Old Woman, Crazy to Write…

Tags

British Museum, Hokusai

Recently, Elizabeth and I visited the Hokusai Exhibition at the British Museum.

Widely regarded as one of Japan’s most famous and influential artists, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) produced work of astonishing quality right up until his death at ninety. Indeed, he believed that the older he got, the greater his art would become, considering that he hadn’t painted ‘anything useful‘ until he was seventy. He even added his age as part of his signature: the self-styled Old Man Crazy to Paint: Gakyo Rojin.

The Exhibition displays his work from the iconic Great Wave, to the delicacy of a minuscule frog hiding among the leaves of a flower. And being accompanied by a lady who lived in Japan, speaks the language, and was able to give me her own insights as we walked round was an added delight.

I am enthused by Hokusai’s conviction that age can be an advantage in creative efforts. Writing has parallels with painting, surely? Which means that I have decades ahead in which to keep up my pursuit of that elusive agent…

Tickets to the Exhibition are selling out fast, but if you aren’t able to snaffle one BBC4 is showing a programme on Hokusai TONIGHT, at nine o’clock. Well worth watching, or recording.

Dame Hilary Mantel on Writing Historical Fiction

The 2017 Reith Lectures by Dame Hilary Mantel (long sold out) will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 over five weeks from Tuesday 13 June at 9 am. Their subject will be:  ‘whether there is a kind of truth only fiction can tell‘.

I am a huge fan of Wolf Hall (see my earlier post of 21 March 2015 Don’t Get Hung up on Your Beginning) and have already put the details in our family diary.
The Lectures will be available as podcasts and there will be accompanying content on the Radio 4 website.

Competitions to Enter in June

 

Whether you’re a novice, or more experienced, writing competitions offer a wonderful opportunity to put your work out there. If you can’t win the Bridport, why not try the more modest Henshaw Short Story Competition? This quarterly competition is for stories up to 2,000 words, with an entry fee of £5. Prizes are £100, £50 and £25, with the prospect of publication in one of their anthologies – which raise much-needed cash for Save the Children. The current deadline is 30 June. Details: http://www.henshawpress.co.uk

This is an achievable goal. I had a stab a couple of years ago and have just taken delivery of the anthology containing my winning story – Till Death Us Do Part – featured at the top this blog under ‘Writings’.

Wells Festival of Literature are seeking stories between 1,000-2,000 words on an open theme. Prizes are: £750, £300, £200, with an entry fee of £6. Closing Date is 30 June. Details can be obtained from http://www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk  They organisers are also looking for poems of up to 40 lines. Prizes: £750, £300, £200. Entry fee: £6. Details as above.

National Literary Trust. Do you have a new take on a classic fairy tale? If so, yours could be one of the 10 winning stories that will be published in an ebook anthology by Bloomsbury, publishers of titles by J K Rowling, Neil Gaiman and Louis Sachar. There is also a £200 prize for each winning story, plus the right to use  the ‘Short Story Prize 2017 Winner’ logo on your website, social media and publications. Submit your re-imagining in a 2,000-4,000 word story for 8 to 12-year-olds by midnight on 25 June. Entry is £30. Details from: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/shortstories

We mustn’t forget the British Czech & Slovak Association Competition which seeks short stories and non-fiction, up to 2,000 words, exploring the links between Britain and the Czech Republics at any time. The suggested, but optional theme for 2017 is Brexit. Prizes are £300, £100, plus publication in the British Czech & Slovak Review. ENTRY IS FREE. Closing date is 30 June. Details: http://www.bcsa.co.uk. Before you dismiss this as too obscure, maybe you’ve had an eventful visit to Prague (a stag or hen ‘do’, or student trip?) that might form the launching pad for a story.

Bath Flash Fiction want 300 words by June 11. They are offering prizes of:  £1,000, £300 and £100, plus two commended at £30. All entries will be considered for publication in and end of year anthology. Details: http://www.flashfictionfestival.com/

WORDS MAGAZINE (sold in aid of the RNLI) are asking for stories of up to 2,000 words on the theme of: Christmas. Prizes: First £50; Second £25, with all entries considered for publication in the magazine. Entry is FREE. Closing date 30 June. Details: http://www.wordsmag.com

Segora International Writing Competitions 2017. Organised by Jocelyn Simms, 1 rue de la Sevre, 79380 St Andre-sur-Sevre, France. (Proceeds donated to Medecins Sans Frontiers) Short stories from 1,500-2,00 words. Entry fees: £6 for 1, £11 for 2, £15 for 3. Prizes: £300, £50, £30. One-act plays: up to 35 minutes running time. Prize £100. Entry fee: £12. Deadline 15 June. Details: http://www.poetryproseandplays.com

Impress Prize for New Writers. Full-length debuts from unpublished fiction and non-fiction writers. Submit book proposal and sample chapter totalling no more than 6,000 words. Prize: Publication by Impress Books. Entry fee: £15. Deadline: 30 June. Details: http://www.impress-books.co.uk

British Fantasy Society Short Story Competition. For any kind of fantasy: magical realism,horror, SF, etc., up to 5,000 words. Prizes: £100, £50, £20, plus a year’s membership of BFS and web publication. Entry fee £5. Deadline 30 June. Details: http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk

Do remember to check that the details are correct before entering!

 

 

 

How to Edit Your Book

Tags

Bloomsbury Publishing, Francine Toon, How to Edit Your Work, Jennifer Kerslake, Kylie Fitzpatrick, Orion, Sceptre, Wiedenfeld & Nicholson

Tanya and I recently attended a workshop at Bloomsbury Publishing‘s offices in London’s elegant Bedford Square: How to Edit Your Book. Over forty aspiring novelists split into two groups to spend the morning in tightly constructed sessions led by professional editors and writers. In the afternoon, we got to spend fifteen minutes with an editor of our choice discussing a 2,000-word extract of our own writing that had been submitted beforehand.

My group was led by the excellent Francine Toon and Jennifer Kerslake. Francine, who is a published poet, became an editor at Sceptre in 2015 and concentrates on literary and reading group fiction. Jennifer, an editor at Weidenfeld & Nicholson (part of Orion), also specialises in literary and reading group fiction. Exactly the kind of people we were desperate to know how to impress!

Both editors dispensed handouts and practical advice – sadly too much to regurgitate here – that emphasised the need to become a reader of your own work as well its writer. Try printing out your stuff in a crazy font and/or colour; persuade someone to read it out loud to you; get a frank appraisal from someone whose opinion you trust. Francine provided a great analogy: to get that perfectly cut fringe, you need to hand the scissors to someone able to step back and see it in perspective.

They also stressed the importance of limiting description to highlighting  your novel’s theme, or taking its plot forward. Don’t paint a picture of a garden just because you can; see it through the eyes of someone grieving; suffering from heartbreak; fearful; or dizzy with love.

Jennifer then generously shared with us her own line-edit of a manuscript currently on the brink of publication. We were astounded at the degree of input both needed and generously given. If I’d put that much into something, I’d want my name on the front cover.

I was struck by the commitment of the participants. I suppose if you’re prepared to pay £149 and sacrifice half a weekend, you’re going to take it seriously. But these women (I noticed only two men), were bright, focussed, modest, and fun. They were prepared to take criticism of their work, but also surprisingly supportive of one another. Maybe that’s because writers need to be observant, thoughtful and empathetic if they’re going to be any good. Plus, of course, if you love reading you’re going to want to encourage a stream of first rate novels to keep hitting the bookshops.

Buffet lunch provided the opportunity for the two groups to come together for networking. Our mentors didn’t disappear into some private lair, but sat down with us, chatted and answered our sometimes impertinent questions.

Then came our one-to-one sessions. Mine was with Kylie Fitzpatrick, a historical novelist and creative writing tutor who has worked as a freelance manuscript editor for ten years and is also a lecturer at Bath Spa University’s Creative Writing degree. We went through my own offering, on which Kylie had pencilled notes (including the crossing-through of two embarrassing adverbs), discussed whether or not I should keep my prologue (not a deal breaker, she assured me) and talked about how I could get across that my protagonist – an eighteenth century servant girl – was not typical of her class. Her suggestions have already been put into practice.

I could go on – I have pages of scribbled notes – but how long do we have?

Was it worth it? It was the third such workshop I’ve attended (see my post of 7 July 2016 : Writing Historical Fiction) and I considered it excellent value for money for those without the resources or time for an MA in Creative Writing or one of those on-line novel writing courses. Writersandartists.co.uk have a line-up of similar events. Do check them out.

 

 

Death of the Imagination?

Tags

Anthony Horowitz

Apparently Anthony Horowitz, author of Foyles War and the popular Alex Ryder series of teenage spy novels, is bemused at being told by a US editor that ‘it’s inappropriate to draw from experiences other than his own’. In other words, he must write only about Jewish gentlemen currently in their sixties.

Really?

It is true that Jane Austen’s brilliant works were based on acute observation of her milieu, that Dickens had first-hand experience of the darker side of Victorian London, and that Tolstoy’s own father, as a veteran of The Patriotic War of 1812, would have shared his experiences with his son.

But what is this blinkered editor thinking:

• That J K Rowling is a secret wizard?
• Surely Hilary Mantel lives in contemporary England, not Tudor London?
• Neither Pat Barker, nor Sebastian Faulks were born during World War I, so how did they re-create its tragedies so vividly in Ghost Road and Birdsong?
• Likewise, Helen Dunmore wasn’t in Leningrad in 1941, yet somehow managed to write The Seige with power and sensitivity.
• Jacqueline Wilson transported herself successfully into London’s eighteenth century Foundling Hospital with Hetty Feather
• Jessie Burton succeeds in ‘impressively evoking the oppressive society of the Dutch Golden Age’ in The Miniaturist.
• Sarah Perry uncovers a fantastical tale set in 1893 in The Essex Serpent.
• Francis Spufford magicked eighteenth century New York into rivetting re-existence with Golden Hill.
• David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas surely tops them all, with a narrative ‘circling the globe and reaches from the nineteenth century to a post-apocalyptic future’.

I am as bemused as the talented Mr Horowitz. Maybe these writers are simply all wizards.

Competitions to Enter in May

Tags

Bath Short Story Peggy Chapman-Andrews, Bridport, Bristol Short Story, Cinnamon Press Short Story, Frome Festival Short Story, New Voices First Novel Competition, Winchester, Yeovil

For those of us slaving into the night on our novels (who groan at also having to produce an enticing agent letter, plus possibly an elevator pitch) competitions for debut novels do at least omit these. You usually need the dreaded synopsis, of course, but that can hardly be avoided. Unless you’re Hilary Mantel: no agent would surely have the nerve to demand one from her…

May is the month for the Bridport’s Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award. Required are the opening chapters of the novel – a minimum of 5,000 words and a maximum of 8,000 words, plus a synopsis of 300 words. First prize is £1,000, plus a written report from the judge, while a runner-up will receive £500, plus a full manuscript appraisal from The Literary Consultancy. The entry fee is £20 and the deadline is midnight on May 31st. Full details from: http://www.bridportprize.org.uk

Next up is the Yeovil Literary Prize.  They’re asking for your opening chapters and a synopsis, up to 15,000 words. Prizes are: £1,000, £250, £100, with a modest entry fee of £12. Closing date is May 31st. Full details: http://www.yeovilprize.co.uk

The Winchester Writers’ Festival 2017 want only the first three pages, plus a 600 word synopsis. Prizes: an editorial meeting with Little Brown, plus £70-worth of books; £30-worth of books. Entry fee is only £6, or £16 with some constructive feedback. This would be perfect for someone embarking on a first or new novel and the feedback offer sounds incredibly good value.  Deadline May 15th. Details: http://www.writersfestival.co.uk

New Voices First Novel Competition. 50 pages of a novel, ready for submission by a first-time writer. Prize: Start-up mentoring package worth £550. Entry fee: £10. Deadline May 31st.  Details: http://www.adventuresinfiction.co.uk

And for the short story writers:

Winchester Writers’ Festival 2017 are also looking for a 1,000-word short story with a MURDER theme. Prizes are books to the value of £60, £40, £20. They also want open-themed short stories between 1,500-3,000 words. Prizes: a telephone consultation with Janklow and Nesbit ‘to receive editorial report’; book prizes for second and third places. Winchester also have competitions for a picture book for children, a memoir, a book for children aged 8-12; flash fiction, and a competition for young writers. Each entry is £6, with the same offer of an included critique for £16. Lots of opportunities on their website: wwwwritersfestival.co.uk

Frome Festival Short Story Festival is seeking stories of 1,000-2,200-words on an open theme. Prizes: £400, £200, £100, with winning entries published on their website – and also possibly sent by them to Women’s Weekly for consideration. Entry fee: £8. Deadline May 31st. Details: http://www.fromeshortstorycompetition.co.uk

Bath Short Story Competition want up to 2,200 words on an open theme. Prizes: £1,000, £200, £50, plus a £50 prize for the best short story by an unpublished writer. Winning and shortlisted stories will be published in an anthology. Entry fee is £8, and the closing date (SOON) is May 1st. Details: http://www.bathshortstory.org.

The Bristol Prize is for a 4,000-word short story. Prizes: £1,000, £799, £400, £100. Fee £8. Deadline (SOON) May 3rd. Details: http://www.bristolprize.co.uk

Bridport also have a short story prize (5,000 words), plus one for a poem (42 lines maximum) and another for flash fiction (250 words). Fee: £10 story; £9 poem; £8 flash. Prizes: story/poem: £5,000, £1,000, £500, 10x£100; flash: £1,000, £500, £250, 3x£100. Deadline May 31st. Details: http://www.bridportprize.org.uk

Yeovil are also offering prizes for a short story, up to 2,000-words and a poem, up to 40 lines. Prizes: £500, £200, £100 for stories/poem. They also have a ‘Writing Without Restriction’ competition (see website for further information on this), with prizes of £200, £100 and £50. Entry fees: £7 for short stories and/or one poem, £10 for two, £12 for three. Writing without restriction: £5. Deadline: May 31st. Details: http://www.yeovilprize.co.uk

Storgy Magazine 2017 Short Story Competition. Stories up to 5,000 words. Prizes: £1,000, £500, £250. Entry fee: £10. Deadline: May 31st. Details: http://stogy.com

Cinnamon Press Short Story Prize: 2,000 to 5,000 words. Prizes: one year’s free mentoring, place on a Ty Newydd course. Publication. Entry fee: £12. Deadline May 31st. Details: http://www.cinnamonpress.com

There are so many opportunities in May that I’m going cross-eyed, so PLEASE check all details carefully. I’ll certainly be entering several of these competitions (ever the optimist), as will other members of ninevoices.

Remember. If you don’t enter, you can’t win.

Agents Chatting, Over Coffee…

(With apologies to any agents who may be reading this!)

Erica:        I hear you’ve snagged a new author?

Dominic:   Yup. Huge talent.

Erica:        Exciting. What’s the elevator pitch?

Dominic:   Vampire lover of the Machu Picchu Mummies chats up girl on train.

Erica:        Wow!

Dominic:    I know. Vampires. Sex. Desiccated bodies. A girl and a train.

Erica:        You lucky sod.

Dominic:    She’s promotable, too. Young. Photogenic. Married to a neuro-surgeon.

Erica:        And all I’ve got at the moment is a talking caterpillar…

Dominic:    Tough.

Erica:        Though maybe the vampire thing is losing its edge…

Dominic:    My publishers reckon it still has bite. The mummy thread unravels a bit, but that should be fixable.

Erica:        Providing she’s co-operative, of course.

Dominic:    True. When they first get an agent, writers think them the best thing since chocolate fudge cake. Sadly, that doesn’t last.

Erica:        Tell me about it. The minute you want to edit their manuscript, you become Godzilla.

Dominic:   Yeah. Ask them to cut fifty thousand words, or tone down the sado-masochism and stick in a werewolf, and they go all Jane Austen on you.

Erica:        Writers, eh? But I guess we need them.

Dominic:   I know. The dream. Finding another JKR. Earning enough to buy that yacht – and never needing to plough through another mountain of bloody awful submissions again…

Competitions to Enter in April

I think we can safely say that ninevoices have proved that entering competitions is worth doing. So here are suggestions for next month:

Bath Novel Award. First 5,000 words and synopsis. Fee: £25. Prizes: £2,000 plus Minerva trophy; £500 voucher from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy. Deadline 24 April. Details: bathnovelaward.co.uk

Exeter Story Prize. 10,000 words. Fee: £10. Prizes: £500, plus trophy; £150; £100; £200 Trisha Ashley Award for humorous story. Deadline: 30 April. Details: http://www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk

Ver Poets Open Competition. 30 Line poem. Fee: £4. Prizes: £600; £300; £100. Deadline: 30 April.Details: verpoets.co.uk

Grey Hen Poetry Competition, postal entries only, for women poets over 60. Up to 40 lines. Fee £3 per poem, or £4 for 10.  Prizes: £100; £50; £25. Deadline 30 April. Details: http://www.greyhenpress.com/poetry-competition-2017-entry-rules/

Historical Novel Society New Novel Award. Prize: £3,000. Entry: $35 (yes, that is in dollars!). Deadline; 1 April. Details: http//historicalnovelsociety.org

The RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award 2017. Short stories up to 4,000 words. Prize: A reading by a special guest at an evening at the Royal Academy of Arts. Entry: FREE. Closing date: 23 April. Details: pindrop@pindropstudio.com

RW First Chapter Competition. Submission package: three chapters, synopsis, leter. Prize: Submission review by literary agent Laura Williams. Entry fee: £15. Closing Date: 30 April. Details: http://www.retreatwest.co.uk

Harpers Bazaar Short Story Competition. Up to 3,000 words on the theme of ‘the anniversary’. FREE ENTRY. Prize:publication and a weekend break. Details: shortstory@harpersbazaar.co.uk

As ever, we advise checking all details before entering. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

Snakes and Ladders

Last week saw me perched near the top of a ladder, when my novel reached the short list for the Spotlight Adventures in Fiction competition, with a prize of a year’s mentoring, website exposure, and possible introduction to their agent connections. Then, on Wednesday, I was swallowed by a snake when I learned that Kate Swindlehurst had won, with her ‘bold, contemporary novel’, The Station Master. I wish her well, despite turning a bilious shade of green.

Trying to get published can be a game of snakes and ladders. The Gingham Square, which started life as a short story, then morphed into a full-blown book, was long listed in the Flash 500 First Chapter competition, but got no further. It subsequently failed to make any impression whatsoever on the Exeter Novel judges. More recently, came that long listing and subsequent short listing by Adventures in Fiction. And although I didn’t win, their organiser, Marion Urch, sent a generous email letting me know that I came third. Encouraging when you’re beginning to fear your work isn’t quite good enough.

I had requested a critique from the Exeter competition people and their main criticism came back that my opening failed to sufficiently suggest the extremely dark deeds to come. I needed a prologue that redressed this without giving away too much. Back to the drawing board, then.

Fortunately I have ninevoices to keep me from slacking. and a recent session saw my friends gleefully dissecting  my prose and squiggling suggestions all over my latest draft. There was even this helpful sketch (stick with the writing, Sarah!)

I wish I’d had time to enter my improved version into the Lucy Cavendish competition (no news on this until April 4th, but I’m not holding my breath), but I consider that Exeter critique money well spent.

There are plenty of other competitions for new novels over the coming months – Bath, Yeovil, the Bridport, Winchester, Mslexia – so I shall be back at my attempts to scale a few rungs.

But the next snake I see gets a punch ion the mouth.

 

A Writer’s Friend

Tags

Horses

I hope you will forgive me if I share this photo of my greatest aid to writing, enjoying an afternoon treat of a banana. (Yes, he does have strange tastes, I had a struggle to stop him snatching the banana skin from my hand!)

Tomorrow morning, Co-Co will occupy my husband happily for hours, while I continue to work on my book.