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Thwackum, Squeers and Griffiths

 

Back in the day, a top author – such as Henry Fielding, who died in 1754 – would enjoy giving some of his characters names like Mr Thwackum (a savage clergyman and schoolmaster) and Squire Allworthy (a man as virtuous as his name suggests.) Charles Dickens, a century or more later, wasn’t quite as direct, but you can still hear the character suggestion come through pretty clearly in names like Ebenezer Scrooge (a miser), Uriah Heep (an unctuous sycophant), Tiny Tim (the one to generate the tears), Thomas Gradgrind (a fact-obsessed school superintendent), Wackford Squeers (a cruel headmaster), Estella (beautiful, but distant – like a star), and so on. These days, we don’t do that. The problem with those names is that they hang a huge placard round the neck of the character. “Hey, I’m Allworthy. You don’t even have to think about who I am – you don’t have to scrutinise the way I talk and act and make choices – because look at this great big placard. I’m ALL-WORTHY, right? Look how great I am.” In effect, the name compresses the space in which the character can operate – and a book without characters isn’t going to be worth all that much. Dickens’s names aren’t quite as blatant as Henry Fielding's, but the sheer improbability of a ‘Wackford Squeers’ announces the author’s intention almost as directly. The placard is smaller, but it’s still there. The modern approach therefore tends to be sadly dull, You might have a Gradgrind-y type character, let’s say, but you’d call him or her something like Mark Pettigrew or Samantha Anderson. Your ideal name is just interesting enough to remember, but just boring enough that it’s not calling attention to itself (Jabberwocky Jones or Bianca Blanco-White.) Likewise, you’ll think not just of your star players, but your team sheet as a whole. You might love the name Rhodri for a friend of your protagonist, but if you already have a Rhys, a Rob, a Rhian and a Rhydian, your reader is going to get seriously confused. The advice so far has all been very sensible, but, but, but … Isn’t there a halfway house, perhaps? Something that could add flavour without simply depriving the character of space in which to operate? And the answer, surely, is yes. The trick is to add a bayleaf or two, not the whole damn kitchen cupboard. (I learned this trick from my colleague, Sarah Juckes, by the way, then realised I’d already been doing something similar, but unconsciously.) The idea is that you choose a character’s name that refers, even in the most oblique way, to some deep-lying essence of the person. So, in Sarah’s Outside, her characters are trapped in a single, horrible room. The name Willow suggested something of the outdoors – the yearning for it, as well perhaps as the slender-but-tough whippiness of a willow stick. It’s a lovely way to encapsulate a feeling – but at the same time, the name is common enough that it doesn’t break the basic Mark Pettigrew / Samantha Anderson naming convention. What’s more, the name does make a difference. You can almost feel the energy the book gets as a result. If you doubt me, just try giving Willow the name Samantha Anderson. You’d never choose to make that switch, would you? I used to think I didn't play a lot of those games in my Welsh fiction, or at least that I did so very sparingly. In the first book, I allowed my main character, Fiona “Fi” Griffiths, to meditate on her name: Fi. That’s ‘if’ backwards. Griffiths. Nice ordinary name, but two more ‘if’s lurking at the heart of it. My name, literally, is as iffy as you can get. The only solid sound, the only one you can actually hang on to, is that opening G, and it’s not to be trusted. Elsewhere, I don’t muck around much. My other series characters are really named just to be plausibly Welsh (in most cases) and of the right approximate generation. But when I explore more closely, I do often end up with names that carry a scent. In my current (much-delayed) WIP, the doctor in charge of a secure psychiatric hospital is called Etta Gulleford. That is a striking name, of course. It commands attention, just as the woman in question is also striking and commanding. Is the name a bit disconcerting, perhaps? Hard to place? Probably, and if so, that fits with her character too. The inmate in that hospital that Fiona is most interested in also has a non-standard name, Jared Coad. Again, that’s not quite so unusual it challenges the boundaries of realism. And I mostly chose it because it was plausible and yet memorable. A two-syllable name to remember. But, thinking more about it, I think there’s more going on there too. Jared is an Old Testament biblical name. The character is a damaged warrior, but with depths of virtue. A dangerous prophet? An ancient Judaic king? Those echoes do work for the character on the page – magnificent, avenging, doomed. The splash of antiquity somehow adds a useful dimension to an otherwise very twenty-first century character. I'll quite often change characters names as I write a draft, twisting this way and that way until I have something that feels right. That feeling comes by touch and feel: I'm not at all programmatic about it. And sometimes, to be honest, the names never quite feel right. They nag at me long after publication. (Which brings me to a further tip, actually. Unless you are really sure of your choice of name, only use names where you can use the Find and Replace tool easily. That means avoiding a name like Jo, because it forms a part of too many ordinary words (jogging, banjo, and the like. If you use a name like Joely, you get the same kind of flavour but the Find and Replace tool will still work for you.) I’d really love to know how you name your characters and, in particular, how you manage to add a hint of character or depth into a name that still seems like a plausible choice for the character concerned. (And no, fantasy authors, you don’t get the day off. I want to know how you pick names too. Voldemort isn’t a name you’d give to a good guy, is it? I guess the “mort” part of that name is bringing hints of death, but I probably wouldn’t lend my wallet to someone whose name began “Volde” either. So, yep, SF and fantasy authors too: I want to know how you come up with names.) Don’t email to tell me. Share your thoughts on Townhouse. The link’s below. Til soon Harry

 

PS: Last week, it turned out that it wasn’t a restaurant critic who was eating some asparagus very slowly. It was a well-known asparagus thief, who uses a series of exotic disguises to inveigle his way into the best kitchen gardens and restaurants. His name, apparently, is Asparagus Spear. We caught him, gave him a light dusting of itching powder and threw him out into the night. Good riddance to him. The Townhouse post is here: https://community.jerichowriters.com/page/view-post?id=335 Add your characters names there and tell me why you picked what you picked. And if you want to talk to me about anything else, just hit reply. PPS: This PS is still covered in scaffolding and shrouded from view. I did manage to spy the words “Ultimate No …”, but I’m not at all sure what that denotes. A furiously rejected marriage proposal? Dr No, the musical? I think we’ll know more shortly.

 

 

 

 

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom UK: +44 (0) 345 459 9560 US: +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

 

 

How to tell the world that you’re a writer Establishing an author brand The Summer Festival of Writing is now in full-swing and we have TWO member-only events happening this week, too. There’s never been a better time to own your title as a writer! This newsletter looks at everything from author branding, all the way to how to feel confident enough to start telling yourself and other people that you ARE a writer. Having trouble with links? View this newsletter in your browser: https://community.jerichowriters.com/page/view-post?id=334

 

EVENT: It's not too late to grab your Summer Festival of Writing ticket! (Discounts for members) Join hundreds of other writers across the globe for this three-month writing extravaganza. If you grab your ticket this week, you’ll have just enough time to enter the life-changing Friday Night Live Competition (deadline 14 June!) and be able to catch up on last week’s events on replay. GET YOUR TICKET Already have a Summer Festival ticket? Don’t forget that Friday Night Live closes on 14 June! Enter the first 500 words of your manuscript for the chance to win a Manuscript Assessment, a 30-minute one-to-one with an agent and eternal glory. Summer Festival of Writing ticket-holders only. ENTER NOW

 

 

This week on Jericho Writers:

 

EVENTS: Two member-only events happening this week Join Lisa Montanaro TODAY for an overview of author-branding in Personal and Professional Branding. We also have an event on Writing Your Non-Fiction Proposal with Anniki Somerville on 14th June. REGISTER NOW

 

ONE-TO-ONES: Book a call with a literary agent (10% member discount) One-to-one calls with literary agents and book doctors available through summer! Just choose your expert and book a time to suit you. We recommend acting quick for these though – they're such a brilliant opportunity that they do sell out fast! FIND OUT MORE

 

SUMMER FESTIVAL: Events happening this week (Ticket-holders only) Join Cesca Major for Write Your Book in An Hour tomorrow; Ask Two Top Agents Anything (UK & USA) with Laura Williams and Sonali Chanchani on 11 June; and discover The Art of Travel Writing with Monisha Rajesh on 12 June. GET YOUR TICKET

 

 

 

 

How to tell the world that you’re a writer I wrote for a good six years before I called myself a writer. If people asked me, I’d tell them that I wrote stories and had written a book once but would laugh it off as a non-serious hobby. Even though secretly, I always had serious dreams about an eventual writing career. Chatting to other writers, it seems like I’m not alone in this. Something about saying ‘I am a writer’ sounds big. Like to be a ‘real’ writer you have to have some sort of qualification – like a publishing deal, or maybe just be better than you think you are. This is imposter syndrome at its finest. The truth is that you are a writer if you write. You are a writer if you write short stories for your local writing group, in the same way that you are a writer if you’re an international bestseller. If you’re reading this – chances are that you are a writer. At some point, we need to own that. And once we do, things start changing. We start to feel more confident about our abilities and more positive about our future careers. We also might start introducing ourselves as writers to our new neighbours, or filling the ‘occupation’ box on a form with ‘writer’ (always an exciting moment). It all starts by simply believing it yourself. Owning your ‘writer’ title can start today! Join the Townhouse for free and try it on for size among friends, here.

 

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. Sarah J Author | Jericho Writers *or if you're in the US, give us a call on +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

Plus, don’t miss: Discount on Summer Festival books with Fox Lane We’ve teamed up with the brilliant indie bookseller Fox Lane Books, who are holding all books featured in the Summer Festival this year. What’s more, the first twenty people to use the code 'SFOWJUN' at the checkout get a 15% discount on their entire basket. Manuscript Assessment (10% discount available) Our most popular editorial service matches you to your dream editor and gives you tailored feedback on your work. Agent one-to-one sessions (10% discount available) Bag yourself a fifteen-minute call with an agent or a book doctor to talk exclusively about your work. Now booking throughout the Summer Festival of Writing.

 

 

 

 

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom UK: +44 (0) 345 459 9560 US: +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

 

The loon and the prison guard

 

Last week, I totally forgot about my Friday email until the deadline was starting to loom in a scarily loomy way. (Overhanging by 5 or 10 degrees, and offering thin holds on sketchy protection – that kind of loomy.) So I dashed out an email that had a single thought at the heart of it. This one: Creative writers and, really, creators of almost any sort, are often asked to perform their best work without any kind of support. That email then turned into a kind of mission statement. Very roughly: “we can’t alter the basic difficulty of your situation, but we can and will be as supportive as we can.” There wasn’t really any practical, actionable advice in the email. When we sent it out, it felt like some underweight homework rushed out to meet a deadline. But you lot told me otherwise. I always get plenty of responses to these emails, but last week I got double the normal volume. The general gist of those answers was summed up in one email that said my message felt like a hug - necessary and comforting. And, good: consider yourself e-hugged (in a way that respects your personal boundaries and all pandemic-regulation protocols in your country of residence.) But it struck me, as I read your replies, that there are two phases to our acts of creation and each phase makes a different demand. First, there’s a purely creative phase, one that’s all about production. This is where we dream up the idea of the story. It’s where we nudge and tweak that (still theoretical) story into shape. It’s where we write our opening chapters (in a rush), our middle chapters (slowly and in pain), our ending chapters (with relief.) The end of this creative phase is marked by the delivery of a complete manuscript, starting on page 1 and running all the way through to the beautiful words, “THE END”. For that birthing process, I strongly recommend an attitude of slightly crazed positivity. And I do mean crazed. It’s not enough to think, “Oh, sure, I think this novel will probably be good enough to be looked at with some interest by a literary agent.” In my experience, you need to be ludicrously positive. You need to be dreaming of that multi-publisher auction, your book piled high in supermarkets, your name on bestseller lists, foreign rights deals flooding in. Whatever works for you. You don’t have to be reasonable. Just give yourself whatever drug gets you through. You’ve got a daydream about being invited onto Oprah? Or getting a call from a certain Stockholm-based prize committee? Then good. Dream away. Those hopes may well be unrealistic. After all, the brutal statistics say, you aren’t likely to be published. If you are, the outcome – critical and commercial – may not be all that astonishing. But those true and reasonable facts are hardly likely to sustain you through months of creative endeavour, hard labour, and false paths. So leave realism aside. For the creative phase, be as unreasonable as you want. Give yourself whatever dreams you need to inspire you. And remember this dictum of Jane Smiley’s: “Every first draft is perfect because all the first draft has to do is exist." She’s right. Block out the negative. Dream your dreams. And write. But then comes the second phase, the editorial one. For most first-time novelists, I’d say completion of the first draft marks – very roughly – your halfway point in the whole creative process. The editorial process is likely to take as long, or maybe longer than, the writing phase. It’s equally critical. I’ve never once seen a first draft manuscript that was in good enough shape to find a publisher. My own first draft manuscripts (which I edit heavily as I go) would not be ones I’d be happy to send out. And now you need to switch from the forgiving/dreamy/inspirational you to the pedantic/critical/perfectionist one. You need to transform from loon to prison officer. Everything you have just written is up for review. Everything. Your basic idea for the novel. Is that sharp enough? Attractive enough? Fresh enough? Does it infuse the entire book? Is it saleable? Your basic plot arc. Is it clear? Does it compel the attention? Does the ending satisfy? Does the basic plot machinery work? And does your main character engage the reader? And do your settings exist and have atmosphere? And what about your secondary characters? And was your first person / third person choice correct? And do you have the right number of viewpoints in play? Oh yes, and does this sentence really need all ten words, or could you say the same thing just as well in eight? For this phase, in my experience, you more or less have to drop the Oprah daydreams. Forgiving optimism isn’t the right spirit to bring to the task of constant fault-finding and error-correction. Quite the contrary. In that first phase, you needed to praise yourself as the word counter ticked slowly up. Now you need to do the reverse. “Yay! I deleted 3,000 words today. Well done, me.” In the first phase, you needed to think, “Yes! You know what? My Best Friend character really is funny, quirky and a delight on the page.” Now you need to ask, “Is that actually funny? Or is it just lame? Would the balance of this scene feel better if I just cut the banter?” This process, always, is trial and error. You try one thing and see if it feels better. If not, you try another and another till you find something that pleases you. A solid grounding in writing craft will unquestionably support this process – you’ll work more efficiently and produce a better outcome. But every editorial decision still comes down to a question of which sounds better to you, X or Y? Perhaps you settle on Y, and complete this new draft, then come back to the same place during a new round of editing, and you’ll find yourself asking “Y or Z? Or was I wrong to abandon X? Now that I’ve changed the Auntie Prue death scene, maybe I’d do better to stick with X here?” The process only ends when you read the manuscript and think that, yes, you like what’s written there. You can’t find a way to improve it. Emotionally speaking (and in my experience, at least), the thing that sustains you through the editorial phase isn’t wild-eyed optimism, it’s a sense of relief. You knew the first draft was problematic – of course you did. That’s why you had to keep telling yourself good-fortune fables to keep your spirits up. Now, with the editing, you can start addressing problems, and you feel the book starting to lift. For me, that experience is of finding a faster, lighter, more purposeful book emerging from the manuscript I started with. It’s almost like you are pulling heavy, sea-going timbers from a boat, to find a sleek fibreglass hull underneath. That’s what allows you to be a brutal critic of your own work: you can see that the criticism leads to a better reading experience. You actually see it happening in front of you. I don’t want to pretend that these observations are universal. They may not be. In the end, you need to arrange your emotional landscape in whatever way best suits you and your life and your project. If wild optimism is what keeps you going though that editorial phase, then please – be my wildly optimistic guest. If you like to edit your book as you write (and I do), then by all means bring something of the prison guard to your writing phase as well as your purely editorial one. But forgive yourself. Find the process that works for you, and permit it. There isn’t a right or wrong as regards process. There’s only a good or bad in terms of the final manuscript. If you can navigate your little craft to the Harbour of Good Writing, then North Pole / South Pole / Panama Canal? Just take whatever route works for you. Happy sailing, happy writing. Till soon Harry

 

PS: We have a restaurant critic currently eating in the main dining room at Townhouse. It has taken him half an hour to eat a baked egg and he is currently analysing an asparagus spear using a magnifying glass and a collection of scalpels. Our chef is fretting, loudly, in Breton. https://community.jerichowriters.com/page/view-post?id=332 If you want to chat about the topic of this email, then boogie over to Townhouse, waving some asparagus. If you want to talk about anything else, then drop me an email, enclosing a spring vegetable of your choice. PPS: This PS is currently covered in scaffolding and covered over with that coloured mesh that mostly blocks the view from outside. But I did take a peek while the scaffolding was going up and I noticed the letters “UNWC” along with a message that may have said “coming soon”. I wouldn’t read too much into that, though. Maybe those initials stand for “United Nations Welcoming Committee” and perhaps the message in full reads, “Welcoming Soon Yong, the UN’s High Representative for Cosmetic Orthodontistry.” I’ll tell you when I know more. And orthodontists? High time we showed them more respect. PPPS: Does your manuscript need yet more attention? Fear not, for our coveted one-to-one sessions are running, as usual, throughout the Summer Festival. Peruse our selection of literary agents and book doctors available in June, July and August here.

 

 

 

 

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom UK: +44 (0) 345 459 9560 US: +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

 

We've been gearing up for the start of the Summer Festival of Writing, but don't worry - there are still plenty of member-exclusive events to get stuck into this June. Whether you're getting serious about your non-fiction proposal or simply baffled by how to write good sex in literature, you won't be short of directions to take your writing in.

 

SEE ALL UPCOMING EVENTS

 

 

Member events coming up in May:

 

Interactive Short Fiction Workshop with Miriam Sautin Saturday 5 June, 19:00 BST / 14:00 EDT Get creative with a series of exercises that will get your writing muscles flexing. Find out how short fiction can break a bad case of writer’s block, crack character motivation and learn to write with care and intention. Hosted by a former member of Jericho Writers’ Writer Support team, Miriam Sautin.

 

Personal & Professional Branding with Lisa Montanaro Tuesday 8 June, 19.00 BST/ 14.00 EDT It’s time to identify and write your author brand story, including who you are, why you write, and what you write. Through exercises and examples, discover how to effectively showcase your Brand Strands — visual, auditory, print, and online — to best position yourself for a successful future writing career.

 

Writing Your Non-Fiction Proposal with Anniki Somerville Monday June 14, 19.00 BST/ 14.00 EDT Learn how to ensure your non-fiction idea stands out from the crowd and how to create an impactful non-fiction book pitch including synopsis, and chapter headings. We’ll also talk about how to get over imposter syndrome and the inner critic who will often stand in the way of you progressing your idea forward.

 

Writing Good Sex in Fiction with Holly Dawson Tuesday 22 June, 19.00 BST/ 14.00 EDT Using a range of contemporary and historical examples, we will explore the most effective ways to make your manuscript bristle with carnality, from the vocabulary you use to what point it serves in your book. Harness the senses, carefully select your imagery, use scenes to show plot and character – and learn what to avoid.

 

 

REGISTER FOR THESE EVENTS

 

 

We can't wait to see you at the events this month! Follow us on social media (links below) for event reminders closer to the time. Don’t worry if you miss a session as you can watch back on replay at any time. As always, we're available to contact at info@jerichowriters.com. See you soon! The Jericho Writers Team

 

 

 

 

 

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Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom UK: +44 (0) 345 459 9560 US: +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

 

A song from the tightrope

 

A short email from me today, with a single thought in it. Here it is: Creative writers and, really, creators of almost any sort, are often asked to perform their best work without any kind of support. No financial support: you have to write and edit and perfect an entire damn novel before you get to find out whether anyone wants it or has a use for it. For most us, that’s like asking us to do one year’s worth of work before finding out if we’re going to get paid anything at all. No institutional support: you’ll be doing your work alone. There’s no big surrounding environment to say, “Yes, we’ve asked you to do this difficult thing, but don’t worry, there are career structures for people like you, here is a team which is made up of people like you, and here’s a canteen that offers cheap lattes because we know you like them.” No tech or knowhow support: If you’re self-publishing, there are quite a few tech dashboards to deal with. If you’re not, you still have to grapple with the intricacies of agent-hunting, which involves a certain knowhow, a knowledge of what to do and how to do it. Either way, there’s a whole lot of technical knowledge which you don’t have, and other people do, and which you will need to master in order to succeed. And often the support of our loved ones is passive rather than active. “Oh, Joan? Yeah, she loves writing. She’s upstairs now tapping away. I think it’s something about orcs this time? Or is it medieval sailors? Or something to do with tsetse flies? Anyway, yeah, I’m sure it’s great.” I don’t want to knock that kind of support, because that’s necessary too, but there’s a big gap between that and the sort that really sees your project and understands and endorses your passion for it. And – jeepers. That’s a big ask, right? In any well-run office, we recognise the need to bring new members of staff onto the team with care. An introduction to the job, to the team, to the tech, to the staff parties and the in-jokes and all the rest of it. Mess that stuff up and you very likely won’t get the best from that newbie – and the newbie, very likely, will be wondering whether to look around for a different job. At one level, that basic isolation doesn’t change. I’m playing around on a new project at the moment – very literary, very quirky – and it’s completely unclear whether anyone at all will want to buy it. So am I writing for myself or an audience? For free or for pay? I don’t know. The process of finding out is still months away. And in the end, Jericho Writers can’t solve that problem for you. No one can. The essence of it is hard-wired into our industry. But we will do what we can. We ask our Writer Support people to be friends and guides first. We ask them to be absolutely honest with anyone who rings up or emails in. We set them absolutely no sales targets. They aren’t there to sell; they’re there to help. We also want to enrich our community – and will have a lot more to share later this year. Membership of that community will remain free to all. I know that plenty of writers have come to depend deeply on friendships and relationships first formed in that community. And then there’s the matter of ethos too. Of course, we aim to work with professional editors, and professional tutors, and so on. We demand a high standard of work and are constantly monitoring it. But do our editor-tutor-mentors just deliver the work and move on? Or do they actually care? Are they invested in the work and the people whose work they nourish? In the end, we don’t ask for mere professionalism. We also want to work with people of genuine passion. So that’s the thought. This writing game of ours is tough. It’s isolated. It’s probably doubly hard in the context of a global pandemic. Plenty of people have struggled. We can’t change that basic struggle. Writing is tough because it’s competitive and difficult. It’s tough making the Olympics too - and for essentially the same reason. But we can recognise the challenge. And many of us know what it’s like from our own experience. We’re on your side. Till soon Harry

 

PS: Here’s the same thing on Townhouse: https://community.jerichowriters.com/page/view-post?id=330 If you want to talk about anything else, just yodel loud enough. PPS: Summer Festival tickets have sold like hot yellowcakes at Uranium Park. The event starts next week, on Tuesday 1st. The events last year were just fantastic: the ultimate Pandemic Buster. We learned a lot about what people did and didn’t like, and have incorporated those insights into this year’s line-up. We cover everything from writing craft to getting published and self-publishing and marketing. It’ll be a feast and we’d love to see you there. More information right here.

 

 

 

 

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom UK: +44 (0) 345 459 9560 US: +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

 

 

This newsletter contains 17 writing prompts 17 new story ideas to help you put pen to paper this week Whether you’re in the market for a new book idea, or just want to play with some flash fiction – this newsletter contains seventeen prompts to spark new ideas. Do share anything you write from these when finished, we’d love to read them! Having trouble with links? View this newsletter in your browser: https://community.jerichowriters.com/page/view-post?id=325

 

EVENT: Last chance to get your ticket to The Summer Festival of Writing Gain exclusive access to 35+ online events with some of the biggest and best writing tutors around the world. This festival runs from 1 June to August – don't miss out! GET YOUR TICKET

 

 

This week on Jericho Writers:

 

WEBINAR: New ideas hour 28 May. This fun, interactive session will give you timed creative writing prompts in the hope of sparking a new idea. Bring a pen and paper to this one! REGISTER NOW

 

FEEDBACK: New one-to-one slots just released! Choose from 45 agents and two indie presses for a personal one-to-one call to discuss your work. These slots are guaranteed to sell out fast, so snap yours up quick! You don’t have to be a Summer Festival ticket holder to book. BOOK NOW

 

COURSES: Last chance to register for June’s tutored courses Only a couple of places are now remaining for Creative Writing 101, and Writing for Children. Last call for course start dates 1 June / 4 June with only a couple of places remaining. FIND OUT MORE

 

WEBINARS: Register for June Member events We have four events running alongside the Summer Festival that are exclusive to members: from writing your non-fiction proposal to writing good sex in fiction, there's plenty to get stuck into in June. REGISTER NOW

 

 

 

 

17 writing prompts to try this week First line: “The first time it happened, I was sitting under the table.” A couple are on their honeymoon in a quiet seaside town. Write about what happens when they begin to have the same nightmares every night. Write a character looking in the mirror in first, second and third person. Describe something that has been left out in the rain. Title: Singing Bones. Find the last text you sent. Include this in a story. Character: An 80-year-old man who wishes he could fly. You’re walking alone when you find an injured animal. What happens next? Find the last book you read. Use the last line as the first line of your next story. Setting: An abandoned funfair. You accidentally send an email to the wrong person. What happens next? Theme: The truth will set you free. Twist expectations and write a happy scene in a sinister place, and a sinister scene in a traditional happy place. Write mystery where the main suspect isn’t human. A compulsive liar meets someone who vows only to tell the truth. Write their first conversation. Find the last song you listened to. Use that title as the title to your next story. Write a story with the last line: “He disappeared with the snow”. Have you written something from one of these prompts? Sign up for free and share your writing or own prompts in the Community here.

 

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. Sarah J Author | Jericho Writers *or if you're in the US, give us a call on +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

Plus, don’t miss: Manuscript Assessment (discounts available) Our most popular editorial service matches you to your dream editor and gives you tailored feedback on your work. Agent one-to-one sessions (10% discount available) Bag yourself a fifteen-minute call with an agent or a book doctor to talk exclusively about your work. Now booking through the Summer Festival. Agent Submission Pack assessment (10% discount available) Getting rejected without feedback? Our expert editors can give you advice on your entire submission package to help you pinpoint what’s not working.

 

 

 

 

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom UK: +44 (0) 345 459 9560 US: +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

 

Dancing with Plain Jane

 

I once wrote a book – The Lieutenant’s Lover – which was a historical novel set mostly in the St Petersburg of 1917 and then, after a long gap, in 1945/46 Berlin. (The book was my first and only proper romance, though it had big elements of historical adventure too. The heroine was forty-something by the time of the Berlin chapters. She was also a sergeant in the Red Army and had just experienced a pretty bruising thirty years. The cover designer chose to represent her as an extremely elegant young woman, with immaculate make-up and a jauntily fashionable chapeau. I don’t think he knew a lot about the Red Army.) (Oh, and look, am I allowed two parentheses, even right at the start of an email? Yes? No? Yes. OK, so I also want to tell you that my German publisher liked the book but said that it was a bit different from my earlier fiction, which hadn’t had been primarily romance. So they asked, could I please adopt a penname for the work? I said yes. My full name is, as it happens, Thomas Henry Bingham, so I suggested that Tom Henry might work fine. They said OK, but they were thinking a woman’s name might be better …? I quite liked that idea, and was going to publish under the name Emma Makepeace, which I still think is a GENIUS name. Unfortunately, something happened to foul up the deal and that book was never published in German. I still have the petticoats though, just in case.) Anyway, the point of this email is neither cover design, nor pennames. I want to talk research. In this case, my research had to do with two well-studied historical periods, but really any kind of fiction might call for research. If you’re writing a psychological thriller where one character works in an advertising office, you need to know how advertising offices work. If there’s a bit of ocean-sailing adventure, you need to be able to tell port from starboard. Even if your work is totally speculative – full of androids working uranium mines on prison planets – you need to know something about uranium and the technology behind those androids and have a working model of the gravity / atmosphere / geology of your planet. To do that research, you’ll naturally hit Wikipedia and you’ll pick up some books. In my case, I learned a lot about the very interesting politics of Germany’s post-war occupation. The Western allies took very different approaches to the management of their sectors. The Soviets had, from the start, no intention of anything other than a complete takeover of theirs. I like my history and I gobbled up plenty of textbooks and learned loads. But there’s a huge difference between regular history and the stuff that’s of interest to a novelist. So yes, you need to know the broader political history of a time. (Or a bit of formal geology, if you’re researching uranium mines. Or a bit of marketing theory if you’re researching ad agencies.) But ultimately you are in search of detail. So take my characters in 1946 Berlin. I knew a lot about the politics. I knew a lot about reconstruction of the city. The teams of women chipping mortar off fallen bricks so the things could be reused. I had some curious little family details. (My wife’s grandparents were German/Poles who ended up in Munich at the end of the war and lived in a refugee camp for years.) But none of that answered my questions. What did characters eat? What did they cook on? What occupation-bureaucracy did they have to deal with? With paper money almost worthless, what did they barter with? The best answers to those questions didn’t come from formal history books, but from ordinary diaries and memoirs. It didn’t even matter if those memoirs were badly written. They just needed to be chatty, discursive, full of detail. Those details are the ones to pounce on. Same thing with uranium mines. It’s all very well to read things in Wikipedia like this: “In conventional mining, ores are processed by grinding the ore materials to a uniform particle size and then treating the ore to extract the uranium by chemical leaching.” Good. You need to know that. But that doesn’t get us close to the felt experience of being a uranium miner. Uranium is radioactive. Humans need sheltering from the exposure. Open-cast uranium mining is therefore mostly done by miners operating inside sealed cabs in order to prevent them breathing in radioactive dust. But what happens when the sun shines on one of those cabs? Do they get hot? Are they air-conditioned? Does the driver even have the ability to open a window? What are the washdown procedures after work? What happens if you have a mechanical breakdown and have to leave the cab? Answering those questions will get your fictional miner ever closer to a believable character with a believable set of experiences. And you’re not just looking for details. You’re hunting for words. With uranium, it’s words like yellowcake, roll-front deposits, Geiger counter, shear zone, gamma ray spectrometer, heap leach, contamination, haul truck, primary crusher, and so on. With a vocabulary like that, you can already feel the credibility of the story beginning to build. Another trick: have your characters toss those words off as though they’re ordinary, not needing more explanation. It doesn’t really matter whether your reader completely understands the nature of yellowcake or knows how a primary crusher operates. If your characters use those terms with the fluency of the very familiar, your entire setting gains in authority. You’ll actually get more colour and credibility that way than if you burrow into a detailed description of the crusher. (Unless it matters of course. If you’re about to drop an aggressive robot into a primary crusher, then yes please, tell us about it.) And accuracy? Well, look, I’m an imagination-first kind of guy. If I’m considering whether or not to read a novel, the recommendation that “it’s very accurate on the topic of post-war Berlin / modern ad agencies / uranium mining,” is likely to make my heart sink. In the end, I think Imagination needs to dominate poor old Fact, the plain Jane of that sisterly pairing. But the more you know, the more your imagination can leap. Very often, you’ll find yourself holding back from a sentence you might want to write because you don’t quite know the factual detail needed to support it. So accumulate the facts, then leave them behind. Or, if the facts are wonderful, place them front and centre. I once wrote a book about the 1920s/30s oil industry. There were two or three major oil strikes described in that book and they were all closely based on the actual facts of what happened. And often fact just trumps anything that you might have dreamed up. A tiny example: in my research for the oil book, I read about a driller who fell out of the derrick onto the roof of the pumping shed and from there to the ground. He broke multiple bones but, while he was waiting for medical help, he said to his co-workers, ‘Well, ain’t you going to find a cigarette for this broken-assed son-of-a-bitch?’ That’s such beautiful colour, you can’t help but want to use it. Even Plain Jane has her moments in the sun. Grab em. Use em. Have fun with them. Till soon Emma

 

PS: Vowels are all fine at Townhouse but dammit someone has run off with all our punctuation Someone hunt them down and stab them with a comma You can read and comment on this post online here If you hop over there now you can see how my cover designer envisaged a forty-something sergeant in the Red Army If you want to talk to me about anything else or even if you just have a semicolon or two to spare then reply please PPS: Going, going, almost gone. We have a few last places on our upcoming courses: Writing for Children, Creative Writing 1.01 and Creative Non-Fiction. They’re held online in the company of an experienced tutor and a bunch of like-minded students. If you want to come, we’d love to have you. All you need to know is here. PPPS: I have some spare yellowcake if anyone wants a slice. Good news is that it’s going free and has a lovely ginger-caramel frosting. Bad news is that it’ll burn a hole in your throat and then your stomach will fall out. PPPPS: Hate writing? Just fallen out of an oil derrick having been stabbed in the chest by a comma? Then unsubscribe, old buddy, and get yourself tended to.

 

 

 

 

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom UK: +44 (0) 345 459 9560 US: +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

 

 

How to plan a new story Beating the blank-page blues Starting a new story is the most exciting and most daunting part of the writing process. Fortunately, this week we have tips on how to plan and start a new writing project and beat those blank-page blues. Having trouble with links? View this newsletter in your browser: https://community.jerichowriters.com/page/view-post?id=323

 

EVENT: The Summer Festival of Writing starts in just TWO weeks! Only two weeks left to bag yourself a seat for one of the biggest online writing festivals in the world. Connect with amazing tutors, meet like-minded people and kick-start your writing. Half-price tickets for members – don't miss out. GET YOUR TICKET

 

 

This week on Jericho Writers:

 

WEBINAR: Planning your next book with Sarah Rose Etter TODAY. In this one-hour intensive seminar, we’ll look at how to begin your novel and the tools, tips, and techniques that will help you make sure you are writing your way to completion – instead of spinning in circles. REGISTER NOW

 

WEBINAR: Starting a new short story with Jacob Ross 24 May. Jacob Ross will take you through (with sample texts from some of the best practitioners of the craft) useful and practical approaches to lift your short stories to another level. REGISTER NOW

 

COURSES: New tutored courses now open for booking Grab the remaining places on Creative Writing 101, Writing for Children and Creative Non-Fiction tutored courses. Choose your genre and learn alongside an expert tutor and an intimate class of writers. FIND OUT MORE

 

 

 

 

One way to start a new story One of the biggest joys of teaching writing is discovering the differences and quirks we all have when it comes to our processes. Some writers will happily discover their own way of doing things, and some will find it useful to learn how other writers struggle through problems. With that in mind, there’s no one way to start a new story. But here's a method to beat the blank page. 1: Write down the parts of the story you do know, so you don’t forget. This might be a character, a setting or just a kernel of a theme for now. Keep it safe. 2: Research. Explore real stories surrounding your idea. TED Talks are my favourite for this and they can help turn that kernel into an idea. Sometimes, I like to ‘chew’ this around my brain for months before writing. 3: Develop your characters. I find my plot comes from character, so I’ll spend time first getting to know them. There are lots of fun ways to do this. 4: Write a synopsis. If you’re writing a short story, you might want to just do this in a couple of bullet points, but I like to write my entire book on a page these days, before I even start writing. 5: Find the voice. If you don’t know how to start your story yet, start with a scene you have more of a feel for and think about how best to tell it. First person present? Third person past? 6: Start. The only way to beat a blank page is to fill it. Don’t worry if there all just filler words for now – let yourself get into the groove of the story and then you can always come back and change things later. How do you plan and start a new story? Sign up for free and share your tips and quirks in the Community here.

 

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. Sarah J Author | Jericho Writers *or if you're in the US, give us a call on +1 (646)-974-9060

 

 

Plus, don’t miss: Receive a fully-funded place on the ‘Self-Edit Your Novel’ tutored course DEADLINE 21 MAY. As always – we're offering one fully-funded spot on this life-changing course to a deserving under-represented, or low-income writer. Simply apply with your work-in-progress. Summer Festival of Writing Bursary DEADLINE 23 May. We’re giving 30 under-represented writers a free ticket to the Summer Festival of Writing. It’s super easy to apply – just make sure you do before 23 May. Friday Night Live DEADLINE 14 JUNE. All Summer Festival ticket holders are eligible to submit one piece of writing to Friday Night Live. This is a brilliant opportunity to get your work noticed by an expert panel of judges, and maybe even win some prizes. If you have your ticket, send us the first 500 words of your manuscript via the link below. Ticket holders, head here for more information. Get your Summer Festival of Writing ticket here.

 

 

 

 

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom UK: +44 (0) 345 459 9560 US: +1 (646)-974-9060