FREEN: THE FIRST TRUTH

My first book (a novel on Kindle and in paperback)

Teen science-fiction novel, set in Eastbourne.

What if everything you knew about human evolution was turned on its head?

When fourteen-year-old Gem loses her amber necklace at her new boarding school, in the sleepy sea-side town of Eastbourne, she and her friends are only concerned with retrieving the precious, family heirloom – little do they know they will be drawn into a world of conspiracies and cover-ups as old as mankind.

Together with archaeologist, Cessi, Americans Jack and Mac and a strange girl with an identical necklace, Gem and her new friends must keep the truth from being revealed – IF that is what they truly believe they should do

WHAT MADE ME WRITE IT?

Having successfully managed to write a story of 6000 words (Journal of Freitous), I assumed that writing a novel of just about ten times more would be a doddle.

It took me five years.

I started out writing it for my then eight-year-old daughter (my eldest of three) and it was more of a ‘fairy-alien’ story idea, prompted by the famous Cottingley Fairy photos taken by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I didn’t have a plan, just a vague idea (which is not sensible), but I did have a rough sort of theme, which was, do people really want to know the truth, if the truth is not what they expect? As you can see, I really was a complete novice at the art of writing a novel.

As I have mentioned in other posts, I do love an alien conspiracy theory, and so I wanted to include some of these in my book, although initially, that was difficult to do in a story for an eight-year-old, but unsurprisingly, she grew up quite a lot during the five years it took me to write it and by the time I really got my teeth into it, she was a nearly fourteen and I managed to ‘shoehorn’ in a good number of alien-type conspiracy references – I actually did a sort of ‘mood board’ of all the weird stuff I referenced, which I have shared with readers at a number of book fairs:

I decided to set my story in a private boarding school (I read way too many Enid Blyton’s as a child: Malory Towers, St Clare’s, Swiss Chalet School, etc…). I also decided that I would give the school cafeteria a really interesting menu, which should feature quite heavily in the story (it seemed like a fun idea at the time).

Much to my daughter’s horror (now, not then), I based the main character on her, with her younger sisters also featuring in the story. The other two main characters were based on a collection of attributes from their various friends.

As you can probably see, my novel was mostly based on lots of good intentions and very little planning, which is why it took so flipping long to write! It actually turned out pretty well and I was very pleased with it, but the process of writing was laborious.

My big lesson from it was to plot and plan and not leave things to chance!

CRIME AND CREMATION

​​My second book (a novella on Kindle and in paperback)

This is the blurb:

Kinky, crime-comedy caper for older teens and adults.

Best friends Emily, Harry and Louella have just finished their A’ levels, are bored and in need of cash. They accidentally kill the pervert who is stalking Emily, secretly cremate him at Harry’s uncle’s crematorium and collect his stolen cash. This makes them realise that getting rid of bad people could be a great way to earn some money over the summer holidays – however, their efforts lead them into the paths of Satanists, fraudsters, the Russian Mafia and corrupt cops.

Will they get away with theft and murder and more importantly, will the super-hot postman think Emily is cute?

WHAT MADE ME WRITE IT?

Crime and Cremation is completely different to my first novel FREEN in so many ways, and that is probably in part down to (what my husband describe’s as) my rather contradictory character. 

I wrote C&C in first person point of view, because I hadn’t done that before and it seemed like it would be a fun challenge. Plus, I hated writing dialogue and I knew that first person forces you to write more of the stuff. I also decided that I should try writing in present tense, (as in, all the action happens in ‘real-time’) because I knew that it was quite tricky to get right and I thought it would be fun to really test my skills.

Then there was the WHAT to write. Well… the brother of a good friend of mine makes a decent income from writing language books (I can’t do that!!), but he told me the genre that was selling really well was erotica (this was when Fifty Shades was really popular – and yes, my husband bought me a copy and I read it, reluctantly).

I wasn’t sure I could write anything really rude – not without a few drinks first, but that made it even more challenging, so I added it to the brief for Crime and Cremation (which didn’t have a name at that point).

So, I had to write an erotic story in first person point of view and present tense. I then decided that it should be a crime story and the main character should be quite un-likeable.

This was not the ‘text-book’ method for writing a novel!

Once I got started writing, I quickly realised two very important things:

1. I LOVED writing dialogue. That was a surprise.

2. Every time I tried to write a sex scene, it turned into a comedy situation – I’m not sure what that says about me, but oddly, my husband was not surprised. 

Anyway, unlike FREEN, C&C took less than a year to write and it became a ‘kinky, crime-comedy caper’. 

My parents read all the sex scenes (I decided that if I wanted to publish the book, I should get over the ’embarrassment factor’ and this seemed like the shortest route to that). My mum told me to write MORE of the sex scenes.

I read extracts of the story to my writing group and was told to slow down to give them time to laugh, and when it was finished, I gave it to my husband to read and he laughed his way through it and asked me to write another the same.

I haven’t – I get very distracted and ended up writing a creative writing course instead, but, I will be writing another one – eventually.

WHY EVERY WRITER NEEDS A KINDLE

I hated the idea of a Kindle – it seemed like being unfaithful to books. My mum offered to buy me one for my birthday a few years back and I decline (politely, of course). Besides, I wasn’t really reading enough books to warrant it.

Then, last birthday, my parents gave me some money and I decided to buy myself a Kindle. Not because I wanted to read books on it, but because I was helping lots of other people to publish their books on Kindle and I thought I should probably see what their e-books looked like in real life.

After a lot of research, I bought a Kindle Paperwhite. 

Lots of e-readers do internet browsing and fancy stuff, but I wanted something that concentrated on books and nothing else.

Here it is, in its lovely custard coloured, Amazon jacket (which you have to buy separately – of course!).

SO, DID I CHUCK OUT THE PAPERBACKS?

Having been fairly late to the e-reader party, I finally realised the full benefits of it and I will tell anyone who’ll listen (and those who won’t), that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my Kindle for three very good reasons. 

AS A READER

As a busy home-educating mum with kids who need delivering to stimulating activities many times a day, I cannot understand how I lived without my ‘little yellow library’ before. Standing on the windy seafront outside Sea Cadets, in the cramped sweaty lobby of the karate dojo, trying to be quiet whilst perched on the piano teacher’s sofa, or (currently) queuing outside the supermarket for my ‘pandemic essentials’, I can grab my novel of choice and get reading in an instant. 

I can even read my books in the bath without the pages getting soggy (it’s waterproof – apparently), and in bed without having the light on, because it has clever back-lights hidden somewhere under the screen that don’t disturb anyone else who you might be sharing your bed with (get your mind out of the gutter – I’m thinking; husband/partner and the inevitable, sleepless toddler).

From an author’s perspective, having access to cheap and often free books by a wide selection of authors – including self-published ones is an invaluable learning tool – I always recommend on my writing courses that writers read a lot to learn how other authors approach things like dialogue, tension, drama and description, etc…

I have honestly never read so many books before.

AS A WRITER

I love that you can send Microsoft Word documents, RTF and PDF files to your Kindle to read ‘on the go’ (and this may well be true of other e-readers too). I frequently send novels that I am asked to edit to my Kindle for a first read-through, which means that I can get it done wherever I happen to be (my Kindle goes everywhere with me, unlike my laptop). I will also send the latest chapters of my own WIP (work in progress) to read through.

This is done by sending your document as an attachment to the unique @kindle address assigned to every Kindle owner.

 

You can find your @kindle email address in your Amazon account under MANAGE YOUR CONTENT AND DEVICES, select PREFERENCES from the top bar, then click on PERSONAL DOCUMENT PREFERENCES and it will be listed below Send-to-Kindle E-Mail Settings.

AS AN ECO-CONSCIOUS PERSON

If the previous two points haven’t been enough to convert you to ebooks, then perhaps the ecological benefit of not printing so many novels should be enough to persuade you, as a writer, to use a Kindle (or other e-reader) and promote e-books over paperbacks.

I specifically mention novels, rather than books in general, because not all books work so well in digital format. 

There is, of course the added benefit that the royalties are usually higher for the e-book version than the paperback, so it is a win for you and the environment. 

I recently took my Kindle with me to a talk at a writer’s group where most of the audience were decidedly senior and had never considered an e-reader. 

When I explained how it worked and showed them some books on mine,  there was a general realisation that the lightness and portability would probably encourage many of them to get one.

I will continue to ‘harp on’ about the ecological benefits of digital books, because I truly do believe that it is something authors can proactively do, in their own little way, to help reduce our cost to this planet.

Preaching over. 

 

Are you a Kindle convert? Have my arguments won you over?  Let me know.

WEEK 1 – FIVE FINGER PITCH

THE FIVE FINGER PITCH

A story has five elements: Setting, Protagonist, Goal, Obstacles and Resolution. 

If you miss any one of these elements, you will not have a complete, or satisfying story to tell. They are the ‘bare bones’ of any story and if you had to ‘pitch’ your story idea to someone in just a single paragraph, these elements would succinctly tell them what your story is about.

For example, my teen novel FREEN: The First Truth is set in (setting) Eastbourne and is the story of fourteen-year-old (protagonist) Gem, who discovers that her necklace is the key to an ancient secret. She and her friends (goal) want to reveal the truth to the world, however, (obstacle) Government agents are after them and they must (resolution) decide if the truth is worth telling.

SETTING (time period and/or location) – is the story set in a specific or recognisable time period, geographical location or other world? This should be clear and will affect the direction, style of writing and possibly, the word-count.

PROTAGONIST (the main character) every story needs a main character, i.e. the character whose point of view (PoV) is most prevalent and that your readers can become emotionally invested in.

GOAL – What is your protagonist trying to do? They need a goal, a wish, a desire or a need that makes the ‘story’. This could be; escaping from a bad relationship, finding a lost treasure, discovering their true identity or, even simply getting through year five at school – but that goal should be clear because the reader needs to be rooting for them to succeed.

OBSTACLES (or events)Who or what is stopping, or making it difficult for the protagonist to achieve their goal? Obstacles can come from a single or multiple sources and can even be some aspect of the protagonists’ character that becomes the obstacle. Without an obstacle, a story would not be much of a story.

The RESOLUTION – How does your protagonist achieve their goal, despite the obstacles? Perhaps they don’t achieve their goal but, the resolution is their acceptance of this fact.

Exercise 1

Pretty much every story can be summarised using the ‘five finger pitch’.

Test this theory out: consider a few books and/or films you have recently read or watched and see if you can identify your own answers to the following questions (in bold). Remember to think about the overall picture, rather than the specific details:

EXAMPLE 1 

Film/Novel title: ET (science fiction film by Steven Spielberg)

Setting: Suburban California

Protagonist: the story is from the point of view of Elliot, the young boy who finds the alien.

Goal: Elliot is trying to get the alien (ET) back home

Obstacles: The government agencies who want to capture the alien

Satisfactory resolution: ET goes home

 

EXAMPLE 2

Children’s stories still have all the same five key elements, but without the complexity that an adult story/novel might have. 

Novel title: Mog, The forgetful Cat (a children’s story by the much loved Judith Kerr)

Setting: Mog lives with Mr and Mrs Thomas and their children in an ordinary house England.

Protagonist: Mog The Forgetful Cat

Goal: For everyone to love and appreciate her.

Obstacles: Mog is forgetful, and that gets her into all sorts of trouble with her owners.

Satisfactory resolution: Mog alerts the family to a burglar and becomes a hero, which makes everyone appreciate her and love her more.

Exercise 2

You are going to use a Five Finger Pitch to plot and then write your own short story of around 500 words, using one of the improbable scenarios listed 1 to 5 below. Remember to describe what you see, how you feel and any smells, sounds or sensations you might experience too.

PROTAGONIST You are the main character.

GOAL You have an important meeting that you must attend, this afternoon – your future depends on it.

SETTING When I woke up this morning, I wasn’t in my bedroom…..

Now select an OBSTACLE from numbers 1 to 5 below. You could randomise your selection by throwing a dice (create your own scenario if you throw a 6).

1 … I was clinging to the branch of a tree, in a jungle full of dangerous creatures and poisonous plants.

2 … My bed was a boat and I was in the middle of a choppy ocean, surrounded by sharks.

3 … I was on the moon with a broken spacecraft and a rather angry alien.

4 … I was trapped in a cage, hanging from the ceiling of a castle, surrounded by guards shouting, “Off with their head”.

5 … I was running through a network of underground tunnels, being chased by angry trolls. 

RESOLUTION How will you get out of your predicament and arrive at your meeting on time?

Remember, this is your story and you can write your way out using absolutely any escape plan you can think of – be imaginative – crazy even – push yourself to be as daft and inventive as possible.

I would love to hear your stories, please do feel free to post them in the comments below.

INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome to my Creative Writing Course: GET STARTED. 

This first course is aimed at anyone who wants get writing and improve their skills. There are twelve fun and easy to follow, weekly lessons with downloads and videos, all based on the ‘live’ classes I teach in Eastbourne (UK).

If you have any questions, do feel free to put them in the comments.

HOW DO I BECOME A WRITER?

Do you mean, someone who makes a living from writing, or someone who writes for pleasure?

If you want to make a living from being a writer, then there is a huge amount you should learn about ‘The Business of Writing’ and there are lots of websites and YouTube tutorials that can help you, but first, you need to get writing – because the way to get good at writing is to write – A LOT.

Why? Because writing is a craft, and like any craft – the more you do it, the better you get. Just take a look at the very first novels of many well-known writers. Quite often you will see a marked difference in their ability, style and confidence.

Writers also:

  • Subscribe to writing magazines, such as Writing Magazine (www.writers-online.co.uk) or Writers Forum (www.writers-forum.com) which are both UK magazines, or The Writer magazine in the USA
  • Attend local Literary Festivals – most towns have them and they are great places to chat to other authors and people in the business of writing and publishing.
  • Join Facebook groups for writers and writing groups, which provide excellent support, information and useful resources.
  • Attend a writing group. There may be several in your area, so try them out and find a group that is a good fit for YOU, because they each have different ‘personalities’.  

But most important of all,

Write. A lot.

WHAT SHOULD I WRITE ON?

I would encourage you to use a computer, rather than paper and pen because it allows you to edit more easily and if you are looking to publish, or self-publish, your writing will need to be typed. 

However, if you only like pen and paper, then by all means keep using it.

Personally, I use Microsoft Word because it has everything I need to produce my self-published books but, there are specialist writing software packages that have good reputations, if you wish to invest in one.

WHAT SHOULD I AIM TO WRITE?

Before you get started, it is worthwhile noting that there are certain, pre-set expectations (from both readers and publishers) for the word-count of different genres or types of book. Numbers vary slightly, according to source, but are approximately:

TYPE OF WRITING/BOOKWORD COUNT
Standard Novel80,000 to 100,000
Young Adult Novel45,000 to 80,000
Science Fiction Novel100,000 to 125,000
Literary Fiction55,000 to 100,000
First Chapter books4,000 to 10,000
Middle Grade Fiction (ages 9-12)30,000 to 55,000
Novella17,500 to 39,999
Novelette7,500 to 17,499
Short Storyunder 7,500
Flash FictionUsually under 2500
Flash 500500
Twitter story280 CHARACTERS
Zines (hand-printed A5 magazines – you can see lots of examples on Etsy.com – great for poetry.)About 24 x A5 pages
Articles for magazines100 to 750 – or more
Blog postAny length but around 2000 is preferred by readers.

Whether you are considering self, or mainstream publishing, it is worth sticking within these guidelines until you are established.

FIVE ESSENTIAL TIPS FOR THE NEW WRITER

My course is listed by week, but not everyone has the time to dedicate to writing each week, so please don’t feel bad if you replace weeks with months or longer – the main thing is that you are writing, which means your writing WILL be improving.

Keep everything you write (even if you hate it, or think it is terrible) – all the exercises you do so that you can look back over them and improve them as your writing skills increase.

Don’t be discouraged if you do not get on with a particular exercise, or it isn’t something you want to write. By all means write something entirely different – as long as you are writing, that is a good thing. However, I would encourage you to step out of your comfort zone from time to time because you may find a new genre, or technique that you didn’t realise you loved until you tried it.

Enjoy your writing and be proud of it, whatever level you are starting at and know that every time you write, you will understand the craft of writing better.

Read more and look at the books you read from the point of view of a writer and ask, why did the author do it that way?

CAN YOU USE MICROSOFT WORD TO SELF-PUBLISH ON AMAZON?

In a word, yes.

If you already have a copy of Microsoft Word, then you should absolutely use it to self publish your own novels. I have used it to publish all my own books and novels for lots of other people, including picture books and training manuals.

It does require a good knowledge of Microsoft Word, which can easily be learned from online information. Word converts to a PDF file perfectly adequately, using its own export facility – PDF (Portable Document Format) is the required format for uploading to Amazon KDP.

However, I would not suggest it for books with complex and extensive images because Word does start to crash with larger file sizes.

It also works really well for creating a Kindle ebook. You can upload a Word document directly to KDP for conversion, but it is best to save it as a .doc rather than a .docx (Word 97 – 2003 format), especially if you want to upload to Smashwords Meatgrinder.

Covers for paperbacks and Kindle books are best done in a graphics package such as Photoshop.

Some key points to remember when creating a paperback in MS Word

  • Set up your page size to match the trim size you want for your final book. Usually, you will have to choose a Custom size and enter the dimensions yourself -make sure you enter these EXACTLY (you can find these at: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201857950#intspec
  • Set your margins to be mirrored and allow yourself extra margin space (called the gutter) for the internal margins (where the pages are joined together).
  • Use styles to set the formatting for your headings and for your indentations – do not use the tab button to create indents.

RE-PURPOSING POETRY

…because of course, poetry has no actual purpose 😉

The first time I wrote a fully scripted ‘theatrical ghost walk’ for Sussex Darkside (the paranormal entertainment company I am partner in), I decided to write the entire thing in poetry. Rhyming couplets of eleven syllables per line to be precise – for all nine poems. I think I must have been mad.

Anyway, that ran for a year at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre in Eastbourne and got some lovely reviews – (you can see some of the poems on my website: (https://www.dinyfvk.co.uk/misinformed-poet/the-death-and-life/) – however, we realised that the audience wanted a more integrative experience; scares, challenges and more interaction with the actors, so I am about to recycle my existing poems and turn them into a murder mystery.

Each of the original poems tells the story of a reported ghost that haunts each part of the theatre we tour our guests around. The stories were unrelated to each other but, because I had a bigger plan in my head of eventually turning them into an actual play, I had written in-between scenes that created a loose link between the stories. Basically, each ghost haunts the theatre for a particular reason BUT, in the tour, one of the ghosts is being beastly to all of the other ghosts and while the audience travel between stories, they bump back into the ghost-characters, who complain to the audience about the ‘beastly ghost’, who of course, ends up murdered (again).

Now, I am turning this into a murder mystery game, so I need to add in some visual clues and ways for the guests to interact with the actors, whilst not spoiling the scenes.

I do love a challenge, and this particular ‘show’ will have its first outing at the end of March in an all night ‘spooky sleepover’ event we are running on behalf of a local hospice charity. I also have to write four 15 minute plays as challenges for the participants. I cannot wait to get started! In fact, I really shouldn’t wait as I only have four weeks to get it done, between finishing my creative writing book, formatting and publishing three books for clients and home-educating my middle daughter… in fact, I really should stop blogging and just get on with it, but alas, I am a hopeless procrastinator.

HOW TO JUDGE A SHORT STORY WRITING COMPETITION

Judging a writing competition is NERVE-WRACKING. You can make or break someone with your decision, because their entry might be their final try at being a writer. So, the decisions you make must be carefully considered, with clear reasons for each of your choices.

There are several steps I take, when judging a writing competition:

1. Read and enjoy each of the stories without judging them – be open and just see how each story makes you feel – do any stand out, or keep coming back to your mind after you’ve read them?

2. Next, decide what criteria you are going to use to judge your entries. Usually, the competition will have a theme, a genre or specific topic, so you will need to see how well each story fits within that criteria – does it do what it is supposed to do.

For example, does an entry in a Ghost Story competition give you a scare? Is that actually important, or is it only important that the story contains a ghost? (It could be a comedy with a ghost). It is really important that you have in mind exactly what your criteria is for the competition brief that has been set – remember, you are basing your decision on this criteria and will need to justify your choice of winners and losers based on it (and other factors).

Look at the grammar and punctuation. How important is perfect punctuation to this particular story, writing group or situation? Could a great story override imperfect technique? It is your responsibility to decide and your task to justify.

There will be a myriad of writing styles, some of which you like and some that you may not care for. Try not to be swayed by your own preferences.

And talking of preferences – perhaps you hate happy endings, or you loathe swathes of detailed descriptions. Do not discount stories based on your own taste, you need to focus on the merits of the story and technique over and above what you do and don’t like.

Word counts are non-negotiable. You can’t let someone win if they wont stick to the most basic of criteria – it isn’t fair on the other entries.

3. Now you have decided how you are going to judge your stories, it is time to read each one again, but this time with a pen and paper, or computer to hand.

I use Microsoft Word and create a document with a new page per story, each one titled with the story name. As I read each story, I make notes about five aspects. These notes are important because you will use this to give feedback, either verbally in person, or to hand to the writer.

  • What I like about the story (always give some positive feedback).
  • I note any lines, phrases or words that I find pleasing or clever.
  • I will note anything that I feel needs more clarification for the reader.
  • I make suggestions about how the story might be even better, but ensure the writer understands that this is only my opinion and that a different reader may have a completely different view on the story.
  • I will also make a note of any obvious errors, such as typos, repetition and incorrect words – this isn’t an edit and certainly not a proof-reading, but I know that a writer will want to know where there are errors so that they can be corrected before the story is sent off to another competition.

I also write a single sentence description for each story, which I place under the story heading. The purpose of this is to give the writer an understanding of how their story is seen by the reader, a bit like an ‘elevator pitch’ – for example in a recent competition I judged, I described one story as: ‘A young American student is wooed by a strange man with a passion for history and a worrying interest in reincarnation.’ This isn’t something that you have to do, but I find it particularly useful if I am presenting feedback at a group without first reading the story to them.

4. After that, I leave the stories for a bit and then I will go back and read them again, adding more notes and making sure my notes are well written, clear and useful to the writer.

5. Last of all, choose a winner and runners up. You should be familiar with all the stories and you may find one in particular stands out above the rest, or there are few obvious winners. Make a pile of the all the ‘top’ stories and consider what makes them the best?

Consider: Plot, Voice, Writing Style, Satisfaction of the story brief and any other criteria you want. Where do each of your top stories excel, and do any excel in many areas? I usually create a table to help me work out the placements.

  Story 1 Story 2 Story 3 Story 4
Plot good good fantastic fantastic
Writing style excellent good excellent good
Voice fantastic good unique ok
Satisfies brief mostly yes yes yes
  2nd place 4th place 1st place 3rd place

As you can see, it is a lot of work judging a writing competition, but very rewarding and great fun if you get to present your results directly to the entrants.

 

A MUCH REDUCED OFFICE

Due a house-move, my lovely office is no more and I now have a really nice lap table that I can use anywhere (even in bed!), and as you can see, the dog doesn’t care – he is still at my feet providing support and aromas.

I haven’t actually written creatively for about 9 months, due to various events;  a housemove and my lovely dad loosing a terrible battle with cancer. It’s not been a good year and I have focussed on working to help other people get their books together – which is incredibly rewarding; there really is nothing like seeing a new author cradling their first book like a newborn baby (I think we all do it).

The only downside to my lap desk, is that once I’m installed under it, it’s very difficult to remove it, so I have to get the kids or the husband to fetch my my tea.

THE PROS AND CONS OF BOOKFAIRS

So, the reality of book fairs is that they are often under-attended – depending on the location, the weather, the season and whatever else is doable at the instead. Basically, people don’t flock to book fairs and those who do face the desperate puppy-dog stares of every single author in attendance. 

Sales are rarely significant and in many cases, barely cover the cost of attending. So why the hell do we bother? 

Well, a few sales are better than no sales, because at least people are reading your book (unless they are using them to prop up a bed with a wonky leg), but the main advantage of attending book fairs is the networking opportunity it presents. The chance to chat to other authors and find out what is working for them, to share your woes and to find out about other events and opportunities that might help you become the next JKR.

Stay Connected

for latest news / updates

Note: I am totally against spam, so don’t expect to hear from me too often.  I’ll only email when I have something to say that you may appreciate.