Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i Writing Magazine

Writing Magazine|April 2023

Editing without tears

Editing is one of those ‘paraliterary’ skills (along with research and planning) that many writers don’t like because it’s not as fun or creative as the actual writing. It can feel like work. Unfortunately, publishable books are not written without the full range of paraliterary skills being employed. The writing stage is when all of your creativity flows. The editing stage makes the creativity readable by imposing order. Moreover, solid editing techniques will help you overcome doubts about whether your book is good enough for publication – or merely whether it is any good. Structure If, like me, you planned your novel in advance, it will already have a workable structure. That’s to say, it will have a clear beginning, middle and end. The reader journey will be consistent and…

7 min

Writing Magazine|April 2023

KEEPING IT REAL

She puts on a good show, Tina Baker. She put it on when she was a TV soap opera critic, and she put it on when she went on Celebrity Fit Club – to combat ‘widescreen bum’ – and won it. She puts it on in the flesh too, or at least on Zoom, where she rocks up looking a million dollars, glammed up despite having been quite recently ill – properly, hospital ill – and only just back to teaching the fitness classes that are how she earns her living. And she puts it on, terrifically, as an author of gritty psychological thrillers. ‘Unputdownable’ is a bit of a cliché to describe the gripping books in this genre, but Ti na’s really are: raw and extreme and viscerally full…

10 min

Writing Magazine|April 2023

HANNAH DOLBY

‘We were a house held up by books. One of my earliest memories is sitting cross-legged on a carpet aged four or five, a towering pile of Ladybird books in front of me, quivering with excitement about which to choose. I had four older siblings, and my mother took us to the library twice a week, so we all read fast, and teachers often made me re-read things four or five times over, because they didn’t believe I had read them. I loved writing stories too, about witches and dragons and trees that could talk, but I was not consciously looking to be a writer. For most of my childhood, because I liked cuddly animals, I wanted to be a farmer’s wife. ‘By the time university came, though, I…

5 min

Writing Magazine|April 2023

The world of writing

SLEEPING GIANTS AWAKEN Given bestselling US crime and thriller writer James Patterson is well known for employing ghostwriters, it is perhaps a little surprising that he is taking on the sort of job usually done by writers for hire for more famous authors, writes Gary Dalkin. Which is to say that Patterson is to finish a novel left incomplete at the time of his death by Jurassic Park scribe Michael Crichton, who died in 2008. The as yet untitled book will be published by Little, Brown & Co next year. The late author’s widow, Sherri Crichton told the Wall Street Journal: ‘Michael had been working on this book for years, it was his passion project and centered in the place that inspired him the most, Hawaii. He had extensive volumes…

Jeannie is a Christian writer based in Chichester on the south coast of England, She recently graduated university aged 61 with 2:1 in BA (Hons) English and Creative Writing. Doing a degree through a worldwide pandemic whilst shielding an elderly relative was interesting to say the least! Jeannie studied with both Chichester and Portsmouth Unis and traversed three different courses-Theology, English and Creative Writing. She trained at Guildford School of Acting being presented Best Actress 1982 by the late great Bernard Hepton. Schools Tours followed, then working in Theatre-in-Education once babies arrived. In the 90s Jeannie founded a homelessness charity in Worthing and encountered enough characters and drama for a lifetime of writing! Late to the writing party, her short stories and poetry have been getting published locally and nationally…

3 min

Writing Magazine|April 2023

Meet your readers!

When I first decided I wanted to work in publishing, I assumed I wanted to be an editor. I remember sitting in a restaurant with a friend, floundering because I had no idea what I wanted to do, and thinking, well I like books, maybe I should work in publishing? I applied for a few editorial jobs, didn’t get them (was convinced my lack of English degree was the reason, which it probably wasn’t), and then had a mini breakdown about the fact that I was never going to become an editor and my dreams were dashed. Ah, the benefits of hindsight… Because, as it turns out, there are a whole host of jobs in publishing – something I was unaware of in my early twenties, when I first decided…

17 min

Writing Magazine|April 2023

MAXIMUM SENTENCE

Life is a series of stories. It really is as simple as that. As social human beings, most of us are pretty adept at telling them, too. So how is it that we often forget all those years of training we’ve had when we sit down to write a short story or a novel? That, you see, is the over-think. It’s the point when we tr y, as writers, to ‘come up’ with a narrative voice. Huge mistake. There’s no real magic about narrative voice. The only way for it to be natural and to make it convincing, is for that voice to be your authentic self. We’ve all read books when it feels as if the author is trying too hard, or the style feels fake, and that inevitably…

8 min

11 min

Writing Magazine|April 2023

CATALYST FOR CHANGES

I’ve come to realise that it’s only when I arrive at the end of a first draft, that I can ever really know how the story needs to start. Achieving some kind of circularity in a novel where the finale mirrors the beginning, even in a tiny, nuanced way, is a satisfying form of closure both to a writer and reader – but for me, writing as a pantser, it’s impossible for me to plan this sort of thing in advance. I tend to finish a draft, think ‘Ahh! So that’s what the story is!’ – and then return to the beginning in order to retrofit a completely new opening that best suits the narrative. And so it proved with my latest novel, The Best Days of Our Lives: the…

7 min

Writing Magazine|April 2023

L AUR A PURCELL

My seventh novel The Whispering Muse is set in the world of the Victorian theatre. It follows Jenny, from the costume department, who is sent to spy on upcoming actress Lilith Erikson. Lilith has been dazzling the crowds with a visceral, unearthly talent, but there are rumours that a dark pact lies behind her success. As Jenny befriends the troubled actress, she begins to fear the gossip is true, and that there will be dire consequences – not only for Lilith but for the entire theatre. Originally inspired by my love for The Phantom of the Opera, it’s been an epic journey to write this novel through the pandemic and many difficulties in my private life. I’ve come to the conviction that for me, writing is not so much a…

Many writers use competitions as a way to develop their craft or gain recognition and the proliferation of online publications has resulted in an explosion of these writing opportunities in recent years. But some are little more than money making ventures for the organisers or disguised professional commissions offering little or no remuneration. In some circumstances, they actually end up costing the writer more than they gain, through loss of intellectual property rights and/or future potential earnings. As the trade union for writers in the UK, WGGB has become increasingly concerned about this trend and has a guide, Competition or cut-price commission?, to help writers navigate this complex area. You can find the Top 10 takeaway tips below, and download the full publication for free at https://writersguild.org.uk/resources/ 1 First some…

3 min