Posted in Writing, tagged author, Donna Collins, Donna Newton, fiction, Headers and Footers, Justification, Margins, novel, Novel Layout, Paragraphs, paranormal, piper bayard, thriller, writer on January 10, 2013|
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Page from J.K. Rowling’s, ‘Harry Potter’
…
I’ve been writing for a few years now and it still amazes me at how much I don’t know. This week I was going through the edits on my novel when my good mate and fellow writer, Piper Bayard, pointed something out to me about new scenes and paragraphing. She, too, only discovered this ‘must-do’ last year.
So, I thought it would be helpful to lay out some of the things I have learned over the last few years that writers must know when writing a novel.
First things, first.
The Basics
The below points are what publishers and agents expect to see from writers.
Font: Always use Times New Roman. It is easy on the eye and makes it easy for the reader to read.
Size: Although it’s commonly said that size doesn’t matter – this time it does. 12pt is the size everyone wants.
Line Spacing: Some use double line spacing, most want one and a half. This allows room for any notes and editing.
Margins: Leave one inch for both the left and right margins. Again, this space is for any notes or editing.
The Cover Page
The cover page is a blank sheet of paper that, when asked for, usually lists the title of your book, your name, contact details, and the word count. When submitting your novel you must read the guidelines as sometimes agents and publishers require different information.
Headers and Footers
It is imperative that you use your header to display your name, novel title, and page number. Without this information, if your novel is dropped how will the reader be able to put it back together again?
The Layout
Chapter Heading: Space down six (one and a half) lines. The heading can be in capitals or underlined.
Sub-Title: If you want to add a sub-title of a place, time, year, etc., then add it before you begin your story. This can be underlined, typed in italics, or in bold. There is no indentation.
First Paragraph: For the first paragraph in a chapter, there is no indentation.
Further Paragraphs: Following paragraphs are indented one inch throughout the scene.
Justification: Never justify your work. Aline your type to the left.
For example (and due to formatting issues with wordpress *bangs head on desk*, I have added in … to show the spaces):
…
…
…
…
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CHAPTER ONE
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Almalfi Cathedral, Campania. Italy – Monday.
The uncomfortable harness cut into his groin.
……….The thief shifted position, tried to ignore the dull ache as best he could, and listened.
……….Three bloody hours he’d been hanging here in the dark, just listening.
N.B. New Scenes: If starting a new scene in a chapter, then as at the beginning of a chapter, no indentation is needed.
For example:
……….Eliza rest her head back against the pillow. Her head hurt and she no longer had the energy to argue anymore. The young boy nodded and disappeared from sight. Her father waited a second, as if to bask in his triumph and remind her who was boss, then also left the room.
It was just before lunch when Nate made it to the records office. He parked in the unusually empty car park and got out. Removing his sunglasses, he strolled along the brick paved path to the front of the building and pulled the doors where they shuddered and remained closed.
…
Well, these are the basics to laying out your novel and enough to get you started.
And now it’s your turn. What are your pet hates? What is the worse mistake you’ve ever made when typing and submitting a manuscript? Maybe you have a question to ask about the manuscript you are currently writing, so feel free to type it in the comments.
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Posted in Writing, tagged 'SOO' Publishing, author, david walker, DFW writers convention, Donna Collins, Donna Newton, fiction, How to hook an Agent, Ingrid Schaffenburg, James Rollins, Jenny Hansen, Jess Witkins, Jillian Dodd, kristen lamb, Nigel Blackwell, novel, paranormal, piper bayard, ranch, shooting, thriller, Tiffany A White, writer, writing on May 25, 2012|
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I’ve been away from my blog for what seems ages. But I do have good reason. I’ve been in Texas, working.
Honest, I have. And here are the pictures to prove it.
First, you find an awesome group of friends. Above, I’m with the adorable, Jenny Hansen, best room-mate ever, Piper Bayard, my gorgeous twin, Ingrid Schaffenburg, and the Godmother of us all, Kristen Lamb. This picture was taken after a long and stressful dinner with NYT Bestseller, James Rollins, and a ton of other people. (I think Nigel Blackwell is taking the picture and bitching at the amount of time we took to say goodbye to each other).
Then, we invaded Lamb Ranch to do a little character R and R. Originally, my antagonist was a mild mannered gal whose only crime was to return her library books back two days late. Kristen ripped her apart and turned her into the Terminator’s ‘Sarah Connor’. Can you spot the difference?
Piper and I became so obsessed by our characters, we shot up the place.
We thought I’d missed the tin can….then on closer inspection found I’d hit it with every shot. 🙂
Afterwards, we went riding on the ATV’s at night across snake infested land…. just ’cause we’re hard as nails.
Unfortunately, it was all too much for Spawn. He may need a few more years training…..
So, back to business. How to hook an agent the ‘SOO’ Publishing way.
N.B. For those who haven’t been following my Facebook page, and I will shoot you later, ‘SOO’ stands for ‘Squeeze One Out’ – a term I used while stormchasing when wanting a wee or tinkle as the Americans like to put it. Unfortunately, to the Americans it means ‘No.2’ and I was saying it every time we stopped for gas – which averaged ten times a day five days of the week. No wonder they looked at me a little weird. ‘SOO’ Publishing will publish any novel…… as long as it’s c**p.
Right, the tried and tested way on how to snag that all important literary agent.
1. Gate-crash a writing conference party. The DFW Writers Convention is excellent!
2. Along with a friend (I recommend Jillian Dodd), find a likely male candidate. The more vulnerable he looks, the better. For the purpose of this blog and because I don’t relish a law suit, our agents name will be kept a secret 🙂
3. Start a conversation to break the ice. We began with the very boring, “so, what genre do your represent?”
4. Then make it more personal. We used questions like, “what are the names of your mum and dad?” and “what is your inside leg measurement?”
5. You’re almost best friends at this point so go for broke. Ask about his Abs and whether you can take a picture. If their face begins to redden, offer to do this in a secluded corner of the room.
6. Then, lure him back to a hotel room and ply him with drink.
You will have an agent for your novel by the end of the night – Guaranteed! If not, don’t untie him just yet. Take further pictures, if you know what I mean. It will help your cause immensely and he will cave in to your demands by morning.
If you’d prefer to take a more serious route, (you boring lot), then check out these posts:
Ingrid Schaffenburg’s Top Five Lessons from DFWCon,
Jess Witkins Celebrating her Writing Slump,
David Walker’s take on the DFW Convention
Julie Glover’s Ten Things to do at a Writing Conference
Tiffany A White’s What Writers Really Do at Conferences (apart from the above)
Jenny Hansen’s DFW Con and the Flu…Oh My!
And, Julie Glover’s Vlog – you can see us in the background, plotting.
If you want more of me, try checking out: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, You Tube, and Linkedin.
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Posted in Other Stuff, Writing, tagged Amy Schiffman, author, BBT, Donna Collins, Donna Newton, fiction, Kerry Meacham, kristen lamb, Literary Agent, Natalie Hamilton-Duggan, Nigel Blackwell, OK! Magazine, paranormal, piper bayard, script, thriller, Warrior Writer, Wayne Alexander, writer, writing, wwbc, Xandra James on February 24, 2012|
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We’re all writers, right?
And every story starts with a beginning. So I thought I’d share the beginning of my writing journey with you.
Like 95% of writers, I have always loved writing. Back in the eighties, 1985 on a Friday night if memory serves, I used to video tape (remember those)?, a TV cop show called Dempsey and Makepeace. Then on the Saturday morning I’d get up at the crack of dawn, before anyone else, and watch, write, and rewind the show until I’d written the whole script. Makes me laugh now, knowing how easy it is today to find scripts on that revolutionary tool called the internet. But, back in ’85, I had to make do with a VCR, writing pad, and my trusty biro.
The crime stopping duo
So what was my reason for doing this?
Why, to adapt the episode into a novel of course.
And my passion for writing never dwindled. Well, I misplaced it for a few years while I went to college, worked in a chartered accountants, slogged my guts out at OK! Magazine, and wrote a car off while at Essex Police.
Then, a few years ago I began writing articles for magazines and my passion returned.
So, how did I get to where I am now? Well, I have two different stories.
The first involves a lady you all know very well; the fabulous Kristen Lamb. By sheer luck, she came across a chapter I’d written on the internet, and through sheer generosity, she emailed me some critism. And, there began my novel writing career and my friendship with a true hero.
Up until that point, I’d only written one novel; a romantic thriller called ‘The Stalker’. Friends had read it and loved it and naturally I thought, “Hey, I’m onto a winner here.”
I worked hard with Kristen as she bomboozeled me with plotting, character profiling, the three act structure, conflict, ARC’s, inciting incidents, antagonists, protagonists, minions, Big Boss Trouble-makers and, oh yeah, pulling me out of my comfort zone, I realised what a load of rubbish I’d actually written. The story was okay but the characters were so boring and one dimentional – worse, they had no flaws!
Of course, now I’m a fully fledged psychotic nutter and there’s no switching off my imagination. In fact, my tag line “I could write for Days of our Lives” as seen in my banner, is Kristen’s description of me.
So began my second novel. Only this one I was writing the Warrior Writers Boot Camp (WWBC) way. After months of researching, character profiling, plotting, and re-plotting, I was ready to start writing another thriller……
Only Jason Statham could play my villain
And then I met Natalie Hamilton-Duggan. She’d just finished film school in London, wanted to write a paranormal screenplay, and asked if I’d like to help. At first I was a little apprehensive. I am not a massive YA paranormal fan. Sure I like The Vampire Diaries and True Blood, and Supernatural is one of my favorites, but I’d had enough of vampires. They’d been done to death. After a full five minutes deliberating, I agree to become a co-writer. I knew nothing about script writing but what the hell. There was one condition though….. No Vampires!
So, together we began to plot out a story. Kristen’s WWBC training became invaluable and I applied it to screenwriting the same as I had my novel.
Now I was working on two different stories in two different formats at the same time.
It was during this time that Kristen invited me out to Texas to attend the DFW Writing Convention. I thought, why not? I could pitch my novel to an agent and see what they thought.
Also, Natalie and I had finished the script to the now titled “Legend”, and decided to take the plunge and stop in L.A. first, you know, to see if we could get a bite out there. We emailed hundreds of queries and waited.
Wayne Alexander, an entertainment lawyer, read it and promptly emailed it across to Amy Schiffman, a manager and literary agent colleague of his at IPG. She loved the script and wanted to meet us.
So out go Natalie and I, wet behind the ears, totally out of our depth, and expecting the whole experience to swallow us whole. We couldn’t have been more wrong. We loved Wayne and Amy, and they seemed to love us. Amy became our manager, gave us a ton of ideas to start work on, and asked if I would adapt the script into a novel.
After three whirlwind days in L.A., Natalie and I flew to Texas; where I pitched an idea for a book I hadn’t even thought of writing two days previously. Luckily the agent loved the idea and asked to see a chapter or two when I’d written them. Oh yeah, as if that wasn’t amazing enough, Kristen gave me a fabulous stetson and took me shooting, and I brought a wicked pair of cowboy boots.
That’s me in the centre
Since then Natalie and I have written two TV pilots and I’m half way through writing ‘Legend’ (the novel version). I’ve two agents in the UK who are also waiting to read it.
With regards to WWBC, I now help Kristen teach other writers, along with my WWBC team mates and writing buddies, Piper Bayard, Nigel Blackwell, Kerry Meacham, and Xandra James. I just hope I can help them as much as Kristen has helped me.
So, what’s your story? How did you start writing? How long have you been writing? Do you have an agent? Have you been published? How did you feel seeing your book in print? Have you even just taken a chance and come up trumps?
If you want more of me, try checking out: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, You Tube, and Linkedin.
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