Saturday 7 June 2014

Your First Novel


On Monday I went to the Southbank Centre for the Your First Novel conference which was being held in the Purcell Room. It was all very swish-looking and fancy - felt like a proper grown up attending a proper conference and everyfink!
   The panellists were Kate Mosse (Labyrinth, Sepulchre, The Citadel), Emma Healey (whose debut novel Elizabeth Is Missing came out last week), Felicity Blunt (agent at Curtis Brown), Charlotte Mendelson (When We Were Bad, Almost English) and Sarah Waters (Tipping The Velvet, Fingersmith). What a group of women to gain advice from, eh?? Even though I had bought and paid for a ticket myself, it felt like I'd been specially invited in to a secret group of writers who, for 90 minutes, were privy to some wonderful thoughts and anecdotes that no one else was allowed to hear! 

I managed to grab a sneaky snap of the Purcell Room's Stage before it started...


There were some lovely flowers on either side of the panellist's seats, which were in aid of the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction which was to be held in the same venue later in the week. 
  
It was a fantastic evening with some sage words being doled out. Felicity Blunt's tips about approaching an agent were thus:

  • Give your book a catchy title
  • Be sure to have a well-written cover letter
  • Write an interesting synopsis
  • Don't rush over the letter & synopsis (!!)
  • Think about what inspired you to write the book in the first place


In order to be a writer, there were certain things you have to have in your toolbox, which all the ladies agreed on:

  • Hard work
  • Passion
  • Conserve your willpower (this was Emma's tip actually: so if you're thinking of starting a diet, have another project going on, either focus on that or the writing. It's too hard to do both and really commit / stick to it)
  • Once you've finished a project, leave it for a while before coming back to it and looking at it objectively
  • Have great plots (an obvious one but so important)
  • Be disciplined with your work (grammar, spelling, punctuation etc.)
Charlotte Mendelson is also an editor and answered a misconception about them, which was that they were not there to change your work but to point out any problem areas and let you get on with fixing them. Most authors can get nervous about sending their work off to an editor because they think it means they'll get their manuscript back with big red marks all over it. According to Charlotte (who was also so witty I found myself LOL-ing on more than one occasion), that isn't the case at all; an editor is purely there as a guide to make your book the best it can possibly be. It serves them for it to be as perfect as possible so there is little point in making their author feel like their work is crap by "massacring" it. The important thing is to approach any feedback the editor has with enthusiasm and an open nature. More often that not, your feelings won't be spared as there isn't really time. Just get your head down, and work on the things you need to in order to make your book as wonderful as it deserves to be.
   Likewise with agents, they are looking for new work and want writers to be successful. It serves them for their clients to be successful and are always on your side, even if it might not feel like that all the time. 
   If I'm lucky enough to land an agent one day, I hope that I can have an open and honest enough relationship with them where they can say to me "this is not working, it needs to go" and I can accept it and see where they're coming from rather than thinking they're just being unfair and not "getting it". 
   Kate Mosse was also very forthright about it and said anything that fails to serve the story or isn't telling anything needs to be taken out, simple as that. Harsh, yet true.

Then it was over to the audience for some questions. I was too shy to ask anything but there was one in particular that blew my mind. One lady mentioned that the winner and runner ups of last year's Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction were all really pretty and "model-like". Her friend, an aspiring author, had therefore wondered whether or not it would be a good idea to get some plastic surgery to make herself more aesthetically pleasing to potential agents / publishers. The look on the panellists' faces was a picture: I think the best way to describe it would be WTF?! And rightly so. It's quite a thing for actresses to think that they need plastic surgery to break in to the showbiz world as their face is their fortune, but for writers? That's one of the best bits about it. Your work speaks for yourself, bollocks to how you look! Though it was a feasible question, because sadly people can be discriminating in every medium. 
   That is something I truly love about the literary world. Something that I could never quite come to terms with, with regards to acting. Having a strong to obsessive interest in reading and writing like I do, I find it incredible that I can have access to agents, publishers, authors on social media sites such as Twitter but with actors, it's a different ball game. They're "untouchable" somehow, whereas the these people, whose world I so badly want to be in professionally, I am able to reach out to and ask advice of them. Something I would never be able to do with actors, directors or casting directors, if I didn't know them personally. It's so much more down to earth and real. I love it. I'm not slating the acting profession in any way - it's just a very different world, and one where, as someone on the creative side as opposed to the admin side (like my actual job), I feel I belong. 

Before we finished, Kate Mosse asked each panellist to give their one top tip:
  • Emma Healey: fear is not a bad thing
  • Felicity Blunt: just have faith / be open to trying new things (she also said the fact that we were there and were writing already was something to be immensely proud of)
  • Charlotte Mendelson: guard against cynicism
  • Sarah Waters: show your work to someone you trust
  • Kate Mosse: don't talk about writing. DO IT.  
So there we have it! My time at the Your First Novel conference. It's one of the first times I felt like a real writer - I hope one of many to come. 

EG xxx


Monday 26 May 2014

Last week would be the last couple of sessions we will have until the 5th June, which has left me feeling rather bereft! I suppose it's the half term or something (oh, how I miss those!) but what it does mean is that I have more time to write and polish my opening couple of chapters which are due in on the 5th so we can workshop them the week after on the 12th. Eeeep!

We started on Wednesday with another Visiting Speaker Session with:

. Katy Loftus (editor at Transworld - @katyloftus)
. Carrie Plitt (agent at Conville & Walsh - @PlittyC)
. Sarah Jasmon (author - @sarahontheboat)

What was truly lovely about this session was that each of these fabulous ladies are establishing their careers and therefore their passion and hunger for it was obvious to see. For instance, Sarah's first book, The Summer of Secrets is out next year with Transworld, so has been edited by Katy and she is also represented by Carrie; it was like a production line of how a book comes together. 
   Their interest in us was also very encouraging. I tweeted them a day or two before to say how much I was looking forward to the session and they responded by saying that they were too, and that absolutely came across. Near the end of the session, Carrie asked what our books were about, but because there are 15 of us and we'd run out of time, we weren't able to go in to it, but at the end of the course we are to submit our opening chapters to the agents at both Curtis Brown and Conville & Walsh to have a look at (though this is not a formal submission).
   What stood out as the most encouraging was that someone like Sheila Crowley a couple of weeks ago, who it's fair to say is at the top of her game, and Carrie, who is just getting started are equally as excited and passionate about their industry. There's no sense of disillusion, as with a lot of other professions - the joy their industry gives them was palpable.

Then came the workshop on Thursday with Erin. This week we worked on dialogue. I found this incredibly interesting because there was so much to think about and get my teeth in to. A lot of what we were told, when you hear it, is that thing things where you go "oh, of course!" because they're such obvious rules for good writing and yet they're broken all the time when drafting. I'm guilty for breaking every single rule and it's only now going back over it that I realise it. 
   For example, one big cardinal sin is to let the writer's voice come through your characters. So, if I'm writing dialogue for a character that is (first thing that came in to my head) a Cockney fishmonger, he wouldn't speak the way I speak or use some of the words I would use to describe something. Similarly, had I come up with the character of the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey (I frickin' wish), I would have had to adjust how I think and zone in to that character instead of just writing as I feel. TPB's main character is a girl in her twenties so I suppose I took the easy route there but I know I'll challenge myself in the future and write a character who is so far removed from me and force myself to do some real work!
   I also enjoy some "erm"s and "aah"s and really, you ought to have about three or four of those in the books tops - unless of course it's a crucial character point. 
   Dialogue is also a brilliant way of implying narrative so you don't spend pages and pages with big blocks of telling. This is something I've used while going back through the book and polishing. I noticed that I do love me a tangent or two, especially when it comes to exposition, so thank god for dialogue!

Our homework this week was to record a conversation that we hear (up to us whether or not we let the person we're recording in on this!), then go home, transcribe and turn it in to a scene. This is to establish the difference between how people actually talk and how we think they talk when writing. Should be an interesting one! So if you see me lurking around you, phone in hand, finger poised, be warned...! 

EG xx


Monday 19 May 2014

Second Visiting Speaker Session and PO

Before I begin, can we just give a quick shoutout to this AMAZEBALLS weather we've been having?? Ugh. Just gorgeous.

Anyway...

Last week kicked off with an absolutely brilliant Visiting Speaker Session with Sheila Crowley, a literary agent from Curtis Brown and Maxine Hitchcock, a publishing director from Michael Joseph (an imprint of Penguin).
   I was already very much looking forward to meeting Sheila because as well as being an agent whose interests in the fiction she represents compliment TPB, one of her clients is Jojo Moyes, one of my favourite authors. I read The Last Letter From Your Lover when it first came out in, I think, 2010. I remember looking everywhere for it in the book shops in Ealing, where I used to live with Mum, and couldn't find it. Refusing to buy it online - as bookshops are literally my favourite places on earth - I ventured in to central London to the flagship Waterstones in Piccadilly and got one! Happy Days! 
   I remember buying it, settling myself down in one of the shop's comfy leather chairs and tucking in. As well as not being able to wait to read it, it was coming up to rush hour and I used to try and avoid that like the plague (though saying that, every hour is rush hour in London now isn't it?) so thought what better way to kill time than curl up with a book in Waterstones (which sometimes I like to pretend is my own personal library... *one day*). 
   In fact, this book was one of the inspirations for TPB - although I didn't know it until I sat down after I typed 'The End' and thought about what it was that had inspired me to start writing it in November 2012. 
   I would recommend Jojo's books to anyone and was utterly thrilled to meet her agent. So thrilled that I barely said a word for fear of looking stupid! 

Maxine was equally lovely and encouraging and gave us a brilliant insight as to what her world at Michael Joseph was like. It publishes highly commercial fiction (as well as popular fiction and non-fiction) and the few agents who have read the opening chapters of TPB have remarked that it has a high commercial appeal which is encouraging. 
   
So you can see that this was the week that really spoke to me and I took down tonnes of notes which I am trying to sit here and sift through (for the life of me I can't work some of them out, I must have been scribbling so furiously).

In fact, both ladies' enthusiasm and passion for the industry was a bit like a drug and I immediately went home, powered up Mac (that's his name - I'm so original and inventive, no?) and wrote like a demon, which I haven't done for a while because work has been so busy that I've just fallen in to bed when I got home. But this was something else - I was bouncing about on the bus, writing notes on what it was I wanted to get down once I got in, noting ideas for new books. I felt very refreshed (okay, tired but happy) when I woke up the next morning.

On to Thursday...

Last week's class was based around P.O.V (point of view). This was fascinating, and not because it was a lot to take in but because I had no idea that there were other ways to tell a story other than, really, first and third person. Yes, that can seem slightly ignorant but the books I read don't tend to come written in many other ways - not that that's a bad thing - and so it opened my eyes to a new world. 
   I actually really like writing in third person as opposed to first, not least because it allows me to see other things my protagonist may not if I were writing in the first. This was shown in the homework Erin gave us, which I actually found very challenging: we were tasked with taking a segment of our book and turning it from the P.O.V it was written in to the complete opposite. So, for TPB, I chose a part where my female lead meets a handsome jazz musician in Ronnie Scott's. It's all about her perceptions of him and how she feels in that moment, but from an outsider's view and doing it originally in third person allowed me to see the things Belle (my girl) may not take in to account when spotting a gorgeous, sexy acoustic guitarist. For instance, the third person may remark that the noise coming from Piotr's (sexy music guy) guitar were "caramel-smooth" but I know for a fact that Belle doesn't talk like that, so would have to use something else. It's quite difficult at first but once you get the hang of it, much easier. 
   Though I still say I like writing in third person, at least for this book, the point of the homework isn't necessarily because it will definitely work for us all but to provide us with an extra feather to add to our quill should we choose to use it and I am so glad to have these techniques to call upon if the need arose. 

Next week we have a three-person VSS with an author, an agent and an editor - exciting!!

Have a lovely rest of the week you scrummy lot.

EG xx

Sunday 11 May 2014

Week 2

Happy Sunday everyone!

I hope everyone's had a brilliant week. I managed to have an outstanding one! I met up with an old bestie, who was over from New York for the week, and his wonderful girlfriend. We had a stonking great big curry and countless beers. He moved to NYC about seven years ago and worked his socks off to become the successful guy he is today; I am so unbelievably proud of him. I came away with a huge smile on my face - catching up with friends you've known for years can turn a decent week in to a cracking one!

Another high point of my week was the continuation of the Curtis Brown Creative course. Yes, it was week two already though it was the first "two-day" week we would have. What I mean by that is that from now on, as well as the Thursday workshops, we will have a visiting speaker session on the Wednesday, when industry professionals (ie. agents, publishers, authors) will come in and talk to us about the business and allow us to ask any questions we want. This week we had Karolina Sutton, an agent at Curtis Brown and Arzu Tahsin, a deputy publishing editor at Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 

What an eye opener!

I was a bit too shy to ask questions - hopefully that will change over the coming weeks and I'll open my usually gobby gob - so instead I just soaked up all the info that was flying about my ears - thank god for my vocal course mates! 
   We were told about the process from signing with an agent to having your book published. Sometimes, if an author is very lucky, they're will be an auction for the book from different publishers and that's if the agent and author have decided not to go with a pre-empt (an offer of money for the book put on the table with a deadline to accept / decline). Then, the agent and author will meet with the different publishers in a boardroom-type environment and watch each publisher's pitch of their "vision" of the book which includes, marketing, cover and so on. It all sounded incredibly glamorous and even though you know not everyone is that lucky, one can't help but hope that's what happens to you and your book! 
   One thing that really struck me about both Karolina and Arzu was the "no bullshit" factor. They were completely straight with us about what it takes and what they expected from authors to be able to make it in this brilliant, demanding and competitive world. Sugar-coating was not a word I would use to describe it and you can't really ask for anything else, given that the reason we're all there is to get a real insight. No one has time to gloss over things and make it seems easier than it really is - I respected and appreciated that so much.

The next day, the Thursday, I had my one on one with Erin. I'd sent her a section of TPB to look at as it was a part that I wasn't sure worked. My book is quite high concept so ultimately I need it to be real and believable - as much as high concept things can be anyway. 
   It went so well!
   Erin really liked my idea for the book and says that I have a very clear voice that comes through in my writing which was nice. The best thing was that my story is believable - huzzah! This is apparently down to the fact that my bottom line is a very simple love story. So the higher the concept, the more grounded my story's bottom line needs to be, and I achieved that which is very encouraging. Erin also loved my male protagonist's name - I remember researching for a really unusual name that wouldn't look out of place in the time my book is partly set. I was very chuffed that that had gone down well! 
   As well as having thirty minutes with her, Erin had taken the time to make a page of notes that I can refer to and use to adapt my work accordingly. As expected, my "showing not telling" needs a lot of work. When examples of it were pointed out to me, I was like "duh!". It's so obvious when you get down to it and actually PAY ATTENTION. I tend to to write like I speak: without thinking. I don't plan anything, my fingers sort of just fly over the keyboard and then I hope for the best. 
   I was also given an idea for what to use when it's my turn to submit material for the workshop, so that's sorted! It's what Erin would call The Crunch of the story. When that week approaches, I'll explain in more detail.

In Thursday's class, as well as focusing on exposition, which I touched on last week, we also had to bring out the three extracts we were given from course mates the week before and give them our feedback. How scary, you ask? Very! For everyone, I think. No one wanted to give feedback first because, as I said before, it feels odd doing so to people you don't know well, but over the hour it got easier and people began to feel they could speak more freely and honestly, and I hope it was helpful for those who submitted work. 

Well! I've got to run as there's homework to do and another three extracts to read and make notes on. I never thought I would have this much fun doing homework - I told you I'd change my attitude, Miss Murphy (I'm just sorry it took ten years...)!

EG xxx 

Sunday 4 May 2014

First session

So! Thursday was my first session at the Curtis Brown course and it was fantastic!

Starting at the beginning, the weather was absolutely disgusting and so I had to battle down Regent Street with my umbrella, yelling "oi!" at people who whacked me in the head with theirs. Holding an umbrella, carrying two bags (one of them a "Books Are My Bag" bag, the material not being the most rain proof...) and stuffing noodles in to my mouth (which turned out to have a shitload of coriander in it and was therefore inedible) is NOT the one!
   Is it tourist season at the moment? There were so many of them all stopping in the middle of the street and you have to bite your tongue to avoid snapping, "This is NOT the way we do rush hour. Move!!!".

Anyway...

As some of you know, I won a coveted place on the Three-Month Novel-Writing course at Curtis Brown Creative and started this week. The first session was about 'getting to know you' and one of the first things we did was go around the table and introduce ourselves stating our name, age, profession, book title, a brief 'elevator synopsis' and how far through we are. 
   Being a total dumbass, I managed to get myself in to the position so that I went first. It was absolutely terrifying, but almost like ripping off a plaster so perhaps not such a bad thing. For those of you who aren't familiar, an 'elevator pitch' is briefing the others about your book in about sixty seconds. SIXTY SECONDS. My novel doesn't possess the most straightforward of story lines however I think I just about managed it. As one of our course tutors Erin remarked "Imagine pitching Cloud Atlas in sixty seconds!", so I didn't feel pressurised. It was just rather nerve-wracking.
   What was also a total trip was being in the Curtis Brown offices! I snapped a picture before going inside to Tweet:


   It was hard to believe I was standing outside these offices where so many amazing pieces of literature have been worked on, moulded and polished to become the bestsellers we know today. 
   In the foyer of CBC is a big bookshelf stacked with lots of new releases by authors represented by either Curtis Brown or Conville & Walsh (who have recently merged with CB). If you're a member of staff there, I don't imagine you'd be stuck for something to read very often. Though I'm certain the same could be said for every literary agency!

Going back to the boardroom, after everyone had pitched their books (which I have to say, sound so exciting!) we had a chat about the beginnings of a book coupled with exposition. We looked at an extract from Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty - funnily enough I finished this book two weeks ago and tweeted Louise to say how much I'd enjoyed it. If anyone is thinking about reading it, my advice to you would be DO IT. It's so exciting, but in an understated way that keeps the anticipation bubbling away inside you until that moment that makes you breath a sigh of what is either relief or horror and then makes you tumble head first in to the pages so that putting it down is not an option until your Kindle says you are 100% done. 
   The way the opening is written is so subtle and yet so exciting. We talked about any hints that were given about where the beginning is set, as in what is shown as opposed to told. This is certainly something I have a problem with so was brilliant to be able to see exactly what that meant right in front of me. I had an inkling before, sure, but now I know.

Before I knew it, the time was up. Gutted. Even more gutting was the fact that one of those evil headaches some of you know about was threatening to strike. 
   We were set some homework (homework!! If only the fourteen-year-old me had been as excited about homework, I may have obtained a decent number of GCSEs) which was to extract all the exposition from our opening chapters (background, history, basically anything that isn't happening in the here and now of that chapter). Then we were to do it with a novel we had read. Although not an inspiration for The Phone Box, the book I chose to work on - Unraveling Oliver - was a bit of an eye opener in turns of taking all the exposition out. Some of it is necessary, without a doubt, but it's amazing how much it changes the direction of the chapter and story in its entirety. 
   Lastly, we were given three extracts written by three different course mates. Our job is to constructively critique their work so that way they have fifteen peoples' feedback. I've never critiqued anything and feel funny about doing it to people who are relative strangers but hopefully it will be a help to everyone, as each week we will be receiving three extracts from each other. I think mine is due at the end of June *brings on frantic nail biting*!!

Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the first 'proper' blog post about the course. 

I am so excited to see what will happen in the next three months - keep having to remind myself how lucky I am to be in this position. 

Speak soon friends!
EG xxx  


Wednesday 30 April 2014

Tomorrow!!!

Oh my! I start the course TOMORROW!!! 

I can't believe it's come around so quickly. I wanted to look back at my first three chapters - as that's one part of everyone's books we will definitely be discussing - and spruce them up a little bit. Get rid of any unnecessary words and useless information and so on...
   
Over the last few days, I've been reading On Writing by Stephen King and that in itself has been a huge help. I haven't read any King for a while and it only served to remind me what a fabulous writer he really is. 
   It isn't a novel as such, more a collection of thoughts and advice on writing. He was mowed down in 1999 by a car and while he was recuperating he wrote this book, which is also part-autobiographical. What I love most about him is he completely cuts the bullshit and gives it to you straight. If you want to be a writer, you need to read and write as much as you possibly can. At one point he said something like

I'm a fairly slow reader but I get through about seventy or eighty books a year.

This threw me slightly, not least because this is him reading SLOWLY! I'm on my twenty-fifth so far for 2014, therefore I'd better hurry up, eh?? Saying that, we'll have to read and critique each other's works during the course, so maybe I can count them as another fourteen books...? #WishfulThinking
   Seriously though, if anyone out there is thinking of getting in to writing, I would highly recommend this book. He talks of grammar, what you need in your "toolbox" and also suggests other books to help you. It's made me want to read The Shining  and Carrie all over again!!

This week I entered a competition run by Grazia magazine - the First Chapter Competition. Rachel Joyce (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) has started the first chapter of a book, just a paragraph or so, and my job was to complete it in under a thousand words. I've spent the last couple of weeks doing that and I'm pretty happy with the finished product. I sent it off first to my lovely mentor Miranda Dickinson who gave me some brilliant constructive notes, so I edited away on Sunday evening and sent it off first thing on Monday morning. I was so nervous putting it in the envelope - like sending my baby away to University, possibly to be drawn all over with red pen! 
   I'm glad I did it though. Even if I don't win (prize is story published in Grazia magazine and an invite to the event at the Royal Festival Hall where I'll go on stage to collect my award, oh and £1,000 but balls to the money, I'd like the award!!) I'm really pleased to be pushing forward so strongly with the writing. It makes me feel like I'm doing something productive. 

Well, that's all for me for now! No doubt I'll blog after the first session tomorrow (gaaaaah!!) - wish me oodles of luck if you can! Seriously, so nervous.

EG xxx 

Wednesday 23 April 2014

It's Getting Closer...

Evening campers!

Got my 'Welcome' email from Curtis Brown on Tuesday which made me very excited indeed! It's getting ever closer now and I have to keep reminding myself that I have actually got this far and in a short time I will be walking in to those offices on Haymarket, taking a seat in one of the conference rooms and talking about WRITING and BOOKS! The two things that make me happier than anything in the whole wide world. It's a dream come true, really and it's happening. I hope it doesn't sound like I'm bragging or 'banging on' but I've not been short of knocks lately and it's a relief for something to be going the right way for a change! 
   As mentioned before, there's fifteen of us on board - very much looking forward to meeting everybody and seeing what their books are about. During the course, we each have to submit two bits of our book: the opening chapters and then another part of our own choosing and because of this, I will definitely be going back to TPB and having a look at the opening again. From when I posted it on here in my first blog, it seemed to have a rather good reception so I think that bit's okay for now - now for the rest of it! I don't have to submit my stuff until June which is great because that gives me ample time and I don't plan on wasting a second of it!
   We also received the times we will have for one-on-one sessions with Erin Kelly and Anna Davis, the course leaders. Erin wrote The Poison Tree amongst others and Anna, an author herself is the director of Curtis Brown Creative. I can't believe how lucky we are to be having flipping one-on-one time with industry professionals as well as Howard Jacobson, Freya North and Sheila Crowley. The only word that is bouncing round my head right now is "lucky". 

To go with this new chapter in my life, I've decided to get fit and healthy once and for all. Lord knows if I'll stick to it long term, but it's got to that time of year when summer dresses are being bandied about in magazines and in shops and there's one I've spotted that I've fallen head over heels in love with. 


Now then. Those of you who know I have stumps instead of actual legs may laugh - and we all know I'm not going to look like the pretty lady in the picture but I'm going to try my damned hardest!! This is exactly what happened last year. I saw a dress, I dieted / exercised and got in to said dress just in time for my birthday:

(Look Sarah, you made it on to my blog!! ;))

Ideally, I'd like a gaw-jus figure like my girl Sarah up there but then that is down to doing Zumba pretty much every day (as well as a fabby actress, Sarah is a Zumba instructor and a fabulous one at that. Interested? Click here) and I think I'm far too lazy for that but we shall see. First step to tackle is the diet! Seriously, that was getting ever so slightly out of hand but it's all good because I'm on it (promise, Mum, I am!). 
   It's bloody difficult though - this afternoon I got a proper bitch on at work because I'd deprived myself chocolate which around 4pm which, as all you people who work in offices will understand, is pretty crucial. It's always either coffee or chocolate and I'm in the latter camp!

I hope you enjoyed the short story I posted on here the other day. I was rather proud of it. Even my Mother liked it and didn't really have any criticism - and trust me, that's hard to come by, though it is always constructive. 
   That isn't to say that it can't be worked on - of course it can - but as my first short story, I was *silently* a little proud of myself. Quite liked the story actually so I may continue it as a series exclusively for the blog - ya never know!!

Anywho, bored you enough now I expect, but as always thank you for reading and I hope you're enjoying these daft musings of mine. 

EG xxx



Monday 21 April 2014

Short Story

So... I wrote a short story this evening for the blog. Think it'll probably be an ongoing series of short stories but it'd be great if you had a read and gave me some - constructive - feedback. Cheers all!

EG xx


*

I hate it in Here: it smells, it’s dark and everyone’s so miserable. Seriously, they walk around with faces so long they may as well tuck them in to their socks.
    The first day I arrived Here I was barefoot, having discarded those awful, thick clunky shoes as soon as I could, my clothes were still as brown and dreary as ever and I was absolutely famished.
   I’d gone on a hunger strike almost forty-eight hours before so by the time Sam paid me a visit, I was practically delirious with starvation and fatigue. They’d introduced the Cat and Mouse Act the year before and so now none of us could be forced to eat a scrap. Then, when we became so weak, we were released. If we then died outside of the prison, well, who was responsible but ourselves?
   There was a guard at the prison called Garner who used to enjoy chucking freezing cold water over me whenever I started to drop off – and that was at lights out. He really was a nasty piece of work; delighted in eating his lunch in front of me, all the while knowing that I hadn’t allowed food to pass my lips for what felt like days. Sometimes he’d offer me a slice of bread here, a cut of cheese there. Most of the time I refused, but there was one occasion when I simply couldn’t stand it any longer. I remember extending my hand and the food being snatched out of reach as quickly as it had been put there. Then he laughed at me. It was a cruel laugh – hard and fast like the sound a gun makes.
   The night Sam came, I was curled up like a foetus in the corner of my cell, the floor icy and hard beneath me. I had made a pact with myself that I would never let anyone in that place see me cry and I was true to my word. The five other women who were in there with me were fast asleep, using one another as a pillow so that they resembled one giant heap of laundry.
   So there I was: to all intents and purposes, completely emotionless, lying there like a corpse when I heard small footsteps running down the passageway that lined the cells. They were not the footsteps of an adult, more of a child. They were light and quick, not heavy and formidable like Garner. I sat up and scanned my surroundings. There was nothing out of the usual. A couple of lamps lit up the passageway, albeit dimly; the faint sound of the wind blowing in through the various cracks and crevices in the walls could just be heard and the woman a few cells away was performing her nightly ritual of crying for her children. Through the wailing, despite having been incarcerated for little over a month, I still hadn’t been able to decipher the names of said children.
   “Alithea…” My head whipped around so quickly it was like the name had struck me on the head.
   The voice was definitely coming from the passageway, its echoes bouncing off the stone wall.
   “Hello?” I whispered back in to the dimness. “Who’s out there?”
   A sharp, high-pitched giggle pierced the air as if in response to my question. It unnerved me and I shrank back in to the corner, hugging my knees to my chest as if somehow that would protect me.
   “Alithea!” My name was called out this time in a singsong way. If the whispering unnerved me, this frightened me.
   “Whoever’s there,” I hissed, “you need to leave. How did you get in here?”
   Another giggle answered me and that’s when I saw him. He was short, about four feet tall with jet-black hair that hung just below his shoulders. Dressed in a three-piece black suit and carrying a bright red umbrella, he waggled his fingers cheekily at me.
   “Good evening Alithea.”
   “Good evening,” I replied uncertainly.
   “Are you well?”
   “Not very.”
   “No? What’s the matter with you?”
   “I’m cold, I’m hungry, I’m tired and above all, I’m in prison.”
   Who this impertinent man-child was, was anyone’s guess but he was tiresome with his questions and I found myself being more than a tad irritable in my answers.
   “So sorry I asked,” he said, holding his hands up, hanging the handle of his umbrella in the crook of his arm as he did so. “Come closer.”
   For the moment I remained where I was, rooted to my spot in the corner. My hands were placed either side of me, fingers splayed over the floor in an attempt to find something tangible to keep me focused. This thing, whatever it was, alarmed me and made me feel unsafe. An emotion I was used to feeling, in all honesty, but now it was different.
   “Am I going to have to come in there?” he asked, inspecting his nails, which were longer than any I’d ever seen on a man, if that was indeed what he was.
   “How do you propose to do that?” I scoffed, which looking back now, seems like a rather foolish thing to have done.   
   “Close your eyes.”
   “I’d prefer not to.”
   “Close your eyes!” The sudden raising of the man’s voice was so unexpected I gave an involuntary yelp. My cellmates stirred but thankfully remained rooted to their slumber.
   I did as I was told, my heart hammering in my chest so loudly I could hear it in my ears.
   “Open.” There was that singsong voice again. With goosebumps springing up all over my body, I opened my eyes.
   The man was standing inches away from me.
   “How did you get in?” I spluttered. “There’s four locks on that door and the bars are far too close together for you to squeeze through!”
   He tapped his nose with his index finger and winked at me, something that made me balk.
   “Don’t you wink at me!”
   It was only then I noticed that he was exactly the same height as me, except I was sitting down.
   “Why are you here?”
   “I could ask the same of you.”
   “I’m a Suffragette.”
   “That’s not a reason.” He settled himself on a small lump of straw next to me.
   I paused before answering. “We vandalised a golf course.”
   “Is that all?”
   “It was no mean feat if that’s what you’re suggesting!” I was insulted at the tone of this man’s voice. He seemed to be mocking myself and the others for our efforts to get women the vote. Then again, I don’t know why I expected a man to understand.
   “Not for one second, my dear.” He put his hand on his heart and bent his upper body slightly.
   “What is it you want? How do you know my name?”
   “I’m Sam.”
   Relieved to have extracted one answer to a question out of him, I relaxed slightly.
   “How long have you been in here for?”
   “A little over a month.”
   “I don’t know how you do it.”
   “Self-belief and tenacity has something to do with it I expect,” I sniffed, picking an imaginary piece of lint off my skirts.
   “I’m here to make you an offer.”
   I looked slowly up at him, this strange little man. 
   “What sort of an offer?”
   “An offer that would get you out of here like that.” He clicked his fingers and the door to the cell swung slightly open. As I was staring at this, my mouth agog, Sam leaned in to my vision so that my focus shifted to him. “Interested?”
   I managed to pull myself together to put on my ‘business’ face. “It depends on the offer itself, obviously.”
   “Take a walk with me.”
   “A walk?” I repeated, an image of Garner springing instantly to mind, his foot coming down thick and hard in to the pit of my stomach as punishment for trying to get away.
   As if he’d read my mind Sam said, “If you decide to take me up on this offer then you needn’t come back here and no one will ever find you; though if you feel it isn’t for you, I will return you to this place and nobody will be any the wiser. Now how does that sound?”
   I had to admit, even though I was a staunch believer in our mission, I knew that I would almost certainly die if I stayed much longer. I’d suffered a miscarriage the year before on learning my husband had run off with another woman and now my body was much less resilient than it once was.
   “Very well,” I said, getting slowly to my feet. “Just a walk.”
   “Indeed.” Sam grinned, his white teeth glinting in the window’s moonlight. He started towards the door.
   “Just one thing.”
   He stopped and turned just his head towards me.
   “Who are you? Don’t say Sam.”
   He studied me for a long time as if weighing me up. 

   Finally, he spoke. “I’m the Devil.”

Saturday 19 April 2014

Happy Easter!

Hey hey!

Happy Easter weekend everybody! Hope you're all stuffing your faces full of Easter eggs, hot cross buns and looking forward to a nice big roast leg of lamb tomorrow :)
   I for one am staying indoors this weekend, writing my little socks off be it on my blog, various short stories I'm working on, my website or indeed, The Phone Box
   Speaking of the website, it's coming on rather well and I think I've got it to where it needs to be for now. It's nothing special, but just a little virtual space to call my own - plus who doesn't want their own website, right? Right guys??

My writing's kind of taken a bit of a hit this week: work was very busy what with it being a shorter week, my Mum went and broke her foot, poor thing, so I went over to look after her one night this week and last night I was hanging with my bestie. So you see, I've had little time and my poor little Mac's been feeling very neglected so I reckoned I'd give it some love and attention over the weekend. 
   I also said I might start posting some short stories on here, which is still something I very much intend to do, just as soon as I've got the ones I'm working on for two separate competitions out of the way. I hope you'd still like to read them :)

The Curtis Brown course starts on the 1st May! That's sooooo soon! As I thought I wouldn't, I haven't looked at my novel since I finished it. Is that a bad idea? I figure there's not much point trying to spruce it up before getting proper industry advice as to how I can do just that. I'm determined to make like a sponge a soak up every bit of information I can whilst there. A once in a lifetime chance does exactly what it says on the tin: this opportunity will only come along once and I'd be a fool to let it pass me by. 

I think a future post might even contain a Q&A session about the book. Some questions I'll make up myself and others you can ask me via Twitter, on Facebook or simply email me here (if that doesn't work then just use authoremglen@gmail.com). 

That's all for now my lovely Easter bunnies! Have a fantastic rest of your weekend and please do stuff the diet and stuff your faces instead :)

EG xxx







Monday 14 April 2014

The Plan!


S'up blog readers! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather and if you didn't have beautiful weather, well, you ought to know it was super sunny and hot in London ;)
Anywho, so it's been a week since I completed the first draft of my first book. I actually haven't touched it since! I've stayed well clear from it and will probably only look back on it, at the very most, once in between now and starting the Curtis Brown course. Daft as it may sound, I'd rather it was in a bit of a state, a "first draft state", if you will, in order for me to learn as much as I can.
   In the meantime, I've been working on a short story for a competition - the Sunlounger Short Story Competition - which means me submitting a one to three thousand word short story with a setting that takes place abroad. As far as I can gather, it's a book that will be filled with short stories written by well known and established authors of today.
   I've never written a short story before so had no idea where to start, nor how much information to give, what was necessary, what wasn't etc. So I've done my best and finished one - of probably three - I am going to submit. It may sound slightly greedy but as three is the maximum number of stories one can submit, that's what I'm going to do to give myself the best chance of being selected.
   So that's one down and another two to go!I have also decided to write some short stories occasionally for the purposes of this blog only. It'll keep the writing juices flowing and the best way to learn the "right way to write" is to keep doing it. By "right way", I mean grammatically of course, and learning about syntax. So far, the most feedback I've had from online forums is that I need to learn to tell the story without giving away too much, or spoon-feeding the reader. So maybe when I post stories on here, you guys can tell me what you think and certainly let me know if I'm giving you too much when I don't need to...? Any feedback you could give me so that I can "hone my craft" - to sound like an utter wanker - would be much appreciated.
   Another thing I'd like to add to the blog is to add book reviews. This year, I've read twenty-two books, and I'm rather pleased with that. It might not sound like a lot to some people who can put away two a week but coupled with writing my first book and work, I'm pretty chuffed. Then again, I suppose it isn't something that takes an enormous amount of effort when it's one of my favourite things to do.
So there we have it - THE PLAN. Thanks for reading :)


EG xxx

Monday 7 April 2014

First Draft Done!

   Yesterday was a good day for me.

   Yesterday, for the first time EVER, I completed the first draft of my book; and not just any old book of mine - the book! Please understand, that ever since I started writing, when I was around eleven, I have had many, many ideas buzzing around my head. The trick is to keep them there long enough to put them down on to paper and make something of them. This is the first time that I have ever written a full-length book; I guess the first time that I have so strongly believed in something to complete a first draft.



(Yes, I was that excited I took a picture of the final page!)



   Now the hard stuff starts: I have to try and edit the thing! A wonderful author friend of mine, Miranda Dickinson, said that the best bit is writing the first draft, because you get to have fun with it and basically go wherever you want to go with it. Your imagination can run wild. It's after that when you're forced to take a second, third, fourth (and sometimes fifth, sixth and seventh) look at it that you need to knuckle down, be serious and think about what it is your potential readers will want to read.
   I had no intention of finishing the first draft yesterday, but it did become clear throughout the day that my story was wrapping itself up nicely and I didn't want to stretch it to exactly 100k words just for the sake of it, so it came in at 87, 581k words instead. However, you never know, I may end up cutting about 20k words and putting 40k back in. That's all part of the process, really.

   What I really need to work on is how to engage people in the first couple of chapters without spoon-feeding them or giving away too much. That's been the general feedback, but I honestly don't really know what it means. As my manuscript is my "baby", I can't work out what to change, and obviously think that everything in those two chapters is necessary - though I know that isn't realistic. That is definitely something I'll be voicing with the CBC course tutors; I'm sure they'll have a much better idea than I do.

  I am so excited about starting the course, it's silly! I've been reading up as much as I could about the course and just can't wait to get stuck in. We'll be given 'homework' and projects to prepare for every class - if only I'd been this enthusiastic at school, eh?!

   Anyway, just a little update on how things are going. I'll keep giving little updates - when I'm not banging my head against the desk - and then when the CBC course starts, I'll be going full pelt with the blogging. I hope you stay with me on my journey!

EG xxx

Saturday 5 April 2014

Let's Start At The Very Beginning

I created this blog a while ago when I was feeling particularly rubbish after having left my previous job and gaining about the same amount of weight that Sharon Osborne has had sucked out of her derrière (which, I believe is a lot). 
The first post was basically me playing a tiny violin, lamenting these two events and other none-too brilliant things that were going down at the time. As soon as I pressed 'Publish', I deleted it - but not before one particular person, and I genuinely don't know who, got a chance to read it. That person would have seen what was going on in my little head at the time and boy, it wasn't pretty, so whoever you are - sozzles!
   However, I have started up again with the blog because I was rather smugly pleased about the title of it (and let's face it, the background is as camp as Chloe and fabulous!).

In the last five weeks I have been working as an agent's assistant at Lovett Logan Associates, which I absolutely love. Suits me down to a tee and my colleagues are the best (hi, Carina!). Though that isn't really what this blog is about, it's certainly contributed to my life turning around enormously in recent times. That and my wonderful H.
   The real reason I've started blogging again is because I'm about to embark on a scary three-month long adventure with regards to my writing. As some of you may or may not know, I am in the process of writing my first novel. It's going very well and it's fair to say I'm nearly finished, which is very exciting. I'm aiming for about 100k words, and so far am at approximately 75k. A couple of months ago, I applied to be one of fifteen course members on a writing workshop run by Curtis Brown and their Creative Dept. This involves sharing excerpts of my book with the rest of the course mates, the literary agents at Curtis Brown / Conville & Walsh and the course itself is run by Anna Davis (the Head of Curtis Brown Creative) and Erin Kelly (author of novels such as The Poison Tree). Not only that, near the end of the course, there is a drinks reception for the course members, agents and publishers where we have a chance to mingle and personally pitch our book.
   Not thinking for one second that I stood a chance, I applied with the first two chapters of my book and a one-page synopsis. Considering every large literary agency receives about five hundred submissions a week, you can only imagine how many people applied to be a part of this. I found out on Thursday that I only went and got the bloody thing!!!

At about five o' clock, I received an email from Anna saying that she and her colleague Rufus Purdy had greatly enjoyed reading my material and wanted to offer me a place on the course.
   To think that someone at Curtis Brown actually believes I can write, or at least that my writing has merit is a huge boost and something I have been dreaming of since being a little girl. Writing is a passion for me like no other. Not even acting could have come close to how I feel about writing. The fact that I'm being allowed to move forward in this way with the only book I have ever felt strongly enough to attempt to write a full manuscript about it, is one of the most positive things that has ever happened to me. Considering 2014 started out - and parts of it continue to be - pretty shitty, one can only hope that this is the start of things looking up and turning around.

So to sum up, this is what the blog will be about. My time at Curtis Brown Creative and how I get on afterwards. It is in no way a guarantee that I will secure an agent - and maybe even a publishing deal - by the end of it, but I would be lying if I didn't hope it was a serious possibility.

I hope you enjoy reading it, as I am really looking forward to blogging about it and making a virtual memory. To start with, I'm going to post the opening few lines of the book to give you a taste! Enjoy!

EG xxx

PS: I would just like to point out that none of this would be possible without my beautiful, kind H. My most loyal supporter and biggest fan - all of which is returned in abundance.



This is a story that starts with a box.

A phone box.
A red phone box in Piccadilly, central London, Coventry Street. It has a heavy-hinged door, a distinct human smell one could only associate with London and a slot where your money goes.

On this street, there are two red phone boxes that stand next to each other. One points West towards Piccadilly and the other points East towards Leicester Square.

Our phone box, the one in our story, is the one that points towards Leicester Square. It stands outside a restaurant called TGI Fridays, opposite the Trocadero complex, and is actually one of the oldest phone boxes in London. Due to its shabby exterior, one would be forgiven for thinking it was no longer in use, and they may well be right. However that was not the case in the early hours of a Sunday morning in June 1999…