 Remember Filofax? Like many people in the 1980s, I toted a black, approx A5 sized leather folder which not only contained my diary, notes and address book, but also expenses sheets, stamp and card holders, to do lists, maps, vocabulary lists – in short, my life.
Came the electronic revolution, I waved it bye-bye. The next time I used it seriously was in 2005 for research notes when I did my MA in history. I was reminded how compact it was and how easy to carry round with me.
But I recently found (to my surprise!) that Filofax is more than a folder full of stuff. I discovered a delightful system call Flex. This appeared when I was planning my trip to the RNA Conference in Caerleon earlier this month. I needed to take plenty to write on for the copious notes I knew I would be taking, but the sheets of paper tended to fall out of the plastic folder or got lost in between other stuff.
 Enter the Flex folder! It has slide-in notebooks with lined pages or plain pages and when opened on a lecture theatre table for taking notes it doesn’t overlap the neighbour’s working space. And there’s a loop for a pen or pencil, slots for cards and a tear off pad for little notes.
I carried two 80-page notebooks (which was enough even for me) without busting Ryanair’s Nazi-like weight restrictions. (I love Ryanair really 😉 )
One thing was missing: an integrated burglar alarm to prevent all the admiring glances crystallising into something more nefarious.
I’m not on commission, but I let you know I’m adding this to my collection of useful things for writers.
Who’d have thought?
What do you find are the most useful tools, gadgets and gizmos supporting your writing?
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is out early summer 2014.
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 When I starting this scribbling business in 2009, I wrote the second part of my trilogy first. I didn’t know I had at the time. I sat down one morning in front of my computer and typed for three months.
As a professional translator, I knew it would have to edit anything I produced. I joined a writer’s group and got through the terror of reading my offering out loud and receiving comments and criticism. I toughened up. I ordered and consumed books on writing, I swapped others with the writing group members. I put out tentative feelers to find out how to publish. I went along to seminars, listened to talks. I was on my way.
My novel’s heroine was established in her role; she knew her world, she had a significant other and she duly saved the day. What could be wrong?
But after one writer’s group evening, the discussion confirmed a doubt which had started sliding into my head by the back door a week or two earlier. Why had I started where I had? Why hadn’t I started at the beginning of her story?
I explained to myself and the group that I would publish(!) the first part afterwards. I didn’t need to be all conventional.
Er, yes, I did.
To get a second sale, you have to hook your readers. When did you ever read a trilogy or series that didn’t start with part 1? I don’t mean the absolute beginning of the heroine’s or hero’s life, but their first adventure/case/ revelation/ pivotal point in their life. (I’ll probably get bombarded with comments and emails quoting hundreds of examples now 😉 ).
But I saw the logic and took another three months to draft the first part. Seven drafts later, I submitted it to the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writer’s Scheme and received terrific feedback plus a load of points to work on. This is the book whose progress I have mentioned from time to time in this blog.
But what of that book I wrote first – the second part of the trilogy? The one I cut my teeth on. I dug it out of the archive, printed it out and wept. It was crap. The story was basically sound, but dear gods, the words: clichés, telling, dough, fluff, gratuitous scenes, sag, cardboard characters.
So out came the machete, the clichéometer was cranked up and the stomper readied. I have left some sentences and even the odd paragraph untouched. This is encouraging. I am on page 41 with 248 to go. It’ll be over before Christmas.
I realise that since putting that first novel aside, I have learned so much and practised so much more. My writing is at a different level altogether and importantly, I can see that. Which is quite a relief.
So am I alone or have you noticed a similar change in your writing?
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 This morning, I wiped away a tear when I re-read my post last March about the first time I submitted my three chapters and synopsis to agents. I think I was partly touched by my cheerful optimism and partly sad that I had fallen into the classic mistake of submitting too early.
Looking through my file of reply letters, I saw all the agents had replied, even if only by formulaic letter. Some had made complimentary remarks, one was handwritten, one had asked to read the full manuscript (which got me more than a little excited!) but the result was a universal ‘No, thanks’.
I needed answers.
So, I took action.
With some trepidation and after a thorough exchange of emails, I sent my baby, plus synopsis, a note of writerly ambitions and a selection of agents’ comments off to the redoubtable Nicola Morgan‘s Pen2Publication writing consultancy.
Brave or what?
She was characteristically bracing, but specific:
“At the end, you will see a list of things I think you need to do to it to make it good enough for quality publication, or for success in self-published form. Sometimes I recommend that a writer simply leaves this first novel as a practice-run and starts again. I’m not saying that with you, because I think you have an enjoyable idea with potential; but don’t underestimate what needs to be done to it.”
The following conclusion spurred me on and has remained hovering in the forefront of my brain for the past year:
“But I don’t want you to forget that there were also good things about this, and promising aspects, especially in your rich imagination of […]. If I didn’t think it was worth working on, I’d have suggested you begin a new book but I think there is enough in here that shouldn’t be lost. No idea is ever wasted. I believe that if you take these things on board you have every chance of being able to create a genuinely interesting, exciting and unusual story – unusual in a way that could be publishable.”
So I did. I got the machete out and chopped 30,000 words of fluff and dough and added in tighter, tougher and kick-ass ones.
I did an inspiring, but practical Arvon Foundation course on commercial fiction, I read books, blogs and articles until my eye-balls fried, I attended the Festival of Writing at York this year. Most of all, I interacted with other writers and read, read read.
All the time, I was editing, polishing, agonising. On one run-through, I got rid of 28 ‘felt’s (Smug or what?).
Now I’m submitting again because I want to be published. This time, I think it’s a much better product. And out there, I know there’s somebody who just might agree.
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Last weekend, I was in Caerleon, South Wales attending the Romantic Novelists’ Association conference. It’s a joyous event, where you re-affirm old friendships and form new ones, where you’re are reminded of old things you’ve forgotten and learn new ones. Talks on characters, publishing contracts, marketing; presentations by those who have made it and those who hope to; meetings with publishers, agents and industry gurus. And the wine…
For a flavour of the event, have a look at these. Warning! May contain shoes and smiles.
RNA blog – Day 1 pictures RNA blog – Gala dinner (and shoes) A first timer’s view
I’m not going to repeat their words – they’ve said it all. But I’m going to tell you about something else I did that weekend before the conference got started.
I went off on a Roman holiday. Caerleon or Isca Augusta was one of the three permanent Roman military HQs in Britain.
Isca became the headquarters of the II Legion Augusta in about AD 75, when Governor Sextus Julius Frontinus began the conquest of Roman Wales. Recent finds suggest Roman occupation of some kind as late as AD 380. More info here
Being me, I took a load of photos. (Click on the individual links for more photos.) The most impressive remains are of the amphitheatre, the only fully excavated one in Britain.
Nearby are part of the fortress wall and the Prysg Field Barracks, (right) the only Roman legionary barracks visible in Europe.
The National Roman Legion Museum contains some very interesting finds, including carved gemstones lost down the drains!
Behind the museum is a Roman-inspired garden which gave me a few ideas for my own.
And if you fancied a swim, then the fabulous display at the Roman baths museum could entice you in. (It’s not real water, but the effect is very well done.)
And there is more to come. Last year archaeologists found traces of a huge building which may turn out to be the size of Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex.
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out.
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 This afternoon, I launched a rocket-fresh new writers’ group.
When I arrived in my new home in France, I eagerly searched out existing groups. Like any new relationship, it takes a while to mesh with established groups, so I went to several meetings, full of optimism and using my best networking and charm skills.
I dutifully presented my work for critiquing. Now, I’ve hardened up over the past year or so, but I blinked, hard, when one member turned on me and said he hated it. In those words and with fury all over his face.
Okaaay.
I took a deep breath and explained about genre writing, the large readership of women’s fiction, etc. etc. He used the H word again. Embarrassment from the facilitator. I persisted over a few more meetings, even volunteering a session on character (Thank you, Arvon), but concluded too many of the personalities in the group were parading their egos. Time to move on…
Dispirited and dejected after several months, I knew none of the groups was right for me. Writing is a visceral, instinctive thing and I should have clicked instantly if a group was right. Alas, no clicks.
I was spoiled after my terrific group in the UK where I met my critique partner (I blogged about writing buddies here last March.).
So after drinking enough vinegar, I decided to brew my own champagne. A writer friend who had traipsed round some of the groups with me and a colleague with a track record of writing plays and musicals who was starting on her first long fiction met over tea and cake (thanks to Helen of Haddock in the Kitchen) and set up our group. We hope to invite another local writer, an alumnus from UEA, no less, and then set to work.
The buzz from talking, exchanging and communing on an almost telepathic level with other obsessives cannot be beaten. We have our objectives and the next date.
Do you belong to a writing group? How does it enhance your writing?
Update 2024: Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.
Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines and taste world the latest contemporary thriller Double Identity… Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. As a result, you’ll be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.
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Remember Filofax? Like many people in the 1980s, I toted a black, approx A5 sized leather folder which not only contained my diary, notes and address book, but also expenses sheets, stamp and card holders, to do lists, maps, vocabulary lists – in short, my life.
Enter the Flex folder! It has slide-in notebooks with lined pages or plain pages and when opened on a lecture theatre table for taking notes it doesn’t overlap the neighbour’s working space. And there’s a loop for a pen or pencil, slots for cards and a tear off pad for little notes.
