THE WRITERS BUREAU
STUDENT STORIES
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"I've always been at my happiest with a pen in my hand. When I was six, I made little books about fairies, painstakingly illustrated in coloured pencil.
By the time I was nineteen I had sold a children's story to the South Wales Evening Post, but I stopped for a while and didn't really get keen again until I sold a story in 1997 to Best magazine. I took creative writing evening classes, but all my subsequent short stories were rejected by publishers.
I saw The Writers Bureau course advertised on the back of a magazine and thought it looked interesting. I needed an injection of enthusiasm and most of all, some feedback. I really had nobody I could trust to review my work.
I took the full course even though I never intended attempting any non-fiction. In fact, at one point during the non-fiction assignments, I went back to fiction writing, but soon realised that I was better at articles.
I've never been so thrilled as when my first article to Bird Keeper magazine was accepted. I'd seen it advertised in Freelance Market News but it had never occurred to me before this to write about my hobby; back garden poultry keeping. I have written three articles for them now, illustrated mainly with my own photographs. I also had a short, humorous article about my poultry accepted by People's Friend.
After this there was no stopping me! I began writing about local people and places and sent the articles to my local county magazine, Hertfordshire Countryside. I have now had seven articles published, all with my own photos or those I have begged or borrowed. Since I started writing articles I have earned £560.
I can honestly say that if I hadn't taken the full course with The Writers Bureau, I would never have thought of non-fiction. Not only do I enjoy writing about the various subjects, but it means I meet interesting people and go to places I wouldn't normally visit. Now I want to go back and have another go at the fiction writing again.
Writing as a hobby is great fun and it has been wonderful for my confidence and self-esteem. Thank you Writers Bureau, for turning my life around!"
Elizabeth Barber, UK |
If you would like a prospectus for the Comprehensive Course that Elizabeth is studying, then email us here with your full name and postal address.
Or, why not share your success stories with others. Just send an email to ezeewriter@writersbureau.com with 'Success Story' in the subject line.
FREELANCE MARKET NEWS
an essential guide for freelance writers
For up-to-date market information, Freelance Market News is invaluable.
Issued 11 times a year it's packed with information on markets in Britain and around the globe, plus you get all the latest news and views on the publishing world.
Every subscription comes with FREE membership of The Association of Freelance Writers. Your membership also entitles you to discounts on books and competitions, a free appraisal worth £18 and a Membership Card which confirms your status as a Freelance Writer.
FREE sample markets are available to view at the website, along with more details about the magazine and how you can subscribe.
www.freelancemarketnews.com
Bursting Through The Block!
by Linda Acaster
Crises of confidence can strike at any time in a writer's career. Sometimes it's early on, when realisation dawns that there's more to creating fiction than keying in a few consecutive sentences; sometimes it's caused by a string of rejections after a successful run of sales. However it is triggered, tapping into the creative flow suddenly becomes difficult.
The overwhelming need is to write the best we can produce. But which word to begin? Which thought to chase? It's easy to dither. It's much easier not to write at all, to wait until inspiration strikes, whenever that might be. Possibly tomorrow. Probably never.
The writer has two choices: allow the dithering to solidify into an unbreachable wall of writers' block, or rediscover the basics of putting pen to paper.
Timed, free-flowing writing acts as a no-pressure route to getting back on track. Its aim is not to create 'the best we can produce', but to damp down the crisis and rebuild confidence. It knocks on the door of our subconscious and asks if anyone wants to come and play. To receive an enthusiastic response we need to make a habit of knocking on this door, which is why the universal advice is to write every day.
Perhaps you do this, but it isn't helping. It might be better to break with a routine that is leading nowhere and create another. If you tie yourself to a computer each evening after work, your creativity is already jaded. Try being stingy with your lunch break and share it with no one but your muse.
The physical change of writing with a pad and pen, in a park, or even a noisy café, could be enough to push open that sticking door, and all the exercises can be completed in under an hour.
But an hour is a long time, so let's start small. For the first week write continuously for a minimum of five minutes. Do not stop. Do not edit. If your mind goes blank resort to a stream of consciousness or describe your surroundings, but keep writing for at least the allotted time. For the second week increase the time to a minimum of ten minutes, the third week to fifteen minutes, and finally to twenty minutes.
To remove the responsibility of deciding where to start, below are thirty first lines to begin the process, one for each day of the month. Some are statements of fact, some offer a first or third person viewpoint character. Others suggest a setting, a sound, or an emotion. The list is not exhaustive, nor is it composed of the thirty best first lines imagined. Its aim is to start you writing, to knock on the door of your own subconscious.
Taken seriously, habits are considered to be made or broken in around a month, but everyone is an individual. If you are reaching the minimum time without despair, or passing it without noticing, then the system is working for you.
Occasionally, part-way through an exercise, you may strike gold. Go with the flow. Make notes as scenes and dialogue race into your head so that when you do have time to sit and commit it to a keyboard you will have a foundation to build on and scaffolding to climb.
Don't discard the safety net too soon, though. When you've reached the bottom of the list, start again, but this time choose a genre to write in. Continue the first line as if it is a crime story, or a western, a romance, or fantasy. When writing becomes like breathing, your potential will begin to shine.
So, here are the first lines to help you enjoy breaking through that block!
- He stood on the opposite pavement, a tall man in a calf-length overcoat
- The scent of the sweet peas was overpowering
- She didn't look anything like he expected
- "Do that once more," I warned
- Johnson laid across the corner of the crumpled bedding
- I walked to work today
- The wall felt sticky beneath my palm
- The gate holds a hand-painted sign
- "So, do you want to come, then?"
- A mother's love doesn't change
- The ringing phone filled her with dread
- Mrs. Jeffries' house is a receptacle for the bizarre
- Furniture was sparse, but elegant
- One was missing
- He paused on the staircase, the smell igniting memories
- I am a fox
- The whistle was so loud and so shrill
- Jocelyn Armby liked to be frightened
- I knew what I'd done as soon as the door closed
- The wind was exhilarating
- All that was visible was the tail
- "Hello," he said. "What's your name?"
- I remember the day
- Her eyes followed me across the room
- My mother never
- "Do you come here often?"
- It wasn't that bad, not really
- Closing my eyes, I pushed my nose into the bag of
- They turned and hurried back down the steps
- The birds swoop low
AUTHOR'S BIO
Linda Acaster's published work includes over seventy short stories in genres as diverse as women’s, horror, crime, fantasy and SF, published in magazines in the UK, US and Europe, three historical novels, travel features and opinion pieces in the UK press, and an abundance of articles on the techniques of writing fiction. She contributes to Writers’ Forum and is compiling a non-fiction book based on those articles.
TOP TIPS
Many novels and short stories get rejected because they do not include enough dialogue – or the speech their characters use sounds stilted and unrealistic. So here are some tips to help you make the most of what your characters say:
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When your characters start talking they must say something important – something that helps to push your plot forward. There's no room for idle chit chat. Every conversation should involve a crucial piece of plot information being given to your reader.
2. Use dialogue to inject pace and impact into your stories. Try substituting a line or two of dialogue for a long, rambling description. Instead of taking 500 words to describe how horrible a place is, your readers will get the same information from a character saying "What a dump!"
3. Dialogue should be a real aid to characterisation. The voices, accents and vocabulary used by your characters should tell the reader a lot about them and their backgrounds.
4. Try to make dialogue reflect your characters' emotions and frame of mind. Let the reader hear the pain, anger or delight in what they say.
5. Make sure you know the difference between direct speech: "I'm hungry. I could eat a horse!" and indirect speech: Mary said she was so hungry she could eat a horse. Direct speech is always more emotionally powerful and gives more immediacy.
6. Always use dialogue tags – he said, she replied, Mark added – unless it is obvious who is speaking. But keep your tags simple. Nothing is more irritating than a hero who opines, pontificates or rejoins. And avoid long dialogue tags such as he said angrily or she replied with sadness. It should be obvious from the words your character speaks whether they are happy, angry or sad.
7. Make sure that you use contractions: "Don't do that.", "I can't see it." or "He'll kill me!" That's how people really speak. When was the last time you heard someone say "I do not see it"?
8. Slang, swearing and dialect. If you're writing a period novel it's OK to use the appropriate slang (for example a novel set in the 1960s London gangland). But if you are writing a contemporary novel, avoid it, as nothing will date your work quicker. Now on to swearing. If you are writing a gritty, realistic novel then don't be prudish about your characters swearing. On the other hand, if you're writing a Mills and Boone-type novel it's best to avoid it. One way is to refer to it in your descriptions rather than your dialogue: The air sizzled with Dan's non-stop cursing. He eventually wore out his fury and went quiet... And dialect. Avoid it like the plague as it may make your readers give up. Instead, mention that a character speaks with a specific accent – say Scottish – and then let the readers do the work for you. Alternatively, drop in a dialect word occasionally, to act as a reminder.
9. Many people worry about punctuating dialogue. The main things to remember are:
Start a new line each time a different character speaks.
Use either single or double inverted commas – it doesn't matter which
you choose but once you have made your decision, be consistent.
Always put the inverted commas outside the sentence punctuation:
"Yes," Derek said, defensively. "That's my plan."
Only use speech marks around direct speech, not reported speech, or
thoughts that your characters might have.
Study as many published novels and short stories as you can to see
how other writers do it.
10. Even though dialogue isn't real, it must be able to pass itself off as speech. There mustn't be anything in it that jars or sounds too stilted. So, always read your dialogue out loud. See if it sounds plausible. What seems to work on the page may come across differently when you hear it actually spoken.
Follow these tips and before you know it your characters will be leaping off the page full of life and talking nineteen to the dozen!
If you'd like to further develop the exercise mentioned in this month's article then have a look at this How-to Guide from WikiHow: www.wikihow.com/Freewrite
For anyone who worked hard on a short story for our Poetry and Short Story competition, I'd like to share this article with you. It's a vigorous and convincing battle cry for the survival of the short story as a valid literary form in the face of increasing neglect from publishers. http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2648147.ece
Word game anyone? They say, "Verbotomy is about creating words. Every day we create a new definition and matching cartoon. Your challenge is to create a word – a verboticism – that matches the definition. After you create your verboticism, you can vote for other authors' words to help select the winning verboticism for the definition." www.verbotomy.com
Sometimes technology does something really beautiful and surprising. A traditional thesaurus is all well and good but the Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus really is rather lovely. You can try before you buy so do have a look: www.visualthesaurus.com
That brings us to the end of this month's issue. Next month, learn how to build believable fictional characters with Linda Acaster.
As usual, if you've any suggestions or would like to comment on content then please contact Teresa at:
ezeewriter@writersbureau.com
And don't forget – if you've enjoyed this issue of E-zee Writer and found it useful, tell your friends about it so that they can subscribe too!
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MANCHESTER, M1 1JB, ENGLAND.
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