Whether you are traditionally published, self published, or combine the two, as many writers do now, there are two things everyone agrees about.
Everybody needs a good editor. (Nobody sees all the errors in their work. You are literally too close to it). The book cover must be well designed and draw readers in. It is the first advert for the book.
Welcome to Part 3 of my Launches in Lockdown series.
My guests tonight hail from that wonderful phenomenon known as the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, believed to the oldest residential writing school in the world. See its website for more.
The cancellation of the 2020 Swanwick was the first cancellation in its 70 year history and deeply saddened all who love this wonderful celebration of all things connected with writing. We all hope it will be the only cancellation too.
The defining thought for my recent CFT posts has been how writers can pick up on the zeitgeist, long before we know there is one to tap into!
This summer the topic has been about changing direction. Some writers do this a lot, others only every now and again. Some make the change a permanent one, others see the variation as a detour from what they usually write though they will resume that in due course. My recent interviews with Scottish crime writers, Val Penny and Wendy H Jones, are good examples of this.
Another author changing direction is Jennifer C Wilson who has gone from writing ghost stories crossed with history in her Kindred Spirits series to romance with The Raided Heart and is now writing non-fiction with her recently released A Novel Approach.
[Read more…] about A Novel Approach – Jennifer C Wilson In Conversation With Allison Symes
For the final part of this series, I would like to say a big thank you to my wonderful guests for their excellent contributions. Please find the links to Part 1 and Part 2 here.
Writing is the fulfilment of many people’s dreams (and being published even more so) but, as with any other area of life, there are those prepared to make money out of your dreams and rip you off doing so. When you start out, it is knowing what to look out for that can be tricky. Also, where do you go for advice? (Answer: The Society of Authors, The Alliance of Independent Authors, and talk to other writers. Word does get out about scams and the like).
[Read more…] about Part 3 – The Writing Game – and What to Watch For
In this final section of my mini-series, Jennifer C Wilson, Val Penny, Anne Wan, Wendy H Jones, and Richard Hardie continue to share their thoughts on different aspects of writing the series novel. Tonight we look at how to ensure each novel can be read as a stand-alone book, specific things my guests love and loathe about writing series, and whether they know, ahead of time, how many books are going to be in their respective series. [Read more…] about The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels Part 3
It was a great joy last week to introduce my fellow writers and contributors to this series which looks at the joys and challenges of series novels. Amongst tonight’s topics for Jennifer C Wilson, Val Penny, Anne Wan, Wendy H Jones, and Richard Hardie to tackle are the challenges of writing a series and what are the issues which arise in trying to promote a series. (Trust me it is challenging enough promoting a single book!). And as ever many thanks to all of my guests for supplying the author pictures and book cover shots. [Read more…] about The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels – Part 2
The joy and challenge of writing flash fiction is creating a short story out of nothing, with a proper beginning, middle and end, to a tight word count.
The joy and challenge of creating a novel is conjuring up your own world out of nothing and having an enthralling story set there, which usually comes in at the 80,000 to 100,000 word mark. (So your story must be strong to literally go the distance). [Read more…] about The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels – Part 1
Last week’s post was part 1 of my interview with Jennifer C Wilson, author of the Kindred Spirits series and also of The Last Plantagenet? She writes paranormal historical fiction. It’s not often the heroes of a story are the ghosts but Jennifer specialises in this and the books make for a great read. I met Jennifer at Swanwick in 2016. [Read more…] about Stepping Back in Time: Part 2 of Jennifer C Wilson Interview
I first met Jennifer C. Wilson in 2016 at the first Swanwick Writers’ Summer School for us both. We became friends and this year we had the great joy of “racing” each other to Swanwick’s Book Room to put our books out for sale! [Read more…] about Ghosts, History and What Might Have Been: Introducing Jennifer C Wilson
