Julia Churchill at West Sussex Writer’s

Last night, Julia Churchill – agent for the Greenhouse Literary Agency – visited West Sussex Writer’s Club (WSWC).

She spoke about life as a literary agent, and included some helpful pointers on what agents look for and how to make your story the best it can be.

Because I’m so nice, I’ve included the six points she looks for in a submission below. I’ll add her tips for a great novel in another post.

1. Concept
Does the story have a hook? Is it focused? Is it a fresh premise or treatment? What is its Unique Selling Point (USP)?

2. Character
This works best if the author knows the character well. Is the character tied into the plot?

3. Story
What do characters stand to win or lose? Are the stakes high? Does the story escalate and build tension? Prior to starting a book, an outline can be helpful. It can act as a structural route map.

4. Setting
How strongly does this enhance the story? Is it imbued with emotion? In a way, the setting should become a character in its own right. For example, who can imagine “Harry Potter” without Hogwarts?

5. Theme
The best books teach more about ourselves than the characters. The theme shouldn’t be obvious, but something that comes across as the story progresses. Something that will stay with the reader. Integral to the concept. In a way, it’s the heart of the story.

6. Voice
Does the voice understand the age group? Is it easily identifiable?

Julia does talks around the country, as well as participating in events for aspiring writers, such as the York Festival of Writing. Currently, she is also touring the UK with Leah Thaxton and their workshop, “From Pitch to Publication”. This is coming soon to both the Brighton Festival and Cambridge Wordfest.

(And now for a little side note. For all of you, like me, who struggle over synopses, Julia admitted during the Q&A after her talk, that she rarely reads the synopsis. She also stated in her time at Darley Anderson this was not only her standard practice, but that of other agents too. Hopefully, this will prevent a tearing-hair-out session when it comes to write another of those annoying documents .)

A little bit of…

Everything.

This post is going to incorporate a general catchup, as I seem to have been very lax of late. I’m going to blame it on NaNoWriMo. For the thirty days of November, I did nothing (or almost nothing), but write a new story.

“Casey and the Hereafter” was finished on Sunday 12th December 2010 (in its first (and rough) draft form). More on that later.

I have spent most of this year rewriting and polishing “Racing the Dark” (excerpt here). I LOVE writing – this last month has proved that beyond a doubt. What I don’t love is the part that comes afterwards – the endless questions, the cutting, the annoying adverbs that crept in when I wasn’t looking… And my ability to look at my manuscript, and, EVERY TIME, find something else to change!

To get back to simply writing – not wondering if I should be using an adverb or concerned I was telling rather than showing – was completely freeing for me.

For those of you in the same position I was – tired, stressed, and frustrated after polishing your story until it shines – take a bit of time to get back to what you love.

WRITE. Anything. A new story, a blog – anything. Enjoy the development, the research, but most of all enjoy the WRITING – never mind the critical voice at the back of your mind; you can let it out later.

No one else can tell your story, and sometimes writers simply need to WRITE.

That being said, I’m going to move onto my next topic – still connected to “Racing the Dark”, but also to NaNoWriMo.

Thanks to NaNoWriMo (and me actually managing to write 50,000 words in a month), I was given a discount voucher for CreateSpace (a division of Amazon that deals with self-publishing).

I don’t want to self publish my work (or at least not yet, when I haven’t given it a proper chance), but the prospect of seeing my story in book form and not having to pay for it (the discount was for a free proof copy) was too tempting for words. Consequently, I set up “Racing the Dark” on CreateSpace, and the proof is now winging its way to me across the Atlantic. I can’t wait for it to arrive! Am I silly? Quite possibly – but I still think it will be amazing to hold my story in my hands in its book form!

For all of you who have stuck with me thus far, here is the front cover I designed for it:

Now, back to my lovely heroine, Casey…

Casey’s plot was planned out before NaNoWriMo due to not having enough time to try to figure it out as I went along. This lack of time also meant I didn’t know where to put the chapters, so I decided I would write, and sort out the chapters later.

I’m sure this approach works for some, but it’s causing me a bit of a headache – along with the knowledge where I’m sticking chapters, for the most part, I’m going to have to do some serious rewrites to make them work.

But where’s the best place for chapter breaks? I think I’ll elaborate on this a bit later. Suffice it to say, you don’t want your reader thinking, Ah, this is a good place to put the book down and go and do something else. You want them to think, I can’t stop reading now! I need to know what’s going to happen.

Enough said.

NaNoWriMo approacheth!

For anyone who doesn’t know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month.

It’s a self-challenge: write a novel (i.e. at least 50,000 words) in the 30 days of November. It’s a fantastic idea for anyone who has had “One day I’ll write a novel” in their head; well, ONE DAY is here!

From my point of view, NaNoWriMo is just what I need after almost a year of rewrites, revising, editing, polishing, and sorting out a submissions package for “Racing the Dark”. With only thirty days, I won’t have the time to deal with my editing self, so will be forced to simply write. And it will be a completely new and different story, so I can just enjoy the new characters and the situations they get themselves into. As NaNo has a deadline, it’s also an encouragement to me to finish another story – which has always been something I fail at… abysmally!

If you’ve thought about writing a story, but haven’t got that far yet; would just like to let rip on a bit of writing with no pressure for it to be perfect; need the encouragement of like-minded souls who are all as insane as you are for attempting this challenge – then pop on over to their site and think about signing up.

You’ve only got a few days though. NaNo starts at midnight on 1st November.

It doesn’t matter what country you’re in. NaNo is more international than national; people from all over the world participate.

Some writers start with a title and let the story go from there. Some (like me) have the story plotted out and research done ready to start.

It’s my first NaNo this year. I’m certainly looking forward to it, and only hope I have a nice new shiny story to show at the end of it!

The Twelve Tenses

Found this fantastic blog post just a few minutes ago, and thought it would prove helpful to all writers. If you need to work out which tense you’re writing in, or whether something is passive or active, take a look at this post from Tony – an incredibly knowledgable and witty member of The Word Cloud.

http://www.thewordcloud.org/members/profile/104/blog-view/blog_2687.html

Synopsis trials and tribulations

I am currently getting my manuscript ready for submission, which means organising a submissions package.

In the UK, this generally means:

• a cover letter
• synopsis
• first three chapters of your novel

I’ve been at the synopsis stage for a while. I initially wrote a synopsis soon after completing the first draft and have been tinkering with it ever since.

There are some authors who enjoy writing the synopsis. For the rest of us, I thought I would note down what helped me to finally get to a synopsis I was happy with.

First, and foremost, in the UK a synopsis should be SHORT – two pages at most (and that’s single-sided, not text on both sides). It should also do the following:

• Include the main characters and only the main characters. Secondary characters should be included only if vital to moving the main plot forward in a way that wouldn’t make sense if you cut them out. At any rate, keep names to a minimum.
• Show the characters’ motivations.
• Show the main plot only. Again, secondary plot lines aren’t required here.
• Show the conflicts.
• Be concise.
• Be exciting (I don’t mean “guns a-blazing – who will survive?” exciting. I mean, sentences constructed to make the reader interested and excited by your story. Hopefully, interested enough to discover exactly HOW it all happens).

Now, if anyone reading this got stuck at what I mean by “conflict”, “motivation”, or (heaven forbid) “plot”, you’re not ready to submit yet. Sort out your story and try again.

If you’re now screaming (rather like I was, believe me!), “How on earth can I cut a 90,000 word novel down to 400 words?”, the answer is, “With a lot of hard work and editing.”. As for process, I found the following helped (and, for this, I can’t take credit – this site was invaluable while I was trying to craft the synopsis):

1. Write an outline. Go through each chapter and write down what happens – the main points.
2. Go through your outline and extract the bare bones of your story (and I mean bare – if an old woman told stories that moved your plot along, but there’s no other reason to mention the old woman, just mention the stories).
3. You should now have a fairly bland-looking description of your story. Re-write this to give it interest (again, refer to the site I’ve linked to above).
4. Edit.
5. Edit.
6. Edit… again! Editing is the only way you’re going to condense it down enough (and still keep it interesting). Once you have something to edit, print it out, look it over, change bits and pieces, make sure that sentence is absolutely necessary… Then, print it out again and make some more changes.
7. (Optional, but I found it useful.) Give it to someone you trust, who’s good with writing (not necessarily a writer), who hasn’t read the story. See what they think of it and if they have any recommendations. You don’t have to take their suggestions on board, but when you’ve gone over something so many times, it can sometimes help to have fresh eyes look over it. If they’re anything like my friend, you’ll get some fantastic assistance that really helps to clean up clunky sentences.

By the end of all of this, you should have something you can be proud to send to agents / publishers… even if the rest of you is somewhat frazzled from the process.

The “D” in disillusionment

I belong to a (generally very nice and friendly) online community of writers. I haven’t been involved with it as much in recent months, but made my reappearance on there recently, and was welcomed back (it was lovely!).

Then, this morning, I discovered a member – someone who contributes loads to the community, a great writer (even if I can’t read all his stuff, as I’m not really into swearing and violence), and someone with the gift of humour – has left the community due to the antagonism he received from another member.

I find social interaction on the internet difficult enough – never knowing exactly who you’re talking to, thinking someone is something and finding they’re something else entirely – but to have this occur within a community I had the nerve to think was different – that they were supportive, genuine, and a generally nice bunch – has just scuppered my day and created an ache in my chest that seems to expand whenever I think about it.

And that’s just me – not even connected to this. I can’t imagine how the poor guy in question must be feeling!

It just seems everytime I extend my faith in people, someone does something that only serves to justify why I have a lack of faith in them in the first place.

Why on earth are people like that? I don’t really expect an answer; I’m just throwing the question out into the ether. It just seems so very very sad.

The evening of many updates

Well, I’ve had a busy evening, as anyone who visited my site before this evening will realise.

I’ve added lots of story excerpts, poetry, and even a bit of fan fiction. There is also a “Help” page that I’ll expand on a bit later.

Hope you enjoy the extra bits and pieces!

Slight change of site title…

Ever since I created this blog, and chose a picture of a dark, misty forest as my banner, I’ve thought “One Little Spark” didn’t sound quite right.

I persisted, however. I’d had that title for some years, and I’d chosen it for a reason. But everytime I previewed the site, the banner called to me, enticing me with the new title that swam around my mind, waiting for an outlet.

Finally, I gave in. “Lost in the Forest” won.

It works; I’ve always loved fairy tales, and I’m also fumbling in the dark with regard to writing at the moment. I probably will be fumbling in the dark with regard to writing for many, many years to come, but – hey – that means I’m always learning, so not all bad, right?

I’ll sort out the change of domain for it at some point too, but, for now, just to officially announce the change of “One Little Spark” to “Lost in the Forest”.

Ta da!

[Incidentally, to help out the individuals who come here looking for how to change the title of your WordPress blog, I changed the title by starting off in the Dashboard, clicking on "Settings" (which is at the very bottom of the menu that lives on the left of my screen when managing my blog), and changing the title - which is the option at the top of the screen once you're in "General Settings". Hope this helps someone.]

The “Don’t Give Up” Lesson

We’ve all heard it, haven’t we? If the parents were encouraging, then you got it while growing up. In any endeavour, when you were flagging, a friend would egg you on.

The same goes for writing.

And I know you’ve heard it all before. And it starts reading like a platitude after a while, but it’s true… and it’s important.

No matter the setbacks, no matter the competitions un-won, or the many form rejection letters you receive for your manuscript. No matter that each of these chips away at your self-confidence until all that remains is a dodgy-looking tower that might crumble at any moment.

DON’T GIVE UP.

The only thing that matters is that you like what you’ve created, that you’ve done your best with it, that it’s a story / vignette / poem, etc. that you want to read. It’s your creation, and no one can take that away from you.

If no one appreciates it at this moment, feel the disappointment, the tightness inside your chest that wants to swamp you, but don’t let it get the better of you.

Take a breath, push it aside… and start again.

Continue with what you love and never lose your love of writing, of creating, of existing inside a fictional world with characters who have become friends, for a little while.

Start something new, enjoy it, and, when you’ve perfected it, try, try again to get your work noticed.

It’s a hard world out there in publishing, but keep the faith in your work, listen to people – like editors – who know what they’re talking about, but mostly believe in yourself… and don’t give up.

Ultimately, giving up is the only failure here.

If you’re ready to smack me in the face for this “believe in yourself” essay, fine, but, for everyone else, who might find it useful, I’d like to quote Janny Wurts – a favourite author of mine.

“First, you have to write. If you don’t, your dream dies with you, and that is the only lasting failure there is.”

The wonders of OneNote

For those of you who hate Microsoft or Office, you might want to scowl in disgust and head off to another blog, but for those of you who get on with the above two items, Office 2007 brought with it a treat for writers…

Microsoft Office OneNote is like a project binder. You’ve got your overall binder for your story notes. Then, you’ve got your dividers for your separate stories. Within these dividers can be multiple notes (divided into sections, if you wish) for your stories.

A work notebook in OneNote

I discovered it, by accident, in Office 2010, and have found that it works the same way I do. It makes finding my notes incredibly easy, particularly as each page has its own title, and all the pages are listed on the right-hand side.

OneNote operates in the background, so if you have a sudden idea, you can click the icon in the bottom right-hand corner, and it will bring up a new emtpy note for you to jot things down in. It will also let you drag and drop items, such as pictures, emails, documents, into its pages. All notes (or dragged and dropped items) can be moved around the pages to suit yourself.

Best of all, OneNote is included with the Student/Home edition of Office, so you don’t have to pay a small fortune to get it.

Contrary to the sound of this post, I’m not a PR company for Microsoft or OneNote. It’s simply that I’ve found it to be so helpful since stumbling across it, and I hope other people might see it as a hidden gem once they find it too.

There must be many other ways of dealing with the multitudes of notes a writer has – I still love my notepads. If anyone has any other suggestions of great ways to store and organise notes, I’d love to hear them.