Wednesday 9 October 2019

Writing Competitions


Have you ever entered a writing competition?

I entered one some time ago and didn't win but I'm going to try again. Until I compiled a list of useful competitions for my Bookchat post in the Hastings Online Times, I had no idea that there were so many exciting ones.

Instead of copying them all out again, I'm going to give you a link to the post Why not enter a writing competition where there is a list with details and deadlines for each competition and links to more information.

I chose the pic above (not mine - see credit below) because the berries remind me of happy times when I lived in Oxford and a Japanese friend called Noriko came and took a picture of the red berries we used to pick from the prickly bush outside and put in a small grey vase (almost like a mug). I've got that pic somewhere but can't find it at the moment.

Hope that you are writing away and looking at flowers and berries every so often to keep you going. Thinking of you. Do send me a message sometime.

image thanks to Kaboompics at pexels.com

Two main characters?

After trying in various ways, I've come to the conclusion that it is not possible to have two equal main characters - or at least not for me. Dani has won. I've tried over and over again to balance the viewpoints of Dani (the daughter) and Esme (the mother) in my series of books about the two of them. Maybe it would be possible if I rewrote the stories using the 3rd person for both of them (that's how they started off) but I'm not going back to attempt again what failed the first time.

What I have tried this time is to balance the viewpoints by giving both Dani and Esme 1st person voices but it hasn't worked. All that has happened is confusion.

I'm not sure why I've decided that Dani has won and that it is she who has to have the 1st person voice, but I am sure. Maybe it's because when the two of them argue, it's Dani who wins my heart. Perhaps that's it. I'm not sure. It feels as though the two characters have fought for the special place and Dani has won. It doesn't feel as though I have made the choice. Do you know what I mean?

So now I'm back to the beginning of the first book Talking. I had completed 19 chapters of giving Esme 1st person voice but now I'm going to rewrite (one last time?!!!) to put Esme into the 3rd person.

It's all hard work, but I'm learning, hopefully I'm learning and I needed to do it because I had been gradually coming to a halt because the writing didn't feel satisfying. Now I'm enthused again (and I'll be even more enthused after I've been to the dentist tomorrow and got my teeth sorted out.... life keeps intruding on the writing and I expect it always will).

I'm now going to have a cup of green tea (that I used to drink in Papua New Guinea long before it became fashionable) while thinking of you all to send greetings.

By the way, did you know that it is NaNoWriMo month starting soon (in November)? Have a look - it's a great way to get encouragement and communicate with other writers.

How are all of you getting on with yours? Send me a message and let me know.

Monday 7 October 2019

Running


I'm running more and writing less (by the way, that isn't me in the pic... if only...), but soon I'm hoping for an explosion of energy that converts into pure brain power. With my new fitbit lookalike (cheap version, not a real one, but still, it's good) I'm hopeful.

I've managed to change my target steps from 8,000 to 4,000. I still haven't achieved 4,000 (not quite) but I remain hopeful. You should see me getting up out of my writing chair and running on the spot. I'm beginning to feel quite athletic and tomorrow I'm going to walk to the dentist's so that should boost the number of steps (about a mile all along the sea front).

OK, enough of that. I'm getting to sound like somebody who's come to the blog via Damascus, but I can't help feeling excited. I feel so healthy and I've only had it for two days (the fitbit I mean).

With my rewrite of Talking, can you hear me? I keep hesitating and wondering if it's worth it. I'm on chapter 18. The reason I haven't got very far since the last post is not because I've been running, it's because I've been working on this week's post for Hastings Online Times (due out tomorrow at 9 am - I'll add a link here when it's live or do a separate posting).

It's on Writing Competitions - a list of them with entry criteria and deadlines. I'm hoping to enter one of them myself. What about you guys? Have you ever entered a competition? Did you win? I suppose it's very unlikely that any of us will win but you never know - somebody will be the winner.

I'd better get up and do a quick run before getting back to Talking chapter 18. I hope that your writing is going well.

image - thanks to Filip Mroz at unsplash.com

Friday 4 October 2019

Thin, black and shiny

There's going to be a new me. I've decided.

So yesterday I ordered a fitness watch and today it arrived. It's thin, black and shiny. This is to motivate me to keep getting out of the writing chair and jumping up and down for a few minutes so that my legs don't drop off from lack of use.

When I activated it, I had to set up various things. One was my target for steps per day. The suggestion was 10,000. Hmmm I thought, I'll never manage that. I'll try 8,000. But I know very well that it's only on the occasional day that I do anything like 8,000 steps and sometimes it's as low as 1,000.

I looked up how many steps a day you need to be considered active and found that anything under 5,000 was considered sedentary. Oh dear. And I thought that I walked quite a lot and I do ... from time to time....

Decided to lower my target to 2,000 but couldn't find how to do it so I'm doomed to fail most days.

Still, it looks quite nice - and I've done over 2,000 steps since I got it this afternoon. I've discovered that it works in response to arm movement... so you can do it sitting down.... not that I'd do that, of course.

And yes, I'm reading The Other Hand by Chris Cleave. It's pulling me in very fast. Can't stop reading it.

And I'm still writing. Rewriting. Have reached chapter 12 in Talking, can you hear me? I'm putting Esme's voice in the first person and it changes not only the feel of the story, it changes the content. It changes 'what' she says. It's interesting.

How are you getting on, my friends? Are you doing more words than steps? Or more steps than words? Just imagine if we could do 8,000 words a day!

Wednesday 2 October 2019

The Chocolate Shop

Here it is - so close to where I live - open all hours and selling chocolate. (By the way, that's not me rushing in, it's somebody else looking for a fix...)

I got my second rejection yesterday - just a form letter - 'not quite right for us'.
'I'm sorry,' Paul said after I'd swallowed hard, put on my couldn't-care-less face and told him.
'It's nothing,' I replied, managing to stretch my lips into a grin. 'I know I have to expect it. I'll get heaps of rejections. Everybody does. Even famous people. Loads of famous people.'

But it wasn't nothing. I managed for about half an hour and then got up and rushed to the shop to buy an Aero bar - not the posh kind of dark chocolate that's good for you - when in need, I go for the dairy milk sort. Very bad for you but sweet and addictive. Hits the spot. Ate it all in less than a couple of minutes.

If only they would send one sentence - just one sentence - to say why. Something like - 'not saleable because of setting' or 'didn't like your opening chapter' or 'too many other stories like this one'. I promise I wouldn't write back - but I'd send them blessings on every air wave.  And if I got several that said the same thing, I'd know what they thought I should I change.

With a form rejection, you more or less know that you haven't got them past the cover letter. But what was wrong? What didn't they like? Or did their dog just die and they couldn't cope with any more queries?

I've followed all the instructions - or I think I have. I've followed them until my letter sounds as though it was written by a robot. That's what I thought when I got to agent number 7 so I changed it into a real letter saying the things you're not supposed to include but at least beginning to sound like myself again. This rejection was from a robot type cover letter.

I wonder how many more chocolate bars I'll have to buy before I get published. And how fat I'll get. Probably won't get through the door by then and I'm quite a respectable medium size at the moment.

Dear friends, I hope your writing is going well and that agents and publishers are lining up outside your door so that you won't need a chocolate shop.


Sunday 29 September 2019

The Inside Story

Trying to explain to agents what my novel The Sauly Bird is about has made me intensely aware that it has two parts - the outer story (e.g. accusations, murder, escape etc) and the inner story (love and longing, abandonment, resentment, revenge). It's how these two interact that is fascinating.

I was once taught that the definition of a tragedy was that it was inevitable. That the seeds of a character's end were there at the beginning. Well, if that is true, then it must apply to all characters, whether their outcomes are tragic or not.

This story is not a tragedy, but still I wonder if the ending of The Sauly Bird is predestined by the experience and motivations of the characters?

I think that the answer is 'mostly'.  Although the inside story is not the whole story because of chance events, I think that it is the greater part.

As a writer, you realise that you're not god. Not all powerful, not even in a novel. Your characters are stubborn and they do what they want. The best you can do, I think, is to try and understand them.

I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible to disentangle the outside from the inside, but that it's essential to be aware of both. I can say a little about this in the cover letter but the synopsis is a different matter. As far as I understand, agents want a summary of the plot so the synopsis says very little about the inside story.

It's a nice description 'the inside story' implying that once you are aware of this, then the outside story will be immediately clear and comprehensible.




Monday 23 September 2019

Lucky

I'm sitting in a room that I like - it's a refuge.

I'm healthy.

People love me - and oh, you dear friends, I do love you, too.

I've got a very comfortable chair to sit in that we bought second hand and a lovely house with a gorgeous husband.who puts up with me through rain and shine - and I've got a guitar and a fiddle.

I can sing.

Spider plants and an orchid joy my life (and outside there are geraniums and a hydrangea that might have survived recent drought and neglect).

The council have started filling in the strange hole that's appeared next to our fence (and I thought they'd never come - it's had warning signs for ages - we thought somebody drunk might fall into it, but no-one has.)

The rose that Chandra gave me months ago has dried into a perfect shape and colour.

Elaine and Diego sent apples and runner beans. Apples..... what more could an apple addict wish for.

Good night, dear people who are kind enough to read my ramblings.

Worse than hard

I've spent all day preparing submissions to different specs. After two hours of getting one submission ready, I sent it off and got an automatic reply saying that submissions were closed - although on the website, it still says they are open until the end of Sept.

Another agency required you to cut and paste into their online form. I did that and all the formatting was lost. My ms was virtually unreadable so I went laboriously through 5 chapters trying to reinstate paragraph breaks but then they were lost again.

I'm giving up for tonight. Can't even see properly by this time. Hope anyone reading this is in a better state than I am.

The hard part

The hard part is submitting your story to agents and publishers! To any of you friends out there who are at the same stage in their writing journey, you will know this, too. Writing the novel is the easy part.

I'm sorry that I confused people with my last post of Pat reading The Sauly Bird. She's a beta-reader. It's not published...... yet (I add hopefully).

I am working through the writing plan that I made for myself. First was to do draft 5 of the ms. I did that and read the whole thing out loud - but there are still things that could be improved. Maybe there always will be... Reading it out loud is helpful because you can hear when it sounds wrong. The rhythm is so important. I still think that every piece of prose should be a poem.

I've had excellent feedback from my favourite beta-readers (I mean the very best ones who are brutally honest and who always give me useful feedback - I only sent it to these people this time). Age range is from 19 - 71 yrs, three females and one male.

I've written a cover letter and a synopsis.

So now I get to the next task on the list which says - submit to agents and publishers. Deep sigh. I've put this off for several days but today I've managed to submit to one agent and one publisher. It's taken hours. I had already written both the cover letter and the synopsis but I started to change them again. Then I worried about whether a pdf or a docx would be better. I worried about everything.

In between things, I have to do some rehearsing for the gig we've got on Wednesday. I've decided to ditch the fiddle tunes I was going to play because I don't play them well enough. I'm particularly sorry about After the Wedding  - a Polish tune which slides up to some thrilling top notes.  I've just looked for it on YouTube so I could include it here, but I can't find it. You'll have to imagine!

Later on, I'll have a go at submitting to a few more agents and publishers. What are you doing? Hope you're dancing and singing with never a care in the world about whether to send a docx or a pdf - or whether the synopsis properly reflects the story - or most of all, whether the cover letter explains why you feel so excited about what you've written. Dance on.

Sunday 22 September 2019

Oh joy - my friend reading The Sauly Bird

It doesn't get better than this! My nineteen-year-old friend read The Sauly Bird on her phone in a matter of hours. Started yesterday afternoon and finished this morning. Look at her smile!

Her name is Pat. She's a music student and one of my beta-readers - always gives me honest feedback and she said she really liked it.

She came with her father from Austria on a visit.  I'm so grateful to her and it was so good to see both of them - just too short. But hey ho - so good.


Thursday 19 September 2019

Perfect Days

Yesterday I went to my writing circle meeting and we sat in the sunshine at Goat Ledge in St Leonards right on the beach with the sun shining, the sea sparkling and a blue September sky. The coffee was hot and strong and I did no writing at all for the whole two hours because the conversation and just being there was so good - the people are lovely, every one of them (as well as talented and all....).

After that, I went to lunch with a friend and we talked for the whole afternoon in a cafe by the sea.

And today I almost did the same thing all over again. Two days off. Sitting by the sea in the sunshine drinking coffee, talking.

I hadn't been looking forward to today because I had to go to the dentist (also in St Leonards) but Paul came with me because he had things to do at that end of town - and we had lunch together afterwards. (It's Paul in the photo, taking pics as we walked to St L.)

This evening I've finished my final draft of The Sauly Bird so I'm ready to send it off to agents and publishers. That's good - can hardly believe that I've finished it so quickly.

My fiddle playing isn't good but that's my fault and not a disaster. I'm wondering whether to leave out the fiddle tunes when we do our gig next Wednesday. I've got a new bow coming tomorrow but nothing will cure the bad playing except for more practice than I've got time for. Never mind - I can play the fiddle at home and use the guitar for the gig.

And tomorrow night two friends are arriving from Austria - so yes, as John Revell would say, my cup is full.

I hope that every one of you who ever reads this will have perfect days sitting talking to friends with the sun shining on you.



Sunday 15 September 2019

Going round in circles

Do you ever do that? Go round in circles? I suppose you never quite get back to the same place.

This is all about The Dani & Esme stories.

I started rewriting Book 1. Abandoned it. Got it out again. Retitled it. It's now called - Esme's Bundle of Joy. It will be a short novel about 30,000 words. I was going to call it a novella but apparently, novellas are unfashionable nowadays and are seen as substandard novels. Oh well.

  • Book 2 will also be retitled - Be quiet now - currently just over 70,000 words. This one only needs checking ..... (ha ha)
  • Book 3 will have the same title as previously - Daniela Hoffman is not stupid  (about 86,000 words) - but I'm going to rewrite Dani from 1st person into 3rd person (phew!).
  • Book 4 will keep the same title - The Third Father (about 90,000 words). I'm going to rewrite Dani from 1st person to 3rd person if it works for Book 3.
  • Book 5 - still in the planning stage. Tropical Heat (and for the time being it can stay there ).

How long will all this take? I'm now anxious to get back to Don't you remember me? and the sequel to The Sauly Bird. I wish I were faster, faster, faster....

I've written this so that I can see where I'm going. Do you make lists? Do you think it helps? I read yesterday that with the introduction of written language, people's power of memory has massively diminished. I don't quite believe it. It sounds logical but I still don't believe it. I'll have to investigate.

I've spent all day doing 3 posts for HOT (Hastings Online Times) - one published, the other two still not quite ready. It's nearly 7 pm.

And I need to send off The Sauly Bird to look for a publisher. But before that, I need to proofread it one last time. At least I've written the synopsis and the cover letter. I'm rambling on. Sorry, this is a very rambly post. Look at all these novels - if I ever get anything published, it will be a miracle. But I'm trying. Should get some marks for persistence.....

As I write this, I have to say that I've got a very comfortable chair to write in - but if I sit here much longer I shall be moulded into place. I shall be chair-shaped.

Had better get up and play the fiddle. Hope you are all good, all you friends out there.

Thursday 12 September 2019

Unfinished business

I understand why I can't get on with Don't you remember me? It's because the Dani and Esme stories are languishing in a drawer (actually they're languishing on a memory stick next to my bed).

I had almost got to the point of self-publishing. My friend sent an email with a quote in it that said a poem was never finished, only abandoned and I went to look at the story files in preparation for looking for cover pics and asking my friend to help me go through the self-publishing process.

But oh no - when I got there, I was drawn in once more and I decided to have one last go at rewriting these stories. My aim is to balance the voices. I would like Esme's voice and Dani's voice to be equally appealing but maybe it's not possible. Anyhow - one last try.

[Here's where I was worrying about these stories before - Never Alone.]

If I do go ahead with this final rewrite, it will take a while. The rewriting of three novels can't be done in the blink of an eye.

Apart from thinking about all this, I'm practising my fiddle ready for the gig that's coming up in a couple of weeks time. We're going to a session tonight to try some of them out. With the Eastern European ones we do it once round slowly and then once round fast. I hope we don't go so fast in the first place that I fall off.

What are you doing?