Andrew Toynbee's Blog, page 13
July 11, 2013
Video Clip Competition – only three weeks to go!
Just a quick reminder to everyone that only three weeks are left for entries into my Video Clip competition.
A signed and personally dedicated copy of my eBook ‘A Construct of Angels’ is up for grabs for every clip that I’m able to use in my promotional video for the same book.
In addition, the best ten submissions will receive a signed ‘Construct’ bookmark.
So if you have a camera or a phone, click on the links above or below and see if you can capture a short piece of video that matches any of the requested shots I’ve asked for. Alternatively, if you’re already read ‘A Construct of Angels’ and a different scene has inspired you, feel free to film that instead.
There’s also still time to grab a copy from Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk / Smashwords / Kobo and see if you are inspired.
If your name happens to be Mister S. Spielberg, feel free to consider the entire book! Just let me know first… 
July 9, 2013
CreateSpace – Part IV of my anticlockwise journey towards a paperback
Isn’t this is the BEST justification EVER for ordering a Proof copy of your Print on Demand novel?
I used nearly three packs of Post-it strips marking out typos (not too many), weird spacing issues (loads) and missing or shifted text (scores – mostly at the bottoms of pages where text had been moved to fill the silly gaps).
I also took the opportunity to have one last crack at polishing the prose as I went. Who says a writer is never done editing?
Anyway, Big Lesson learned here; Never assume that because it looks fine on the screen, it’ll be fine in print. WRONG!
And don’t order TWO copies in the naive hope that the print will be fiiiine *casually dismisses problem with a wave of his hand* and you would be able to send one of them to…for instance…your mother.
So glad I didn’t…
Unless you are planning to use an editing buddy, someone who will be reading the second copy, don’t waste your money. Order ONE, fix it, THEN order another proof – just to be certain.
Sure, it all takes time…an interminable period during which you are champing away, desperate for the process to be completed. But as I’ve posted before, patience is most definitely required in this self-editing game.
So, now that I have completed my read-through, I only need to update my electronic version and re-submit the document to CreateSpace…and order another proof copy, which must come all the way from the US… by snail mail..and then read through THAT…and identify any remaining errors.
*drums fingers in agitation*
How long is the average human lifespan?
Muse; Patience, Mister Toynbee, patience.
July 6, 2013
The future is uncertain
Reblogged from Shay Starcaller ™:
I made this site private for awhile because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it - i'm still not sure.
My original intention was to make it a blog site for Shay Starcaller and make posts from her daily life on Mars but I think that confused people and I fail to understand why. Maybe I let to much of my own personality come through, I don't know, so i'm not sure what to do with this site.
Fellow authors! Shay is feeling a little down about this blog - enough to want to quit. Please drop by and offer a fellow writer a little encouragement or a helpful suggestion!
July 3, 2013
See…for I have Scrivened!
I’ve now successfully used Scrivener to compile, complete and sell a short piece of work (15,000 words) as well as continuing to construct a complex novella about Valkyries and I’m pleased to report that I found it to be a very helpful writing tool.
I have no doubt that the seasoned Scrivern-ers amongst you will be nodding sagely, as I am telling you something they already know – that Scrivener is very, very useful to writers.
But if I tell you why it was so useful, then perhaps the reason for my praise will become clearer. The screen shots below might be the first you’ve seen of Scrivener, but for the old hands they will be all too familiar (in a good way).
Simply put, Scrivener allows the writer to build their manuscript chapter by chapter, or in the case of the novella, scene by scene so that the story can be built in sections. Ideal for Planners, but also useful for Pantsers like me. 
If you wanted to be this organised in Word, you’d need either a dozen separate Word docs or you’d have to put up with scrolling / word searching / constructing a table of contents in order to hop back and forth between research and story…and back again.
As the Scrivener scenes / chapters are filled, they can be linked together (compiled) at any time to form one temporary document which can be read straight through. This will also provide a word count for the whole project (visible at the bottom of the Valkyrie document above). The document can then be dismantled with a single click and you can go right back to working on individual scenes / chapters. Or the whole project can be exported in multiple formats at any time. This has an added bonus – it keeps projects free of all those irritating little formatting errors that Word documents accumulate…errors that make eBook formatting into a nightmare.
Additional folders can be created ad infinitum, depending on the extent of your research. Templates of characters and their relationships (not shown here) and settings, geography and history can be placed in named folders, ready for instant access. Images can also be added into the binder – see the last item in the binder above - plus video and audio files.
This is particularly useful to me; I use an Acer Netbook for my writing. It’s an Intel Atom device that grinds to a halt if more than half-a-dozen documents are opened at one time – something I would need to do if I was to have all my research and reference images to hand. But by using Scrivener, I can now keep all my information in one place – and it’s all accessible from a single folder with a single click. Plus, having everything close at hand keeps my Windows taskbar clear of multiple documents.
Scrivener also allows the writer to create folders relevant to the chapters close at hand, in the preferred order and with multiple sub-folders. I’ve tried this using Microsoft and find myself having to include numbers as part of the folder names to prevent them from being sorted alphabetically.
Although my Scrivener trial period hasn’t ended, I’ve now gone ahead and purchased it. At £34 (about $50), I’m convinced that it will be an invaluable asset to me. All my future projects will now be created in Scrivener, only becoming Word documents at the very end.
If you’re interested, Scrivener is available as a trial download from here;
(Please note that I am in no way affiliated with Literature and Latte. I’m merely pointing the way for you.)
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June 29, 2013
An unexpected leap back to my past…
Today I was passed a short piece of work (fiction) that had been written by an eleven year-old boy…the son of a friend of my wife.
I’d been asked for my opinion of the writing and I was happy to help. The lad who wrote it is currently enjoying ‘A Construct of Angels’ and is thrilled that his mother works with the wife of an author.
That’s me…in case you didn’t follow.
I was happy to read it, but as I picked it up, I found myself wishing that I’d known an author when I was eleven. True, I’d had a lot of encouragement from my English teacher when I was at senior school, but an author? They were unreachable, weren’t they? My only experience of authors at the time were the books of Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. No, I had to set my sights just a little bit lower. I still remember being thrilled back in 1978 when a BBC Open University lecturer replied to my letter containing an astronomical query.
So I sat back, put on some distraction-cancelling music and read through the two pages that had been printed for me. I recognised the style instantly. Quick, hurried prose that showed an excitability; a joy at having the freedom and passion to write. It was an end-of-the-world scene, something that I had cut my junior teeth on back in the 1970′s. Almost everything I wrote in those days was end-of-the-world where the crowded and less-than-friendly society had been washed away, leaving only a few familiar comforts for my fledgling characters. Looking back, I think it was my mind’s way of reshaping the misery around me into something I could control better. I wasn’t having a happy time of it. An overbearing and abusive father coupled with bullying peers made for a pretty miserable life. However, I still hold the legacy of those embittered days in the form of ‘Homeworld’, my sci-fi saga (as yet unfinished, but that will change) where alien beings battle to survive war and the harsh conditions of their slow-turning world.
Anyway, I digress. Back to the submitted piece; The scene didn’t take long to read. It was only two pages long, but I had to admit that it was better than the lines that I had been turning out at the same age. We’re living in a different era now, it’s true. Eleven year-olds are wiser now than they were when I was a pre-teen. But regardless of that, it was a very good start to a potential life of writing fiction.
If I was able to pass on any advice to the young writer, I would simply say this; Never stop writing. If you love it, keep practising it. Read much – and not just your favourite genre. Follow others who have trodden this path before you, for there are many…and learn from their experiences, because their errors can only serve to smooth your path.
Oh, and make sure you know how your story will end – so you have something to aim your story towards. Don’t repeat my decades-long mistake of creating never-ending stories.
The best of luck in your endeavours.
June 27, 2013
Video, videas, videat..? A video competition – with prizes.
All, right, the title was in mock Latin, but it still relates to the subject I’m about to appeal to you all for help with;
Late last year I mentioned – no, I don’t expect anyone will remember – that I was working on making a live-action video trailer for ‘A Construct of Angels’ with the help of a local drama college. Well, despite their initial excitement at the idea, they’ve since decided that they had plenty of other things to get on with and eight months later, they still haven’t made any real commitment to the project. I have also contacted two drama groups in York, where my novel is set, but to date, I’ve received no replies to my queries.
So, I am now spreading my appeal web-wide and announcing my Wondrous World-Wide Web Wideo Competition, or WWWWWC for…um…short?
What I am seeking, dear reader, are short snippets of live action video, each between five and ten seconds in length that I will be able to use in my promotional trailer. I already have three and a half minutes of dramatic music and the same duration of stormy background clouds that will be used as a frame. I also have video of flying swords, racing ambulances, figures shrouded in mist and various other stuff.
What I don’t have is any video featuring real people (with the exception of me waving a sword around in some mist).
I would like to appeal to you – to anyone with a camera or camera-phone – to video one of the items listed below and send it to me. Low angles, panning or high shots…all would work for me.
On July 31st, I will close the competition and choose the most suitable (for my project) video material. On offer is a copy of my eBook ‘A Construct of Angels’ plus I will include your name in the closing credits of the video as a contributor. You will also receive a link to the completed video and if you wish, a copy of your own to download.
The base video (music and storm-cloud background) can be found on YouTube;
This might help to give you an idea of the level of drama that I need. The cloudscape is intended to be used as a frame around the finished shots, so imagine your scenes taking up the centre 7/8 of the frame.
To give you a better idea of the characters in my book and steer you towards getting your snippets as relevant as possible;
Main character MC1 (male) is tall, mid 20′s with untidy brown hair. He normally wears dark clothes or shades of blue.Summary; Disoriented angel who finally finds his confidence.
Main character MC2 (female) is a petite brunette, mid 20′s with shoulder length hair and invariably wears paramedic green. Summary; reluctant, caring heroine.
The antagonist Ant1 is a blonde man, clean-shaven in his 30′s with shoulder length blonde hair – he wears white, but when he’s being malevolent he dons a cloak with hood and bathes in red light. Summary; Dapper Bad Guy determined to ruin it for everyone.
Ant2 is a lean, fair-haired (short hair) man, mid 20′s who wields a sword. Dark clothing (but no cape!). Summary; Dangerous sidekick.
Mag1 is a four-year old girl with dark hair – clothes various. Her role is to gaze at everything in wonder and trust whomever she meets.
The mood of the video will be dark, so whilst bright, sunlit shots may still work, they might ‘jar’ the continuity. If you can, darker shots will work better. And don’t worry about speed of movement – I can change the timebase of any shots.
As I will need continuity with a character’s appearance, I would be able to work better with one person performing as many of a chosen character’s actions as possible. Three markedly different people being one character would look confusing.
Ten shots I really, really need (please);
1) MC1 and / or MC2 extending forefinger towards camera.
2) MC1 (front) and a MC2 (behind) riding a small bike through a quiet street. They can be weaving, or riding straight. The POV can be from street or car or through a window. Helmets are optional, but would help to ‘neutralise’ anyone who does not look like MC1 or MC2.
3) Miscellaneous shots of MC1 and / or MC2 turning to look around or behind them. Expressions of shock, fear, anger or wonder would be best. Not too hammy, please. ~If in doubt, under act.
4) Ant1 looking smug, angry, throwing his hands up towards the sky, shaking his head, sighing, sweeping his cloak, snapping hood up or down.
5) MC1 or MC2 falling to the ground / climbing to their feet / spinning round.
6) Mag1 looking about her in wonder. Can have her thumb in her mouth, but not always.
7) Mag1 running or getting out of a car, gazing around her or nodding solemnly to someone off-camera.
8) Crowd scene – think slow zombies. They will have the expressions and posture, but not the makeup of The Walking Dead. Shoulder to shoulder would be best. Panning or long shots would be useful.
8a) same as above, but running headlong past camera.
9) MC2 being grabbed by the arm (assailant unseen) and spun around.
10) A woman’s (MC2) hand trailing along an old stone wall. If she’s wearing green sleeves, even better. Also her hand running along a rack of clothes in a store or wardrobe.
Ten shots that would be useful to me;
1) MC2 tucking into a chicken leg (don’t ask) and/or bowl of ice cream.
2) MC1 fumbling ineptly with a cereal box.
3) Ant2 demonstrating various moves with a broadsword or a tensioning a garotte.
4) Male hand patting stainless steel door.
5) MC2 having trouble with mobile (cell) phone connection. Jabbing buttons or holding it up for a signal would be good.
6) MC2 staring up at the sky. Shielding eyes with her hand would be good.
7) Close up of MC2 struggling against unseen assailiant.
8) Seated MC1 lifting his head to look off-camera.
9) MC2 in drivers seat of car dropping out of sight / rising slowly into view.
10) Upper body shot of MC1 spinning on the spot. arms by side would be best.
The icing on the bun (optional footage);
Other minor characters that might feature briefly are as follows;
mC1 Willowy Fem. paramedic, 20-30, long blonde hair. Need; Smiling, looking concerned, laughing.
mC2 Asian Male paramedic 30-40, smiling, laughing, shrugging.
mC3 Male Morbidly obese, 40′s sneering, looming, shaking head.
mC4 Male Doctor character, 30′s dark spiky hair, looking concerned, cocking head (curiosity), narrowing eyes.
mC5 Other male Doctor character 40′s peering over reading spectacles or lowering clipboard to reveal disbelieving face.
mC6 Male manager type, 40′s benevolent, understanding, looking up from behind desk / sitting on edge of desk.
mC7 Man in trilby hat (and coat) 30′s pulling out a handgun or turning slowly to stare past camera.
mc8 Fifty-something woman (as hospital receptionist, casual dress) raising eyebrows at something off-camera.
Plus; Various (seated) hospice patients (all ages 8 to 80) turning to follow another (unseen) character. These can all be submitted as separate entries.
* * If you need clarification on any of the above, please ask in a comment and I will answer asap. * *
The Rules (sorry, but there have to be some);
The submitted video should be between five and ten seconds long, although it is likely I will edit or compress it down to between two and five seconds. If you can’t cut it down, don’t worry – it will still be admitted, but please let me know which time segments you wish to have considered.
To prevent any plagarism or trawling of existing material, please include a ‘clapperboard’ shot at the beginning or the end of the video that says ‘Angels’ in it. This can be as simple as a piece of paper with handwriting on it, but it must be continuous with the video – not a different scene or I will consider it to be an edited attachment to a plagarised video. Any ‘clapperboard’ material will not be counted in the five to ten seconds guideline times.
Please include a short note that states ‘This video is my own property and has been created for unrestricted use by Andrew Toynbee.’ I will be legally unable to use your submission if you forget to do this and it will not be counted as a valid entry.
Please send submitted material to me at Andybee64 (at) hotmail (dot) com. To avoid it being lost in my spam folder, please entitle it ‘Video submission for A Construct of Angels.’
Alternatively, post it on YouTube and forward me the link (I can capture it from there) either by email using the details above, or in the comments section of this page.
You may enter as many times as you like, although I can only send out the prizes once.
I will announce the details of the winning contributors in mid-August.
If you have already bought my ‘A Construct of Angels’ and you’re inspired to shoot a scene that I haven’t already mentioned, feel free to do so. I will have to discuss an alternative winner’s prize with you as you will already have a copy of the book.
Thanks for reading this far!
June 25, 2013
A blog post about not blogging…or writing
Life has turned into a bit of a whirlwind for me lately – and it’s caused my run of twice-weekly blog posts, unbroken since the start of the year to…well, break.
It’s a bit weird…I’ve been so busy with all things writing that I don’t seem to be getting any actual writing done. Anyone else finding themselves deep in this particular rut at the moment? If so, can you lend me a ladder?
Course not. If you had one, you’d have used it already…
The day job, naturally, intrudes the most. What with the continued air travel, driving, hotel-ing and all the associated to and fro involved. Then there’s the proof-reading of my CreateSpace paperback, the (voluntary) read-through of a fellow writer’s eBook, the (lucrative but desperately-needed) ghost writing projects, Author Facebooking and Tweeting, promotional giveaways…
You see where I’m at?
My new (and very welcome) nagger-in-Chief, Peter, called me (again) yesterday to ask how the sequel was progressing. Not a jot, was my unhappy reply. Nothing written for the fifth month, although I did get as far as loading ‘A Vengeance of Angels’ into Scrivener…but that doesn’t really count as progress, does it (please say yes)?.
I am currently on the horns of a dilemma, dear reader. On the one hand, the ghostwriting brings in the dollars – all of which are ravenously consumed by the fearsome credit cards. On the other hand, the long-term project, The Angels of York series, of which ‘Vengeance’ is the second, is stalling.
In an ideal world, I would split my time evenly between the long-term and the short-term work and life would be jolly - but life allows me little respite in that respect. The short ghostwriting pieces are easier to conceive, write and edit. They can be finished inside of a week. ‘Vengeance’ is a years-long effort, so the temptation is to keep pounding away at the (small) keyboard in order to bring in the cash.
But the life plan is falling further and further behind. Short-term stability is succeeding – but at the expense of the long-term.
Time, methinks, to reassess my (non-existent) timetable and bring ‘A Vengeance of Angels’ to the fore. Any and all thoughts or suggestions would be welcomed.
June 12, 2013
Help Me, I'm Drowning
Reblogged from Kristen Lamb's Blog:
Many writers feel overwhelmed. We're frequently trying to balance a day job, family, special occasions, emergencies, blogging, social media, laundry and even BATHING. It seems like just about the time we get a good juggling rhythm, someone tosses another bowling pin in our hand (sick kid, car breaking down, computer crashing).
I'd love to say that I'm perfect at these tips I'm about to offer, but I'm a lousy liar.
If you feel under pressure to write, blog, cook, clean and care, then take some advice from the desk of Kristen Lamb...
June 3, 2013
June 2, 2013
CreateSpace – Part III of my anticlockwise journey towards a paperback
It’s heeee-re! It’s really here!
I’m as proud as George McFly when HE opened his box in 1985;
(George McFly is a fictional character and wannabe author who was featured in ‘Back to The Future’ in case you don’t remember the 1980′s)
I can report several parallels with George’s story…we’d both been writing since we were at school, we’d both suffered similar abuse from our peers and we’ve both been accosted by time-travelling versions of our own sons. Except that mine hasn’t happened yet…but I’m sure it will. It’s bound to. That’s how time-travel works, right?
Ahem.
Anyway, back to the main event – the paperbacks. Actually, they were so large, I thought CreateSapce had accidentally sent me hardbacks. At 500 pages long, ‘Construct’ is no lightweight – but it would have weighed in at 700 pages if I hadn’t made the decision to lose the last three chapters from the original draft and recycle that ending into the (proposed) third book.
I can report that the print quality is top-notch. The cover is of good quality, printed on at least 200gsm card – possibly thicker.
(You’ll guess from the above that I’m not an expert in this field!)
However, it feels as good as any ‘real’ paperback and doesn’t feel as if it’s going to disassemble itself the first time it’s opened. Quite how they put such a small number of books together so well, I’m uncertain. I imagine that there is a large workshop beneath one of Amazon’s warehouse, complete with chutes and steam-driven conveyor belts manned by elves who sing jolly tunes as they lovingly construct the books.
Perhaps I’m wrong – but can anybody prove it?
When I was populating the CreateSpace template with my MS, I went for a 6×9 layout, black text of cream paper and a size 11 font – Book Antiqua – which was the default font of the template. This resulted in a pleasant and easily readable text.
Even the image file that CreateSpace flagged up as too low-resolution (less than 300 dpi) turned out to be fine. Since it was only an image of a character’s shaky handwriting, it didn’t concern me. I’d have shows it to you, but it’s a major spoiler. I imagine that a photograph of a similar resolution might have turned out poorly, but as someone commented recently on a previous post, ‘if it looks fine on the screen, it’ll probably be fine in the book.’
A quick flick through the book revealed that all was well, although one of those irritating spaces had managed to make an appearance at the bottom of one of the pages. *Fumes quietly to self at having missed it.* I also felt that having chapters begin on the left-hand rather than the right-hand page looked wrong. Unfortunately, this was the way that the text fell, so I will have to make some changes in that department.
My bio, now that I see it in print, reveals more about me than I’m comfortable with, so I’ll be trimming it slightly. Once I’ve had a chance to read the rest of the book, I may find other aspects that I’d prefer to adjust, but that’s something for another day.
So, a few minor tweaks required, but not a disaster by any means, but this all goes to prove that it was a wise move to follow CreateSpace’s advice and order proof copies and not just trust that I had everything right first time.
If you’re thinking of using CreateSpace, I’d be happy to report that it’s been a straightforward, happy experience – aside from my shenanigans with the formatting, although that is an issue with Word and may possibly have been a left-over from using Word to assemble my story in the first place. Those wise writers who utilise Scrivener may not have this problem.
So…off I go to a dark corner where I can read my 500 pages without interruption.
Yeah, like that’s going to happen!
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In the meantime, whether you prefer pixels or pages,
Write On!
