Lucy Atkins's Blog, page 2

Sarah Hilary

Award winning crime author Sarah Hilary has been compared to Ruth Rendell and P.D. James. Her most recent novel Fragile, a psychological thriller with a gothic twist, is beautifully written. Sarah shares her writing tips here.

Lucy: How do you begin a new book – do you start with an idea/ a plan and how does that turn into a novel? 

SH: Nothing so concrete as a plan. Often something as flimsy as a feeling, or an image. Usually, I’ll avoid looking at it too closely, let it play at the corner of my eye, see how it takes shape. When it becomes a character’s voice, that’s when I’ll start writing. I write fast for the first draft to get a backbone (plot) in place. The editing comes later, and is nearly always torturous.

Lucy: So, what do you find the most challenging thing about writing fiction, and how do you overcome it?

SH: Telling the deepest possible story in the shortest number of pages. I love words but have always aspired to brevity, with mixed success. I’m getting better at it. I think each book we write helps us to make fewer of the same mistakes. 

Lucy: What tips would you give to a writer struggling with self-confidence? 

SH: Embrace your mistakes. Be patient with yourself. If you’re really struggling, seek out the support of a writing group

The post Talking to novelist Sarah Hilary about writing first appeared on Lucy Atkins.

Listen here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qlpy

You can catch up with this class and others on Instagram

What is a Literary Agent?

> They help prepare your work for submission, help you find the right publisher and negotiate a deal.
> Represent your book abroad and submit to film companies
> Represent your book abroad and submit to film companies
> Support you through the ups and downs
> If self-publishing – you don’t need one.

How do you find an agent?

1. First, get your book into shape. Some people find it helpful to hire an editor to help (but you don’t have to do this! Lots don’t). I can recommend: https://www.francisliteraryconsultants.co.uk/
2. Make a hit list: Look at Writers and Artists Yearbook  
3. Submit to about 5 agents at once. Expect rejections. Be systematic. DO YOUR RESEARCH 

TIPS FOR FINDING The One

> Look at novels that are similar to yours and turn to the acknowledgments page – the writer’s agent will be there.
> Find agents who might have a personal connection to your subject matter.
> Personal recommendations: use any contacts you have
> Target newer agents who are building their lists
> Follow literary agents on Twitter or Facebook – they often ask for submissions. The big agencies like Curtis Brown also have Twitter pitch days
> Can you do a writing course? (expensive, but some have bursaries, some online). 3 good ones: Faber Academy, Curtis Brown,Arvon Foundation
> Enter writing competitions
> Try Jericho Writers who have conferences and ‘meet an agent’ days

HOW TO APPROACH AN AGENT

Follow the guidelines on their website!!! Most want:
1. A short query email (or covering letter; they mean the same.) I’d do 4-5 sentences about yourself, plus brief elevator pitch about the novel (just a couple of sentences!)
2. 3 chapters, 10,000 words, or 50 pages
3. A synopsis

Three Tips for Success

1. Keep it Brief in the covering email – mention any writing credentials (journalism, advertising etc) you have, or well known courses you’ve done, or prizes you’ve won
2. Present your work professionally: double spaced, justified, in a sensible font, page numbered, your name and title on each page. No typos/spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. No funny colours or gimmicks.
3. Write a Good Synopsis: this is a brief statement of plot and main characters. It’s not a blurb. Don’t use excitable language to ‘sell’ the story. Make it however long they want it (Usually 1-2 pages double-spaced, 12 pt)

Things that might put off agents before they’ve even read your submission:

Email tone: gushing, exclamation marks, emojis, showing off or false modesty. Simply state who you are, any relevant credentials, what your book is.
Gimmicks: Making own book jacket or marketing material or attention grabbing tricks eg. shiny wrapping, free gift
Errors: Getting their name wrong/agency/authors they represent or spelling anything wrong.
If they turn you down don’t write back telling them why they’ve made a mistake. LOTS of authors are rejected by agents but submit again, another book, and are taken on.

GOOD LUCK!

The post Instagram Creative Writing Class: Get Published first appeared on Lucy Atkins.

You can catch up with this class and others on Instagram

What is a Literary Agent?

> They help prepare your work for submission, help you find the right publisher and negotiate a deal.
> Represent your book abroad and submit to film companies
> Represent your book abroad and submit to film companies
> Support you through the ups and downs
> If self-publishing – you don’t need one.

How do you find an agent?

1. First, get your book into shape. Some people find it helpful to hire an editor to help (but you don’t have to do this! Lots don’t). I can recommend: https://www.francisliteraryconsultants.co.uk/
2. Make a hit list: Look at Writers and Artists Yearbook  
3. Submit to about 5 agents at once. Expect rejections. Be systematic. DO YOUR RESEARCH 

TIPS FOR FINDING The One

> Look at novels that are similar to yours and turn to the acknowledgments page – the writer’s agent will be there.
> Find agents who might have a personal connection to your subject matter.
> Personal recommendations: use any contacts you have
> Target newer agents who are building their lists
> Follow literary agents on Twitter or Facebook – they often ask for submissions. The big agencies like Curtis Brown also have Twitter pitch days
> Can you do a writing course? (expensive, but some have bursaries, some online). 3 good ones: Faber Academy, Curtis Brown,Arvon Foundation
> Enter writing competitions
> Try Jericho Writers who have conferences and ‘meet an agent’ days

HOW TO APPROACH AN AGENT

Follow the guidelines on their website!!! Most want:
1. A short query email (or covering letter; they mean the same.) I’d do 4-5 sentences about yourself, plus brief elevator pitch about the novel (just a couple of sentences!)
2. 3 chapters, 10,000 words, or 50 pages
3. A synopsis

Three Tips for Success

1. Keep it Brief in the covering email – mention any writing credentials (journalism, advertising etc) you have, or well known courses you’ve done, or prizes you’ve won
2. Present your work professionally: double spaced, justified, in a sensible font, page numbered, your name and title on each page. No typos/spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. No funny colours or gimmicks.
3. Write a Good Synopsis: this is a brief statement of plot and main characters. It’s not a blurb. Don’t use excitable language to ‘sell’ the story. Make it however long they want it (Usually 1-2 pages double-spaced, 12 pt)

Things that might put off agents before they’ve even read your submission:

Email tone: gushing, exclamation marks, emojis, showing off or false modesty. Simply state who you are, any relevant credentials, what your book is.
Gimmicks: Making own book jacket or marketing material or attention grabbing tricks eg. shiny wrapping, free gift
Errors: Getting their name wrong/agency/authors they represent or spelling anything wrong.
If they turn you down don’t write back telling them why they’ve made a mistake. LOTS of authors are rejected by agents but submit again, another book, and are taken on.

GOOD LUCK!

Here are the most recent instalments of Lucy’s creative writing classes, which happen on Instagram every Friday at 1pm (UK time) on Psychologies magazine’s Instagram account here. They’re free, anyone welcome.

Tension, Intrigue and Suspense

Tension, Intrigue and Suspense

Where To Set Your Novel and Why

Where To Set Your Novel

Complex Characters

Complex Characters

Beginnings and Endings

Beginnings and Endings

The post Instagram Creative Writing Classes to watch now first appeared on Lucy Atkins.

Here are the most recent instalments of Lucy’s creative writing classes, which happen on Instagram every Friday at 1pm (UK time) on Psychologies magazine’s Instagram account here. They’re free, anyone welcome.

Tension, Intrigue and Suspense

Tension, Intrigue and Suspense

Where To Set Your Novel and Why

Where To Set Your Novel

Complex Characters

Complex Characters

Beginnings and Endings

Beginnings and Endings

Here are some YouTube videos of the most recent instalments of Lucy’s “How to Write a Novel” series for Psychologies Magazine. You can find the full series at the magazine’s Instagram site here.

Tension, Intrigue and Suspense

Tension, Intrigue and Suspense

Where To Set Your Novel and Why

Where To Set Your Novel

Complex Characters

Complex Characters

Beginnings and Endings

Beginnings and Endings

To watch past creative writing classes on Instagram go to @psychologiesmagazine’s account (Click on ‘IGTV’). These creative writing classes are free and happen Live on Fridays at 1.30pm (UK time)

How to Begin

People will tell you the opening line of a novel must be amazing, startling, completely original, but trying to do this can lead to you sound desperate or overwritten. BUT opening lines do need to make the reader perk up.

GOOD Openings: Give us the sense that we are on a journey. We don’t need to know exactly where we are yet, but we need to feel we’re going somewhere, and want to go somewhere with the author.

KEY INGREDIENT for all openings: INTRIGUE . To do this, your opening needs to raise a question (maybe more than one).

Other ingredients

-A strong, distinctive voice
-Detail – anchor us, make it feel real and immediate
-Strong sense of place or character

Do you need to know where to begin before you start writing?

NO! Beginnings might change as you deepen the novel. Flexibility can be key, especially if you aren’t a planner.

Endings

-If the beginning poses a question, the ending answers it.

-If an ending fails to answer it in some way, the book can fail

-In really good novels you get the feeling that the ending grew organically out of the opening.

-Endings bring a sense of completion BUT can leave some room for the reader’s thought process – for the story to continue afterwards.

-If you tie up the loose ends too soon then just continue to waffle, the ending falls flat.

Tip: You don’t need to know your ending from the start

If I’d felt I needed to know the ending before I wrote, I’d never have written a novel. My endings evolve as the book gets written.

4 ways to open a novel:

1 With a feeling/setting/theme (Jane Eyre ‘There was no possibility of a walk that day’)

2 With a question.

3 With a crisis.

4 With dialogue (Muriel Spark’s Ballad of Peckham Rye: ‘‘Get away from here, you dirty swine’ she said.’)

With a statement   (‘It is a truth universally acknowledged…’)

5 Ways to End a Novel:

1 Circularity – you’re back at the opening, seeing things in a different way.

2 Echoing: you bring back an idea or theme that appeared in the opening

3 Surprise: you end on a twist or shock

4 Reflection: you survey what’s happened, and feel sense of completion and of having learned something about life

5 Open (ish): when you don’t tie everything up neatly and the reader is left to fill in the blanks.

Try this: Take your 5 favourite novels, read beginning few pages and end few pages. What’s the writer done? Why does it work?

The post Instagram Creative Writing Class: Beginnings & Endings first appeared on Lucy Atkins.

To watch past creative writing classes on Instagram go to @psychologiesmagazine’s account (Click on ‘IGTV’). These creative writing classes are free and happen Live on Fridays at 1.30pm (UK time)

How to Begin

People will tell you the opening line of a novel must be amazing, startling, completely original, but trying to do this can lead to you sound desperate or overwritten. BUT opening lines do need to make the reader perk up.

GOOD Openings: Give us the sense that we are on a journey. We don’t need to know exactly where we are yet, but we need to feel we’re going somewhere, and want to go somewhere with the author.

KEY INGREDIENT for all openings: INTRIGUE . To do this, your opening needs to raise a question (maybe more than one).

Other ingredients

-A strong, distinctive voice
-Detail – anchor us, make it feel real and immediate
-Strong sense of place or character

Do you need to know where to begin before you start writing?

NO! Beginnings might change as you deepen the novel. Flexibility can be key, especially if you aren’t a planner.

Endings

-If the beginning poses a question, the ending answers it.

-If an ending fails to answer it in some way, the book can fail

-In really good novels you get the feeling that the ending grew organically out of the opening.

-Endings bring a sense of completion BUT can leave some room for the reader’s thought process – for the story to continue afterwards.

-If you tie up the loose ends too soon then just continue to waffle, the ending falls flat.

Tip: You don’t need to know your ending from the start

If I’d felt I needed to know the ending before I wrote, I’d never have written a novel. My endings evolve as the book gets written.

4 ways to open a novel:

1 With a feeling/setting/theme (Jane Eyre ‘There was no possibility of a walk that day’)

2 With a question.

3 With a crisis.

4 With dialogue (Muriel Spark’s Ballad of Peckham Rye: ‘‘Get away from here, you dirty swine’ she said.’)

With a statement   (‘It is a truth universally acknowledged…’)

5 Ways to End a Novel:

1 Circularity – you’re back at the opening, seeing things in a different way.

2 Echoing: you bring back an idea or theme that appeared in the opening

3 Surprise: you end on a twist or shock

4 Reflection: you survey what’s happened, and feel sense of completion and of having learned something about life

5 Open (ish): when you don’t tie everything up neatly and the reader is left to fill in the blanks.

Try this: Take your 5 favourite novels, read beginning few pages and end few pages. What’s the writer done? Why does it work?

Good characters matter more than you might care to know. 

Think about your favourite novels –ones you read years ago. Can you remember the details of the plot? Maybe. But it’s likely to be the characters you really think of. Often writers focus on getting the plot right: we obsess on making it all hang together, on coming up with something surprising and ‘new’, perfecting the twists and timings. But no amount of clever plotting or elegant sentence structures can compensate for weak, dull or clichéd characters. 

– Usually you’ll have 1-2 main characters, some secondary ones, maybe a background cast
– You can find lots of advice online about creating character ‘templates’/ fleshing out what colour your character’s favourite knickers are, or what they have for breakfast. Many people find this useful. I don’t.

I can’t think in the abstract about my characters, certainly not before I’ve created them. Sometimes I just have to write and rewrite and redraft, questioning and exploring a character until I begin to get under their skin and find their voice – think like they think. It took me 5 months of frustration, re-writing endlessly the first 4 chapters of Magpie Lane until I had Dee’s voice. Then one day I got her – I knew who she was, and we were off.

You know it’s working when: they do and think stuff of their own, and lead you in directions you might not have thought of.

Do they have to be likable?

Publishers do sometimes say they want your character to be likeable but I think there are WAY more interesting things for a character to be. And what people want is interesting characters they feel are real, and in whose psyches they feel invested.

Characters need to change – they need AN ARC: they start in one place, go through things, and come out changed.

HOW TO BUILD CHARACTER

-Work on dialogue, how they speak

-Find the details: Edna O’Brien once said that the telling details, like the way someone opens a handbag, can tell a reader more than pages of writing.

-Work on what they think of OTHER CHARACTERS – how they react to them, how they feel about what others do.

Four Things to Avoid:

1/ Stereotypes and cliches

2/ Blandness – watch out for the tyranny of ‘likable’ characters

3/ Inconsistency (unless it’s deliberate on your part)

4/ Stasis (they need to change…)

3 THINGS TO TRY NOW:

1/ Research. What do they do for a living? Where do they live? What do they know? Find out everything you can about their world so you can inhabit it. In Magpie Lane, Mariah is a wallpaper restorer so I spent hours looking at wallpaper, talking to experts, engaging in the detail. Only a tiny amount made it into the book, but it helped me to know Mariah’s daily life and her inner world.

2/ Find the voice – write, write, write – try things in different ways until they start to take form, until you can hear them in your head and they aren’t you any more.

3/ Stick them in an odd setting – see how they react.

The post Instagram Creative Writing Class: Character – basics first appeared on Lucy Atkins.