Two special women, two special offers

Blog posts are sparse these days, but I've popped in to share some special info with you all.

Lisa Donaldson is a regular poster on WordCloud, where she is known as Autumn.  I met her at York, where she showed me an excerpt from the book she has written, recording her journey from cancer diagnosis, through treatment and to the point where she declares that 'she had cancer but cancer no longer has me'.

I could see at a glance that Lisa's book was compelling and well-written.  The first agent she pitched it to said that it was gripping and asked for the full MS.  But, knowing the way the industry operates, I had some concerns.  I remember Dina Rabinovitch (a well-known and highly respected journalist, who sadly died in 2007) being told by one publisher that they 'already had their cancer book for that year'.  I knew that Lisa's book would speak to many people and had the potential to attract a wide readership.  But was she ready for the bruising encounters that are implicit in seeking a traditional publishing deal?

In our conversation, Lisa took me back to her reasons for writing the book:

• She wanted to record her experiences.

• She wanted to share them with people in similar positions and their families and friends.

• She wanted to make money for charity.

• She wanted to write a complete book.

It was clear to me that she'd achieved all those aims except the one where her book was available to others to read.  Actually, she'd achieved an additional and very special one.  Writing, she said, had helped her to find her voice.  Following an online course, she has decided to turn her hand to writing commercial fiction.

In order to ensure her first book was 'out there', Lisa has made it available to read on her website.  All she asks is that people make a donation via JustGiving, where all the money will go towards Breast Cancer Care.  You can do that here.

So, go on, what are you waiting for?  Read the book.  Think about what this project means to Lisa and how little she's asking of you.  Tell others about it.  And then go and donate.   It's not much to ask, is it?

And now for something completely different ...


I recently spent a glorious weekend with a bunch of Wonderful Women Writers.  Yes, WWW is appropriate as I  would never have met any of them in real life if it wasn't for t'internet.

One of them was Helen Hunt, who blogs here.  Helen has virtually cornered the market for short stories.  (She's also very, very lovely.)  It seems like hardly a week goes past without hearing she has had another story accepted by a woman's magazine.

She has decided to share her expertise, and believe me, no one is more qualified to show people what the market requires and how to craft stories for magazines.  Keeping the costs ridiculously low IMO, she will be running one day workshops.  For £30 (!!!) you will have access to one of the most successful WOMAG short story writers around, plus lunch and a critique of a story submitted in advance.

Get in quick!  The course takes place in Northampton on 30th July. If it's successful, Helen hopes to repeat the course in Sept.  Details here.

Roger hath a blog!

Further to the last post about newly-agented author, Roger Hardy, in which I bemoaned his lack of an online presence, I'm delighted to point you in this direction. 

Roger appears to think I have supernatural powers.  I'm not about to tell him otherwise.  He also thinks that I'm the kind of person he'd like to get drunk with.  I ain't sayin' nothin' on the score either.

Oh, thank you, universe!

Almost exactly a year ago, I published this post.  In it, I said:

I'M CONVINCED THAT THE DAY WILL COME WHEN I HAVE A GEN-U-INE ROGER HARDY BOOK ON MY SHELVES THAT HAS THE LOGO OF A MAJOR PUBLISHING COMPANY ON THE SPINE.

Today, I'm delighted to say that Roger has just made a giant leap forward in his journey towards publication.  He emailed to say that he has been signed up for his sixth book by Peter Buckman from the Ampersand agency.  The two met at the York Festival of Writing in 2010 and I'm sure they'll make a wonderful team.  I'm now sprinkling fairy dust on Peter's efforts to secure a mega deal for Roger.

There's still no link for Roger, though I'm sure that's going to change at some point.  But there is a link to a lovely post on the WordCloud that has me blushing so much you could make toast on my cheeks.

Being a Lazy Blogger

Actually, that's not strictly true.  I'm not being lazy, just veryveryvery busy.  And, before you ask, that doesn't mean I've abandoned the blogosphere for Facebook and Twitter. 

(Though if you twist my arm, I'd have to confess that I am there quite a bit.  That's the difference between a post that takes seconds and one that needs more thought and time.  You bloggy people are s-o-o-o demanding.)

Anyway, I'm just popping in to let you know that you can have a sneaky peek into my glamorous lifestyle, thanks to Michelle Teasdale at Winning Words.  And, yes, I 'met' Michelle through Facebook, so there.

Also, East Dulwich Writers' Group have a couple of gigs coming up, the first being this Sunday as part of Bromley Literary Festival.  Further details of EDWG events are on the group website.

There's lots of other stuff I'd love to share but I'm afraid it's going to have to wait ... Mainly, because I need to dash off and do said 'other stuff'. 

If you haven't already done so, please track me down on Facebook and Twitter. 
I look forward to seeing you there ... and there ... and sometimes here.

I've joined the Twitterati!

Can't believe I've done it!  I'm on a writing retreat and an unexpected side effect is that my lovely host has persuaded me to join Twitter.

So now, as well as this neglected blog, a hideously out-of-date website, a very busy Facebook page and various forums, I have a new distraction.

I blame the gin.

If this means anything to you, check me out at @DebiAlper

The People Collector

Authors are often asked where we get our ideas and characters from.  Friends and relatives have even been known to be nervous that fictional characters might be based on them.  I was shocked and saddened when my sister-in-law asked if the sister-in-law in my Nirvana series was supposed to be her.

The fictional version is shallow and snobbish.  Surely, my real sister-in-law didn't think I see her in this way.  (I really don't.)  And, even if I did, did she believe I would abuse our relationship by sharing my negative perceptions of her with the world?

The truth is, I do collect characters, but no one who knows me would ever be able to recognise themselves in my books.  Most of my inspiration comes from people I encounter but know nothing about.  My favourite people-spotting opportunities come from bus journeys.

I always sit on the top deck by the window.  I look down on shoppers, workers, wanderers, seeing them from a different angle to the norm.  Where is she going?  What does his home look like?  Where does she work?  What's their story?  I peep into uncurtained first floor windows to get a fleeting glimpse of people's internal landscapes; odd ornaments on the window sill, a torn sheet instead of a curtain, piles of old newspapers, a row of polished trophies ...

I can give full rein to my imagination.  The stories I weave most likely bear no resemblance to the truth.  Or do they?   They might be eerily accurate.  But it doesn't matter one way or another, because the person I've observed will never know they've inspired a story.

A little closer to the bounds of propriety, I like to eavesdrop on conversations.  Take last week, for example.  In the seat behind me, a teenage girl was talking about the tradition in her private school of playing pranks when pupils leave at the end of Year 11.  Her personal favourite, she told her unseen companion, was when a group of pupils got hold of a cow.  (At great expense, she added.)  Cows, she went on to say, can go up stairs, but not down.  Somehow, they managed to smuggle the animal into the school and up the stairs, where they abandoned it.  With no alternative, the school was forced to arrange for the poor (and, no doubt, distressed) beast to be rescued by helicopter.  Presumably, at further great expense.

The girl moved on to talking about her plans for the summer: a week at the family villa in France followed by a journey south for an extended stay in St Tropez.

I resisted the urge to turn round, so I never saw what she looked like.  But she was speaking loud enough for me to hear (which is saying something) and appeared to have no concept of the extent of her privilege, or that most of her fellow travellers might inhabit a very different universe. 

That girl might appear as a cameo in a story some time.  The challenge for me would be to lift her beyond stereotype.  I was so engrossed that it took me a while to realise I was on the wrong bus.

The next bus (the right one this time) provided contrasting, but equally fertile, ground for harvesting characters.  Two middle-aged Jamaican men were discussing the iniquitous cost of a TV licence, which both agreed was a struggle for poor people to afford.  From there, they moved on to talk about international politics and the subtle differences in the way racism is manifested in the US and the historical reasons for those differences.  Then it was current affairs: whether the authorities in Pakistan had been aware of Bin Laden's whereabouts.  By the time I left the bus, they'd become involved in a complex discourse on the nature of fear.

Rich pickings for a novelist: these men and their (possible) personal stories; any of the subjects they touched on; the rhythms and patterns of their speech; the timbre of their voices ...  In many ways, the sheer depth of the insights these men gave means that they would be far easier for me to bring to life in a fictional setting than the girl would be, lifting them beyond the risk of cliche and stereotype.

So, whether you're sitting on the top of a bus, shopping in the supermarket, walking on the streets, wandering in the park, queueing at the post office ... keep your eyes and ears open. 

And if you're not a novelist, be aware that the person in the next seat might be watching you and listening to your words, storing them away for future use.

So, do you reckon this is OK?  Or is it a form of identity theft?  And does it matter one way or the other?

Resources

I'm cheating here because this isn't a post as such, just a series of links.  And some of them are links to posts that consist mostly of ... links to posts.  Allow me to justify why this qualifies as the most Boring but Useful post on my blog.

I'm one week into the online self-editing course I'm running together with Emma Darwin on behalf of the Writers' Workshop.

It's going really well.  Writers of all ages and in all genres, living in different continents and environments, all working together with the same aim: to produce the best possible writing.  Love it, love it, love it.

In my feedback, I kept finding myself wanting to link to a blog post.  If you're reading this, you'll know that, unlike Emma's blog, this isn't a lit blog as such. It's a hotchpotch mishmash soupy stew of rants mixed with tips and info, seasoned with a dash of laughter and with some spicy personal details sprinkled over the top.

In amongst this seemingly random jumble, there are some posts about the writing process but each time I want to link to them, I have to spend ages sieving through the other stuff to track them down.

So here are the links to the last couple of years' lit posts, all served up on one platter. 

Success Stories
Sean Walsh
Catherine Cooper
The Thickest Skin  (Jason Wallace - a prizewinner after 100 (!) rejections)
A Tale of Two Authors (Shelly Harris and Roger Hardy)

Why write?
Reasons for writing

Submissions
Dear ... Me ....

Festival of Writing posts
York 2011
York 2010 - check posts in April 2010

'Rules'
The Rule Breaker
The Rule Hater

The writing process
The writing gardener
The writing addict
Anyone Else Feel a Draft in Here?
Debi Does Quantum
Naming characters

Plagiarism
Writer or Thief?

Of course ...

I've just realised it's April.  How did that happen?

Just a quick post to let people know about some courses on offer this month (Quick because I have to dash off to do the prep for them!)

On 30th April, I'm running a 1 day workshop in Waterloo on behalf of Writers' Workshop.  It's a How to Write Your Novel course, aimed at people who want to learn the basics and costs £99 (includes lunch, refreshments and a discount voucher for WW services).

If you're looking for something more advanced and want to work online and at your own pace as well as receive feedback on your own writing, Emma Darwin and I are co-leading a 6 week course beginning 16th April: Self-Editing Your Own Novel.

For details of both go here and click on the date of the course you're interested in or follow the links above.

If you can't afford any of the above but are looking for help with techniques, feedback from fellow writers, or just general chat with a warm and supportive community, I strongly recommend you get yourself over to WordCloud which is free and you can't say fairer than that!

Post York Posts - success stories!

Some wonderful news to share!

I met Sean Walsh at York 2010 in a Book Doctor session and was blown away by his children's fantasy book, Peripherealm, and his mind-blowing illustrations.  I worked with him during the year, in the course of which we cut 50,000 words.  (It was a very long book!)  Then he started pitching.  As the rejections started coming in, I don't know how many times I had to convince him not to give up.

He came to York again this year and ... well, let's just say I wasn't going to let the opportunity pass to ensure Sean's book got the attention I was convinced he deserves.

And ... to cut a long story square, as my dad would say ... Sean has now been signed up, just a day after the Festival, by David Headley!
See full story, including Sean's own response, here.

That's not all my good news.  I have another example of how persistance  will pay off, if your book is good enough and you are committed to doing whatever it takes to make it the best it can possibly be.  Another children's author with whom I've worked has also been signed up with an agent.  Katherine Hetzel had a Writers' Workshop edit with Michelle Lovric and then 2 further edits and extended conversations with me before she began pitching.  I'm too modest *cough* to repeat here what she said about the part I played in enabling her book to reach its potential, but I will say what an absolute joy it is to be a part of these journeys and to know that I've had a role to play.  WordCloud link to this news is here.

One last story.  It doesn't end with an agent signing an agreement, like Sean and Katherine's, though who knows what's around the corner?  Do you remember me telling you about DW?  The man who was determined to prove me wrong when I suggested he may not be ideally suited to writing fiction?

DW tracked me down at York and with great glee told me that 2 agents had asked to see more of the MS he pitched to them that we have been working on together.  I've never been so pleased to be proved wrong.

So - whoever you are and wherever you are - don't ever give up.  The right words, in the right time and the right place, and you too can experience this magic.

PS: feedback from York is now up on the Festival site.

York Talk 2011 - the thanks bit

Mega thanks go to:

• Emma Darwin - for proving once again to be the perfect co-tutor for the mini course.  What a team!
• all the agents, publishers and specialists who, in spite of everything, continue to demonstrate their passion for fabulous writing
• the lovely peeps on the Blackwell's stall for selling our books
• the other authors with whom I wish I could have spent more time
• all the participants for trusting us with your babies and for all the words, words, words
• the Word Clouders - what a wonderful, warm, funny and supportive community you (we) are
• Laura, Deborah and Nikki from Writers' Workshop for the hard unglamorous slog wth none of the glory
• Kate Allan for a mammoth organisational feat
• Jeremy Guy - likewise and for the toothpaste
• the staff at York for their friendly, helpful and efficient hosting
• Susan Franklin, Lesley Eames and Sandra Norval for looking after the Book Doctors and agents and for the iron fists you wield from inside your velvet gloves
• all of you for coming along for the ride, either in body or blog

• and finally to Harry Bingham, who changes lives
  

York Talk 2011 - in pictures

David Nobbs signing a copy of one of his many books

Some of the grand old ducks of York

Cicely Havely, winner of Authonomy Live

Emma Darwin and Jenny Beattie at the gala dinner

Harry and Laura from Writers' Workshop sifting through the competition shortlist

Kerry Fisher, winner of the Festival competition

York Talk 2011 - ooh, goody goody.

Goody bags
This year, several publishers supplied free copies of their books, many  of them hardbacks and others advance proof copies, for distribution to all at the Festival.

I was delighted to have sold several copies of my own books and thought that would mean I would go back with lighter luggage.  Instead, my books were replaced by these freebies, but believe me, I ain't grumbling.

The grand finale

Kate Williams, historian and novelist, was the final speaker and she shared her personal experiences in the last key note address of the weekend.  Not many people can have a week that consists of chatting to Jeremy Paxman about economic contraction on Newsnight on one evening, and then a day or so later talking about the origins of Battenberg cake.

The final, final say though, has to go to Harry Bingham, who said that he had spoken to the agents and publishers over the weekend and they had all said they were blown away by the quality of much of the writing they saw. 

'Numerous agents were interested in numerous writers,' he told us.

Let's hope that several people will sign up with agents in the near future, having been asked to send their full MSes.  And that those agents will succeed in getting deals for those authors.  How wonderful it would be in the future for people to say their successful careers as authors began at York, as Shelley Harris was able to say last year.

Harry left us with these thoughts:

• No one who had been there could be in any doubt whatsoever that the entire industry runs on passion.
• It's vital to be a perfectionist - what the Festival does is to provide people with the tools to polish and perfect their writing.
• Another P word, an equally essential component in the writers' toolkit, is persistence.
• Writing is hard - so you'd better love doing it!

That's it, folks.  I'll publish one last post tomorrow and that will be to share the photos I took over the weekend.

I'm home now, still dealing with that strange mixture of Knackered but Wired.  The one thing that has hit me is that 300+ people in one vast room, don't seem to make nearly as much noise as 3 people (all male, 2 teenagers) in one small room.

York Talk 2011 - The Book Doctor is (was) in

I had 18 Book Doctor sessions over the 2 days.  Obviously, and as one would expect, there was a range of genres and also of potential in those submissions.  But everyone felt they learned something really useful and specific to their own writing, including the effectiveness of their concept and pitch.

I was seriously impressed with some of them.  Although I was only seeing first chapters and synopses, there were some who semeed they only needed to do a  bit of tightening and polishing for their books to be ready to pitch to agents.  If they didn't get any bites, they might consider getting an edit, but those special few were at the stage where I suggested they should try pitching them first, on the chance that everything was already in place and they could save themselves the expense of paying for a critique. 

I hope people will stay in touch as I'd love nothing better than to see them succeed and know I had a small part to play in their journey.

Which reminds me ...

I was talking to someone who has spent their former career in the highly competitive corporate world.  She couldn't believe the way everyone seemed to be so generously spirited, genuinely happy to hear about and celebrate other people's success.  I hadn't really thought about how unusual and extraordinary that was.  I've always taken it for granted that our collective passion and enthusiasm was for all writing, not just our own.   Makes me feel even more happy and lucky - privileged even - to be part of the community of writers.

On which note ...

I had to forget something crucial when I was packing, didn't I?  Toothpaste, that's what.  On Saturday morning, I told someone in passing that I'd forgotten mine and had had to use soup (bleurgh).  An hour or so later, Jeremy Guy, one of the extraordinary team of organisers, came up to me and said he'd heard I'd forgotten my toothpaste and I really should have told him.

Eh?  I think I might have goggled at him.  And then 10 mins later he found me and handed over a tube that he had dispatched someone specially to buy.  I know this sounds wet, but I was so touched, and felt so cared for and looked after, I felt quite teary.  *sniff*

York Talk 2011 - oh but I also forgot ... the gala dinner

A chance to dress up in our glad rags and celebrate in style.  The poshest of nosh and the bestest of company.  What's not to love? 

The winners of the Festival competition were announced during the meal and once again it was clear just how much talent and potential there was in that room. With only my teensy evening bag, I found myself in the almost unique position of realising I didn't have pen and notebook to hand, so I didn't manage to record the shortlist.  (Though I couldn't possibly forget the well-deserved inclusion of the lovely John Taylor of Word Cloud renown).

Fortunately, the winner, Kelly Fisher, was sitting at my table.  Kelly won on the basis of having the most wonderful opening line to her novel and I asked her to jot it down on the back of a business card so that I could share it with you here:

I was wearing the wrong bra for sitting in a police cell.

Good, huh???

Sadly, the rest of the evening was a teensy bit of a blur.  Absolutely no connection whatsoever with gin and anyone suggesting otherwise will be facing a libel suit.

York Talk 2011 - oh but I forgot ... that workshop

That last post refers to this morning (Sunday) but somehow I forgot some of the most crucial things that happened yesterday.

For starters, there was my Breaking the Rules workshop.  I was a bit anxious about how much there was to get through and also that there were no gimmicks; all they were going to get was me talking at them non-stop for an hour.  In the event, it seemed to go down better than any other single workshop or course I've run.  I guess people just love breaking rules ... and the anarchist in me loves them for it.

I selected the rules that people had told me in advance were the ones they most found problematic:  POV, show not tell, linear chronological structure, prologues, adverbs and adjectives and (briefly) speech tags, dreams, mixing tenses, mixing 1st and 3rd person ... You can see what I mean about how much there was to get through.

With each one, I defined the rule and explained why it mattered and  what the consequences of breaking it are.  I emphasised the need to check if breaking it really is the best way to tell the story, because you do need to have a compelling reason.  And then I gave examples of the ways in which it can broken effectively.

The advantage of doing it in this way was that the workshop provided a good grounding on what the 'rules' are in the first place for those who are unsure, as well as providing techniques for those who feel that their book justifies a different approach. 

Anyway, it must have been useful as I've never received such a positive response (the applause seemed to go on for an embarassingly long time).  One participant even said he had learned more about creative writing in that one hour than he had in the previous 3 years. 

I am going to post my notes on the Festival website at some point in the coming week.

York Talk 2011 - the morning after

Lost an hour of sleep and I think we all felt that loss keenly.  Especially those who spent much of last night with 10 other people, stuffed into one of the tiny bedrooms, accompanied by a bottle of whisky and another of vodka.  (I wasn't one of those people BTW but they could be identified this morning by the green hue of their gills and the capacious bags under their eyes.)

Today kicked off with another Festival panel of agents and publishers, this time including Beverley Birch (commissioning editor for Hodder Children's), Jonathan Telfer (editor of Writers'  News), Hannah Westland (agent) and our very own Harry Bingham.

Let's get the bad news from this session out of the way.  Many of you will already know that an agent is likely to take on 1 in a 1000 of the MSes submitted to them.  It's sobering to then hear that most publishers will take approx 1 in 4-500 MSes submitted to them - by agents.  Blimey, you're probably thinking, those odds are so long they're out of the stratosphere.  But people DO get published, so it's vital not to lose heart.

There has to be some  good news to keep us all going.  The panel were asked what was exciting at the moment.  Wouldn't you know, but the answer was the advent of the Kindle and e books, which they all saw as part threat and part opportunity.  In the US, any publishers not already on board with the technology are apparently being left behind.

Social media and networks are providing lots of ways for people to self publish and also for those with traditional deals to promote in a way that has  never existed before.  With the traditional publishing model, the publicity machine kicks in 3 months before publication.  Now that authors have a major part to play in publicising their own books, they can begin the process with blogs, websites, Facebook etc 12-18 months before their book hits the shelves, giving them the chance to build up an advance readership.

In a way, it's both good news and bad news that the author now has such a large part to play in the process.  Bad because promotion takes very different skills to writing and also because it takes time and energy away from the actual process of writing; good because it does enable writers to have some control over the content and methods by which they are publicised.  I remember when my books were first published, I was warned not to do anything at all, but to leave all the publicity to the 'experts'. But the truth is that no one is going to give your books - and indeed your career - the same amount of focus and attention that you can bring yourself.
 
There is still considerable tension between authors and agents regarding royalty rates for e books.  Part of the problem is the ease with which people can use the digital format for self-publishing.  They can then offer their books for sale for tiny sums - as little as 70p or even free, thereby pushing them up the Amazon charts.  Although there is no quality control for those books, traditional publishers are being forced to compete with them and deal with the public expectation that books should be that cheap.  So how much would that leave as a royalty rate for the published author?  About as much as it costs to buy a cobweb.
 
Finally, the panel was asked what single piece of advice they would give to aspiring authors.  The answer was one I've often advocated myself: read!

To this Harry added by pointing out the value of critiques and editing.  He also said that anyone who comes to the Festival will inevitably leave a better writer.  Wise man, that Harry Bingham.

York Talk 2011 - post 3

Excuse me - I've got that slightly zappy, sicky, headachey, hyper, caffeinated, jet lag thing going on, so may be a little less coherent than we all would wish.

After lunch (have I said how scrummy the food is here?) it was time for the next key note address: Carole Blake and Patrick Jansen-Smith, both of whom have worked for several decades on both sides of the publishing equation ie as both agents and publishers.  As such, they were able to provide unique insights into the roles of each and the relationships between them.

What is clear is that the level of an author's involvement in promoting their own book is far higher than it has ever been.  There is less paid advertising and a bigger emphasis on what can be done online, using social networking like Twitter, Facebook and ... er ... blogging.   In fact, though this may send a shiver down the spines of the more retiring types, there is a huge requirement for authors to become perfomance artists, even though this demands very different skills from those needed for writing.  Both speakers were clear that it's essential for there to be a collaboration between author, agent and publisher.  After all, they all have the same aim: to sell lots of books.

After all the years of working in the industry, it was heartening to hear Carole say that she has never lost her passion and enthusiasm for good writing.  The session was then thrown open to contributions and questions from the floor.

Foreign Rights

Ideally, there should always be a dialogue between author and translator.  Some books that seem quintessentially English have done surprisingly well in other countries.  It's impossible to second guess the market, however, so people shouldn't write a book with the foreign rights specifically in mind eg by having part of the action take place in another country (unless that's intrinsic to the story, of course).  Good characters = universal emotions, so apply across the globe.

The US is a particularly hard market to break into; it's bigger in every way and also less forgiving ie if you don't take off mega with your first book you are less likely to receive backing for subsequent novels.  (Some *ahem* might say that's also true for the UK.)

E Books and Digital Rights

They're confused.  Everyone's confused.  It's impossible to keep up with new developments and the constantly changing environment.  Publishers are anxious to hang onto digital rights and are looking at old contracts which didn't have the clauses that are now relevant.  The trade dubbed last Xmas as Kindle Xmas as so many people received blank Kindles as presents and there was then a rush immediately after Xmas to download e books.  In the US, 15% of some titles have been sold as e books.  The whole industry will be looking forward to the next 2 batches of royalty statements, which will reflect the impact in the UK. 

Piracy is a major concern and they still don't know how to deal with it.  Publishers are spending a fortune on research and development.  Meanwhile, Carole said that she's notified of a new pirated version of a book every day.  These can be tackled one by one, but it's impossible to keep track.  Pah. 

Advances

The problem with large advances (yes, there really is a problem) is that it's very hard for sales to match, and if they don't, the author has the stigma of having failed to sell out their advance by a large margin.  It's very common for subsequent advances to be much lower - or, worst case scenario, for the author to struggle to get a subsequent deal at all.  (*Ahem again* - nasty cough I've got there.)

The final word

After all that, I want to end on an up note, so I'll leave you with Carole's answer to a question re whether authors needing to 'perform' meant they only had a chance if they are young and beautiful.
'No,' said Carole.  'They just have to be interesting.'

York Talk 2011 - David Nobbs

What better person to give the keynote address than David Nobbs, who says he has spent 48 years (years, people, not hours) writing about things that never happened and being paid for it?

David initially wrote 9 stage plays that were never performed.  What was the missing ingredient?  Turns out to be a subject close to my heart: he hadn't found his voice.  So how did he solve that?  By writing, of course, and simply by carrying on doing it. 

David began his working life as a journalist but in 1963 he sold an idea to the BBC, which eventually became That Was the Week That Was.  He then wrote material for comedians such as Tommy Cooper and Ken Dodd.  But he was still struggling to write a successful book and the problem was that his words were good, but he hadn't yet come up with a compelling story.

He was refreshingly frank about his failures. 
'Rejection,' he said, 'is depressing, but it's not a personal insult.' 
Reggie Perrin was originally written as a half hour drama.  No one was more surprised than David when the book morphed into 4 novels  and 6 TV series.  Now 76, he is still working full time and clearly loving it. 

So where do his ideas come from? 

'People,' he said.  'Listen to them.  They're wonderful and the source of so much inspiration.'

Some more nuggets of Nobbsian wisdom:

•  If you are writing a lot, some of it will be good and some of it will be very bad.  And that's ok.
• Be persistent and don't take rejection personally.  Fawlty Towers was originally rejected as being rubbish, having no potential and (can you believe?) not funny!
• Put your work aside for a month or so and then come back to it with a fresh eye.
• If inspiration is proving elusive, take a day off and do something completely different.
• But don't do that for 2 days running!  Writers have to write!
• When you write, make sure you enjoy it.  At least that way, you will have made one person happy.

York Talk 2011

Never say I don't love you.  Here I am at 11.15 at night.  Others are still in the bar, drinking.  Many have already staggered off to bed.  And me?  Here I am, sitting in my room at my laptop, because I promised you a live Festival blog and a Debi never breaks her promises.

Soooo - the trip up wasn't as much fun as last year when I met Whisks on the train, but that one was hard to beat.  It was enough that I arrived safely.  There's little time for taking stock while at York (or breathing, but I do try to do that whenever I remember).  So it was straight into the Developing Your Voice mini course with Emma Darwin.

Once again, I was reminded why the Emma/Debi partnership works so well.  Emma comes from a far more literary perspective and is qualified at MA level, whereas I, as was pointed out to me last year, am a 'street writer', a monicker I'm happy to accept.  The course went well, unless the participants were being very kind and generous and didn't like to hurt us; they certainly all said it had been very useful.  Voice is such a slippery thing to nail down and very hard to teach, but I hope people were telling the truth when they said the course had enabled them to see where their own narrative voices were slipping and had given them the tools for repairing any slippages.

The less said about the literary speed dating the better.  You try sitting at a table for 10 and trying to engage with everyone in a meaningful way before your 5 mins are up and they're all replaced by new people, all looking equally shell-shocked.  Now try doing it while wearing hearing aids and finding ambient noise is as loud as the voice of the person sitting next to you.

After a classy meal (yum - and best thing was I hadn't cooked it) we sat back and prepared to admire the brave souls who had entered Authonomy LIve.  Last year, you may remember the outright winner was Shelley Harris, who went on to not only get an agent, but also a two book deal with Weidenfeld & Nicolson following a bidding war.

Once again, there was little doubt about the winner, although there was a fabulous and very strong field.  Cicely Haverly won with a sparkling and very funny excerpt of her book, chronicling the sexual awakening on a young girl, set in 1953.  I have photos, but you'll have to wait.  I'm tired and working out how to get them from mobile to laptop is too much for my brain right now.
So sue me.

Right - that's all you get for tonight.  Night night, all.  See you tomorrow.

(Note to self: do NOT sleep through alarm.)

Back-to-Back Festivals

York!  This weekend!

There's an amazing line up of talks, events and workshops and I honestly can't wait.  On the personal side, Emma Darwin and I will be running the Developing Your Voice mini course on Friday.  I'm hosting a Breaking the Rules workshop on Saturday afternoon and I'm also doing a total of 5 hours of Book Doctor slots over both days.  That's when we meet the aspiring authors who have submitted a first chapter, synopsis and covering letter in advance for 10 intense minutes of critique and feedback.

Nicola Morgan has published a wonderful post, linking to another by Emma D, which describes exactly what we will be looking for in those submissions.  So if you can't make it to York, you can use their checklists to examine your own MS.  (And I owe a huge debt to them both for these posts which mean I don't have to write one myself, since they've said it all, and said it so well.)

I'm hoping to live blog the weekend again, as I did last year, so watch this space.

I'll be arriving back in London late on Sunday evening and then, before you know it, I'll be dashing over to the Telegraph Hill Festival with the East Dulwich Writers' Group on Monday evening, where we'll be reading from our second anthology, Hoovering the Roof 2.

At least that one won't take me several hours to get to.  Still, you can't have too many Festivals, eh?  And the last gig was a knockout, as you can see from this photo.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Spring is definitely here, so I worked for 5 hours today on my allotment (aka Emma Darwin's garden).  I spend most of my time glued to a laptop, either writing or editing, so it was good to get out into the fresh air and use my hands (and back, oh my aching back) to do something just as creative, but completely different.

Anyway, while I was digging, pruning and planting, my brain was still in authorial mode, creating an extended metaphor of gardening as writing.  We often use the phrase, 'cutting out the dead wood', but it seems to me we can take the analogy a lot further than that.

Planning

As Spring approaches, gardeners think about the growing season ahead.  We decide what we're going to plant, get the seeds in, perhaps research a bit about the best ways to produce healthy plants from those seeds.


Some authors do more planning in advance than others, but the minimum at this stage is to have an idea about the identity of the book you're going to write and start to think about your characters and the situations you're going to put them in.  If there are areas you're not sure about, this is the point when you need to start thinking about where to go to fill in any gaps in your knowledge.  It may be a matter of net surfing; perhaps there are non-fiction books you'll want to get hold of; or museums you need to visit; or people to speak to.


Planting the seeds

The gardener's seeds are the author's words.  You need to choose the strongest, healthiest seeds and plant them in the most appropriate place.  Different seeds/words have different attributes and where you put them is as important as how strong they are.  Once you've decided on the best spot (sun or shade, soil type, drainage etc) some people might place them in neat, regimented rows; others might choose wavy lines or zigzags.  Either way, you want them to be clear and easy to identify.


Weeding

Once the little darlings are beginning to sprout, you're going to need to be ruthless in dealing with those other darlings: weeds.  This might be hard.  Perhaps that weed is really pretty and you're reluctant to tear it up by the roots and bung it on the compost heap.  But if it's taking the attention of the sun's rays and the soil's nutriments away from your plants, then it has to go.  You could always pull it up and transplant it elsewhere if you can't bear to throw it away.  You might even have a separate space for replanting those weeds you're really attached to.  For a writer, this could mean creating a file for those superfluous scenes and threads that don't belong in your story.

Cutting out the dead wood

This is different from weeding.  That dead wood had a function.  It was once a living part of the bush or shrub.  Without it, there would be no future growth.  But its time has passed.  It's tangled and unsightly.  It distracts the eye from the beauty of the new shoots.  At worst, it can strangle those fragile new buds and prevent them flourishing.

For a writer, this kind of redundant content consists of writing that you, as the author, needed in order to envisage the world you have created and the people within it so that you could convey them to your reader.  But does the reader actually need it?  If you've done your job well enough, they might well not.  Maybe it's a chunk of back story or a character summary.  Or a paragraph of telling that undermines suspense and interrupts the pace.  Identifying this dead wood and being ruthless in cutting it out will make your story flow better.  It had its function but now you need to prune it out.


Water liberally

In this analogy, the watering applies to the gardener, not the garden.  Be good to yourself.  Don't allow yourself to get dehydrated.  Celebrate your successes and hard work by rewarding yourself with regular glugs of fresh water. Or gin.


Reap the harvest

Eating the fruits of your labours - there's no feeling like it.  You grew that.  You made it happen.  It's the same for you when you finish your book.  It's an amazing achievement and one which you should savour and feel proud of.

So there we go.  Gardening as a literary endeavour.  I've flogged the metaphor to death but it makes a change from my usual one of giving birth.

Here's hoping that some of the seeds we plant bear fruit and maybe even win prizes, whether they're for the largest marrow or the sweetest spinach.

Enjoy!

For your URGENT attention

I'm waaaay behind.  I should have posted days ago about the gig tonight at New Gallery, Peckham, where members of East Dulwich Writers' Group will be reading from Hoovering the Roof 2, our second anthology. 

I was also too late to donate to this brilliant appeal from Keris Stainton.  Bidding has already started.  You can bid for all kinds of things: from a critique to signed copies of books.  You can even bid to have a fictional character named after you.  No one needs to be reminded of the horror that is continuing to unfold in Japan.  Please support this appeal.

International Women's Day 2011

Today (yesterday by the time this post is published) is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day - a chance to reflect on how far we've come in the last century ... and how far we still have to go.

Through a miracle of co-operation and co-ordination, in over 70 countries around the world, at over 400 events, women gathered today on bridges in support of women's rights.  The organisers, Women for Women International, have stated their mission:

To change the world, one woman at a time.  

The idea for Join Me on the Bridge came from the Country Directors of Women for Women's programmes in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo - two countries which have seen some of the most devastating impacts of war in recent years and where atrocities such as rape, torture and violence against women are commonplace. Women from both countries had decided to come together on a bridge which borders their countries, in the heart of the conflict; to stand up for peace and an end to violence against women.  Their courage inspired women across the globe to emulate their example every International Women's Day, beginning last year.

I was at today's London event.  We met at Borough market and I stood and watched as women of every age and culture gathered to make banners and mingle.  

 With Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger at the head of the march, we set off across the Millennium Bridge.  At St Paul's the cloudless skies were studded with the hundreds of white balloons which we released.  With songs, chants and good humour, we moved along Embankment in the Spring sunshine and then crossed back over the river to the South Bank to listen to empassioned speeches by women from as far away as Congo (the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman) and Afghanistan, as well as speakers from closer to home, among them Annie, Bianca, Cherie Lunghi and Helen Pankhurst, great granddaughter of Emmeline and granddaughter of Sylvia, and an ambassador for Care International.  (See this article by Helen re today's event.)

I recorded our progress, step by step, on my Facebook wall.  For me, it was like completing a new link in a chain that began half my lifetime ago.  I was taken back several decades to marches that were in some ways similar, but the progress we have made was clear.  Back then, the main criticism of the fledgling women's movement (criticism which I believe to be valid) was that it catered mainly for the needs of middle class white women in the developed world.

In 2011, that's categorically not the case.  With the advent of global communications, the world has shrunk.  No woman in the UK or US has an excuse not to know about the plight of women in other parts of the world; women who struggle simply to survive - because of their gender.  The most uplifting aspect of today's event was the way it was enacted all over the world, with women (and their male supporters - another big difference from the early years) reaching out with a common purpose: for peace and equal rights for all women.

That shouldn't be too much to ask should it?

Sue G's excellent adventure

Regular visitors here may remember my enthusiastic review of Sue Guiney's novel, A Clash of Innocents.  (If you need to refresh your memory, the post, which includes an extract from the book, is here.)

The novel is set in a children's home in present day Cambodia.  As soon as they begin turning the pages, readers will have no doubt that Sue knows whereof she speaks in her book.  It's abundantly clear that she has met those children, seen those sights, heard those sounds, smelled those smells and tasted those tastes - and not as a tourist whipping in and out again, but as someone who has given of their time and energy to support these people in their struggle with their past history and their present poverty.

Many authors believe they should 'give back' in some way to those who inspire their writing.  For some people, writing the book and conveying those lives to the rest of the world would be enough.  But Sue is not some people.  Sue is special.

Over the coming month, Sue will be embarking on a tour of SE Asia, visiting Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore.  She will be giving talks, sharing her expertise and experience and yes, selling books.  Lots of them hopefully.  Will this make her rich?  Unlikely, given that most of the income from sales will be going to the numerous charities she is involved with there.

The main event will be a week-long series of workshops with teenagers at the Siem Reap shelter, Anjali House, aimed at enabling these children to access their experiences and emotions through language and equipping them with the literacy skills that should hopefully help them to find work.  She has roped in other authors (yes, of course I'm one of them.  Need you ask?) to give feedback on the children's writing via a wiki forum.  There are already 15 students involved in the programme.  Sue says she hopes that this unique scheme will 'enhance their self-esteem and ability to move out of extreme poverty into productive adult lives'.

Photo credit:  Anjali House

This is 'giving back' on a grand scale.  Sue has arranged the whole tour herself - you can get an idea of the logistics involved in this post.   And you can see a video of Sue explaining her motivation in her own words here.

She will keep us all updated on her progress.  If I'm this excited, I can only imagine how Sue must be feeling as she embarks on this amazing journey.  I send my love and deepest respect and look forward to following developments through cyberspace as she blogs her progress.

The Rule Haters

Further to the last post about defining the so-called rules of creative writing and working out how to break them effectively, it seems that this question is on a lot of lips and fingertips at the moment. 

I thought you might be interested in these recent posts.
Emma Darwin gives her take on tools for writers (stating categorically that they are not 'rules') here.
Claire King has a wonderful spoof post here ...
... which inspired this version from Vanessa Gebbie.

Within those posts and the comments on them, there are yet more versions of various authors' takes on the subject.  When I pull all this together, it's going to be interesting to see to what extent there's a general consensus.

UPDATE: See here for Guardian article listing personal versions of the rules according to a very impressive list of sleb authors.  

Mind you, the full article is so long it could take valuable time to wade through that would better be spent ... writing.  Isn't that the first and only non-negotiable rule?

The Rule Breaker

Many of you will know that one of the things I will be doing at the Festival of Writing in York (not far away now) is running a workshop on Breaking the Rules.

I chose this topic as I know how people can get hung up on them there pesky 'rules' of creative  writing (though 'guidelines' might be a better word).  It's easy to internalise them to the extent that they stifle any creative spark that's struggling to push its way out from your clogged-up brain.  Just as it's about to emerge, blinking in the sunlight, it's clobbered by someone wielding a big stick and shouting, 'You can't do that!'  And that has to be a Bad Thing to anyone who loves shaping words into stories and doing something different and fresh.

On the other hand, I've edited countless MSes that don't work because the POV switches round so much the reader gets dizzy, or where it's impossible to work out where you are in the timeline. 

So what I want to do in the workshop is to define what those so-called rules are and why they matter; to demonstrate what the consequences are of breaking them and stress that an author neeeds a good reason to do it ... and then provide the tools that will enable people to go ahead and do just that.

As one of the lovely people on WordCloud has said, it's like teaching a child to cross the road safely. It's best to cross at the lights, but as you grow up, you realise you can step out elsewhere, as long as you know what you're doing and do so with care.

So far, I've come up with POV switches, sticking to a linear chronological structure, not switching tenses or between first and third person, prologues and a few others.

What's on your list?  Anything I'm missing?

So good I had to share ...

This post may well throw you into a pit of despair - but it will make you laugh while you tumble down.

Horses for Courses

If you're seeking help with your writing, there are a number of options.  You might think about joining a writers' group - either in real life or online.  If you're looking for a local group, this is a good place to start. 

Perhaps you'd prefer the sort of detailed feedback you can only get from having your book professionally critiqued.  According to this article more and more publishers are insisting that authors submit MSes that have already been through a thorough editing process.  One publisher is quoted as saying,
“I cannot purchase a book I need to spend 40 hours editing.”
(That article was written in Canada, but the same could equally apply elsewhere.)

Or maybe you'd prefer to hone your skills in a creative writing course or in a workshop.

If that's your choice and you're not looking for something as heavy-duty as a degree course, there are enough options out there to suit everyone.  These are just a few coming up shortly and, before anyone checks to see whether there's a degree of self interest here, I freely admit that these are ones I'm involved with.

Fancy an intensive one day workshop in London or Oxford for £99 including lunch and refreshments? The Writers' Workshop run a range of workshops for people who are just getting started and others for people who are looking for the skills to self-edit their novels.  Then there is the one for screen writers, the one for ...

Oh dammit.  Do I have to do everything around here?  *grumble mutter grump*   Why not just go here and see for yourself.

If you're looking for something a bit more hard core, howzabout the mini courses and workshops available at the Festival of Writing in York, 25-27 March?  You can book for one day only or for the full weekend.  Included in the price is the opportunity to pitch your book directly to agents and publishers or to have your writing assessed by a professional Book Doctor.  To see what some of last year's participants feel about the experience, check out this blog post and the comments.  One of the commenters describe the Festival as 'like speed dating with a politburo of writing experts'.

Or maybe you're prefer something you can fit in more easily with your own life.  In that case, you might consider an online course, like the 6 week self editing course I'm running together with Emma Darwin, beginning in April.

If all this costs more than you can afford and you can't find a local writers' group that fulfills your needs, there are places online where you can talk about all aspects of writing, as well as getting feedback on your own work.  It will come as no surprise that I personally recommend WordCloud as the best online community.  And it's free to join. 

Writing may be a solitary pursuit, but you are not alone unless you choose to be so.

An Open Letter to My Youngest Son

Dear Youngest Son,

It's hard to believe that two weeks have passed since your barmitzvah.  The buildup is so huge and so extended .. and then suddenly it's over.  What will never come to an end, however, is the pride we took in the way you rose to the occasion.  You didn't stop at the usual maftir and haftorah, but carried on to conduct most of the rest of the service too.  I know I'm biased, but I'm not the only person to say you were both word and note perfect. In fact you were awesome, utterly awesome.

Of course you didn't have to contend with sickness, like your big brother had to when it came to his barmitzvah.  As he said in his speech, he gave you an i-pod - you gave him measles.  But in spite of that, I know he was also bursting with pride at your achievements.

The party at your school went really well too, once again thanks to those wonderful friends who worked flat out with us to set up the atrium and put the finishing touches to the food in between the synagogue service and the evening.  The temperature was Arctic, but the warmth emanating from the love around us was positively tropical.  And once we started dancing, things certainly heated up.

Above all, it was a child-centred party, and that's just as it should be.

But how amazing that your grandpa was there, eh?  He was 80 when your brother was born and 82 when you came along.  I remember once, when you were toddlers, I saw him looking at you both with a wistful expression.

'Shame I won't get to see how these two turn out,' he said.

But there he was, aged 96 and still the baby in his family, as he has an older brother still toddling on.  And as I said at the time, I reckon you've both turned out pretty well and I know my dad wholeheartedly agrees with me on that score.

We have so much to be grateful for and you and your brother are without doubt the greatest of our blessings.  I'm sorry we have so few photos of the party due to our camera choosing that moment to give up the ghost.  Luckily, the divine Ms Lemon took a few pix that we can share with others to give a small flavour of the event.

And that's it.  We've used up the leftovers.  (My mum always said that if everything went, you hadn't made enough.)  I can put the files away, mothball the documents and spreadsheets and move onto being the mother of two adults (in Jewish terms only - don't go getting any ideas).  It's possible I may never again have to cater a party for 180 people 'all by my very own self', as you used to say.

Except we now have to work through a vast 'thankyou' list ... But we certainly can't complain about that and I know how grateful you are to everyone.

It ain't over until the fat lady sings.

Countdown to York Festival of Writing

Only a couple of months to go to the next Festival of Writing in York and things are hotting up.  Some of the biggest names in the business will be there: authors, agents and publishers.  I can't wait to meet people like Nicola Morgan, whom I know online but have yet to meet in Real Life.

Click here to see the full programme.
Details of the Friday mini-courses are here.  (I'm running one with Emma Darwin on Finding Your Voice.)
The workshop schedule is here. (I have a slot on Saturday on Breaking the 'Rules'.)
Included in the fee is the opportunity to pitch your book directly to agents or have it diagnosed and treated in one-to-one Book Doctor sessions.  See here. (I have 2 sessions on the Saturday (though one is now fully booked) and 3 on Sunday.)

On the Saturday evening there will be a gala dinner and another Authonomy Live event. Remember last year when Shelley Harris won?  You can see Shelley's own account of how the Festival changed her life here.

The last Festival was so amazing, I thought it would be tough to come up with another winner, but this one is shaping up to be even better.  I'm looking forward to renewing connections with people that I suspect are going to become regular attendees, as well as making new ones, all in the fabulous setting of York University.

Tickets are going fast but there are still some spaces left.  I know it's a lot of money for many people but I can promise it will be worthwhile.  You'll have a wonderful time, meet some inspiring people, get some incredibly useful personal feedback, learn new skills ... and ...

Who knows?  You could be this year's Shelley.

Raid the piggy bank; beg, steal or borrow; do whatever it takes but, if you possibly can, get yourself along here and start the booking process.

Look forward to seeing you!

The Thickest Skin?

There are two things that are essential to achieve success as an author:

1)  write a stonking good book
2)  submit, submit and submit again.  And again if necessary.  And ...

The thing is, if number 1 is in place, you owe it to yourself not to give up too easily if the rejection letters flood in, no matter how much it hurts each time one thuds onto your doormat.  You have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and pitch to the next person on your list.  (After maybe eating several bars of chocolate and/or punching a pillow and/or downing a few gins.)

But how many rejections would it take before you gave up on a particular book?
10?  20?  50?

Until recently, I was telling authors whose books I was convinced were publishable not to give up until they had received 60 rejections. 

But have you heard about Jason Wallace?  He has just been named the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award for his book set in Zimbabwe, Out of Shadows.  

The judges said:


'For us, this extraordinary debut novel was a unanimous winner. This compelling portrayal of a nation in crisis gripped us from start to finish and has stayed with us since  ...  A stunning debut novel without a false note.  Accomplished and powerful, it changes the way you think.
 But - and here's the rub -

- Jason was turned down by 100 (yes, you read that right, one zero zero) agents and publishers before being picked up by Andersen Press.

He is quoted in today's Independent as saying,

'I think I may have had a few low points when trying to get the book noticed, but in truth I don't think I would ever have given in.'

A few low points? A few low points???  How many people would hang on for that long, keeping the faith, rejection after rejection?  Well, Jason did and just look at what happened to him ...

So what are you waiting for?  Armour plate your heart and get that MS out there.

(NB: If the rejection slips do begin to pile up, you will probably need an objective assessment before you can be completely certain that the 'stonking' aspect is fully in place.)

Dear ... me ...

So you've written a novel.  You're convinced it's a masterpiece; quite possibly the best thing ever written.  And who knows?  You could be right ...

You're not worried about your covering letter, or the presentation of your manuscript.  After all, the sheer brilliance of your prose and stunning nature of your story will surely shine through.  I mean, you know enough not to have submitted the MS hand-written on the inside of a cereal packet, so what more do they want?

Well, stop right there.  If you haven't bothered to do your research as well as proof read your covering letter, why should an agent bother to give you their full attention?  On the assumption that the book itself is going to be polished and professional?   The letter is the first thing they see and first impressions count, right? 

Y'see, you not only have to give an agent compelling reasons to take you on, you also need to make sure you haven't given them any reasons not to ... like being sloppy with your pitch, for example.

Literary agent, Andrew Lownie, has posted a selection of opening lines in letters he has received over the last few months on his website.  Thing is, the authors may well be the next (insert name of your favourite author) but we'll probably never know, simply because no agent took them seriously enough to find out.  (My personal fave is, 'Bear Andrew'.)

There's no point in coming over all sullen and saying this is petty stuff and your naked talent should be enough to guarantee succeess... and if it doesn't it's cos there's something wrong with the industry ... damn philistines and bean counters ... yada yada yada ... 

Look, it's just common sense.  

Say you're going on a hot date.  You're convinced your sparkling wit and humour cannot fail to bowl over the soon-to-be significant other.  You're a fantastic catch, of course you are.  Except if you don't bother to blow your nose and make sure your clothes are clean and your breath doesn't stink like mouldy kippers, is it likely they will stick around to find out if the other stuff is in place?

Anyway, I'll leave you with that thought.  Less than a week to go to Youngest Son's bar mitzvah and it's all systems go.  See you on the other side.

This year, I have mostly been ...

Hard to believe how fast this year has sped past.

During 2010, I ...

• edited approx 2 full length manuscripts each month, several of them 2nd reads
• continued to act as mentor to a couple of special writers
• attended the Festival of Writing in York
• attended the Getting Published event in London
• acted as a face-to-face Book Doctor to 30 unpublished authors
• wrote short reports on extracts for another 10 authors
• ran 6 full day workshops and one mini-course for Writers' Workshop
• was a judge for the Brit Writers' Awards and attended the gala event
• had a short story published in 33, the anthology with a story set in each of London's boroughs published by Glasshouse Books
• contributed to Hoovering the Roof 2, the 2nd anthology from the East Dulwich Writers' Group, and assisted with the publication
• attended loads of launches and lit related events
• still has a WIP that's very much IP

So, for 2011, I'm looking forward to:

• the next Festival of Writing on 25th-27th March - book here
• more one day courses - see here
• a new 6 week online course I will be running together with Emma Darwin
• removing the IP from the WIP

But first of all, I'm in full on bar mitzvah mode.  Just over 2 weeks to go to organise and cater the party for 180 guests for Youngest Son's Big Day.  And I'm doing it all from our tiny kitchen.  Mad?  Indubitably ...

Stay safe and warm over the holidays.  And keep writing.  And reading.

Writing: a dangerous addiction?

Dictionary definition of addiction:  the condition of being abnormally dependent on some habit, esp compulsive dependency on narcotic drugs.

Right.  So let's look at the compulsion some of us have to write and see whether that qualifies us as word junkies.

Stratospheric highs followed by crushing lows?  Yep.
Feel like you're only truly alive when you're doing it?   'fraid so.
Feeling bereft when you're not doing it?  Uh huh.
Oblivious to the outside world when you're on a high?  True.
Impact on members of your family, who are driven crazy by your glazed eyes and distracted air?  Can't deny it.

So what kind of person is susceptible to this condition?

I always thought it safe to assume that those most vulnerable are those who have always loved books and reading since early childhood.  They know how it feels to enter a different world, to explore new places and meet new people, to hear a story being told - all inside their own head without ever leaving the comfort of their armchair.

It's not such a huge leap to progress from this passive form of being a book junkie, to one who feels irresistably drawn to take the next step: to create worlds of their own and people them with casts drawn from their imagination.

So when I received an MS for editing back in May 2008 and read the covering letter, you can understand why my heart sank - and why, in spite of the dozens of MSes I've edited since, I remember this particular one so well.

'I don't read books,' the author said.  'But my wife does.  And she thinks it's good.'

Eh?  Run that by me again?  That statement begs so many questions, I hardly know where to start.  The author was obviously well-educated and highly intelligent.

Did he truly believe that feedback from his own wife (whose only apparent qualification was that she reads books) was sufficient justification for him to have given up his job in order to write?  (Yes, you did read that right.)

And why on earth would he  choose to write if he never read?  Most of us write the kinds of books we would like to read.  How could he make that decision?  And how could he know what works and what doesn't?  What readers want and expect?  What the rules are for different genres?  As I later said in my report, it's the equivalent of someone who's never swam more than a length of the bath attempting to swim the Channel.

Anyway, I had a job to do.  As soon as I began reading it came as no surprise that an enormous amount of work needed to be done in almost every area in order to raise the standard of the MS.  In that respect, the author was far from unique.  I have edited worse MSes whose authors didn't have the added disadvantage of not being avid readers.

As I continued reading, the reason this author had for writing his book became more clear.  He was working through, in a fictional setting, some very personal and painful experiences. 

Good on him!  It was a testament to his determination to transcend those experiences and turn them into something constructive and meaningful.  And blimey, he had written a whole book and that's an achievement in anyone's ... book.

I gave him the usual lecture about managing expectations and the financial realities faced by writers - even those authors considered 'successful'.  I pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of his book. I didn't hold back on how much work he needed to do on it. 

To be honest, I was pretty convinced he'd written the book he needed to write; the process had been cathartic and healing, but that would be the end of his writing career.

After I sent him the report, he replied to say my comments were spot on, in all but one regard.  He was determined to carry on writing.  He told me he 'thoroughly loved it' and had already embarked on his next book, although he knew it would most likely be a 'fruitless exercise'.

Sure enough,   I received the draft of his second book in December 2009.  I can't tell you how delighted I was to have been proved wrong.  The author assured me he was reading fiction now.  This new MS was a very different book and the progress he had made in every aspect of creative writing was impressive.

We continued to exchange emails.  I was reassured that he was realistic.  He just wanted to hone his craft and continue to work on this book.  He told me he was surprised to find out how much he was loving the writing process.

Yes, that's right.  He was hooked.  There was to be no going back.

DW and I met in Real Life when he attended a Writers' Workshop course that I ran in September.  I could see how much he wanted to stick his tongue out at me and say, 'Told you so.'  I honestly wouldn't have minded.  There's a fellowship among addicts.  He was a welcome addition to the colony.

In November, having polished according to his original report and using the new skills he'd picked up at the workshop, he submitted the redraft.  More mega improvements.  But that meant he'd now moved onto another level.  To his disappointment, this report was the longest I'd done for him yet.  It's ironic - the better the quality and overall standard, the more there is to say about it.  (It doesn't take many words to point  out a problem that recurs throughout an MS.)

'That's it,' he said when he received the report.  'I've had enough.'

He hadn't though, of course.  As soon as he spotted the validity of the feedback, he could see how it made sense.  It didn't make him throw away the crack pipe.  Instead it made him excited all over again as he saw how he could make his creation better still.

I know he loves me and hates me in equal measure.  I am his dealer, after all.  But the addiction is all his.  Just to make it clear what to expect now that he's confessed to his compulsion, I can do no better that to quote The Eagles.

'This could be heaven and this could be hell ...'