Writing Magazine April 2020

http://www.writers-online.co.uk AUGUST 2018^63

FICTION FOCUS

AUGUST 2017 63

with Morton S Gray

I wish

I’d known...

‘I

t took me a long time to take my own

writing positively and seriously because that

little critical voice in my head kept telling me

that publishing wasn’t a world open to me,

and that no one could possibly want to read a novel

I had written.

‘Yet the stories were pouring out of me into my

notebooks and on to my computer. They seemed to be

well-received in the writing class I attended for many

years. With the encouragement of my writing tutor,

the novelist and poet Sue Johnson (author of Fable’s

Fortune), I began to enter competitions and started

to get shortlisted for short story and first chapter of a

novel competitions. I joined the Romantic Novelists’

Association’s New Writer’s Scheme, which gives a

priceless critique of one of your novels for each year you

are a member, and I kept writing.

‘By the time I saw Choc Lit Publishing’s Search for a

Star competition for a completed, unpublished romance

novel, I had several to choose from sitting on my study

shelf, so I sent off my entry. I couldn’t believe it when I

made the shortlist, alongside a friend, Lynn Forth (and

she’s now published too – Love in La La Land).

‘Beyond all my expectations, I won the Choc Lit

publishing contract! My debut novel came out in 2017

as The Girl on the Beach. Since then I’ve had another

two books published by Choc Lit: The Truth Lies Buried

and Christmas at Borteen Bay. I don’t think anything can

compare to holding a paperback of your own novel.

‘My message to anyone reading this and aspiring

to be a published author is to believe in yourself and

your work, to take time to learn the craft of writing, to

send out your work despite your doubts, and to enter

those competitions, because then you could become a

commercially-published author too.’

http://www.writers-online.co.uk APRIL 2020^63

asked Steve, continued Tom) for
the reader to know who is talking.
Also, my dialogue mustn’t be
too much like speech in real life,
which is often repetitious, hesitant
or clogged up with irrelevancies.
Since many novels, including my
own, are simultaneously issued in
audio formats as well as in print,
the dialogue mustn’t be stilted and
difficult to read aloud.
Now for my narrative viewpoints

• are there too many, too few,
  and am I guilty of head-hopping
  in individual scenes, or even in
  individual sentences? Do I always
  choose the right viewpoint – first,
  second, third, deep third, or some
  other kind unknown to reader until I
  invented it (which I haven’t yet).
  It’s always a challenge to start
  a story, so is my own opening
  interesting, intriguing, mystifying,
  worrying or/alarming? Do I
  introduce or at least suggest the
  challenge(s) my central character(s)
  will face? Or do I spend my
  opening pages waffling about
  nothing very much?
  Fast-fowarding towards my ending


• is it satisfying or unsatisfying?
  Did it answer the questions I asked
  at the outset? Or did it tail off? Do
  I need to tie up any loose ends? I
  have written several series of novels,
  but I always need to bear in mind
  that every individual story must be
  complete in itself.
  What about all those vital clues
  that are certainly in my head –
  are they also on the page? It’s
  so easy to assume I have written
  something down, but I find it’s
  always wise to check.
  Most stories have themes, so does
  my new novel have one? Jealousy,
  revenge, redemption: can I identify
  any? Or, if I can’t, does it matter?
  As for showing as opposed to

telling – have I fallen into the

trap of using too much authorial

overview? Or do my characters reveal

themselves in action and dialogue?

I’m quite a visual writer, and I

always set my stories in specific

places, so are my settings important

(or irrelevant – let’s hope not), and

are they well-realised? Do I use too

much or too little description? Do I

describe the settings myself, or do I

let the reader see them through eyes

of my characters? Do I use the other

four senses to take the reader there?

The last item on my list is to

check my spelling, punctuation

and grammar. Yes, a good story can

always be edited, and everyone is

allowed the occasional solecism or

typo. But, as writers, we all need to

know how to handle these basic tools

of our trade: to keep them sharp and

free from rust.

It can be a wrench to let go of

actual possessions that have outlived

their usefulness, but which are still

dear to us. But it can also be also

very satisfying to have a good sort-

out, to take all that stuff we don’t

need any more to the dump or the

local charity shop, and to make some

space for improvements.

This is as much the case with

writing as it is with life.

NOW Try this

Hardly any piece of

writing, either published or

unpublished, is likely to be

perfect. So, before you get

going on spring cleaning your

own work, maybe take a

critical look at someone else’s

writing, and only then reflect

on your own?