June 2010
2 posts
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...
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...
April 2010
6 posts
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...
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...
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...
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...
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>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...
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>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...
March 2010
5 posts
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
February 2010
4 posts
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...
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...
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...
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...
January 2010
5 posts
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...
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...
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...
>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...
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...
December 2009
3 posts
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...
>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...
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...
November 2009
2 posts
>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...
>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...