Hey diddle de dee -a writer's life for me- Linda strachan

We writers are emotional beings. We live in our heads but our emotions rule.

Perhaps it is because we spend so much time living our characters' lives, feeling their joys and sorrows and getting angry or sad for them. We journey through their roads of despair and frustration when we make things go wrong in their lives - as they always must, or there would be no story to tell.
For that very reason it is only on rare occasions that we can share their elation and joy when everything is going well.  Because as soon as we do we are plotting ways to make it all go horribly wrong again.

While all these emotional roller coasters are swooping around in our heads as we play God with our characters, in the big world outside we have families, commitments and other pressures to contend with.

As if that was not enough there are the emotional highs and lows, the joys and frustrations of being a writer....
 
8.30am  Full of enthusiasm for the day, determined that  lots will get written which will, without doubt turn out to be a bestseller.

9.00am  Phone call from  publisher who says YES! to a new book- Celebratory wild dance around the house-  until a neighbour is looking strangely at you through the window. Make coffee and prepare to start writing.

10.00    Notice that someone has written a scathing review on Amazon - depths of despair.



11.00  An invitation arrives by email to take part in a great new project, praises abound for your  skill and expertise. no one else will do.

12.00  The morning is over and not a word written - It is surely all rubbish anyway- can't write at all, should give it all up. Decide to give it one last try and find the flow.... just as the phone rings.

1pm   It is a call from mother she is unwell and needs to be taken to the doctor, NOW!

2pm  Check email on phone while at doctor's to discover there has been a spelling error on an advertising brochure for a festival you have been invited to. Unfortunately thousands have been printed already calling you not a writer but a Best Selling WILTER!  You check the dictionary to find out what a wilter is.
  

3pm    Arrive home determined to get an hour or two of solid writing before the day becomes a complete disaster and settle down, losing yourself in the domestic mayhem that surrounds your characters following the car accident you created yesterday ' just to spice things up a bit'.  You discover you have incapacitated a main character and written yourself into a corner. Aaargh!

4pm   Stomping around the room you step on the cat's tail, knock over your half drunk cup of coffee onto a pile of new books you had forgotten to put away and an important letter you should have posted yesterday.


5pm. After clearing up the mess you decide to take your mind off it to see if your subconscious can work out the problem with the plot while you mess about on facebook, and Twitter,and read a few blogs.
 
5 mins to 6  You have the solution.  Elated and typing furiously you are completely lost in the best thing you have written for ages, it is really happening on the page and nothing can stop you now...

6pm    The door bangs and your partner arrives back from work tired and hungry, asking if you are ready to leave because the reservation for the restaurant is for 7 and the traffic is dreadful.

 Your characters are in limbo, half reaching for each other, in mid argument, freeze framed.

 With your head still in their world, you close down the computer and attempt to look delighted as you prepare to leave them behind for an outing that had seemed like a good idea  just a few days before.



Little wonder that at times we feel we have writer's block, that nothing will work and ideas seem to turn to dust,when every plot line rolls off uselessly, like tumble weed blowing haphazardly into the wilderness.

Perhaps, as we live in our heads this is our subconscious telling us that it is time for a rest, a break from the constant highs and lows, time to re group, to let ideas float around in the air without trying to pin them down.

Even when it seems like there will never be another idea worth chasing to the rainbow's end,  eventually, like rising from a good sleep our creative self emerges unscathed as if nothing has happened and we are ready to dip into other worlds and explore our characers and their emotions again.

What a delight!




Linda Strachan is an award winning author of over 60 books for children of all ages from picture books to teenage novels and a  writing handbook  Writing for Children
website www.lindastrachan.com

Well Past Midnight - Linda Strachan

 When I first started writing it was such an exciting time.

I had discovered, much to my amazement, that I might be able to put words together, express my thoughts and bring stories out of my head in a way that made people want to read them, even publish them.

Who would have thought?
 
This new part of my life was uncharted territory. I had no real expectations because I had never dreamt this was something I could do. I didn't know anyone who was a published writer so I knew nothing about what it would be like. But what I did know was that I had found something that I loved doing and I wanted to spend all my spare time writing.

I never had any expectations of.making a fortune, it was the excitement of being allowed, and encouraged, to create characters and stories. Being able to give myself permission, having a good excuse to spend hours scribbling in a notebook or on the laptop.  I was living lives other than my own, crafting words that would take the images in my head and create them in a reader's mind.



This excitement meant that I was writing in the evenings, at the weekend, when we went away for a break or a holiday I would take the laptop and a notepad so that I could write.











It also meant that I would find myself writing late into the night - I particularly enjoyed the quiet, atmospheric feel of the early hours, well past midnight, when darkness enveloped the world outside the circle of light that was my workplace.

That was then, but as time went on things changed and although the excitement of writing and crafting a story is still there my writing life has changed.  I spend a lot more time travelling - to events, schools and festivals etc, and there seems to be a whole lot more time spent on paperwork and other things that are not actually writing.  I am not unhappy about this because every day I wake up delighted that this is my job, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  It's just that it's different now.

Yesterday I went to listen to a masterclass by award winning author/illustrator Oliver Jeffers. It was fascinating. He talked about his picture books, his art and his life.
You can see his great Authors Live event on BBC iplayer here Scottish Book Trust's Authors Live event
  

Oliver Jeffers

During the question and answer session he was asked - with all the things he does, how did he manage his time? 

He said he used to work all day and then also work in the evenings and at weekends, in fact all the time.  There was no definition between working time and non-working time.  
Now when he leaves his studio at the end of the day he doesn't take work home, although he said he always carries a notebook for the odd sketch or notes if an idea strikes.

This struck a cord with me and I recall when I made the same decision.  When I started writing full time  I started to set aside time when I was not writing  - because writing, the joyful hobby, had become a full time occupation.  It doesn't mean that I don't have ideas or think about writing at these times, but I find that having time away from whatever I am working on means that when I come back to it I approach it with renewed energy. Often the solution to a plot or character problem seems obvious.
 I do still sometimes write late into the night but much less often I used to.

 Do you have defined non working/writing times? 



Linda Strachan writes books for all ages - picture books to teenage novels and a writing handbook Writing for Children
Website www.lindastrachan.co.uk

Blog Bookwords 

Ideas and Creativity - They are fragile things. Linda Strachan

A strange thing happened to me recently.  I was given an idea.
It was given into my care.  I can't wait to use it.

It happened when I got chatting to a chap who was sitting beside me on a plane, returning from a school visit to Cairo a few weeks ago. It turned out that we had both been on the same plane leaving from London at the beginning of the week. In fact we had exchanged a few words of courtesy, as one sometimes does with fellow travellers, while waiting in a queue.
So when we ended up sitting next to each other on the way home, we struck up a conversation. The usual thing about the reasons we had been travelling, the kind of work we each did etc.  During this conversation we got to talking about writing and he told me how he had written a story when he was at school, the only fiction he can recall writing.  He told me a little about the story and I was intrigued.


I found the central idea fascinating and immediately I found myself exploring ideas, and different scenarios started bouncing about in my head.

He told me his English teacher had not been too impressed with his story because it was not the piece of writing his teacher had wanted. They had been doing research on a subject and the teacher had assumed the essay would be about this subject and not an imaginative piece of writing.

Now, while I can understand that a teacher would be irritated by the end result not being what he had expected, although from what I understood it had not been made clear that the work had to reflect the classwork, I cannot understand why that teacher was quite so destructive in his comments.

The chap said that afterwards he had never felt any inclination to write anything again.  While he had been telling me about what his teacher had said to him I could see that there was an underlying resentment that his work, his enthusiasm for the idea that he had turned into a story, had been discarded so brutally. Not  with a comment such as   'This wasn't what I was looking for.'  which might have been fairly reasonable, but he was told that he had

" ..wasted four hours of his life, with this rubbish!"

He said he wondered why he had even told me the story because he hadn't thought about it for years . But even after all this time, it was obvious that it had been a deep cutting remark that stayed with him. I asked if he wouldn't perhaps write the story now, since the idea was obviously one he was still taken by.
But he said no, he wouldn't, but if I wanted to I was welcome to use it and if it got published, perhaps I could name him in the credits.  Watch this space!

His story reminded me of how I used to believe I had no imagination because when I was about seven my teacher had actually written in my report card    
               'Lacks imagination'. 
The problem was that I believed her and wore that description like a badge. It never occurred to me that she might be wrong. It may even have been the reason why I never considered the possibility of becoming a writer until I had was an adult with children of my own.   I sometimes wonder if teachers are actually aware how much power they have to nurture or damage that fragile creativity in children.

Creativity is a fragile thing that can be easily wrecked and shattered by destructive criticism, no matter what age you are.  It is one reason why I deliberate and use careful language when I am asked to evaluate someone's writing.   Most writers are fragile about their work, me included. It is important to get honest evaluation of your writing but we also need to hear good things about what we do, because most of us don't think we are any good, or at least not good enough.  It is not that we are looking for flattery, because empty praise is useless indeed.



A few days ago I was watching a re run of one of the Parky interviews with Kenneth Williams.  One of the other guests was Sir John Betjeman and at one point they were talking about critics and press cuttings.

Sir John Betjeman said he read them with dread because he believed anything that was said against him was true, and that anything said in his favour was flattery.  He said he never believed he was any good at all!


 How much does criticism affect you?




Linda Strachan writes books for all ages, from picture books to teenage novels and the writing handbook Writing for Children
Website www.lindastrachan.co.uk

Blog Bookwords where you can find out more about her trip to MES Cairo

To Boldly Go - Linda Strachan

Twenty years ago if you had told me I would be writing this today I would probably have laughed at the very idea.  I had no real aspirations to be a published writer, in fact it was not even on the horizon. I got my first publishing contract in 1996 and I have never looked back.  Today I can't imagine why I didn't start writing long before that.

I often tell my young audiences  'I have the best job in the world'

Having a job doing something you love is a delight and a privilege, even if it is almost scary (just in case someone decides that you are actually a fraud and stops letting you do it any more!).  To discover that a book I have written has encouraged someone to start reading is wonderful.  To hear that someone has enjoyed reading my books or is encouraged to start writing themselves because of something I have said or written, lights up my day.

I'm not saying there aren't times when it is hard and things are not quite so wonderful.  It seems like all doom and gloom out there, with all the problems that libraries, librarians and  school librarians are having with closures, no funding and job cuts, and the retail side of things being squashed until there are so few bookshops left; not to mention publishers and publishing contracts being even harder to come by.

But despite all that.....


But what's not to like?


I wake up in the morning and I get to be anyone or anything I like.

A  'booky' dragon or perhaps a secret agent,

 a teenager, a five year old child, a man or a woman, a boy or a girl

or a cuddly haggis!

Hamish McHaggis (illus Sally J Collins)

  
                            





Sometimes even an alien...
                                             

Zoola (Illus. Julian Mosedale)

Becoming something or someone else has its drawbacks and I have to admit that sometimes my characters, particularly the teenage ones, have a bit of a hard time and often tears are involved.

But I believe in being positive and I believe in the possibilities of the future so somewhere, even in the harshest story, there is a always glimmer of hope.




Another great part of my job is research.  I find out so many fascinating things because I often find myself having to write about things I know nothing about.  I need to do research and that leads to discovering all sorts of fascinating facts about things I never knew I had any real interest in!

 Fizzkid Liz  (Illus Woody)

I was once writing a story about a girl who had a time travelling pogo stick (...well why not?) and she ended up in prehistoric times.
I had to find an expert who knew where a pterodactyl would build its nest - whether it was in a tree or on a cliff, or somewhere else.  So I made a phone call or two and it turns out pterodactyls were all different sizes and also there is no hard evidence about where they built their nests, which was good news because it meant that to a certain extent I could make it up and it would still be right.

I've discovered that people can be incredibly helpful when they find out you are a writer, researching for a book.

 I've been invited to see the emergency services in training and had a chance to find out about police dogs and horses and armed response units.



Part of my job involves a fair bit of travelling.  I travel to visit schools, nurseries, libraries, festivals, conferences, writing groups and writing retreats and I have been invited all over the UK to places as far apart as Shetland, Kent, Cardiff and Tiree.

Last year I lucky enough to go to New Zealand where I was invited to visit schools in North Island and met lots of great children and teachers there.  I was also in Sydney to speak to the Sydney Writers about writing for children and in a few weeks time I will be travelling to Cairo to speak at an International school there.

I love seeing new places,  meeting new people and hearing their stories, whether they are about a child's escaping rabbit, or their hope to become an author, or an astronaut.  And it's not just the children who have fascinating stories to tell.   I hear stories of ordinary lives that are full of heroism and daily acts of courage.  There are truly stories everywhere, if you stop to listen.

I have the best job I could imagine. There are times it is very hard work and exhausting, and when the writing is difficult and not working out right which makes me want to throw it all in the bucket.  

There are other times such as when my first teenage novel, Spider, won the Catalyst Book Award - voted by teenagers themselves - that are moments of pure gold!

There will always be disappointments but also moments of joy, and wonderfully supportive colleagues in the other writers I meet.


So for me, this is definitely the best job in the world!


Linda Strachan writes books for all ages, from picture books to teenage novels and the writing handbook Writing for Children
Website www.lindastrachan.co.uk
Blog Bookwords

What's in a name? - Linda Strachan

It may have caused havoc for the star crossed lovers, but as Shakespeare's Juliet famously said -



"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."




What does your name say about you? Does the person become the name or does the name mould the person?


In the Johnny Cash hit song 'A boy Named Sue' the main character's father named him 'Sue' to make him tough...

"I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named "Sue."

"Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,..'

but it wasn't something he was going to repeat himself..

And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him

Bill or George! Anything but Sue!

How often have you heard a name that conjures up an image even before you meet the person? Is there a Sandra or a Melanie, a Kevin or a Jack who comes to mind when you hear the name, reminding you of a positive, or much worse, a negative experience?

Very occasionally I meet someone whose name just doesn't seem to fit them.
I know someone whose name is Bill, but every time I see him the name Paul comes into my head. I have no idea why, he just looks as if he should be called Paul.

It's not something that has happened often, but again recently I met a teacher in a school whose name didn't seem to suit her, either. The name just didn't fit the person I saw, and I had a bit of a problem remembering her name because of it.
Perhaps it is just me, but has this ever happened to you?

How important is the name you choose for your child?
It is a badge they will likely wear for most of their lives but have little choice in themselves.  

Baby names often vary with the times, with children named after popular TV series characters who are long forgotten, or celebrities who are no longer famous by the time the child is entering high school.

Then there are those bizarre spellings, a real pitfall for any author at a book signing!

Choosing a name for your characters involves thinking about lots of different things and it throws up a few possible plot ideas, too.

•  Is it a name that reflects their age, their background, their personality?
• Does their name matter to them? Is it a positive or negative force in their lives?
• Is it something another character might make a fool of, or turn into a nickname?
• Is theirs a family name?
• Perhaps they have a their surname that might have complicated problems attached to it?

In fact the way your character thinks about their name and how they react, or deal with problems it may cause, can tell so much about their state of mind and their personality and frailties.


In a recent post on Picturebookden Blog  Paeony Lewis explored how some picturebook authors go about choosing their characters' names.  Some people use names of people they know, others need to know the names of their characters before they start to write because it is such an important part of the character.


Do you have a problem with names? Do you need to choose your characters' names before you start to write about them or does the name come along later?

Is there a character in a book you have read whose name seemed particularly right, or just plain wrong?

What's in a name?



Linda Strachan writes books for all ages, from tots to teens and writing handbook Writing for Children A & C Black
Website www.lindastrachan.co.uk
Blog Bookwords

...........

Eco-friendly discoveries, secrets and... an admission - Linda Strachan

I have to admit that I am not always the best recycler. 
I do try... most of the time... honestly.    But to my shame, I have to admit that the odd poly-bag or tin, which I could recycle and normally do, will sometimes end up chucked in the bin.  When my children come to visit I have found myself waiting until they are out of the room before I dispose of ..whatever it is - so that they don't see and reproach me for it!  They are so good at recycling - I must have brought them up well, I suppose.


The one thing I am great at recycling is paper. 
 
I like to write on my computer but I find I also have to print out chapters, and sometimes entire books, to read away from the computer screen.  I'm not quite sure why, but I can see the entire book clearer in my head when I read it on paper and I often spot mistakes in the text more easily when it is printed out, rather than reading it on screen.  
  
I also like to make notes on the text - not just when working on a picture book, as in the picture opposite - and I often draw lines to indicate where text should move to or what I want to cross out (and sometimes write back in again). I couldn't easily do all that on a computer and it feels right working like that.
I wonder if it is part of the creative process, similar to the way that I prefer to write on the computer than by hand. It's just the way it works for me.

So I use a lot of paper.  

 I have just realised that it is 16 years since 1996 when my first series of books were published.  In that time I have written more than the 60 books that have been published, because there are all those finished and half written short stories and novels, which linger in the cupboard never likely to see the light of day.  In most cases they never should!  I have mentioned these before in a post I wrote a while back http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/2009/04/living-in-cupboard-linda-strachan.html

Now I have to admit to being a bit of a hoarder, and even discounting the final versions of the published books, which I keep for sentimental reasons, there are many boxes of discarded versions and unfinished work that remain.  I know it is ridiculous and I should throw them away, especially as most of them are also saved in electronic form but...

So every now and then I do a cull and weed out some of the manuscripts and various versions of unpublished stories putting them all to one side, but I don't throw them away because paper that is printed on only one side is perfectly reusable,

as long as it is not crumpled, like this, and likely to stick in my printer!

I put all this used paper in the empty box my printer paper originally came in, and it is ready to use again.   Also, when I am sent papers in the post, or any sheets of paper that are not confidential, I place in this box so that I can use it to print out what I am writing, or recipes I want to use, or any other of a hundred things that don't need to be printed on a fresh piece of paper.

Now I know this is not unusual, I am sure many of you may do this -  but recently I was about to throw away one of these sheets which I had reused when I turned it over and started reading the story printed on the other side.  This has now happened several times and I have enjoyed dipping in, a bit of a lucky dip, not quite knowing what I would read next.  The paper had been mixed up when I cleared it out, so it is in no particular order.


One word of warning to all happy paper recyclers.  Do make sure that you check before you pass on to other people anything printed on recycled papers.  Make sure there is nothing confidential or worse, embarrassing, written on the other side!  

I recall sending a manuscript to an agent once, many years ago, and when I got it back I came across a piece of paper with a scribbled note on it.  I discovered it was a message his assistant had left for him, about a dental appointment, which I imagine may have been put down on his desk and picked up with the manuscript.  

Now this seemed innocuous enough at first except that the scribbled note was on the back of a letter which had quite a lot of fascinating and financial information about a deal he was negotiating on behalf of one of his clients. 

Don't ask me more, my lips are sealed - but recyclers BEWARE!


...........................

Linda Strachan is the award winning author of the Hamish McHaggis series, YA novels Spider and Dead Boy Talking and writing handbook Writing for Children
Website www.lindastrachan.co.uk
Blog Bookwords

Beginnings, endings and Christmas - Linda Strachan

 
Yesterday I got my first Christmas card.
Despite the fact that December has only just arrived, already we are inundated with Christmas images, (apologies for adding yet another) and Christmas sales promotions.


I know some people are organised and are already preparing for Christmas but it all seems a bit too soon for me- I am not quite ready to throw myself into festive preparations, quite yet.  I am still in writing mode



I went on my last school visit of 2011 yesterday, and it was wonderful.

Hamish McHaggis and his Hoggle

The P1 and P2 classes at St Ninian's RC Primary in  Livingston had done a huge amount of work based around my Hamish McHaggis books. 

The Hamish McHaggis Whirry Bang

Including making their own Hoggle (Hamish's home) and versions of  his Whirry Bang (car)




 And on my last school visit of the year I was able to tell them about a new beginning, the latest Hamish book which is coming out next spring  
Hamish McHaggis and the Great Glasgow Treasure Hunt  
I also showed them one of the beautiful drawings Sally J Collins  has done for the new book.

This is always an exciting time, when I see my words and her pictures coming together.


Writing  a picture book involves, for me, a very visual approach. I think visually when I am writing, seeing it in my mind's eye and that is not so different whether it is picture books or novels.

But the difference with a picture book is that someone will be drawing the pictures on paper instead of the reader creating them in their mind.  So I think about what the pictures might look like, and I read the story out loud so that I can remove any extra text that is unnecessary and evident from the images on the page but also so as the book reads easily for the parents or children who will be reading it aloud.

Working with Sally on the Hamish books, as I have done now for several years, it is easy to imagine what the images will look like but other times when I have worked on picture books the end result is so different to the pictures I had in my head that it has often taken a while to adjust.  Thankfully almost always the result is excellent, just different!

As often happens I have also been working on something else, at the same time.
At the moment I am completing the first draft of my new YA novel and it couldn't be more different.
Spider and Dead Boy Talking are both gritty hard hitting stories, with real life themes including knife crime, car theft and bad decisions often leading to terrible consequences for my characters, so they are about as far from a cuddly haggis as you could imagine.
The new book Don't Judge Me is in a similar vein.  

But perhaps that makes it easier to move from one to the other as I am writing. It certainly adds variety and means that, as happened earlier this week, I can be speaking to 14 or 15 year olds and children at a nursery - all on the same day.  It certainly keeps me on my toes!

So as the frosty nights arrive and the days are ever shorter I am not quite ready to discard 2011 yet.  There are in fact another 28 days to go and most of them are before Christmas!

Are you finishing, starting or preparing for Christmas? 


------------


Linda Strachan is the  author of the Hamish McHaggis series, YA novels Spider and Dead Boy Talking and writing handbook Writing for Children
Website wwwlindastrachan.co.uk
Blog Bookwords

Collaborating or flying solo? - Linda Strachan

Writing is normally a solitary occupation and I rather like that about it.

Tuscany- my shed

There is that feeling of living with and in your characters' heads, so beautifully expressed in Ellen Renner's ABBA post a couple of days ago Visitors From the World Called Imagination    

I like to slope off to Tuscany (my shed), to disappear into another place or time, and live in my head for a while.


I am not sure I know where the ideas and characters come from but I find that nothing will kill off my enthusiasm for a story idea more than  plotting it all out before I begin to write.

I prefer to discover the plot alongside my characters and feel all their uncertainty and excitement.

Without this I lose that tingle in my spine and the sense of wonder and endless possibilities that make writing such a delight and pleasure.  I have to admit that sometimes it can also become incredibly hard if I lose my way, and I imagine that those who plot carefully before they begin at least have signposts to keep them on track.  Unfortunately each time I try to plot a story out chapter by chapter beforehand, it all too soon begins to feel a bit flat.



Some writers have written successful collaborations but I've always wondered how they did it.  What was the mechanism? Were they working together bouncing ideas off each other, throwing around phrases or dialogue while one wrote it all down or working separately, each adding different segments of the story?

I once wrote part of a novel with another writer in the form of letters between two characters who knew nothing of each other to start with. Each of us took one character and replied to the previous letter as suited the character and their temperament. It was a lot of fun being really stroppy and fascinating to see how the characters developed and changed as the story progressed and they drew nearer to meeting each other.  It was never finished as other writing commitments got in the way, but it might be interesting to come back to it one day.

from  Hamish McHaggis

  Working closely with an illustrator - as I have for some years with Sally J. Collins on the Hamish McHaggis books -  is again a different way of working.

It is a collaboration but, although I have written the storyline before Sally begins her pictures, writing a picture book is quite different than writing a novel and I find myself looking forward to seeing her ideas for the pictures

Linda Strachan - working on Hamish McHaggis

We find that the books grow much more organically as we work together, with images and text evolving and progressing in tandem.

 It's been a couple of years since the last one, but our latest book Hamish McHaggis and the Great Glasgow Treasure Hunt is the 10th book in the series and it's good to be back working with Sally again.  The new book is currently being completed and will be published in the spring of 2012.



In the last month or two I have also been involved in a couple of other collaborative stories that have been just a bit of fun but I find that writing short pieces sparked off by other writers, is a great way to keep my 'imagination' muscles working!

The Bath Kidlitfest Big Blog Story was a collaboration of writers and bloggers, 20 in all, and worked a bit like the game you may have played as a child called 'Consequences '.

The ABBA contribution was written by four of us, Joan Lennon, Dianne Hofmeyr, Lucy Coats and myself  and we all added our own bit to the story, each writing about 250 words to make up the 14th chapter.  With a new chapter of the story being posted every couple of days it was a bit of a scramble to read the previous entries and find time to write our own part within the specified time.

It was interesting to follow the story and try to see where it might go next. It turned out to be a very strange tale indeed, and nothing was quite what you expected.  On the last day it was cleverly rounded off by Jeremy Strong who wrote the final chapter. You can find all the links for the entire story here http://bathkidslitfest.wordpress.com if you scroll down to the end of the final chapter. Do have a look, it's all about the day the moon fell into the sea....


 The Society of Authors' short story tweetathon was another collaboration to highlight the BBC short story cuts campaign which protested against the BBC Radio 4 short story cuts.

Ian Rankin

There were 5 different stories composed of only 5 lines.
Starting with Ian Rankin, each Wednesday of the month one of five writers  - Ian Rankin, Sarah Waters, Simon Brett, Joanne Harris and Neil Gaiman - were invited to provide an opening line and this was posted on twitter with the hash tag followed by soatale.  All followers of the #soatale were invited to contribute the next line.  It was open to anyone who wanted to try and all manner of ideas and weird possibilities turned up.
The only criteria was that it had to be only as long as a tweet and include #soatale.
The curator for each story chose the winning line every hour until all five lines had been completed.  The final stories have  been recorded by actors Bill Nighy, Brenda Blethyn and Hugh Bonneville.

It was a great displacement activity, waiting to see what the next line would be and then trying to think where the story might go from there. It was good to see just how inventive people can be, in so few words!
You can find all six twitter tales here  www.societyofauthors.org/soa-short-story-tweetathon-soatale

Despite all these collaborations I have to admit that for most of the time writing is something that I want to disappear into - all on my own. I do like to have my characters to myself until I reach the end of their story when I can release them to find their own way in the world.

Are you a plotter or do you run with the story?

Do you want to work alone or enjoy collaboration?



Linda Strachan is the  author of the Hamish McHaggis series, YA novels Spider and Dead Boy Talking and writing handbook Writing for Children
Website wwwlindastrachan.com
Blog Bookwords

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INFORMATION AND INSPIRATION: everything a writer needs- The SOAiS Conference. - Linda Strachan

On Saturday  17th September 2011 at The Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh the
Society of Authors in Scotland (SOAiS)  held their annual conference with a theme of understanding and making the most of the digital revolution in books and looking for new opportunities.  

The conference was also followed on twitter and you can follow the tweets on  #soaconf

Sara Sheridan and Marion Sinclair
networking- 'Let me give you my card'

There were over 100 delegates attending the conference which was open to all, not just members of the Society.

It was a fascinating day with lots of great speakers who were generous with their advice and happy to answer questions.  We started off with author Sara Sheridan who as always was energetic and enthusiastic in her approach. 

She spoke about harnessing traditional media to promote yourself and your books. She suggested making a plan and if possible taking one day a week for publicity and that every event you do should lead to at least 2 or 3 other kinds of publicity (blog, Twitter, radio, newspaper).

'Look at your book from the outside.

What do people say about it when you leave the room?'

This bears thinking about.  Sara suggested looking to see if there are themes within your book that you can use to attract a slightly different audience than the obvious one.

Although I am sure most of us will struggle to be quite as proactive as Sara, there were lots of ideas which I will be mulling over in the next few weeks.

Allan Guthrie

Next Allan Guthrie  who is an author and an agent, spoke about embracing ebooks, and the opportunities in the digital revolution for authors. Following the route one of one author who decided to self publish his book as an ebook with tremendous success, Allan also regaled us with the progress of one of his own books in this direction, as an example of how crucial it is to work at promoting an ebook, and how important forums, discussion boards and online reading groups are, and also connecting with your readers online. He encouraged us to think about eBooks as an additional revenue stream for authors, a platform, a way of exploiting backlists; of getting paid regularly!

 'The writer now has control over what they do with their books, But also have responsibility too- including their own sales.'

Nicola Morgan

After a coffee break we returned to listen to Nicola Morgan who told us
'I am the one and only Crabbit Old Bat', referring of course to her online persona and her listing on google (she wasn't the least bit crabbit)!
As ABBA readers will know Nicola is a frequent contributor to this blog and mentioned ABBA in her talk about Building an Online Platform, something that she knows a lot about.
'Do not be panicked by what other people are doing online. But do try and see if it works for you.'
Great advice.

She continued to explain how to build an online presence - to blog, tweet - with reference to her latest eBook Tweetright - and how important it is to be human and not just someone who is endlessly promoting themselves.
You can find out much more about what she had to say on Nicola's blog about building an online platform 

A panel discussion came next about overcoming an author's reticence when it comes to self promotion.  One the panel were Vanessa Robertson -The Edinburgh Bookshop, Colin Fraser - Anon Poetry and Claire Stewart - Scottish Book Trust, chaired by Catrin Armstrong (Scottish Book Trust)

Panel with advice on Self Promotion for Authors

Vanessa Robertson told us how to make a bookshop love you, how their books are handpicked because they know what sells in their shop and what works for their customers. That authors need to work with booksellers. Also how important it is for an independent bookshop to stock books that will not only be what their customers know they want, but sometimes quirky and interesting books that will lead to an impulse buy, that the bookseller can hand-sell. She told us to 'befriend your local bookshop.'

There was mention of unusual combinations such as a 'poetry and perfume' event recently held in the Edinburgh Poetry Library, about tweeting a fragment of poetry, or your book, to encourage people to follow you, or to go to a link to your website or blog.  

Using podcasts, and having an interesting twitter or blog persona, something that might be a hobby that you tweet or blog about.  Once again the idea of attracting people to being interested in you as a person, who might then be interested in what you have to say in your writing or on your blog/website. This can then lead to interest in your books.   This is a theme that came up several times during the day.

With a break for lunch and an opportunity to chat about the morning, it was very soon time to re-convene for the afternoon session which started with a choice of breakout sessions; covering aspects such as Author appearances (author,Alison Baverstock), eDistribution and selling your eBook (author and publisher, Keith Charters), Diversification- a key to the future?(author Caroline Dunford) and Claiming eBooks for ourselves (author Lin Anderson).

Lin Anderson

I chose to go to Lin Anderson's session and it was a very practical and useful discussion of how to go about putting a book up as an eBook. Too much to go into on a blog but it is not as complicated or as difficult as it might seem.  Something any author with out of print books would do well to consider.

'Don't give away your work. 

Don't let your publisher bully you into handing over your ebook rights.'

She also said  'There was never a better time to be a writer.'

Andrew Dixon

 Andrew Dixon who heads up the newly formed Creative Scotland (previously The Scottish Arts Council) told the conference about the new structure of Creative Scotland, their commitment to funding writers and encouraging professional development, artists residencies, and of their plans to promote all things creative in Scotland over the coming years.  He spoke about how their budgets were less pigeon-holed now, allowing for more opportunity to allocate funding more 'creatively'  than in the past, especially with 2012 being designated 'The year of Creative Scotland'

 The final panel discussion was with agent Jenny Brown (ASLA),  Publisher, Bob McDevitt (Hachette Scotland) and Marion Sinclair of Publishing Scotland who were all talking about The Road Ahead. It was chaired by Keith Charters (Strident Publishing).

Jenny Brown, Marion Sinclair, Bob McDevitt and Keith Charters

Jenny Brown told us of reasons to be cheerful and optimistic despite the changes in the publishing industry there were lots of opportunities for writers and interest in books and writing.

Marion Sinclair spoke about how the number of Scottish publishers, members of her organisation, had increased and her message to publishers was to continue to 'care about books'. Also that niche publishing might be on the increase and one way forward for smaller publishers.

Bob McDevitt said there was still an important role for publishers and that it was easy to confuse books and publishing with what has happened in the games or music industries but that books were a different industry and would react differently because people saw and used books differently.  He also mentioned that some authors, who have made a name for themselves by self publishing eBooks very successfully, have still returned to traditional publishers and negotiated contracts for print books - as it is seen as a kind of validation.

The day was rounded off by an evening reception in the Playfair Hall providing an opportunity to chat about the day and meet the other writers, publishers and guests.

There is no doubt the publishing world is changing and at the moment no one seems quite sure where it is all going.  There are opportunities for authors to take more control of their books and their livelihood, but alongside that comes the commitment to spending more time and energy on self-promotion and publicity.
 This will inevitably impinge on writing time so it is a decision each writer has to make for themselves.  The possibilities with social media are varied and exciting, but it is not for everyone and can be distracting and time consuming. 

The conference was excellent.  Well done to the SOAiS Committee for organising it and to Anna Ganley and Rachel O'Malley from the London Staff who worked so hard to make it a success, and tweeted from the conference on #SoAconf 

The Society of Authors is also running the SoA short story Tweetathon find out all about it  Here  and read the first one, started by Ian Rankin. Why not take part in the next one on wednesday or follow it on #SoAtale.

Linda Strachan  has written over 60 books for children from picture books to teenage novels, and a writing handbook for aspiring and newly published authors Writing for Children.

Website www.lindastrachan.com
Blog Bookwords