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Archives for November 2016

How the Bridport Prize kick-started my novel

November 21, 2016 by Jacqui Lofthouse Filed Under: Authors, Competitions, Confidence, Events, Inspiration, Markets for your work, Motivation, The writing coach, The writing life, Writers Leave a Comment

Carolyn Kirby, a former Writing Coach client, reached the short-list of this year’s Bridport Prize award for a first novel. In this guest post, Carolyn writes about her experience of entering the competition.

Bridport Prize

Carolyn at the prize-giving ceremony talking to Peter Chapman-Andrews about his mother’s life and work. Photograph by Graham Shackleton

A new category in the Bridport Prize

Like many new writers I’d heard of the Bridport Prize. It is well known around the world as a short story and poetry competition with over £16,000 in prize money which has been running since 1973. But I hadn’t realized until this year that the competition is also open to novels. In 2014 the Peggy-Chapman Andrews Award for unpublished first novels was added to the other categories in memory of the inspirational founder of this prestigious literary prize.

I had previously had some success with an early novel, Cloud Cover, a wartime love story that Jacqui had helped me to get started. The book made it to several competition long-lists, including the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize. But that was as far as it got. At the start of 2016, I had put the book away to work on a new idea for a Victorian-set thriller, Half Of You. This story follows a young woman’s search to uncover the dreadful secrets in her past through new ideas about nature versus nurture. I sensed that the opening to this novel was good, possibly better than Cloud Cover, but the work was at a very early stage, much too soon to submit it agents.

So I was excited to realise that the Peggy Chapman-Andrews offered a forum for novels in progress. Only 5000 words were needed to enter, so the competition could provide a wonderfully anonymous and impartial litmus test. I reasoned that if my entry was long-listed, I would have encouragement to keep writing. If it wasn’t, I could re-think of the story without having got too far. But either way, the prize would give me an incentive to write more chapters by July when the long-list was to be announced. At this point, 15,000 words would be required for the next round of judging. So I sent off the entry and got down to writing another 10,000 words. Just in case I was successful.

Making the Long-list

On 18th July, when I saw Half Of You on the long-list, it felt miraculous that my work had been plucked from such a vast sea of words. There were 856 entries for the Peggy Chapman-Andrews award this year. Which added up to literally millions of words for the judges to consider and compare. I felt so grateful to the Bridport readers for the time they must have put in to this painstaking task.

So now I had to spend the summer preparing for the possibility that my entry would reach the short-list to be announced at the end of August. At this point 30,000 words would be required for the final stage of judging. The competition again gave me an excellent incentive to stay indoors at my laptop pressing on with the story.

I knew that in these latter stages of judging my fairly raw chapters would be subject to the intense scrutiny of professionals from top literary agency AM Heath, The Literary Consultancy and the Chair of judges, novelist and academic, Kerry Young. So, the day of the short-list announcement was, to say the least, tense. As I opened the e-mail from Kate Wilson, the Bridport’s lovely administrator, I was mainly focusing on keeping my heart rate within healthy limits. “Congratulations…” was all I needed to see. I instantly felt that I’d moved up to the next level in my writing journey.

Bridport Prize

Chair of judges, Kerry Young, makes the Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award presentations. Photograph by Graham Shackleton

Although my book didn’t win the overall prize, I was overjoyed to be a winner. The prize-giving lunch in Bridport Arts Centre was a wonderful occasion that gave me gave the chance to meet so many friendly, inspiring people including Peter Chapman-Andrews, Peggy’s son. Peter told me about his mother’s community work in Bridport and her visionary idea to fund a new Arts Centre through a creative writing prize. The prize continues to provide funding for Bridport Arts Centre to this day.

I am still in the throes of a first draft of Half Of You, but reaching the Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award short-list has given me a level of faith in the story that spurs me on. And I have written thousands more words than I would have done without the competition.

The 2017 Bridport Prize launches on 15th November 2016 (to close on 31st May 2017) and is open to residents of the Republic of Ireland for the first time. Any new writer looking for a way to energise their writing in the coming year should start preparing an entry. You never know where it might take you!

Non-fiction and its possibilities: a guest post by Glynis Kozma

November 7, 2016 by Jacqui Lofthouse Filed Under: Authors, Books, Confidence, Inspiration, Literary Consultancy, Marketing, Markets for your work, Motivation, Publishing, The writing life, Writers Leave a Comment

Writing non-fiction can be every bit as creative as writing fiction and equally as satisfying. Our perceptions on non-fiction may be narrow and perhaps need challenging in order to be aware of how there are possibilities for our own creativity. Non-fiction includes everything from the instructional ‘how to’ guides – whether that’s cookery, gardening, restoring antiques, the latest diet – to social and political history, art, biographies, travel and professional textbooks.

Glynis Kozma, journalist and coach

Glynis Kozma, journalist and coach

You may think that non-fiction doesn’t allow your voice to be heard in the same way as fiction, but I’d like to invite you to reconsider this. The cookery books of Elizabeth David with their conversational tone, descriptions of the locations and culture drawing on all the senses, revolutionised cookery books in the 1950s, showing how a book of recipes could be so much more than an inventory of ingredients and how to combine them. Now, no one buys a cookery book just to follow a recipe: we’re buying into history, travel, personal memories and photographs to flick through; somewhere along the way there’s a recipe we will try.

How can one develop as a non-fiction writer?

What comes across in the best non-fiction writing is a strong sense of the writer’s passion and perhaps their expertise. You can have the passion but may need to develop your expertise. Or you may have the expertise and experience, but need to develop your ‘voice’ to engage your readers. I often suggest exercises to clients such as visiting old haunts to evoke memories :I find that this kind of sensory exercise really helps to deepen non-fiction work and to make it more personal. You may already have your ‘specialist subject’ which needs only a little research or your writing may be at an embryonic stage where you have an idea which requires research and much planning. Are you an expert, or could you become an expert? Have you the seed of an idea, associated with your own experiences which you could grow by talking to others, travelling, or researching?

Glynis’s previous clients

Non-fiction writing

Cast Life by Natalie Trice

One former student’s book has taken her into areas she never imagined: founding a charity and sitting on the same panels as consultant surgeons. Natalie Trice wrote Cast Life – a parent’s guide to DDH (developmental dysplasia hips) – in 2015. When Natalie first enrolled as a student she wanted to write about the perils for parents at the school gate – fitting in, socialising and so on. I gently suggested this wasn’t that original but there were also potential issues around confidentiality. Given that Natalie was aiming for a self-help book for parents, she decided to focus on her son Lucas’ journey with DDH and her own lack of support in the UK for the condition. Natalie’s book covers diagnosis, treatment and recovery from a parent’s perspective. Initially, Natalie was uncertain about whether her book would have a wide enough appeal, because the condition is relatively rare. But counteracting this was the dearth of information for parents. A proposal was written and, after a few rejections, the book was accepted by a publisher, without having to work through an agent. Natalie is now receiving positive feedback from readers in Australia and the US, she has established the charity Spica Warrior.org where Paralympic swimmer Gemma Almond, born with the condition, is now the charity’s patron. Natalie is now an advisory member of the International Hip Dysplasia Institute, appearing at conferences alongside medical experts, and on television. From the tiny seed of an idea – which was not her first choice when writing non-fiction- Natalie has become the UK parenting expert on DDH.

non-fiction writingAnother student, Harriet Angel, had no such doubts about her subject. As an established Pilates and running instructor, she knew her book had to be Pilates for Runners. I helped Harriet with her chapter headings and summaries, ensuring that they included enough detail so a prospective publisher would be able to appreciate her expertise. We also had to work on the tone and style because this was a book that had to be easily accessible to readers who wanted to avoid or deal with a running injury, without necessarily reading it from cover to cover. There was also the issue of photographs or illustrations to accompany the text. Harriet was fortunate enough through her contacts and her business to be able to provide a publisher with testimonials from people in the field of sport; their names were included in the proposal. Having helped her to choose a publisher who might be interested, the proposal was sent and we waited for news. Within a matter of weeks a publishing offer had come from Bloomsbury and Harriet’s second book (under wraps at the moment) is in the pipeline too.

What makes writing non-fiction different?

The beauty of non-fiction is that unlike fiction you won’t always need an agent to land a publishing deal. There are publishing houses which will accept a detailed proposal and a couple of chapters and many non-fiction writers have had success with exactly those.

The vital requirements are confidence in your idea and one that has potential for sales unless you intend to self publish. If your readers can feel your enthusiasm, your genuine connection to the topic and your depth of knowledge, they will engage with your writing.  It’s important that you look at existing, competing titles as part of your research before committing to topic, because you don’t want to produce something too similar. But at the same time, there are many books on the same topics but which have a slightly different angle. A good starting point is to think of perhaps three subjects that interest you then create a rough draft of the contents of your book, as short chapter headings. If you struggle with finding enough to say, that subject may not be your best idea, but there will be one that excites you. Dive in, have confidence and see where it takes you. Why not try it?

Glynis Kozma is a consultant for The Writing Coach. She is the author of two non-fiction books for parents – Secondary School and Leaving Home – and a freelance journalist who writes for The Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Independent – as well as a wide range of consumer magazines. Glynis is a fully qualified coach and a member of the Association for Coaching. You can contact her here.

 

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The Writing Coach was founded in 2005 by the novelist Jacqui Lofthouse. An international mentoring and development organisation for writers, it is also an online home for writers, somewhere you can find advice, information, motivation and most of all encouragement for your writing work ... read more

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