Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

@CescaWrites' Beat the Block #9 (Video)

Cesca Major brings you a bi-weekly tips video on how to beat writer's block, overcome procrastination or time management problems, and make sure that your work-in progress is actually making progress! 

You can email Cesca with any Beat the Block questions or suggestions at Cesca@novelicious.com

This week, Cesca talks about writer friends...

  

Stella Newman's Top Five Writing Tips

Stella Newman is the author of Pear Shaped and Leftovers. You can also read her fantastic Writing Room piece for Novelicious here.

1. Sit your arse down. The hardest thing is starting. So start.

2. Write. Even if it’s bad, just write. Keep writing and you’ll get to the good.

3. Read everything and anything. You can learn as much from bad writing as good.

4. Write what you want to read, not what you think will make money or what you think the market wants. If there is passion and energy and sincerity from the writer, that will shine through on the page.

5. Try to build in time away from the work. It’s very hard to get any perspective when you’re fully immersed in a project – but time away is essential and good things can happen when you temporarily switch focus.

My Writing Room – Mary Grehan

Mary Grehan's debut novel, Love is the Easy Bit, has just been released. You can read our review here. Over to Mary!

I write in my attic which is converted into a bedroom and used to be my artist’s studio when I was painting. (I stopped painting when I started writing seriously back in 2008.) It is also the guest bedroom, so before anyone comes to stay, I have to be careful to hide away latest print outs of work in progress.

There are lots of good things about my writing room. It’s quiet, large, warm and bright thanks to two Velux roof windows. The big drawback is that it is a room without a view, unless you count the grey Irish skies which are occasionally blue. It’s a shame because outside my house are beautiful views of a hill inhabited by wild goats and of a slow, grand estuary that divides County Waterford from County Wexford on which boats sail into Waterford city.

Ask the Editor – Will self publishing my book put off editors?

Caroline Hogg has worked in publishing for almost ten years, at Little, Brown Book Group and more recently at Avon, HarperCollins. She’s currently at Pan Macmillan as Senior Commissioning Editor for Commercial Women’s Fiction. She knows her stuff!

Today’s question comes from a Novelicious reader who asks:

I have self published my book and was wondering if this will put editors off?

Caroline says: Lots of successful self-published authors are being signed by ‘traditional’ publishing houses – esteemed Novelicious founder Kirsty being one of them! So it’s definitely not going to put editors off if you self-publish but it’s important how you do it and the standards you achieve. Invest time and money in the copyediting, proofreading, cover design and formatting to make sure your book looks as professional as possible. If you can attract lots of readers to your book, it’s going to be a massive help in convincing publishers there’s a large market for it out there. But if you put out something that looks half-arsed (forgive my French), then a publisher might assume your commitment and talent are the same.

Have a writing or publishing related question for Caroline? Just email a question to kirsty@novelicious.com, ask on our Facebook or Twitter or just leave a comment below!

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell – A Weak-Willed Week

Someone once told me I should be a Gemini as I have a contradictory elements in my personality (I was born two days late and I’m a Cancer). But it’s true, and when it comes to writing I tend to be either extremely disciplined in a nothing’s-going-to-stop-me-getting-down-my-words way, or I have a mind that will wonder in any direction but my book. 

This week I’ve been having a very weak-willed week. I remember reading Stella Newman’s Writing Room feature on Novelicious a few weeks ago and she talked of how when she was writing she’d get transfixed by the need to know random facts about obscure TV shows and actors/actresses. That is exactly the week I’ve had.

I try and write with the internet off, and most of the time I have enough self control to keep it turned off, but this week I think my record for keeping it off was 37 minutes. 37 minutes! I have a little ritual of sites to check: Facebook, Twitter, email, and then I’m off again. Unless I have some urgent need to know something random à la Stella and then I just have to look that up, and maybe check the weather, and maybe a new recipe for dinner. By the time I know it, my two minute site checking has turned into a twenty minute non-productive searching session.

My Writing Room – Cathy Woodman

Cathy Woodman is the author of the Talyton St George vet books. The next in the series, Country Loving, is released in August.
 

I tend to write whenever and wherever I can, including in the car and on the train, but when I’m at home I like to have my laptop, notes and books spread across the dining room table so it looks as if I’m working really hard. I have a study upstairs, but I don’t use it for writing because it’s a cold room and too isolated from the rest of the house, whereas the dining room is warm and handy for the kitchen – I need a constant supply of coffee and snacks when I’m writing! I tell myself that the caffeine and sugar are good for maintaining brain activity, although the latter isn’t terribly good for the waistline.

Lucy Dillon's Top Five Writing Tips

Lucy Dillon is the author of Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts, which won the 2010 Romantic Novelists’ Association’s ‘Romantic Novel of the Year Award’.

1. Don’t use your friends and/or enemies as characters in your books.

2. Read as much as you can.

3. Edit out as many adverbs as you can bear.

4. Read what you’ve written out loud.

5. Decide what needs to happen in every scene, and make sure the plot’s moved along in at least three different ways, even if two of those things aren’t immediately obvious to the reader at the time.

Writing Comps and Opportunities Roundup 14/05/2013

Every other Tuesday we will be compiling a list of competitions, courses and opportunities on offer for wannabe writers and those of you who might want to work in publishing. If you have a competition, course or opportunity you would like us to shout about send info to cesca@novelicious.com. If you can't see your comp here we might be saving it for a later date.

And please, Novelicious readers, let us know how you get on! We'd love to hear your success stories...

Competitions

There are some brilliant writing competitions about but note that some close this week so you'll have to get your writing skates on. Here are a few we've spotted:

Flavorwire is thrilled to announce its first-ever short fiction contest. In honour of May’s National Short Story Month, they’re offering a prize of $500 for one outstanding short story.

Ask the Editor – What do you predict to be the next trends in Women’s Fiction?

Caroline Hogg has worked in publishing for almost ten years, at Little, Brown Book Group and more recently at Avon, HarperCollins. She's currently at Pan Macmillan as Senior Commissioning Editor for Commercial Women's Fiction. She knows her stuff!

Today's question comes from a Novelicious reader who asks:

What do you predict to be the next trends in Women’s Fiction?

Caroline says: I wish I could predict the Next Big Thing. I’d buy twelve books in that area and then retire to Devon and eat cream teas morning, noon and night. But although I don’t think it’s possible to try and pinpoint what the next major trends will be (or necessarily wise – you risk putting all your eggs in one basket), I do think it’s safe to put my head above the parapet and say: women’s fiction is better than ever.

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell – Safety in Numbers

This is not a new phenomenon, but there’s been a real surge of authors (and aspiring authors) working together to create joint author platforms, and I’m intrigued to know whether it works, and whether you need to be part of one.

Personally, I love being around other authors. There’s something about the energy, enthusiasm, and determination that often seems to be infectious. When I come away from a writers’ group meeting or an RNA event, I’m always super-keen to get writing again, or desperate to try out new marketing ideas. Whatever it is, it seems that there’s a certain magic that you get by mixing with other authors. And luckily with social networking there are plenty of opportunities for you to have that all important contact no matter where you are in the world. So I can more than see the attraction of having virtual pods of authors with likeminded goals who spur each other on.

Write Your Novel – World Building

When you hear the phrase ‘world building’ you may think of doorstep-thick fantasy epics or historical fiction; I know I do. However, the fact is even if you’re writing a book set in your home town circa last week, you still need to do some...

World building is setting on steroids. It’s where you hammer out the details of your world or, in the case of historical fiction or a real-world setting, where you research those details to give your setting depth and to ensure you don’t make embarrassing mistakes.

Even if you have normal settings, you need to recreate them for your reader and details count. Let’s say one of your locations is your heroine’s home, you need to decide whether it’s a flat, a house, a bungalow or a caravan. (Make sure whatever you choose is in-keeping with her level of income or have some other explanation for how she can afford it). Work out the style of the house, its location, decor, number of rooms and layout. For the last point you can even scribble a quick floor plan to get it really set in your mind.

Mark Edwards' Top Five Writing Tips

Mark Edwards' new book, The Magpies, is out now.

1. Before you start, make sure you know what kind of book you’re writing and why – imagine that you had to do an elevator pitch of your novel. This is much harder than actually writing a book, but having a clear idea of your story and concept will help keep you focused.

2. Don’t be afraid to write out of order. Leave gaps. Write the most important scenes first. If you don’t know the answer to something, you can come back to it later.

3. Don’t spend ages polishing and editing each chapter as you go along because you might end up cutting the whole scene and you’ll have wasted loads of time. Try to get a first draft down as quickly as possible.

4. Read and read and read. If you don’t love reading, why are you writing? Reading great books is the best way to learn to be a writer.

5. Don’t be boring. Every page of your book needs to be interesting at least, ideally exciting and gripping and moving. And if you get stuck, stick a sex scene in. Sex scenes are never boring. Well, it worked for EL James…  

Ask the Editor – What has been your most memorable experience as an editor?

Caroline Hogg has worked in publishing for almost ten years, at Little, Brown Book Group and more recently at Avon, HarperCollins. She's currently at Pan Macmillan as Senior Commissioning Editor for Commercial Women's Fiction. She knows her stuff!

Today's question comes from a Novelicious reader who asks:

What has been your most memorable experience as an editor?

Caroline says: One of the most memorable moments of my career so far came when I’d just started commissioning books: the second book I ever signed up was From Notting Hill with Love … Actually by Ali McNamara. I still remember the moment I got the submission email from Ali’s agent, Hannah Ferguson, and I thought, ‘Oh hello, I LOVE the sound of this!’ I was just about to go on holiday so sent a sort of begging email back saying, ‘Please don’t let anyone else sign this while I’m away’ and luckily Hannah didn’t.

That was the first of many memorable moments, actually, when it comes to this book and this author: the first time I spoke to Ali; having cupcakes in Notting Hill and showing her the cover for the first time; making a (slightly shaky) speech at her launch party; ringing her with news of how amazing her first week sales were and then delivering even better news as the weeks went on.

Working with Ali and Hannah, and the excellent marketing and publicity teams at Sphere on Ali’s books always felt a little bit too much like fun to be true and I think that’s why I remember so many moments along the way. She’s a fantastic author and I still feel incredibly proud that I was there at the beginning, helping her books reach so many readers and making them very happy indeed.  

Have a writing or publishing related question for Caroline? Just email a question to kirsty@novelicious.com, ask on our Facebook or Twitter or just leave a comment below!

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell – The Long, Bumpy Road

One of my favourite Novelicious features is My Book Deal Moment. Not only does it fill me with hope that dreams really can come true, but it also shows that the road to publishing success is often a long, bumpy road. As I look back over my writing career to date, I’ve definitely had a few bumps along the way.

I think my biggest bump was about a year and a half into writing. I had written my first novel and had it rejected from nearly every top agency slush-pile. I’d discovered Twitter and blogs by this point and realised that nearly every man and his dog was trying to get an agent or a book published. It was a whole different world from what I believed. I thought you just sent your book away to an agent, got snapped up, and were offered a publishing deal overnight.

I remember being so disheartened after I’d been writing for a year and a half and wondering whether all the sacrifice of my evenings, weekends, and general social life, were worth it. And I remember setting myself a deadline. I gave myself a year for something to happen, a glimmer of a publishing deal, a little bit of interest from an agent. As I felt that I was wasting the best years of my late twenties having an intimate relationship with Word.