2022 02 01 writing magazine

Jonathan Telfer Editor WRITERS’ NEWS 64Your essential monthly roundup of competitions, paying markets, opportunities to get into print and publishing industry news CONTENTS Never miss

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Happy new year! And

welcome to the fi rst Writing

Magazine of 2022 What

writing plans do you have for the year ahead? Do write in and let us know how you’re getting on – we love to hear what you’re all up to, whether

by email, letter, social network

or pigeon – but don’t worry, I’m not here to check you’re hitting your targets or sticking to resolutions In fact, quite the opposite All you have

to do is let yourself write, what you want, when you want (and can) It’s advice echoed by several

of this month’s authors but I was most struck by memoirist Cathy Rentzenbrink (p12), who candidly admits how hard she fi nds writing and how she uses a variety of psychological tricks to get into it

So if you’re struggling to start – or keep – writing,

go easy on yourself: nothing stifl es the creative juices more than undue pressure and the weight

of expectation and, more often than not, nobody is

tougher on us than us Celebrate the small victories

and sooner or later, they’ll turn into big ones

Now – if you feel like it – get writing!

Jonathan Telfer

Editor

WRITERS’ NEWS

64Your essential monthly roundup of competitions, paying markets,

opportunities to get into print and publishing industry news

CONTENTS

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Writing Magazine

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your story

HAPPY ENDINGSHow to wrap up your stories in style

55

WELCOME

14

56

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

14 Star interview: Swimming against the tide comes naturally for

supernatural crime bestseller Stuart Neville

22 Writing life: Is being a romance author the ultimate dream?

24 My path to publication: Writing set Saba Sams free as a teenager

32 Shelf life: Diane Chamberlain shares her top five books

39 Circles roundup: Writing groups share their news and activities

40 Subscriber news: WM subscribers’ publishing success stories

57 New author profile: Psychological thriller author Sarah Bonner

81 My writing day: Author Lori Ann Stephens writes best in her comfy chair

CREATIVE WRITING

12 Creative non-fiction: How to get started on life-writing

30 Beginners: Find out if your work-in-progress has legs

34 Under the microscope: A reader’s first 300 words critiqued

46 Fiction focus: How to create an effective ending in your stories

48 Masterclass: The possibilities of the number three in fiction

50 Fantastic realms: The journey of fantasy from its origins

52 Writing for children: A book for every child

The vital importance of celebrating difference in kids’ fiction

WRITING LIFE

10 Submissions: How to write a letter and synopsis with agent appeal

20 Writing life: The rewards and challenges of writing with dyslexia

58 The business of writing: Using promotional email newsletter services to

boost your writing business

82 Under the covers: Gillian Harvey gets the year off to a good start

ASK THE EXPERTS

9 From the other side of the desk: What publishing has learned from

lockdown

19 Ask a literary consultant: Understand different kinds of edit

60 Research tips: Youth culture

61 Behind the tape: Expert advice to get your crime details right

POETRY

54 Poetry workshop: Exploring a well-sculpted poem

56 Poetry launch: Enter WM’s annual Love Poetry Competition

COMPETITIONS AND EXERCISES

26 Free-range writing: Embrace positivity in these writing exercises

27 WM short story competition launch

28 Short story winner

38 Writers’ circles: Magic-themed exercises for your writing group

42 WM Grand Prize winner: Read our £1k Grand Prize winner

45 Grand Prize 2022 launch: Enter this year’s £1k prize

As the relentless grind of technology drags Miscellany Manors kicking and screaming into the

21st century, find out why we won’t be printing WM in binary any time soon

The world of writing

MISCELLANY

Bitcoin rules the cryptocurrency world, though it is

far from the only one In fact, there are thousands of

digital currencies, many of which would appear to have

little chance of breaking into the mainstream One that

did, briefly, and for all the wrong reasons, was called

JRR Token, and was promoted with the line that it

was, ‘The One Token That Rules Them All’ Except

it wasn’t, because the estate of JRR Tolkien went to

arbitration through the World Intellectual Property

Organization and had the whole thing blocked The

Tolkien estate noted that the cryptocurrency’s URL

was, ‘specifically designed to mislead internet users into

believing that it and the website to which it resolves

have some legitimate commercial connection’ with the

famous author and that it infringed on their trademark

in the writer’s name

The ill-fated cryptocurrency made its debut in

August last year, and even had a promotional video

starring Billy Boyd (Pippin in the film trilogy

version of The Lord of The Rings) to read its fudgy

marketing: ‘Saruman was trying to unify Middle

Earth under centralised rule whereas the fellowship

wanted decentralisation Cryptocurrency is literally a

decentralised network.’ The WIPO wasn’t having it,

and the US developer has stopped using the infringing

name and paid the Tolkien estate’s costs

Steven Maier, solicitor for the Tolkien estate said

they were, ‘vigilant in preventing unauthorised parties

from taking advantage of the JRR Tolkien name

and the content of JRR Tolkien’s literary works.’

He added, ‘This was a particularly flagrant case of

infringement, and the estate is pleased that it has been

concluded on satisfactory terms.’

The spoof domain name has been safely locked in a

vault deep in the Mines of Moria

SQUARING THE CIRCLE

In 2013, Dave Eggers’ novel The Circle

provided an all-too-prescient fiction that showed the sinister reach of a massively powerful internet corporation where everything – users’ email, social media, banking and puchasing – was linked Now he’s written a follow-up, The Every, which

returns to the world of The Circle to show

its augmenting totalitarianism, reflected

in its insistence that almost every human decision can be outsourced to the company’s algorithms With the book a not-so-subtle critique of the extending tentacles of Silcon Valley’s biggest-hitters, Dave, who doesn’t own

a smartphone, is showing his support for indie bookshops by refusing to allow Amazon to sell the hardback

in the US As he told The Guardian: ‘Because The Every

is about an all-powerful monopoly that seeks to eliminate competition, it seemed like a good time to remind book buyers that they still have a choice.’

We previously noted at Miscellany Manors that George RR Martin had trumped all other writers’ feeble procrastination attempts by distracting himself not with the latest gizmos but with engineering nostalgia – he bought a railway On 3 December the trains began running between Sante Fe and Lamy, New Mexico George said, ‘We had two big old diesel locomotives, so right off

we decided we would run two trains: the Wolf and the Dragon And to paint them, and give each its own character and a look unlike any other train in the country, we hired Santa Fe’s own Jorael Numina, an amazingly gifted muralist and graffiti artist.’ The author, who might one day finish his epic A Song of Ice and Fire (aka A Game of Thrones) series, added, ‘Mostly what I have

been doing is throwing out ideas and writing checks [sic].’ The trains do look amazing, and you can find out more, and book your tickets at https://skyrailway.com

GRRM

on track

TOKEN THE MICKEY

Everyone seems desperate to train

computers to do the last few things that

humans can still beat them at

• At Oxford’s Ashmolean Library,

the world’s ‘first ultra-realistic AI

robot artist’ made an appearance at

an event celebrating Dante Ai-Da is

both a creative artist and a conceptual

art piece in herself, encouraging us to

‘re-consider our self-perception through

the lens of a humanoid’

Birthed by Oxford-based Aidan Meller,

Ai-Da was built by Engineered Arts

Her drawing arm and algorithms were

developed in Egypt, augmented by AI

from Leeds University, and her other

creative AI capabilities came from faculties

at Oxford and Birmingham universities

At the Dante event, she read poetry

written in response to the Italian master’s

work, created ‘through her AI language

model, which draws from a vast data bank

of words and speech pattern analysis, to

produce her own reactive works’

One piece included the lines

Out of the shadowy folds of the earth,

which,

By degrees, became familiar.

With a sense that the room was full of

anxious, silent beings.

As you might expect, we’re rather

reluctant to answer the creators’ question,

‘Can a robot really write poetry?’,

ambivalently,but read that description of

what she does again From a technical

point of view, it’s not that different to what

all poets do in assembling a poem Eek

• Self-editing can be a chore, and so

difficult It is too easy to miss things,

especially plot and character glitches,

so a US author attempts to utilise the

latest tech to help us get the better of it

with the launch of Marlowe ‘She’ is an

artificial intelligence expected to help

authors improve their novels and form fiction

long-Marlowe was created by Matthew Jockers, co-author of The Bestseller Code,

with idea contributions from other authors who tried her out

Being AI, Marlowe doesn’t judge: she reads all fictional genres and subgenres and returns equal and unbiased

feedback She isn’t squeamish either She just knows what goes into a good story

Marlowe is designed to critique character traits, plot arcs, narrative arcs, pacing, punctuation, sentence structure, reading level and more And she can compare the author’s novel with bestselling novels

in the same genre

Sceptical authors can try out free basic reports and read what Marlowe has to say about some well known books at https://

• In defence of the human eye at The Atlantic, multi-linguist and translator

Douglas Hofstadter humorously highlighted the deficits in tech tools such

as Google Translate, usually betraying the machine’s lack of experience or awareness

of wider context

‘To understand such failures, one has to keep the ELIZA effect in mind [named after the 1960s early AI which manipulated language to sound plausible

in the guise of a psychotherapist, tricking listeners into thinking it understood their feelings] The bai-lingual engine isn’t reading anything – not in the normal human sense of the verb “to read” It’s processing text The symbols it’s processing are disconnected from experiences in the world It has no memories on which to draw, no imagery, no understanding, no meaning residing behind the words it so rapidly flings around.’

He continued, ‘From my point of view, there is no fundamental reason that machines could not, in principle, someday think; be creative, funny, nostalgic, excited, frightened, ecstatic, resigned, hopeful, and, as a corollary, able

to translate admirably between languages There’s no fundamental reason that machines might not someday succeed smashingly in translating jokes, puns, screenplays, novels, poems, and, of course, essays like this one But all that will come about only when machines are as filled with ideas, emotions, and experiences as human beings are And that’s not around the corner Indeed, I believe it is still extremely far away At least that is what this lifelong admirer of the human mind’s profundity fervently hopes.’

So in summary, our jobs are safe only until the boffins figure out how to make robots independently experience and feel, or create an algorithm to synthesize humanity and imagination Or AI machines figure out the algorithm for themselves Let’s just hope they’re not reading this

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AI DON’T BELIEVE IT

STAR LETTER

The star letter each month earns a

copy of the Writers’ & Artists’ Y earbook

2022, courtesy of Bloomsbury.

REACH FOR THE STARS

In April 2022, it will have been 32 years since NASA

launched the Hubble Space Telescope An upcoming

anniversary that reminds me of that Oscar Wilde

quote: ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are

looking at the stars.’

Some days, as many others do I imagine, I feel very

much ‘in the gutter’ But I think writing inspires

the inward-looking soul to turn their gaze outward,

towards inspiring views At least, I know that writing

tends to lift me from my own doldrums It’s not a

miracle cure, and it doesn’t solve everything But it

allows me to turn my mind to other things, if only for

a while Spending time on research takes my mind off

my problems Considering an issue from the point of

view of others plucks me from my own little life for

a while Concentrating as I edit a thing I find it all

therapeutic

I hope, one day, that my writing will reward me with

payment and recognition That’s the goal But, until

then, I can consider celestial bodies, grateful I have

found my own way of appreciating their beauty, and grateful to them for reminding us of the grandness ofthings

PHILIP SIMONS Bedford, Bedfordshire

I turn when I need to get my thoughts out of my head or record snippets of conversations Am I wasting my time because this notebook is never intended to have a reader, apart from myself? If I don’t write in this notebook for a few days, my mind feels like it is swimming I procrastinate because the mundane details of my life take precedence over

my creativity Perhaps the answer might be that I am my own reader – I can revisit the material in my notebook and craft it into a piece of writing for an audience But I don’t systematically do this To me, the words in my notebook are not worth less than the pieces I put out for publication Far from being oddly futile, my conversations with myself are vital to my writing habit

HELEN HAMPTON Crowborough, East Sussex

Surprisingly, perhaps, James McCreet’s perky article The end or the beginning? (WM, Dec) put me in mind of the

Folk Art collection at Compton Verney This superb array

of work is apparently unworthy of ‘the Academy’ but it shines out like life itself, sometimes droll, sometimes sad, always vivid

I’m sixty and since my earliest years I’ve written without

‘success’ – no prizes, no publications – but I carry on Dr Johnson said no man ever wrote but for the money, other than a blockhead Well, I disagree, because I enjoy what

I do, which isn’t nothing And who knows – my work may eventually find the light of day, like those paintings

in Compton Verney, and please somebody else too In the meantime I’ll keep writing, even if that makes me a happy blockhead

ANTONY CROSSLEY Chobham, Surrey

TAKING A STAND

How interesting it has been to read in recent WM letters

pages that I am not the only person who stands whilst

writing I started standing about five years ago and, like

Judith Robinson, I made use of anything which would

lift my computer higher – in my case, box files and shoe

boxes Standing keeps me more alert, helps me keep

my back straight and takes away the worry of writer’s

bottom Last year, I was lucky enough to be able to

purchase a portable standing desk, a table of coffee-table

height and dimensions, with folding legs which, when

stood on your desk or table, can give an extra added

height of eighteen inches

Actually, it makes a good coffee table, too

DENISE WATSON Peterlee, Co Durham

PITCHED PERFECT

I really enjoyed reading Simon Whaley’s article (The business of writing,

WM Dec) on pitching an

article to a magazine

I have been excited over the years about sending

a completed article off to

a magazine, and would spend hours researching, taking photos and then writing it

My big mistake was that I sent it off straight away I never thought about saving my time and that of an editor who may be receiving hundreds of articles that are not suitable for the publication They may have published something similar

in the recent past or it might just be wrong timing for a particular issue

By doing this for many years, I lost confidence in my writing and stopped sending ideas off

This article made me slow down and test the market first With this great advice, I hope to change the way I pitch an idea and may get a few more articles accepted in the future

DIANE PERRY Shropshire

I enjoyed Forward Thinking (Tech for writers, WM Dec)

not only because it explored technology available, but also highlighted the benefits for disabled writers these technology options have

In recent years I have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis As my hands become increasingly stiff gripping

a pen is no longer an option I am still able to type, but occasionally switch to Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to give my joints respite It is reassuring to know writing will not become a victim of my deteriorating health

I used to complain about the growing numbers of gadgets in our lives, but now concede, somewhere out there are people relying on various technological inventions to continue pursuing the things they love

www.writers-online.co.uk

Time is money, so submitting articles to magazines

speculatively does not make business sense

Instead, professional writers pitch their ideas first

They approach an editor with their article idea, and if the editor likes it, they’re commissioned to write it Easy!

However, pitching can be daunting for those who’ve never done it or who’ve tried with little success And it can be frustrating because editors don’t always respond to every pitch, simply because of the sheer volume they receive Sending out many pitches and getting no response is disheartening

Thankfully, perfecting your pitching technique is something you can develop All it takes is a little practice.

Time saving

The problem with submitting articles speculatively is that there’s a high risk of rejection Yet it’s how many of us begin our writing journey, including me

I soon realised some of my rejections had nothing to do with the quality of my writing (which is what we frequently assume when our work is rejected) Instead, it was down to poor timing

or not knowing what features the editor had already scheduled for the future

One editor rejected my article because he’d commissioned something similar from another writer the previous week

Another was rejected because I was targeting an anniversary write about several months earlier.

In both those cases, had I pitched my idea first, I would have learned this information and saved myself the time and effort I wasted writing the articles.

a slightly different angle, they may still commission our idea

Alternatively, we might pitch a certain word count, but the

editor commissions a different word count That’s the beauty of pitching It provides an opportunity for both parties to get what they want The writer gets a commission, and the editor gets the piece they really need.

Practicalities of pitching

The perfect pitch answers three key questions:

• Why will your idea appeal to the magazine’s readers?

• Why now? (Or, why for the specific issue of the magazine you’re targeting?)

• Why are you the best person to write this? Analysing a publication is important when pitching ideas

If an editor is going to take the time and trouble to read our pitch, the least we can do is pitch an idea that’s appropriate for about how to water your two acres of lawn during a heatwave,

if the readers of your target publication only have small patios capable of holding a few pots and planters Likewise, a walking magazine whose readers are mainly young families will not be interested in your idea of tackling the 268- mile Pennine Way long distance footpath in two days.

So, a pitch needs to explain what the idea is and, therefore, why it will interest your target publication’s readers Sometimes, the angle of the idea is enough to explain why it will appeal to

the readership Pitching an article idea to Your Dog magazine

for the November issue about how to keep dogs safe and calm

on Bonfire Night will clearly interest the publication’s readers (I know, because I pitched it and was commissioned to write it.) When pitching an idea, target a specific issue and explain why your idea best suits that issue This is vital for anniversary pieces, but any topical hook will help Magazines are put together months in advance, so having articles that are relevant for the specific issue in which they will appear is important Finally, think about why you are the best person to write this been there, done it, and got the T-shirt (or, better still, some photos), that’s vital experience the editor can’t ignore Alternatively, you might be the best person to write an article expert on the topic.

Don’t write your article – sell

the idea first!7MQSR;LEPI]

shows what makes a perfect pitch.

p058 Business of Writing.indd 58

BLOCK BUSTED

I refer to the letter from Sue Davina Watt (WM Jan)

Despite having self-published a novel and started a

follow-up book, I got the dreaded block – it has lasted ten

months

When I read Sue’s letter it clicked as to why I have hit

the wall Virtually all my life I have been armed to the

teeth with pencil and paper I stopped freehand writing in

jotters, diaries and any random sheets of paper Don’t ask

why – I just shut down

This letter signals the start of writing again with pencil,

pen and laptop

JS McGOWAN The Black Isle, Scotland

GUIDING STAR

As an aspiring writer

the star interview with

Lisa Jewell (WM, Sep)

was very interesting

and helpful

Lisa writes the genre

of books I can see

myself writing Lots

of twists and suspense,

you want to keep

reading to find out

what happens

I agree with what

she said about

needing one idea to

get going I feel the

same when I am writing Once one idea comes more soon

reveal themselves afterwards

As a beginner I found her advice to new writers useful

about being informed about the publishing industry

and to be realistic: ‘All they want is someone to turn up

with a book that gives them goosebumps.’ I’ve yet to

face that stage in my writing journey so I will remember

to keep that in mind

It’s comforting to know that Lisa started off writing

romcoms then changed to darker psychological thrillers

This shows that you do not have to stick with one particular genre I am still

in the midst of discovering what kind of writing I want

to pursue and Lisa Jewell’s interview gave me lots of tips, advice to follow and encouragement to keep going

HELPING YOU BECOME A BETTER WRITER

W WI

USECOMPS

OPPS IDEAS

REACH MORE

READERS

Make side money

from writing Write children’s Write children’s non-fiction

SEPTEMBER 2021

14

STAR INTERVIEW

Tense and intense, 0MWE.I[IPP’s novels are a masterclass in domestic

noir 8MRE.EGOWSR finds out how she writes them

Want a twisty, turny binge

read so gripping its pages

seem to turn themselves?

Knuckle-biting suspense as

the tension mounts? The

rug pulled from under your feet as you read?

The ante upped to the point of vertigo?

Look no further than The Night She

Disappeared, the new thriller from global

bestseller Lisa Jewell Its basic premise is every

parent’s nightmare: a child who goes missing

In this case teenage mother Tallulah goes for

a night out with her boyfriend Zach A year

later, she hasn’t come back home to her mum

and her baby son.

‘A lot of my books are based around the idea

of people going missing,’ says Lisa A missing

person creates more uncertainty than a dead

outset,’ she continues ‘With a missing person

you’re leaving everything open.’

Like Lisa’s other thrillers, including 2019’s

The Family Upstairs and 2017’s Then She

Was Gone, The Night She Disappeared

feels incredibly tightly plotted But Lisa,

pulling the rug again, says she doesn’t plan

her novels.

‘I just start with an idea and start

writing.’ For someone whose books are so

compellingly dark, she’s friendly and down

to earth – albeit with an undercurrent of

darkly sardonic humour ‘The idea for this

one was a body discovered in a beautiful

Surrey village and the teacher arriving and

being instructed to dig here.’

The teacher in question is Shaun, who

arrives as headmaster to a posh boarding

school with his new girlfriend Sophie, a cosy

crime writer drawn into investigating the

she spots a sign in the school grounds that

says ‘dig here’.

‘I had this rough idea of an outsider

coming into this privileged, rarefied world

and coming a cropper,’ says Lisa ‘I wanted

to touch on The Secret History, Donna Tartt,

that kind of thing I wanted Malory Towers

unconventional school story.’

It is For a start, it breaks out of the enclosed world of the school to explore

its impact on the wider village

divide – that pulled me away from

the claustrophobic setting of the

boarding school,’ says Lisa ‘I

thought that was something I’d

really like to look at.’

Her treatment of teenage relationships also sets it apart

‘I wanted to write about teenage

www.writers-online.co.uk

PUSH THINGS FORWARD

LEARNING TO FACE LOSS

In her article Big issues for small people (WM, July 2021), Amy

Sparkes set me thinking about picture books that help children process sadness

Some years ago, following the publication of a fun picture book, I submitted a manuscript in which the young protagonist’s father dies suddenly – a key scene in an otherwise upbeat, hopeful story

The commissioning editor said she was very taken and moved

by it, but deemed it too old for a picture book Not realising this was encouraging (and indeed more helpful) than a dreaded form rejection, I shelved it

However I’ve taken note of the beautiful loss/grief books that have appeared since then Many of these are about kindly animals, which provides a degree of separation for young listeners/readers There are also stories that gently celebrate the passing of pets and, of course, beloved grandparents

Sadly, mums and dads die too Anyone who has lost a parent when they were young will tell you it made them grow up really fast I’m sure there are many children who could relate to, and take comfort from, stories that reflect their loss

I’m pleased to say the said story is still percolating, and I’m hoping the time is right to road test it again

ALAN PALMER Auckland, New Zealand

FESTIVE TIMING

I really enjoyed Rebecca Raisin’s article about

writing Christmas stories, with her entertaining

account of Flora’s Travelling Christmas Shop (WM,

Dec) I thought at first this was going to be a

short story suitable for a women’s magazine but it

looks more like a paperback book, just right for a

Christmas present The top tips were useful too

One point wasn’t mentioned: a Christmas story

for a weekly or monthly magazine needs to be

submitted well in advance, so perhaps you should

start to write your Christmas stories during the

summer holidays

MARY HODGES Scorton, Preston

Structural editing, copy-editing and proofreading,

scouts for leading agents www.cornerstones.co.uk/edit-your-novel-the-professional-way

# 1 T R A N S AT L A N T I C L I T E R A RY C O N S U LTA N C Y

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Next course begins:

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GET IN TOUCH

ASK A LITERARY CONSULTANT

I’ve finished my novel and I’m ready to polish it

for (self) publication I thought it was ready for a

copy-edit, but I’ve been told that it needs a story

check first Can you explain the different editorial

layers, please?

A You’re not alone! Authors often get confused about

the order of the editorial chain and what each

process is supposed to achieve For simplicity, I’ve

outlined below the various stages This is what Cornerstones

specialises in so it’s close to our heart

Ideally, these editorial layers should be carried out by

a professional editor as they’re trade skills that require

experience You’ll need people you trust, who are experienced

in editing your genre, so check their biography and list of

published novels that they’ve worked on

Developmental editing (this is your ‘story check’)

This is a holistic form of editing that often takes the form of

a report, providing high-level feedback that focuses on the

mechanics of the plot, characters, pacing, and so forth The

dev editor helps you create a narrative that functions in the

way it should You may receive some specific line edits (more

on that in a moment) in terms of writing examples, but a

content editor will focus on: whether the story works; if the

characters are engaging enough; if the plot holds up against

the structure; whether there are narrative inconsistencies; if

the pacing suits the story; helping the novel stand out in the

market, etc

When looking for a dev editor to help with your work,

make sure they really connect with your novel and your

vision This is considered the longest and most intensive

phase of editing; it should feel directional and collaborative

in its approach Hopefully the editor’s suggestions will

resonate and if you can, you should edit above and beyond

what has been suggested This will ensure you own the

revisions and that they are effective

Line editing

The next step on the editorial journey is the line edit Line

edits are carried out when you are finished with your most

polished draft The process involves a close read of the MS,

where the editor will red-line and mark-up your pages Every

sentence will be scrutinised and the editor will, among other

things, mark-up any language that doesn’t work, run-on

sentences, inconsistencies, weak passages, suggested cuts

to unnecessary scenes or dialogue, etc They will closely

edit every line of the book (if needed) They will also make

editorial comments on anything that they feel doesn’t work in

a larger sense, and highlight any content, pacing, or narrative

problems that the book might still have, including plotting

and characterisation

The line edit is usually done at the very end of a long editorial process, and you will receive a marked-up manuscript, with changes for you to accept or reject Then, both author and editor will do a final read-through of the clean and corrected manuscript to ensure that everything

is sound This is not to be confused with a copy-edit or proofread

Copy-editing

A copy-editor will check material for grammar, spelling, style, and punctuation issues before it’s prepared for proofreading They will correct errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, style and usage, overlong sentences and overuse of italic, bold, capitals, exclamation marks and the passive voice

They correct or query doubtful facts, weak arguments, plot holes and gaps in numbering In fiction, they also check inconsistencies and continuity errors They will highlight any changes that need to be made/addressed and will generally clean up the manuscript so that it can move to its ready-for-market draft

Once the developmental phase is complete, you’ll be ready to move on to copy-editing and proofreading We

do specialise in this but it’s also worth looking at the CIEP for a fuller directory These latter editorial layers are more hands-off, and you’ll only be required to accept or reject their changes It’s a lovely space to be in as your book transforms from a draft manuscript into a publishable text

Proofreading

A professional proofreader will work with the nearly finished text They look for any typographical errors or remaining grammatical errors They do not suggest major changes to the text but look for any errors in spelling, or grammar or style, and make those corrections The presumption is that once the proofer has done this, and any changes are then approved and made by the writer, the text is ready for the marketplace Copy-editing and proofreading are sometimes a combined service carried out by the same editor, particularly for fiction For non-fiction, the task is usually split between the copy-editor and proofreader The copy-editor does a deep dive in the accuracy of the text, footnotes, citations, and arguments

I hope this helps! Have fun editing…

Helen Corner-Bryant explains the different levels of editing a

manuscript needs before it’s published

All about the edits

When looking for a dev editor to help with your work, make sure they really connect with your

novel and your vision.

anuary is a great time to pitch

your novel to literary agents

You’ll find them re-energised and

keen to discover something fresh

and exciting to start the new

year To maximise your chances

of getting an agent’s attention

amid the deluge of submissions, it’s worth

making the effort to perfect your pitch

package I’ve read thousands of pitches

in my time as an agent and as managing

director of the Curtis Brown Creative

writing school – so here are my tips to

help you nail the tricky documents that

go alongside the opening of your novel

as the essential ingredients of the pitch

package: the agent letter and synopsis

THE LETTER

1 Target the right agents

Take time over your research when

deciding who to write to There are lots

of directories and databases you can

consult – but always cross-check them

with the agencies’ own websites as they

may not be up-to-date Read interviews,

social media profiles, and look in the

acknowledgements of books you like, as

agents are often thanked Pick agents who

are interested in the kind of book you’re

writing and are eager to find new writers

2 Address the agent by their first name

Only the most old-fashioned agents are

uncomfortable about being addressed by

their first names – and those are not the

people you want to represent you

3 Keep the letter short – just three brief

paragraphs

You pitch your novel, say why you’ve

targeted this particular agent, and then tell

them a little about yourself People will

tell you the letter should be no more than

a page – actually I’d say it should be much

shorter than a page Whenever we run

agent-letter workshops with our students,

we end up telling at least 80% of the students that their letter is too long…

4 Kick off with the pitch

Give your title and genre (if your novel

is in a clear genre) – then say what’s at its heart If there’s a central question which drives your novel and hooks in the reader, that’s definitely to be included – and make sure you tell us whose story it is

This should all be brief and to the point – just a couple of sentences, or three as the absolute maximum That might sound hard but remember that you also have your synopsis to say more about your novel You’re just looking to whet the agent’s appetite People often mention their word-count in the pitch letter but there’s no need for this – it can just go at the bottom of your title page

5 Comparison novels

It can strengthen your pitch if you’re able to liken your novel to a couple of similar works which are current and commercially successful But don’t pick novels which are really major works or you may come across as hubristic If you can’t come up with good comparison novels, perhaps mention one or two of the relevant agent’s clients whose work you particularly admire Don’t worry too much about the issue of ‘comparison novels’ though, if you can’t come up with any It’s far from the most important aspect of the letter And don’t include lots

of them Two is enough

6 Talk about why you’re addressing this particular agent

When it comes to pitch letters, this isn’t

a one-size-fits-all Tailor your letter to each agent by telling them why you are addressing them specifically If you’ve read

or heard something they’ve said about writing or the kind of novels they’d like

to represent – or perhaps if you’ve met them – you could mention this If there’s

a reason you think you’d fit well on their list, say what it is

7 Tell the agent a little about yourself

The agent wants to know who you are – but be selective about what you include Leave out details which are not strictly relevant or engaging If you have

an interesting job, say so – particularly

if it’s relevant to the book you’re writing Include any known writing awards you’ve won or been shortlisted for, plus writing courses you’ve taken (though only if they’re selective and prestigious) State any relevant publishing history – though it’s not worth mentioning self-published books unless they’ve sold well (ie, in the thousands) If you have a massive social media following, include that But this should only be a short paragraph, so be sparing And conversely, if you feel you have very little to say, don’t be intimidated – you don’t need to say much because ultimately your work will speak for you

8 Check everything through

First impressions are important – check your grammar and spelling You need

to be professional in order to be taken seriously by a professional

9 Some things NOT to do

Finally, here are some big no-no’s for the pitch letter…

• Avoid bragging Let the agent be the one to decide if your novel is gripping, compulsive, beautifully rendered or if it will be an international bestseller

• Don’t say that your wife/husband/best friend/children etc love your novel The agent doesn’t care about any of that

• Don’t pitch more than one novel in your letter Be focused If the agent calls you in for a meeting, that’s the time to talk about other projects, future work, etc

• Don’t ask for a meeting with the agent or make a point of saying

HOW TO

get discovered

J

Anna Davis of Curtis Brown Creative tells you how to write the

introductory letter and synopsis that will give you real agent appeal

that you’re prepared to make editorial

changes Let the agent read and

respond They will in any case assume

you’re happy to come for a meeting or

do some rewriting if requested to And

don’t make a point of saying that you’re

sending also to others… They’ll assume

that’s the case

• Don’t crack corny jokes – it’s just

excruciating

• Lastly, don’t apologise for taking up

the agent’s time – or indeed for anything

else Read your letter through to make

sure that everything you say is positive

THE SYNOPSIS

The synopsis is a short, lively overview

of your novel You’ll find different ideas

online about how long they should be, but

I’d always say go with one page Nobody

can object to a one-pager, and it’s long

enough to cover all the information that’s

needed while remaining easily readable and

digestible Here’s what to include and what

not to:

1 Put your title at the top

Include it even if it’s just a working title –

and include your genre if you’re working in

an established genre such as romance, crime

fiction, etc

2 Add your pitch line

We need just one line to express the hook,

key dilemma or driving force of the novel

And this needs to be slightly different

from what you wrote in the agent letter

Remember that the two documents go

side by side, so avoid repetition Writers

understandably get very worked up trying

to get their pitch lines right – but just do

your best and remember that you’re in

any case going on to say more about your

story all the way down the page It’s not all

about this one line If you can’t come up

with one at all, you could instead include a

short quote from your novel which gives its

flavour

3 Cover your plot in broad strokes

Set out your story in its simplest terms

We don’t need all of the intricate twists, turns and subplots, and we don’t need chapter summaries – just the spine of the novel so readers can see what it is and where it’s headed

4 Get your protagonist’s name in early

on – and their motivations

It’s good to show whose story this is But

we don’t need many character names or your page will be cluttered with them

5 Give us the setting

We need to know where your story is taking place – and if it’s not in the present,

we also need to know when it’s set

6 Should I include the ending?

The honest (though annoying) answer is, it’s up to you Some agents want to see the ending because it’s such an important part

of the story But others don’t like any twist

to be given away because they want to approach the novel as a reader would

7 The best synopses convey the tone of the novel as well as the plot

If you can bring the feel, atmosphere or voice of the novel into the synopsis, it will add an extra zing

8 Go for story rather than ‘themes’

Don’t give a list of themes or imagery with the idea that this will make it seem more deep and meaningful

9 Don’t say you have an unreliable narrator

People often make an issue of their person narrators being unreliable – but any and every first-person narrator is unreliable

first-10 Unusual narrative structures

If it’s impossible to summarise your novel

in a synopsis because it’s so experimental and non-linear, try a page that gives an idea

of what you’re trying to do in the novel, and which talks passionately about your novelistic endeavour Or perhaps a page from the perspective of a specific character

to entice the agent and draw them in – even if it’s not an overview of the story in a

conventional sense

You’ll also need a synopsis to enter Discoveries, the writing programme and novel-writing prize for women For Discoveries, you send us the opening of your unpublished novel (which doesn’t need to be finished) and your best one-pager to tell us where the story is headed

So whether you’re planning to submit your work to agents or to Discoveries, polish your pitch to a shine for the best chance of success

Anna Davis is the founder and managing director of Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school from the major literary agency which runs courses online and in London and has now seen over 150 of its students go on to become commercially published authors – many of them bestsellers Anna is the author

of five novels that have been published in twenty languages, and is a former literary agent She is also one of the judges for this year’s Discoveries prize.

Discoveries is a pioneering writing development programme run by the Women’s Prize Trust in partnership with Curtis Brown Literary Agency, Curtis Brown Creative and Audible It invites unpublished women writers aged eighteen and up, currently residing in the UK or Ireland and writing in English, to submit their works

of adult fiction to the Discoveries Prize for

a novel-in-progress The prize will accept novels in any genre of adult fiction and entrants will be required to submit only the first 10,000 words of their novel and a synopsis It is free to enter and submissions close at 11.59pm on 17 January.

• To find out more about Discoveries, go to

https://womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/ discoveries

To enter the prize, go to www.curtisbrown creative.co.uk/discoveries-2022/

• To find out about Curtis Brown Creative’s courses, go to

www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk

Would you like to start writing your own life story?

Acclaimed memoirist Cathy Rentzenbrink offers a guide on how to get started on life-writing

One of the great joys of being a writer is that I get

to talk to other people about life writing and to

encourage them to give it a go I do think that almost

everyone’s life would be improved by writing and am never

happier than when I get a letter saying that reading my work

has inspired my correspondent to start writing their own story

Often they do feel a bit overwhelmed by the scale of the task

in hand They have the urge and instinct to go for it but are

besieged by fears The events they want to write about might

have happened a long time ago and they don’t know where to

start or are nervous about what others might say And what

about getting it published? Can I give them any advice?

I do understand all this reluctance and resistance I always

wanted to write but when my brother, Matty, was knocked

over when he was sixteen and I was seventeen, I could find

no words to describe what was happening and even stopped

keeping my diary Over the years I tried to make sense of

Matty’s long death – eight awful years passed between his

accident and his funeral – but still I struggled to find a form

or shape for what I wanted to say I tried to write other

things and would embark on contemporary novels but the

furthest I ever got was chapter seven before Matty would

arrive on the page asking why I wasn’t writing about him

So I’d have another go but it would be too difficult and

upsetting and I’d decide I wasn’t talented enough and that no

one would want to read it anyway, and I would put it away

in a drawer and try to get on with life

But I’d always end up back there again, and eventually I

realised that the only way to stop the cycle of starting and

giving up was to carry on and finish it, which I finally did

when I was 42 I didn’t think it would become a book, but just knew that I had to write the story out of myself I had this strong instinct that everything I had witnessed, all that pain and suffering, was festering inside me and that I would not be able to properly experience either life or writing until I had liberated myself I found a quote by William Wordsworth that I loved: Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart I decided to just do that I pledged not to worry

about what anyone would think, or whether it was any good,

or even to try to put it down in the right order, but just to get down everything I could remember and boldly face all the guilt and grief I was still carrying around

Perhaps this was the way it had to happen I now see I had

to write the first draft in private because I would never have been able to do it if I’d imagined a reader at an early stage Once some words existed I could gradually, line by line, make them into a story that would make sense for someone else Eventually, with lots more work, I transformed the breathings

of my heart into my first book, The Last Act of Love.

So that is broadly what I suggest At the beginning try not to get snagged on worries but instead just take some deep breaths and write it all down Don’t think you have

to know everything about what your finished book might look like but start small and build Imagine your book as a tree Rather than trying to sketch out all the branches just start with a leaf And then make some more leaves If you can enjoy and trust in the process then the leaves will start fitting together and giving you clues about what your tree might look like I’d also suggest not telling too many people what you are doing You don’t want to put yourself under

Your l the pag ife on e

CREATIVE NON-FICTION

pressure These early shoots are tender and might not flourish

if exposed to the harsh glare of attention And waste no time

on being judgemental and fretting over whether what you are

creating is any good This is unkind, to you and the words,

and is a pointless endeavour as most of the writers I know

exist in a near-continual vortex of self-doubt and despair and

are never able to objectively

consider their own work

When I look back now on

all the times I gave up, I can

see that I was concentrating

on the wrong thing I feared

I wasn’t talented enough,

but really what I needed

to cultivate was stamina

and endurance I needed

to liberate myself from the

desire for praise and the

fear of blame and instead

think about commitment

So, forget about talent

Better questions are whether we are willing to carve out the

time and protect it, whether we can be robust enough to

tolerate the gap between our aspiration for our project and

the current dog’s breakfast we see in front of us How will

we be able to command our attention for the length of time

it takes to write a book? How will we cope when the going

gets tough, when we are remembering the things we would

rather forget? Will we be able to resist the banal soothing of

the internet or the biscuit tin so that we have enough energy

for the challenging job of mining the self? Will we be able to

keep calm and keep going?

If I could go back in time and talk to that younger self,

the first thing I would say is to write it all down, then I

would suggest cultivating curiosity and compassion Try to

celebrate yourself for being brave enough to try something

new, rather than being cross that you can’t immediately do

it all perfectly And stop expecting it to be easy I used to

think that if I was truly meant to be a writer, then it would

somehow magically just happen, that words would easily

and beautifully flow onto the page I no longer expect that I

have made peace with the fact that I am never going to feel

like it It sounds mad, I know, that I spend so much time

and effort on something I don’t much like doing Writing

is such a peculiar endeavour I am completely obsessed and

make huge sacrifices for it, yet I’m never really ‘in the mood’

and it would always be easier to do something else A part

of me would much prefer to lie in bed eating sweets and

reading someone else’s book rather than go to the mental

and physical effort of creating one of my own I’m almost

embarrassed to say that writing books is hard work but it

is It involves masses of dedication and commitment and,

especially at the beginning of a project, it is exhausting I am

definitely one of those writers – there are a lot of us – who

enjoy having written more than we like the writing itself

Getting started is the thing And then sticking with it If I do

those two things then enjoyment comes

It is hugely worth it There is such a sense of satisfaction

to be had when we manage to wrestle our complex stories

on to the page That feeling as I stand next to my printer, or press send to my editor, and then eventually hold a finished copy in my hand is sublime But, if my past self wanted to

ask more about whether anyone would want to read

it, and how to be published,

I would tell her to forget all that for now and think only about getting some words on the page Do it anyway, I would tell her

Do it regardless of whether anyone will want to publish

it What matters is you and the meaning and purpose you will find in the act of writing it all down Forget about everything except the writing itself Buy a notebook and then fill it with the breathings of your heart Stop expecting it to be easy And good luck

Write it all Down: How to Put Your Life on the Page

by Cathy Rentzenbrink is published in hardback by Bluebird on 6 January at £14.99

How to build a daily life-writing practice

• Start small and just do it

• Buy a notebook and commit to finding five minutes a day

• Start with a couple of sentences about your daily life: ‘I

am sitting at the kitchen table and have just had some toast and later I will…’

• Don’t worry about it being interesting or well written

We are warming up, like we would stretch before a run,

or play scales on the piano

• Then add in a daily prompt of ‘I remember…’ and allow your mind to alight on a scene from your past

• Write it down quickly, without pondering too much over your choice of words or reading it back

• I find it works to do it at the same time of the day or pegged to another habit, like ‘as soon as I get up,’ or ‘with

my coffee’ or ‘on the bus.’ This way the brain gets used

to the practice It might feel odd and awkward at first but you’ll get used to it and start to look forward to it

• Try to ignore any questions in your own head about what

it might turn into, and who it is for, and what would everyone say, and just focus on getting down some words

• If you do this every day, you will start to have ideas, and make connections and you will be amazed at what you can achieve in little pockets of five minutes

“Don’t think you have to know everything about what your finished book might look like but start small and build Imagine your book as a tree Rather than trying

to sketch out all the branches just start with a leaf And then make

some more leaves.”

Swimming against the tide comes naturally for supernatural

If there’s anyone out there still labouring under the

(tedious) misapprehension that crime writing is

formulaic, check out award-winning international

bestseller Stuart Neville In particular, see his new novel

The House of Ashes Set in his native Northern Ireland,

it blends crime and the supernatural to tell a chilling

dual-timeline story of past and present abuse with a kind of visceral,

appalled compassion

‘It’s one of those books where it’s hard to pin down what

you’re writing,’ says Stuart ‘My biggest struggle is figuring

out what I’m trying to write Is it a short story, a novel, is

it a thriller, horror, a ghost story? I’ll start writing the thing

but then I figure out what I’ve actually got The key here

was finding the voice That’s the spine of the book, that real

Northern Irish voice.’

Giving Mary Jackson, the older character in the story, a

distinct Northern Irish voice unlocked the writing for Stuart

The original inspiration for the book was a news story ‘A

real-life case, a murder suicide It was a starting point, but real

people were affected by it and I couldn’t write a novel based

on that So it’s moved from the actual event to something

more fully imagined There was a lot of wrestling with the idea

and what really did it was Michael Hughes’s novel Country –

written entirely in that dialect Once that clicked I started to

make progress on it.’

Up to recently he kept the accent in his books quite neutral

‘The odd colloquialism would sneak in but I don’t like to

include a forced accent in a book – so those writers who can

imply an accent but keep it readable, like Michael Hughes, it’s

a balancing act When I think of a writer starting to misspell

words or contract them or mangle them, it starts getting

problematic It’s a skill, and magic I’ve kept it readable.’

The House of Ashes is Stuart’s first book under his own name

since So Say the Fallen ‘I’d written two commercial thrillers [as

Haylen Beck] and a short story collection [2020’s The Traveller

and Other Stories] but this is the first novel under my own

name since 2016,’ he says ‘The most difficult thing about this

book was not being sure what I had I had a lot of false starts

and I scrapped them I couldn’t find my way into it, I couldn’t

find my way to write it I set it aside and wrote different books

in the meantime.’

Since the 2009 publication of his first book, which originally

called The Ghosts of Belfast (and published in the US under

that title) but retitled The Twelve by his UK publishers, Stuart

has been determined that this book’s Northern Irish identity

would not be in any way diminished ‘It’s not just the voice

The accent It’s the setting as well.,’ he says ‘UK publishers

had quite firmly tried to dissuade me from setting books here

and tried to hide the fact on the covers It bothered me for

a long time and coming back to writing books set here in

Northern Ireland, I realised that there was no need to hide it

No practical reason.’

Asserting his regional identity as a writer is political for

Stuart ‘It’s a real issue in publishing,’ he says ‘I’ve spoken to Val McDermid and she never had this problem for books set in Scotland so why is Northern Ireland a pariah within storytelling? I’m just not prepared to hide that or to concede

it I think the root of the hesitancy is that people think there’s only one story to be told – the Troubles They’ll always be there as a back story but that doesn’t mean every story has to

be about that You can’t write a crime novel set in Northern Ireland and not brush up against paramilitaries and if there is resistance in the public it’s up to the publisher to find ways of selling that story.’

Stuart, who wrote The House of Ashes after setting two books

in the USA, sees this as a parochial English issue ‘American publishing, writing in American, there’s more interest in gritty settings, a lot of stuff set in rural locations as well Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden is a good example of a

book that’s broken through.’

He believes publishers don’t credit readers with wanting

to broaden their range of viewpoints through fiction ‘Most people see fiction as a window rather than a mirror,’ says Stuart ‘The idea that everything has to be centred on major urban centres is a fallacy – people want to see other places If you’d said “bizarre game show set in Korea” a few years ago,

“I have no interest in violence for its own sake for being salacious or sadistic, but if it’s there it’s because it’s what the story requires It’s always the story: does it need violence,

a supernatural element – it’s

always the story.”

STAR INTERVIEW

people would think you were mad People want to see other

people’s lives.’

Stuart was an early reader who wanted to become a writer

‘We came from a working class background, and my mum

worked for the library service So I was always a reader and

wanted to be a writer from a very young age I’d sit down with

a few pages of the story and find out it was very hard work

And then I discovered the guitar and wanted to be a rockstar

– which didn’t quite work out In my mid-thirties I had one of

those points of realisation I was at a crossroads so there was a

lightbulb moment of realising I had to do it now I wrote three

novels in a short space of time Two were dreadful and the

third was the first published book.’

His reading staples had been crime, and horror ‘Most

writers are a product of what they read,’ he says ‘I grew up

in the 1980s, reading Stephen King, very into horror, and as

an adult was very into crime That grey area between horror

and crime and neo-noir authors like James Ellroy, Ted Lewis,

Dashiell Hammett I started trying to write a horror but it

kept turning into a thriller, horror kept coming in It was hard

to separate the two I made an effort to write more straight

crime, but when I wrote a short story collection I realised I

missed that element But the two, crime and horror, came

back together in The House of Ashes.’

Stuart thinks publishers are at odds with readers when

it comes to blurring genres ‘It’s one of those areas where

publishers underestimate readers They think they can’t handle

a blending of genres My first book, The Ghosts of Belfast, they

said we don’t know if it’s a thriller or a horror, but I think

readers are far more open to that I find it very hard to separate

these, writing It’s all of a piece for me If a story calls for it, it

will creep in without any effort.’

The horror element in Stuart’s work is all about suggestion,

and open to interpretation ‘There’s always an ambiguity of

what the supernatural is I’ve always had to walk a tightrope of

letting the reader decide what is real or not real In The Ghosts

of Belfast a former killer is haunted by the ghosts of his victims,

but the reader is never told if they’re real or manifestations of

his guilt The readers would decide and there was no budging

them – it was a real lesson for me about how much a reader brings to a book themselves It was a real eye-opener A reader filters everything through their own beliefs and experience The reader will do the work for you.’

Since The Ghosts of Belfast/The Twelve was published, Stuart’s

writing has encompassed tough crime and police procedurals, with 2015’s Those We Left Behind delivering a particular punch

in its emotional depiction of two deeply flawed characters connected by a terrible crime

‘I think if there’s a theme I return to, it’s the past informing the present,’ he says ‘In some books more overtly than others

think one aspect of my books that I hadn’t grasped myself was that the first book was the most violent with a protagonist that people took to, but it was the emotional resonance that people were connecting with I think that carries through

mostly off the page It’s in the women’s relationships, their dependence, the emotions So when the violence comes, it is brutal Violence is dictated by the story In Sara’s story there’s not a great deal of physical violence but it happens on an emotional and psychological level But there is the same level

of brutality I have no interest in violence for its own sake for being salacious or sadistic, but if it’s there it’s because it’s what the story requires It’s always the story: does it need violence, a supernatural element – it’s always the story.’

As writers, he says, you have to trust the story, and let the characters lead the way In The House of Ashes, Mary was there

from the start ‘She was the constant element through all the iterations of the story so she was the key She was there both

as an elderly lady and a child Once I found the voice she was one of those characters that almost wrote herself The two timelines are late 1950s early 60s, and present day It’s very much a juggling act with The House of Ashes, it was every

time you move back and forward in time each timeline would inform the other I enjoy writing and reading dual timelines but it’s not the easiest.’

Both Mary and The House of Ashes’ other lead character,

Sara, experience abuse ‘Some women spoke to me about their

experience of domestic abuse The question is always, why do

they stay, why don’t they just leave? It was getting to the root

of the psychology The constant sense of the ground moving

beneath their feet.’

Instead of being victims to be investigated, Stuart writes

Mary and Sara as fully-realised characters – which makes

their stories emotionally harrowing ‘I am interested in the

psychology of victims in as far as it serves the story,’ he says

‘I’m not interested in the victim as a puzzle to be solved, a

body on the slab that a detective needs to pick over The

victims in my books are usually quite present in the story

I want them to be more than victims Human beings, not

problems to be solved.’

He’s also interested in the people who are left behind in the

aftermath of a crime ‘Knowing people who lost people in the

Troubles, parents have been murdered, it’s not something you

get past Your life is

totally affected by that

When my wife and I

went to view a house,

the guy was at school

with me His father was

killed in a paramilitary

attack and his room

was covered by cuttings

about it He was a

victim as much as his

father So that’s how it

shapes lives.’

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a writer whose books explore

different possibilities within the crime genre, Stuart doesn’t

have a set writing process

‘Not long after my first book came out someone said, it

gets harder each time,’ he says ‘And they weren’t lying I am

my own worst enemy because I don’t have a defined process

It’s something I’ve never been able to establish, so I haven’t a

set way of doing things Every time I do a new book it’s like

starting again.’

Stuart’s first published novel was written in ten weeks ‘This

one was four years That’s what I mean by having no process

There is no set roadmap, every book is its own particular

trial I think Those Who Are Left Behind is my favourite That’s

where the one where I felt I had balanced all the elements, the

plotting and the character and the emotional heft of it But

that was a difficult book, with a lot of false starts.’

He has nothing but praise for writers who can keep a series

going ‘I’m not entirely sure it’s a good thing not to be able to

write a book every year I’ve never been able to write a series

successfully, and come back to a character again and again and

find something fresh in them It’s a skill I don’t possess I’m

sure there are writers who write to formulas but even with that

there’s a skill in writing those and I’d never disparage a writer

for being able to work on that timetable I wish I did, in some

ways and I’m sure my editor would be pleased.’

He’ll start by making notes ‘The first thing is, I always have

a Moleskine notebook and I’ll start writing notes, doing notes

of a rough shape of story, ideas, glimpses, character traits, questions, a lot of questions ‘

The actual writing varies ‘I might write in fits and starts, it’s not a constant flow for me, it tends to be bursts If I need

to get a lot of words down I’ll go to the local library, put headphones on and get the words down For concentration and focus it’s the library that does it for me When the first draft’s done I’ll do work on the revisions and then it will go

to my agent, Nat Sobel in New York, who will give it a good kicking He once told me something I wrote was full of horse shit There’s a lot of revision goes on.’

Without a set process, Stuart needs to know how each book will start, and finish ‘The House of Ashes is a very bleak

novel and the thing I always need to know when I start a book is how it’s going to end The first version I couldn’t get it to be the ending I wanted, and when I rewrote it, I

got Mary that ending

I always want to know how it begins, and how

it ends Everything in between is up for grabs.’Characters, themes, plots, tend to come all

as a bundle ‘Every book

is different Sometimes

it will spill out in a great blurb that I have to wrangle and pull apart Things will tend to move once I’ve put characters on the page and they’ll often turn out to be different from what I thought they were I do find, more often than not, that the act of putting words in characters’ mouths and actions in their limbs gets them moving.’

Stuart may not have a defined process, but writing his books has taught him to trust his instincts ‘I’d like to think I’m a better writer than I was twelve, thirteen years ago I think I

am more inclined to do what I feel is right rather than writing what was expected of me I moved to police procedurals

because I thought that was what was expected of me Now I will write the book I am interested in.’

Unsurprisingly for such an individual writer, Stuart isn’t a fan of prescriptive checklists for writing, or writers ‘Advice is bollocks,’ he says ‘It’s a bit of a blanket statement but I feel every writer is different, every process is different I think it’s

a mistake to speak in absolutes because there’s no one way of doing anything The one practical piece of advice is as soon

as you’ve written one novel, write another one Constantly

be moving So many aspiring writers put everything into one novel Every one you write you get better at it I’m always dubious of list of ten things not to do – all you can do is just write Get it down on the page.’

Considering the horrors he conjures in his books, Stuart’s amiability shines though ‘I find the writing is therapeutic and

a reason why most crime writers are very nice people Probably more so than any other genre We work out all that darkness

on the page.’

“I’m not entirely sure it’s a good thing not to be able to write a book every year I’ve never been able to write a series successfully, and come back to

a character again and again and find

something fresh in them.”

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Saturday 12th February, 11am-2pm

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Sunday 20th February , 4pm-7pm

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Saturday 19th March, 10am-1pm

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Saturday 19th February, 10am-1pm

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Dark beginnings: How to write horror

Saturday 8th January, 10am-1pm

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WEBINAR

WRITERS

ONLINE

SERIES

It seems extraordinary now to

think back to those first few

weeks of the first lockdown in

March of 2020 So much of

that time seemed dreamlike and

strange and there was the frightening,

but also perhaps a tiny bit exhilarating,

feeling that the world was changing in

front of our very eyes The question

was, by how much

Nearly two years later, the scale of

those changes are starting to become

apparent For instance it seems

impossible to believe that we will ever

go back to working five days a week

in an office There is just no reason

to lose that many hours a week to the

commute Reinstating it will simply

feel like penalising people’s quality

of life by employers, however much

some traditionalists would like to see a

complete return to the old days

That’s bolstered by the fact that

productivity remains high when

people work from home and – in

publishing at least – meetings are (by

and large) significantly improved by

doing them electronically The kinds

of loudmouths who liked throwing

their weight about in physical meetings

are silenced on Zoom so meetings can

actually do what they are supposed to

do and allow all the relevant people

to have an input and for information

to be exchanged efficiently even from shyer members of the team who tended to go into their shells when their extrovert colleagues threw their weight about

But the office is not dead Far from

it There are more creative occasions, ideas meetings say, where we need to

be in each other’s company, where we are reminded that relating to someone digitally is a little bit like listening

to them on mono and in black and white Digital meetings are great at the exchange of information – data – but for the more subtle exchange of ideas and nuance we need the full colour stereo of being in someone’s presence

or else a vital spark goes missing

But there is another really important reason to engage with people IRL (in real life) which is that publishers had before the pandemic struggled somewhat with the way that

members of staff were increasingly demonstrating loyalty not to the corporate entity of the company that paid their wages, but to the corporate entity that is their social media bubble

For a number of years now this has led to certain kinds of books either simply not getting a look in or at best being relegated to quite specific ghettoes within the company But more and more tales filter back to me

of publishing staff refusing to work

on books because they do not like the outlook of the book or the author Just

to be clear, this is publishing we are talking about, these are the reasonable opinions of thoughtful people

Publishers are going to have to wake

up to the fact that while working from home is great in many ways, it has the fatal flaw of putting people’s work life

on an equal footing with their social media life One might hope that the simple fact of a wage packet would

be enough to guarantee of loyalty, but people are not straightforwardly rational like that and there have been too many instances of the opposite being true for that to be much reassurance to HR departments

Publishers are also having to wake

up to the fact that getting people into the office is also a way of building their loyalty to the company they work for, but I suspect they will need to work harder than that I know publishers have been revising their contracts of employment to meet this challenge, but I would not be surprised if they started offering training courses in ‘how

to work on a book you disagree with’ and creating team building exercises to ensure that the conflicted loyalties that are a feature of today do not become the norm of tomorrow

WRITING LIFE

exams (pre-pandemic), you might imagine an enormous school hall full

of pupils sitting at separate desks spaced evenly apart

My experience was different I remember doing my

GCSEs and A-Levels in a small side-room along with

a few other students in my year We had extra time for

exams because of various learning difficulties As my

dyslexia (and dyspraxia) impacts the way I get words

onto the page, I was offered a scribe, but I couldn’t

bear the thought of dictating my answers for someone

to write down, however kind or patient they were So I

used a laptop instead Without the extra time and use of

a typewriting device, I know I would probably not have

managed to finish a single paper

As a writer and journalist, I’ve thought more and more

about what it means to be dyslexic For a start, I’d be

embarrassed if anyone saw the convoluted route each

sentence takes before I finally leave it alone Here, a line

by Thomas Mann rushes forth: A writer is someone for

whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people

Reassuring as those words are, a quick glance at my

handwritten prose hammers home the colourful process

that writing with dyslexia can be Pages are either

covered in carets (those little inverted ‘v’ shapes you put between two words to show another word needs to be squeezed in) or numerous asterisks signalling chunks of text waiting at the bottom of the page and needing to

be read in that moment for cohesion It is a picture of chaos: impossible to decipher, and quite a mission to bring about Writing by hand for rough notes is alright (although my handwriting itself resembles that of a high-achieving twelve-year-old) but, still now, some ideas never come to fruition because my hand cannot keep up with my brain This was a particular hindrance

in the classroom, although despite those challenges,

I was determined to study English Literature for my undergraduate degree at university

Books, reading, writing you can’t help what you love

I knew I wanted to be a writer so I wasn’t going to let something like dyslexia stand in my way

And I haven’t Instead, on a good writing day, I try

to think positively about the way my dyslexia manifests itself I admire the way it helps me to see things

differently In my own work, I’ll identify a pleasing word pattern that I can play-up to make my writing more interesting Other times, I can spot a bit of funny grammar that’s completely unconventional, and therefore unique It’s not a case of awkward phrasing, but of me

Dyslexia

unbounded

being a master of unusual syntax Or so I tell myself

It’s not always easy By that, I mean it’s frequently

incredibly mind-wrenchingly infuriating My patience

wears thin when I begin to write a word with the second

letter, not the first Or sometimes, when I attempt to

pull together a simple sentence, I’ll suddenly feel like I’m

grappling with a second language Basic logic will play

hide and seek and I can’t remember the rules

When I’m reminded of what a slow reader I am, I’ll

persuade myself that it is a mixed blessing How anyone

can get through a book in one day is beyond me They

must be missing so much colour and texture, surely?

Cautious care goes into my reading I feel the weight

of every word, and pause to examine it

as though it were a rare jewel, before

allowing it to travel up through my eyes

and into my head

If reading quietly to myself is a loving

and gentle process, then reading out loud

is the polar opposite Words pop out at

random Reading aloud is as much an

exercise in creative writing as is voicing

what is on the page Who knows what will

come out of my mouth? Something from

three paragraphs away? An antonym of the word I am

looking at? It feels like a lucky dip, vocabulary edition If

I manage to read even half a paragraph out loud without

faltering then I know I’ll soon stumble At university I

once pretended to have forgotten my glasses to explain

why I was struggling to read out a stanza of poetry from

the book in front of me

I know I am not alone The British Dyslexia Association

estimates that ten per cent of the population are dyslexic

Recognising dyslexia can be difficult, however ‘Dyslexia is

often identified in primary school, however some people’s

coping strategies are so good that the dyslexic difficulties

don’t become apparent until much later,’ the British

Dyslexia Association states At primary school, common

signs to look out for include difficulty in holding pencils

and pens, and trouble following instructions For me, the

writing was on the wall, and all over my exercise book, in

the margins or favouring one side or corner of the page, as

well as in my trouble forming letters and shapes

Agatha Christie is famously said to have had dyslexia

She shared her stressful experience of writing in her

autobiography Reading was fine, she said, but ‘Writing

and spelling were always very difficult for me.’ She

adds: ‘My father said that, as I could read, I had better

learn to write This was not nearly so pleasant Shaky

copybooks full of pothooks and hangers still turn up in

old drawers, or lines of shaky B’s and R’s, which I seem to

have had great difficulty in distinguishing since I learned

to read by the look of words and not their letters.’ Sounds

comfortingly familiar

It is thought that F Scott Fitzgerald was also dyslexic In

his introduction to the book Dreams of Youth: The Letters

of F Scott Fitzgerald, editor Andrew Turnbull observes:

habitually made such slips as “definate” and “critisism”, and proper names were his downfall He always reversed the “ei”

in “Dreiser”, “Stein,” and “Hergesheimer,” and, despite the hundreds of times he had seen “Hemingway” in print, he wrote it either “Hemmingway” or “Hemminway” and was capable of “Earnest” for “Ernest”.’

Fortunately for people with dyslexia today there is help available When the Equality Act 2010 was passed, The Dyslexia Association summarised its impact for dyslexics: ‘Under the terms of this legislation, employers are under a duty to make “reasonable adjustments” for

persons suffering from disability Dyslexia is recognised as

a disability within the meaning of the legislation because individuals with the condition are considered to be at

a substantial disadvantage within the workplace when compared to those who do not suffer from the condition.’ They suggest some reasonable adjustments for employers

to implement which include: adjusting deadlines to allow more time for completion or issuing documents earlier; providing text-to-speech software; giving verbal rather than written instructions

But what about us writers? I’d hate for any of my work to be read or treated differently just because I have learning difficulties That said, notes in the margin consistent with my particular weaknesses can enforce my persistent insecurity about daring to make writing and handling words my occupation Are my struggles leaving

an indelible mark on the page? Can anyone see how far my mind has leapfrogged during a paragraph before having to reel its way back?

My writing-based worries are countered by some practical steps collected over the years, for both dyslexia and

dyspraxia (I can’t detect a divide between the two, though I’m sure others with both can) These include: writing

on yellow or buff-toned paper; keeping a voice-recorder close by; enlarging font sizes when reading online; using

a week-to-view diary to help plan projects and deadlines; mind mapping; gathering coloured pens and pencils to help highlight key points in reading and writing

Most of all, try to be kind to yourself A helpful reminder for all writers Something that I had on repeat

in my mind while writing my first novel during our first lockdown

“Books, reading, writing you can’t help what you love I knew I wanted to be a writer

so I wasn’t going to let something like

dyslexia stand in my way.”

Is being a romance author the ultimate romantic dream?

With Valentine’s Day looming, Rosalind Moody

prays the answer is ‘yes’

Are you ready

for romance?

CREATIVE WRITING

Love stories sell billions of books around the

world every year, wrapped up in countless fictional worlds and character arcs It’s my favourite genre to read, and write too, even though I prefer to write romantic non-fiction (I’m currently pitching a romantic memoir with a spiritual

angle) I live for the will-they-won’t-they, in fiction and in

life, and I’m sure if you’re reading this column, you do too

When you think of the romantic fiction shelf, Marian

Keyes might well be front and centre in your mind In

fact, Keyes is so globally successful her team marked the

imminent release of Again, Rachel, the hotly awaited sequel

to her hugely popular Rachel’s Holiday, with none other

than a 150-people strong yoga class at London’s Tower

Bridge However, for this piece, I wanted to step away from

chart-topping celebrities and talk to two successful romance

authors on the real happy highs and practical pitfalls of

going full time as a romance author Meet Essex-based

self-published author Suzy K Quinn and Northern Irish Mills

and Boon author Karin Baine

Straddling both straightforward romance and rom-com

genres, author of the bestselling Bad Mother’s Diary

rom-com series Suzy has to remind herself of the true wonder

of how she makes her living ‘When I was in my twenties

working boring jobs, I was writing on the side Now I write

and travel anywhere It’s a liberating thing but you can’t

predict what will do well You can spend a lot of time on

something that doesn’t do perform as you thought it would,

and not a lot of time on something that surprises you.’

Karin is currently working on her twentieth book for

M&B and says she also has to pinch herself ‘My husband

agreed that if I couldn’t get published within a year I would

go back to work Lucky for me, Mills & Boon picked my

entry for their So You Think You Can Write competition

in 2014 as a runner-up It meant I got to work with an

editor until my book was ready and they offered me a

contract.’ Her eventual success wasn’t without its hard

graft, though ‘One of my early attempts was when I was

fifteen and mostly written during history class! It was based

on a saxophone player who was very much like a certain

Curtis Stigers in the 1990s I think most of it is down to

perseverance I entered every competition which came around and learned more with every story and rejection.’ Let’s dive into the juicy stuff: the sexy story-telling and wondrous world-building Suzy loves to research luxury hotels and high-end restaurants for that funny ‘frothy-type feeling’ Karin’s worlds are more grounded ‘I base a lot of my stories

in Northern Ireland and Scotland because that is where I’m most at home Every now and then I will venture somewhere warm and exotic.’ But Karin specialises in a sub-genre

‘Because I write medicals, I watch a lot of documentaries

to get a real feel of what goes on behind the scenes,’ she says ‘I watch stuff about air ambulances, lifeboats and even gory YouTube videos so that I can write confidently about complicated surgeries I’ll then send my writing to my friend, Michelle, who is a nurse She will keep me on the right lines about proper procedures.’

For research around the sex scenes, however, Suzy has some simple advice: ‘My romance novels include Jackie Collins-type stuff, so I include sex wherever I can put it So,

to write it plausibly, my advice is to get lots of experience If you enjoy writing about it, people are going to love it.’

I immediately want to come up with a tale of my own, and Suzy breaks down how to do it ‘I have observed that people are either better at characters or at plot A romance novel is a wonderful balance between the two, but start with the characters I’m more commercial so I let plot lead If characters are your strength, people will want more language and description Play to your strengths

‘However, with a true romance, my readers want escapism They want to be taken away and loved, late at night before they fall asleep, with an alpha male It sounds outdated but characters must be archetypes – they want the masculine-feminine symbolism Yes, women also want strong women who’ll talk back, but I haven’t heard of a successful romance which features a feminised male lead.’

Meet the authors

• Download a free ebook in the Bad

Mother’s Diary series at suzykquinn.com

• Karin Baine lives in Northern Ireland with her husband, two sons, and her out-of-control notebook collection

Visit karinbaine.com

Karin agrees ‘First and foremost, you have to have likeable

characters readers are drawn to from the beginning, else they

won’t want to follow their entire journey The hero/heroine

should be flawed and believable If they have issues, we want

to care enough to see them to overcome them, preferably

with each other.’ Suzy’s main priority is two characters who

are sparky and have tension ‘You can’t just pick two attractive

people and expect them to have that But it must always have

a happy ending I don’t storyboard – I just get to the word

limit and pull out an ending I let it find its own way.’

For Karin, the pace is key to the plot ‘We don’t need to

read every small detail With Mills & Boon Medicals, we

only have 50,000 words to play with so every word has

to count We need drama to keep the excitement going,

interspersed with emotional reveals which keep us invested in

our characters’ relationship In romance it is all about conflict,

external and internal There are always obstacles for them to

overcome before they can ultimately find their HEA (happy

ever after) As it was put to me – if these people were the last

couple left on earth, there have to be reasons why they still

can’t be together There is always a “dark moment”, when

something happens so the characters think that all is lost

Then, a grand gesture and a realisation that they can’t live

without one another.’

But surely the role of romance writer must have its

downsides, despite gifting characters the non-negotiable

HEAs? Suzy thinks of her stories out of order – ‘but I think

that’s the definition of creativity It’s a joy and a challenge.’

To overcome this, she uses Ulysses – writing and editing

software where you can put scenes into folders then roughly

order them ‘I get an idea for a book every day, from

everywhere, so after a month, I sift through all the good

ideas I can actually picture Then I ask myself, “Do I have

the skill to write it?”’

For Karin, the adversity lies in how some perceive her

work ‘The romance genre takes a knock from everyone and

Mills & Boon authors in particular seem to be fair game

There is a certain snobbery around the genre – people

assume it’s easy.’ For me, it would be the early starts ‘I begin

writing at 5am for a few hours before I’ve eaten anything or

been distracted,’ Suzy reports ‘Then I’ll write again from

9am to 1pm and do admin in the afternoon I write about

three or four books a year but writing a kids book, as I’m

doing now, is taking a year.’

We writers are only a product of the books we’ve digested,

and I love hearing Suzy and Karin’s stand-out stories ‘My

biggest influence was The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole,’ says

the former ‘I read things like Forever by Judy Bloom and

Nancy Drew There wasn’t a Twilight of my era.’ For Karin,

it’s the Irish charm ‘I read a lot of Maeve Binchy before

getting published myself I like the homely, familiar feel of

her characters I think Irish/Northern Irish people are born

storytellers We love spinning a yarn and we have a dry sense

of humour which I think comes across in our books.’

But how, I want to know, has Marian Keyes so

dominated the field? ‘Having heard her talk, she is

naturally funny and I think that has a lot to do with it She’s also been very open about her struggles with mental health and she is very good at digging deep for those intense emotional moments in her books She is excellent

at self-promotion simply by being herself.’

Now let’s talk shop: I want to know how the books get out there to the masses Karin’s publisher takes care of all the official publicity, but in 2020, she was personally asked

to take part in a BBC Northern Ireland programme about Mills & Boon writers ‘It was a huge opportunity but you can see how out of my comfort zone I was

‘With Amazon,’ she goes on, ‘I will always just keep an eye on the rankings, not that that makes an awfully big difference to the payments My advice would be not to get too carried away with what you are or aren’t selling on there

Of course it will be different for authors who self-publish.’ The best person to ask about this is Suzy ‘I massively recommend Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) – you can choose to publish with them exclusively and it gets you onto Kindle Unlimited promotions I’d really recommend doing that

‘I’m an entreprenual spirit,’ Suzy continues ‘If you’re published, you have so much more input into the book’s success because your profit is higher and you can advertise yourself more I was first published by Hachette and given

self-a big self-advself-ance self-and fself-anfself-are, then they umm’d self-and self-ahh’d about taking my next one So I tried self-publishing as an experiment and since then, I’ve sold half a million copies!

‘You have to do more legwork with advertising, creating the right combo of title and cover and so on

Now I run a Bestseller Course with the SPF aimed at helping self-publishing writers put together a novel (see

selfpublishingformula.com) It ensures they’ve got

something really sellable before even writing.’

Then it comes to the all-important question Is writing romance for a living as amazing as it sounds? ‘It is for me,’ says Karin ‘Ideally I would also own a coffee shop near the sea where I would happily write and craft to my heart’s content But I’ve made great friends with other authors and meet up in London regularly for cocktails and celebrity stalking Being a romance author is not a regular pay check but if you work hard there’s no reason you can’t make a living.’ Suzy’s answer? ‘I wouldn’t change it for anything.’ Sounds like the perfect happy ending to me.’

MY PATH TO PUBLICATION

‘Iwas first introduced to the idea that I could write

in an A-Level English Literature class I grew up in

Brighton and went to a sixth-form college up behind

the station It was a half-hour walk and included a

very steep hill At the bottom of the hill was a viaduct

which housed what felt like Brighton’s entire population of

pigeons When I think of college, I think of feathers and

pigeon shit and writing

‘I wasn’t a particularly happy teenager Before college, I spent

three years at a private school whose single mission was to

churn out excessively high grades That school was a business,

and every student could feel it I have more friends from there

with eating and anxiety disorders than anywhere else, and I

went to eight different schools (if you include universities)

Private schools are wrong for multiple reasons, and one of

them is this

‘At the state college I joined for sixth-form, my English

Literature class took a module in which we were each asked to

write a short story It was the kind of module that would never

have been chosen at my previous school, where teachers openly

discouraged students from taking arts subjects We studied Jon

McGregor’s This Isn’t The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone

Like You for inspiration It was the first short story collection I’d

read, as well as the first contemporary book I’d studied, and I was

intrigued The stories felt brave, fresh and full of risk

‘I wrote my story in bed on my chunky laptop in one

sitting I remember the experience vividly I wrote about an

invigilator who marked creative writing pieces for a living It

was much more meta than my stories are now, and it wasn’t

very good, but the actual act of writing it was powerful I felt

transported out of my world For most of my teenage years I

battled very low self-esteem alongside an unhealthy obsession

with perfection, so being transported really was what I needed

I’m not being dreamy when I say that writing came to me at

just the right time Later I would start to enjoy myself, and as

I did my stories would become more and more like my life

At the moment I’m reading Your Silence Will Not Protect You,

a collection of Audre Lorde’s speeches and essays, and in it is

a conversation between Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich, in

which Lorde talks about moving to Mexico at nineteen and

realising, for the first time, that she “did not have to make up

beauty for the rest of [her] life”

‘I used the story that I wrote for A-Level in my application to

university, where I studied BA English Literature with Creative

Writing at the University of Manchester, and then later an MA

in Creative Writing at Birkbeck I’m certainly a writer who was

made by institutions, and it’s largely due to this privilege that

I’m bringing out my first book at 25 There are other – perhaps

slower, but certainly more interesting – ways to get published

Saba Sams

The author of debut short story collection Send Nudes

remembers how writing set her free as a teenager

‘Whenever I handed in a story to my teachers for a deadline, I’d also send it to an online publication for their consideration

I received a lot of rejections, but I had a few accepted too When I was submitting my work to publication, I was also applying to various writing opportunities and competitions Amid all of this, I still wouldn’t admit to myself – or anyone – how much I wanted to be a writer

One of the opportunities I applied to was The Writing Squad, a free two-year development programme that I joined while I was living in Manchester They run workshops and give access to exceptional one-on-one writing tutors, as well as linking their writers to wider opportunities My two years was actually up by the time The Writing Squad got in touch with

me – asking for permission to send my work to publishers for feedback from an editor – which speaks volumes about the kind of support they give

‘When I was told that my stories had found their way from The Writing Squad to an editor at Bloomsbury who wanted to publish me, I was genuinely stunned I knew that I was getting somewhere with my writing – I’d recently had a story shortlisted

of, and I hadn’t even realised that the stories I’d been working

on were beginning to form a collection It struck me that my characters decided for me that I was writing a book, which is typical of the audacious young women that populate my stories

‘I’m 25 now, and though technically all of the stories in Send Nudes have been written in the last three or so years, I truly

feel that I started the book when I was sixteen, stomping under the viaduct with the pigeons I dragged it through parties and bus rides and classrooms of creative writing students, and the characters changed me as I changed them I think that you can see that in the stories, or I hope that you can My writing might have started out as escapism, but these days I try my best to allow the life in.’

Send Nudes by Saba Sams is published by Bloomsbury

Saba’s top tips:

• If you’re desperate to be published, harness that desperation and allow it into the writing I read an interview with Raven Leilani recently, and she said that the reason her debut novel

Luster has such frantic energy is because that’s exactly how she

felt when she was writing it; the book was her lifeline

• You don’t have to be at a desk in order to write Carry a notebook in your bag, use the notes app in your phone If a few words come to you at an unlikely time, get them down Keep it a fluid, open process

• Submit your work to publications and competitions As soon as you do, you’ll see exactly what’s wrong with it

‘My brilliant colleague Angelique Tran Van Sang came across Saba Sams and the stories that would become Send Nudes through a

collaboration Bloomsbury did with New Writing North in 2019 – and I can still remember Saba reading the beginning

of the short story Snakebite at an event we held in the

conservatory at Bloomsbury, and being immediately

drawn into Meg and Lara’s world

‘It was clear from that night that Saba was a star: her

story Tinderloin had already been shortlisted for the

White Review Short Story prize, while Overnight had

been selected by Sally Rooney for Stinging Fly Angelique

acquired the collection that would become Send Nudes

and a novel very shortly afterwards – and everyone at

Bloomsbury was thrilled to welcome Saba to our list

‘Saba’s terrain is girlhood: the lives of little girls,

teenagers, and young women making their way in the world, as they navigate ambivalent mother figures, intense friendships, unhappily blended families, their relationships with their own bodies I’ve been struck

by how many of the advance praise picked up on the materiality and texture of her writing; she has an incredible eye for the textures of junk food and make

up and clothes, threading between clubs at closing time, packed pub toilets, drenched music festivals and beach holidays Reading it, I felt so tender and so fearful for each and every one of the girls in its pages: their hopes, their secrets, their shame are rendered unforgettably.’It’s rare to see a book inspire both admiration and passion in the way that Send Nudes has – and it’s been

thrilling to see that excitement build in the lead-up

to publication I’m so excited that Bloomsbury will be sharing Saba’s work with the world, and I know people will be reading her work for years to come

Allegra Le Fanu, commissioning editor, Bloomsbury

“The comments were thoughtful, insightful

and invaluable in taking my novel in a new

direction Your critique service is fi rst class

and great value for money.”

get your book into the best possible shape.

BOOK YOUR CRITIQUE ONLINE TODAY:

The first Monday in February is the day when UK

workers are most likely to call in sick and, although the

commonest excuses are colds, flu and food poisoning,

most people who opt for stay-ing under the duvet on

‘black Monday’ admit the real reason is because they

just don’t feel like getting up

Lethargy and gloom can set in around this time, with cold

dark months behind us and weeks still to go before the arrival

of spring, but there is warmth and pleasure to be found in the

depths of winter too, and this month’s free-range writing is all

about finding it

Pleasure is always the point of free-range writing If you enjoy

doing something, you want to do it more, and the more you do

it the better you get at it So rather than starting from theory

and technique, I encourage people to find and develop their

writing voice through writing One rule: stick to the timings

Memoir

In nature, many animals become dormant or hibernate

through the winter, and many plants die right back before

bursting with new growth in the spring We humans need

periods of quiet inertia too, when we may feel directionless

or becalmed, while beneath the surface energy is building for

new beginnings

Sometimes we might deliberately take time out with a

holiday or career break, but quite often, these fallow times feel

unwelcome, brought about by physical illness, for example,

or grief or depression Some writers think of these inactive

periods as ‘writer’s block,’ rather than a natural part of the

creative process

When has your life, or an area of your life such as your

writing or relationship, felt becalmed? Jot down some ideas

and choose one What was your life like just before everything

ground to a halt? And what happened afterwards, what new

beginning, when you came out of it?

Write for twenty minutes, whatever comes As one idea runs

out, move on to another one

Fiction

‘Pathetic fallacy’ is when a writer uses the setting to reflect and

amplify the emotion of a scene Is trouble brewing? Cue storm

clouds Is romance in the air? Cue balmy nights and moonlight

Is the pursuer closing in? Darkness, thunder, crack of lightning!

This month’s fiction is all about exploring the power of

pathetic fallacy by picturing a character in a wintry scene

and describing the setting in a way that reflects their mood

or situation Say they are lonely or depressed, your setting could feel bleak and isolated, or if they are in love, it could feel dreamy and beautiful If it’s a happy family scene, it could feel playful, with sledges and snowmen and brightly coloured clothing Think in terms of both the things you choose to include in the setting and the way you describe them

Start with the character Who is it? What’s their situation at this moment? How are they feeling? Then build the setting around them Play about with it – be prepared to do some crossing out You don’t need to tell the whole story – the task

is just to conjure this psychological moment and a setting that amplifies the emotion of it You could imagine it as an atmospheric photo and describe what you see in that Take about twenty minutes

Non-fiction

List three hobbies or activities you enjoy Choose one

Suppose you were starting a new magazine for fellow enthusiasts, what would you call it? Picture the cover for your February edition

You have been sent a choice of articles on a winter theme Imagine sifting through them There might be ideas for winter trips related to the hobby or interest, how-to articles, interviews with experts… What would your readers like to read? Jot down some ideas Select two or three

Now write your editorial For inspiration, check out some back issues of Writing Magazine, and see how the editor

introduces the theme for some editions That’s the kind of length you’re looking for Take up to twenty minutes

Poetry

Start with a prose warm-up, writing whatever comes about typical winter days at different points in your life For example, on winter weekends when my kids were young, we often went for walks on the coast path and came home to

Bullseye or Ski Sunday, an open fire, and hot buttered toast

Write, keeping the pen moving on the paper, passing on from one idea to another, for ten minutes

Choose one winter ritual for your poem Capture the feeling of the season through the physicality of the experience, the chill of the outdoors air on your skin, the snuggly warmth inside, the dark and the low winter light How does that winter moment capture the whole of that period in your life?Take twenty minutes

Are you finding winter a bit bleak?

Jenny Alexander urges you to embrace positivity

in these creative writing exercises

FREE

RANGE

Your story should be 1,500-1,700 words and the closing date is 15 March

The winner will receive £200 and publication in Writing Magazine,

with £50 and publication online for the runner-up

With its closing date of 15 February, there’s still time to enter last month’s competition for dialogue-only

STILL TIME TO ENTER £250 to be won

£250

TO BE WON

SHORT STORY COMPETITION WINNER

Amanda Fennelly is a radio producer and presenter with RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster, and has a degree in journalism She has dabbled in creative writing since she was a child, doing

a number of courses over the years, and has tried her luck in WM competitions a few times but

until now was only shortlisted once She was on the verge of taking a break from creative writing

so this achievement has given her confidence the boost it needed to keep working towards her dream of one day having a novel published

FIRST PLACE

£200

When I saw you, it felt like

I hit the pause button on everything around me I wasn’t expecting to run into you on a cobbled shopping street, with people rushing

around in all directions, unaware of

the fact that my whole world just

stopped turning for a second because

there you were

It’s been ten years since my eyes

drank you in, since my nose was full

with the scent of your hair Your hair

It was long and dark when we were

together but now you had it in one of

those cute wavy bobs just below your

chin and it was a lighter brown with

blonde highlights It somehow made

you look younger than I remembered

and yet more sophisticated at the

same time You wore a long, belted

cream coat, skinny jeans and

knee-high black boots with a huge bag

dangling from your elbow and sun

glasses perched on your head You

were looking up and down the street,

completely oblivious to the admiring

glances I saw some men shoot your

way when they thought the women

they were with weren’t looking, and

completely oblivious to me standing

across from you

But then your head turned and

stopped Your eyes met mine as if

they were two magnets who had

no choice but to follow the laws

of physics Unlike me you didn’t

gasp, you didn’t show any surprise

Instead, you looked uneasy and I thought I should just walk away, pretend that I didn’t see you, pretend

I wasn’t who you knew I was But I couldn’t do that, I’m sorry I needed

to speak to you, to hear your voice

I had been waiting for this moment for ten years

‘Beth? Is that you?’ I said as I walked towards you

They were not the words I wanted to say, they were not the words that had gone through my head on nights when

I lay in my bed, sometimes alone, sometimes with a sleeping body next

to me, and imagined what it might be like if I saw you again But the words

I wanted to say scared me and would scare you if I said them

‘Wow, Adam, it is you, I wasn’t sure…’

Your voice trailed off but your eyes never left my face

‘How are you? You look… great.’

Well that was an understatement, you looked beautiful, sexy, elegant but great was all I had the courage

to say

‘Thanks, so do you,’ you smiled,

‘still wearing that leather jacket, I guess you were right after all.’

Our third date together, we went shopping before dinner and I bought this jacket We were poor college students and I had saved up months for this You couldn’t understand

why I wanted to spend so much money on a piece of clothing but

I told you it was an investment, that this jacket would last me years, decades even Then on the way home after dinner you were feeling cold so I put the jacket on you You snuggled into it and finally admitted

it was a good buy

‘So um, what have you been up to? Did you ever end up writing that book?

I remembered nights when we lay entwined together and you would tell me about this idea you had for

a novel and as you explained the plot to me and got so passionate and excited, I would kiss your neck and marvel at your imagination and determination

You gave a half smile and impatiently looked at your watch I realised then that us bumping into each other was not the momentous event for you that it was for me What was I thinking, that after all these

Someone I Used

To Know

By Amanda Fennelly

years you’d forgive me for breaking your

heart, would rush into my arms and kiss

me with your hands on both my cheeks

like you used to do?

And that’s when I saw them, as I

looked down at those hands that used

to caress my face, the wedding band and

diamond solitaire that match perfectly

on that finger of your left hand

Suddenly he was there beside

you, your husband, looking at you

quizzically while clutching the tiny

hand of a little girl who was a mini

version of you and looking up at me

with those same brilliant blue eyes

‘Who’s this Mama?’

Your husband glanced in my direction,

clearly wondering the same thing

‘Someone I used to know in college

darling Well it was great to see you again

after all this time Adam, take care.’

As you hurried away with them,

your husband looked back and I

could see he was asking you more

questions but you were dismissing

them, dismissing me

Someone I used to know That’s

how you described me If someone

asked me to describe you, I would

probably say you are the love of my

life, the one who got away, the only

woman I’ve ever truly loved, the best

thing that ever happened to me

Maybe it was better this way You’re

married, you have a daughter, I just

want you to be happy In my head all

this would have gone so differently

You would be as pleased to see me as I

was to see you, I’d ask you for a drink,

you’d say yes and we’d go back to one

of our old haunts and we’d laugh about

how different it was or how it was still

the same Then I’d take your drink

from you, and kiss you on the lips,

softly first and then harder and let my

kiss express the regret, the sorrow, the

desire for forgiveness and the hope to

start over again But instead, I walked

in the opposite direction to you, trying

to accept that now I was just someone you used to know

*****

I heard your laugh from across the street I’d recognise it anywhere, even after all these years That laugh that never failed to make me smile You were standing across the street on your mobile and wearing that same old leather jacket After all this time it still looked so good on you And just for a moment I wanted to rush over to where you were and place my hands over your eyes like I used to do and say ‘guess who?’ I’d wait to hear what crazy answer you would come up with this time (the Pope, Oprah, Madonna) and then I’d say, ‘No silly, it’s someone you know.’

I glanced up and down the street and hoped you wouldn’t notice me Rob had taken Molly for a hot chocolate while I did some shopping and they would be back any minute There was

no way I could let Rob meet you If he saw us together, he’d just know Know that I loved you once in a way that I have never and will never love him

Know that I still love you and probably always will

I knew I should pretend I didn’t see you but I couldn’t take my eyes away from where you were, I wanted

to see you one more time Then our eyes met because you had seen

me too And now you were walking towards me, smiling that boyish smile

of yours Your eyes had a few more wrinkles than they once did and the stubble that always dusted your chin was now a proper beard but you still made my heart beat faster

I wanted to hate you back then when you broke my heart but I

couldn’t My friends said that you just got scared of how strong our feelings were for each other That you just needed to grow up a little and you’d be back someday to find me and we’d be end game

But you never did show up I waited and waited I dated other men but never got serious with anyone So then I just got tired of waiting When Robert asked me out I said yes and this time I did allow it to get serious and it was nice to feel loved again, to feel wanted So I said yes to moving

in together, yes to buying a house, yes

to getting married, yes to having a baby But every time I said yes, your face would appear in my mind and I’d wonder where you were and wish you would come back before I took that next step Now here you were finally, when it was too late, asking me about things no one else knows but you Why didn’t you come back to me earlier? Why didn’t you show up at one

of those moments when I said yes and tell me ‘no, he’s not for you, this life isn’t for you’ I’m not unhappy, Rob treats

me well, he’s a fantastic Dad and a good husband but he’s not you

And then they’re next to me, Rob and Molly, wondering who you are and

I didn’t know what to tell them, I was afraid my words would betray how I feel about you What I said is not a lie, but it’s also so far away from the truth that the words broke my heart all over again when I dared speak them out loud But this is all you can be It’s gone too far now for me to turn my life upside down,

to walk away from all this Instead, I had

to do the hardest thing I’ve ever had to

do, and walk away from you, someone I used to know

SHORTLISTED AND RUNNER-UP

Runner-up in the Love Story competition was Christine Griffin, Hucclecote, Gloucestershire, whose story is published on

www.writers-online.co.uk

Also shortlisted were: Ana de Andrada, Bracknell, Berkshire; Valerie Bowes, Caterham, Surrey; Dianne Bown-Wilson,

Drewsteignton, Exeter; Andrew Brown, Mickleover, Derby; Felicity Cousins, Wadhurst, East Sussex; Mark Dorey, Pontypridd;

John Glander, Wickford, Essex; Jennifer Johnson, Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire; Katie Kent, Bicester, Oxfordshire; Diane M

Smith, Ewhurst, Surrey; Jackie Winter, Blandford, Dorset.

Read the judges’ comments at

http://writ.rs/ wmfeb22

How do you know if your work-in-progress is hitting the mark?

Adrian Magson provides some pointers.

Has it got legs?

I’ve often been asked how to tell if a story is ‘right’

– that is, right enough to catch the eye of an agent

or editor Well, the truth is, you can’t know until

you’ve finished writing it Nor, therefore, can an

editor or agent

Many books are written with all the promise in the world

of being brilliant… only to run out of steam along the way

(And I should know – I’ve written some of them.)

With a short story of, say, 1,000 words, it’s easier to tell if

it works because, well, it’s short, innit? You can see quickly if

it flows, has a balance of characters (not too many), tension,

humour, setting and dialogue (Sadly, if it’s a turkey, that

will also show Welcome to the writing life.)

I’m not dismissing short fiction as easy I know from

years of writing and selling hundreds of short stories that

creating a lucid, interesting and captivating short can be full

of headaches, deletions and screwed-up sheets of A4 being

slam-dunked into the wastebasket (When it comes to that

last action, I’m the Meadowlark Lemon of paper-binners.)

Condensing characters, setting and interactions into a few

words allows no deviation, over-egging or a cast of characters

trooping across the page like wildebeest on the Serengeti

The long road ahead

A book-length tale of 80,000 to 90,000 words, however,

allows you to let rip with more descriptive detail, larger

scenes, more points-of-view and character interactions Not

that the road ahead isn’t daunting Will the storyline have legs? Can I hold a reader’s interest until the end – indeed, can I hold my own creative drive that long or will it quickly become flabby and wrinkled like a cheap party balloon?

Don’t forget the detail

One problem with a long work as the writing proceeds is finding one’s memory of the earlier scenes becoming a little hazy Remember, everything is in the detail and readers have

an uncanny knack of spotting a gap Forget or dismiss one thing as unimportant and someone will let you know Read-throughs are vital, a practice some writers forget or find tedious because they think once written, never forgotten If only that were true

The list of things sent to haunt you can range from an unintended change of physical detail – eyes, hair, clothes and so on – to an interesting character who suddenly disappears without explanation Even an absence of detail at

a crucial point can leave a glaring plot hole in a story

Find a friendly reader

One solution is to find a friendly reader who will go through your work Pick someone you trust Not a family member because, bless ‘em, they will say what they think you want to hear (My mother thought every word I wrote was Pulitzer Prize material, but even I knew it wasn’t.) You should also pick someone smaller than you There’s no joy in being told

your writing is cobblers if you also get beaten up when

you take offence at this criticism of your baby

With short stories, incidentally, trust your instincts Not

everyone likes or can handle short fiction without asking,

‘Is that all?’ Yes, you might remind them that it’s called a

short story for a reason But it’s best to stay friends because

if you do trust them you’ll need them even more when

you hit the ground running with a whole book

Find what suits you

Since I’ve never written in a linear A-Z fashion, I’ve

always tended to put down scenes in short form

and return to them later This allows me to keep the

storyline moving and not get bogged down (I’ve

known a couple of writers who got hopelessly hooked

on getting early chapters so ‘right’ they were never able

to move on That’s a great shame.)

Returning to scenes of dialogue can be specially

vital An argument between two people is never

without context; having a character tell another to go

boil their head doesn’t come out of nowhere; there’s

usually some toing-and-froing, involving the setting,

the physical descriptions of the parties and their

respective reactions, both emotional and physical It’s

how arguments happen in real life, so readers will relate

to that Incomplete interactions on a page can come

across like overhearing one side of an interesting phone

conversation, with all the potentially juicy bits lost Do

that in your book and it destroys context and leaves the

reader disappointed

Leave markers

You don’t need to write everything in the first hit

Using a form of shorthand to start with can still get

the main elements down while allowing you to keep

moving As long as you leave markers so you can come

back to them later (aka editing) You’ve got the scene,

the characters and the setting, all you have to do is fill

out and enhance the detail which the reader needs to

make their understanding complete

As my wife assures me, it’s the difference between

baking cupcakes and a Victoria sponge; cupcakes look

pretty good and are easier to judge A sponge can, just

as you think you’ve got a winner, take a downward dip

in the middle and you end up with a saggy bottom

If you have a project already on the go, try it with

a chapter that’s proving difficult Write out the main

elements as if continuing with the story, but keep it,

shall we say, less than complete That means truncating

the dialogue and scenery, putting in shortened scenes

but keep moving at a clip, leaving highlights or markers

where you need a revisit

You’ll have plenty to go back to, but re-reading and

editing will make it more complete And there’s nothing

better for your confidence than the sense that you’ve

done a first-class job

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that moment that I decided I wanted to be a writer However, I never thought I could

make a living as a writer, so I followed my second passion and became a clinical social

worker instead My writing career then grew out of a hobby.’

White Horses, will always hold a

special place in my heart I was

a hospital social worker when

I stumbled across this book on the remainder table in a grocery store over 35 years ago Around that time, I was starting to toy with writing, jotting down a story

on yellow legal pads whenever I got the chance Reading White Horses inspired me to keep going

Some readers may find the story offensive (it deals with incest) but

it wasn’t the story that captivated

me as much as Hoffman’s unique voice and magical writing The book and Hoffman’s writing was a huge influence on my own work.’

Follow the River

by James Alexander Thom

‘I’ve been part of a large neighbourhood book club for the last sixteen years We’ve read nearly 200 books during that time A few months ago, we took a vote on which book had the greatest impact on us By far, Follow the River was the winner This

realisation actually stunned us We read Follow the River about

ten years ago It was a small, undistinguished-looking paperback with a bland green cover But the gripping story inside captured our hearts and minds It’s the true story of Mary Ingles, a

pregnant 23-year-old woman who was taken prisoner by the Shawnee Indians in Virginia in 1755 She lived with the tribe for several months before

escaping, traveling a thousand miles by foot to get back to her settlement None of us

who read the book will ever forget her horrendous, courageous journey.’

DIANE CHAMBERLAIN

women, decades apart, who find themselves bound by

an old mystery In 1965, Ellie Hockley goes against her proper Southern family when she volunteers to register Black voters Many years later, Kayla Carter, recently widowed with a three-year-old daughter, receives frightening warnings about moving into the house she and her husband designed The two stories collide in unexpected ways as, together, Ellie and Kayla discover long-hidden truths that bind them together

‘I’ve always had a strong interest in civil rights, perhaps because I grew up in a town that was integrated and I could see what injustice was doing to my neighbours and classmates Voting rights have long been a controversial topic in the United States and unfortunately, they still are Prior to 1965, though, Black citizens in the South faced violence, threats and impossible-to-pass “literacy tests” when they tried to register to vote In 1965, college students were brought to the South to help them register

My protagonist Ellie becomes one of those students against the wishes of her family and community

‘Despite having written 28 novels, I’m not a disciplined writer I tend to dawdle, thinking about different

directions I might take a story without putting any of it

on paper I love researching the topics I’m writing about Finally, my characters and I get down to business I say

“my characters and I” because I think of them as my co-workers I always have a sense of where my story will

go, but I also let my characters guide me, perhaps taking

me in a direction I never anticipated That’s the magical part of writing a story for me

‘The best writing advice I’ve received was from Mary Kay Andrews, a dear friend and fabulously funny author She said “You can’t revise what you haven’t written.”

So once I do get to the writing part of my process, I remember her words when I feel stumped or stuck and downright lazy Then I get something down on paper, and usually, the magic begins to happen.’

Fried Green Tomatoes

at the Whistle Stop Café

by Fannie Flagg

‘How I love this book It

had such an influence on my

writing, especially in my stories

that are set in two different

time periods In current day,

an elderly woman tells the

story of her life to a younger

woman who is struggling with

the perceived emptiness of middle age The old woman’s

story of two women who run a colourful café in Whistle

Stop, Alabama is both gripping and poignant I love

that there is a mystery that pulls the reader through the

book until the very end As my books are often set in the

American South, I particularly enjoyed the Alabama and

the “feel” of this thoroughly engaging story.’

11-22-63 by Stephen King

‘I stopped reading Stephen King’s novels years ago after reading

Misery I was sitting on a beach

in Hawaii, engaged in the story when the crazy woman chopped off the foot of the protagonist (who happened to be a writer, like me) That was it It was simply too horrific and I was done with King That is, until 11-22-63 came along This is the

engrossing story of a man who discovers he can travel

back to the 1950s His plan is to try to prevent the

assassination of President John F Kennedy Of course

everything goes engagingly wrong It’s one of the rare

books that I’ve read twice and it caused me to resume

my fandom of Stephen King, though I stick to his

non-horror stories He is second to none when it comes to

writing gripping fiction.’

© J

ohn

aglica

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

1 A good start It drops us

immediately into the scene with a

character attempting to do something

2 The sentence would be more

effective if it didn’t start with

the subordinate clause ‘so far’, which

disrupts the flow and puts the emphasis

in the wrong place (ie, on the duration

rather than the effort) Just switch it: ‘It

hadn’t gone well so far.’

3 A cliché What is the ‘best part of

the morning?’ We assume it means

‘most of the morning’ but what does

that signify? When does the morning

officially start and end? Are we talking about 12 hours or two? Be specific

4 This sentence is a spaghetti of

clauses, telling us three things in the same breath Where’s the focus?

Would this work better as two separate sentences?

5 Should we understand that those

two hours were the ‘best part’

of the morning? Or are we speaking strictly about the previous two hours?

6 Do windows casually blow open?

If we accept that, then we must also assume that there’s a lot of wind

outside The scene is presented as one of concentrated silence, but we now find that the elements are frisky and presumably audible through the incorrectly sealed window frame

7 It would make more sense to use

past perfect tense: ‘the feather had moved.’

8 Two full seconds? That’s quite

a long time for a thought or realisation Time it Also remember that the feather moving would have happened only after the window noisily blowing open Two seconds

Your writing critiqued

James McCreet

applies his forensic criticism to the first 300 words of a reader’s manuscript

Sarah Larkham is a singer-songwriter who

lives on a houseboat in a marina in central

Bristol She also co-facilitates music

workshops for people with mental illness

During the last year, she’s diversified

and has been teaching singing online,

and is grateful to have also had the time

to devote to her other great passion in

life – writing Her YA novel is called The

Sensitives, and her dream is to write full

time Her husband is also a musician,

and has just finished writing the book he

has been working on for the past year

Sarah says they have quite literally been

in the same boat

Willow was trying to move the feather with her mind.1

So far, it hadn’t gone well.2 She’d spent the best part of

the morning3 staring at it and now, not only did she have

a headache, but the feather hadn’t budged.4 The most

exciting thing to happen over the last couple of hours5

was when the window had blown open6 and the feather

moved,7 and it had taken her a couple of seconds8 to

realise that it was down to the wind and not the power of

her mind.9 Telekinesis was not coming naturally to her.10

She narrowed her eyes and concentrated, hard.11

‘Give up, for the love of god.12 I’m bored.’ Jordan

had been sitting on the top of her dresser for the

whole time, watching and waiting, silently.13 Now, he

stretched and yawned, his skinny frame silhouetted

by the light coming in from the window.14 His fuzzy

hair was outlined in white,15 and his features were

obscured;16 even more than usual.17

‘Leave, if you’re bored.’18

She knew it was only a matter of time – time and

focus.19 She’d already put out a match flame by staring at

it.20 It stood to reason that since a feather was heavier than fire, it would be harder to control.21

‘You’ll be late,’ Jordan said

He was idly kicking the dresser now – thump, thump, thump.22

‘Stop it! Someone will hear you!23 Anyway, I don’t want

to go.’

Was she imagining it, or did24 the feather just move a fraction of an inch?25

‘You have to go.26 It’s your birthday It’s your party

They’ll notice if you’re not there.’

She made a face at him.27 ‘I don’t like people.’

‘You like me.’28

‘You’re not people.’29

‘Thanks.’

But Jordan was right Her party dress was hanging on the back of the door;30 a shiny, pink thing with a ra-ra skirt and layers of net

One important thing is missing from this piece: consideration

of the reader When we write with the reader in mind, we try

to portray a scene visually and tonally so that the reader can

picture it, feel it and – most importantly – believe it Here, the

writer seems to be telling the story to herself, feeling it out As

readers, we’re faced with inconsistencies or ambiguities or facts

that are hard to swallow How long have they been there? Has

Jordan really watched her all morning in immobile silence? Did

she really wait two seconds after the window blows open before

realising the effect wasn’t her?

These may seem like trifling things, but they add up If

we also throw in wrong punctuation, convoluted sentences,

imprecise description and unnecessary repetition, the overall

effect is a piece that is functioning only at 30% of its true

potential The reader spends more time trying to reconstruct

what the writer wanted to say than simply reading it In

short, the writing isn’t ready yet It needs more time in the

linguistic oven

Conceptually, it’s a promising scene It starts with clear focus: the character Willow has a curious telekinetic challenge Her relationship with Jordan is sardonic and humorous There’s the tension of having to attend a party she doesn’t want to attend That’s a lot of information in just three hundred words – a good beginning to a story As I say, the problem is the writing itself.How to improve quickly? Get a book on punctuation and learn the rules They are not difficult but they are critically important for professional prose Then start thinking about which part of the sentence is most important and start with

it Better to write two sentences than one that contains the information of three

Finally, imagine the scene before writing it Does it seem credible and possible Picture it and then describe it I always try to imagine the most pedantic possible reader (me?) and the nit-picking comments they’re likely to make Then I create the scene in terms that can’t confuse the reader or give them scope

to whinge

If you would like to submit an extract of your

work in progress, send it by email, with synopsis

and a brief biog, to: jtelfer@writersnews.co.uk

In summary

doesn’t seem credible

9 None of the words after ‘realise’ are

strictly necessary because they repeat

what we were just told Explaining

something in excessive depth is always a

humour-killer

1 0 Another repetition of what we’ve

already grasped There is some

humour in the understatement, but it

would work better if pithier and more

sarcastic ‘Telekinesis was tricky.’

1 1 A comma is not used in this way

(for a dramatic pause) A dash

would do the job A full stop and italics

would do it even better

1 2 Again, the comma’s not right

You can either delete it or switch

the sentence – ‘For the love of God,

give up.’

1 3 How long is the ‘whole time?’

It seems unlikely that he would

have sat there, silent and unmoving,

even for two hours, watching her stare

at a feather

1 4 I like the effect of silhouetting

him against the window It’s a

very visual technique It also means

that he will have noticed the window

blowing open two seconds before she

realised

1 5 This image doesn’t quite work

At first, I thought he had

white or blond hair and the light was shining through it as a kind

of halo ‘Outline’ suggests a single line, whereas a silhouette implies a brighter background in general – not just his hair but his whole head It’s imprecise No comma is necessary after ‘white’

1 6 If he’s silhouetted, this already

implies that his features are obscured or just plain blacked-out The semi-colon is wrong A dash or full stop would work

1 7 What does this mean? That his

face is somehow obscured in normal daily activity? A hood? A mask?

1 8 No comma required

1 9 I like the rhythm of this

sentence The dash is used to good emphatic effect

2 0 This raises doubts We’d

assumed from the start that she was hopeless at telekinesis, but in fact she does have some impressive ability

2 1 Does this stand to reason? It’s

not only about weight A flame

is an elemental force supplied by fuel and fed by oxygen Extinguishing it by telekinesis alone is no easy feat If you’re going to use a comma after ‘fire’, you also need one after ‘that’ to mark the

clause correctly

2 2 It might be better to spell out

that he’s kicking the dresser with his heels while still sitting on it I like the repeated ‘thumps’ to emphasise the sound, but I also wonder how such

a fidgeter managed to stay motionless and silent all morning

2 3 I think we have to acknowledge

the irony of her shouting for him

to be quiet lest somebody hear them

2 4 A more suitable tense would be:

‘ or had the feather moved?’

2 5 With both of them moving

and talking, it would be entirely predictable for the feather to move a fraction Nor, presumably, is she still trying to move it telekinetically if she’s talking to him

2 6 I’d add who’s speaking here

In context, it initially could be either of them: he telling her to attend the party or she telling him to leave because he’s being noisy

2 7 It would be good to know what

kind of face so we can picture it

2 8 This needs italics to capture the

tone of how it’s said: ‘You like me.’

2 9 Funny

3 0 Can’t use a semi-colon like this

A colon or a dash would work

Read James McCreet’s suggested rewrite of this extract at http://writ.rs/wmfeb22

Editorial calendar

Strong forward planning will greatly improve your chances with freelance submissions Here are some themes to consider for the coming months.

• Ramblers and members of the

Young Communist Party took

part in the Mass Trespass of

Kinder Scout, a protest that

walkers in England were denied

access to areas of open country.

• The Shakespeare Memorial

Theatre was opened in Stratford Designed by Elisabeth Scott,

it was the first important public building in England to be

designed by a female architect.

• Actor and singer Debbie Reynolds, whose breakthrough role

was in Singin’ in the Rain, was born.

• Actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in Alfred Hichcock’s

Psycho, was born.

• Actor Omar Sharif was born in Egypt

• Country singer Loretta Lynn was born.

70 years ago : APRIL 1952

• Mr Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on US TV.

• French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier was born.

80 years ago : APRIL 1942

• The Women’s Timber Corps, a civilian organisation to replace men

in the armed forced who had worked in forestry, was established

• Actress, model, style icon and Rolling Stones muse Anita Pallenberg was born

She died in 2017.

• Actor, singer and filmmaker Barbra Streisand was born

• Huddersfield Town AFC won the FA Cup Final.

• Dr Mabuse the Gambler, part one of Fritz Lang’s

silent film series about the Dr Mabuse character,

premiered in Berlin.

• Actress, singer and animal welfare activist Doris

Day was born in Ohio.

• ‘Angry young men’ novelist John Braine, author of

Room at the Top, was born.

• Novelist Kingsley Amis was born.

• How Does Your Garden Grow,

which later became BBC Radio 4’s

Gardeners’ Question Time, was first

broadcast on the BBC’s Northern network.

• As a result of the 1944 Education Act, the school leaving age in the

UK was raised from 14 to 15.

• Private healthcare provider BUPA was founded in the UK.

• In Operation Big Bang, the British navy detonated thousands of tonnes

of ammunition in an attempt to blow up the island of Heligoland and remove it as a fleet base for Germany.

• Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl set out on his Kon-Tiki expedition, sailing from Peru to Polynesia on a balsa-wood raft

• Country singer Emmylou Harris was born in Alabama.

• Reggae star Bunny Wailer was born

in Jamaica He died in March 2021.

• Rock icon Iggy Pop, the ‘godfather

of punk’, was born in Michigan.

75 years ago : 1947

Looking ahead

• The Brighton Belle, since 1931 the world’s only all-electric Pullman train, made its last journey from London to Brighton

• The BBC Radio comedy panel game I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue was first broadcast,

and is still running

• The wettest April on record paved the way for a year of severe weather conditions and flooding.

• Grumpy Cat, who became an internet celebrity, was born She died in 2019

2025 will be mark the centenary of the birth of influential science fiction author and editor Brian Aldiss What is his legacy to the continuing evolution

of sci-fi?

Pics, all CC BY-SA, Wikipedia:

Kon-Tiki, Bahnfrend; Iggy Pop, Man Alive!; Jean Paul Gaultier, Captain Catan; Brighton Belle, Tony Hagon; Grumpy Cat, Gage Skidmore; Brian Aldiss, Lars (Lon) Ollson; flood, Richard Smith.

60 years ago : APRIL 1962

• The first panda crossing was opened

outside Waterloo Station in London.

• TV presenter Phillip Schofield was born.

• Singer and model Nick Kamen, who died

in 2021, was born

• Scottish actor John Hannah was born

• Betty Boothroyd became the first woman

to be elected Speaker of the House of Commons.

• The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall were first opened to the public, for Easter.

• After calling an election, John Major was re-elected as Prime Minister when the Conservatives won a majority

40 years ago : APRIL 1982

• The Falklands War began.

• Canadian actor Seth Rogen was born.

• US singer Kelly Clarkson was born.

• Actor Kirsten Dunst was born

20 years ago :

APRIL 2002

• The funeral of Queen

Elizabeth the Queen

Mother took place at

Westminster Abbey, It’s

estimated that 10 million

people in the UK watched it on TV.

Everyone needs a little magic in our lives and that

applies to our writing too We could all do with

a magic potion or incantation that will encourage the words to flow and magic us all a publishing contract Or a spell to enchant us all to do the hard work needed to get published and actually sit down

and write Or maybe a spell to bring pens or our computer

keypad to life to write for us so we could get twice as much

writing done The world of magic has inspired much poetry,

many books, films and songs, and this month your writing

group is going to delve into the world of wizardry and

witchery and conjure words out of thin air to inject some

magic into their writing

For the first activity, ask the group to write down the

magical power they would like to possess and why Maybe

they’ve always wanted the power of flight so they could

soar through the skies like a bird and see the world from a

different angle Maybe they would like the ability to teleport

to avoid the queues at the airport and cut down on travelling

time They might have a yearning to make sure people

who do bad things, are rude or inconsiderate, get their

comeuppance in some way, or have the ability to be in more

than one place at once How handy would that be?

Then mime that magical power to see if the rest of the

group can figure out what it is Discuss what the advantages

and disadvantages of having that power might be and how

might it be used for less than honourable reasons What if

the magical power they have isn’t one they want? Or maybe

it malfunctions in some way and doesn’t have the effect they

were expecting Could that magical power be more of a

hindrance than help?

Choose a song title featuring magic in some way, for

example: I Put a Spell on You, It’s a Kind of Magic, Black

Magic, Every LittleThing She Does is Magic, etc, and write

either a character biography based on the song titles and/or

lyrics, or some poetry inspired by it Perhaps a news report is

more some of your members’ forte?

Write a short piece involving the character they wrote the

biography for, or continue the poetry or news report where

the magical power goes wrong and the chaos that ensues

Perhaps there is someone who the character knows that has the power they want – so how are they going to obtain it? To throw in some conflict, perhaps they are not aware

of their magical power and can’t understand why certain things appear to be happening around them – people who are saying unkind things suddenly find themselves unable

to speak, or someone trying to rob someone else falls flat on their face How do they handle the realisation that they are causing these things to happen? Maybe their magical power

is waning and they will do anything to not only stop it from disappearing forever but strengthen it What lengths might they go to?

For an alternative activity, have a selection of objects associated with magic in the room – you can use pictures

of such objects if preferred – potion bottles, wand, fortune telling cards, crystal ball, linking rings, playing cards, etc Some obscure objects would be interesting too Can the group identify them all and what they’re used for? Ask the group to choose an object or picture of an object and incorporate that into the piece they’ve already written

A bit of research is always the writer’s friend and a good skill to have, so have the group look into the history of magic – legends and myths, witches and warlocks, also present-day witchcraft practices and traditions Find out the most interesting facts or fiction they can find and read a few out They might spark an idea

For a bit of fun, do the group know any magic tricks they can perform? Perhaps they could have a go at some What skills does it take to make a good magician – sleight of hand, good hand-eye coordination, etc? Do any of those skills translate into improving their writing? Magicians practise their tricks until they get them right, just as writers must keep writing, trying new things to improve and expand their repertoire

The world of magic can open many doors for writers in unexpected ways, so encourage your group to delve into the far corners of that world as they never know what they might find that could spark an idea for their next project Trying something new like a magic trick, or reading about

an unfamiliar aspect of magic, can be just the thing to boost creativity

WRITERS’ CIRCLES

ABRACADABRA!

Cast a spell over your writing group in these magic-themed exercises from Julie Phillips

Harrogate Writers’ Circle was formed in

1951, at a time when computers filled

a whole room and the potential of the

worldwide web had not been dreamed

of, writes Peter Caunt

We have always had a varied group

of members including highly successful

published poets and authors as well as

some just beginning to write We run

manuscript evenings and competitions for short stories, poetry

and articles judged by external adjudicators And authors such

as Simon Whaley visit us to talk about their work and give us

advice on writing

With the closing of our normal meeting room due to

Covid, we put aside our quill pens and decided that dipping

a toe into the 21st century of communications might be a

solution to our problem

Starting to run our meetings electronically over Zoom was

not without teething problems But after a few faltering steps

at the initial meetings we ended up with a core of regulars

who quickly accepted the new way of working and we now

run to our original timetable and with an interaction between

members that is easily as good as we had with face to face meetings

The use of Zoom meetings has not been to everybody’s taste but we have been able to expand the scope

of our membership We currently have a few members from just outside

of Harrogate and a relative of one longstanding member joining us regularly from Spain and we had a short story adjudicator from Scotland Also the prospect of having winter

meetings being cancelled because of bad weather is a thing of the past

As the current year draws to an end, the prospect of how we move forward into 2022 cropped up The opinion of most of the membership was that the use of online meetings had more advantages than disadvantages and we committed ourselves to another year online

But the main lesson we have learned is that we can change with the times and move forward with confidence into whatever tomorrow may bring

Website: https://harrogatewriterscircle.weebly.com

SPOTLIGHT ON Writers at the Gate

The Covid-19 pandemic had brought

about restrictions for us all and for

those of us who write, it became

obvious we needed to explore

alternative angles by which we could

promote our work, writes Mal Foster.

Almost by accident, Writers at the

Gate, a small group of Woking-based

independent authors, was born

The whole thing started with the

blog of the same name which allows

us to showcase our latest titles and

share stories of our various routes to

publication and ideas for future books

The blog at https://wokingwriters.

blogspot.com/2021/05/ also includes

guest posts by invited authors including,

Judith Cranswick, Carol Hedges and

Deborah Swift to name but a few

Over the last few months, the group has gone from strength to strength with a healthy number of authors submitting work to our online Woking Writers’ Week in May

Since Covid restrictions were lifted, many of us have now had the opportunity to meet in person while becoming good friends in the process

We’re also fortunate enough

to have our titles stocked and displayed by an independent bookshop in the town in its prominent ‘local authors’ section

Further initiatives are being planned

These will include a series of signings as new books are published

book-Any other independently published, or soon to be published writers from the Woking area are always welcome to join

us Contact: admin@malfoster.co.uk

Pictured are Sunny Angel, author

Mackender, author of Girl on the Hill,

and poet, Greg Freeman, whose latest collection, Marples Must Go! is out now.  

(Not in picture, Alan Dale, Jackie Luben and Harriet Steel)

Harrogate Writers’ Circle

SUBSCRIBERS’ NEWS

‘I think there must be something contagious about writing crime fiction,’ writes subscriber Brian Price

‘I became immersed in this world when I attended Crimefest, the Bristol festival of crime writing Delighted by the friendliness of crime writers and their readers, I set up a website to help authors

avoid scientific mistakes When I got a contract to

produce a book on the subject I was thrilled and

the result, Crime writing: How to write the science, was well

received

‘I was perfectly comfortable writing about science,

researching topics such as poisons, weapons and knockouts,

and putting the results into understandable English But

something must have rubbed off from my contacts with

crime writers I realised I wanted to write a detective thriller

‘This was a very different process Scientific facts can be

gleaned from textbooks, journals, academic websites and one’s

own training But a story has to come from the imagination

Did I have what it takes? I had written some short stories,

which friends and family liked but which failed to make an impact in writing competitions Writing a full-length novel was a different prospect altogether What really got me going was winning a competition, run

by Crime Fiction Coach, for the best first sentence of

a crime novel Someone said they couldn’t wait to read the rest, so I was under an obligation to write it

‘Months of enjoyable, but sometimes frustrating, work resulted in a draft which I sent off for critiquing Author Louise Voss’s comments were supportive and extremely helpful so, after revisions and with boosted confidence, I started

to approach publishers and agents No luck

‘After over thirty rejections I began to wonder whether I should self-publish, an entirely new area for me, but before

I took that step, the lovely people at Hobeck Books asked for the full manuscript They liked it and offered to publish

it The result is Fatal Trade, a fast-paced and twisty police

procedural, published in September 2021 The sequel is in draft and book three is in preparation And I am now a crime fiction writer.’

Website: www.brianpericeauthour.co.uk/

From fact to fi ction

‘I’ve loved writing ever since I was a child,’ writes subscriber Glenda Young

‘I live in the north-east and my novels are set in the coalmining village of Ryhope where I was born and bred You don’t need to know the village to

enjoy the books, which are gritty and dramatic

and have a feisty, young heroine at their core All

of my books are published by Headline, they’re

standalone and you can read them in any order

The novels are inspired by my love of soap opera,

really dramatic with lots of action and some great

female characters

‘During lockdown last year I had so much time

on my hands between writing sagas that I wrote my

debut crime book, Murder at the Seaview Hotel It’s a

fun, cosy crime set in Scarborough and stars twelve

Elvis impersonators (called Twelvis) When one is

found dead with his blue suede shoes missing, hotel

landlady Helen Dexter and her rescue greyhound Suki are on the case to solve the crime

‘As a life-long fan of the soap opera Coronation Street, I’ve written TV tie-in books about the show

and also run two Coronation Street fan websites

The Coronation Street Blog has been praised by the Manchester Evening News as ‘excellent’ and ‘essential

reading for Street Fans’ I also run and own the

internet’s first and original Coronation Street fan

website Corrie.net, online since 1995.

‘I’ve also built an impressive reputation as an award-winning short story writer Plus, I have

an unusual claim to fame I’m the creator of the first-ever weekly soap opera Riverside to appear

women’s magazine in the world My short fiction has appeared in magazines including Take a

Break, My Weekly, Best and The People’s Friend

In 2019 I was a finalist in the Clement & Le Frenais Comedy Award.’

SHARE YOUR NEWS

To feature in subscribers’ news contact: tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk

Right up our street

SHARE YOUR NEWS

To feature in subscribers’ news contact: tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk