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My Writing Story

Novel Writing: Characters, First/Third Person, Slang, Adaptation, Self Publishing

Many thanks to the Bang2writers who sent in these questions via Twitter, email and Facebook over the last two weeks regarding actual novel writing and its side interests, such as adaptation. Jennie asks: How many characters “should” be in a novel? In direct contrast to screenwriting, novels can have as many characters as they want. Novels don’t even have to stay with the same protagonist; they don’t necessarily need an antagonist; they can have a huge cast of characters to focus on; they can have an unreliable narrator – YOU NAME IT. This is the freeing – and often very… Read More »Novel Writing: Characters, First/Third Person, Slang, Adaptation, Self Publishing

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Are You On The Write Path?

When I was a child, I wrote to the journalist Julie Burchill and told her I wanted to be a writer. She wrote back with: Are you sure? Better to be a vet.  I thought she was nuts and promptly forgot all about it. Later, I decided I wanted to be a screenwriter. I did the BA (Hons) Scriptwriting for Film and Television at Bournemouth University and during the course of my dissertation, I interviewed a stack of working screenwriters at various stages of their careers. Each time I asked them the question, “Why be a screenwriter?” every single last… Read More »Are You On The Write Path?

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Guest Post: Self Publishing & Ebooks by Lucy V Morgan, Part 1

Bang2writers are venturing into self-publishing more and more, so I asked uber-self-pubber and fellow writer and name-sharer Lucy V Morgan her top tips on self publishing and ebooks. Enjoy!—————————–Help! I want to self publish. I think. Maybe. Or I dunno, actually. All the cool kidz iz doing it. I want to stick it to the man. But how do I stick it, and where? Do I really want to do this? I can write 90,000 words of pure awesome, but am SUDDENLY INCAPABLE OF MAKING THIS DECISION! [Facepalm] Calm down, now. Deep breaths. Soothing owl noises. Twit twoooo. Here’s some… Read More »Guest Post: Self Publishing & Ebooks by Lucy V Morgan, Part 1

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Happy New Year: Highs & Low

It’s been a great year – London Screenwriters Festival was bigger and better than its first year; Deviation, the thriller I associate-produced, sold to Revolver Entertainment for distribution in the new year and BUT WHAT NEXT? my first YA novel, sold to Rowohlt Publishers in Berlin and continues to be considered by a number of prominent UK publishers. And of course there was the arrival of our beloved Wee Girl # 2, who has found her voice and makes her feelings known every chance she gets – just like her elder siblings, the Wee Girl and The Male Spawn, both… Read More »Happy New Year: Highs & Low

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I Am Not A Lucky Person

You don’t have to go far to hear writers, filmmakers, actors etc expressing RAGE when told however hard they’ve worked, they’re “lucky”. Hell, I include myself on that. I am not a lucky person. Name any given situation, even something as small as picking one outcome **or the other** – left or right? Heads or tails? Red or black? – I WILL PICK THE WRONG ONE. 100% true factoid. I’ve ended up in enough wrong places and lost enough bets and money to know this. I am a hard working person. Hell yeah. We all are. I know lots of… Read More »I Am Not A Lucky Person

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Why You SHOULD Do A Course In Scriptwriting by Eleanor Ball

Last week Lucy penned a really useful post on media careers and what to do after a media course, which inspired me to churn out some thoughts as a meedja student about to face the abyss. I’m in the final term of a scriptwriting MA, which means much less classes, and much more closing the curtains on warm sunny days. Not to get too personal or anything, but here is a snap of my Halls of Residence bedroom floor: … So what that photo probably tells you is that when I’ve finished with something I literally just THROW it from… Read More »Why You SHOULD Do A Course In Scriptwriting by Eleanor Ball

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Novel Writing # 2: Moving From Screenwriting to Writing Novels

Professional scribe, long time Bang2writer & mate David Bishop has blogged about his experience of becoming a screenwriter after publishing forty trillion novels (100% true factoid) and has challenged me to blog my experiences of doing the reverse, so here it is. I’ve written on here before about how, as a child and teen, I *really* wanted to be a novelist. That was my dream. I loved movies and I loved TV – especially continuing drama – but it was books that made me go WOW. I thought the people who wrote them were the cleverest people in the world… Read More »Novel Writing # 2: Moving From Screenwriting to Writing Novels

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Novel Writing # 1

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook or have read my bio, then you know I’m writing a novel at the moment. I wrote an in-depth pitch at first – about ten pages, rather like a script treatment – so technically I know exactly how the plot is supposed to work out. I have a beginning, a middle and end. I have all the character bios. I have a “statement of intent” (or writers’ vision). So actually, I guess it’s more like a series bible. So I’ve done all the planning I usually do. But that’s where the similarity… Read More »Novel Writing # 1

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Please Save The Libraries

I didn’t want to be a screenwriter when I was a little girl. I didn’t know there was such a job! Like so many children (and adults, now you mention it), I imagined movies and telly were somehow magically put together, appearing before us ready made. Looking back, I see how curious a belief this was: after all, I knew cartoons were (then) drawn; I knew actors acted. So why couldn’t I comprehend the people behind the page and the camera? I have, however, always wanted to be a writer. When I was a child, the top writing job (to… Read More »Please Save The Libraries

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The Frustrated Novelist

So one day a little girl saw a bookcase and decided to be a writer. Said bookcase was full of novels with titles like SHADOWFIRES, MIDNIGHT, CABAL, WEAVEWORLD, IMAJICA, CARRIE and FIRESTARTER. Later the little girl would discover her mother had got them via one of those book clubs where you get them by post whether you like it or not and can’t return them. Mother didn’t even like horror *that much*, yet entirely by accident would influence her daughter’s genre choice. But for the little girl, the paperbacks in that big bookcase in the spooky corridor near the bathroom… Read More »The Frustrated Novelist

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My Writing Story, Pt 2: Beyond

So, as I said in the last post: I was done with writing, I was moving to Exeter, I was gonna be a teacher. Ha ha. I applied – too late as it turns out – for a PGCE that August, so I could start at uni the moment I got to Exeter in September. It didn’t work out; they were full, though they said I could start September after. Brilliant: I had a whole year to fill. Being a single Mum though meant I had plenty to occupy my time; I had to find my kid a school, for… Read More »My Writing Story, Pt 2: Beyond

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My Writing Story, pt 1: University

Miss Read has been writing about her own experiences at university doing a scriptwriting degree, which has got me thinking about mine. I’ve had a roundabout journey in scriptwriting, falling into script reading on the way and giving up on this whole lark more than once in pursuit of a more “sensible” job. But it seems I just can’t keep away, ‘cos I’m still going… Let us know how you got into it in the comments section.————————————————————————————-When I decided to become a writer, I was 18 and had dabbled with the creative arts my whole life. I’d done a journalism… Read More »My Writing Story, pt 1: University

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