This blog post is just for fun! I asked six other writers to name a song which got them in the creative mood and to tell me why. These are their responses... A big 'thank-you' to everyone who responded.
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Do's |
Don'ts |
If you ignore everything else, do this. Read, discuss and read some more. There is plenty of information available on the internet (CreateSpace, KDP, blogs, YouTube etc), in magazines, in books (e-books are a cheap option). How much of it can you/do you want to do yourself? There are companies offering everything from a full package to a simple proofread. Will you create your own cover? Format the book yourself? Obviously the more you spend on production the more books you have to sell to cover your costs. But a poor cover or errors in the text will hurt sales. It’s about balance. If you are not tech savvy and are using Amazon (there are other providers out there), use the Word template and Cover Creator tool available in CreateSpace. |
Ideally seek a recommendation from someone you trust. There are still people out there who will take your money and give you very little in return. |
(like me!)· Think carefully about your reasons for self-publishing. If it is because your work has been rejected by agents and publishers, think hard about why it was rejected. Was it because it is not yet ready or because they do not believe it is marketable? Whatever the reason, try to understand it and think about how it will affect your self-published book. Certain types of books are more likely to be successful than others. If, for example, you are producing genre fiction with a recurring main character and you can produce good quality novels on a regular basis then you have a better chance of selling your books than someone writing a one-off collection of short stories (like me!), for example. |
· Set your expectations too high. This isn’t the same as setting your standards high. Aim for a finished product which is as close to a traditionally published book as possible. But don’t expect too much sales-wise. Only a few make money out of self-publishing. Though that’s not to say yours won’t be one of those success stories we all love to read about. |
· Give yourself plenty of time. A couple of months, at least. Once you have been through the process you will probably be able to format and publish in an afternoon but for that first time, give yourself plenty of opportunity for checks and rechecks. There WILL be glitches! |
· Use a cover design which screams ‘self-published’. Either work out how to do it yourself using image manipulation software and professional images (which you will probably have to purchase – take a look at Shutterstock and istock) or pay someone to do it. And use a proper font. One that shows up clearly against the background and can be read when your image is reduced to thumbnail size. Take a look at the Font Squirrel website. |
· Make sure you don’t infringe someone else’s copyright. You won’t have the safety net of an agent or publisher to give your book the once over from a legal perspective so either make sure you are crystal clear on the law or play it safe. In particular, don’t use song lyrics or images unless you are sure that you are entitled to. |
· Sit back and wait for the sales to roll in. They won’t. If you are serious about this then you will have to do the leg-work. This means an on-line presence, perhaps regular blog-posts, appearing in local press, soliciting reviews, conducting readings at schools, writing groups etc. Ideally have an online presence built up before you launch your book. But don’t ignore the power of local media and personal appearances and events. Obviously a cost/benefit analysis needs to be done and the more books you have to promote the more you will get back from each investment of time or money. And you need to do all of this whilst writing the next book! |
· Reward yourself for each success, however small! Be it a compliment from a reader or a sale. Celebrate steps forward and don’t dwell on set-backs unless you can learn something from them. |
· Give up. Ever. Full stop. If it is what you love then go for it. Your passion will come across and inspire others. And you never know, you might be the next Kindle bestseller! |
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Training Course: How to Write a Novel - Redrafting by Susan Elliot Wright and Russell Thomas
23/6/2016
I can't remember where I first heard about the courses they run but I know that a number of things caught my eye: (1) the day courses are run on a Saturday which meant that I could attend (woo hoo!), (2) the subject of the training was 'the novel', (3) the price (£40 for the day) was affordable and (4) it was in Sheffield so I could actually get there. On paper, it ticked all the boxes, although I did not recognise the names of the tutors.
I have now attended three of the courses: Structuring and also Redrafting (1) and (2) and I can say that they really are excellent. The groups tend to be fairly small (8-12) which means that the atmosphere is friendly and intimate and that there is time for everyone to ask questions and be given personal feedback without boring the other attendees. In fact listening to the work of other people and hearing and contributing to the feedback came to be one of my favourite parts of each day. I'm not generally a fan of groups as I have so little time available for writing that I like to get on with my own work every second I can but these courses have shown me that, if they are run correctly and the feedback time is controlled (not always an easy thing to do), that it can be a valuable part of my learning and development.
Each of the courses has been cleverly put together so that the 'teaching' isn't just Susan and Russ talking at you. They stimulate discussion and provide writing exercises which directly relate to your own work in progress which means that you are actually advancing your own work during the course. The exercises are adaptable so that they fit into whatever stage you are at with your writing and it is also made clear that you do not have to do an exercise if you do not feel it will help in light of where you are up to with your novel. There are so many ideas discussed that you will always find something to work on during these times. Although I didn't take mine, laptops are welcome and used by many.
Susan and Russ run a number of workshops, on Saturdays and some evening classes. A list can be found HERE.
Susan's books (as e-books) are currently available on Amazon for 99p and £1.99 respectively during June. Click HERE and HERE.
If you live nearby it would mean the world to me if you could take a look, maybe check it out and have a read - even if you don't get all the way through. Each story can be read in 10-20 minutes. It has taken years of work to get this far and it would be a shame if no-one ever borrowed it! It's unlikely to be plucked off the shelf at random (can you spot it in the picture above?!). If you do read it, reviews on Amazon are always appreciated. For those of you unfamiliar with the book, here is the blurb:
’In the darkness the harbinger sings, of death, destruction, the end of all things.’ An injured soldier crosses a moor in the midst of a storm, a man chases an elusive woman through the streets of York, four children play in an abandoned house on a crumbling cliff top... Containing eight chilling stories of love, despair, loneliness and redemption, Into Dust is a collection of supernatural tales which will have you lighting a fire, reaching for a drink and, of course, locking your door.
1 Buy a copy of Writing Magazine or Writers' Forum. They are jam packed with motivational pieces and how-to articles plus the author interviews and reader success stories really enthuse me.
2 Go over old stories which haven't yet found a home (we all have them, surely?). Spend a little time re-reading them and see if you can send them off somewhere new. I find that simply revisiting some of my old work gets me going again and gives me the confidence to begin a new project. Entering competitions is also exciting, can generate a little cash and is a great boost for morale if you win or get placed. I still always pay for feedback where it is available as a fresh pair of eyes can often be exactly what I need to see my way forward. I took a break from competitions for a couple of years but have just submitted to three in the past month. I had forgotten how fun it is and I can't wait for the results. Fingers crossed!!
3 Read. Since beginning to write I read differently, noticing things such as structure, point of view, plot threads etc as well as general sentence construction. It spoiled reading for me for a while but now I have learned to enjoy it again by dampening that part of my brain enough to enjoy the story foremost but still absorb useful tips. Also, I find just reading for pleasure without any conscious analysis to be just as good on the whole as it energizes me and gets ideas flowing.
4 Go on a course. This is obviously more for those who are struggling with inspiration/technique rather than time. They can be costly but I have found a number of local courses which cost around £40 for a day of relaxed teaching and discussion with a group of like-minded people. I try and attend a few each year. It's a great way of injecting energy into a project and of gently moving your skills forward without a huge commitment in terms of time and money. If you are in Yorkshire I recommend the courses run by Susan Elliot Wright and Russell Thomas - http://www.susanelliotwright.co.uk/p/workshops.html .
5 Browse through a non-fiction book or magazine. Great for idea generation and when you have an idea you have impetus.
6 Keep in touch with writerly friends whether they be people you see or people you have met on Facebook or Twitter. There are some great communities out there and I have found lovely, supportive people on Twitter. When I am not able to write I enjoy following their progress, reading their blogs and offering words of encouragement. Their endeavour and success spurs me on as I hope mine does in return.
7 Use shower time, walking the dog time, feeding the baby time as thinking time. This is probably second nature to us all but just keeping your mind in the groove even if you can't get to a keyboard for any length of time will help keep the creative part of your mind happy. Always write those ideas down, though. I came up with a great line of prose which could have been the start of a new story but I was watching the television and didn't commit it to paper. By the time the adverts came I had forgotten everything except for the fact that I'd had a good idea which I couldn't recall. Very frustrating.
8 Attend an author event or literary festival. It all helps to keep you in the writer's frame of mind.
Of course, don't let any of these things actually get in the way of your writing. Some people can move their projects forward whenever they can snatch a free minute, others prefer to wait until they can put aside a block of time. Most of us, I suspect, fall somewhere in between. I'd love to know which you are and whether you agree with the above points or perhaps have some others of your own.
Happy writing x
I didn't set out to write a collection of ghost stories. If you'd asked me little more than a year ago what I was working towards I'd have said 'the eventual publication of a children's novel and breaking into the women's magazine scene'. But then I saw a competition advertised for a ghost story. I forget which publication it was (probably either Scribble or Writers' Forum) and I decided to give it a go - I was having no luck with the women's mags and knew that the novel was floundering.
By this time I had already entered and won or been placed in a number of short story competitions so I knew the drill and embraced the challenge. Always one to be thorough, I set about my research. Here's how I went about it:
1 I borrowed The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories from the library. It contains true Gothic gems from the likes of Sir Walter Scott, Bram Stoker, E. Nesbit, H.G. Wells and Algernon Blackwood. Further, it has an excellent introduction broken down into three parts which serves as an informed access point into the world of the English Ghost Story with a consideration of its varying components over a period of time. I soon came to realise the value of the book and purchased a second-hand copy from Amazon. Then I set about using the introduction and a number of key stories to compile my own notes on the subject. I photocopied four of the stories which I then highlighted and annotated with thoughts and observations.
2 I read the winners of recent ghost story competitions. Whilst I instantly knew that I loved the old fashioned ghost stories I had discovered in The Oxford Book, I thought that it was important to familiarise myself with stories which were winning modern competitions. There are many ghost story competitions run each year and I didn't find it too difficult to get my hands on a few of the top entries, particularly as I tend to buy Writers' Forum and Writing Magazine anyway.
3 I watched a tv programme compiled and presented by Mark Gatiss on the palpable talent of M.R. James following which I tracked down a number of his stories (free or cheaply on Kindle). By this point I knew that I wanted to try something in the Victorian style. I just loved the atmosphere and the imagery and was also curious as to what I would produce having read fairly deeply into the genre.
4 I read an article by Jonathan Stroud about how to write a ghost story. I've tried to find it to include a link in this article but cannot lay my hands on it. It was for Waterstones, I think.
5 I purchased and read a Wordsworth classic: The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. These are so good that they nearly put me off having a go! I'm glad that they didn't. Lesson learned: try hard not to be intimidated by the quality of other writers, particularly those considered to be among the best there has ever been. Even they must have started somewhere.
6 I read Dark Entries by Robert Aickman. This was another turning point for me. Written in the 1960's, this book contains six tales which are not necessarily ghost stories but defined by the author as 'strange tales'. Again I made notes as I went along and, whilst I found the endings of some of the stories a little too open for my taste, there was no doubt in my mind that I was reading the work of a master of his craft.
8 I submitted The Final Soul to a competition and paid a small amount extra for feedback. I always try and secure feedback when entering a competition. It's one of the main ways in which my writing has developed and I find it an invaluable resource (assuming that the person giving the critique has a decent level of experience, of course). The story didn't win but was given a 'highly commended' rating and the feedback was really positive, except for a plot hole at the very end which I had not spotted. Once I had got over my frustration at having made such a stupid mistake, I redrafted the story and went back to working on the novel.
9 ...I visited some real locations to get a sense of atmosphere and inspiration. The first of these saw me take a trip to York, a natural home of the ghost story. A separate piece on this trip can be read HERE (Using Real Locations In Your Writing). I also took a tour of the delightfully creepy Leeds City Varieties Music Hall where I decided to set my final tale. The grandfather clock in the bar features in the story. Both trips were hugely helpful and definitely added authenticity and some surprising angles to the stories I ended up setting in these locations. Going on tours or around old buildings can be a fantastic stimulant for ideas.
10 After my visit to Leeds City Varieties I tracked down some old music hall tracks on You Tube. The tinny and crackling gramophone effect really created a sense of atmosphere and helped me step into the situation I was writing about. It also gave me inspiration for the title to that story: We All Go The Same Way Home.
It took a while but eventually I ended up with eight stories, each of which I enjoyed working on and I was proud of the end result. The project took me to a place with my writing that I would not have previously thought possible. I think it was something about the tone, the darkness, which brought out the best in me in a way that my other writing just hadn't done. I found that I could still write mysteries, romances, twist stories all within the overall umbrella of the ghost story. In the end I gleefully abandoned my quest to break into the women's magazine market and instead threw myself, hammer, stake and gargoyle, into writing the collection which found its way into the world as Into Dust and I loved every minute of it.
Last year was an adventurous one for me, writing wise. I learnt so much in a short space of time, progressing quickly from the two ghost stories I had written over the summer of 2014 (these were not the first things I had produced but they were the pieces I felt most strongly about at the time) to a completed book of 35,000 words which is now available via Amazon (click HERE). Publication date was six months ago and I have already posted several articles on the additional skills I needed to acquire/develop in order to produce Into Dust in both paperback and e-book formats. I haven't yet composed anything, though, on my thoughts post-publication. The main reason for this is that I cannot make up my mind what to say. It has been an exciting and educational (even sociable) experience but I can't deny that sales were disappointing and, although my book is 'out there in the world' and I am proud of it, not many people have read it. I'll leave it there for now and do a full piece when I have decided upon the points that are worth making.
Since making Into Dust available I have been spreading my writing time between:
- marketing Into Dust - a tough exercise and one where the level of effort has not come close to generating a corresponding number of sales. I had, however, carried out thorough research beforehand and was at least prepared for this but I guess everyone hopes to be the exception. So far, I'm not! On the whole, more than one title seems to be needed to drive sales and novels with a common theme or series character are, I suspect, more suited than collections of shorts;
- writing a short non-fiction book for a friend's project;
- trying my hand at fairy and fantasy tales. This has been enjoyable. I have loved doing the reading and research necessary to give me a rudimentary understanding of this hugely popular yet competitive genre and (I think) that I am pleased with the two pieces I have completed so far. One story, however, had to be abandoned partway through. It just didn't fit with the tone of the others so it has been shelved for now but I might return to it one day as I still like the premise. I'm not yet sure what I will do with the two finished stories. I had intended on self-publishing another book of shorts, a collection of fantasy tales as a companion to Into Dust, but as I have not yet reached any sort of audience with Into Dust I can't help feeling that it might be a waste at this stage though I am certainly not ruling it out for the future; and
- digging out the novel I wrote in 2011 and assessing whether any element of it can be saved. I haven't yet decided on the exact age-range it is to be pitched at (if I begin another re-write) but it will be somewhere in the 8-13 bracket. When I started it, I had never written anything before - I just decided one day that I wanted to try and write a book and plunged right in. It was while I was writing it that I began to read articles, attend a few courses, dabble in short stories for competitions and basically try and learn the craft without spending thousands on a masters degree. (My next blog article will document how I went about this and what I believe I have learnt.) Consequently, the book in its current form is pretty dreadful but it is still calling out to me. It was around 90,000 words when I finished draft one. I've been through about seven drafts since then and it still needs a complete overhaul. I have therefore been immersing myself in character bios, timelines, plot twists, world-building (it is fantasy based) and have written thousands of words that will probably never make the final page but which have begun to give me a deeper understanding of where I am going. It is fun, but I am finding it incredibly tough. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I like to over-complicate things and that is certainly true of the plot lines I am currently trying to untangle and weave into something comprehensible. It just won't be worth starting on yet another re-write unless I have a clear idea where I am going. Hopefully the mists will clear soon as I am itching to get back to telling a story. Attending a one day workshop in Sheffield run by Susan Elliot Wright and Russell Thomas really helped to reawaken my waning enthusiasm for this project and give me the tools and ideas I needed to properly plan out a novel (or series). It was great value for money at just £40 and I would recommend attending one of their workshops if you are struggling with a project. The atmosphere was friendly and fun and I gained a valuable insight into how better to approach a longer piece of work. Details can be found at http://www.susanelliotwright.co.uk/p/workshops.html .
So that's where I am up to. It is looking like it will be a good long while before I have any new material to put out except, perhaps, if I decide to enter the fantasy shorts in competitions later in the year. In the meantime I will hopefully push forward with the novel and of course, much of my attention will go towards having my second baby boy. In the meantime I would like to say a huge 'thank you' to anyone reading this who purchased Into Dust and to those of you who assisted in its production and sale. You know who you are. Every single reader and/or word of encouragement means the world to me and your support is invaluable. Have a wonderful new year.
Bernie x
Bernadette Keeling
I love most types of fiction - crime, mystery, fantasy. Oh, and historical fiction of course and middle-grade books and, well, you get the picture.
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