Review: Novel in a Month

Novel in a Month is the latest in WCCL's range of products and courses for writers, which also includes my courses Write Any Book in Under 28 Days and Quick Cash Writing.

Novel in a Month is written by Dan Strauss, Senior Editor of the WCCL Network and a successful author/novelist himself.

The course is provided on CD-ROM in the universal PDF format. It is therefore suitable for all computing platforms: Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

Like all WCCL products, Novel in a Month is beautifully produced, and it has clearly been professionally written and edited. The main manual (I'll get to the bonuses later) takes you step by step through everything you need to know to write a novel in the shortest possible time. Not surprisingly, I guess, the method set out in Novel in a Month bears a close resemblance to the one I set out in Write Any Book in Under 28 Days (though, of course, the latter is aimed primarily at people who want to write a non-fiction book).

I don't suppose I'm giving away too much if I reveal that the system described in Novel in a Month involves writing your first draft in three weeks, then editing it in the fourth. There is also a preliminary stage of planning and outlining, which takes up the first day or two.

Novel in a Month is packed with hints, tips and guidelines for novelists. Among the things I particularly liked were the 'population index' chart for developing characters, and Dan's P.L.O.T. plotting method, neither of which I had seen before.

Indeed, I thought Novel in a Month was particularly strong on plot and plotting methods. As well as the P.L.O.T. system, the course includes five top tips for plotting your novel, six universal plot archetypes, and so forth. My only slight reservation concerns the index card system that Dan advocates as an aid to plotting. Don't get me wrong, it's a great system, but personally I'd much prefer to work on my PC rather than start fiddling about with bits of cardboard. Still, it wouldn't be hard to adapt Dan's system to something a little more 21st century.

Other areas discussed in depth include dialogue, characterization, pacing, editing, viewpoint, writing in scenes ('show, don't tell'), and descriptive writing. Dan (correctly) emphasizes the importance of economy of style and resisting the temptation to overwrite. I can't help thinking, however, that he might have chosen a better example of this art than the late US science fiction author Isaac Asimov, entertaining though some of his short stories undoubtedly are (have you tried reading any of his 'Foundation' novels, though?). Perhaps I'm being a bit picky, however!

In addition to the main guide, you get five additional bonus items. These are as follows:

1. Getting Dialogue Down - a mini-guide to writing convincing (and correctly punctuated) dialogue.

2. How to Get Free Publicity for Your Novel - a 15-page guide showing how to get your book promoted on a shoe-string budget.

3. How to Get Celebrity Endorsements for Your Novel - if you've bought my Write Any Book in Under 28 Days course you'll know this already - but if not, the advice in this report will tell you exactly how to put this powerful technique to good use.

4. The Hottest Agents in the US and UK - this bonus guide contains over 40 pages of agent contact details, e-mail addresses, websites, guidelines, requirements, and so on.

5. 33 Techniques for Fine-Tuning Your Fiction - personally I think this is the most important and valuable of the bonuses. It shows you how to fine-tune your novel so that it stands out from the competition. Applying these 'advanced' techniques could make all the difference between having your book rejected and getting it accepted for publication.

Overall, Novel in a Month gets my recommendation as the most comprehensive course I have seen on writing a novel in the shortest possible time. If you are thinking of joining in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November, it could be the ideal guide to have at your side and on your PC. But even if you don't intend to try writing a complete novel in a month, it would still be a very useful guide to plotting and writing your first best-seller!

Contributions wanted for The Forever Story

I've just heard about a new collaborative writing project called The Forever Story.

The project launches today and aims to create the world's longest collectively written story. There are no fees on offer for writers, however; instead the project aims to raise a large sum of money for children with autism.

The money will be donated by the telecoms company TalkTalk. For every contribution to the story via the website at www.theforeverstory.com, TalkTalk will donate 1 UK pound (around $2 US) to the British children's autism charity Treehouse. The project press release explains:

There are around 100,000 children with Autism in the UK, with around half a million family members directly affected by the condition. We want to raise awareness of the work Treehouse does to alleviate the often huge financial and emotional pressures associated with looking after a child with Autism and raise the much needed money so their work can continue.

TalkTalk's donation target is 50,000 UKP, and to achieve that they are giving people the opportunity to write alongside some very well-known writers. The first 35 words have been written by Nick Hornby (author of About A Boy and other popular books and novels) and are as follows:

For the first nineteen years of his life, Johnny Razor wasn't Johnny Razor at all. He was Malcolm Weatherly, and he was born in Mile End Underground station on the night of 17th September 1940.

Anyone is welcome to continue the story by adding another 35 words or so at the website www.theforeverstory.com. Do just be sure to read (and/or listen to) as many of the preceding contributions as possible, so that your contribution fits in and makes sense.

Free Short Story Contest

I thought some of you might be interested in this free short story contest, which is sponsored by the DIY self-publishing company Wordclay.

They are actually running two parallel contests, one for a single short story and the other for a short story collection. To enter the latter, you have to have enough short stories to fill the pages of a 48-page book. The maximum length for a single story is 5,000 words.

There are some good prizes on offer for a free contest, including $500 for the winner in each category and $250 for the runner-up. There are also prizes of publication in book form by the sponsors for the other short-listed entries. You do have to register at the site before you can enter, but there is no obligation to buy anything. The closing date is 11.59 pm ET on 31 May 2008 (i.e. before 1 June 2008), so you have about a week to get your story (or stories) in. Once again, here is a link for further details.

Good luck if you decide to enter this contest!

Hardline Online Magazine Open for Contributions

Hardline Magazine is a new monthly online publication created by and for writers. It features both fiction and non-fiction writing: short stories, poetry, reviews and articles.

Hardline Magazine is co-edited by two members of my forum, Steve Sweeney and Ken Preston. The poetry editor is Amie Saramelkonian (whom forum members may know better as our moderator Saturnine).

The magazine exists primarily to showcase the work of unpublished, and self published, writers. It's free to view, and they are not currently paying any fees to contributors. There are, however, plans to run a contest in each issue, with prizes for the winning authors.

Even though it is non-paying, the editors are adamant that quality will be key to the success of the magazine. They write: 'Hardline has to be a project that bears the hallmark of quality - it will benefit no-one if the quality of writing is negligible. So, if you are going to submit a piece of work to Hardline, be it fiction or nonfiction, it needs to be tight, well-written and compelling. Hardline needs to showcase good writing if it's to gain attention, and a reading audience - please help us to help you. We eagerly await your contributions.'

Hardline Magazine is already attracting interest from established authors and publishers, thanks partly to groups that have been set up at the major social networking sites such as Bebo, Facebook, Technorati, and (especially) MySpace. According to Steve Sweeney, even before its official launch the Hardline Magazine website was attracting around 100 'hits' a day, and this figure is sure to go on rising.

If you are interested in submitting work to Hardline Magazine - and Steve has just put out a call for short stories for issue two - take a look at the launch issue, then go to the Contact page to see where your submissions and enquiries should be directed. Note that Hardline Magazine will soon be moving to a new, permanent home at www.hardlinemagazine.com.

More Interviews on WritersFM

My colleague Karl Moore of the online radio station WritersFM has been extremely busy. As I mentioned in this post, he recently interviewed the British author Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat and a dozen other published novels.

Well, now in short order he has added two more interviews. The first is with Jean Macleod, the 100-year old Mills & Boon romance author. Karl chats with her about her 130 novels, life during the war, and the secret to longevity!

And the other new interviewee is Francine Silverman, author of "Book Marketing from A-Z" and editor of the Book Promotion Newsletter. As you might expect, Francine offers some great advice on getting your book into the spotlight.

To hear any of these interviews, you can either wait for them to come round on the station's normal rotation, download them as podcasts, or (probably the easiest option) stream them from the radio station's Podcasts page. As with all WritersFM broadcasts, you will need to have a broadband/DSL Internet connection. WritersFM doesn't work on dial-up, I'm afraid!

Joanne Harris Interview on WritersFM

As mentioned recently in this blog post, Joanne Harris is the latest big-name writer to be interviewed on WritersFM, WCCL's Internet radio station for writers.

Joanne Harris is the British author of around a dozen novels, the most famous of which is Chocolat, which was also made into a film starring Juliette Binoche. Her latest novel, Runemarks, published in August 2007, is her first book for children and young adults. Her official website is at www.joanne-harris.co.uk, or clicking on any of the links from her name in this post will take you to the Wikipedia article about her.

The WritersFM Interview with Joanne was conducted by the station manager, Karl Moore, as usual. The interview runs to about an hour and is entertaining as well as being informative. As you might expect of a former school-teacher, Joanne is a clear and articulate interviewee.

Fans of Joanne Harris will particularly enjoy listening as she talks about her various books, and Chocolat in particular. As mentioned previously, I've only read one Joanne Harris novel so far, Gentlemen and Players, but I definitely plan to read some of her other books now. Actually, though, I thought the last twenty minutes or so of the interview were the most interesting, where Joanne talks about her writing methods and offers some tips for aspiring novelists. I recommend having a pen and paper in hand when listening to this!

To hear the interview, you can either wait for it to come around on the station's normal rotation, download it as a podcast, or (probably the easiest option) stream it from the radio station's Podcasts page. As with all WritersFM broadcasts, you will need to have a broadband/DSL Internet connection.

Happy listening!

What would YOU ask Joanne Harris?

My colleague Karl Moore of the online radio station WritersFM needs your help!

He has managed to line up an interview with the British author Joanne Harris this Thursday, 20 March. And he has asked me to put out a request to readers of my blog for any questions he can ask her.

For those who may not know, Joanne Harris is the author of around a dozen novels, perhaps the most famous of which is Chocolat, which was also made into a film starring Juliette Binoche. Her latest novel, Runemarks, published in 2007, is her first book for children and young adults. Her official website is at http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/, or clicking on any of the links from her name in this post will take you to the Wikipedia article about her.

I must admit that I haven't read Chocolat or seen the film. I did, however, read her more recent novel Gentlemen and Players on holiday a couple of years ago. I enjoyed reading it, although I guessed the "surprise twist" about a quarter of the way through! If you haven't read it, though, I do recommend it as an enjoyable thriller with some memorable characters and a good evocation of life at a minor English public school. I've put a link to the relevant page at Amazon.co.uk below...


Anyway, if you have any questions you would like Karl to put to Joanne Harris, do drop him a line. Write to him at karl AT karlmoore.com (changing the AT for the usual @ sign). Put his name ("Karl Moore") in the subject line, to avoid your email being blocked by his spam filters.

If you want to listen to the interview, it will be online at WritersFM on Friday 21 March, or very soon afterwards. And if you'd like more info about WritersFM, please see my recent blog post about the radio station.

Happy listening!

UPDATE! - I've just heard from Karl that unfortunately he has the flu, so his interview with Joanne has had to be put back to next Friday (28 March). So you still have time to send him any questions you would like asked! I'll let you know on this blog when the interview is available on WritersFM.

Free Short Story Contest

I recently heard about a new short story contest which, unusually, is free to enter. It's being run by Claire C (sorry, I don't know her full name) of the Bebo Author blog. Full details of the contest can be found by clicking on Bebo Author Short Story Competition.

The contest is for stories of at least 1000 words. There is no maximum word count, although as it IS a short story contest, I'd guess you probably shouldn't go over 10,000 words.

The contest is open to anyone - you don't have to be a member of the social networking site Bebo - and stories can be in almost any genre. Claire says: 'I don't want to restrict you but I don't want literotica or gore with the sole intention of making me sick.'

A variety of prizes is on offer. They include $50, $30 and $20 Amazon vouchers (or the equivalent in cash paid via Paypal), plus a growing range of other prizes donated by sponsors.

The contest judges are professional writer Samantha Priestley and Catherine Sharp, a technical writer who runs her own blog, Sharp Words. The closing date is Friday 21 March 2008 (so you don't have loads of time!). Stories have to be sent to Claire in the body of an email (no attachments) at claire-at-beboauthor.com (change the -at- to the usual @ sign). For more info, as mentioned, click through to the contest information page.

Good luck!

Station Shorts Anthology Published

I'm delighted to reveal that Station Shorts, an anthology of short fiction by members of my forum at www.mywriterscircle.com, has just been published on Lulu.com. You can visit the sales page here.

As the name suggests, all the stories in Station Shorts are set in the mysterious Station. This is a vast concourse occupied by fictional characters, both well known and unknown, whose authors are taking a break (or blocked) and don't therefore require them.

The idea was originally conceived by forum member Jeanette, and enthusiastically adopted by other members around the world (including the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand). This book represents the culmination of all their efforts.

The overall standard of work in Station Shorts is amazingly high (and no, I don't have any stories in it myself, though I did contribute a Foreword). You can read a sample story by 'Gyppo' titled If You Ain't Drinking... by clicking on Preview This Book on the Lulu.com sales page.

Finally, I should mention that Station Shorts is a 227-page printed book, and it is on sale at the very modest price of $10.80 US or 5.95 UK pounds, plus postage to anywhere in the world. All profits - not that there will be many at this price! - will be donated to the human rights charity Amnesty International.

Try Your Hand at Hypertext Fiction

Fiction writers have long (in Internet terms) been fascinated by the potential of the Internet as a medium for publishing fiction.

In particular, the ease by which it is possible to move from web page to web page via hyperlinks has led some writers to experiment in creating hypertext fiction, where readers can actively explore a story - and find different ways through it - using hyperlinks.

Programming your own hypertext fiction website isn't a task for the faint-hearted. But recently I heard from Jeremy Ashkenas about his Hypertextopia website, which provides a platform that anyone is free to use to try creating their own hypertext fiction (and, indeed, non-fiction).


Writing in Hypertextopia consists of creating so-called fragments and shards, moving them around on the screen, and drawing links between them (see picture above). It's a little like working with mind maps. Once you've written a Hypertextopia work, it can be presented via the site's Grand Library.

It's easier to try Hypertextopia for yourself than it is to explain it, so if you're interested in this concept, click on Hypertextopia and start by exploring some of the works that have already been published. In the case of at least one of them - Playground - you can log in anonymously and try editing the story yourself. This really does blur the distinction between reading and writing!

Hypertextopia is an intriguing project that can open your eyes to the potential of hypertext fiction, even though the quality of work published on the site so far is variable. At times I found the terminology used a little baffling, but the longer you explore and experiment in Hypertextopia, the better you come to understand it. If you're a fiction writer and fascinated by the potential of hypertext fiction, it's definitely worth a look.

Write a TV Ad for a Book!

In my blog last year I mentioned a contest held by thriller writer Dean Koontz to promote his new book The Good Guy. Contestants had to write and produce a 30-second video trailer for the book. All entries appeared on the video-sharing site YouTube, and as far as I know the winning entry was broadcast on US TV.

Well, UK publishers Little, Brown have decided to use a similar method to promote the new crime novel by the American author Patricia Cornwell, Book of the Dead. They are running a competition for people to create a 20-second TV ad for this book. Entrants have to shoot their own 20-second video, and/or submit a script and/or a storyboard for an ad (so you can still enter even if you don't own a video camera). The contest is only open to people in the UK and Eire, unfortunately, and you must be over 18.

Submissions must include a product shot (included in the competition kit) for a minimum of 5 seconds, so you really only have to come up with a 15-second advertisement. There is a top prize of 2500 UK pounds for the winning entry, which will be chosen by Patricia Cornwell herself from a shortlist of six.

For more details, and to download a competition kit, visit www.bookofthedead.hyptv.com. The closing date is Friday 29 February.

Good luck!

Representing Thoughts in Fiction

One of those queries that crops up regularly on my forum is how you should represent a character's thoughts in fiction. Here's my take on the subject...

First of all, this is a stylistic matter, not one of grammar. There is no single "correct" way to punctuate or otherwise represent a character's thoughts. Some authors put them in quotation marks, others use italics. I've even seen thoughts put in parentheses or ALL CAPS, though I certainly don't recommend that!

In fact, the most common approach nowadays is to avoid using any special punctuation or formatting to represent thoughts, and that is the style I would strongly recommend.

A crucial point here is that most stories today are written in scenes portrayed through the eyes of a single viewpoint character, whether first person (I) or third person (he/she). In such cases there is no need for any extra punctuation to signify a character's thoughts. The whole scene is, in effect, the thoughts and perceptions of the 'viewpoint' character. The example below - written in a third-person limited viewpoint - may illustrate why extra punctuation for thoughts is usually unnecessary.

"What time is it?" Julia asked.
That's the third time you've asked me in the last twenty minutes, John thought. Still, he checked his watch. "Five to eight," he said.
"Why aren't they here?" Julia asked. She stared at him. "Do you think they've been in an accident?"
"I doubt it," John replied. "Probably they just got held up in the traffic." Unless Pete's car has broken down again, he thought to himself.

If you tried putting quotation marks around the thoughts in this passage, you would end up with almost everything in quotes, and total confusion over whether the character was speaking or thinking. In general, the problem with using inverted commas around a character's thoughts is (a) it makes the text look cluttered, and (b) it invites confusion with speech.

So what about the alternative of using italics for thoughts? Yes, you can do this, but as mentioned above, when a scene is written from a limited viewpoint anyway (as is usually the case in modern fiction), there is no need to represent thoughts any differently from the rest of the text. And if it's unnecessary, why do it?

Using italics to represent thoughts also has a number of drawbacks. You are likely to waste a lot of time agonising over whether a particular line is a thought or a description. You will end up with much of your text in italics, which looks ugly and distracting. And finally, you will lose the option of using italics when, for some dramatic reason, extra emphasis is required.

So my advice is clear. NEVER use quotation marks for thoughts. If it's absolutely necessary to indicate thoughts in a special way, use italics (but mostly this shouldn't be required). And keep italics for their proper purpose, which is providing extra emphasis.

• Don't forget - there's much more advice on grammar, punctuation and spelling in my brand new course Essential English for Authors!

Flash Fiction Contest Results

I'm pleased to announce that the winners of the WCCL Flash Fiction Contest have been decided. To remind you, the contest was to write a short story in exactly 100 words, which included the six words mirror, subliminal, genius, white, cliff and clepsydra. In addition, entrants were asked to provide a title for the story of up to 15 words, which didn't count towards the 100 words for the story. The prizes for the three winning entries were copies of the full version of the popular WriteItNow novel-writing software from Ravenshead Services.

The contest was judged by me and my colleague Karl Moore, the managing director of WCCL. Overall, we were impressed with the standard of the entries, and in particular by the many ingenious methods that were used to incorporate the six key words, especially clepsydra. As you will know if you followed the hyperlink, a clepsydra is an ancient water clock, though if we had a suitable consolation prize to award, it would go to the contestant who decided to make it the name of an alien race!

Karl and I were looking for stories that, even in just 100 words, engaged us both intellectually and emotionally. Ideally we wanted to read stories where the six key words fitted into the story in a natural and unobtrusive way, rather than standing out like beacons. And, of course, we wanted stories that were well written, adhered to the 100 word requirement, and had been checked for spelling and grammatical mistakes. I'm pleased to say that our three winning stories, which I'll reveal shortly, met all of these requirements.

One small criticism concerns the number of entrants who failed to follow the rules set out in my original post, in particular the following, which I am copying verbatim: "Include the story in the body of your email (no attachments), and put the title of your story in the subject line. Please do NOT put anything else in the email apart from your story, as we will be judging the contest anonymously." I was surprised and disappointed by the number of people who failed to observe some or all of these rules. As we only had around 50 entries we decided in most cases not to disqualify these stories, but it made judging the contest anonymously (and therefore fairly) much more difficult. Judges in other contests may not be as forgiving as we were on this occasion, so please, if rules are set out, do try to observe them.

OK, that's the end of my mini-rant! Here then - in no particular order - are the names of the winning entries and their authors, followed by the stories themselves.

Long Distance by Anitra Budd
Magic to Die For by Amanda Hyatt
The Visions of My Life, as Seen Through Eyes That Grow Dim With Age by Shirla White

LONG DISTANCE

"White Cliff Palace." The voice was a Manhattan, all smoke and clinking ice.

"Mom? It's me."

"I know who it is, sweetheart." The subliminal murmurs of her clepsydra played in the background. "Now, what does my little genius want?"

"Just making sure you're alive."

"Charlie, save the sermon. I'm completely, utterly happy with my life and I don't intend to change. So you've got two choices: accept me, or go to hell and stop calling." Click.

No Mom, I thought as I slid to the restroom floor. There's another way. My fingers began redialing the numbers scrawled on the mirror.

MAGIC TO DIE FOR

I gazed in the mirror and marvelled at what subliminal lies lay submerged in the blurred reflection there. "A pretty face," they used to say, and "What beautiful hair." I'd come to believe them - even to see what they saw. Until Arthur. Clever, handsome Arthur. Genius - even in his beatings. But who was the genius now? I could see his white shirt, unbuttoned, blowing gaily as he stood on the cliff face, unaware that, like a clepsydra, the ebbing tide measured his final moments. I flung the white-shirted straw doll into the wind and watched him leap to his fate.

THE VISIONS OF MY LIFE, AS SEEN THROUGH EYES THAT GROW DIM WITH AGE

As my days grow shorter now, I am subliminally drawn to the mirror again. Here I can look back on my past. The vision of a young girl with long brown hair and enormous hazel eyes flits in and out of view. The white dress she wears billows in the wind as she laughs and plays.

This girl soon vanishes, and in her place is a weather worn cliff side manor. An ancient clepsydra in the court yard still measures the passing of time; the genius of this timekeeper still intrigues me.

Soon my visions fade, and I'm alone again.

The other short-listed entries were as follows. No prizes for their authors, I'm afraid, but all are highly commended:

Leap of Faith by Cherry Walker
At 98% of the Speed of Light, Your Clock Can Kill You! by Mark Jensen
Cliff's World by Constance Gardner
An Interlude by Nigel Edwards
The Curse of the Ancient Clepsydra by David Fredrickson

Congratulations to the winning and short-listed writers, and commiserations to those who did not win on this occasion. I hope all of you enjoyed entering the contest, and it will perhaps have stimulated your interest in writing these ultra-short stories. If so, there are many websites devoted to the form that you might like to check out - just enter "Flash Fiction" in a search engine such as Google and thousands of such sites will be listed.

Happy flash fiction writing!

Flash Fiction Contest Deadline Approaching!

I just wanted to remind you that the WCCL Flash Fiction Contest closes in two days time, on 31 August 2007 at 12 noon GMT.

The contest is to write a short story in exactly 100 words - no more, no less - which includes the following six words: mirror, subliminal, genius, white, cliff, clepsydra. In addition, you will need to provide a title of up to 15 words (this does not count towards the 100 words for the story).

Entry is free, and the best three stories submitted will win prizes of the popular WriteItNow novel-writing software from Ravenshead Services. This is the full version, which normally sells for $39.62 (US Dollars) or 19.95 UK Pounds. The winning stories will also be published on my blog and forum.

For full details of the contest, and how to enter, please click on this link. The results will be announced by the end of September. I don't think I'm giving away too much by saying that so far we have only received about 40 entries, so if you can come up with a compelling 100-word story that meets all the requirements set out above, you really do have every chance of scooping a prize.

Good luck, and happy flash fiction writing!

Short Story Radio Open for Submissions

Short Story Radio is a new Internet radio station seeking short stories to be professionally recorded and broadcast via the website. Here's an extract from an email about the service I received from the station manager, Ian Skillicorn:

We invite writers to submit previously unpublished stories and we choose a selection of the best to be recorded and broadcast on our website. All our chosen stories are recorded by professional actors; with music added for extra atmosphere, each recorded story is brought to life by our creative team.

There is no fee for submitting a story and recording and transmission fees for chosen stories are paid for by shortstoryradio.com.

Stories are available to listeners for six months and the writers of chosen stories receive a profile in the Our Writers section of the website. Visitors to shortstoryradio.com are increasing every week. We have had over 40,000 visitors to the website since we began in 2006. Many of our listeners are fellow writers and we also have thousands of English Language students from around the world who like to listen to our stories to practise their listening comprehension skills, while being entertained at the same time.

I checked out the website myself. I'd have to say I don't think it looks as professional as WCCL's Internet radio station WritersFM, but when I tried listening to some of the stories I was favourably impressed. Short Story Radio uses a neat little online audio player which seems to work very well, and the recording quality of the stories is excellent.

One thing that did concern me a bit was that writers do not get paid for having their stories broadcast on Short Story Radio. I asked Ian about this, and he replied as follows:

I appreciate your query about fees for writers. We aim to provide a platform for writers to have a professional broadcast of their story that otherwise would not be possible, which is why rather than offering a fee, we are covering all costs including bandwith, recording, editing, music clearance etc. With all these associated costs it simply wouldn't be possible to pay for stories and keep the website going. However, as we grow we do hope to explore commercial opportunities for the stories, through which everyone involved could be paid royalties.

So there you are. If you're looking for a platform for your short stories and don't mind not getting paid, Short Story Radio is worth checking out. Submissions are being accepted from now till September 12 2007 - here's a direct link to the submissions page. Although in general I think writers should be paid for their efforts, I can understand that funds may be tight at the moment. Hopefully as the service becomes more established, Short Story Radio may be able to start offering payments to their writers.

WCCL Flash Fiction Contest

I'm pleased to announce that my publishers WCCL, in association with Ravenshead Services, are running a flash fiction contest. What we want you to do is write a short story in exactly 100 words - no more, no less - which includes the following six words: mirror, subliminal, genius, white, cliff, clepsydra. In addition, you will need to provide a title of up to 15 words (this does not count towards the 100 words for the story).

Entry is free, and the best three stories submitted will win prizes of the popular WriteItNow novel-writing software from Ravenshead Services. This is the full version, which normally sells for $39.62 (US Dollars) or 19.95 UK Pounds. The winning stories will also be published on my blog and forum.

WriteItNow is available for both PCs and Macs. Among its many features, it includes a built-in word processor to write and store a complete novel (or novels). It will also keep background details of characters, events, locations and ideas, display charts of events and relationships, generate characters, names and ideas, and much more. It's basically a complete, all-in-one tool for planning, organizing and writing your novel. If you wish, you can download a free demo version from the WriteItNow website. This can do everything the full version can, except save stories and use add-ons.

I will be judging the contest myself, with a little help from my colleague Karl Moore at WCCL. We will be looking for a complete, entertaining and beautifully written short story, in which every one of the 100 words really does count. For more advice on writing flash fiction, check out the Wikipedia article referenced above, and also this excellent short article by Jason Gurley on the Writing World website. Don't forget that you must include the six words mentioned above as well!

The competition closing date is 31 August 2007 at 12 noon GMT, so you have plenty of time to get your entry in. Please send it by email to Contest-at-nickdaws.co.uk (change the -at- for the usual @ symbol). Include the story in the body of your email (no attachments), and put the title of your story in the subject line. Please do NOT put anything else in the email apart from your story, as we will be judging the contest anonymously. Only one entry is allowed per person.

The winning entrants will be notified at the email address they used to submit the story after judging has been completed, which will be at the end of September. Please don't use an email address you know you will be changing in the next two months, therefore!

If you have any queries or comments about this contest, don't send them to the email address above, as this is for contest entries only and messages will not be read until after the contest closing date. Please post them on my forum at the following topic: http://www.mywriterscircle.com/index.php?topic=9924.0

It just remains for me to wish you the very best of luck!

Harry Potter Day - Almost Here!

Well, I've ordered my copy from Amazon - have you ordered yours?!

The final volume in J.K. Rowling's phenomenally successful Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, goes on sale this weekend, and pundits are confidently predicting that it will be the fastest-selling book ever. The publishers announced a record-breaking 12 million copies for the first print run in the United States alone.

The massive sales, along with associated merchandising and film rights, will add to Rowling's already substantial personal fortune. In February 2004, Forbes magazine estimated this as 576 million UK pounds, making her the first person to become a billionaire (in US dollar terms) by writing books. By now, she must be well on the way to being a billionaire in UK Sterling terms as well.

When Rowling wrote her first book - only around ten years ago - she was a single mother living on welfare in a mouse-infested flat in Edinburgh. She was so poor she couldn't afford to heat her flat in the winter, so by day she sat in a local coffee shop with her baby daughter, nursing an espresso for hours as she worked on her manuscript. Rowling achieved her huge success despite these obstacles. It's one of the (many) great things about writing that there is no reason why anyone with hard work (and a little luck and talent) could not be as successful as she is.

And yes, I'm a Harry Potter fan, like most of the population. OK, she may not be the world's greatest literary stylist (though in my view she is still a very good writer). And many of the ideas in her books may not be entirely original. But her great talent is to write brilliantly constructed stories that grip the imaginations of readers of all ages. She has been widely credited with restoring the interest of children (and boys in particular) in reading, and that alone is a considerable accomplishment.

J.K. Rowling has said that she won't be writing any more Harry Potter novels, so I will be waiting with interest to see what she does next. With her great talent for storytelling, however, I'd expect to see her turn at some point to movie and TV scriptwriting. One thing is certain, whatever she does next, a little of the Harry Potter magic is certain to rub off on it!

Using Trademarked Terms in Fiction

A question that arises quite regularly on my forum is whether it's OK for writers to use trademarked terms in novels and short stories. In this topic posted the other day a member wanted to know if it would be OK to use the term Frisbee in her novel.

Meaning no disrespect to forum members, I have to say it's absurd to suggest that writers can never use trademarked terms. If that was the case, spies could never drive Aston Martins - they would have to use sports convertibles. And you could never have your hero popping into his local Macdonalds - it would have to be the Happy Burger Emporium, or some other made-up name.

Of course, I'm no lawyer. But if you look at some publishers' guidelines, you can gauge their views on the matter. To begin, here's a quote from the guidelines of Pearson Education:

"Use of a trademark in the text of a book that discusses or describes the product sold under the mark is considered a form of fair use and permission is not required."
Source: http://tinyurl.com/25794v

And here's a quote from the University of Colorado Style Guide:

"Many words and names are legally trademarked and should appear with initial capitals to acknowledge that fact. Also owners of such trademarks have a legal right to restrict the use of those trademarked terms to their specific product. As a result, avoid using trademarked names, like Kleenex and Xerox, as generic terms. Instead, use facial tissue and photocopier, unless you intend to refer to the trademarked brand name. A good dictionary will tell you whether commonly used words are trademarked and will also indicate if a trademarked term should be capitalized."
Source: http://tinyurl.com/2dd5pw

As these quotes indicate, there is generally no objection to using a trademarked term to describe an item in your book. You would need to give it an initial capital, and not use the term generically (e.g. in the case of Frisbee, mentioned earlier, as though it describes any flying plastic disk). As the first of the quotes above states, simply using a trademarked term descriptively in this way is regarded legally as "fair use".

Of course, if you are speaking disparagingly about a particular product or service, you may need to take care that you do not fall foul of the libel laws. However, in most instances that is unlikely, and if you do need to describe a badly designed product (say) in your novel, it might be prudent to give it an imaginary name or keep the manufacturer vague. Even so, a novel is quite different from a non-fiction book. If it is essential to your artistic vision for your hero to suffer a bout of food poisoning after visiting his local Macdonalds, you should not be afraid of writing it this way.

This matter of trademarks seems to worry many new authors, but in my view it's really not such a big deal. I can't think of a single actual case where an author has been prosecuted just for using a trademarked term. Bear in mind, too, that publishers have editors and legal departments whose job it is to worry about these matters. If they think there is a serious concern with what you have written, they will tell you (and ask for changes). And in the highly unlikely event that the company in question decides to sue, they will target the publisher rather than the author (they know most authors don't have any money!).

As writers, I believe it's important that we portray the world as realistically as possible. Part of that involves giving sharp, precise descriptions, and using trademarked terms is sometimes necessary to achieve this. As long as it is done in that spirit and the basic guidelines I have mentioned above are followed, I think it is highly unlikely you will encounter any problems.

Finally, if you want an example of a novel where the author uses trademarked terms with total abandon, take a look at Jennifer Government by the Australian author Max Barry. In this satirical, dystopian science fiction novel, the world is in the control of large corporations such as Adidas, and workers take on the surnames of the company that employs them. One of the key characters in the book, Hack Nike, is told by his employer that as part of his job he must shoot a number of teenagers, to generate hysterical news coverage about the company's new line of trainers.

OK, I am still faintly amazed that Barry and his publishers got away with this, but he has a nice disclaimer at the start of the book which concludes, "Any resemblance to actual people is coincidental and the use of real company and product names is for literary effect only and definitely without permission." So that's all right then!

Tense in Fiction

One thing all fiction writers try to achieve is a sense in the reader that the events described are taking place as he or she reads about them.

So it's a bit of a paradox that most novels and short stories are written in the past rather than the present tense. And yet, for reasons that go back to the origins of storytelling, past tense sounds more natural to us when reading or listening to a story. We don't notice the tense and - with a well-written tale - simply become immersed in the events unfolding.

You can, of course, write a story in the present tense. Because this is less familiar to readers, however, they may feel less comfortable with it, and there is a risk they will notice the unusual style rather than becoming engrossed in your story. Stories written in the present tense can also look mannered and self-conscious.

Of course, good writers can and do write short stories, and even novels, in the present tense. The US writer Alison Lurie's novel Foreign Affairs begins as follows:

On a cold, blowy February morning a woman is boarding the ten a.m. flight to London, followed by an invisible dog. The woman's name is Virginia Miner: she is fifty-four years old, small, plain and unmarried - the sort of person that no one ever notices, though she is an Ivy League college professor who has published several books and has a well-established reputation in the expanding field of children's literature.

And the whole novel continues in the present tense. It's an unusual approach, yet as a reader you quickly get used to it (it helps that Ms Lurie is a highly accomplished author, of course). I'd be hard put to say exactly why the author chose to write the book in the present tense or whether it would be any the worse if written more conventionally in the past. It does certainly give the novel a distinctive "voice", however.

Even so, I'd always advise a new writer, and especially a new novelist, to write in the past tense. Apart from anything else it's what publishers are accustomed to, and if you write in the present tense you are giving yourself an additional obstacle to overcome to get your work accepted.

Another problem with writing in the present tense is that it's fatally easy to stray into the past tense by accident. As I mentioned above, we're all so used to past tense narration, it's easy to fall into it without even noticing. A story that switches to past tense in the middle (unless for a very good reason) then switches back to the present again is likely to be returned to the author in short order.

And finally, if you write in the present tense, you need to be very careful when referring to events that occurred in the characters' past. In ordinary, past-tense narration, we use the pluperfect tense to introduce such "flashbacks":

Mary smiled and sipped her tea, remembering when they first met. It had been a cold November morning...

If using the present tense, however, you need to use the simple past tense instead:

Mary sighs and sips her tea, remembering when they first met. It was a cold November morning...

It would be perilously easy to write "It had been" in the second example as well, yet this would be incorrect, or at least very poor style. If you are writing in the present tense, when referring to events in your characters' past, you should use the simple past tense rather than the pluperfect (past participle with "had").

To sum up, then, I highly recommend sticking to the past tense in your fiction. But if you want to experiment with writing in the present tense, be very careful you don't switch to the wrong tense at some point in the narrative. It's possible to make this mistake when writing in the past tense, of course, but it's much, much easier to get your tenses in a twist when writing in the present!

More Opportunities for Writers

Several new opportunities for writers have been posted recently on the Writers Wanted board of my forum, so I thought I'd quickly run through them.

First up, my regular clients Lagoon are looking for a UK-based maths teacher or educational author to write a multiple-choice quiz book based on National Curriculum requirements. You will need a good knowledge of Key Stage 2 Maths.

If you are interested, apply to Nikole Bamford at nikolebamford-at-thelagoongroup.com. Obviously, change the -at- in the email address to the usual @ symbol.

Lagoon are leading publishers of novelty and quiz book titles. They pay a flat fee rather than royalties. I have written dozens of products for them over the years, and they are always a pleasure to work with. If you apply to Nikole, do say hello to her from me!

The second opportunity was posted by our long-standing member Smiley, and again it is most likely to be of interest to UK authors. Indeed, it will only be relevant if you live in the south-west (or are willing to move there), as the job is in Exeter. The advert is copied below:

Experience of creative writing? Strong proof reading skills? Passionate about the English language? If so read on...
We have an exciting and highly unusual opportunity for someone with strong language skills to join a growing company in their Exeter offices. You will be providing assistance to the Editorial Manager, and ideally will have some creative writing experience. A strong team ethic is required, along with some previous office administration experience for this busy and varied post. You will be liaising with clients, planning work schedules and writing short stories/activity books, etc. for a children's market. This is truly a unique opportunity for Exeter, and if you have a natural ability with words, or perhaps an English degree - don't delay - apply immediately!

Click on this link - kindly provided by Smiley - to visit the job site where this vacancy is being advertised. If you're looking for a full-time writing position and are lucky enough to live in the Exeter area, it should be your dream job, I'd have thought!

The next opportunity is open to anyone in the world. A US-based publishing house is currently seeking submissions of short stories from 2000 to 5000 words for a new anthology to be titled One Step Beyond: Rocking Tales of the Fantastical. As the name suggests, stories should be in the fantasy genre, with a rock 'n' roll element. This is a paying market, and the final deadline is October 1 (submissions by August 1 preferred). For more info, click here to visit the relevant topic on my forum.

Finally, my colleague Suzie Harris is in the process of launching her own online women's magazine. Quite a few forum members have already signed up as contributors, but if you're interested I'm sure it's not too late to get in touch! The magazine will be called Perfume and Lace, and the website is already up and running. Here's a link to the topic on my forum where the magazine is being discussed.

Good luck if you decide to apply for any of these opportunities!

24-Hour Short Story Contest

If you enjoy writing short stories, here's a contest with a difference that may interest you.

The contest is run by the freelance writing ezine Writers Weekly. The difference (compared with most such contests) is that the topic will not be made known to writers until 24 hours before the deadline. In other words, once you know the topic required, you will then have just 24 hours to write and submit your story.

There are a lot of things I like about this contest. One is that it is limited to just 500 entries (once that figure has been reached, no further pre-registrations will be accepted). In addition, there are over 85 prizes, so you really do have a decent chance of winning something. And finally, the entry fee is a modest $5 (about 2.50 UK pounds), and anyone in the world is welcome to enter.

As with the contest theme, the word count will not be revealed until 24 hours before the deadline. The organisers say that this is to stop people writing their story in advance, then just making a few minor changes to incorporate the set topic.

The start time for the next quarterly contest is 28 July 2007 at 12:00 p.m. (noon) Central Time. If you fancy a writing challenge - and know you will have some time available on 28/29 July! - in my view it's well worth checking out this contest. Don't forget, though, to scroll down the contest information page to read the FAQs and tips for entrants.