Streamwriting

A 2 day How to Get Published Conference, in Kingston, on Sept 11th & 12th.  From what I’ve read on the website, the 1st day is slanted towards How to Write whereas the 2nd day is focussed on the specifics of getting published.  It features speakers on lots of interesting topics such as writing a good synopsis, writing in different genres, there’s networking opportunities, the chance to meet agents and some workshops too. There is an early bird discount for all bookings receivedby 31st July. The link to see the full programme is: http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/item.php?updatenum=1044

Writing Tips for your First Novel 

Writing a novel is a big commitment. There’s planning and pre-writing, including research. There’s the first draft, which can take anywhere from weeks to months. Then you have to put the thing away for more weeks or months to get some distance before you start rewriting and editing.



Pre-writing is one of the more time-consuming parts of the novel process. It’s here that you figure out who your characters are and what their story might be. Keep notes about everything at this stage. Each tidbit of information that pops into your head should go down on paper. Keep your notes organized, in whatever manner works best for you. You might keep a separate folder or file for each character, setting, and plot element. Or you might color code your notes. I like to use an online wiki (PBWiki) for taking notes so I can link different pages together.



You’ll need to do research. Every story out there requires at least some research. If you’re very familiar with your setting and time period, you can probably start writing without any formal research beforehand. But keep a list of resources you can use to look things up as you write. Even in fiction, historical accuracy is important. While it doesn’t mean you can’t change things, you should have a very good reason to do so. Don’t “wing it” and hope no one notices—someone will. And sometimes rewriting historical or other inaccuracies out of a story can make the whole thing fall apart.



Some writers outline prior to starting their first draft. Others just start writing and let the story take them where it will. Neither method is inherently better than the other; use whatever works for you. I have to outline. Once I’ve actually started writing, though, I tend to completely disregard the outline. But if I get stuck, I can always refer back to it and see what my options are and where I need to go. Outlining, for me, is a way of getting to know my characters and their goals. Before writing my first outline, I’d never finished a novel. I’d had a dozen false-starts, but all fell apart or lost momentum after a few chapters. Other writers feel like an outline forces things and stifles their creativity. Try writing both ways and see which one works for you.

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How To Find Inspiration

A friend once gave me a piece of advice: ‘Absorb’. I was about to set off on a trip to Nepal and she meant that I should let everything I experienced on my journey sink into my body, filter through, become a part of me. I followed her advice and had the time of my life.

From then on, I decided to make that my everyday ‘motto’ - from the way a bird swoops down and almost hits the windscreen as I’m driving the car, to the way my body needs to stretch when I wake up in the morning. Everything can become a lesson, can provoke a sensation, even if it’s years later. This way of approaching life has helped me with my writing.

I’m an observant, visual and tactile person by nature. I enjoy examining objects, find I get a better sense of what I’m dealing with if I study it, touch it, and then ask myself how that made me feel, what thoughts it provoked. I write down things I notice when I’m out walking the dog, on a bus, in the supermarket. If, for example, I see a face I find intriguing, I’m afraid I will stare at the person whose face fascinates me. I then write down what it is that’s so striking about them. This rule applies to everything, not just people. These little scribbles usually find their way into my writing; they get tweaked and twisted to fit the character or setting I want to achieve, but they make it there. And that’s often commented on by readers. They find they can relate to what I write, feel like they’ve visited a place they’ve never been to, or know a character I’ve written about.

Writing can be very personal and isolating. And yet, it’s also about reaching out to people you’ve never met, wanting to show them a moment in time that you believe will inspire them, draw them into your imaginary (or not) world, pass on a piece of advice. Although an insular form of art, it’s a way of communicating ideas. Yes, it’s one-sided, but it’s also liberating and provoking - hopefully not only for the writer! It’s a way of saying: “Look, this is what it feels like to be experiencing this or that, but you might have experienced something similar. And maybe, reading someone else’s parallel experiences might make you realise that we’re all connected, we all share the same desires and hopes, we all dream the same nightmares. It might make you less lonely, less frightened, a part of something greater.” That’s what I like my readers to experience.

Observe the details around you. It’s the little things that add spice and meaning to your life. Pick up a stone, notice its weight, examine its texture, try to describe it in your mind, see how its colour changes when you wet it, look at it as a single stone in your palm and then picture it as one of thousands of pebbles on a beach. How does that change your perspective of this rock? How do you feel in relation to it? Observe all these details, and then absorb them. Let them sit in there for however long they need to ripen.

Nothing gets wasted, even the bits you reject, the parts you find don’t agree with you so much. They have their own role to play. Allow what you’ve absorbed to mature. And then use it. You’d be surprised at what you’ll feel you’ve gained and how close we are to one another.

So, absorb this. Let life amaze you.

Annia Lekka writes fiction for adults and children. Her writing is in the spiritual/magical genre. She has written one cross-over novella called ‘Fish Tail Mountain’ and is now working on one of three novels taking place in Istanbul at the turn of the last century. You can learn more about Annia and read some of her writing on her Facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Annia-Lekka/82893230212?ref=ts

The shape of publishing to come

©2009 Dan Holloway

It is a truth universally acknowledged that anyone who says “the future will look like this” has only to live long enough in order to end up feeling a prize pillock. Fortunately, as a former Weakest Link contestant and sometime Rocky Horror Show frequenter, I’m no stranger to prize pillockdom. So here goes.

The safe part of predicting the future is that it won’t look like the present. That’s also the bit we – even the most imaginative SF writer (which kind of makes you question their mojo) – find hardest to accept. We’ll imagine all kinds of gismos and whatnots – provided they do the same kind of thing we do now. And publishing’s the same. We are happy to envisage all kinds of changes in the means of delivery – just so long as what those means deliver are the same old same old.

Now that I’ve got the “humorous intro” and the “zoom into topic with a snide aside at the expense of my peers” over and done with it’s hard to know where to start (see, I really must be a writer!). So I’ll start with my predictions. Then I’ll say why. And finally I’ll get to the bit that really concerns us – what opportunities these changes hold for writers.

1. People will always read books made of something like paper. There will be e-readers. But there will also be books. I’m not going to elaborate that.

2. In ten years’ time the bookshop won’t exist like it does today. Secondhand bookshops, specialist bookshops, showrooms for new talent maybe – but not Borders and Waterstone’s – and certainly not blockbusters on the supermarket shelf. Nor will we buy books through Amazon and online suppliers in the same volume we do today. So what will we have instead? We’ll have POD machines on street corners where you search for a title, pop in your credit card (or whatever passes for money in those days, and out comes the book). Rich(er – it will come down in price) people will have home versions. Supermarkets will have them at the door and you’ll pick up your book on the way out.

3. The business of getting a book from pen to reader will be much flatter and leaner than it is now. The author will be at the centre and will outsource tasks to different specialists rather than have publishers do everything.

4. The key people in the new bookselling business will be the pluggers – people who hold the key to the doors that open out onto the public. They might not look like the music industry pluggers of today – they probably won’t. They’ll be an updated version of Richard and Judy – people who have access to buyers. Canny authors will be able to do this themselves – but I see a role for specialists too.

5. Writing will be a much healthier proposition for people with niche audiences, who can happily sell a few hundred copies of their books every year without anyone ever getting frightened of large print runs. We hear a lot about decreasing opportunities for writers because of blockbusters and celebs. On the other hand we have publishers saying these fund new writers. In ten years’ time this will be a non-debate. Things will actually be better all round. All writers will have the potential to reach the market. The good ones will have a better chance to make money than they do today, whatever their genre.

6. Writers will increasingly make their money from things other than their books. Books will increasingly be given away to attract or reward fans. Writers will make money from appearances, events, merchandise – from giving their readers an experience. NOTE – this will happen more or less according to genre – and it will be an opportunity and not a universal fact. Romantic fiction will always be most about lying in a warm bath alone with a book and a glass of wine. Some SF will probably push things to a point where gaming, film, conventions, and fiction are practically indistinguishable. Most will be somewhere in between.

7. In terms of the business landscape, there will be new players on the scene. Some of them will be get huge and swallow up ancient traditional publishers many times huger, stripping them down and using their constituents. A few old names will remain, doing different things from what they do now. And there will be a lot of small and medium size specialist companies instead of a few large ones, reflecting the new, flatter business model I talked about earlier. This landscape will evolve like a mini bubble – a vast number of these micro-businesses will start up. Many of the early ones will make their founders a tidy sum. Almost all of them will go out of business – but what’s left will be the new landscape I mentioned at the start of this paragraph.

So why do I think this?

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 Over the next few weeks I will be publishing a series of articles on this blog.  After which I shall upload them all onto my website. My aim with the website is to offer as much useful content as possible to writers of all levels at any stage.So, with this idea in mind I had two options.  Write all the articles myself OR get help!  Obviously, I chose the latter option.  A) I don’t know it all!  and B) I’m lazy. So, I turned to my trusted bank of authonomy buddies and all of them were more than happy to help out.  In truth, I was delighted at how supportive they were.  They really are a great bunch of helpful AND talented writers. Thank you for helping me.  *inserts smiley face*I hope you find all the articles both interesting and useful.  They cover everything from the future of publishing to how to write erotica.I know which one I’ll be salivating over….Please enjoy and feel free to make any comments either to me, or to the author.  All the contributor’s web details will be available so if you like what you read - go check them out some more!  And if you want to contribute an article to my blog and my website, please drop me a line. Thanks.