Thomas Emson's Blog, page 3

Free book today

My guide book HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL IN 6 MONTHS  is available for FREE on Amazon for Kindle today and tomorrow, so if you’re in the UK, here’s the link, and it’s here if you’re in the States; here in Canada; here in Australia… and it’s free everywhere else on Amazon, too. If you do download it for free, all I ask is, Would you consider revewing it? It’s great to know what you think. I am not asking for a five-star review, only your honest, fair opinion. Anyway, if you download it, I hope it helps you in your quest to write a novel, or, if you already are a novelist, you may find some of the content interesting.

The Writing Process Blog Tour

So Danny Rhodes, author of the excellent Fan, asked me to contribute to the Writing Process Blog Tour. I don’t know much about it, but writer after writer answer the same four questions. Here are the questions. Here are my answers…

What am I currently working on?

I’ve just finished, and dispatched to my agent, a fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian thriller for the so-called YA audience. I’m about to start writing a detective novel.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I’ve mostly written horror, but they’re fast-moving and action-packed. Horror appears to me to be traditionally quite sluggish. Some horror writers spend an age piling on the adjectives and adverbs, thinking up different words for ‘dark’. I try to keep the story moving, very, very quickly. I don’t waste time on long, descriptive passages telling the reader how menacing a house looks. I get the characters inside the house and show them how menacing it is.

Why do I write what I do?

I wrote horror initially because I loved the genre as a youngster. But I also like action thrillers and fast-paced stories. I combined horror stories and the thriller framework. Really pacy stories. Gory, full of violence, very grown-up. I really enjoyed TV serials when I was growing up. They used to show stuff like Flash Gordon with Buster Crabbe. It was old, very old, but I loved the cliff-hangers at the end of each episode. I attempt that with my stories. I want to be on the edge of my seat when I read a book. I try to do that when I write my own, too. I think, to be succinct, I write what I write because I like reading it.

How does my writing process work?

I had an eight-book contract, and tied myself to writing two books a year. In order to do that, I had to be disciplined. So I developed this specific routine, which I use to this day. I set myself targets. I work out how long I have to write a book. Say six months. It’ll be an 80,000 word book, at least. I set myself a target of 8,000 words a week. Weekly targets are more achievable than daily ones. If I write 8,000 words a week, and working from a vague outline, I’ll have the first draft finished in 10 weeks. When I’m writing the first draft, I don’t stop to correct anything, I just write and write. After that’s done, I take a week off. Then I go back and do a pass of the first draft, cleaning things up. And I keep doing this until I have a decent manuscript. I’ve written about my routine in a book called How To Write A Novel In 6 Months.

… so there it is; hope you enjoyed.

Get writing

If you’ve ever wanted to write a novel, my eBook How To Write A Novel In 6 Months can help you. It’s 20,000 words and includes the system I have used to write two novels a year since Maneater was published. When I started writing I was reading a lot of How To books, and some were useful, some were not. It was really only half way through Skarlet that my system finally evolved into the workable one I present in the book. Well, it takes time to develop these things; to find out what works for you. I’m sure this will, because not only can it help you write your novel, it will also make sure you have a life while doing so. The eBook is available for Kindle, here in the UK, and here for US/North American readers.

The Rules of Writing

Somerset Maugham

On November 14 I’ll be taking part in a discussion at Whitstable Library in Kent. The event is a fund-raiser for a fantastic new literary festival  called WhitLit, to be held May 9-11, 2014. I’m very excited.

However, on November 14 at the fund-raiser, it’ll be me, Peggy Riley (author of the wonderful Amity & Sorrow), and Linda M. James (A Fatal Facade) and we will be discussing author Somerset Maugham’s famous declaration that “there are three rules for writing a novel but nobody knows what they are”.

Maugham, who died in 1965, was a playwright, novelist and short story writer. After his parents died, he was sent to be cared for by his uncle, who was Vicar of Whitstable. His best known work is probably Of Human Bondage.

Anyway, the three of us will be discussing Maugham’s assertion. Tickets are £5. They are available here, at the WhitLit website. Perhaps see you there.

 

Just joined Goodreads

I have signed up to Goodreads this week. I’d not really been aware of its potential, but I have been reading Goodreads For Authors: How To Use Goodreads To Promote Your Books by Michelle Campbell-Scott. Very interesting, and quite eye-opening. I thought I’d give it a go. All my books are already there, so I assume someone put them up. Someone had also written a profile of me, which was sort of right but a bit dated; but I’ve now updated it.

Books on Kindle and Smashwords

My eBook collection The Trees And Other Stories is now available on both Kindle and Smashwords. It features eight stories, including When Moth And Rust Destroy, the sequel to Zombie Britannica. On the left is the original cover. You’ll find a different on on Smashwords and Amazon, now. Still the same stories, though

Also available on Kindle, finally, is Kardinal, the last part of my Vampire Trinity. It has taken a while. There has been a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with the publishers, Snowbooks, but they kindly gave me the rights to the book and allowed me to make it available as an ebook. Thanks to them for that gesture.

Website

So my website is starting to take shape. I did have one, but I was a bit careless and the domain name was nabbed. This is as good a time as any to start anew, especially now that I’m well into my latest novel The Prophet Wars. I’m almost done with a first draft, and after that I should have something readable in 8-10 weeks. Meanwhile, I thought I’d post a photo, taken by my wife Marnie, of our two dogs Tippi and Frank taking a break from napping earlier today. It was really nice in Kent. Warm and sunny. So the dogs loved a bit of a sunbathe. Some of us had to work to keep them in Iams.