Monthly Archives: July 2017

Simple Ways To Boost Your Confidence As A Writer

Posted in Blog, Writing by

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Being a writer by profession is an incredibly public thing to do. Our work will inevitably be distributed and read by extended audiences that we may never meet.

With the opportunity of self-publishing thriving, more and more writers have emerged and there is now a saturation of content. More than just asking ourselves how to produce great quality work, we now have to face the question of how to stand out among the crowd as well. 

To do this, one of the most significant attributes to have is confidence.

Confidence helps us stay focused about our writing paths regardless of the amount of competition that is in the industry. Confidence also keeps us motivated to write and write some more regardless of whether our work is labelled successes or failures.

Here are a few simple ways to help writers boost that confidence.

1. Understand the learning process

Though it sounds cliche, it makes the saying no less true: writing is a learning process.

The more we write, the more we will learn about language itself and about the topics we are writing about. For example, if you’re writing about a character in your novel, re-writing the dialogues and revising the plot lines helps you to think more critically about that character and their situation.

Writing and re-writing forces you to make connections between ideas and self-expression. Consequently, the output of repetitive writing practice allows you to create more established thought processes for your next piece of work. In this way too, your confidence will be boosted.

2. Read to learn

The equation of becoming a better writer is simple. We must read and we must write. But to do this well, it is important to maintain a teachable perspective.

As easy as it is for others to read your writing, so will you of others. With no shortage of readily available reading material for us online, it’s become even easier to learn about writing on a more dynamic scale.

People are made up of different stories and their own unique experiences. Consider it a privilege to have incredible amounts of reading material at the tip of your fingers.

Reading with a teachable perspective, though, makes a distinction between reading for enjoyment and reading to learn. Try not to spend too much time comparing, it will only disappoint you as you realise that there will always be someone out there who writes better or has found greater success.

When you read to learn, however, you give yourself potential to discover new ideas, more patterns of writing, new vocabulary and so on. This will help your confidence.

3. Celebrate the little victories

Rarely do writers find success overnight. The potential for an incredibly long process of trying, before your work gets recognised or published, can be confidence crushing.

One way to avoid this is to celebrate the little victories, because success is essentially made of milestones.

Milestones, like getting your articles published online, building your market of influence, extending your network of contacts and gaining inspiration for new ideas, are all included. Even through these victories, you’ll be able to learn more about the writing industry, how to build your writing career and even who to go to when you need help.

These little victories will boost your confidence as you know that you’re gaining achievements that’ll help you in the future.

4. Give yourself a break

Everyone makes mistakes. However, when we understand the learning process of becoming a better writer, we begin to appreciate the mistakes we make.

It’s through our mistakes that we discover what we can improve on in our work. Responding with determination and an active spirit for learning, rather than self-degradation, is a much healthier way of dealing with mistakes and failures.

For Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale and more recently, The Heart Goes Last, she says in an interview with The Guardian:

“Failure is just another name for much of real life: much of what we set out to accomplish ends in failure, at least in our own eyes. Who set the bar so high that most of our attempts to sail gracefully over it on the viewless wings of Poesy end in an undignified scramble or a nasty fall into the mud? Who told us we had to success at any cost? Get back on the horse that threw you, as they used to say.”

5. Find a trusted writer community

Confidence is a contagious spirit, but so is doubt. It’s crucial that you assess the type of environment you can allow yourself to thrive in.

Ask yourself: is it one that provides opportunities for you to flourish confidently?

Having a community that encourages and inspires your writing processes may be the only thing that is standing in your way of having some inner writer confidence.

More than that, having a trusted writers’ community will put you in a place where you can bounce ideas off each other, get feedback and even, discover ways to overcome challenges specific to a writers’ world.

Writing itself may be something you do alone. However, in preparing for it, ensure that positive energy fuels your writer-mind and places you back into a confident space.

6. Embrace criticism

Finally, criticism is a gateway to a steep learning curve.

As noted before, it’s through criticism that we find out more about what we can make improvements on. At the same time, it’s also through criticism that we see where our strengths lie.

But before you take the criticism too seriously, it’s important to know where your criticism is coming from.

In a digital era, anyone can scrutinise your work and publish harsh comments that may or may not be relevant. It’s easy to have low confidence because of this. After all, hearing negative views about work you’ve poured your heart and soul into can be hurtful. 

Furthermore, you must understand who is criticising you. Are they people you can trust? Are they people whom you respect? Do they want the best for you? Are they offering constructive feedback or just being nasty?

Asking these questions can definitely point us in a better direction on who to trust without sabotaging our writing careers. Some criticism might be worth taking with a pinch of salt. And some can be dismissed altogether. 

All in all, keep an open mind, and try to let your confidence flourish through all criticism, mistakes and little victories. Stay positive, and surround yourself with people who will support you and your writing.

Via: https://writersedit.com/10881/resources-for-writers/6-simple-ways-boost-confidence-writer/

Three Things to Know Before Starting Your Novel

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Before you jump in the deep end and start writing a novel, there are a few things you should know.

1. The Premise

This one seems obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many authors launch straight into writing before knowing the basics. The premise of your story, is the core of it – the skeleton that runs throughout the whole thing. When someone asks you what your book is about, the premise is what you’ll give them. More often than not, if you begin writing without a premise, chances are that your story will have trouble going anywhere.

For example, this author began writing a novel, knowing the character and his physical journey, but unsure as to what the basic concept of her book was. In 9 months, she struggled to write a measly 13,200 words. By contrast, she then began writing a new novel which had originally been a short story. Knowing the premise this time, in 4 months she wrote 60,000 words and finished the first draft.

“With my first book, I had known the main character inside out, known his travels… But I found it increasingly difficult to write. The scenes were random and didn’t build to anything. I couldn’t have told you what the climax of the novel was. If you compare the progress of my second novel to the first, which remains unfinished, it’s pretty incredible. I’m not saying you should know everything about your story before you start, because it does develop and change drastically as you work. But knowing the premise the second time around changed the way I write for the better.” – Novelist/Creative Writer, Darlinghurst

2. Research Basics

Again, this sounds like an obvious one. Some writers find it easier to set their fiction in a real place, have a character with a similar occupation or family situation… things they’re familiar with. If this is you, that’s great. What I will say is: be careful you don’t omit details accidentally. When you know a setting, a job or a person very well, it’s easy to forget that your reader doesn’t.

To those who are creating from scratch, that’s great too. Is your main character a doctor? An air-hostess? Is your novel set in South Africa? Italy? Russia? Whatever your main character does and wherever they are, know the facts, at least the basics. What does their job entail? Long hours? Mundane tasks? Risk? Who do they work with? How long have they been in their position? Are they happy there? Do they earn a lot? These things won’t necessarily make it onto the actual page, but these factors affect a person’s nature, how they behave, how they live… The same goes for the setting you place them in… Do they have electricity? Do they live above a nightclub? Is their living space small or spacious?

“What I found incredibly useful, was mapping out the settings that my characters spent a lot of time in. Whether it was a room, a house or a village, it was a relief to keep coming back to a reference point and know where things were. I also kept ‘Research Profiles’ for want of a better term, so I could constantly layer my work with authentic touches, whether it was for the environment, political climate or a character.”

3. Character

Try and learn everything you can about your characters before you start writing. Naturally, once you get your story going, you’ll learn more and more about them, however it’s always super helpful to know the basics of who they are, what they do, etc., beforehand. Jot down a profile about each of your main characters including details about their: name, physical appearance, age, which characters they get along with and their relationship, where they live, do they have children? A partner? Do they have any particular mannerisms or quirks? Decide where you want to draw the line with how much you need to know before you start, and how much you learn along the way.

“One of the things I wish I had of known before I started my book was a few extra details about the background of my characters, things that make them distinctive from the rest of my cast. I’m now on my second draft and I’m having to redo character profiles and slot these details in second time around – it would have been a lot less hassle to have done it from the beginning.”

There are plenty of character profile templates available online for free that can be a great help. Click here to see one such example of a useful profile. Although it’s quite long and detailed, it does prompt you to think outside the box.

In conclusion, starting a novel is a huge undertaking and a massive achievement in itself, but sometimes, it helps to have something small, pointing you in the right direction. I hope this little checklist has done that.

Happy writing!

Via: http://writersedit.com/resources-for-writers/three-things-to-know-do-before-starting-your-novel/

The Man Booker Prize 2017 Longlist Announced

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The longlist, or ‘Man Booker Dozen’, for the £50,000 Man Booker Prize has been announced.

This year’s longlist of 13 books was selected by a panel of five judges: Baroness Lola Young (Chair); literary critic, Lila Azam Zanganeh; Man Booker Prize shortlisted novelist, Sarah Hall; artist, Tom Phillips CBE RA; and travel writer, Colin Thubron CBE.

The list was chosen from 144 submissions published in the UK between 1 October 2016 and 30 September 2017.

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, first awarded in 1969, is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English and published in the UK.

The 2017 longlist, or Man Booker ‘Dozen’, of 13 novels, is:

Title Author (nationality) (imprint)

4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster (US) (Faber & Faber)
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (Ireland) (Faber & Faber)
History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund (US) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan-UK) (Hamish Hamilton)
Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (Ireland) (Canongate)
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (UK) (4th Estate)
Elmet by Fiona Mozley (UK) (JM Originals)
The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (India) (Hamish Hamilton)
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (US) (Bloomsbury)
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (UK-Pakistan) (Bloomsbury)
Autumn by Ali Smith (UK) (Hamish Hamilton)
Swing Time by Zadie Smith (UK) (Hamish Hamilton)
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (US) (Fleet)

Chair of the 2017 judges, Baroness Lola Young, says:

‘Only when we’d finally selected our 13 novels did we fully realise the huge energy, imagination and variety in them as a group.  The longlist showcases a diverse spectrum — not only of voices and literary styles but of protagonists too, in their culture, age and gender.  Nevertheless we found there was a spirit common to all these novels: though their subject matter might be turbulent, their power and range were life-affirming – a tonic for our times.

Together their authors — both recognised and new — explore an array of literary forms and techniques, from those working in a traditional vein to those who aim to move the walls of fiction’.

Arundhati Roy makes the list with her second work of fiction, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness; Roy’s debut novel won the then Booker Prize in 1997. She is joined by four previously shortlisted writers: Ali Smith (2001, Hotel World; 2005, The Accidental; and 2014, How to Be Both); Zadie Smith (2005, On Beauty), Sebastian Barry (2005, A Long Long Way Down; 2008, The Secret Scripture; and longlisted in 2011 for On Canaan’s Side) and Mohsin Hamid (2007, The Reluctant Fundamentalist). It is a third longlist appearance for Jon McGregor (2002, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, 2006, So Many Ways To Begin).

Three debut novels are recognised by the judges this year, two of them written by the youngest authors on the list: Elmet by Fiona Mozley, aged 29, and History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund, aged 38. The third is George Saunders’ first full-length novel, Lincoln in the Bardo.

Three independent publishers are longlisted: Canongate, Faber & Faber and Bloomsbury. They are joined by Penguin Random House imprint Hamish Hamilton (which publishes four of the 13 titles), 4th Estate, and Hachette UK imprints: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; JM Originals; and Fleet. The latter two are new imprints and this is the first time they have had a title on the Man Booker Prize longlist.

Luke Ellis, CEO of Man Group, comments:

‘Congratulations to all the authors who have been longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize. The longlist recognises the hard work and creativity of thought of these exceptional writers, and inclusion is an important achievement. As ever, we are we are very proud to support the Man Booker Prize and the valuable role it plays in promoting literary excellence and endeavour.’

The shortlist and winner announcements

The shortlist of six books will be announced on Wednesday 13 September at a morning press conference at Man Group, the sponsor of the prize. The shortlisted authors each receive £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book.

The 2017 winner will then be announced on Tuesday 17 October in London’s Guildhall at a black-tie dinner, one of the highlights of the publishing year. The ceremony will be broadcast by the BBC.

The winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize receives £50,000 and can expect international recognition. In the week following the 2016 winner announcement, sales of The Sellout by Paul Beatty increased by 658%. To date over 360,000 print copies of the Oneworld edition have been sold, and 26 foreign language rights deals have been secured – 19 of which were sold since his win.

Beatty made history in 2016 as the first writer from the United States to win the Man Booker Prize. Prior to 2014 only citizens of the Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland or Zimbabwe were eligible for the prize.

At a Man Booker reception held in New York last week, Beatty stated that winning the prize has broadened his world and said:

‘I’ll be in Hackney or I’ll be in Calcutta and somebody will stand up and give an amazing diatribe on what this book has meant to them, how this book has touched them. And not all the time, but often, it’s not about how the book is American or it’s set in LA, but about all these bigger things.’

The leading prize for quality fiction in English

First awarded in 1969, the Man Booker Prize is recognised as the leading prize for literary fiction written in English. The list of former winners features many of the literary giants of the last four decades: from Iris Murdoch to Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan to Hilary Mantel.

The rules of the prize were changed at the end of 2013 to embrace the English language ‘in all its vigour, its vitality, its versatility and its glory’, opening it up to writers beyond the UK and Commonwealth.

The Man Booker Prize is sponsored by Man Group, an active investment management firm. 

Via: http://themanbookerprize.com/news/man-booker-prize-2017-longlist-announced

A Word Factory Masterclass with Louise Doughty | Words Away

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Today on Writer’s Blog, I want to share a fantastic article from Words Away on what she learnt at a Word Factory event. I found the whole thing really informative and valuable for my writing, and I hope you will too.

Enjoy! x

How do you work out if your idea is a short story or a novel? You begin writing in one form only to discover that your work has mutated into something else entirely. I attended an excellent masterclass recently, Where The Narrative Leads, with Louise Doughty, run by the Word Factory. Who better to help you work out if your idea can go the distance or is destined to crystallise into a short story than with an award-winning novelist, screenwriter and short story writer? Tucked away in the basement of Waterstones Piccadilly, Louise chatted about her writing process, touching on the main aspects of plot and narrative structure. There was lots of opportunity to ask questions and do some exercises to apply to our own writing.

Who knows where the origin of a story comes from – something grabs the imagination and grows. Two of Louise’s novels, Apple Tree Yard and Black Water, were each inspired by an image of a single character in a situation and started as short story ideas. So why did those short stories turn into a novel? According to Louise there are two elements at work, the first being your character; Look at their biography. If, as Paul Klee suggested, ‘drawing is taking a line for a walk’ why not take your character for a walk. Ask questions of your character; what age are they? What year is the scene set? Interrogate history and events. Play around with what you find. When something starts bothering you – that could be your idea. Anything that feels ‘noteworthy’, find a way to get it in to your story. Join the dots and make connections. Secondly, scrutinise the world in which the character finds themselves; While on a visit to Bali and gripped by jet lag, Louise was seized by an image of a man mortally afraid and lying awake in a hut, listening to rain on the roof. She didn’t know anything about Indonesia or it’s history but set about finding out. Your own ignorance can be a driver more than the stuff you know about. Don’t be stymied by research; if it interests you it will interest the reader. Go and visit your novel – if possible. Walk it out. There’s no substitute for going on location. A pragmatic decision can become a thematic one. Find your way around the limits of your knowledge.

One of the most interesting parts of the evening was looking at the formal principals behind narrative structure. According to the filmmaker, Jean-Luc Godard, ‘All stories should have a beginning, middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order.’ Referring to the Screenwriter’s Workbook by Syd Field, Louise suggested adapting a few screenwriters tricks to help structure your novel. There was a hand out with a diagram dividing the story into quarters, with a set-up, a mid point and a resolution. Three ‘plot points’ divided the narrative. A plot point takes the course of the narrative, turns it around and spins it in another direction. There’s no going back from this experience. A plot point is not an event that happens but rather when something has impacted on the character’s life to cause irrevocable change. It does not have to be large or dramatic. The point is change.

I loved hearing about Louise’s intuitive approach to writing which she described as a chaotic ‘jigsaw method’ and heartened to learn she writes without worrying too much about outcome. Inspired by an image or a subject she gets up and writes whatever comes into her head that day. Herein lies the joy! Researching along the way, she writes scenes, generates loads of material and leaves gaps as she writes. She’ll go back and fill those in later. She described the physical process of printing out the scenes, then laying it all out on the kitchen table or floor. She looks for her corner scenes, picks out the edges and what might be the beginning or end. She maps it all out into piles of three or four and from this she has a working draft. If overwhelmed she simplifies the story, cutting scenes ruthlessly.

If you’ve never been to a Word factory event, I urge you to go. The guest authors are brilliant if not legendary and, whether you’re a beginner or seasoned scribe, the atmosphere is welcoming and writer friendly. If you’d like a flavour of previous masterclasses click here to read about a couple with Neil Gaiman and Tessa Hadley. It was a great evening with thanks to Louise Doughty, Cathy Galvin and the Word Factory team. I’ve scarpered back to my writing cave to see if I can put some of what I’ve learned into my own writing. Let’s see what the summer brings.

Kellie

PS: With Louise Doughty’s masterclass in mind, YA author Non Pratt has blogged brilliantly about her approach to writing and revising a novel. And thinking about ‘plot points’ and change, I love editor and writing mentor Andrew Wille’s blog highlighting the wisdom of Ursula Le Guin in Steering The Craft:

“Conflict is one kind of behaviour. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing. Change is the universal aspect of all these sources of story. Story is something moving, something happening, something or somebody changing.”

Links: The Word Factory, Louise Doughty, Paul Klee, Jean-Luc Godard, The Screenwriter’s Workbook by Syd Field,

Via: http://www.wordsaway.info/a-word-factory-master-class-with-louise-doughty

Writing Prompt: Turn On Your Telly!

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It’s always good to have a few reliable writing prompts up your sleeve. The best are flexible and new every time you try them – something you can use over and over again. Here’s one such writing prompt that you can retry as many times as you like:

Turn on your TV

Your idiot box may not be so stupid! Turn on the telly and write down the first sentence (or partial sentence) that you hear and use this line as inspiration for a story or poem.

The great thing about this writing prompt is that if you want to give it another go, just turn the TV off and flick back on again. Change the channel or flick on at different times of day for new lines and new prompts.

If none of the first lines you hear inspire you, watch any program for a few minutes and keep an ear out for any interesting dialogue. Choose something that grabs you, and go with it.

Hazard Warning

Keep in mind the reason for switching on the box, and don’t get bogged down or distracted watching the latest rerun of an old drama, soap or quiz show. Stay focused, keep your attention on finding that writing prompt, perhaps with pen and paper in hand, so that you remember to press the off switch as soon as you’ve got one.

Happy writing!

Via: https://https://writersedit.com/1677/resources-for-writers

15 Things Book-Lovers Do Better Than Anyone Else

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book lovers

In some ways, book-lovers are just like ordinary people. We do things like talk and walk around and eat bread. But hang around a true book-lover for long enough, and you’ll start to notice a few key differences. For example, where a normal pedestrian might spend their money on rent or food, a book-lover prefers to live in a large cardboard box surround entirely by hardcovers. Book-lovers will frequently claim to be “bummed” that they can’t make it to your boyfriend’s cover band competition, when in fact they are quite content to stay home and read. There are also a few hidden talents that all book-lovers possess, so here are several things that book-lovers do better than anyone else.

Of course, book-lovers tend to keep their secret superpowers pretty quiet most of the time. We’re not going around bragging about our ability to find 99p paperbacks within a five mile radius of any given location. We’re not trying to make other people feel bad, just because we’re better at eating spaghetti while reading without getting sauce on the pages. And we’d definitely never let anyone know how good we at rereading the same book over and over again without ever getting bored.

But just in case you need a reminder, here are a few things that book-lovers do better:

1. Notice every change between book and movie

Even if we like the film adaptation, most book-lovers take intense mental (or literal) notes on every scene, character, and line of dialogue that’s different. We might forget birthdays and keys, but we remember every Ron line that was inexplicably given to Hermione in the movie. Same goes for TV shows. Don’t watch Game of Thrones with me unless you want to hear my lengthy feelings about the changes to the Dorne plot line.

2. Pull all-nighters

If the book is good enough, book-lovers have the ability to go for long periods of time without food, sleep, or social interaction. All we need is a flashlight and a novel, and we’re happy until dawn. We might not be great at showing up to work on time the next morning, but we don’t let a little thing like sleep deprivation get in the way of reading.

3. Concentrate while on the train/bus/airplane

So what if we miss a stop every once in a while? Book-lovers are excellent at shutting out the so-called “real world.” We might prefer peace and quiet, but in a pinch we can read just about anywhere (which also makes us excellent at avoiding eye contact with strangers).

4. Keep a well-loved book together by sheer force of willpower

What some people consider a loose pile of pages, we consider a beloved member of the family. Some book-lovers are more precious with their books than others, but all book-lovers are naturally gifted at nursing damaged and “well-loved” books through multiple re-reads. Tape is a book-lover’s best friend.

5. Daydream

Even when book-lovers aren’t actively reading, we have some pretty finely-tuned imaginations. It’s hard to read a lot without becoming a thoughtful, creative person in the process. Especially for fiction junkies, all that literature gives your mind the fuel it needs to stare dreamily out the window on a rainy day, or to spend a calculus lecture thinking deeply about being married to Mr. Darcy.

6. Follow two (or five) plots at once

Some book-lovers are strictly one-book-at-a-time readers… but most of us have developed a talent for jumping from plot to plot without skipping a beat. We’ve go our ongoing re-reads, our book club reads, our new releases in hardcover, and our pocket sized paperbacks, for when you don’t want to carry a big bag. And we can tell you exactly what’s going on in all of them.

7. Balance books in weird positions

Of course, book-lovers prefer to read in a cozy chair or on a picturesque park bench under a cherry tree. But we make do. We’re all excellent at balancing books while eating, cooking, exercising, brushing our teeth, and doing all those other inconvenient things we frequently have to do when we’re right in the middle of a great chapter.

8. Apply literature to life

Sometimes it’s frustrating to be a book-lover. You just want to explain how Shakespeare, or George R.R. Martin, or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie perfectly encapsulates all of your feelings about a particular political issue, but other people don’t seem to get it. That’s OK, book-lovers. Your ability to see how literature reflects real life and visa versa is actually a skill, and you’re not nuts to think that books might help you better understand the real world. Fiction does make you more empathetic, after all.

9. Find the perfect reading spot

Readers just have sixth sense for finding cozy reading spots. Everywhere we go, we’re low-key checking out coffee shops, parks, and window seats for maximum reading coziness. Add a cup of tea and a purring cat, and we have engineered peak reading comfort.

10. Walk and read

Walking and reading is an activity that should only be attempted by veteran book-lovers. But for those elite few, walking and reading is as natural as walking and talking. Just make sure you look both ways at the crossroad, if you’re planning to try this one at home.

11. Write

Not every book-lover has to be an aspiring author themselves. But most readers just tend to be better writers: whether it’s writing a story, a blog, or a text message, readers have an innate sense of language, imagery, and where to put commas.

12. Fall madly in love with fictional characters

OK, so this one may not be a talent per say… but book-lovers most certainly do it better than anyone else. Literary crushes are intoxicating, because the reader has total control over imagining what their dream date looks like, how they wear their hair, how they smell, and so on. Step aside, people crushing on TV characters.

13. Budget for maximum book purchasing

Look, we go to the library. We borrow books from our friends. We prowl the used bookstore. But sometimes you just need to shell out for a new release, and that’s where book-lovers become budgeting experts. We’ll gladly sacrifice eating out, fancy cocktails, and possibly electricity if we can get our hands on that shiny new hardcover.

14. Find creative book storage solutions

Those shelves fill up quickly, man. And then we’ve got to get creative. Any book-lover knows the struggle of trying to fit an infinite number of books into a finite amount of space. Luckily, most of us are brilliant when it comes to stashing books under the bed, in the unused oven, and behind the books that are already on the shelf (double-shelving, anyone?).

15. Read

Well, duh. But some book-lovers don’t realize just how good they are at reading. Reading is a skill. Understanding what you read, rather than just skimming, is an art. Not everyone is good at translating squiggles on a page into thrilling adventures and sweeping romance. A book is really only as good as the reader’s imagination, and book-lovers are pretty great when it comes to imagining.

Via: https://www.bustle.com/p/15-things-book-lovers-do-better-than-anyone-else

Misprint Legends: Famous Typos from James Joyce to JK Rowling

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Typos

Today on Writer’s Blog, an article from the Guardian that proves typos can be worth their weight in gold – as long as your famous, that is!

Proofreaders may be worth their weight in gold to authors, but their oversights have proved lucrative for some lucky readers of JK Rowling. On Thursday, an uncorrected proof of her debut novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, with the writer’s name was misspelled as “JA Rowling”, became the latest muddled copy to fetch four figures at auction.

It sold for just under £10,000, which means it is not the most valuable mistake in the boy wizard’s canon. That honour goes to a rare first edition with the word “philosopher” misspelled on the back cover, which was snapped up in 2016 by a London-based businessman for £43,750.

Mistakes in early editions may add value to Rowling’s work, but they rarely do more than make the reader laugh, which is the true value of a well-placed typo.

One of the best literary malapropisms in print appears in Theodore Dreiser’s 1925 classic An American Tragedy. In a passage of which Bad Sex award-winner Morrissey would be proud, two characters dance “harmoniously abandoning themselves to the rhythm of the music – like two small chips being tossed about on a rough but friendly sea”. Dreiser omits whether those chips were served with curry sauce.

The American novelist is not the only literary heavyweight to litter his work with errors. The most shocking thing about Henry Miller’s tale of sex and seduction in Paris, Tropic of Cancer, was the number of mistakes to be found in the 1961 first edition. In first editions of The Road, Cormac McCarthy offers this inexplicable image: “A moment of panic before he saw him walking along the bench downshore with the pistol hanging in his hand, his head down.” For “bench” read “beach”.

Some apparent typos are deliberate – though it can be hard to tell. Given that much of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake makes little sense anyway, it is hard to spot an error by Joyce’s friend Samuel Beckett, to whom he dictated the novel. During one of their dictation sessions, Joyce answered a knock at the door with “Come in” – which Beckett promptly wrote down. Despite making even less sense than much that had gone before, Joyce liked the error and left it in the final version.

Whether by gods of literature or the God of the Bible, mistakes have a habit of appearing in books like molehills in a lawn. The most notorious one in the Good Book appeared in a 1631 edition, known since as the Wicked Bible because the typesetters failed to add the word “not” to the 10 Commandments, leaving the pious free to steal, murder and commit adultery.

But the king of all typo-riddled books is Jonathan Franzen’s 2010 novel Freedom. HarperCollins wound up pulping the entire first print run of 80,000 copies after it emerged that an early version of the book was sent to the printers by mistake. As a result, the book teemed with hundreds of mistakes in grammar, spelling and even characterisation.

The Corrections author discovered the catastrophe surrounding his eagerly anticipated book in a brutally public way. Recording a reading for the BBC current affairs show Newsnight, Franzen came to an abrupt halt and said: “Sorry, I’m realising to my horror that there’s a mistake here that was corrected early in the galleys and it’s still in the fucking hard cover of the book.”

Anyone who held on to that edition of the book would have been better exchanging it. As rare book dealer Rick Gekoski predicted in the Guardian at the time the big print run meant that the mistakes had “zero premium … I wouldn’t give you 50p extra”, he said. Seven years on, he has been proved right: the most valuable first editions of Freedom that appear on Abebooks are copies published as the author intended.

Via: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/misprint-the-legends-famous-typos-from-james-joyce-to-jk-rowling

Your First Chapter: Getting Past The Fear

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ChapterOneFear holds a lot of writers back from getting their work into the world, and when you’re writing a book the fear of the first chapter can stop you in your tracks.

Much of this fear comes from pressure for the first chapter to be perfect. It is drilled into us that first impressions are everything, especially when it means keeping your manuscript out of the slush pile.

But if you don’t get started, you’ll never get going. So here are a few tips for pushing past the fear of failure and writing your first chapter.

Before the First Word

Think about your concept. No matter where it came from: based on a real event, in a dream, a fairy story, your imagination, whatever, you will need to flesh it out a bit and think about where it is going. Do some research into the area, and allow your concept to morph as it takes shape.

Coming up with the plot is the most difficult part, because our ideas change and grow all the time. But if you do a little planning on your structure and develop your characters, the shape of your novel will began to reveal itself. And doing this beforehand will make the actual writing process easier.

Putting Pen to Paper

From all your planning, the obvious place to start should present itself. Try not to overthink it – just start writing and see where it takes you. If you hit a dead end, don’t panic. Back up a bit a try again, or put it in a draw for a while and then come back to it with fresh eyes.

Personally, I have found giving my ideas time to marinade really helps my process. I reworked my plot, my world, some of my characters, and prepared to take that leap into a new first chapter.

Advice

There is a lot of advice out there about right/wrong ways to start a book. My advice is: just start writing. If you’ve got off on the wrong foot, the book will tell you. Sure, it may set you back a little, but you’ll learn from that experience and your novel will be better for it.

Think about how your favourite books and films start. Do they jump right into the acton, or is there some breathing space before the story begins? If you can imagine an intriguing scene that doesn’t give the game away, you’re on the right track.

Don’t let the pressure of publishers, agents, or readers intimidate you. First chapters are scary and exciting (like the first summertime leap into a swimming pool) but the great thing about words is that you can change them.

The revision and editing processes are so long that chances are, your first chapter will transform many times from your first version of it. We revise for a reason, so don’t stress about the minor things just yet.

In Retrospect

Although it can be hard figuring out where and how to start, the re-starting of my draft made me realise that the little things don’t matter (yet) and that first drafts never come out perfectly polished the first go.

My biggest lesson: don’t try to write the perfect first draft, because it’s like a unicorn – it only exists in my imagination.

It doesn’t matter that a chapter feels stale, or that the wording for some descriptions aren’t quite right, or that your tense keeps shifting.

Words are flexible: they can be edited, moved around, deleted, and swapped. Just get yourself past the first hurdle and keep pushing forward.

What’s important is that you write, not hide behind the fear that your first chapter may not be entirely perfect just yet.

Via: http://writersedit.com/getting-past-fear-first-chapter/