Top tips for budding writers
Prizewinning writer Stephanie Spiers is our guest writer in this issue of Voice.
Stephanie is a former professional journalist who now dedicates her time to her own writing and her busy job working with writers in her
home area.
Stephanie’s poem about her home village of Rising Brook in Stafford has just won her £1,000 in the United Press free national competition.
“I was absolutely stunned when I was told I had won the competition,” said a delighted Stephanie. “This is the first major competition I’ve
ever entered and I’m really delighted that I decided to send in my poem. I’m probably going to use my prize to help finance the launch of
a novel I’ve written.”
Stephanie is a trustee of Rising Brook Writers.
“We visit senior citizens groups to bring the joys of creative writing to them,” explained Stephanie. “The venture, which is supported by
lottery funding, has great benefits for the mental health of the elderly.”
How an over 50’s writers’ group became a publisher
Writing alone is a lonely road to travel. It is well recognised that those wannabe writers who go it alone with no feedback from an
informed peer group seldom progress, or improve the standard of their material.
Beginners who rely on family and friends for feedback are often either over, or under, praised by those with other agendas and no writing
experience. Not so in the supportive atmosphere of a writers’ circle, where objective feedback can be found, and by noting to the styles
and mistakes of others, the standard of work usually rises in leaps and bounds.
Writers groups have different objectives. Some are perfectly happy to share their work amongst themselves and continue only with their own
project material. Other groups are more pro-active and may publish anthologies of poetry or short stories. This often involves raising funds.
Rising Brook Writers in Stafford is one of the latter. Set up in 2005 it was formed by a group of mature students who met on a Keele
University creative writing course. The ambitious founders soon grew tired of sitting round a table in the branch library. In 2006 they
wrote, designed and published their first anthology ‘Tales From the Gaiety’ a homage to British Music Hall – became a registered charitable
trust – and carried out 40 creative writing workshops which then began touring the county’s organisations for the elderly. Seeing a unique
opportunity the charitable trust, now established as a niche service provider promoting literacy and good mental health through exposure
to the literary arts in surroundings where the Over 50’s participants feel secure, decided to also raise funds for joint writing ventures.
In 2007 they published their second anthology, ‘Tales of the Supernatural’ and held another 45 creative writing workshops – the touring ones
this time being led by a professional author and university lecturer. Material from the 2007 tour will be published in the book ‘Stafford
Remembers the 1940s and 1950s’, out in spring 2008.
Their first poetry collection ‘Staffordshire Introspective’ is an eclectic mix of works by 12 workshop participants, released in June 2008
during an all day Drama Workshop to promote poets and drama writers in Stafford’s Gatehouse Theatre complex.
In addition the voluntary not-for-profit charity operates a weekly on-line e-bulletin for those unable to travel and two websites on which
participants works are published : www.risingbrookwriters.btik.com and www.myspace.com/risingbrookwriters. They also hold meet-and-greet
stands at local shows and exhibitions and have joined their local Arts Council and Voluntary Services. Aiming to escape the folds of grant
aid, in 2008 the charity is progressing into book sales and has thus, in three short years, virtually become an embryonic publishing house.
However, in spite of the pace of progress this successful collaboration clings to its humble beginnings. The weekly group-hug at the library
workshop is still in operation and welcomes a broad spectrum of writers from old hands to absolute beginners. During the last three years
the success rate of individual writers has also been encouraging – two plays by two different writers have been staged by professional
companies – a film script is under consideration by an indie company – several writers have been published in magazines – one in a hard
cover short story book – one has self-published a novel – one has set up a linked writers group on the other side of the town – one has
won a national poetry competition – two have novels under consideration by a publishing house – another has found an agent - all are now
web-published and all have their works lodged in the British Library.
For all this success the group would be quick to say they are a very ordinary bunch of writers who simply decided to take matters into
their own hands and to forge their own path along the publishing highway. And if they can do it, so can any other group, if they are
determined enough.
Steph Spiers
How do creative writing workshops operate?
Rising Brook Writers offers a good example of how a workshop operates. It has two distinct formats for workshops. The static library
workshops are fiction oriented for writers and the touring workshops are non-fiction, used for gathering material for reminiscence
anthologies.
Library Workshops:
Writers gather at a set time dictated by library event timetables. RBW starts at 1.30pm on Monday afternoons. A table which seats about
ten, tucked away in a corner of the branch library, is ideal for the group as it is large enough to stage group plotting. All stories,
plays, films etc start with a plot.
The workshop begins with minutes and apologies and business matters then after five minutes or so starts assignment pieces (homework)
produced from the previous week. When all have had a turn to share their interpretation of the brief, it is usually time for tea and
biscuits. After the break individual project works are shared – poems – plays (which are read out in parts by other writers so the author
can better judge if a scene is working) – novel scenes – short stories etc. Before winding up an assignment topic for next week is decided.
The group is entirely democratic and even though Trustees are always on hand the group makes its own decision about all things creative.
This includes deciding the year’s group publishing project. Each spring plotting sessions are held and a number of possible scenarios are
roughed out. Come April when numbers are swelled by returning mature students whose course has closed, the scenarios are voted upon and a
common theme for the next project is decided.
Then the fun begins. Instead of weekly assignments communal characters and plot are honed and the timeframe established. From then on it’s
a rollercoaster ride to involve beginners and old hands fairly to write the book so all have a fair chance to shine. It seems that writing a
mad-cap comedy is the easiest for the beginners as readers are more forgiving if they are chuckling.
Touring Workshops:
These are in two visits - a twice run two hour ‘in and out’ of participants’ lives. The workshops take place in the usual meeting places of
organisations for the elderly e.g. Widows Clubs, Village Ladies Fellowships etc.
An ‘opener’ usually does the first. It is the job of the opener to talk about the charity, then launch into the topic and get everyone
talking. In 2007 the topic was life on ‘The Home Front’. To do this the opener played Vera Lynn, and Glen Miller to set everyone in the mood,
had display boards of the local home guard, land army girls and VE and VJ Day parties, and a box of bunches of bananas.
The bananas (organic & free trade) were prizes for answering questions. You answered with a memory; you got a banana and a big laugh. This
trench of workshops was brilliant; the hardest part was getting away on time, once the participants got going it was very hard to settled
them back down into the nitty gritty of feedback forms and the legally required material/photographic releases. While the workshops are in
progress one of the opener’s helpers takes masses of photographs which are used in evaluations/websites/books etc. So signed releases are a
must (and it’s best to ask first if anyone objects to having their picture taken, as it saves a lot of wastage).
The second workshop is a quieter affair; this is a couple of weeks later when all have had time to choose a particular memory to talk
about. The tape recordings of prepared memories take place in the same cosy familiar surroundings. This is important as remembering wartime
can be a traumatic experience.
Once the tapes are transcribed, the pages are sent out to give the person speaking the opportunity to correct anything. Once returned as
okay to use, the pages and photos are posted into pre-pared slots in the DTP file, the book design proofed and sent off to the printer.
Sounds easy . . . but, the 2007 book was supposed to be 52 pages. This turned into a massive 88 pages and could have been much more. When
costs are a factor, it is very hard to choose what to keep and what to discard.
Steph Spiers
Literary agents: What are they good for?
Love them or hate them, literary agents are the gatekeepers to the big bad world of publishing houses.
Without being taken under the protective wing (a very expensive wing which will take a considerable slice of all future royalties) of a
literary agent with clout, wannabe writers would be better taking up pottery, or basket making, rather than slaving over a hot keyboard
on that epic that they dream will one day rival Ms Rowling.
Don't take my word for it; see for yourselves. It's there on the web for all to see. Look up publishing houses on any search engine. Can
you see anywhere where it says - SEND US ALL YOUR UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS. WE LOVE 'EM? No, you won't. If you are very lucky you might
find on the FAQ page something like this:
Question: I have written this book/novel/autobiography etc. How do I get it published?
Answer: Blank-Blank Publisher doesn't accept submissions of manuscripts from unknown authors unless they are submitted through an agency
with whom we have a close and cuddly, symbiotic relationship. And only then if the material has been ghost written by a hack for a.n.other
celebrity, who regularly can be found scantily clad on page three of any tabloid and appearing on 'Look how- stupid-I-am' Reality TV shows.
Why is this happening? It doesn't seem fair. There is nothing resembling fair in the cut and thrust world of publishing. Agents have their
place in the cycle. They weed out the dross. Usually, big agencies take on two or three new writers a year. Presented with raw badly
presented, unedited, unproofed scripts they polish the work, and the wannabe authors, until the content, layout and style are squeaky
before they dare pass them forward on down the line into the lair and talons of the commissioning editors of publishing houses.
This is where they start talking in figures so large they read like telephone numbers. Forget the hours spent writing the virgin novel.
That all wilts into nothingness when faced with the months and the tens of thousands of pounds that will have to be spent on marketing.
Keeping up so far? Without finding an agent new writers don't get a look in. But agents are easy to find - more often than not their lists
are full and they aren't taking on new writers, but they are easy to find. Look up literary agents on a search engine and you'll find
hundreds of companies supposedly offering literary agent services. Yes, supposedly. But, who are real agents, and who are the frauds. Who
are fronting vanity publishers, and who are editing services? Better by far to get hold of The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook (the library
will have it in the Reference Do-not-take-away-on-pain-of-death Section).
Armed with this little beauty you can save hours, and tears, by only sending your beautiful creation to those agents who actual specialise
in the subject of - Ferret Lovers World - or My Life as a Body-builder in the Women’s’ Institute. Yes, agencies specialise. New writers
can't just take pot luck and post off their dreams to any agency they like the sound of. It doesn't work like that. And if you are lucky
enough to find an agent - will it be roses all the way?
Not if they are anything like the bunch of halfwits I have had personal dealings with over the years. One was last seen hightailing it over
the Pennines with a minibus full of yellow coated bailiffs in hot pursuit. Which did explain why his website had suddenly disappeared into
the ether and why his mobile was on permanent answer-phone. But he did find me a publisher.
Another suddenly found Jesus and decided my material, which he had previously loved until this revelation, was not suitable without a plain
brown paper cover and said he couldn't possibly be associated with it.
As my characters only managed a bit of serious hand holding on page 23, this did seem a bit harsh.
But, don’t be disheartened by this slice of reality – don’t give up – keep writing – keep honing those skills – agents are always searching
for the diamond in the slush pile, it’s in their best interest to find it - just make sure if you do get your chance that your material is
outstanding enough to be one of the lucky ones.
Steph Spiers