Sorry not to have posted here in a little while. I don't know what came over me. I have told myself off.

I wasn't sure what I was going to post here aside from apologies and saying that I've been writing a lot (which I have) until, oh, about two minutes ago.

It's about editing. Now, we all know, as writers, published, unpublished, almost published, that editing's essential. It's what changes a story from a good idea into something that others can understand. It makes something good, better, or something very dodgy into something wonderful and cohesive. Editing's where the work is.

This is my editing process:

1. I write the story, with a pen, in a notebook.
2. I type it up, making changes as I go.
3. I print it off and read it through, making changes as I go. This stage is repeated until I'm happy that it's Almost There.
4. I read it aloud (and record what I read). - Often things stand out as being obviously wrong AS I'm reading* and can be changed there and then (and this can be anything from unintentional rhymes to structural problems or things simply not making any sense).
5. I listen to it back. Make changes. Go back to stage 4.

And so on.

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Last Friday I blogged about the criticism aimed at Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Lost Symbol.

The debate my post sparked was lively and enjoyable. I, for one, love nothing better than discussing the craft of writing with other writers.
But what became clear to me as the day wore on was that writers appear to fall into two camps. Those who believe that story is all and those that feel the style of a piece is what makes it sing.

To be fair, I’m sure most of us would say we aim for both...a riveting plot, well told.


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My poem, Chess, is one of the editors' choices for the Third Quarterly Review at Bewildering Stories.

Also, congratulations to Oonah V. Joslin for her short story Pure Research, also up there!

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Four days at a short story festival, what a wonderful idea! From Thursday night until Sunday night, at gorgeous Charleston, home of Virginia Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, writers reading from their stories and talking about stories. And in a large barn, with atmospheric lowing from the cows next door and the soothing hum of milking machines.

I came on Thursday night and stayed til Sunday lunchtime with Vanessa, in the company of several other writer friends, which meant late night chats about that thing that we do! I went to six events, and to sum it up I would say that while the concept of Small Wonder is fabulous and the organisers are to be applauded, it is, as most of these festivals must be, driven by commercial considerations, or, to use that lovely British phrase, "bums on seats". In other words: ticket sales and then book sales. Of course this is important since, sadly, there are no billionaire short-story-loving angels dispensing money to the few short story festivals that exist..........

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f you hang around on writing forums for a while, you'll discover that one of the guaranteed topics to get everyone hot under the collar (or rather the keyboard) is how - and why and how often and if - members spend time critiquing other members' work. Indeed, the only times a forum member - let's call him Caliban - has got their knife into me have been on that very topic, I should imagine because it is, exactly, a guaranteed recruiting ground for strong feeling among the members. (Though it didn't really work, because strong feeling is not always directed as its recruiter would wish.)

Why should this be? Clearly, critting each others' work is the way that writers have always learnt: no doubt Sophocles and Aristophanes swapped scenes in the pub over the retsina and calamari. It's not just that we all need an external eye cast over our work, and earn it by doing the same in return. Much more important is that one of the fundamental elements of learning to be a writer is to learn to stand outside your own work, and read it as another reader would who doesn't know what you're trying to say before you say it. And since that takes different muscles from learning to write, the best place to learn to control and exercise that capacity is on others' work. What doesn't work for you? Which bit? Why not? Why not? As a teacher I spend a lot of time trying to force people to get down to reading and discussing specific words, to do close reading as the literary critics say, because writers have to write specific words: all writing is close writing.

But still, new people join the circle or the forum, and put work up but don't comment on others. And eventually either they're taken to task for being all take and no give, or people just stop commenting. An egotist, people decide, only interested in themselves and what they can get. Meanwhile other new people happily dive in and comment but don't post their own work in return. This is likely to cause less trouble, but a writer who's willing to crit others without laying themselves out in return is also, ultimately, not a full member of the crew, because part of the coin of such intimate relationships is equal vulnerability, equal exposure.

But when the right phase of the moon comes round and a bout of forum soul-searching asks what's going on, a rather different picture emerges.

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I've read that Stephen King writes 2000 words a day six days a week, always listening to heavy metal music. JK's been known to write longhand in busy cafes. My own act of writing involves sitting at my familiar desk looking out over the garden, cup of tea by my side - in complete silence. I begin by re-reading what I wrote the previous day, do a mini edit on it and usually, most times, it's at that moment that the characters come out to play. And I don’t just mean the characters featuring in my Work In Progress. I mean the my own character traits made flesh, who regularly turn up to help or hinder me in the writing process. What I'm writing, where I am in the story, or how I'm feeling in general will completely dictate which one may make an appearance.

Take the Lion. She’s a hunting Lioness, strong and dependable, sure in her ability to take care of business. She urges me to be strong. Keep the Faith. She nurtures me, feeds me, encourages me to grow. She's most apparent during first draft months.


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Can there be anyone in the world who has missed the hoo-ha surrounding the release of Dan Brown's latest novel, The Lost Symbol.

Booksellers across the land have been inundated with advance orders and queries about this most awaited of books. Sales are set to outstrip his previous block buster, The Da Vince Code with a first print run of millions.



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