Writers, retreats and holidays

So, here I am, on a three week holiday in Nerja, Spain. I’m writing for anything between nothing (very rare) and two hours a day. I’ve written three blog posts. I’ve finished editing one book I’d started before I came. I’ve also edited two more and one short story. Yesterday, I started a new novel which is a bit of a writing experiment. I’ve also done some work on a text book. I’ve read a lot and watched people a lot. That all sounds a bit hectic. But actually, the holiday has been very relaxing and there’s another six days to go.

So, what haven’t I been doing? I’ve not been looking at work emails, or dealing with publishers or carrying on the manic self-promotion that is normally part of my working day. I’ve done no more writing than normal - possibly a little less. But I have been more focussed on the writing itself than all that goes with it. Plus the people watching and reading have fed my creative juices.

Not writing to most writers anyway is like not cleaning your teeth. It really is rare that I don’t write every day. It’s usually only if I really can’t – such as when I’m travelling or have visitors.

I read an article in one of the free magazines here that claimed that low background noise –i.e. the sort of buzz you get in a café – or indeed on a beach – often aids creativity. It seems to be based on some solid research and I’ll be investigating it in more detail when I have a chance. And again, I’m buzzing with ideas.

Coming here anyway is a sort of pilgrimage and continues to serve as a retreat. I’d always wanted to write but I wasn’t entirely sure what. Strange happenings on the hills, astounding weather, miraculous caves and children running out of reading material the first time we came here convinced me that I wanted to and could write for children. Each time we have come here since the dreams and ideas have grown. I’m now living the original dream but the growth of the dream accelerates every time I come here. It’s possibly to do with the sunshine being so relaxing. Bathing in salt water is always good anyway. But I’m actually quite convinced there’s another layer of magic here. Long may it last!  

Going beyond perfection – everyone needs an editor

There are beta-readers, critique groups and even literary consultancies that offer full editorial services for a fee. Many self-publishers are now realising the necessity of getting their work properly edited. But if the work is going to be edited anyway, why bother doing it yourself first?

Yes, it is one of the harsh facts about the business. You think you have got your text perfect. Then an editor comes along and wants you to do more. I personally edit my work about 18 times, looking at something different each time. So, how can I make it any better? Can I offer anything in response to editorial comment?

I probably can, actually. The time my typescript stays with the editor gives me  the opportunity to obtain some distance from the text and in that time I also continue to develop as a writer. The closer you get to your 10,000 hours – the amount of time anyone needs to learn a craft properly – the more rapidly this process takes place. I now find myself editing published work as I read it out loud.

Obviously, your work must be pretty good already if you want a major publishing house to take it on. They don’t have all that much time or budget for remedial editorial work, despite their job-title. But if you’re paying an editor why not expect her to do all of the work?

The problem is that even paid editors only have so much time and so much editorial energy. I notice when my students give in work that is so riddled with punctuation and formatting mistakes that I run out of time to look at the more subtle improvements that could be made – the sort of improvement that will turn a good text into a great text.

I once looked at a self-published book for a publisher, to see whether they could / should take it on. I advised against it. Although the story was good it would have taken about £6,000 worth of editorial work to fix the writing.          

Also, we often get too close to our own writing. We sometimes can’t see a glaring fault whilst we tinker with parts that only need a little polish. We are convinced that a section is perfect but sometimes precisely that part needs a substantial amount of work.

It’s important therefore, that you get your text as good as you possibly can. Then leave your editor the space to make some magic happen.   

The Anti-cliché Edit

I knew I was a writer a long time ago, even if it did take me ages to take myself seriously. Probably even before I received some praise from my teacher because I had written in my account of visiting my grandmother that “Sandy, her little brown dog made us welcome.”  That is actually one great big fat cliché but the teacher was delighted because I had taken my work beyond  the very simple level of subject verb object, which is what most other seven-year-olds were producing. I had managed this probably because I had been reading a lot – that too was no doubt a joy for my teacher. She probably hadn’t noticed that it was mainly Enid Blyton.

Yes, I’m currently completing the “get rid of clichés” edit on The Tower, and I would not tolerate that “made us very welcome” phrase in my work, nor in any of my students’ work, nor in any of the texts I edit.

But clichés are there because they work

Yes they are. And often it’s very difficult to express that idea any other way. How else do you describe a bull in a china shop? It’s probably all right now and then. But too many really weaken your work. Close your eyes. Look at your scene. What do you see, hear, smell, taste, feel (in both senses)? Now write. Writing with the senses helps you to avoid cliché and always produces good work. Try these: How do you describe rain to someone who doesn’t know water? What does chocolate taste like? What does orange peel look like? Pretend you’re an alien and look at your own planet differently.

It’s okay if it’s a part of someone’s voice

Yes, you can use them as much as you like in speech – as long as it genuinely is part of the way that person talks.

Borrowing form other language can be effective

Indeed you may have an advantage if you speak another language. You can borrow clichés, sayings and proverbs and they will sound fresh in your own language. An angel is passing, they say in France, when the conversation suddenly stops. Young women shouldn’t eat soup before lunchtime in Spain, if they don’t want to end up as single mothers. Many a Spanish man has taken delight in staying on top of his wife. Germans may tread on your tie, put their mustard in your sausage and find that a problem is in fact nothing but sausage. The Greeks are wary of announcing the spring if they have seen but one swallow.

Avoid the lazy option

If your resort to a cliché, no matter how apt, you are simply being lazy. Use them sparingly even in your characters’ speech. Maybe making up clichés peculiar to your characters is more effective. And even take a little care with borrowing from other languages. Only use the new phrases if they really fit – don’t contrive to find a space for them.    

      

SCBWI Professional Series UK North West

I’m pleased to see that this is really taking off now and was very well attended yesterday. Philippa Donovan, an editor with Egmont and director of her own company, Smart Quill, an editorial agency ran a workshop with us. Philippa has worked previously as a scout for publishers.

Smart Quill

She started Smart Quill as a solution to the problem that editors these days have very little time to actually do much editorial work on a book. So, with her two different hats on she tends to see books at the start of their journey and at the end. In between, the writer may work further on the script, have a further dialogue with Philippa, find an agent, work on the agent’s suggestions and eventually find a publisher – it may even be Egmont!

Knowing the industry

As always, some of the advice Philippa gave I’d heard before and some of it contradicted what I’d heard before. After all, there is a certain amount of subjectivity throughout the business and it is always changing. She mentioned that we need to know the business and that the business is becoming more transparent.

I’m not going to try to capture the whole of her talk here, but I’ll just flag up the things that seemed particularly important to me.

Self-publishing digitally

A lot of the prejudice about self-publishing is vanishing now and it is all right to submit books that have been digitally published – particularly if a title has sold well. You still ought to buy in editorial services and design ones as well if you are not techy enough. Publishers are good at creating lovely products and marketing them. Nevertheless, self-publishing gives you a platform and some visibility. It may be particularly good for picture books as you are no longer restricted to selling co-editions nor are you restricted to a certain number of spreads.

Publishing digitally with a publisher

This may be where you need your agent more than ever – digital rights can be very tricky to negotiate.

What to think about as you start writing

As soon as you are ready to turn your idea into a piece of fiction, think about its marketability. Which age group will your story suit best? What is going to push the narrative? The voice, pace, composition, character, or plot? Read to see how other writers use narratives. Do you want to be similar to one of them or deliberately different?  Read bestsellers – even ones you know you will not like – and then write the book you want to write. At least you will know where it sits in the market.

Common faults

I was quite gratified to see that Philippa’s list was very similar to my own- I’ve mentioned these before on this blog.

Telling instead of showing – and she mentioned that is actually quite hard to turn telling into showing.  Far better to have too much showing – you can always take some away.  

Vagueness – particularly about emotions.

Prefacing with too much author presence – unless this is part of the style.

Overload of detail

Repetition

Point of view changes – it’s okay to change point of view but not too often and not too violently  

Inconsistency in point of view / voice.

Poor characterisation - and yes she agrees with me you have to know EVERYTHING about your characters but you don’t need to write everything down and somehow what you do write carries the whole message.    

Dialogue – must be what characters would say in a given situation but not too natural or it becomes boring. Only hint at accents / dialects.

Plot should not overburden reader. There shouldn’t be too much of it.

Finally – if in doubt, take it out.

Why we need agents and how to find them

They are the first point of selection. They have good relationships with publishers. They know the industry well. The publisher focuses on products, the agents on people.

Many agents have become independent recently. They may be good to work with as they have no back list – so they will work on the forward list – which includes your book! And you really need them to negotiate your digital and foreign rights.

Look for a personality that suits yours. Google them. Read books from their client lists. Maybe send to three at a time. Show them that you have understood the industry.  Tell them why you have chosen them.

It really was a very informative afternoon. Thanks to Steph Williams and SCBWI for organising it.       

Beta Readers

The term comes from the computing industry, where alpha programmers devise new software and other equally qualified and experienced IT people test it out in controlled conditions. So an experienced writer gets other experienced writers to read their work.

Why not ask target readers to try it out? What is wrong with just using a critique group?

Target readers actually are an excellent idea and I would define them as beta+. Unlike the experienced writers they are not analysing the skill of the writer but are responding as a reader. Does this text work? The experienced writer will look for faults and will critique towards making the text more polished. They will also have some idea of how to flirt with the publishing industry. A mixture of both types of reader is probably desirable.       

Naturally, members of your local critique group will also do that. The problem may be that they don’t see the whole text and may only be judging at a line-editing level. They may, for instance, say that your characters aren’t clear. Well, probably not if the first time they’ve met them is in Chapter Six and you’ve introduced them effectively in Chapter One. And even if your critique group has seen the whole text, as you’ve altered it as you’ve gone along, they can probably no longer be really objective.

So, it’s good to get a group of fresh-eyed “beta readers” to look over your carefully edited and polished text.    

I’m two thirds of the way through my final edit of Potatoes in Spring and I’m trying to find my five beta readers. I’m asking a colleague who has a special interest in the topic and I want him to see how ethical my text is. I’m asking another colleague, another creative writing teacher who frequently works with young people, to take a look. With the latter there is a slightly ulterior motive: she is a playwright and we both think the novel may effectively be turned into a play. A Holocaust survivor who also came over on the Kindertransport has also volunteered to read it. Then I want to find two other readers. One should be another young adult, then two experienced writers. That gives me two betas and three beta+s. Is that the right number? I’ll revisit that later.

Obviously if I’m asking five people to read my work and comment on it, for nothing more than an acknowledgement in the book and a free copy when it is published I need to give something back. I did think about setting something up that worked like a baby-sitting circle. But this could be complex to organise and it might mean you work with the same people all of the time which could lead to a “house style” that may or may not be right. An element of randomness is probably welcome.

So, at some point I must also be a beta reader. Will it work fairly if we leave it to everyone’s conscience? Or should we pay our beta readers? Could people afford to pay? Or could it be a I.O.U that would be settled out of the advance?                     

A reading from Spooking

Accident

The lump was in his throat again.

The first drops of the rain they’d been promising all day fell on the windscreen.

He turned on the wipers.   

By the time he got to the motorway, it was raining heavily. As he filtered into the traffic there were flashes of lightening and claps of thunder. He turned on the radio to try and drain out the noise. He pushed his right foot down to the floor, bringing Binky up to her top speed. The music matched his mood. Rousing rock. He was going to fight this and he was going to win.

He steered Binky into the middle lane. The rain was now pouring over the windscreen like a waterfall. The wipers were going full speed, but he still couldn’t see all that well.  He was buffeted from the side wind as he drove out of the shelter of the lorries and cars he overtook. Their spray made it impossible for him to see.

He would have to be careful as he crossed the Hamble Bridge. Binky was quite light and could easily be blown off course. He lifted his foot slightly off the accelerator. Best not to go too fast in this.

He noticed the grey car first of all in his side-view mirror. A Saab, he thought. What was the idiot doing? He was going to hit him. He quickly looked in his rear-view mirror. No, he couldn’t get into the third lane. Chances were, even if he did, the Saab would still smash into him.

It was going to happen. There was nothing he could do.

Don’t try to straighten up if he makes you skid, he thought to himself. Steer into the skid.

He tried to relax his grip on the steering wheel. But not altogether – at least it was something to hang on to.

There was a thud. 

 

Spooking Party

Hi and welcome.

Do come on in .... 











We have cupcakes:

and champagne .... there are soft drinks too ... please help yourself.

 Folks are gathering just through there ....

Spooking party

Darren: Where did you get the idea for Spooking from?

I really have no idea with this one. Not at all. But Tom, Amanda and Marcus just walked in all fully formed.

Lucy: Are they based on real people?

No certainly not. I try to avoid making my characters like people I know. It can get you into a lot of trouble. Mind you the other day a couple of my first year students were behaving more like high school kids and I threatened to put them into a story.  They said “Oh yes, please. Will you?” You can’t win can, you?

Alex: But they’re real places, aren’t they?

Well, yes, the real life ones are. Yes. Hamble, the bridge across the river, the Menai Straits, the pier at Bangor … and a certain little blue ford fiesta that used to belong to my son, later driven by my daughter, was called Binky. She didn’t have quite the same adventures as Binky in the story, though.      

Greg: How long did it take you to write it?

The first draft took about six weeks.  I was lucky in that I went on a writing retreat for three weeks. Well- I was working as a writer in residence actually but had lots of writing time.  I got most of that first draft down in that time. Then it was back to reality. And as always, I spent a lot longer editing than writing. I think it was finished about nine months later.

Lucy: How long did it take you to get it published?

Well, I finished all of my editing in 2009. I sent it out to a few agents. One of them liked the sample chapters and synopsis and asked for the rest. She ultimately rejected it but said she would like to see more scripts from me. I then put it on the back burner a while whilst I concentrated on other projects. Then I came across Crooked Cat who seemed to be looking for exactly what Spooking is. A couple of people I know are published by them. So I sent off my script and here we are.

Tammy: What was it like working with Crooked Cat?

Straight forward and fun. They’re very professional. There’s been all the usual editorial work, naturally.

Greg: But hadn’t you edited it carefully yourself?

Of course. But you know, a fresh pair of eyes … There wasn’t anything difficult. If a bit of text wasn’t working, it wasn’t working.  Mostly I agreed with the suggestions. If I didn’t, I just had to look for something different. What I ultimately chose was better than my original. That’s fairly normal. Thank goodness for editors!

Lucy: Is Spooking like the rest of your work?

It’s quite different actually. I usually write either for older teens or 9-11s. And my novels are generally a bit longer. Plus all those academic papers and the occasional short story or piece of flash fiction for adults. Spooking is a bit of a one off, actually.

Greg: So we’ll not be seeing any more stories like Spooking in the near future?

In fact, I am working on another text called Veiled Dreams. It would make a good companion novel for Spooking. Who knows, if Spooking sells well…. Look. I’d better go and socialise. There are more folk arriving.