a response saying that they’re interested in publishing the story if I remove the profanity as the story would currently be R rated (It’s a US magazine). Coincidentally (if there is such thing as coincidence) I’ve recently been listening to Stephen King’s book “On...

Feb 12th

6 tags

>Jamie Procrastination

Procrastination. The enemy of all writers. I work during the week, so the weekend is my writing time. If I can get some writing done in the evenings then great, but Saturday and Sunday are my staple writing times. Every saturday morning I write a list of things to do that weekend. And it always starts with write 1500 words on WIP. This weekend’s looked like this: 1500 words- Not done. Send...

Feb 7th

Richard: leap of faith

After an exchange of emails with Miranda where we talked about what I was looking to achieve from the mentoring scheme, what elements of my writing I was particularly keen to focus on, and similar areas for consideration, the time has now come to step up to the oche. I’ve been submitting fiction for a number of years now and I don’t ever remember being nervous like this when...

Feb 2nd

5 tags

>Jamie Empathy

Empathy. This is a tough one. I have been told by many people wiser than me and read in many blogs that you need to create characters that your reader can feel empathy with. But, what does this mean in the context of fiction? It isn’t sympathy, although sympathy can create empathy. It isn’t a matter of liking the character either. But it is certainly one of the main components of...

Jan 30th

Richard - Matching to a mentor

I sent my work off to TLC and awaited a response. Within a few days I had a response from TLC with the name of the person who was to be my mentor. I read about the writer to be my mentor and after much heartsearching and deliberation I decided to contact TLC about the choice. In my head I’ve got a clear idea of what I want to get out of the mentoring scheme - someone to help develop me as a...

Jan 23rd

6 tags

>Jamie- extract 2

I sent my second extract to Tim still bubbling with ideas from the first response. His first crit had been about general thoughts, so I was interested to see whether the second extract would cement his opinion on the piece. I included in the package a chapter breakdown so that Tim could see where I was going with it. This in itself proved to be a worthwhile exercise. I had outlined the novel...

Jan 16th

>Richard - Starting Out

At the end of December I was delighted to be awarded a place on the mentoring scheme through Writing East Midlands. Just before Christmas I was advised that the first stage of the process is to submit a short (2,000 words) piece of work and a synopsis that would allow TLC to match me up woth potential suitors. I wrote the novel I’m working on, “Bloody Bones”, about 2 years ago...

Jan 14th

11 tags

>Jamie Overwriting

Overwriting. Over egging the pudding. Purple Prose. No, not the saucy type of Purple Prose, not the raunchy stuff. What I mean is literary masturbation. The love of the sound of your own fingers on the keyboard. An orgy of metaphor and simile. See, I’m doing it again. It turns out that I can’t help myself. It’s such a hard thing to nail down though. Where does it stop...

Jan 10th

7 tags

>Jamie- Show V Tell

When I typed Show versus Tell into Google I got 265,000,000 results. It is a term on the lips of every agent, editor and publisher and consequently at the forefront of every wannabe published novelist, but what does it mean? I thought I knew, I thought I was avoiding doing it, but Tim pointed out several examples where I was spoon-feeding huge amounts of back story into the text. He used the...

Dec 28th

>Jamie- Extract 1

The mentoring scheme works by submitting 6 pieces of up to 10,000 words to your mentor via email, who will then come back to you, usually within a week with feedback. Having slightly trimmed the prologue and removed the character studies I sent my 10,000 words to Tim and eagerly awaited his response. When it arrived I didn’t open it straight away. Critiques are a strange thing, I’ve...

Dec 24th

6 tags

>Jamie- Catch Up

Okay- some catch up to do. I’ve sent three pieces to my mentor. In that time I have finished the first draft and gone back and started a second. I’ve learned some incredibly valuable lessons and have reached a cross-roads in the way I view my novel. I’ll come back to that. I guess the best place is to start with the first piece I submitted. I started with the start. The first...

Dec 15th

>Emma - The Beginning

I’d started on my novel only the week before I heard about the mentoring scheme. I’d been concentrating on short stories, and had had some success in getting them published, but the idea for the novel was swimming around inside my head and I had finally decided it was time to let it out. I’d written about 8,000 words and a rough outline when I sent off my sample chapter. When I was accepted onto...

Nov 16th

>Jamie- The Start

I didn’t exactly have a blank page when I started the mentoring scheme. I had about 60,000 words to go on to my projected 120,000 word first draft. (I know, too long, but I intend to lose 20,000 odd on the second draft) It felt like a blank page though. I have had individual chapters critiqued on a writers forum and a couple of friends have read parts of it (never trust what friends say...

Nov 16th