Things are somewhat buzzing in my writing life just now and normally I would share all the details with you but I am feeling just a little bit superstitious. To do so may well tempt fate. And so instead? I am going to do what we call, in my journalistic world, something of a tease. Let’s just say that lots of things are happening and I will update you all soon - promise. Meantime I am concentrating on the Arts Council- funded short story workshop tour which I am organising with Devon libraries as my partner for this coming Autumn. We have just agreed the ten venues and I am liaising with the library team regarding the publicity material. In a nutshell, we are planning to put out all the details over the summer, with students able to book a place on the tour from August 1. So – if you happen to live in Devon, do watch this space. Details so far are HERE and I will update as soon as I can. Cross my heart. For now I am enjoying the sunshine and copy-editing in the garden. Insane to call it work but isn’t this what we writers live for? The summer – when we can finally move into the garden and call it an office? As a freelance working from home, I always find the Winter such a terrible trial. Gloomy. Cold. Dreary. And so very long… And then as soon as the sun comes out? Suddenly working from home is the best thing since sliced bread… I have chosen my hebe as the picture for this blog as the bees are going bonkers for the flowers just now and everyone is telling me this is very good because bees have been having a hard time. So you must understand that I am not working in the garden as some kind of skive, but doing my bit , ahem, for nature. And as a champion for the short story form, I MUST just mention finally the excellent piece in the new edition of Mslexia, edited by fellow Devon author Janey Fraser, about the commercial short story market. Like me, she is passionately defensive of this genre and has written a wonderful piece with lots of tips and tricks of the trade. Janey warns literary writers as I do : “Do not be sniffy about the magazine market. There is a good living to be made!” Oh – well said, Janey. I am proud to write regularly for the commercial magazine market . It is competitive. It has high standards. And those of us who are lucky enough to be a part of it should hold our heads high. Enjoy the sunshine and enjoy your writing… It’s working! The bread-making…and the pitching. Thanks to my new sourdough obsession, the homestead is heavenly scented. Mmmmmm. I have had a bread machine for years but am now baking “by hand" pretty much every other day and am finding this new regime enormously therapeutic. I also find the allotted time kneading and pottering around the flour-dusted kitchen to be the perfect space to work out solutions in my writing life. Plotting. Planning. Dreaming up new stories. Oh, and - touch wood, so far the early response to my new MS is very good, though do please whisper this and cross everything for me. We count no chickens in this house. I have written several times on this blog about rejection and when I tutor short story students, I am absolutely the Queen of positive. That’s a market I seem to have cracked as regular readers will know. But it’s not always easy to practise what you preach in other markets, is it? Not when there is a lot of time and passion on the line. But we must not complain because we choose this after all. The writer's life is a rollercoaster so let's all just hang on tight…and while I think it’s important to look ahead and not back, I have a teensy confession here. For I do sometimes allow myself a smile during agonising times awaiting feedback on a full MS by pulling out my favourite phrases from some of my past rejections. I’ve kept letters which include - “What a talented writer. I’m sure you’ll sell this” ( we didn’t) and “Teresa will definitely make it as a novelist “ ( er, when????) and more recently – “I can instantly tell you are hugely talented and am so sure you will end up on bookshelves…” (thank you, thank you but forgive me for getting just a little bit impatient...) Oh the irony. Oh the frustration. Oh the madness of this glorious and completely addictive writer’s life. Who could think of anything more frustrating and more wonderful. Enjoy your own writing week and if you have ever toyed with the idea of baking bread ( by hand) but not found the time – do please try it. Hugh FW was right. Punching back the dough for the second rise is my personal favourite- especially if you are having a frustrating day. You won’t look back. Oh gawd. In my writing life, I am at that terrible pitching stage when you know that people are reading your new manuscript but you don’t yet know what they think of it. And so I am distracting myself in the only sensible way I know . May I introduce you, ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls, to my first…..(pause for dramatic effect) sourdough starter. Yup. I have finally gone and done it. Whizzed up some flour and water, with a little guidance from the lovely Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I have popped the starter in a glass jar and given it a warm and cosy spot in the kitchen. I have given it some very special tlc. I have fed it daily. And now I am being rewarded with lots of lovely bubbles, which is apparently precisely what we want. Just a few more days, according to my bread guru Hugh, and I will be ready to bake with it. Never mind that my elder son – currently home from uni – apparently “hates” sour dough bread. Never mind that the Husband keeps eyeing the jar as if it is some Frankenstein experiment. I am a happy lady. More sweet than sour, you might say. Here’s hoping the new pitching bubbles along just as nicely. Had a bit of a Victor Meldrew moment this week. (Script-wise not in sentiment, that is.) Me: “I don’t believe it.” Husband: “What?” “I don’t believe it!” “Er; You’ve said that….” In my hand a brown envelope containing not a bill, not a tax form, not a pack of complex paperwork relevant to recent family traumas ( very sadly we get a lot of those) but a wonderful, delicious and completely unexpected surprise. “We got the Arts Council Grant!” *dances around room very, very unlike Victor Meldrew much to the amusement of the Husband* Oh lovely blog followers, I cannot tell you how happy I am. Last year I piloted a new Creative Writing Workshop for aspiring short story writers. Having had dozens of short stories published over the last decade, I wanted to share all that I had learned along the way. I get a bit soap boxy about short stories as regular readers will know. Whether you are writing commercial stories for the magazine market as I do regularly or stunning vignettes a la Paul Lasdun ( a favourite contemporary short story writer of mine), I consider them the most wonderful platform for both inspiration and experimentation. As I tell all my students, there are so many superb opportunities. Competitions to enter such as The Bridport Prize and The National Short Story Award. And even if publication or competitions are not your motivation – there is the tremendous sense of achievement along with inevitable growth as a writer. Anyway; I’m wittering. Sorry. The fact is the new workshop went down a storm and me, being me, I got a bit ambitious. Why not try to take this same workshop on a tour, I thought? To reach more people? Help grow their confidence? And hang on a minute, Teresa. Why not line it up alongside my other soap box….helping to promote libraries which we all know are having such a very tricky time in this difficult financial landscape. Yes. Why not try to make this a Writers’ Workshop tour of libraries and to ensure fairness and open accessibility, find a way to make the workshop places FREE. I put my thinking cap on. I did some research. I decided that with my TV and writing profile, I just might stand a chance for a small grant from Arts Council England to make all this happen. And so to my delight, the brown envelope arrived, confirming a "YES" – which means we can offer 100 FREE places at 10 workshops across Devon during September and October 2014. We are just working out the final timetable at the moment. As soon as that’s agreed, I will post how aspiring writers can apply for a place. And the lovely little PS is it just might be possible to do the same for libraries in Cornwall for 2015. Crossed fingers…and watch this space. For now – here are the details on the Devon library tour . Thank you, thank you - Arts council England. A distinct hop and a skip in my step today. The daffodils I bought this week got me thinking about patience….and editing. They looked a tad sad when I popped them into the jug on the kitchen table. A first draft manuscript can hit you a bit like that when you come to start the editing. It's not that you don't have faith. You can see the potential and you know it will come good. You have done this before. Oh, but the need for patience.... How many times as I walked past those daffs did I will them to - hurry up, please. I have just finally completed the editing on this MS so that it is now at the point of readiness for sharing and I find myself wondering how on earth other writers work? Does your patience work differently from mine? Do you ride the rollercoaster of confidence and doubt - loving some parts and completely rethinking others? For myself I wrote this last MS unusually quickly so I knew that the editing stage would be more demanding. What was a nice bonus on re-reading was I had genuinely forgotten some of the scenes and material and so found myself smiling and reading….as a reader. Then I rolled up my sleeves to start slashing. For the second edit I always work on screen – one chapter at a time. I amend and correct on screen then print off each chapter and make additional amendments in long-hand on the script. But I resist the temptation to go back and do all these extra edits on the computer immediately otherwise I would just be a dog chasing its tail. Round and round in circles. Once I have completed this second major edit, I tend to wait a bit and dive in for the third edit using the handwritten notes on my script as a starting point. I make all those edits first…and then re-read for pace etc. It’s at this point that I transfer the script to Kindle where I find the very different layout tricks my eye into spotting literals and mistakes more easily. And then ... ta-dah! Just like the daffodils, the MS is looking a whole lot brighter. Next - deep breaths. Time to see what others think. Also; urgently need new excuse not to clean house... "Ah yes. When I said had FINISHED editing, what I actually meant..." It’s a funny old world – the writer’s life. We freelancers are technically used to the rolling road of pitching and yet I still mess up. So today I am writing about “Housekeeping” which is so crucial when you are submitting lots of material to different places. I keep a log both online on a neat and efficient spreadsheet and also by hand in a battered old blue notebook. No idea why I do both. I guess I just can’t let go of that familiar blue friend. Anyway. The point here is that it is always a good idea to have a little rummage through the records and being a New Year I did just that this week and discovered there had been no outcome on a story I submitted to a magazine some six months back. This is quite unusual for me as I am lucky to have a good relationship with my commissioning editors and normally know where I am going with a story- sales-wise - quite quickly. Often within a fortnight. But this was a magazine to which I haven’t contributed for a while….so fair enough. I didn’t expect special treatment. I decided, somewhat reluctantly, to chase the submission first by email and then by telephone. I hate calling editors, truth be told, as I know how crazy busy they are and this is very much a last resort for me. But I was very fond of this story (inspired by a trip to The Royal Pavilion in Brighton) and wanted to see it in print. So I needed to confirm acceptance/rejection before offering elsewhere. Result! The lovely commissioning editor was very apologetic about the delay and within half an hour I received an email, confirming a sale, an increased fee and this note “This is the most beautiful story I have read in a while…thanks so much for giving me a nudge as I would hate to have missed this one.” Yeah, I know. Sounds a bit boastful to share this here but I hope you will understand my motive. The truth is I was feeling a bit sad about that story and questioning my judgement. I had a good gut feeling it should sell and was thinking “why didn’t they like it?” Just a little bit of me didn’t want to chase, I think, as I didn’t want a rejection. So now I am reminding myself to stay confident. That it’s always important to chase stray submissions which may get lost in busy systems. I should have followed up on this story much sooner. My error. The rule, of course, is to be patient initially – and to remember that response times often depend on your relationship with the magazine. But if you have not had a yes or no within a few months, don’t forget a gentle nudge. Those submission logs are crucial – so go and check yours right now. Is there a stray submission that needs polite follow up? Take a leaf. It’s always worth it for another cheque in the post! Just a short post today as I am slightly in shock. Have just typed those two magic words on my new MS and, much to my amazement, have managed this very close to my goal. I didn’t quite make Stephen King’s suggested target of finishing a first draft in three months (see earlier blogs regarding this wordcount madness) but…very nearly. Four months. Which for me is extraordinary. So what can I tell you about this experiment? First – hand on heart, it was tough. Even though I have more than 25 years as a journalist under my belt ( used to writing daily, whatever my mood) I still found it hard to sit down, aiming for 2,000 words day in, day out. That said, I did warm to the discipline as the manuscript began to grow so quickly. As I have detailed in another blog, I found myself having to switch from pantser to more of a planner to keep up the momentum but I still let the characters lead the way. I tend to write in a rather peculiar style of reportage ( no surprise given my background). The scenes come to me very visually as I walk, cook, work and generally go about my life. I simply watch from the sidelines, listen in cheekily to the dialogue over my shoulder and then write it all up. As if the scenes actually just happened (which to me, it feels they honestly did). Slightly bonkers – fetch the straight jacket. But there it is. And so now the big question is how heavy and prolonged the editing will be. What can I say? Most people recommend putting the MS aside for a while to come back to it with fresh eyes. But we journalists are very used to cracking on with the editing. I have a confession in that I promised my family that I would give the keyboard a break after these intense months of steam pouring from same… …and then promptly got up early to start editing the first few chapters immediately. They laughed. But then they often laugh at me... Memo to all: never live with a writer. Just a quick pause between the basting and the jingle bells to wish you all a gorgeous holiday. Thank you for following my ramblings here during 2013 and here's wishing you wonderful words on the page for 2014. We writers do this because we have to. We do it with love. And we do it (even in snatched moments between the mince pies and the selection box ) because there is always the hope and the dream that the next page will be better than the last. The next story stronger. Who knows what the NEW YEAR may bring to your story-telling. Be brave. Be hopeful. And above all....keep going. Oh, Stephen King you have a lot to answer for! Some days I love you for this new madness I have introduced into my writing life. And some days you do not want to know what I am saying about you. New readers should know that I am currently following the Stephen King tip of trying to complete a first draft MS in three months which requires the discipline of writing 2,000 words per day on at least five days each week ( see earlier blog). I promised an update so here is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is nigh on killing me…. And yet here also is the BUT. It is working. I am well into the second half of the MS now which is beyond astonishing. The problem, of course, with this success is I am being tempted now to slow down. To apply the brakes. And I can’t decide whether to forgive myself. I am exactly the same on a diet. As soon as the pounds start dropping off quickly enough, I start allowing “treats” which we all know is a complete disaster. But no choice here. I will unquestionably have to slow down just a little bit now as it has been a very difficult time in my family’s life and we need very much to pull together to have a good Xmas. Back in September we lost my father after several months of illness and unbelievably we have just lost my husband’s father too. He was a great age but that, of course, does not make the sadness or the adjustment any easier. Through these past weeks of great upheaval and the rollercoaster of emotions, I have surprised myself by continuing to write at such a crazy pace and only now am I seeing that for what it was. A constant. An escape. A familiar place to go. So now – into the second half of the manuscript, I am going to have to ease the foot off the pedal just a little to ensure I deliver the kind of Christmas we all love…and this year, more than any other, really need. Whisper this but I am thinking I will for a time aim for 1,000 words daily rather than 2,000 until the holidays are over. Do not, please, tell Stephen King. Strangely with the big, fat MS alongside me, this does not feel like any kind of failure or slacking. It just feels like the right step through difficult personal waters…and the challenge of the festive holidays. What I am very happy to report is a significant improvement in the narrative drive of my story as I write under this new discipline. Normally with a first draft, I take breaks of varying lengths between forward progress and tend to do many “resume” reads and edits before ploughing on, especially if there has been a longer break. This means that I get very familiar with the MS as I go along and I hence do quite a lot of editing en route. But following the gruelling Stephen King strategy, there just isn’t time for as much major re-reading so it is forward….forward…forward. This means I have been forced to switch from being a classic pantser…to more of a planner. Don’t laugh, but I actually now use a proper spreadsheet to plot and plan and find it a great help for fixing timeline switches and balance of characters. It’s proving essential in this overdrive writing gear so I can properly keep track. Not that I have stopped listening to my characters, of course. They always lead the way. But I rather like having a road map so I can at least see how far we have travelled together and whether passports are soon to be required. How all this will turn out in the wash, heaven only knows (I suspect much longer editing time will ultimately be required) . Possibly a decade. Here’s hoping I am joking. Whether I will make the three-month deadline as I now *blush* *whisper* take my foot off the pedal for Christmas, I have no idea. But I will try to be honest. So watch this space… It’s been a very long time since I was involved in Children in Need myself – fronting it for BBC South West. To be honest, it was always a complete joy to see the fundraising and the outcome, but quite stressful to cope with the cold and the chaos. Thermals were very often the order of the day and there was usually an adrenaline overdose as a producer whispered into your earpiece “coming to you, Teresa” when you were, ahem, not quite expecting it! These days I really enjoy watching the show "from the other side" with a glass of wine and a log fire. Inevitably - I always feel for all the current presenters and the production team. It’s a mammoth professional challenge to stage the show and - guys; you did a great job last night. But the real herograms, of course, go to the fundraisers and the amazing children and families who share their inspirational stories. I particularly loved that so many films last night allowed the parents and the children to do all the talking themselves. These stories are not always easy to watch. But it is so very important to show the reality. What the fundraising is really for. I am personally very passionate about the work that hospices do so I was especially touched to see excellent films explaining what these wonderful charities are truly about – namely helping children and their families to make the very most of precious time. I worked for a time helping a Devon hospice for adult care with its PR work and I have rarely felt that my writing life has been more worthwhile. So – well done Children In Need. A record-breaking total says a lot about the kindness out there. Precious time, indeed. Pudsey – be proud. |
AuthorTeresa Driscoll - journalist, author, mother of two and lover of great coffee. CATEGORIEsArchives
February 2024
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