Edinburgh Writers’ Club The Bulletin 2016-17

WHAT EDITORS WANT stories and key features of their by Sheila Adamson personalities, so that you understand them and how they behave. Most of the At this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival, information will not end up in the actual four editors from different publishers text but it will help you to see them as across the UK took the time to deliver a three-dimensional individuals. session explaining what they look for when signing up a new author. Note that an editor will be thinking about what will be successful in the market, not It is worth clarifying what an editor’s role what might impress a literary critic. is. This is the person who works with the Similarly, when a new author is taken on it author to get the book ready for will be because the publishing house publication. Sometimes the original believes the books will sell. manuscript can be radically changed, with revisions to structure or characters or the What features are they looking for, then, resolution of the plot. In other cases the in deciding what to take on? Some of changes may be minor. The editor these will be more obvious than others: attempts to see the book from the point of view of a potential reader and make it  Good voice work best for them.  Good story  Good villain In light of this, it is no surprise to hear that  Imagination editors particularly appreciate writers  Humour who are willing to receive feedback  Drama – don’t be afraid to let your constructively. (Bringing work to the club characters suffer for feedback and entering competitions is  Surprises and (if appropriate) excellent practice for this!) It is normal for scares the writer to be asked to do at least one  Dialogue - listen to how real complete new draft of the novel, no people talk. Read it aloud to check matter how much the publisher claims to how it sounds. Vary the way love it. Editors like it best when they different characters speak. identify a problem and the writer comes  Most of all – originality. “An editor up with their own creative solution. can fix problems with the plot,” Writers like it least when the editor one said, “but we can’t make a dull demands they kill off a character, but book original or memorable.” sometimes it has to be done. Even if you have no plans to submit work One tip was to write one page character for publication, this is all good advice that studies for each main character in the can help to improve the quality of your book. This should include their back work.

1 CLUB COMPETITION WINNERS allowed to enter one competition free of charge.

Flash Fiction 1 – Cecilia Rose "Blind Date" CLUB NIGHTS

2 – Jenny McDonald “Stuck” Zoe Strachan 3 – Olga Wojtas “The Winner”

Zoe talked to the Club about writing short POETRY stories prior to our submitting our stories st 1 A Journey through Lisbon – Beverley for her adjudication. Casebow 2nd Winter Mindins – Mary Johnston Her own favourite short story writers 3rd The Long View – Anne Stormont include Lucia Berlin and Muriel Spark. She Commended: quoted Muriel Spark as saying that a short Trees in Autumn – Beverley Casebow story ‘deals mainly with the middle’. Zoe Sea Eagle – Anne Stormont added to this by saying that you should have very little set-up for the action in a

short story – the writer must involve the GENERAL ARTICLE st reader in the ‘middle’ as soon as possible 1 Catherine Sinclair: A Forgotten Scottish and must trust the reader to pick up what Writer – Beverley Casebow is happening. Have one commanding idea nd 2 Park Life – Anne Stormont or theme. 3rd Prickly Wanderers in Bonnyrigg – Joan Sumner Introduce your main character right in the first paragraph, even the first sentence. It SHORT STORY is the characters that drive the plot in a 1st Photo Opportunity – Olga Wojtas short story. Everyone in real life has a 2nd Voice of Tomorrow – Cecilia Rose secret side – so too should your characters, and although you needn’t 3rd Boundaries – Beverley Casebow spell out a character’s most private Highly Commended: thoughts or actions you can hint at them, Nailing It – Anne Stormont have them bubbling underneath. Commended: The Shimmering Shores – Kate Blackadder Zoe asked us to write down three things about ourselves that we are happy to tell YOUNG ADULT NOVEL others – and then to write down three 1st What Monsters Want – Sheila secrets. It was an interesting and useful Adamson exercise, because if you apply that to your 2nd The Murder Game – Dorcas Wilson characters you get to know them better and make them more believable.

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE If your story seems flat she suggested 1st Down the Car Boot – Kate Blackadder nd trying for a change of tense or a change of 2 Mandy – Cecilia Rose viewpoint. Or lob in something rd 3 A Simple Life – Lorna Fraser unexpected and work out how your characters would react.

Worried about entering a competition? When reading a story she prefers not to Remember that new members are have too much resolution, not too neat an

2 ending. Leave the reader with an such as letters and diaries to hear how atmosphere in their mind. people used to express themselves. However, a balance has to be struck Margaret Elphinstone between recreating old dialects and leaving your text readable. Take care to Our opening speaker was Margaret avoid modern idioms. One trick she Elphinstone, the author of numerous shared was that when writing about historical novels, including The Sea Road, Vikings she used mostly Germanic root Voyageurs and The Gathering Night words – that gave the impression of a (published by Canongate). rugged pre-Norman language without employing actual Old Norse. Margaret’s approach to historical fiction was surprising in some ways. She revealed But when it comes to using ‘artistic that often she picked the location for her licence’ regarding known facts she advises story first and only then looked for the against. “Someone somewhere always historical time period that would provide knows,” she said. The writer has to accept the most story possibilities. For example, that sometimes inconvenient truths will having lived in Michigan for a year she throw a spanner in the works of the plot decided she wanted to write about the when it turns out that the characters area. She chose the time of the 1812 war simply can’t do what had been planned. between the USA and Canada, also More often than not, this will inspire a bringing in the confrontation between creative solution that is actually better. Europeans and native Ojibwe tribesmen. If this all sounds like a lot of hard work, it Margaret admitted that the themes of her may be worth knowing that it usually books often only became apparent once takes her around four years to complete a she had finished them. Conflict between book. cultures often features in her books, and times of historical change are a natural For Margaret, historical fiction draw for any novelist. complements non-fiction – its mission is not to tell you what happened but to try Research is always crucial for historical to get inside the heads of people in the fiction. Margaret spoke about how past and imagine their inner lives. Her understanding place is as important for preference is to invent all the main her as reading up on facts. She will visit characters in her novels, drawing on real the location and take notes, so that she people from history and real events only can set scenes in real places and describe as background characters and context. them in detail. For example, as research for the book Light, about Victorian To read more about Margaret, see: lighthouse-keepers, she spent time with http://www.margaretelphinstone.co.uk/ bird-ringers on Sule Skerry. A full, tactile description of a stormy petrel features in Valerie Gillies the book, including an evocation of its smell. On 17 October, former Edinburgh Makar Valerie Gillies came to the Club with a She also advised talking to the locals and single mission – to help us overcome our supplementing desk research with oral fear of poetry. She focused on haikus, tradition. To add authenticity to which normally take the form below: characters’ voices, read primary sources

3 5 syllables the National Library of Scotland’s 7 syllables collections to help understand and 5 syllables promote the history of the language.

However, it turned out that variations on From this work the website ‘Wee that are allowed (shorter length lines, not Windaes’ has been developed: longer). She demonstrated this through examples of well-turned haikus from http://wee-windaes.nls.uk/ other poets. The key features are: Take a look if you are interested in Scots writers from ages past. As examples,  observation Hamish talked about The Buke of the  a sense of the season Howlat, possibly the oldest printed book  colours and the natural world in Scots. This is a fifteenth century fable  some sort of surprise in the final and performance poem featuring an owl, line the Pope and a number of other birds as  always in the present tense representations of human society. We  punctuation not required also heard about the work of Alexander Wilson, an eighteenth century weaver and Valerie advised that a poem should be like radical from Paisley, who later turned into a photograph of a moment, and should be a respected ornithologist. based on first-hand experience and emotion. Brevity is important and good poets will pare out every redundant word To those who argue that Scots is a dialect to come down to the essence of the rather than a language Hamish counters poem. that whatever you call it, the way everyday people speak should be As an exercise, she asked us to list things reflected properly in literature. There are that evoked autumn and then compile distinctive Scots words and expressions them into a haiku. Everybody had a go, and we should have no embarrassment although not everybody managed a about making use of them. It is true that beautiful poem on the spot! in earlier centuries Scots and English were

more similar, but they diverged from the See http://www.valeriegillies.com/ for more information about Valerie’s work. sixteenth century onwards. Scots tends to make more use of words with Germanic, Hamish Macdonald Dutch and Norse roots while English became more mixed with Norman French. Hamish MacDonald, the first ‘Scots Scriever’ came to the first meeting in Many writers avoid using Scots as they January to talk about writing in Scots. He don’t want to limit their audience. There read from some of his own work, giving us is also a legitimate fear of being artificial, a flavour of how the distinctive rhythms of ie plucking words from the dictionary Scots can work in both prose and poetry. rather than concentrating on language as it is actually spoken. In Hamish’s view Part of Hamish’s role involves outreach there is no one ‘standard’ Scots and each work to schools and community groups, writer should do their best to use the encouraging people to read and write in language the way they would themselves Scots. But another part is research into in their own speech.

4 Publishers would take control of To support those who might still feel marketing in that they would decide the intimidated he talked us through an cover. But writers were expected to make exercise where we composed a short themselves available and connect with readers through social media, do school poem about Donald Trump (mining the visits, and write articles for other people’s rich corpus of Scots words for an idiot). blogs. “Fifty percent of the job is selling yourself; fifty percent is the actual Hamish finished by urging us to try writing writing.” in Scots if it felt right. ‘What have you got to lose?’ Claire recommended sites such as Goodreads to see what other readers Claire McFall liked and get a sense of the market.

Claire is a writer of young adult fiction, In terms of adjustments to make for the and also a teacher, so she was well-placed young adult readership, she advised to tell us about writing for this market. caution with swear words and darker themes, while noting that readers liked to Firstly she advised us to consider how be challenged too. It was no use writing people in this age group tend to come about perfect characters who behaved across books. Often they have books well. Protagonists needed to be relatable bought for them, or are directed to them and flawed. Wrapping the danger and in libraries / schools. So physical books violence up in a fantasy element tend to be more successful and self- sometimes made it more palatable. published e-books don’t work. Teenagers may also pick their next book via The opening chapter was hugely recommendations on blogs or Goodreads important to grab the reader’s attention, (or similar websites). It’s important to introduce the main character and throw have a publisher that is big enough to the reader into the middle of the action. It have access to these networks. And you was generally best to introduce the main will usually need an agent for that. obstacle / conflict as early as possible.

Claire warned against agents who try to Anne Hamilton sign authors up with small publishing companies that are actually their own. Be Anne Hamilton from Lothian Life judged careful when seeking an agent and check the general article competition. their bona fides. After saying she was impressed by the She spoke about her experience of first high quality of all the General Article getting published and noted that writers entries and would publish the winners, had to accept that editors might demand Anne reiterated how keen she is to get considerable rewrites. The publishing articles for Lothian Life (although sadly industry was obviously focused on making she is currently unable to offer payment). a profit so their first thought was to look If you’d like to write for the magazine for books that they believed would sell, have a read of it first to get a feel for it not necessarily the books that individual (http://www.lothianlife.co.uk/) and then editors and agents liked best. email her either with an article or with an idea if you’re unsure about its suitability for the magazine. Photographs are very

5 welcome – if an article is not illustrated it Some of the key points they stressed should have 500-600 words but if there were: are pictures to break up the text readers will scroll down to read up to 800 words.  Characters should never be one- If your submission is longer she is happy dimensional. Nobody is all good or all to edit it to fit. evil. Good stories are about how different characters react to difficult Don’t just give facts on a subject – situations – some may react selflessly, information on everything is just a Google some may choose violence. away these days. But using your own  Characters should drive the plot, not voice and/or making the story personal your theme or message. will appeal to readers, even if the article  Give the reader something they’re may not be on a subject they were not expecting. (But don’t try to be previously interested in. A little humour is different just for the sake of it. You welcome and can be injected into most may end up being simply odd.) Draw topics. on your own perspective and experience to make your story Mark Leggatt and Neil Broadfoot uniquely yours.  ‘Use reality in a way that advances We were grateful to Mark and Neil, two the story.’ In other words, yes, try to local crime writers, for stepping in at short be realistic but not to the detriment notice when the previously booked of readability. Real police speaker had to cancel. investigations may take months and months; the reader will want a Mark Leggatt writes international thrillers quicker resolution. (Names Of The Dead, The London Cage,  Writing is like a muscle – you need to and The Silk Road) featuring former CIA keep exercising it. Write as much as technician Connor Montrose. Neil possible if you want to get better. Broadfoot comes from the tradition of Make mistakes so that you can learn Scottish police-based crime, with his from them. ‘If you want to write a series of books involving Edinburgh book, write a bloody book.’ investigative journalist Doug McGregor  Throw your ego aside. Find out what and his police contact, DS Susie doesn’t work with your writing and be Drummond. willing to fix it. Edit out words that aren’t needed. Be ruthless. The session was informal, with the two writers inviting questions from the audience and answering them together as a double act. Both have clearly done a lot of research into their genre and know a fair bit about how to murder someone. (For what it’s worth, nobody does poisoning anymore because it’s too easy to detect and women usually kill people with knives.)

But much of their advice was applicable to writing in general, regardless of genre.

6 HOW TO ... REVEAL BACK STORY The journey was no worse than she by Sheila Adamson expected. A train from London to Liverpool; the steam packet overnight As a writer we always know a lot more to Dublin; a slow Sunday train west to a about our characters than the reader town called Athlone. does. Learning how to share this A driver was waiting. “Mrs Wright?” information, and how much to share, can Lib had known many Irishmen, be one of the trickiest things to master. solders. But that was some years ago, Every time we stop the story to provide a so her ear strained now to make out potted history of a character’s life we lose the driver’s words. the momentum of the narrative. If we dump too much information all at once it So we know she’s called Lib Wright and can be, quite simply, boring. she’s not Irish. We also immediately pick up that she’s pretty stoical and unfazed by Tastes have changed, of course. I recently travelling on her own to a strange read Waverley by Sir Walter Scott. Now, country. Her reason for being there only my grandmother loved Scott with such becomes evident later. In fact, wondering passion that in our house it was a capital why she’s made this journey and what the crime to even hint that any aspect of his nature of her job is keeps the reader style might be outdated. But look at how turning the page. Only much, much later this novel starts! do we find out about her family, her background and who Mr Wright was. A Chapter 1 – waffly introduction good author feeds the reader only a little Chapter 2 – long explanation of the lives bit at a time. of the hero’s father and uncle Chapter 3 – the hero’s early life Generally, facts should come out as Chapter 4 – his adolescence ... they’re needed. The exception would be a Chekhov’s Gun scenario. If it’s going to be You get the picture. All that was needed crucial to the plot that your main was to say that Edward Waverley was a character is an expert plumber then you young man, uncertain of his path in life, should probably find a way to mention and that he lived with an uncle of mildly that earlier so that it doesn’t feel too Jacobite persuasion. Other details would convenient at the key moment. in fact be better demonstrated by seeing the character in action. There can be a temptation to pass on information to the reader through Nobody takes the Walter Scott approach dialogue, ie one character telling their life these days. But what should you do story to another. This can be good and instead? suitably dramatic for a big reveal of a dark secret. But it is a cumbersome way of The advice is to keep it minimal. Focus transferring information. The benefit of only on what the reader needs to know to prose is that you can slip in a short picture the scene. Usually an idea of paragraph of facts whenever you need it. gender, approximate age and setting. For example, the first paragraphs of Emma Everyone tells you to start the story when Donoghue’s The Wonder tell us the action starts – not before. By remarkably little: definition back story is from before the start. Don’t let it get in the way.

7 SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION OF WRITERS CONFERENCE General Short Story Commended Anne Stenhouse (Graham) by Sheila Adamson Commended Olga Wojtas 3rd Anne Stormont The Scottish Association of Writers is a confederation of writers’ clubs all round Woman’s Short Story Scotland. It holds an annual conference in 1st Kate Blackadder March, usually at the Westerwood Hotel 2nd Anne Stormont in Cumbernauld. 3rd Lorna Fraser

The Conference includes competitions, Sheila Adamson and Dorcas Wilson workshops and speakers, along with participated in the Dragons' Pen pitching plenty of opportunities for socialising. A session. This involved each pitcher talking strong contingent from EWC was present. for four minutes about their book (which was scary) and then answering questions from the Dragons (published authors and agents), which was scarier. It does provide good practice in presenting your work, and gives an insight into the kind of questions agents and editors might ask when reading your synopsis cold. Sheila won with her Young Adult novel ‘I Wouldn't Start From Here’.

Members did well in a number of competitions:

Children’s Short Story 2nd Lorna Fraser 3rd Julia Graves

General Novel Dorcas Sheila 3rd Joan Sumner Highly Commended Kath Hardie This year was a special one for the Edinburgh Writers’ Club, as we are Young Adult Novel marking our 70th anniversary. To honour 1st Sheila Adamson this we sponsored the John Severn Inkwell Competition for a general short story. Flash Fiction Other clubs may have suspected that this 1st Olga Wojtas gesture wasn’t as generous as it appeared, with three club members Crime Novel featuring in the top places. A grand total 1st Joan Sumner of 59 stories were entered. First place went to Sylvia Hehir from Sunart Writers. General Article Her dark and unsettling story centred on 3rd Kate Blackadder an awkward relationship between an

8 outsider and a family working with a describing how she would see something travelling fair. She also displayed her – an interesting looking person, an image, considerable knowledge of how ferrets a phrase – and note it down. Then as soon are used to catch rabbits! as possible afterwards she writes a short paragraph or mini poem that draws out ideas for future development. Since most of us carry our phones everywhere these days, it is easy to take photographs and file these as writing prompts.

Claire Wingfield is a literary consultant who has mentored writers for the Scottish Book Trust. She was plugging her book ‘52 dates for writers’ which contains exercises to help you deal with problems in your manuscript or visualise your characters Sylvia receiving her certificate from EWC club more clearly. president, Joan Sumner

Sue Reid-Sexton judged the non-fiction competition. She advised that there is more to writing good non-fiction than simply knowing your facts and writing well. It is also crucial to be clear about your intended audience so that you can pitch your material at the right level of detail.

Keith Gray adjudicated the Young Adult Olga, Sheila and Kate with their trophies competition. He said that the key to writing for this age group is empathy. In As well as the competitions, there were his workshop he invited us to do an various workshops and talks. On Saturday exercise where we remembered an night we had an after dinner speech from incident from our own teenage years and Helen Lederer, who is best known for her described the emotions we went through. comedy work on TV. Recently she has However, the other point to note is that taken up writing and her novel ‘Losing It’ when you write for young adults you have was nominated for the P. G. Wodehouse to keep your story involving enough to Comedy Literary Award. She didn’t talk compete not just with other books, but much about her writing process but many with the play station and television. other speakers did. A selection of notes and tips is below. If you have never been to a SAW Victoria Gemmell, young adult author and conference do think about going next former winner of the T C Farries trophy at year. Look out also for their other the conference, spoke about where to competitions, including the summer find inspiration for stories. You may be solstice competition: familiar with the maxim that a writer http://www.sawriters.org.uk/downloads/ should never be far away from a solstice_competition.pdf notebook. She expanded on that,

9 NEWS https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/s an-i-cassimally/ Congratulations to Olga Wojtas whose short story won the short story Anne Hamilton mentioned that she had competition in Women in Comedy Festival interviewed EWC member Olga Wojtas for her story The Mystery of the Second for Lothian Life. You can read the Olga. She is also one of ten short story interview here: writers whose work will be in the latest http://www.lothianlife.co.uk/2015/06/wo Hysteria anthology following the annual rds-with-olga/#more-16283 Hysterectomy Association competition. Congratulations to Lorna Fraser who has Congratulations to Kevin Nowbaveh brought out a collection of her short whose story Pearls Before Swine was stories on Kindle and in paperback: ill published recently in the comic anthology divided world and other stories – Future Quake, sister magazine to 2000AD, http://amzn.to/2kyj2Mx artwork by Norrie Millar.

Several members have publications out:

Gillean Arjat has a story Happy Never After: Crime and Publishment Anthology Vol 1

Anne Stenhouse’s (Graham) fourth Regency novel Courting the Countess, a reverse Beauty and the Beast story, was published in September by Endeavour.

Sheena Guz has published her humorous sci-fi novel Murder on Muckle Plugga. Congratulations to Gillean Arjat who has four poems on this timely website – Kate Blackadder’s first full-length novel http://thebelongingproject.co.uk/categor Stella’s Christmas Wish was published y/public/ on 3 November by Black & White (One of the facilitators of the project is Publishing. former EWC member Marjorie Lotfi Gill.)

Arthur Greenan has two titles: (1) a Sheila Adamson was shortlisted in the memoir From the Heights of Greenlaw; Mslexia Children’s Novel competition, for and (2) a collection of true short stories her YA time travel / relationships novel I and poems The Robeson Tree. wouldn’t start from here.

All the above are available on Amazon. Caroline Clayton (who was a member last year) has signed with Black & White for Books by San Cassimally have been her children’s picture book, Maggie’s reviewed on Kirkus Reviews: Mittens, due out in Autumn.

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