Tales and thoughts from the coal face of writing and life from Scottish crime writer Jennifer Lee Thomson.
Wednesday 6 April 2011
The nightmare of submitting to agents
I sent the first two submissions off to agents today and now the long wait begins. I know people say that getting an agent is more difficult than getting a publisher. I know it's like being a needle in a haystack.
But, your work is doing nothing lying on that desk or filed away on your computer. There comes a time when you have to let your baby go.
I've started biting my nails and eating lots of chocolate (hey, it should be available on the NHS). The terror of the 'send' button is with me every step of the way. But, we authors must be brave as our manuscript takes its tentative steps towards publication.
P.S. While I was searching for agents, one of the sites kindly put up a sample agency contract. It's here if you want a peek.
Monday 4 April 2011
Who inspires your characters?
When I was writing How Kirsty Got Her Kicks, I wanted my main character to be gutsy; the kind of woman every women wants to be - who doesn't take any nonsense from anyone.
There are women on TV who I looked to for inspiration. Women like Nikita from La Femme Nikita and Sydney Bristow from Alias, and believe it or not, Janice Soprano. Yes right. Who can possibly resist someone whose response from her brutal boyfriend who says 'what ya gonna do now, cry,' is to reach for her gun?
Relive her proudest moment on YouTube
In celebration of this I wrote an piece for Shadowlocked.com on Kick Ass Angels. Who have I missed?
There are women on TV who I looked to for inspiration. Women like Nikita from La Femme Nikita and Sydney Bristow from Alias, and believe it or not, Janice Soprano. Yes right. Who can possibly resist someone whose response from her brutal boyfriend who says 'what ya gonna do now, cry,' is to reach for her gun?
Relive her proudest moment on YouTube
In celebration of this I wrote an piece for Shadowlocked.com on Kick Ass Angels. Who have I missed?
Dealing with backstory
It can be so easy to fall into the trap of writing too much backstory. Aren't we all a product of what has gone on before in our lives? Therefore, it would follow that our characters are the same.
Liz Roberts who whittled down the Debut Dagger entries – ‘Many entries started off very well – and then ran the reader into the literary equivalent of a brick wall around page 3 or 4, because they couldn’t resist putting in a lot of backstory.’
The best piece of advice I have read came from literary agent Carole Blake in From pitch to publication -
'In order to illustrate a character trait, or a backstory element, demonstrate it with a scene, a snippet of dialogue, but don’t have the narrative address the reader like a newsreader reading facts.'
Liz Roberts who whittled down the Debut Dagger entries – ‘Many entries started off very well – and then ran the reader into the literary equivalent of a brick wall around page 3 or 4, because they couldn’t resist putting in a lot of backstory.’
The best piece of advice I have read came from literary agent Carole Blake in From pitch to publication -
'In order to illustrate a character trait, or a backstory element, demonstrate it with a scene, a snippet of dialogue, but don’t have the narrative address the reader like a newsreader reading facts.'
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