When your job gets in the way...

I'm proud to say that my day job gets in the way of what I love doing most - novel-writing. There, I've said it to the entire world - it's a thorn in my side! How I envy people who can get up in the morning and not care about what surprises the company has in store, those who can go to sleep without worrying how he or she will ever tackle the following day's work. And how I envy people who can just get up and switch on their own computer in their own comfortable office and pick up from chapter 12.

I've been especially irked these past two weeks as it's National Novel Writing Month which you will be well aware of. Gah! When I'm sitting at my desk strewn with shorthand notes and post-its, and being constantly interrupted by Joe Public, I grow insanely jealous of the writers who have hit 1431 words by 10am. I've managed to get around 3,000 words written since November 1.

But I'd be lying if I said my journalism job was a waste of time. You see, ALL my novels and short stories are based on real life events. Not events as a whole, but small events within events: a kind of microcosm. From 'A River To Cross', set in North Korea, to 'Cake' (the Victoria Sponge murder!) they're all partly true to life. Even 'Cake' started out after I read an article about a woman losing in a Victoria Sponge contest. But I took this character to the extreme and made her become a cold-blooded murderer, and instead of just taking it on the chin, like the lady in the article did, MC Muriel (who kindly guest-blogged for us here!) seeks revenge. She won't rest on her laurels until she achieves maximum satisfaction. The factual stories I encounter every day give me fodder to use in novels. On the way back from a story, I often think how this would pan out into a novel. Maybe it's a comment someone has made, or something I've overheard? And the Dictaphone is handy too - I can talk to it while driving!

If you open the papers, there's always a story that can be worked on, from the bridge results in the local papers, to a global story like Madeleine McCann. I just don't understand when people say 'I can't get inspiration.' Of course you can - go and look out the window. Open the paper and look at a random photograph. Even leaf through Ok! magazine. It's another way of making sure your story is original and stands out among the other submissions.

So if your day job gets in the way, use it to your advantage, like I do. Make the most of what you've got until you don't need it anymore. Wink, wink.

Pic of office block in New York, taken by myself.

Agents Do Not Breathe Fire! by Guest Blog Winner - Catherine Hughes

Although writing has always been a big part of my life - my song lyrics were legendary at school! - it has only been quite recently that I’ve started writing novels. Knowing that I would need to amass significant knowledge about the publishing industry, I read - all around the internet and beyond - about how to get an agent.

Agents, I discovered, were tricky, difficult characters with exacting standards. Heaven forbid that there should be a typographical error in your submission, or that your query letter (or email) should be too informal or, indeed, too formal. Don’t ask questions; don’t chase manuscripts unless a significant portion of time has passed; revere and venerate agents, and don’t expect them to be nice to you. They don’t have time.

The thought of submitting my first attempt at a proper novel was, to say the very least, daunting in the extreme. But, being of the ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ mindset, I sent out a stack of submissions.

Most of the fifteen agents I queried sent me standard form rejections. One did not reply at all and still hasn’t. But, to my surprise, one or two of the agents I sent my work to responded in a friendly, helpful manner. One chatted to me using email one evening, checking out my query as we ‘spoke’, and one even requested a full, seeing potential in my work even though my query was neither as flawless nor as confident as it ought to have been.

Because, as it turns out, agents really aren’t these distant, heartless, pernickety types at all. OK, well maybe some of them might be, but I’ve had contact with quite a few now and it seems to me that the majority are pleasant people doing difficult, time-consuming, and often demanding work.

My second novel is a love affair, in that I am in love with it to an extent that wasn’t true of my first. And, when I sent it out to agents (some of whom had seen the first novel and some of whom had not) my hopes were high. Sadly, it did not (although I had two requests for full manuscripts this time) garner any offers of representation, but several agents took the time to send me personal, encouraging responses. One in particular urged me not to give up, telling me that I ‘can definitely write’ a phrase that is now etched on my heart forever. I wasn’t suitable for her list, but she took the time to communicate to me that I would, in all probability, be a good match for another agent, and to keep trying.

I’m not saying that you can be slapdash about your queries, or that they should be anything less than the very pinnacle of your efforts. But my experiences have taught me that most agents are like me - clever, positive people who love books and love writing.

Not fire-breathing dragons waiting for the slightest excuse to toast your work.

Catherine Hughes is a thirty-nine-year-old web copywriter who lives in wild and windy Wales, with her four children, husband and three cats. She is the author of two as-yet-unpublished YA SF novels and is currently working on a fantasy trilogy that attempts to explain our rich lore of myth and magic. Despite having a degree in Law, she is really a very nice person, who blogs at http://dailyimprovements.blogspot.com/ on the theme of making small changes each day towards a better life .

Well done, Catherine, great post! You should receive your prize soon!

In the spotlight

I’m a very recent convert to the X factor. We only started watching it as a family because our ten-year-old convinced us he would be a social pariah at school if he wasn’t able to confidently discuss who is in and who left (weeping) over the weekend. I liked to think I was a bit take-it-or-leave-it. But that all changed when Lucie Jones got voted off on Sunday. I finally understood Simon Cowell’s Machiavellian reputation and very much wanted to throw shoes at the telly.
Now there isn’t a huge amount in common between standing on a stage, singing overwrought pop songs, and being a sensitive, shy flower who likes to write stories, but it certainly isn’t without parallels. Whenever you show your work to another person, let alone stick it in an envelope and send it off to an agent or publisher, you’re offering up something from deep inside yourself. It’s like saying, ‘Here is a little part of me, so be nice,’ [I appreciate WB Yeats put it better]. And it can’t be a dissimilar cocktail of resentment, disbelief and hurt to hear someone say, ‘Sorry, love, I just don’t think you’ve got what it takes to go the whole way’ as, ‘we didn’t feel sufficiently inspired by your work to offer you representation.’ Although I have to admit that it’s nicer not having your writing rejections witnessed by millions of people.
Or having to take advice about music from Louis Walsh.
But amidst the disappointment, there is something strangely comforting about seeing the only singer you really rated in the competition being voted off. There really is, it seems, nowt queer as folk. So when an agent says, ‘This was good but it just wasn’t for me,’ it isn’t always code for, ‘It’s rubbish and I hate you, you talentless loser.’ Sometimes, it really was good.It just wasn’t to their taste.
• On the subject of the X Factor, check out YA writer Emily Gale’s brilliant new novel, Girl Aloud, in which tone deaf teenager Kass Kennedy is unwittingly entered for the competition by her manically up-and-down dad.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Aloud-Emily-Gale/dp/1906427208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257797117&sr=8-1

Mr Motivator

As I recently posted, I have taken the plunge and joined up to National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo.

Checking out the forums on NaNo it’s clear that there are as many motivations for taking part as there are differing types of writer. I had assumed that the place would be wall to wall wannabe authors, desperate to churn out a publishable novel in the allotted time scale of one month.
I was wrong.

A lot of people are doing it simply for the fun and the challenge. They know they probably won’t end up with a decent book at the finishing line but they don’t care. They love the camaraderie and the community. A bit like the fun runners in a Marathon. It’s all about taking part. Getting to the finish line.

Many others are writing something fairly autobiographical, a memoir, or a story based on their own experiences. Getting it all down on paper is a therapy of sorts. I don’t really get this. I’m from oop north where we don’t have ‘ishoos’, but if those writers are helped along the way, then good on ‘em.

And there are, to my surprise, quite a few like me. Writers who are already published and have had some sort of ‘success’. Some of these authors want to kick start their next book, some are changing genres. A lot are, like me, on a vacation from their usual writing business and enjoying the freedom of a month writing anything they fancy.

Strange then, that given the liberty, I have gone and started another thriller. I really didn’t think I would. I saw myself doing something completely out of my comfort zone, experimental even. The market be damned.

I toyed with something dark and literary, all psychological musings and little plot. But it bored me before I even got underway.
Then I fancied a children’s book. Something my own kids would enjoy reading. But the ideas just didn’t flow.
As the first day came and the whistle blew I knew I had to make up my mind fast and I jumped at an idea that’s been niggling me for ages. A political thriller. All conspiracy and terrorist plans. Wonderfully overblown ideas and canvas.
I guess you can take the girl out of the murder and mayhem, but you can’t take the murder and mayhem out of the girl. If I’ve learned nothing else, it’s that this genre is my natural home.

To be fair, though, what I’m writing is still very different.
My main character is a man, which is new for me. And proving hard, I can tell you. And I’m writing him in first person – not done that before for an MC.
Also, and this is very new, I simply haven’t had time to draw up a detailed plan. I know the bare bones of what will happen but it’s all so sketchy. Twice now I have come unstuck because there simply isn’t time to sit and think the problem through. Instead I have taken a committee approach and asked for plot help and setting help. Both, have actually been fun and productive with tons of suggestions flying my way. How cool is that?

So fat I’m on track with my word count and enjoying myself. What will happen this week, who can say.
I’ll keep you posted.

Fantasy Dragons And...

I often spend idle moments imagining that I’ve invented something really useful that’s got potential to change people’s lives. What I’d give to be the guy who came up with the idea for the vacuum cleaner or even 'post it' notes or the universal phone charger that’s on its way soon. (Really – it’s coming…You can soon dump that drawer load of useless phone chargers). This thought process led me to think about what I’d do -what I’d say - if I had to give a ‘Dragons Den’ type pitch of my novel, rather than submit to agents in the normal manner. Immediately I put together a fantasy five top agents. Can't say who they were, but two men and three women prevailed and the following fantasy will now feature in my top ten. (Easily pleased on the fantasy front, I am)

Me: “Good morning. (Nervous, rather twitchy smile) My name is Fionnuala and I’m a writer. (Alcoholic? No. Wrong show) I’m here this morning to pitch my latest novel ‘Plumb Crazy’. (I breathe, try and make eye contact with each of them. They look like they wish I’d disappear, as I begin a ‘blurby’ pitch)
‘Plumb Crazy’ is a story of love, loss and the healing power of friendship. 97000 words, it's told from the point of view of Samantha Roubicek who, following redundancy from advertising, has retrained to be a plumber - a job she loves. Her life takes a turn for the worst when she’s suddenly blindsided by recurring flashbacks of the accident that killed her mother two decades ago, an event witnessed by Sam aged ten. As Sam unravels, she falls for a client, falls out with her best friend and cheats on her policeman boyfriend. She finds herself unable to move forward, reluctant to re-visit her past – her life resembles a blocked u-bend. (I like this line, so I risk eye contact. One of the women is scowling. Crap. She’s heard all this before. Double crap.)

Can a much needed break in France with friends help? Will a new work contract on the 2012 Olympic site provide the security she secretly longs for? And will Sam be strong enough to hold her family together when her ex, newly in charge of cold case reviews, reveals the identity of her mother’s killer?”

(I smile more confidently than I feel) “Has anyone any questions?”

Lady No 1: “Where do you see your book fitting? Which genre and why?”

Me: “Commercial women’s fiction. It’s chick lit with issues – a la Marian Keyes.” (Crap!!! Did I say that out loud? Did I actually compare myself to the Queen of Keyes out loud to a dragon!! She is smiling back now. I think it's pity.)

Man No 1: “Chick Lit has died a death. What makes you think you can resurrect it?

Me: (I want to make a quip about Lazarus but wisely decide against it) “Women still buy the majority of books that are sold. Most women still want to buy books that are written for women, by women covering issues dealt with daily by women. Give a woman interesting characters she cares about and she will want to read on and on, and of course buy the author’s next book.” (I’m pleased with that last bit. I want them to know I’m not a one trick pony. Man number one is sighing aloud so I throw a few facts and figures at him from The Bookseller. He looks bored. Who invited him? )

Lady No 2: “Tell me what’s unique about your manuscript?”

Me: “My main character is a young woman living in East London. Having been through the glamorous world of advertising she decided to re-train in a trade normally dominated by men – interesting, considering her character is a committed commitment phobe in her relationships. (She’s nodding. Yay!) This plus the background of her working on the 2012 Olympic site, I think makes her quirky and different.”

Man No 2: “What experience do you have in the world of writing?”

Me: (I can feel a hot flush travel up my neck and fill every facial capillary I own. This is the one I’d been dreading. I don’t have a ‘Writer’s CV’ I’ve been published on ezines but they’re not going to be impressed. I’m not a journalist, I haven’t ‘done an anything’ in creative writing. Crapology.)
“I’ve been writing for years, learning, honing the craft. I’m a member of many online writers groups and I blog personally and as a member of the Strictly Writing team.”

Lady No 3: “Yet you compare yourself to Marian Keyes?”

Me: (I'm sure I just heard a snigger. No option but to brave this one out) “Er, yes. Even Marian Keyes was just Marian Keyes, a wannabe writer, when she’d written Watermelon. (Oh dear. She’s just snorted aloud. I think I’ve lost her. In the words of Deborah Meaden – ‘she’s out’.)

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, I write character driven fiction. Like Marian Keyes, I write about characters I believe women will care about, empathise with. I try and do this well within the structure of an interesting plot. Plumb Crazy, whilst primarily dealing with Sam’s unravelling also has the story of Sam’s mother’s unsolved hit and run as a core thread throughout the book. Unlike Marian Keyes, I’m here because I need an agent to read, love and ultimately sell my work. (She’s back! She’s nodding! She’s not out!)

A voice: “Well, I don’t know about my fellow dragons but I’d like to read your manuscript.”

See that’s the great thing about fantasy scenes. We can control them. Believable or not, I opted to end this scene with a dragon, any dragon, butting in to reveal they thought the idea of me being the next MK was in fact a possibility??!!** Ah happy days. They're the best, these moments we have alone in our heads!

Now back to Nano and the newest WIP, one I’ve decided to have a little fun with. Because of the route this morning has already taken, I've also decided this next scene in chapter two will continue the fantasy theme - though this one involves black lace and a married couple, though not to each other...

Writing is easy

After churning out a draft, all I have to do is take a quick whiz through, looking for the following . . .

Flat prose
Is there specific detail? What type of knife was it? But the detail needs to be relevant, i.e revealing of character.

Sensory imprecision
Have I used my eyes, ears, fingers, nose and tongue against the concrete? All of the senses.

Overwriting
Is that Bellow-like list of juicy, stimulating, delightful adjectives justified? Should I shun the adverb? Must I delete that florid passage?

Sickening pet words
Have I allowed those sickening repeats? For me it's moment, moment, moment (and sickening, sickening, sickening). And a whole lexicon of others in a sickening word document for searching.

Character motive
Would she really say that? Why doesn't he simply call the police? Is she just doing that to help me out of a plot problem?

Imbalance
Why do I show that and tell that? Mostly show. Have I shown the key action?

Dialogue content
Does it have conflict? Does it have subtext? 'You're looking nicely dressed today.' Does it reveal character? Never the hideous info dump - just saying it to let the reader know.

Dialogue style
Is it abbreviated and truncated like speech? Do different characters have different vocal patterns?

Word music
Can I hear the rhythm and flow of the words. Read it aloud.

Plot
What is the order of revelation of the story. Does it hold the reader? Mystery = what happened? Suspense = what's going to happen?

Authorial voice
Can you bear to keep your nose out of it? (I can’t). At least try to put it into the character.

Time
How does the time pass? Do I skip the right things? Does it have to be linear?

Place
Is the setting another boring pub? Does the setting reflect or affect the characters or the action? Pathetic Fallacy.

Character
Is this someone the reader will want to spend hours to discover? – does the reader give a shit what happens to him?

Emotional honesty
Does this cut deep? What am I avoiding? What should I really be writing about?

Tropes
Metaphor and metonym – are they fresh? Do they serve a purpose beyond showing off? Do they defamiliarise or make tangible the otherwise ineffable?

Cliché
Did I give cliché a wide berth? Also stock phrases (they're harder to spot). Have I fallen into elegant variation? (Don’t travel too far the alternative route!)

Readers’ rights
Do I tell them what they already know or can guess? Do I withhold information without good reason or for too long, especially in POV1.

The obvious
"Do you understand what he is saying to you?" (Buck Mulligan) You don’t have to spell it out straight away – make the buggers work. Jose Saramago – telling the reader things that are obviously untrue – a letter Richard Reis would never open.

Viewpoint
Would she really think of her own leg as shapely?

Gesture
Is it unique to the setting or the character, not just taking another drag on a cigarette. What does it reveal?

Passive constructions
Was there too much was? Can I make the construction active. There were trees along the roadside - trees stood guard along the road.

Categories of noun
Are they too abstract? According to John Braine, there are three categories of word: Freedom (bad), animal (fairly bad), dog (good), although labrador would presumably be better.

Subplot
What happened to that minor character I introduced? Knead them back into the dough later as subplots that resolve before the main story.

Rules
Break any and all of the rules, so long as you know them. Anything goes, so long as it's deliberate. Not necessarily deliberate at the time of shitty first drafting, but consciously approved by the author at some point.


I'm sure you can think of a hundred others that I miss out when I'm editing. It's also worth saying, before someone makes the point, that the deconstruction is only for the blog. I'm striving for the stage when I simply read and know, no longer in need of lessons, intuitively taking account of everything in the world.

"Are you a bit crap?" Guest Blog by Nicola Morgan

One of my blog-readers recently emailed me a sorry story of struggle to become published http://helpineedapublisher.blogspot.com/2009/10/true-story-of-struggling-writer.html) and it included this question: "Do you think sometimes a writer just has to admit they are a bit crap, and give up?"

Now, as someone who struggled for 21 years to hook a publisher - and “struggled” does not properly describe the grim tale of my shattered soul and shrinking self-esteem - I could be the person to answer this.

I could be glib and answer in either of two simple ways:

1. Yes. (But not you, of course, because you’re marvellous.)
2. No. (Crap gets published: you just need to find a way to get your crap published.)

But there are two main things at the heart of the question:

1. Can a not-good-enough writer become good enough to be published?
2. Can we know - and if so, how? - whether we’re good enough and therefore can we reach the point of saying, “Yes, I’m a bit crap; I’m not going to get better; so I’ll give up.”

My answer to the first would be: yes, within reason. Depends what’s wrong. You can become better (isn’t that what we should all be doing anyway?) but if you don’t have the initial base of some kind of talent or at least very-workpersonlike skills and an intuition about what word should follow the previous word, you can’t be a writer. Someone said to me once, “Anyone can learn to be a singer - we all have vocal chords.” No, actually: anyone with vocal chords can perhaps learn to sing, but not become a singer. I can sing a tune but no one’s ever going to pay to listen. Trust me.

The second question is the important one, though, isn’t it? How can we know whether we are good enough? While struggling to get published, how can we know when to give up? I eventually succeeded after 21 years of failure, so, with hindsight, I must have been right not to give up. But, apart from hindsight, why was I right to keep going?

I remember often thinking, “What if I never get published? Will I wish I’d given up and saved the heartache?” The answer was always, “No. I write because I have to. It’s what I do. One day, I will get published. Nothing else is thinkable.”

I was right, but I could have been wrong. I could still be simmering with rage and poisoned by murderous jealousy every time I heard of another debut author getting the break I thought I deserved.

Thing is, out there are countless aspiring writers who aren’t good enough, who really won’t make it, and who for their own peace and health should give up. Who are, in the words of my blog-reader, “a bit crap”.

My answer to all aspiring writers is simple: if you can give up, give up. If you can’t, you have the heart of a writer. So write. You shouldn’t have a choice. Let your readers judge whether you’re a bit crap.

© 2009 Nicola Morgan

Nicola is the author of c 90 books and is said crabbit old bat of the wonderfully addictive Help! I Need A Publisher! blog. She is about to launch her own literary consultancy, Pen2Publication.