True love and inspiration

On Saturday night, the women of the Ciren Writers Group - joined most thrillingly and unexpectedly by the lovely Katie Fforde - headed out for a spot of dinner and the True Love session at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. The session featured Jill Mansell, Adele Parks and Penny Vincenzi in a panel interview. Jill Mansell was the key attraction for me when I booked - I think she nails perfectly the funny end of women's fiction - but I'm now also keen to try some Adele Parks as she was simply charming on the stage.

The session was full of interesting anecdotes and pieces of advice from three very successful novelists. Rather than summarise the whole thing, I thought I'd just put down the bits that are sticking in my memory now...

Jill Mansell's hand-written manscripts are typed up by her daughter (formerly her mother), so there is no, um, you know, in her books. I'd never noticed so they clearly don't suffer from the lack of them.

For Adele Parks, true love is all about forgiveness for the daily little things. I couldn't agree more with this. Sometimes I'm utterly horrid to my husband and he's still here, being supportive and generally wonderful. Similarly, I stick around, even though he always leaves the makings of his after work snack on the kitchen bench...

Penny Vincenzi's suggestion for writing ensemble novels is to construct a list of names of the characters and place a tick next to them when they're mentioned. In this way, you can see when you're forgetting someone. I haven't tried an ensemble approach, but it seemed like a useful tip.

Thanks to these women and the encouragement of the writing group, I came home and spent my baby's nap time on Sunday working on my main character for my new novel.

The Cirencester Writers' Group

I mentioned last October that, after the Cheltenham Literature Festival, I was setting up my own Writers' Group. I thought I'd take some time to put down the two common pitfalls of writers groups - both of which I've tried to avoid in my own.

Pitfall one: amateur hour

Let's face it, nearly everyone has plans to write a novel at some point. We all fancy ourselves as expert graspers of the English language (is 'graspers' a word? Oh well) and believe that we have something to say that will thrill everyone else. However, most people with such a dream fall at the first hurdle, which is to put anything down in writing. A goodly number fall at the second hurdle, which is to put anything down in writing that is readable. Then, nearly all the rest fall at the third hurdle, which is to put anything down in writing that is publishable.

People who are going to fall at hurdles two or three are those who tend to attend writers' groups. I have, however, met a woman who wanted to join my group, despite telling me that she was an artist and had no plans to be a writer...she just liked 'creative people'. Oddball. Anyhoo, I wanted to find those people who were on the way to the finish line, rather than those who were never going to make it past hurdle two or three. After all, if I want to make it, I want advice and support from people who are likely to make it themselves.

So, when I asked people to join my writers' group, I specified that it must be for people who are serious about their writing. Only those who were intent on reaching that finish line of publication were invited.

Pitfall two: style wars

I want to write commercial fiction. I see no shame in this. Why on earth should I? Wouldn't all writers want their work to be read and appreciated widely? Well, no. Unfortunately not. Many writers (even published ones, but I've personally found many unpublished ones to be worse about this) think that the sign of good writing is that nine-tenths of the population have no idea what they're rabbiting on about. Not me. The last thing I wanted for my writers' group was a wannabe writer looking down their nose at the rest of us while we groped our way through their muddy prose, informing us that we didn't have the intellect to understand.

So, when I asked people to join my writers' group, I specified that it was for people who wanted to write commercial fiction. And, by commercial fiction, I meant anything that sells well.

The story so far...

So far, it's gone really well. I started off with fourteen names and email addresses at the Cheltenham Festival, and ended up with seven people turning up regularly.

Like all groups who gather, we tend to wander off into chat when the opportunity presents itself, but I feel like I've learnt so much from each of the people who've joined. We each share our work and invite comments, and I've found that I put time and effort into the feedback I give as well. One of our number has even secured an agent! (yes, I admit, I'm madly envious, but it just spurs me onwards!)

And, you never know, perhaps in a few years, a publisher or agent somewhere might wonder about how it came to be that so many new authors hail from around the Cirencester area...

The Cheltenham Literature Festival 2010

The past few months have brought with them a lull in my writing and hence also in this blog. After being unable to go days without scrabbling for my laptop, a form of writer's block descended upon me alongside nausea, exhaustion and some fairly intense mood swings.

Noone ever told me that writer's block was one of the symptoms of pregnancy.

So, to kick-start my writing and celebrate the onset of the second trimester, I bought tickets to the Cheltenham Literary Festival. I'd been a year or two ago and really enjoyed the workshop I went to but, as I was living in London at the time, I'd been limited to just the one. This year, being conveniently located just down the road in Cirencester, I booked myself into no less than five workshops.

I have to give the people who run that festival their dues. Everything was run like a well-oiled, yet personable, machine. My tickets (costing just £20 per workshop, which seems very cheap to me) arrived weeks in advance and were pinned happily on my noticeboard. As the day for the first workshop neared, I pulled them down and re-read through what I'd signed up for.

Writing Convincing Dialogue, with Jacob Ross.

Setting the Scene, with Helen Cross.

Writing a Good Plot, with Owen Sheers.

Writing Convincing Characters, with Trezza Azzorpardi.

and

Writing Romantic Fiction, with Katie Fforde.

The funny thing about writers leading workshops is that it's a stretch for most of them. People who are skilled at sitting in a room and composing beautiful or interesting sentences aren't necessarily going to be those who are the best at engaging with a room full of people. But, I have to say that I was really impressed with all of these writers and the care they took to give feedback and encourage the writing of others.

Of course, it's not so easy for us in the room, either. I must admit to a momentary envy that flickers when I see someone who has achieved success in writing, especially if they seem young. Irrational? Certainly. Writing may be competitive to get into but once you're through that first gate, it's hardly a blood sport. I suppose I'd be better off sabotaging the writing efforts of those trying to get representation...

Joking.

A couple of presenters stood out for me. Coming out on top was Katie Fforde, who despite confessing to being quite a shy person naturally, led a funny, constructive and oh-so-encouraging workshop on the final day. Perhaps my favourite moment was when she said that writing takes perseverence and talent, and probably more of the former. None of us really know if we have talent until an agent takes an interest. Perseverence I can do.

Another notable workshop for me was Setting the Scene, with Helen Cross. It is perhaps unfair in one sense to highlight this workshop as we had the benefit of just eight attendees (compared with up to 30 at Katie Fforde's). This gave us all the opportunity to write and get feedback individually (many of the workshops had us writing in pairs or groups, which is a nightmare of negotiation and dissatisfaction in my view). Helen also won my affection forever by reading the first few pages of my as-yet-unsuccessful second novel and giving me some feedback. I'd given myself three chapters to get into the action, but she said I need to move even faster. Good to know, and something I'll be working on in the coming weeks.

One final end result of the festival has been my initiation of a new writers' group for people focussed on commercial fiction - ie, getting published, getting bought and getting read. Hopefully this will also contribute to keeping my fictional motor running and getting those fingers tapping over the next few months.