Category / Inspiration

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

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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by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 20 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

GETTING AROUND A BLOCKAGE

Writer’s block. You’ve all heard of it. It’s that time when you want to write, but the words just won’t come. Your muse has departed, and left you… wordless.

POPPYCOCK

Excuse my language. I do not believe in writer’s block. Neither do these people.

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
– Louis L’Amour

or

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
– Jack London

Let me explain. Sometimes, writing flows. Sometimes, writing doesn’t flow. The reasons? I have no idea – it could be a combination of mental state, tiredness level, enthusiasm, other things happening in our lives… many, many things. And it would be very easy to kowtow to our feelings. And it is made easier by giving those feelings a name.

Writer’s Block

Writers talk about it a lot. It seems to be a common problem.

But waaay back, when I was thinking I’d quite like to do this thing for a living, I wondered about those days when the writing didn’t flow. What could I do about it?

One comment I heard was: “A brain surgeon doesn’t get surgical block.” And the obvious parallel is that when someone does a ‘normal’ job, they need to do that job, no matter what. And I’m sure on some days, surgeons don’t feel as well as they do on others. Our capability to do a job to the best of our ability varies day to day, but apart from being ill, a surgeon can’t phone in and say he doesn’t feel like doing his / her job.

So – what’s the solution?

Firstly – STOP USING THE TERM WRITER’S BLOCK

Next thing – tell yourself you’re going to do some writing at the time you normally do your writing.

Then find some way in which you can put characters, words, and sentences onto paper / in a file.

Here are some suggestions: write a blog post. Sometimes, writing non-fiction will break the deadlock where writing fiction won’t. If you’re not a blogger, and you don’t think you want to be, you can write about something else – maybe write about getting through writer’s block (like I’m doing now!)

OR (and I know this worked with a friend I helped) pick a tiny portion of your viewpoint. It doesn’t matter where you are, or what you can see from where you write, but focus on one small portion of your view. Here’s a thing I’ve found useful – extend both arms in front of you, and form a rectangle with the first finger and thumb of each hand. It’s like zooming in on a camera. Don’t choose your view point. That may sound strange, because you’re naturally going to want to choose something interesting to write about. Don’t do that. Bear with me. Extend the arms, form the viewpoint, and look. Really, really look.

Okay, let’s do a test, right now. I have a viewpoint. It’s a small portion of the wall in front of me. So now, let’s write 50 words on what I see. Only 50 words. Be as eloquent or lyrical or poetic as you like.

A shadow falls across the wallpaper, from black to grey to lighter grey to… the off-white wall. But the wall is not one flat colour. There are patters, swirls and whirls and lines and curves, surface texture embossed with semi-random shapes. They make no sense. And yet, suddenly…

There you go. Exactly fifty words on the wallpaper on my wall. It ain’t gonna win no Pulitzer, nor am I going to publish it.

There is a stage 2, where we enlarge our viewpoint slightly. Bend your arms, form that viewpoint again, and look. Really look. Look throughout the restricted viewpoint, noting what you see, all the details. Now, write 100 words on what you’ve seen through that viewpoint. You can do this. You wrote fifty words a moment or two ago. You just need to write a few more, and now I’ve given you a MUCH bigger thing to write about!

Okay. Done that? Guess what, you don’t have writer’s block!

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by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 19 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

FINDING A SPACE

Earlier in the month, we talked about finding somewhere to write.

There’s something I wrote in my “NaNoWriMo – Meeting the challenge” book

https://gerald-hornsby.com/nanowrimo-2020

Here’s another complaint I hear – “I don’t have anywhere to write. I only have a small house / apartment / igloo”. We’ve all seen Stephen King’s writing room, and Ian Rankin’s upstairs office space. How much easier would it be to write if I had a centrally heated, air-conditioned, coffee-machine-equipped office with a view of Mont Blanc or the River Rhine or the South African Veldt or the soaring peaks of Glencoe?

Well, maybe a little, but you’re just finding excuses. Again. You don’t need a special space to write. Yes, you would do well to be on your own without interruptions from pets or family. But you can write with your laptop on your … lap. You can write in the middle of an office with headphones on. You can write on a train.

The most prolific period of my career was when I sat at a tiny flatpack desk facing a blank white wall. You can write in the kitchen whilst you’re waiting for your pasta water to boil, or your coffee machine to bubble, or even whilst you’re waiting for the kettle to boil. You don’t need an office. You don’t need a ‘special space’. What you need to do is write words. Get to it!

I remember an episode of “Grand Designs”, where a man wanted to build a house in France with an office “with a great view” so “I can wrote that novel I’ve always wanted to write.”

He built that house, and he really did have a study which had a wonderful view across a valley, including green fields and a village in the distance. So, he must have polished off that novel in no time?

He didn’t.

What he did do was write a book about how to build a house in France. The novel didn’t get written. So it wasn’t the lack of a special room that was stopping him – it was himself!.

You could say: “But Gerald, you’ve got a nice study with a view into countryside – it’s all right for you to preach!”

True.

But in my defence, it is a spare bedroom, converted into a study. AND writing is my business. AND my partner writes on the dining table. She’s a full-time author, too.

In conclusion: you can write wherever you want.

Just write.

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by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 18 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

SAGGY MIDDLES

This is a blog post for novel and novella writers.

It’s quite easy to keep a reader engaged in your flash fiction or short story, with their limited range of characters and plots.

But what about when you want to extend your range a little, and write longer stories? It’s easy, right? Just add a few more characters, another plotline or two, maybe another location, and Bob’s your uncle.

Take it from me – it’s really not that simple. Don’t ask me how I know.

And there is a danger that in the middle of the wordcount (say, 30,000 words for a novel), you end up waffling. What’s waffling? 

Waffle – to speak or write at length in a vague or trivial manner.

How this manifests is that your story is roaming around, not really getting anywhere. Characters appear, say something, do something, and then disappear again without having had any significant effect on the story. That, on a number of occasions, has been my story.

If you, too, find yourself in this awful situation, what can you do?

CHANGE SOMETHING.

Have your main character break a limb, take up a new hobby, lose the love of his life. Just when you think it’s all done, and all the ends are tied up nice and neat, CHANGE SOMETHING. PIVOT. What’s the worst thing that can happen? The hero has vanquished his arch-enemy. He has grabbed the girl. She has kissed him (because he’s not an over-aggressive jerk, he’s your hero). Then have him (or her) contract a rare a virulent disease. Have a sink-hole open up and take her away. Have a random plane land on them, miraculously killing him but saving her, thus making her the NEW hero of the story. Ha haaa! Got you there, readers! But that’s, at least, more interesting.

You can also ‘design out’ the saggy middle, from the start of writing. Shout out to my favourite ‘thing’, Save The Cat https://savethecat.com/ Since I began using this, I NEVER have a saggy middle (in my story!). The StC structure ‘designs out’ sags by setting out a beat-by-beat plan for the story, ensuring that you write in the highs and lows, the changes of pace, the tension and the conflict as you begin to plan your story.

SAVE THE CAT FOR THE WIN!

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by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 17 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

CRITIQUE OR CRITICISM?

How difficult is it to be a writer?

Strangely, no one ever asks that question. Because they either already know it’s very difficult, or because they think it’s easy.

Writing is easy. No, really, it is. You pick up a pen or a pencil or crayon or anything which will make a mark, you pick up something else which will show those marks… and you write. You can write whatever you like.

 Here’s a scenario, and see if you recognise it: you make a decision that you’re going to start writing. You write about a few things going on in your life. You may even put your opinions down on paper (electronic devices are available!). You might even construct a story – perhaps for a child, or for your own enjoyment, or a fictional piece of writing based on something that happened to you, or maybe is happening around you.

So far so good.

You’re happy with what you’re doing. You quite like this writing lark. Maybe even a family member looks at what you’ve written, and given you feedback of the “that’s really fantastic! Well done” kind.

You feel that maybe you’ve got this writing thing buttoned down, and you write more. Maybe you join an online group, or a real life group, and share your writing.

And you get a bad critique.

This is where writing gets tricky. Do you accept the critique? Because, when you’re a new writer, a critique of your writing is a criticism of you. This is your writing baby. How dare someone say nasty things about it?

At this point, your writing journey can go one of three ways:

  • You totally give up writing, vowing never to pick up a crayon again.
  • You take umbrage, and vow never to speak to that person again; you know you’re a good writer, because people have said so, and you’re going to continue your journey in the same way
  • You listen to the critique, you look at your writing, you accept that maybe other people are not so emotionally attached to it, and you learn from it.

You will probably guess that I’m advocating the latter. And I am, but only if your heart is in it. You are going to want to improve your writing.  It’s a tough lesson, and one which many of us have had to learn. When I started writing literary short fiction, I read some damning critiques of my work. But, do you know what? It improved my writing, and critiquing other writers improved my writing, too. But, as the leader of that group always said: critique the writing, don’t criticise the writer.

A CRITIQUE SHOULD NOT BE A CRITICISM.

Learn the difference, and react accordingly.

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by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 16 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

WHAT IS A FIRST DRAFT?

A first draft is a horrible thing.

The first draft of anything is sh*t.

Ernest Hemingway

Writing, and especially publishing, is filled with anachronistic terms and phrases. Like many industries, I’m sure people use out-of-date phrases in order to heighten the mystique. It might even be used to exclude those who haven’t been educated in the rarified atmospheres of ‘good’ universities. Might.

So, the “first draft.” As one person said to me once, it’s “telling yourself the story.” And in a way, they’re right. If you’re writing a novel, or even a short story, you don’t really know how it’s going to look until you’ve written it. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been writing a full-length novel, and then realised that there’s not enough ‘story’ in it to complete it, or that the story I had in my head isn’t what’s coming out in the manuscript. I’m my own harshest critic. 

So let’s say you’ve fought these inner demons and doubts caused by imposter syndrome, and you’ve finished the story. Brilliant! Send it off to be printed / entered into a competition?

Errr… NO!

Remember Hemingway’s statement, above. He knew a thing or two about writing did old Ernest. What you do is you put the story to one side – in a drawer, or closed off in a folder on your laptop. 

DON’T LOOK AT IT! 

What this does is to give you, the writer, ‘some distance’ from your writing. This is a fact – if you turn to edit a story too quickly, your mind sees what you think that you, the writer, should have written. Your mind ’sees’ the manuscript you wrote in your head, and not what you put on paper / in a file.

How long should I put the manuscript away?

It depends. In theory, the longer the better. I’ve come across old stories, written years ago, that I don’t even recognise as mine! But how long you put the manuscript away is entirely up to you, and how well you can ’step away’ from the writing, and what you intend to do with the story when it’s finished, and whether that has a deadline to it.

And my key message – when you start reviewing your first draft, BE HONEST! Read it like you would any other piece of writing.
Are there spelling and punctuation mistakes? Don’t assume an editor will fix them for you!
Does the opening spend too much time on description of landscapes or the weather?
Does the story move along at pace, or is it dreary and slow?
Does the key message of the story, the key theme, come through in the writing?
Does the ending round things up nicely, and provide a satisfying conclusion?

These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself before moving forward with the story.

AND DON’T BE AFRAID TO DITCH THE STORY IF IT DOESN’T WORK.

I have done, MANY TIMES!

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