A Writers' New Year Workout

Okay, 'tis the season of lists and resolutions.  Let's limber up to answer the Call of this year's Writing Adventure. We're a sedentary bunch, us writers, so here's an 8-step workout to try from the comfort of your desk – or bed even. Pick a few exercises and don't sweat it.

1. Warm-Up: Review 2017

Feeling a bit sluggish post-Christmas? Sometimes it's a morale booster just to recognise the time and effort you've invested in your writing practice over the past year. If you don't already keep a running list of acceptances, successes, publications etc. it's a good habit to get into. However small or great, these are worth recording. Very handy when you have to put together a biography for a submission or if you find yourself applying for funding or a writing-related opportunity. Note the month and which publication or event you were involved in. And give yourself a pat on the back for getting your work out there.


     2.  Set Timer for 2018 

 First up, fish out that new calendar, (courtesy of Leicester Writes website), and plot out those key dates. East Midlanders like myself live in a region absolutely packed with writers' events. But your area will have its own highlights. In March 2018 alone, I've just pencilled in the WEM Writers Conference 2018 (3rd March), States of Independence Indie-publishers' fair (10th March) and Cultural Exchanges festival (26th Feb - 2nd March). Then there's monthly dates for LeicesterWriters' Showcase events, as well as Novel Exchanges, and Shindig and WORD for the poets amongst you. And don't forget the Writers' Shed programme of Saturday Masterclasses kicking off again in February 2018.

3. Running on the Spot: Your Process

Every writer does it differently – but YOUR PROCESS is the one that gets the job done for you. If someone was to interview you and ask you how your writing happens, what would you say? Do you make a date with your writing everyday for however long? (a very good tip a writing friend once gave me.) Is there a time of day that works best for you? Or is that determined by work routines, family commitments etc? Is there a place or ritual that gets you in the frame of mind to write? Maeve Binchy lights candles. Some people put on music. Others prefer the bustle of a busy café. Know your own process and nurture it. It's where the magic happens.

4. Star Jumps: Your Brilliant Career

Maybe you're already published and you're managing the expectations of editors, agents and readers, whilst staying true to your own interests and writing passions. Or maybe, your family and friends think of writing as your little hobby. If you've committed to a writing practice, take the time to consider where you want to go with it. Be your own coach. Jot down where you'd like to be with your writing in a year's time. And in 5 years' time? Start to set yourself some goals for the next few months and ease yourself in with smaller targets for January. 

Talk to your writing friends about these goals - and if you don't have any, find some on-line or join local writing communities. I've benefited hugely this year from attending groups like Leicester Writers' Club, The Speculators and Poetry Stanza. Leicester Writes is an open friendly group that meets once a month in a city café and welcomes new writers for chat and networking. On-line, The Writers' Shed is happy to talk to you about your goals and how you can move towards them.

5. Skipping: Current Writing Projects

Take a good look at any current writing projects you're pursuing. What's working well, what are the stumbling blocks? Is there any research you need to do – whether on-line or visiting places or ordering new resources. If you're quite advanced with a project like a novel or screenplay or poetry chapbook, you might benefit from the input of other writers. See step 4 for writing communities. Consider working with an experienced mentor in your field. WEM has a scheme for writers to apply for or you can talk to people at The Writers'Shed about your goals and needs. The Writers' Shed also offers manuscript critiques for that book you're honing. At the same time, it's good to keep yourself open to potential new projects – jot down ideas that have been kicking around in your back-brain for a while.

6. Forward Lunges: Up-skilling

No writer has to do it all alone. Why re-invent the wheel when you can borrow the expertise of people who've been there already? One thing you can do to take your writing to the next level is invest in a course that addresses writing skills you're trying to improve. These could be one-day courses, weekend retreats or a longer course, such as:

• Arvon Retreats have a good reputation. They offer tutored retreats for 4 or 6 days. Courses are also available. Look at who the tutors are first. They're not cheap but you can apply for a grant.
• WEM – Writing School. This writing school has been running in Leicester for over 60 years with an excellent track record of supporting developing writers. It now runs courses taught by published professionals in Nottingham too. I'm teaching a 6 week course on 'Building Your Poetry Collection' from mid-Feb. 2018 onwards on Sat. mornings in Leicester. But there's something there for everybody whatever your genre. 
• The Writers' Shed is a new service for writers, based both on-line and in the East Midlands. Pitched at writers who are wanting to take their work to the next level, we offer manuscript critiques, one-to-one mentoring and a series of Saturday masterclasses on key skills to build towards publication. There are also free on-line resources to dip into. Pop in and browse our shelves. 

7. Dumb-bells & Resources

Yes, your shelves are groaning but there's always room for one more essential writing guide or must-read book. If you appreciate the craft of modern short stories, I can recommend the sumptuous anthologies produced by Dahlia Publishing (who are also running the Leicester Short Story competition again this year.) On my own wish-list is a new 'How to be a Poet' handbook from Nine Arches Press editor Jane Commane and the inimitable Jo Bell. If you're wrestling with novel plotting or screenplays, I'd always recommend Robert McKee's 'Story' and a friend has lent me Christopher Vogler's classic study of  The Hero's Journey. 

Of course, January is the month of overdrafts and tax returns. So this month, I'm also hoping to dip into on-line resources from authors including Niki Monaghan, Damien Walter and Rod Duncan. Duncan is offering free pod-casts on 'Selling Your Novel' covering everything from cover letters to synopses. Find links to these at The Writers' Shed. And don't forget, apart from the world wide web, there's your local library. I happen to know Leicester's Central Library has an excellent creative writing section. Use it while it's still there!

8. Cool-Down with a Good Book.

Well, that's the heavy lifting done. Now for that tottering pile of To Read books by the bed. Two favourites from 2017 I'd recommend are the gorgeous 'What We Thought We Knew' by Mahsuda Snaith and Jeanette Ng's delicious gothic fantasy 'Under the Pendulum Sun.' And I can't wait for a new Gas-Lit Empire novel from Rod Duncan, 'The Queenof All Crows', out this month. Why not get a bit of light exercise re-shuffling that pile and then curl up with a book you'd quite forgotten about? It's what the dark days of January were invented for. 

What Publishers Want

This morning I'm sifting through interviews with publishers and editors to see what gets them excited. Straight from the horses' mouth, as it were. And since that is a betting term, it's quite apt because everybody, whether publisher, author or reader, is taking a gamble on whether this book is going to prove a winner.

Publishers are looking to sell books. We're talking large numbers of sales that bring in a healthy profit. They're panning the slush pile for story-gold. So far, so obvious. When it comes to your novel submission, publishers are inundated with potential books in a given genre, all written to a certain standard. What makes yours stand out from the crowd? To take a bet on backing your book, publishers want to know that readers are going to be excited by it, will be recommending it to their friends, will be coming back for more. So what are those elusive qualities that drive a runaway success for a novel? In listening to industry professionals, I'm finding certain themes recur.

'Say what you want about some popular authors or creators: they know how to move someone. To get people to keep turning pages. Keep buying books. Keep telling friends about them.'

Dan Blank, founder of We Grow Media

http://writerunboxed.com/2016/11/25/what-agents-publishers-want-and-why/

So we all want that emotional hit when we've invested time in a novel – it has to get under our skin and, as Blank says, resonate. It stays with us afterwards, that emotional echo of a book we loved, even if it's disturbed or perplexed us. Personally I want a story that leaves me shell-shocked but not in an obvious, manipulative way. But there's that page-turning quality as well. A book that's made me hungry, that's kept me up at night because I can't sleep not knowing what's happened to that character I've grown to care about and worry about.

'All right, so I want an original voice. Now that’s different from an original story, because I really do believe that old saying that there’s only seven stories in the world — there might be more, hopefully there are. But, it’s not that you always have to completely come up with a new storyline, but you do have to have a new way of telling it. Your unique voice, as a writer, has to come through, and I have to engage with that voice. It has to draw on my emotions, one way or the other... it has to be something that is confident enough that it draws me in and it’s a really well-managed tool to tell the story. And stories are really important to me, so it has to have a story that I can think about while I’m doing the washing up. It has to linger in my head...'

 

Bernadette Foley, Editor & Publisher at Hachette, Australia.

https://www.writerscentre.com.au/blog/ep-37/

Foley touches here on another elusive quality: narrative voice. The voice of a book is its personality. It's a voice whispering in your ear – as intimate as radio, even more so because it's right in your head. And the narrative voice embodies the story. It grows out of the story, it's the only way to tell that particular story. As Foley says, 'well-managed tool to tell the story.' This might be the voice of a character-narrator or it might be the voice of a landscape of events or all of those. But when you hear it, it casts a spell and you're hooked.

'Because I’m only sent a chapter, and you can tell in a chapter, it’s essentially, maybe it’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for either really good raw writing style, that I think will have a great story. Or if in my dreams, a manuscript arrives, or a chapter arrives, and the narrative voice is really distinctive, and the reader has, I just really want to keep on reading… So narrative voice is probably the most important for me...When you’re reading, observe the craft of how the person, how the author has set up a great narrative voice, how they’ve developed characters, whether the characters are likable... You know, just look at every aspect of the craft. How they’ve moved their plot along, the structure, and so on. So that’s my first thing. Read a lot, and read for the craft... Go back to your favourite novels and look at why they are so good.'

Louise Thurtell, Publisher at Allen & Unwin

https://www.writerscentre.com.au/blog/ep-161/ 

Thurtell hones in on the impact of narrative voice but she also advises writers to study the structure and pace of the novels they admire. It's that page-turning quality again we're looking for. A while back, I picked up the American classic novel Moby Dick. I knew that the subject matter really appealed to me. He's got whales, icebergs, the wild landscape of Newfoundland and its surrounding oceans, the story of men locked in a boat for years on end and an obsessive captain driven by a desire for revenge. Perfect book for a long winter read. When I read the opening page, the first person narrative leapt out and seized me. 'I could follow this narrator to the ends of the earth,' I wrote on Facebook. But then ten chapters in, we were still marooned ashore while the hero negotiated his way onto a whaling ship. I have to confess, I floundered, I ground to a halt. I will get back to Moby Dick, honest, I'll stock up on rations and hunker down for the duration. But as a reader in the 21^st century, like the rest of us, I'm looking for the storytelling to have that page-turning, can't-put-it-down quality. And as a novelist, that's a challenge I have to meet myself.

So here's a group of publishers in 2015, talking in The Guardian about books they did publish and why they were successful. You'll notice the same themes coming through:

'Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates takes the form of a letter from the author to his teenage son. Along with his powerful, personal and provocative history of race in America, Coates also shares his hopes and fears for his son’s future. Rarely are such “urgent” books written in such mesmerising prose.'

Hannah Griffiths, Publishing Director, Faber

'Drugs, dubstep, eco-terrorism, racial politics, failing marriages, birding, sex (in a canoe), the nuclear family: it’s all here. As the New York Times said: “You don’t read Nell Zink (The Wallcreeper) so much as step into the ring with her.” She is a total one-off, a wild voice out of nowhere which seems to have no precedent. We will be hearing much more from her over the coming years.'

Nicolas Pearson, Publishing Director, 4^th Estate

 

'Claire Fuller’s rich and humane Our Endless Numbered Days introduces us to Peggy, one of the most vivid child narrators I’ve encountered. Abducted by her survivalist father to live in a remote forest cabin, she seeks escape through music, nature and books. It is a dark and massively suspenseful story which abounds with references to fairytales.'

Juliet Annan, Publishing Director, Fig Tree/ Penguin

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2015/dec/18/the-publishers-year-winners-and-losers

An urgent book in mesmerising prose, a one-off wild voice, a vivid child-narrator and massively suspenseful story. We'd all love to have written those books - but how? The Writers' Shed notes that precisely these qualities are often talked about but rarely taught. That's why the first Masterclass in our new series will address Narrative Drive & Narrative Voice. We hope to drill down to the techniques that can make your book stand out from the heap on the slush pile table. And have your readers celebrating the book they couldn't put away. To find out more, pop over to The Writers' Shed and take a look. You'll find other free resources there on the shelves too.

 

https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheWritersShed/events/?ref=page_internal