StoryGodmother Newsletter #9
Hello!
I hope you’ve been able to enjoy some sunshine and that your writing is going well! Having got various things under my belt (film/novel deadlines, writing festival, book launch) over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been enjoying taking my foot off the pedal a little bit. See the resources section for my thoughts on that!
EVENTS & COURSES
It was absolutely wonderful to be speaking (and learning) at the I Am In Print writing festival last weekend. And brilliant to meet many other writers.
After a bit of gallivanting around, I’m going back to running some online courses. Do follow me on Eventbrite for up-to-date announcements of new courses. Upcoming courses include (and there are a couple more in the pipeline which I will announce soon):
EDIT YOUR OPENING CHAPTER (2 wks)
Monday 5th & 12th June, 7.30pm
It is crucial to get your opening chapter as tight as possible. Just because you submit three chapters, it doesn’t mean they will all be read. As well as learning essential editing skills to make your chapter the best it can be, participants are offered 20% discount on a Story Godmother ‘opening chapter’ critique. (Suitable for chapter books, lower middle-grade and upper middle-grade).
FINDING YOUR VOICE (3 wks)
Tues 6th, Tues 20th & Tues 27th June, 7.30pm
A return of this sell-out course, helping you to find, wield and sell your writer’s voice. Your voice is crucial to making your story stand out and establish yourself as a writer, but it can be one of the hardest things to develop.
DEALING WITH DIALOGUE (tba)
I’ve been requested to run a course on dialogue, which I’m really excited about. We’ll be looking at format, characterization, different ways of speaking, genre and all kinds of things to help you create effective and exciting dialogue! I’m putting the course together at the moment, so keep an eye open on Eventbrite or on my website
WRITING CRITIQUE SERVICE
I have TWO SLOTS left in June for critiques. Various packages are available for picture book, chapter book and middle grade books. More information is here
If you would like to grab a slot, please email me at sparkles@storygodmother.co.uk
UPCOMING EVENTS
Later in the summer I’ll be speaking at the SCBWI Picture Book Retreat on 14th-17th July alongside the fabulous Jonny Duddle and really looking forward to it. Again, a big thank you to Clare Helen Welsh for inviting me along and organizing everything.
RESOURCES & IDEAS
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be adding to my online article library, which covers various aspects of writing for children.
Where Next?
I’m in an interesting position right now where I’m about to start with a blank canvas. The House At The Edge Of Magic series is drawing to a close as I’ve written a first draft of the final book. I’m just about to finish a new chapter book, so now is the time to be thinking about where I move next with my children’s fiction. If you’ve just finished a story and wondering where to go next, this might be helpful for you, too.
1) Story hangover
Firstly, it can be helpful to just stop for a bit. When we finish one project, it can be easy to dive into the next one really quickly. If you have already have a strong idea lined up, then this won’t be a problem, as you’ll have already thought it out in detail, road-tested it and you’re ready to roll. But if you’re creating a brand new idea from scratch, it can be useful to allow some distance between finishing your old story and creating your new one.
This is because sometimes you can have a ‘story hangover’, where old characters, ideas or themes still linger in your brain and interfere with new projects – especially if you have finished writing quite recently, it was a very personal or emotional story, or something which you have spent a long time working on. Unless you consciously set out to write something quite different, like a totally different genre or readership, you can find you start regurgitating characters or tropes to the point that it all starts to feel a bit familiar. Didn’t you just write that character but with a different name/species/setting? Didn’t you just create a ‘rags to riches’ story?
Although readers who enjoy your writing look forward to something of the same voice or style, they want something different which they haven’t seen from you. So giving yourself chance to breathe before writing again can be a good idea. This is the same whether we’re talking about readers of published material or gatekeeper readers (agents/publishers). If you’re struggling to jump out on the slushpile, perhaps you could stop and try something different, rather than doing just more of the same.
2) Conveyor belt
Which brings me to the conveyor belt. It can be very tempting to write and write and write and write, especially with picture books or early chapter books which can be quicker to create due to the limited word count. However, sometimes the quantity might be there, but the quality might not. If those ideas come so quickly, if they can be written so quickly one after the other, is it really your best material? Are these the stories which are the easiest to access but perhaps not quite the best version of themselves they can be?
I’m not trying to judge – sometimes they absolutely are the best version, and it’s always good to listen to instinct. Sometimes stories which arrive quickly and can be written quickly do very well indeed. But it’s just a question worth asking and being honest with yourself about the answer.
Having said that, writing prolifically can be a great way of exploring your voice and your ideas and you don’t have to wait until you think something is absolutely brilliant before you start exercising the writing muscle.
3) Recharge creatively
When you’ve finished one project and you’re ready to start looking for the next, taking a break can work wonders. This can be a good time to address your TBR pile, catch breath, relax and re-calibrate. Giving yourself chance to recharge creatively will help prepare you for the next project. How can you go bigger, deeper, bolder than you have done in your previous project? (These questions also help you with the conveyor belt problem!)
Take some time to reconnect with what matters to you – emotionally, thematically, practically. Think about ways you can push yourself out of your comfort zone and see what you find there. What different areas could you explore? What have you always wanted to tackle but perhaps felt was too big, or too difficult? If you take some time to think instead of just throwing yourself into your more go-to ideas or writing style, could you find what you need and tackle that Big Idea? Consider what resources you need. It might be reading more thoroughly around an area you’re interested in – whether that’s research into a topic or reading and analyzing more books within your chosen genre/readership.
Every story creation is different – every writing experience is different. I reckon that keeping an open mind, being flexible, and asking questions of yourself is always the best way to get the most out of yourself as a writer. If you ask yourself questions, and you’re happy with the answers, then go for it! Good luck!
END NOTES
Thanks for reading the newsletter. I hope you found it helpful. Just a little reminder that if you have read books which you enjoyed, please do remember to leave reviews for them where you can. They make a big difference to authors and are hugely appreciated.
If there’s anything you’d like covered in the newsletter in the Resources section, please do let me know at sparkles@storygodmother.co.uk and I’ll see what I can do.
Thanks very much!
Story Godmother.