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Comment from the book world in March 2017

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Get writing

27 March 2017
  • Once you have your idea for a story, write yourself a rough outline.
  • You will need to work out who your characters are, what type of ‘journey' you're taking them on, what's going to kick their story into gear (your opening), and how it's going to end.
  • You might decide you're going to write yourself a detailed chapter by chapter outline, or you might be one of those writers who prefers flying blind. But you'll find you will need some sort of a plan or you might lose yourself along the way.
  • As soon as you have this sorted, start writing, and do not stop! Try to resist the temptation to self-edit until you get to the end. No matter how awful your story feels or how clunky your prose-style, it doesn't matter as you will be the only person who sees it.
  • Above all, remember you're not a ‘proper' author till you have nailed this all-important first draft (a friend of mine who's just finished his first novel said this was the best writing advice anyone has given him).
  • Think about where you feel comfortable writing, and also where you have your best ideas. Some authors work their plots out as they walk or work out. I know one who works in a cafe as she likes to be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Another crime-writing friend of mine writes in a little white cell with no windows, no pictures and no distractions of any kind. Work out what works best for you, and stick to it!
  • You'll know you're on the right track when your characters start talking to you. They may even tell you what they want to do, which may not be quite what you intended for them. If this happens, my advice is to listen to them. It means that something interesting is starting to happen ...
  • And finally, if you get stuck, think about changing not what you write but how you write it. I find writing straight on to a screen can be a bit paralysing; it makes me feel shy somehow. As soon as I write in longhand on paper (in my favourite blue pen), I loosen up. In short, don't be afraid to play some mind games with yourself: relax with your chosen medium and try and be a little more experimental. You never know what is going to happen . . .

Above all, good luck with your writing. Have fun. And get started!

Selina Walker Publisher of Century and Arrow at Penguin Random House UKPenguin Random House have more than 50 creative and autonomous imprints, publishing the very best books for all audiences, covering fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s books, autobiographies and much more. Click for Random House UK Publishers References listing in the Daily Mail

 

 

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Ideas, winning the Booker and creative writing for children

20 March 2017

'I used to worry that I'd run out of ideas. But as I get older I know it's not ideas; it's energy. As long as the job involves words and story - and it's what I really want to do - I'll give it a go. I enjoy the contrasts between the different forms. Writing a film script is so different to writing a novel, I find it quite easy to give proper attention to both in the same working day...

My work was already well known in Ireland, where I live. The Commitments had become the most commercially successful film ever released in Ireland at that time. My novels The Snapper and The Van had been very popular. So, after about a month of turning down interview requests and invitations to open supermarkets or to have lunch in aid of the destitute - keeping myself to myself - life reverted to normal. But I was suddenly an established writer, as opposed to a bit of a maverick. I had to keep my eyes on the page, to make sure I continued to write exactly what I wanted to write, not what might be expected of me. Winning the Prize had a huge impact on sales. I was a wealthy man for a while - just months after I'd given up my job as a teacher. The timing was, for once, perfect...

I was an English teacher for 14 years, between 1979 and 1993. In that time I wrote my first four novels - but I couldn't really teach creative writing because it wasn't on the curriculum. The thinking was, and perhaps still is: if it can't be graded, it has little value. So, I co-founded Fighting Words in 2009, to combat that stupidity - to make creative writing as inviting as possible for children and teenagers, and to let their teachers witness the impact it has on their students. And it seems to be working; we now have six centres in Ireland and have worked with 80,000 children and young people. We now have training courses for teachers - they seem to love it. I recently watched a class of 10-year-old boys writing a story together, in the new Fighting Words centre in Cork. The boys wrote the best sentence I've read in years: "God ran away."'

Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments and The Guts in Bookbrunch

 

'Outside the bubble of hype'

13 March 2017

‘Publishers still routinely take large risks on different kinds of books. Yet these books are mainly in some sense fashionable books. Taking big risks and bucking fashions are very different things. Publishers will drop large money on a risky new debut, but chances are that debut will be from a "zeitgeisty" author in a "zeitgeisty" genre. The pressure for chances to sell the book exacerbates this. It means that an editor will face a huge struggle to acquire books that sales and marketing don't believe will work. While this has always been true, it only becomes more intense. The number of key accounts is not going up. The competition is constantly growing. The internet provides an important new channel, but traditional media are a losing battle.

In contrast, the ebook market is relatively freer to try new and more, well, unfashionable things. Because even if the book trade as a whole gets caught up in the latest trend, one important group is often and surprisingly impervious-readers.

Outside the bubble of hype are authors in various genres quietly working away with large and valuable readerships. They are producing books and working in areas that might raise eyebrows or even a hint of derision at many acquisitions meetings. Yet readers still love it, they will keep coming back for more. In this respect then I think the ebook market can buck mainstream fashion; and the entire book market is all the better for it.

So-called "midlist" writers and niche genres were once the bread and butter of commercial publishing, but too often they've been left languishing at the expense of the modish. This is perfectly understandable, indeed common sense, given the difficulties in getting a book to market. But it highlights a valuable and "undersung" role for the ebook market: in ensuring that these still-vibrant and still-popular areas can and do flourish. It may not be the world of hot auctions, smart proofs and splashes in the Sunday papers. But for millions and millions of readers this is what reading is all about: escapist, addictive and too often overlooked by the latest in-thing.'

Michael Bhaskar, Co-Founder of Canelo and author of Curation: The Power of Selection in a World of Excess in PW's London Show Daily 15 March, sadly not available online.

'Tell stories'

6 March 2017

‘If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."

Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse 5 and Breakfast of Champions