We have some news to share from Scribes member Richard Barber whose short story “Visiting” has just been published in Midnight Echo IV. It may be the magazine of the Australian Horror Writer’s Association but never fear, they’ll post it to you if you ask nicely enough and you can also buy an electronic version. Couldn’t be easier eh!
Richard also recently made the short-list of Brit Writers 2010 but unfortunately didn't make it to the final, we're all mighty proud of him.
Recent sessions of Derby Scribes have been devoted to getting an oft talked about Scribes idea off the ground, a shared world free for all Scribes members to use and set stories in.
There has been lots of fun in sessions that have been less structured than normal and thus far we have a floating castle-like library tethered by a mighty chain above a small townstead. Large spider like creatures tear up and down the chain and in the depths of the library proper is a room that allows the 'reader' to step into the story.
Being that this is a library the many genres allow us scope to write any type of story we like.
The upcoming session (2nd August 2010) will also be devoted to hammering down specifics and listening to initial drafts of stories that explore the world then we will be back to a regular schedule for a while to give the world time to percolate.
Come join us at the library next session and have a hand in creating the world.
The session on the 17th May 2010 will be presented by Richard Barber and will be on the subject of Editing.
The session will be held in the Derby Central Library meeting room as normal and Richard asks that, if you are attending, you bring along a short (3000 words) piece along that you can use for the sessions excercises.
There will be a few sample stories for those that don't have anything to bring but to get the most out of the session it is recommended to bring a piece of your own work to use.
Hi Scribes folks,
Sorry for the delay between the meeting and this being sent out but I had to make sure members who had been assigned sessions were fine to do them on the days allocated.
Although attendees to the AGM last Monday were thin on the ground we did our best to work through issues raised by other members in advance.
Below I've listed things planned and actioned, if anything you raised isn't specifically mentioned then chances are it was bought up but we decided it needed further discussion with more people around.
"Survival tips for 21st century writers, from best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson, M.J. Rose, Heather Graham, J.A. Konrath, Gayle Lynds, Alexandra Sokoloff, Jonathan Maberry, and more. How to develop your craft, improve your writing, get an agent, promote your work, embrace the digital age, and prepare yourself for the coming changes in the publishing industry. Edited by Scott Nicholson."
This is nothing new but a great little list to muse on, according to Wikipedia, these are KV’s eight commandments:
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Vonnegut qualifies the list by adding that Flannery O’Connor broke all these rules except the first, and that great writers tend to do that.
