Entries Tagged 'Writing Races' ↓

The AWMonline Writing Race went off with a bang last night, with Special Guest JJ Cooper. Most of us already know that JJ’s successful debut thriller The Interrogator was published by Random House earlier this year, and that he has plenty of life experience to draw on as a former Australian Army Intelligence Corps member. What I didn’t know until last night, however, is that he is also an incredibly generous and insightful mentor to other writers!

Author JJ Cooper

Top Tips from the Interrogator…

On writing:

Tip from my interrogating days:

Generally, our thinking process can be broken into two groups of people – those who can ‘Mind Map’ and those who think ‘linear’ (logical sequence of events). If you know someone who contantly changes subjects and is always able to get back on track somehow – they’re mind-mappers. If that confuses you – you’re a linear thinker.

This is important to know for how you write.

I can’t follow books that jump all over the place and I lose interest relatively quickly because I think in a linear fashion. Now, mind mappers are also able to follow a linear fashion, but will jump ahead more unless they are glued to the pages. This is good for writing like mine because it is very fast paced and has plenty of twists for the mind-mappers (because they enjoy trying to guess the ending). Hence, I’m able to accomodate most readers with the way they think. Linear thinkers enjoy following the timeline and soak up the detail whilst mind-mappers feel the rush with the pace and the twists send them into a good spin.

Maybe it’s something you’d like to consider.

On editing:

My chapters are deliberately short. Each has a beginning, middle and end, and finishes on a ‘teaser’ that aims to have the reader wanting more. I aim for around 1,500 words per chapter.

After ten chapters I edit. Because I don’t outline, I find it good to go back after ten chapters to ensure my plot is on track and any sub-plot are set up right or ready to tie in. It also helps me track the characters and ensure they have the right amount of time on paper. This style of editing as I go has worked well for both my books as they are written in a linear fashion.

At the end of the books there is really not much editing required. Maybe two or three light run throughs and it’s good to go to my publisher. Working with my editors is a great experience and very positive if you are not afraid of taking great feedback and suggestions.

On publishing:

Firstly, consider trying to secure the services of a reputable agent before heading to a publisher. Here’s why – a reputable agent knows the industry and knows what traditional publishers are looking for. They know how to manage authors and the publication process. They’ll secure you a better deal than you’d be able to get. They have the industry contacts. Also, if you try for a publisher and are rejected, an agent would be unable to submit your project to that publisher should you land an agent.

If you are submitting to publishers, follow their guidelines to the letter. Spend a lot of time on researching that publisher and what they specialise in. Have the MS gleaming before submission and write a cracking query.

Use the resources of your local writers centre – they’ll point you in the right direction.

Start marketing yourself before submission. I have a blog (free) dedicated to my writing and talking about my process before submission. My agent checked it out before offering submission and commented that she knew I’d be handy at self-promoting my books (which we all need to do). My acquisition editor checked my blog and used it as a tool to ’sell’ my book to her marketing department – they knew I’d be doing my bit to sell my book/s. In the end I received a two-book deal. That’s fairly rare in the industry and I believe my self-marketing added value to the process.

But, ensure anything you put on the net under your writing name is professional and never write negative stuff about the industry in general or of individuals.

 Thanks for inspiring us by sharing these insights into the craft and business of your writing, JJ.

Writing Racers Kim Wilkins and Bec Sparrow

Picture a warehouse room full of laptops and expectant faces, imaginations primed and ready to write. Then picture those same faces, an hour and a half later,  glowing with achievement: combined, the QWC Writing Racers produced 48,498 words, just a squeak away from a complete naNoWriMo novel. 20 or so writers all boosted their own projects by thousands of words in one writing session of social writing – and what with all the pizza and lollies, it didn’t feel like work at all!

Meanwhile, the AWMonline Racing crew are also smoking hot this November. Some are working on NaNo books, and others are just using the month of focus to work on their ongoing projects. Last Sunday we were joined by Special Guest Peter M. Ball, author of Horn, and he blew us away with these fantastic tips:

Staying on the Ball:

1) You only have to write the next 250 words (Picked up from the blog of Dean Wesley Smith originally).

I like breaking goals down into something small and achievable, so I try not to think in terms of "I need 1000 words today" or "a ninety thousand word manuscript." All I need to do, in order to get things done, is write the next 250 words of the manuscript. If I do that every day, at a minimum, I’ll have a short story within the space of a week or a novel in the space of a year.

The other way to think about it is "how much can you write in twenty minutes." For me it largely equates to the aforementioned 250 words. If I find myself not wanting to write, I tell myself I’ll sit in front of the computer and do twenty minutes of work before heading off to my procrastinatory activity.

2) Get things done in the morning

I’m one of those folks who feels the guilt of not-writing really heavily, so I make sure it’s the first thing I do when I get up in the morning. Even if it’s just for an hour, or a half hour, or twenty minutes, I get the writing out of the way so I’m no longer thinking ‘oh, god, I have to write something."

Usually this makes it easier to sit down and keep working, because the angst of not-writting usually gets worse the longer I leave it and I have a somewhat counter-intuitive response (basically, "oh god, I’m not writing, lets go watch TV")

3) Have space that’s committed to being a writer.

While this is my first writing race, I have a regular write-club with my friend Angela Slatter where we meet once a week and basically be writers. We trade news about our successes and failings, eat a nice meal, then sit down and bang out words with someone else in the room. Frequently the three or four hours we meet will be more productive than the rest of the week combined.

On the weeks where we don’t meet, for whatever reason, it’s usually much harder to focus on getting work done. Largely this is a mindset thing – spending time talking about writing, giving it a weekly space regardless of what’s going on, makes it easier to remember that I’m a writer when the day-to-day problems of the week start distracting me from the idea that I should be writing.

Giving yourself the space *to be a writer* with other people who acknowledge that is enourmously powerful when you’re starting out, especially when other people look to things like novels and JK Rowlings sized paycheques to justify the activity.

4) Turn off the internet

It took me years to learn this one, but it finally sunk in. The internet is based on creating links and diverting your attention, always sending new information your way and demanding that it be processed. It’s the most distracting thing I’ve ever come accross and I noticed the difference immediately the day I decided to turn it off during my regular writing time.

And once again, it’s a reinforcement thing – the three hours every morning I devote to writing are *purely for writing*. By taking the internet away I’m telling myself that I’m not doing anything but writing.

These days I tend to get up and write for three hours every morning before I take my computer into the study and plug it into the modem. Creating that space, away from the distraction, made a huge difference in my daily wordcounts.

This is a luxury that a lot of people don’t have, and I appreciate it as such, but even if you’re only going to be writing for twenty minutes on your lunch break it’s worth seeing what happens when you take the modem away

~

Last bits…

Feeling scared about changes to the publishing industry? Take heart from this post at Storytellers Unplugged. And then be gobsmacked by the innovations at the new monthly magazine, Electric Literature.

Write on, people!

There’s something in the air, can you feel it? Writers everywhere are planning, focussed, determined, motivated…

I call it the NaNo Effect. Even if you’re not signed up to write a novel this November, the impetus to write is everywhere around you. It’s a vortex, sucking you in to a wonderful world of words on the page and social writing fun.

AWMonline is running extra Writing Races with loads of special guests. Subscribers, log in this Sunday 3-4pm to write alongside the science fiction short story writer, Peter M. Ball, whose novella Horn was published with Twelfth Planet Press this year. He’s kooky and charming and full of good ideas about how to get those words on the page – and he’s madly finishing off a novella in time to start a NaNo project!

Peter M. Ball with Spokesbear

Then next Tuesday 7-9pm we are getting really adventurous, launching into a cross-platform world of social writing fun at Digital Pizza. If you’re in Brisbane, call QWC 07 3839 1243 to book your seat. If you prefer the online world, join us for this special two-hour Writing Race, with Captains Kim Wilkins and Trent Jamieson, and special guest Racer Kate Morton!

Perhaps, as Liz Sinclair explains to Angela Meyer, you can use this month of frenzied writing to raise funds for your writing project or another good cause. Technology is rendering old business models for content producers obsolete, so maybe writers will need to get used to taking their wares to market themselves; artisans at online markets ftw!

And for insight into how the other half lives, check out this fantastic blog by Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent. Offering straightforward and practical advice on the process of getting an agent, this post demonstrates the quality that is not often attributed to Agents, but which frequently strikes me as being there in abundance: heart.

Have a great writing weekend, folks.

QWC rejects Commission’s stance on parallel importation of books
As you know, Speakeasy and the Australian writer’s Marketplace are both published by Queensland Writers Centre. QWC has released this statement on recent developments regarding the parallel importation of books:

On Tuesday 14 July, the Productivity Commission published the report of their investigation into copyright restrictions on the parallel importation of books. Since then, the issue has received a great deal of media coverage and we’ve had many calls and emails at QWC about this issue.

QWC does not support the removal of copyright restrictions on parallel importation of books. We believe it will be harmful to Australian authors and local content. You can read our submission to the Productivity Commission in this pdf. 

We are working through a number of channels to address this issue. We also support the efforts of the Australian Society of Authors, Australian Publishers Association and Australian Booksellers Association to achieve a more reasonable outcome for our industry. You, too, can help.

To learn more about how authors are affected by this issue, we encourage you to read the information on the Australian Society of Author’s website.

To take action against the report or find out how you can support the cause, visit Ausbooks or the Australian Society of Authors.

Agent Sydney breaks down the issue of ‘cheaper books’ for us over at Call My Agent:

Whenever you pay less for something than it is worth, someone loses. The loser is NOT going to be the public company that sells you the product; it is going to be the primary producer. This is the lesson our farmers have learnt. This is the lesson Australian writers are about to learn. If you value your Australian stories and the films and TV shows that are made from them – such as Underbelly – you will value the writers who created those stories. They are irreplaceable.

Lifting the current restrictions on the parallel importation of books will likely not make books cheaper, but it will definitely cheapen them.

 ~

I am still entrenched in Tweet Camp at Booksquare University, and can highly recommend it as the place to learn everything about engaging with Twitter for business or pleasure: from simple tips like what sort of tweets there are and how to build your tribe, to a guide to Twetiquette and suggestions for integrating your Twitter use into your existing online presence and use of social media. The resources are fantastic, very professional and occasionally hilarious, like this guide by Constructive Grumpiness on 10 Irrational Behaviors on Twitter that’d make you look crazy in Real Life.

More about a writer’s life online: an upcoming QWC Wordpool seminar will look at the rapid changes in Australia’s writing and publishing industry: where will books fit in the digital future and how will this affect how we read and write? Join cyber celebrity and industry heavyweight, Mark Bahnisch, in a discussion as to what this means for Australia writers and readers, as he attempts to answer… what is the future of writing? Details here.

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Writing Race AWMonline forum tonight from 8-9pm AEST – come and check it out.

Hula Hoop virtuosa, Judith Lanigan

Did you know the hula hoop was first sold in Australia?

Hula Hoop virtuosa and ASA Mentorship Award recipient, Judith Lanigan, writes for and about circus, and will be attending her first Byron Bay Writers Festival this year to discuss her forthcoming book A True History of the Hula Hoop. I recovered from my flu/school holidays double whammy sufficiently to catch up with Judith, to find out her top tips for festival fun, and how her unique book came into being…

MV: What is it you look forward to most about BBWF 09?

The release of my first novel, and also talking on a panel with Louis Nowra about historical research for historical fiction, having read his book Ice, about a man’s attempt to bring an iceberg to Sydney before refrigeration, towed behind a ship. It was fascinating and the thorough research he so obviously did into the time made it a very evocative story.

MV: I will be chairing that session (Sunday 12.15pm SCU Marquee) – can’t wait! Did attending writers festivals help develop your writing craft/career when you were a developing writer?

I found that listening to writers talk about their development process informed me as to opportunities to take advantage of, like the Australian Society of Authors mentorship award, which led to me being published by Picador, and the Varuna Award, in the early stages of the book, which allowed me to have a consultation with Peter Bishop, who gave me very valuable advice.

MV: What are your Top Tips for making the most of Byron Bay Writers Festival?

The Writers Cabaret!

MV: What other sessions are you doing at BBWF ‘09?

I will be speaking on a panel about transitions from the stage to the page. For me, as a performer you learn (eventually) that the state the audience is in is the responsibility of the performer. There is no such thing as a bad audience. The performer should be able to take them to the mood or emotion, where the audience is then open to being taken where the performer wants them to go, and I think that is the same for a book. If I get the chance I would also like to disucss the theories of modern clown as it applies to constructing characters for story. The way the essential vulnerability of the character is essential to the story arc, and the emotional involvement of the audience/reader. And I am interested in hearing what Denise Scott and Tristan Bancks have to say about their experience. 

MV: Your book sounds like an amazing project – part personal experience, part history, part fiction. How did you develop the idea for your book?

A True History of the Hula Hoop is a bit of a documentation in fiction, of the work I have been doing during the past ten years. I originally started it as three separate stories, and after discussing them with Peter Bishop of Varuna, I mentioned that I usually lied to people about what I did because it was hard to answer all the questions – for example from taxi drivers etc. He suggested that a combination of my stories could answer all those questions, in a fictional novel.

I had become fascinated at one point with the origin of the hula hoop, not believing that it was "invented" in America in the late 50’s, so I set out to trace its development, and found that it was actually first sold in Australia.

At the same time I was researching the history of female clown, and found the first mentions of a company of clowns that were kidnapped on their way to do a gig for the KIng of France in 1572. And in writing my own personal history of the hula hoop in a fiction form, I found what ties those stories together.

MV: Thank you so much, Judtih, for sharing your thoughts with our Speakeasy readers. I look forward to chatting with you more at BBWF’09!

~

A quick reminder that the Writing Race is on again tonight for AWMonline subscribers. Log in at 7.45pm to let us know your writing goals, then Race to get as much as you can done between 8-9pm. Last week, John Birmingham joined us to provide inspiration and motivation – he gave some great feedback to our beginner writers to help them move forward through their writing projects. Thanks, John!

For current updates on celebrity guest Racers, follow AWMonline on twitter, or join our Facebook group.

~

There is so much writerly goodness around the interwebz this week, it totally rocks!

The international publishing industry news that came out of the Sydney Writers’ Festival is fascinating, including developments in India, China, and Canada – all very relevant to Australian authors. Stay tuned for an overview of facts and figures in an upcoming post, which will convince you not to fall into the trap of seeing the US market as the holy grail of publishing opportunities. AWMonline plans to follow up through forum discussions with some of the presenters, including literary agents, scouts, and publishers from around the globe.

The crime of romance is a hot topic, with the upcoming Conference on Popular Romance Fiction being held to coincide with the annual meeting of Romance Writers of Australia (Brisbane, 13-14 August). The program covers an incredible range of topics, including cross-genre information that will appeal to a range of writers – I’ll be attending the session on forensics, for sure. Cross-genre romance is an international trend, with Washington Romance Writers also attracted to villainy.

Opportunities for writers abound. Check out Varuna House’s amazing publisher programs – deadline 31 August. Queensland Writers Centre is running a national program for fiction writers, the Hachette Manuscript Development Program again this year. Last year’s crop resulted in some highly successful projects. Deadline for this year is 24 July.

A couple of final clicks:

Brilliant tips for any writer from an editor’s POV: Jeremiah Tolbert on 5 Lies Writers Believe about Editors. Leave your unrealistic expectations at the door, but do bring a healthy bar tab.

Twitterers, take note of these practical pointers from Chris Brogan on making yourself more retweetable. I love the reminder to leave room in your 140 character budget for the retweet, because people will be less inclined to retweet if they have to edit your tweet: such an astute observation of online behaviour. 

Writing Race Update: Lee McGowan led the Racers to an all-time record of 10,560, bringing us to a running writing total of 61,922 words - the equivalent of a long YA manuscript! 

The Writing Race has a special guest racer tonight: the wonderful and inspiring author Christine Bongers. Speakeasy caught up with Christine to ask her about how she has developed her craft and built her pathway to publication.

Sp: How have you developed your craft as a writer?

CB: My journalistic background equipped me with the basic writer’s tool kit; nothing fancy, just the standard tools of the trade. However, that early training in getting "the twenty-second grab" and listening for the killer quote, developed my ear for dialogue. When I started writing fiction about five years ago, I found that writing dialogue came easily; for the first time in my life I could just make the quotes up!

Other things, like structure, I struggled with, at first. I read a lot about novel writing – Stephen King’s On Writing, Elizabeth George’s Write Away, Carmel Bird’s Dear Writer, stand out in my memory.

I wanted to connect with other writers and started turning up at QWC seminars, paid for an editorial consultancy, and finally submitted a draft to the Varuna Awards for Manuscript Development. My work was short-listed in 2006, and that gave me the confidence to come out as a writer.

In 2007, I enrolled in both Veny Armanno’s Year of the Novel through QWC and in an MA at QUT, and was halfway through Kim Wilkins’ Year of the Edit in 2008 when my novel Dust was accepted for publication. 

Sp: How do you make time to write amidst family and other responsibilities?

CB: You make time for what you love and writing novels really gets my juices flowing. A novel is so damn big and complicated and engrossing: like a tapestry that covers a castle wall, rather than a little cross-stitched sampler that you’d frame and hang in a well-lit nook. It takes time. Lots of time.

My big breakthrough was getting our youngest (fourth) child into school, which opened up a bit of writing space in my week.

In my dreams, I write between 9am and 3pm, four days a week, and squeeze my (other) day job into one day a week. In reality, that never happens with a big family, a busy partner and changing work deadlines, but I do try to write something, anything, every day (and some days, fail in even this modest ambition).

I compensate by setting weekly and monthly writing targets (which I often don’t meet), and by challenging myself to meet longer-term, self-imposed deadlines. Right now, I am aiming to complete the first draft of my second manuscript by 1 July, the date Dust hits the bookstore shelves. (Just 30,000 words to go – woohoo!)

Sp:Can you describe your pathway to publication?

CB: I don’t come from a short-story writing background, so I didn’t have much in the way of writing credits to attract the eye of a publisher, or even an agent, for that matter. So I had to look at other strategies.

I enrolled in the MA at QUT specifically to rewrite my manuscript and I asked if Leonie Tyle, publisher of Woolshed Press (an Imprint of Random House Australia), could be one of the examiners. She read my manuscript, passed it with no changes and that’s how I ended up with my publishing contract.  

Sp: Can you tell us about your forthcoming book, and what inspired you to write it?

CB: Dust is a coming-of-age story, largely set in 1970s rural Queensland, with contemporary scenes opening and closing the novel. It is set in the landscape of my youth, a time of ruthless innocence, when kids shot real guns and certain things, dangerous things, were never discussed.

For me, the past is sticky shit, hard to get rid of, and I wanted to show how stories and experiences from our earliest years, can and do resonate through the rest of our lives.

I’ve devoted a whole page of my website at www.christinebongers.com to what inspired me to write Dust, so I won’t repeat that all here. Let’s just say that it’s impossible to ignore your dad’s advice when he’s dying and he’s right. I was meant to be a writer; I just didn’t know it at the time.

Join Christine and the other Writing Racers tonight at AWMonline 8-9pm. [You need to be a subscriber. Subscriptions start at $19.95]

Word-lovers unite! Oh, we already have. Nice one, wordie. What, there’s even a blog? And cool wordie widgets that word-lovers can stick on their blogs? And links to cool tools as well?

That’s simply neologistically scrumpilicious!

Amid much mulling over the future of the book, it’s useful thinking about the future of journalism as well. Despite many journalists’ valid concerns over news being created/reported by any amateur with a blog and a phone camera, the creative possibilities of digital publishing combine with the reality that journalists "were always involved in creating the news", to mean that journalists could play an important part in guiding online news research and discussion. So now I’m following Dave Winer on Twitter to understand his take on meta-news and the folly of journos who ignore the interests of their readers.

Meanwhile, the head of Global Business Development at Oxford University Press has blogged "Why Ebooks Must Fail." In a lengthy exposition on the costs of publishing, where he compares publishing to ponzi schemes that use today’s investments to service yesterday’s, Evan Schnittman voices booklovers’ fears that ebooks will sink the publishing industry. In this post, he limits his argument to ebooks as "a stand alone version of an intellectual property", and doesn’t mention new developments that allow for publishing a text in a variety of media – kindle, sony, tree, or otherwise – without the need for expensive reformatting. He promises to address these issues in a future blog, where he’ll explore "the need for blended e plus p models [that] will evolve".

One thing I’ve noticed, in coordinating a digital product like AWMonline: it is definitely the community of users who drive and often provide the content. Australian writers, publishers, agents, competitions, festivals etc send through information each day for me to organise, update, and make available. It’s an honour to hbe part of such an incredible process of mediation, distribution and distribution. So I’d better quit blogging for the day, and get to it!

P.S. At the Writing Race last night, one Racer from Coffs Harbour was in the middle of a floodbound crisis – and still kept writing…  They definitely win the AWMonline Racer prize for the week!

The Brisbane Writers Festival Committee has announced their former Youth Coordinator Jane O’Hara as the new Artistic Director. We’re excited because she knows how the festival works, and she has vision for regional Queensland … hurrah!

And here’s Friday’s links for your clicking pleasure:

• Writing Raw literary sharing website
• Eureka Street writers Awards
• Victoria has voted: Top Five summer read

Writing Race: Special Guest next week is emerging speculative fiction author, Angela Slatter, Aurealis Award nominee and Clarion South graduate. Writing race word count update: 14,816. Join us Tuesdays 8-9pm at AWMonline [you need to be a subscriber - subs start at $19.95].

Have a great weekend of writing, folks!

From authoring and editing, to distribution and consumption, new technologies are changing all aspects of publishing. So what is the future of the book? Bob Stein, Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for the Future of the Book, and Founder of The Voyager Company will be in Brisbane for a lively discussion on the digital revolution as part of Wordpool: The Future of the Book. He’ll be joined by QWC CEO Kate Eltham, full of ideas from her recent participation in the O’Reilly: Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York. Bob’s work directly investigates the evolution of intellectual discourse as it shifts from printed pages to networked screens. With the advance of the Amazon Kindle and similar digital readers being introduced into the market, the reality of the way we consume reading materials will evolve as rapidly as the way we now consume music via MP3. Where and when: this Friday 6.30pm, State Library Qld, bookings $20 through QWC’s online shop.

Link rot ate my faves, oh no! Still on e-readers, Sebastian Mary looks at the physical history of the tree-book, and the feral attention economy of the interwebz. Seriously, this article will reconfigure your conceptual framework for digital publishing, so that the iPod analogy suddenly works: "… a device for collating and archiving good, important, digital short writing? I want one!"

And remember folks, the weekly Writing Race is on tonight at AWMonline Forums, 8-9pm AEST. Why don’t you try planning a scene in advance so you can jump in and get writing with us tonight? Or just pop in and check us out – there’s a lot of productive writing being done there, plus some great discussions about different aspects of the craft. All forms of writing and editing welcome – whatever your project, you will produce more in a Writing Race! [You need to be a subscriber to access the forums section of the site: AWMonline subscriptions start at $19.95.]