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How do I stop my romances becoming predictable?

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in Dear Della, Questions from Dear Della, Short stories for magazines, Tips on writing, Writing, Writing problems and solutions. 5 Comments

A rose by any other name!
A rose by any other name!

Here’s another question from a recent postbag at Writers’ Forum. This one comes up quite a bit.  We’re talking fictional ones by the way!

Q A common cause for the rejection of short stories (I know, because I’ve received many!) is that “the story line was too predictable”. I find this very hard to avoid particularly when writing a romantic story for the women’s magazine market, when the maximum number of recommended characters is only three or four. What can be done to stop the reader from working out that the boy and girl who meet at the beginning of the story are not inevitably going to end up in each other’s arms?

A First of all, I emphasize with you. I agree that writing a romantic short story for a magazine is one of the hardest genres to crack, for exactly the reasons you state.  Here are some tips that I hope may help:

  • While the romance is likely to be a little bit predictable, other aspects of the story needn’t be.  You might want to try a unique setting. I’ve sold more than one story which featured a wedding or romance set somewhere unusual, for example an ice hotel. Think about setting your romances somewhere unique or unlikely.
  • You can also experiment with viewpoint. It’s a common misconception to think that romances need to be told solely from the female perspective. They don’t. A romance told from the male perspective, or possibly even a child’s perspective (providing it isn’t the child having the romance) can work just as well and make your story a little different. You might also want to consider dual viewpoint, a romance told from both the hero and the heroine’s viewpoint. I’ve sold a few of these.
  • The romance needn’t be your main plot line either.  It could actually be a subplot. Perhaps consider writing a family story, where the romance is relevant to more than one generation or a cosy crime story where the romance underlays the solving of a crime.
  • Also, don’t forget that it’s possible for the writing itself to be predictable. The use of language and a slightly different style can give romance a new freshness. As can a slightly different structure, i.e. a monologue or diary format.

There’s actually a very fine line between predictable and unpredictable. And actually it’s always an editor’s perception, there’s a little bit of luck involved too.

So I wish you good luck.

Holidays for Writers – are they worth it?

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in Inspiration, Retreat, Writing, Writing conferences & schools. 4 Comments

I’ve recently been lucky enough to spend time at two well known writers’ Summer Schools.  The Writers’ Holiday at Fishguard (Pembrokeshire) and Swanwick the Writers’ Summer School (Derbyshire).

So what can you do at a writers’ holiday? Apart from network and enjoy yourselves a lot, that is!

Here’s a selection of the 2015 courses provided at each.

  • Novel Writing
  • Manifesting your goals – writing goals – naturally!
  • Writing for Children
  • Poetry
  • Short Stories
  • Script writing
  • Painting – discover the artist in you.
  • Writing historical fiction
  • Writing contemporary women’s fiction
  • Writing for magazines
  • Meditation

The speakers are impressive too. Experts in their fields, they range from authors to agents and publishers to magazine editors. Check out their websites for next years selection.

Oh and then there’s the entertainment. The last night pantomime at Swanwick. The Cwmbach male voice choir at Fishguard. All unmissable entertainment.

What’s the food like? Well, Swanwick has a reputation for school dinner food but I thought this year’s was pretty good actually. Fishguard isn’t bad either. Waitress service, choice of menu. Huge breakfasts. Fantastic. But then maybe it’s just the company of other writers – you never know who you are sitting next to? That little old lady at breakfast who turns out to be the author of 40 plus novels or the woman who’s the world expert in chimney sweeps! Who needs food!

The accommodation is good at both but you won’t be spending much time in your room. There is far too much going on and you won’t want to miss a thing.

Both holidays are superb value. Fully inclusive for a week and around £500.

Will you come away inspired and buzzing and fired up to get on with the lonely business of writing. Well, I always do.  Both courses have Facebook and Twitter pages. Check out their websites on the links above. So you can keep in contact all year long. I highly recommend both ‘holidays’.

Fishguard is more intimate – around 50 delegates and they have a weekend in February as well as a week in July.  Swanwick has around 200 delegates and has activities going on from dawn – meditation on the lawn – till dusk – late night discos and writing sessions.

Fishguard is set on the beautiful Pembrokeshire coastline. Great for walking if you want to clear your head between courses.

Partners are welcome at both. Some pix below to give you a flavour of both but please do check out their websites.

My next Saturday course in Bournemouth by the way is Create Off The Page Characters. This is workshop based and suitable for beginners or experienced writers. And will be useful for you whether you write short stories or novels. Should be great fun. Small group guaranteed. Very relaxed environment. Constructive feedback.

  • Date: Saturday 17th October – 10 till 4.00
  • Venue: Kinson Community Centre, Millhams Road, Pelhams Park, Bournemout BH10 7LH
  • Cost: £45

Please email me via this website if you’d like to book or find out more details of my Bournemouth course.

I’m also teaching at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, 8th to 10th April 2016 and in Alicante on 13th June 2016 for a few days. Email me for details of these if you’d like more info. I also teach at Woman’s Weekly offices in London. Please see their website for details. I’m also at NAWG this year 4th to 6th September and Woman’s Weekly Manchester Live 10th to 12th September. Phew, no wonder I feel a tad tired! I wore myself out just writing that!

Della guitar
me having a guitar moment by the lake at Swanwick with the lovely Helen Ellwood
Me teaching at Kinson
Me teaching in Bournemouth.
Swanwick house
Swanwick
fishguard
Fishguard

Do all stories need conflict? and How do unknown writers get published?

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in Dear Della, Questions from Dear Della, Writing. Leave a Comment

A couple more question from my post bag at Writers’ Forum 🙂

Q: Do all stories have to feature conflict, resolution and growth, with false hopes and disappointments along the way? I appreciate that a straightforward happy little narrative would be largely purposeless and therefore unengaging, but I find it hard to accept that all stories should follow the ‘story arc’.

A You are absolutely right when you say that a straightforward, happy narrative might be unexciting to read. I call stories like this linear, i.e. a piece of writing that moves in a straight line with no surprises to a conclusion that is largely predictable. I think that there should be a story arc, but that can mean many different things.  My personal definition of a story is a piece of writing where a character begins with a problem or conflict, which is resolved by the end in a satisfying, but unexpected way. The character should change in some way by the end. This provides the main arc of the story. I don’t think this can be too formulaic.

It’s not a case of putting in complications or ups and downs for the sake of it (as I thought when I first started writing stories).  They all have to be relevant, both to the initial problem, and also to the character. There is huge scope in this. You can use different structures, you can use flashback, and you should use emotion, which for me, means writing from the heart. You can create twists by the use of misdirection. You can create surprises by withholding information from the reader.

Much depends on the length of the story. It’s difficult to have a big story arc in a flash fiction piece of say 500 words or even 1000. But there should still be some kind of story arc or progression. I hope this helps to clarify.

***

Q This magazine seems to be full of advice for writers who have already ‘made it’ and had their work published. However, there are still many of us who are trying to ‘make it’ and from our side of the fence getting published can sometimes feel like an impossible feat. From here, it seems that to sell your work and be published, you already need to have been published previously. But what if, like me, you don’t have any previous examples or clippings to show? How do you then sell your work and get published?

A Let me reassure you that you don’t have to have been published to get published. We all have to start somewhere. The key to getting published is to write what publishers and editors want. So first you need to know what that is. And you can find out by doing your own market research. Here are my top tips on market research.

  1. If you want to write for a particular magazine then first of all make sure they accept freelance submissions. If they don’t you’ll be wasting your time approaching them. Whether it’s fiction or features you want to write, ask for their contributor’s guidelines.
  2. Buy several copies of the magazine and look at house style. Is it chatty, or more serious and/or literary?
  3. Check the lengths of fiction/features they publish, 1000 words, 2000 words etc. (writing outside of these lengths will result in automatic rejection because they won’t have the slots to put your work.)
  4. Check the target reader they are aiming for, including age, sex, type of person. Adverts and letter pages are a good guide to this.
  5. Check their house style – do they prefer first person viewpoint or third, male or female etc.
  6. Make sure you are writing for their target reader.
  7. Make sure you send your submission to the right person and in the right format, e.g. via email or by snail mail.

If you are writing features you should send a query letter/email first. Head up your query with an eye catching title or question. I highly recommend Solange Hando’s book, Be a Travel Writer, Live your Dreams, Sell your Features: Travel Writing Step by Step. This is a book about selling travel features, but its excellent advice applies to selling all features.

Here’s an example of a query letter sent to a dog lovers magazine, which resulted in me being commissioned to write the feature.

Dear Debbie,

Feature query – Ten ways to help your local dog sanctuary

I was wondering if you’d be interested in a feature about the above. As you know, many sanctuaries, especially those that rescue dogs are in dire straits, thanks to the credit crunch. And the small ones tend to get hit the hardest.

Since June this year, myself and four friends have raised nearly £1000 for DAWG (Dorset Animal Workers Group).

The feature would cover various simple ways of raising money, i.e. what we did – and how we did it. Plus other things dog lovers can do to help their local rescue centre. I can provide illustrating pictures.

I’ll look forward to hearing what you think.

It is possible for a writer with no credits to be commissioned to write a feature. You just have to write what is wanted. Once you have been commissioned, make sure you supply the feature promptly. Be professional. You will usually have to try more than once. Perseverance in all types of writing for publication is the key.  I hope this helps. Good luck.

Tips on writing emotion

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in Tips on writing, Writing. Leave a Comment

Writers are in the business of selling emotion.  I don’t remember who said that, but it’s spot on. If a reader doesn’t emotionally connect with a character they won’t care about them and they won’t read on. So getting emotion – whether it is sadness, humour, or a feeling of poignancy or tension – into your writing, is critical.

The million dollar question is how do you do it?

In order to ascertain what constitutes emotion, myself and a group of students brought in a selection of prose & poetry extracts which we considered emotional and set about analysing them to see if there was any common ground. Here are our findings:

It’s easier to get emotion from very emotional events. It sounds obvious but it’s worth mentioning. If you pick a subject that we all understand and have experienced, you’ll have a head start. Here are some universal emotional subjects.

  • Love – especially unrequited.
  • Death.
  • Loneliness.
  • Old age.
  • Loss of a person, pet, job, home.
  • Illness.
  • Darkness.
  • Fear – especially of a universal threat – from earthquakes to terrorism, spiders to flying.
  • Humiliation – fear of looking a fool or being left out.
  • Not fitting in.

Sensory detail is key in every type of emotional writing. So have your character hearing, touching, tasting and smelling her surroundings. Don’t forget temperature.

Setting is very important too. Setting puts emotion in context. We need to know where your character is when they are experiencing emotional events.

Be very specific. Don’t say ‘it was a dark night’. Say, ‘It was a cold moonless night.’

Viewpoint is vital. We need to be inside the character’s head – not watching them from a distance. First person present tense works particularly well.

Pace is also very important. Particularly when setting up tension and when writing humour.

Interestingly if you are writing a very sad scene you can understate what you write. In fact you should understate to avoid mawkishness (imo). But if you’re writing humour you need to go OTT. Really milk the situation.  Don’t miss a single opportunity. Humour and pace are strongly linked – as every stand-up comic knows.

Finally – if you feel it when you write it – the reader will feel it when they read it. What comes from the heart goes to the heart. Be authentic. Don’t hold back. Make yourself cry, laugh or feel afraid and your audience will be right there with you.

Finding Time To Write

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in Tips on writing, Writing. 4 Comments

As every writer knows, there are always a dozen more pressing things to do than actually write.  But if you really want to, then you will find the time.  Below are some suggestions which I have found helpful.

What time of day?

Everyone has a good and bad time to write.  Some writers prefer to get up half an hour early in the morning, others to burn the midnight oil. Decide which is best for you and aim to write then. It’s probably best not to aim for a certain number of words.  Instead, aim to write for a set period of time every day.

Write when you’re in a working frame of mind

Some writers find it easier to get going if they’re already in a working mood.  You might be able to stay on at work for an extra hour a day – or start earlier.

Utilise time that would otherwise be wasted

What do you normally do in your lunch hour?  If this is wasted time, then you could use it to write.  Take a notebook and pen outside, or, if there is nowhere quiet to concentrate at your workplace, try sitting in the car.

I know one very busy lady who always took two old ladies shopping on Thursdays.  While they were going round Sainsbury’s she sat in the car and wrote.  She called it her supermarket writing.  She wrote three novels like this!

Know what you’ll write about before you sit down 

This might sound obvious, but it’s a lot easier (and less time consuming) if you know what you’re actually going to write about before you begin.  If you know what the first line is and have a vague idea of the storyline, you can get straight into the writing.  Thinking time should not have to take place at the computer.  It can be done while you’re washing up, walking the dog, etc.

Some time is better than no time

We are often put off by not having a long stretch of time at our disposal.  The truth is you don’t need a lot of time.  Everyone writes at different speeds, but not many people finish a whole piece in one sitting.  You will have to come back to it again, but if you don’t start you’ll have nothing to edit.  Even if you only have twenty minutes – make a start.  You’ll be amazed how the time adds up.

Happy Writing.

 

Short Story Writing Courses

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in News, Retreat, Wednesday Writing Spot, Writing. 1 Comment

Just a couple of forthcoming courses to tell you about today.

10th – 12th April 2015

‘Write a Short Story in a Weekend’ at the Royal Agricultural University – Cirencester (above)

A step by step guide to writing a short story in beautiful surroundings with expert tuition – well with me anyway! I’ve sold one or two short stories!

£240 all inclusive fee

e-mail loisbm@outlook.com or me via this website for more details or check www.malagaworkshops.co.uk

6th June 2015 – 10 – 4.00

How to Write and Sell Short Stories (with me again) at Kinson Community Centre, Pelhams Park, Milhams Road, Kinson, Bournemouth.

This course will focus on what a short story is and how you can sell it.  We will look at existing short story markets (including magazines) and up to date information on what those markets require.  We will also be looking at other paying short story markets (including podcasts) and what they require. Advice will be given on house style and how to find ideas to suit your intended market. Courses are run on an informal lecture/discussion group basis. £45.00

Submitting stories to magazines – should I send a cover letter?

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in Dear Della, Questions from Dear Della, Short stories for magazines, Tips on writing, Writing. 6 Comments

Here is another question from my Dear Della page that I get asked regularly.

Q Whenever I submit a short story to a magazine, I give basic details and contact information on the cover sheet. Is it always necessary to include an introductory letter with brief synopsis as well? Apart from it being time consuming for a reader or editor, I worry more about the letter than the story!

A I’ve had several writers in touch about this dilemma and the short answer is no, it’s not always necessary to include an introductory letter. The cover sheet is enough for most fiction editors. It is not usually necessary to include a synopsis either and some magazines actually advise against doing this. However, do check the guidelines. If they ask you to submit a covering letter, then do so. It can be very simple. Here is one I have used.

Dear Fiction Editor (insert name – if you don’t know it, find out)

Please find enclosed my short story, THE RED SHOE (1000 words) that I hope might be suitable for publication in… (insert name of magazine).

I enclose a stamped addressed envelope for your reply, and look forward to hearing what you think.

Many thanks for your time.

Yours sincerely

Also please do make sure your SAE has sufficient postage to return the story to you. Or you will never know its fate.

***

I teach weekly writing classes at Kinson Community Centre, Pelhams Park, Kinson, Bournemouth. Thursday evenings, Friday mornings. Term dates in side panel to right of this page.

My next Saturday course on How to Write and Sell Short Stories is in Kinson on Saturday 25 April 2015.  £45.00 for the day. Please do check the course page of this website for further details and email me via website to book. I’m also doing a weekend course (Write a Short Story in a weekend) at the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester) 10th to 12th April. £240. I am also doing the Twist Ending at Woman’s Weekly on 13th April £75.00. See side panel to the right for more details. The latter two courses must be booked via Relax and Write and Woman’s Weekly websites respectively.

Happy writing

Wednesday Writing Spot – A Short Story Anthology – Guest Blog from Helen Yendall

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in Guest Posts, News, Wednesday Writing Spot. 2 Comments

Today, I am talking to the lovely Helen Yendall about her venture into self publishing an anthology called Paperchase. And it’s a subject close to my heart, short stories. Isn’t it a fabulous cover. So without further ado…

Q: Why did you decide to publish an e-book of short stories?

Well, it certainly wasn’t for fame and fortune! I’ve had some success with published articles, poetry and short stories but not had a book of any kind published. It’s almost unheard of for unknown writers to have collections of short stories published in the traditional way, so I thought I’d go down the self-publishing route. It was fun and very satisfying to see the end result. Although, I must admit, when I pressed ‘publish’, it was rather a nerve-wracking moment.

Q: Why Nerve-Wracking?

When you’re published by, say, a magazine, you’re very protected. All the necessary editing, checking, illustrations and marketing is done by someone else, so I suddenly felt very ‘exposed’. What if no-one bought or liked my book? What about typos, complaints or bad reviews? And – importantly – how was I going to promote it so that people would even know it existed?

Q: Do the stories in ‘Paperchase and other stories’ have a theme?

Yes. I don’t write many traditional boy-meets-girl romance stories, so although my theme is definitely ‘love’ it’s not simply that, rather it’s ‘finding love in unexpected places and in unexpected ways’.  At train stations, on a bus, in the middle of a field, through a knitting circle… my stories touch on love for our neighbours, children, parents, friends and grandchildren. I hope the stories are uplifting and life-affirming and that if you have a tear in your eye at the end of one or two, it’s because the story’s moved you, not because it’s upset you!

Q: Do you have a favourite story in the collection?

Ooh, that’s like asking a mother to choose her favourite child! But if I’m pushed, I have to say that ‘The Curse of The Sheep Baby’ is a particular favourite of mine. I wrote it several years ago, when I was doing a Creative Writing course at Birmingham University. We were put into groups of 7 and had to come up with a fitting theme and each write a story on that theme. We chose the 7 deadly sins and I was given ‘envy’.  The story I came up with was prompted by a newspaper article I’d just read about women in China who didn’t want to give birth in the year of the Sheep (which, incidentally, we are just about to enter again, when the new Chinese Year starts on February 19th). I liked the story but it spent many years being rejected by magazines and coming nowhere in competitions until, finally, it was placed in a competition in Writers Forum magazine and published, with a beautiful photograph of a Chinese baby. It’s nice to be able to get the story ‘out there’ again by including it in this collection.

Q: Your cover is very striking. What was the inspiration behind that?

Thank you. I wanted the book to have a snappy title and ‘Paperchase’ is the only story in the collection with a one-word title, so it seemed the obvious choice.  Then it was a case of working with the illustrator to create a design that not only reflected that story but some of the other stories too. On reflection, the cover is perhaps a little too dark and spooky (none of the stories are gothic in any way!) so perhaps I should have gone for some brighter colours but overall, I’m really pleased with the cover.

Thank you so much for inviting me to be a guest on your blog today, Della!

Paperchase and Other Stories is available here as an e-book, priced at £1.99

It’s a pleasure to have you, Helen. I think the cover is fabulous. And I love your writing room. 

Happy Ever After – or is it? How do you get a good end?

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in News, Questions from Dear Della, Tips on writing, Writing. 5 Comments

For me, endings have always been the most difficult thing to get right.  But a bad ending can ruin an otherwise excellent story. There are all sorts of bad endings. You probably recognise most of these. They don’t really need explaining.

  • Is that it?
  • So what?
  • Where’s the rest?
  • I worked that out in Paragraph One.
  • Did I miss something?
  • What happened to Harry?
  • You’ve got to be joking!

So – how do you make sure your ending doesn’t fall into these categories?  Here’s a list of types of endings and tips that might help to make them work:

  1. Circular stories – link the beginning with the end, often by time or place, for example we end up when and where we began.
  2. Twist – as it sounds. Spring a surprise on the reader, but do give them the clues to work it out.
  3. Surprise – these are a little bit gentler than a twist. Usually a surprise means some piece of information is withheld from the reader. An agent I once had called it the after eight mint effect.
  4. Straight ending – these don’t contain twists or surprises but they often contain a universal truth. They are often poignant. Can also be amusing.
  5. Link the title with the end – these are often stories with a theme, for example, a story called Faith, turns out in the last paragraph to be about ‘faith’.
  6. Motifs – you might have  a running motif through the story, for example a recurring sentence, or a recurring phrase that ties up with the end.
  7. An off the page end. You finish with a pointer as to where the story/characters will go next. Things aren’t neatly tied up but there’s an indicator that the characters will be ok.

It’s worth remembering the following too:

An ending must resolve the problem you initially set up.

It must be relevant to the beginning.

If you’re stuck for an ending, look at what you’ve written so far.  The clues to the end will always be in what you’ve already written.

And while we’re on the subject of endings, did I mention the sequel to Ice and a Slice is out this week. Yay! The Morning After The Life Before is my latest novel and I’m very proud of it. SJ doesn’t quite get the Happy Ever After  she thought she was heading for! Nice matching cover for Ice and a Slice too – Can you spot the hidden message in these two covers?

The fabulous covers were designed for me by Peter Jones. Find out more about his book cover designing service here.

The Morning After The Life Before comes out on 5 February 2015 and is available for pre-order here.  Ice and a Slice with its funky new cover is available here. They are both £1.99, less than the price of a glass of Chardonnay!

 

 

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