All The Bird's Singing

I seem to be reading more than writing at the moment, but then reading helps my writing to improve so it's all research really :)

This week I have read Evie Wyld's All The Birds Singing. I struggled to get into the book to begin with, it took some time to adjust to the timelines. There is the present day,  and past events, but the past ones were told backwards in the sense that the nearest to present were told first until the conclusion of that time thread was the protagonist's teenage years.

I'm glad I perservered as I did enjoy the book. I have never read anything quite like it, I suppose the only thing I can think that is similar might be the earlier books of Martin Amis.

Evie Wyld has a fresh voice and a way of storytelling which I enjoyed. The pace was good moving a long quickly with flashbacks telling the protagonist, Jake Whyte's checkered past, and how she came to be the character she is in present day.

I really liked the book, and would certainly read others by this author, but I did feel let down by the ending. I found it far too ambiguous for my taste. Personally I would have preferred either a more defined resolution that provided more answers, as I had plenty of questions! Or an abrupt ending more in keeping with the pace of the book, possibly even ending a chapter earlier than it did. But that is just my opinion, everyone brings their own ideas and thoughts to a story regardless of the author's intentions. Readers will always read a story in their own way, and take something from it that perhaps the author did not intend or foresee.

All in all, the book had an unsatisfactory ending that left me wanting more than metaphors. Despite this I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the book and Wyld's style of bringing the characters to life. I would recommend reading All The Birds Singing for it's dark yet refreshing voice that keeps you hooked, drawing you deeper into Jake's past and present, wanting to know more about this mysterious, often distant and troubled individual.

Simon Says!: He said. She said.

Excellent piece on dialogue by Simon Whaley...



Simon Says!: He said. She said.: At the NAWG Festival of Writing last month I attended a couple of workshops led by the crime writer Veronica Heley. ( http://www.vero...

What I'm Reading!

To keep my brain from completely melting down I like to read a very wide range of styles and genres. I have a system in place that I like to think keeps me from going too soft on my noggin. I like to alternate between children's and adult's fiction. So when I've just finished a hard going very grown up book, I like to get stuck into a world of magic or steampunk, or maybe both or not those at all. I just like to have something I can escape to and enjoy. Of course I can do this with grown up books too, but this is just my system and it works for me.

This past couple of weeks I have read Alex Marwood's crime thriller 'The Wicked Girls'. Here's the blurb: One fateful summer morning in 1986, two 11-year-old girls meet for the first time and by the end of the day are charged with murder.

Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of attacks on young female tourists in a seaside town when her investigation leads her to interview funfair cleaner Amber Gordon. For Kirsty and Amber, it's the first time they've seen each other since that dark day when they were just children. But with new lives – and families – to protect, will they really be able to keep their secret hidden?

I haven't read much crime for a while, I've been guilty of reading more than my fair share of fantasy and magic of late, so it was a pleasure to return to this genre. It's a taut, fast-paced book. I enjoyed the hopping from different points of view to glean a cohesive arc of the plot as it unfolded. Once I'd got to grips with the flashbacks and present day, I enjoyed piecing together which old identity belonged to the two main female protagonists.

The book reflects the prejudice of a nation, and mob mentality that is endemic within our society. It's a dark and disturbing book that makes you stop and think about your own views and morals. I would definitely recommend this to any other fans of crime thriller, and even if you're not it's worth a try to push your boundaries!

The second book I've just read is Cressida Cowell's 'How To Train Your Dragon'. I'm guilty of watching both films, and seeing the TV series first. But after visiting the Seven Stories exhibition this summer at Wolverhampton Art Gallery - A Viking's Guide To Deadly Dragons by Cressida Cowell, I thought I really should get round to reading the actual books. Not to mention seeing the fantastic illustrations, I'm a big fan of illustration. I trained in Fine Art, after a brief stint in fashion I specialised in Painting and Printmaking, but part of me regrets not doing Children's Book Illustration, which was also on offer at the university.

Bit of a blurb frim Amazon: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was an awesome sword-fighter, a dragon-whisperer and the greatest Viking Hero who ever lived. But it wasn't always like that.
In fact, in the beginning, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was the most put upon Viking you'd ever seen. Not loud enough to make himself heard at dinner with his father, Stoick the Vast; not hard enough to beat his chief rival, Snotlout, at Bashyball, the number one school sport and CERTAINLY not stupid enough to go into a cave full of dragons to find a pet... It's time for Hiccup to learn how to be a Hero.

How to Train Your Dragon is a fun tale, and the first in a series. It's completely different from the films and TV series, in both plot and appearance so reading the book afterwards wasn't an issue after all. Easy to read, and now I'm keen to read the rest of the series and find out what else happens to Hiccup, his dragon Toothless and the rest of his Viking tribe The Hairy Hooligans. I enjoy a flawed hero, in this case a very un-viking like viking, who is scared and not very good at anything heroic. Humorous for both adults and children, and I shall be sharing Hiccup's adventures with my own children during bedtime stories :)

NAWG Festival of Writing

Last weekend I attended the NAWG (National Association of Writing Groups) Festival of Writing at Warwick University. Having never attended any sort of writing festival before, and arriving on my lonesome I was a bit nervous and unsure what to expect. I couldn't have hoped for better.

I arrived at the same time as one of my tutor's, crime writer Veronica Heley. Which was fortunate as neither of us had been before and helped one another navigate from accommodation to venues. She was also kind enough to offer to read the start of my novel before I attended her courses. She provided some very useful and helpful advice both at that time and throughout the weekend. Including how to do away with 'He said' 'she said' altogether from writing and keep the plot moving along at a faster pace. Just replace '... said' with an action and the writing flows smoothly.

One workshop in particular I found helpful was 'How to Write and Sell Short Stories' with Jane Wenham-Jones. I've always loved Jane's approach and style, and found her Wannabe a Writer a must for any aspiring writing. Wannabe a Writer We've Heard Of is just as fantastic and filled with helpful information. I am not ashamed to say I was very excited getting Jane's autograph, see below!

Whilst I've had some success with short stories in the past, it took Jane's workshop to make me see that I was missing the essential point to a short story. By the end of a story the protagonist must have changed. It doesn't have to be life altering, but a definite development and change needs to have occurred by the end of the story. So simple, yet I feel I have missed that with some of my own writing. 

Another top tick from Jane, when entering competitions avoid death and mental health issues, it's been done to death. And definitely no stories told by a dog, or cat!

I had a great workshop again with Jane but jointly with David Nobbs, writer of great comedy such as Reggie Perrin. With two comedic geniuses in the room it couldn't fail to produce some fantastic and hilarious results. David also gave a witty speech at the Gala dinner. If David is ever giving a talk you can attend I strongly recommend it!

There are so many other aspects of the weekend that were brilliant from the food to the company. Considering I arrived alone, I never stayed that way. There were always many new friends to meet and network with. 

Saturday night was very exciting with the Gala dinner and awards. There was a 100 word mini-tale to write over the weekend, won by writer Simon Whaley. I myself was excited to receive a commended certificate for my YA story 'Tomatoes' see picture below :)

The food was delicious and company wonderful as I sat with new friends and writer/tutors Paul Dodgson and Judi Goodwin.

All in all, the weekend was fantastic and inspiring. I made many new friends and writing connections. It was so good I booked for next year before I even left. So see you all next year in Warwick for the 2015 NAWG Festival of Writing!

Anorak and NAWG

I've had some great news in the past week. My short story for Young Adults called 'Tomatoes' has been commended in the NAWG (National Association of Writing Groups) competition. All details here...
http://www.nawg.co.uk/uncat/2014-nawg-competition-results-and-winners/

I shall also be off to Warwick this weekend for the NAWG Festival of Writing, very excited to be attending some workshops by Veronica Heley and Jane Wenham-Jones amongst others.
More details here...
http://www.nawg.co.uk/events/nawg-festivals/nawg-open-festival-of-writing-2012/

The current issue of Anorak magazine for children (http://www.anorakmagazine.com) - Cities, features a story of mine called 'Baby Fox Goes on an Adventure' and is illustrated by Sam Kalda. You can see both his wonderful illustrations and a look at my story accompanying them on his website via this link: http://www.samkalda.com/narrative

Thank you!

I just wanted to post a quick thank you to everyone who supports me and who has taken the time to read my blog! I have reached 3000 hits so it's a special day :)

Thank you all!

The Second Draft

It's been a week and a day now since I completed the first draft of my second novel, A Witch in Time. The novel started  as part of the Nibfest14 write-a-thon, organised by Laetitia Rutherford of Watson, Little Ltd.

I was going to leave it longer than a week before I got stuck into some serious editing, but I'm keen to get started. I'd like to write with the characters still very much fresh and fully formed in my mind. It seems to be the best approach for me. With hindsight, now I've worked out how my writing process works for longer fiction, booking a week or two off work and working flat out would be the ideal. But in a non ideal situation with work ever looming, I am working around noisy, happy children, and activities, and working late into the night, even if it's only 100 or 200 words, it's little but often and accumulative.

It's got me thinking about the whole process of approaching a second draft. Thought I'd jot down a few pointers below...

- It's a bit of a drain on ink and paper resources, but at this stage it's usually best to print out a copy. The words have a different feel and can look very different on paper to the screen.

- I like to have a read through and make notes at this stage, on the actual manuscript, often spelling and grammatical errors, repetition, maybe even the wrong name! But also in a notebook, so that I can make more extensive notes per chapter of what I'd like to revise.

- Back to the laptop/computer! Start working through chapter by chapter making corrections, but also adding or taking away chunks of writing. Or adding more detail or maybe more dialogue, wherever sparse or in need of a plot hole filling in. In the first draft, If I get stuck or need to write further on to help the plot progress, I often leave a chapter unfinished so that I may come back to it at a later stage when I know exactly what I'd like to add or change.

- It's a good idea to set yourself a deadline when you'd like to complete a draft to keep you focused. It's very easy at this stage to start thinking about the next project which you're already excited about.

- Sometimes in the second draft I discover characters that don't really have much of a role, more a bit part. So unless they are absolutely necessary I try to cut these and give their role to another more prominent character. If a character doesn't have a big enough role or a subplot doesn't actually move the story forward then cut it.

- Once you've completed a second draft, put it aside for a couple of weeks so you can re-read again with fresh eyes. It might seen like hard work, but a third draft could well be needed. You want it to be perfect once it arrives with an agent or editor after all :)

Happy writing!