Our story update: filling the bucket list

One day, we sat down on the brown sofa together and that’s where this blog began....

That was M & Little M – a mother and daughter who both love to read. Back in 2012.

The We Sat Down bookmark

This blog began as an exploration of books available to young teens, especially fiction novels. Things had obviously moved on from the days of the Famous Five, Nancy Drew and My Friend Flicka and we didn’t have a clue where to start!  Mixed up in this, the blog became a contemporary record of the books we’d read and our thoughts about them (no more handwritten lists stamped with a date!). 

We Sat Down focused on books that teens and adults could share as well as adult fiction with a tendency towards the literary. We like to have fun and sometimes mixed up silly bookish nonsenses with more serious contemplations about books and literary awards too.

We became involved in social events held by publishers, represented Booktrust at a Laureate announcement, held an event at a literary festival and M was on the judging panel for the Hot Key Young Writers Prize 2013. We’ve met many friendly and interesting people. And, dreams can come true because We Sat Down became a social book group, run by Little M. 

In 2014, life threw us a horrible curveball and we fell off the planet. We bounced back.

Now, Little M has a driver's licence.

M, Melanie, me - I have a bucket list. I'm busy filling it. A forty thousand word, non fiction first draft manuscript has been written. Next steps.....London Book Fair 2018.  

P.S. Any writerly and publishing tips and advice are very welcome. Please do drop me a line or a tweet.

How to Write Your Best Story Ever! - Christopher Edge

I am a browser and sometimes I find something that takes me by surprise. And so I happened upon Oxford University Press's How To Write Your Best Story Ever, which was published earlier this month. When I was a child, there was never as much guidance on developing your talents like there is today, and so I'm quite unfamiliar with fiction writing guides for 7-13 year olds. So I took a close look.

How To Write Your Best Story ever is not an activity journal, which is what I was expecting. There is no place intended for you to start scribbling down ideas. No. In keeping with OUP's dictionaries, How To Write Your Best Story Ever is definitely a reference book to prompt you, inspire you and help you along the way in, well, writing your best story ever with whatever writing instruments you choose.

It's a busy book (perhaps a bit busy for my eye, but I was 7-13 a long time ago!) full of colour, illustrations and chunked tips and guidance. Succinctly, it uses double spreads to tell you about the intricacies of the elements that make up a good story - and how you can get there. One of the things I liked most (there were a few), was that it devotes a few pages to writing all the different genres including Scripts and Mash-ups. It offers vocabulary to inspire you - and to challenge you - in crafting these different types of stories.

A couple of the other things that I really liked: quotes from a variety of different novels and authors (as well as Christopher Edge, who authored this book and some jolly good novels) are included as real examples of how to apply the suggestions so that you can see what the language looks like in a real live (and published) setting; and, all the way through it gives friendly reminders about the basic elements of the English language and how to identify and use them to improve your writing.

Really nice.


Publication details: January 2017, Oxford University Press, Oxford, paperback
This copy: received from the publisher for possible review

WoMentoring Project for aspiring women writers launches today

A new scheme offering free peer mentoring to aspiring women writers launches today.  The WoMentoring Project aims to offer insight, knowledge and support to women writers at the beginning of their careers. Mentoring is voluntarily offered from a pool of over 60 women working in publishing as authors, editors, literary agents and illustrators.

The WoMentoring Project is managed by novelist Kerry Hudson. Without a budget, the entire project is currently dependent on volunteered time and skills. Individual mentors will determine what they can offer with their mentee, and mentorships are likely to differ. Organisers of the project said that, “In an industry where male writers are still reviewed and paid more than their female counterparts in the UK, we want to balance the playing field. Likewise, we want to give female voices that would otherwise find it hard to be heard, a greater opportunity of reaching their true potential.”

WoMentoring Project mentor, Shelley Harris (author of Jubilee), said that “mentoring can mean the difference between getting published and getting lost in the crowd. It can help a good writer become a brilliant one. But till now, opportunities for low-income writers to be mentored were few and far between. This initiative redresses the balance; I’m utterly delighted to be part of the project”.

Alison Hennessy, Senior Editor at Harvill Secker, said she knows from her own authors “how isolating an experience writing can often be, especially when you’re just starting out, and so I really wanted to be involved. I hope that knowing that there is someone on your side in those early days will give writers courage and confidence in their work”.

Francesca Main, Editorial Director at Picador, said her career “has been immeasurably enriched by working with inspiring women writers, yet the world of publishing would have been inaccessible to me without the time and support I was given when first starting out.  The WoMentoring Project is a wonderful, necessary thing and I’m very proud to be taking part in it”.

Mentors also include authors Peggy Riley (Amity &Sorrow), Julie Mayhew (Red Ink), Keris Stainton (Emma Hearts LA)  previously reviewed and interviewed by We Sat Down; and children’s literary agent, Louise Lamont (agent for Red Ink).

Applicant writers (mentees) should submit a 1000 word writing sample and a 500 word statement about why they would benefit from free mentoring. All applications must be made for a specific mentor. Mentees can only apply for one mentor at a time. 

http://womentoringproject.co.uk/

 

 

 

Evil Editors and Storywriting Adventures

If storywriting's your thing, read on......

Last week's Branford Boase longlist announcement got me thinking. The award recognises outstanding debut novels for children and honours the team of author AND editor. I've been thinking about how reading, writing and editing all mix together. So, for the next few weeks, we're throwing something a bit different and a bit extra into our blogging mix. We're getting editors on board and exploring the writing and editing that goes into that now rapidly changing business of  publishing.

We're starting off with something big that's little! SHRUNK!

Shrunk!, written by Fleur Hitchcock and edited by Sara O'Connor (Hot Key Books) has been longlisted for the Branford Boase 2013 award. It's about a boy who can shrink things.

This is what editor, Sara O'Conner has to say about it:
"I am so delighted that Fleur's quirky SHRUNK! is longlisted alongside so many talented UK writers for such a prestigious award. We're so convinced of her bright future that we've signed up three more books with her. Working with Fleur is a dream but, if you don't believe me, ask the 1000 school children who are working with her on her third book through the one-of-a-kind online writing project http://www.thestoryadventure.com."

The Story Adventure officially starts tomorrow (Monday 21 January 2013). If I was a Key Stage 2 teacher, I'd be excited about it. It's a longitudinal interactive storywriting project that will culminate in the sequel to Fleur Hitchcock's Shrunk!, due to be published in January 2014. Contributors don't have to follow the whole year through but their ideas will affect the way the novel develops and may get a mention in the final published novel.  It's primarily aimed at readers and writers in Key Stage 2 and I think it looks really good. Little M and I have taken part in some interactive storymessing with Hot Key on Twitter, and while Sara might be the evil editor, I know that she does a lot of bouncing too.

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Watch out for February when we'll be hosting writing tips for older readers and writers.

Write Your Own Creepy Christmas

No review, no booklists, no reading discussions, no interviews today. No. It's all about Christmas and writing.....

To celebrate the launch of Chris Priestley's new e-book, Christmas Tales of Terror, Bloomsbury's short story writing competition blog, 247 Tales, is running a special Christmas story competition for writers aged 10 - 16.  All you have to do is write a frightful festive story in 247 words - or less. And submit it by Wednesday 12th December. There's a prize too. Full entry details are on the 247 Tales blog.

To give you some idea of how it's done, here's a specially crafted 247 tale written by author Chris Priestley:

That end of the park was empty and Lilian’s footsteps were the only ones to trouble the pristine blanket of pure white snow.  It was so beautiful, so magical.  She was breathless with excitement and, looking back only once at her now distant friends, walked on.

Lillian’s neat and charmless park was utterly transformed.  The grim old archway that stood as a lone reminder of the workhouse that had once stood here was smothered in snow and feathery snowflakes fell and tickled her face.  Lilian stepped through the arch as though stepping into another world. 

 
The park was unrecognisable here.  Lilian felt she was walking through a deserted wood as she reached an area thick with trees where the snow was especially deep and her whispered footfalls were the only sound. She had never thought of the children who lived and died in the workhouse but now they came unbidden into her thoughts.  She even thought she could hear them whispering.

Then looking up she saw children sitting in the branches above her head.  They looked like roosting owls.  They were ragged children, poorly dressed and pale, eerily lit from below by bright snow.  Their thin, wan faces looked down at her with large eyes twinkling in the snow light.  They bore an expression she thought at first was one of tragic longing, but which she realised too late was in reality some kind of terrible and cruel hunger.

And, before she could even scream, they jumped.

Chris Priestley, (247 words)

 

 

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Good luck!