Welcome to Della Galton’s website

Does anyone remember my Writer’s Toolshed series in Writers’ Forum magazine?  It ran for a year and was a series of features focused on writing and selling the magazine short story.

Well here’s some good news if you missed it. I’ve put the whole thing together in this handy little ebook. I’ve updated it and added a few extra bits.  It should complement my other writing books – it doesn’t replace them. Although I’m talking about the same subjects the Toolshed is a slightly different approach. How to Write and Sell Short Stories is for the writer who wants more depth whereas The Short Story Writer’s Toolshed is for the writer in a hurry.

If you write short stories, particularly for magazines then I think you might like both.

At the moment The Short Story Writer’s Toolshed is FREE. And I’d love any feedback you may have if you have the time to give it.

Only £1.88 (or similar local equivalent)
Read the first few pages here, for free
Purchase it now from amazon.co.uk | amazon.com

The FREE Kindle reader app is available for all smart phones, tablets, PCs and Macs.
Download it here.

I recently did a feature for the People’s Friend about Battersea Dog and Cats Home to tie in with  ITV1’s series, Paul Grady: For the Love of Dogs.  The feature comes out in People’s Friend on October 20th, but in the meantime here are some of the rather lovely pictures that were taken by a friend who went with me.  Thank you, Peter.

One of the saddest statistics, at least for me, was that 37% of all the dogs in Battersea are Staffie Crosses. This is Jacob who was at the time of my visit, Battersea’s longest serving resident!

I have a Staffie Cross called Rosie. Here she is.

Rosie is an ASBO dog – she doesn’t like other dogs. She was brought up by a man who thought it would be fun to teach her to fight. Now, despite consulting various experts  she has to be walked separately on a lead from my other dogs and preferably when there is no one else around.

I wrote this poem for Rosie and all the other ASBO dogs and owners out there who have to go out before dawn if they want a peaceful walk.

 ASBO Dogs

 There’s an underworld of dogs,

they come out before the dawn,

when the city streets are dark still,

and there’s frost on every lawn.

They’re the growlers and the snappers,

and the ones that start the fights.

They haul their owners round

beneath the avenues of lights.

They tread in endless circles,

and they don’t come face to face.

Wearing harnesses and muzzles

in some endless pre-dawn race.

There’s an underworld of dogs,

called the monsters and the pests.

The biters and the fighters;

they can’t mix with all the rest.

Their owners are pariahs, they

side-step each other madly.

A wave across a football pitch

’cause dogs behaving badly!

Their owners are the saviours,

And the only ones to go

To the last chance sanctuaries,

where the dogs are on death row.

There’s an underworld of owners,

who gave up an easy ride,

for the hassle of an ASBO dog,

snip-snapping by their side

There’s an underworld of dogs,

who’d never chase another ball.

Without an underworld of owners,

they would never live at all.

© Della Galton, 2012

I’m running a day course on writing flash fiction soon, Saturday 28 April in Bournemouth if you’re interested!  There are more and more competitions and markets for it – so what is it exactly?

This is harder to define than you might think.   Some people define it as anything less than 1000 words, but I don’t agree that 999 words is flash fiction – not in today’s market anyway.  1000 words – is loads!!!

My instincts tell me it’s fiction of less than 500 words – or is it 250?  The Bridport competition has a flash fiction category of this length.

I used to belong to the Bournemouth Writers’ Circle and they ran a competition every month called the Have A Go competition. It had different themes and the max length was 250 words.  What a brilliant, brilliant training ground this was.

Or perhaps flash fiction is less than 100 words – there are competitions for this length too – or maybe even 60 words.  Both Woman’s Weekly and Chat magazine used to publish 60 word stories.   Then there are the 6 word stories. The most famous being Hemmingway’s, ‘for sale, baby shoes, never worn.’  That always sends a shiver down my spine!

Personally I’ve always thought that the very short fiction 100 words or less is micro fiction.

But, enough of my pondering on length.  Regardless of number of words, what Flash Fiction should be is a complete, stand-alone story, just like its elder brothers and sisters. It shouldn’t be an extract. It should have a beginning, middle and end.

I think that twists work well for flash fiction and I also think powerful stories work well.  It’s very hard to write ‘light’ flash fiction and get it to work.

I also think it’s immensely good fun to write to short lengths.  And there are lots of markets for it these days too.

More on flash fiction coming soon. And if you would like to spend a day focusing on this length and hopefully go away with a story written, then don’t forget my course in Bournemouth on Sat 28 April!

More details here.  http://www.dellagalton.co.uk/?page_id=31

Today (January 5th, 2012) is publication day of my new book, and I am so excited.  Even though I know everyone else in the universe won’t know and won’t care and the momentous news will pass without comment. But I am bursting with pride, and I feel a huge sense of achievement.

I wrote this book because I needed it when I wrote my first novel, and I needed it when I wrote my second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh novels…. And it wasn’t around.  So I thought I should write it!

Actually, I was a bit scared of taking the huge leap between writing short stories and novels. And, rather strangely, the more I learned about writing, the more scared I was – it isn’t a straightforward transition, at least it wasn’t for me!

I have sold my work for 25 years now, and yet each time I venture into a new type of writing, whether it is feature, or serial or poetry or radio play or children’s story, or humour, or erotica or full length non fiction or novel, I feel for a little while, as though I am stumbling around in a darkened house. There are no lights, no signposts, no familiarity.  And I have had success with writing, and I know the techniques, I know the craft, but that doesn’t mean I am not afraid.

I literally feel my way.  Going from the short story to the novel was the biggest leap for me.  I wrote my first novel knowing nothing whatever about the form.

By the time I wrote my fourth, Passing Shadows, which was the first one I sold, I felt as though the lights in the house were on – but I still had so much to learn.

What did development of characters mean? What did it really mean? How much plot did I need? What were the differences in real terms? Were there a lot of differences?

Oh yes, there were.

This is why I wrote this book.  I hope my experiences will help you.  I love teaching almost as much as I love writing and I wanted to share my journey with other writers who are also making the move from short story to novel.

Moving On – from Short Story to Novel – A step by step guide is the result.

Thank you for all the writers who shared their experiences with me on their moving on writing journey.

With love

Della Galton

Della Galton is the author of six novels, and three non-fiction books. Her short stories have been published in every major UK women’s magazine, as well as numerous short-story anthologies (available from Accent Press). She is Agony Aunt for Writer’s Forum magazine, and teaches at various writing courses and workshops around the country. Moving On – from Short Story to Novel – A step by step guide by Della Galton, is published by Accent Press, price £9.99.
Find out more about Della at dellagalton.co.uk.

Click here to purchase ‘Moving On’ from Amazon.co.uk

Click here to view all of Della’s books on Amazon