#DearMe

Dear Georgia,

Well, it doesn't work out with X. I can tell you that, but you do still end up friends, so that's really good news. You take each other out for lunch every year to catch up.

What advice can I give you... Everyone who you do fall in love with is worth it. Except XXX, he's not worth it, but is still lovely.

You break two hearts. You b*tch. They both break yours too.

Make your mistakes, you're going to have the best gap year you can imagine. You will travel, but not too much. Make the most out of London, it's the best place in the whole world.

Experiment as much as you can in that year. It's going to be incredible and you can enjoy every thing at the time. You'll regret some of it, but the experience will change you forever and for the better, don't be scared to try everything you want to. I know you'll be sensible with what you choose to try and what you politely decline.

Listen to your sister, she's always right and she cares about you, she doesn't mean to hurt your feelings. Yes it still hurts when she says things to you, even now. Try to listen without being offended.

Hang on to dancing. Get good, really good. Compete if you can.

You are in the best shape of your life right now, and the next few years, remember how good it feels to be this strong and keep it up. Dancing will help with that, but it's an expensive gym so you might as well stay in as good shape as you can. Stop being lazy.

Spend your time READING you can't imagine how much time you have right now, stop day dreaming and trying to impress your best friend. You will impress everyone much more if you have actually read all the books you want to. Book people are sexy, really sexy.

Try to get jobs that involve books, every little helps for your CV and you'll appreciate the experience later.

I can't really remember what you were into back then...So I guess it's not that important.

Read. Dance. Love

In that order.

Georgia

Finding a job is a full time job.

Job hunting? Is it taking over your life? No time to apply because of full time job?

Well, I hear this all the time. Finding a job is a full time job, if you are applying with blanket applications. Something I've found is that when you REALLY want a particular job then the application process is easy, you buzz through a cover letter with enthusiasm and perk up your CV.

The full time slog comes when you just need anything. So my biggest piece of advice for job seekers is cherry pick very carefully and get excited about every job application. You know it's the right one for you if you are already thinking of interview research you'd like to look at from the company.

I'd advise persistence and multiple applications when going for internships, but not for real jobs. (It doesn't cut it and it's really obvious.) If you do not have a job already, then you have the time to apply well. NO EXCUSES.

Many of my graduate friends had lamented to me that looking for a job is so time consuming they can't fit it into their daily lives. Now comes the decision then. Do I stay where I am until my next job falls into my lap/I get promoted? OR do I "Get the fear" and quit my job without a new job offer and dedicate the next month to finding something.

Now, sometimes the fear is a great motivator, but that's a huge risk depending on your circumstances. Can you pay your rent without an income for how ever long it takes to find a job? Do you have a back up plan if everything fails. It's generally pretty good practice to make sure your back up plan is less preferable than your current situation otherwise you could find yourself at your parent's door looking for a cushy hand out. (No one likes that guy.)  Make sure you can quit safely.

Unfortunately the sad truth is that you CAN make time. When I was job hunting the biggest piece of tough love I got was "Stop whining, have you really got no time? are you really pushing hard enough? Get on with it." And they were totally right, I wasn't. I was discouraged and was ignoring job emails.

Work ethic is such an important thing to value. I realised that something I always found attractive in people is their approach to work. Find that work ethic in your self and it will make you happier because at least you are trying!

Inject yourself with a new boost of enthusiasm and I promise job hunting will get easier.

2nd Year Undergraduates

My Visit to Bath Spa.

On Tuesday 20th of January I visited my alma mater to speak about my experience post graduation. I LOVED it. First of all I got to meet a few lecturers and staff who I never had before, plus meet up with my old tutors. I also got to meet some other graduates who had really interesting stories as well. It was lovely to meet them all.

There was a distinct feeling of students up at my campus. Usually, in the wild, I see them all spread out or in small groups roaming the cities. I saw a guy skateboarding to the SU. That guy was winning at being a student.

In my final year, much of the campus was under construction while a new giant building was built. We were lucky enough to get to speak in one of the new lecture theaters. Obviously there were about 35 people in the room, this is their writing week to do nothing while the uni puts on career focused workshops.

There were definitely some despairing faces out there. Who didn't know what they wanted to do. But I felt like I crowbarred in enough of what I really wanted to say. One of the questions the leader of the seminar asked was:

If you were sitting in this room right now, what do you wish someone had told you:

"How much time you have now. Once you leave uni, there is no money, and no time. So while you have time and money at uni, make the most of it. Freelance, blog, intern, work shadow, and read."

One of my fellow graduates said: "Ah see, I'm pretty sure someone DID tell me, and I just ignored them. I'd say just make sure everything you do is useful. If you're on a team, think about how that would reflect on your CV."

And

"It's going to be hard. and scary. And it takes months or years of persistence to get a job." Why not start now??

What I enjoyed was that we all had very different stories, and we all said the same things from a different view point. If I was invited back next year, I would try to frame my answers a little better there was so much that I wanted to say that sometimes I felt a little garbled.

It was great to go back and I'd do it again!

Managing Rejection

Looking for internships and looking for jobs is really really tough. The publishing industry is better than most, I always sensed that there was a level of pity from colleagues. They had all been through it before.

The other frustrating thing, is that as with everything, the publishing world is about timing. Being in the right place at the right time. It is also about who you know. And interning is just a process of making sure you know as many people as possible.

But what is tough is the endless rejections. As with everything it's a numbers game. There are fewer and fewer publishing companies every year, as they get imprinted and swallowed up by the big fish. The ratio for your dream job is probably 3000:1 So you have to make sure that you are sending out more applications than ever. Which means more rejection letters than ever before.

It is very easy to get depressed about them piling up in your inbox. But regardless of how hard you tried on the cover letter or how perfect you would be for that job, someone is always better. it's disappointing. The only thing I can say is to try not to get bitter about it just move on to the next one.

It is usually the applications to the larger publishing houses that return with the most soul destroying emails. I won't name any random house-hold names...All you can do is apply again next time, with an even better CV and covering letter.

Over all you have to be positive to make a good impression. Try not to whine to people in the office, keep it to your friends and family (they HAVE to put up with your endless tales of woe).

Just keep playing the numbers game. An amazing job will come up. For all of us.

How To Write Spooky Stories

It's Halloween tomorrow night and my tradition is to read by candle light. Something about the flickering shadows spooks me. There is a superstition to have a candle burn at your window to let the gouls and other beasties know that you are home and alive and not to come creeping. It is also supposed to be a beacon for loved ones who have passed on, to visit and come home, while the veil between worlds is at its thinnest.

This year I will be reading Frankenstein.

Hook

This is important in all writing. You have to make your readers interested in what you are writing about.  Your characters should make your readers FEEL. Make your characters loveable or loathsome, but the reader has to care about the characters. All suspense writing starts with the reader’s empathy and then reader’s concern.

Set up. Twist.
The greatest example of the set-up-twist is the two sentence horror story. Here is one taken from sunnyskys/blog by Therealhatman:

“I woke up to hear knocking on the glass. At first, I thought it was the window until I heard it come from the mirror again.”

The reason that this works is because it has a set up. The reader is set up to think a certain way, a false sense of security even, and then the second sentence is the twist that makes you think very differently about the first. In a short story or a novel you can do this in every chapter by creating conflict between characters or in a scene. The secret is in the twist, so let your imagination run wild!

 

You can extend the ‘set up’ for as long as you like which brings me to number two.

Avoid the dot dot dot

Suspense is a very important part of writing scary stories. A cheat to build suspense in your writing is to make big promises of action, give the reader more information than the characters, extend moments of uncertainty and always keep your promises.

A couple plan to meet at a meeting point. That is a promise of action.

But the young man’s rival finds out and hides at the meeting point with a gun. Giving the reader more information.

The couple arrive at the place with no idea of the danger. Extend this moment for as long as possible and the reader will be on the edge of their seats waiting for the rival.

Conflict. Either a fight, or a murder, or another character arrives, whatever works for your story. Keep your promises.

Remember though, that a murder or violence is not suspense. Too much violence or gore will start to not mean anything to your readers. A murder is not suspense writing. An abduction with the threat of murder is.

NOTE: Using Elipses (…) is actually the worst and a very lazy way of building suspense, avoid the dot dot dot!

Description

One of the greatest writing tips of all time is: Show Don’t Tell. Most people don’t even notice when writers use this technique but it is what turns a good story into a great one. It can be hard, when you are writing a story to spend time on the description especially when you have a really good idea you just want to get on the page as quickly as possible. But when it comes to suspense writing you HAVE to show not tell and it really helps to extend those moments of uncertainty I mentioned. It will also make your moments of conflict when you keep your promises really exciting.

An example of show don’t tell:

Tell: Megan shot him.  Show: The smell of gun powder filled the air and Megan’s arm jolted back into her shoulder as the gun went off. She hardly heard the bang before her ears were ringing. She stared across the room, where a trickle of black blood was already being sucked up by the carpet; she could almost hear it.

Use all of your senses for description so that the reader is drawn into the scene.

READ

If you want to write scary stories READ scary stories. This goes for any kind of writing. This doesn’t mean just copy an author you like. There is actually a part two to this tip.

Read and Analyse.

When you begin to feel scared while reading, stop and think HOW the writer made you feel that way. Once you understand the technique they’ve used you can use a similar technique on your own story. Maybe you will notice a Set Up-Twist or the building of suspense. Take note of how the author did it and you can start to practice it with your own writing.

An Open Letter to University Students

Dear Students,
Your second or third attempt at freshers week is over, I hope it was even more successful than the first time round. You've probably had a chance to meet all your lecturers and had a chance to decide which seminars you will be avoiding. *curse you 9am lectures!*

This is the year that really starts to matter. In most cases, from now on, all of your grades count towards your final result. This is also the time to do all the fun things you always wanted to do because next year all your free time will be spent in 24hr Libraries and cafes trying to squeeze 10000 words into a dissertation.

My best advice that I can give you at this early stage in the year is to get a job. Any job. Preferably one that pays you, probably as a barista or in a shop. Your second year is all about building your CV while you have time and resources on your side.

There isn't a ticket into the job market. A levels, degree, good grade, respectable university, they're all just the building blocks of your CV and you need more. Start demonstrating what you want to do.  If you don't know what to do, do things you like so that your CV reflects who you are. Having that first job or two will give you that much leverage once you graduate.

You might have spent most of your student loan on a bass guitar (you know who you are), but you can still survive on ramen noodles until Christmas. If you can live without a paying job, get an internship or placement in the industry you prefer. Sometimes this is hard to do in your university town.

I know about publishing, because that is what I wanted to do, so I can only advise on that, but it applies to everyone really. I was amazed once I got to London that there were at least three places I could have worked while at uni and I had no idea, because I never looked. Start your research NOW. look for work in your university town and at home.

My greatest regret is that I didn't do more to prepare for the real world while at Uni. Bills, rent, learning to drink jager without dying, all good lessons. But what I really should have been doing is writing for my uni magazine, working in the SU, building a blog! Anything to prove to my employers that I want to be in their industry. In publishing the consistent item on a job description is that the candidate must 'demonstrate their passion for books'. So go demonstrate any way you can.

If there just isnt time between sports, drinking and essays, use the holidays to do internship placements instead of slobbing around in your pjs. Try freelancing if you prefer the flexibility.

I cannot stress how much easier your graduate life will be if you work while at uni.

Good luck with your cover letters!

InternInBooks

Your Manuscript

When I speak to aspiring writers about what I do during my internships, I am often faced with anger. Everyday I lift a pile of envelopes and read the contents. Then there are two piles. Yes and No. and who am I to decide?

There is more that goes into this choice than you think. I have to decide first of all if the writing is good enough. Can they spell, is it well presented? What is the story line? Who would buy this (publisher wise) and does it fit in with the books already being published?  For example,even if I like it, but I know none of the agents at this agency would take it up: it's a No. 

But seriously, who are these interns? Who in a writers eyes aren't qualified to decide on an author's fate like that. Well we are and we aren't...I would say, after a year of learning and reading and judging, I am pretty qualified to decide which pile things go into. I also went to university for three years to understand how writers edit and work and change their manuscripts, I also heard of advice on how to improve writing and how to practice. I really do think I am qualified to decide. But I didn't have this much experience from the beginning, it had to be learned and as always, reading is subjective, no matter how much you try to remove yourself, your opinion is what counts. 

Why do they give what seems like the most important job to interns? For every book that is published there are 200 which didn't make it. That is 200 underdeveloped, badly timed and misdirected manuscripts just for each book. But more than anything else, the manuscript just isn't good enough. Agents have to work on the books they have already accepted, they cannot spend hours and hours reading many BAD manuscripts day after day. We are the filter system. 

Here are some mistakes that people make: 

Some writers didn't do the right research, 

only sent it to one agency, 

sent it to a publisher that doesn't accept manuscripts, 

didn't send a synopsis, 

wrote a bad/arrogant cover letter/didn't put their contact details anywhere, 

didn't follow the guidelines.

Advice to get published.

1) WRITE. SOMETHING. WORTH IT.

2) Read Simon Trewin's 'letter to an unsolicited author'. You can read the final chapter here. or the full version in the Writers and Artists' Yearbook 2014.

3) Find an agent. by sending your work to as many as possible.

 - make sure you follow the guidelines of each agency. 

 - write a new cover letter every time. 

4) If you get rejected, (which you will) send it in again a few weeks later. Don't mention it in your cover letter and just try again. WARNING most agencies will have a submission log, if you spam them they will know about it and automatically reject you. If you have been rejected more than twice go back to the manuscript. is it really ready?

5) submit the best product you can. re write, edit, change, improve. Or, submit something new.

6) Understand how publishing works, understand that the person reading your manuscript has read 10 already today, understand that you can and should try again. 

It takes a lot of work to get there but if your book is worth being published someone will recognize it.