Jericho Writers

Here are the latest Jericho Writers newsletters:

A strong voice speaks volumes I’ve judged a lot of writing competitions over the years, and reading submissions can feel a bit like listening to the same song, over and over. We writers have a funny knack for telling stories in a strangely similar way. So, when a submission comes in that nails a unique voice, it can feel like a complete change of record. This newsletter focuses on how you can use voice to wake up a reader or literary agent, and really pull them into your character’s world.

BURSARY: Win a place on our Self-Edit Your Novel tutored course Closing date: 13 December 2019. Are you an under-represented or low-income writer with a first draft of a novel? Don’t miss out on this huge opportunity to win a place on our Self-Editing tutored course. 1 in 5 alumni are now published – and we’d love for you to be next. ENTER BEFORE 13 DECEMBER

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NEW on Jericho Writers

MASTERCLASS: Creating an engaging voice (FREE for members) Amanda Berriman nailed the voice of a four-year-old girl in her debut adult book, published last year. In this masterclass, she shares her secrets to creating a captivating voice. WATCH NOW

BLOG: How to find and develop your writing voice What does voice mean? And how do you find one for your writing overall? This blog post explains more about voice and techniques for honing your personal style. READ NOW

COURSE: Points of view (FREE for members) Taken from the ‘How to Write’ video course, this module focuses on managing points of view in your story, and how to choose the best one to follow. WATCH NOW

Content corner: 3 ways to find a unique voice Out of everything I’ve learned about writing to date, I credit ‘voice’ as the main reason I ended up bagging a publishing deal. Here’s how I found mine (in the hope that it will help you find yours!) 1) Make a list of everything that colours your character’s perception. That includes things like class and location, as well as hobbies and passions. A kid from Alabama who loves space is going to describe a sunset in a very different way to a colour-blind accountant in Iceland. 2) Try other voices on for size. You can mimic voices of people you know, or strangers. You can even try writing voices from other books or media, to see if any fit with your character. 3) Write in different mediums. When I’m trying to find new voices, I try writing the opening page of the book on a laptop, phone, typewriter and even a good old-fashioned pen and paper. Sometimes, stepping outside our usual writing habits can help us walk in different shoes. So, how do you find a unique voice? Share your tips in the Townhouse, here. Sarah J

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Follow us on Instagram for more of our 'The Life of a Writer' cartoon series by our very talented Stephanie!

As always, happy writing and remember, you can contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 345 459 9560* or info@jerichowriters.com for any writing-related advice. Best wishes, Sarah Juckes Author | Jericho Writers *or if you're in the US, give us a call toll free on 1-800 454 2134

Plus – don’t miss: Ultimate Novel Writing course Spring 2020 New dates for Spring 2020 just added! Write your book alongside top tutors; attended life-changing events and get detailed feedback on your work, every step of the way. Opening section review (Discounts available for members) An editorial review of the first 20,000 words of your manuscript. Our editors read, digest and absorb your work, then they’ll tell you how to improve it. Complete Novel Mentoring (Discounts available for members) Two world-class mentors are here to give you one-to-one advice as you write or edit your novel. Join the list of success-stories.

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Jericho Writers Belsyre Court 57 Woodstock Road Oxford, OX2 6HJ United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

James Law and the diagram of why

OK, so my new favourite thing for today? It’s when you’ve been writing professionally for 20 years and still get really excited when a writer shows you some techniques that look sexy, fun, creative – and productive. More of that in one short second, but first, if you missed my webinar on self-publishing (or, really, on author-led marketing), then you can catch the replay here: https://jerichowriters.com/bf-self-pub-webinar-replay/ We’ve had massively positive feedback on that webinar. People said things like: I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed watching your self-publishing webinar the other day … I was genuinely inspired. This is hands down the best live webinar I've been on. Pure value and an inoffensive pitch ;-) Thank you so much Harry. I watched the replay last night and it was packed with really great information. You guys are definitely the best and most motivating writing resource I have found on my journey so far Loved your webinar and your follow-up below really helped me buck up … One personal question: Did you ever figure out why your kids were wearing helmets in your kitchen? No, I never did figure out why my kids were wearing helmets in the kitchen, but then again they found a fake fur pompom in the garden yesterday and built a hedgehog house for it, complete with bed of leaves and dish of milk. So helmets in the kitchen? That passes for normal, I’m afraid. As for the webinars, a lot of people avoid them because they assume the content is going to be all tease and no value. We don’t do that. We just cram as much serious value into the hour as we can. We do mention a product at the very end of the webinar, but we also tell you not to buy it, so that seems fair. Oh yes, and remember that you can get all the slides from the webinar from a download link here, so no need to take notes. Right. Bish, bosh. Next thing. So last night, the Mighty James Law delivered a webinar yesterday on Ideas, Plotting and Planning – that whole process of coaxing a novel into shape. Some of the material was familiar to me, but much of it wasn’t and was genuinely inspirational. In particular, I loved-loved-loved James’s willingness to state something that isn’t often enough said. Lots of published novels are bad. They annoy the reader. In James’s candid summary: Things that annoy me about novels When I just don’t give a &%$£ When I have no idea why they’re doing what they’re doing When they do something completely unexpected (usually to bail the author out of a plot hole) And we all know the feeling, right? You’re 100 pages into a perfectly competent novel, written by a pro author and published by some big, fancy publishing house. And you just don’t care. Or the action taken by the main character seems desperately contrived or stupid. (“No. Don’t enter the dark house where an armed gunman might be lurking. That sounds idiotic. How about you call your colleagues in the POLICE and call for ARMED BACKUP. That’s the whole point of being in the police, isn’t it?”) Issues like that kill a novel. I don’t finish those books. I don’t buy another one by the same author. I don’t think they should have been published, or not with that much laziness in storytelling and editing. So I am (I hope) as alert as James is to the risks. And of course if you write in a genre like ours, you are always bumping up against what the story wants (character enters dark house alone) and what reality demands (phone for backup.) So realistically, you will always be bicycling close to the edge of that precipice. You just want to avoid spilling over the edge. My solution is rudimentary. It involves lots of writing, even more rewriting, gallons of tea, and a trust that my own editorial smarts will end up washing any plot stupidities out of the fabric. That probably works well enough in the end, but I have always worried that my process isn’t especially efficient. James’s solution to these issues is the Why Diagram. It’s a kind of structured attempt to drive out plot-stupidity from your novel before you write it. Why is the reader going to care about your Initiating Incident? Why should they care about your main character? Boom, boom, boom. James’s technique forces you to look at and answer the big questions before you put pen to paper. It’s basically a tool for de-stupidising your story before you even start writing. There’s lots else in his presentation too, but that’s the part that made me sit up and bark. Plus … James has got three beautifully published books out, more on the way, and a TV deal in the oven. So you know what, I think he’s onto something. I’ll hand over to James himself for the detail. View James’s webinar replay here Unless you are wiser than Methusalah or as sour as a dish of crab-apples, I think you’ll learn something and I think you’ll chuckle. I’m a grizzled old SOB, and I did both. One more webinar to go this season. It’s the Thrice-Blessed Sarah Juckes talking about How To Get Published. If you want to sign up for that (for free, of course), the sign up page is right here. Do note that the webinar is on a Wednesday; the others have been on a Thursday, so don’t get tripped up. That’s it from me. Go and spin some sunbeams into a wreath of happiness. I’m off to find some tea. Till soon Harry

PS: Mass chat-in on Townhouse here. Not yet a member? Then sign up for free. There’s a Townhouse fire a-roaring in the grate and a man in a dark coat will offer you a glass of hot toddy and a biscuit of indeterminate flavour. Want to talk about something different? Then hit reply. PPS: De-stupidising? Don’t be silly. Of course it’s a word. PPPS: Those webinar links again: Replay – me on Self-Publishing – watch here Replay – the Mighty James Law, on Ideas, Planning & Plotting – watch here Wednesday 27 Nov – the Thrice-Blassed Sarah Juckes, on How To Get Published. Sign up here. PPPPS: Need a nice place to go on writing retreat? Our very own Amanda Saint reckons this place is pretty special. Happy to give it a shout out. It looks and sounds lovely.

Jericho Writers Belsyre Court 57 Woodstock Road Oxford, OX2 6HJ United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

Writing for teens and young-minded people As a YA (young adult) author myself, I’m super excited about the topic of this week’s newsletter. In my very biased opinion, YA books showcase some of the most exciting writing being published today. So, how do you go about writing for teens? And what do you need to know to publish in this competitive market?

Don’t miss the FREE webinar this week! On Thursday, James Law (who is one of our favourite humans) will be hosting a completely free webinar all about how to turn your book idea into a fully plotted novel. Even if you can’t make the time and date, register below and we’ll send you links to the replay. 21 NOVEMBER 19.30 GMT: How to write a brilliant book, with James Law 27 NOVEMBER 19.30 GMT: How to find an agent and get published, with Sarah Juckes

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Spotlight

FEATURE: Interview with YA author Non Pratt (FREE for members) It was such a pleasure to chat to bestselling YA author Non Pratt last year about what it means to write for young people, and how she earns a living from school events. WATCH NOW

BLOG: How to learn the market for YA fiction YA isn’t a genre – it's an age group. This blog demystifies the sub-categories in YA and explains how you can keep on top of the trends. READ NOW

SNAPSHOT: Getting to grips with the teenage narrator (FREE for members) Join Brian Keaney as he reveals how you can capture the voice of a teenage protagonist in a way that is realistic and natural. WATCH NOW

Content corner: Why I write for young people Writing for adults may perhaps carry larger advances and reach more readers. But there are reasons I write for young people: 1) Young people don’t just like your book, they LOVE it. Remember the intensity of your first crush? Remember the posters you had all over your wall? The same vibes can be found in books, too. 2) School events boost your income. The suggested rate for school visits can be way higher than they are at universities. Book a week tour in a major city, and you could earn what you need to sustain a household for the rest of the month (leaving more time for writing!) 3) The community is strong with this one. YA writers are also often YA readers, and some of that fandom rubs off on us. You’re unlikely to find a more enthusiastic set of beta readers. YA writers – why do you write for young people? Share your thoughts in the Townhouse. Sarah J

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Follow us on Instagram for more of our 'The Life of a Writer' cartoon series by our very talented Stephanie!

As always, happy writing and remember, you can contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 345 459 9560* or info@jerichowriters.com for any writing-related advice. Best wishes, Sarah Juckes Author | Jericho Writers *or if you're in the US, give us a call toll free on 1-800 454 2134

Plus – don’t miss: The Ultimate Novel Writing Course (Discounts available for members) Learn everything you need to write a novel in this year-long course and have expert tutors by your side, every step of the way. Complete Novel Mentoring (Discounts available for members) Get expert help from two world-leading mentors, as you write or edit your book. The entirely flexible way to create a market-leading book. Manuscript Assessment (Discounts available for members) Our most popular editorial service matches you to your dream editor and gives you tailored feedback on your work. It doesn’t get better than that.

JOIN US

Jericho Writers Belsyre Court 57 Woodstock Road Oxford, OX2 6HJ United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

Roasted chestnuts and a glass of mulled cider

My favourite thing? Well, I have a lot of favourite things, but my favourite for today is when you guys ask super-brilliant questions that make me think … and generate the meat for a cracking email. And this week, honours are taken by Nigel S, who wrote to say: Hello Harry, Can I ask you about warmth in writing? I have probably read on average two books per week for the last sixty years. (That probably tells you everything you need to know about me.) Warmth in a story has always fascinated me, and I strive for it in all my jottings. For instance, Stuart MacBride and Harry Bingham have it in spades (Lord, I hate a smoke-blower, don’t you?) while M______ and L______ don’t. Anyway, try as I might to apply my mighty intellect to it, I can’t identify what it is that does the trick. So I’d be very grateful if you could give me and the writing world in general your take on why I can read a book about Laz and Roberta in a day, whereas it might take a week’s stay in Three Pines to get the juice. And that’s an interesting question, right? I’m certain, for example, that JK Rowling’s massive success relies in very large part on her wit and warmth. So yes, you come to her books for the boy wizard and Voldemort and all that. But you stay because of that sense of human generosity at the heart. The warm blanket and the just-right mug of cocoa. Same thing with Stieg Larsson in a way. If you describe the Lisbeth Salander character – Aspergers, violent, spiky, tattoos, motorbike, abuse survivor, computer geek – you expect someone who is impressive, maybe, but not someone you want to spend a ton of time with. Yet the books themselves do have a sense of warmth at their heart – warmth, not bleakness – and the result is that readers committed to a series, despite its multiple flaws. So, if warmth is a Good Thing, how do you build it? How do you make it happen on the page? The honest answer would be: I’m not sure. This email doesn’t offer a properly developed explanation. It offers some first thoughts in response to an interesting question. But I’ll start by saying that this question particularly chimes with me, because a few years back I was developing my Fiona Griffiths crime series. On the drawing board I had a character and book who seemed deeply unlikable, with a theme that seemed dark to the point of a cemetery midnight: Fiona used to think she was dead She deals in homicide The crime at the heart of book #1 was ugly (human/sex trafficking) Fiona’s dad is a crook She has no romantic attachments and no historically successful relationship At one point in the book, Fiona sleeps in a mortuary. She’s not accidentally locked in. She’s not looking for clues. She just wants to sleep next to dead people. A book like that might or might not be impressive. But is it something you’d want to read? Is that a character you’d want to return to? Based on that chilly outline, I’d have to say no. (And some publishers did say no, by the way, for that exact reason. The tone of the rejections was roughly: "Wow! We love what you've done, but we don't think readers could resonate with this theme." In other words: we're clever, insightful readers and we love your book, but we think that the unwashed rabble out there wouldn't have our excellent good sense. I don't need to tell you what I think of that attitude.) But for the future of my career, the answer absolutely had to be yes. Yes, readers had to love the book and bond to the character. Everything depended on that. One answer was humour (a tool that JK Rowling used a lot, and Stieg Larsson not at all.) But it’s an easy win. If a book makes the reader laugh, that little splash of sunshine will do a lot. Another answer, and a really important one for me, is close family relationships. For all Fiona’s mental chaos, and for all the darkness in her head, she loves her family. And they love her. Not in some American, happy-clappy, Thanksgiving TV kind of way. Just in an ordinary family way. Ordinary like this, for example: We [ie: Fiona, her mother and sister] eat ham, carrots and boiled potatoes, and watch a TV chef telling us how to bake sea bream in the Spanish fashion. Ant has homework that she wants help with, so I go upstairs with her. The homework in question takes about fifteen minutes. Ant waits for me to give her the answers, then writes what I tell her to. That snippet shows functional, happy, ordinary relationships. And when Fiona’s life is placed under stress by the events of the story, she ends up calling on her family for emotional and practical help, and the family gives it, generously, without fuss. That fictional act – placing someone at the heart of a web of loving relationships – somehow snakes outwards from the book and envelops the reader too. The family route works mostly strongly and easily, but your story may not accommodate it. (Harry Potter and Lisbeth Salander, are both in effect orphans, after all.) In such cases, you can build a kind of surrogate family. Ron and Hermione in one instance. Mikael Blomkvist and the Millennium team in the other. It’s the loving warmth thrown out by those relationships that steps in where a family would most naturally be. But I think my third answer probably runs deepest. It’s this: Chilliness in a book starts in the heart of your main character. And what matters here isn’t your character’s situation, or her achievement of love, or the existence of close ties. It’s what she wants. It’s what she strives to attain. So, yes, my Fiona had difficulty recognising her own emotions. She had never had a proper boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. She kept on making a mess of the relationship that is burgeoning under her nose. Here’s an example: The restaurant he’s [David Brydon, the prospective boyfriend] chosen is only a few minutes away … but he walks half a step ahead of me, moving a bit faster than I can manage, and he has his chest thrown out and his shoulders pulled back as though he’s a soldier bracing himself for combat. I realise that this is his way of preparing for an all-out assault on Fortress Fi, and I’m touched, though I would slightly prefer it if potential suitors didn’t regard a date with me as akin to entering combat. It’s possible that I was prickly with him in the wine bar. I sometimes am without knowing it, my habitual default position. Not good when it comes to flaunting those feminine charms. I determine to do better. And she does indeed try her very hardest to do better. It’s a clunky, awkward attempt to do better, but it’s genuine. Not just genuine, in fact. It’s heartfelt. This is someone urgently wanting human connection. Here’s an example: I smile at him when we’re sitting and tell him again that this is lovely. I even go as far as being coaxed into ordering a glass of white wine. I realise that I’m operating as though following instructions from some kind of dating manual, but I’ve found out that that’s usually OK with people. It’s only me who feels weird. From that point on, things go much better. And, as it happens, it works. She gets her man. She creates and sustains her first proper romantic relationship. But it didn’t have to. What mattered wasn’t the achievement of romantic completion, but the desire to find it. And indeed, as the series progresses, readers discovered that the path of true love never did run smooth (and certainly not when you have a series to write and an authorial income to generate.) And there it is. Great question from Nigel. Three answers: humour, family, and the desire for human connection. Because, as I say, these are opening thoughts, I’ll be interested in your reflections. Let’s all hop over to Townhouse and have a group cuddle. Till soon Harry

PS: Group cuddle-n-chat on Townhouse here. Not yet a member? Then sign up, you bonehead. Townhouse is like mulled cider for writers. Plus it’s free, it’s non-alcoholic and won’t talk to you about Brexit. Want to talk about something different? Then hit reply. PPS: Webinars? You told us what you wanted, and here’s our bone-shakingly excellent line up: Thursday 14 Nov – me, talking about Self-Publishing Thursday 21 Nov – the Mighty James Law, talking about Planning & Plotting Wednesday 27 Nov – the Magnificent Sarah Juckes, talking about How To Get Published. We’ll be live each of those evenings at 7.30pm (UK time), but we’ll have replays available for everyone, so don’t worry if you live in California / New Zealand / the wrong side of Jupiter. You don’t need to do anything at all to sign up just yet. We’ll zip you the info you need in plenty of time. Oh yes, and even if you’re definitely trad-focused, I do recommend that you take a peek at the self-pub webinar. Some of the tools pioneered by indies work almost equally well for trad authors – and they can be real career-makers or -savers. These days, that indie knowhow has become an essential component of any author’s toolkit. Oh, and our very own Sarah Juckes has just been longlisted for the Carnegie Prize. That’s only the biggest prize in kids/YA fiction … Massive well done to her. PPPS: Apparently, I should have been telling you lot about our amazing Self-edit course. But I didn’t. And it hardly matters because the upcoming course is just about sold out already. If you want to jump onto the Good Ship Self-Edit for next year, though, there are places still available. PPPPS: Also, I should probably tell you about our Amazing Bursary Scheme. So here goes: “We have an Amazing Bursary Scheme.” (Blimey, I’m good.)

Jericho Writers Belsyre Court 57 Woodstock Road Oxford, OX2 6HJ United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

Marketing for indie authors What seems to put a lot of writers off the idea of self-publishing is the need to promote your own work. How do you market a book when you’re starting from scratch? This newsletter spotlights some of the ways to go about self-promotion and begin to build a brand.

FREE STUFF: Three FREE webinars this November We’re offering all writers – whether you’re a member or not – three FREE professional webinars on writing and publishing, all leading up to an extra-special Black Friday surprise. Sign up now via the links below: 14 NOVEMBER 19.30 GMT: Your guide to self-publishing, with Harry Bingham 21 NOVEMBER 19.30 GMT: How to write a brilliant book, with James Law 27 NOVEMBER 19.30 GMT: How to find an agent and get published, with Sarah Juckes

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NEW on Jericho Writers

MASTERCLASS: How to market your work (FREE) Dave Gaughran is the king of indie publishing. Join him for this expert masterclass in marketing, filmed live at the Self-Publishing Day 2019. WATCH NOW

BLOG: How book marketing is easier than you think Self-pub self-help author Lauren Sapala shares tips from her new book on how even the most introverted of writers can promote their work. READ NOW

BURSARY: Win a FREE place on our January Self-Edit Your Novel course Closing date 13 December. Are you an under-represented or low-income writer with a finished draft of a novel? Enter to win a free place on this life-changing six-week course. FIND OUT MORE

Content corner: 5 easy ways to promote your book Here are 5 marketing tricks I’ve picked up from chatting to brilliant indie authors: 1) Collaborate. Know another author writing in your genre? Join forces to do a reciprocal promotion campaign and reach a list of new readers. 2) Get involved in discussions. Join forums on Goodreads, Twitter and other platforms, and get to know readers. Relationships often equal book sales. 3) Share snippets from the book. Try joining something like #1linewed and sharing your favourite lines from your book to get readers hooked. 4) Create a mailing list. A reader has bought and read your first book! Keep them in the loop to buy your second, by directing them towards your mailing list via a link in your eBook. 5) Write another book. Weirdly, by far the most successful marketing ploy I’ve seen. The more books you have, the more likely you are to establish a loyal following. What marketing tricks have you picked up from other writers? Share your secrets in the Townhouse. Sarah J

Cartoon

Follow us on Instagram for more of our 'The Life of a Writer' cartoon series by our very talented Stephanie!

As always, happy writing and remember, you can contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 345 459 9560* or info@jerichowriters.com for any writing-related advice. Best wishes, Sarah Juckes Author | Jericho Writers *or if you're in the US, give us a call toll free on 1-800 454 2134

Plus – don’t miss: Ultimate Novel Writing course Spring 2020 Learn everything you need to write a novel in this year-long course and have expert tutors by your side, every step of the way. Complete Novel Mentoring (Discounts available for members) Get expert help from two world-leading mentors, as you write or edit your book. The entirely flexible way to create a market-leading book. Manuscript Assessment (Discounts available for members) Our most popular editorial service matches you to your dream editor and gives you tailored feedback on your work. It doesn’t get better than that.

JOIN US

Jericho Writers Belsyre Court 57 Woodstock Road Oxford, OX2 6HJ United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

Reading for the market

A couple of weeks back, I talked about how important it was to gear your book for the market. I don’t mean – and never mean – that you shouldn’t write from a place of passion and love. You should! You should! But you need to write from a place of passion, love … and market wisdom. Now, a few of you wrote back to say, essentially, “Hey great, Harry. In that little story of yours, you told me how you sat with your agent and drank tea and ate ginger biscuits and had the market explained to you by a pro agent with thirty years’ experience of selling. What about those of us who don’t have an agent, YOU DIAMOND-ENCRUSTED NINCOMPOOP?” And, OK, that’s a fair question. I was going to answer it last week, in fact, except that I suddenly decided I needed to tell you all about the oldest texts in existence. (My reasoning for that change of tack? Absolutely none. Sorry.) Anyway, here goes: How to understand the market for your book if you don’t have an agent If you don’t have an agent, you are mostly cut off from the chatter that accompanies the sale of manuscripts to editors. Not entirely, of course, you can pick up snippets from Twitter, or from Publishers Weekly or the Bookseller. But the fact is that even publishing editors understand the market less well than agents, simply because they understand the appetites of their own firm, but don’t know what other firms are buying. Agents have those ‘What’s hot, and what’s not?’ conversations every week, and with every firm, so their feel is second to none. And when I say you need to write from love and passion, I do mean it. So let’s say you have quite a dark comedy about (I dunno) a blind woman looking for love. Then you read that the big new thing in publisher land is Up Lit, and everyone wants books that are sunny, not dark. What do you do? Simply turn your book on its head and write something wholly different from what you first intended? No. Similarly, indie authors have a lot of data-tools available to them, that purport to guide them on what books they should write. Those tools say things like, Regency Romance is saturated, but YA dystopia looks hot. And the data is probably right. But again: if writing regency romance is what you want to do, why would you jump into YA dystopia just because a stupid data tool tells you to do it? So you go with your passion, but intelligently. That means, with your blind-woman / dark comedy novel, you’re going to search out similar books. You’d think about things like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. (Yes: woman is in search for love. No: she’s not blind. Yes: she has some significant emotional challenges. Yes: the comedy engages with some quite dark subjects.) You’d think about Nathan Filer / Shock of the Fall. (Central character is a guy not a woman. But yes, plenty of comic moments. Yes, examines life from inside a disability.) You’d read Anthony Doerr All the Light We Cannot See. (No, not a comedy. Yes, directly about blindness.) And so on. As you can see from my comments, none of those novels perfectly reflect the one you want to write – which is good, not bad – but you can also see that your novel lives inside that company. You can feel the family relationships. And then? Nothing. You don’t copy. You don’t draw stupid conclusions. (‘Hmm. Anthony Doerr’s novel brought Nazis into the story about blindness, and we all know that Nazis are storytelling gold, so maybe I need to reset my story to 1942 Munich.’) Rather, you just read the novels that are in your zone. Yes, you read some classics. You read some non-fiction. (So, for example, if your book deals with blindness, you read autobiographical work by Borges, and Lusseyran, and others.) But mostly, and most importantly, you read novels that: 1. Have come out in the last 3-5 years 2. Are, broadly speaking, in your zone 3. Have done well commercially and (ideally) also critically. That’s it. Then you write the book you want to write, but you do so with your mind and imagination formed by the current state of literature. So, for example, Anthony Doerr’s heroine trains her senses by mastering complex puzzles, built for her by her locksmith father. If you used that trope, or something similar, it would feel a little flat. Over familiar. Stale. If on the other hand, you’ve imbibed that book, and loved it, your mind will likely spring to some other way of tackling that same issue. Some natural progression from Doerr’s own approach. That’s all you need. Simply supplying your mind with the right feedstock will work. So yes: a couple of weeks back, I told you how I got one of my books market-ready through a conversation with my agent. But I didn’t tell you how the Fiona Griffiths series came to be born. Then, I decided I wanted to turn to crime, but had lost touch with the modern crime market. So I went out and bought – everything. Two dozen novels, two dozen authors. All contemporary writers. Most of them big-selling. British, Irish Scandinavian, American. A wild medley of approaches. Literary and commercial. Series and one-off. First person and third person. Dark and gentle. Funny and grim. Police procedurals and everything else. And so on. Then, I didn’t use that knowledge in any mechanical way. I just absorbed it and wrote what I wanted to write. But the knowledge changed what I wanted to write. And lo and behold, I wrote the most timely book I’ve probably ever written. So I was putting the finishing touches to my first Fiona novel, when Girl with the Dragon Tattoo became huge. It was when Claire Danes (as Carrie) was storming a small screen near you with Homeland. And so on. My book wasn’t a copy of any of those things. Indeed, it had been written before I had any knowledge of them. But I was pushed by the exact same zeitgeist and ended up in (my version of) the exact same place. Result: a novel that hit the spot with readers and was sold, quickly and easily, to publishers all over the world and which was also adapted, fast and easily, for TV too. You can do the same. And quite likely, if you look at your bookshelves, you’ll find you’ve already done it. That’s all from me. I am off to remove a pumpkin from my son’s head. Till soon Harry

PS: Let’s have a damn good natter. Trot over to Townhouse and let’s talk. Absolutely no hieroglyphs. They gum up the internet, it turns out. (Not yet a member? Then sign up, you pumpkinhead. Townhouse is beautiful and Townhouse is free.) Want to talk to me about something different? Then hit reply. PPS: We’ve just made new places available for our Jericho Bursary programme. Go grab em. Details here. PPPS: You want webinars? Course you do. So, lined up for your delight and delectation, we have: Thursday 14 Nov – me, talking about Self-Publishing Thursday 21 Nov – the Mighty James Law, talking about Planning & Plotting Wednesday 27 Nov – the One and only Sarah Juckes, talking about How To Get Published We’ll be live each of those evenings at 7.30pm (UK time), but we’ll have replays available for everyone, so don’t worry if you live in California / New Zealand / the wrong side of Mars. More details before too long. PPPPS: More and more of you have been asking about mentoring – a brilliant halfway house between the formality of a course and the laser-targeting of manuscript assessment. We’re adding mentors at the moment. We’re not quite at the stage of formally announcing new names, but if you’re keen to get moving, just check out our mentoring service and contact the office for more info. PPPPPS: And on the same note, if you want to tie an (eco-friendly, hydrogen-powered) rocket to your manuscript, you won’t find a more powerful thrust than our Ultimate Novel Writing Course – so named because it’s a course about novel writing, and it’s the ultimate one of its kind.

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What stands in your way? Life. You think you have everything you need to start writing, but then something crops up and stops you putting pen to paper. It could be family, work or responsibilities. It could even be something internal that is making you procrastinate the hell out of your weekends. Whatever it is – this newsletter will help you find ways to break on through and start writing.

SAVE THE DATES: Three FREE webinars this November Remember we hinted in our last newsletter that we had something special coming up this November? We’re offering all writers – whether you’re a member or not – three FREE professional webinars on writing and publishing, all leading up to an extra-special Black Friday surprise... 14 NOVEMBER 19.30 GMT: Your guide to self-publishing, with Harry Bingham 21 NOVEMBER 19.30 GMT: How to write a brilliant book, with James Law 27 NOVEMBER 19.30 GMT: How to find an agent and get published, with Sarah Juckes

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FEATURE: Opening Keynote with Ruth Ware (FREE for members) Watch the inspirational opening keynote from the Festival of Writing 2019 from international bestselling author, Ruth Ware. Ruth’s had her fair share of obstacles in her path to publication and shares how she managed to work around them. WATCH NOW

BLOG: My path to publication, by Helen Linley Read how Helen got a publishing deal with Harper Collins, despite almost a decade of setbacks and – with no literary agent! READ NOW

EDITORIAL: Welcome Tanya Byrne! We're so pleased to welcome award-winning YA author Tanya Byrne to our list of editors. If you’re in need of a top-notch Manuscript Assessment, Tanya could very well be your one! FIND OUT MORE

Content corner: What to do when life gets in the way of writing Life happens. And when it does, writing time is usually the first to be axed. Here are three ways you can keep writing, even when plans change. 1: Get up early, or stay up late. When dayjobs get tough, it’s difficult to find time to get words going. Try getting up an hour earlier than you need and sitting in a coffee shop close to your office – even if just for a few days a week. 2: Change the way you view your writing. If you want to be a professional writer – get professional about it. If your social life is threatening to absorb your writing time, then think of writing like a job. Would you book in annual leave, just to go to the pub? 3: Give yourself a break. Sometimes, life throws us a curveball and we need to take some time to reset. If this happens – don't pressure yourself. It’s okay to take some time away. There are lots of ways you can remain creative without needing to sit at a desk and write. Try reading, crafting or exercising instead, and give your writing brain chance to reboot. What do you do when life gets in the way of writing? Share your experiences in the Townhouse. Sarah J

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As always, happy writing and remember, you can contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 345 459 9560* or info@jerichowriters.com for any writing-related advice. Best wishes, Sarah Juckes Author | Jericho Writers *or if you're in the US, give us a call toll free on 1-800 454 2134

Plus – don’t miss: Ultimate Novel Writing course Spring 2020 New dates for Spring 2020 just added! Write your book alongside top tutors; attended life-changing events and get detailed feedback on your work, every step of the way. Opening section review (Discounts available for members) An editorial review of the first 20,000 words of your manuscript. Our editors read, digest and absorb your work, then they’ll tell you how to improve it. Complete Novel Mentoring (Discounts available for members) Two world-class mentors are here to give you one-to-one advice as you write or edit your novel. Join the list of success-stories.

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The oldest book in the world

This week: a jump into the past that returns us to an eerily modern place. You’ll see what I mean a little later. But first, let’s play, ‘Who’s the oldest?’ The oldest surviving book in the world is, probably, the Codex Sinaiticus. The word codex means book: that is, it calls attention to the specific physical structure, involving binding on one side only of a set of loose leaves. The ‘Sinaiticus’ bit just refers to the book’s location, in the Sinai Peninsula. This codex is approximately square. The text is hand-written. And it’s huge. The whole thing has about four million letters. It took the hides of about 360 animals, mostly calves, to make it. The book, unsurprisingly given its age and location, is a bible. The surviving text contains an entire New Testament and most of the Old Testament as well. But in our quest for anciency, I think we need to drop our concern with the physical structure of the document. We’re looking for ancient texts, and don’t really mind if that comes in the form of animal skins sewn together, or gold sheets bound together (like the 2500-year-old Pyrgi gold tablets), or marks on stone, or impressions in clay. Thus liberated, we can leap back further. The oldest complete text written by a named individual is the Instructions of Ptahhotep, first found near Karnak in Egypt. The text itself is “only” about 36-40 centuries old, but Ptahhotep himself lived in about 2400 BC, or 44 centuries back. If you hopped onto a time machine and set it for that era, you’d hit the birth of Jesus before you were even halfway there. The text begins thus: The Governor of his City, the Vizier, Ptahhotep, said: 'O Prince, my Lord, the end of life is at hand; old age descends; feebleness comes and childishness is renewed. The old lie down in misery every day. The eyes are small; the ears are deaf. Energy is diminished, the heart has no rest … The bones are painful; good turns into evil. All taste departs. That’s quite an intro, though the text itself is disappointingly bland. (‘Quarrelling in place of friendship is a foolish thing,’ is a fair sample of the content.) But we’re not done. We said we didn’t want to get stuck on the codex as a physical structure, but nor should we get too hung up on the completeness of the text in question. What we’re after, really, is the oldest surviving text of any sort and it’s another set of ancient Egyptian advice which claims the prize: the Instructions of Shuruppak. This text is about 4600 years old, and if you thought that Ptahhotep’s words of wisdom were a bit dull, you’ll nevertheless find them a whole class above these zingers from Shurruppak: You should not locate your field in a road. You should not buy a donkey that brays. Or my favourite: You should not abuse a ewe; otherwise you will give birth to a daughter. That’s pretty much as ancient as we can get in terms of hard physical text, but I haven’t yet told you how that ancient clay tablet actually begins its list of inanities. It opens like this: In those days, in those far remote days, in those nights, in those faraway nights, in those years, in those far remote years, at that time the wise one who knew how to speak in elaborate words lived in the Land. I promised you something eerily modern, right, and there it is. What does that opening remind you of? Maybe something like this: Once upon a time, there was a king and a queen … (Grimm Brothers / Sleeping Beauty) A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away … (Star Wars, opening crawl) Listen! We of the Spear-Danes in the days of old …(Beowulf) In other words, the opening text of the world’s oldest text starts the exact same way as a modern sci-fi blockbuster, or a poem composed by a bunch of Anglo-Saxons. That sense of a time beyond our knowledge, a land where rules could be a little different. It’s like our portal into fiction. And, given that the author of, say, Beowulf certainly didn’t know about the way Shurruppak handled his intro, or the way the Grimm Brothers would handle theirs, you have to say that this isn’t about copying. It’s not a meme that went viral. What we’re looking at here is something deeply embedded in the way we tell stories. Something hardwired. I like that as a thought. Like it enough that I’d be happy to dedicate this email to that and nothing else. And in a way, that kind of opening to a story is useless to you. Novels don’t start that way. They search for the specific – something wholly exact in terms of character, time, place, situation. The deliberate murk of the ‘in those far remote days’ formula is pretty much anti-novel in style. But, but, but … I think novels do still use that sense of a story-telling portal. It’s not quite as formlised, as ritualised, but we still want to take the reader by the hand and help them to cross that threshold. We do it differently today, but that moment of transition is still jewelled, still magical. And that’s a first page, or first chapter essential right? A little tingle of magic. You want all your reader-Dorothys to say or think, ‘Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.’ Succeed in that, and you’re halfway to succeeding, period. You and Shuruppak, both. Till soon Harry

PS: Let’s have a damn good chat. Tootle over to Townhouse and let’s talk. Hieroglyphs only please! (Not yet a member? Then sign up, you poltroon. Townhouse is free and Townhouse is beautiful.) Want to talk to me about something different? Then hit reply. PPS: You want webinars? Course you do. We’ve got stuff planned that will curl your eyelashes and make the ends of your hair sizzle. Think I’m going to tell you more now? Pah. Phooey. Haven’t you heard of suspense?

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Whitna raffle wur geen and gottin wursels intae noo

My last email was about – Well, I can’t remember, because the thing that dominated your reactions afterwards was my use of y’all. In particular, I had people writing to me from Scotland, Northern Ireland & Australia telling me that I didn’t have to raid the American South to come with a perfectly good you-plural, when I could use a perfectly good Scottish/Irish/Aussie youse. And youse feels just right. I’m going to use it more often from now on. But that brings us on to the matter of which version of English we should respect as authoritative. Standard British English (SBE), because the Queen speaks it? Standard American English (SAE), because Donald Trump speaks it (kinda)? Or maybe some other kind of English, because both those Englishes have had their turn in the sun? The answer, of course, is that it’s a stupid question. No particular English is more authoritative or appropriate than another. You speak with (and write with) whatever’s right for the job at hand. Now most of you, I expect, write in SBE or SAE, and I’m sure you do that proficiently enough. But what when you have a character who doesn’t speak one of those Englishes? Perhaps that character speaks (for example) African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)? Or perhaps they’re someone who speaks English, imperfectly, as a second language? Either way, you don’t necessarily want to stuff your SAE / SBE into the mouth of that character. That might show a kind of disrespect to the character and the language they speak. (Which would be stupid, not least because those other Englishes are quite often more expressive. Did you know, for example, that AAVE has a full four versions of the past tense: I been bought it, I done buy it, I did buy it, I do buy it? Sweet, huh? AAVE has three versions of the future too.) So you’re determined to honour the status and expressive power of those other Englishes. But how? Let’s say, for example, that you have a Yorkshireman as a character in your MS. (Yorkshire is a large and self-confident county in the North of England.) Let’s say your novel is set in the London advertising world. Most of your characters don’t talk Yorkshire. This particular one – we’ll call him Geoffrey – does. You want to mark the way he speaks as being different; that’s part of what makes him who he is. It’s part of the richness of your character set. Well, we could have our Geoffrey speak like this: Ear all, see all, say nowt; Eat all, sup all, pay nowt; And if ivver tha does owt fer nowt – Allus do it fer thissen. (That’s the ‘Yorkshire motto’ and translates as: Hear all, see all, say nothing. Eat all, drink all, pay nothing. And if ever you do something for nothing – always do it for yourself.) But doesn’t that look unbelievably patronising? We have our book full of London ad-world types, then in walks Geoffrey sounding like something dragged from the rougher end of one of the Bronte novels. It would be hard to have Geoffrey speak like that on the page and not somehow create the idea that he was comical, or stupid, or boorish, or ignorant. The solution, of course, is precision. (Most things in writing are.) Take a look at that motto again. Some of the words are exactly the same as Standard British English, but just rendered phonetically – ear for hear, ivver for ever. But why do that? We don’t generally write phonetically. When I talk, I’ll seldom pronounce the last g in going, though some English speakers would. So if you were writing a character like me in a novel, would you write goin’ for going? Surely not. So rule 1 is: You don’t describe accents phonetically. Doing so just looks patronising and clumsy. But that rams you straight into the second issue, which is: what do you do when you encounter a word (like the Yorkshire nowt) that just doesn’t exist in SAE or SBE? And the answer there is equally obvious: nowt is a perfectly legitimate word. It just happens to be a Yorkshire one, not an SAE / SBE one. So rule 2 is: You include non-standard words / phrases / grammar in exactly the way that your character would use them. So we’d rewrite our Yorkshire motto as follows: Hear all, see all, say nowt; Eat all, sup all, pay nowt; And if ever tha does owt for nowt Allus do it for thissen. That removes the patronising phonetics, but honours the separateness of Yorkshire-ese by including its words and phrases in full. You haven’t lost a jot of local character. All you’ve lost is a metropolitan sneer towards non-SAE/SBE speakers. If you wanted to tone this down a bit (and I would), I’d use always for allus, and maybe yourself for thissen. I’d probably swap in you for tha, just because you want to nudge the reader about a character’s voice and accent. You don’t need to bellow. And – You can have fun. I once created a character who stemmed from the Orkney Islands, off the north Coast of Scotland. Even by Scottish standards, Orkney is remote – so much so that it spoke Norn (a version of Norse, the language of the Vikings) until a couple of hundred years ago. Since then, that Norn has softened out into Orcadian, which is a sister language to Scots, which is a sister language to English. But – It’s a strange and beautiful thing. The language is sort of comprehensible to a regular English speaker, but only just. So on the one hand, my Orcadian character (Caff) says things like this: ‘Ye’r a guid peedie lassie. Th’ wurst damn cook a’m ever seen, but a guid lassie fur a’ that.’ You might not know what peedie means (small), but the rest of it is straightforward. On the other hand, Caff also says things like this: ‘Thoo dohnt wahnt tae be skelp while turning,’ he says, as his hands show a big wave hitting the ship side-on as it turns. ‘If tha’ happens, we’ll hae oor bahookie in th’ sky in twa shakes o’ a hoor’s fud.’ And this: ‘Whitna raffle wur geen and gottin wursels intae noo, eh? A right roo o’ shite.’ I wouldn’t say that those are totally incomprehensible – roo of shite means roughly what you think it might – but you wouldn’t especially want to be tested on the detail. When writing that kind of thing, you want to dance your reader along a line of comprehension / bafflement. I reckoned that readers wouldn’t know what skelp meant, so I added half a line of explanatory text about waves hitting ships to make it clear. But whitna raffle, roo of shite, bahookie in th’ sky and the rest of it – well, I just wanted to dangle those lovely, strange phrases in front of my readers’ noses, so we could enjoy their Nordic, sea-green beauty without comment. My character’s reactions to this speech are much as yours or mine would be. She understood some of what she was being told, but not all of it. Her own ripples of confusion added a layer of enjoyment to the interactions. Oh, and if you’re sitting there quietly impressed by my mastery of Orcadian … well, I did what I could using a dictionary that I bought online. Then I sent the relevant chunks of my draft to the editor of The Orcadian newspaper, and he was kind enough to correct my text where it needed it. That’s all from me. Youse have a good weekend. Harry

PS: Want to talk about this email? Course you do. Trot over to Townhouse and let’s blether. (Not yet a member? Then get your bahookie over here to sign up.) Want to talk about something different? Then hit reply. PPS: Did you know that we have the multi award-winning author, Annabel Pitcher, in an underground silo somewhere in Berkshire. She is sitting atop a rocket containing forty cubic metres of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, and she can be launched at your manuscript in less than one hundred and fifty seconds. You can read more about Annabel here. You can read more about our rocket-fuelled mentoring service here. It’s an exceptional service and Annabel is fab. You know what you need to do. PPPS: Need an outstanding manuscript assessment service? Course you do: you’re a writer. Writers need editors, the way children need puddles, mud, sticks, stones, leaves, berries and pine cones. Editorial assessments here. Mud here. PPPS: Hate writing? Worried about being skelped? Unsubscribe from this email and do what you gotta do.

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