Coffee Break: Show Case

Many authors, both published and unpublished, make some of their work available on the internet for anyone to read. This can range from short excerpts, selected chapters or even full works. This week I would like to discuss the pros and cons of doing this. To get us started, here are a few things to consider.

• Does it bring positive or negative publicity?
• Does it count as being published, or perhaps self-published?
• What are the copyright implications?
• How much have you showcased? e.g. teaser, extract, chapter(s) or full work?
• What feedback, if any, did you receive? Was it constructive?
• Has this been discussed elsewhere? Please provide links if so.

Perhaps at the end of the discussion, we can tot things up and then get an idea of whether showcasing our work is a good or a bad idea.

This topic was prompted by a discussion on facebook.

Our Next Meeting...

...needs to happen!

I've posted at the other place so we can discuss it. Please head over there and join the discussion and planning. You'll need to be logged in to Blogger.

If you don't have access to the private place but think you should (official NR members, sabbaticals and alumni), then please contact myself or JJ and we'll set you up.

Volunteers Needed

Apologies for the lack of coffee break yesterday. Blame me for putting Ellie on the rota but not confirming it with her.

We need some volunteers for next week and also for 10th September. Who's up for it?

Coffee Break: Names & Pigeon-holes

In protest against the local coffee shop which has now apparently been designated as a crèche, I've decided to set up my own writer's café. So please form an orderly queue and get it while it's hot.

First things first. In case you haven't seen it, may I please draw your attention to the new feedback page. Thank you. Now on with today's chin-wag.

I'm reliably informed that publishers like to build a marketable brand from an author and their books. This means that their name will become associated with that brand and hopefully sell more copies. This is fine; this is business and it's what happens in many other areas of commerce.

But what about authors who want to write in more than one genre? The publishers are not going to like it when their best-selling romantic novelist suddenly produces a three volume epic Sci-Fi space opera, it would compromise the branding. So what to do?

I'll answer that question, but first let's have a look at the results from last week's blogstorming session.

Probortunity

A widower is left a fortune by his wife. She never told him about the money. Why?

Results

• She was a professional fraudster.
• It was her 'running away money'.
• She was Lord Lucan's secret daughter.
• She was a jewel thief.
• He might spend it all.
• She was a Russian spy.
• She was a *gasp* secret writer and he didn't know.
• She invented 'Marmite' but her husband hated it and she didn't like to upset him.
• Money was not a subject ever to be mentioned, too vulgar and a construct of the capitalist west. She was a very screwed-up old-fashioned liberal but counted Marx as her best friend. From childhood she would only suck the thumb of her left hand. Her mother wore a Maggie Thatcher hair helmet and constantly beat her in order to spare her while goading her to recite, "There is no such thing as family". It proved too much and she became a serial killer whose hallmark was to mutilate the right hands of her victims. Eventually she ended up as the subject for a Midsomer Murders special and so was finally committed to a special hospital.
• She never told him because she never told him anything, they never had a proper conversation, not once in thirty years and now she's dead he's going to Cuba with a lingerie model called Ginger.
• She wrote (very successful) erotica under a pseudonym.
• She was saving up to pay a hit-man to kill him.
• He would want to know where she got it from.
• She was worried it would spoil their relationship.
• She was a bigamist and the money is her inheritance from her 'other' husband.
• She visited Haiti in her youth, a witch doctor cast a voodoo spell over her, she turned into a zombie and had actually lived for 400 years secretly selling the spell to the rich and famous before the spell ran out and she finally copped it.
• She knew he would have a problem knowing his wife had more money than he did.
• She was the secret lover of a member of the royal family.
• It was left her by his mother who hated him, to give her a fresh start alone.
• It was none of his business anyway (she was a feminist).
• She printed 20 pound notes in the garden shed in her spare time.
• She was a bank robber and had a sawn off shot-gun hidden in her knickers drawer.
• She was an escort or a high-class prostitute in her spare time.
• She stole it, or won the lottery and didn't tell him.
• She was paid to marry him, and to stay married because of his position in an internet security firm.
• Not her money, screw up by solicitor, and then the people turn up that want their money back.

Many many thanks to you all for your excellent contributions. I will eventually reveal which one I choose for my story. In the mean time, feel free to add more.

Now we return to the question of breaking out of your branded genre. If you didn't already know then you've probably guessed by now that the answer is to use one or more pen-names. There are plenty of famous examples of this, including our own Sue Mongredien who writes children's book under her own name but romantic fiction as Lucy Diamond.

So my question to you is: what genres would you like to write and what pen-names would you use?

Coffee Break: Blogstorming

Much time has passed since I last had an excuse to fire up my coffee and tea making equipment. I hope it all still works. On the coffee front, I have rich Italian roast, espresso and cappuccino (can you spot the national bias here). I also have Assam, Darjeeling and Earl Grey teas. Not much in the way of breakfast, as I'm in training for a special event, so it's fruit salad and toast on the menu.

I was wracking my brains about something the other day and thinking: I wish someone else was here to bounce ideas off. Then I realised that there are a whole load of people who are "here" with me, albeit in a virtual sense. Why not get them to help me? Why not indeed, but first a digression...

Who's heard of brainstorming? It's something I used to do in a previous job from time to time. I have to say it's proved to be very beneficial and even good fun. There's a whole web site dedicated to the art of brainstorming, but for now, here are the basic six rules:

0. [Optionally] begin with a probortunity statement. It's both a problem to solve and an opportunity to generate ideas.
1. Withhold judgement, particularly negative thoughts.
2. Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas.
3. Go for quantity over quality.
4. Build on ideas put forward by others.
5. Each person and each idea are equally important.

So, for the purposes of this coffee break, I would like to hijack it and have a blogstorming session, whereby we all take part. Here is the probortunity statement:

A widower is left a fortune by his wife.
She never told him about the money.
Why?

On your marks, get set, GO!

Edit 23/07/10: The results can be found here.

Moving On

I've decided that my writing career has come to an end. I've explained the reasons on my blog. In the interests of fairness to the racers on the waiting list, I suggest that you make me an alumni member, in order to free up a place.

I've had a fantastic time meeting and chatting with you all, and I hope to stay in touch. Thank you for all your help and discussions over the years. I'll still drop by occasionally to steal your bread and coffee.

Coffee Break: Racers' Rules

The Captain's Café is now open for business. It's well-stocked with a multitude of beverages and snacks for you enjoyment. You know what else? Somewhere in the world it's bound to be Beer O'clock, so why not indulge in a tipple?

When I started writing more seriously, back in February of 2007, there were no rules. I just got on with it and told the story. There were no rules because I wasn't aware of them, not because they didn't exist. As you can imagine, my first story Fugue in D Minus was riddled with errors which I now cringe at (I really should go back and fix them one day).

Some years down the line, I've learned of, though not necessarily obeyed, several writer's rules. Of course, we all know they're just guidelines really, not rules, but I'm sure you know the sort of things I'm talking about.

I've been thinking quite a bit about rules recently, and I have to say that I'm very hesitant about them, even sceptical sometimes. I'm starting to think that many of them are just too prescriptive for my writing. I'm not published and certainly no expert, so I may have got this totally wrong. It's just that I sometimes hear quite a few rules being quoted in a manner that suggests less real thought and more blind faith. Because they are "what you're supposed to do".

What are your thoughts on this? Do you follow the rules? What are your reasons for conforming or not conforming? To prompt your thinking, here's a list of some of the rules I can think of off the top of my head, in no particular order...

Use all five senses. Avoid clichés (like the plague). Show, don't tell. Avoid unnecessary adverbs. Stick to one point of view per scene/chapter.

Don't overuse speech tags in dialogue. Never use a long word when short ones will do. Murder your darlings. Don't get it right, get it written. Remember to proof read carefully to see if you words out.

I'm sure there are loads more, so feel free to add to the list for discussion.

My current belief is that courses and how-to books are great tools in a writer's toolbox, but that we shouldn't follow their instruction without question. As a scientist I was taught to question pretty much everything. Tuition, rules and books can often teach us one way to write but not the only way to write.

Let the debate begin...

Coffee Break: Self-Publishing

The Captain's all-week bar and café is open again, so come along and join the gathering. This morning I'm going to have a cappuccino with lots of chocolate powder sprinkled on top.

This week's topic is about the non-traditional routes of publication. I've heard them go by many names, including: self-publishing, print-on-demand, vanity-publishing, etc. What do you know about these methods? Would you consider using any of them? Have you used any of them? Are there other alternatives that I don't know about? What are the pros and cons of these things?

I was inspired to reconsider this subject, after learning about all the things you are supposed to do in your first chapter of a novel. After a while, I started asking myself the question: Who am I writing this for? My target readership, or just the agent/editor? I don't have the answer yet, but I can't help thinking that if we follow all the "rules", then first chapters will start to become too formulaic, if they're not already. Any thoughts about that?

Captain Black

Hi,

As I'm a new Novel Racer, I thought I'd tell you a bit about myself...

About Me

I'm a forty-something bloke living in outer London. Interests include all things technical and scientific, both real and in fiction. Also running, skiing, mountain biking, reading from multiple genres and, of course, writing.

My Story

In February 2007 my software development job was made redundant. Since then, apart from a few temping bits-and-pieces, I've not been able to find permanent work, nor even decide on a suitable career path. An upside of this is that I've now had the opportunity to begin a new serious hobby of fiction writing. I still say hobby, as I consider myself an amateur and I'm still going to try to find another "main job" to earn a living. Having said that, I'd love to get my writing work published. Who wouldn't?

My Works

I always seem to have several writing projects on the go at once. Full details can be found on my web site, but here's a quick summary. All are at the first draft stage, unless otherwise indicated.

Title	Type	Count/Expected	Description
The Bridge Across Forever	Novel	35,191/58,000	My main project. SF/Thriller/Mystery.
Insight	Novel	36,398/80,000	Co-authoring with a friend. SF/Future dystopia.
Blood On The Rooftops	Novella	13,060/30,000	Crime thriller.
The Wild One's Hideout	Novella	16,649 (editing)	SF/Adventure.
Kim & Mark	Blog	7,546/?	Weekly, prompt-driven story. Crime/Romance.

I'm also working on various short stories but I haven't listed them here. It would be too boring.

My Places

My web site: http://www.kevinmachin.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
My blog: http://cloud-base.blogspot.com

I hope I haven't bored you too much with this detail. I'll try not to hijack the NR blog like this in the future.

Happy writing!