Category Archives for On writing

A Closer Look At Flash Fiction

Episode 10 of Webfiction World looks at flash fiction: the pros and cons of writing short stories, the different communities, and why you should give it a try.

My guests, John Wiswell and Angie Capozello, showed me up by have serious insight into the flash fiction community. Here’s a recap of the main points discussed.

Why write flash fiction?

To be a better writer, you need to write. It’s a simple concept: practice makes perfect. But writing flash fiction — and short fiction more generally — has unique benefits when compared to writing novels.

Flash fiction is short, under 1,000 words. It forces you to be concise and precise, it teaches you how to use your words effectively. There’s no space for infodumps or random descriptions; the challenge is to make your story engaging in a short space.

The short length of this form also makes it a perfect testing ground: you can try new genres, characters or writing styles, and if it turns out horribly, then you can move on. It would be far worse to be halfway through a novel and realise that it’s not going to work.

There is also a great twitter community surrounding flash fiction (FridayFlash, particularly) which means you can also get feedback — and if you want to improve as an author, feedback is crucial.

On the reader side, flash fiction requires very low investment. It’s generally free, and takes five minutes to read. It exposes prospective readers to your writing style, and gives you a chance to tempt them into wanting more of you.

Not to mention the numerous ezines out there accepting flash fiction submissions — even if they’ve already been posted on your blog.

So if you’re eager to give flash fiction a try, what should (and shouldn’t) you be doing?

Flash Fiction Do’s and Don’ts

  1. Be concise. If it doesn’t move the plot forward, don’t put it in.

  2. Don’t convolute. Too much of anything is too much, whether that is number of characters, points of view, time lapses, etc.

  3. Avoid word-counting. Don’t write 999 words. Be willing to experiment with how short your story can go.

  4. Push your boundaries. Try new genres, themes and writing styles.

  5. Don’t overplan. Go with your idea and see where it leads you.

  6. Write around the edges of your day. If you find it hard to make time to write, then scribble during breakfast or lunch, or write John style, in the toilet.

  7. GO FOR IT!

If you’d like to hear more about John and Angie’s work, flash fiction communities online, and whether chocolate trumps cheese, tune into the podcast.

In the meantime, any suggestions to add to the list?

The Burning Need to Write

“When I was a young teenager, I had a childhood friend, called Eileen Barnetston, who wrote fan fiction — although she didn’t know what that was at the time as it hadn’t been invented yet.

Eileen was a fangirl extraordinaire. And a very good one too. What she wasn’t was a writer.

So I’m saying you can’t learn how to write by copying other writers?

Hell, no. That is how you learn it. Well, at least how you learn to do it well. What you can’t learn is a burning need to say something. Nobody teaches you that. Absolutely no-one. Ever. No discussion.”

– Stone, Chancery. How To Write The Perfect Novel: A tongue-in-cheek guide to certain literary success, pg 116-117.

(For my thoughts on the book itself, see my review on Goodreads.)

Seven Reasons To Use Writing Prompts

“Every writer I have ever met has an almost pathological predisposition to procrastination.” – Adam Maxwell, Lost the Plot?

NaNoWriMo has begun. Hundreds of writers are staring at pages or screens, countless words hovering in their subconscious, waiting to be written. It’s write, or die. I’m fairly relieved to once again not be taking part.

Maybe you’re one of the fearless crowd taking on this vertiginous challenge. If you are, I salute you. It’s not for me.

Yet writing marathons such as NaNoWriMo have their upsides: for one, they’re the best cure for an ailment that plagues nearly every author in my acquaintance, including myself.

This ailment is, of course, procrastination.

So what can the doctor prescribe for a procrastinating author like me, who is severely allergic to writing marathons generally, and NaNoWriMo in particular?

Ta da! Writing Prompts!

The reason writing marathons kick procrastination in the butt is because they give you a time constraint: you have no option other than to write, so away you go.

But writers of delicate constitution such as myself can benefit from the softer approach of using writing prompts, which — rather than constrict your time — simply give your muse a little nudge out the door.

Not convinced? I procrastinated by coming up with the following list:

7 Reasons To Use Writing Prompts

  1. Defeat the dreaded white page. Do you freeze up at the sight of a blank page? Put a writing prompt in big bold letters at the top and voila, blank page is no more.

  2. Improve your craft. Practice makes perfect. Writing prompts make great ‘homework’ assignments; I like using them to quickly flex my writing muscles when I don’t have enough time for a full-blown writing session.

  3. Create an ideas box. Mine’s more of a messy pile, but keep those prompt-inspired scribbles in a box somewhere. You never know when you could reuse that material, and often reading through old scribbles helps inspire new ideas.

  4. Explore new territories. Get outside your comfort zone. An unusual prompt can take you down unexplored paths and encourage you to explore new writing styles and genres… and you never know what gem of an idea you could discover.

  5. Focus your mind. Rather than spend ten minutes getting ‘in the zone’ to work on your masterpiece, use those minutes to freewrite from a writing prompt. It’s a good warm-up to get you into the writing mindset before you work on a project close to your heart.

  6. Increase your creativity. Writing prompts make you question the world, developing your skill to see ideas in absolutely anything. Soon you won’t need to go looking for writing prompts — they’ll come looking for you.

  7. [Your reason here]. Yes, I couldn’t think of a seventh reason, although I’m sure there is one. Why not give a girl a hand?

Ultimately, it is not really the content of writing prompts that matters, but how they can be used to help overcome procrastination. Administered properly, writing prompts improve your craft and creativity, and can help develop more regular writing habits.

What about you? Do you use writing prompts? Why or why not?

Writing prompt resources: Lost the Plot? by Adam Maxwell; Seventh Sanctum; 3 Word Wednesday; Daily Photo Prompt… there are thousands!

The Pros & Cons of Reader-Directed Publishing

How does a new writer become discovered?

It’s an age-old question, but innovative digital publisher Wink Publishing has a brand new reply: reader-directed publishing.

I’ve been aware of Wink Publishing for some time — indeed, joined their mailing list a few months ago. But only today did I properly look into them, prompted by Wink Publishing’s guest post on The Next Best Book Club.

WINK’S SALES PITCH
Most traditional publishers are money-focused, solely publishing profitable books such as celebrity titles and formulaic genre bestsellers, whilst giving authors a tiny fraction of profits. Wink, on the other hand, wants to both publish entertaining literature AND give authors a good share of the profits — and the safest way to do this is to directly ask readers what they want to read.

HOW IT WORKS
Culling through all their submissions, Wink Publishing draws up a shortlist of titles. Readers can then read 50-page excerpts of each shortlisted title and vote for their favourite. At the end of the voting period, Wink publishes the book with the most votes.

To take part, author contestants must have a finished novel between 50-150k of any genre and be unpublished.

Winner takes all: an exclusive 3-year publishing contract with Wink and 50% of profits.

THE PROS
Reviewing the sample author contracts, website, and guest post, here’s what I like about Wink:

  1. An innovative business model. Digital publishing is all about innovation, you never know which new initiative will take off.

  2. Focus on unpublished authors. In the age of ebooks, it’s very difficult for new faces to distinguish themselves from the crowd.

  3. A respectable royalty rate. All profits of the book are split 50/50 between author and publisher, with Wink swallowing any costs.

  4. Additional support. Wink claims to fill the role of author agent as well, searching for ways to use serial, film and other rights, too. Most indie authors don’t have the time to exploit these secondary rights successfully.

  5. Effortless. Assuming your book is shortlisted, your name and title get a lot of free publicity, regardless of whether you win. Even if your book isn’t selected, you’ve exposed your work to a potential audience.

THE CONS
Despite the pros listed above, there are a number of reasons I would hesitate to recommend Wink Publishing to any aspiring authors out there. These are:

  1. The sales pitch. It doesn’t convince me: just because the book published is reader-selected doesn’t make the title more literary or less formulaic than books traditional publishers publish. Besides, Wink curates the shortlist, hence — one would assume — only puts through profitable titles.

  2. The business model. To put it bluntly: what if all the submissions they receive are crap? What if all are excellent and deserve to be published? If you accept 50-150k novels of any genre, how can you compare a 50k romance to an 80k literary exploration to a 150k science fiction behemoth?

  3. No track record. Wink has only published one book so far, and is running the second contest. Everyone has to start somewhere, but is it economically wise to give your book to Wink as it is now?

  4. The contract terms: 3-year exclusivity. I’m assuming they take an option on secondary rights too. Do you want to tie yourself to a publisher for that long when they have no track record? Compare that to 1889 Labs, where we ask for non-exclusive ebook and print rights, plus a six-month notice period for termination.

  5. Unpublished only. Every second your book is sitting there waiting for votes is another second it’s not on sale. And you have no way to guarantee your book will even win the contest and get a publishing deal out of it.

  6. Limited audience. Yes, taking part in the contest gets you free marketing. But to whom? A specific subsection of readers who enjoy these kinds of contests. I’d argue that most readers would rather read your whole book NOW if they’ve read 50 pages and enjoyed it enough to vote for it… but the contract doesn’t allow you to self-publish on the side.

  7. The royalty rates. 50/50 is a healthy split. But compare that to the 70% we give authors at 1889 Labs. Not to mention the even greater profit margin you’d get if you have the determination and skill to go indie.

  8. The X Factor. Would this be true reader-directed publishing or a popularity contest? I could get hundreds of people to vote for my book, none of whom might eventually buy the book when published.

I’ve tried to keep the list concise, but am certain there are other points that could be raised.

OVERALL
I’m a strong advocate of innovative digital publishing, firstly because you never know what could work, and secondly because it’s often great fun (1889’s livewriting experiments spring to mind).

Certainly reader-directed fiction has a lot of potential. I know of indie authors experimenting with a variety of reader-directed and/or interactive fiction, for example authors who write stories on request — by having readers vote for their preferred topic, or by having reader earn points to spend by completing certain tasks.

I’m just not entirely sold on Wink Publishing’s take on reader involvement and would hesitate to recommend it to aspiring authors.

Of course, I’m happy to be proved wrong. Do you think it would work?

The 4 Basic Elements of a Story

Writing is like baking a cake.

There are thousands of different kinds of cakes, thousands of different ways to make them. But the basic ingredients remain the same: flour, sugar, eggs, butter…

So what are the basic ingredients every story should have?

Baking A Sponge Cake Story

Ingredients:
• Plot
• Characters
• Setting
• Theme

Instructions:
1. The plot is the flour of the story.
It’s the basis, the foundation — more than just a chain of events. A plot needs conflict and a satisfying resolution. Throw in a mediocre, cliched or predictable plot and your story will sink like an undercooked sponge and utterly bore your reader’s tastebuds.

2. The characters are the sugar.
They add flavour, but that’s not all: they add volume and keep your story fresh. Characters provide leavening, ensuring that the plot doesn’t come out tough and chewy. If your characters are flat and unappealing, no one will care what happens to them.

3. The setting is the butter.
It glues the characters and plot together, it provides texture and depth. A lumpy, inconsistent setting will make your readers wonder whether they’re reading a story, or eating badly mixed dough.

4. And the theme is the egg.
It’s the hidden ingredient without which everything would fall apart. The theme binds all the ingredients together into one smooth story, elevating your humble cake from mere entertainment to something sublime.

Master the art of mixing these four ingredients together, and you’re on the road to story-making greatness.

Don’t forget to garnish as desired.

Images courtesy of stock.xchng.