Storybook Perfect

Always quirky, sometimes sweet speculative fiction

Month: July 2013

Writers’ Group Or Critique Group?

July 28, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Yesterday I attended the first Writers’ Group Convention in South bank with several members of my critique group.

I'm looking for a little less this...

I’m looking for a little less this…

I love my group, as anyone who’s read any of my posts about them knows, but I also wish I could meet more than once a month. Some months (like this one) are very productive and I create a lot of new stuff and I want feedback, but I hate to ask some people for help because I know they already have a lot on their plate. So I’ve been looking for another group.

I was hoping there might even be one in my local area, but no one at the Redlitzer Writers’ Day last weekend knew of any.

At the Convention yesterday the representatives of many different groups stood up and spoke about how their groups worked. I learned that a lot of these groups met to do workshops together and create new fiction. There wasn’t a lot of critiquing and what critiquing there was seemed to be on the piece you had just written then and there.

and a little more of this.

and a little more of this.

Now I’m not saying those aren’t good groups, just not precisely what I’m looking for considering where I am in my journey as a writer. I have no problem with creativity, heck sometimes I just want to tell my muse “Here’s $8, go to the cinema and leave me alone so I can finish off this idea you just gave me” (I know, not something to really complain about, but evidence nonetheless that I don’t need an inspirational group). What I need is to learn how to fine tune this multitude of ideas. How to hone my stories into something that sells. For that I need a group very much like my current one.

I’m considering starting one in my local area, but don’t know how much time I want to sink into the endeavour – after all, that’s precious writing time I’d end up sacrificing.

The Writers’ Group Convention was short and sweet, with plenty of opportunities to mingle with others and try to learn their groups dynamics and if you are looking at finding a writers’ group yourself I’d recommend keeping an eye out for the next convention, or browsing their website.

Lessons Learned From Critiquing

July 24, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Critiquing can be tough. My writers’ group is full of amazing authors packed with talent and more and more pieces come in where all I can really spot wrong is the odd typo and maybe an awkward phrase. I was starting to worry that I didn’t have any critiquing skills, and that if I lacked them, how could I ever successfully self-edit?

logo-booksI’m going to the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival next week (stay with me here, I’m not just running off on a tangent, I swear) but only for workshops during the week. One of those workshops is a fiction writing master class with MJ Hyland. In preparation for that participants send in the first 1,500 words of a short story or novel and everyone else attending critiques it. Critiquing the pieces I’ve been sent so far has taught me something.

Like with my writers’ group some people are really great and there’s not much to say, but some other works are unfocused (the person has a great story, but the plot jumps all over(yes, in the first 1,500 words!)), others have great characters but no story. There are problems – and I can spot them! So I don’t suck at critiquing, it’s just that my writers’ group is too full of talented people(you know who you are ;p ).

So, with these newer, younger writers I’m critiquing now I have choices to make. I can’t go and throw every error they’ve made at them, I might hurt the fragile artistic spirit all of us creative types have. So I have to pick out one or two of the most important things to mention and pass on my knowledge.

I also have to be careful, I don’t want to seem like a know-it-all, after all, I’ll be there to learn too. If I honestly thought I did know it all I wouldn’t be going to a workshop now would I? So I’m walking a thin line between providing as much help as I can without damaging fragile hearts or seeming like a Hermione.

Some of these pieces have a lovely story at their core, just their craft needs polishing and it reminds me that I’m the same. I’ve got a long way to go before I’m where I dream of being, so I have to keep working, keep polishing, and keep critiquing and being critiqued.

These are the things I have learned from critiquing these last few days.

Redlitzer Writers’ Day

July 22, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Yesterday I enjoyed what I think is the best part of the prizes for being a Redlitzer winner – The Redlitzer Writers’ Day.

The morning started with a solid lesson on writing, dealing with structure, voice, POV and great beginnings taught by Angela Slatter. Some was familiar, some was new and some made a lot more sense when explained that way.

The afternoon saw the shortlisted stories(including mine) being critiqued by Louise Cusack, Rowena Cory Daniells, Marriane de Pierres and Angela Slatter. The feedback was amazing. You know feedback is good when you love your story even more with the new changes!

With great advice and some compliments that will keep me smiling for a good few months the day wrapped up with a Q&A panel which I’m going to share some great quotes from with you.

“Do what is says on the can.” (In reference to being a writer, a great rewording of ‘writers write’)

And

“Every author needs a wife” which sucks if you’re a woman ;p

There was plenty more, but I didn’t manage to scribble them all down. I’m fairly certain I’ll expand on those with some more posts shortly.

I want to give a huge thank you to the Redland Libraries (especially Jo-Anne, the co-ordinator) for hosting the day and creating the event, and say thank you to both Angela Slatter and Marriane de Pierres for their coaching. You were both wonderful and so helpful and I look forward to talking again soon.

The Redlitzer 2013 Anthology will be released in October 2013, I’ll keep you updated when more details become available.

Bad Reviews And How To Handle Them

July 18, 2013 / / 0 Comments

A question that often pops up in the writing community is how to handle negative reviews. True I’m yet to receive a negative reiew, or a critique so nasty as to inspire my ire, but I have a system in place already for dealing with all that you wish you could say to a negative reviewer, but first, let’s look a the types of negative review. In my opinion there are two types of negative review: the critique and the troll.

You welcome the critique. Throw open your arms for it, because while this person didn’t like your piece, they will detail for you what it was they didn’t like and often even why. This is a learning experience. You may listen and work on it, or you may count this person as not one of the people you are writing for. Either way, this person has put thought into their response to your work and I find myself often able to say thank-you even if I totally disagree.

Never feed the trolls, that's exactly what they want

Never feed the trolls, that’s exactly what they want

You despise the troll. This is the person who writes a one star review on Amazon or Goodreads and just says “This book was shit, go back to your day job”. There is no thought or quality to their review and more often than not they are hurtfully phrased. Why? Because that is what the troll lives for. They want to make you feel like excrement and go cry in a dark corner folded into the fetal position, or even better they want you to fight back. Admittedly most of the time the troll is a disappointed customer. They bought your book (or at least you hope they did, why act so nasty with you if they didn’t waste their money?) and didn’t like it. They forget that you are a person too and if someone came into their place of work, knocked over their pot-plant and said “your spread-sheet on the P&Ls for last month was a veritable craptacular, Troll.” that they would probably hide under their desk for a little sob too. Then again sometimes the troll is just a troll, an angry bitter person who wants everyone else to be miserable too.

How do you not get caught up in the troll’s evil web of hate? Well, this is what I do. I open Word and type out a letter. It can be as snarky as I want it to be in the first draft. Once it’s completed I edit it. Remove all swear words. Remove all name calling. Fix up that grammar. Try and put a hook into the sentence structure, or make it snazzy. Fix up the vernacular, make it witty and verbose and catchy. Then save it into a folder called ‘snark’ or ‘trolltastic’ and move on.

I find by the time I’ve edited my reply letter to a solid state of quality I’m often much calmer and I usually look at the letter somewhat impressed with how articulate I can be. I never, NEVER send the letter out into the world. This is hate mail. You don’t want to send hate mail out into the world. It’s a karmic thing. Apart from the karma reason think about your professional image. If you’re seen ranting and raving at a negative review you will not improve your professional image at all. Twice now I’ve received links from other writers sending me to hilarious and shameful outbursts and every time I remind myself to never let that be me.

The letter is also a useful tool for arguments with friends or family, or for you fellow retail store assistants out there when you have a nasty customer who you can’t get out of your head. It just pushes all the anger out and onto the page(so you don’t have to hurt those you love or lose your job) and then just file it away.

Best of all is these trolltastic letters are great for recycling all of that well edited anger into conflict between characters(though do remember, conflict isn’t always about arguments!).

One Story or Two?

July 12, 2013 / / 2 Comments
This guy is my hero

This guy is my hero

I’m working on an idea for an anthology my writers’ group is planning on creating, and have a fantastic idea. Or is that two? It’s difficult to tell.

I want the story to be set in the same mythpunk world which Charming, The Troll’s Toll, Groundskeeper, and The Wyvern’s Sting are set in, but the best part of the idea involves a trip into our world, and I’m not sure if I want there to be a physical link between Mythpunkia (definitely NOT the official name) and our world.

I’m not dead set against it. But it doesn’t sit well in my stomach. I prefer the thought to be Mythpunkia rides in the dreams of those who wrote the fairy tales and fables.

Also there’s a matter of word count. If we do have this trip to our world I’m fairly certain I’m going to blow the 5,000 word limit to shreds. Yet, if I remove the trip, my protagonist’s whole quest pretty much unravels. It would become too much of a quest of introspection and I’m not sure I want that.

I could always set it in a different world, but two things make that an even less appealing choice. Firstly, my protagonist Mizzy is perfect in Mythpunkia, it suits her from top to tail and secondly I want the story set in Mythpunkia because then anyone who reads the anthology and feels an interest in the world will seek out my other stories. So a feeling from the heart and a cold marketing strategy from the brain.

And let’s not forget I’m actually supposed to be editing at the moment >.<

I think I’ll just write it in the form it is now and hope I can fit it into 5,000 words. If it doesn’t then I can worry about how to split it into two.

Time Sensitive

July 8, 2013 / / 3 Comments

Why is it that everything happens all at once? That all deadlines seem to fall in line with one another?

If you look closely enough you can see the duct tape holding my laptop together ;p

If you look closely enough you can see the duct tape holding my laptop together ;p

Over the next 2-3 weeks I need to finish my final once over of a manuscript I submitted to a development program, I need to get two different lots of first pages prepped and sent off for the two workshops I will be taking part in at the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival as well as some extensive edits on The Troll’s Toll so I can submit the next part to my writer’s group and this time hopefully no one will want my protagonist to die.

I’ve been editing for too long, and while there is a lot more writing involved in editing than one might at first think, I yearn to create something new.

But deadlines! If my manuscript is not ready, I will forfeit my place if chosen. If my first pages for the workshops are not sent on time I’ve wasted the money spent on them, and while the writers’ group is not a stone dead line, I have goals to learn as much as possible and that is best achieved by submitting. Also I take the dislike of my protagonist as a challenge – can I still make her the person the story needs her to be, but get my group to like her?

So I have to wring every second I can from my days these next few weeks.

Hmmm, then why am I wasting time with a blog post?

Aussie Spec-Fic Authors Challenge – June Round-Up

July 3, 2013 / / 0 Comments

BurnBrightAs promised last month, I finished the second and third volumes of Marianne de Pierres’ Night Creatures Trilogy.

You can find my full reviews of each volume on Goodreads, Burn Bright, Angel Arias and Shine Light.

My favourite part of this series is the world. I don’t know anything like it out there. The cold and restrictive Grave, the way they travel through a crazy vortex to reach the dark party island of Ixion was a great starting taste, but it becomes obvious early on there’s much more to the world than just these locations when you start to meet characters from other places who’ve also come to Ixion, and it isn’t just Retra who has more on her mind than simply partying.

Tangel ariashe books move between Grave and Ixion, and the overall feel of the writing changes as you move between locations, giving you an immersive sense of what that place would be like to be in.

The Ripers are clearly born from the vampyric mythos, but if you are avoiding these books because you know of that (I’ve got to admit, it’s part of why I delayed reading them) let me assure you they aren’t your typical vampires, and they certainly don’t sparkle either. There is much more to them and a few interesting twists to look forward to.

At first, Retra was a difficult character for me to get into personally. Because of being raised as a ‘Seal’ she was inclined to not speak up and to hold back, and I struggle to understand when people don’t speak their minds, because that is how I am. Even when still Retra however she showed strength, resilience and the desire to protect others. I say ‘when still Retra’ because part way through book one (SPOILER ALERT (obviously)) Retra experiences a life-changing event and gives herself a new name: Naif. Naif is everything I love in a young woman protagonist: brave, determined, forthright and not one hundred percent sure of herself.

shine lightOne thing I must add, de Pierres writes amazing action/tension scenes. More the once I found myself clenching my teeth and tensing my muscles while reading the later two of the novels.

Another thing I have to praise is the well-weightedness (not a real term? Well I don’t care) of the answers to mystery ratio in these books. Each book poses (and carries-on) questions, and those that most needed to be answered were in that book, while some carried on. I was never left without curiosity, but never strung out to the point where I thought “If she doesn’t tell me *insert question here* by the next page I’m throwing this book to the wall!” (which seriously, I have thought about several books). This is a tough thing to get a grip on as an author, to lead the reader deeper into the desert with further questions, but to slake their thirst every so often so they don’t pass out on you. I hope I can master the art this well.

Also, the cover fairy certainly blessed de Pierres. I’ve also learned she recently had these books released in America, so my foreign readers can enjoy them. In fact I actually bought Angel Arias from Amazon (because I couldn’t find it anywhere and didn’t want to wait ;p ).

I haven’t decided just yet what I’ll read for July, but I’m leaning toward Fiona McIntosh’s The Scrivener’s Tale. I’m having trouble deciding because my recent trip to the Lifeline Bookfest resulted in an impressive haul, and a very broad selection to choose from.

not the most flattering photo of me, but you should be focusing on the stack of books

not the most flattering photo of me, but you should be focusing on the stack of books anyway

June Goals Round-Up

July 1, 2013 / / 0 Comments

While the temptation of games still loomed (and with a particularly deadly sting thanks to Animal Crossing 3DS) I was slightly more productive this month than last. I also experienced a fantastic success for the first time.

My success came in the form of winning my first competition. I am one of the shortlisted writers for the 2013 Redlitzer writing competition. Quite exciting, and some great prizes(including but not limited to the confidence of having won).

I have been working hard on The Troll’s Toll. After getting feedback on the first part from my writer’s group I rewrote entire chunks and changed the personality of a character (apparently I should give up trying to write demure girls, I just can’t do it without making them dish rags – probably because I’m as far from demure in real life as possible without having large amounts of testosterone coursing through my system).

I purchased a couple of exciting courses to take part in during the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival which will bring me excitingly close to where I grew up as well as improving my writing.

I’ve also been doing some reviewing on Storybook Perfect as a final check before submitting it to a manuscript development competition.

Mostly I’ve been editing, not creating much new, but editing often involves a lot more writing than you might at first expect.

Looking back on the first half of 2013, I’ve made a lot of progress as a writer, but there’s still a few of my goals I’ve barely even touched, so I better kick it up a notch in the second half.

I’m looking forward to July now and the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival and one of the parts of my Redlitzer prize: working with Marianne de Pierres, Rowena Cory Daniells, Louise Cusack and Angela Slatter on my shortlisted piece.

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