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Writing Workshops
Writing Workshops
The Kelso Writers Workshop began in 2012 as a one-off writing workshop. As a local writer, I was asked if I could conduct a short workshop and talk about writing with the emphasis on creative fiction. From the response that I received from that initial meeting, I decided to offer a course which would focus primarily on short story and novel writing.
The course consists of the following workshops:
Session 1: Introduction: The Writing ProcessSession 2: Beginning StoriesSession 3: Writing from LifeSession 4: Creating CharactersSession 5: Use of DialogueSession 6: Finding a ThemeSession 7: PlotSession 8: Structure and PaceSession 9: EndingsSession 10: Putting it all togetherSession 11: TitlesSession 12: Editing and PresentationSession 13: Marketing and How to SellThe group meet at the Abbey Row Community Centre, Kelso, 14.30 - 16.30, every Tuesday fortnight. Further details from http://kelsowritersworkshop.blogspot.co.uk
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THE WRITING PROCESS
Writing can be fun and challenging too. Creative writing, and in particular, short story writing requires some effort, imagination and a degree of commitment. The end result, however, is surely worth all the effort involved.
When we create a short story we write from our own experiences and observation. I like to think of the IOV’s
of creative writing:
IMAGINATION
OBSERVATION
VISUALISATION
When we write fiction we first and foremost tap into our imagination. Here we can translate emotion and facts from truth to fantasy. We can create drama and let our imagination free. It has been said that fiction writing is returning to our childhood fantasies and memories which we then use to transform those fantasies into prose.
Anyone who can think or speak or has been to school – can write! By digging deep into yourself and your imagination you’ll find that something that you really want to write about. What teaches you most about writing is reading. It is useful when thinking what to write about, to think what you like to read.
Author and critic Cyril Connolly stated:
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
I find that the easiest way to start a story is to just begin writing. A story begins with an idea drawn from your imagination, observation and/or visualisation, moves on to writing it down, then re-writing it and finally, editing. The writing is the fun bit. The editing is the craft bit. Both are necessary and, as in any craft or anything we do, the more we do, the better we get!
Writers use a range of techniques which can be learned. Ultimately you write because you want to write. No one is forcing you. However, it is well worth remembering what the famous choreographer, Martha Graham said:
There is a vitality; a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
(Agnes Miller,Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham)
There are two main short stories – those that are character driven
and those which rely on idea or circumstance.
When first starting to write don’t worry about the length of a story. A short story can sometimes turn into a novel. All stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.
Emotion is the key ingredient in creative writing. Other kinds of writing are about facts but creative writing is about feeling. Your stories have to matter to you as a writer before they can matter to the reader. In other words, your story has to affect you.
AsF. Scott Fitzgerald observed:
You’ve got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly.
To sum up:
The writing process:
• Planning
• Writing
• Re-writing
• Editing, editing, editing
The IOV of creative writing:
• Imagination
• Observation
• Visualisation
Get started. No one’s life is dull. Use you observation. Writing exercises are triggers to getting the words down on paper.
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SESSION 2:
BEGINNING STORIES USING A SENSE OF PLACE
Writers sometimes can find beginnings difficult because they take the word ‘beginning’ too literally. The object of a beginning is to hook the readers’ attention. The story can begin with dialogue, narrative summary, description but it must begin in the middle of things. This pulls the reader into the story without giving too much away.
Another stumbling block to beginning a story is to think that we have to know where a story is going and how it will end. Not so.
1. The opening should pull the reader into the centre of the story. This is the ‘hook’ that gets the attention of the reader immediately.
Examples:
My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America.
Amy TanTwo Kinds.
They were saying a new face had been seen on the esplanade: a lady with a pet dog.
Anton ChekhovThe Lady with the Dog
An unfortunate circumstance in my life has just recalled to mind a certain Dr. Crombie and the conversations I used to hold with him when I was young. He was the school doctor until the eccentricity of his ideas became generally known.
Graham GreeneDoctor Crombie
2.
Most stories begin in a situation in the middle of things. Each story has a history. All characters have pasts; the plots of most stories are affected by something that happened before sentence one of the page.
Example:
When it became clear that Alec Webb was far more ill than anyone had cared to tell him, he tore up his English life and came down to die on the Riviera.
Mavis GallantThe Remission
3.
Study a favourite story and make a list of events that occurred before page one.
How did these events affect the story after the opening lines and move the story along to a resolution?
4. Study one of your own stories.
Does the story have a past? A history of its own? Think about the beginning lines.
5. Write the words of a first sentence with a generalization and then use dialogue. Use the same scene for both.
6. Brainstorm ten events that could start a story.
Pick one at random. Then recount the event in a narrative – first, this happened, then something else. Move the story along. Think about place and time.
Example:
During the lunch hour, the male clerks usually went out, leaving myself and three girls behind. They ate their sandwiches and drank their tea, they chattered away thirteen to the dozen. Half their conversation I didn’t understand at all, and the other half bored me to tears.
Frank O’ConnorMusic When Soft Voices Die
The act of writing pulls memories from the depths of our subconscious minds.
7. The goal in describing place as an opening is to give your story dramatic context.
Example:
The Dempson family had spent the last half of June in a little rented cottage called ‘Under the Weather’, near Hyannis, every summer for twenty-six years, and this year, Lydia Dempson told her son, Mark, was to be no exception.
David LeavittThe Lost Cottage
8. Details of time and place are what story telling is all about.
Be careful with time and place. Accurate writing is needed here.
9. Placing characters in a sense of place.
A good exercise would be to choose two characters and put them in a place and give them a reason to be there and record what they say to each other.
10. Visualization is the key to good openings.
Study a photograph, a picture, a scene or think of something in your own life that could inspire a story.
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SESSION 3:
CREATING FICTION FROM LIFE’S EXPERIENCES
This session we are looking at the ways your own life’s experiences can create good fiction. Socrates said that ‘The unexamined life is
not worth living.’ In writing fiction we have at our disposal our greatest asset – ourselves!
Classic novels that are heavily based on the authors’ own lives include –
J.D.Salinger ‘The Catcher in the Rye’
Christopher Isherwood ‘Goodbye to Berlin’
Charlotte Bronte ‘Jane Eyre’
Charles Dickens ‘David Copperfield’
And the list goes on and on!
The secret to capturing our life’s experiences and getting them down on paper is to:
1. Use your emotions to get you started.
2. Use old photographs, current photographs, events that held interest.
3. Remember best those events that had an emotional connection. Tap into them.
4. Bring to life characters, you can fill in the gaps, speculate and reveal inner thoughts and motivations.
5. Write what you know and you know yourself better than anything else.
6. Capture and keep something from your life. In stories it can be a simple incident that can be fictionalised. Here the ‘What if…?’ concept can be used to advantage.
7. Change and add characters into the event you are writing about.
8. Examine aspects of your own life and write from the heart. If possible, step aside from yourself as you write. Keep a journal if you want introspection – it can be therapeutic. However, your stories need to detach from this. Some people find it easier to write in the third person as a means of detaching themselves. Some can keep to the first person but make that character apart so that the writer is not revealed. Only you know. Writing in the first or third person really just depends on what you feel comfortable with doing.
9. Understand that our past is material for our imagination and writing well can be our revenge!
10. Remember that no one life is dull and the longer we are here the more we have to draw on!
One of the best thoughts I have read on this subject comes from the American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who said: Look, then, into thine heart and write.
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SESSION 4
CREATING CHARACTERS IN FICTION WRITING
The creation of characters can be one of the most fascinating and rewarding aspects of writing stories. Sometimes we wonder where on earth our characters came from and this makes their creation all the more exciting. As writers we need to convince our readers that our characters are real people. You can assume the voice (or the point of view), of a child, an old person, a member of the opposite gender, a different race. In this way, it is similar to an actor who imagines what it is like to be another person. We transform ourselves and get inside the character’s skin.
Do not fill stories with stereotypes so that your characters are identical to everyone else’s. No two people are the same and everyone’s personality, appearance and attitude to life is different. So a writer has to reflect this diversity in the creation of characters.
Readers need to know certain basic facts about your character. You create characters in these ways:
1. You borrow from your life experiences. Imagine a real life person and adapt his characteristics for the story.
2. Your character just comes to you! A character can come into your mind because you’ve tapped into some unknown aspect of your personality.
3. You create your character from scratch. You might have to sit down and create a character through conscious process, e.g. deciding what he/she look like; background; behaviour. Sometimes the process of visualising a character, e.g. from a photograph, can trigger something in your brain which will bring your character onto the paper. Or perhaps you can develop a character from someone you have met or known, even briefly, and add characteristics to this imagined person.
It’s fun to give your character a name. Memorable names in fiction spring to mind –
James Bond
Jean Brodie
Atticus Finch
Scarlett O’Hara
The list goes on….
Dickens was a master at using names to suggest character. Consider Uriah Heep (‘David Copperfield’) and Ebenezer Scrooge (‘A Christmas Carol’), Lady Dedlock (‘Bleak House’).
The names you choose have a strong influence on the way your reader will respond to your characters. Sometimes, we have to rename our character to get it right.
In developing a character it is important to reveal concrete details. Make a plan to get to know your character. This way the character becomes real to you and will be real for the reader too.
Think about what your character wants. This is crucial to the story. As an exercise look at your character/s and ask:
1. What does the central character want?
2. And how does the reader learn this?
3. What is the motivation behind the character?
4. Is this by dialogue? Actions? Interior thinking?
5. Who or what stands in the way of him/her achieving what he/she wants?
What your central character desires will move your story along and the elements of the plot will be revealed.
We can select details that create a character, e.g. Emotions, personality, intelligence, outlook on life. Sometimes the character has a physical defect and this can create a memorable character, e.g. Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame or Philip in Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage. We, as readers, don’t always have to like the character but if the writing is powerful enough, the character will be memorable.
As a rule, short stories have a main character and two or three others who relate to him/her. Novels can bring in as many characters as you like given their wider scope although some novels are restricted to a few characters too.
After all, you, the writer, are in charge of your characters and sometimes, they go where they want!
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SESSION 5
EFFECTIVE USE OF DIALOGUE
Dialogue is one of the most important tools in fiction writing as it moves your story along; reveals more in an economical way than description can sometimes. Also, dialogue defines a character – speech, accent, vocabulary, inflection, – and furthermore, it can tell us much about what the character is like and what he is likely to do. Dialogue, therefore, is absolutely crucial to a story. It’s tricky though as good written dialogue is not at all the way human beings speak to each other. For example, if character A answers the phone “Hello” and then character B says “Hello” back, this isn’t essential and in fact, it’s flat and boring. Far better to get to the point and move the story along as to why character A is ringing character B. Good dialogue is a matter of what ‘feels’ right and being able to construct a voice that sounds right.
Common faults in writing dialogue are:
1. Conversation going nowhere. People just talk to each other with no particular aim. It’s boring and frustrating to read.
2. One person feeding lines to another in the manner of an interview. This seldom happens in real life and it sounds contrived.
3. Dialogue goes on for far too long. Keep your dialogue short and make every word count.
Conflict is essential to good dialogue. Consider what each character wants to get out of the conversation. Does one person want to find something out or to conceal it? Does one want the other to admit to something which the other has no intention of doing? Remember that dialogue goes to the heart of the story. It’s the exchange that matters, the confrontation. Consider these two exchanges –
A. “For God’s sake, get out!”
B. “Get out,” he said angrily.
A has immediacy. B hasn’t as much tension.
Here’s five tips to writing good dialogue:
1. Listen to conversation. It’s everywhere!
2. Read dialogue in fiction to see how it works. Reading Plays out aloud is good for this.
3. Reading your own writing out aloud can help get the conversation sounding real.
4. Jot down phrases you overhear. Think about what’s going on behind the conversation.
5. Develop a writers’ ear. Become a listener. Remember the IOV of fiction writing and apply it to dialogue – Imagination, Observation and Visualisation.
You must let the reader know who is talking but it is not necessary to have long, impressive words like – ‘he intoned, digressed, pontificated, ruminated’. Better to keep it simple. ‘Said’, ‘answered’, ‘replied’ won’t annoy the reader. Also, if it’s obvious who is doing the talking don’t bother with a dialogue tag. Too many tags slow down the flow.
Sometimes a writer uses summarised dialogue to condense thoughts, set the pace of a scene, reveal attitudes, make a judgement and emphasize crucial points. Indirect (summarised dialogue) is useful to provide information and shape a scene and is sometimes more effective than dialogue.
To sum up:
1. Dialogue brings your characters to life.
2. Without dialogue, you’ll end up telling rather than showing.
3. Don’t worry about being too accurate with speech patterns. Dialogue isn’t an accurate summary of the way people speak.
4. Dialogue is a means of conveying information – what’s happening, what feelings, tension and background of the characters.
5. Written dialogue isn’t like real-life speech. Real speech rambles, goes off on a tangent; has unfinished sentences and plenty of ‘errs’, ‘ahs’ and ‘ums’. In writing dialogue, make every word count.
6. It’s the key phrase that brings tension, humour and drama into the story.
7. Your dialogue should reveal something crucial about the action, the character or the place.
8. Suggest a character comes from a particular part of the country by using a key word or two. If you need a line in a foreign language, consider a translation. Readers can get annoyed if they don’t understand what’s going on!
9. Keep dialogue tags simple.
10. If your dialogue isn’t showing the reader how a character is feeling then you need to consider switching to the indirect (summarised) form.
***
SESSION 6
FINDING A THEME
Beginner writers often struggle with finding ideas for their stories. We have looked at the different ways we can create our stories using our own life’s experiences, observation of the world around us and by creating believable characters through the use of visualisation and effective use of dialogue.
A short story needn’t concern a grand or exciting subject. In fact, two main types of short story exist: character driven and those which are based on a theme or a situation. Again, we are drawn to write those stories which interest us as readers. It can be fun to experiment with different genres as we explore the variety of themes at our disposal.
Basically, short stories fall in clear categories:
1. The Literary Story. Focusing on the use of language, insight into character and personal revelation.
2. Ghost Story. The supernatural, weird or uncanny, horror.
3. Detective Story. The classic whodunit can be condensed into shorter episodes.
4. Humorous Story. Extended jokes, often with a twist in the tale.
5. Parable of our time. Focuses on contemporary issues of importance – banking crisis, unemployment, environment.
6. Science Fiction Story. Some SF stories have proved uncannily true to developments in science and technology.
7. Erotic Story. Relies on the use of language and metaphor in revealing human truths about people.
8. Love Story. The classic boy meets girl, boy loses girl. Very popular.
9. The twist in the tale. The twists timing is important and effective stories reveal a clever twist.
10. The What If Story. In these stories the character is less important than the situation. What If stories can also be written in all of the genres.
Some modern short story writers have taken old stories – fairy tales, myths, Biblical, and retold them with a new twist. The issues remain the same – how to grow up and leave home, face life’s challenges, find the right partner, be a good parent, grow old and face death.
The theme helps readers to identify what kind of story to expect. Themes are a useful tool for writers as they help to focus on what you are writing. Sometimes you don’t know your theme and it emerges as you write.
Consider the following themes:
• Revenge
• Loss
• Love
• Betrayal
• Class
• Age
• Recovery
There are a few tried and tested ways to start a story. The following list might give some inspiration:
• What If? Turn everything around. Endless possibilities.
• Pictures. Remember the IOV of creative writing – Imagination, Observation, Visualisation. Keep a scrapbook of pictures to help with the visualisation process.
• Once Upon a Time. Try reworking some fairy tales.
• Newspapers. Plenty of ideas here. Problem pages of newspapers abound with ideas
• Notebook for Ideas. A lot of good ideas occur just before you doze off or when you relax. Ideas just arrive in your head and seem to come from nowhere. Don’t let them leave without writing the idea down. You can write the story later.
• Random Elements approach. Fill in the grid and get a story out of the ideas.
• Situations and Characters. Write out some cards on the lines of the class exercise. This is a guaranteed way to get a story written.
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SESSION 7
PLOT
Working out a plot for stories can be confusing and causes problems for even experienced writers. Basically, a plot is a series of events with problems and conflicts and a few surprises along the way. There are seven Basic Plots:
• Overcoming the monster
• Rags to riches
• Quest
• Voyage and return
• Comedy
• Tragedy
• Rebirth
Some writers plan their entire story before they begin to write; others let the story evolve. Most people work with a combination of both.
A well written story is not a linear series of events. There needs to be a problem and how it is resolved is the plot.
The following elements are essential to plotting your story:
• Character. Some say ‘character is plot’. The character’s actions drive the story and the choices they make give the tension.
• Motivation. The character must want something.
• Conflict. Creating doubt about the outcome keeps the reader interested.
• Connection. A good story connects all the events – one thing leads to another, one character does affect others, what the others do affects the protagonist.
• Climax. This is when the story comes to a natural ending – when all is resolved.
If you encounter problems with finding a resolution, a good tip is to ask yourself the following questions:
1. What am I trying to say?
2. What is my story really about?
No matter how clever your characters are, how sparkling your dialogue or how brilliant are your descriptions of setting and emotions, the plot is the key to your story. We must hook the reader from the beginning, put difficulties in the way of the resolution and keep them guessing to the end. Every story is working towards a conclusion.
Remember the following as the classic narrative structure:
• Conflict
• Climax
• Resolution
Conflict: We can have:
1. Inner conflict
2. Personal conflict
3. Social conflict
4. World conflict
Climax: When the tension becomes unbearable, the conflict needs to come out in the open at the climax of your story. At this moment, the truth can be revealed; the confrontation can take place; a decision can be made. The success of your story depends a lot on how the climax is written. There is no magic way to write this. Just write it, rewrite it and polish it until you feel pleased with the result.
Resolution: No matter how emotional, personal, social or universal, by the end of your story, the conflict must be resolved. At every point in your story, questions need to be raised in your readers’ mind. Sometimes even to the end of the story, the question can remain in the readers’ mind. Remember the Golden Rule of story writing – Show, don’t tell. Readers like to use their imagination as they read too. They need signposts to tell show them where the story is going but they don’t need to be spoon fed.
To sum up:
There is nothing new under the sun and this is true of storytelling too. The secret to writing a good story is to think what subtle changes you can make to the basic storylines – greed, envy, love, hate – mix them up. For example, a story about a housewife bogged down with mundane details of her household tasks is dull. How and what she does to break out of that boredom is the secret behind a good story.
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SESSION 8
STRUCTURE AND PACE
All stories need a structure. Short stories need a beginning, a middle and an end. Novels need chapters. All stories must start and end somewhere.
The three act structure involves:
The beginning:
a. Introduces the characters
b. Establishes the situation – when and where
c. States the conflict – the issue at stake
d. The hook that the reader wants to keep reading
The middle:
a. A progression of events. One influencing the next as the conflict increases
b. Lead towards resolution of the conflict
c. Each event should reveal more about the character/s
The ending:
a. Climax. The pivotal event that resolves the conflict
b. The resolution. Answers the story question and reveals what happens.
Sometimes a story, with all its twists and turns just falls into place. But most times some shuffling is needed. All writers work in different ways so there is really no right or wrong way to structure your stories. Eudora Welty observed that ‘every story teaches you how to write that story but not the next story’. Many writers use movement in space and time to structure and unify their stories. This way they are able to focus on specific periods in time or on journeys from one place to another. Think of the tension created in suspense thrillers, e.g. the ticking bomb; finding that forty-eight hours before the world blows up. An event can also structure a story – a wedding, a funeral, a high school reunion, a family party. Some stories build to – rather than focus on times, events, activities.
A major element which determines the structure of a story is the time period and how to handle it. Flashbacks and memories of the past are used to make what Virginia Woolf called ‘a whole life in a single day’.
A linear narrative starts with an event and moves forwards in time to the end result and is the easiest way to tell a story. Stories can move forward in time and be interspersed with flashbacks to the past. These can occur occasionally or frequently with a definite pattern. Stories can run backwards in time, starting at the end and ending with the beginning.
To sum up the different structures a story can take:
a. Linear. Beginning, middle, end
b. Circular. Begins with the present, flashback and returns to the present
c. Diary
d. Letters/Emails
e. Dates. Hours of the day. Days of the week. Months of the year. Seasons. Any significant date
f. Double handers. Stories told using more than one viewpoint. Split into section using two or three characters. Remember that more than three characters in a short story can confuse the reader.
g. Monologue. A good way of getting into a character’s head.
PACE
Simply speaking, pace is speeding up and slowing down. A good story moves along fairly smoothly with added contrast by mixing up humour with pathos (speeding up the action with intensity and slowly down etc). Think of a story as an arc. At points on the arch you need to make sure that certain things are happening, e.g. a hook at the beginning, setting up the action and resolution for the ending.
In thinking about pace consider the following:
a. What’s happening at the moment?
b. Has what happened gone on long enough?
c. What’s the best thing to replace what’s happening?
Writing stories or novels is a bit like fishing. You need to play with the reader the way a fisherman plays with a salmon. If you keep your story wound up too tight, the line breaks and you lose them. If you slacken off and let go, the reader loses interest. You need to vary the pace without letting it slacken off. Think about contrasts. If you have excitement, slow down the next scene. On a technical level, the shorter the sentences, the faster the pace. On a general level, character introspection slows pace. Dialogue speeds it up. You need balance.
• Plot and pace. A short story by its nature needs to be simple. Generally a short story plot focuses on a single event or theme.
• Number of characters. Your characters must be essential to the plot.
• Timescale. A short story has a very short timescale. Flashbacks can be used to recreate the past
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SESSION 9
ENDINGS
Endings can be tricky. Ernest Hemingway allegedly rewrote the final paragraph of his novel A Farewell to Arms forty-seven times! And Katherine Anne Porter wrote, ‘If I didn’t know the ending of a story, I wouldn’t begin. I always write my last line, my last paragraphs, my last page first.’ Margaret Mitchell started to write her epic Gone with the Wind at the end.
In other words, endings are as crucial to a good story as the opening sentences. The ending of a story has a great deal of work to do. It must answer the question posed by the beginning, satisfy the reader about the characters, solve the dilemma and create some emotional response. In other words, the ending must provide some sense of completion.
Three main types of endings exist:
• A happy ending. They are great but sometimes they can appear contrived and the reader feels cheated. Life isn’t always like that. The best happy endings work when a seed of doubt is sown – there are difficulties ahead, the quest was fulfilled but at what cost?
• A tragic ending. The best tragic endings contain a seed of hope – the main character dies but his child lives, the hero is killed but the community is saved.
• An open ending. When a story isn’t finally resolved, the ending can be sometimes dramatic and the reader is left to wonder what happens. But there is a danger here that the ending is too unfinished and the reader is left unsatisfied.
If you can’t find an ending to your story, go back to the first paragraph. Try to
ensure that the beginning and the ending connect. The worst endings are:
• Predictable – the reader can guess what the outcome will be
• Cheating – finishes too quickly and the reader is left with the feeling that the writer didn’t know how to end the story
• Leave the reader feeling let down
It’s important to know when to stop the story. Some writers don’t want to let go.
The story should conclude when the plot does. The best endings are when we suspect how it is going to end but we are not sure. These stories stay in your mind. A practical way to look at endings is to look carefully at how films, novels, short stories end and ask yourself: Why did they end there?
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SESSION 10
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
The most important secret to creative writing is rewriting.
The first draft of either a story or a novel is just that. It is only the beginning. The writing exercises we have been using to get the words down on paper are the fun bit and the first draft. Here you can detach from your inner critic and write what you feel, bring your characters to life and let the ideas flow. The most important thing at this stage is just to write.
A good piece of advice for short story writers is to write the first draft and then put the story away for a week or two or longer so that when you return to your piece you must be willing to cut anything. It’s not easy to remove words from a piece of writing but it is a necessary step. Another point to remember is that nothing is ever lost and you can keep anything you really like and use these words or ideas/characters in another story.
To put your story together, you must commit yourself to asking some soul searching questions:
1. Is a particular phrase essential to the story?
2. Is that phrase moving along the plot?
3. Is it essential in developing the character?
4. Is there too much repetition?
5. Is there overused punctuation?
6. Does the line you have written show and tell? Another form of repetition.
7. What about adverbs? And adjectives?
8. How about clichés? Fine in dialogue, but watch them in description.
9. How mindful are the words that you use? Every word should count in a short story.
10. Ask questions about your characters? Do you as a reader believe in them?
11. Check your scenes. If you had to cut a scene, which one would you cut? Or write a new scene?
12. Check the pace. Does the story move slowly or quickly?
13. Check the structure. Beginning, middle, end.
14. Think of the way the story builds through concrete events. Your characters move through the world that you have created. They use their senses, they remember the past and anticipate the future.
15. In a short story, avoid too long descriptions. Like a good design, description and dialogue is often achieved not by putting everything in, but when nothing remains to take out.
16. Word count. To be thought about if you are sending your story to publications.
Short stories are snapshots of life. Their existence is brief and miraculous. Cut,
revise, add, adjust or change. At a point that instinct tells you, stop. There is such a thing as over editing. The ultimate goal of the short story writer is to feel pleased with their story.
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SESSION 11
TITLES
If the book cover tells the story of a book, then the title is equally important and just as necessary. Titles can be tricky things to get right. Some writers get the title first and then write the story or the novel. Other agonize, write, rewrite again and again until they decide on the right title which fits the story.
Think of titles of novels and short stories that are memorable. The list is endless. Some like the following examples stand out:
War and Peace
The Old Man and the Sea
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Fahrenheit 451
No Country for Old Men
A Room with a View
To Kill a Mocking Bird
David Copperfield
And so on…
Things to consider when thinking of a title:
What is the theme?
Who is your chief protagonist?
What is the most important concept?
Will the title give the reader a quick summary of the story/novel?
It’s an idea not to settle on a title too soon. That’s why writers often have written the story before the title. The story can move into a different direction from the initial idea. This happens a lot for writers. Characters and situations change as the story moves along and the title that was first thought of might not fit the one at the end of the story.
Use descriptive words. Think of The Catcher in the Rye, for example.
Keep the title short.
Be specific but make sure the title doesn’t give too much away.
Some writers settle on a line from the story as a title.
A good title should make the reader think I want to know more. For example:
The Da Vinci Code ‘Code, wasn’t he a painter?’
Worth Dying For ‘What could that be?’
The Other Boleyn Girl ‘I know Anne, but who’s the other one?’
Sometimes a subtitle expands the title of the book and gives more information for the reader. For example, The Millionaire Next Door could be The Millionaire Next Door: the Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy.
It’s an idea to brainstorm title ideas and, if you are unable to come up with a title that meets all the requirements, ask for help from a writing group, family or friends.
There is no copyright on titles but it might be beneficial to check on the Internet (Amazon is a good place) to see if your title has been used before. No one would take your story seriously if, for instance, you used Harry Potter or Gone With the Wind as a title.
To sum up, getting the right title is fun and can be as rewarding as writing the book or the story.
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SESSION 12
FINAL EDIT AND PRESENTATION
We live in a competitive world and there’s a lot of writers out there so it’s important to be professional when sending your work to editors. Once you have edited, proof read and polished your story to the point that you are ready to submit it, you need to run a final critical eye over it. You only get one chance to make a good impression. A busy editor uses the ’30 second’ rule, i.e. the opening paragraph has to hook and the presentation has to be professional.
Check:
• The piece is structured properly – beginning, middle, end.
• The facts are credible and flow logically to the events described.
• Be critical. Re-read the text, putting every scene under a microscope. Pay special attention to dialogue and description and ensure that neither gets in the way of the pace of the story.
• Check all spelling, grammar, punctuation and syntax.
• Alter any clumsy phrases or repetitions.
• Make sure that the word count is correct for the publication.
Also, to ensure your chance of publication you must:
• Do your market research. Submit only appropriate material.
• Address your submission to a particular person.
• Follow the submissions guidelines required.
It can be helpful to think of your approach to the editor in the manner of a job interview. Be business like and get the tone and the style right.
If you are sending your work electronically make sure that it is in the correct format requested. Most editors prefer plain text and Microsoft Word. Many like the story to appear in the body of the email and not as a separate attachment but find out first with a query email.
If you are sending your story by hard copy you must adhere to the rules.
• Personally, I always send a covering letter. You need to establish contact with the editor. Covering letters need to be single spaced and to the point. These same rules apply for an email submission.
• Good business sense – find out the name of the appropriate editor.
• Send a SAE with the appropriate postage. Overseas submissions need an International Reply Coupon. A SAE will ensure that you know that your story did get to the appropriate editor.
• Use good quality 80gsm A4 white paper. Never use re-cycled envelopes.
• Phrase your covering letter professionally. Do not grovel or demand.
• Include any fact that gives you credibility. A brief 50 word biography can be useful.
• Leave a wide left hand margin at least an inch. /2
• Type in double spacing.
• Do not justify (make even) the right hand edge.
• Identify your work. Type your name and address on the title page.
• At the top right of the page, type your name, the title and the page number.
• Have the words mf (more follows) or next page number, e.g. /2 in the bottom right hand corner of each page.
• Type ENDS in the middle of the last page.
• Paper clip pages together with your title page. Your covering letter should be on top of these pages. This is the page the editor sees first.
• If you want to use a pen-name, type it in the byline under the title but not above your address.
• Always keep a copy of your story and cover letter.
• Keep a record of the stories you submit, where, when and payment or rejection where appropriate.
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SESSION 13
MARKETING. HOW TO SELL
Once your story has been written, rewritten, edited and you are pleased with it, the next step is to see if you can get it into print. The competition is fierce but it is not impossible. Once editors get to know your work, it becomes easier.
If you approach the market in a professional manner, the first step to success is market research. Think that you have an item to sell. This item is your story and in order to do that you have to have a clear idea of where your target market is.
Find a market. This is where market research comes in. Start by studying publications such as Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and the Writer’s Handbook. A useful internet list is http://www.firstwriter.com which lists agents, magazines and book publishers. The internet is full of listings and sites to help find suitable magazines and publishers. Writing magazines also offer advice and current trends.
Browse the newsagent’s stand for magazines that appeal. Be aware of the magazine and your story, e.g. You wouldn’t send a scifi fantasy to a women’s magazine unless there was a futuristic romantic twist to your tale! Advice is to buy a few magazines and study the content with a critical eye. Think what the target readership is. Email or phone the editorial desk for guidelines. Some magazines have their submissions guidelines on their web page.
Submit only when you feel confident that you have done everything possible to get your story right, viz. suitable story, wordage limit, written in appropriate style for your magazine and that your market research is up to date. Remember editors and editorial policy change.
Look beyond the obvious. Sometimes some specialist and hobby magazines take short stories. Some regional magazines and newspapers publish short stories too.
The biggest market for short stories are women’s magazines. D C Thomson are very helpful. This is where studying the magazines and following their guidelines is crucial. Editors know what their readers want.
Small press magazines play an important part in getting work published. The same advice applies here – Read the magazine you write for!
Look out for seasonal stories. Christmas stories, for example, need to be submitted up to six months in advance.
Look for magazines that publish more than one story. They are more likely to need stories.
/2.
SELLING
Only send out your story when it is polished, targeted, follows the guidelines and looks professional.
Be methodical in your approach. Keep a record of where you send your story, fiction editor contact details, when you sent it. Believe me, it’s easy to forget where stories go!
Consider competitions. www.kudoswritingcompetitions.com provides one of the best listings of competitions in the UK.
Make sure you send your stories to magazines that accept unsolicited work.
Be prepared for rejection slips.
If you get paid for your story, keep a record. If payment has been offered and not forthcoming, a reminder is needed. If you are concerned, submit an invoice.
There is no copyright on ideas. No copyright on title.
Offer First British Serial Rights. By doing this, you have copyright.
Consider sending your story to English speaking magazines overseas. Email submissions are common and less costly than postage.
Once you begin to get your stories published, work on building up your portfolio of published work.
HELPFUL RESOURCES
www.the shortstory.org.uk
www.scottishbooktrust.com
www.meettheauthor.co.uk
The internet is awash with online resources for writers. There are also thousands of books written about ‘how to get published’.
Goodreads and Amazon are useful for posting and receiving reviews.
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