Author: lindaspurrblog

Blog for January/February 2025

Courses for Writers

I mentioned back in November that I would write about some of the courses I have done over the years – the good and the not-so-good bits. The good ones I have named. The not-so-good ones I haven’t, because they might well have improved by now. And there hasn’t been a single course that I’ve attended where I haven’t learned something about writing.

Firstly, why should you, as a writer, go on a writing course?

  1. As I said above, you WILL learn something new, however experienced a writer you may be, and whatever your genre and level of expertise.
    It may be about writing itself – structure, plot, characterisation, dialogue, pacing etc. It may be about the basics – grammar and punctuation.
    You will also learn about publishing and selling your writing, including editing, agents, submissions, competitions, self-publishing and marketing. Things have changed so much in publishing even in the past ten years that it’s well-worth keeping up to date with how the industry works.

2. Feedback is SO important for writers, and courses can be a really good way of finding out if your writing works for other people – both the experts running the courses and your fellow writers.

3. Going on courses will motivate you into improving and continuing your writing. There’s nothing like a few days or a week being totally immersed in writing to keep you going and realising what you are capable of.

4. Taking part in course exercises or working on your own projects will increase your portfolio. Nothing you write need ever be wasted. Make sure you keep all your writing – who knows? A suitable competition might crop up, while trends in subject matter change all the time.

5. And writing courses can be very sociable. You may well develop new friendships and even a writing buddy or two!

Courses can be in person or, nowadays, there are so many online opportunities.
The courses that I have found the most useful in recent years have been online with the Curtis Brown literary agency.

I did one six-week course in which there was a recorded video lesson every week from an established writer in my chosen genre, plus exercises, some of which you were encouraged to submit to fellow writers for feedback. At the end, you could also pay an extra fee for tutor feedback.

4-week courses cost from £135; 6-week courses £230; 3, 6 and 8-month courses range from £1500 upwards.

Here’s the link to the Curtis Brown page.

Curtis Brown also run online Bootcamps – these are for a month at a time, where you are given a prompt every day for a 700-word piece and asked to submit a piece every three days for feedback from fellow participants. I did two of these bootcamps and found them ideal to get me back into a regular routine. They are extremely reasonably priced at £40 each.

Hundreds of courses

If you search for writing courses on the Worldwide Web, you will find hundreds. They can be run by literary agents, colleges, groups, companies and individuals. I would suggest trying to find someone who’s been on the course that interests you – personal recommendation is the best. Or contact the course provider to ask the questions you have.

Not at all conducive

Having said that, a writing friend went on a most productive retreat down in Devon. Daytime was spent writing in your own room or, if preferred, in quiet company in the public areas. All meals were provided. In the evenings, there was plenty of writerly chat with other participants, with readings and critiquing.
I went to the same place more recently and was dismayed to find that I was the only writer of three people staying that week – the other two having won the retreat in a (non-writing) competition. I didn’t find my room particularly conducive to writing all day, and having to creep along a corridor to the bathroom at night was the last straw – I didn’t stay long!

Out of action

And there was the time I went on a residential week’s course in Wales. I’m not naming the venue as the week turned into a disaster! A rather virulent tummy bug hit nearly all the participants. I was out of action for two days and just managed to drive home afterwards instead of joining friends to climb Snowden! But the course itself did give me valuable feedback on the opening of a novel which I am now editing with a view to self-publishing later this year. I was also introduced to the Zig-Zag method of cause and effect for story writing which I now use for all my stories. And I still have, and refer to, my notes on the tutored sessions I was able to attend!

Finally I want to mention a place that I absolutely loved in the eighties and nineties: the Earnley Concourse in West Sussex. It was an adult residential learning centre offering a whole host of courses in a lovely setting, complete with garden peacocks! I attended eight courses there, on art, croquet and photography, as well as three excellent writing courses.

One of those was run by Frederick E Smith, author of the novel 633 Squadron which was made into a film starring Cliff Robertson and George Chakiris (on TV again this Christmas!). Such a shame the centre closed many years ago and the site is now being considered for housing.

I hope I’ve given you some encouragement to look at going on a writing course. Do let me know if you have your own experiences to share here.
Next time, I’ll write about Creative Writing webinars and websites.

Happy writing!

Linda

December Blog

Free Writing – a device to get you going

When did you last sit down and do a few minutes of free writing? That’s just writing, without editing, without judging, without taking your pen off the page or your fingers from the keyboard.

It’s a really well-used, traditional writing device that can
get you going;
help get round any anxiety or mental block;
build up writing stamina and muscles and
create a daily routine.

Free writing was originally developed by Peter Elbow, a professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1973. His idea was that you wrote for a few minutes, took an idea or word from that freewriting and used that idea to free write for another few minutes. This process could then be carried on for as long as you wanted.

Peter Elbow

Nowadays it tends to mean you can write about absolutely anything – a stream of consciousness, thoughts on waking, a rant at someone or something, a character profile, what you’re going to do today – anything that takes your fancy and gets you writing.

It’s not, usually, meant to be shared but if you’re with your writing buddy or in a group, then you can, of course, if you want to. Otherwise, free writing can be just left, or even erased, having done its job in getting you started. It might, though, result in an idea for future writing; a couple of paragraphs might be used in a short story or whatever your work-in-progress may be.

Brilliant motivator

I was reintroduced to this writing device a few weeks ago when I went on an excellent course in Portsmouth – Write Your Historical Novel – run by William Sutton. He’s a brilliant tutor and motivator so I was “happy” to put up with rather cold room we were in! He used free writing exercises in every session. He usually gave us a topic, or the choice of several, and we could do what we liked with the exercise. Some of the writers were just beginning their novel-writing journey, others were some way into their novels, and a couple, like myself, had finished the writing and were now starting the editing process.

Whatever the topic, I found I was able to relate it to my novel enabling me to

a) take a fresh look at particular scenes,
b) use a different point of view and
c) come up with interesting plot changes.

The idea of just writing, with no judgement, seemed to free me up from what I had planned. I’m definitely a planner, not a pantser, so this came as a bit of a surprise.

I’ve kept my free writing exercises all in one notebook and I have to say that I have found them extremely useful as I work through my novel, taking on board various critiques that my Beta-readers have suggested.

I’ll just add here that William had a whole host of excellent ideas and advice relating specifically to Historical Novel writing. He runs different workshops and classes so if you are in or near the Portsmouth area, do have a look at his website. Click here.

Christmas writing suggestion

I know we’re all getting really busy preparing for the festive season – lunches, dinners, shopping, friends, family, Christmas TV, cards and presents. But even amid all this activity, you might find you have the odd five minutes to keep up your writing.

It might be a lot to ask you to continue with your work-in-progress with all the distractions around! So you could use those little bits of time to free write. It might be for 2 minutes or 5, or, as we found in our sessions, you just want to carry on! It’ll be a break from the mince pies and sherry, and it will keep you writing.

And to help you get started, there are 20 Christmas prompts on the new Prompts page. Click here.

Do let me know if that’s helpful for you.

Have a lovely Christmas and wishing you all the best for 2025.

Happy writing!

Linda

November blog

Solo or Sociable

What sort of writer are you? And is there a right or wrong way?

This month I thought I’d address the topic of how do we write – completely alone, with someone, or in a group? What’s best and what might work for you?

We all have our own way of writing, and it might change depending on what we’re writing, our mood and our situation. On holiday, I like nothing better than to go to a beach, preferably where there’s no-one else about. If it’s warm, I’ll sit on the beach; if not, in the car. Staring out at the waves invariably puts me in a good mood and I have spent many hours writing happily in such a state.

At home, I’m fortunate to have a small office that looks out onto my garden. And although this is where I do a lot of writing, unless I’m really in the “zone”, I find there are too many distractions. You’ll probably recognise some!

  • that flower bed definitely needs weeding
  • I must put the bins out
  • a friend has phoned up for a chat
  • I’ll just Google that research point
  • just a quick peak at my e-mails!

Is writing alone the way to go?

If you read the opinions of famous writers, it would seem so!

Ernest Hemingway said: ” Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. You must be prepared to work always without applause.”
Gustave Flaubert: “Writing is a lonely life, but the only life worth living.”
Franz Kafka: “Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.” 
And on a brighter note! Margaret Atwood: Writing is alone, but I don’t think it’s lonely. Ask any writer if they feel lonely when they’re writing their book, and I think they’ll say no.

No distractions

What these writers are saying is that the actual physical work of writing is best done on one’s own with no distractions. But I firmly believe there is a place for writing with others, and meeting and/or socialising with other writers. There are so many options: it’s just a case of finding what works for you.

  • A writing buddy
    A fellow writer you’re happy to spend time with, in person or, if circumstances demand, on a screen. You might talk about writing; you might swap pieces and critique them; you might spend the time in relative silence to write.
  • A group of writers
    The group could meet weekly, set homework, read out and critique each other’s work. They could be monthly meetings, some with a guest speaker, others as manuscript critiques.
  • Classes/workshops
    Many adult education colleges run these, so too do individual writing groups, writers, publishing companies etc etc. They vary – in quality, makeup of participants and price! Personal recommendation is probably one of the best ways to choose. I love them! I always manage to get motivated by going to a class, and if you find a really good tutor, that’s a bonus, so too a writing buddy.
  • Residential writing courses
    Many are held in lovely parts of the country with meals all catered, one-to-one sessions, guest speakers and critiquing sessions. They tend to be attract what I term “serious” writers and can be very sociable.
  • Online courses
    These seem to have proliferated in the last ten years with publishing houses in particular offering a whole range of topics. Again, some are quite pricey. They can vary from one-day webinars, to three or six-week or even six-month courses, with some offering the opportunity to critique each other’s work.
  • Free online courses
    These often take the form of webinars – often by authors, agents, editors and publishers. I find the half-hour ones the most accessible as anything longer, I have found, can deviate from the main topic and you end up not getting much out of them. Again, speak to your fellow writers and ask which ones they recommend.

In the New Year I hope to blog a bit more about courses, telling you about the ones I’ve found useful and enjoyable. If anyone has similar stories they’d like to tell, please do send them via the Feedback button.

So, is it best to go Solo? My preference to is to write on my own, in silence, resisting telephone calls and emails. And then, to go to any or all of the above to be sociable, and to keep up my motivation and learning.

Happy writing.

Linda

October/November blog

How much is too much?

Do you like reading paragraphs or even pages of description? Do you love every detail of every place, building, street, garden, house, furniture, person and their pets in a story?

Or do you sometimes find yourself skipping over some of those paragraphs, hoping to find the action or conversation that will take the story forward.

It is too easy to include a lot of information in fiction writing, believing it to be essential to the story. But when there is a description overload, then I feel the author hasn’t given enough thought as to what the story needs.

…there is a fine line between precision and self-indulgence

This is a quote from Natalie Goldberg’s book Writing Down the Bones – one of my favourite “How To” books on Creative Writing. It was written in 1986, sold more than a million copies and has been translated into 12 languages. (See link below)

I came across this particular quote when I was reading a few chapters (they are very short) the other day, hoping for inspiration. I got it! What immediately came to mind was those long passages of description that I have, unfortunately, been reading (or skipping) in quite a few books recently.

What is description? It could be setting the scene, describing someone’s clothes, or taking the reader through a five-course meal.

Please don’t get me wrong: I am very much in favour of using personal experience and/or research to bring authenticity to a story – you have to if you don’t want bland writing that doesn’t connect with your readers.

But how much is enough?

We’ve all probably done some research for a story, whether it’s the latest technology for a sci-fi tale, or what clothes they wore in the 15th century. Having done the research, we want to put it to good use. But that is the point at which you, the writer, must identify what the READER needs to know, rather than what YOU know.

Ernest Hemingway had his “Iceberg” theory: “If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.”

Over-writing is often described as PURPLE PROSE – writing that is showy, overly flowery; drawing attention to itself rather than progressing the story.

Sadly, new writers often tell me that “the words just poured out of me, so they have to be good, don’t they?”

I’m afraid not. That’s PURPLE PROSE at its worse – masquerading as words that flow when they and the plot have been well thought out and the author is thinking about every word.

How to avoid Purple Prose or
The dividing line between precision and self-indulgence:

  • Try not to use too many adverbs and adjectives – stronger verbs and nouns are far more effective. Using too many weakens the verb or noun while the occasional adverb or adjective will make much more impact.
  • Don’t search for fancy verbs – keep them simple but strong.
  • By all means use similes and metaphors, but not too many and certainly not too close together. With metaphors and similes we are trying to give the reader an image but they will only get confused if there are too many different metaphors and similes close together.
  • Don’t describe everything. Keep descriptions to the things that matter to your story.
  • Try to mix descriptions with action and dialogue.
  • Only use vocabulary that your Point of View character would use.
  • Always think of what the reader needs to know (and how much they need to know) rather than what YOU know.

Don’t mistake Purple Prose for Literary Writing. We could spend hours discussing what, exactly is Literary Fiction! Authors of literary fiction are experts at using the right adjective at the right time, the right amount of description and the right words, even long ones, at the right time. Their writing flows and is beautiful to read. In addition to using metaphors and similes in the right place, they often employ other literary devices such as hyperbole and personification.

Genre writing on the other hand tends to be more direct, with more conversation and often more action. I believe it is just as hard to write good genre fiction as it is to write literary fiction. The choice is yours!

Happy writing!

Linda

Click here if you’d like to buy Natalie Goldberg’s book.

Autumn Blog

September – October 2024

Editing Part 2

Last month we looked at the WHEN and BIG PICTURE of editing. This month, I’m looking at some of the best ways to read your writing, what you should be looking for and where to go for help.

HOW

It’s all too easy when reading our own writing to read what we think we wrote. So here are some suggestions to get over that:

  1. ALWAYS read your work out loud. It’s so much easier to hear mistakes such as unintentional repetition of certain words and phrases, badly constructed sentences, too many adverbs, no change of pace. By reading it out loud, you will also notice typos and misspellings.

2. If you’d like someone else to read your writing out loud, you’ll need a very understanding writer friend! Or you can use the Read Aloud facility on your computer (you may need to have a word processing package subscription to use this).

I’ve set up a new page Computer Tips where you’ll find how to do this with MS Word. Computer voices have improved a lot over the years, and I’ve just had a very nice woman read this all back to me!

3. If you can, print out your work before reading it out loud and editing it. A change of medium often helps as it will come over as a “new” piece of writing. I use a red pen to mark any mistakes which are then easily identifiable when correcting back on the screen.

4. If you are editing on the screen, then highlight the whole piece of writing and change the font.

Don’t be tempted to try one of the more outlandish fonts that Microsoft Words offers, like Algerian or Broadway. They are fun to experiment with if, say, you are designing a poster. But for any length of writing, they are difficult to read.

I usually change from Times New Roman to Ariel and then back again when I’ve finished editing and I’m going to send it off. Times New Roman is an industry standard, so it actually makes sense to set your word processing package to using that font all the time (the default font).

Have a look on YouTube – I’ve found a couple of videos that explain it. And you’ll find my guide on How to change your default font on the new Computer Tips page.

5. Alternatively, changing the colour of the font can have a similar effect, making you read your writing more carefully.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Mostly, you’ll be looking for consistency, such as the spelling of names, place and proper nouns.
Dialogue tagging – have you stuck to he said, she said, rather than use a lot of fancy alternative.
Grammar – reading out loud should help you pick up errors.
Punctuation.
Unintentional repetition of words or phrases.  
Exceptionally long sentences.

WHO CAN HELP

You can, of course, do all this editing yourself. But it’s all too easy to read what you think you’ve written. If you have writing buddies who are willing, then my suggestion would be to ask them to do specific editing eg are they engaged by the characters? Another friend might like to read your writing as a reader – does it grab them and make them want to read to the end? Another friend might be good at spotting typos, grammar and punctuation mistakes.

Another option is to use editing packages – free and paid-for..

You will have to look at each one to see what it offers. Some are free but then offer more features if you pay.

Grammarly
Prowritingaid
Hemingway editor
Autocrit

The one I have used several times is Authors AI. You can have your whole novel analysed for free, and for $45, you get a more detailed report – mine was 30+ pages long! Their web address is authors.ai

You can always pay for a full editing check of your writing – costs vary enormously. You can be charged by the word, the page, by the hour or a flat fee.

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading charge £25+ per hour for proofreading and £34 per hour for developmental editing.

The Literary Consultancy charge £1000+ for up to 60,000 words.

The Oxford Editors charge £820 for 100,000 words.

Some professional companies also offer Zoom meetings, express delivery, mentorship etc – all at extra costs.

Have confidence

As with all outside editors (whether free, friends or professionals), it is totally up to you what you do with the feedback. My advice? Read what they say but have confidence in your own writing.

Once you are happy with your editing, you might want your mother/auntie/boyfriend to have another read. I can guarantee they won’t spot the edited adjectives and adverbs, the change from passive to active verbs, the shortened (or lengthened) sentences. But they might just say “That reads really well now! I didn’t notice any difference.”

Only YOU will know the work that has gone into making your writing that much better.

Happy writing!

Linda

August/September blog

I’ve written it – now what?

A guide to Editing – part 1

Whether you are a Pantser or a Plotter, whether you write every day or only when the Muse strikes, everyone’s writing will need EDITING.

There may be some writers out there who write perfect prose as soon as they put pen to paper or keyboard to screen. I have not yet come across them and I firmly believe everyone’s writing can benefit from editing. I have been told, on more than a few occasions, “But my mother/auntie/boyfriend has read it and they think it’s fine!”

Yes, lovely feedback! But are they writers? Do they understand about structure, characters and plot; punctuation and grammar; passive verbs, repetition, cliches. You do! And you are the person to do the first edit, before you even think about letting others see your writing.

So I’ve divided the subject of Editing into sections, two of which are addressed in this blog, with the rest to follow next month – yes, there’s a lot to editing!

  1. WHEN

It is ALWAYS a good idea to have a break after you finish your first draft. I can offer suggestions as to how long the break should be, but only you can decide what works for your writing. A short story, for example, could be left for a couple of days, or a week, before you read it again with a critical eye. A novel: much longer. Zadie Smith is said to recommend two years. That may or may not suit your lifestyle or your writing ambitions!

The idea of a break is to give you distance from your work, so that when you return, you can read it like a reader, not the writer. That way you are more likely to identify errors. So, take a break and you’ll see your writing with clearer eyes in order to edit.

    2. THE BIG PICTURE

    This is what’s called Developmental Editing, where you take a look at your whole piece of writing, whether short story, article, novel or play, and just read it through. You should be seeing if the whole thing hangs together, makes sense and is entertaining. Here are some questions you need to ask, mostly for fiction but many apply to other forms of writing too.

    Does the beginning grab you?
    Do you want to read on?
    Is it obvious who your main character – the protagonist – is?
    Does the reader know what your protagonist wants, what their goal is?
    Can your reader empathise with your protagonist?
    Does your story start actively? No long set-up, back story or descriptions.
    Do you have too many characters? Are they all necessary?
    Do your scenes and chapters flow easily? Are one or more out of order?
    Are your verb tenses consistent? You may be writing in the present tense and then include a flashback – make sure your readers know where they are!
    Do you have chunks of description? Are these descriptions seen through the eyes of your protagonist, or have you slipped into narrator mode?
    Are your characters doing something in every scene?
    Is there enough/too much conflict?
    Have you gone off on a tangent that has nothing to do with the main or sub-plots?
    Are you guilty of repetition? This can happen if you have more than one point-of-view character.
    Is your protagonist in charge of the action, particularly the action that resolves everything. Your protagonist must not be a passive character.
    Has your protagonist changed and grown by the end of the story?
    Is your ending satisfactory? It doesn’t have to be the clichéd “happy ending”.
    Are all the conflicts and sub-plots resolved?
    Hanging endings, where the writer leaves the reader to decide what happens, are perfectly acceptable. But they still have to be logical and satisfactory.

    Next month I’ll look at How to read your work when editing; the nitty-gritty of editing; and where to go for help.

    If you have any comments, please do send me feedback (click the button on the bottom left), plus suggestions for future posts.

    And please subscribe to receive regular posts – it’s free!

    Happy writing!

    Linda

    Linda’s back!

    July 2024 Blog

    Welcome to my new look website for the second half of 2024. Not sure where the first half went! I think I was a little too ambitious before and life always gets in the way! My aim is to bring you a blog at least once a month, with additional articles when I can.

    I would really like the new-look website to be more inter-active. So please do send in your comments about my blogs or suggest any topics that you’d like to read about.

    For this month, I thought I’d have a go at explaining AI – Artificial Intelligence.

    AI: what is it and should writers be using it?

    AI – Artificial Intelligence – is the system by which computers are doing things that have been and are being done by humans. AI has been compared to the Industrial Revolution when machines took over traditional roles such as weaving.

    You are probably reading most days about the latest AI applications: smart systems in our homes, enhanced diagnoses in healthcare, face recognition, driverless cars – the list will undoubtedly continue growing. And already, such well-known products as Google, Siri and Alexa are all examples of AI.

    AI works by having access to all the digital information that is out there in the world – an almost inconceivable amount of data. But it means that AI is dependent on what has gone before, whether it is true or not. (A bit like Wikipedia whose entries can be written by anyone and are not necessarily factchecked.)

    Schools and Universities

    There has been a lot of debate over the use of AI in schools and universities. One of the major concerns is that students are using AI to write their essays and dissertations. It follows that we, as creative writers, could well use AI to write our short stories, articles and novels!

    In fact, at one of my writers’ get-togethers, one member did offer a short story which, after feedback, he confessed had been written by AI. It wasn’t bad and I even remember complimenting the “writer” on his use of a tri-colon! Even so, his self-written story was definitely better.

    So, should writers use AI?

    The Pros and Cons:

    Pros

    • An AI application, such as ChatGPT, given a few guidelines, can write a story, a poem or an article in mere seconds.
    • The application can be used to suggest titles, ideas, plot outlines and character profiles.
    • AI can be a very thorough script editor – picking up typos, spelling and grammar mistakes; and producing a detailed analysis of such things as sentence length and frequency of certain words.
    • Because it has access to millions of novels, poems etc, AI can suggest trends and patterns in writing, and audience preferences.
    • Research can be done so much quicker and more comprehensively using AI.

    Cons

    • You cannot rely on the veracity of AI “facts”.
    • You are not using your own research techniques and filtering out what you do and don’t need.
    • Information overload.
    • It is not YOUR writing.

    My verdict

    AI can be used very effectively in checking a piece of writing for errors. But when it comes to creative writing, let’s make sure it is we human beings who are being creative, not the machines.

    If you have any comments, please do send me feedback on the form below, plus suggestions for future posts.

    And please subscribe to receive regular posts – it’s free!

    Happy writing!

    Linda

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