How Do You Read?

 

My novel To Be Frank, is going through the editing process with my publisher’s team; essential to releasing a book. I love writing and enjoy the editing of content and organisation, but I do find the detailed grammar and presentation aspects challenging. Having no qualifications in English Language or Literature, since O levels in 1970, it’s easy to feel inadequate. My medical degrees, scientific background and years of writing healthcare notes don’t seem to help.

     I’ve always read a lot but am a relatively slow reader, over-using the technique of sub-vocalisation I suspect, which commonly achieves about 250 words per minute. Visual reading, at approximately 700 words per minute, is at the other extreme. Apparently, proficient readers are able to read at 280-350 words per minute without compromising comprehension. When editing one surely has to slow read and going through an 88,000 manuscript takes time. 

             

    As a result of rereading To Be Frank so many times in recent weeks, I am aware that it is common to read what you think you’ve written rather than what is actually on the page. From a neuroscience point of view, proficient readers don’t read one word at a time and the human mind doesn’t normally read every letter by itself but reads the word as a whole. In proofreading, that idea flies out of the window.

    During my research into ways of reading, I went off piste and, leaving the editing process behind, I discovered so many styles of reading I’d never thought about in specific terms. Here are just a few snippets:

    The concept of ‘speed reading’ began in the late 1950s and can involve skimming and searching sentences for clues, or scanning where one looks for information in a sentence with the use of a mind map to organise it in a visually hierarchical manner. Meta-guiding is another technique, involving the visual guiding of the eye using a finger or a pointer.

    The other end of the spectrum is ‘slow reading’, which is the intentional reduction in the speed of reading to increase comprehension and pleasure. It originated in the study of philosophy and literature and there’s been an increase in interest in slow reading as a result of the ‘slow movement’ and its focus on a deceleration of the pace of modern life. (Close reading or deep reading is the use of slow reading in literary criticism). Sven Birkerts, an American essayist and literary critic, says in The Gutenberg Elegies (1994) that “Reading, because we control it, is adaptable to our needs and rhythms”.

    Typoglycemia, incidentally, is the ability to read jumbled words. It is thought that to see the first and last letters of a word, in the right place, is all that matters and that’s why we can so often solve the puzzles posted on social media, for example ‘I bte yuo cn rd ths sntnc’ or ‘do oyu fnid this smilpe to raed?’. Maybe that’s also why we can’t always see our own mistakes?

    So, I’m voting for slow reading, with an occasional bit of skimming and a dose of typoglycemia when I next read a novel, and meanwhile I give thanks to my editors for helping with the hard grind and time consuming work of copy-editing and proofreading.

Fishy business

Photograph by Ben Russell  

http://bensonrussell.com

So it’s 10pm when Marcus and I go into Ma Murphy’s Bar and Grocery Store in Bantry, as invited. Our eyes ache from tiredness (we got up at 4am this morning) and it’s noisy with Sunday-night locals, so we know it’s got the craic, despite its Facebook credentials. We congregate in the less-remarkable back room and shout, strain to hear each other, strain to remember whether we’ve read that person’s piece: ‘Oh, you’re THE Helen,’ and we reverentially pass round a single copy of the Fish Anthology 2018, surreptitiously checking for our own names. After half an hour I admit defeat and we slope away, only to find later that we weren’t the only ones to leave early.

On Monday at 6pm, cheered by a day spent exploring gorgeous Bantry Bay and the faded gentility of Bantry House, we congregate in The Windward Room of the hotel and receive copies of the Anthology. It is beautiful, and I flick back and forth through mine, reading the bios. What follows is excellent. All the attending writers in the Anthology – poetry, flash fiction, memoir and short fiction - are to read one page, and one page only of their piece. As winner, I go last. Some pieces are familiar – I remember them from when I read the proofs. They are varied and superb, and, ninety minutes later when it’s finally my turn, I have become very nervous. Everyone is so talented. My writing is no better than theirs. I was lucky the judge plumped for mine. They’ve largely funded their own trips, and mine is largely paid for (well, it will be, if and when I get my cheque!).

Some authors have just launched straight into their writing; some have explained and justified it; more frequently they have handed out bountiful thanks. They’re getting fidgety and they want to get to the bar by the time it’s my turn. I walk to the front aware I am shaking, and that my voice will wobble. I need to control myself. I pull an ex-teacher joke out of my foggy brain: ‘As a retired teacher, I can’t tell you how excited I am to be reading to a room of grown-ups who aren’t going to need the loo in the middle,’ and it gets a laugh and some friendly heckles. I laugh too. It’ll be OK. Now I can relax – I think this is the precise moment when the photo is taken, and I am smiling, thank goodness – and I read my page from Clippings, from the start, no explanations, no thanks (I did that when I found out I won), just straight into it. The applause at the end is far warmer.

After, that we mill around for a group photo and chat, and this time, I can match faces to stories. We chat longer in the bar. They are a fantastic group. I meet the radio-play writer who was shortlisted for flash fiction, the short-story writer who came second in the memoir, the guy who’d never written before, the accomplished writer who had two pieces in the top ten (and has been previously published by Fish). Some comment intelligently about my piece; some vow to go off and read it. This is a prize for ‘emerging writers’ but we’re none of us spring chickens! We connect on social media, such is the way of the world.

The next day, Marcus and I head North up the Wild Atlantic Way to the beautiful Dingle peninsula – County Kerry proper, and holiday proper – before two nights in fascinating Cork city. I read the Anthology at every opportunity and now it means so much more. I exchange messages with other writers and receive and send unsolicited messages of praise. I have had a fantastic time, and truly have had the luck of the Irish. Thank you, Tilly Emmerson and Fish Publishing!

Copies of the Fish Anthology 2018 will soon be available at the Wivenhoe Bookshop, and direct from fishpublishing.com.  The anthology is the 'culmination of a year's work, trawling through thousands of submissions to the Fish Short Story, Short Memoir, Flash Fiction and Poetry Prizes. The judges were Billy O'Callaghan, Marti Leimback, Sherrie Flick and Ellen Bass respectively.'

Agent Hunting by Philippa

All it took was a trip to London and a Writers Workshop Masterclass

in May of this year to convince me that I needed to get an agent. 

The event was held, one early evening in May, at Waterstones in 

Piccadilly. Happily there was time for a day in the city to make the 

most of my railfare. First I made a long anticipated visit to the 

Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square – quite fascinating and a place 

where many poignant stories could begin. A quiet lunch was followed 

by a little browsing in Regent Street, before the heat of the 

streets drove me early into Waterstones.

    There can’t be many better places to use up time than in a 

bookshop. Over numerous floors, this huge, art deco building housed 

multiple layers of books. The enormous competition from so many 

published authors was evident. I always knew that publishing was a 

vast industry but on this day the extent of it was literally spread 

before me. I looked closely at the names, stored for posterity on 

the spines of books; some were famous, some unknown, some I’d read, 

others were on my to do list. I watched other people drift like me 

and wondered if they were writers too. Eventually about 45 of us 

found our way to the top floor, coming together over a glass of wine 

and polite conversation before the event began.

    

     What did we discover?

- You need a good quality manuscript.

-   You need an agent.

     Well that seemed clear enough.

-  Longlist professional committed agents with an open door, who like your genre. Do research on agent search sites such as Agent Hunter, Agent Query.com or Writers Market.

-  Filter the list, looking for points of contact, similar tastes, common interests or a comment on a tweet that clicks.

- Approach a group of agents all at once (batches of 10 at a time).

-  Carefully check their submission requirements, as all seem to want something slightly different (eg.3 chapters, 10,000 words, 50,000 words, attached or pasted …). Make sure your manuscript is ready.

     This was starting to sound more complicated.

- Get name on query letter right, include title of book, word count, genre and just a short biography – the manuscript matters more than you do. Include one paragraph about your book, a hook, a USP.

- Get the synopsis right – what is the story? Make it clear and easy to navigate. Notation can be telegraphic. Include and highlight main characters, add a layer of emotion, maybe a sprinkle of spice. Is there an inciting incident?

- Allow at least 6-8 weeks for a reply. Be patient.

- Keep going with another batch. Keep trying.

     Three individual agents generously gave their time to answer our questions. All confirmed the huge numbers of submissions they receive and the low acceptance rate. It’s now taken me three months to prepare to send my first batch of submissions, requesting representation – okay, family illness, a bereavement and a much needed holiday got in the way, but having a little space and avoiding the temptation to rush was actually helpful. I now feel ready for the replies and potential rejections. I feel ready to keep trying.

Discovery Day at Foyles

Yesterday I went to ‘Discovery Day’ at Foyles bookshop, in London. I won the place after tweeting a pitch to #PitchCB (Curtis Brown Creative). Even without the competition, the exercise of reducing my synopsis to one line was a very useful task to check my novel had a strong enough premise.

This was my pitch:

“When her sister's body is found after 6 missing years, Alice wants answers. The crime is in their upbringing #PitchCB”

I tweeted and then I waited. The idea is, that if your tweet is ‘liked’ by one of the staff at Curtis Brown, you are invited along to their Discovery Day, which according to the website was already sold out. I understand they do a regular ‘twitter pitch’ as well, which allows you to queue-jump the slush pile, straight to the agent who likes your pitch.

So what is Discovery Day?

'An event for aspiring novelists, featuring pitching sessions with literary agents and the chance to learn more about the publishing industry ....

Throughout the day, new writers will be given the opportunity to pitch their novel-in-progress – speed-dating style – to a literary agent, and get professional feedback on their idea and their first page. Agents will read writers’ first pages and draw on their expertise to provide six minutes of on-the-spot verbal feedback. After they’ve delivered their pitches, writers will then be invited to take part in special agent ‘surgeries’ upstairs in the Foyles Gallery. Here, groups of writers will join a Curtis Brown or Conville & Walsh agent at a table, where they can ask questions about everything from the novel-writing process to the publishing industry.'- See more at: http://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/blog/course/discovery-day-at-foyles-2016/#sthash.j4fAvEpE.dpuf

And it was exactly that. I arrived in plenty of time. The queues were massive but it was well organised and I had been emailed a time slot, which reduced my wait to just fifteen minutes. The queuing was pleasant, as I was surrounded by other hopeful writers with plenty to talk about and it’s never a chore to spend time in a bookshop.

So armed with the first page of my novel and a synopsis, I entered the conference room on the top floor. There were about twelve or so desks, and a few window seats with agents already in communication with writers. And there were timers everywhere, ensuring the pitches didn’t run over the 6 minutes allocated. As soon as an agent was free, the next writer in the queue was matched to them. It was entirely random. Whilst waiting I decided to read my work straight from the page, as I’m a better writer than an orator and stumbling with nerves would take me over the time limit.

So was it worth the trip? Even though the whole process took less than an hour, including the Q and & A session, the agent I met, Rufus Pardy, was very encouraging and his reaction to my first page was great. It was really nice to witness the effect my writing had first hand and on first read. Normally sending out work happens in a vacuum, behind closed doors, often followed by a long wait, and sometimes a standard rejection letter.

It was definitely a good experience and reminded me how concise you need to be when you approach agents and the reality of how little time they have to spend on each manuscript. Every word counts. It also confirmed that I’m on the right (or should that be write) track.

Interview with Scottish novelist, Catriona Child.

Scottish author Catriona Child has two books published with Luath press: ‘Trackman’ and ‘Swim until you can’t see land.’

Where do you get your ideas?

The idea for Trackman came from a dream that my husband had – he dreamt that he was on an underground train. A girl was crying and a man handed her a pair of headphones. Everything started to go a bit strange when she put them on, but she was happy. He told me about his dream and this set something off. I am a big music fan and have always been interested in the effects that music can have on us as human beings, so this all turned into Trackman.

For my second novel, it started out as an idea about a girl who steals a lottery ticket from an old man. However, it wasn’t really working and then I saw on the news about the death of Eileen Nearne (a WW2 secret agent). I was intrigued by her story and have always been fascinated by social history and WW2. I started to do some research into women secret agents, as well as recounting stories my granny told me about WW2 and my old man was suddenly transformed into a woman secret agent.

So to sum up, a dream and a news item!

How long do your novels take to write?

Trackman took about four years, including a two year distance learning MA in Creative Writing. Swim took about two years. I’m not a full time writer though, so write when I find time during evenings and weekends.

How do you motivate yourself to keep going?

Some days are easier than others, if I have a good idea or if I’m really enjoying what I’m writing about then it’s easy to keep going. If the writing is not going well though, it’s tougher. I guilt myself into turning off the TV or getting up off the sofa – Stephen King said in On Writing, that you need to turn the ER repeats off, and I hear that phrase in my head when I’m being lazy. I also was told that writing is a muscle and needs exercised, so I use that as another motivator, especially if it’s a bad day – if I keep going, the writing muscle will be more toned tomorrow.

How do you judge when the book is finished?

I read it and edit it over and over and over (both to myself and out loud) and get other writers to read it and comment, and eventually the red pen marks get less and less. I don’t think you’ll ever be completely happy with something, but there comes a time when you just have to stop.

What is the last thing you do before you send the novel off?

Read it one last time, check the spelling.

Was it hard to get your first book: ‘Trackman’ published?

It was probably easier than I expected, although a great deal of that was down to luck – the director of Luath happened to open the mail on the day that my submission arrived and liked it. I was told that if anyone else had opened the mail that day, it would have just been tossed onto the slush pile. I used the Writers and Artists Yearbook and sent my novel out to a variety of agents and publishers. Some replied with a rejection, some never replied, luckily for me Luath replied and asked to see the full thing.

Did you ever think of giving up?

Not really. I was aware of how difficult it is to get published, so wasn’t expecting to get a positive response. Trackman was at the stage where I couldn’t really do anything more to it and it was time to start writing something new, so I thought I might as well try and send it out there. If nobody had responded positively, I probably would have given up with Trackman and tried to write something new.

Who did you approach and why?

I sent it out to agents and to any publishers who seemed to fit Trackman and who accepted unsolicited manuscripts.

Why did you make the decision to go straight to the publisher?

Luath accepted unsolicited manuscripts, so I thought I would try them. They’re an independent publisher from Edinburgh, with a good reputation, so I thought they were worth a go.

How long did the process take from acceptance to publication?

It probably took around a year, including all the edits etc. Luath asked me to do a few initial changes to the book and then I worked more closely with an editor.

How did you promote yourself and your books?

This is the bit I find the hardest. I set up a Twitter account and a writer’s facebook page. Luath had various contacts so they managed to set up a few reviews in local papers, and arranged for me to do various readings. I also contacted people myself and asked to appear at their festival or if they would do a review on their blog. Some were successful, some weren’t.

Would you consider approaching an agent with future manuscripts?

Yes, I think an agent would be the next step for me. I think it would be useful to have someone with good contacts who understands the publishing industry more than I do, and someone who can have the difficult conversations.

I sometimes feel that, as an independent publisher, Luath don’t have the time or the finances behind them to market the book as well as a bigger publishing company might have, and I think this is where an agent would help.

Do you have plans for a third book?

I have a vague idea and am trying to write bits and pieces, but am finding it more difficult to get time to myself since having my daughter last year. I’m trying to keep a wee journal of my daughter’s first year, which is a very badly written stream of consciousness type thing, but at least it’s writing.

What compels you to write?

I’ve always written from a very young age, whether it be stories, letters or a diary. It’s something I enjoy doing and something I’m sure that I will always do regardless of publication.

What else do you enjoy besides writing?

I love reading, music (listening to and going to gigs), the cinema – all of which have taken a back seat recently while I spend time with my daughter (which I also love doing!). I swim, run and do a bit of yoga to keep fit.

Catriona reading from her second novel: Swim until you can't see land
Photograph by Alan T Simpson.

Ready for publication? Part 2. The Feedback

In the last post we were waiting for my debut novel to come back from my editor. Was I going to be dancing round the house, reading bits of the report out to anyone who'd listen? Or was I going to be completely crushed?

Well neither, as it happens, but it wasn't altogether comfortable reading. There were twenty-eight pages of where I'd gone wrong. And the thing was, I could see that the editor was right. I recognised what she was saying. She wasn't telling me the book was terrible. In fact quite a bit of what she said was complimentary. But she certainly didn't pull any punches in the places where she felt I needed to tighten up the dialogue, places where the plot was falling flat, additional scenes I really ought to write, scenes I didn't need. And that, basically, my main character was a wimp!

The novel needed a lot of work. But was I downhearted? Well, yes, if you want to know the truth. But I'm a bit of a sticker, and besides, I was starting to see where I could make improvements. And the editor was very helpful: I sent a couple of revised scenes to her for comments and she made more observations and suggestions. Then having rewritten it almost from scratch, two of my writers' group members had a go at it. This didn't result in a re-write, but it certainly pointed out some careless mistakes and some more tightening up of dialogue and action.

And then guess what, I bit the cash bullet again. I paid for another critique. There was a 20% discount for a second read, but as the novel was now fifteen thousand words longer, it didn't really work out much cheaper. I chose to go with the same editor as before, because I felt we had developed an understanding of where my novel was going. And this time I got about twenty pages of notes. But at least now the changes were minor, and there were more positive comments. One excellent suggestion she made was to re-write a particular scene from the point of view of a different character. So I tried this, and she was right, it worked really well.

Of course, I didn't do absolutely everything my editor suggested. I'm not a sheep, after all, and in the end it's my novel. But her advice and recommendations were invaluable, and enabled me to create a much stronger story and with a much more credible main character.

Another good suggestion she made was to read it aloud to myself, all the way through. So a packet of Strepsils later I could now see how often my characters began dialogue with 'Well' (even though I'd known this and thought I'd eradicated it already) and the fact that the police discussed a partial thumbprint five times. Five times. Please!

So if you're reading this and you're in a similar position, don't try and go it alone. Don't be abashed at asking for help. Read the acknowledgements bit in a lot of novels and you might wonder how much the author actually contributed. Get the best advice you can, and that probably means paying for it some way or another. It might mean you undertake a serious creative writing course, such as a degree or an MA, like Sue. Or get yourself onto an Apprenticeship scheme like Clare. Or, like me, work with a professional editor you feel is on your wavelength. And if you can, find a group of writers with some experience to help you stay on the straight and narrow. If there isn't anything near you, join an on-line critique group such as Word Cloud or Authonomy. If you like crime you could join my Google+ group Creative Crime Writers. Post your stories or reviews on there and join the community.Creative Crime Writers



The other thing you need to do is read, read, read, especially, but not exclusively, in your chosen genre. It's only by studying others that you learn what works and what doesn't.

Altogether my book went through at least seven re-writes, probably more. It was at this stage I began the wearisome process of submitting to agents. And you know the rest. That's where we came in.



Next time I'll talk about getting your book ready for e-publishing.

Ready for publication? by Paula

One thing that this novel-writing enterprise has taught me is that I don't handle rejection well! It's no good telling me that Black Beauty was rejected nine times and Harry Potter, seven. Or that Ian Rankin had to write eight books before he acquired a name for himself. And I just read in the Afterword to one of Simon Kernick's novels that he had three hundred standard rejections before he finally got a two-book deal. He was certainly determined! But good for him; he now has several best-sellers to his credit.On top of this there's all the waiting time. Waiting for this agent or that publisher to decide whether or not your precious manuscript is for them. Of course, what you should be doing during this time is writing the next one. Only it's hard to type while you're biting your nails down to the quick. 
    So after four rejections (I know,  I know, I'm a wimp, have no persistence, no backbone etc. etc....) I decided to go it alone and publish my debut novel, Hangman's Wood, on Amazon and various other e-publishing sites. 

    Now, I'm not so arrogant that I think every word I write is a pearl beyond price. In fact I know quite well it's not. And I'm not above taking advice and acting on it. Quite the reverse, I value candid feedback, even when it hurts. So if you're interested in how I got to the point where I felt ready for publication, I'd better tell you first that I spent quite a bit of money, as well as effort. It took a lot of soul searching. I'd attended a writers' conference where I met several other writers in my situation, many of whom were considering using a professional editing agency. And these agencies, if they're any good, aren't cheap. And when you've no experience of using a service, you don't really know what to expect, and you can't help worrying that you may be throwing good money after bad. It really does take a leap of faith to decide to spend that sort of cash, especially when you don't really know what you're going to get for it. But anyway, against the advice of all my non-writing friends, I did it. I paid the money (about £400) and sat back and waited anxiously for the feedback. Of course, what you really want to hear is: This novel is fabulous. It's completely ready for publication. Or even: All this work needs is a little tweaking here and there. Because you've already spent ages polishing it, haven't you? It isn't your first draft, after all. Well, in your dreams. 
    Next post I'll write about what really happens!