Lucy V. Hay's Blog, page 47

Putting Together A Writer's CV/ Resumé

Many thanks to the Bang2writers who've been asking various script-related questions over at the Facebook page today... If you have a burning writing-or-industry-related question, "Like" the page here and join in.

I was able to answer most of the questions very quickly on the FB page, but this one from Gail warrants a longer post:

"How do you put together a writer's CV? What should go in, what should be left out, what counts as relevant experience?"

First up, the usual disclaimer: this post is based on my experience of writing my own CVs and reading other people's ONLY. There is no *set* way of doing it. However I've seen some very good CVs and I've seen some very pants ones, so I think I can offer some help here, however small, especially for those who are having issues knowing where to start.

READ MORE: http://www.bang2write.com/2012/02/put...

How to Write A 1 Page Pitch For Your Novel Or Screenplay

CONGRATS! You've got a read request for one of your screenplays or novels.

BUT WAIT! Never send your work without a One Page Pitch (aka the "synopsis", novelists). A One Pager is a GREAT opportunity to sell your story "off the page" and get in that reader's good books. Wait ... What's that you say? You already have a One Page Pitch? GREAT ...

... Is it any good, though? How can you tell? 

Of course, in an ideal world, One Pagers would *only* be judged on whether the idea behind them is appealing or not. In reality, having read hundreds (if not thousands) of the the damn things, I can tell you 9/10 they're judged in the negative and succeed only in demotivating the reader from wanting to read your script or novel.

READ MORE: http://www.bang2write.com/2012/11/6-t...

Tips for great characterisation

One thing Bang2writers ask me all the time is, "HOW do I write a great character?" and many of them get frustrated when I say, "it depends".

But it does! On any number of things, not least of all:

1) WHAT you're trying to achieve 

Look. It's very fashionable to say "character is everything", but we know it's not really:  a character-led drama is NOT the same as a high octane genre piece; literary fiction is NOT the same as genre fiction. That's not to say characterisation doesn't matter in the latter because that's clearly not the case. But what you're trying to ACHIEVE with that characterisation will differ. Le duh. MORE: 8 Questions For Kickass Characterisation

Read more about characterisation at: http://www.bang2write.com/2015/05/top...

Read an excerpt of THE DECISION: LIZZIE'S STORY

Pssst: download a Word .doc version of my Novel Pitch Template & view a breakdown of what goes on it, HERE. 

To celebrate the ongoing Tiverton Literary Festival going on down here in Devon, I'm publishing excerpts of my books!

Today, it's the turn of The Decision: Lizzie's Story , my very first novel that's also available in the German language as Bauchentscheidung (or "Gut Decision").

Have the baby ... Don't have the baby - not quite as simple for Lizzie! Lizzie's Story follows the fate of a teenager who finds herself pregnant unexpectedly. Lizzie is faced with living through ALL the potential outcomes of that decision - abortion, miscarriage, single parenthood and more.

Praise for LIZZIE'S STORY, just 99p:
‘Fresh, real & v honest … For a lifelong Judy Blume geek like me, LIZZIE’S STORY was totally convincing!’

'Great to read a book about teenage pregnancy which considers the whole story'

‘Told in an honest and relatable voice, akin to Juno’s, LIZZIE’S STORY is definitely worth spending some time with’

LIKE The Decision on Facebook, or follow The Decision via Tumblr or on Twitter as @DecisionSeries.

If it was you ... what would YOU do?? Click on the banner below or the links in the excerpt

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Excerpt

THE DECISION: LIZZIE'S STORY by Lucy Hay 

I woke on the futon with my knees up against my chest as pain erupted suddenly in my belly. It was so sharp, for a moment it took my breath away.

Just as swiftly that terrible, spiking pain went and I was able to sit up gingerly. Black spots sprang up in my vision and nausea hit me, the back of my throat flooding with sour saliva. What was wrong with me?

Dad was asleep in the beanbag chair, his head thrown back like a child, mouth open and catching flies. With difficulty I got up and lurched past him towards the tiny bathroom, locking the door behind me.

I leant against the door, trying to breathe slowly and deeply, but taking in only the stale air from the windowless cubicle. Again, that terrible pain gripped me but this time it was worse. It made me double over, taking my breath away, preventing me from crying out, so only an animalistic whimper made its way out of me. Those spots in my vision seemed to grow suddenly and I wondered for a nanosecond if I would black out, but the pain rushed in again with a vengeance and this time I uttered a single, low guttural howl.

“Lizzie?” Dad was awake and pounding on the door. “Lizzie!”

Woozy, I sat on the toilet. I didn’t have enough wherewithal to answer. I knew what was happening and moments later I confirmed it as I peeled off the pyjama bottoms my Dad had given me.

Blood.

Horror-struck, I made one single observation before Dad broke the door down. It was not like menstrual blood, typically dark crimson in colour. This was bright red, like if you cut your own hand or arm with a knife when slicing bread.

Life blood.

“Oh God, Lizzie. Lizzie!”

There was a crash as the door yielded and Dad was in the room. I was only peripherally aware of him and the fact I didn’t even have anything on my bottom half, yet for some reason I didn’t even care. Normally I would be mortified.

But in the here and now, all I could concentrate on was the blackness that threatened to invade me: I knew I had to keep it away or I would be lost. I tried to stand, but my knees buckled.

Dad grabbed me and wrapped me in a towel, running out on to the flat balcony with me in his arms like a small child. He was shouting, pleading, but his voice seemed so far away. There were more shouts and slammed doors and Flo’s husband Jonno was out on the balcony, yelling for Pablo who came running in a dressing gown and slippers, holding keys to one of the hotel vans.

Dad grabbed them and shoved me in the passenger’s seat, turning the key in the ignition, all the time saying to me, “You’ll be okay, baby. You’ll be okay.”

And I wondered why he would say that because it was obvious I was losing the baby and then I realised he was talking to me.

Then I passed out.

Hooked?

Click the pic or HERE to download  The Decision: Lizzie's Story to your Kindle today. Don't have a Kindle? No problem: download the Kindle App for your iPad, tablet or phone, HERE.

Pssst: download a Word .doc version of my Novel Pitch Template & view a breakdown of what goes on it, HERE. 

Read an excerpt of WRITING & SELLING DRAMA SCREENPLAYS, free

With Day 2 of @TivLitFest underway now, I thought I'd share an excerpt from my latest book, Writing & Selling Drama Screenplays where I look at drama screenplay loglines with reference to one of my favourite dramas Blue Valentine (2010). Enjoy!



Loglines are always difficult to write, but especially so for drama screenplays because too often they seem too ‘small’ at best and horribly depressing at worst, meaning they’re an extremely hard sell in terms of grabbing someone’s attention.

Considering Blue Valentine (2010), check out this logline, which I found on a film review site:

The film depicts a married couple, Dean and Cindy, shifting back and forth in time between their courtship and the dissolution of their marriage several years later. (27 words)

If I heard this pitch at London Screenwriters’ Festival, or received it via email? I would probably NOT request the screenplay. It’s not the worst logline I’ve ever read, but it does very little to sell the film ‘off the page’ to me... And yet I love Blue Valentine! So let’s rewrite it ...

READ MORE: http://www.bang2write.com/2015/06/blu...

Read an excerpt of JASMINE'S STORY, FREE!

Pssst: download a Word .doc version of my Novel Pitch Template & view a breakdown of what goes on it, HERE. 

Tiverton Literary Festival starts today (June 3-7th, 2015) in my hometown down here in deepest, darkest Devon, so to celebrate I'm publishing an excerpt from all my books! Today, it's JASMINE'S STORY. Read on for info ... enjoy!

The Decision: Jasmine's Story asks, "what would you do, if only you could save your best friend?"

Jasmine’s Story follows the intertwining fates of two best friends, Jasmine and Olivia, both 17. Best friends since kindergarten, Jasmine and Olivia have each other’s backs until glamorous Ellie arrives.

When Ellie invites Jasmine to an end of summer “blow out” at her parents’ palatial seafront home, Jasmine’s loyalties are torn when Ellie tells her Olivia is not welcome.

Should Jasmine go to the party, or not? The answer is complicated not only by Jasmine’s burgeoning relationship with Ellie’s older brother Niall, but her own secret desire to be accepted, even “popular” like mean girl Ellie.

What’s more, Olivia hides a secret of her own – one only another girl, the enigmatic and arty Jenny Keller – can corroborate ...
Praise for THE DECISION: JASMINE'S STORY, just 99p:
"An achingly relevant story about teens and their rocky relationships"

''It wld be easy to take the moralistic finger-wagging path but author Lucy Hay is smarter than that"

"Sharp observational eye for the nuances of the battleground that is modern teenage life"

If it was you ... what would YOU do?

Excerpt

Olivia looked across the road at the charity shop. The only one in Winby, it was the kind of charity shop that smelled of mothballs and cat pee, rather than the ones that competed with discount fashion stores for price-savvy bargain hunters.

Mismatched baskets of belts, shoes and Bric-A-Brac lined the floor and behind the counter were boxes of dusty, handmade woollen toys. In the window, a dummy wore long past-it wedding dress with pearlised buttons to the neck and voluminous sleeves. It must have last been in fashion around the time my Mum was born, never mind us.

“I have an idea.” Olivia grinned.

The bell rang with a dull twang as we crossed the threshold. A middle-aged woman at the counter, too much bronzer, white lipstick and orange nails, looked up from the local paper and scowled at us. Olivia met her eye defiantly and stalked straight over to the wedding dress. It was meant for someone about my size and had been in the window so long, it was less ivory and more yellow.

“What you reckon?” Olivia said.

“Me, a bride?” I said doubtfully. “Who’s the groom?”

“Me!” Laughed Olivia.

She took one look at the old dear behind the counter and lowered her voice. “I’ll wear one of my Dad’s suits. Zombie bride and groom. We’ll be the best looking couple there! C’mon. It’ll be a laugh?”

It was a good idea... If we were both invited. But we weren’t. And I wasn’t sure if I could bring myself to tell Olivia now, after Jenny dropped me in it. Probably better just to swerve the party, forget all about it.

“It’s someone’s wedding dress, doesn’t seem right?” I stalled.

“They’re probably divorced now.” Olivia pointed out. “If I was divorced, I’d be well glad to hear my old dress had become a Zombie Bride!”

“If she’s divorced.” I countered.

“She gave it to charity! She doesn’t want it any more. Whoever she is, doesn’t care!”

Olivia called over to the old woman at the till who was staring at us. I’d seen her before, though I didn’t know her name: she was the type of woman who involved herself in all parish business, official and unofficial: fetes, Winby carnival, flowers at the church, though none of it appeared to make her happy. She looked permanently put upon and angsty, ready to burst with complaints of how she was not appreciated.

“How much for the wedding dress?” Olivia enquired.

“Twenty.” The old woman said, not even looking up. She licked her fingers and turned the page of her paper.

“I’ll give you ten.” Olivia said immediately.

The old woman blinked in surprise. Now Olivia had her attention. She pursed her thin lips, considering her next move. “Fifteen.”

“Twelve.” Olivia declared, showing her the ten pound note from her pocket and nodding at me. I sighed and scraped through my purse, gathering up two pounds in silver and coppers. I held it up: got it.

“Twelve pounds fifty and you’ve got yourself a deal, young lady.” The old woman said.

Olivia took her money and mine, plus another fifty pence and laid it all out on the glass counter in front of her.

“Let’s get it down for you.” The old woman said, cracking a smile at last.

Five minutes later and the wedding dress was in our possession. (“We’ll look after it,” I’d offered as we left. The old woman laughed and shook her head. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re using it for ... You youngsters think we were born yesterday!”). Olivia had also found an old man’s shirt and an incongruously jazzy tie on one of the hangers (“We can rip these!” She said), plus a battered bowler hat, which the old woman threw in for another two pounds.

“What about make up?” Olivia fretted. It was too early for Halloween. As we stood on the seafront puzzling it out, Mum appeared on the steps of Flossie’s with a box full of swim suits and flip flops.

“Alright, girls.” she said cheerfully, replenishing the display outside. Almost immediately two grockle parents swooped on some tiny swim shorts for their baby, cooing over how tiny they were. Their child – boy or girl, who could tell? - dozed in blissful ignorance in its pushchair.

“Hey Linda. Have you got any Halloween stuff in the stockroom?” Olivia asked, forthright as usual.

Mum smirked. She was fond of Olivia. Sometimes I wondered if she’d prefer it if I were more like her.

“No, sold it all off a while back. Why?”

“Party.” Olivia said.

“Right. A Halloween party in August?” Mum said, confused.

“No, fancy dress. We’re going as a Zombie bride and groom.” Olivia announced.

“Is that right ...?” Mum said pointedly, looking at me, her expression difficult to read. Was she annoyed I hadn’t asked for permission? For a microsecond, my doomed heart leapt. She could ban me from going! Then I could avoid having to tell Olivia about her lack of invite AND save face with Ellie: Sorry, I’m grounded.

“Oh. Sorry Mum.” I said, ignoring Olivia’s shriek of indignance as I said: “I won’t go then.”

“She can go, can’t she Linda?” Olivia demanded.

“Of course. Just wouldn’t mind being reminded who runs the show round here, that’s all.” Mum said dryly. My heart sank all over again. How was I going to break it to Olivia now?

“Hang on a sec, girls.”

Mum disappeared back inside the shop and we saw a light turn on upstairs, in the stock room. A few moments later Mum appeared with a box and handed them to us, with a smile. Inside: face paints and brushes. Perfect for Zombie faces.

“Been upstairs for ages, never sold. You have them if you like.” She said.

“Thanks!” Olivia replied.

Hooked?

Then download THE DECISION: JASMINE'S STORY to your Kindle today, HERE for just 99p (or click the pic). No Kindle? No problem - download the Kindle app for your iPad, tablet or phone, HERE. LIKE The Decision on Facebook, follow via Tumblr and on Twitter as @DecisionSeries.

Pssst: download a Word .doc version of my Novel Pitch Template & view a breakdown of what goes on it, HERE. 

Famous Authors On Rewriting

1) Laurie Halse Anderson

“Revision means throwing out the boring crap and making what’s left sound natural.”

2) Neil Gaiman

“The best advice I can give on this is, once it’s done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes. Finish the short story, print it out, then put it in a drawer and write other things. When you’re ready, pick it up and read it, as if you’ve never read it before. If there are things you aren’t satisfied with as a reader, go in and fix them as a writer: that’s revision.” 

3) Elmore Leonard

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

READ MORE: http://www.bang2write.com/2015/04/12-...

Advice From A Literary Agent on How NOT To Submit To Agents!

Many thanks to Carole Blake from the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency for providing a VERY comprehensive list on how NOT to submit to an agent. This is a fab list and  I have actually had a number 27 myself!! Maybe it was the same lady? Enjoy, plus don't forget: B2W now hosts free PDF downloads HERE and a free writing resources page HERE so you need never make any of these submission mistakes!
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1. No gimmicks. Don't send food, flowers - or anything else. Food goes straight into the bin ... just in case. I've read lots of crime fiction.

I once received a large parcel that weighed almost nothing. Inside was a rubbish bin and a letter saying the writer assumed the submission would end up there so was sending me one to speed up the process. The partial for a crime novel that was attached looked rather good. I left the bin, letter & ms on my desk. Next morning our office cleaner had removed the contents and put the rubbish bin neatly next to my desk. There was no way to contact the author despite a story on our website and some tweets ... That was the end of that.

2. Your own cover design. They almost always look very amateur. A publisher will produce a professional design that takes account of the current market. Even thinking that they might take your design marks you out as amateur.

READ MORE FROM THIS MAMMOTH LIST OF 29 SUBMISSION CLANGERS:
http://www.bang2write.com/2013/03/29-...

Carole Blake is Author of ‘From Pitch to Publication: Everything You Need To Know To Get Your Novel Published’ Pan Macmillan. Website: Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. Twitter: @caroleagent.

And here's one of those offending cover letters ... YIKES!!!

How To Kill Your Screenplay DEAD

Need some help with your screenwriting? Then check out these posts on genre and drama and the KILLER ERRORS writers make:

8 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Thriller Screenplay DEAD

8 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Drama Screenplay DEAD

8 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Horror Screenplay DEAD

8 Mistakes that Will Kill Your Sci Fi Screenplay DEAD

Want MORE on genre?


If you're gaga over genre, thrown on tone and dazzled by dramatic context, then buy Writing & Selling Thriller Screenplays! Praise for the book: 

'Not merely a great read for those wanting to write a thriller but anyone with a serious interest in screenwriting"

"The SELLING SECTION is an absolute tour de force and could be a book in its own right"

"Like a wise friend is at your side while you write!".

Available in ebook & paperback. BUY IT NOW.

All About Teens, For Teens

Visit The Decision Book Series on Tumblr for teenquotes, pics, links and articles on all things teenage life! You can also keep up to date via The Decision Facebook page or by following @DecisionSeries on Twitter.