Scrivener for Windows pre-release orders now open

Regular callers to these parts will have noticed in passing how I've kept tabs on various Windows / Linux beta test releases of the creative writing software package Scrivener, which until now has only been fully available for those of a Mac persuasion.  


The fine folks over at Literature and Latte might have pushed the release date back a week to 7th November 2011, but pre-orders for the Windows version of Scrivener are now open.  As a thank you / apology / fit of niceness, there's even 10% off.  If you're NaNoWriMo-ing this year, there's an added incentive too.  Full details here. 

2012 Bristol Short Story Prize

The 2012 Bristol Short Story Prize has been announced.  Stories of up to 3,000 words may be entered.  There's no set theme.  First prize is £1,000 plus £150 in Waterstones vouchers; the top twenty stories will be published in an anthology.   The competition closing date is 31st March 2012.  You can find full details here, and read an interview with Emily Bullock,  the 2011 winner, here. 

William Gibson: Zero History

London, the present day.  Blue Ant advertising head Hubertus Bigend hires former rock musician Hollis Henry to track down the elusive designer behind new underground denim label ‘The Gabriel Hounds’.  As Hollis investigates, she comes to realise that there are a series of players in town, each with their own agenda, all of whom are seeking what she’s after.

  

The third (and last?) in the Blue Ant sequence, this is a return to the more overt narrative of Pattern Recognition than was evident in the second series entry Spook Country.   Simultaneously the book works as a corporate thriller, a near-SF piece and as a philosophical meditation on what it’s like to live in the industrialised west in the second decade of the twenty-first century.  

Crammed with neat ideas, cool gadgets (from ‘faraday pouches’ that shield your mobile phone GPS signal to taser-equipped surveillance penguin mini-airships), insights into the complicated semiotics of brands, running jokes about breakfast and about London’s cultural mix, Zero History is breathless fun, witty, wise and thought-provoking.  You’ll never look at an ugly teeshirt in the same way again.     

Gibson, William.  2011.  Zero History (London: Penguin), 404 pages, 978-0670919550

William Gibson: Spook Country

Second in the loose trilogy involving the splendidly-named Hubertus Bigend and his mysterious BlueAnt corporation, a contemporary thriller (Gibson’s seemingly abandoned future-set SF on the basis that the now is futuristic enough) spinning together a journalist for a possibly imaginary magazine tracking an elusive artist, a container-load of McGuffin that’s been at sea for years, missing money once destined for Iraq War payoffs, iPods full of trafficked data, geocaches, weapons loaded with radioactive bullets and omnipresent surveillance.


It’s a bit like Foucault rewrote Discipline and Punish with more jokes and an obsessive interest in contemporary design; less of an obvious thriller than its predecessor Pattern Recognition (the story sneaks in here at the midway point), and more of a meditation on how weird it is to be living in the here and now and how paranoia is one sensible coping strategy for 21st century western living. It feels at once dated and futuristic at the same time in the way tech SF often does, a tone that’s spot-on.

Gibson, William, Spook Country (London: Penguin, 2007), 370 pages, 978-0141016719

Eastenders E:20 writing opportunity

From BBC Writersroom: Do you want to be on the writing team for Eastenders: E20?

EastEnders: E20 is written by a team of young writers, all under the age of 23. All of our writers complete a 4-week EastEnders: E20 Writers School where they are taught how to write for television by EastEnders Script Writers and Producers. They are then commissioned to write an episode each.

You must be between the ages of 16-22 and a UK resident to enter.

You should submit a piece of fictional writing for a character that you have made up, either a blog, a diary extract or a character monologue (up to 400 words), and send it in by 30th November 2011.  Full details are here.

Thor (2011, directed by Kenneth Branagh)

Thor, the brash eldest son of Odin, is cast out of Asgard for rebelling against his father's wishes and initiating a war against the Frost Giants after being provoked into doing so by his scheming brother Loki.  He is exiled to Earth, stripped of his powers.  He's rescued by scientist Jane who teaches him something of the ways of mortal humanity; in the process,Thor learns humility.  Loki incapacitates Odin, assumes control of Asgard and tries to provoke a final war with the Frost Giants.  Thor's battle-friends retaliate and journey to Earth to find their lost leader.  Reunited with them and, eventually, with his magical hammer Mjolnir, Thor vanquishes first Loki's golem, then Loki himself.  Odin is restored to the throne of Asgard, but Jane and Thor are separated, with no way to be reconciled.  


Thor is a couple of very different movies spliced together.  Half is a rather charming knockabout comedy set in small town America, half is bombastic greenscreen CG effects mayhem and studio portentiousness.  Though the two halves aren't quite as discordant as one might fear, nevertheless, Thor s a movie that works better in parts than as a whole.  


First, the good stuff.  Chris Hemsworth is something of a revelation in the title role, being able to pull off the folksy good-ole-boy mortal as well as ab-sculpted hunk and arrogant immortal.  He's charming when he needs to be and can deliver effectively enough in the fight scenes.  There's a splendid supporting turn from Stellan Starsgard, Clark Gregg does slimy G-man well, and Colm Feore works minor miracles as the main Frost Giant.  The effects are generally never less than passable throughout, and the whole thing rips along nicely enough.  


On the other hand, it's a very busy movie.  Characters are shoehorned in with little or no narrative reasoning and there's something of a box-ticking quality to some of the more minor supporting faces, who seem to have been given a moment each because they have a place in the wider comics mythology, rather than there being a sound excuse to have them in this film.  Vaguely familiar faces (Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba) are lost under stick-on beards and silly plastic helmets.  Even Rene Russo pops up as Odin's missus, presumably after invoking the "Freejack Reunited" clause in her contract from the early 90s with her hubby, played with his usual slumming grace by a coasting Anthony Hopkins.  The buildup to the Avengers movie is serviced by a few Marvel nods including cameos from Hawkeye, Nick Fury and some post-credits exposition for future films.           


Rather too much of what we're presented with here is either backstory or advance planning for upcoming movies; the Asgard storyline itself is somewhat simple and uninvolving (I find it hard to get worked up about CG monsters battling studio-bound bewigged thespians), and the altogether more well-drawn Earth sequences are rather rushed through.  This is a film that relies on its audience's memory of the trailer for some of the more significant plot points.  You're left with a feeling that there's a half hour of Earth material awaiting a special edition DVD/Blu somewhere.  There are liberal lifts from Superman II and Damien: Omen II of all things, and a nice Terminator 2 reference along the way.


Thor's passable enough while it's on, but it's a prequel to other adventures, rather than a convincing film in its own right. 

CJ Sansom: Revelation

London, 1543.  Lawyer Matthew Shardlake, enjoying a relatively quiet existence in Lincoln’s Inn, is content to have removed himself from courtly intrigue and affairs of state.  His friend and colleague Roger Elliard is murdered, and Shardlake promises his widow that he’ll bring the killer to justice.  As the investigation develops, it becomes clear that Elliard’s death is one in a continuing series of serial murders, the ramifications of which reach all the way to the household of Henry VIII’s intended sixth wife, Catherine Parr.

The fourth Shardlake novel is a serial killer thriller, of the kind deconstructed by Umberto Eco’s The Name Of The Rose and played rather straighter in David Fincher and Andrew Kevin Walker’s Se7en.  Here, the murderer is inspired by the pouring of the seven vials in Revelations, as a seried of lapsed religious reformers are targeted.  Sansom distracts from the potential for hokiness inherent in the premise in concentrating on the stakes for Shardlake, in terms of his affiliations, his own faith, his obligations to the extended family he’s collected around him over the books to date, and on the consequences for failure.  Along the way we’re givin insight into sixteenth century attitudes to mental illness, medicine, religion and  on the range of effects the dissolution of the monastaries had on former monks and their dependents and on wider society.  An entertainment rather than a serious novel perhaps, but effective and convincingly-researched with an intriguing cast of supporting characters to support the humane lawyer at its centre.   

Sansom, C. J. 2008.  Revelation (London: Macmillan) 550 pages, 978-0230736238

Sidebar Films SF script search

London-based Sidebar Films are looking for a writer with a completed SF script.  They've got their tentacles out for a script that could realistically be produced for £250,000.   Writers wanting to submit should have a feature-length shooting script of at least 80 pages ready to go, and shoud be prepared to make a sale.  In the first instance, writers need to send a 12 page in be 30th November 2011.  There are more details over at SCI-FI London's website.  Sidebar Films can be found here.  

Light Reading short story and flash fiction competition

To help publicise the work of Diamond Light Source, the national synchrotron facility (apparently that's a particle accelerator!), new short and flash fiction competitions have been announced.  Entries (which may be in any genre) should be inspired by the facility, the science behind it and the people who work there. Short fiction entries should be up to 3,000 words with a 300 word limit for flash fiction.  The competitions offer a £500 and £50 first prize respectively.  You can find out more about Diamond Light Source here.  The competitions page is here. Both competitions close for entries on 30th November 2011.  

Write Exposure short fiction / poetry competitions

Write Exposure is a new initiative designed to give new short story writers and poets a showcase.  Each month there'll be opportunities for short fiction (up to 1,200 words) flash fiction (up to 250 words) and poetry, based around a set theme each month.  Winners will receive publicity through the website and there'll be prize money each month, though amounts will vary according to the number of entries received.  You can find more details here. 

BBC Opening Lines short fiction for radio opportunity

BBC Writersroom has details of the latest window for sending in short fiction for its Opening Lines series. Stories of between 1,900 - 2,000 words (14 minutes in radio time) are called for.  Submissions may be sent between 17th October and 2nd December 2011.  You can find full details on the BBC Writersroom site here.  The Opening Lines webpage is here.

Red State (2011, directed by Kevin Smith)

America, present day.  Three horny teenagers are lured by a mobile phone dating application promising hookups with sex-crazed women to a trailer.  This proves to be a trap set by extremist pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) who's been behind a series of hate-crime murders.  The three are held in the pastor's church-cum-compound.  Attempts to escape are thwarted, and their situation develops into a standoff between Cooper's flock and law enforcement led by ATF agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman).  


If not quite his best movie (Chasing Amy), then Red State is certainly Kevin Smith's most interesting and atypical. Parts feel as though he's been obsessively rewatching Coen brothers films (gospel music, the use of John Goodman, his character's attitude being seemingly akin to Tommy Lee Jones' in No Country For Old Men) and taking notes from Quentin Tarantino (casting Michael Parks, the grandstanding monologuing, gimp scenes, the three-films-in-one format).  In addition to this, Smith's keen to reference, sometimes pleasingly obliquely, a range of horror movies that critique America: Night of the Living Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Carrie are all invoked at key moments.  Aspects of the film take potshots also at the safety and moral conservatism of the torture-porn cycle of the Hostel and Saw movies too.


That said, the plot makes no sense, lurching from contrivance to contrivance (if Cooper is on a mission to rid the earth of gays, why does he target three straight teens for example - this is glossed over too glibly) and the siege ends with what first appears to be a bold move straight from Smith's earlier Dogma to be undone by five minutes of wince-inducing explanation afterwards.  For once, Smith's direction is stronger than the writing, which is okay on a line-by-line basis, but is structurally compromised.  On the upside the performances are excellent throughout, none more so than the always compelling and convincing Parks.  


Red State attempts to use genre cinema to say something about extremist religion, gun culture, post 9/11 erosion of civil liberties, sexual permissiveness and overreaching government, and by conflating the likes of the Westboro Baptist Church (who get namechecked for legal reasons), Guantanamo Bay and the Waco siege Smith certainly has much to aim at, even if Smith can sometimes do little more than hold a mirror up to the issues rather than make his critique heard.  It's a film with almost no likeable characters, and that seems to be part of the point.  Welcome to America.      

Hive: Have The Last Word competition

The independent booksellers' consortium Hive has launched a writing competition with £1,000 worth of purchases from its outlets as first prize.  Crime author Mark Billingham has authored the beginning of a short story; the challenge is to finish it with up to 1,200 new words of your own.  There's a runner-up prize of £250 for the entry most voted for on the competition website.  The competition runs until 4th November 2011.  To enter, see the story so far here.  You can find out more about Hive here.  

On effective rewriting

The first draft: is never the finished version of any piece of writing.  At best, it’s a clear preliminary sketch of what the final product might look like.  At worst, the writing may be so poor that it’ll put you off from making the changes that may well result in an effective and enjoyable story. 

In the first instance: give yourself perspective/distance from the first draft.  Don’t go straight back into making revisions; leave the writing for a few days at least.  Even better, print a copy of the first draft off and then don’t read it.  Wait.  The longer you can wait, the better the final result.  Why? Because you need to be able to approach rewriting with a clear mind, so that you can work with the ideas that are on the page, not the ideas that you remember writing.  Also, in the gap between first and second drafts, a tiny proportion of your brain will be ticking over thinking about how to improve the first draft.  You might get little flashes of inspiration, plot ideas, better twists, neater phrases.  Be open to these, and record the ideas as they come to you.

Then go back to work.

Rewriting tip 1: work from a print copy wherever possible.  This gives you distance from the work in hand and also it allows you to express yourself on the paper.  Try it.  The experience will be a little like doing a crossword puzzle.  It’s a good feeling. 

Rewriting tip 2: read the original work out aloud, in a steady, even tone.  Act it out if you like, particularly if you’re imparting physical action or emotions.  Make notes where and when the writing doesn’t work.  Only after you’ve re-read the first draft and made some notes on the paper printout of the draft are you ready to begin work in earnest.

Rewriting tip 3: consider the story.  Does the story work?  If not, what’s wrong?  Be honest with yourself.  Make changes.  If the tale relies on a twist, does it work?  A twist should be both logical and surprising, so have you planted sufficient seeds to make the twist work and covered your tracks into the bargain?  Then look at the beginning of the story.  Can you start the story later?  There’s often a tendency to write our way into first drafts.  Is there early exposition that can be either integrated into the meat of the story or, better, be cut altogether?

Rewriting tip 4: consider the characters.  Is it clear who your protagonist is?  Have they changed from where they were at the beginning of the story to where we find them at the story’s end?  Are there too many supporting characters?  If so, can characters be combined or cut out to give greater clarity to the story?  How efficiently are the characters drawn?  What can you cut?  Also, consider dialogue.  Early drafts are often undernourished in terms of dialogue.  As people, we’re interested in human interaction, in conflict and in listening in on the private lives of others.  Stories told through dialogue satisfy all these desires. 

Rewriting tip 5: work in layers.  Stories communicate in five layers:

1.    The story as a whole

2.    Each scene in turn

3.    Paragraph by paragraph

4.    Sentence by sentence

5.    Word by word

Revise your story on a level basis: story, then scene, then paragraph, then sentence, then word.  We’ve dealt with the story layer above.  Let’s look at the others.

Scene: a scene is a unified sequence of story (in time and place).  Many short stories are told in one scene (a conversation, for example) . If we move time and/or place, we’ve got yourselves a new scene.  Questions to ask: does each scene justify its place in the story?  Does something happen in each scene to drive the story and/or at least the protagonist onwards?  If not, what can be cut or amalgamated into another scene?

Paragraph: a paragraph is a piece of writing within a scene that’s unified by subject or character.  This is why we have a new paragraph for each new speaker in a conversation exchange, for example.  Questions to ask: is your paragraphing accurate?  Is every paragraph necessary? What can you do to make the paragraph service the story as a whole, rather than being a stand-alone bit of writing that doesn’t move things along? 

The rest of this piece will look at sentence and word levels of rewriting.    

Rewriting tip 6: be active in your writing.  Cats sit on mats.  First drafts often read passively as they’re often conversational in tone, and in speech we’re thinking up as we’re going.  Be prepared to find, when you’re rewriting, that there’s rather too much passive rewriting.  If in doubt, rewrite the sentence so that it’s active.     Apply this rule to dialogue tags as well.  “Bob said” rather than “said Bob” wherever you’re using dialogue attributions.

Rewriting tip 7: adverbs and adjectives – knowing your enemies.  Ask yourself a question each time you’ve used either an adverb or an adjective.

Adverb: these qualifiers act to modify a verb (in the example “she walked quickly”, the last word is the adverb).  When we’re speaking, adverbs are handy because we can alter and focus our meaning by correcting what we say as we’re talking.  On paper, the writing needs to be right.  Solution? Choose a more specific verb (“she strode” perhaps, rather than “she walked quickly”).  Think of adverbs as a weapon of last resort; only use them when you need to, not just because you can.

Adjectives: these describing words can add handy and precise detail, but too are too often over-employed.  Think of adjectives like seasoning; use them to enhance the writing.  Again, over-use comes from being reliant on speech-modes when writing.  We use adjectives in speech often but in written prose we should use them only when they’re necessary to the story, the character or the setting. 

Rewriting tip 8: being aware of hyperbole.  Don’t exaggerate in your writing.  Pay particular attention to physical description, and to similes and metaphors; is the writing controlled and accurate, or is it too much?  Be particularly aware of this when revising first-person writing because it’s easy sometimes to let the character take on a life of her/his own. 

Rewriting tip 9: look for repetition.  We all have verbal tics, favourite words and phrases, recurring ideas and images that we call upon.   Scrutinise your work so that these aren’t infecting and multiplying across your writing.   In first drafts, these may make themselves evident.  In second and later drafts, the task is to destroy that evidence. 

Rewriting tip 10: check and check again.  This applies to factual information, to any detail that’s researched.  Is the story right?  There’s no excuse in making things up when you can save yourself the embarrassment at being incorrect with a quick fact-check.   Check your spellings and punctuation.  If you’re not sure, then seek advice.  Make sure that you’re consistent in your layout.  Follow any house rules for layout for magazine/competition submissions to the letter.  Beware of homophones and of differences between American and British spellings.   Don’t rely on the inbuilt spellchecker in your word processing program.  You’re a writer you should a) know these things for yourself and b) want to make your writing better.    

Rewriting tip 11: be wary of “writing”.  If you want to be a poet, go and write some poetry. Your job is to tell the story, not to draw attention to your vocabulary, your facility in inventing complex comparisons or your personal taste for baroque sentence construction.  The great thriller writer Elmore Leonard says: “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it”.  So should you.

Rewriting tip 12: writing is rewriting, so get used to it.  Rewriting is where writing comes alive.  And it doesn’t necessarily get easier with time. 

Rewriting tip 13: be prepared to be brutal.  If in doubt, cut.  Look again at dialogue tags, for example.  Only keep the ones you need to orient the reader as to who’s saying what. 

Rewriting tip 14: watch for cliches.  Cliches may well form part of the first draft, and if they’re useful in getting a vague idea of what you want to say down on paper, then that’s okay.  But treat cliche as placeholder text only.  In the rewrites, find another way of getting the same idea across.  There’s perhaps an exception if you’ve got a character who speaks in cliché, but be very careful of overuse here.    

Rewriting tip 15: go for simple.  Use the simplest means at your/your characters’ disposal to express yourself.  There are no prizes for polysyllabalism here.   Cats sit on mats.  Mammalian felines do not perch upon Axminster offcuts.

The overall effect should be that your prose is invisible.  We want the reader to be engrossed in your characters and the story, and not distracted by the way you’re communicating that story and those characters to them.  Anything that gets between the reader and your made-up world is wrong, so make sure that you’ve done all that’s in your power to make your story as strong as it can be. 

Rewriting tip 16: do it again.  There’s no absolute protocol on how many passes it’ll take to have your story completed, but I’d suggest this as one possible model.   

First draft: write it.  It’s okay if it’s messy as long as the ideas are there.Then wait as long as you can (and never less than a week) before reading it.

Second draft: focus on structural fixes, on fact-checking, on researched detail, on layout, spelling and punctuation.  The completed second draft should look and feel like a story. Focus here on the story and scene level of writing.

Third draft: now think in terms of words, sentences, paragraphs.  Question everything that you’ve done.

1.    Does each sentence work? 

2.    Does each sentence work well?

3.    Have you done all that you can do to make the sentence as clear, simple and as relevant to plot and character as you can?

4.    If it can be done better, do it better.

Fourth draft: re-read the story again out loud.  Be honest with yourself.  Make a checklist of the fixes that you need to do.  Make a second list of the items you left off the first list.  Now make the fixes.  All of them.

Fifth draft: repeat the fourth draft steps until both lists come up empty after your re-read.

Now get your story out into the world.  It doesn’t fully become a story until it a) reaches a readership and b) readers begin to respond.

Rewriting tip 17: read more.  You’re not reading enough.  Go and read some more.  And in particular, read writers who are alive, active and who are having their work published now.   By doing this, you’ll absorb more of current conventions in story structure, in effective characterisation, in layout, in communication, in pace, in the use of humour, in genre sensibilities.  Read around fiction as well; reviews, book sections in newspapers, industry magazines and websites, author websites, blogs and twitter feeds.  Read publisher and agent websites, magazine sites.  Know your potential markets and your potential readerships.  Read in and around your subject areas / genres / comparator authors, but take time to read more widely as well.  Read how-to books as well; you’ll pick up plenty of good ideas along the way.  Get a feel for what published writers do, the ways they do, and the reasons why they do.          

Notes: these notes are a synthesis of many sources and my own ideas and observations.  What’s encouraging is that, when reading textbooks, articles, writer memoirs and craft how-to books, how the same notions repeat.  Which ones work for you?  And why?

CJ Sansom: Sovereign

England, 1541.  Lawyer Matthew Shardlake is despatched by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to rendezvous with Henry VIII’s court, which is progressing towards York, where the king will receive both assurances of fealty from the formerly rebellious northern nobles as well as meet with the Scots king James IV.  Shardlake is to assist in the administration of legal pleas brought before the king.  On arrival in York, Shardlake is made aware of a possible plot against Henry’s legitimacy, must investigate a murder, is compelled by Cranmer to oversee the transfer of a prisoner to London for questioning under torture.  In addition he must navigate the competing ambitions and rivalries of various courtiers, including Sir Richard Rich, already an enemy of Shardlake.

This third novel in the sequence (folllowing Dissolution and Dark Fire) is an engaging and convincing thriller.  Particularly enjoyable are the ways in which author Sansom juggles a complex set of conflicts and dilemmas for his legal hero to puzzle through, while still making the detailed rivalries and competing ambitions and motivations understandable and plausible.  At its heart Sovereign is a whodunnit and the solution is perhaps inevitable as much as guessable, and as such doesn’t quite have the depth particularly of its immediate predecessor, though there’s much to relish along the way in terms of research, plotting and execution and in the confidence with which this superior entertainment is orchestrated.       

Sansom, C J. 2007. Sovereign (London: Pan), 662 pages, 978-0330436083

Guardian masterclass competition

As part of this weekend's promotional push on its series of writing-related masterclasses and its book-related season (there's a 40-page supplement in today's newspaper, for example, filled with articles like this one from Jill Dawson on beginning writing) there's a giveaway competition to win up to £4,000 worth of creative writing tuition from the paper's selection of masterclasses.  


You can enter the competition here.  There's a list of masterclasses here. The Guardian's series or articles on creative writing is being archived here.  The giveaway competition closes on 29th October 2011.

The New Writer Prose and Poetry Prizes

From "The New Writer" magazine: "This is the 12th year of the Prose & Poetry Prizes sponsored by The New Writer magazine. Prizes are awarded in the following categories:

"Non-fiction: Essays, Articles, Interviews - covering any writing-related or literary theme in its widest sense up to 2,000 words. 1st prize £150, 2nd £100, 3rd £50.

"Fiction: Short Stories, Micro Fiction - short stories 500 to 5,000 words, micro fiction up to 500 words; on any subject or theme, in any genre (not children's). Previously published work is not eligible. Short Stories: 1st prize £300, 2nd £200, 3rd £100. Micro Fiction: 1st prize £150, 2nd £100, 3rd £50.

"Poetry: Single Poems and Collections - Single Poems up to 40 lines; Collections of between 6 - 10 poems - no restriction on length of poems in the Collection category. Single poem entries must be previously unpublished; previously published poems can be included as part of a Collection. Collection: 1st prize £300, 2nd £200, 3rd £100. Single: 1st prize £100, 2nd £75, 3rd £50."

Full competition details may be found here.  Entry forms are available here.  Entries should be postmarked on/before 30th November 2011.   

National Youth Theatre "Write To Shine" opportunity

Six new voices for screen and stage are being sought in the Write To Shine programme.  Six selected writers aged between 18 and 30 will  take part in a ten-week mentoring programme (held over weekends in central London in the New Year).  Scripts of fifteen pages are called for in the first instance, with a closing date of 3rd November 2011.  There are full details here. 

Choc Lit short story competition

The chocolate fanatics over at Choc Lit have announced details of a short story competition.  Stories should be 1,500 words or under and have chocolate featured as a central theme.  First prize is publication, £200 and a load of Choc Lit goodies.  The competition closing date is 31st January 2012 and there are full details here. 

Walkopedia travel writing competition

Walkopedia has announced details of a travel writing competition.  Entries should be no more than 1,200 words and relate to a walk or a hike that you've experienced.  The competition is free to enter and offers a £500 first prize. The competition closes on 31st December 2011 and full details are available here. 

Carol Birch: Jamrach's Menagerie

Mid-Victorian London.  Jaffy Brown, eight, has a close escape from a tiger.  The escape brings him to the attention of Jamrach, an importer and wholesaler of rare birds and animals; Jamrach offers Jaffy a job tending the livestock.  Jaffy over time becomes fast friends with Tim Linver who also works with Jamrach, despite Tim’s practical jokes.  By the time Jaffy is fifteen, an opportunity he can’t pass up arises.  Jaffy and Tim board a whaler, the intention being to cross the world to the Dutch East Indies and bring back an alligator-like ‘dragon’ for Jamrach.  The beast is captured but on the return journey it escapes causing in turn a chain of events leading to the abandonment of the vessel and two rowboats-full of crew cast adrift in the ocean.  They’re at sea another sixty-five days before being picked up by another ship, but few of the crew make it alive, the rest drowned, starved, committed suicide or, like Tim, sacrificed for food.  Jaffy, who was compelled by the drawing of lots to kill Tim, returns to a changed London.  He reflects on his adventures from the perspective of middle age.      

The book’s first person narration gives the writing a quality that’s at times dreamlike and wistful, often childlike.  This, coupled with the relative youth of the narrator during the key events in the novel, imparts a distance to the story.  Parts almost read like fantasy which may be seen by some to replicate a naïve view of the world, but while a sense of wonder is often communicated, what we don’t really get is a feel for the reality of the at-times extreme situations Jaffy finds himself in.  As a consequence, though there’s a lot to admire in the work, particularly in the London-set sequences, it’s hard to engage with Jaffy and his adventures.  The distance is perhaps necessary given that it’s part of the novel’s structure, but it results in a work that’s too often admirable rather than involving.

Birch, Carol.  2011.  Jamrach’s Menagerie (London: Canongate), 348 pages, 978-1847676573     

Magnus Mills: Screwtop Thompson

Mills, Magnus. 2011. Screwtop Thompson (London: Bloomsbury), 114 pages, 978-1408809976

A collection of eleven short stories, eight of which were previously available in the Acorn Books collections Once In A Blue Moon and Only When The Sun Shines Brightly.  Those familiar with Mills’ brand of slow-burn quirk and gently malevolent routine will know what to expect, though some of the stories are a little sketchy; almost like first chapters of aborted Mills novels that never came to being.  The exceptions are the title story and “Hark The Herald”, a story about a gift gone wrong and a bleak Christmas tale of being trapped in a bed-and-breakfast, and “Vacant Possession”, which is a little gem of a story with an absolutely knockout last line. 

Heather Brooke: The Revolution Will Be Digitised

Brooke, Heather.  2011.  The Revolution Will Be Digitised (London: William Heinemann)

The information flow events of 2010 through Heather Brookes’ prism: Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, Julian Assange.  Simultaneously a snapshot of a pivotal moment in journalism, an account of how paper and web combined, collaborated and then fought for control of an ultimately uncontrollable story, and a fascinating insight into the hubristic actions of a charismatic individual (Assange) who started to forget that he was the messenger and not the story and whose actions began to undo the good he thought he was doing.   These current events are interweaved with a potted history of hacking, of investigative journalism and whistleblowing, as well as pertinent observations on the information society, on definitions of privacy in an online world, and the developing roles and functions of the internet and the organisations, private and public, who seem to forget that the trust we place in them is contingent.   

Peter Barry "Moving Stories" short story competition

This short story competition is open to writers 18 and over and entries should be based around the theme of "Moving Home".  There's a first prize of £750 and runners-up prizes of £125.  The competition closing date is 12th December 2011.  You can find more details and submission guidelines here.

Magnus Mills: A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In

Mills, Magnus.  2011.  A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In (London: Bloomsbury), 978-1408821206, 276 pages

The empire of Fallowfield is run by a cabinet of seemingly newly-elected ministers who are waiting for their ruler to return.  They stall for time, each getting used to the new roles they’ve got, each aware that they’ve no relevant qualifications or experience to perform their function.   The unnamed narrator, The Principal Composer to the Imperial Court, allows his first violinist to undertake the actual work, while he himself helps the Court Astronomer, who is having trouble with identifying stars and planets.  One day a puff of smoke is spotted in the distance.  A railway is being built, and Fallowfield is about to have visitors for the first time in an age. 

Mills’ latest novel is a delicate thing, one level another study of routine going awry and of an escalating comedy of errors.  At another level there’s a critique of imperial ambitions and hubris, with the rather Victorian English Fallowfield threatened by the advancing deputation of the somewhat more modern and industrialised (and American) City of Scoffers, with their paying jobs, funny currency and mechanised transport systems.  There are whiffs of Borges, of Italo Calvino, of Samuel Beckett and Tony Hancock here, but the overall effect is distinctive and unique.  I’m not sure if it’s an ideal entry point if you’ve not read Mills before (try The Restraint of Beasts or The Maintenance of Headway), but if you appreciate his writing and worldview you’ll not be disappointed here. 

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011, directed by Tomas Alfredson)

London, 1973.  George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is removed from his M16 post along with his superior 'Control' (John Hurt).  Control dies soon after, and Smiley is brought back into play and out of early retirement in  investigating several senior M16 officers, one of whom is known to be a double-agent working for 'Karla', a Soviet spymaster, and who has been instrumental in botching a recent operation in eastern Europe.


Tinker, Tailor is a pleasure; an intelligent, low-key movie for grown-ups that demands that you pay attention and which doesn't suffer fools.  The plot is almost incidental to what's really going on, a series of character studies of the powerful and arrogant who each in their own way have become so absorbed in their jobs, in their jockeying for position and in their selfishness and ambition that they've lost themselves.  Scene after scene of smoky nicotine-yellow rooms filled with Brit character actors (Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds, John Hurt, Roger Lloyd Pack, Simon McBurney) mistrusting each other, and restrained supporting turns from the likes of Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy bring across the tension of their precarious positions and the stakes, personal and professional, being played for.  


The central mystery is played down and perhaps wisely.  This is a mood piece rather than a whodunnit, plus the identity of the 'mole' that Smiley's searching for is well known due to both John le Carre's source novel and the Alec Guinness TV version from thirty years ago.  There's a lovely scene from Kathy Burke and the period detailing is done just right.  Some scenes are goosepimple-inducing in their detail (a Christmas party full of deceit is a dark, almost Mike Leigh kind of squirmy treat).  This, though, is Oldman's show.  His Smiley is one part tribute to Guinness, who's referenced in Oldman's accent, one part masterclass in understated screen acting.  For too long Gary Oldman's been away from centre-screen, happy to support in big-budget tentpole franchises.  Here he's got a chance to show what he can do and it's a joy to watch.  The best actor Oscar?  Bets are off.   

New Statesman essay competition

The New Statesman is running an essay competition for people aged 18-25.  Entries of up to 2,500 words addressing a set essay on the question of poverty are invited.  


The essay title is: "If Beatrice Webb were alive today and wanted to compile an index of poverty in the UK, what factors would be included, how would they be measured, and how would each factor be weighted? Also, how would you use such an index to promote the issue of poverty in the public and political consciousness?"  


The competition offers a £1,000 first prize.  The competition closing date is 15th October 2011.  Full details on the competition may be found here.  And Beatrice Webb?  She was co-founder of the New Statesman.

James White Award SF story competition

The James White Award is an annual short story competition for unpublished writers working in speculative fiction genres.  Stories of up to 6,000 words should be entered by 31st January 2012.  There's a £200 first prize plus publication in SF magazine Interzone offered.  The competition is free to enter. You can find full details on the rules here and there are tips for writers here too.  Good luck!    

The 2012 Award details are here:  http://www.displacementactivity.co.uk/2012/10/james-white-award-2012.html

Readers' Digest 100 word short story competition

This year's Readers' Digest 100 word short story competition offers £1,000 in first prizes and £100 runners-up prizes for the best piece of flash fiction entered.  There are also two competitions for children under 12 and for learners aged 12-18.   Entries should be original and unpublished and be sent in before January 31st 2012.   entrants should be aware, though, that competition organisers will retain copyright of all entries.  You can find more details here.

Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Though the Commonwealth Short Story Prize isn't open yet (entry forms are available from October 18th 2011), the prize will seek to award a £5,000 first prize plus substantial regional winners' prizes for the best unpublished short story of between 2,000 and 5,000 words entered.  Details can be found here.

Park Publications 2012 "Country Story" short story competition

Stories of up to 2,000 words in any genre (as long as there's a countryside connection) are eligible to be entered into this writing contest.  There's a first prize of £75.  Winners and runners-up will be published.  The competition closing date is 1st June 2012.  You can find full details here (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Adventures In Fiction 2011 apprenticeships

Adventures In Fiction offers a year-long mentoring and support programme to new writers who are close to completing their first book-length work and who would benefit from the additional input.  The application period for the next intake of writers is now open (it closes in May 2012).  Details of their professional development programme is here.  Entry requirements and application processes may be found here. 

Pierre Bayard: How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read

Bayard, Pierre.  2008.  How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read (London: Granta Books), 185 pages, 978-1862079861

Bayard opens with a dilemma; as someone who teaches literature in a university setting, he sometimes has to talk with authority about books he hasn’t read, and often to others who haven’t read the book either.  This starts him thinking – what is it not to read?  How can you navigate the world without necessarily having read the books you’re supposed to?  Does it matter?  Does not reading empower in ways that reading cannot?

The book (which I’m here claiming to have read, though I may be recalling a book different to the one that exists on the printed page) is a cheeky pleasure, simultaneously tongue-in-cheek in its approach yet making some serious points and offering clear worked examples of struturalist, post-structuralist and post-modern notions of authorship and the roles of the author and the reader.  He draws widely to make his arguments stick (from The Name of the Rose, where William of Baskerville deduces the content of the book that’s at the centre of the monastary murders without having read it; from The Third Man, where Holly Martins must pretend to be another author with a name similar to his own; from Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray’s character has an eternity to learn how to talk off the cuff so he may impress the woman he loves). 

Three sections examine in turn ways of not reading (books you don’t know, have merely skimmed, have heard of but not read, have forgotten), of being confronted (by friends and acquaintances, by lecturers, by the writer of the book you haven’t read, by someone you love) and how to behave (don’t be ashamed, impose your own ideas, invent books, talk about yourself instead). 

Bayard comes round to the notion that it doesn’t matter what you’ve read or not read; not merely because the author may well have been dead since Barthes’ 1968, but because constructing your own book to talk about, real or imagined, is a set of creative acts in itself. He’s not being entirely serious, but there’s a lovely reminder here not to allow us to be judged by the literary prejudices of others, and not to be quite so precious about our own reading. Bayard would probably enjoy the idea of glancing through this review and at some point in the future, having a conversation about the book as though you were familiar with it. Who knows? Maybe the book you develop with reference to this one is better than the one that I’m claiming here to have read.