Imran Siddiq's Blog, page 17

From Plotting to Writing to Editing to Submitting

Prior to the Festival of Writing – York 2013, I wanted to ‘wow’ the agents with a plot that wasn’t totally beyond the realm possibility.

Why?

I’ve found that by writing narrative about locations/happenings rooted in our world comes a little easier to me than wording a faraway land/ship.

Anyway… Late June 2013, the plot to Novel 7 formed overnight. Sure the details were sketchy, but the character, the main conflict and the sub-plots delivered excitement that I haven’t felt in a novel for a long time. I’m passionate about every novel – but this was totally something else.

Early July saw me plotting in my strict process of:

a)      Listing the chapters with one word sentences.

b)      Breaking down each chapter into Who, Where, What

c)       Expanding on each chapter into a loose cannon of bullet points (that’s how I avoid word block).

July 15th 2013 began Day 1 of writing Novel 7 – a YA Science Fiction set on Earth 70-odd years in the future.

And from that point something remarkable happened.

The Think Less = Write More approach maxed out the Flux Capacitor and away I went. Words flowed through my mind faster than I could type. Soon I was nailing 1.2k per hour, far more than my usual 700 words per hour. Of course much of the words were garbage, full of purple prose, unnecessary dialogue, and bits added in that I was always unsure of. But it didn’t matter. What did was the rate of words going down.

Working full time makes every spare minute valuable to me, so cracking words on the page each evening was heaven within my fingertips. *Hang on a second while I moonwalk my fingers across the table*

At the end of week 1, 6 chapters were down at a rate of almost 1 chapter a day.

I was ecstatic!

On I went – and on September 9th I typed the last word for the first draft.

The first draft rocked in at 108k with 98 hours used over 8 weeks.

Now – here comes the crafty bit…

Due to the deadline for the Festival of Writing submissions being Aug 20th, I’d already submitted with Chapter 1 as a first draft and stated that the word count was 80k… At that time I never knew it would continue to explode upwards.

108k vs 80k…. yes… a sizeable difference.

At the Festival, many of the agents liked the plot, the prose, and my ‘unique’ take on a subject that’s been approached for. They wanted to see more.

But they all referred to the 80k being a good length for a YA.

Did I panic?

Did I poop my pants?

Heck no!

My 108k was just the first draft. There was room for improvement. And I knew that much of it was poopable-in-the-pants material.

From September 16th to October 9th, I’ve been redrafting Novel 7. I’ve tightened it, and eliminated as much rubbish to give it a fighting chance.

Novel 7 now stands at 83k.

25k cut out. 25k ditched for the good. 25k to make Novel 7 the novel I feel proud of.

I’m going to leave it for 2 weeks and then give it another look, before the last round of tweaking.

And then… on November 11 2013 – I will submit to agents.

In the meantime, I’m working on Novel 8… Started October 7th 2013 with a 10 week plan for the first draft.

And if the agents don’t want to pursue it further, I’ll treat it like a learning curve, and hope that N8 can be better.

The more we write, the more we create.

What I look out for when editing.

 

This isn’t definitive. Just a snippet – but it will do…

I’ll share more once I complete the edit of Novel 7 and will explain some key changes then.

 

In terms of editing – I print out and read it out loud to find those moments where it jars, unnecessary dialogues, diabolical Prose, characters, etc…

By the end of it, I’ll have document full of red scribbles.

It’s at this stage when I go back to apply the changes that the novel may change in places, and in my opinion – improve.

Think about hooks at the start and end of chapters.
Does the chapter have relevance to be in the novel?
Is there a progression of conflict or action in the novel?
Do we have a pull the rug moment at the 2/3 or the 3/4 mark…. or even at the 7/8 mark?
Think about giving the reader moments to reflect or lull periods after a sequence where several chapters are high-octane action.

And most of all – don’t be afraid to change even if it means rewriting the entire novel.

The more we write,  the better we become.

 

Oh… and after that edit… I’ll edit again. There’s always time for tweaking.

The Best Promotion for Writers Ever

 

Note: Closing Date = 30th September 2013



WE ALL PLAY A PART IN CREATING STORIES.

How to participate:

Your message will be 2 words out of the following:

I write / edit / promote / design / format / proof
He writes / edits / promotes / designs / formats / proofs
She writes / edits / promotes / designs / formats / proofs
We write / edit / promote / design / format / proof
They write / edit / promote / design / format / proof

So… you could have a video where you say “I write”, or if you’re an editor you could say “I edit”.

If you write,  edit, format, proof, design covers, and promote, etc, then state your primary role. I don’t want to have multiple entries per person up.

Maybe your children are around you and they state “She writes”.

What about a writing group that announce “We write”.

Or someone pointing to a group with “They edit”.

Be creative, be you, have fun and let the world know about us.

 

How to Submit:

1. You can use a webcam, iMac, iPad, iPhone, Samsung, Nokia, or any other smartphone to record your video.

2. Please try to have your face at least above the 1/3 mark (ie: the red section below). This allows me to add your TwitterID without overlapping your wonderful features.

3. You can be holding a copy of your own book (as additional advertising)

4. Keep it simple in execution without singing, lengthening, or muffling the speech.

5. Each video should be approximately 1 to 1.5 seconds to state the words. Don’t worry about footage before or after the words, I can clip those out.

6. Please shoot the video in a location that isn’t dark.

7. Don’t rush your words.

8. Please don’t paste your name or Twitter ID on the video. I’ll do that.

9. When emailing, make sure that you include your Twitter ID so I can verify that you are associated with writing/aiding writers in some form or other.

CLOSING DATE is SEPTEMBER 30th 2013
EMAIL THE VIDEO TO FLICKIMP@GMAIL.COM

An important note: Those that submit, and are successful, please, please, please, do share, Facebook, RT, promote the video once it is released. Exposure is good for all involved – including you.

Please share and join in!

My novels are available here.

10 Rules for Writing – The Guardian

 

The Guardian posted a huge article of 10 rules from some well-known authors. How many do you follow or break?

Article = http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one

Elmore Leonard: Using adverbs is a mortal sin

1 Never open a book with weather. If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a charac­ter’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead look­ing for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2 Avoid prologues: they can be ­annoying, especially a prologue ­following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in non-fiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want. There is a prologue in John Steinbeck’sSweet Thursday, but it’s OK because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: “I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks.”

3 Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But “said” is far less intrusive than “grumbled”, “gasped”, “cautioned”, “lied”. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with “she asseverated” and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” … he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances “full of rape and adverbs”.

5 Keep your exclamation points ­under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6 Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose”. This rule doesn’t require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use “suddenly” tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apos­trophes, you won’t be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavour of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories Close Range.

8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, what do the “Ameri­can and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story.

9 Don’t go into great detail describing places and things, unless you’re ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing is published next month by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Diana Athill

1 Read it aloud to yourself because that’s the only way to be sure the rhythms of the sentences are OK (prose rhythms are too complex and subtle to be thought out – they can be got right only by ear).

2 Cut (perhaps that should be CUT): only by having no ­inessential words can every essential word be made to count.

3 You don’t always have to go so far as to murder your darlings – those turns of phrase or images of which you felt extra proud when they appeared on the page – but go back and look at them with a very beady eye. Almost always it turns out that they’d be better dead. (Not every little twinge of satisfaction is suspect – it’s the ones which amount to a sort of smug glee you must watch out for.)

Margaret Atwood

1 Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.

2 If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type.

3 Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do.

4 If you’re using a computer, always safeguard new text with a ­memory stick.

5 Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.

6 Hold the reader’s attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don’t know who the reader is, so it’s like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What ­fascinates A will bore the pants off B.

7 You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you’re on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.

8 You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a ­romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.

9 Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.

10 Prayer might work. Or reading ­something else. Or a constant visual­isation of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your resplendent book.

Roddy Doyle

1 Do not place a photograph of your ­favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.

2 Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph –

3 Until you get to Page 50. Then calm down, and start worrying about the quality. Do feel anxiety – it’s the job.

4 Do give the work a name as quickly as possible. Own it, and see it. Dickens knew Bleak House was going to be called Bleak House before he started writing it. The rest must have been easy.

5 Do restrict your browsing to a few websites a day. Don’t go near the online bookies – unless it’s research.

6 Do keep a thesaurus, but in the shed at the back of the garden or behind the fridge, somewhere that demands travel or effort. Chances are the words that come into your head will do fine, eg “horse”, “ran”, “said”.

7 Do, occasionally, give in to temptation. Wash the kitchen floor, hang out the washing. It’s research.

8 Do change your mind. Good ideas are often murdered by better ones. I was working on a novel about a band called the Partitions. Then I decided to call them the Commitments.

9 Do not search amazon.co.uk for the book you haven’t written yet.

10 Do spend a few minutes a day working on the cover biog – “He divides his time between Kabul and Tierra del Fuego.” But then get back to work.

Helen Dunmore

1 Finish the day’s writing when you still want to continue.

2 Listen to what you have written. A dud rhythm in a passage of dialogue may show that you don’t yet understand the characters well enough to write in their voices.

3 Read Keats’s letters.

4 Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn’t work, throw it away. It’s a nice feeling, and you don’t want to be cluttered with the corpses of poems and stories which have everything in them except the life they need.

5 Learn poems by heart.

6 Join professional organisations which advance the collective rights of authors.

7 A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.

8 If you fear that taking care of your children and household will damage your writing, think of JG Ballard.

9 Don’t worry about posterity – as Larkin (no sentimentalist) observed “What will survive of us is love”.

Geoff Dyer

1 Never worry about the commercial possibilities of a project. That stuff is for agents and editors to fret over – or not. Conversation with my American publisher. Me: “I’m writing a book so boring, of such limited commercial appeal, that if you publish it, it will probably cost you your job.” Publisher: “That’s exactly what makes me want to stay in my job.”

2 Don’t write in public places. In the early 1990s I went to live in Paris. The usual writerly reasons: back then, if you were caught writing in a pub in England, you could get your head kicked in, whereas in Paris, dans les cafés . . . Since then I’ve developed an aversion to writing in public. I now think it should be done only in private, like any other lavatorial activity.

3 Don’t be one of those writers who sentence themselves to a lifetime of sucking up to Nabokov.

4 If you use a computer, constantly refine and expand your autocorrect settings. The only reason I stay loyal to my piece-of-shit computer is that I have invested so much ingenuity into building one of the great auto­correct files in literary history. Perfectly formed and spelt words emerge from a few brief keystrokes: “Niet” becomes “Nietzsche”, “phoy” becomes  ­”photography” and so on. ­Genius!

5 Keep a diary. The biggest regret of my writing life is that I have never kept a journal or a diary.

6 Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire.

7 Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it’s a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It’s only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I ­always have to feel that I’m bunking off from something.

8 Beware of clichés. Not just the ­clichés that Martin Amis is at war with. There are clichés of response as well as expression. There are clichés of observation and of thought – even of conception. Many novels, even quite a few adequately written ones, are ­clichés of form which conform to clichés of expectation.

9 Do it every day. Make a habit of putting your observations into words and gradually this will become instinct. This is the most important rule of all and, naturally, I don’t follow it.

10 Never ride a bike with the brakes on. If something is proving too difficult, give up and do something else. Try to live without resort to per­severance. But writing is all about ­perseverance. You’ve got to stick at it. In my 30s I used to go to the gym even though I hated it. The purpose of ­going to the gym was to postpone the day when I would stop going. That’s what writing is to me: a way of ­postponing the day when I won’t do it any more, the day when I will sink into a depression so profound it will be indistinguishable from perfect bliss.

Anne Enright

1 The first 12 years are the worst.

2 The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page.

3 Only bad writers think that their work is really good.

4 Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.

5 Write whatever way you like. Fiction is made of words on a page; reality is made of something else. It doesn’t matter how “real” your story is, or how “made up”: what matters is its necessity.

6 Try to be accurate about stuff.

7 Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you ­finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.

8 You can also do all that with whiskey.

9 Have fun.

10 Remember, if you sit at your desk for 15 or 20 years, every day, not ­counting weekends, it changes you. It just does. It may not improve your temper, but it fixes something else. It makes you more free.

Richard Ford

1 Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer’s a good idea.

2 Don’t have children.

3 Don’t read your reviews.

4 Don’t write reviews. (Your judgment’s always tainted.)

5 Don’t have arguments with your wife in the morning, or late at night.

6 Don’t drink and write at the same time.

7 Don’t write letters to the editor. (No one cares.)

8 Don’t wish ill on your colleagues.

9 Try to think of others’ good luck as encouragement to yourself.

10 Don’t take any shit if you can ­possibly help it.

Jonathan Franzen

1 The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.

2 Fiction that isn’t an author’s personal adventure into the frightening or the unknown isn’t worth writing for anything but money.

3 Never use the word “then” as a ­conjunction – we have “and” for this purpose. Substituting “then” is the lazy or tone-deaf writer’s non-solution to the problem of too many “ands” on the page.

4 Write in the third person unless a ­really distinctive first-person voice ­offers itself irresistibly.

5 When information becomes free and universally accessible, voluminous research for a novel is devalued along with it.

6 The most purely autobiographical ­fiction requires pure invention. Nobody ever wrote a more auto­biographical story than “The Meta­morphosis”.

7 You see more sitting still than chasing after.

8 It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.

9 Interesting verbs are seldom very interesting.

10 You have to love before you can be relentless.

Esther Freud

1 Cut out the metaphors and similes. In my first book I promised myself I wouldn’t use any and I slipped up ­during a sunset in chapter 11. I still blush when I come across it.

2 A story needs rhythm. Read it aloud to yourself. If it doesn’t spin a bit of magic, it’s missing something.

3 Editing is everything. Cut until you can cut no more. What is left often springs into life.

4 Find your best time of the day for writing and write. Don’t let anything else interfere. Afterwards it won’t matter to you that the kitchen is a mess.

5 Don’t wait for inspiration. Discipline is the key.

6 Trust your reader. Not everything needs to be explained. If you really know something, and breathe life into it, they’ll know it too.

7 Never forget, even your own rules are there to be broken.

Neil Gaiman

1 Write.

2 Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.

3 Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

4 Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

5 Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

6 Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

7 Laugh at your own jokes.

8 The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

David Hare

1 Write only when you have something to say.

2 Never take advice from anyone with no investment in the outcome.

3 Style is the art of getting yourself out of the way, not putting yourself in it.

4 If nobody will put your play on, put it on yourself.

5 Jokes are like hands and feet for a painter. They may not be what you want to end up doing but you have to master them in the meanwhile.

6 Theatre primarily belongs to the young.

7 No one has ever achieved consistency as a screenwriter.

8 Never go to a TV personality festival masquerading as a literary festival.

9 Never complain of being misunderstood. You can choose to be understood, or you can choose not to.

10 The two most depressing words in the English language are “literary fiction”.

PD James

1 Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more ­effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.

2 Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.

3 Don’t just plan to write – write. It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.

4 Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell.

5 Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other ­people. Nothing that happens to a writer – however happy, however tragic – is ever wasted.

AL Kennedy

1 Have humility. Older/more ­experienced/more convincing writers may offer rules and varieties of advice. ­Consider what they say. However, don’t automatically give them charge of your brain, or anything else – they might be bitter, twisted, burned-out, manipulative, or just not very like you.

2 Have more humility. Remember you don’t know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life – and maybe even please a few strangers.

3 Defend others. You can, of course, steal stories and attributes from family and friends, fill in filecards after lovemaking and so forth. It might be better to celebrate those you love – and love itself – by writing in such a way that everyone keeps their privacy and dignity intact.

4 Defend your work. Organisations, institutions and individuals will often think they know best about your work – especially if they are paying you. When you genuinely believe their decisions would damage your work – walk away. Run away. The money doesn’t matter that much.

5 Defend yourself. Find out what keeps you happy, motivated and creative.

6 Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go.

7 Read. As much as you can. As deeply and widely and nourishingly and irritatingly as you can. And the good things will make you remember them, so you won’t need to take notes.

8 Be without fear. This is impossible, but let the small fears drive your rewriting and set aside the large ones ­until they behave – then use them, maybe even write them. Too much fear and all you’ll get is silence.

9 Remember you love writing. It wouldn’t be worth it if you didn’t. If the love fades, do what you need to and get it back.

10 Remember writing doesn’t love you. It doesn’t care. Nevertheless, it can behave with remarkable generosity. Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on.

Story Structure

 

The main focus of a story is to grip you from start to finish. Although some don’t agree, I require details from the first page to the third to know if the story is worth my time investing. For that reason I’m not keen on Prologues (but they can have their uses).

Novel 8, that I’m planning to start in November, could be my most experimental ever. As with all my work, it’ll be grounded in Young Adult Science Fiction, but will cross into horror and extreme thriller (I hope).

In fact, it could be so daring that it pushes my plotting and dialogue further than I’ve ever imagined.

Before you study the anticipated plot structure below, it’s important to note elements of a story that I always consider.

Exposition = Introduction of main characters, their relation to one another, goals, motivation, and what they can gain or lose. It will form the basis of the character arc/change we’re likely to see.


Rising Action = The conflict that can be physical, mental or any that progresses the story. There can be many instances of this that either aid the arc/change or hinder the protagonist.


Lulls after Action = Too much action and the reader will be out of breath. It’s fine to have lulls, or moments for the reader to empathise with the stakes or for the character to reflect. They can still help to move the plot onwards to the next scene of action.


Pull the Rug = Almost all stories have a point when evil gains the advantage and the protagonist is lost/caught in defeat. It’s the heart sinking moment where we consider that nothing good can be gained. After this point is when my protagonists hates the hindrance to their character/arc and thus makes the change we’ve wanted them to accomplish.


Climax = Need I explain more? The protagonist rises above their failings and becomes the person they need to be to defeat evil. In other story structures this can occur earlier and on the other side of the pull the rug, however I find it works best after the pull the rug.


Conclude = Be mindful of plot holes. When writing a series, ensure that Book 1 can stand on its own as there’s no guarantee that anyone will want to read the next part.

Yes, I know, you may have differing guidance on elements, but the above works for me. I think. No – I’m sure. (Scratches head).

So… Novel 8. November. I’m excited.

Why November? Because I’m working on polishing Novel 7 to submit to agents – but this one [looks to the ceiling] could be terrific. Let me say this: it will bring a totally new spin on a type of horror novel.

I’m putting aside 10 weeks for Novel 8 with an estimated 120k for a first draft. Post that, the redraft/edit could bring it down to 80k.

Below are the initial chapter outlines (with key words shown), and the story structure from Chapter 1 to 35 highlighting the action, lulls and the pull the rug moment.

If you want to know more about how I plan/plot – see this post.

 

 

 

 

Novel 9 became 8

 

I have ideas. I have many. I want to write them all.

But. Sometimes. Your gut says no.

Novel 8, a Horror novel was started last week with a planned first draft schedule of 8 weeks. I had it plotted, I knew the characters, and the twists were cunning to say the least – except – partway through the first chapter I lost interest.

Too soon you say?

Nope.

The subject matter still intrigues me, but the current plot and the world has a little anti-climactic taste it. It’s been done before and no matter how exhilarating the idea, I had a ‘bad feeling’ about it. Trying to write something that you’re not passionate about will only stumble your creativity, and I must consider myself lucky in discovering this now rather than later.

So – there goes Novel 8 to the sin bin.

Or so I thought.

Novel 9 was meant to be a Sci Fi set in space about survival.

There’s no reason that I can’t add parts of Novel 8 into that to convert it into a Sci Fi Horror novel, and that’s what I’ll do.

Merging two ideas to create one is a compromise I accept.

 

Now to get my thinking cap on…and plot.

Write on and prosper.

Preparing to Submit

 

Hot off the awesomeness of the Festival of Writing – I’m in a hyper mood.

My fourth novel to be self-published in November has been pushed back to January 2014, because I’m putting all my time to polish Novel 8. Interest from agents came almost as a surprise even though I was hoping that the subplot would intrigue them. And I wasn’t wrong there – in fact some commented that it brings a unique twist to a plot done before.

Yes, sure, the premise of Novel 8 has been the subject of previous tales – but the setting, people, and the stakes are a new take that make it fresh.

So… what gives in the realms of planning?e, the premise of Novel 8 has been the subject of previous tales – but the setting, people, and the stakes are a new take that make it fresh.

Much rejigging I tell ye.

The next 3 weeks will see me conclude the redraft, and what a redraft it’s been. The first draft rocked in at 108k, but for the YA Science Fiction market, I’m sure that 78k is much better suited – therefore I have freedom to lose 30k of gunk and skunk. However, with the amount of scribbled out lines per page, I now worry that almost half of the novel has been obliterated.

That which has been removed can always be replaced. (In most cases).

If all goes to plan after further editing and another read through – I hope to submit to agents on the 4th November.

The Festival of Writing 2013

 

The last three days have been nothing short of epic. In case you didn’t know, I’ve been at the Festival of Writing 2013 in York – organised by the Writers Workshop.

I can proudly say that it was my 3rd and in terms of outcomes, my best (to date). The FoW is an opportunity to engage with like minded writers and authors of a wide range of genres, let alone backgrounds. We can learn, engage and share out writing journeys. Seeing so many from the Cloud is like a family gathering with old and new faces.

Oh – and to top it off… you can have 1-2-1s with Literary Agents and Book Doctors. Yes, yes, yes, some may wonder as to why I’m interested in agents since I’ve Self-Published, but I haven’t shut the door on the Trad-route. I’m still aiming. And slowly, I’m getting closer.

Further below will be a collection of my tweets with tips from the event.

Overall, my 1-2-1s went extremely well. Some have seen improvements in my approach/style and are keen to see my work once I make some minor changes. In the world of Flickimp – all is good.

Although Harry Bingham wasn’t present, the entire event was a success and I have to give a special thank you to the WW Team that made everyone welcome and proud to be present. Here’s to FoW 2014 – September 12 to 14th.

So, let’s roll with the tweets.

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Make sure you write everyday. I do.
Don’t give up when you get rejections. Keep writing.
Tragedy can cause hazy moments. In this dark times you can find a reason to escape and write.
Adele Parks writes 3hrs weekday and 5hrs weekend – much like me.
Deadlines are massively important – Adele Parks.
Agents are human beings.
When you submit to an agent don’t sit there waiting- write your next book. Get your next idea down.
Can you tell is about your book in 10 words or a short sentence?
Focus on the pitch.
If you haven’t finished your novel – or it still needs redrafting – be honest about it.
Submit to agents that you meet. You’ve started a relationship.
Critiques and BETAs are subjective but they can offer a steer on what works and what doesn’t.
If you don’t hear from agents maybe you need to change what you’re sending. Maybe the letter, synopsis or the MS.
Change.
Writing = Perseverance
Research your literary agents before submitting. Research. Understood? Research.
Don’t take too long to write or you might miss out on a genre
It’s not abnormal to sacrifice social time to write.
Gender of YA protag – make then what is right for the character – don’t make them all female
Easier sell to publishers is for debut authors to ensure that their first 2 books are in the same genre. YA less restrictive
Before submitting – always check the submission guidance on their sites. Do not overlook.
Nothing happens without effort. Write
Catching imagination is key to drawing the reader in with digital tech to tell a story
No hidden plots in Pixar movies. They’re accessible, simple and stripped down.
Plot structure = structure of emotional arc
Add the backstory in a natural way as part of the forward action.
Motifs can be used to project a driver for the plot. Wall-e = video of linking hands = companionship.
Subplots should be thematically related to the main plot. Should move the main plot forwards.
Subplots offer insight into character development
Prologues should be the last thing you write. And many aren’t needed.
Body language should carry onto the line of dialogue.
Every conversation has to develop the story
Make the speech convincing for the character
Watch put for verbal ticks like starting dialogue be well, oh, urm …. Not too many please
Dialogue tags: Said is sufficient 99% of the time
Description about the character’s behaviour during dialogue can reveal a lot
Watch out for long paragraphs of dialogue when more than 1 character is involved
Dialogue allows you to impart information
Every bit of dialogue must earn its place
People – if you are unsure of how to use dialogue – read a novel to understand syntax
Don’t overuse …
Don’t put a ; in dialogue
Read. See how other authors write to understand their prose.
Read out loud to know if dialogue works

 

Hope some of those helped.

Bring on the next event Which will be 12-14th September.

Apologis for any typos in the tweets…

Writing Tips – Lots of Them.

 

Want to know about conflict, dialogue, prepositions, synopsis, arcs, POV, formatting, prose, etc, and more about writing?

Click to the Writing Tips Page with tons of information.

Questions about Self Publishing my Way

 

Questions posed to me by someone I met at a Writing Event regarding Trad vs Self and how I’ve coped with the process of Self-Pub.

Note: Purchase my books here.

GoodReads Reviews

 

Traditional publishing

What experience (if any) do you have of traditional publishing?

Other than submitting to literary agents, attending festivals, and discussing the journey with other authors, I haven’t published traditionally.

 

What is your perception of traditional publishing?

I see it as the holy grail – that I would love to reach. There is some negativity towards it, however I strongly believe that trad, indie, and self-pub can all exist together to produce treasured items to read.

 

How do you think traditional authors view those who self-publish?

They can often view Self-Pub in the same light as vanity publishing, or as those that have taken the easy route – but they can also view them as spreading good work that unfortunately wasn’t enough to entice a publisher. There are many trad authors that are publishing as self-pub, thus it’s not always a lesser good of a product. Of course – the author should have invested in an editor.

 

What do you feel the publishing industry’s perception of self-publishing is?

They aren’t afraid of it. In fact, it can be a portal into finding new authors that they wouldn’t have been exposed to. Competing against the big publishers is a difficult task in terms of marketing, so they still hold the edge on that.

 

Do you feel traditional publishers bring value to an author’s work? Why?

Trad Publishers will have access to amazing cover designers, editors, proofers, and a whole list of other specialists that can transform a great book into a brilliant one. They know the market and can tailor it specifically to make a large impact. A self-pub can also find a fantastic editor however there are costs involved, and sometimes we have to rely on faith.

 

Self-publishing

What type of projects do you self-publish and how? (e.g. fiction, non-fiction / ebook only, paperback, hardback, etc.)

Young Adult Science Fiction as a paperback and as a ebook.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

I have been close to drawing literary agent interest – but not enough – and that can be frustrating. I am currently working on my seventh novel and to know that no one would see them was disheartening. After much work I released my first in Jan 2013, and haven’t looked back.

 

Why do you think others self-publish?

For much the same reason – however I have come across many novels where it’s clear that no preparation has gone into the work. The make-lots-of-money-quick attitude does exist in self-pub, however it takes a lot of work to even make an iota of that.

 

What has your experience of self-publishing been like?

Freedom of the senses. It’s exhilarating to be in control of every part, but also daunting that you might be making newbie mistakes. Researching and liaising with other authors of pros and cons has been a great learning curve. And to see your novel available as well as receiving genuine reviews is priceless.

 

What research did you do prior to self-publishing?

Daily emails, chats, reading of blogs with/by self-pub authors. I attended many workshops, and looked into manuscript preparation and key tasks.

 

What was the most challenging part of self-publishing your work?

Ensuring that you didn’t have any typos and that the novel made sense. Some can slip through, but you have to dedicate lots of time to trawl through the words numerous times. Promoting can be a real headache but it must be done.

 

Did you use professional freelancers (e.g. copyeditor, proofreader, designer)? Why?

Even the greatest writers need special help. I hired a copyeditor, proofreader, character art designer for the cover, a formatter, and a ebook creator. Each performed a great job for the reason that I didn’t want to get it wrong. Experience can help.

 

Who did you use to publish your work through and why?

I chose to publish via my own publishing company – to maintain control and to release at the date that suited me. In future, I may consider another publishing house. Currently the paperbacks are published via Creatspace – which is a fantastic product.

 

How long after finishing your manuscript did it take for your work to be published?

After writing, redrafting, self-editing, and then editing after a BETA read, I then started the self-pub tasks. This process can take two months worth of copyediting, changing, proofing and the final set up of the book.

 

Do you feel attitudes towards self-publishing have changed? How/why?

Slowly. People are realising that it’s not a vanity route. This is helped by great pieces being released that wouldn’t have seen the light of day – and media coverage of self-pub authors being snapped up by publishers. BUT – there is a lot of garbage out there that can smear the good work of others. There’s no way of being sure that an author has invested in an editor before you make a purchase (sometimes).

 

Does the publishing industry suffer from elitism? Why?

For generations they have been in control, and some of that has waned, but they are still hold the marketing stronghold and dominate sales. Their ethos is to survive and to invest in products that generate money. That makes them no different than another business, so I don’t see them as elitist.

 

Does self-publishing make the book publishing look easy? How/why?

Yes it does.

And that’s why there is a lot of garbage out there. More needs to be done to remind self-pubbers that you must invest in editors, critiques, BETA readers, proofers and take the time to better a novel before uploading in a jiffy.

 

How much of a competitor do you think self-publishers are to traditional publishers?

Until self-pub can match the marketing power of trad – self-pub have a long way to really compete. High profile awards and reviewing sites are reserved for trad publishers.

 

Where do you see traditional publishing going in the short-/long-term?

It will continue to thrive.

And if we end up in a situation where the self-pub market explodes further with a majority being badly written or rushed, then it could push readers to distrust self-pub. I know that are some self-pub gems, however letting other know can be difficult.

 

Your self-published projects

Disconnect – Divided Worlds 1 – January 2013

Disassemble – Divided Worlds 2 – July 2013

Disrupt – Divided Worlds 3  – July 2013

Tyler Nitbone – November 2013

 

Financial

How aware were you of the financial aspects of self-publishing when you started?

Very and not at all. Varying sites will describe the low budget approach, and others going into the £/$000’s. It coems down to how much support you require, and at what level. I always knew that it wasn’t going to be something that you could jump into without some investment, so the moment that I decided to Self-Pub, I had to keep behind a pot of money to support it. The key is to plan.

 

How much did you shop around for print quotes?

I didn’t. Rather than go for the Print-Lots, I opted for the Print-on-Demand model with Creatspace. Having a garage full of books isn’t great, especially when a lot of time could be spent on shifting them.

 

What did you spend most money on?

Believe it or not – but it’s the area that many authors ignore or treat as an afterthought. £1,000 was spent on promotion, and to be honest I didn’t do that very well. I’ve learnt much from what not to do for future releases.

 

What was the total cost of your project?

For Book 1 the total costs came it at £1,600 or $2,400 at current rates.

 

To date, how many copies have you sold? (per project if you can, plus publication dates)

Disconnect – Divided Worlds 1 – January 2013 = 212 copies

Disassemble – Divided Worlds 2 – July 2013 = 15 copies

Disrupt – Divided Worlds 3  – July 2013 = 5 copies

 

Which tasks in the production process did you do yourself and which ones did you pay for? Why?

Co-creating of the cover. I wanted some control over the layout and visual representation as I have seen some awful covers, and first impressions count. Also, the creating of the novel in Createspace was down to me.

 

Breakdown of tasks that I paid for:

Copyediting: Because I don’t trust myself on good grammar or weaving out bad wording.

Proofreading: Much the same as above.

Character Art for the cover: I wanted something with a little pizzazzionism.

Formatting of the book as an ebook: Rather than spend time on learning the html and nuances to do it, I trusted an expert to sort it out for me.

Creation of ebook and uploading to outlets: Being a newbie I paid a company to do this, but in hindsight, I should have done it myself, and will be saving the cost of this in future.

 

Have you made a loss on your project?

Absolutely! In fact I won’t recover any of Book 1 because I made it free as an ebook. The advantage is that I have had 14,000+ downloads and I can only hope that readers will come back for future releases.

 

How did you price your work and why?

I spent a good three weeks researching into what other authors had done, and scoured the internet collecting resources and information about who to use. Discretion has to come into what do you want at the end of the day. I wanted a great book that would draw a reader to explore beyond the cover, and didn’t annoy them on reading. I had to invest in editing, proofing, a great cover, and an interior that didn’t stink of an amateur.

 

Design

What input did you have into the cover design?

The character poses, the clothing, the expression, the colours were all specified by me to the character artist. I even drew out a rough sketch for them use, and use it they did. To just let them go away and create what they feel is right isn’t how I operate. I then created a suitable background, lettering and controlled the placement of items to devise the cover.

 

Selling and distribution

How do you sell your work? (What distribution channels do you use e.g. website, social media, Amazon, etc.)

For Book 1, I distributed via Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iBookstore, Kobo, and used Social Media to advertise. To take advantage of the Kindle Select Programme, I’m now using just Amazon (and Social Media) to distribute.

 

PR and marketing

What are your PR/marketing activities?

Blogging, tweeting, updating my facebook page, guest posts, interviews, and just building myself as a trusted brand of a writer/author. Attending writing festivals and conferences always goes a long way to help get you out there.

 

What social media do you use? Why?

Twitter and Facebook when used right are great outlets. I stick by a rule that no more than 10% of daily tweets should be about advertising your book. By using Social Media you can tap into expertise, customers and others that want to engage with you rather than the close knit community of family and friends.

 

What are the advantages/disadvantages of self-publishing?

Advantage = You’re in control. It’s on your terms.

Disadvantage = The cost, and how lack of experience of authentic guiding can ruin the hard work put in. You must seek support and listen/gauge from self-publishers that did it right.

 

In your view, what makes a ‘quality’ book?

The novel itself. If you package it brilliantly but the novel stinks, ratings and reviews will reflect that, Yes, ratings are subjective but if 90% of them are 1 star… then you’re in trouble. At the same time, don’t rely on your words being enough if the cover, presentation or the promotion behind it don’t sell the book enough.

 

What piece of advice would you give to someone considering self-publishing?

Don’t jump in without engaging with those that have done it before. Seek out an author whose book came across as able to compete with a traditionally presented novel. In fact, find those that didn’t rely on favours, or they knew someone in the business that did them a deal. You might not be so lucky to get that deal – so seek out someone who paid for each service. There’s nothing worse than realising you have to pay £250/$400 for editing that another author forgot to mention because they had it done for free.

 

What is the biggest lesson you learnt from self-publishing?

To not believe in all of the promises by promotion companies – or assuming that I couldn’t have done it myself (uploading the ebook).

 

What would you do differently next time?

1)     Upload ebook myself.

2)     Not purchase advertisement spaces on book sites.

3)     Not purchase tweets from companies that state they have 1,000,000’s of Followers.

4)     Do more http://www.Goodreads.com Giveaways.

5)     Use Kindle Select Programme to get ‘Free’ days to use.

6)     Use http://www.Bookbub.com to advertise ‘Free’ days.

7)     And keep writing your next novel.