Novels. Novelettes. Flash fiction. Novellas. Micro fiction. Short stories. What’s the difference? Well, primarily it’s length. However…as you’re probably already aware (and tearing your hair out over), every publisher and editor has their own guidelines on lengths. Before you write for a submissions call or submit to a publisher, check to see what category you fall into, and what length that particular publisher is looking for. Here’s some rough guidelines for the lengths of each category. Micro fiction 500 words or less. There are specific categories within this, including six-word stories and 100-word stories, and a host of other names – you might have come across ‘sudden fiction’, ‘short short story’ and ‘immediate fiction’. Flash fiction 500 – 1000 words, but ‘flash’ often includes micro fiction too, so it’s usually anything below 1000 words. If in doubt, check the submission guidelines or with the publisher. Short stories Usually between 2,000 and 10,000 words. Most publishers prefer 3,000 – 8,000 words, so aiming for the 4-5k mark is pretty safe. Novelette 8000 – 20,000 words, ish. Essentially, novelettes fall into the gap between short stories and novellas. They’re a pretty new category, and you’ll likely have a hard time publishing these if you don’t already have a market. Novella 30,000 to 50,000 words, with the usual aim-for length being 40,000 words. Novellas used to be a hard sell but they’ve grown in popularity over the last five years. Novel 50,000 to 150,000 words. You can aim higher, but you’re likely to end up with a book more suited to beating someone over the head with than actually reading. If you’re hitting the 200k mark or above, consider splitting the book into two, or writing a series. Ideally, you want to aim for 80 – 100k words for a standard novel, which… read more →
Or, why the bad guy doesn’t think he’s bad. [NB. I’m using “he”, but please take this as non-gender and -species specific; Evil Masterminds of Doom can be anyone or anything, after all.] So, your villain. He wants to Take Over The World, Kill Everyone, Create An Army of The Undead, or *insert plot here*. Ok, that’s great! Gives the hero something to fight against. But he wants to do all that simply because…he’s Evil? Really? That’s it? There are no true Bad Guys If history has shown anything, it’s that the bad guys don’t think they’re bad. The only difference between The Evil Dictator Who Destroyed The World and The Benevolent Ruler Who Brought Us Peace is what stories get told and what people believe. There’s always motivations and drivers behind the worst of actions; we might judge them as insane or warped, but very few things are ever done on a whim. What’s their background? Real motivations make for exceptionally awesome villains. Yes, you can have base motives – revenge, or lust, or desire for power – but give them some background. Why do they hate big-footed dwarves so much? How did they get hold of the technology to create sharks with frickin’ lasers on their heads? Why do their minions trust them? And didn’t someone notice that Maniacal Laugh sooner? Tie into the bigger world The idea of rationality behind evil feeds into worldbuilding, too. Where’s the money coming from to buy all those Mechanised Soldiers Of Doom? Is the Super Baddy actually a good enough leader to keep hold of power once he’s gained it? What do you do to stop the Undead Hordes from getting bored once you’ve conquered wherever it is? And if you Kill All Humans, won’t it get a bit boring around… read more →
When you send a submission, different publishers ask for different things. However, it will usually be at least the first 10,000 words, which should be your first 3-5 chapters. This is what the editor will read and what they will use to decide if your book is any good, and then decide if they want to read the rest of it. And it’s not just the editor; later on, the reader will do exactly the same thing. Ever flicked through the first chapter in a bookshop or read it on Amazon? What made you want to continue and buy the book? What made you put it down and move on? It’d be your impression from the first chapter or two. Basically, the start of your book is pretty freakin’ important for giving a first impression. Have a think about the first five chapters of your book. Have a think about any critique you’ve received. And if you’ve ever uttered any of these phrases or you think they might apply to you, please take a long, hard look at your work… “It gets better later…” I can and will stop reading. If you haven’t hooked my attention in the first five chapters, then you’ve lost me. The same goes with the longer view; if you don’t grab me with the first book, why am I going to read until Book 5 of your series when the ‘real’ action starts? You need to get me interested now. “This is just the prologue…” So why are you starting here? Start with the action! Start with the story! Tell me the parts you find fascinating! When you become a millionaire best-seller you can always do a “pre-story” novel or novella or something, but for now – get to the interesting bits. “Oh, you’ve got… read more →
There’s a lot of things that can stop you writing. Sometimes it’s real life, which can’t usually be helped; if the cat decides to spill a glass of water on your laptop, that does put a crimp in your ability to type. But sometimes the show-stoppers are either in your head, or in your writing. Here’s five things that your head might be telling you, and some suggestions to overcome them. I’m not good enough. That brilliant writer that you want to be like? The one with best-selling novels? Or even just the last piece you read on Tumblr, the snippet of something on Facebook? You’re thinking that you’re not as good as them, you can’t do it, what’s the point of trying… Stop for a moment, and consider how long they’ve likely been writing. How long have they had to practise, and to hone their craft? Writing is a skill like any other; it can be learned and it can be improved. How many drafts and tears and moments of doubt has that best-selling novel gone through? How many edits and revisions? You aren’t that good. Not yet. But you won’t ever be that good unless you start practising. Try. Experiment. Play. And practise, practise, practise. Everyone’s going to hate it Ugh, the invisible audience. I think this is possibly the voice that I hate most; the feeling that whatever you do, someone is going to criticise – and it’s usually yourself! I’ve got a couple of ways round this. Write for yourself. Yell back at the voices; pretend no-one else will ever see it, that it’s only for you. Or, if you’re the most critical, write for a friend who’ll forgive the errors and just wants to read your story. Things like #2BitTues and #1LineWed on Twitter; they’re… read more →
So, for the second post on “giving your writing to the outside world“, we’re looking at how to take feedback. Feedback is one of the most important parts of writing, and one of the hardest things to find and to accept. Your work is personal; it’s your talent, your soul, that goes into something…and then to hand it over to someone else and ask them to point out the flaws? Eeek! But you can’t write in a vacuum; you need other points of view. Your work is better for having outside opinions, and your writing will improve. If nothing else, you need readers – your work is going to be read at some point! It’s better to have the comments while you’re still able to change things than after it’s been published and you see the comments on Amazon… So, some things to remember when you’re looking through feedback: Not every reader is right for you and your work Some people don’t like a certain genre or style; some people simply don’t give the kind of feedback you need; and some people unfortunately see “critique” as “criticism”, and therefore tend to be very negative. It’s ok to pick and choose who reads your work. Be specific about what you want If you only want to know about the plot, let your reader know. If you’re planning on re-writing huge sections, say. If you consider the writing finished and just want a proofread, tell them. You’ll get more out of it, and you’ll avoid frustrating your reader when they’re reading something you’ve already planning on changing, or definitely don’t want to change. They are not attacking you! They are trying to improve your work. Critique is a learning experience, and is aiming to tell you both what you’re doing well and what… read more →
For the next two posts in this series, we’re going to have a look at how the outside world reacts to your writing – and, more importantly, how you react to that. There’s two parts; this one is focusing on taking rejection, and the second will focus on how to take critique and feedback. So, you’ve written something. It’s awesome! Now you want to get it out into the world. So, you submit it to a writing competition, an agent, a publisher, an anthology… And it gets rejected. Let’s face it, this frickin’ sucks. You wrote something amazing, and they hate it? Nooooo! So what’s the best way to deal with it? Everyone gets rejected The most famous writers have stories of the piles of rejection letters they’ve received, and I suspect that every single publishing house has rejected someone who’s later gone on to be famous. You’re not alone. It’s ok to feel bad Grab some ice cream and have an evening off to wallow. You work’s awful and everyone hates it! They just didn’t understand it! You’ll never get published! And then get back up, and get on with it. Rejections suck, but even best-selling authors get them. Have a pity party, and then dust yourself off and keep going. Treat it as a learning experience Take a long, hard look at your work. Was it simply that the publisher didn’t think it fitted, or could you actually have submitted something better? What needs improvement? If they’ve given you feedback, take time to consider it. But… Don’t argue It’s really hard to fight the urge to defend your work, particularly if you’ve been given feedback, but it really doesn’t help! If your work has been rejected, there is nothing you can say that will change the reviewer’s mind. Take the… read more →
I’ll start with a disclaimer and some credentials; I’m involved in the submissions and editing process for Grimbold Books, my publisher. It’s a small indie press, which in many ways is wonderful – anyone involved get to do a bit of everything! But it’s really made me realise that when I first started submitting writing to publishers, I had absolutely no idea of the process that goes on once your writing has hit the submissions inbox. Surely they just…read it? And then publish it? Well, yes…sort of. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. So, before you do any of this, go and read 5 Questions to Ask Before Submitting a Short Story. It applies to novels, too! Stage 1: Submission Read the subs guidelines! I know they’re annoying and it’s a pain to have to format (I submit too, so I have a lot of sympathy for the never-ending task of re-formatting things) but it really does make reading easier. And on the same note, please send the amount asked. If the guidelines wants 10,000 words, a little under or over is fine…but don’t send your entire manuscript. Having a synopsis is nice; it gives us some idea of how the story unfolds. We often won’t have time to read the entire thing, so the first 30 pages and a synopsis is excellent. Tell us something about you; you don’t have to seem quirky, but just some insight into who you are is nice. However, your work will speak for itself, so if (like me) you’re fairly self-conscious when it comes to showing off, you won’t miss out by not giving a huge bio. And lastly (again) – read the guidelines! You want to make the publisher’s job as easy as possible – and that means sending what… read more →
Paul Dawson is this year’s short story competition winner with his eclectic short story Rosebud. Paul has been writing poetry and stories since he was young. Recently his reading and writing habits have been leaning towards a more literary style. He likes the idea of a story being more than just entertainment, and his interest in philosophy and classical works has broadened his outlook on what a story can be. He has had his work published in Under the Bed, Beyond Imagination and several other smaller independent magazines, including being on the shortlist for the Broken Worlds anthology released by Almond Press last year. He is currently working hard on a dystopian novel about a walled city shut off from the rest of the world, and of course nothing can keep him from writing short stories. At any one time he finds himself juggling many stories in his head, and is excited by the challenge of getting them out into the world. Emma Petfield: When did you first begin writing, and why? Paul Dawson: I was in English class in my first year of high school and we had to write a poem. I can’t remember now what the poem was about, but I felt a sense that the words and rhyme came quite easily to me, and I realised that even though I was young, I had a lot to say about the world around me, and poetry was the first medium through which I could express that. Thinking back now, I guess that was when I first found a way to channel something that was always inside of me, but I never knew how to release it before. It was at first a place to explore my own feelings, and then more recently it’s become a part of my own identity and an important part… read more →
**Spoiler Alert** “He tells her that he trusts her and she throws herself around him, enveloping him in feathers and bones.” Felix gets up, goes to work, spends his weekends drinking and dancing with his friend/ work colleague, Michael and repeats. After a traumatic childhood experience Felix is left with a dispassion for life. However his affinity for the sea is what sees him through his day-to-day routines. Featherbones is a story of childhood, guilt, grievances and sexuality. The narrative invites an array of avian metaphors, the biggest of which is revealed to Felix towards the end of the novel. Felix’s biggest demons are his subconscious feelings. He looks back on aspects of his childhood; meeting Harriet and her horrific death by drowning, his counselling sessions with his father’s friend and the constant feeling of being different. He’s haunted by dreams of his school days and as a result his mental health is unstable. One point in the novel that struck me, were his two attempts to drop his phone from his balcony. To me this symbolises two particularly low moments in Felix’s life and is almost a metaphor for his own suicide; as if watching his phone drop to its demise will solidify his need to let go. Discussion about Felix’s lack of interest in women is a common subject between him and Michael. It is not entirely prevalent in the novel until he sleeps with Angela. His regret in having done so is a powerful moment at which point his grasp on reality drops and his connection to Michael takes on a new level. It isn’t until Felix visits his hometown and leaves Southampton for the first time since graduation that he starts to let go of his past. The catharsis of being told his nightmares were normal… read more →