Writing workshops and Contests

June 21, 2015June 21, 2015 / ginny200 / Leave a comment

The first day of summer will arrive at today, bringing with it the longest day of the year. So far, the garden is happy although a little confused with roses—outstanding for the first time in years—blooming with the peonies. My favourite blue clematis, struggling up from the depths of fern garden, climbs over the rock wall and up a support. I’m a bit behind in planting. My terrace pots, most of them, are still empty. If the rain holds off, maybe I’ll get to them today.

Good news from a contest in the UK: a piece of flash fiction that I have worked on from time to time for years, The Gulls Soared, placed third in the Winchester Writers’ Festival. The prize is a selection of books, but I don’t know which ones as yet.

Contests are a terrific way to get your name out, earn a little(sometimes) and receive feedback on your work. Aerogramme Writers Studio lists contests by closing date every two months.

June 6 and 7 I spent at Barbara Kyle’s workshop “The First Thirty Pages”. A terrific two days, sharing writing with only 8 others plus Barbara, allowing an in depth look at everyone’s work. A one on one with Barbara was the highlight for me although her advice has me working diligently on an outline for my all ready completed novel. That process is ongoing and should help me sharpen the focus. Check out Barbara’s website for news of a terrific Writer’s Symposium she’s organizing for the fall.

A tip for writers: A cheat sheet for writing body language can be found at Body Language, written by blogger Amanda Patterson.

That’s about it for this Sunday morning in June. I’m back to my outline.

Master Class

May 31, 2015 / ginny200 / Leave a comment

Spring in Ontario—from a humid 29C to a rainy 7C this am.

The burst of growth in May astonishes me, every year. In April I despair of ever seeing the ground again, and here it is, sprouting hosta and Korean lilac and early leaves of daylilies. What a country. The long, ice-riven winter gives way to this glory.

I’ve been working on some technical aspects of my booklaunch.io page for The Child on the Terrace, including adding a trailer. You can check it out at the link above. The trailer was produced by The Book Promoter group in Dublin, Eire.

Next weekend takes me Barbara Kyle’s First Thirty Pages Master Class. Preparation includes reading and critiquing the first 30 pages of all 9 other participants. 80-90 thousand words all together, a good-sized novel. I’m looking forward to spending the weekend with all these talented people and Barbara, who is an excellent teacher.

That’s about it for today. No blog next Sunday as I shall be away.

3 tips for editing

May 24, 2015May 24, 2015 / ginny200 / Leave a comment

Summer has almost arrived. One night of frost, but everything appears to have survived, including my tiny basil plants.

It’s 2 weeks until Barbary Kyle’s First 30 Pages workshop and I’ve sent off my partial and received those of the other participants. This week, I hope to review all 9 and leave next week for any second thoughts.

I submit short stories to contests, like the one hosted by Red Tuque Books. Occasionally a critique is offered with the fee, and if I can afford it I request one. It’s a great way to receive feedback from successful authors about my work. How to win is another question.

Dianna Thurban, in a guest post on Daily Writing Tips, details 20 ideas for winning contests. I quibble with #18. She advises choosing to send in paper if the contest gives a choice. I’ve read others who say that those that are sent on paper receive more favourable consideration than those that are sent via e-mail.

I think that is outdated advice. Most sites now are using Submittable or specifically request electronic submission. Paper requires the judge to receive, review and then shred or otherwise dispose of hundreds of pages. The environmental stress of all that paper and ink needs to be taken into account as well.

The Write Life published an editing tips checklist some time ago, that’s handy to have on your desk—yes, in paper—as you start the editing process. I use Autocrit, which identifies most of these problems, but I prefer to check as I go and use the programme nearer to the end of the process.

Another list appears on the Merriam-Webster site. Proofreaders’ marks were a mystery to me until I found this handy document.

Yesterday was our 45th wedding anniversary. The weather was much the same in Kingston that Saturday, a little cool, windy with gusts off the lake, but the tulips were blooming. We were twenty-four years old, a lifetime ago.

That’s about it for this Sunday in May.

Four allies in attacking the middle(of your novel)

April 19, 2015April 20, 2015 / ginny200 / Leave a comment

A beautiful morning here in the Kawartha Lakes: sunny, warm, blue skies without a threat of rain, at least not yet. It is April, however, so I expect a downpour before tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m working on the middle.

No, I’m not talking about girth, but those vast pages from the end of Act 1 to the beginning of Act 111 in a novel. They should be vast, in number at least, but mine are not. I write short, too short and too fast. I need to get to the end, to see how it all comes out for my protagonist. Yes, I should have plotted it all out and I will next time, but this book is at 62,000 words, a little long for an outline and a little short for a novel and I’ve come to the end, resolved the crisis, packed everyone up, and sent them all home to bed.

The magic middle moment(see James Scott Bell happens at 36000 words, so I’m aiming for 72,000. Not long but a decent length for a paperback or an ebook.

I spent this morning plotting, searching websites for help, considering sub-plots, considering the sub-plots I all ready have and finally returning to Syd Field’s book Screenplay, The Foundations of Screenwriting, not because I’m writing for the movies but because his approach is excellent for writers of genre fiction. I also searched out Sol Stein’s On Writing, which I’ve read before at least twice for his section on triage for editing.

Barbara Kyle recommended Albert Zuckerman’s Writing the Blockbuster Novel and I’m in the midst of reading that as well. He presents a detailed analysis of ken Follett’s The Man from Saint Petersburg through all its drafts. Invaluable.

Too much reading and not enough writing? Perhaps, but I’m learning all the time. Revision has so many sections, so much detail to consider, that learning how others have done the job helps.

The Garden:

The miniature iris are blooming and the paeonia tenuifolia have sprung up. I pruned some roses yesterday and searched in vain for one of my clematis. Perhaps it’s just late.

Mark at Galetta Nurseries in the Ottawa Valley said this week that he hit frost a 4” when he tried to dig out some roses. The old saying is ‘plant when the ground is warm enough to sit on’. Good advice.

Paeonia Tenuifolia, my garden.

Signs of Spring amidst Revision and Marketing

March 15, 2015 / ginny200 / 2 Comments

Ides of March. For Americans, the taxman cometh. We’re waiting for spring, a spring the weather gurus tell us is going to be delayed. No one told the buds on the chestnut trees out front. They started to swell before the deep freeze ended.

Work goes on. Marketing and revision of my work-in-progress. In June, I’m joining Barbara Kyle’s Master class for revision of my first thirty pages.

The Child on the Terrace is still in advanced copy mode but soon I must send the final changes to the publisher. Most of my reviewers, busy people all, have yet to get back to me.

Revision is difficult work, akin to juggling multiple objects rather than a simple set of coloured rubber balls. I’ve been following a blogger, Janice Hardy who calls her site Fiction University. She is half-way through a month of blogs on the process and very useful they are. Today’s is here, http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/03/day-fifteen-clean-up-description-and.html#more but all the previous blogs plus a great deal more is available on her site. Well worth multiple visits.

This week I attended a dinner and lecture at the Canadian Club. The speaker mentioned a local artist, long-deceased, named W.A. Goodwin. As it happens we have one of his watercolours. When I bought it, I investigated him and found a lengthy newspaper record. He lived to almost 100 years old and was a well-know citizen. I did some of his family genealogy as well. Magpie that I am, I kept it all.

After the meeting, the manager of the local museum called me and asked to see it. The museum is mounting an extensive show from an archive of material the researchers acquired on loan from the family. I was pleased to contribute our painting and some of the information I’d gathered to their archive. Find the museum here: http://www.oldegaolmuseum.ca/exhibits.html

The museum created a Facebook page for W.A. with pictures, paintings, diary entries and more. An interesting and charming page.

https://www.facebook.com/W.A.Goodwin

Buds on chestnut trees, March, 2015

Marketing and Revising: Ways and Means and Help

February 15, 2015February 15, 2015 / ginny200 / Leave a comment

Setenil de Las Bodegas, Spain, setting for The Child on the Terrace

I spent most of this week learning about marketing. Earlier, I received a series of e-mails from Nick Stephenson, writer and teacher of marketing about “Your First 10K readers“. He supplied 3 videos on the subject. Well worth the time spent, if only for the insight into how Amazon and other on-line retailers find books, but also for the methods of applying that insight to one’s own books. I haven’t applied his method as yet, mostly because, as I have a publishing contract, choosing such things as category and key words isn’t up to me. However, I shall put together a plan and suggest it to the publisher, Cambridge Books.

Laurence O’Bryan at Books Go Social offers a great service, connecting authors with each other and customers.

I’m revising my next book, working title Saving Fillide. One bit of advice that keeps popping up is to “kill your darlings”. and I did just that, moving the opening of the book to the third chapter. It has made for a more suspenseful opening, but in the process, I lost some back story and one subplot that needs to go back in but in a different place and manner.

Barbara Kyle, at a Turning Leaves, a Writescape retreat, suggested a book by her agent, Al Zuckerman, called Writing the Blockbuster Novel and it is immeasurably helpful in revision. I’m attending a workshop Barbara is giving on Friday, Feb. 20th at the University of Guelph Writers’ Workshop on Crafting the Bestseller; Your first 50 Pages and know I will learn more. She is an excellent teacher.

The Child on the Terrace is now available on major e-book sites. Connect through the link to my book launch page.