Paul Collins on writing, Ford Street Publishing and pursuing dreams...

Today I have a guest on dream... write... publish! Paul Collins, from Ford St Publishing has released a new book and shares with us the journey (there's a few good tips for us packed in here too).

First, a little about Paul...

Paul Collins has written over 140 books and 140 short stories. He is best known for The Quentaris Chronicles (The Spell of Undoing is Book #1 in the new series), which he co-edits with Michael Pryor, The Jelindel Chronicles, The Earthborn Wars and The World of Grrym trilogy in collaboration with Danny Willis. Paul’s latest book is The Only Game in the Galaxy, book three in The Maximus Black Files. 

Paul has been short-listed for many awards and won the Aurealis, William Atheling and the inaugural Peter McNamara awards. He recently received the A Bertram Chandler Award for lifetime achievement in Australian science fiction. He has had two Notable Books in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards.

He has black belts in both ju jitsu and taekwondo – this experience can be seen in The Jelindel Chronicles and The Maximus Black Files.

Visit Paul’s websites: 

www.fordstreetpublishing.com

www.paulcollins.com.au

www.quentaris.com

The Beckoning...

The Beckoning is Paul’s first adult novel. Check out the trailer:

Here Paul tells us something of the background behind his latest books, both out this month.

Matt Brannigan is a lawyer living on the edge. His daughter Briony is psychic and trouble shadows his family wherever they go.

Cult guru Brother Desmond knows that the power within Briony is the remaining key he needs to enter the next dimension. Once he controls this, he will have access to all that is presently denied him.

When Briony is indoctrinated into the Zarathustrans, Matt and psychic Clarissa Pike enter the cult’s headquarters under the cover of night to rescue her. 

So begins Armageddon . . .

When I give workshops or talks in schools I inevitably get asked by students (and a few teachers) for tips on writing. My best tip is persistence. I’ve heard of authors who get a few rejections and place their manuscripts in a bottom drawer or even throw them in the rubbish. Remember, numerous famous books received rejections before they were finally published. I’ll always remember Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. He committed suicide because everyone rejected it. His mother persisted with the book, and when it was finally published, it won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Following my own advice I persevered for over thirty years with a book called The Beckoning. Initially it was Wind Chill, then Evil Intent, and no matter how many name changes and revisions, it failed to sell. It was typed on a counter in a St Kilda second-hand bookshop in the early 80s. Over the years it’s been digitalised, stored on 3.5 floppies/discs, CDs, zip drives, USB sticks and no doubt a few storage devices I’ve long since forgotten. 

Damnation Books recently opened up for submissions. I thought, what the heck. I sent them three chapters as per the guidelines. Within two days they asked for the rest. Within two weeks they’d accepted it. Within five months it was published. My, how times have changed. It used to take up to 18 months to get a book into print.

So now it’s available in both ebook and print at Amazon.

The Only Game in the Galaxy... 

In a galaxy of cutthroat companies, shadowy clans and a million agendas, spy agency RIM barely wields enough control to keep order. Maximus Black is RIM’s star cadet.

But he has a problem. One of RIM’s best agents, Anneke Longshadow, knows there’s a mole in the organisation. And Maximus has a lot to hide.

As luck would have it, another book of mine came out this month, too. The Only Game in the Galaxy is the third book in The Maximus Black Files trilogy. This is another tale of persistence. The first drafts were written many years ago. Ford Street published the first book, Mole Hunt, in 2011. It was a success, especially for a small press. Dyson’s Drop followed in 2012. So now The Only Game in the Galaxy is available at Amazon and at “any good bookshop” but also at Ford St Publishing (with PayPal): http://tinyurl.com/ojxxjz8.

I love anti-heroes – think Modesty Blaise and Artemus Fowl. They’re bad, really, in as much they’re up to illegal activities. But I always feel as though they’re Robin Hood characters in that they steal from the rich and give to the poor. Maximus Black is pure evil. He’s all out for himself and woe betide anyone who gets in his way.

However, here’s the odd thing. So many people have told me they were rooting for Maximus! The reason I believe major publishers rejected The Maximus Black Files is because the lead character has no redeeming features. But in a survey ran by ROR, questioning readers whether characters needed redeeming features, not one respondent thought they did. This flies in the face of everything publishers/gatekeepers believe.

Maximus does have a nemesis in Anneke Longshadow, but all the fan mail is directed at Max. Ah well. So much for my creating a unique character who everyone will loathe . . .

Wow. Thanks Paul for the insider's view of the publishing world!

I think the best lesson members of the Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG) can take from Paul's post is to NEVER give up. Every manuscript has a different journey to travel and some may take longer than others to reach readers. Stay positive and keep writing!

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4 Essential Elements of a Successful Logline

Blake Snyder is well-known for his screenwriting advice. Turns out what works for film also works for novels! This guide offers advice on using index cards to write your scenes, finding that one saving trait in an unlikable character, marketing your manuscript and much more. My favourite advice is on writing the logline. Not only do you need a killer log line, but Snyder says write it before you write your novel. This will check if your story idea is strong enough.

What do you need for a killer logline? There are four essential elements every logline must have:

Irony - Character sets out to do/avoid one thing, until circumstances flip that plan on it's head! Look for key words like 'until', 'but', 'however'. Shows your characters original motivation/intention and the conflict that changes everything.

Promise - A good logline suggests a whole story. It promises big things to come. It should set up more than just the start of the story. For example, don't write: Sarah moves to France to open a flower shop. Put in the twist: Sarah moves to France to open a flower shop but finds reality does not match the dream when she is swindled out of her life savings for a run down store, can't speak the local language and discovers she's allergic to roses.

Audience - Suggests the market, who will want to read this book, who does it appeal to? Snyder suggest including an idea of the cost in production - if it's an epic film that will promises amazing special effects and big stars. That's helpful for scripts, but books have the equalising affect of all requiring the same medium to deliver (digital or paper), unless you have a specialised app with personalised games, or other expensive elements.

Killer Title - Your title should say what the story's about. Don't be vague. The title should 'nail the concept' without being overly obvious. When a reader spots your title they should start imagining the plot. This one line will show if your character and conflict are strong enough for an appealing story.

Snyder suggests holding off writing your story until you've written the killer log line. If you have to keep fudging your logline to include all the elements above, you may spot something your story is missing.

This review is part of the Progressive Book Club hosted by M L Swift. Want to challenge yourself to reading more writing manuals? Join up!

Want to learn more about writing loglines? Check out these links:
Gaston Broadcast: Logline examples
Creating Bomb-proof Loglines by Lenore Wright

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Writing for Reluctant Readers (and getting them to read!), Part One

I wrote My Zombie Dog with reluctant readers in mind. I had plenty in my classroom to motivate me. I wanted to share with you all the advice and help I've found for reluctant readers. There is so much information available, I've split this into two posts, here is part one:

Children's literacy is important to me. Although I was an early reader devouring adult novels from a young age, I'm well aware that many kids struggle to catch on to the reading bug. There can be many reasons for this, but I've come across many kids who don't read because they feel they're not very good at it (which could stem from not enough practice or from a reading/literacy/sight disorder). Nobody enjoys pursuing activities they're not good at. This can be a bit of a cycle when more practice can help improve reading technique and lead towards reading enjoyment, but lack of interest/enjoyment leads to not practicing.

If you want to write for reluctant readers (and they're not just boys), or you want to find suitable books for your reluctant reader, here are some suggestions I've found valuable:

Fast paced books

Kids want stuff to happen in their books. Not just metaphorical stuff, thinking, planning, reflecting--they want the protagonist to DO stuff. Take action, make things happen. How many scenes involve the main character running? Really running for their life?

Daniel X by James Patterson - kid gets gut-shot. I know, you think this is disturbing, but this kid is an alien with super-healing powers and boys just love the fighting action in this novel.

Humour

Who doesn't like to laugh? The best part is kids like all sorts of humour. If you don't think you can come up with the witty one-liners, try some slapstick humour. There are rules to writing humour (you want your character to sound funny, not cruel). If you want more tips on funny characters, see a previous post J is for Jester.
The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander is a parody of The Godfather. I like this concept because kids get a funny story, but are introduced to a more advanced story.

Mystery

I've found this usually appeals to girls more than boys. They like a story they can solve before the protagonist does. The Maggie Brooklyn Mystery series books are short, easy to solve and have dogs in them. Kids like dogs.

Familiarity

Most avid readers wouldn't dream of watching the film before reading the book, but for kids who find novels daunting, previous knowledge of the plot, character intentions, and even visual aids for setting, can help them settle into a novel. Although Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton may be a bit advanced for most kids, you can now get action series books set in the world of Jurassic Park. Watch the film, then read the book?

Short chapters

Keeping chapters short and using chapter numbers (not just titles) allows kids to quickly progress through the story and be able to measure their success ('Wow, I'm up to Chapter 7 already!'). James Patterson is a master at this technique.

Short Stories
This can be a great way to introduce kids to reading without the commitment of a full novel. My kids both loved Chris Priestley's Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror. Short and scary is a good combination! (You can read their review at Paper Dolls)

Now you've just got to get them to read...

Novalties

Lenny's World covered an awesome program involving kids reading to dogs. Specially trained dogs listen to kids reading books. Reading aloud helps a child develop their reading skills, as it's easy to miss words when you read to yourself. To save kids the anguish of reading in front of a parent or teacher, try getting them to read to their pet. Dogs don't judge.

Visit Lenny's post here: Reading To Dogs

Alice in Zombieland might give the dog nightmares Matilda!

I'll have lots more tips on writing for reluctant readers (and getting them to read) next week in part two! Do you have any reluctant readers at home? Any tips on how you trick/coerce/bribe them to read?

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Insecure Writers - Time Management

Every 1st Wednesday of the month is a time for insecure writers to group together. This month, my mind is obsessed with time. 

I have a bad habit of taking on more projects each day than can possibly be tackled in a 24hr period. My to-do lists grow into epic quests. Some of the projects I'm trying to juggle now are:

• Organise a launch, distribution and sales points for My Zombie Dog.
• Finish writing first draft to Undead Kev, sequel to My Zombie Dog.
• Edit/rewrite DOGNAPPED? My tween girl mystery.
• Find time to write my love project Warracknabeal Kids, a mystery set in 1939 outback Australia.
• Edit and submit short stories into competitions.
• Set myself up to run workshops at schools/libraries for creative writing.
• Together with my team, organise an Indie Expo for Australia's music, film, art and writing industry.

Each of these projects have many tasks to complete, and I want them all done NOW! I start to feel panicky, like I'm running late (I CAN'T run late EVER). Of course I also need to fit life in around these tasks. 

I am taking steps to manage all these projects:

• Downloaded Pomodorable from the Mac App store. This uses the method of set time limits per task. You work on one task for twenty minutes, then take a ten minute break (stretch, move about).
• Morning pages - I write three pages longhand when I wake up. It's not always useful words, but it does push me to keep going.
• I'll (try to) limit my task numbers on my to-do list. Do you know if you have more than five tasks on your list you're less productive on each one? A to-do list needs to be achievable, otherwise it just becomes a reminder of failure and a form of punishment. I need that reward of ticking boxes.

So what do you do to manage time wisely? If it's time to write you need, you can check out this post:

10 Ways to find Time to Write

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How to recycle posts and build worlds

You may get a feeling of deja vu reading my post today. No you're not imagining it, this is part of a great blogfest run by Denise Covey (L'Aussie to most of us online) over at Romantic Friday Writers. The idea is to repost one of your favourite posts from the April A-Z Challenge. I love to recycle, so here is my W post from April. Click on the pic to go sign up for the blogfest!

World Building Workshop

Build an amazing world for your story

Today I'm sharing a creative writing workshop I run for kids. It's on World Building and this is an important part of science fiction and fantasy stories. You can follow along and write up your own responses, or you can use the worksheet we use in class. It can be downloaded and printed from here:

World Building PDF

I've broken this workshop into two parts, the lists and the drawing. You can do either first, I love the lists, my kids will probably want to draw theirs first. 

 Step 1: The Written World Description

• Binaries and Parallels - What's the same as our world and what's different?

• Temperature - Is it below freezing or really humid? The temperature of your world will affect the type of vegetation you have, and even the action that can take place (imagine The Wizard of Oz without a tornado). Is your weather seasonal or is it always like this?

• Landscape - When your character stands still, what can they see and how far can they see? Can they see Mountains, ranges, hills or a horizon?

• Ground cover - Dirt, rocks, pebbles, sand, grass or snow? How does it feel to walk under your character's feet? What sound is made when they walk on it?

• Vegetation - Tree varieties, weeds, shrubs, edible fruits, mushrooms and flowers. This can create scents and colour to your story. Plants are used for more than shelter and food. Sometimes they can be medicines and sometimes they are just for enjoyment. Do your characters like to pick flowers? Or maybe there's a plant like tobbacco that they smoke? And maybe it's not good for them and they find out they could die from it. Maybe some yummy looking berries are poisonous.

Now beyond the ground.

• Laws of Physics - Will your land obey them? Is there gravity? How might this affect your characters?

• Sun/Moon/Stars - What is the natural light like or what alternatives are there for light? Does sun or moon or stars play a role in your character's religion?

• Civilisation - Is your world built up or entirely natural? Are there pathways, roads, houses, airports, industry?

Step 2 - Drawing

• Draw rough maps of the entire area and show how your different locations meet up.
• Draw up an outline of each town, where are the homes, the shops, the tavern, etc.
• Then go wild and paint or sketch lots of views of your world, be as artistic as you want!

Want to visuaslise your world but don't have crayon skills?

• Make a virtual world in a game like Sims3 or Second Life or perhaps you can suggest one?
• Search online, steal National Geographic magazines and travel brochures. Cut out all the elements that match your world and glue them onto a large sheet of cardboard. Layout the pictures to align with your map, showing where the rainforest is compared to the Castle and what you pass when you travel from one to the other. You can keep this by your desk while you write.

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P is for Plot

I came across this brilliant resource (which admittedly I found it linked on someone else's blog but can't remember which one to credit) for writing novels. There are many different methods writers use, and mine has usually been, get an idea and just start writing, once I can see some direction, I then plot the whole thing out.

Some writers claim novels don't need plot, but realistically that makes the story hard to follow and most readers won't want to continue the meandering journey. I love plot. This video from The Plot Whisperer will help anyone just starting out that can't find the direction they need to write a novel, and experienced writers who'd like some motivation and increase productivity in their writing time.

So enjoy, and remember, these tools are only useful if you USE them. As soon as you're done watching, make some notes on that next novel!

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Writing Business - Step 1

MY ZOMBIE DOG is ready for production and I've been looking into the business of writing. There's so much involved in getting your manuscript from story to book (or ebook), so I started by making a list of everything I could possibly think of that would need to be covered. Now it's time to start tackling that list.

Making progress through lists is so satisfying, I think I could be a professional list-ticker. I've now accomplished the first step to becoming professional at this writing gig (other than actually writing something). I've set up my ABN (Australian Business Number), this registers myself as a business and can be done (in Australia) by contacting the ATO (be ready to be on hold for over half an hour) or going to their website:

http://www.abr.business.gov.au/

You can be a writer without an ABN, but this way I can set up my business of writing and keep it separate from all other expenses/incomes. It also allows me to set up a business name or trading name for digital publishing. Here's hoping I have lots of tax to pay next financial year due to the overwhelming success of my ebooks!

My next steps include sourcing an illustrator for the cover art and organising to have the manuscript file formatted into an ebook.

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NaNo - when now????

I was so cool about NaNoWriMo this year. Planned way ahead. Figured I'd do a sequel to my children's mystery novel DOG SHOW DETECTIVE. Plotted it out, have character sketches and a few little plot twists all mapped out. Now I've changed my mind.

After much feedback from beta-readers, both writers and kids in the targeted age group, I've decided DOG SHOW DETECTIVE is not as completed as I first thought. I need to juice up the start and add something more to the main character to push us into caring about her. Knowing this may change other aspects of the story, I'm not sure I should be jumping into the sequel.

The big question is what project do I focus on for NaNo. I could do another kids' horror story like MY ZOMBIE DOG, or I could go with a Science-fiction YA piece, or a teen spy-thriller. No rush there's still two and half days before I need to begin writing. No hurry.

How are your NaNoWriMo plans coming?

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7 Things Publishers Want

Does your story have what publishers want? At the recent YA workshop I attended hosted by Jeni Mawter, we discussed what publishers look for in a novel. This was the consensus (for YA fiction):

1. YA appeal - but what appeals to young adults? They want a story they can relate to, but also different enough from the everyday that they can be swept away. Paranormal fiction is so popular because it's dangerous, but the magic element means that the reader is safe - this doesn't happen in real life (unlike thrillers).
2. Morally acceptable - What? I hear you say - sounds boring? No. There can be unethical characters, but the essence of the story will support the societal concept that this is wrong. For example, you can have racist characters, but it will be made obvious in the story that this is not the way to live among each other. 
3. Innovative - Vampirebots? Time-travelling monkeys that can tell the future? Every now and then a novelist hits on something fresh. The irony of this is that the market will then demand a stream of the same type of novels.
4. Characters you can't forget - Who can forget Rue from Hunger Games? (sniff). Write characters that haunt our memories long after we close the last page.
5. Original Voice - The best way to do this (I think) is to write true to your own voice, don't try to imitate someone else's style. The world does not need another Steinbeck, we already have his novels, write your own.
6. Fresh use of language - language evolves radically, in fact 'radically' is not a buzz word anymore, nor is 'buzz word'. Although I see it in a lot of novels, none of the teens at my high school spell out OMG when they're speaking. It's not hard to see how teens and YAs speak, just check out their Facebook pages and blogs (but not in a stalky way).
7. Story that moves the reader - does your story evoke emotion? It doesn't have to be sadness or joy, perhaps fear or anger?

Can you think of anything else to add to this list? I think if I was to ever self-publish I'd still use a list like this to make sure my work measured up.

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V is for View - Blogger Tip

Looking for a new way to view blogs?

There's one app on the iPad that I love - Flipboard. What it does is display your blogs in a magazine fashion, so you see snippets of stories and such. Did you know that there are different ways to view people's blogs from your computer?

If you go to the url in the address bar right now (says http://www.clancytales.blogspot.com/) and add to it:

view

You'll probably get the sidebar view of this blog, down the sidebar of this blog is a list of all the previous blogs. Now at the top of the page towards the right side, there's a blue button that probably says Sidebar. You can click on that and choose the other layout designs as well. I quite like Snapshot for when you want to try to find a previous post.

Does this work on your blog? If you have blogger or blogspot blog, you need to go into the Settings menu (from your dashboard). Your blog must be public, not one that people need to sign into to see. In Settings, choose Site Feed, and make sure your 'Allow Blog Feeds' button is either 'Full' (that's what I have selected) or 'Jump Break'. Also in Setting, choose Formatting and where it says 'Enable Dynamic Views', choose Yes.

That's all you have to do (most are set this way by default anyway, so you might not have to tamper at all). Then view your blog and type the word 'view' at the end of the url. I just think it's cool.

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A Writer's Obsession

Happy 13th Birthday Emily!

Drop by and visit her at Paper Dolls - she'd love it :-) 

After seeing how many audiobooks I have on the craft of writing, I decided I should tally up which ones I have on my shelf. Unfortunately, I've probably read about 10% of these (and that might be an optimistic figure). Somehow the act of owning the book makes me feel like I should already have the knowledge from the text. When I was a kid, I would sleep with a text book under my pillow before exams. I thought my brain would absorb the information while I slept. Yeah, great method.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
English Essentials by Mem Fox and Lyn Wilkinson
How Writers Write by pamela Lloyd
Crafting Stories for Children by Nancy Lamb
How to Write a Damn Good Mystery by James N Frey
No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty
On Writing by Stephen King
Publish for Profit by Cyndi Kaplan
Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell
Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell
Characters, Emotion and Viewpoints by Nancy Kress
Dialogue by Gloria Kempton
Description and Setting by Ron Rozelle
Speak our Language: The Story of Australian English by Bruce Moore
The Elements of Style Illustrated by Strunk Jnr, White and Kalman
The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman
The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life by Noah Lukeman
The Writing Book by Kate Grenville
StoryWorld by John and Caitlin Mathews
Steering the Craft by Ursula K Le Guin
Literati by James Phelan
Writer's Reader: A Guide to Writing Fiction and Poetry by Brenda Walker
Writer's and Illustrator's Guide to Children's Book Publishers and Agents by Ellen R Shapiro
Write On: A Conference Approach to Writing by Jo-Ann Parry and david Horsnby
Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron
Writing Feature Stories by Mathew Ricketson
Martin's Young Writers Guide
Zen in the Art of Writing - Ray Bradbury

How's your shelf looking?

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