Tonight’s blog post, on the topic of blogging is brought to you by me.
To blog or not to blog, and how to do it
By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way to (or possibly at, I like to be early) The Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden (London) to do a talk about blogging for the lovely Agnes Meadows and Loose Muse. Seeing as many of you live outside the UK, or do live here but won’t be there, I thought I’d share my notes with you. I hope they’re useful / interesting. Because I mostly use WordPress I’ll be primarily referring to that ‘platform’…
A Blog: Why start one?
- You write and want to tell people that you exist;
- Writing blogs are usually read by other writers and readers and it provides you with a community;
- You’d like to invite other writers to take part in your site;
- You want to provide useful information to others;
- You want to sell your writing and you know you need an outlet.
What do you have to say?
- You want to share your writing – put up poems, short stories, novel extracts, non-fiction pieces;
- You’re writing your first novel and want to let others know how you’re doing;
- You surf the net and find articles of interest want to share the links;
- You want to learn about writing so you have guests discussing various topics.
Specific or general?
- Should you make it general (you as a writer plus your other hobbies etc.), one topic e.g. you as a writer, or even more specific and be just about your book.
- It depends.
- If you’re a writer and, say, a painter then you capture two audiences.
- I’m consumed by fiction so I made my first blog (http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com) writing-related and some visitors already find it overwhelming without adding anything else.
- I have five writing group blogs where I post four 15-minute writing exercises (poetry and story prompts) every weekday and guest content (for feedback) when I receive it at the weekends.
- I also have a blog where I post a short story a day.
- Two sites (one WordPress and one Blogspot) just carries the interviews I’ve been doing and they post at 6am and 6pm each day, the WordPress current and Blogspot c. a month behind.
- I have also just started a blog which is just about me and my writing because although I am active on the other blogs, the emphasis is about my guests not me, although it’s certainly done no harm in getting my name out there – hence me being at The Poetry Café (thank you, Agnes!).
Why I started one
- I’m infamous for ‘cutting a short story long’ (although most of my short stories actually end up as flash fictions!) so I won’t go into detail but basically, I had a website (http://morgenbailey.com) that wasn’t doing much (it still isn’t actually as it just points to the blog). I’d heard blogging was a good idea and then I was volunteering at Oundle Literature Festival mid-March 2011 and one of the speakers (philosopher Nigel Warburton) said he had 1,000 hits to his blog a day. I thought, “I want some of that” (or something to that effect) so my blog was born two weeks later. My best day, by the way, was last Thursday (7th March) with 551 hits so I’m half-way. And how did I get 551 hits (when it’s normally 200+)? I don’t have a clue. 242 of those were within an hour (9am-10am UK time) and I didn’t do anything special. That day’s interview had gone up at 7am, an American author who was still asleep, so he wasn’t touting it so I’ll never know, but with over 2,000 posts of varying topics on the blog there’s plenty for people to choose from.
- So, to the content, I started a bit of everything (mentioned above); writing-related things that interested me and a bit about my writing. I’ve been writing since being hooked at a college evening course in 2005. When I started the blog I was already interviewing other authors on my podcast but they’d take up a day to record, edit and upload so I did one or two a month. Then in June 2011 when I was invited to do a text interview, via email… light bulb moment. I could do as many as I liked. So I didn’t take on any more for the podcast but devised a questionnaire and put shout-outs online for authors. And they came flooding in. Late last year I had a nine-month backlog, which (at one interview a day) was crazy, so I created an interview-only blog, posted three a day and am now up-to-date.
- Once I started posting the interviews, other items developed; author spotlights, guest blogs, guest flash fiction / poetry / novels in instalments, competition / submission / event information. You name it, it’s on there (if it’s not, let me know!).
How often should you post something?
- At least once a week. You don’t have to do what I do and post 3-4 times a day because you’d have no life and really, would you have enough to say? I don’t – I get everyone else to do it for me.
- The advantage of having so many guests involved is that they give me the content and they are always so appreciative of having a platform to share the news about their latest book.
When should you post something?
- Probably without exception, most of your traffic will come from the United States so you’d want to post your items at a time that will catch most viewers. I post interviews at 7am so it catches late night US traffic and pre-work UK traffic then another post (or two) in the evening to catch the US lunch-timers and UK evening traffic. It also means that most posts are at the top of the home page for 12 hours meaning everyone gets a chance to see it. I have menus at the top of the blog so the links to everything I post is accessible. This helps visitors, guests and I get to keep a track of who’s doing what when. It also fits in with my ‘working day’, although it’s easy to post items in advance.
Which platform (host) do you choose?
- I have nine WordPress blogs, one Blogspot (Blogger), and a Weebly site. I also build (and maintain) blogs for other writers, so you can guess which one I recommend.
The advantages of WordPress include:
- automatic posting to social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo Groups and Tumblr). It’s worth joining all those just to have your posts mentioned there;
- you can have as many ‘tag’ keywords as you wish whereas Blogspot limit to 200 characters, which is about 30 words. Keywords are very important because it’s how Google searches pick up on your posts. And use keywords that people are likely to search by.
- Some people find Blogspot and Weebly easier to use (Weebly is probably the simplest because it’s quite limited – you don’t even get a search box on the free version) but like anything it just takes practice.
This takes me neatly on to my next point…
How much does it cost?
- It can cost nothing. To-date I’ve posted over 2,000 items on the mixed blog and 700 interviews on the interview blog and various on other blogs and it’s not cost me a penny. All the WordPress blogs have ‘WordPress’ domain names e.g. http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com, which some authors wouldn’t want. For around $20 a year you can choose your own domain name. I didn’t because by keeping http://morgenbailey.com I have two sites for internet users to find me. I may change this as you can’t put any advertising on the free versions, or you can let WordPress put advertising but it would be their choice. They can (and technically do) that already but I’ve only ever spotted one item on a random (old) post and I can’t even remember what it was for.
So, how do you compile your blog?
- There are two ways of creating your blog; (1) you could have a static front ‘home’ page, like a website, and moving blog page or (2) a rolling home page and static other pages. I favour the latter because at least half of my visitors go to the home page so readers want new content, and most of my posts are guest related so they want to see their pieces proudly displayed.
- I won’t go into how you actually compile a post because that’s a topic for another talk but it’s basically; text, pictures, and links on the main input area, tick-box categories (for example, short stories, novels, poetry, eBooks so visitors can select posts just for those topics if they wish) and the ‘tag’ keywords I mentioned earlier. Then when it’s ready you can post it there and then or schedule it for a later time / date.
Pros and Cons
- PROS: I’ve already mentioned a blog as giving an outlet to not only yourself but to other writers and out of the 760+ authors I’ve interviewed, I’d say 95% of them give ‘marketing’ as their answer to ‘What’s your least favourite aspect of your writing life?’ (their ‘favourite’ is usually the same as mine; the creating process; we are writers after all). Marketing is seen as a necessary evil with self-published authors knowing that they have to do all the work and traditionally published author still have to do the majority because their publishers don’t have the budget to invest. I’ve only had two authors say their publisher does all their marketing but those authors are still active online (Twitter, Facebook etc). It’s part of the ‘job’.
- CONS: Is there a downside to blogging? Not really. If like me, it takes over your life, then that could be seen as a downside time-wise, and it has affected my writing, or lack of it, but it’s been a wonderful experience and I’ve ‘met’ SO many people (authors, editors, agents, publishers, readers) because of it and other than a better balance of blog-time and writing-time, I wouldn’t change a thing.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. There are other options listed here.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku poem, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry slams, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, travel memoir, travel writer, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs. As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 048: Wednesday 13th March
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: uncharacteristic, sketchbook, incoherent, blackberry, guard
- Random: a confused / confusing animal
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Sentence start: Believing in it until…
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy.
*
Story Writing Exercises 052: Wednesday 13th March
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: moving, bad, wither, self-conscious, never
- Random: take one of the stories you’ve written from these three prompts (or an existing one) and either change the point of view from one character to another and/or change the tense
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Sentence start: As Francesca picked the book off the shelf…
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, poetry slams, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, travel memoir, travel writer, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, YA, young adult novels, youtube
It dawned on me today (as things often do) that the members of my online writing blogs and related Facebook groups (links below) are happily chatting away and writing from some of the exercises but they don’t get mentioned on this, my main blog.
So, from today, I’ll be sharing the exercises that I post there; a set of poetry prompts (on the poetry site) and a set of story prompts (which goes on the script, novel and short story blogs) every weekday. As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 047: Tuesday 12th March
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: stride, pitch, filter, sound, perhaps
- Random: the number 280
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Tuesday Title: Rising tide
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on! See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary.
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
**
Story Writing Exercises 051: Tuesday 12th March
Here are your four exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: electric, sick, shiver, deep, blur
- Random: write a piece of flash fiction (200 words max) using any of the other three prompts ensuring you don’t repeat any word (including ‘and’ / ‘the’)
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Tuesday Title: Sweet and sour
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku poem, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry slams, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, travel memoir, travel writer, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Tonight’s blog post, on the topic of micro fiction, is brought to you by me!
How to write a 28-word story
I set various exercises in my Monday night workshops. One was a consequence-type game as follows:
Starting with the right-hand column of the table below, write using the following prompts:
1. A first name; 2. A surname; 3. Any number above zero; 4. A colour;
5. An emotion; 6. A relation; 7. A room in the house (normal or grand);
8. An animal (normal or strange); 9. A number between 20 and 500.
This works best if you have a group of people and you fold the piece of paper over just below the current answer and forward it to the next person so they write the next item.
| |
Write prompt in here afterwards
|
Write in here first
|
| 1 |
|
|
| 2 |
|
|
| 3 |
|
|
| 4 |
|
|
| 5 |
|
|
| 6 |
|
|
| 7 |
|
|
| 8 |
|
|
| 9 |
|
|
So you’ve written something for each prompt in the right-hand column. Now in the left-hand column, write exactly this:
1. Main character’s first name; 2. His/her surname; 3. His/her age;
4. The road/town name (you add a relevant ending e.g. Pinkville or Purple Street);
5. His/her emotion; 6. His/her relation; 7. Where they are in the house;
8. What’s in there with them. 9. The target word count of your story.
I received:
1. Jordan; 2. Lockwood; 3. 22; 4. Orange; 5. Anger; 6. Aunt; 7. Meerkat;
8. Basement; 9. 28.
And the end result was:
Orangeberg made 22-year-old Jordan Lockwood angry. He was unsure why but his aunt’s meerkat didn’t help; screeching away in the basement. Until one day it escaped, Jordan followed.
So, it is possible to write a short story in 28 words (Ernest Hemingway, after all, did it in six; ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’). And whilst most competitions would expect (or ask for) a normal minimum of 55/60 (the norm is between 150 and 500), it’s a great way of paring down your story and as we all know, editing is easier said than done.
*
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, poetry slams, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, travel memoir, travel writer, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by Maria Castle.
Tips on How to Improve Your Writing
Everybody wants to improve their writing some way, whether it is to start a new career, improve their academic work, or to improve their job prospects. Here are a few ways that may help you to improve your writing. Not only will these pointers help you to improve the quality of your text, but also the impact that is has and your own habits when it comes to writing.
Write without stopping for extended periods
Practice writing without stopping for a certain period of time, allowing your fingers to move almost constantly. This may sound ridiculous, and of course, the result will be many grammatical errors. But there is something powerful in the act of writing in a continuous stream, which more closely reflects spoken word over written text; which may result in a marked improvements in your text quality and work output.
Write with confidence in an unapologetic manner
Do you want to have a positive impact to the people who read your text? You should be direct, passionate and inflexible. Take up a position and do not use a passive voice.
Write to one person as if you’re talking
Some people tend to write very broadly in an attempt to include a larger crowd in their target audience; however, it is more likely to bore them all. Target a character and speak to him/her personally, as he/she represents your target audience. Write as if you were talking to that person face-to-face. You will find that your writing will become more intimate and specific.
Use your internal voice and personality
The “voice” of the text is the element with which the writers reveal their personality. Readers should be able to look upon you as a real human being.
Understand that writing online is different
One of the most common mistakes when writing online is the use of long paragraphs. Reading from a screen is hard work that online readers are not willing to put in. Long paragraphs are even harder to read lead people tend to not bother. Consider paying for proofreading services until you are well versed in acceptable online and offline writing.
Take risks when you write
Part of the creative process requires the adoption of a mindset where everything is possible. The best writers explore these possibilities even when doing so will be frowned upon. From the addition of made-up words, to improper sentence syntax and vernaculars, the rules were made to be broken.
Tell your story aloud and translate it to text
If you have difficulty putting your thoughts on paper, then record your words. It is much easier to talk than it is to write. In this way we can get to the heart of what you mean to say, without being bogged down with trying to put it into sentences and words. When you have finished a chapter or made your point, you are able to write down what you said, and edit out the bits that did not sound very good.
Read aloud the finished article
Rarely do we objectively read our words. To freely analyze your writing you need to start reading aloud. If necessary, rewrite the text so that rereading it aloud sounds more natural.
Don’t learn from great writers
Do not expect to be a great writer if you are not familiar with the great writing, but do not be influence by it. Trying to do what the greats did is the first step towards being a hack. The scholars will not be discussing you in 100 years because your characters name is “Hugh Man”, or because you describe your main character as if you are describing a bear. The greats were great because they made their own style and exploited it. If you want to be great then you need to develop your own style.
*
That was great. Thank you, Maria!
The article is contributed by Maria Castle. She is a writer for Scholar Advisor, an education portal that provides writing tips, guides and essay samples.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Maria Castle, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, poetry slams, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, travel memoir, travel writer, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of editing, is brought to you by science-fiction author Yvonne Anderson.
Pruning Season for Writers
I cut my reading teeth on the old classics, written during a time when language was flowing and flowery. Consequently, my early writings followed the wordy example of my teachers.
Keeping my language clean and concise was difficult for me at first. For one thing, it seemed wrong to cut off all that beauty. Or at least, what I perceived as beauty. Also, old habits are hard to break even when you’re convinced of the need for it. Which, at first, I wasn’t.
When I finally realized all that verbiage made my writing clumsy, not cute, I discovered something surprising. That is, the most helpful guide for trimming the fat from my fiction was the same book that taught me the art of backyard pruning.
For several years now, I’ve been applying these guidelines to my apple trees, grape vines, and writing with equal success.
Why do we prune fruit trees?
1 – To remove diseased, broken, or old branches;
2 – To thin out extra limbs;
3 – To remove crossed limbs and prevent weak divisions;
4 – To allow more light to reach the inner branches;
5 – Removing old limbs that have lost vigor allows new ones to replace them, thus renewing the whole tree every decade;
6 – To train the tree into proper shape and size.
The very same principles apply to our writing:
1 – Confusing phrases and misused words are the literary equivalent of diseased and broken branches.
2 – Redundancies and repetitions are extra or crossed limbs.
3 – Side tangents that don’t move the story forward are weak limb divisions.
4 – These extraneous words must be removed to let the sunshine of clarity shine in.
5 & 6 – Once the clutter is cleared, our writing will take on the proper shape and size to be beautiful and fruitful.
When undertaking the task in the garden, the orchardist recommends removing everything you dare. The next day, go out and do the same thing. Again. To the same tree. That should yield the desired result.
I’ve found this to be true with my writing as well. I remove everything it seems possible to cut, let it rest awhile, then go back and do it again. That seems to do the trick.
Unlike the orchardist, the writer needn’t worry about temperature or sap flow. So scribes, get out your clippers and saws, and start trimming; it’s always pruning season!
*
That was great. Thank you, Yvonne. I’m off to do some gardening! 
Yvonne Anderson lives in rural Ohio with her husband of 37 years and the one most deeply-imbedded of her four grown kids.
She also has five grandchildren who live too far away.
Formerly a legal secretary, Yvonne works part time as a Virtual Assistant but spends most of her time on the planet Gannah researching her books.
She is a member of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers), the Lost Genre Guild, and International Thriller Writers.
Yvonne is a regular contributor to the blogs Speculative Faith and The Borrowed Book, and serves as contest administrator for Novel Rocket, named four times to Writer’s Digest list of the 101 Best Websites for Writers.
You’re invited to subscribe to her wise words on her personal site at www.YsWords.com.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, fiction author, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, horror novel, indie, interview, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, pseudonyms, publisher, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, YA, young adult novels, youtube, Yvonne Anderson
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of series, is brought to you by family saga novelist Nicole Dunlap.
Sequels, Sagas, and Trilogies…Oh, My!
So you’ve written your best work and the reading world, as we know it, will love the masterpiece. Like a crafty novelist, your brain has already worked out plot-points and scenarios that will make for a fantastic sequel. Then a novelist-dream occurs, you’ve had a “creative brain explosion” and your mind has already conjured up an outline of a three book, four book, – no wait – a five book series.
When deciding to write a series can be a great choice
- After completing the first book, a writer has learned a wealth of information about their characters. Choosing to write an addition book or more will allow the author to connect with their characters on greater levels. The time that they’ve invested in character development will show as they’ve fleshed out their characters until he or she is tangible. These characters become real and readers form a greater relation with characters they feel connected with. As the author of the Shaw Family Saga, Miss Nobody being the first in the series, I’ve come to love and connect with my characters. Fans and bloggers have commented just how real the characters by Miss Scandalous, book 2.
- Readers are loyal. When they find an author that they love, they scour the internet–or the back flap of a novel–to find out more about said author. Hooking a “bookworm” with the first in a series can lead to lifetime relationship and increased book sales.
- Trilogies are often paused on cliffhangers. Readers love stories that stir their emotions and leave them in a tense situation. Pausing a novel at a peak in transition will leave the audience wanting more. A good story can stay on the readers mind long after they’ve turned the last page of the book. It leaves the fans mulling over what’s going to happen next. We’ve all seen those reviews that say “can’t wait for the next one!” (Caution, if the plot points are developed incorrectly this is also a con.)
- Authors can have an increased interaction with fans. Writing a saga provides a novelist with the opportunity to learn what their fans like or didn’t like. They can engage on social media and determine what the fans want to happen with future installments. This increased engagement can not only provide the author with more ideas and easier writing, it is also a great way to boost your brand.
- Brand–it’s a big word in the publishing world. Being known as the author of the “Harry Potter” series or the [insert the first famous epic author at the top of your head hear] really solidifies a brand and increases the word-of-mouth aspect of marketing that helps authors sell, sell, sell.
When turning your stand alone novel into a series can be daunting
- Time can be a pickle. Sagas are usually written over an extended period of time. While writing the second installment of my family saga, I had to continuously revert to the first and not just for large details.
- Another issue with consistency is that novelist must edit their work. Sometimes scenes have been cut out or added in and it’s easy to forget that. A writer has the unedited full version of the story running through their brain, – and if done right – the readers have the fully edited story that has been prepped for consistency and flow. Therefore, toggling back and forth from stories or having a chapter outline is imperative.
- Continuing the story with different segments must be done with “refresher information” in between to ensure cross-consistency. It takes a creative novelist to determine how much back story or “refresher information” to add in the next read.
When turning a standalone into a series is not so much of a good idea
- The standalone was so impactful that the novelist would be forcing it to end the story with an outrageous climax. We’ve all read a story that was so deeply poetic, so deeply about romance and love, then BAM. The author knows how great it was so they ended it with a shocking cliffhanger that in no way complements their story or their target audience.
- Readers complain about overly-developed books in which the author creates a new world and at least 100 pages can be highlighted as pure setting. Or there’s an arsenal of characters in the story that have a back story–adding another 50 pages or so. While focusing on just these two parts of a novel, the author hasn’t even developed an interesting plot.
- The author decides to slowly feed the reader sets of plotlines, but the big issue is that these never ending webs of juiciness weave on and on. Based on readers’ comments, if plotlines are being opened, opened, opened, they don’t see the characters transforming until the end of the first book or well into book three. This can lead to an epic fail.
To write a sequel, saga, or trilogy, the choice is yours
Whether you choose to write a standalone or you’re in it for the long haul, there are many situations to take into perspective. Outlined above are a few–subjective–choice reasons to do or not to do. What are some other ideas you can think of before taking the plunge? Write those down to ensure your best work. Keep in mind, it’s a big job. Have the first book–or previous books–on standby and outlining a series is needed if you don’t want to weave a stick web of a never-ending plot.
Thank you, Nicole!
At the age of five, in her mother’s busted-up car, Nicole was inspired to write. They didn’t have a radio and she started out singing – unfortunately, she was no Alicia Keys (she tells me). She dabbled in storytelling while her mother drove over an hour to do the “kiddy exchange” with her father. Over the years, her short stories jumbled in her brain until she just could not hold on any longer and published Miss Nobody and Miss Scandalous. You can find Nicole via…
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, critique, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, family saga novelist, fantasy, feedback, fiction, fiction author, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, horror novel, interview, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, Nicole Dunlap, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, pseudonyms, publisher, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of motivation, is brought to you by journalist and author Dana Sitar.
Why I Value Failure
Being a writer, like any form of self-employment, is a game of trial and error. You’re bound to make mistakes along the way, but that doesn’t mean you need to leave the game. You just have to adapt and push through to the next step. Admit failure, take notes, and try something different.
Throughout my short career, I have failed a lot.
I have failed as a self-publisher.
I have failed as a blogger.
I have failed as a freelance writer.
I have failed as an editor.
I have failed as a copywriter.
I have failed as a journalist.
I’m still doing all of these, and now I’m doing them all better.
I value failure mostly because I love experimenting with new ideas. Failure is an inevitable byproduct of constant experimentation, so I’ve come to embrace it for the experiences I get to have and the awesome lessons I learn from every step.
Even though my first two books didn’t sell, I learned from publishing them how to format ebooks, and how to create an author page at Amazon and Goodreads.
Though I haven’t had skyrocketing success on my blog, I have learned completely unexpected lessons about what people like to read, what gets them engaged, and what they’ll totally ignore.
Though I floundered for my first year of freelancing, I learned what kind of work I love to do, what kind I hate, and what I can do well to make money without going crazy.
Though I haven’t made a career out of being an editor (as I once thought I would), I learned quickly from doing it a little bit that I love and excel at helping someone take a good idea to the next level.
Though I haven’t been able to stick long with any copywriting client — for the queasy feeling of selling-out-ness that comes with many positions — my writing has improved tremendously because of the lessons I learned about writing concise, engaging copy.
Though I haven’t (yet) found a comfortable income as a journalist, I learned through a few chance assignments that this is the style of writing that I am made to do — something I never considered in a whole life of fantasizing about being a writer.
Don’t fear failure. Embrace it.
A fear of failure is a huge roadblock to trying new things, especially in your career, where your livelihood and reputation are concerned. But if you let that fear dictate your moves, you’ll never make progress toward your dreams.
In order to know what you want to do and what you do best, you have to try things. Don’t just settle for the first thing you discover. Embrace the weird ideas that strike you; experiment with unexpected desires. Try everything, fail, and get better at being the best, unique you.
That was great. Thank you, Dana.
Dana Sitar is a freelance journalist and indie author. She shares resources, tips, and tools for writers in search of a path through the blog, ebooks, and community at DIYWriting. Dana has been writing professionally since 2010, blogging unabashedly since 2011, and traveling perpetually since she discovered that one feature article could purchase enough gas for a cross-country road-trip.
In May 2011, Dana left her job and home in Madison, Wisconsin and traveled across the country to make a living writing. She had little experience, but high hopes, perseverance, creativity, and a willingness to experiment helped her land clients, start publishing, and make a living doing what she loved. When friends, family, and colleagues started to ask Dana how she was able to do it, she made it her mission to motivate other artists to forget their fears and follow their dreams.
Dana’s first ebook for writers, AWriter’sBucketList: 99 thingstodoforinspiration, education, andexperiencebeforeyourwritingkicksthebucket, does just that. The inspirational and educational guide for writers at all levels of their careers was released in February 2013 by DIY Writing.
In addition to self-publishing, Dana has written for Writer’s Digest, The Daily Cardinal, The Onion, Baystages, and Maximum Ink. She covers stand-up comedy for SF Weekly and Laughspin. She has written about writing, freelancing, and career topics for dozens of popular writing and career blogs, including The Creative Penn, Musings from the Slushpile, and Brazen Life.
Learn more about Dana at danasitar.com and get your copy of “A Writer’s Bucket List” through writersbucketlist.com.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with children’s author Maggie Lyons – the six hundred and thirty-seventh of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, critique, Dana Sitar, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, fiction author, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, horror novel, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, pseudonyms, publisher, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by Allison Foster.
Writing Emotionally
Sometimes I find it hard to write. I feel emotionally congested and incapable of getting anything out. Like today. My fingers are spasming all over the keyboard and making it hard to spell anything right. I feel overly emotional, though with the morning I have had today it is no wonder. Sometimes life just throws you a curve ball and you have to cope. But how can you write when you are so upset and your mind is a whirl? Here are some tips that might help you out:
- Accept the emotion – The first thing you should do is to accept that you are feeling emotional. It will not do you any good to deny that you are upset, irritated, sad or whatever you are. By accepting the emotion you can use it as fuel instead of fighting against it. Sort of like turning a sailboat into the wind, use emotion to move your writing forward and help you to get things accomplished.
- Do not worry about making sense – Sometimes when you are emotional you do not make the most sense. Anyone who has ever had a fight with a partner knows that one. However you should not worry about making sense when you write when your emotions are high. There will be plenty of time to edit and correct later. Right now just use that energy and enthusiasm to get the works out on the page and make the most of your time. Some of the most poignant and clear things I have ever written have come out of emotional exhaustion and word vomit.
- Edit later – Like I said, do not worry about what you are writing. Edit later/. I know all those misspelled words and green and red underlines are irritating but try to ignore them. The idea is to harness this up swell of energy and use it to come out with something living and vibrant. If you stop to fix things you will either get frustrated and give up or you will just lose your train of thought completely.
- Write an outline – If I have an idea and I know I will lose it along the way, like I have often done, I will take a minute or two to sketch out an outline of my paper so that I can keep track of what I wanted to write. Make sure it is clear enough that you are not trying to figure it out again later, but do not take up all your time writing everything down. Just get the gist and get back to writing with your head clear and your fingers flying.
- Let your characters lead – One thing that writers often forget is that you are both in control and not in control of where your story is going. In fiction writing the characters you create are yours, but they are also people with emotions, foibles and sensibilities all their own. Sometimes when I am in an emotional state those characters take on aspects of that emotion that match their characters and then they take off. I have had many stories where a secondary character has taken over because of the power behind her emotions are the depth it gives to her character in the story. It can be a great boon to have a character like that as they are often the most real and communicate with the readers on a visceral level.
- Feel free to write dialogue – I know that dialogue is one of the hardest things for me to write, especially when I am not emotional. Everything comes out all stunted and boring and informative, not like real talking at all. However when I allow my emotions to go lose on the dialogue it comes out choppy, confusing, and utterly realistic. Real people do not speak in whole sentences. They talk over each other, argue, reference things, and are just messed up. This adds a layer of reality to your fiction and can make it seem more like real people talking. Emotion is great for encouraging you to write creative and explorative dialogue.
- Stream of conscious – I know one of my favorite chapters I have ever written was written stream of consciousness. Because I was in such a highly charged emotional state, that happened to mirror a character’s state at the time, I used my own emotions to uncover hers. She exploded off the page with angst and agony that I had never known she possessed. I, the writer, was shocked by her experiences and her heartache! As I read over that chapter later I loved how raw and real it felt, and completely separate from my own troubles. This was no Mary Sue, but I had tapped into the emotional reserve while becoming the character to create someone who was three dimensional and really real.
- Fight scenes are great – I love to write action and fighting scenes when I am all riled up. They have to be wick and fast and to the point, which means my fingers are flying across the keyboard. When I am all riled up the scenes seem to flash in front of my eyes and it is all I can do to type fast enough to get it all down. You know how fast your mind works in a fight or flight situation, right? Well, think about that combined with high emotion and spread out across paper. Yep, that’s just about perfect for a fight scene.
- Get angry – When your emotions are high it is easier to get in touch with the emotions of others. I find I can relate to my bad guys so much more when I am upset. I feel their anger and resentment. The cold calculation or the red blood lust. This tapping in to emotion can allow me to enter into a character I otherwise would have little compatibility with and make them not only realistic, but likeable in a bad sort of way. Tapping into anger and all the negative emotions that we deal with as people allow your caters to become more real.
- Get sad –Like anger, sadness can work its way through your story to become an integral part. Your characters are going to be sad sometimes, it is a part of life. Maybe the bad guy is winning, maybe someone has passed away, and maybe the love is gone. Allowing yourself to feel that sadness and even cry with your characters can help you to create ones whose feelings are honest and real instead of cliché and fake. Sadness is hard to portray without getting maudlin, but if you can tap into your own feelings and reactions then you have a better chance of getting something real out in the chapter.
These are just a few of the ways that I have learned to harness my emotional energy and write great on bad days. We all have days when everything seems to go wrong but that does not mean we can’t be productive. There is a reason that many of the classic famous writers were tortured souls. They tapped into that intensity of emotion and allowed others to see it through their characters, creating stories that grip us, entertain us, and make us see the reality in the fiction.
Thank you, Allison.
Blogging for was a natural progression for Allison once she graduated from college, as it allowed her to combine her two passions: writing and children. She has enjoyed furthering her writing career with www.nannyclassifieds.com. She can be in touch through e-mail allison.nannyclassifieds@gmail.com.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about.
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Allison Foster, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, fiction author, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, horror novel, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery series, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of creating a ‘how to’ book, is brought to you by guest blogger Alicia Rasley.
Crafting the Writing Craft Book
I’d like to thank Morgen for asking me to guest blog again! This time, I’d like to talk about the experience of writing “how-to” books. First, understand that the only thing I know how to do is write, so naturally my how-to books are about writing. But I think the process will be similar no matter what the subject is.
Here’s what I learned in developing my two writing books, The Story Within Plotting Guide, and The Power of Point of View, which might be useful to you if you’re considering writing a non-fiction how-to or support book.
Topic choice: It’s essential to really care about this topic, because it’ll be central for a year or so! I don’t know if I could spend this much time writing about a topic that I wasn’t obsessed with. I did write a couple corporate histories years ago, and no, I wasn’t obsessed with the story of those two companies. But truly, if I hadn’t been getting a paycheck for the work, I probably would have given it up.
So choosing two topics of interest (plotting and point of view) kept me interested. At the same time, I wouldn’t have been so eager to write if I already knew everything about the topic. For both books, the process of writing was a process of learning. I wasn’t taking dictation, but actually acquiring knowledge as I wrote. So I’ve learned, with non-fiction books, it’s good to choose a topic I want to know more about.
Finding time: I’m basically a fiction-writer, so when I came up with these non-fiction project ideas, they didn’t have priority. And the task seemed so daunting, I was actually afraid to get started because I might learn I couldn’t handle it. But then I decided I would work on it for a particular hour every month—the third Tuesday at 11 am. One hour a month. Well, of course, I kept that schedule one month, but once I got going, I couldn’t stop. I kept going back adding a paragraph here and there. In a few months, I had a complete draft.
Getting started: Fear of failure is a real problem for me, one that gets worse as I get older. I have gotten used to being pretty competent, so starting something new means I’m risking being incompetent.The moral of that story is writing a little bit leads to writing more—as long as you’re interested in the topic.
I am also someone who gets intimidated with a large project, but impatient with outlining ahead of time. I want a sense of direction without losing the excitement of writing something new. What helped me was writing articles—1000 or so words on different aspects of the subject. So, for example, when I was writing about point of view, I wrote an article about how to individuate description depending on the narrator’s viewpoint. The tight focus on one small aspect of the issue made the article easy to write, but I also found it slotted right into the book with just a bit of introduction and analysis.
Organizing: Once I get some material written, I can start organizing. My outline, when I get to it, starts with major sections. For example, in the plot book, I started with three big parts: Character, Conflict, Plot. Then I assigned each article and blog post to one of those sections, just by copying and pasting. Only then did I really start organizing, ordering what I already had and figuring out what was missing. I found it much easier to fill in the blanks when I already had part of each section drafted.Now I have a writing blog, and when I’m working on a how-to book, I try to write a few blog posts about some aspect of that topic. For example, I’m planning a book on writing emotion, so I’ve written blog posts about how to convey suppressed emotion, how to use parallel scenes to show emotional change, and how to use the opening sentence in the scene to show emotion through the setting. Not only does this allow me to effortlessly explore the topic, the blog commenters often supply me with questions and examples which I can use in my expanded analysis.
Reorganizing: While I was on my own with the plotbook, I sold the POV book to Writer’s Digest Books, where I worked with a terrific editor, Lauren Mosko. She taught me a lot about how to make non-fiction material accessible to readers. Each chapter followed a basic template, and she used sidebars to delve deeper into complicated issues and illustrate examples. This was a great lesson in how to visually and logically present the points of understanding. I’m using these techniques in the how-to books I’m writing now, imagining the chapters as units of explanation that come together to make a complete analysis.
Self-awareness: I’m pretty confident in my ability to explore a writing topic and find examples to illustrate my points. But I have a weak visual sense and no visual imagination. So I’ve learned to study how-to books that work for me to find out what they’ve done in the presentation to organize and illustrate. By identifying my major weakness, I’m halfway to overcoming it.
Confidence comes from trying and succeeding, but sometimes failing has to come in between there. Now I know the best way to get beyond that fear of failure is to plunge in and write. And I’ve found that while a non-fiction book has its own internal logic and organic shape, I can learn strategies from each that can be applied to the next.
Thank you, Alicia, that was great!
Alicia Rasley is the author of The Power of Point of View and The Story Within Plotbook. A nationally known writing teacher, she gives writing workshops around the country and online. She blogs at Edittorrent, and her writing articles can be found at her website.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with science-fiction author, songwriter and poet Eleni Papanou – the six hundred and twenty-ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
***
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Alicia Rasley, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, beginnings, biographers, biography, blogging, books, chapters, characters, children’s, contemporary women’s fiction, craft book, creative writing, crime, critique, endings, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, fiction project, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery series, non fiction books, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, Regency, regency romance, rejection letters, rejections, romance, romance novelist, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing books, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing guide, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by journalist and blogger Fred Willard.
The Merits of Digital Publication in the 21st Century
Although most people possess a rough idea of what journalism entails, it actually has a very specific definition. Journalism, properly defined, should sound something like this: the preparation and dissemination of auditory (news), visual (newspapers), or audiovisual (broadcast news) public media aimed at conveying current factual information, usually in a terse and easily digestible format.
As marketers are quite familiar of, journalism can sometimes entail messaging a general audience or it may involve trying to reach a specific demographic. For instance, the New York Times or Washington Post has a very different target audience than Fox News. The biases follow accordingly. Nonetheless, the internet is really changing the face of news. From downloading articles to smartphones or reading “the paper” from Huffington Post, tomorrow’s news definitely contains a digital dimension.
Tomorrow’s Media
Although the internet brings increased visibility and perhaps readership to journalists’ stories, it also brings on novel problems and merits. For instance, CNN correspondent and Sunday show anchor, Fareek Zakaria, recently received an unwelcome blotch on his resume when he was accused of failing to attribute his source. See, today’s access to information makes people feel as though they can copy and paste snippets of other’s articles; in fact, this is still called plagiarism. Nonetheless, in today’s digital cyberspace, there is an increased opportunity to become discovered for good work or work that sparks the public imagination.
Amazon’s New Employees
Sites like Amazon are increasingly hopping into the self-publishing game. Young and talented authors from around the globe are submitting their books through Amazon in hopes of becoming the next E.L. James and Fifty Shades of Grey hotshot. You see, E.L. James published an erotic novel in 2011 that caught on. And it caught on in a big way. The book sold millions of copies and put previously unknown E.L. James on the popular culture map through frenzied word of mouth.
Amazon and You
Other authors are emulating the formula that made Ms. James an overnight sensation. Here’s how the game works: Amazon takes a commission for offering budding writers the flexibility and easy publication of its online services and purveyance. Using a somewhat mysterious algorithm, Amazon then lists your book based on views and popularity. Additionally, your book can skyrocket through work of mouth or sales; the latter is really the actualized version of adequate word of mouth.
Self-Publication for the Win!
The real beauty of Amazon, though, is two-fold. In addition to being assured quick and reliable publication, much of the time and effort that previously went into marketing the finished novel or non-fiction piece can go into more writing! In many ways, the basic mechanics of Amazon’s review system work like eBay’s do it yourself review infrastructure. Customers qualitatively say what they enjoyed about the book. Quantitively, Amazon customers report satisfaction with the book on a five star basis. The next E.L. James is waiting to be hatched!
Thank you, Fred.
Fred Willard writes about his career in journalism, blogging, marketing & public relations at www.howdoibecomea.net.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with historical and crime fiction author Colin Falconer – the six hundred and twenty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, CNN correspondent, creative writing, crime, critique, E.L. James, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, Fareek Zakaria, feedback, fiction, Fred Willard, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Sunday show anchor, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by crime novelist S J Wardell.
Understanding the Writing Journey
Taking the leap into the literary world and announcing that you have decided it is you whom is going to write the next best seller is a bold yet lonely step to make – Friends and family will become tired of the only thing you now ever talk about, with the characters banging around in your head and the never ending reliving of the storyline repeating itself more times than any television show during the Christmas season.
Let’s rewind a little and take a look at the bit in the middle…
It is my opinion that the first thing on any would-be writers to do list should be to grow a thick skin. If you are the kind of person who struggles to accept rejection, then this is not the career for you.
You’re almost there… But you have to wait for the starters’ pistol…
Any writer has to plan the journey their story is going to take, before they embark on joining as the passenger. As you write about certain parts, plots, characters, it would be wise to take notes; this will save you time later on. It is common for the writer to throw valuable free flowing writing time away whilst back-reading. I would also advise on not re-reading your work until you type those two words and give that big sigh – THE END. That’s the perfect time to do your read-through and not before.
“I’m writing a book,” I have been told on so many different occasions. It is then that the talker informs me that they have been writing the same book for a number of years.
When embarking on a writing project for the first time, it is widely known for a newbie writer to mistake the process as a sprint and not a marathon with their literary fluency being interrupted by breaks of non natural flow. Hiccupping and stuttering the smoothness of what they believe to be the best book since time began.
A writer has to connect with the characters he or she creates, crafting the fiction they are sketching as three dimensional as possible. Therefore, the writer must hook themselves in to the story before they can ever know whether they can temp anyone working within the submissions department of any publishing house to admit to biting the bait.
Before getting too excited and throwing in the towel of the day job, it is advisable to at least finish the first manuscript, successfully find a publisher who is willing to take you on as a client and witness your labour of love out there for all to read. It will be only a matter of time before that first royalty finds its way into your longing hands; that is when you should make the decision to quit the day job. Until then, I’m afraid it’s a case of long hours working in both jobs, ignoring your need to sleep and upping your intake of caffeine.
The wheels in the literary world can normally turn at an almost standstill. No one will rush – Publishing Houses are snowed under with submissions, with the next biggest thing trying to vie for the attention of anyone whose eye line they can attract.
You have now taken the first steps in your long journey, with your eyes wide open and the butterflies fully alive, the time has arrived – Pick up that pen and get writing.
I wish you every success and you never know, one day it could be you!
Morgen: I think if we’re determined enough we can make it and if not, at least we’ll have enjoyed the ride. Thank you, SJ.
Mr S J Wardell now lives in the Midlands UK with his wife and their two young children.
After years of fighting his natural urge to write, Mr Wardell decided that he should first state his right to claim his place in the literary world and obtained his BA in Prose Fiction Writing and Journalism. This only made his passion for writing grow; but not being one to rush things, he set about sharing his educated knowledge with those who wanted to chose the same journey.
Originally from London, S J openly admits to his obsession to reading crime fiction, therefore this genre was the natural choice for his pen with London being his favoured setting – Infinite Retribution is his second publication in 2012, with a third title being due for release at the end of February 2013. He tells us that his third book is the sequel to his first, “Infinite Retribution is a standalone released in-between my first and third in order to show that I’m a well rounded crime writer,” the author confirmed. Mr Wardell can be found on:
Infinite Retribution is exclusive to Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Infinite-Retribution-Price-Honour-ebook/dp/B008RZ58PC/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with historical romance novelist Nandita Chakraborty Banerji – the six hundred and twenty-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
***
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, S J Wardell, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
I have been run a fortnightly critique group for the past five years as well as critiquing other authors’ writing which I really enjoy, so I started creating podcast episodes doing this. Because as it was restrictive being audio-only, I decided to switch from audio to text. The earlier episodes have already been blogged (and are listed on the http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/red-pen-critique page).
I have set up four new critique online writing groups for short stories, poetry and novel / script extracts (see http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/online-writing-groups so will now be stopping this red pen critique section of this blog). I know, I’m sorry. It’s a popular slot but it’s so time-consuming for me.
The good news is that I can post more than one item a week on the new blog: http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com so more opportunity, I print off the stories and red pen them, as I have been doing with these but I include links to the scanned images, I don’t make or type up notes, and the site more actively welcomes critique from others, because it’s an online writing group.
Back to this post, please remember that it’s only one person’s (my) opinion and you, and the author concerned, are welcome to disagree with my interpretation – I will never be mean for the sake of it, but hope you find that I’m firm but fair. I type my comments as I read through the story as a reader would think as they read, although they would most likely be reading, not analysing, unless they’re writers too!
Regardless of what genre you write I hope that this helps you think about the way fiction is constructed and that you have enjoyed reading another author’s work, the copyright of which remains with them.
***
The 2,414-word story in this post was kindly emailed to me by Charlie Kane, author of short story collections including ‘Whisper’ (pictured right). If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my website or blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
So without further ado, the story then my feedback… and I’ve been really picky this week, with almost as long a critique as the story is, sorry Charlie!
Betrayal
The sun shone brightly through the curtains waking Steve. Sitting up he stretched out his arms and yawned slightly. He looked over at the sleeping figure beside him and smiled contently. Helen looked so cute when she was sleeping. Her hair was curled around her shoulders and her left cheek was red from where she had rested it on her arm during the night. Steve pulled the covers over his girlfriend carefully, but not before he had taken a look at her exposed body. He kissed her softly on the cheek, wrapped a sheet around her waist and made his way to the bathroom. He and Helen had been together for just under a year, since the start of their freshman year at college. They had met at an induction meeting when they were both scared eighteen year olds unsure of what to expect from college. A group of new starters had been brought together to help them get acquainted with the college and to make friends.
That had been ten months ago. It was now the middle of June and they were on summer break. They had decided to stay at home with their families and find a job so they were able to fund their second year. So far they had not had any luck finding any vacancies; everyone had seemed to have the same idea.
“Babe?” Helen moaned groggily. Steve turned around and saw Helen sitting up, allowing the sheet to slip from her body. Steve couldn’t help but smile. Even though Helen was skinny she looked really good topless, actually she looked really good unclothed in general. “Hey you” he replied climbing back onto the bed and wrapping his arms around Helen.
“You Okay?” Helen asked grinning and placing her hands upon her boyfriend’s waist.
“I am now you’re awake” Steve replied placing a soft kiss upon her. Helen couldn’t stop the urges so she kissed back, running her tongue across Steve’s bottom lip begging for entrance. Steve allowed her entry and he ran his hands across Helen’s chest. This caused her to let out a soft yet intense moan of delight.
“Oh God Steve” Helen moaned loudly, as Steve placed her hand into his boxer shorts. Excitement built as she started to play with Steve’s now hardened member.
***
Steve rolled off Helen, his breath heavy, his body sweaty.. He looked at Helen and smiled. “That was great” Helen returned the smile cuddling herself into him, her arm thrown over his chest.
“Yeah it was” Steve leaned over to kiss Helen again but he was interrupted by a knock on the door. Steve groaned and wrapped the sheet around their bodies quickly “Who is it?” the door opened and a small blonde walked in. Louise, Helen’s best friend since freshman year of high school. Louise and Steve got on, with much delight from Helen. Louise had been a lost 14 year old wandering the halls when she had bumped into Helen causing them both to drop the books they had been carrying. Helen had offered to show Louise around and found that they had a lot in common and had been inseparable since.
“Hey guys. Your mom told me you were up here, I hope it’s ok” she blushed as she noticed the state of undress that they were in. She couldn’t help but stare at Steve though as the sheet gently slipped from around his shoulders.
“Er sure. Could you wait downstairs whilst we get dressed please?” Helen asked, holding the sheet around her body tighter. Louise nodded and left the room rather quickly, her eyes focused on the floor as she made her way out.
Helen giggled as the door closed shut. “I bet she wasn’t expecting that” she softly kissed Steve and got up to collect her clothes. “Hmm” Steve replied. He had never told anyone but he had a crush on Louise. He had done since he met her but by then he had fallen in love with Helen so he tried, unsuccessfully, to stop the feelings that he was developing for her.
Months past quickly and after spending a great deal of time together his feelings and hormones were growing increasingly for Louise. Yes, he loved Helen, how could he not but he also couldn’t help the way he was feeling towards her best friend. He wondered what it would be like if he was with her instead of Helen. But then he wouldn’t have known Louise if it hadn’t been for Helen. Louise attended her local community college so she wasn’t at the same university.
Helen came back from the bathroom dressed and threw open the curtains. She noticed that Steve was still in the same place, still undressed. “Come on lazy get dressed. I’ll meet you downstairs” she patted the bed and went downstairs. Steve sighed and slowly made the effort to get dressed. He was confused, very confused. He didn’t want to have the feelings he did for Louise but he also wanted to be with her very much. He couldn’t hurt Helen, but he couldn’t stay away from Louise. The two had been emailing back and forth and Helen was happy that the two had been getting on but if she had known the truth she would have stopped them corresponding months ago. He didn’t even know if Louise felt the same towards him. He hoped that she didn’t because then it would make things easier, but if she did…he sighed again. He went downstairs and hoped that his confusion, and lust, wasn’t written on his face.
***
“Steve” Louise moaned, feeling Steve’s hardened member press against her thigh. Steve pulled down Louise’s knickers and rammed himself inside her. She moaned with pain the first couple of times but then those moans of pain soon turned into moans of pleasure the more that Steve thrust himself inside her.
His hands roamed her body and he trailed kisses over her neck and shoulders. He wrapped her legs around his waist more and pushed himself deeper inside her. He let out a grunt. God he needed this. All these months of frustration, tension and the confusion about his feelings for Louise were finally gone.
He hadn’t meant for this to happen. It had been a week since the incident involving Louise catching them post coitus had occurred, and although she had been around a couple of times to see Helen she had tried to avoid him. Helen had gone grocery shopping with her mother so Steve had gone back home to catch up with his friends from college and wait until Helen got back. He planned to take her out for a meal and then maybe a walk along the canal.
When a knock came at the door he wasn’t expecting it to be Louise so he was shocked to find her standing there. “Hey. What are you doing here?” he didn’t mean to sound accusing but it was a surprise, she usually only came over when she knew that Helen was going to be there.
“I hope it’s ok to come by?” she stood in the doorway looking embarrassed to be there. He couldn’t help but notice that the jeans and the top she was wearing was clinging to all the right parts of her body.
Steve stepped aside and Louise walked past him, her hair brushing against his bare arms “Sure, it is. You know Helen’s not here right?” He shut the door behind her and the two walked into the living room.
“I know. It’s you I wanted to see. It’s about last week”
“What about it?” he sat down and motioned for Louise to take a seat. He didn’t think there was anything to discuss about what had happened last week.
“When I walked in” she folded her arms on her lap and looked around the room. The walls were covered in photographs of Steve – of him through the ages, playing sports, at graduation. His family were proud of him, and they had reason to.
“We discussed that. It’s ok”
“No I mean, I was happy that I interrupted. I hated seeing you two together” she was rushing, her words becoming a jumble and she blushed profusely. “God I don’t know what I’m saying. I don’t even know why I am saying it. I should go” she stood up and started hurrying out of the door.
“Louise wait” he got up after her and placed his hand on her shoulder. She didn’t turn.
“What?” she snapped. She could feel the tears starting to build. She didn’t know why she had come here. She didn’t know why she just admitted what she had. She had ruined everything. If Steve told Helen what she had told him their friendship would be over and that was something she couldn’t deal with. Helen meant everything to her and she couldn’t bear to lose her. Yes, she was in love with Steve but she also respected Helen more. She hadn’t meant to fall for him but she couldn’t stop listening to what her heart was telling her.
She became weak whilst she was around him, felt herself blushing when he looked at her and she sometimes struggled to find the correct thing to say around him. She got excited when she saw his name appear in her mail box and no matter what she was doing would always find the time to reply to him. Worst of all, she hated seeing Helen and Steve together, couldn’t stand the way they held onto each other and finished each other sentences. She wanted to be the person who curled up into his arms, who laughed at the faces he made, the person he would kiss every morning and every night and say that he loves her.
“I feel the same for you” his voice was quiet. He turned her around gently so that they were facing each other “I’ve had feelings for you since I met you, I thought they would go because of the love I have for Helen but they wont go. I need you Louise. God I hate myself for saying that”
Louise took his hand and held it tightly “Helen’s my best friend Steve, I couldn’t do that to her, no matter how much I love you”. It pained her to say it but she wouldn’t allow anything to happen between them, not at the expense of losing her best friend.
He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. We couldn’t do that to Helen” he realised that neither of them have moved. They were still pressed close to each other. Louise looked up at him, her fingers still intertwined with his. He swallowed hard and brushed his thumb over the top of her hand.
Leaning in closer she could feel could feel his hot breath against her. She pressed her lips against his gently. He kissed back and pushed her against the wall gently. She tugged at his hair and ran her fingers through it. She was glad he didn’t cut it, she liked it shaggy, it suited him.
Pulling apart, he held out his hand to her and took her to his room. Words were not exchanged as they pushed open the door and collapsed on the bed. A mess of arms and legs.
***
As Helen approached Steve’s room she could hear the moans that were coming from behind the closed door. They were sexual moans. ‘What is going on?” she thought to herself. There had to be some explanation as to why those noises were emanating from his room. Maybe he was accessing something he shouldn’t be on his computer because she had gone away. Of course that had to be it, it couldn’t be anything else. Could it?
She shook the thought away but it wouldn’t go. She had to find out what was going on. She pushed open the door and was greeted with the image of her boyfriend and her best friend entangled between the sheets, their arms and legs groping each other.
“OMG ” she stood in the doorway unsure of what to do. Steve pulled himself off Louise and wrapped the sheet around himself.
“How could you Steve? I thought that you loved me”. Tears stung as she fought them back. She looked over at her best friend who was scrambling to find her clothes and ran out of the room.
“I do Hel, this was just…
“I don’t want to hear it. And with HER? My best friend of all people. How dare you!”
She left the room, the tears blurring her vision as she ran down the stairs and past Louise who was doing up her t-shirt
“Helen, wait please”
Helen stopped and turned to Louise, the person she trusted most in the world and realised that it had all been a lie. She slapped her friend hard and ran out of the house. She couldn’t believe that Steve had cheated on her. And with Louise, of all people. Steve had promised that he would never cheat on her. He’d promised that he would always be there for her. He’d promised that he would never hurt her. But he had. He had broken all the promises he had made. ‘Maybe Steve doesn’t love me after all’ she thought to herself. If he could do that to her so easily, he can’t have loved her
She drove home, her eyes still blurred from the tears. She past her house and kept driving. She didn’t know where she was going. She didn’t care where she was headed she just needed to get away from them. Away from the people who caused her hurt. She wouldn’t allow them to destroy her, they wouldn’t take her self respect. She could never forgive them, never forget what they done, never erase the image from her head.
Before she could take in what had happened she found the car spinning as she lost control. She span the wheel trying to gain control back, to slow it down but it wouldn’t. It veered off the road, heading down the embankment into the river. She tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t open, it had jammed on the way down. All she could do was watch as the car crashed into the river and felt her head hitting the dashboard.
Darkness overcome her as she collapsed into the seat as the car began to slowly fill with the ice water from the river.
***
My comments (written as I read the story for the first time):
- The opening felt a little like ‘It was a dark and stormy night’, which gets a lot more stick than I think it deserves. It is atmospheric but it’s a ‘tell’ – we’d rather see the street lights reflected in puddles, hear an empty drinks can rattle against a storm drain.
- Stephen King is famous for disliking adverbs (__ly) and I agree in the case of ‘yawned slightly’, can he just yawn?
- The ‘contently’ can definitely go because we know from her looking cute how he feels.
- Being really picky (as is my way), how does Steve know (unless he woke up in the night and saw her) why Helen’s cheek was red. Also if he can see it, it means her arm’s not resting on it anymore.
- Technically the ‘pull the covers over’ is a split infinitive (to pull over) but to use it in that instance would be wrong.
- ‘Looked at her exposed body’ – whole body? ‘then kissed her on her cheek’ – her face, presumably.
- ‘Wrapped a sheet around her waist’ – hers or his? Would he have gone to the bathroom naked? I wasn’t sure because he’s already pulled the covers over her. A new sheet or one already on the bed? This also confused me a little as we have duvets in the UK, with a sheet usually only on top of the mattress, under the pillows / people, so could be different elsewhere.
- It’s handy knowing their ages, so it’s young love. Ahh…
- ‘eighteen year olds’ (and ‘fourteen year old’ later) should be hyphenated.
- After a descriptive start, we’re being told a bit too much about how they met, so it feels a little like an ‘info dump’ which is best avoided there, later or spread out more would be better.
- ‘everyone had seemed to have the same idea’ is a bit clunky. Perhaps ‘everyone, it seemed, had the same idea’ or ‘everyone seemed to have the same idea’.
- If they’d stayed at home with their families (plural) they wouldn’t be together. An idea of whose house there would be useful. And where is everyone else?
- When Helen starts speaking, I thought Steve was in the bathroom so there needs to be an indication of him not having gone, or having come back. If she started speaking earlier (so the information about them meeting came later, and ideally more spread out, then she’d catch him before he left.
- Again we can lose the adverb (groggily) as her moaning, although yawned might be better as moaning implies she’s complaining.
- Whenever there are two characters speaking, or the narrator switches point of view, the text should appear on a new line so there should be a break after ‘Helen moaned groggily’ (or whatever she ends up doing there).
- As it stands, there are four Helens and two Steves in that short paragraph. So far we have one male, one female so once the names have been established, ‘she / her’ or ‘he / him’ is fine.
- As far as I know, Okay is usually OK or okay, or at least Okay only at the beginning of a sentence.
- I quite like ‘begging for entrance’ but not ‘Steve allowed her entry’. I know it’s his response but we don’t need the repetition, albeit not exactly the same word.
- Although ‘This caused her’ is about Helen, it’s correct to have it remain on the same line because it’s his action so technically in his point of view. That said, it’s indirect speech, like ‘the ball was hit by the bat’ and best avoided… even just continuing the sentence as ‘causing her’ would help.
- I mentioned in last Sunday’s red pen (http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/red-pen-session-014-critique-of-agoraphobia-a-short-story-by-kerry-dwyer), about reasoning behind a show. Last week, we had the fact that Margaret’s face was red because she’d been crying. We’d not previously been told she’d been crying so ‘her eyes and nose are red from crying’, but here we know the situation so the ‘in delight’ can go. We only lose two words, but in a short story every word counts.
- I mentioned earlier about repetition and regular readers of my critique will know it’s a bug bear of mine. In erotica less is most definitely more and here we have three ‘moan / moaned’ close together (‘moaned groggily’ (which can be replaced), ‘intense moan of delight. / “Oh God Steve” Helen moaned loudly’. I’m told I’m the same with having characters sighing!
- I like the pun of ‘Excitement built’, but have never been a fan of the word ‘member’. We know where her hand is so maybe he could just ‘harden’.
- It was a good decision to end the scene there as, unless it’s written for an erotica outlet, we don’t need to know what happens next.
- There are two full stops (periods) after ‘sweaty’ – should be just one. I like the rhythm of ‘heavy / sweaty’.
- There should be a full stop after ‘That was great’ because the following is a new sentence.
- Was Helen’s arm literally thrown? Perhaps ‘draped’ would be better?
- Instead of ‘wrapped the sheet around their bodies quickly’, this would be a good place to have ‘thrown’ (then a full-stop before he speaks).
- ‘the door’ is a new sentence so should have a capital T.
- I’m English so don’t know the US school system, but do we need ‘of high school’? Do other schools have freshman years?
- ‘with much delight from Helen’ is another phrase that feels quite detached – ‘with much delight from Helen’. That said, we don’t need it because they’re the closest people Helen has so she would be pleased.
- Because we don’t know whose house they’re in, whose mother is being referred to? Louise addresses them both, and by saying “you” it doesn’t help, unless she’s mother to both of them!
- ‘noticed the state of undress that they were in’ sounds a little old-fashioned – ‘noticed they looked naked’ would be simpler.
- Because the narrator’s just mentioned Steve when we get “Er sure…” I thought it was him speaking, so having Helen do something before she speaks would clarify that.
- I’d say “Could you wait downstairs whilst we get dressed please?” would be more the way to speak to a parent, rather than best friend. Had Louise not knocked then Helen could say it as an annoyance, but they’re best friends so they’ve probably seen each other ‘in a state of undress’ before (she says as a sweeping generalisation!).
- Because Louise is embarrassed, we don’t need ‘rather quickly’. We know she wouldn’t dawdle leaving the room, and it avoids another adverb… and we have three ‘quickly’s close together.
- ‘“Hmm” Steve replied’ should be on a new line as it switches point of view. Uh oh, Louise and Steve are in love. Poor Helen.
- ‘softly’ is another verb that could go.
- ‘Months passed’ implied that time’s gone that quickly in the story, so ‘months had passed’ would be better.
- ‘Louise attended’ made me think that it’s how they met, so ‘Louise now attended’ would clarify this.
- ‘He had never told anyone but he had a crush on Louise’ should have a comma before ‘but’ otherwise it could be read that he’s never told anyone but himself.
- I’d be inclined to lose the ‘He was confused, very confused’ because it’s a ‘tell’ and we’re then ‘shown’ he’s confused.
- I thought it was a little odd that if Steve and Louise had been corresponding so much, that Helen wouldn’t have wondered if there was more going on.
- ‘He sighed again’ is a new sentence and there should always be a space after ellipses (…). Good to see you only have two sighs and one emphasises the other.
- Another ‘hardened member’… and three ‘himself’s.
- Because we have moans of pain, we don’t need moans of pleasure. I can understand why Steve’s feeling guilty but wouldn’t he be more ruthless with Helen because it’s Louise he really wants than with Louise?
- ‘It had been a week since the incident involving Louise catching them post coitus had occurred’ could be shortened to ‘It had been a week since Louise had caught them’ because we’ve already had the description of that.
- ‘he didn’t mean’ is a new sentence.
- Having said to replace many of the names to ‘she’, Helen’s just been mentioned when we have Louise standing in the doorway so we do need Louise’s name there.
- We’re told twice that Louise’s arrival was unexpected so I’d finish the sentence at ‘sound accusing’.
- The ‘clinging’ is referring to the jeans and top so should be ‘are’ clinging.
- ‘parts of her body’ – perhaps better as ‘places’ as we know its her body.
- Because the previous location was the bedroom, I assume the second location was so them walking into the living room was a surprise. Having Louise knocking at the front door would clarify that. Also some mention of the other members (there’s that word again!) of the family would be good.
- ‘he sat down’ needs a capital H, and the sentence would be neater if it ended at ‘to discuss’.
- The photographs of Steve told me that we were (presumably) in his family’s house.
- ‘profusely’ is another adverb that could go.
- ‘to what her heart was telling her’ could be ‘to her heart’ because we know what it’s telling her.
- ‘mail box’ is usually one word but this could be a UK English vs US English variation.
- ‘She wanted to be the person who curled up into his arms, who laughed at the faces he made, the person he would kiss every morning and every night and say that he loves her.’ kiss her? And loves should be loved as there’s laughed and curled.
- ‘I thought they would go because of the love I have for Helen but they wont go’ – no need for the second ‘go’.
- Rogue space in “OMG “.
- ‘Louise took his hand and held it tightly’ should have a full stop, and ‘clasped his hand’ would be neater.
- The lack of comma after ‘best friend’ in “Helen’s my best friend Steve” implies that Helen is actually a man called Steve!
- ‘neither of them have moved’ is present tense so should be ‘had’ moved. We then don’t need ‘they were still’ because we know they’ve not moved.
- I’ve mentioned repetition and avoiding adverbs so both ‘gently’s could go.
- ‘A mess of arms and legs’ (great description!) is technically still part of the same sentence but it has more impact on its own.
- ‘that were coming’ in ‘she could hear the moans that were coming from behind the closed door’ would make that sentence tighter.
- The first paragraph in Helen’s point of view is a little long. Given the situation, she’d want to leave asap.
- ‘gone away’ implies a holiday, perhaps ‘gone out’ would be better.
- ‘She shook the thought away but it wouldn’t go’ conflicts so her trying to shake the thought away would be more accurate.
- Do legs grope?
- I know OMG is a term used by someone of her age but given the circumstances, would she actually say it? If she does, it would at least warrant an exclamation mark.
- Two more ‘himselfs’ in ‘Steve pulled himself off Louise and wrapped the sheet around himself’ so perhaps better to be more specific, around his waist / body or he could pull away from Louise.
- ‘who was scrambling to find her clothes and ran out of the room’ – was scrambling is ongoing so she’d need to have found the clothes before she ran out the room. Wouldn’t she want to stay?
- “I do Hel, this was just… – needs closing speechmarks.
- Are t-shirts done up? Aren’t they normally put on and shirts done up?
- Because we know how Helen is feeling, I’d delete ‘She couldn’t believe that Steve had cheated on her. And with Louise, of all people.’
- Thoughts are usually written in italics.
- ‘He had broken all the promises he had made’ – is again rather repetitive.
- The impact of the repeated ‘away’ would be made stronger with ‘from them’ as we know who she’s leaving.
- ‘self respect’ should be hyphenated.
- A great set of three ‘never’s.
- The past tense of spin is spun (rather than a bird’s wing span).
- ‘trying to gain control’ is fine, no need for ‘back’.
- ‘it veered off the road’ – we know ‘it’ means the car, but we’ve just been reading about the wheel so ‘it’ would be better clarified as ‘the car’.
- It’s a great ending but I would have liked more desperation. Despite what she’s just discovered, I’m sure she’d put up more of a fight before giving in.
- ‘She tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t open, it had jammed on the way down’ – using a word like ‘thumped’ to open the door would be more powerful and we don’t need ‘on the way down’.
- I’ll probably find no-one agrees with what I’m going to say now but stories should start with action so could we have the ending at the beginning then flashback?
General comments
- There should be commas where a reader would pause for breath. Read the story out loud would help pick out where they’re needed.
- When using dialogue there should always be a comma if the sentence continues (e.g. he said) or a full stop (period) if it finishes, and the punctuation should come inside the speech marks – outside only with references, titles, quotations etc, and then they would use inverted commas if speech marks are used for speech (I use them that way round because they’re called speech marks for a reason!).
- ‘that’ is a word that can easily be left out in many situations. If you remove it and the sentence still makes sense then it can go.
- There are quite a few sentences of similar lengths. Having a mixture of short and long would push the story along quicker.
Conclusion
A story with great potential. It’s a very relatable theme, so a reader would sympathise easily with the characters. Despite everything I’ve pointed out, it’s mainly cosmetic – just a little tightening and extra punctuation and it’s cooked. Thank you, Charlie for subjecting your story, and yourself, to such scrutiny.
***
Charlotte L R Kane is a new author whose first book, Whisper – a collection of short stories was published to Kindle on September 15th 2012. Her second book, Tea Time Tales – a collection for 250 words and poetry, was published onto Kindle on December 16th 2012. She is currently working on two more books she is hoping to have published in 2013. Charlotte has been writing for many years until the opportunity arose for her to become published. Her favourite genres are short stories, crime / thriller and supernatural.
She currently resides in Swansea, South Wales, and by day works as an Admin Officer in her Local Authority. She enjoys writing but doesn’t get to work on her books as much as she would like. She is an avid reader who enjoys authors such as Stephenie Meyer, JK Rowling, Kathy Reichs, LJ Smith, SJ Wardell, Maggie Steifvater and Rachel Caine.
For more information and updates about the work that Charlotte is currently working on please visit http://charlottekane.wordpress.com.
***
If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my website or blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
And if you’re feeling brave enough to send me a short story, script or novel extracts (with a brief synopsis please) – 5,000-words maximum – or <50-line poem for the short stories, poetry and novel / script extracts (seehttp://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/online-writing-groups, then feel free.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel which is serialised in Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words), or posted for others to critique (up to 5,000 words) on the new Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry and Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group.
Four new online writing groups:
We look forward to reading your comments!
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, Charlie Kane, Charlotte L R Kane, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, JK Rowling, Kathy Reichs, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, LJ Smith, Maggie Steifvater, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, Rachel Caine, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short story group, SJ Wardell, Smashwords, Stephenie Meyer, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by author and tutor Tad Wojnicki.
Who Needs A Writing Workshop?
Every local newspaper lists free opportunities for self-improvement — art classes, aerobic workouts, meditation zazens, book schmooze-fests – and, of course, writing workshops. We’re on a constant overload.
So when a well-known writing workshop leader shot at me, “Why don’t you teach your own writing workshop?” I was dumbstruck.
“Who needs another writing workshop?” I asked.
Today, having taught a creative writing workshop for almost twenty years, I don’t ask anymore. I know now there’s plenty of room for self-improvement.
But throughout all these years I haven’t stopped asking myself: What makes one come? What makes one stay? What makes a workshop a learning experience?
Teaching the workshop afforded me a close look into myself — the reasons my workshoppers come, it turned out, are the same reasons that made me always come:
1. Pregnant with a story.
Bad things happen to all of us. We have to exteriorize the experiences in order to become stabilized — “Everybody has a story to tell,” the saying goes. We need to unload the burden. To unload the burden writers need to write it, unload it in writing.
Sometimes, the burden is happiness. Recently, a story written in the workshop placed second in The Heartlight Journal’s Childhood Memories Contest. For the Author, John, it was the first publishing credit and first cash won for writing. Traditionally, we threw a party for the winner. What’s fascinating, for John, 75, the workshop exercise was a part of his reconciliation with his family — a happiness he could hardly wait to unload. Most of the times, alas, the burdens haven’t been happiness.
Some of my workshoppers have shared stories of child abuse, rape, heart-attacks, homophobia and anti-Semitism. We listen, let the writer relieve the past, offer a hug, sometimes a glass of wine. We sympathize. We identify. We suffer all.
However, writers get a terrific break: why other people cry sharing their misfortunes, writers laugh all the way to the bank.
2. Community of writers.
I have known a party animal or two among my writing friends, but writing is the loneliest business. Must be. Writing is expressing one’s crazy vision — can’t be done in company. On the other hand, we need the community of other crazy people to stay sane.
Teaching the workshop made me also realize why workshoppers stay. They stay for the same reason I have always stayed in any workshop:
3. Workshoppers keep working.
There’s no ersatz for the joy of the act of jotting words down on paper. Without writing a writer is not a writer. The highways to success are littered with wanna-be’s.
But distractions and discouragements are aplenty and it takes a true aficionado to never stop. Therefore most people need the sound of pen scratching the paper to keep going. A workshop provides just that.
You forget the chores, bores, and worries, and happily go on, writing for your life.
4. Feedback.
I mean real feedback — an ongoing, knowledgeable critique of your work in progress — not a “kiss” you get from your Mommy, or a dismissing shrug from an ignoramus. I teach my workshoppers the basics of literary criticism. They learn fast. In turn, they give each other incisive, zingy, caring critiques. “Never show a fool half-completed work,” I use a Jewish axiom. Resource Box
*
Tad Wojnicki is the author of a novel, Lie Under the Fig Trees, and a hybrid work, Typhoon: A Haibunette with Life Drawings.
His poetry chapbook, Haiku On the Road is forthcoming from the Writers and Lovers Studio / www.writers-and-lovers.com.
Morgen: My mum’s the harshest critic of all. Thank you, Tad!
**
If there isn’t a writing group near you or you’d like some extra feedback, take a look at the following groups:
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with multi-genre author Carmen Anthony Fiore – the six hundred and sixteenth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words), or posted for others to critique (up to 5,000 words) on the new Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry and Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group.
Four new online writing groups:
We look forward to hearing your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Tad Wojnicki, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s first of two guest blog posts is brought to you by Benjamin Cohen.
Five Qualities Every Good Writer Must Have
A lot of people think writing is easy. In reality though, to write a captivating piece of literature takes time and practice. Of course, some writers naturally have talent while other people have to work on their craft. Writing is fluid though – ideas and styles can change as time progresses, so if things aren’t clicking today, that doesn’t mean they won’t today. Nonetheless; there are certain qualities any good writer should have. If you’re wondering if you have what it takes, ask yourself if these 5 qualities describe you.
Focus
A writer must be able to focus and stay on topic. A story must have a central idea – one that is clear and easy to follow. Every paragraph must have a solid main point that the reader comprehends well. What separates good writers from great writers is often the ability to focus. Unfortunately, this is a trait that might take years to fully hone. Without focus, a writer is in serious jeopardy of losing the attention and/or respect of his or her audience.
Grammar
A writer should have the best grammar possible. Many people scoff at this idea, but in reality, poor grammar can confuse readers, and again, influence their opinion of you. Grammar goes much further than adhering to a set of rules – proper grammar allows your words to flow well and appeal to readers’ eyes and ears. Grammar really is a dying art, and many writers cause their readers confusion by writing with poor grammar. Luckily, any writer, over time, can develop excellent grammar. One way to improve is to read their work aloud. Awkward phrasing and poor grammar will be easily apparent when doing so.
Research Skills
A writer must have above superb research skills. This is because even if you excel at writing what you know, you must eventually seek greener pastures and write about something new. In order to do so, you must throw yourself into researching the topic. Even if you create a piece of work that is compelling and focused, but contains research errors, your piece and your reputation will suffer. Research skills are more important now than in the past, because so much of what’s out there online is fabricated. Proper research may involve traveling, interviewing and more, so be ready for this.
Knowing Your Audience
A lot of writers suffer when it comes to writing to their audience. However, a skilled writer should know how to write in various styles while also keeping their audience in mind. For example, someone writing a research article will want to use a different tone than someone writing a novel. That is not to say that certain fundamentals do not exist in all writing, just that a person needs to keep their readers in mind. Depending on whether you’re writing to teens, stay at home moms or PhDs, you will need to know how to appeal to different audiences.
Thick Skin
All writers should have thick skin – you will never be universally praised. For every reader who loves your work, 5 will hate it. This doesn’t mean you are a failure – just normal. You must learn to take criticism with a grain of salt. Furthermore, you have to prepared for rejection. Even JK Rowling had a hard time getting her first novel published.
Thank you, Benjamin.
Benjamin Cohen writes about his career as an author, his education in English literature and most recently, the best online colleges for liberal arts degrees.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
Next up is ‘My book on the library shelf’ multi-genre author and interviewee Terri Morgan, then the blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with historical mystery author Eleanor Sullivan – the six hundred and fourteenth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words), or posted for others to critique (up to 5,000 words) on the new Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry and Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group.
Four new online writing groups:
We look forward to hearing your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Benjamin Cohen, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by Sarah Clare.
Secrets to Writing Good Sex Scenes
A well-written sex scene can make your story sizzle. Several steamy sex scenes can make your novel an international bestseller (ahem, 50 Shades of Grey). Depending on how they’re written, sex scenes can either be the downfall of your novel, relegating it to the dime-novel romance bin, or they can help to propel your story forward, keep your reader engaged, or even tell something about your character. In some cases, sex scenes can be pivotal to the plot and theme of the story, like in the short story (and movie adapted from it) Brokeback Mountain.
Sex doesn’t have to be smut. Learning how to write good sex scenes can help you use them to your advantage without risking them weakening your story. Here are a few tips for you can write better sex scenes:
Avoid Cliché
How many times have you read about a character’s “throbbing member” or “heaving breasts?” And how many times have one of those characters been “hot with desire” or “raging with passion?” Clichés like these can weaken a sex scene and make it seem silly and tawdry. Avoid clichés when writing about sex and you will instantly improve the quality of the writing in the scene. (A good rule of thumb for any writing.)
Less is More
What we don’t say can tell us so much more than what we do. Focus on the power of suggestion rather than overt descriptions of what is happening. You can do this by describing the senses, such as the scent of the nape of a neck, or the sight of a bare thigh, or feel of the small of the back. Avoid direct descriptions of genitalia, as these can sounds too pornographic or too gynecological.
Use Metaphor
When you can’t say what you want to say directly without sounding clumsy, use metaphor. By using metaphor, you can create a much more powerful image through imagery and suggestion. You can also add more depth to the scene by creating emotional weight and greater meaning.
Focus on Emotion
Sex is about much more than the physical act. Make your sex scenes more meaningful by focusing on the emotion behind them. Obviously, there is lust, but this is so basic as to be almost not worth mentioning. What is more interesting is if there is anger, or fear, or trepidation, or manipulation. What is it that your characters are thinking and feeling as they move through the act? This is what will bring your scene to life.
Make the Scene Do Double Duty
Everything in your story should happen for a reason — even when your characters are having sex. What does the scene do for the story? Does it reveal something about your character? Does it move the plot forward? Always make sure that your sex scenes are doing more than just showing your characters having sex. Maybe the scene triggers a flashback about a pivotal event. Or maybe it provides the impetus for your character to do something bold and unexpected. Explore how the scene can help you to do more for your story.
Sex scenes can be the spice your story needs, or they can be the clunky weight that brings it down. Follow these tips and you can write better sex scenes that work for your story and help to engage readers.
What are your tips for writing better sex scenes? Share them in the comments!
Morgen: Less is more – absolutely. I’ve just started reading ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ out of curiosity (and because the British Red Cross shop had a buy one get one free sale and I needed a second book!) and I’ve got to page 80-something (nothing happens until page 66) and if I read ‘my inner goddess’ once more it’ll fly across the room. Thank you, Sarah!
Sarah Clare is a writer and oversees the site http://projectmanagementsoftware.com, where she has recently been researching online project management. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys cooking and scrapbooking.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with non-fiction author and poet Dorothy K Fletcher – the six hundred and thirteenth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words), or posted for others to critique (up to 5,000 words) on the new Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry and Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group.
Four new online writing groups:
We look forward to hearing your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, Sarah Clare, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, writing sex scenes, YA, youtube
I have been run a fortnightly critique group for the past five years as well as critiquing other authors’ writing which I really enjoy, so I started creating podcast episodes doing this. Because this was not only time-consuming but also restrictive being audio-only, I decided to switch from audio to text. The earlier episodes have already been blogged (and are listed on the http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/red-pen-critique page).
I have set up four new critique online writing groups for short stories, poetry and novel / script extracts (see http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/online-writing-groups so will be stopping this red pen critique section of this blog). The good news is that I can post more than one item a week (I have been doing one a day when I’ve had the submissions in) so more opportunity, and more actively welcoming critique.
Back to this post, please remember that it’s only one person’s (my) opinion and you, and the author concerned, are welcome to disagree with my interpretation – I will never be mean for the sake of it, but hope you find that I’m firm but fair. I type my comments as I read through the story as a reader would think as they read, although they would most likely be reading, not analysing, unless they’re writers too!
Regardless of what genre you write I hope that this helps you think about the way fiction is constructed and that you have enjoyed reading another author’s work, the copyright of which remains with them.
***
The 2,200-word story in this post was kindly emailed to me by non-fiction and short story author Kerry Dwyer.
If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my website or blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
And if you’re feeling brave enough to send me a short story or novel extract (with a brief synopsis please) – 3,000-words maximum – for these red pen blog sessions then feel free.
So without further ado, the story / synopsis and extract, then my feedback…
Agoraphobia
We don’t make house calls. We talk to people on the phone. There’s a new drop-in centre where some of the other Samaritans speak to people face to face. But I’ve always preferred the traditional ear on the telephone support, see. I like being a Samaritan. It was a bit odd at first. The training was tough. You wouldn’t think there was so much to listening, but there is. The police checked me out too. Made sure that I hadn’t ever done anything I shouldn’t’ve, well they have to don’t they?
I get on all right now with my team. We look out for each other and make sure no one is getting too involved. We only speak to someone once usually. The night shift get it worse. It’s at night when people get maudlin and suicidal. I mainly do mornings. Sometimes I get idiots wanting me to pay their leccy bills. And once I had this woman screaming at me ‘cause she needed someone to look after her kids so she could go to work. When I asked if she was feeling suicidal, we always do, see, she said she felt more like murdering someone. Sometimes someone’ll latch on to you and it’s hard to get them to move on. Once they know when it’s your shift they just call at that time, see. We can always get the shift leader to sort it, if it gets too much.
I’ve been talking to Margaret for about six months now. She got me the first time she rang the hotline number. It’s in the morning just after her husband, Jim, goes to work that she feels the need. She’s agoraphobic. She hasn’t set foot outside her house for years. She tried therapy, years ago now. Didn’t do her any good, poor cow. They tried what’s called exposure therapy. So, they take her to a park, don’t they? It wasn’t too bad she said until Jim needed a wee. Well he goes into the public loos and she’s left outside with this therapist who she doesn’t know from a bar of soap and she starts shaking and sweating. By the time Jim comes out she can’t breathe. So she clings onto him, her husband not the therapist chap, and she demands to be taken home. Which he does, even though the therapist’s harping on about how she should face it and get over the fear. Wanted her to stay for an hour he did but her Jim took her home. She never wanted to try it after that. She refused point blank to see the chap again.
She can’t remember when it started, the agoraphobia. Funny how we say ‘agra’ isn’t it, when it’s written AGORA? Or you hear some folks saying ‘agrophobia’ like you’re afraid of aggro, which I suppose you are. Anyway, she told me about one Christmas time, when she was nearly due with her last. She was enormous and she had to go shopping, see. So she had the two little ones and this great big belly and she was in the queue for the cash desk when the woman at the till gave her a sympathetic look and that was it. She burst into tears. They had to get her a chair and a glass of water and call Jim to come and take her home. She told me she felt ashamed and the kids were upset too. It put her off going into supermarkets again. She had to force herself to go out when the kids were small. She had to take them to school and clubs and what not. Then as they got bigger she had to go out less and less. By the time they left home she was hardly going out at all. When Jim offered to pick up the groceries on his way home she jumped at the chance. She just stopped going out altogether.
She likes talking to me. She says it’s great that I don’t tell her what to do. I just listen which is what she wants sometimes. Her family, she says, always tell her what to do. Her kids are the worst. They tell her she should pull herself together and get on with it. Well I read up on this agoraphobia, see. She can’t just get on with it otherwise she would, wouldn’t she? Her kids just don’t get it. For all their fancy jobs and posh houses in somewhere under Lyme they can’t work it out. Margaret’s brothers and sisters don’t visit much. When they do they get at her. Jim protects her though. He tells her they don’t understand. He tells the kids to leave her to it.
Her husband sounds like a love. She was bored indoors so he got her a job that she can do at home. She gets these boxes of parts delivered. They come in a van every Monday. The guy drops them off in her front porch and picks up the boxes she’s left at the same time. They are different parts that make up lampshades. She has to put them in packets and stick the labels on. It’s not much of a job. It keeps her busy. They are different every week but the principle is the same. She has to make sure that each pack has a frame, top and bottom, instructions and the shade. Flat pack lampshades! I ask you? He does all the shopping as well. Wish I had a bloke who would do all the shopping. She writes him a list and he picks it up on the way home from work. She doesn’t use the internet. She never wanted to learn. I told her about shopping on line and having it delivered but she wasn’t interested. Said she would have to get used to another delivery and one a week was enough.
Anyway, the first time Margaret called me, Jim had just been diagnosed with the cancer. Well you can’t help feeling sorry for them can you? She was in a right state. He’s the only person she has any trust in, see. She was so upset she didn’t make sense at first. He’s not very sick yet, still working, but he’s got this lump in his head and they can’t operate on it. He gets right bad headaches which is why he had the examination. She’s calmed down a lot since that first call. She still calls me nearly every week to tell me about it. She feels a bit pathetic not being able to go with him when he goes to the clinic for his treatment and the like but what can she do? Always gets a bit distressed when her kids have been for a visit. It never goes the way she wants it to. She was hoping that one of them would offer to come home again once their dad died. They’ve made it clear that she will have to pull her socks up and get on with it. They don’t want to see their dad more than they used to either. You’d think they would wouldn’t you? Now that he’s dying and all.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kerry Dwyer, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s first of two guest blog posts is brought to you by Jemma Hayes.
How A Good Story Affects Your Credibility As A Writer
When it comes to creative writing, people often find themselves falling short of the ideal story that could really launch their career. However, taking some time with your piece and creating a masterpiece can pay off big time, for those dedicated enough to do it right, at least. Such a good story can influence your credibility as an author in general, and this means a number of different things for you.
Upgrading Credibility
So what does this exactly mean? Well credibility in creative writing is often how well you are perceived and respected within this rather exclusive world. While there might be plenty of people that get to pass through from time to time, few get an opportunity to impact and change this community of novelists and poets. Being a credible and respected contributor means that you may be consulted upon for insight into the industry and/or have your work studied in academic settings.
Better Deals
A good story will not only appeal to more readers, it will also give you a much better opportunity to reach more readers with future releases. For one, you can likely assume a competitive set of deals for your upcoming works, whether or not they are currently under contract. Publishers authors that can make them money, and with a good story, you can show publishers that you are worth their time and effort.
Ride The Circuit
Don’t assume that you are going to have to constantly churn out new books every month, as you can likely negotiate your time frames. You can likely also spend some time promoting buzz and popularity for this latest work of yours (such as book signings or participating in public events) and showing people why they should care about what you have created for them.
But all of this doesn’t mean anything without first creating a credible story that will get you on your way. Without this story, there is no considerable credibility or options for impressive book deals. Even though it largely seems anymore that we live in a world of rehashed ideas, it’s up to great thinkers and writers like you to break the mold. Always remember that authenticity matters – and with this comes credibility!
Thank you, Jemma.
Jemma Hayes explores her career as an academic and author in her writing, and most recently elucidated on the best degrees for intellectuals.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
Next up is The Making of a ‘Good’ Villain by Y.A. fantasy, mystery novelist and interviewee TJ Perkins, then the blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with non-fiction author Yves Johnson – the six hundred and ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words), or posted for others to critique (up to 5,000 words) on the new Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays, poetry for Post-weekend Poetry and Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group, and novel extracts for Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Jemma Hayes, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, screenwriting, scriptwriting, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, YA, youtube
I run a fortnightly critique group as well as critiquing other authors’ writing which I really enjoy, so I started creating podcast episodes doing this. Because this was not only time-consuming but also restrictive being audio-only, I decided to switch from audio to text and will now be running future ones on the blog. The earlier episodes have already been blogged (and are listed on the http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/red-pen-critique page) with new episodes being run here every Sunday evening (UK times).
Please remember that it’s only one person’s (my) opinion and you, and the author concerned, are welcome to disagree with my interpretation – I will never be mean for the sake of it, but hope you find that I’m firm but fair. I type my comments as I read through the story as a reader would think as they read, although they would most likely be reading, not analysing, unless they’re writers too!
Regardless of what genre you write I hope that this helps you think about the way fiction is constructed and that you have enjoyed reading another author’s work, the copyright of which remains with them.
***
This two-chapter extract in this post was kindly emailed to me by YA, romance and suspense thriller novelist Erica Miner. If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my website or blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com. And if you’re feeling brave enough to send me a short story or novel extract (with a brief synopsis please) – 3,000-words maximum – for these red pen blog sessions then feel free. Or I have new online critique blogs: http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com (50 lines max) and http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com (5,000 words max). So without further ado, the story / synopsis and extract, then my feedback…
Murder in the Pit © Erica Miner
Chapter 2
O dolce notte, scendere
/Tu puoi gemmata a festa
O sweet night, descend/
Starlit on our celebration
Verdi, Un Ballo in Maschera, Act I
As she finally stepped through the revolving doors and into the Met lobby, Julia gave one last wistful glance at the patrons ascending the elegant staircase and headed toward her own appropriate stairway, the one leading to the lower level and the alley where the stage door was located.
The servants’ entrance.
Life at the opera house appeared glamorous to the patrons and public at large, but Julia knew her place; notwithstanding her well-paying position in this prestigious artistic institution, she and her overworked Met cohorts in the orchestra were just the hired help. The true stars of this exhilarating world were the Domingos and Pavarottis. Musicians were underlings, and no one was better at putting them in their place than Patricia Wells, the Met’s formidable general manager whom Julia had dubbed “a barracuda in high heels.”
Julia had grudging respect for Patricia’s running the Met like a well-oiled machine, but she had no love for Patricia’s personality or for her spiteful attitude toward musicians. Patricia had a clear-cut disdain for these “low-class drudges” who were very good at grinding out musical notes night after night but who, she believed, showed no gratitude to the organization responsible for putting bread on their tables.
Patricia, with her high-and-mighty mind-set, did not acknowledge the fact the orchestra was the lynchpin of the opera house and did not appreciate the magnitude of the orchestra’s contribution. The majority of Met musicians had been honing their craft since early childhood, and without an orchestra, as Mozart had displayed with such effectiveness in the movie Amadeus, there was no opera.
At this moment, Julia imagined the scene backstage, Patricia calming the nerves of the evening’s lead tenor, Giuseppe Masini. Julia tried to arrive early for rehearsals to spend time watching the pre-rehearsal activity from the wings. She often observed the way Patricia masterfully controlled such situations, by stroking Giuseppe’s ego, as the harried wardrobe mistress fussed with his costume.
“The Maestro will be watching you like a hawk. Non preoccuparti.”
“Grazie, Patrizia, you are Regina, a queen among general managers.”
“Ah, you are too generous, Giuseppe.”
It was a scene of dramatic proportions rivaling the operatic performance itself and a familiar drill at the Met. Opera, after all, was the epitome of drama.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, Erica Miner, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, YA, youtube
As I walked my dog around the park this morning, Sunday 6th January 2013, the idea came to me of setting up an online short story writing group.
I’ve recently set up a Feedback section on this blog, but that’s just a list of readers / writers willing / offering to provide feedback and they then go off and talk amongst themselves (hopefully!). But I know from my now-weekly Red Pen Critique slot, how useful open critique is to other writers. Hence, Morgen’s Short Story Writing Group was born, and while I was designing it, Morgen’s Poetry Writing Group formed in my brain.
The plan is for me to post your stories or poems on the relevant home page then list them within the relevant genre / form headings for readers to enjoy and let you know what they thought (positively / constructively). It will be fiction prose and poetry only, sorry non-fiction authors.
For the short story site, there’s no lower word count limit so if you have a 50-word story you’re burning to share then feel free to send it to me. Because of my existing workload (stupidly busy) I am asking for a 5,000-word upper limit but much more than that and it strays into novelette territory anyway.
For the poetry site, there’s no lower line limit so if you have a haiku you’re burning to share then feel free to send it to me. Because of my existing workload (stupidly busy) I am asking for a 50-line upper limit so email me first if your poem goes over that.
There’ll be no payment for the stories or poems put on these blogs because it’s all about feedback. They will also count as being published so bear this in mind when planning to submit to competitions etc.
Each story or poem can carry below it a 250-word max third-person biography of the author, one contact link (e.g. their website), one photograph of themselves (if they wish to include one) and / or a cover of their latest (or favourite) book (if they have one).
To submit your stories, see Short Story submissions / Poetry submissions.
Each new posting is advertised on my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Yahoo profiles so it is a chance for extra traffic to your website too.
There are also two extra sections on each blog, just for visitors (you!)…
- Q&A: where writers / readers ask and answer questions;
- Writing Tips: where writers / readers leave their favourite writing tips.
I shall be monitoring comments on both sites, so please leave positive / constructive feedback. Anything spiteful will be removed (or not approved in the first place).
Is there anything else that you’d like to see on these blogs? If so, let me know.
Thank you for taking part and I hope it proves useful and enjoyable to all concerned.
Morgen With An ‘E’
morgen@morgenbailey.com
http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com
***
Next up (in about an hour) is my aforementioned Red Pen Critique followed by (about an hour or so after that), the first instalment of a new feature Novel Nights In. Then in the morning is my 605th interview, this time with novelist and screenwriter Mark Adam Kaplan.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback privately, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, or posted for others to critique (up to 5,000 words) on the new Morgen’s Short Story Writing Group), then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, feedback section, fiction, fiction authors, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, poetry writing, prose and poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, word max, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of blogging, is brought to you by mystery author Anne R Allen.
The Slow Blog Manifesto: 7 Reasons for New Authors to Blog Slowly
I’ve loved Morgen’s blog ever since I ran across it by clicking on a Facebook link to one of her great interviews—and I was so pleased when I saw both our blogs were named in Tribal Nation Daily’s “50 Top Blogs for Authors” last September.
But I’m the opposite kind of blogger from hard-working Morgen. I’m a slacker, Slow Blogger. I only blog once a week. Well, actually twice a month, because I have a blog partner who takes over duties every fourth Sunday, and we usually host a guest blogger once a month as well.
I didn’t start out to be a Slow Blogger. When I began, I was simply too busy bloodying my knuckles on the doors of the publishing industry to have time to post more than once a week. I hadn’t even heard of the Slow Blog Manifesto.
But it was pointed out to me by one of my readers after I whined about the pressure to blog daily. The Manifesto gave me permission to continue my slacker ways and concentrate on writing books.
Thanks to that decision, I just launched my seventh book in fourteen months—twelfth if you count anthologies and singles. (And no. I don’t intend to keep up that pace. I’m about to take a doctor–ordered much-needed vacation.)
But I don’t like to see new authors being told they MUST blog every day.
Yes, if you’re trying to establish a big platform quickly the way Morgen has, blogging more often is a must. This is a true “destination blog” you can spend hours reading.
But a Slow Blog can establish a solid web presence and strong platform for an author if you keep at it. You just need a little more patience. I spent my first year getting maybe 17 hits a post, but three and a half years later, I get 7000.
Okay, so what is the Slow Blog Manifesto?
It’s an essay written in 2006 by Canadian software designer Todd Sieling at the height of the everybody-must-get-a-blog frenzy. Slow Blogging is modeled on the “slow food” movement (the opposite of McBurgerish “fast food.”) The point is quality over quantity.
Todd wrote: “Slow Blogging is the re-establishment of the machine as the agent of human expression, rather than its whip and container. It’s the voluntary halting of the light-speed hamster wheel dictated in rules of highly effective blogging.”
He urged people to write a few thoughtful posts per month rather than daily blabber. A number of influential journalists, technicians, and academics joined his movement. It built steam until mid-2008, when it merited an article in theNew York Times.
It’s a principle that’s caught on. I see a lot of publishing industry bloggers cutting back on their number of posts—even uberbloggers like Nathan Bransford, Joe Konrath and Jane Friedman.
But unfortunately, not everybody has got the message. The standard advice to new authors is still to blog at least three days a week.
This is because the search engines pick you up faster if you blog more often.
But here’s the thing: Search engines aren’t the biggest factor in driving most writers’ blog traffic. Out of the nearly 30,000 hits our blog got last month, only about 1500 came from Google searches. Most of our traffic comes from “word of mouth” on Twitter, Facebook, the Kindleboards and other blogs.
I think new authors, especially, need to limit their distractions. Plenty of successful authors don’t blog at all.
However, I do recommend it. A blog is more dynamic than a static website (and free) and it’s a great way to interact with readers and fellow writers. It’s not a great sales tool, especially when you’re starting out, but it’s useful as an Internet home where people can come and visit.
But most people are too busy to come calling every day.
In order to get a readership in this saturated blogosphere, we should be stressing quality over quantity. Nobody I know is starved for blogposts to read.
If you don’t have a blog yet, or blogging has taken over your life—not in a good way—do consider the slow blog route
Here are some reasons a slow blog might even be better than a daily one for the beginning author:
1) A slow blog has a longer life-span.
The average life span of a blog is three years. But you want your writing career to last longer than three years, don’t you? A neglected blog hanging in cyberspace is worse than none.
So you’ve got to plan a blog that’s going to beat the odds. A slow blog is more likely to do that.
2) You reach more people by commenting on other people’s blogs than by madly posting on a new blog nobody reads.
Author / publisher / social media guru Bob Mayer pointed out on his blog: “One of the best networking tools is to go to people’s blogs and leave cogent comments.”
Think of it this way: would you reach more people by sitting in your basement making a thousand signs, or by making one sign and taking it to a place where tons of people hang out?
Use your blogging time to visit other blogs and make friends, and only post on your own blog when you have something to say. Then your new blogfriends will seek you out.
3) Busy people are less likely to subscribe / follow a blog that’s going to clutter their email inbox / rss feed every day. I sure won’t. I don’t read ANYBODY’S blog every day. I’d be so glad if they’d only send notifications of the good posts. Or—even better—only write the good ones. (Which, um, is called “slow blogging.”)
When you write mostly good posts, people will know a visit to your blog is a valuable use of their time and they’ll spread the word. Then maybe an agent or publisher will visit and like it so much they’ll ask you to send them a novel. That’s what happened to me
4) Everybody has bad days. When you have to think of something to say on the day you got that nasty / clueless review / rejection, your emotions could leak out.
On the day you vent about how all agents are spawns of Satan, you might have a visit from a wonderful agent who loved your query and was about to ask for pages. Oops.
5) Nobody can come up with that many interesting posts.
When you slow blog and you don’t have anything to say, you don’t have to say it.
6) Writing nonfiction—which is what you should be writing on your blog—uses a different part of your brain from fiction.
When you’re on a roll with a novel and have to stop to write something perspicacious on the subject of sentence structure, you can stop that flow dead. It can take weeks to get back into the novel—as your left brain takes over and you start organizing the paper clips in your drawer by color and alphabetizing your collection of how-to-write books.
7) Making time to blog every day is incredibly difficult, so you’ll constantly feel guilty. When you feel guilty you eat / drink / smoke too much and then feel guilty about that too.
See where this is going…?
The late, great pseudonyminous agent, Miss Snark was a fan of slow blogging. In spite of all the pressure to “build platform,” she advised new writers to always put their writing first: “Your job is to write…
…There’s a lot to be said for sitting down with your ownself and writing. Nothing, literally NOTHING replaces that. Focus. You’re wasting time.”
***
Morgen: 30,000 hits a month… wow. When I started my blog (March 2011 so I have a year to go before the three-year bell rings!) it was recommended to blog once a week minimum. Little did I know how many guests I’d have and you’re right, it takes up most of my life, more of my writing time than I would like and I’m cutting down on the interviews in July (from seven to five a week!) but then I’m replacing the two ‘missing’ interviews with author spotlights. Blogging is a marketing tool and whilst writers have to market themselves, I wouldn’t recommend them going to the extreme I have… unless you’ve done what I’ve done and swapped the day job for two lodgers. Thank you again, Anne.
Anne R. Allen is the author of six romantic-comedy mysteries published by Mark Williams international Digital Publishing. Her newest is No Place Like Home.
Right now, her previous Camilla Randall mystery, SHERWOOD, LTD is free on Kobo and Smashwords. It is also available in paperback from Amazon. It’s inspired by Anne’s own mis-adventures with her first publishers, an outlaw band of Englishmen following their own self-styled Robin Hood.
Anne has also written a guidebook for authors with Catherine Ryan Hyde (author of the iconic novel Pay it Forward.) How to be a writer in the e-age…and keep your e-sanity! She blogs with NYT bestselling author Ruth Harris at Anne R. Allen’s Blog…with Ruth Harris.
Anne’s new book, No Place Like Home, is free on Amazon Jan 1-3 so hurry before the offer finishes!
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with autobiographer Debz Lowry – the six hundred and second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: agent, Amazon, Anne Allen, Anne R Allen, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, ebooks, Facebook, fantasy, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery, non-fiction, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, self-publishing, Smashwords, story author, story authors, Twitter, western, writing, YA, youtube
Welcome to the six hundredth (woo hoo!) of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with prolific short story author, novelist and tutor Della Galton. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Della. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.
Della: Way back in the mists of time when I was in my early twenties I bought a house with a guy – we did it as a business project but later we became romantically linked. He decided we didn’t have enough interests in common so he asked me if I fancied joining a writing class with him. He lasted a term, I carried on. I still go to that class. It’s run by Ian Burton and is at Kinson Community Centre, Bournemouth. My erstwhile boyfriend actually said to me one day that I would never sell anything, so it’s been quite good fun proving him wrong. I did bump into him a couple of years ago and he said he’d read a couple of my restaurant reviews!
Morgen: I started by going to writing classes (lead by crime writer Sally Spedding) in 2005 and was hooked. You’re best known for your women’s magazine short stories, do you have a favourite genre and do you write any genres that they wouldn’t take, so submit elsewhere?
Della: I try to write what sells – but I think if I had to choose a favourite it would be either light hearted or very emotional. I know that’s two different ones, but it’s hard to say which I like best. Depends what mood I’m in. I also write fantasy – as in odd other worldly stories occasionally. I also write erotica, but under a pseudonym.
Morgen: I didn’t know that (about your pseudonym… maybe I should interview her another time ). Your short stories have been published in Bella, Best, Candis, Grace Magazine, My Weekly, People’s Friend, Take A Break, That’s Life, The Lady, The Weekly News, Woman, Woman’s Weekly, Writers Forum, and Yours – some of whom no longer take fiction, why do you think this is? Is there anything you think that might make them change their minds?
Della: I hope it’s nothing to do with my stories. Seriously I think it’s because not enough readers want fiction in their mag. It’s usually supply and demand with magazine editors. I doubt they’d take away something lots of people want. I have lots of students who join my writing classes wanting to write short stories for mags, but they admit they don’t actually read any.
Morgen: What a shame, and of course every writer should read, maybe they stick with novels (most people do). I have just over 100 of your short stories – I’m a nerd, having your 100+, and nearly 3,300 others, listed on an Excel spreadsheet… all in the name of research – I’d love to have been Ali or Tina in ‘The Banoffee Pie Survey’!
Della: Blimey, I’m stunned!! Tee hee, The Banoffee Pie Survey was real – well, in as much as that I did a Banoffee pie survey, it was great fun. Tasty!
Morgen: Research can be tough, can’t it. You’ve also had short stories in charity anthologies (including the gorgeous ‘Waiting’ from Sexy Shorts for Summer, I loved that Lisa and Mark were writers, and found it such a powerful story – yes, I was sniffing at the end – I also have Sexy Shorts for Christmas… Chefs… and The Beach. ). It must have been thrilling to be involved.
Della: Thank you Morgen, I’m touched that you liked Waiting. One of my favourites. No truth in that one I’m afraid.
Morgen: Two of your novels were published by Accent Press, who also publish Jane Wenham-Jones, did you find them or did they find you?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, Bournemouth, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, Della Galton, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery series, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post (perfect for New Year’s Day!) is brought to you by fantasy author and interviewee Deborah Rae Cota.
Beginnings
A new year is like a fresh page.
A clean sheet.
A blank canvas to start anew, without blemish or error.
A new horizon to look upon with hope…
At least, it is now. I actually used to dread New Years Eve.
It seemed so symbolic of loss to me; loss of time and chances, and especially the stupidly, squandered opportunities. I feared the passing of time, and dwelled on what I may have missed, instead of remembering what I had experienced, enjoyed and learned.
As I grew older, and hopefully wiser, I learned that my fears were for naught. My fear was the very thing keeping me down, and holding me back from moving my life forward.
Now, I look to a new year eagerly, and await to see what adventures it holds for me. As a writer, this is not only how I see the start of a new year, but also every start of a new novel.
It’s three hundred and sixty-five opportunities with which to achieve greatness, and be the star of the story that is your life. Vast opportunities where only you can make the choices, and decide where the story goes. The outline, the plan, the vision…
Of course, deciding the characters can be tricky. We all want to be the protagonist in our own story, but sometimes we end up being only a secondary character, or goofy sidekick for a short time… and then sometimes, by choice or without realizing it, even the antagonist. From beginning, to middle, to end… the plot will thicken or thin, but only by your design.
Will it be it a torrid romance, a silly, yet romantic comedy, a family drama, or a fantasy wrought with mystical heroes? No one really knows, until you toss away your fears, and put pen to paper. The choice is always yours.
Never mind who or what you were before, or what mistakes were made. This is a new story. A new chapter just waiting for you. And it all starts with a blank page.
Don’t be afraid… turn it over… Let’s begin.
Happy New Year!
Thank you, and you, Deborah. Most of the authors I’ve interviewed have said they’re ‘pantsers’ and whilst Stephen King says “The scariest moment is always just before you start”, but it’s certainly not for me (and I’m sure other writers) – we can’t edit a blank page so as you say, “don’t be afraid” and enjoy the ride.
Deborah Rae Cota ventured into many arenas seeking a home. After promising a former teacher to write something every day, pen and paper (along with her trusty camera) have always been a part of her daily routine.
When Deborah isn’t writing, she’s cooking and creating new recipes for her family, or screaming in the stands of her favorite local sports teams where she lives, breathes & works in the beautiful, scenic Bay Area.
Her website is http://www.dantechronicles.com and she can be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/DanteChronicles).
Debra has to-date released two of a planned eight books from ‘The Dante Chronicles’, Book I is titled ‘The Kindred’ and Book II is ‘The Brotherhood’. Book III, ‘The Traveler’ is due out Spring 2013…
Every team needs a leader…and now that the team is formed, and ready, missions should go exactly as planned. Right? But what if the leader isn’t the one calling the shots? An old nemesis has some new players he is toying with, and creating total chaos for the team. With the help of former members of The Brotherhood, the team will learn a tough lesson that will ultimately strengthen them, but at what cost?
Set against the backdrop of the San Francisco Bay Area, and Silicon Valley, this is Book III of The Dante Chronicles.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with short story author, novelist and tutor Della Galton – the six hundredth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, Deborah Rae Conta, ebooks, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, self-publishing, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, writing, writing competitions, writing events, YA, youtube
Tonight’s festive guest blog post is brought to you by novelist, short story author and tutor Lorna Fergusson.
Festivities And Frost
‘Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.’ (Mary Ellen Chase). By the time you read this post, you may well be vowing never to eat turkey again; the children will have broken at least one toy; you’ll be wondering just how many repeats of old shows the BBC can get away with and you’ll be uneasily aware that you need to get on with those accounts for the tax man by the end of January…
At the start of this month I ran a Fictionfire Focus Workshop on ‘Festivities and Frost’, where we examined how writers make use of winter scenes and festive scenes in their fiction, so in this post I want to share what we discovered about writing about Christmas. We started by listing adjectives for Christmas and our feelings about it – and those pretty soon demonstrated a certain ambivalence of attitude!
Everybody feels the pressure of the Christmas ideal. We love the thought that it’s a cosy traditional time, imbued with rituals and bonhomie, full of unquestioning beliefs and a sense of safety. This is why, if you ask anyone to name a Christmas story, they’ll immediately come up with Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We think of rich food, games, carols, candles, parcels, Christmas trees, nativity plays, family gatherings – the whole ‘God bless us, every one’ package of it. If you want to write a story which evokes the atmosphere of Christmas you absolutely must go into sensory overdrive, so that your readers can smell the spices, hear the flute-like voices, feel the crunch of snow underfoot and be warmed by the crackling logs on the fire (central heating not so festive!) …
In the workshop we considered T. H. White’s marvellous description of a medieval Christmas in The Sword in the Stone: in it he evokes a snowy castle on which snow lies ‘like extremely thick icing on a very good cake’, where there are skaters ‘on the moat, which roared all day with the gliding steel, while hot chestnuts and spiced mead were served on the bank to all and sundry’ and where out in the cold, comic-book wolves wander about ‘slavering in an appropriate manner, or sometimes peeping in with their blood-red eyes’. White is deliberately tongue-in-cheek, creating a fantasy of Christmas as we would most like to think of it. At the end of the chapter the Castle of the Forest Sauvage sleeps ‘peacefully and lightless, in the strange silence of the holy snow.’
This brings us to the second aspect of Christmas a writer can explore: its spiritual and moral force. You can choose to highlight the magical atmosphere and the opportunities the season presents for your characters to grow and change. You can write stories to warm the cockles of your readers’ hearts, where characters come together, rediscover each other and are reconciled to one another. The bonds of family and friendship can be strengthened and renewed, or characters can be tested and pass those tests, because Christmas is a time of transformation where the meaning of life is heightened. Think of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, which opens with a test: the girls have to give up their Christmas to help others – their individual attitudes to the idea of sacrifice help to show us the differences in their characters. Or George Eliot’s Silas Marner, where a tiny lost child wanders into the house of a lonely embittered man – a child who will bring him love and redemption. Or the Grinch, in the story by Doctor Suess, whose shrivelled heart grows and blooms once he realises Christmas isn’t delivered from a shop. The central paradox of Christmas is that a life-affirming mystery takes place in the depths of winter. This provides huge potential for drama, emotion and spiritual significance in your writing.
Finally, there’s the negative side of Christmas, which you can use to counterbalance all that cheery bonhomie! You can focus on the practical problems of travelling to family reunions your character doesn’t even want to attend, or the split loyalties of broken families. You could write about the tacky commercial excess of it all: the pressure to conform to the traditional image, the need to buy presents nobody actually wants, the envy, the racking-up of debts. You could describe the loneliness of those excluded such as the recently-bereaved or the down-and-outs: those people looking in on the Christmas and New Year scene but shut out from it like Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl.
Christmas offers the writer a great range of storylines which all pack an emotional punch. It gives you the chance to use evocative detail and pull at your readers’ heartstrings. It’s at the turning point of the year and triggers memory and anticipation. Ultimately, it’s hard to resist the positivity and the schmaltz, so whether you’re a ‘God bless us, everyone!’ type or your default state is ‘Bah, humbug!’, go on – have a wallow!
I will. Thank you, Lorna!
Lorna Fergusson is a novelist and award-winning short story writer who has taught creative writing for Oxford University and the University of Winchester. She runs a literary consultancy, Fictionfire, offering workshops, day courses, editing, critiquing and mentoring to writers. Her novel, The Chase, first published by Bloomsbury, will soon be re-released on Kindle and she is currently writing a historical novel. She blogs about books and the writing life at http://literascribe.blogspot.com and her website is at www.fictionfire.co.uk. You can follow her on Twitter at @LornaFergusson and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lorna.fergusson. Contact her at info@fictionfire.co.uk.
And a little more about her book ‘The Chase’…
Le Sanglier: a house buried in the woods in the heart of the Dordogne, a region steeped in dark history.
Gerald Feldwick buys Le Sanglier as a refuge. He tells his wife Netty that in France they can start afresh – they can escape the unbearable pain of an event which is fracturing their marriage. He tells her they can put the past behind them.
Netty is not so sure.
Netty is right.
‘This is a haunting book, skilfully written and tantalisingly unravelled. Lorna Fergusson weaves a vivid but dark tale set in the beautiful Dordogne, where past and present fuse in a page-turning mystery.’ Alison Weir, novelist and historian
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with fantasy and thriller writer Tracey Alley – the five hundred and ninety-fifth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: author, author spotlight, biography, books, characters, Charles Dickens, children’s, Christmas, creative writing, Doctor Suess, Facebook, fantasy, fiction, Fiction Fire, George Eliot, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, Hans Christian Andersen, interview, LinkedIn, literary consultancy, literature, Lorna Fergusson, Louisa May Alcott, Mary Ellen Chase, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, novelist, pinterest, poetry, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, self-publishing, story authors, TH White, tutor, Twitter, western, workshop, writing, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by children’s / YA author and poet Tracy Kauffman.
Writing Quality Content
Writing a book is more than putting down a few words on paper. It takes time, energy and a motivated individual to write a story. A story whether fiction or nonfiction should capture the interest of the reader or audience by having a balance of interesting characters, appealing storyline, and the essentials elements of a story.
These include:
Setting – the time and location of where the story takes place.
Plot – planned series of events that take place in the story.
Point of View – the point of view of how the story is told.
Theme – the central idea or meaning the author is trying to convey.
Conflict-the opposition of forces that the main character has to face.
Writing a quality book must come from an author who takes the time to research their topic to some degree. (Some genres such as fairy tales takes less research than others.)
An author has to overcome obstacles such as writers block and earning credibility. Even in fiction books, the readers want to be able to believe in the story. If you have ridiculous things that don’t make any sense, the reader will lose interest and the author will lose their credibility.
Writers block can be detrimental to authors but can be overcome with patience and practice. Tips for overcoming writers block could be:
Brainstorming – writing down words or phrases of things that you want to talk about.
Writing about things you know
Writing about things that inspire you
Last of all, think about your readers when you write. Make sure you edit your work because the reader will lose interest if they do not understand what they are reading. Misplaced commas, quotations can lead the reader off track. Editing your work should come after a brief period away from your writing. If you try to edit something as you write, it takes twice as long to catch all of the errors, because your brain knows what you meant to say even though the paper says something different. Consider your writing from your readers point of view.
Is the content appropriate to the story line.
Is the reader going to understand what you are trying to say.
Is the reader going to believe in your credibility to tell the story.
That was great. Thank you, Tracy.
Tracy Kauffman is a Christian fiction author of Young Adult and Children Stories. She has an associates degree in Nursing. She is a registered nurse and works part time in a local nursing home. The rest of the time she spends her time writing books and marketing them. Her titles include: Gwendolyn’s Wish, Southern Adventures, Richard the Lionheart, My Boyfriend the Squire and Captain Honey Bear Saves Goldie Locks. Tracy started writing poetry at a small age and won the title of editor in her school newspaper, when she was in second grade. She had her first poem published in a online writing contest called, The Cosmetology Student. She decided to write her first book, Southern Adventures, when her son left home for the Air Force. She hopes to be able to inspire her readers into living a happy healthier life. She feels like her own life experiences have made her a better writer.
Synopsis of Southern Adventures:
Kay remembered times when she had prayed and asked God for certain things in her life. She suddenly felt comforted. She was glad that he left some prayers unanswered. Oh, what kind of life would she have had, if she received everything she wanted?
Kay Harrison sat in her living room, slowly flipping through the pages of a photo album filled with photographs from her past. She recalled her life as a child who was brave and mischievous. Living in the south brought a life of adventures and mishaps for Kay. She searched hard for the meaning of her life. Follow Kay as she discovers this meaning as God’s plan for her unfolds through the good times and rough times that she endured on her Southern Adventures.
You can find out more about Tracy and her writing from…
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: author, author spotlight, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, Facebook, fantasy, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, interview, LinkedIn, literature, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, novelist, pinterest, poet, poetry, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, self-publishing, story authors, Tracy Kauffman, Twitter, western, writing, YA, youtube
I run a fortnightly critique group as well as critiquing other authors’ writing which I really enjoy, so I started creating podcast episodes doing this. Because this was not only time-consuming but also restrictive being audio-only, I decided to switch from audio to text and will now be running future ones on the blog. The earlier episodes have already been blogged (and are listed on the http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/red-pen-critique page) with new episodes being run here every Sunday evening (UK times).
Please remember that it’s only one person’s (my) opinion and you, and the author concerned, are welcome to disagree with my interpretation – I will never be mean for the sake of it, but hope you find that I’m firm but fair. I type my comments as I read through the story as a reader would think as they read, although they would most likely be reading, not analysing, unless they’re writers too!
Regardless of what genre you write I hope that this helps you think about the way fiction is constructed and that you have enjoyed reading another author’s work, the copyright of which remains with them.
***
The piece in this post was kindly emailed to me by Lianne Simon and is from her book ‘Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite’.
If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com. And if you’re feeling brave enough to send me a short story or novel extract (with a brief synopsis please) – 3,000-words maximum – for these red pen blog sessions then feel free. So without further ado, the story / synopsis and extract, then my feedback…
Synopsis
Jamie was born with a testis, an ovary, and a pixie face. He can be a boy after minor surgery and a few years on testosterone. Well, that’s what his parents always say, but he sees an elfin princess in the mirror. To become the man his parents expect, Jamie must leave behind a little girl’s hopes and dreams.
At sixteen, the four-foot-eleven soprano leaves home school for a boys’ dorm at college. The elfin princess can live in the books Jameson reads and nobody has to find out he isn’t like other boys.
When a medical student tells Jamie that he should have been raised female, suppressed childhood memories stir. The elfin princess can thrive, but will she risk losing her family and her education for a boy who may desert her, or a toddler she may never be allowed to adopt?
Excerpt from Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite by Lianne Simon
The first chapter is at www.liannesimon.com/confessions. Lianne told me: This scene was a last-minute experiment, to see what it would be like to write part of my manuscript in first person. It flowed out in about ten minutes. When I sent my manuscript to an editor for an evaluation, he said that, based on this scene, I should rewrite the rest of my novel in first person and share more from the heart. I did that and got my contract. In the release version of the book, the scene is almost identical to the original. The scene is a flashback, and the earliest even in the book.
***
I didn’t have any clothes fit for an elfin princess, so my cousin Kaylah let me borrow some hand-me-downs one of the Fair Folk had given her. She shook her head as she held a white velvet skirt up in front of me. “I don’t care if that old book says the Kirkpatricks are faie. Your face is bean shìdh, but the rest of you is brùnaidh.”
At five I was only a little taller than my two-year-old sister Alicia, so the clothes were way too big for me. “Please, Kaylah. The brownies are elves too. They’re just not as tall.”
“All right, then.” Kaylah safety-pinned the white velvet skirt to my slip, so the waist stayed up under my arms and the hem brushed the floor. The satin sleeves of the woodland green blouse hung down past my fingertips. She wrapped a silver lace belt around my waist twice and made a bow in the back. A spider-silk flower went on my shoulder. I sat down so she could tie the ribbons of starlight ballet slippers around my ankles. “There you are!” She clapped her hands together. “Princess Grace herself doesn’t dress any finer than that.”
Fancy clothes weren’t all an elfin princess needed to be dressed for a party, so I sat facing my reflection and waited for my maidservant to finish. She stood behind me in the wall mirror, intense concentration twisting her face. I grinned as she pulled the soft foam rollers out of my locks and fluffed, brushed, teased, and sprayed until my hair was perfect. It wasn’t very long, but the color was pretty, somewhere between ripe pumpkin and the gold of the earrings she clipped on my ears.
Face full of wonder, Kaylah held a glass vial before my eyes. “There’s a river so high in the Mountains of the Moon that the water turns silvery-blue.” She pulled the stopper out of the shiny bottle and dipped a small brush into it. “I’m going to paint your nails with moonlight. Sit still until it dries.”
In the mirror sat a beautiful elfin princess—golden hair aglow, large emerald eyes, small red mouth, and rosy cheeks sprinkled with freckles. She was the happiest elf-maiden of the realm. I stood, grabbed a handful of white velvet on each side, curtseyed to the lady in the mirror, and spun around so my skirt would fly.
“Pretty!” shouted Alicia, one finger in her mouth.
“Both my girls are beautiful.” Kaylah bent down and kissed my little sister on the cheek.
“Are you ready, birthday girl?” She grabbed my hand and held it high. “Your court awaits you, my lady.” I spun around on tiptoes, a lovely ballerina, my shoes sparkling like stardust in the night sky.
Jimmy the Pirate swaggered into the kitchen, wooden saber at his side and a black patch over one eye. Alicia danced in her little pink tutu and a pair of angel wings made from coat hanger wire and crinoline. Gladys was dressed like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, red shoes and all. She had even brought Toto, a stuffed toy animal that might once have resembled a dog. Kaylah wore a tattered pair of bib overalls, a gingham blouse, and an old straw hat.
They had all chipped in and bought me a present. Kaylah must have wrapped the package because the edges and folds were all straight. I pulled the tape off, careful not to rip the paper. Inside was a new Raggedy Ann. A squeal of delight burst from my lips, and I hugged the doll to my breast. “Sofie! I’ll name her Princess Sofie!” I scooted over on my throne, set her on the seat beside me, and straightened her dress.
Kaylah winked at me, set my birthday cake on the kitchen table, and lit the candles. I blew out all five with one breath and grinned at Jimmy. They say you shouldn’t tell anybody your wish, but he already knew I wanted to be his wife.
The pirate grinned at me, eyes flashing, and waved a saber over his head. “Yar! Cut the cake!”
Kaylah was the one who baked my birthday cake. I think she got the recipe off a Hershey’s Cocoa tin. Anyway, she made the yummiest chocolate cakes. I cut Jimmy a ragged chunk and passed him his plate.
“Princess, you’re making a mess.” My cousin, gentle as always, cleaned the frosting off my sleeve and cut slices for the rest of us.
I was halfway through eating mine when I heard the front door open. Ooh! Dad was home early. Seeing the little princess would make him sad. My fork hit my lap, chocolate cake and all, and bounced to the floor. Arms trembling, I sprang up, thinking to run away.
“No, Jamie. It’s okay. Today’s your birthday.” Kaylah grabbed my arm and gently pushed me back down into my seat. “He should see how pretty you look.”
Kaylah was only twelve, but she’d pretended to be my mom ever since she was seven. My real mom home schooled Kaylah, and me, and my brother Scott every morning. In the afternoon, while our moms worked, my cousin, and Alicia, and I played together. Scott didn’t hang around with girls, so he went to his pal Joey’s or played kick-the-can outside the old schoolhouse on Polk Street.
I didn’t have a magic ring to make me invisible, so Dad found me as soon as he strode into the kitchen. His eyes, deep wells of disappointment, locked on the elfin princess and sucked the life out of her. “What’s going on?”
Kaylah stepped between me and Dad, saving me from certain doom. “It’s Jamie’s birthday, remember? The kids are all wearing costumes for his party. We were reading Old Scottish Fairy Tales and he wanted to dress like an elfin princess.”
I peeked around Kaylah’s waist, hiding Sofie behind my back. The air around my father seemed to crackle with lightning, but he only nodded and smiled at me. “I got you a new softball. After your party, let’s play catch. Okay, sport?”
So my dad played catch with the elfin princess, tossing her the ball underhand from a few feet away. I missed the first one; it went right between my outstretched arms. The second rolled off my fingertips. The third bounced off my hands and hit me in the face. Boys seemed to learn right away, but I didn’t think I’d ever be able to catch a ball. I shut my eyes to hide my frustration, but the tears were too many.
“I’m sorry, Jameson. Are you okay?” Dad knelt down and hugged his little princess tight, but the disappointment in his eyes hurt her worse than the ball had. Scott said I threw like a girl, but all the ones I knew played catch better than me. I got hurt when I played boy games. Every time. That’s one reason I preferred playing with Kaylah and Alicia.
Dad led me back inside. While he searched for the ice pack, I sympathized with the princess in the mirror. Her face resembled a raccoon’s now, with a dark half-moon under one eye. Poor girl. Another black eye. Won’t you ever learn?
***
My comments:
Stories should always start with a hook and it’s great that we have one within the synopsis. We should also get to know who our lead character is early and we have our protagonist’s name in the first word. It’s interesting that the name Lianne has chosen could be a male or female and this ties in perfectly with the title of the story. Pixie face implies the fantasy genre but needn’t be.
In the second and third sentences we have our dilemma; the parents want a boy but Jamie wants to be a girl. There are actually two conflicts going on there; Jamie with her parents and with how she is built. We don’t know initially how old she is but she’s clearly made up her mind who she is. At Jamie’s height (4’11” = 1.5m) it would be easier for her to be a girl. Had she been 6’4 (1.94m) it would have been more difficult (there’s an interesting video about height here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7bdIFJUpvk). I had a female colleague who was 6’1 and she loved being tall – as do I, I’m 5’10). When we learn that Jamie is going to fulfil his parents’ wishes and that the ‘princess can live in the books’ it tugs at our heart strings, as a story should.
We then have the ray of hope with the student’s news but again Jamie has obstacles to overcome (losing her education and possibly a child). It’s a great three-act structure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure).
It’s interesting to see what Lianne says about point of view. I’ve heard many authors say that a story just wasn’t working until the changed the point of view and whilst it can take a lot of reworking it was clearly worth it in Lianne’s case, and first person is more suited at getting inside our protagonist’s head. Now on to the writing…
The opening paragraph provides us with another character, another protagonist because she is helping Jamie. I don’t speak Gaelic but we do get an idea of the words from the actions. Then we find she has a sibling, also a girl, and the age differences by Kaylah being the older, or certainly the larger of the three of them. The description of Kaylah’s dressing Jamie is excellent, especially with phrases such as ‘brushing the floor’.
By mentioning Princess Grace is dates the piece and by mentioning someone we know (I assume Lianne means Princess Grace of Monaco) sets it in reality even if it’s not. Jamie pretending she was a princess and calling her her ‘maidservant’ made me smile, and the interaction between the two characters is fantastic. Lianne’s also avoided standard colours by referring to Jamie’s hair to that of a ripe pumpkin rather than a shade of orange, and to ‘paint your nails with moonlight’ is exquisite.
This excerpt is such a contrast to the harsh realities of the synopsis that it’s hard to think that there’s a dilemma at all, and Jamie is clearly so comfortable in her female skin that the reader can only feel sympathy for the choice she has to make.
I would have liked to have known who Jimmy the Pirate (a brother? Father?) and Gladys were (presumably not a relative or she would have said do).
Split infinitives often catch us out and ‘I pulled the tape off’ should read ‘I pulled off the tape’ and the verb is to pull off, but it’s so easily done. Likewise indirect action such as ‘A squeal of delight burst from my lips’ because it’s the squeal doing the action and not Jamie’s lips but following it up with Jamie doing the hugging balances it so I’d say it doesn’t need to be changed.
We then get by Jimmy knowing that Jamie wanted to be his wife that he’s a similar age. This leads me nicely to my next point; Jimmy / Jamie… a little too similar, I feel. Although they’re not used together within the text I would suggest Lianne changes Jimmy’s name. Again he’s a great character and it all makes a wonderful scene.
I thought that by using the word ‘Ooh!’ that Jamie was pleased her father was home early but this clearly wasn’t the case and I loved the fact that Kaylah was sticking up for her.
I began to wonder then whether Jimmy and Gladys were toys so re-read the earlier section but by them having chipped in for the present I assumed they were real, and were then told that there were other children at the party so that made sense.
It’s easy to imagine Jamie’s father’s reaction when he enters the kitchen and ‘deep wells of disappointment’ is a great metaphor. He’s clearly trying everything he can to make her a boy; by buying a softball and calling her by her full name.
It’s interesting how Jamie describes herself in the third person for a moment; ‘hugged his little princess / hurt her worse’ and it’s like she sees herself as two people.
The ending is superb. We know she’s tried to fit in, and has previously suffered black eyes because of it and leaving the section with a question is a winner because the reader will certainly want to know more.
As you can tell there was very little I’d change about this section. If we’re introduced to Jimmy and Gladys before this section that there will be no confusion as to who they are. The characters are delightful, the dialogue authentic and the conflict we need in buckets. Great writing, thank you for asking me to dissect it, Lianne.
***
Lianne’s father was a dairy farmer and an engineer, her mother a nurse.
She grew up in a home filled with love and good books.
Lianne’s book is available in paperback and for the Kindle from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
***
If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my website or blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
And if you’re feeling brave enough to send me a short story or novel extract (with a brief synopsis please) – 3,000-words maximum – for these red pen blog sessions then feel free.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: author, author spotlight, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, elfin princess, Facebook, fantasy, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, Hermaphrodite, interview, Lianne Simon, LinkedIn, literature, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, novelist, pinterest, pixie, poetry, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, self-publishing, sex change, story authors, Twitter, western, writing, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of more writing basics, is brought to you by science-fiction / fantasy author Paul Lell.
Writing 201
After my “I just do it” line, I can see the next round coming at me from a mile away! “Okay, so write every chance I get, accept criticism, and don’t do it for the money. Great advice, Paul. But seriously, how do you craft a story?”
My writing tends to be very organic. I start with world building, every time. I make an environment that is as complete as I can possibly make it. I establish history and politics, business practices, science and technology. Even the general psychology of the masses needs to be accounted for. Detail is everything, for me at least, because without a believable world, the characters and the story are pretty meaningless. After that I move on to character building. My characters tend to be as detailed as my world. I have huge piles of data about my characters that I doubt anyone else will ever see, just to make them as real as possible in my mind’s eye.
Once I have my world designed, and my characters fleshed out, I begin the story creation process with a problem. What is it that has everyone riled up? What are the potential dangers to the characters? Their friends/family? The world? Further, how do the characters get involved? What is it that pulls them into the quagmire of the story’s plot? Everyone needs motivation to act, and it is always helpful, from a storytelling standpoint, if our characters’ motivations are believable to the reader, and compelling enough to the character(s) that their involvement is as realistic as it can be.
Next, I try and establish a few key plot points that I think I want my story to go through on its winding path to conclusion. This is more often than not a mental map, and I try to keep it intentionally vague, because establishing fixed points makes me feel as if my stories become very forced as I try to manipulate the plot, and players, into meeting those ridged points. The dots I try and pin to the map are the start, the end, and two or three waypoints in the middle. But again, I try to keep these points as vague as possible, so it is easier for them to change and flow as the organic story begins to take shape.
Then, I toss my characters in at the starting point and let them go! I find that, for me, the story just flows, if I’ve done my job of world and character building properly. The characters will have motivations, desires, and goals, and those create personality, when combined with their history. Their personality dictates how they react to the world and deal with the problem of the plot.
To borrow an analogy from Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ (an excellent book that I recommend to all writers), the process is much like sculpture, or the excavation of a buried dinosaur skeleton. Everything is in place and as detailed as I can make it. My job as the writer is to clear away the unnecessary bits of dirt or stone that obscure the final piece from view. Sometimes it’s easy going; sometimes not so much. But I cannot force the end result to be something it shouldn’t, unless I want to risk ruining it.
Thank you, Paul.
Paul Lell is a Science Fiction writer and publisher, best known for his series, ‘The Keys of Kalijor’ which can be found on all major eReaders and at all major online booksellers.
You can read more about Paul Lell, his books, and his crazy life, at www.Kalijor.com.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with children’s author Stephen Lamoreaux – the five hundred and eighty-eighth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: characters, children’s author, creative writing, fantasy author, Kalijor, Paul Lell, reader, science fiction, Science Fiction writer and publisher, Stephen Lamoreaux, The Keys of Kalijor, writing, writing basics
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of getting your facts right is brought to you by crime novelist Neil Yuzuk who brought us Getting it right (part 1) and Getting it right (part 2) in October and November respectively.
Getting It Right (part 3 of 3)
How to get your facts straight?
RESEARCH – PEOPLE – RESEARCH – PEOPLE – RESEARCH – PEOPLE
Here’s another way to get information—talk to people. They love to share information and I promise to use their names in the books—they love it and they’re a great resource.
I met “Phil the Armenian” when we were waiting to be served at the deli counter and we got to talking. Phil is a Teamster. In my third book, “Beachside PD: Undercover,” Danny is going undercover as truck driver. Phil offered to help me and I told him that I would write him in as a character in the book, as Phil “the Armenian” O’Brien (Armenian mother and Irish father)—He loved it.
I needed “behind the scenes” information on TV broadcasting, so I called a former student, Basche Warner, who works as a cameraman/producer and we met for pizza. He brought along a friend of his, Jack Shipley, who is also in the industry and they briefed me for two hours on procedures and equipment. I ended up using just a bit, but I have it if I ever need it. They’re in the book as a combined character, Basche Shipley.
We have all of these people in our lives and in exchange for using their names as characters, they are more than willing to help. And, if you don’t know a cop or a truck driver, ask your friends. Two fellow authors helped me and now I have a police secretary named Morgen Dingli in my books. Morgen did a beautiful podcast of a short story I wrote and Ms. Dingli has been generous with her writing advice.
In “Beachside PD: Undercover,” Danny was shot. I brought that chapter along on a physician visit. My Internist read it and suggested inserting a chest tube for Danny’s collapsed lung. For the description of Danny in his post-surgical ICU bed, I turned to another former student who is a Nurse Practitioner and she helped me brush up the scene.
People love to tell their stories. I just received an email from my son’s lieutenant that he has more cases for my next visit. In “The Gypsy Hunter” I gave a big plug to his wife’s charity, Bit-By-Bittherapy.com. It’s an organization that uses horses to help people with special needs; their “Horses For Heroes” is for military veterans & their families. I used it to rehab a Seminole coed whose sister was murdered.
I met author K.B. Schaller (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0TkzdG2bbI) on LinkedIn and she was very generous in helping me be accurate when it came to the Seminole Tribe and its culture. She’s also helped me create a Seminole thread in the new book. In return, my son David designed a video trailer for her.
We are and can be resources for each other, the key is to keep it within reason.
There are real cases in the news all the time—use them. Learn about forensics, it’s a great case solver, often in unique ways.
Use the real detective TV programs to inspire your stories. I said “inspire” and not “copy.” On one program, there was an interesting case that was solved by finding a wristwatch at the crime scene. I liked the concept and took it several steps further, so in the end, I had an important sequence of forensic evidence to solve the case.
A warning about forensics, they are fallible. So much depends on how it’s gathered and how it’s interpreted. For example, a man was arrested for an act of terrorism where hundreds were killed, because his fingerprint was found at the scene in Spain. However, he was five thousand miles away in Colorado when it happened . . . and, he’d never been to Spain—never, ever.
If you’re writing about Bobbies and Blaggers—talk to the constables you might encounter during your day. Stopped for speeding? Try, “Officer, I’m so glad you pulled me over. I’m writing a book about police procedures and I was wondering if you could take the time to give me some tips on what Road Patrol officers look for, and what are the proper stop procedures.”
If that doesn’t work, ask to be arrested so you can see the inside of the stationhouse and experience arrest procedures first hand.
If this has helped, then Bob’s your uncle. If I can ever be of help, please let me know.
Oh wow! I’m in a novel… I’m famous. What can I say? (usually a lot)… thank you, Neil.
Neil L. Yuzuk (pictured right with son David) was born in Brooklyn, New York. Now retired after twenty-two years, as a SPARK Substance Abuse Prevention Counselor, he wrote Beachside PD: The Reluctant Knight, after collaborating with his police officer son on a screenplay of the same name. The book was a finalist in the Global eBook Awards in the category of suspense / thriller.
The second book in the series is Beachside PD: The Gypsy Hunter and third book is entitled Beachside PD: Undercover. He has also written a screenplay: Fade To Light. Another book, Zaragossa: Fruit of the Vine is in the works.
Neil and his co-author son David are the authors of the Beachside PD series and their website is http://www.BeachsidePDBooks.com. You can also watch their video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20e_i39GaQA and their print and eBooks are available at Amazon.com.
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with memoirist, poet and fiction author Barbara Morrison – the five hundred and eight-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: action, crime, David Yuzuk, Foyle's War, Global eBook Awards, Law and Order, Lewis, Luther, Morse, mystery, Neil Yuzuk, New Tricks, novelist, novels, romance, Schindler’s List, screenplay, suspense, thriller, Touching Evil
I run a fortnightly critique group as well as critiquing other authors’ writing which I really enjoy, so I started creating podcast episodes doing this. Because this was not only time-consuming but also restrictive being audio-only, I decided to switch from audio to text and will now be running future ones on the blog. The first nine episodes have already been blogged (and are listed on the http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/red-pen-critique page) with new episodes being run here every Sunday evening (UK times).
Please remember that it’s only one person’s (my) opinion and you, and the author concerned, are welcome to disagree with my interpretation – I will never be mean for the sake of it, but hope you find that I’m firm but fair. I type my comments as I read through the story as a reader would think as they read, although they would most likely be reading, not analysing, unless they’re writers too!
Regardless of what genre you write I hope that this helps you think about the way fiction is constructed and that you have enjoyed reading another author’s work, the copyright of which remains with them.
***
The story in this post was kindly emailed to me by Aaron whose short story ‘On the Edge’ I critiqued in episode no.7.
If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my website or blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
And if you’re feeling brave enough to send me a short story or novel extract (with a brief synopsis please) – 3,000-words maximum – for these red pen blog sessions then feel free.
So without further ado, Aaron’s story, then my feedback…
Circles
A Roman cohort on the march was not a quiet thing. More than 400 men each carrying a third of their own bodyweight, in kit that was mostly metal, produced a great deal of clanking.
‘Sir, these Britons. They don’t all happen to be deaf, do they?’ said Marius Sextus. He was trying to get his name known, and Centurion Brevus, alongside them on horseback, was as good an officer as any to try to impress.
‘Not as far as we know. Although they are probably stupid. And mad.’
‘Mad, sir?’
‘Of course they are. Trying to fight us the way they do. If you could call it fighting – all that yelling, and throwing stones at us. As I say, insane. But what makes you think they might be deaf too?’
‘Because maybe we hardly ever find any of them because they can hear us coming from ten leagues away!’
‘Jupiter, that’s a good one. I think I might just have heard it before, though. Yesterday, I think it was.’ Brevus was apparently of the view that new men should be broken, rather than bedded, in. He picked up his pace and moved further up the column. Marius saluted, and swore under his breath.
Marius wondered whether Brevus was created miserable, or whether the weather here was driving him that way. Only three hours after noon, and already the dusk was approaching. Even here in the southwest of the island, it was cold enough at night for the armour to freeze to your skin if you weren’t careful, and the water in your pigskin bladder rarely completely unfroze before midday. Gods only knew what it must be like in Hibernia.
Ten minutes later, one of the cavalry scouts returned from his evening reconnaissance. The rider was looking excited as he dismounted and walked to report to the Cohort Commander. From Marius’ place towards the back of the column, he couldn’t hear the discussion, but the scout was using a lot of hand gestures. Twice, he swept his arms around to indicate circles. This seemed odd – granted, the circle was the standard patrol route, but everyone knew that; why bother telling the Old Man something he would already know?
Whatever had been said prompted an order to halt soon after. Marius now had the dilemma that every soldier in history faced – is this particular stop going to be long enough to make it worth dumping my pack, given that if I do, I’ll only have to pick it up again later? All around him Legionaries stamped feet, stretched limbs and generally tried to keep warm until the officers’ conference that was apparently taking place had finished, and the soldiers would either resume marching, or set up camp.
After a few minutes, Titus, the Decurion, gathered his seven men round him.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Aaron, creative writing, critique, feedback, historical, red pen, Roman, self-publishing, short stories, short story, writing
Welcome to the five hundred and eighty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with erotic writer and author marketing adviser Lucy Felthouse. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Lucy. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Lucy: Hi Morgen. Thanks so much for having me on your site! I’m Lucy Felthouse, I’m 27 and I’m based in South Derbyshire in the UK.
Morgen: Derbyshire is a beautiful part of the country. I’m only a couple of hours south yet I go too rarely. Note to self: go to Derbyshire more often.
Lucy: I’ve always written, as long as I can remember. When I was a child I’d announce I was going to be an author, but as I got older I realised it wasn’t as simple as sitting down and writing a book and people throwing money at you. So I tried to figure out what else to do. I finished college and still had no idea, so I decided to buy myself three more years by going to University to do a degree in Creative Writing. It was then I started writing erotic fiction, as a dare. I left University and started working in PR & Marketing and continuing to write on the side. Now I work for myself and my days are a combination of running my PR & Marketing business (Writer Marketing Services (http://www.writermarketing.co.uk) and writing.
Morgen: And don’t the days go quickly, but I bet you enjoy yours as much as I do mine. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Lucy: I write erotic fiction and erotic romance, and lots of sub-genres within that. I haven’t yet tried any other genres. I have too many erotica and erotic romance ideas still bouncing around my head, but perhaps once I’ve exhausted them I’ll try my hand at something else.
Morgen: You have the same ‘problem’ as me; more ideas than time. What have you had published to-date?
Lucy: I have 16 single-author short stories, one novella, over 30 anthology appearances and four anthologies I’ve edited or co-edited.
Morgen: Yay for short stories, my favourite format. Have you self-published? If so, what lead to you going your own way?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, baby names, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, Eighty Days, EL James, erotic romance, erotic writer, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Fifty Shades, Fifty Shades of Grey, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, kinky sex, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Lucy Felthouse, marketing, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery series, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, Off the Shelf, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, romance ideas, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, sex scenes, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, south derbyshire, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, trilogy, Twitter, vampire, Vina Jackson, western, Wordpress, writer, Writer Marketing Services, writer's block, writing, writing competitions, writing erotic fiction, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, writing sex scenes, YA, youtube
By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way to (or possibly at, I like to be early) The Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden (London) to do a talk about blogging for the lovely Agnes Meadows and Loose Muse. Seeing as many of you live outside the UK, or do live here but won’t be there, I thought I’d share my notes with you. I hope they’re useful / interesting. Because I mostly use WordPress I’ll be primarily referring to that ‘platform’…
