Authors Electric

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos When I started writing seriously many years ago, I read as many author interviews as possible. I still find them engaging and informative.   I love being on both sides of the questioning too as I sometimes appear on other writers’ blogs and regularly interview authors for an online magazine.   Inventing interesting questions to draw the author into conversation is a joy and challenge but this is where being a writer helps. I know what I would want to know and start my questioning from there.   I found it helpful years ago to work out how I would answer questions put to writers should the happy day come around when I became a published author. I found that paid because it helped me get used to the idea of talking about what I write. It does seem an odd thing to do when you start. How are you coming across? When you talk about your characters and stories, does it make sense to those listening? Certain que...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. No kidding, Sherlock, I know but I suspect there have been a few love stories doing the rounds this month. Wonder why…  That said the thought of Valentine’s Day and associated tales led me to wonder about popular themes and whether anything new can be said to still make the best of them. Naturally some themes will turn up time and again for competitions and markets because they will always appeal to us. The world isn’t going to run out of love stories. It doesn’t mean authors should stop writing them, far from it. Themes reflect the human condition, which is why we always identify with popular themes.   The ideal then is to bring something new to the mix. My way into that is via the character(s). There has to be something about them which would make them stand out to me first, then potential readers. If the character doesn’t grab my attention, I can hardly expect them to grab the attention of anyone else....

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. I love author interviews whether I conduct them (for an online magazine) or if I’m reading or listening to them. I always learn something of interest. I  find how writers go about producing their work: an endlessly fascinating topic as we all approach writing in different ways. I’m not averse to picking up good tips either! What is always encouraging is in finding out other writers also go through the rejection business. It is good to know you’re not alone on this. When I conduct interviews, I want to find out what has led to the book which is being launched or how the author is making progress since I last spoke to them.  I also like to ask for someone’s three top marketing tips because there is so much here, I don’t think any one writer can (a) know them all and (b) there is often common ground as to what works best for more than one author I’ve talked to. I see that as being good ground to follow myself!...

The brain is an amazing organ - it literally works twenty-four hours a day, whether we are asleep or awake, making sure our bodies continue to work to their optimum capacity. As writers we use our brains continually, taking in stimulus from all our senses and storing them as ideas we can use in books. Even when we are asleep we often dream of plots that can be used in a book. I don't know about you but I find ideas zinging into my brain almost every second of the day and bouncing around in there like an acrobatic troop on steroids. Yet, I am sure you will agree, these ideas don't stay there for long as they are usually booted out by the next brilliant idea that claims squatter's rights. This constant stimulation can be draining and exhausting but we creative types struggle to switch it off. So, what can we do to organise things better? Quite a bit it turns out.  1. We all know this one but write things down. I'm putting it here as it is possibly the number one way we ca...

  Writing the first draft, or dirty first draft, you should be in the zone and writing like a demon, not worrying too much about word choice for every single word. You are trying to get the overall story down and you can sort things out later. The editing stage comes next and this is where you make the changes to strengthen your writing and your narrative. However, habits often creep in which actually weaken your writing rather than strengthen it, especially with writers at the beginning of their careers. Those of us who are more established shouldn't sit back on our laurels either as we can often fall into the same traps. So, here are seven signs to look out for when you are self editing your work. Adjectives and Adverbs used as modifiers as though you've been given a free pack and you need to get rid of them. They are used to shore up verbs to make them stronger. You need to completely renovate your verb if a prop is needed to support it. Rip it out and use a stronger verb. ...

My writing class I've been running a writing class every Monday for the last few years, so constantly giving out tips and advice to my students – or friends, as I tend to think of them these days, as they've been coming to classes for so long. Each week, I like to share a writing tip thought up by other writers, including some given by our own team here on Authors Electric. Some of you knowledgeable people kindly provided some 'words of wisdom' for my 'Become a Writer' guide – which I'm currently bringing up to date – so I'll be after you again, no doubt! But for this blog, I thought I'd share a few writing tips and quotes, that I've discovered or been given over the years. Hope you enjoy them. The secret of becoming a writer is to write, write and keep on writing. Ken MacLeod (Scottish science-fiction writer). Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil ...

  Recently I have spent a lot of time travelling both nationally and internationally. In the last four weeks I have been to New Orleans, Skegness, London, Southampton and back to London, where I am currently staying. This has involved trains, planes, cars, buses, horse drawn carriages, rickshaw, monorail and even a vintage bus. It has certainly been an experience and I have enjoyed every minute of it.  So why am I giving you a rundown of my movements and travelling arrangements? What has this got to do with writing I hear you ask? At first glance, very little. However, deeper scrutiny and skilful interrogation will reveal the full story. Many of the places I have visited have involved writing and/or meeting readers. I have had several events in these places. I was on a panel at Bouchercon in New Orleans. This was a crime writing/reading convention and will be the subject of another blog. Suffice to say it was an experience which I would love to repeat. London took me...

Names are one of the biggest problems for me with any writing. Names matter. They attract or deflect by their very nature, colouring our view through our own personal experience. A character names Maude for example may conjure an older woman, possibly Victorian fiction as Maude was a daughter of the old Queen. Or a very much older Empress Maud who was an ancient claimant of the English crown. I recently had birthday notifications on the same day, via Facebook, for two Michaels. One is generally known as Mick and the other as Mike. They are both thoroughly nice guys but possessed of very different personalities, and I would never address Mick as Mike or vice versa. Why they should have gained their separate diminutives is unknown. They are of similar age and, one assumes, similar background. Is it regional? A possibility. I don’t expect I shall ever know. But the point to be made is that in my  mind they are their name. Which brings me back to fictional character...

Recently I've been teaching a number of creative writing classes. During those classes I've been asked about editing and when it should be done. My answer as always was "don't stop to edit, just get it all down and go back later."  The replies from my students have all been very similar. They said they felt if they had an idea, wanted to embellish etc. that it had to be done there and then. Unfortunately if they listened to that feeling they discovered they'd lost the 'flow.' What follows are my six suggestions I gave to help them ignore that editing urge as you write: If you're old school and use a note pad: Only write on the right hand page. The left hand page is then blank, ready and waiting for those brilliant ideas you want insert into your story later. Choose a pad with wide lines and write on every other line. This gives you a line to add notes. It may also benefit you to write those notes in a different colour. If all else fails mak...

I'm incredibly proud of this book (available, incidentally, for Kindle UK here , other areas here , and as a paperback here ). It's still hard saying things like that. I feel like Richard Gere in that scene in Pretty Woman where he says "It's taken me $10,000 of therapy to say 'I am angry with my father'". Only in my case it's taken 5 or 6 years of self-publishing to say, without a whole shockwave of trepidation "I am proud of this book." I have mostly been one of those writers who, when asked about there books, will mumble something non-committal before quickly deflecting back to "and what do you do?" At one poetry night, the wonderful poet, raconteur, and performance artist Tina Sederholm , introducing the night in question, said "poets should stop apologising for their poems before they read them" and eyeballed straight at me as she spoke. In part, this has to do with all sorts of deep-seated inadequacies that are ...

I've been lucky, I seldom suffer from the dreaded 'writers block.' But when I do there are techniques I employ to help get the ideas flowing again. One technique I use is the 'what if ...' game. Basically I choose a story, often a classic fairy tale and ask 'what if ...' To demonstrate what I mean here a three examples: Cinderella: At the end of this story the prince finds Cinderella, she slips on the glass shoe, it fits, they marry and live happy ever after. But what if Cinderella sprains her ankle as she runs away from the palace? Her ankle swells, so when the prince asks her to try on the shoe it doesn't fit. What if it fits one of the sisters? This sister knows where Cinderella has hidden the other shoe and uses it to prove she is the one he is looking for. Who does he marry? Snow White: At the end of this story the prince kisses Snow White, she wakes up, they marry and live happy every after. But what if once she is ma...