I did some research for this blog but bear with me because I am not a physicist. As you will know (because I reference it, repeatedly) my speculative Sci-fi trilogy Camelot 2050 has come to an end (and will be available on the 5th of April 2019 if you’re interested) so I’m moving on to writing a more traditional, space-based Sci-fi adventure. The problem with setting a story in space is that space is. So. Damn. Big.

We’re all aware that it takes a beam of light 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth but what does that really mean to us? I can tell you that the speed of light is 671 million mph but, again that’s a huge number and hard to put into terms we can relate to. I can tell you that the Voyager 1 probe, launched in September 1977 and travelling at a top speed of 38,612 mph only left our Solar System (the border line being approximately 9 billion, with 9 zero’s, miles from Earth) in November 2018. That’s 36 years traveling at approximately 50 times faster than Thrust SSC and 150 times faster than a Bugatti Veyron!

Recently there have been some popular Sci-fi properties that have dealt with this particular problem in reasonably scientific way. they don’t leave the Solar System. The Expanse is a good one, with gritty thriller overtones it’s almost Space-Noir in some places but I’m not here to critique the show. The Expanse is set very firmly in the Sol system so all the the traffic and travel if inter-system. Firefly was set in a system with a central solar system that had four other suns in close (relatively speaking) orbit, so a multiple star system but still within the confines of a single system. Job done, no need for ‘Light-Speed’ plenty of room for thruster-accelerated travel, space-stations and lots of inter human conflicts, but. What if you want more? What if you long to write your own alien cultures species and vast, sweeping star systems? Maybe something more like Star Trek?

More problems there. Star Trek (believe it or not) is, or was rapidly accepted to be, set within the confines of the Milky Way Galaxy, more than that most of what is known in that Galaxy in the first 2 series is confined to the Alpha Quadrant (that is, one quarter containing the Sol system and its neighbors). Now, remembering that light travels at 671 mil mph it takes light 101,000 years to traverse the Galaxy. In the series ST Voyager (I know, I know) a vessel capable of travelling 9,000 times the speed of light was thrown to the opposite side of the Galaxy (the Delta Quadrant) and it’s predicted travel time to return to known space was 75 years! Or course (before we really get into theoretical propulsion systems) another thing to think about is relativism (physics is a dynamic subject and this may or may not be current thinking when you read this).

Again I state, not a physicist but, Einsteins theory of relativity as it applies to space travel breaks down like this. The faster an object travels the slower time passes for it. Going back to the ‘light across the galaxy’ example, if a ship could travel at 99% of the speed of light it could cross the galaxy in a similar time-frame but, depending upon whether you are a passenger on the ship or just an observer from a static point the journey would take either 14,000 or the expected 101,000 years. That’s right, taking a standard ‘Generation’ as 25 years, 560 generations would have passed on board but 4,040 generations would have gone by planet-side. This is why relativism is largely ignored in Sci-Fi, because it’s depressing. You don’t want your MC to go off on a rollicking space adventure if, by the time they return triumphant, everyone they knew who stayed behind is not only dead but the reason for the adventure itself is not only redundant but long-forgotten (I have seen it, have read it, it was depressing).

So, if we forget relativity for a bit, how do we ‘speed-up space travel’? There are ways, first and most common, the FTL (Faster Than Light) Drive. Whatever you call it if it goes faster than light it’s an FTL drive. (Star Trek gets around it by putting a bracket above, so-called ‘Warp’ speed, and declaring that their drive is aimed at reaching that velocity). Do with that what you will.

Then there are Wormholes, a wormhole is a rift that links two, or more, points without traversing the space between, ST DS9 had a stable one and Farscape was built around the concept. The problem (and it may not be a problem in your universe) is that, as a naturally occurring phenomena many writers perceive them as being random. The ‘stable’ examples in fiction are somewhat rarer (or said to be) than the more frequently encountered ‘unstable’ ones. So what do you do? Well, some of the shows and properties that employ these theoretical loopholes in space put forward the idea of artificially created wormholes. The ‘Gates’ in Stargate or Babylon 5 (some may bandy around the term ‘Hyperspace’ as a convenient and somehow smaller sub-dimension that a vessel can travel through to condense time and distance but we’re in the realms of theoretical possibility here baby!) are essentially artificial wormhole generators. In Lost in Space (1998) the goal of the Robinson family (forgotten in among all the terrible ’90’s action sequences) was to travel in suspended animation to a new system and a new planet (Alpha Prime) that would host humanity as it fled from a failing Earth and, upon awaking, build a ‘Jump Gate’ to allow instantaneous travel between the two so, wormhole!

Another type of drive that is referenced from time to time is ‘Space-Folding’. Now, don’t get too excited, it’s worm-hole theory all over again but, in the above style of worm-holing across the galaxy, the static points or ‘Gates’ allow for political tension. Have a gate in your system? It’s yours so, if you want to charge for passage, go ahead. Don’t have a gate? Want to take your neighbors? Instant Conflict! The Space-Folding style of getting about allows for a single ship to generate its own worm-hole and determine its points of departure and arrival which makes for narrative convenience for the writer (not to mention all those ‘Event Horizon’ style shenanigans).

The theoretical mechanics of interstellar travel aside I heard a story about a well-known author taking questions at a panel and a fan put forward a question, citing existing references to ship-speeds and time vs distance traveled that had been established in the series and ‘How could the ship get from A to B in the new book so quickly?’. As it’s told the author had the good-grace to look somewhat char grinned and replied ‘Because it actually moves at the speed of plot.’ so there you go. Science is full of deep and fascinating subjects and, sometimes, you can find a little science to flavor your fantasy with but you should in no way justify limiting your imagination by citing science. In some ways fantasy informs science itself, the first flip-phones din’t come from Nokia or Samsung but where held by Captain Kirk, Spock and Uhura on the Enterprise. So much of what is worked on in modern science found its base in the ‘What if?’ of a work of fiction.

Write the future. Maybe, one day, someone will make the Science Fiction, Science Fact.

Visitors to my site, readers of my blog and my followers on Twitter and Facebook might be aware that I’ve just come to the end of my Camelot 2050 trilogy. That’s right folks, Dark Magic is soon to be available for you to buy, read and enjoy, but what does that mean for me?

Well, Camelot 2050 is project that built up over the past 15 years or so and led me into self-published writing and, now that it’s done it’s time to move on. The foreseeable future is going to be dedicated to writing a stand-alone novel that I will be submitting to agents and publishers in the hopes of getting a conventional publishing deal but first, I have to write that story so it’s back to ‘the process’.

I’ve seen some phrases bounced around the #WritingCommunity on Twitter, Planner, Pantser and Planser. I might be a little off in my interpretations but as I understand them they are as follows.

Planner – an author who writes copious notes about setting, story events and characters before setting out on a draft.

Pantser – to write ‘by the seat of your pants’, an author who lets the story grow and develop organically as it comes to them.

Planser – something between the two, some planning but mostly an ‘as it comes’ style of writing.

Up to now I’d categorise myself as a ‘pantser’, Camelot 2050 was written to an idea I’ve been carrying for a long time. Most of thew big events had taken shape in my head years before they made it to the page so there was an element of planning but nothing written down. I’ve always worked to the ideal that, if an idea could stay with me for long enough to make it into the draft it deserved to be there, if not then no great loss. Some events fell by the wayside as the story grew naturally, that was a rare occurrence but it did happen. I know it’s sometimes helpful to see that others work in a similar way to you but I try not to get hung up on labels. Just because you might not know anyone who writes the same way as you do doesn’t make it wrong, it makes it yours.

As I start out on my new concept (something more traditionally sci-fi, I hope you’ll like it and I’ll be sharing some vague details as time goes on) I feel that, without a decade of thought behind this story I ought to embrace some more of the pre-planned style of writing. I’ve already started doing some research into the Milky Way (since the story is set in our Universe) and giving thought to some alien races to incorporate. Originality is a hard thing to achieve, there’s so much out there in all the genres that has already been done that it’s easy to feel that you’ll never be able to come up with something ‘new’. But ‘original’ and ‘distinctive’ are not mutually exclusive and the trick to solid world building is to start with the familiar and go from there. There’s a theory that there are only seven stories (more might’ve been added but, classically seven) and all the stories written since are comprised of mixed elements of each of them so concentrate on telling the story in your own voice and the rest will develop (as long as there’s no plagiarism, rewriting Star Wars in a Guy Ritchie gangster style might sound like fun but I’m sure someone would notice).

I suppose the point here is that, you should never feel like you can only write one way, always be open to change if it feels right and never be scared to experiment, you can always change the narrative later in edits.

Today’s blog Formatting and Layout, if you’re self-publishing these are things you’ll have to learn to do. It’s not the most fascinating part of producing a book but it is important, in my life I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of books but, as a reader, I never paid close scrutiny to formatting (something that was brought to my attention by an indie publisher when I showed them a first run copy of Black Knight) so, to help spare you from my mistakes here’s what I learned.

Once your manuscript is written and edited to your satisfaction (not ‘finished’, they’re never ‘finished’) you’ll need to make some decisions. First, what size is your book going to be? If you’re self-publishing you probably won’t be able to just send a word .Doc to your chosen service (Create Space, IngramSpark etc) and have them lay it out for you, you have to do that yourself. I prefer the more ‘traditional’ size for my paperbacks; that is 4.25×7 inch or 178×108 mm. That’s the page size you’ll have to set for your layout file (there are guides on the sites for trim allowances etc). You’ll also want to pay attention to the margin guides when you’re setting up your template. The left and right margins won’t be equal, you have to leave some page for binding, they should also be mirrored. The first facing page will bind down the left edge, all the odd number pages will and the even ones on the right.

Once you have a page to transfer your work to there are a number of other factors to consider. You may have written your draft in double spacing, that’s a common practice, but you only want single space for the finished piece. You don’t need a space after every paragraph either (just between scene changes) but, every time you hit ‘Return’ the following line should be indented (that can get pretty mind-numbing in a 100k manuscript). If in doubt pull a book from your own shelves and copy that. Chapters always start on a facing page so, once you’ve figured out how to set page numbers (took me a while to get it right, I’ll admit) Chapters all start on odd page numbers, use page breaks and insert blank pages, don’t just hit return until the text shifts, that’ll preserve your layout despite whatever changes you need to make later.

Font is a serious consideration, as mush as a swirly fantasy script might suit your content it will also prove difficult to read for some people (especially those on the dyslexia spectrum), a Sans Serif font is much easier to read, Times New Roman is the standard but I use Calibri, it’s easy to read and I think it lends itself to Sci-Fi quite well. Consider size too, you don’t want the page to seem too crowded but a bigger font will increase page count and overall print cost. Again, TNR 12 is a standard gauge for print.

Once you’ve laid out your actual manuscript there are a few pages to add at the beginning of the file, your Author Bio should be the front of the first page and on the back of the same page you can add an ‘also by the author’ list. Next a Title page plus Author name and Publisher. The next fronting page is what I call the ‘legalese’, that is your declaration of ownership, legal support of such (the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 works for Europe, I’m not sure about the US) your printer, ISBN and maybe a statement about it being a work of fiction.

You might, then, want to include a Foreword. If you’re a part of a writing group or community maybe find someone to write that for you or write it yourself. It’s not true that ‘No one reads the Foreword’, some do and it’s an opportunity to engage the reader with the story behind the story. Once that’s in the next fronting page can be used for a Dedication, then another Title page (Just the Title) and then you get into the story itself. It might needs be said that none of these pages should be numbered, that starts at page one of the story itself, you’ll want a Section Break after the last title page and a little manipulation of the page number menu to achieve this.

Once the document is laid out in a Word Processor it will need to be converted to a PDF format for printing. I was recommended Foxit Phantom and I pass on that recommendation to you. It’s free (it’ll encourage you from time to time to upgrade, just select ‘Continue Free Trial’ and you’ll have the basic functions you need) and easy to use. The most important thing about the file conversion is to ensure that all fonts are ‘Embedded’. Whatever font you finally decide on Word especially likes to include TNR as a ‘floater’ in the background (even if you haven’t used it) and it might not embed. Save yourself a file rejection and make sure that it’s either embedded or gone.

As with some of the other themes around printing I’ve discussed in the past there are guides online that can help you with all of this. The first ones to read are the ones supplied by the publisher themselves (they’re quite comprehensive) and, should you have any further questions there are numerous ‘How To’ guides for all the Word Processing programs available online.

Some might say they want to find and Agent or Publisher to achieve success, fame and wealth. Nay! Say I, it’s to get away from formatting! More seriously, while formatting can be a daunting process (especially for the less computer savvy among us) all it takes is some time, attention to detail and perseverance. In that way it’s not dissimilar to writing a book, and you already did that. Didn’t you?

Today I’m going to share my experience of attending Conventions as an Author and book seller. It can be daunting, taking your self-published work out into the real world to try and encourage people to buy you books but it’s an important step in cultivating a following and ‘Building your brand’, especially in the modern climate of publishing. Luckily I have a partner who’s well-versed in attending conventions as a trader, they helped me and now I’m going to try and help you.

First step, find a convention. This is basically a web-search step, you can look for literary Con’s or Conventions that cover your chosen Genre. Luckily Sci-Fi and Fantasy shows are numerous but there are Horror cons and a myriad of events covering other areas. You’ll want to consider travel costs and logistics when you do this, how easy will it be to get you and your title to the convention itself.

Step two, why are you attending? I tend to categorize the events I go to into two groups, those where I want to sell books and those where I want to network and meet people in the industry. This effects what kind of booking I place. If I’m selling I want a traders stall, if I’m networking all I’ll need is an attendance ticket but I’ll volunteer for the Program, that is panels about fiction, genres, writing and self-publishing. I try to ‘stay in my own wheel-house’ when it comes to sitting on panels.

Step three, once you’ve booked an event, a larger Con run by groups like Showmasters or Go-Geek or a smaller, independently run event you’ll want to think about ‘presentation’ if you’re selling/signing your books. Some venues provide tables and chairs for stalls, some don’t, it’s good to be sure if you need to bring your own table. You might want to knock-up a promo-banner to try and catch passing eyes (it’s really not that difficult, there are guides online for getting that done and getting them printed costs around £30) and it can really help your sales on the day. Likewise business cards are easy and cheap to source and print, some people might want to look you up online, do a little reading about your book before they buy it. A table-cloth is a good bet, especially if you’ve only got one title so far provided tables tend to have seen a lot of use and having a cloth allows you to cover the area underneath the table so you can keep stock and sundries under there in safety and without making your stall look untidy. The organizers might require you to have Public Liability Insurance (especially the smaller ones) but that’s only £56 for a years cover and easily obtained in any case.

That really leads into set-up. The Convention will send you guidelines covering what’s expected. The larger shows will have a span of time the evening before for setup but, being an independent author/trader you should be able to use the hour before the doors open to the public for your setup. If you’re travelling a ways you might want to spend out for an extra night in a hotel. Travelling up on the morning of the Convention makes for a long day but it’s something to weigh event by event. Pay attention to guidelines about parking, you might be able to park in the loading area but likely you won’t so it’s another logistical consideration and you want to save yourself as much stress and hassle as you can on the day/weekend. Remember to bring a float to make change and a note-book to record your sales and expenses (as you attend more shows you might also want to invest in a card-reader, some attendee’s don’t bring cash or they do but blow through it quickly). Another thing that helps is a printed sign of book prices, stick it in a cheap clip frame and put it on your stand. Unlike the merchandise stands you don’t have a wealth of interesting shiny things to draw people in so letting them know how much your book is straight up increases the likelihood of reeling them in (that and an engaging cover/title). The last thing I have on my stand is a little, thematically appropriate talking-point. A small statuette of a clock-work dragon holds some of my business cards, it’s my mascot and does, on occasion, attract customers who might otherwise sail on by.

We’re done with steps, we’ve ‘stepped out’ for now. Always consider bringing a friend to an event. If you’re booked as a seller you’ll probably get two wristbands/lanyards/ however the convention identifies traders anyway or, at least, a discount on a second attendance ticket. The days are long, having someone with you to help carry, go for coffee or just watch your stall while you stretch your legs or take a comfort break is invaluable, plus they get to enjoy the Con when they’re not directly assisting you in some way, win-win. Other traders will watch your stall if you can’t bring a friend, it’s a very friendly atmosphere between stallholders and it’s good to support one another. Also bring snacks and drinks, some venues will have reasonably priced refreshments but, after spending out on your stall, stock, travel and accommodation you might find that the venue kiosks are making the most of the ‘Captive Audience’.

Okay, so. You’ve arrived, you’ve setup and people are walking through. What do you do now? Well, I’d like to say you sell and sign until you run out of stock but that’s not really the way it goes. As an unknown quantity you’re going to have to work and that means engaging with people and *that* means looking like you can be engaged. One of the saddest things I see at events is stalls getting passed over because the trader is eyes-down on their phone or reading a book, yes the days are long (I’ll keep saying that because they are) and it can be a drag at times but you’re there promoting your product and, in the case of us authors, we embody the product. Most sales I get come from a brief, but enthusiastic pitch about my story. The customer sees the promo images, comes over, reads the blurb and let’s me pitch the book to them. Some do just walk up, read, buy but by far the majority buy because I’ve imparted some of my enthusiasm for my story. If they see me sitting, scrolling through my phone they’ll just walk on by.

So what’s the payout for all this work and prep? Well, an author I met at a show last year imparted this to me;

“A new book, by an unknown, independent author is expected to sell eighty units in it’s entire lifetime.”

Eighty units, that’s eighty copies in it’s lifetime. Now I’ve said, and I’ll continue to say that, as a writer, if your story makes one person happy, you’re a success but, you have to sell books to *find* that one person (hopefully it’ll be many more). After all the promotion work I did over social media in the run-up to releasing Black Knight, the ThunderClap that reached 33,000 people on Facebook? I had 56 pre-orders. If I then rested on my laurels and only scored another 24 sales I’d likely be really disheartened. But, by working social media and, more importantly, getting out there, I’m 12 months and six or so events in and I have 240+ sales and, for a first-time, unknown, self-published author That’s Not Bad.

But, sales aside, you get to meet some of the most wonderful, crazy and warm-hearted people at these events, you come away with stories and anecdotes and new friends who, if you keep on going, you’ll see at other Conventions. The community of traders and attendee’s is a wonderful thing to be a part of and, if you persevere and succeed, you might find yourself back here one day, on the other side of an autograph table. It’s certainly something to aim for.

This week (and I know I missed a week, sorry) I’m going to talk about Querying, that is, sending your manuscript to Agents and Publishers. I’m a self-published Author but, back when I finished the manuscript for Camelot 2050: Black Knight I had big ideas about getting published and finding an Agent but there was a flaw in that plan. A new Author trying to bring a series to publish isn’t commonly successful. Agents and Publishers want to know that there is a market for your work so trying to push a series is rarely going to work out. However, I did learn about the Querying process and it’s this experience that I wanted to share with you so, to begin.

You have a higher chance of finding someone to take a stand-alone work over an ongoing series initially at least. This year I’m working on a stand alone story to send out and hopefully that’ll work out and I can push the Camelot Trilogy retroactively if I succeed.

The first step is research, you have to find an agent or publisher who deals with your genre. Speculative Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Romance, whatever you’re writing you need to find someone who promotes that kind of work. Many Publishing houses and Agents specialize so go looking for the bodies who promote your kind of work. There is a directory, released annually of publishers in the UK and Ireland that you can get hold of, the MPG Directory of Publishing by Bloomsbury, but it’s expensive. You can get most of the information you’ll need on the internet given a bit of research.

You’ll need to visit websites to see who is accepting submissions (there’s a Hashtag on Twitter for just such a purpose (#AcceptingQueries). Agency websites have short bio’s for their agents detailing what kind of work they represent and if they are accepting submissions. It goes without saying that, if they aren’t, you’re not going to get anywhere.

So, once you’ve found the Publisher or Agent to submit to, what do you do? Firstly, read their submission guidelines. These bodies receive thousands of Queries when they open their books and the first thing they do is see which ones followed the guidelines. If you didn’t, no matter how amazing your work, you’re going on the ‘Slush’ pile, that is ‘works we’re not even going to read’.

Commonly you’ll be asked for a cover letter, a synopsis and then a sample chapter. Again, a little research will bring you multiple guides on how to write these. A cover letter is a ‘hello’, a quick introduction about yourself and an elevator pitch about your book. The greeting is important, personalize it, use the agent or publishers name, ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ isn’t going to cut it. Be formal if you feel you must but at least show that you’re not using a simple form letter by adding the name of the agent and their agency. When you introduce yourself include a little about things you’ve done that have influenced your work, maybe drop a couple of names of writers whose work yours reflects (‘I’m going to be the next J.K. Rowling’ is too much, publishers share those kind of stories like we share bad reviews). And, finally, the ‘elevator pitch’ is sales patter for a brief description of your work that you could give in the space of a short elevator ride. A paragraph, maybe two, selling your work to the agent/publisher. It needs to be lively, engaging, engrossing, like the back blurb of a cover it should capture their attention and lead them to the next piece of the submission.

The Synopsis. Now I *hate* writing the synopsis, it’s like breaking your story down into it’s key components and it’s hard. Start with bullet points of the main story elements, add points of character development but you don’t want to exceed a page of A4 at a ‘standard’ font size (Times New Roman, for Gods sake don’t use Comic Sans). Sometimes it feels like ripping the soul out of the story but it is a factual document of what happens in the book. Don’t hide the twists, the agent isn’t your audience they *want* to know the spoilers.

Lastly, the sample pages. The length can vary, pay attention to rules like ‘No Prologues’ because, if you’ve made it this far, you’re still not safe from the Slush pile. This is where the Agent assess your style, they’re not reading for fun, they want to know that you can write compelling narrative, action and dialogue. They are judging your work and you need to know that. The submitted piece should be as clean and polished as you can make it, properly edited for spelling, grammar and punctuation. Once you have assembled this submission pack you’re ready to Query. Thankfully E-Queries are on the rise (there are some established companies who still only accept hard-copy however) so that saves on printing and postage. When I Queried for Black Knight I set goals and structure to my process. I Queries on Thursdays (research and selection all week but Queries on Thursdays), I selected four Agents/Publishers to Query that week and documented who they were so I wouldn’t repeat Query them (I feel that’s important, people in the industry talk to each other just like writers do), and then, the wait.

Commonly an Agent will take Six Weeks to respond to a Query but it can take Months. Don’t be disheartened, don’t be discouraged. Read the refusals, many won’t say anything more than ‘I didn’t click with the story’ or words to that effect but, and stay with me on this…

That. Is. Good.

When you finally find an Agent or Publisher you want it to be someone who will love your work just as much as you do, who will champion your story in the competitive market and who will shout your name from the rooftops if they have to to get your work out there. You don’t want to be represented by someone who thinks your work is ‘okay’ you want someone who see’s the worth of your efforts and will put that effort back in return. That’s why Querying can take so long. Finding the right person to represent your work is a challenge but, and these are wise words I will repeat as many times as I have to (for myself as much as you), getting Published is a Marathon, not a Sprint.

Just as a final note. Any Agent of Publisher (apart from the Self-Publishing services) who asks for money, from you, to promote your work is scamming you. Agents and Publishers earn their money from sales. Anyone taking money from the author to represent them before the book hits the shelves is a con.

Not really, I have too many concepts in my head to give up writing just yet but today I wanted to talk about Endings.

Camelot 2050 has been a growing part of my life since I first came up with the concept in 2003. Approaching the end of the trilogy in 2019 has been hard, I haven’t considered giving up at any point but I’ve struggled to put words on the page over the last few months. Coming to the conclusion of a project that has been such a big part of my life for so long is, again, not easy. What has stymied me so far is a combination of factors, of course I don’t want to say goodbye to my characters. Each one of them is a combination of people I have met who have left an impact on my life and facets of my own personality, it may sound corny but I have developed an attachment to them over the years and saying ‘goodbye’ is hard.

Another factor is praise. As much as it is welcome (writers thrive on praise) for me it engenders a sense of responsibility, a duty to make each book better than the last and that heaps a ton of pressure on a creative mind. I try very hard not to second guess my impulses as long as they make narrative sense and aren’t too ‘out there’, if it’s cool, it goes in. But, with the ending of the trilogy on the line, it becomes a good deal more important to make every word count.

So, not every situation is the same but that’s mine. The thing is that every ending is important whether it’s a cliff-hanger or a finale the ending has to be narratively satisfying for the reader. I won’t name names but there was a memorable occasion (in a fantasy novel I read) where a carefully crafted story line involving two characters who had been circling each other for the whole book didn’t have the finale showdown I’d been so looking forward too and it spoiled the whole book. There had been other issues with the narrative but overall I’d been enjoying the book up to that point.

The thing is, no matter how clever the twist might be, if it denies the reader an event that has been building up all through the narrative it’s as like to turn a reader off than entertain them (and that twist, in that book wasn’t so clever hence the failure in my opinion). A good twist can be the making of a story because it’s unexpected but again, it shouldn’t rob the reader of something they’ve been looking forward too.

The outcome of a book or a series if often a given, we like to see the heroes win (even if they die in the effort) and the villains lose (especially if they die in the effort) but a story is about the journey and a journey has to have a fitting ending. In some ways a story, especially and adventure story, depends upon a certain amount of structure and just a little predictability.

So, when the outcome is (for a certain value) a given it’s how your characters arrive at that outcome that matters. What do they gain, what do they lose and how are they changed in the effort? The true ending in a story isn’t so much about what is achieved as what it means to the characters involved, what are the consequences?

For me, the consequence is going to be a lot of formatting and editing and (eventually) the start of a new novel, the effort to find a publisher, an agent and the ongoing quest to spread my stories as far as possible so that they reach the readers who will enjoy them.

Now I don’t profess to be a dance choreographer (unless you count ‘Dad Dancing’ which I can and will do, don’t tempt me!) or a fight choreographer unless it is within the pages of my novels and that is what I wanted to offer my thoughts and advice on today. Bare in mind that I am a fantasy adventure writer, my fight scenes might have a different ‘feel’ or ‘atmosphere’ to yours if you are, say a crime thriller writer but the basics still count.

As I near the end of Dark Magic (Book Three of the Camelot 2050 Trilogy) I find myself working a number of personal conflicts for my main characters which can only be resolved by a violent confrontation, now, let me say at first that I really enjoy writing fight scenes. For me they flow much easier than interpersonal interactions because I can ‘see’ the action in my minds eye and I’m not always rereading to make sure I haven’t included any unintended meanings that the reader might misconstrue but, that doesn’t mean that I don’t think them through.

Choreographing a fight scene, or any action sequence, in a book is a balance just like anything else. The pace requires to be fast but that doesn’t mean that things like atmosphere and detail must fall by the wayside albeit any ‘thoughts’ the character might have during combat should be very concise (getting distracted by daydreams or personal philosophies during any kind of combat will likely make for a very short fight).

The keys to a successful sequence are making sure you know what’s going on. Block it out on paper, watch examples of similar combats that you enjoy, research some technical terms to scatter about especially if the fight is going to have martial arts elements (just be super sure you know what you’re referring to in terms of moves). Always remember to use active vocabulary and show, not tell the reader whats going on;

‘Stephanie kicked Joel in the head.’ – flat and kinda dull.

‘With a savage cry Stephanie launched into a spinning crescent kick, her foot carving through the air until she felt the satisfying ‘Crunch!’ of gristle as Joel’s nose broke under the impact.’ – much more engaging.

With that example in mind, remember Batman. Not the modern movies but the 70’s TV show. It might’ve been somewhat silly having sound effects flash up in bubbles on the screen but you can use sounds in your prose to elicit a visceral reaction to injury or impact. Even written, sound is a tool for you to put to use.

Don’t however, get to caught up in where everyone’s standing, how they’re standing etc, etc. Blocking and atmosphere (although, as I said, still necessary) are a garnish to the action, add them as you go or fill them in later, you can add more or cut back during editing but the scene should flow easily and give the reader  a very clear idea of what’s going on. Check your continuity, an error here is going to throw your reader off more than anywhere else when you want the action to be fast and easily followed.

Another thing to remember is that, for every action there is a consequence. A landed blow might cause a character to see stars a missed swing or shot might open them up to a more devastating attack or give away their position. Dramatic doesn’t mean every blow connects, you’re building tension, who’s going to win? What state will they be in at the end and how will that effect them going ahead?

From a one-on-one, hand-to-hand confrontation, all the way up to panoramic space battles with entire fleets involved the message is pretty much the same.

Pacing, continuity, atmosphere. Try to have a little fun with it along the way.

 

It’s a fact that, for every writer who ‘makes it’, for every King, Cornwell and Rowling who achieves fame, acclaim and wealth there are thousands who fall by the wayside. Some give up, some keep plodding along without ever being able to give up their day job. It’s a grim reality not just in writing or acting or music but in any chosen career path. Not every engineer can be Ross Brawn, there are thousands of Bill Gate wannabe’s out there but only one Bill Gates. But that doesn’t stop us trying because we are, after all, the dreamers.

The reality of self-publishing is a whole lot of work for uncertain returns and (as I’ve said in the past) the only way to achieve anything is to put in the effort, make the appearances and go out and sell yourself and your material to the world. It’ll be taxing, at times demoralising. Don’t read the reviews or, if you do, don’t let them stop you.

Hope comes from strange places and, for me, hope comes from YouTube. I’m not saying I go and watch inspirational videos when I’m down (although I do) but I do read the trends that I see in channels that have made the transition from YouTube to TV and the increased demand for content on those services.

So, this does hinge alot upon your idea of success being your works transitioning from the page to the screen but there are parallels to be drawn, here goes. Back when TV was first introduced audiences who could afford a set were treated to a couple of hours of programming a day but, as demand increased so did the number of viewing hours and the demand for content. I remeber when domestic British televisions only had four channels and the release of Channel Five was a huge thing for me when I was young, now I have satellite and a thousand channels and radio stations to choose from without even touching on YouTube and Netflix. Still the number of providers and channels is increasing and every one of them needs content. As to garnering hope from YouTube, the number of shows I’m seeing that have recently made the transition has surprised me. Forged with Steele, Man at Arms, even Doctor Pimple Popper (not one I commonly watch myself) have been drafted and, historically let us not forget, the number of films and TV programmes that have come from literature makes up a serious percentage of programming (every generation since the beginning has multiple versions of Pride and Prejudice to choose from).

What I’m saying is that the demand for screen content forces producers to go out and search for creators, writers and dreamers. Demand for new concepts and new stories is growing and (according to some sources) the sale of print books shows steady increase. Much of that is driven by people reading the books their favourite shows are based on and then reading more because they enjoy it and it’s in that market that your readership is waiting for your stories.

We have to, at times, measure our expectations but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the time we shouldn’t shoot for the stars. If we fall short at least we made part of the journey, at least we tried and, you never know, all it takes is the right person to read your novel for you to get a call from Tinseltown. I know I’m waiting for mine.

Or rather it’s all about you… well mine’s about me, yours will be about you. What am I flailing about you might ask? Biographies, your writers Bio more specifically. Most every written work has a short snippet about the author either in the front or at the back or even on the fancy dust cover of a hardback.

Now, I consider myself to be a fairly confident, gregarious fellow and I can talk about myself and my work pretty comfortably with almost anyone but! Ask me to write about myself and it becomes a singularly uncomfortable process. Many of you might share that feeling whether it’s for a C.V. or a Personal Statement. Writing something about ourselves has a permanence about it, the impressions we make in a conversation can be moulded, reshaped over time, and let’s not forget that, in terms of actual communication, words on a page or screen only hold a fraction of the message we can convey with our tone, inflection, body language and facial expression. Words written down are subject to interpretation so, what one person reads might prompt a different reaction in someone else.

That said a bio is not the deepest, innermost thoughts and feelings of the author. It is simply a quick handshake with the readers, a snippet about your experience as a writer and a brief expression of yourself so that the reader can get a feeling that they know a little more about you so that you’re not simply a faceless name on the spine of the book.

So, between carefully crafting a series of words that limits interpretation and sharing a little of yourself to engage with the reader, creating a bio can be somewhat frustrating. Try to avoid seeming self-important but you also don’t want your piece to be flat. Of course you don’t want the tone of your bio to clash overmuch with the tone of your novel. A gritty thriller written by an author who makes jokes about losing socks (not a real example) is likely to call some question to your credibility so balance the tone of your bio against the content of your novel and, as with everything, edit and review. Get someone else to pass over your bio for your own piece of mind and, again, as with anything else, weight the value of their advice.

Your manuscript is yours, any editorial advice you get from the industry is suggested to help you and you should give it due consideration. Your bio is about you and an outside view of what someone else see’s can be a benefit to that too.

This one might get a little rambly, there are a couple of topics I’m hoping to cover so bear with me.

Back in my GNVQ Media course at college we had a regular lesson called ‘Content’. I really enjoyed the lesson, initially because we got to watch movies and later, for the discussions we’d have afterwards. You see, after we’d watched the film we’d discuss what we thought the director was doing or trying to get us to think through their use of cinamatography, music and various other tools of the movie-makers art. It was about what feelings they were trying to encourage in their audience and what opinions they were attempting to get us to form of their characters and the situations they were in. As movie makers they have the benefit of visual and audio stimulus to influence the audience but, as writers we have the clarity of language at out disposal. A director can make you aware that a character is sad via lighting, music and facial expression but we can tell the reader the full depths of the characters sadness.

So, about content. What story are you trying to tell? What is the feel, the genre of your story? Comedy, tragedy, romance, any possible mix of a multitude of types of story are at the fingertips of your imagination but, deeper than what you say is how you say it. You have the capacity to influence the reader through your use of language and that brings with it a certain responcibility to the characters you are representing and that is were I wanted to go with this blog.

Representation.

A couple of blogs ago I talked about the dangers of stereotypes because we, as human beings, are influenced by our life experiences and the opinions of others. If someone we respect voices an opinion we are more likely to consider and therefore adopt, that opinion. As writers e hope to gain a certain amount of respect, it’s how we will sell our works and therein lies our responcibility to fairly represent the world and it’s peoples.

‘But I’m writing a fairytale, a fantasy full of goblins, elves and other non-human entities!’

We can look at media history and see unfair representations of ethnic minorities that existed in times and properties and, even when they weren’t directly labelled as such, the influence was there. Florence Kate Upton invented the Golliwog as an affable protagonist in the late 19th century, Enid Blyton included one in Noddy as one of the main characters myriad friends but, as racial intolerances grew during the 20th century more were introduced as antagonists and the underlying message of tolerance became on of caution.

We’ve all hear the phrase ‘Token Black Guy’ (they always die in horror movies) or GBF (Gay Best Friend and, more often than not they’re ‘Fabulous’) and so often they are stereotypes played for laughs, caricatures rather than real developed characters. So, as I said in my previous blog on stereotypes, they’re a movie mechanic. Limited storytelling time pushes the director/writer of an ensemble piece to employ the stereotype to quickly familiarize the audience with the character but, in novels we have a much greater scope to develope believable characters and to be sensetive about those we do represent and representation is important. The world is a wonderful, diverse place full of rich personalities and cultures and there’s no reason not to include that in your works.

This is also a time when we can  influence the use of language, phasing out established but masculine oriented terms in favour of gender-neutral ones is a gentle step toward gender-norming. You may, or may not want to use your work as a soapbox for social progressiveness but (I’m hoping) you certainly don’t want to enforce, even casually, any kind of intolerance or inequality which usually means the villains (rather than bad-guys) getting their comeuppance.

I think the main point I’m trying to make is, if you’re going to approach, even in passing, issues of race, gender, disability or equality or represent them in your work you should bare in mind the old addage ‘Writers write what they know’. Do your research, talk to people, gain their insight and experience and it can only benefit your work in the long run.

None of this should to limit your creativity, in fact it should encourage you to look harder at your characters and their motives, give them extra dimensions that you might not have considered before.