Writers Groups - Networking for Authors

Writing can be a very lonely business and sooner or later we need to reach out and find other like-minded people. We need to network.

As we progress along the path of learning the craft and finding a publisher the types of networking will change and evolve. Initially we seek support and encouragement; we may be writing purely for ourselves, or we may wish to hone our skills and learn the craft, in which case honest feedback will be invaluable. Later we need advice on things like tax and PLR.

So here are some of the different types of networking that you are likely to encounter if you choose to take this journey.

Writing Groups (real life)

For most people this will be their first port of call when they start to reach out and look to meet other writers. Most areas will have a writers group, or maybe several. The key thing here is to find one that suits you. Not everyone wants the same things out of their writing, and the dynamic of a group will change as its membership changes. The only way to find out if it is right for you is to go along a couple of times and see how you feel. I joined a group in Yeovil and for many years enjoyed their insightful and honest critique, which was exactly what I needed.

Forums

There are all sorts of online writing forums and they can vary widely. As with real life writing groups it is important to choose the one that suits you. Some offer online critique. Others may be a place for authors to chat or ask for advice. Of course it helps if they are well moderated and the trolls kept at bay. Forums are notorious for getting out of control. I benefitted hugely from such a forum, sadly no more, which was called Litopia.

Writing groups (virtual)

Once you start to get to know other authors you may well find you want to set up a secure online place to keep in touch, and for this facebook or yahoo can provide a good platform. Many authors that I know belong to a closed group of this kind.

Author collectives

These are collaborative blogs set up by a group of likeminded authors. You’ll find them all over the internet, usually genre specific, or related to a shared interest. The ones I am involved with are Author Allsorts, Seamagic and Cyder Scribes.

Meeting other local authors

As soon as you get a book deal things start to change. You suddenly discover that there are other published authors living close by. Before long you are arranging to meet up for lunch or for coffee. For me it started when I discovered that my agent had another client who lived nearby and we met for lunch. Our numbers are slowly swelling and the other week when we met there were four of us.

Professional organisations

I really need to get organised on this one. Everyone keeps telling me I should join the society of authors. I will do … soon….

Tagged!

Looks like I've been tagged - twice!!

First by Jess and then by Celesta

Instead of answering two sets of questions I've mixed them all together and picked a random subset of 11. So here they are along with their answers.

1. How old were you when you started writing?
I've been writing ever since I was old enough to hold a crayon.
2. What's your favourite movie/book?
Tricky question - how do I decide this one! Okay - let's go for the book I've read the most times and in that case it is The Crysalids by John Wyndham.
3. If you were the main character of a book, what genre would it be?
Some sort of Space Opera - definitely!
4. What genre do you write in?
I write SciFi thrillers for kids.
5. If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?
I would be able to take away sadness.
6. What do you like to read?
I read pretty widely. But I particularly like discovering new authors.
7. What is something unusual that you've done?
I once had a snowball fight on an ice floe in the Greenland Sea
8. How do you get names for your characters?
Phone book, and baby name lists.
9. List the top three websites you use.

Litopia
New Scientist
Will it rain today - well I do live in Blighty :-)

10. Besides reading and writing, name two other hobbies you have.
Hillwalking and growing my own.
11. Where in the world would you like to go?
I'd love to go to Japan.

In turn I will tag the following Campaigners from Rach's Platform Building Campaign. And I'm asking each of you the same set of questions.

Sher A Hart: My Best Part
Six Impossible Things
alberta's sefuty chronicles
David Powers King
Gina Carey
Katharine Gerlach
Imagine Today

Slush Reading - Reposted

Looks like my original post vanished - so here it is again:

I've been helping out over at Litopia, reading submissions for the forthcoming Litopia Anthology to be produced by Nemesis Publishing, and it's proving to be a very interesting and insightful experience.

Needless to say, since all the stories have been submitted by Litopians who have passed the assessment process to achieve full membership the writing quality is high. So none of the stories I'm rejecting are as a result of poor writing.

In fact, before I started this process I was concerned that it would be very difficult to whittle the stories down. But this is in fact not the case.

The really good stories stand out. The suck you in from the first line and before you know you've reached a satisfying end. They go straight through to the next round.

But the ones I reject are let down by two very simple things - story and structure.

The commonest problem I'm finding is submissions that aren't really a story. They are just a vignette, a scene, a snapshot. There's no character arc, no real beginning and no end. They may be beautifully written vignettes. But a short story has to be a complete entity in its own right. These are just a scene that could easily be part of something larger.

The other flaw I'm seeing is stories that are summaries of stories, more like a synopsis. I don't want to read a synopsis - I want to read the story itself!

If you want to know a bit more about possible problems with short stories do check out this earlier post of mine on common short story mistakes.

What Happened at Frome

Yesterday I attended the Words at Frome Writers and Publishers Day at the Frome Library. It was the first time I had attended on of these events and it was a fascinating experience – I talked to some interesting people and learned quite a bit along the way.

Anyway, I thought I would share some of my experiences with you.

Well Frome is quite a trek for me to get to – there’s no easy route, so it was a good thing I hadn’t already bought a ticket for the first talk because I would have missed most of it. Still, chilling out after the long drive in the sunshine with a coffee was rather pleasant and everyone there seemed to be very friendly.

A group of self published authors were setting up a stall nearby and it wasn’t long before I was chatting to them. Now I don’t buy self published books as a matter of principle. I’m sure there are some good ones out there but when I’ve bought one in the past (usually more to be polite because I know the person) I’ve always been disappointed and I don’t think I’ve ever finished one.

So these guys kept telling me about their books and handing them to me and I kept putting them back down, After a while one of them frowned at me and said:

“You’re not going to buy anything are you?”

To which I’m afraid my answer was “No.” But all credit to them they took it in good heart and were an interesting bunch of people to talk to.

Then I managed to hook up with a couple of people I do know. Well, one person I know in real life from my real life writers group and the other a friend from Cyberspace – Journeygirl from Litopia. It can be strange meeting up with other Litopians – staring at someone wondering if they fit the description they’ve given you, but for some reason we recognised each other the moment our eyes met. And she’s a scientist too!! Yay – let’s hear it for women in science!

But I digress. Back to the festival:

I attended two talks.

The first was the short story prize giving, which I went along to with my writing group buddy. The overview of the stories was very interesting, but two things stood out immediately. First the fact that a number of the shortlisted stories had been sent off to women’s magazines and the second was when the lady giving the summary went through her pet hates in a short story – you know the sort of stuff – telling not showing, inconsistent POV, bad grammar and spelling and Science Fiction.

Yup, you heard me. SF was on the pet hates list.

When she said that my friend and I rolled our eyes and looked at each other. Oh dear. Well at least we now know why our entries didn’t get anywhere.

In fact all the shortlisted stories were very much in the women’s fiction genre, and I also noticed that there wasn’t a single man amongst the finalists!

I think that’s really quite telling!

Since I don’t write women’s fiction I don’t think I’ll enter this one again.

The second talk was on how to get an Agent for your Children’s Book given by – yes – you guessed – an Agent. It was an excellent talk packed with useful advice. I sat there, frantically scribbling notes (and noticed the woman beside me was doing the same.) I just hope I can read my own handwriting.

And of course, I had a 1:2:1 with said Literary Agent. But I’ll tell you all about that next time.

So all in all, my first foray to one of these events was an excellent experience –. I was quite nervous but everyone was so welcoming. Bring on the next one! I’ll be there.

And if you’ve never ventured to one of these yourself then do it! You won’t regret it!

MUSE is Here!

The moment has come – the much anticipated new quarterly e-zine MUSE, from the Litopia Writers Colony, has arrived.

Download it here for free.

You won’t be disappointed.

The first issue is themed ‘Beginnings’ and has a genre focus on Crime. Inside you will find all sorts of exciting things – interviews with big name authors such as Bernard Cornwell and MG Harris, articles about writing, including the Seven Deadly sins of crime Writing, by Michael O’Byrne, and even a writing agony column with the straight talking Granny Bates. Not to mention original fiction and reviews as well.

And in fact one of these fiction spots is my first foray into crime – a short story called ‘Starting Over’.

So download you free copy now and enjoy!

Coming Soon!

Muse!

The brand new Litopia e-zine Muse will be making its debut soon, and guess what - it's going to have one of my short stories in it!

So watch this space.....

And that's not all - there are more exciting things going on over at Litopia with the imminent launch of Litopia Radio.

And since we are talking of things that are coming up soon let me draw your attention to 'Wasted' the new book by Nicola Morgan - and mine is one of the blogs that she will be visiting during her blog tour in May.

So stick around - interesting things are happening.

Oh, and I finished the first draft of WWRW too.

Twin Tales

Over on Litopia they’ve been running a flash fiction contest. I have to admit it made a nice break from the rewrite I’m doing, to turn my hand to this exercise.

That’s the great thing about short stories – they’re fun to write, refreshing and stimulating. When you’re writing a novel occasionally you have to pause, either to do some research or maybe you just need a chance to let things gel a bit in your mind.

Whatever the reason this is a good time to break off and write a short story – about something completely different. Whenever I do this I come back to my WIP refreshed and eager to go.

So this little contest was well timed for me because I’ve just finished the first and main phase of my rewrite. All the structural changes are in place, and now that I’ve revitalised my creative juices I can go back to it with fresh eyes and give it a thorough read through to make sure I haven’t left any holes.

Anyway, the shortlisted stories are being read out this week over at the Litopia Podcast. The calibre of the colony writers is extremely high so you can be certain that these are going to be good. I’m looking forward to listening to them

A Buzz in the Forums

There have been a couple of very exciting developments over in Litopia over the past week and the whole forum is buzzing with it.

The first of these is the opening up of the Pitch Room. Here members who’ve done their time and put in the pre-requisite number of posts, can have the chance to pitch directly to agent Peter Cox.

But there’s more – they get feedback!! Yes, you read that correctly – FEEDBACK!! And what feedback it is – it comes in the form of a short video where he comments on their pitch and their writing and gives them constructive advice. I still can’t quite believe it.

And the other cause of excitement is the proposed Litopia e-zine. I’ve no idea how this is going to develop but I have the feeling it’s going to be good, Very Very good.

News and Radio

I’ve just heard from the Yeovil Prize administrators that they’ve been contacted by a lady from BBC Radio Somerset who is interested in reading out some of the winning stories. What an opportunity!! I’ve dropped her a line and I’ll let you know of any developments.

And I’m featured on the front page of Litopia. Check it out, it’s a great write up!

It’ll be good to see if Miranda, one of the panellists at the Booker Debate last week, puts something into the Blackmore Vale as well. Its coverage doesn’t extend down to Dorset but I’m sure someone will pick me up a copy if they do.

And following on from the prize, and taking the advice given on the Litopia Daily Podcast answering a question that I posted on Litopia about how to use this success to my best advantage, I’m starting to submit. So fingers crossed. This is the tough bit.

But in the meantime – on with plotting the new project.

Oh, and I see The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga won the Booker. I’m going to have to read it now!

Booker Debate and Yeovil Prize

Last night the Booker Debate took place at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil, and as always the evening was a huge success. But for me it was particularly special since I was presented with my prize by crime writer Penny Deacon. The prize is the Western Gazette award which is awarded to a local author who does particularly well in the Yeovil Prize. In my case my novel, "Myth Making" was Highly Commended and my short story "Remember Normandy" was Commended.
The evening then went on to the Booker debate itself with a panel of writers reviewing the shortlisted novels. In the past years most of the books have been slated by the reviwers but this year three of them got a big thumbs up: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Berry and A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz. It will be interesting to see if one of these wins. Here is local author Malcolm Welshman reviewing Fraction of the Whole watched by Rosie Boycott and Penny Deacon.
And finally, there were a number of fellow Litopians present and here's a picture of three of us: Steve, me and Emma. Three people who met in cyberspace.