Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts

Sunday, July 27, 2014

For the Aspiring Authors Out There

More often than not, the piece of advice successful writers give to aspiring writers is this: write more.

That's the gist of it. Write more. Keep writing. Write until you have no more ideas left in your head, find some more, and write again.

The purpose of this exercise is to help you become more aware of the words you use, and to develop your "voice" as an author. It helps you build upon your writing skills, no matter how poor or strong they are. But what about the people who've been doing this for ten years?

I have another piece of advice: drop the "aspiring" part of your title.

Stop dreaming, and start making things happen. I don't necessarily mean publish a book by yourself right away, or submit a book to a publisher. Start with something smaller. Try submitting a short story, or a poem, to a literary agent. Pitch an article to a magazine or newspaper. Do something to get your name out there, and edit your online bios.

Why?

Let's look at it this way - you look a lot more professional if you say, for example, "Mum of three, working on my first novel" than "Mum of three, aspiring author". One says you're doing something, the other says you're thinking of doing something. Similarly, "Aspiring author, 16, student" says a lot less about you than "Young author, working on a book, 16, student".

Do you see the difference, yet?

If you want people to take you seriously, start presenting yourself seriously. The amount of people who want to support young authors and writing mums is astonishing. Yes, you need to keep writing. However, by living your dream instead of just wishing for it, you're much more likely to do something you can be proud of.

When I dropped the word "aspiring", I found the courage to set up a website and apply for a writing job (which I got.) A year later, I published my first book, and wrote an article for a magazine about it. It's all mindset and confidence. I improved as a writer by that simple act of identifying as one now.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Should I Plan My Book?

This week, 25 Ways to Beat Writer's Block is free on the Kindle. To celebrate that fact, we're going to look at some of the basic questions new writers ask. Let's start off at the beginning:

Should I plan my book?

This comes down to the individual author. Some people never plan a book before writing, and others don't write a word without a plan. Personally speaking, I have to have a plan. Sometimes it'll be a mind map. Other times it'll just be a list of chapter titles. But I have to go in with a plan.

There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that I like having a guide to keep me going even when I start to lose my focus. The plan is done in a moment of inspiration - or drawn up from ideas that came to me in a moment of inspiration - and it's enough for me to know that what I'm going to write had some basis to it beyond "I need to keep writing."

The second reason I write with a plan is because I live in a house full of distractions and interruptions. Unless you have an ideal set-up that allows for a lot of peace and quiet, you can't guarantee that no one will burst in on a writing session.

Alternatively, you can write when, and only when, you feel the inspiration to write without a guide. Plenty of authors do that, especially when working on their first ever book, because they find it much more enjoyable. I did the same thing when I wrote my first novel nine years ago, but through a combination of only average writing ability at the time, a lack of focus in the book, and a lack of interest in the existing draft, that book won't see the light of day without a complete re-write.

At the time, however, it felt right. That's what you need to think about when deciding whether or not you're going to plan your book: does it feel right to use a plan, or do you feel better writing without one? For a first-time novelist, that's the only thing that should determine whether or not you should plan your book.

That said, and this is important, if you want to write a series of books, you need a plan. A series should have a longer story than any one book can tell. If you don't plan for the earlier clues as to what the rest of the series is about from book one, you'll struggle to sell your manuscript.

Think of it like a television show. Each episode is a story in itself, but they build upon each other towards the series climax and finale, when all the little pieces come together and make sense. Trying to write a series of books without a plan, without anything in mind for how to tie the whole thing together, is like a television show consisting solely of stand-alone episodes that aren't related to each other enough to keep an audience interested. Those shows get cancelled.

Keep that in mind if you want to write a series, but otherwise the decision of whether or not to plan is down to you. (For the record, I'm so pro-planning that I wrote a whole book on the matter. If you disagree with this blog post, it's probably because I focus so much on why it's important.)

About 25 Ways to Beat Writer's Block:

Have you ever struggled with writer’s block? Have you sat at your desk, looking at your work in progress, wondering what to do with a character who just won’t budge, or a poem that just won’t take form, or an article that just won’t work for you? Have you ever joined thousands of authors in the search for a way to beat writer’s block? 

From the author of Planning Before Writing comes a solution to the problem of writer’s block: 25 ways to tackle one of the biggest issues facing writers, each with an exercise to help you to develop as an author and improve your writing skills. 

With exercises to suit every writer, and drawing on over ten years’ experience in the craft, 25 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block is a must-have reference for your collection.


Available on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HYMVZJ2
and Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HYMVZJ2

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Short Story Writing for Leaving Cert Students

Last night, a former teacher of mine reminded me of a couple of things. Firstly: I'm a writer who knows things about writing. Secondly: I'm a teacher who has some experience teaching creative writing. And thirdly, I'm old.

Okay, not that old. But I'm old enough to have sat my Leaving Cert and to have written and published several books since. I'm old enough to have gone through college. And I'm experienced enough to have written a lot of short stories in my time.

The point is, I was asked for advice, and I was able to give it, and I think it's about time I put together a post on this for all the English teachers (and English students) out there.

1. Keep it simple. You have a limited amount of time and space in which you must write your story. You can't create an in-depth universe in the few pages at your disposal. You can't write a story spanning, in detail, a few years. You don't even have weeks. Try to fit the action into one day - two or three at most. Other things to avoid include: acts of terrorism, natural disasters, or mass murders, especially as a means of ending the story. (The old favourite, it seems, is to kill off everyone in the story with a volcano exploding.)

2. Plan in advance. Before you write anything, plan the story. Figure out your primary characters. Jot down 2-3 keys scenes you'll include, and know your ending. I can't stress the importance of this enough. You'll have a limited amount of time to write your story, so knowing how it'll come to an end is important. Otherwise, you run the risk of simply writing until it's finished. That's fine if you don't have a time limit, and if you have the patience to rewrite anything to make it more coherent, but in an exam situation, time is precious.

For a recommended break-down on how to spend your time in the exam, see this page: http://www.leavingcert.net/skoool/examcentre_sc.asp?id=326

3. Have some ideas before you go in. Knowing what sort of story you could feasibly write before you go in is a good idea. (Writing it all beforehand and trying to reproduce it under pressure is not.) Have a look at different photo prompts online if you need ideas. Getting used to them beforehand is also a good idea, given the trend of there being a photo prompt question on the paper. Look through news stories for inspiration, too. You never know what will peak your interest and what you can use in your exam. Remember, in typical situations only one person will read your story.

A weekly photo prompt blog you can check it (run by yours truly) can be found here: http://writingpromptphotos.tumblr.com/

For easy to read, and sometimes ridiculous, news stories, I regrettably point you in the direction of the Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

4. Know your characters. One of the easiest ways to prepare to write a story without knowing the exact conditions of the story, is to prepare a few characters in advance. Create a protagonist in love; create a protagonist who wants to travel; create a protagonist who wants revenge. Mix things up a bit. Write male and female characters. Write characters of various ethnicities. Don't be afraid to create a genre-defined character. Give your characters depth, a background, an attitude, a way of looking at life. When you get the question - sometimes a line to include, sometimes a photo prompt, sometimes a lot more open than that - you could include one of your prepared characters. If you can't, create one on the spot. You should have plenty of experience in creating an interesting character. The most important thing to remember is that how your characters act and think is more important than how they look.

5. Know how to create interesting settings. A room isn't simply defined by what you can see. Think about the other senses we possess: hearing, smell, touch, and thermoception (the sense of heat and cold) are perhaps the most relevant here. Use them to create an atmosphere in a room, a depth beyond what we can see. When you've figured out how to use those properly - I advise describing your bedroom using those six senses (the five listed above, plus sight) and try describing others areas, like a nearby park, a shop, and a restaurant - it's time to turn to the cultural and social aspects of the setting. Paper 2 in Leaving Cert English deals with the Comparative Study. One area of this is the Cultural Context question, in which you need to dissect a piece for the culture created. The greater your understanding of factors such as religion, employment, crime and education on an environment, the better. You won't necessarily need all of the information, but it helps to create a more interesting setting (and write a more interesting story) if you can make use of them.

Above all else, practice.

Going into your Leaving Cert only ever writing stories (or essays, for that matter) when your teacher tells you to isn't necessarily a good idea. You should practice writing in your spare time - call it studying, if you have to explain it to a parent or guardian. You should aim to write a story at least every couple of weeks. It counts for half the marks of Paper 1, and deserves the attention. (As a further bonus, developing your writing skills will help you across the board, science and maths based subjects aside.) If you want a change of pace from trying to come up with your own ideas all the time, try out some fan fiction.

If you have access to a Kindle (or Kindle App on a smart phone or tablet) and you want to read more from me on this area, you might consider my two books on the matter:

Available on Amazon.com
and Amazon.co.uk
Available on Amazon.com
and Amazon.co.uk

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Can't Sleep, Clown Will Eat Me!

Last night I had some trouble sleeping. I had an awful lot of my mind, including the sudden realisation that some friends who are leaving the country are doing so very soon. I kind of figured this sort of stuff would creep up on me, before pouncing suddenly.

When I woke up after a less than satisfactory sleep, I knew what I had to do: I made a list.

I wrote down each of the things that had been bothering me the night before, and beside each one I wrote down what, if anything, I could do about. I kept it simple, to a few words so it would be easy to follow, and once it became clear that for some things the solution was simple and for others there was nothing I could do to change what was going to happen, it all became a bit easier.

Part of the problem, I reckon, was that I thought about it all in one go without having time to process it properly. That's not an ideal situation for anyone to be in. Once one little bit of worry gets in, it's like a dam breaking. Suddenly every little niggling doubt about the future came down upon me.

Thankfully I know how to cope with all of this going on. The real trouble was in my head, and once I was able to get out of it - which meant not sleeping for a while - I was able to get some rest.

(As for the title of this post... it's a quote from The Simpsons, when a young Bart is terrified of the clown bed Homer made him. The same sort of fear and worry kept me awake last night, though my focus wasn't on my bed. After yesterday's story, that's probably hard to believe...)

Anyway, today, after coping with last night's worries, and after a shift in work, I did what every sane person who couldn't sleep well the night before does: I went to see a horror film. Specifically, The Conjuring. It's probably the creepiest film of the past few years, though Sinister still holds the title belt for scariest. There were less jumpy frights in The Conjuring and more spooky atmosphere building.

All in all, I'd recommend it.

I'm a big fan of horror films, though I don't get to watch as many as I'd like to. This is by and large down to the fact that when it's dark enough to make an atmosphere out of a horror film, I'm in my room writing a blog post at the last minute, but also because I don't have a huge collection of horror.

Anyway, it's getting late, I feel a hankering for a cup of tea, and I need to post this before midnight. Hopefully tonight I'll have less worries on my mind!

Monday, August 5, 2013

Is it Time to Police the Internet?

I heard the news today that another young girl died by suicide, choosing to take her own life as a result of bullying through Ask.fm. I'm not going to repeat the whole story here. You can probably find it by searching Google for bullying or suicide stories related to the site.

My main issue is that rather recently, Ask.fm has been at the centre of three suicides, three victims of bullying and harassment, and hasn't appeared to do anything to prevent further incidences. Its anonymous messaging continues, with people told to "drink bleach" or "go get cancer", and it once more highlights the problem with social media and developments in communication technology: cyber bullying.

In the past, bullying took place (by and large) in the schoolyard, or in the street, or in the workplace. While all of that still happens, modern technology allows the bully to break into the victim's house and intrude upon their private space with messages of hatred. Victims of cyber bullying can't escape the barrage. It attacks them where they feel safest, and it removes any semblance of protection the home might offer.

Awareness campaigns haven't quite caught up with cyber bullying. Not only do most people not feel as if they can talk about the issues of cyber bullying - it's easier to pretend it's not happening than to explain how you might have "let it happen" - most parents don't know enought about online safety and how simply telling children to avoid strangers on the Internet isn't good enough anymore. If anything, that only makes the Internet worse; there are billions of strangers who wouldn't harm you if you spoke to them online through Twitter or Google+, but there are dozens of people you do know (potentially) who would take advantage of your online presence to make you miserable.

I'm not going to pretend I understand why people treat others like that. What I can address, however, are the suicidal ideations that arise as a result of bullying. As evidenced by the three recent suicides as a result of online bullying, it's not uncommon to feel as if your life doesn't have enough value to keep on living it. In the most recent case, however, the young girl in question pointed out that sometimes a suicide attempt can be exactly what most people mistakenly assume all suicidal thoughts to be: a cry for help.

When the whole world - or your whole world, at least - seems to be against you, and you don't know how to explain how it makes you feel, and you don't understand why people treat you the way they do, and hide behind a veil of anonymity, it can be difficult to speak up and ask for help. If I thought someone was going through this sort of situation, though, there are some things I wouldn't say to them:

1. Suicide is a permament solution to a temporary problem. That's not a comfort to hear right away. When someone has agreed to find help - both with the abuse and its consequences, then it's time to highlight this point. It's more helpful for someone to realise they have done right by not taking their own lives than for someone to feel like they're thinking of doing something wrong.

2. Suicide is wrong. Someone who has been made to feel as if their existence is wrong isn't going to be put off taking their life by this point.

3. Suicidal thoughts or actions (attempts or self harm) are weird. While they aren't normal, and while someone experiencing them might not feel as if they are normal, there is the chance that someone sees them as being part of them. Pointing out that something is weird isn't going to make someone thinking or doing it feel any better about how they view themselves.

4. Suicide is never an option. Not only does this feel like a command, it's not even true. Suicide, for many people in every walk of life and in every culture around the world, is an option. It might not be one that people approve of, but the option is there. If you don't want someone to follow through on this option, tell them that instead. It's much more important for someone to hear that they are cared for, than to hear that they aren't allowed to do something.

5. Think about what you'd do to your parents if you killed yourself. While it might feel like an appeal to someone's sense of compassion and love, when experiencing suicidal thoughtss, or on the receiving end of bullying, or suffering from depression, it can feel as if you aren't receiving any love yourself. Returning it, or feeling good about anyone, can be difficult. Trying to make someone think about the consequences of suicidal actions while they are still at risk isn't a solution; it can create feelings of guilt or of worthlessness, and can make someone pull in to themselves even more as a way to get rid of any ill feeling thinking about family might bring about.

So, what should you do?

1. Be a friend. In cases of bullying, being the friend who's always there should be your primary concern. Allowing a victim of bullying or someone feeling suicidal to talk about what's bothering them is the first step towards preventing more drastic actions. If you're concerned that someone might be suffering in this way, keep an eye on them; look for any sign that something is wrong when they receive a text or look at their computer. If you know someone is giving them trouble, try to talk to them about it. If they don't want to mention something because they think things will get worse if they do, suggest being the one to report that something is wrong. In cases of bullying in schools, it can be easy to spot the bully once it's evident what they're doing.

2. Try to make arrangements to spend time with your friend away from a computer. A trip to the cinema or the theatre can be a good distraction, as any mobile devices that might be used to receive texts or emails or to use social media (including Ask.fm and Facebook) will have to be turned off.

3. Direct your friend to support services, and help them tell their parents and teachers (or employers, friends, etc.). Having more people to talk to and more ways to deal with the problems are essential.

4. Encourage your friend to (a) delete their Ask.fm account and (b) block anyone giving them trouble on Facebook or Twitter. Report bullies on any and all sites on which they are active.

In the long run, the less people using Ask.fm the better. At the moment, it doesn't support users who are being victimised and bullied. It makes cyber bullying too easy, and it provides one more easy avenue into someone's life. Anonymity is a dangerous tool for a bully to possess. Be aware, however, that it is possible to track anonymous users if the police are involved. Cyber bullying, in Ireland at least, is now a criminal offence, boarding on harassment. It's possible to catch the people causing your friend or loved one trouble.

For those who might have seen this happen already: don't feel guilty if your friend was in some distress and you didn't notice. It can be difficult to tell when someone is being bullied when it doesn't involve physical violence, and it's almost impossible to tell how someone is feeling at any given time of the day. The most important thing you can do is be there in future, and learn as much as you can about bullying, mental health issues like depression, and suicide. While it's not an easy topic to address, knowlegde and awareness are the first steps in preventing further incidences.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

5 Things We Can Learn From Skyrim

I recently took to playing Skyrim again, and it occurred to me that there are a number of things we can learn from the game about how the conventional genre of Fantasy works. Tonight, I'd like to address 5 Things We Can Learn From Skyrim About Fantasy.

1. Races
Fantasy lends itself to other races. Not always, but often enough that there's an existing idea of the genre in people's heads before they ever read or see a Fantasy novel or film. The Lord of the Rings had humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits, and variations on the above. Skyrim gives us three types of human race, three types of elves, orcs, cat-people, lizard-folk, a bizarre magical creature similar to elves, and the extinct dwarven race. They all go by different names depending on the novel, game, film or television series you're talking about, but in general, Fantasy allows for there to exist a plethora of sentient races.

2. Magic
Think Fantasy, think Magic. Even Game of Thrones has magic, though it comes in rarer doses than what most mainstream Fantasy demonstrates. There aren't any major characters who actively practice Magic in the show, though a few that demonstrate a semblance of magical ability. Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings is part of a wizarding order, and from his first appearance in The Hobbit demonstrates even a basic use of magic. I don't think I need to get in to Harry Potter on the matter of Magic. In Skyrim, we're given a much more basic understanding of magic. Any race can use it (as demonstrated by our ability to choose a character of any race and still throw a fire ball at a bandit), anyone can learn it. It does, however, break itself down into sub-categories, including Destruction Magic (for the standard elemental Magic we see so often: Fire, Ice and Lightning), Restoration Magic, Illusion Magic, and Conjuration, being just a few.

3. Politics
Perhaps the most important thing we need to pay attention to in Skyrim is the politics. In both Elder Scrolls games I've played, Oblivion being the other, the political tension in the world is a major factor into the storyline. It affects the protagonist, we're asked to become involved in it, and it reaches out into the various towns and cities across the Fantasy world no matter how far away from the capital they are. You don't necessarily need a big battle, either. The college at Winterfold in Skyrim is purposely removed from politics - but even the statement of this fact by a member of the college is in reference to the Mage's Guild's political involvement in Oblivion. There are also the little politics of each guild and town, who is in charge, how they reach power, who wants to take them down.

4. Religion
I've always been aware of the religious aspects of these games, probably as a result of the overexposure to religion at college. Looking at it simply, there are four kinds of people in Skyrim: those who don't believe in the gods (the minority), those who do believe in the gods (the majority), those who actively work for the gods (i.e. clergy), and those who worship the Daedric Lords instead. Players are free to do as they wish, though it usually comes down to whether or not you do something for the Daedra or not. (For those who don't play the games, consider them demons, and worship of them akin to worshipping the devil.)

5. Guilds
While the word "guild" is used to describe groups that no longer exist by the time Skyrim begins, the basic idea still exists: characters belong to groups of either mages, warriors for hire, thieves, or assassins. The latter two are typical in Fantasy when a hero is trying to avoid trouble. Terry Pratchett makes use of them in his Discworld novels. There are wizarding schools through the Fantasy genre, too, to the point that we can't ignore the fact that like-minded individuals come together for the building of a craft.

How does this help writers?
A simple focus on these five areas can shed some light on what your Fantasy novel might be missing. This is especially true for those who just dive in without planning (I'll raise my hand to that one - my first novel ever written was a Fantasy novel, though I hadn't fully thought it through before I began writing.) Making appropriate use of the different races that have appeared in Fantasy in the past can enliven your towns and cities. Knowing whether there is Magic, and understanding how it works, makes it much more acceptable for a reader when a character causes a man to freeze with ice coming from this throat. Having political parties - even just a ruling army and a rebellion - appealing for support can drag your character away from their true goal - or closer towards it. Embracing the idea of religion is much more believable for a world than one without any concept of a God, god or gods - a sense of the divine, whether you feel it yourself or not, has been part of human history for thousands of years. Creating groups of magic users or warriors or thieves can help your character find the help and support he or she needs. Parties of diverse characters are part of what has become convention. Even if you choose to then ignore the convention, being aware of it is a good first step.

Of course, there is a sixth thing we have to remember when it comes to Fantasy: have fun! If you, as the writer, or the reader, or the gamer, or the viewer, are not having fun with the genre, something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Writers: play around with how things work in your novel (especially if you haven't actually started writing it yet...which you totally should start doing instead of putting it off.) Make things different. Don't repeat the wizarding order of The Lord of the Rings or the Magic system in the Discworld novels. Don't just mimic the gods of Dungeons and Dragons, or throw out the old Fantasy races for the sake of familiarity. Use your imagination, and show the world something different. And one you've created that, keep with it. Skyrim is the fifth game (minus-extensions) in the Elder Scrolls series, and while it has developed with the processing power of computers, it's stuck to the same world, to the same races, and to similar concepts for how the world works (including Magic and other dimensions.)

There's an awful lot to the Fantasy genre, yes, but Skyrim helps make it all a little bit easier to see how it fits together nicely. All this while shooting people in the head with lightning enchanted arrows. Imagine that.