Make It Happen

It might be because I am now in full baby-mode, but I have been thinking a lot recently about who and how people are.

MAKING IT HAPPEN:
Some people are driven to do; other people aren’t. I’m a big fan of people who do — whatever “doing” that might be.

For example, today, the SCBWI-BI is launching a huge project to benefit its members, completely run by volunteers. One in particular is a wonder to behold: Jan Carr, who is running the project.

WORDS & PUCTURES
The project is Words & Pictures, a collective blog of wisdom and positive energy from writers, illustrators, agents and editors in children’s books…

My involvement is minimal, I’ll be answering Ask a Publisher questions from members in a monthly column – but there is a huge network of other people that are putting in a small amount to achieve something big.

http://www.wordsandpics.org

The entire SCBWI-BI organisation is run by tireless volunteers, and it is a thriving community, filled with people who do so many things: run conferences, set up schedules of events, run e-critique groups, run the Undiscovered Voices competition… People do it because they love children’s books and they love others who love children’s books.

THE SUCCESS STORY
Want to know the best part? This relaunch is being kicked off by comments from the original person who set up Words & Pictures, who is now a Carnegie shortlisted author. How is THAT for an SCBWI success story? (Congratulations, Elizabeth!)

The world needs much much more of this.

VOLUNTEER!
So, if creating children’s books is one of your passions, consider joining and volunteering for SCBWI. But if dancing in the rain is one of your passions, volunteer to set up a rain dancing group. The are bound to be others that like it, too. Or knitting. Or watching musicals. Or whatever you love – just DO IT. (Here’s the story of how Jan didn’t actually volunteer; she just did it.)

I believe that good things always come of being someone who does, especially with something that you love.

PAT ON THE BACK
What have you made happen this year? Or, better yet, what is one thing that someone else has made happen this year that you are grateful for? Leave a comment below.

Writers on Writing

The best people from whom to learn anything important and significant are those who are already very good at doing that ‘thing’ that you want to learn.  For writers wanting to hone their craft and skills there is no better source of information than writers talking about writing.

On Sunday’s ‘Open Book,’  Mariella Frostrop was talking to A.L. Kennedy, the Scottish author, who has just published ON WRITING – a book about writing.  She brilliantly points out that it is not enough to write, ‘The man walked into the room.’  You have to know who he is, where the room is, what else is in the room, and why is he walking in.  Some of the answers to these questions will be back story and will inform the writing in terms of atmosphere and mood and some of it will be told.

The author must be entirely in charge of all the facts.  And there is no escape, even in fantasy.  J.K. Rowling so brilliantly illustrates the confidence of knowledge whenever she talks about her Harry Potter novels.  She knows all about her characters.  Where they came from, their extended family and relations and lots more.  She knows how the magic works and why sometimes it doesn’t.  She has the world of the books completely clear in her head, and while it is not all on the page in ink, it is all on the page in terms of the meaning and logic of everything she writes.

Stephen King’s classic book ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT is also packed full of advice amassed over decades of writing.  Part memoir and part straight masterclass-type advice, this is a book that investigates the meaning of writing for Stephen King as well as the practical way he approaches his work.

Then there is the more academic and philosophical rather than entirely practical, and E.M. Forster’s ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL or Margaret Atwood’s NEGOTIATING WITH THE DEAD: A WRITER ON WRITING do so much to place the practice of writing, and the results of the toil, in a wonderful wider context.

Sydney J. Harris, an American journalist, said, ‘Never take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble.’  Writers on writing talking to writers – what could be better?

Storytelling in the graphic form, or why writing comics is the bomb

Today’s blog is a special guest post from Adam Christopher, a novelist and Sir Julius Vogel Award-winning editor. Adam is the author of EMPIRE STATE, SEVEN WONDERS and THE AGE ATOMIC. When not writing Adam can be found drinking tea and obsessing over comics and The Cure. You can follow him on Twitter here. We asked him to tell us a bit about what it’s like to tell a story through words AND pictures. You can read his response below and get an EXCLUSIVE, first-look at the art from his forthcoming graphic novel, THE SENTINEL.

Fair warning about what follows: I am no expert. In fact, I’m a total novice. An enthusiastic amateur, you might say.

I’m a writer, and a novelist first and foremost. I’ve got two books out with at least another three coming by 2014 from two different publishers. Novels are my job, and it’s a job I love.

But I also love comics. Comic books flip a switch somewhere in my brain that other types of writing don’t. Comics are, as they say, where it is at. But while I feel like I’ve been practicing for years and years in my head, writing comics is a totally new thing for me.

And I’m having the most fun ever.

Writing comics is a fascinating exercise. Although I’ve written the odd short story and novella, I find novels to be my preferred format – you can really get stuck into a story when you have 100,000 words to play with. Novels (and shorts and everything in between) are, most of the time, solo efforts, not counting all the editorial work that comes when you’ve got the book mostly done, which is a real team effort.

Of course, the beauty of prose fiction is that once you hand it over to the reader, what they see in their heads is totally different to what you, the writer, envisaged. And that’s the whole point. That’s why books are magical – there’s that direct person-to-person telepathy between writer and reader, as Stephen King once described it – but for everyone who reads the work, a completely new and different interpretation of the story and characters and plot and setting is created.

Comics are completely different, obviously. The combination of text and pictures works on different parts of the brain at the same time. They’re different to read, and they’re also very different to write.

When I wrote the first episode of The Sentinel, my forthcoming comic debut from VS Comics, I knew the comic script format like the back of my hand, having tinkered with various attempts in the past, more as practice than anything else, and I had worked out a detailed outline. But as I wrote, I just kept packing in the dialogue and exposition – I couldn’t help it, I’m a novelist! So the characters did a lot, and said a lot, and then usually said it again in a different way while also explaining what was going on. Again.

That first draft was long. Too long. I showed it to a friend of mine who has a long and glittering career in comics, and he kept glancing sideways at me with one eyebrow raised. Fortunately – as with my novels – I’m working with a great editor, Ned Hartley, who helped pare down the script and reminded me of the golden rule of comic writing: trust the artist.

Once I realized that I wasn’t in this alone, writing the script was an experience transformed. Comics show the reader the story in pictures and dialogue, and actually the art tells more of the story than you might realize, something that – comic fanatic as I am – didn’t really get a handle on until I started writing my own script.

See? Novice here, told you so.

So I trusted the artist – the wonderful Nadine Ashworth – and together we’ve crafted this thing, a story in words and pictures, my written script transformed into a living, breathing world filled with the characters I had imagined. As every page arrived, there was more to delight and, most importantly, surprise me. The telepathy here is going between the writer and the artist, and no matter what I put in the script or how much detail I use to describe a panel, the artist will come back with their take on it, inevitably different to what I saw in my own head when I wrote it.

The actual process is multistep. Here’s a rundown, using some panels from the first episode of The Sentinel.

From my script, Nadine did a series of page thumbnails – while I indicated the number of panels per page, the actual page layout is up to the artist (unless there is a particular need for a specific layout), laying out the panels.

Meanwhile, a couple of test panels were drawn, where the artist designed the characters and tried out the colour palette.

Once everyone was happy, the page pencils were done (although Nadine works entirely digitally), followed by inks, followed by colour, each step checked in case any changes need to be made. Dialogue balloons and captions are added later by the letterer, once all the art is complete.

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And that’s it. Repeat for every page, every episode. The first run of The Sentinel is four six-page episodes, which, for a pulpy Prohibition-era urban fantasy featuring a dead detective, a cult that worships the New York subway system, and an evil force returning from Ancient Egypt, suits the story very well.

And it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun, the most I’ve had writing. And I love writing novels, don’t get me wrong. But comics. Man, comics are it, baby.

I have much to learn and a long road to travel, but this is just the beginning.

The Sentinel, by Adam Christopher, with art by Nadine Ashworth, letters by Mike Stock, and edited by Ned Hartley, will debut in VS Comics #4, April 2013.

From Naval Officer to Published Author (or how I became a writer)

Today’s blog is by Richard Masson, the author of the newly-released dark adventure novel BOONIE. BOONIE was discovered by one of our editors through the UNDISCOVERED VOICES anthology. This is Richard’s first published novel, but it’s not his first foray into the written word. He shares his journey from battleship to BOONIE here:

To learn more about BOONIE, click on the cover below. Make sure you let us know what you think once you’ve read it!

Find your voice at the HKB Writers’ Workshop

As Hot Key prepares for its very first Weekend Writer’s Workshop, thoughts turn to WHY a budding novelist should sign up for it…

Even Dorothy Parker needed to spend time with other talented colleauges — why not you?

I mean, what’s to really know about writing a book? If you’re talented, you’re talented, right? Well, yes…right, but even the most ‘talented’ of writers have been overlooked when it comes to the selection process by agents and publishers: very busy people who may take fright at single spacing and paragraphs that are not inverted, or at a higgledy-piggledy plot with no direction (and no synopsis!) and loose ends flying in all directions. Those vivid characters you have created will not even get a look in, if your concept is tired and familiar and pitched as such, or your first chapter is frankly, dull.

The right mentoring teaches you how to approach your work – from the moment you get an idea for the story, to the last line of your novel. How to plot, how to begin, how to pace – and propel your reader along, how to delight rather than annoy with the unexpected, how to end, and how to find the right agent for you.

Most importantly we can help you how to do all of this without losing your identity, your voice, as a writer. Nobody can really tell you how to write, but we will certainly help you stand out.

The deadline to apply for the first ever Hot Key Books Writers’ Workshop is December 20 — just two days away! To apply, Please email a sample of prose – from a novel or short story (max 2,000 words) – to enquiries@hotkeybooks.com with ‘Writers’ Workshop’ in the subject field. Click here for more info.

How to be Happier with Rejection

Recently, I had to reject something that I really, really wanted to buy.

This isn’t an editorial rant about being crushed by sales targets or market cliches — that doesn’t really happen here. This is a mournful acknowledgement of how rejection is miserable for everyone involved.

I loved everything about that wonderful manuscript by that wonderful author — with only one reservation. But that one reservation was shared by the whole team. And it was insurmountable. (Boo.)

I wrote and rewrote the rejection letter, trying to show how much I wanted to buy it and explaining why I couldn’t, in a positive way… I didn’t want anything I wrote to get the author down. And it made me think I should write some tips for writers about How to Be Happier with Rejection:

1. You actually submitted something.
I have come across so many writers who aren’t able to finish a manuscript to submission level — or who are too scared to submit. If you are getting rejected, you’ve accomplished much more than many writers out there.

2. Know that the editor is sad too.
Even if they aren’t as sad as I was to let that book go, they are still sad. Each new book that comes in has the possibility to be the Next Big Thing, and every agent or editor is hoping that what they crack open next will be just that. It’s disappointing for us, too, when we have to say no for whatever reason.

3. There are lots of other fish in the sea.
A rejection is just one person’s opinion. There are countless rejection-to-success stories out there. DON’T GIVE UP! Keep sending it out… but at the same time:

4. You’ve got more to give.
The best way to handle rejection is accept and move on. Start writing something else. (NOT a sequel.) Experiment, try something new. Something that’s hard or uncomfortable or outrageous. You never know where it might lead.

5. Rejection makes books better
When you finally DO get accepted, you’ll know that because of all the other rejections that are happening, your publisher will have the time to devote to making your book a success.

Does anyone have any POSITIVE rejection stories to share? (As this is a “Be Happier” blog, I am discouraging rants about hideous people who have rejected you for no good reason…)

And remember…

Don’t get lost in the archives: a bit of advice for historical fiction writers

The second in our series of NaNoWriMo posts comes to us from Alison Rattle, whose historical novel THE QUIETNESS comes out in March.

You could be forgiven for thinking, that having written THE QUIETNESS, my first historical novel for young adults, and being in the throes of writing another, that I’m a bit of a history swot. That I have some qualifications in the subject: A degree perhaps? An O-level at the very least? Well, no actually, I have neither. In fact at school, I was a total dunce at history. I failed miserably. Poor old ‘Happy Hutch,’ my unsmiling, dry as dust history teacher, couldn’t interest me at all in his boring renditions of the causes of WW2, who signed what, when and dates, dates, dates…blah…blah…blah. (Sorry Mr Hutchinson!)

I didn’t want to know about all of that boring stuff; it didn’t fire me up. I was interested in social history; ordinary people and their ordinary lives. I wanted to know about all the juicy stuff. What did people use for toilet paper before it was invented? What underwear did they wear? What did they eat and drink? What did the streets of eighteenth-century London smell like? Unfortunately I didn’t get to learn about any of that at school. I loved to visit museums though, and old buildings. I loved to touch old walls and imagine the lives of people that passed through doorways and whose footsteps trod ancient staircases. I read historical novels and now I fill my home with odd relics from the past.

But I’m definitely not an historian. I didn’t set out to write historical fiction, it wasn’t something I deliberately chose to do. It just so happened that the story that spoke to me, the story I needed to write, took place in 1870’s London. And what an amazing experience it was to research this wonderful period of history. Victorian England is so evocative and surprisingly easy to access. As a writer I’m only too aware that the setting of any story, and the characters that inhabit that setting, whether it is in the past, future, present or indeed an imaginary world, has to be real, solid and believable. I had to make my readers hear, taste and smell Victorian London.

Newspaper archives are glorious places to begin the process of research. I spent many hours trawling through yellowing newsprint at the British Newspaper Archives in Colindale, before most of their vast collection was transferred online.  I was lucky enough to be able to handle original newspapers, the pages of which crackled and flaked at the edges as I turned them as gently as I could. You can glean all sorts of fascinating details from a period newspaper. From the language and expressions of the day to the products and services advertised; essential details that can add colour, life and weight to your story. The National Archives at Kew houses a wealth of documents that can shed light on a particular event or subject (in my case baby farming) that you are researching. It is an utter thrill to open a packet of documents that you know hasn’t been handled for decades to have it reveal its hidden secrets.

“Recipe for Avoiding Family Quarrels”, from the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser – Saturday 28 February 1891. One of the treasures from the British Newspaper Archives.

Maps and photographs are a great source of information and inspiration. They can act as an anchor, drawing you back to the world you’re creating if you ever find yourself drifting away. I kept images of street people, photographed by the Scottish Victorian photographer John Thomson, taped to my notebook. Thomson documented the life of the poor in the 1870s in his work, Street Life of London. These images are very moving and incredibly powerful. I only had to glance at them to be transported back to the dirty, grimy streets that my character inhabited.

Street Doctor, from ‘Street Life in London’, 1877, by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith

 London Labour and the London Poor is an invaluable document, written by Victorian journalist, Henry Mayhew. In it, Mayhew interviewed thousands of the London poor, describing in incredible detail their working habits, domestic arrangements and their lives in general. It is available to read online and is a gift to any writer researching Victorian London.

Jack Black, her majesty’s ratcatcher, 1851

The research process can be extremely addictive, but much of what you learn will never appear in your book. Too much historical detail will swamp your story and drown your characters and plot.

It is the tiniest detail that can bring historical fiction to life, not great swathes of historical fact.

A few words of advice for NaNoWriMo

Our guest blogger today is Katherine Marsh, author of JEPP, WHO DEFIED THE STARS and several other brilliant books.

Happy National Novel Writing Month! My friends at Hot Key Books have asked me to share some advice on novel writing, particularly things I wish I’d known before starting my first. So let’s start with full disclosure: Although I’ve been published in nearly a dozen countries, won a major American mystery writing award, and had one of my books optioned for film, my first novel lives where many others of its kind do–in a drawer.

This brings me to tip #1: Do not be afraid of your novel ending up in a drawer. The number of published novelists with unpublished first novels is incredibly high. Why? The only way to learn how to write a novel is…to write a novel.

Still worried that your first page, chapter, whole darn novel, isn’t any good? This brings us to tip #2: It matters less whether what you write is good than whether you can make it better. You’ve probably heard this before but great writers are rewriters. In fact, I’m always wary when people think they’ve written something great, especially when it’s an early draft. On the other hand, if you’re the type of self-critical, perfectionist, sad sack who bemoans your stuff ever being good enough, there’s a good chance you’ll make it!

Which brings us to tip #3: Relax! Novelists are like marathon runners—in for the long haul. So keep to a routine but if there’s one day (or two or three) when you can barely put together a sentence or figure out your plot, don’t panic. Part of a novelist’s work takes place when he or she is not actually writing but thinking, reading, dreaming, observing, and generally living life.

Creative people are messy…or at least that’s my excuse.

One last thing I wish I had known when I started: It doesn’t get any easier. True, I worry a little less now about my novels ending up in a drawer. But I constantly have to keep reminding myself of the rest of these tips lest I give up on the whole, difficult business. Which brings me to my final piece of advice: Don’t write to become a writer. Write because you are.

I’m listening…

Hello, my name is Amy, and I am addicted to podcasts. On average, I listen to approximately 7 hours of podcasts per week. I simply can’t get enough. My 40 minute walk to and from work seems more like five when I’m into a good podcast. Back when I was sitting on the LA freeway in rush hour traffic, I could split my time between podcasts and phone calls, so I only relied on a few brief hours of podcasts to get me through. But now that my new time zone has relegated US phone calls to weekends only, my weekly podcast consumption has skyrocketed.

This increased desire for excellent auditory entertainment has led me to explore a plethora of new podcasts, and made me realize how difficult it is to produce a really good hour of radio. Of course, everyone is going to like something different, but you will not be shocked to learn that the most popular, most loved podcasts are the podcasts which tell the best stories (OK and the ones about sport, of course).

Scrolling through my long list of podcasts…

The gold standard of podcasts in the US is a show called This American Life. I’m not sure if This American Life has reached the shores of GB yet (or if it would just be too American), but it is definitely worth a listen no matter where you are. Every week, Ira Glass and his team of producers and reporters pick a theme, and then provide listeners with a few stories on that theme. Most of the time, these stories are non-fiction, and in their written form, might fall into the newish genre of literary non-fiction. Sometimes they throw in a piece from David Sedaris or David Rakoff, just to throw something different into the mix. This American Life changed the boundaries of popular radio in the states, which I would guess has something to do with the fact that they respect the basic tenants of good broadcast storytelling.

Basically, Ira says that you need a good anecdote (a compelling series of events), some questions to plant in the listener’s mind so they want to stick with the story, and some broader revelatory point to the story. You can listen to him elaborate on these points in this video:

But on the radio, sometimes it’s not enough just to tell a story. Jad Abumrad, one of the co-hosts of my absolute favourite podcast of all time, RadioLab, blends the basic tenants of storytelling together with the elements of music production and sound design. He and his brilliant co-host Robert Krulwich play with sound and storytelling to help simplify the most complex scientific concepts, which ultimately results in an irresistible work of storytelling art. I believe this ability to really make the medium work for your story is critical for podcasting, and storytelling in general.

So what podcasts are you listening to? Are there a few you simply have to listen to each week? If you’re looking for a few to add to your list, here are a few more suggestions (aside from This American Life and RadioLab of course):

1. The Moth
2. The Infinite Monkey Cage
3. NPR: Planet Money (if you are tired of not knowing what people are talking about when they mention mortgage-backed securities or credit-default swaps, this one is a must-listen)
4. True Story
5. The Memory Palace

And if you haven’t yet, check out the podcasts from Sally Gardner’s Free Word event about dyslexia.

Elements of storytelling

The Scottish Storytelling Festival is this week, and that’s got us thinking (watch out!) about all the different ways of storytelling: written liked books or poems or scrolls; oral like audio books, or live speaking or songs; and visual like movies, TV, plays, ballet, cabaret… (Complete aside: have you seen this Gary Barlow wind up? HILARIOUS!)

Obviously, my area of expertise is on the written side – though really only in fiction. It’s a shame I don’t know more about poetry… I am learning about audio (have you seen our behind-the-scenes making our first audio book?) and tomorrow’s blog will be from our resident podcast expert (Amy).

But I thought I would try to talk about the common key elements in all kinds of good storytelling. I did a fair amount of nail-chewing on the train this morning trying to find the common elements… let me know if I’m missing anything big!

Firstly, the storyteller. A story has to be told, a poem written, a song sung… there is always someone behind it, doing it for pleasure, for money, for survival, for homework. We can’t forget that in all of this story analysing that there are people behind this creative work. Especially in oral storytelling, their personality and presentation is crucial!

Secondly, character. Not every story has to have plot, but I can’t think of a story where there is no character. Preferably, this character or these characters will evoke emotional responses from the audience and be memorable. I also feel strongly that a character shuold drive the story, not have the story happen to them.

Thirdly, novelty. There should be something new, either in the way it is told or what is being told. A new combination of events, a different kind of hero, or just something that audience wouldn’t have seen or heard before.

So, I suppose what I’m saying is, if you bring YOU to the table, and tell the story in your own way… and build a brilliant character while offering something new, you’re my kind of storyteller.

(Great storytellers who I am SO excited are working together: Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran! Thanks, Sugarscape for keeping me up on the gossip and for additional “storytelling” examples!)

Thanks fanlala.com for the image.