Tag: learning

Eyeing-Up The #Competition

~ JacciGoodingAuthor

And here we go again! Another year of ideas, of writing, editing, networking. From October last year I began entering all sorts of competitions; short story, flash, meet the agent, pitch your novel, win a basket of kittens etc etc.  In the week before Christmas I received a rejection a day, Monday through to Friday. A No Thanks. A Not Today. A what-some-like-to-call Rejection of my work every single day for a week. Fine. Have it your way I thought. But after a quick sulk and an hour on Twitter looking at large cats squashing themselves into small boxes and dogs pretending they hadn’t been caught emptying the kitchen bin I decided that my work hadn’t be rejected, but declined. That made me feel better. And it’s true isn’t it – one competition judge’s decline is another’s accept, so that’s what I’m going into the New Year with – positivity.
There are lots of competitions out there at the moment. Big ones, little ones, short ones, long ones, international and closer to home ones. So let’s get going! Tinsel and tat long gone, let’s get on with the business of boosting your writing and confidence by entering some. Here are my top tips:

1 – and I never thought I’d ever say this – get yourself a spreadsheet and list what you’ve sent, where you’ve sent it, when the results day is and what the process will be – ie winner notification, shortlisters posted on the competition website etc etc. Dull as it may sound, having a spreadsheet will help. Trust me. Seeing how many comps you’ve entered keeps you on track

2 Go for ones with good prizes, not just ‘and you’ll get published on our website’, good as they may be. Go for something really worth writing for, like a decent cash prize, a presentation (ie a chance to network) and possibly publication

3 Try to enter two or three a week

4 It can get expensive so look for some free to enter comps

5 Share the opportunities with others – FB, Twitter, in person. What goes around comes around my friend.

Here’s six of the juiciest I’ve found this week: (but there are loads and loads out there!)

1 The Chipping Norton Festival ChipLit Short Story Comp 2020 – closes 8thFeb

2 Retreat West – The Retreat West Novelette-in-Flash Prize 2020. Word count for this competition is 8000 words. The narrative arc should be made up of standalone flash fiction chapters of up to 500 words each. Deadline May 31st, £10 entry fee https://www.retreatwest.co.uk/novelette-in-flash-prize/

3 The Fiction Desk – Ghost Story (always a favourite) £3 entry fee, deadline 31 January 2020. Theme: Ghosts Across Borders
https://www.thefictiondesk.com/submissions/ghost-stories.php

4 Bath Flash Fiction Award Maximum length is 300 words excluding title https://bathflashfictionaward.com/ ClosesMidnight February 16th 2020

5 The 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize in association with Tangent Books, is open for entries from writers all around the world

6 And if you’re looking to stretch your writerly muscles, why not write for someone else? That no-nonsense gang of writers down west, Writers HQ, are looking for people to write their blog occasionally. Nothing ventured, nothing gained…
https://writershq.co.uk/write-for-us/

Meeting Mike Gayle

~ JacciGoodingAuthor

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to be the in the audience for an evening of author talk with the very open and interesting multi-novellist author Mike Gayle, his editor Nick Sayers of Hodder and Stoughton, hosted by independent book shop Kenilworth Books which is based in Warwickshire, slap bang in the heart of the UK.
If you haven’t been to one yet but get the chance to attend an evening where an author talks about their process, their history, their long journey to publication, then I thoroughly encourage you to go. One of the most useful nuggets we came away with was the need for planning. No, not the sort of planning that involves three cups of coffee, a cuddle with the cat and a wander outside for ‘a bit of fresh air’ with a notebook doing absolutely nothing, but the sort of proper planning that involves – and get this wannabe authors – writing a two line synopsis for every chapter of your book. My friend said to me afterward of a masterpiece she is working on ‘that’ll be why I haven’t finished my book – I have no idea what’s going on.’
I’ve never thought about doing a chapter by chapter synopsis. I’ve done actual planning for an entire novel only to find the end result is nothing like I’d thought – nay planned – it would be. Odd how that happens. One person asked about ‘the muse’; does it ever strike? No, was Mr. Gayle’s definite answer. For muse read procrastination. True. But what if you’re not in the creative zone busy carving out characters that live in a whole new world created by you? Short answer – edit. Stop being all arty farty and get brutal instead. Get out your scalpel and trim trim trim trim. And I don’t mean your beard, my furry faced friend. Amputate your adjectives and ditch those descriptors! Squeeze out the fat and get to the muscle beneath, and when you’ve done that, you may see the bare bones of the story (I’m sensing a theme here…). It’s good to edit. But then of course, you have to know how to. There’s a big difference between changing your mind about something you’ve written ‘I don’t like that bit. I’ll change his jumper to blue’ and proper editing. How about not mentioning the jumper at all? Chekov’s Gun and all that. And that of course is where Nick Sayers’ insight was invaluable. How do you know what even needs editing? someone asked. Well, ‘you just do’, was the answer. Clunky dialogue, confusing/boring/pointless sentences/paragraphs/chapters will stand out to an expert, which is why they are experts at what they do. Midwives, really, helping the author deliver what the author thinks they want to deliver; what they had planned in those two-line chapter by chapter synopses.
And talking of which – I sent off some work to a very well known agency recently:
‘send both synopsis and the first 3000 words of your novel in one document only.’ Well that’s easy enough. I can do that. Edited the work in question, added it to the same document as the pain-stakingly created, written, revised, rewritten 3 page synopsis and pressed send. God they’ll think I’m brilliant.
And then I saw that little teeny weeny bit that said ‘send a synopsis of no more than a page…’

Should have edited properly, shouldn’t I.

SPELLISM

~ JacciGoodingAuthor ~ 1 Comment

Today it gives me great pleasure to host this poem by writer and adult literacy expert  Hugo Kerr. Hugo has published several books on the subject and is a wonderful exponent of just write it – it’ll be right!

He says on his website I love to debate with like-minds of like-enthusiasms. It has been my experience that great fruitfulness often results. Sometimes heat is generated, but so is light. If you want to discuss literacy with me you are very welcome to write to me via hkerr@aol.com
Over to you, Hugo…

Spellism

Some people find it hard to spell
While others do it very well.
The latter can be very quick
To criticise; they get a kick
From knowing how to spell a word
Of which most people haven’t heard.

They like to think this proves they’re clever,
Although they practically never
Stop to think if this is true
Or not. I recommend that you
And I should give some thought
To what it means to spell; we ought
To look at history – this will tell
That William Shakespeare couldn’t spell
For peanuts, and his royal queen
(H.R.H. Liz one, I mean)
Was twice as bad. One can tell at a
Glance, though, that it didn’t matter!

Dr Johnson hadn’t yet
Thrown his stiff, pedantic net
Over the language; he had not
Invented standard spelling – what
You wrote was what you thought looked best;
You simply wrote and left the rest.

You left the reading to the reader
Who, at this time, didn’t need a
Massive dictionary. (Which was
As well, you understand, because
There wasn’t one as yet.) You see
A writer, way back then, was free
To spell exactly how he liked.
His writing had not yet been spiked
By the debilitating fear
That folk might giggle, sniff or sneer
At what he’d written – for no better
Reason than they thought his letter
Patterns were a little odd
Compared to those laid down by God
(Or was it Dr Johnson) for
A standard spelling, evermore.
A “spellist” age we live in now,
Where you are often judged by how
You spell liaise or guarantee,
People or Arachnidae.

It’s very easy to admit
You have more than a little bit
Of problem with your maths, and yet
There is no way that you would let
The knowledge that your spelling’s bad
Get out at any price.

It’s sad
To say this, but we know
That spelling well just doesn’t show
Intelligence, for any fool
Can learn to spell in infant school –
Given the chance

For reasons why
Some don’t achieve this we should try
Examining the wider picture,
Which would make our theory richer.

As well as this, though, we should learn
How negative it is to spurn
A person (just as though he smells)
Simply because of how he spells.

Spelling is spelling, nothing more.
It isn’t “authorship” and nor
Does it equate to writing; it
Isn’t wisdom, truth or wit.

It is an unimportant skill,
A simple, boring memory drill;
Nothing to do, as you can see,
With art, or creativity.

Writing that’s beautiful, or true,
Has its influence on you
Not, for heaven’s sake, because
Of how the bloody spelling was!

Read Write Research

~ JacciGoodingAuthor

Are you struggling with how to get going with your research? Here are a few tried and tested tips that may help you crack on with it. Not all infallible of course, but you have to start somewhere!

1 – and the most immediate and obvious – The Internet! – go anywhere in the world! Meet people, look at photos, read blogs – and this even applies if you’re setting your novel in a fictional town or village that just so happens is similar to the place you live or grew up in, or is perhaps a favourite holiday destination. If you have an idea for a novel, it would be daft not to use the internet – and especially so on a cold wet rainy day. Save the touchy feeling research for when the weather’s better. And sign up for every newsletter going – that way you get find out about free stuff, new stuff, odd stuff.
2 – my favourite – Listen. Or ear-wigg. Or eavesdrop – whatever you want to call it – listen to snippets of conversation and write them down. Anywhere there are people is good for this; in the winter, cafes, supermarkets, cinemas etc. In warmer weather, parks and public spaces. Be alert! And take a notebook and pen. Or dictate – whatever you do, don’t miss the moment. Often random comments can help create a character or even lead to a whole scene you hadn’t even thought about.
3 – Talk. And not always to yourself. Sure, dictate notes into your phone or whatever, but strike up conversation. Some people will give you a wide berth, others will be more than happy to chat. And it’s all research.
4 – Whenever you can, research through reading and observation, both of which are free. Use your library, bookstores and local cafes. In these quiet places you can read to your hearts content. When writing fiction it’s important to read in your genre so that you understand who essentially, you’re writing for. If you want to write crime for example, get ten crime novels from your library, pitch up in a cafe and get scan-reading. If after chapter two of a particular novel you know you don’t like it, make notes as to why – poor use of English? Too much English? Slang? Sentence structure? Knowing how you don’t want to write is great help in defining how you do.
5 – For historical fiction research you have to know your onions because you can absolutely bet your readership will, and they can be very unforgiving if you get it wrong. If you find two conflicting references to the same thing, seek out a third and if you’re still not sure, don’t include it.
6 – Logistics. You must get your logistics right. If you’re following characters a, b and c down a corridor and character d appears from behind a fake palm tree, then the narration immediately has that character following, the reader will want to know how character d suddenly got behind them all without anyone noticing. If you have people on bus seats, make sure the right person stands at the right time for it to make sense in the story.
7- Travel/ing – If you’re writing about a journey on a bus, for example – go on a bus! Feel the seats, smell the smells, see the litter, note the bus driver’s expression or sitting position. All these small details can bring a character to life.
8 – Local Attractions. You don’t have to go globetrotting of course – a trip to the local supermarket can be a deep well of research. Need to take a character to Istanbul or Poland just so they can have something to eat? Check out the international aisle and see what you can buy. Then buy it and take it home and eat it. Experience the taste and flavours. And keep a look out for exhibitions in your locality – museums for example, local art festivals, council-funded displays etc. Much can be found on your doorstep and much of it free.
9 – Getbackto. Write what you need to write and when editing highlight the areas that need clarification through research. Then on a different day, let’s call it A RESEARCH DAY, (snappy huh? yeah I thought so too) you can spend the whole day researching, rather than trying to write and research at the same time and getting so completely distracted that you, literally, lose the plot.
They way you research is personal to you – there’s no right or wrong way. We all learn differently. I know one writer who has different colour pens for each character and when he’s researching something they’d do, he only writes about them in that colour. So do what you will, your way. If you’re new to research it may help to create some questions for your characters to answer to keep you on track. Why doesn’t Edwin like tomato soup, for instance? Does it matter that he doesn’t? It might. Don’t worry about excluding something of course – not all research is relevant and if it’s delivered in clumpy spade-loads, your readers may soon feel they are being told something rather than absorbing it through the narrative and that can be very distracting.

So, done enough research for today? Crack on then!