Streamwriting

Confession - I nicked this from Cordia’s forum post on authonomy!  Hope she won’t mind but she wrote it so beautifully….

There’s a new novel competition in town.   The grand prize? A $25,000 publishing contract with Penguin.

Here’s the basic info:

ABNA or the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award will be accepting submissions from February 2–8. Up to 10,000 entries will be accepted. Amazon editors will narrow the field to 2,000 by reviewing pitch statements from the entrant. Amazon Editors will then read 3,000 to 5,000 word excerpts from the 2,000 to narrow the field to 500 Quarter-Finalists. Those quarter finalists will have their book reviewed by Publishers Weekly. Penguin editors will then narrow it to 100 semi-finalists.

Sorry, but there are numerous restrictions, including:

-No self-published or previously published books. Authonomy does not count as previous publication.
-Only residents of 20 countries are allowed to participate. Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Québec), China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States (the 50 states and D.C.), and the United Kingdom.
-The book must be in English.
-It must be written by only one person.
-It must be fiction.
-No poems or short stories, even if submitted as collections.
-"Sponsors reserve the right in their sole and unfettered discretion to disqualify at any time any Entry containing obscene, offensive, pornographic or sexually explicit material, or libelous, disparaging or other inappropriate content."

Questions? You can visit the official sites at: http://www.amazon.com/b?node=332264011 and https://www.createspace.com/abna

There will be a national event in Chelmsford Essex called SP4UK (Self Publishing for the UK) on 30th May 2009 designed to help, motivate and provide assistance to new and existing authors looking at completing a Self Publishing project.We all know the unfair stigma that self publishing gets and even though this is being eroded as people realise the value of getting their work "out there”, taking control of their work can be rewarding and monetarily beneficial.

The event is being held in Chelmsford in the Shire Hall very close to the Main line station. Chelmsford has ample parking near the venue.
Please see our website for full details www.sp4uk.co.uk . Tickets are £15 each and for that you will be able to meet like minded people talk to the experts and listen to our speakers who all have exceptional experience in this field. If you have any further questions please either:

Call 01245322716 9-5 Monday to Friday or
E Mail robertbanham@aol.com

OK, so not Dragon’s Den exactly - but almost as scary!!!

Novel Pitch
Deadline: 2 March 2009
You walk into a bookshop, your novel lies in glimmering piles as you sit calmly behind the table and prepare to sign… Bring this dream a step closer by entering Novel Pitch. Novel Pitch gives 6 unpublished authors the chance to pitch their novel to a panel of experts from the publishing and literary world at a unique live event.
Panelists include:
Juliette Mitchell - Penguin
The Literary Consultancy
Ellah Allfrey - Random House
Nii Parkes - Flipped Eye

Each finalist will get feedback from the panel and ideas for next steps. The winner will receive a professional reading of their work. To submit; please send a 2000 word extract form your novel or work in progress, plus a synopsis of no more than 300 words (12 point font, typed and double spaced) to Spread the Word. Please mark you envelope ’Novel Pitch’. Submission is free.

Spread The Word

77 Lambeth Walk
London
SE11 6DX
0207 735 3111
www.spreadtheword.org.uk

After heavy session of cutting and post it pasting, I decided to take break in bar.  Monday night and only one bar in town open - Oscars. 

Dressed up in combats, trainers and red fleece, looking casual, as per.  Finished off with winter coat and new olive green woolly gloves.  Coldest winter I’ve known in 5 years.  Ordered a coffee from the cute barman. 

All this lead-up to the main event.  I met my Lizzie!

Harper Collins’ main criticism of The Voices of Angels centred around the main character, Lizzie. Taking this advice on board, I wondered how I could improve.  A *friend* I met on authonomy (he will understand the asterisks!) suggested I befriend a young teenager to see if I could pick up any traits.

Well, tonight I got my chance!  A father and his three children, age range from 28 to 14 stood by the bar.  I knew them and they invited me into their family fold.  When not fending off the advances of father (and son) my eye was on the 14 yr old.  She was a wonderful mixture of insecurity, sensitivity, excitement and self-consciousness.  Though not exactly how I’d picture Lizzie, I loved the opportunity to befriend my core reader.  I watched how she pulled the cuffs of her jumper over her hands, how she twiddled her hair, how she flushed bright red, how she envied her pretty older sister, how she pulled me outside (into the cold) to tell me how she fancied some guy.  No, not fancied, loved! 

And I?  I felt maternal towards her.  I tried to adviseher  to wait for someone special.  I felt a tug of emotion.  I wanted to protect her, guide her, look after her. 

Back in the bar, she told me she’d been to the cinema today and seen Twilight.  I asked if she liked it.

‘I loved it!’

‘Why?’

‘Because of the characters and the story!’

‘Did your friends like it too?’

‘They loved it!’

‘What did they like about it?’

‘Edward.  He’s SO perfect!’

Wow!  If I can create a perfect love interest (am working on Jake, the gifted musician with a tortured soul….) then maybe I can tap into that same vein of intense emotion.  And that’s what this girl displayed - raw emotion swimming just below the surface.  I wish I could be more eloquent about this, but I can only feel it, rather than describe it.

I loved meeting her.  I wanted to give her all my confidence - to tell her it didn’t matter if the blond girl in the corner had nicer hair or if her sister was slimmer.  It didn’t matter!  She was still beautiful. 

That’s Lizzie’s journey - going from insecure girl to one of self confidence.  Tonight gave me some of the finer details. 

At 9.30am this morning I am pleased to announce I opened the Post It Notes.

Yes, it is true.

At 4.30pm this afternoon I started work on  my KEY POINT PLAN.  Yes!   I  got to work.  Interestingly, or rather creatively, I managed to concoct a rather elaborate system which pleased me no end.  This involved taking 8 pieces of A4 paper and cellotaping them together.  Originally I had planned to make this poster-esque wall chart thing, and then I thought….’I know!  I can arrange it structurally to mirror the plot.’  So one piece of A4 at the top, then 6 below and then another piece at the bottom.  Ended up looking like a CROSS or the Angel of the North.

Symbolic, I thought. 

I am on Blue Peter was the next thought.

Who cares!  I am having FUN!  Writing IS fun.  It has to be fun, not some odious chore.

Much better with some cellotape and some Post Its!

Anyway, so then spent a most pleasant couple of hours arranging Post It notes all over the paper.

The best part was being able to swap my Post It’s.  No, Ariadne’s backstory goes there - not after Lizzie sees a black mark in town, but before.   It’s Juan that shows Lizzie the gateway into Infinity. No, it’s Joopy.  Or is it Seth?  No scribbling out on the page, just a simple, lift and stick.  It was like making a jigsaw!

Am not saying this system works, but I am saying far more fun than staring at blank page and writing plot points in linear fashion.

I also worked out how many words per structure and plotted Lizzie’s arc of transformation.

Transformation being KEY word, remember?!

AND got a breakthrough too.  During the Infinity section of the film I got a plot insight.  Not to share now, but am excited by it.

SO - Post It’s work!  It’s official.