Novel writing on Twitter!

A few people have expressed shock that I haven't gone on Twitter yet. I don't think I'm ready. I don't understand how it works.That said, I've been hugely tempted especially after the #queryfail, #agentfail, #writerfail debacle.

Then along comes Kathleen Duey (Skin Hunger)

Kathleen is tweeting a novel!

Okay, to those who don't get Twitter it's micro-blogging (tweets are your postings) - as in, blogging but only at 140 characters at a time. Some blogging friends of mine are totally sold. It's concise, you say what you want to say, then you move on. No hours spent planning, sourcing images, researching links.

But a novel?

I think it's a stunning new think on storytelling. Says Kathleen:

It is HUGE, terrifying, fun writing!

Check out Kathleen's Twitter novel in progress. You can read it chronologically on her Myspace page.If you decide to follow Kathleen on Twitter, you will only get the novel. Here's why Kathleen does it:

After years of being a craft sponge who wrote good (I hope) books for specific market slots, I am writing art-driven books. Skin Hunger was the first of these. Sacred Scars will be out August 2009. I am lately chasing artistic experiments. This one is public, terrifying, and seems to be working so far. I am not plotting the story. I am channeling a single character. Russet talks, I type. My central task is to stay out of his way. He has spent a lifetime not talking, brevity comes naturally to him so the twitter format works well. The plot that is emerging astounds me.

You can't comment like you do on a normal blog. Unless of course you are on Twitter. If you want to comment or ask a question, Kathleen set up this comments page on MySpace.

The rules:
Russet talks, I listen and type.
Once written, no revision.
When he stops talking, I post the Tweets. Then I add them to the MySpace archive.
Then I do other work.

I don't know what I expected but it's an amazing experience so far. Russet is absolutely real for me. So is the man with one wing.

So my writerly friends. How about it?

Peter J Murray's inspiring story

Someone mentioned Peter J Murray's website on one of the message boards I follow and I casually followed the links to this video which tells how Murray went from being self published to a three book deal. The most impressive thing in this video is Murray performing during at schools. The man is an inspiration!

If you can't see the video, view it here

An 'Overnight Success' after 20 years

The excellent Undiscovered Voices website was launched yesterday and I urge all you hopefuls to read David Almond's essay about his struggle to be discovered:

All writers, unless they’re very fortunate, know how difficult it is to get noticed, to become ‘discovered’. I became an ‘overnight success’ (I clapped when I read the review that said it) after almost twenty years: stories in obscure little magazines; a couple of story collections published by a tiny northeastern press; a novel rejected by every single UK publisher; a couple of dozen readers who loved my work; a part of me that said it all would work out well; and another part that simply didn’t give a damn. I wrote because I loved to write, and I’d keep on writing no matter how much recognition I received. Read it all

Last night, winners of last year's ground-breaking Undiscovered Voices competition rubbed shoulders with hopefuls for the next one, which will be published in 2010. The deadline for entries is June 1 2009. Winners will be announced in the fall of 2009.

The previous competition has been a big learning curve, say organisers Sara O Connor and Sara Grant, as a result of which the rules have changed. The biggest change is that agented authors cannot enter while non-fiction authors can. Read the submission rules here.

Apart from Lindsay Heaven, commissioning editor of Puffin, 2010's panel of judges are brand spanking new. The judges are:

JULIA CHURCHILL, The Greenhouse Literary Agency
LINDSEY HEAVEN, Puffin Books
SARAH MANSON, Literary Agent
JO UNWIN, Conville and Walsh
EMMA YOUNG, Macmillan Children’s Books
ZOE DUNCAN, Scholastic Children’s Books

Left to right,Sarah Manson, Zoe Duncan, Jo Unwin, Emma Young, and Julia Churchill

Several people have asked me if my writing life has been happily ever after since I made it into the first anthology.

The answer is: winning the anthology was like getting fast-tracked to the next level. You bypass the slushpile. Which is fabulous. Yes, it has changed my life and yes, the future is bright.

The thing is, you get up to the next level and you realise that you have entered another battle. And you wonder when you will ever win the war?

I am writing my fourth novel now and I still don't know which one will be my first published novel. At last night's event, people were still congratulating me for that  glorious moment two years (!) ago now. A moment that now seems all too fleeting. 

I take heart from David Almond's words:

And through it all, through all the doubts and humiliations, we have to open up a little space inside ourselves in which a little fragment of ourselves can sit still and whisper, ‘It’s OK.’