by Gerald Hornsby

Why the Three Act Structure isn’t good enough-Part II

Descending to scene level

Last time we were all here, I talked about the three act structure, and why it’s a great way of creating an over-arching plan for stories, and in particular, my novels.

But for me, that’s not quite good enough. My crime novels are quite heavily plot-driven, and have elements of clues and red herrings, of guilty offenders and of innocent bystanders, of goodies, baddies, and baddies who aren’t actually the culprit. I have main, secondary and minor characters to care about. I have character arcs to worry about, together with character trait similarities and differences.

Writing a novel is HARD.

One other thing – I have found that my brain quickly turns to the leakiest of strainers if I try to hold the whole plot, or even a single act, in my head at once. I don’t know why. I know people who can do that, and that’s to be admired. But if I try to write without a detailed plan, what comes out is a meandering mush of nicely crafted but narratively stunted prose. It ain’t good.

So how far down do I need to go?

As you may have gleaned from the subtitle, it’s down to scene level. In crime novels, shorter chapters are de rigeur. Don’t blame me, it’s how it is. And I find that one chapter per scene, one scene per chapter, is fine for the pacing and drive of my novels. Occasionally, a chapter of mine will straddle a couple of scenes. Occasionally (but rarely), a scene will straddle two chapters. But basically, my scenes are one chapter, around 1,500 words. THAT IS NOT A RULE, before anyone complains about strictures on creative flow. I love writing as much as anyone, and I can assure you that word count is the last thing on my mind when I begin writing a scene. Scene / chapter length comes into play at the first or second edit stage. 

Okay. So last time, I left off this idea at the point where I split my story into Three Acts – actually, Four, since the long Act 2 is subdivided into two equally-sized chunks. And within these 3/4 acts, there are Seven significant plot points. Please see my last post:

[ https://gerald-hornsby.com/blog/2025/02/08/why-the-3-act-structure-isnt-good-enough/ ] 

for descriptions. Where do we go from there?

Those eagle-eyed of you will have noticed the shaded-out part of this diagram.

I can now reveal what’s behind the shading:

and I can introduce to you Save The Cat.

Pretty weird title, eh? Screenwriter Blake Snyder (RIP) examined the structure of dozens of hugely successful movies, and began creating his own structure, described in the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet. It shows how many film stories hit certain “beats” in their telling. These beats incorporate, and expand upon, the Seven Plot Points described in the previous post. He also discovered that many times, these beats appeared at distinctive points in each story, measured in terms of the pages of a script.

I transposed these script pages into novel chapters, with a guideline of 40 or 60 chapters.  Some beats only have one chapter / scene. Some have 8 or 9. But don’t forget – nothing is cast in stone here. My novels have between 39 and 56 chapters / scenes in them, despite them all having the Blake Snyder structure.

Oh, and why is it called “Save The Cat”? As part of his analysis, Snyder discovered that if your story hero had some tricky things to accomplish later in the story, including some maybe-not-so legal actions, it was always best to have them Save A Cat early on in the story. It promotes at an early stage (in the reader / viewer’s brain) that the hero is a Good Guy, and we’ll forgive him his indiscretions later on. Also note: they don’t literally need to save a cat – any good selfless and empathetic deed will do.

But let’s dig into the Beat Sheet itself.

Here’s a description of each of the 15 beats (see diagram above), and (typically) how many scenes I give to them:

1 Opening image- 1 scene

A visual that represents the struggle & tone of the story. A snapshot of the main character’s problem, before the adventure begins.

2 Setup – 1 scene

Expand on the “before” snapshot. Present the main character’s world as it is, and what is missing in their life.

3 Theme stated – 1 scene

(Sometimes happens during the Set-up) – What your story is about; the message, the truth. Usually, it is spoken to the main character or in their presence, but they don’t understand the truth…not until they have some personal experience and context to support it.

4 Catalyst – 1 scene

The moment where life as it is changes. It is the telegram, the act of catching your loved-one cheating, allowing a monster onboard the ship, meeting the true love of your life, etc. The “before” world is no more, change is underway.

5 Debate – 6 scenes

But change is scary and for a moment, or a brief number of moments, the main character doubts the journey they must take. Can I face this challenge? Do I have what it takes? Should I go at all? It is the last chance for the hero to chicken out.

6 Break into Two – 2 scenes

The main character makes a choice and the journey begins. We leave the “Thesis” world and enter the upside-down, opposite world of Act Two.

7 B story – 1 scene

This is when there’s a discussion about the Theme – the nugget of truth. Usually, this discussion is between the main character and the love interest. So, the B Story is usually called the “love story”.

8 Fun & Games – 6 scenes

This is when Indiana Jones tries to beat the Nazis to the Lost Ark, when the detective finds the most clues and dodges the most bullets. This is when the main character explores the new world and the audience is entertained by the premise they have been promised.

9 Midpoint – 1 scene

Dependent upon the story, this moment is when everything is “great” or everything is “awful”. The main character either gets everything they think they want (“great”) or doesn’t get what they think they want at all (“awful”). But not everything we think we want is what we actually need in the end.

10 Bad guys close in – 6 scenes

Doubt, jealousy, fear, foes both physical and emotional regroup to defeat the main character’s goal, and the main character’s “great”/“awful” situation disintegrates.

11 All is lost – 1 scene

The opposite moment from the Midpoint. The moment that the main character realizes they’ve lost everything they gained, or everything they now have has no meaning. The initial goal now looks even more impossible than before. And here, something or someone dies. It can be physical or emotional, but the death of something old makes way for something new to be born.

12 Dark night of the soul – 3 scenes

The main character hits bottom, and wallows in hopelessness. The Why hast thou forsaken me, Lord? moment. Mourning the loss of what has “died” – the dream, the goal, the mentor character, the love of your life, etc. But, you must fall completely before you can pick yourself back up and try again.

13 Break into three – 1 scene

Thanks to a fresh idea, new inspiration, or last-minute Thematic advice from the B Story (usually the love interest), the main character chooses to try again.

14 Finale – 8 scenes

This time around, the main character incorporates the Theme – the nugget of truth that now makes sense to them – into their fight for the goal because they have experience from the A Story and context from the B Story. Act Three is about Synthesis!

15 Final scene – 1 scene

Opposite of Opening Image, proving, visually, that a change has occurred within the character.

Note: the internet is full of interpretations of the beat sheet for many genres. If you want further reading, there are some great books on the subject, such as:

and many others.

So, for each beat, I write a description of that part of my story broadly conforming to those definitions above. BROADLY. Flexibility is key here. But then, as I’m writing the narrative for each beat, I make myself aware of the number of scenes which fit within that story beat, and then write the story for each scene.

Then, by pasting all of the scene descriptions into one document, I can create a short form version of the novel, which I can read through, amend, change scenes around, rewrite scenes, and so on, BEFORE I start writing the manuscript. Creating the STORY first cuts down on huge manuscript rewrites later on. 

It really does.

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by Gerald Hornsby

Why the 3-Act Structure isn’t good enough

And how I make it better

Anyone entering the world of storytelling, be it through film, TV, books or any other medium, will soon get to hear of the Three Act Structure. 

What’s the Three Act Structure? It’s a way of splitting a story into 3 parts (Acts, if you will) in order to create a satisfying reading or watching experience.

First described somewhere around 400 AD by Aelius Donatus (a Roman grammarian and rhetoric scholar, would you believe), it’s been around for a while. You can read more about Donatus HERE: [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aelius_Donatus ] if you really want.

In more recent times, screenwriter and screenwriting tutor Syd Field wrote a book about it in 1979 called Screenplay: the Foundations of Screenwriting which brought it to further prominence. And you can read a lot about it everywhere on the internet, good and bad. 

So what is the Three Act Structure?

As always, Wikipedia is a good place to start:

[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure ] 

So, to make things simple, the 3AS defines a story as having a Beginning, a Middle, and an End (sometimes us story folks like to refer to the acts as the Setup, the Confrontation and the Resolution). These three sections are understandable by young children, and even dimwits like me.

Here’s a picture to look at:

and another, slightly more detailed picture:

And here’s a really good video to watch – it relates the 3AS to popular films to make it easier to understand:

NB. Don’t be put off by the fact that this, and many other resources, are based on screenwriting for films. They are using the medium of video to tell a story, exactly as we novelists (traditionally) use the medium of ink and paper to tell our stories.

So there’s a brief introduction for those new to it. So, what’s my problem with it?

I find that the Three Act Structure is just too damned vague.

To a certain extent, it’s a ‘me’ problem. I’m unable to hold a complete plot of a crime story (my choice of writing genre) in my head, all at once. I can’t even hold all the twists and turns of a single 20,000 word act in my head.

So for my purposes, I need to split it into some smaller chunks that I can hold in my head.

In my previous life as a software author (amongst other things), I learnt at an early stage  of my career to split large projects into smaller ‘lumps’. We used to call it Functional Decomposition (splitting projects into individual functions), and it really helped me deal with major software projects. And so it is with long-form fiction. Refining and iterating the plotting process brings me down to a single scene at a time, which plays out in my head as I’m sitting here, writing it.

So, how to dig out the scenes from the acts?

Here’s the first stage:

You will see that my workflow diagram (above) shows the 3 acts (I split the middle act into two equal halves, because it’s easier for me and suits my genre) but then, within those acts, several plot points (which are similar to the plot points shown on the earlier diagrams). Note these plot points fit within (and are contained by) the 3 act structure.

Plot point 1 – The Hook and Setup. The Hook is, literally, what hooks your reader into the story. It exists within the first couple of pages, and it’s the thing you imagine a prospective buyer would read when they pick up the book in a bookshop or library. You have a minute, at most, to grab your reader and make them want to buy / read the book. The Setup is when you introduce your reader to the characters, perhaps the location, maybe introduce the theme, but give them enough to answer the question: “What’s that book about?” They need to know that the story is going to be interesting enough to keep them engaged until the last page.

Plot point 2 – Plot Turn 1. This is a very specific feature of the story. Some might call it the ‘trapdoor moment’ – not that anyone’s going to fall down a hole in the floor. It’s the point at which your main character has a choice to make: are they going to return to their normal life (which would be very boring), or are they going to go forward within the story? This could be the point where the private investigator decides to go ‘all in’ on a case, or a hero will set out on their journey, knowing that they can’t go back. The trapdoor closes behind them.

Plot point 3 – First Pinch Point. A story isn’t a story without conflict. When the main character starts their journey, they might understand it isn’t always going to go smoothly for them. Whatever their aims, someone or something is going to get in their way, to try to stop them. The killer doesn’t automatically confess at the first interview. Journeys through an environment have dangers and risks. Caroline’s dream job isn’t going to be without its difficulties.

Plot point 4 – Midpoint. Sometimes called the mirror moment. It’s not that it just happens to be the middle of the book. It’s called a mirror moment because it can be used to reflect the character’s journey back at them, making them realise how far they’ve come. It can also be used to mirror the opening scene, but with the changes already in place. Half of your employees have left because they think you’re an awful boss, so your character might look at the desks in the office, as they did on the first day, and now note the number of empty chairs.

Plot point 5 – Second Pinch Point. Conflict! Always more conflict! The more the merrier! In this second pinch point, the main character comes up against another obstruction, a roadblock. They’ve already dealt with one major problem, but now they’ve got another, and this one’s even worse than last time! This is the point at which they ask themselves if they’ve got what it takes to go on, to solve the case, to reach the destination, to get the girl / boy / thing of their dreams. They may even cry “O Lord, why hast though forsaken me?” Is this the end of their journey?

Plot point 6 – Plot Turn 2. Of course that wasn’t the end of their journey. They find a solution to their problems. Sometimes, a mentor might step in to help them, or they discover a magic amulet, or they finally translate the secret scroll. Or a witness comes forward with new information, or someone finds a gun hidden in their garden. Now, our main character can move forward with a spring in their step and a renewed vigour for the task ahead. 

Plot point 7 – Climax, Resolution and Finale. Having fought through all the trials and tribulations, the hungry beasts, the devious criminals, they’re ready to finish this thing off. There may be one or two little twists still to come, but nothing’s going to stop them now. We end up with the final battle, the final confrontation, the Agatha Christie-like reveal of the murderer. In the resolution, we finally release all the captives, or explain to the hapless detective how the murderer was uncovered, or we fall into the arms of our lover at last. The finale is simply the final scene, often mirroring (again) the opening scene. In my book Last Orders, in the opening scene my main character is sits on a low wall, unaware of the direction their life is about to go.  In the finale scene, she’s again sitting on the low wall, but she now understands so much more, she has changed and grown, and all of her problems have been solved… for now!

If you find this all too complicated, my method is fairly simple and straightforward. There are more complicated ideas around!

In the final part of this series, I’ll talk about the further levels I create, stage by stage, down to scene level, and the use of the Save The Cat Beat Sheet.

Please check in again soon!

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by Gerald Hornsby

Do you plan your writing?

Recently, I watched an excellent programme, from the BBC, on the Renaissance period, entitled “Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty”, featuring the artists Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. And what struck me was how many initial sketches artist’s make before putting brush to canvas. And then what struck me was how similar this was to my method of creating a large piece of work.

Da Vinci was renowned for his study of anatomy (including dissection) and repeated visual studies of parts of the body. Raphael’s sketches indicate more detail (and, arguably, greater artistic talent) than his paintings. [ https://news.artnet.com/art-world/raphael-drawings-ashmolean-991430 ] Michelangelo produced numerous preparatory sketches for his Last Judgement, covering the wall behind the altar in the Sistene chapel. [ https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/02/27/michelangelo-s-last-decades-british-museum ]

One of Michelangelo’s preparatory sketches
And here’s the character in the finished work!

Interesting discussion here: [ https://www.florenceinferno.com/the-last-judgement-michelangelo ]

When Michelangelo received the commission from Pope Julius, he didn’t immediately put up his scaffolding and mixed his paints and plaster (the work on the Sistene was in the form of frescos). He thought about what he wanted to depict. The main work is divided into 3 sections (3 acts, maybe?) – the Creation, the Creation and Downfall of Adam and Eve, and three stories of Noah. All around the main work are smaller pieces, identified in the following diagram:

[ https://smarthistory.org/michelangelo-ceiling-of-the-sistine-chapel-3  ]

Coming back to the point – from way back in the 15th and 16th centuries, and almost certainly before that, creatives have been preparing small ‘sketches’ for their work before applying paint to a canvas. Composers will ‘noodle’ on instruments before sitting down to compose. Very few people can approach a large blank canvas (real or metaphorical) and begin creating immediately without any planning. 

One of the biggest causes of writers’ block is fear of the blank page. 

My process involves levels of design, beginning with simple, overall statements, and then breaking the story of the story into smaller and small pieces. I’ll talk about this more next time.

One thing I want to say about my novel writing process up front:

I AM A PLOTTER

Us writers love to see how other writers do things – the writing. What is the secret to their success? What hours do they work? What’s their writing room look like?

And in this world of the right way and the wrong way to do things, writers are (apparently) either plotters (otherwise known as planners) or pantsers (otherwise known as a discovery writer). A pantser, by the way, writes the book by the seat of their pants – they sit down in front of a blank page, and begin writing. I know, weird, huh?

I have been accused of ‘over planning’ – creating a shorthand version of the story, scene by scene. To me, that makes sense. On the other side of things, writers talk loftily of “just seeing where the characters and the creativity takes me.” I don’t mean to criticise, but if that works for them, then great. But I don’t like to spend month after month rewriting and rewriting, trying to knock the thing into some shape. I know, I’ve been there.

So, on occasion, my friends and colleagues like to have a laugh at my expense, to which I shrug and smile. For me, my process is perfect.

And the fact that, over 500 years ago, creatives were using a similar process – to break down a major project into small, manageable pieces, – might indicate that I’m in good company.

More next time.

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by Gerald Hornsby

About those New Year Resolutions

When you’re a creative, inspiration can come from almost anywhere. Part of our job is to be a receiver, with all of our senses set to input at all times so we can experience things going on around us. And, so often, we take inspiration from those things, especially when it comes from newsletters and blog posts.

And so it is with today’s post, and inspiration has come from author, political journalist and broadcaster Ian Dunt (excuse his language, which might not suit everyone):

https://iandunt.substack.com/p/happy-new-year-now-sort-your-fucking

“Resonate” is one of those words, whose meaning is clear, but flexible, and is often overused in attempts to sound clever. But – in not in any remote way an attempt to sound clever – this blog post resonated with me. It’s the sort of piece I wish I had written.

One quote (talking about waking early with stress and anxiety):

This happens to me whenever I can’t control something. I have dealt with big, serious problems without any sense of anxiety, simply because they’ve been in my control. But as soon as something affects me but is decided elsewhere, by other people, who may or may not be competent, I experience anxiety: a broiling sense of internal turnover, like someone’s kneading my soul.

These matters must be prioritised. It doesn’t matter how petty they are. Break them down, find solutions, implement, achieve progress, no matter how slow. 

Those last six words are most powerful, and indicate the problems with New Year Resolutions. In my experience, they are either:

a) too tightly focussed on achieving a specific outcome (e.g. stop smoking, begin volunteering, finally get that spare room decorated) which only have a binary outcome – success or failure

b) too wishy-washy to create the drive necessary to move away from current behaviours (e.g. drink less, lose weight)

This looks to be an inherently impossible conundrum – provide enough focus to create drive and desire, but not aim at a binary outcome. In engineering, we have a term called “inertia”, which often gets confused with “momentum” when, in fact, they’re (sort of) almost opposite terms.

Inertia is the resistance to begin moving from a stationary position (we sometimes referred to it as “stiction” – friction causing stickiness, which means you need to apply more force to ‘get it going’ that you do to ‘keep it going’). It’s why when you move off in a car, you begin with a low gear, which delivers more power to the tyres, which helps the car overcome inertia.

Momentum is the resistance to slow down or stop from a dynamic, or moving, position. Momentum is the force which keeps your car going forward when you take your foot off the accelerator. Your car begins to slow down as a result of air pressure on the front, as well as various resistance forces on movement. And, eventually, it slows down more rapidly when you put your foot on the brakes, because of the friction between your static brake pads and the discs rotating with your wheels.

What does all this have to do with resolutions? It is simply that inertia needs more of an effort to overcome than the effort required to maintain momentum. In other words, it’s more difficult to move away from existing habits and create new ones. Once you have created the new habits, it’s far easier to maintain them.

Let’s consider losing weight (something I need to do). It’s very easy for me to continue the eating and drinking I’m doing, which has created my weight problem, than it is to move away from them and develop new, healthier habits. Some of the things I love to eat aren’t conducive to weight loss. I don’t eat them them because I like staying fat. I eat them because I enjoy them. So I need to make an effort, a substantial one, to begin creating new, healthier habits. Once I have developed them, they will be easier to maintain, because they become my new norm.

So, we come back to the 6-word phrase:

achieve progress, no matter how slow

Considering weight loss for a moment (not than I’m fixated on food and feeling hungry right now), a lasting weight loss will not happen overnight, no matter how often I weigh myself and try to cheat the scales (anyone else do that – sway my body on the scales a bit to get the lowest reading? No? Just me then).

But when progress towards our goal (e.g. losing weight) is slow, it’s easy to lose that impetus, that drive, which is needed to move forward. We want to lose weight, we haven’t lost weight, what’s the point?

And the point is: we are making progress towards our goal. If we are changing our habits, changing the things we have done in the past, we are winning. The targets will be achieved as we develop the new habits necessary to achieve them.

Change is good, and not to be feared. Embrace the changes we’re making, to allow us to move forward. That goal, that target, will come.

And (finally) to writers: you may be wanting to write that novel or memoir you’ve promised yourself. How to do that when you haven’t been able to achieve this previously?

Simply – change your habits in order to make progress.

I’ve always asked: do you think you would write a page of a paperback novel per day (that’s around 250 words)? Could you find time in a day? Maybe skip a soap opera. Maybe get up half an hour earlier. Do something which changes your habits. If you can do this, by this time next year (when, once again, you may be lamenting the fact that you were unable to achieve what you said you wanted to do a year previously) you WILL have written that book.

Start now, change habits, even in a small way, and make progress. Once you begin to make progress, you can change gears, and continue forward with less effort.

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by Gerald Hornsby

HELLO 2025

For those who are unaware of my year-end analyses, I do not ‘do’ New Year Resolutions. Why choose a particular date in the calendar? If you want to lose weight, why not start as soon as you think about it? Why make a promise to yourself that you are extremely unlikely to keep? Around 80% of resolutions fail, most people give up in 10 days.
Maybe.
Or 20% – 40% are achieved.
Maybe.
Statistics, eh? [ https://www.cynicsguidetoselfimprovement.com/are-new-years-resolutions-doomed/  ]

The fact of the matter is, I know that my own history is littered with failed resolutions made, at the time, for the best of reasons and with the best intentions.
But when those resolutions are broken, the realisation that the journey has come to an end in crushing defeat, can be harmful. The well-wishes of loved ones and the high hopes of a change in circumstances count for naught.
Yes, of course there are long-term goals and aims. When you get to your late ’60s and are overweight, of course I wish to lose weight, move more, and eat (and become) more healthy. One day. Soon.
But I find this time of year is great for looking back on what I said I was going to do the year before, cry a little, and gird my loins (whatever that means) for the upcoming year.

So, what am I going to achieve in 2025?

BOOKS – FICTION

Our February ’shutdown’ (where we move offsite for the whole month) is an opportunity to take stock of where I am with my writing and publishing. Am I doing the right thing? Could I do more to advance my writing career? Should I change course slightly now as the publishing landscape continues to change, when opportunities for the self-published other are not the same as they were a year ago?
It is a fact that in a world that continues to develop and move forward, if we stand still, we end up going backwards as others sweep past. I am a commercial fiction writer, a storyteller, but if my books aren’t selling as well as I wish, where’s the problem? Is it my writing, or the subjects and themes of the books, or is it the marketing? These are questions to be asked before any meaningful plan can be drawn up.
But, for the moment, I need to finish the 3-book series of Witford Mysteries. Book 1 is out and published [ https://gerald-hornsby.com/last-orders/ ]. Book 2 (current title “Deadly Trails”) is about 70% drafted, standing at 43,000 words if you’re interested in that sort of thing. Quick note: a first draft – even a ‘clean’ first draft which has been structured properly – still needs several rounds of editing, proof reading, beta reading by trusted readers, and so on. And here’s a little teaser for the cover image:

BOOKS – NON-FICTION

One fact of my writing and publishing career is that my non-fiction books have always outsold my fiction. By a considerable margin. I’ve just done some analysis (to be detailed in a forthcoming blog post), which shows that my 10 non-fiction books account for 65% of my sales, but only 37% of my published output.
Hmm. Maybe I should write a non-fiction book this year – something like “Book Marketing and Selling for Self-Published Authors (and Others)”

BUSINESSES / TUTORING / PROJECTS

I will continue with my help for self-published authors offer. I should probably market them more aggressively (or maybe even marketing them at all!)

VLOGS / VODCASTS / PODCASTS

Podcast productions are becoming increasingly the preserve of well-funded media concerns… and Gary Lineker, whose Goalhanger Productions company looks to corner the UK market. Other podcasts are suffering. There is a corner of the vlog / vod / pod world where enthusiastic amateurs can still strut their stuff. But as a viable means of creating money? Not so much [ https://www.joanwestenberg.com/is-podcastings-golden-age-already-over/ ]

So in the meantime, I watch other creators who started years ago and have a substantial following, whilst I dream about what might have been. Having said that, I’m nothing if not stubborn. I’m not a quitter, and there’s a broadcast medium for me. Somewhere. Doing something.

And I’m still toying with a project centred around analysis of language – in particular, the language of persuading people to think and act in a certain way.

YOU WILL BUY MY BOOKS!!

No, that doesn’t work. But other mathods do, and not just in the narrow world of writing and books and selling. I find it interesting to see how the course of history is changed by use of language. Maybe some others will, too.

ONLINE COURSES

They’re still tempting, and despite sometimes being a refuge for scoundrels and pedlars of dodgy schemes, I’m sure they can be a viable stream of income.
But here in Britain, we recoil from the American “ra ra just do it” tactics of some US businesses. We just need to get past the inherent reticence of the Great British Psyche, and convince some people that it’s worth spending a few quid in order to learn something new. As well as convincing them that it’s the sort of valuable information which ISN’T available for free on the internet somewhere.

PERSONAL / NON-WRITING

I’m getting to the stage of life where waking up in the morning is a huge win. After that, I need to focus more on my health (weight, specifically) and activity. I need to get the bikes out of the shed and do something with them. I need to get more flexibility back into this aching and pain-wracked old body of mine.

So yeah, those things will do for a start. When I’ve done those, I’ll come back to you.

SUMMARY

How do I summarise that little collection of black clouds? Do I need to? Okay – don’t become a zombie-like couch potato.

DO STUFF IN 2025!

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by Gerald Hornsby

GOODBYE 2024

As we near the year end, we traditionally start by looking back on this year – and specifically, what I said this time last year, looking forward. You could call it “accountability.” I just call it “mildly interesting.” Take a look for yourself here: https://gerald-hornsby.com/blog/2024/01/01/looking-forward-to-2024/ and here’s what I said 12 months ago, and my comments on that. And the fact that, one day into the New Year, I’m already behind on my schedule tells you something.

BOOKS – FICTION

From JAN 2024: This is the year the Witford Market Mysteries gets released! Oh yes! Book One is in first edit, Book Two (part-written for NaNoWriMo last year) is about quarter written, Book Three is planned, and Book Four might be the Christmas episode I’ve written and abandoned several times. 

GH Dec 2024: Ya. This time last year, I was looking forward to publishing the beginning of the Witford Market Mysteries. Well, that happened! The first book in the series was published (to Amazon, of course), in July 2024. The others? Not so much. The second book is about 2/3 drafted.
Also also… sales of fiction novels have been a little disappointing this year. I’m going to use our ‘shutdown’ in February to work out what I want to do with long form fiction, going forward.

BOOKS – NON-FICTION

From JAN 2024: At the time of writing, I don’t have any plans to write any more non-fiction books. I should do, because they always sell well, but there’s nothing I’m currently working on which would look good in a published book form.

GH Dec 2024: Ha ha! A plan to do nothing, and you know what? I was 100% successful! I need a prompt, or a cue, in order to write non-fiction. It needs to be something useful to other writers. THINKING CAPS ON!

BUSINESSES / TUTORING / PROJECTS

GH Dec 2024: My ‘Author Services’ offer keeps ticking over, mainly with requests from friends and colleagues. I made little or no effort to promote myself in 2024.

VLOGS / VODCASTS / PODCASTS

From JAN 2024: I do want to do more with video next year. I don’t know what that will be. A writing vlog isn’t that interesting to people. I know that. But at the moment, I don’t know what would attract a larger audience, which remains writing and creativity related.

GH Dec 2024: Yes. Well. No insight came my way, except I keep coming across people doing what I’ve thought of doing. My Lone Star Reviews wold be something of interest, I’m sure, but is it worth the time and effort of researching and recording videos? I still don’t know. Chalk another one down for the February shutdown.
And, sadly, we’ve decided to call time on the Literary Roadhouse podcast, after around 270 episodes. One of my co-hosts now has a very important job, which takes her away from home a lot, so co-ordinating a recording slot has become more difficult. Also, we had an issue from an author who took exception to something we said on one podcast, which made things difficult for us. Also also, it’s been many, many months since we were able to put out an audio podcast. It’s a huge amount of time to produce a quality audio podcast recording from our individual audio tracks.

ONLINE COURSES

From JAN 2024: I’m interested in creating courses. It’s a lot of work, and although I created the Efficient Novelist Programme https://gerald-hornsby.com/efficient-novelist-programme/ there wasn’t a lot of take-up from my initial marketing. To me, it seems a brilliant idea, a way to create novels more efficiently, with benefits to readership and royalty income, but many writers don’t like this idea – the ethos of being an author means that output needs to be crafted and honed over many, many months – otherwise, it’s no good. I don’t agree with that, obviously, but it’s a hard sell.

GH Dec 2024: You ain’t kidding. Eventually, I pulled the plug on the paid subscription to Teachable, because it was costing us more than we were getting paid.

PERSONAL / NON-WRITING

GH Dec 2024: Swanwick

One highlight of each year is the annual Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. 

https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk

This year, 2024, was my 2nd, and last, year as Chair of the committee. 

You can read my thoughts about the school here:

Swanwick Writers’ Summer School – 2024

SUMMARY

I’m looking forward to this coming year with eager anticipation. I hope to be able to be publishing at least 3 novels, and maybe 5 this coming year.

GH Dec 2024: Ha! Aim high, brother, aim high! One published, and one semi-drafted. Yeah, not so productive. But I shan’t beat myself up over it. That’s not something I do. I will analyse, yes, and hopefully learn and understand more. What I do with that information is to be determined, but I’m not one of those “Ra-Ra-Ra Be PRODUCTIVE!!!!” people, who have productivity apps on their phones and keep fifteen types of journal on the go.

SUMMARY, LOOKING BACK

It hasn’t been an amazingly productive year. There are some reasons for this, and there are no reasons for this. This will be the subject of a forthcoming blog post.

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by Gerald Hornsby

Swanwick Writers’ Summer School – 2024

SWANWICK WRITERS’ SUMMER SCHOOL – a Chair’s View

I have just recently returned from Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. 

https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk

It’s a summer school, residential, full board, where writers can participate in many aspects of a learning programme, be entertained with evening after-dinner speakers and quizzes, open mics and musical evenings. 

We have around 200 delegates per year, and it’s a great place to meet writers and discuss the many, many aspects of writing. This was my 7th year, and I have just stepped down from 2 years as Chair.

It all happens at the Hayes Conference Centre, in Derbyshire.

https://www.cct.org.uk/the-hayes/the-hayes-conference-centre

It’s a cracking location.

So, how did this year’s School go? Pretty well, I think. We had a great committee leading up to the School, and our hard-working Secretary Sharon Payne and Treasurer Sally Warr were central to the smooth running of the organisation for the delegates.

I took the opportunity to visit a couple of courses – “The Road to Self-Publishing Success” by force of nature for self-publishing Lizzie Chantree, and “AI and Writers – Should we Worry?” from Martin Lake. Both are items of interest to me. Much of the rest of the time was making sure last-minute glitches were avoided / fixed, supporting the other members of the committee, and gleaning feedback from delegates.

It was a great time – hard work, but worth it. There is a certain magic about the place, a feeling of community, in that we are all writers. Many of us are following different paths, many of us have different destinations, but we are all writers.

The committee arrive on Friday, a full day before the delegates. There’s a lot of work to do to preparing the School. Signs to make, many items to liaise with The Hayes about, certain things which need clarifying. It’s different every year, but it needs to be done.

On the Friday, we pick up boxes of room keys which have been programmed by The Hayes (over 200 of them!) and we need to print name badges and match them up, which is an incredibly fiddly and time-consuming operation. We always feel there must be a more efficient way, but as yet, we haven’t found it!

Early Saturday afternoon, we get the reception volunteers – those lovely people who sit in one of four locations around the site, and welcome delegates with their information packs at the ready. Nearly all the time, this works fine. There are always those delegates who haven’t received or haven’t read their email which tells them which reception is for them. So there’s a bit of human signposting required, always with good humour and WITHOUT  asking “WHY DIDN’T YOU READ YOUR EMAIL???”

And then there are those who haven’t been allocated the room they requested. We always try hard to ensure they are happy with their allocation, but sometimes we need to work with The Hayes, who are BRILLIANT, in reallocating some rooms.

Photo: Susanna Lewis

It was our 75th Anniversary! Our secretary, Sharon, had reproduced the very first programme from 1949, and a booklet with a great timeline of significant events over the years – from the use of the Hayes as a prisoner of war camp, up to date. The Hayes had donated an amazing celebration cake (including a gluten-free one), the King had sent us a wonderful message of congratulation, we had the Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, Mrs. Elizabeth Fothergill CBE to cut our cake, and share our special anniversary dinner in the dining hall. We had pinned some reflections from tutors past on the walls of the Main Conference Hall, and we had bought and donated a celebration bench, which was assembled and installed in the labyrinth, near to the chapel. Our programme had a lovely diamond emblem on the cover, which was matched by the icing on the cake! Thanks to everyone who contributed to the special celebration events! 

Photo: Helen Ellwood
Photo: Viv Brown

One of the Chair’s roles is to stand on the stage and make little speeches. A Welcome Speech on the first day, a short speech at the first timer’s reception, introductions to all of the guest after-dinner speakers, running the AGM (essential, because all delegates are members of the charitable organisation, and therefore must be included in a number of votes). I also MC’d the prizegiving ceremony on the last evening, which was great fun.

Photo: Keith Hinchey

I’m not a natural on the stage, as last year’s School showed. I get flustered easily. Delivering courses and workshops to people has never been an issue, but speeches at Swanwick always seemed like an artistic performance to me. So in preparation for this year, I wrote out my speeches in advance. There were a few items which wouldn’t be known until the School was underway, but at least I knew my scripts were in place, including the introductions to the evening speakers.

Another of the Chair’s roles is to book evening speakers. Despite our own preferences, it’s important to get a speakers from a broad spread of the writing sphere. We had 4 slots available, and I know we needed a scriptwriter, a poet, a novelist plus one other (sounds like the opening to a bad joke).

My role on the committee of the Frinton Literary Festival <<  https://www.frintonliteraryfestival.co.uk/  >> allowed me access to a number of speakers, which usually results in one or two bookings for Swanwick. This year, I invited Adele Parks to speak, as she went down really well in Frinton. Lesley Kara is a personal friend from Frinton when we both lived in the area. The scriptwriter Julian Unthank contacted me directly, interested in returning. I watched an evening speaker session from him a couple of years ago, and he was engaging and funny, and provided an interesting insight into scriptwriting. This year, he had a particular insight which I thought would go well. And finally, Luke Wright was a personal recommendation through a friend of a Swanwicker. 

On Saturday evening, we hosted Adele Parks <<https://www.adeleparks.com/ >> and her husband Jim, who conducted an interview. I think it worked really well, and a tiny frisson of marital relationship came through. Adele was awarded an MBE for her services to literacy in the New Year’s Honours list in 2022.

Photo: Keith Hinchey

On Sunday evening, we entertained Lesley Kara <<  https://www.lesleykara.com/ >>. Lesley and I used to be in the same local writing group, from 2015 – around 2019, so I wanted to try to show that the road to writing success (if becoming a multi-million Sunday Times bestseller is your measure of success) can come to all of us. I thought it might be interesting for the audience to hear what it was like at the pinnacle of the book industry. Lesley is a great speaker, and answered my occasionally slightly intrusive questions with honesty.

Unfortunately, Julian Unthank  <<  https://vhassociates.co.uk/writer/julian-unthank/ >>, who we’d booked for Tuesday evening, needed to cancel at the last minute as he was suffering Covid-like symptoms. We like to try to cover all aspects of writing from our after dinner speakers, and Julian is a superb screenwriter, with a host of credits such as Queens of Mystery, Doc Martin, New Tricks and The Bill, and has spoken to us before with a very entertaining and dynamic event. I hope you recover soon, Julian.

Our final speaker of the week was Luke Wright <<  https://www.lukewright.co.uk/ >> His approach to poetry is fresh and exciting. His performance skills have been honed over many years of professional gigs and support acts. He is the regular warm-up guy for John Cooper Clarke. He’s a theatre maker and broadcaster, and visited us after another successful set of sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe <<  https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/luke-wright-joy >> Suffice it to say that he held us, the audience, in the palm of his hand for an hour. Spellbinding!

Away from official events, I was able to chat to a number of delegates – some old friends for several years, some I’d met once or twice, and some I met for the first time. I always enjoy speaking to delegates quietly, and away from the events, as I feel I’m like to get a honest opinion about the week, how it is going, what they’re enjoying and what they’re not. This is really valuable. 

During one of the discussions, someone asked about marketing information. I referred to a couple of websites I’ve used in the past when researching marketing advice.

The first was Kindle Boards << https://www.kboards.com/  >> 

Alas, like a number of websites, Amazon didn’t like the use of “Kindle” in the name, so they needed to change it. This is a great discussion board, especially in the Writers’ Café section <<  https://www.kboards.com/forums/writers-cafe.60/  >>. This was where the ‘big hitters’ used to hang out during the ‘goldrush’ of self-publishing, in 2010 – 2014. Suddenly, there were devices where reading ebooks became a genuine possibility (and a pleasurable experience), and when Amazon first began using Print On Demand. For those who don’t know, PoD is based on a machine which takes in paper at one end, feeds your manuscript and cover data in the side, and out pops a book at the other end. There are no print runs. If someone wants one copy of your book, they will print one copy. Magic!

Anyway, one recent discussion concerned the use of Google Ads for books, which is fascinating. Real world data from real authors.

<<  https://www.kboards.com/threads/has-anyone-tried-google-ads-for-books.339604/ >>

And another resource I have used is K-Lytics <<  https://k-lytics.com/   >>, which uses software to interrogate the Amazon store software, and despite Amazon’s continued desire to hide *actual* sales figures manages to create data and charts to indicate both the sales volume and competition for a number of categories and sub-categories. They also do a monthly general report, showing trends for ebooks and print books generally, and in specific categories.

Some people were kind enough to ask about my own books. My fiction is listed at:

<<  https://gerald-hornsby.com/fiction-books/  >>

and in particular, my latest novel, the first in a new series

<<  https://gerald-hornsby.com/last-orders/  >>

My non-fiction books for authors can be found at:

<<  https://gerald-hornsby.com/non-fiction-books/  >>

and I had a discussion with someone about writing novels efficiently, and how I can write up to 4 novels per year. And I have a book!

<<  https://gerald-hornsby.com/the-efficient-novelist/  >>

So, to sum up: another great Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, I think just about everyone went home happy, and were looking forward to Swanwick 2025.

As am I!

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by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 22A – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

MY NEW BOOK IS AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER!

Sorry for hijacking this series of blog posts, but I just wanted to let you know that my new book, LAST ORDERS, is now up for pre-order on Amazon.

It’s currently available at a special price of £1.99

but the price will go up as soon as it becomes available, on 19th July 2024.

So go and pre-order it now, and start loading up your Kindle for the summer holidays.

CLICK HERE: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Orders-Witford-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0D5DM5RBC/

The ‘blurb’:

In the quiet seaside village of Witford Market, Suffolk, a tight-knit community lives and works in peaceful harmony. Against this blissful backdrop, the owner of a local pub dies in a freak accident.

Newcomer Emma Stafford, here to stay with her sick mother, uses her training as a Metropolitan Police Crime Scene Technician to informally investigate the death. At the same time, she makes a momentous decision – one which will change her life dramatically.

At first, she is suspicious of the many offers of help, but as the days go by, she begins to understand how the community works, and she enlists the help of her best friend and new friends in the community.

How will she juggle the three pressures on her – a criminal investigation, preparations for her new life, and supporting her mother in her last days? Will she be successful, or will she fail all three challenges?

If you’re looking for other books to take on holiday with you, can I offer you my box set of the 1st 3 books of my “Body” series? They’re fantastic value!

https://gerald-hornsby.com/body-box-set/ Three cozy crime novels for only £3.99!

Reviewers have said:
“What a great read!”
“All in all, this is a great and entertaining read.”
“A coastal cliffhanger; and I bet you won’t get there first.”

If your taste is more in the thriller genre, I have a box set of my thriller books, written under the Jack Warwick pseudonym. Please feel free to check it out! Again, great value.

https://gerald-hornsby.com/thriller-box-set/ Four full novels for £4.99!

Reviewers have said:
“If you’re looking for a page turning story with a great plot then look no further. Brilliant characters and great plot.”
“After reading Jack Warwick’s novel Deceit I was really looking forward to Meltdown and it didn’t disappoint. Looking forward to more from Jack Warwick!”

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by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 22 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

SHOW NOT TELL

You may have heard of this term. But what does it mean?
As fiction writers, we create an imaginary world, with imaginary characters and imaginary plots. And the key word here is: IMAGINE.
Legendary BBC Broadcaster Alistair Cooke once said “I prefer radio because the pictures are better.”
Clearly, Alistair was of the opinion that, using words to fire up listener’s imaginations can tell a better story.

There’s perhaps no better example than the featured image on this post: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” – Anton Chekhov.
Isn’t that a beautiful phrase? And doesn’t that create a better image in your head, which also, possibly, raises a questions: why is the glass broken? What are we doing her during the night?

Here’s another example: “Emma was sad.” Okay. It’s short, to the point. She’s sad. But sadness is an emotion, so why not instil some emotion, some sharing of Emma’s emotion, with the reader? Enjoyment of stories is much better if the reader can imagine themselves as one of the characters. “Emma was quiet. I looked across at her, seeing her face blank, tears forming in her eyes.”

You can show so much about a character’s internal status and demeanour by body language and facial expression. They don’t need to tell us how they’re feeling at this particular time – we can see!

You can also show a character’s mood through their dialogue, and how they say things. Compare these two lines: 

Her eyes lifted to look at his face, showing pain, anguish, even fear. “It’s not right,” he whispered.

Her eyes lifted to look at his face, showing pain, anguish, even fear. “It’s not right!” he bellowed.

Okay. Let’s try one of these ourselves. Take the view you have, or a view through a window. “I can see a tree in the sunshine. There’s a breeze.” That’s a bit boring, isn’t it?
“The silver birch outside my window bent, lazily, its branches flicking in every direction. Harsh midday sunlight reflected off its bark, forcing me to look away.” It’s a bit more ‘wordy’, and it’s a much better picture I’m creating.

You can show seasons: “Deep snow lay like a puff-white blanket in the garden” (winter); “The smell of fresh-cut grass wafted in through the open window for the first time this year” (spring); “In the distance, I can hear children’s excited voices as they cool off in the city-centre fountains” (summer); “Dried leaves crackle and branches snap underfoot” (autumn). I’m sure you could do better – these are ones I just made up now.

Have a look at something you’ve written recently. Is there a way to enhance the storytelling by showing, not telling?

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by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 21 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

BACKUP!!

Don’t click away! I’m not going to nag you (well, not much, anyway) to do your backups. I’ve already done that. This (like the previous case) will give you some practical solutions to make sure that you DO YOUR BACKUP!

Oops. Sorry to shout.

In the first episode of BACKUP ( https://gerald-hornsby.com/blog/2024/06/09/day-7-monthofblogging-june2024-monthofwriting/  ), I talked about the reasons we need to backup our data. In the second episode ( https://gerald-hornsby.com/blog/2024/06/15/day-14-monthofblogging-june2024-monthofwriting/  ), I described my file naming convention, which means I have a series of fresh files throughout the project, ensuring that if something disastrous happens to my work file, I have a file that’s (at most) 1 day old.

In this episode, I’m going to talk about where you back up your data to. Where do you put the copies of the files for safekeeping?

1) The first, and easiest, and one I mentioned before, is to email a copy of your file to yourself. It really is quick (I’ve just done it, and it takes 10 seconds, maybe less). It’s easy. It’s free. Just think that there will be a nice, safe file somewhere in the cloud which you can access from anywhere in the world. Neat, huh? You should be doing this at least once per day.

2) Use USB ‘thumb’ sticks. These are huge nowadays for very little money. £10 will buy you 32GB of safe storage. You can buy them from supermarkets. for goodness’ sake! Buy one with your weekly shopping. Tell you what – buy two. Alternate between them. I back up the files I’m working on (sometimes the whole of a project folder) at least once per week. And make sure you don’t leave them with the laptop. I have two memory sticks which attach to my set of keys. When I’m out of the house, so are my keys, and so are my important files.

That is such a brilliant idea, I should be selling these tips.

3) Use external USB hard disks. These are relatively cheap now. I can buy a 2TB (terabyte) external drive for less than £50. Yes! Two thousand gigabytes! And it’s a good one, at that. You can afford to back up your whole writing folder whilst you’re having lunch or something. And, while you’re investing in security, buy a second USB hard disk, too. Alternate big backups, but give one to a neighbour. Theft or fire could destroy your precious backups. Thousands of pounds- worth of work is at risk if you don’t look after your computer files.

So, just a short post today. It’s not like I’m going to labour the point, is it?

DO YOUR BACKUPS, NOW!

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