Another Hexham Book Event

Gorse, sometimes called broom

Meg Rosoff is an American who has lived in Britain for a long time. She doesn’t approve of “teaching” creative writing but if she practised the art, would suggest that Archer, Brown and Meyer should take up other occupations. Thinks all writing is a reflection of the author, and that it takes seven years, like an ancient apprenticeship, to learn the craft of writing. Or to put another way, it takes 10,000 hours before you produce reasonable writing. (Though it occurs to me that in seven years the apprentices did more than a million hours, and that’s if they worked a five-day week.)

Most people find that their first chapter is overwritten, overworked and often omitted in the final book. There’s too much exposition.

Think of a Colander – everyday stuff rushes in and falls through the holes, but some things will stick. They’re the important bits and will be quite different to other people’s bits. The contents make you, and the particular you that you are will dictate what and how you write.

Some people are clear, sometimes too clear. Everything is on display. Others are not connected to their subconscious and you feel you keep coming up against a pane of glass as you talk to them.

Depressives are attracted to the arts. (Or perhaps it is vice versa.) The depressive thinks he sees the world more accurately than anyone else. Perhaps it helps to be a depressive writer? When we’re writing, we’re looking for a conduit to the subconscious. What’s in the brain should come out on the page. I think this quote is from the Talmud: “We do not see things as they are. We see them as WE are.” Once you start writing, you may be surprised at what comes through to the page.

There is no objective truth, no one way to write. Often writing is technically competent, with good storytelling and plotting, but has no voice. Think of voice as in singing: you want a strong voice from your rib cage, not a thin little voice from your throat. German dressage riders have a word that roughly translates as through-goingness – from the rider to the horse and out into the dressage movement – a complete flow of energy.
Principal ballet dancers stand out against the corps de ballet because s/he has a quality the others do not. Their voice is strong.

Who you are, what you have to say, plus the confidence and self-knowledge to get it on the page – all these things go towards making your voice.

A Novel Event



Aydon Castle

Yesterday I attended  part of the Hexham Book Festival. A panel talked about how to get published and writing in general. Taking part were Mark Stanton, agent (Jenny Brown Associates), Alison Baverstock, publisher, writer and teacher of creative writing (Kingston University) Jo Dickinson, editor (Quercus).

MS wants a brief query letter, 3 chapters and a synopsis which he may read after he’s looked at the 3 chapters.  He gets on average 10 submissions a day, every day, and may only read the first page before deciding he won’t go any further. He wants good writing he can sell, relies on his own judgement of good writing and storytelling that appealed to him. He thinks if he likes it, others will, too. (He once passed on Alexander McCall Smith’s Lady’s Detective Agency and tried to sell an author called Dennis Donnelly, but no publisher would accept the book.)

His method of working sounds fine – but when asked if he ever put forward something he considered good writing even though he didn’t personally like it, he said no. Challenged that this bordered on arrogance, he had no answer except that he was happy to work that way. The challenger agreed that it was his prerogative to do so. Rustlings around the room suggested his audience disagreed with the statement.

JD wanted commercial fiction and looked for good storytelling that gripped her.

AB thought that these days e-publishing has empowered authors. They can chance work agents may not like on the market place and discover that the public likes it.
The UK is a couple of years behind the US, where publishers are discovering they must cater to the public’s requirements. Agents may lose out in this new world.

Editing is vital before any publication. Time is good, too; finish a story, put it away for three months before looking at it again. The distance enhances critical faculties, and results in a better book. In e-publishing, Amazon holds control and agents dislike and fear this. 10k sales via Kindle may interest a mainstream publisher, but if the book is selling copies in excess of 70k, why is a publisher needed unless the author wants the kudos of holding his book in his hand, or seeing it on Waterstones’ shelves. The other reason is that PR etc leaves little time for the self-published author to write.  Having a publisher takes care of that side of things and leaves the author free to write.

The panel agreed tht Authors get 25% of each book sale as opposed to 10% of a hardback sale, which I found debateable, for I know that Independent e-publishers sometimes offer more, and noone mentioned that Amazon Kindle promises 70% on books priced over $2.99.

Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult spoke yesterday at Hexham Book Festival and sounded relentlessly upbeat and charming. She has written 17 novels, but I've read only one of them - My Sister's Keeper.
As I mused on the energy she put into her talk, it seems she does the same thing with her writing. She rises, she told us, at 5am every day and goes for a three hour walk with a friend and gossips all the way. Once the kids are off to school she settles down to writing, which she does until 3pm when she metamorphoses into a mom again and starts car-pooling.
She follows this routine for nine months of the year, and reserves the other three for PR work, visiting spots all over the globe. Yes, she assured us, she devotes nine months to each new title. That includes research, writing, editing, until it is finally out of her hands and with the publisher.
(I felt exhausted by this stage, and I was only listening.) Within that time period she might also be editing another title, and doing research for the next novel.
She gave a reading from her latest title: House Rules, which is about a boy with Asperger's Syndrome who falls foul of the American legal system.

Fame at last!

Lovely experience on Thursday! I went to Hexham for my exercise class but early enough to visit Waterstone's and Cogito before 10am.

Promoting my own work does not come easily, and in Waterstones I was all fingers and thumbs as I tried to get Till the Day Go Down out of its plastic see-through folder and not spill press cuttings all over the desk.
The lady seemed interested and promised to give the manager all details when she arrived, though she could promise nothing. That's fair enough - I understand that the big chains have their own supply routes, and I think Quaestor2000 are accepted on the Gardiners listings.

Then I went to Cogito and the lovely owner rocked me back on my heels by saying he had a copy on his shelves. He'd ordered two, and sold one already. He was happy to talk, and thought the Tudor period a good time in which to set a story. There was a lot of death, he said thoughtfully. Did I know that there had been an execution in Hexham market place - although he didn't think it was in Tudor times. The Duke of Somerset, about 20 years before Henry Tudor took over. There's a plaque in the market place and I must look out for it.

I certainly must. There's a lot in Hexham I ought to look out for, so in the summer I shall be out scouting about with my camera. I browsed his shelves, bought the latest Elizabeth Chadwick re-issue The Running Vixen (I thought it was new-new, but never mind) and practically floated down to the Wentworth Centre for my exercise class.

Meanwhile, before I get to Hexham, the pics today are of Corbridge. This is the west side of the church and the plaque - you can just see it in the wider view, settled between the two windows - explains all.

Hexham Book Festival

Had a day out today at the Hexham Book Festival. Evidently I missed a great workshop on synopses yesterday, but today I learned a lot by listening to M&B author Sharon Kendrick in the morning and a trio of authors plus a senior editor in the afternoon.

Some of the stuff can be found on the website, but here are a few words of wisdom that stuck in my mind -

"Remember not to overplay the arrogance. Weave in layers of conflict. As one question is answered, a second is revealed. Signposts are necessary sometimes. Beware coincidences, especially trite ones. (I don't suppose anyone will own up to that one!) 'She stopped at the gate and wondered if Tino would remember her' was deemed an excellent opening hook. You need to know their characters inside out and their backstory so you can set up and be clear about the internal conflict."

And at last I think I know what internal conflict really is.

The afternoon session authors were Natasha Oakley, Michelle Styles and Sharon Kendrick.
They were informative and enthusiastic, and all agreed that M&B romances are character driven and that constant change keeps the books relevant to the next generation. Good motivation makes a book work, poor motivation can ruin excellent writing.

For M&B you need tunnel vision on the central romance. If something doesn't affect the romance, take it out. It's got no business being there. In case you wondered, the other woman scenario is deemed to be 'external conflict' because she is outside the central romance. But a woman who has been raped and has ongoing problems with any future relationship is internal conflict. So is a grasping, greedy step-mother who makes the hero suspect that

every woman is a gold digger.
Psychological conflict should mount in stages to the resolution, but takes a nose-dive at the Black Moment when all seems lost.

M&B are looking for new authors. They get around 1,500 submissions a year and they take on 1% of them. But all 3 ladies talking to us today came through via the dreaded slush pile. What will catch the eye? Great characterisation, good voice and Something Different.

Keep writing!