Chips away: the new metaphor – by Rowena House

For years now my favourite writing metaphor has been the sand castle one. Your pour your words into a sandbox called Draft Zero or just Draft if you’re feeling optimistic, and when the box is full of story, you start shaping it into a wondrous castle for however long it takes.

This month, though, I’ve met the marble block metaphor. The idea that a story is a thing waiting to be revealed as the writer chips away at it. My process has never felt like chiselling before. Nothing was found; it’s all been built.

Why the change? Feedback on the development edit AKA Draft Gazillion of the seventeenth-century witch trial work-in-progress which my supervisors read (it’s a creative writing PhD novel) for the first time in April. Amid kind words, they said (in subtext) that Act 2 Part 1 was a pup. 

‘One more run through ought to do it,’ they suggested.

Then I had a good close look at what I’d sent them.

How? After YEARS working on my wordsmithing, how can I have got it so wrong? I coined a new editing acronym for the margin: CUT. Complete and Utter Tosh. [Actually, it was CUS, but this is a family-friendly blog.] So, chisel out, spit on the hands, cut, cut, polish and cut in pursuit of Draft Gazillion + One AKA Development Edit Mark 2.

The sensible editor bit of the brain said I needed a Book Map (copyright The Golden Egg Academy) or similar (copyright Book Bound UK), charting the whole thing.

But you know how some writers hate writing synopses? It’s book mapping for me. However sensible it is, I loathe it. There are at least three versions of a map for this WIP languishing in various folders, to which I dutifully added another this month, then ignored it. 

What I did instead was analyse each CUT chapter to see for myself what ailed it. Result: I think it’s a combination of slow pace, unclear progressions, and hidden rising stakes. Which are all sort of saying the same thing. Tackling them individually seemed simpler, however,

Thus, 1.5K words are gone and I’m only half way through Act 2 Part 1. I also buffed up cliff-hanger chapter endings and changed chapter breaks so they could all end at a cliff-hanger.

It’s also been good to have a run through for micro-pacing, achieved by tightening sentences and making sure, e.g., that they end on the most powerful word.

For progressions, I’m trying a sentence-based system, too, copy-and-pasting key passages, with their respective page numbers, to track my protagonist’s state of mind and make sure it is progressing in a logical way. By shuffling back and forth between them, altering phrases subtly or wholesale as I go, I think I’ve now linked them together and arrived, ta-dah! at the turning point of Act 2 part 1. Which is the chapter I’m chipping away at now.

Raising stakes is proving trickier. For this WIP, I’ve used a hierarchy of needs system adapted from John Truby’s Anatomy of Story which in turn borrowed from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (I might have got Truby’s title wrong. Anatomy of Stories? The Story? Sorry, in a rush today.)

Tom, my protagonist, starts in survival mode, protecting his physiological needs: shelter & his livelihood. He then tries to catch a criminal, then faces incrementally-rising moral jeopardy until he finally challenges institutional corruption.

For me, the rising stakes are inherent in this pattern and therefore readable in the subtext. That’s where my instinct says they should stay. If the reader knows from Act 1 that Tom is out on his ear if he messes up the Inciting Incident task that’s been set him, why repeat it in Act 2? And isn’t moral jeopardy by definition a higher stake than keeping your job?

My very clever beta readers didn’t seem to think so. Thus, it’s hammer and chisel to the fore, hoping they’ll be able to see it once I’ve chipped away at more of the dross.

 

 

Rowena House Author on Facebook and Instagram for the WIP

Stuff about my debut, The Goose Road, at rowenahouse.wordpress.com  

WHERE THE HELL IS MY AGENT? - by Lu Hersey

 In case you didn't realise, I hacked the title from Raye's song, WHERE IS MY HUSBAND? The point of song being she doesn't actually have one, but she's ready and waiting for one, so where the hell is he? 

And that's how I feel about my agent.

I did have one once. I learnt many useful things from him. Like how to cook simple Italian dishes, and where to find great fossils on British beaches. Basically he was fun to hang out with as a friend, but being an agent really wasn't his priority. He spent far more time diving with sharks.

He genuinely couldn't cope with the increasing pressures of the publishing world. In the end he disappeared in a cloud of mental health problems, leaving his entire business behind. He'd definitely chosen the wrong career path for someone with chronic anxiety, and I hope one day he'll resurface as a marine biologist or something he'd really enjoy. He's certainly clever enough.

But meanwhile, what about me?? 

What have I done about finding another agent? 

Not a lot, to be honest. I tentatively tried a couple I liked the sound of, and they were very kind and gave me positive feedback, but sadly... (Another thing I learnt from my last agent is that they have to not only really love your work, but believe they can sell it. Which they didn't.)

I also tried a couple of publishers, whose websites informed me I didn't need an agent to be considered. Result? They simply ghosted me like they were online dating or something. Which seems unnecessarily rude when it's easy to email back a standard rejection from a template, but sadly that seems to be the publishing industry's attitude towards writers. We're all totally dispensable. I ended up feeling like a piece of used clothing, destined for the charity shop. 

I guess all publishers need to see the potential for commercial success in your writing - unless you're celebrity so they know your books will sell anyway (they can always find a ghost writer to actually write the books). Publishing is an increasingly competitive market - and getting worse. Don't even get me started on books being written by AI...

However, once a writer, always a writer. I told myself I simply needed to change direction for a while. So I've been writing a non-fiction book about Somerset dragons, which will come out sometime before Christmas. Seems there's not so much stigma attached to self publishing local books, as no agent or traditional publisher would consider the project anyway. It's kept me busy and I love research...

But unfortunately, what I like writing best is teen fiction. And any writing for children involves gatekeepers like parents and teachers, who need to know the book is good (preferably traditionally published and well reviewed) before they buy. Which means you still need the publishing industry to back you. 

And for any publisher to even consider your book, you need an agent to present it to them - practically no publisher takes unsolicited manuscripts. (Ignore all those stories like JK Rowling's sending out to zillion publishers and how it only takes one, blah blah - that simply doesn't happen any more.)

So I'm stuck with a hole in my bucket syndrome and there's only one way out... 

WHERE THE HELL IS MY AGENT?

Lu Hersey

https://www.lu-hersey.com/

Taxing times with ALCS By Steve Way

 I imagine most of you reading this are registered with ALCS (Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society) – membership is free for members of the Society of Authors. Like the SoA, ALCS is a wonderful organisation supporting writers, in their case collecting funds for use of our work that’s not paid for through royalties.

If you have published work of any kind and you aren’t registered with ALCS, I highly recommend that you do so. On one memorable occasion my (usually annual) payment from ALCS arrived more or less at the same time as my six-monthly royalty payment and both were almost equal in amount. It was a good month! As I understand it, which explained the fairly generous pay out, a teacher training college was photocopying all or part of my science story books for schools for their students – possibly because the stories also came with associated lesson plans. Occasionally, if they have collected sufficient funds, ALCS pay out twice a year. The first time I received this payment was a pleasant surprise. It wasn’t a huge amount, but it paid that month’s council tax during a lean month, so was particularly appreciated as I didn’t need to steal as much from Peter to pay Paul.

Just over ten years ago we moved to rural France, but of course that didn’t prevent ALCS still making annual payments – the peak interest in the story books had waned though not disappeared! However, although the first one or two payments arrived in my UK bank account as usual, I received an apologetic letter from the accountant at ALCS explaining that unless appropriate permissions were given, due to me living abroad, ALCS were obliged to deduct 20% tax from my payments.

Of course, as intimated above, 20% of the total they’d kindly collected for me at that time, didn’t amount to a great deal. Certainly not really enough to warrant my time and energy during a period when I had enough on my plate learning the ropes in a new country etc. But now we’re ten years on and as they say in Scotland ‘many a mickle maks a muckle’. Gradually, with each passing year, it grated a little more that I was effectively only receiving 80% of what was due to me. Finally, I spent some time looking into the issue and discovered that if I sent HMRC the appropriate form, then both gaining permission to receive the full payment from now on and claiming back past payment should be straightforward.

The first stage was to send the form to my local tax office, so that they could stamp it and thereby confirm that I am registered as a taxpayer in France. They did so quickly and efficiently, so the next job was to send the form to HMRC.

Just as I believe you can  order and download stamps in the UK, you can do the same here via ‘La Poste’ in France. I ordered a ‘tracked international’ stamp and duely sent the form on its way. This was early in January. Well, I could track the form but as it turns out ‘international’ tracking means ‘only to the border’. So, all I know, and still know, is that the form reached the UK border. I know nothing more because here we are in May and I’ve had no response from HMRC.

It didn’t take me until now to lose patience waiting for news, so about six weeks after sending my first letter to HMRC, I sent copies of the form and an apologetic covering letter (‘So sorry if you’ve already received my form…’) to them. Once again I ordered an online ‘internationally’ tracked letter. This time however, the most I know, is that La Poste seem to have let me down somehow. All that the tracking section of the website is able to tell me about that package is that the stamp has been downloaded. Well obviously I know that because it was me who downloaded it. However, I posted the form only minutes later. My main guess is that they managed to lose the letter somehow.

Undeterred I came up with Plan C. I’ve mentioned before the kindness of family and friends who, like the Red Cross in times of war, bring us supplies of a brand of tea associated with the north of England. (It is available here but it would possibly be cheaper to buy bags of gold leaves rather than tea leaves.) Two of our wonderful friends not only brought over supplies just as things were getting desperate in the beverage department but they kindly agreed to take a second copy of the original form back to the UK with them and send it to HMRC by signed for recorded delivery.

I’ve just double checked royalmail.com to make sure this missive is as up to date as possible. The only tracking history that’s recorded is that the letter was posted on Saturday 18^th April at 11.18 at Brenchley Post Office. In other words, nearly a month ago. The only other thing it can tell me is,

‘Your item has been posted at a Post Office. As you've used our Royal Mail Signed For service, the next update you'll see is after we've attempted to deliver to the recipient.’

I can’t believe that Royal Mail would take more than a month to attempt to deliver a letter. Have the HMRC offices become completely impenetrable? Do any of you have any suggestions for a Plan D attempt to get through to them? Do any of you live in or near the BX9 postcode? Perhaps you could knock on their door for me, provided it’s not, as it seems, locked up and fortified?

I’ve wondered about approaching ACLS directly, maybe they have a secret tunnel under HMRC’s fortifications and could deliver the missive on my behalf. What do you think?

This is in danger of becoming a boring and bureaucratic version of an epic tale of frustrated enterprise … which I suppose is at least ironic given the circumstances…

Wishbound, by Clemency Brown, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about magic, friendship, families and bravery.

The story is set in a world where children who show magical powers are taken from their parents by the sinister Wishmaker Institute to be tamed and trained ready for Matching. Being sold and Matched, aged twelve, to a rich child in our world, the Wishmaker child is then the instrument of that master; a means for them to get all they wish for. Our main character, nine-year-old Leonie, is fighting against this fate, determined to escape. After hold-your-breath failures, she does escape with the help of bodyguard Jackson, and they set up a happy home in a remote place. For three years Leonie has a happy life establishing strong best frienship with Cress, a bright girl with hearing loss. But that idyl doesn't last as Leonie's twelfth birthday looms ... And that's when the real drama and magic and desperation and determination kick in.  

A truly exciting book that pitches Leonie's freedom against the life of protector Jackson and her precious friendship with Cress. A cast that includes wicked baddies and others wanting to do the right thing but are trapped by magical powers, as well as rebellious Leonie and clever Cress, makes this a story the reader absolutely cares about. It moves fast, sweeping us onwards to a very satisfying end. I would have adored it as a junior school age child. More stories are to follow, and I'm very glad of that.

NB This book isn't published until June 4th. I had a preview copy from the Federation of Children's Book Groups conference. If you fancy getting your hands on preview copies of books, as well as attending interesting and important panels and presentations about children's books by authors, illustrators, publishers, librarians, educator and more, then here's the FCBG website where information about next year's conference will appear in due course - https://fcbg.org.uk/

Do art, stay young - Anne Rooney

Most recent piece: medieval
fish

Looking back through some ABBA posts, I'm struck by how many of us not only write or illustrate but also make other things, whether knitting, collage, or gardens, and spend time viewing art in galleries, museums, theatres and concerts. It's not surprising, perhaps, that those who create for a living also enjoy other creative endeavours, but now it seems it's really good for us. 

A study which has gained some publicity this week reveals that engaging in artistic activity at least once a week slows the ageing process up to four per cent compared with people who don't engage with the arts. That's as much as the benefit of exercise and, in one of the ways of measuring, twice as good as exercise. You could gain both benefits by running to an art gallery, I suppose. I could stop getting the bus to my stained glass classes and cycle. (I would if it weren't for the dangerous potholes, but currently cycling seems more likely to shorten my healthy life.)

With this added benefit of enjoying the arts, there should be even more pressure on schools to make sure art, drama, and music lessons are given the support and funding they need. Yes, it's a long time before today's kids will reap this particular benefit of the arts. (It's most noticeable over 40, when age-related decay starts to set in.) But we need them to grow up to be arts practitioners so that the rest of us can gain this extra bit of happy life, seeing new art and drama and listening to new music. 

This isn't about adding years to your lifespan but to your healthspan — the time when you are in good health. So encouraging engagement with the arts from a young age, and careers in the arts, will save the health service money and us all the pain and despondency of age-related decline. All good, surely? And the kids will likely enjoy it. It's a win-win situation.

Work in progress: Ediacaran
animals

All that said, I'm likely decreasing my healthspan with all that exposure to lead and sharp glass. But no matter, it makes me happy!

  

Anne Rooney
website

Coming soon: How Big Is the Universe, Arcturus, September 2026; illustrated by Darcie Olley

  

  

WRITING VILLAINS by Sharon Tregenza

I have more trouble writing villains than I do heroes. It's difficult to get that mix right. It seems they can't be just EVIL, BAD, HORRIBLE folk they need a little back story - a little understanding. It made me think about the popular villains in children's literature and why they work so well.


First we have Miss Trenchbull from "Matilda".

I think she's unforgettable because she stands for adult power. She's truly scary and unpredictable which is how adults can come across to children. But she's also very funny. Her over the top personality is ridiculous which is entertaining as well as frightening. Roald Dahl got it just right.


The next one that comes to mind is Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series.

He grows with the series. He starts off as simply dangerous and mysterious but becomes more complex as the books go on. He creates great emotional tension by engendering the possibility that Harry could actually lose against him.


And my third choice would be The White Witch from "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe".

She actually controls the atmosphere of the whole book. Icy landscapes, frozen creatures all metaphors for her nature - cold heartedness. This contrasted with her elegance makes her especially memorable from my childhood. I found her a fascinating character.


So I think the secret is to try to create strong emotional reactions in young readers but to also make my villains entertaining. Not easy. 😊


www.sharontregenza.com

sharontregenza@gmail.com

Members' News May

 Welcome to the May round-up of members' news. 

Congratulations to Paula Harrison on the publication of her latest Kitty book: KITTY AND THE MOONFLOWER MYSTERY, from OUP.

 The purrrfect series for newly confident readers, beautifully illustrated by Waterstones Children's Book Prize winner, Jenny Løvlie, and written by bestselling author, Paula Harrison. Kitty is a superhero-in-training with feline superpowers. She dreams of being just like her superhero mum one day, but she's still got a lot to learn.

Join her for a series of enchanting adventures by the light of the moon. It's night-time at the Botanical Gardens. Kitty and her cat crew are there to catch a glimpse of the new rare flowers exhibition.

But someone has stolen the prize exhibit: the exotic moonflower, with its beautiful glowing petals that shine like the moon! If it isn't found soon it might not survive, so Kitty must use her cat-like powers to find the thief and save the moonflower just in the nick of time. Kitty and the Moonflower Mystery is the seventeenth book in the Kitty series, featuring a charming main character, cat-packed exploits, and striking two-colour art on every page. 

https://global.oup.com/education/content/children/series/kitty/

 

Congratulations also to Barbara Henderson for ENTER EDDIE SHAKESPEARE, a thrilling historical adventure published by Luarth Press.

Enter Eddie Shakespeare invites young readers into the bustling world of Elizabethan theatre through the eyes of 11-year-old Eddie. Dreaming of stardom, he runs away to London, eager to revive his family’s honour under the guidance of his older brother, the promising playwright Will. However, when Eddie discovers a sinister plot to sabotage Will’s big break, he finds himself facing a villain worthy of the stage! Will Eddie’s story end in tragedy, or can he turn the tide?

https://luath.co.uk/products/enter-eddie-shakespeare

If you're a member of the Scattered Authors and have any news you'd like to share - books, awards, events etc, send the details to Claire Fayers