British SCBWI

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Latest Activity

SCBWI British Isles Central East Region covers: Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. It is open to all members of SCBWI living in these counties (or very close by!).
23 hours ago
Sonja Holder updated their profile
yesterday
Hi Bekki, thanks for the invite! Dan
on Sunday
A virtual group for members based in the South East region, (this currently extends from Kent to Oxfordshire up to Middlesex) -If you are interested in starting or joining a group in the real world that meets locally to you, please contact Bekki.
on Sunday
Sonja Holder updated their profile photo
on Saturday
Not yet - I still have to keep my day job! Glad you liked it, Candy.
on Saturday
Raphaella Serfaty is now a member of British SCBWI
on Friday
candygourlay added an event
March 4, 2010 all day
To join click here SCHEDULED EVENTS – save the dates! (further details will be provided closer to the date of each event) Thursday 4th March 2010 Standing Out in the World of Children’s Books What makes a script stand out? An editor, an agent, a l…
on Friday
Sarah Bryars, Gareth Mottram and 2 other members joined Benjamin Scott's group
SCBWI British Isles Central East Region covers: Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. It is open to all members of SCBWI living in these counties (or very close by!).
on Friday
ERIC HEYMAN added a blog post
HELLO EVERYONE I'VE JUST HAD SOME INCREDIBLE NEWS SARAH THOMAS WHO IS ONE OF THE EDITORS AT HARPER COLLINS HAS VERY KINDLY RETAINED MY ARTWORK,I'M REALLY NOT SHOWING OFF I'M NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL,I AM AMAZED THAT MY IDEAS AND ARTWORK FROM MY LITTLE F…
on Friday
candygourlay TALL STORY's got a cover!
on Friday
does your headmaster know about this?
on Friday

SCBWI Bloggers!

Are you a blogger? Email candy at webmaster AT britishscbwi.org to add you to our Ning's blogroll! The following are not in any particular order. Someday I will alphabetize them.

Life Beyond by Mel Rogerson

Granny's Tale by Gillian McClure

Sword and Sandal Kids Blog by Saviour Pirotta

Who Ate My Brain? by Nick Cross

My Favourite Books by Liz de Jaeger

Chocolate Keyboard by Anna Bowles

The Fairy Tale Cupboard by Claire Massey

Nihilation by Jeannette Towey

Jo Loring Fisher's Blog

Trials of a Self Published Author by Debbie Edwards

Absolute Vanilla by Nicky Schmidt

Benjamin Scott's blog

Hot Frog by Paul Morton

Tall Tales & Short Stories by Tracy Ann Baines

Book Child World by Leila aka Bathsheba Clarice De Trop

Julie Day's blog

Jude's Writing Corner by Najoud (Jude) Ensaff

Writer's Block by Sarah Humphreys

Sympathy for the Moon by David Thorpe

Debbie Bennett's blog

Sarah's Blog at the Greenhouse by Sarah Davies

Jabberworks by Sarah Macintyre

Anita Loughrey's Blog

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost by Paul Romeo

Notes from the Slush Pile by Candy Gourlay

Sue Eves's Blog

Wilf by Addy Farmer

Sue Hyams's Blog

Would you like to be the featured blog of the month?

If you blog on writing or illustrating for children, we can highlight your blog on the Ning's homepage for a month. You just have to blog at least once a week primarily on topics related to children's books. A great way to raise your profile, spread the word about your work and win more blog readers! Email Candy on webmaster AT britishscbwi.org
 
Do Your Thing On the Ning
The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators British Isles welcomes you to our very own Ning - where the fantastic writers and illustrators who make up our membership can show off their talents, advertise their work, network, interact, engage, and raise their profiles! All members of British SCBWI are welcome to join! Sign in and a request will be sent to us. Please be sure to answer the questions because it proves to us that you are not internet malware. We're really sorry non-UK based SCBWI people, we're only accepting UK based members from now on. Please make sure your membership is up to date before you sign up! Email webmaster AT britishscbwi.org if you have any questions!

Thanks to Amanda Lillywhite for the header illustration this month!

Members

  • Lisa Owen-Jones
  • Nigel J Brewis
  • Ian Douglas
  • Melissa Rogerson
  • Arlene Russo
  • Marion E Drew
  • tony hendriks
  • Nick Cross
  • Janine Amos
  • Samantha Fruin
  • Andrea West
  • Jill Ellis
  • jacquie hamel
  • Katherine Kirkland
  • Loretta Schauer
  • Debbie Edwards
  • Maureen (Mo) Oakeley
  • Linda Lawlor
  • Erica Sturla
  • Julie Andrews
  • Donna Vann
  • Wendy
  • Sally Blewett
  • Jayn Harding
  • Susan Sandercock
  • Frank Arnot
  • Saumen Kar

Groups

Need to Know

ERIC HEYMAN

HARPER COLLINS

HELLO EVERYONE I'VE JUST HAD SOME INCREDIBLE NEWS SARAH THOMAS WHO IS ONE OF THE EDITORS AT HARPER COLLINS HAS VERY KINDLY RETAINED MY ARTWORK,I'M REALLY NOT SHOWING OFF I'M NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL,I AM AMAZED THAT MY IDEAS AND ARTWORK FROM MY LITTLE FLAT IN CARDIFF GOES OUT INTO THE WORLD AND PEOPLE LIKE THEM, I'M LOST FOR WORDS.ALSO CAN ANYONE HELP,WHAT IS TWITTER,I'VE BEEN ASKED BY THE SITE IN THE USA TO TWITTER OR FACEBOOK,I'M NOT VERY GOOD AT THIS AT ALL,SO ANY HELP I'D BE VERY HELPFUL,.....DI… Continue

Posted by ERIC HEYMAN on February 5, 2010 at 11:18am

Nick Cross

Unputdownability

Hi,

I've just added a post to my featured blog about Unputdownability - what is it, how do you get it and do you always want it?

http://www.whoatemybrain.com/2010/02/unputdownability.html

I'd love to know your opinion - either comment here or on my site.

Nick.

Posted by Nick Cross on February 4, 2010 at 2:04pm

Nick Cross

Building Character

(I'm going to continue cross-posting the same blog here and on whoatemybrain.com, although now I'm featured blogger that means you'll get it on the front page twice. Just chalk that up to rampant self promotion!)

I'm generally quite down on people who see writing as some kind of magical spiritual journey - it's more like digging the Channel Tunnel with a teaspoon a lot of the time. But if there is a magical aspect of writing - a part that I can't wholly rationalise - it's the creation and maint… Continue

Posted by Nick Cross on January 29, 2010 at 5:00pm

ERIC HEYMAN

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HI EVERYONE I KNOW IT'S A BIT LATE BUT HAPPY NEW YEAR.I'VE BEEN WORKING A LOT WITH THE WELSH BOOK COUNCIL LATELY ON A WELSH BOOK,ALSO WORKING WITH THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN CARDIFF ON BOOK TITLE.ALSO CHRISTINE DAVIES WHO'S A GOOD CHUM , HAS WRITTEN A CHILDREN'S BOOK OF POEMS IT'S ALL BASED ON PHONETICS AND I'VE COME UP WITH SOME OF THE ARTWORK,HARPER COLLINS AND AUTUMN PUBLISHING HAVE ASKED FOR A HARD COPY SO THEY WENT OFF YESTERDAY,FINGERS CROSSED.PLUS I'VE FINISHED OFF SOMEMORE GREETING CARD DESI… Continue

Posted by ERIC HEYMAN on January 28, 2010 at 11:05am

Tracy Ann Baines

Interview with Jon Mayhew, author of Mortlock.

Just posted a new interview on my blog - Jon Mayhew, debut author of Mortlock.

http://talltalesandshortstories.blogspot.com/2010/01/interview-with-debut-author-jon-mayhew.html

His agent Sarah Davies has also commented.
Enjoy :D

Posted by Tracy Ann Baines on January 25, 2010 at 2:14pm

Nick Cross

Just Like Grammar Used to Make

I'm guessing that the majority of us use Microsoft Word (although I'm still flying the flag for longhand first drafts) and that we've all tussled with the Grammar Checker from time to time. For many years, I just turned it off, traumatised by the biblical plague of green snakes that wriggled across my page. In recent years, as writing well has become a religion, I've allowed it back into my life. For all of its many reasonable suggestions, it always feels like an ultra-strict schoolmarm,… Continue

Posted by Nick Cross on January 25, 2010 at 11:17am — 1 Comment

Featured Blog: Who Ate My Brain by Nick Cross

Unputdownability

I was pushed into an uncomfortably defensive position at a critique group some months ago, when one of the other writers asked after the quality of my manuscript. I said that I thought it was very good and he responded:

"It isn't enough to be very good - it needs to be unputdownable."

I didn't know what to say to this. It was true that I hadn't put the manuscript down for the last eighteen months, but that was hardly the same thing.

Later on, when I discussed the book with an agent, the U word came up again, except this time it was pretty clear I didn't have it. Not yet, anyway.

So what is this elusive magical quality, this mental equivalent of printing a novel on fly paper? I'm still not sure I have the full answer, but let me outline what I know so far as regards my own book (which it should be noted is a horror/comedy/thriller):
  1. It has to be consistently brilliant:
    Well, this is pretty good advice for anyone writing a novel, but the unputdownable book has to lull a reader into their trance-like state and keep them in it all the way through. Uneven patches, jarring word use, unbelievable situations - all these things break the reader's suspension of disbelief and send them hunting for other problems in the text. Yes, you can surprise - absolutely, in fact - but plot twists should draw the reader further into the story, not push them away.

  2. Engage the reader on an emotional level:
    Ok, I'm halfway through this blog post and wondering if I'm just teaching you to suck eggs here! Anyway, it's vital that the reader identifies with the main character(s) and gets sucked into the book to the level that their own feelings and those of the character start to intertwine. I guess this goes back to the classic "show, don't tell" - though maybe more like "feel, don't think".

  3. The tension needs to build throughout the story:
    In other words, never give the reader or the characters time to breathe. There should be clear dramatic tension from the very start and a through line that extends to the end of the story. The situation should get more and more serious for the characters and not be resolved until the climax. My plot originally had a rather loosey-goosey feel and several sections where the main character sat around feeling bored. Again, this all sounds like obvious stuff to fix, but I needed someone else to point this out.

  4. Raise the stakes:
    This is the part that I'm still having most trouble with, because I'm not sure how quickly to do this and to what level. Initially, I was writing the book as part of a series, so I deliberately made it more modest in scope to give me somewhere to go in later volumes. This resulted in a bit of a muted climax with minimal resolution. I've now pumped things up, but I'm getting comments that there still isn't enough at stake in the opening chapters. How far do you go with this? Should I start with the Big Bang and work up to a final scene where God fights Satan for possession of man's immortal soul? I think this harks back to point 1, as well - how far can you raise the stakes without sacrificing believability?

  5. Have cliffhangers:
    How could I not do this? I constantly ended my chapters by nicely resolving the tension in the scene. Even when I was trying to build tension in my rewrite, my chapter ends were still not doing their job. The simple solution? Just move the end of the chapter about 50 words back and then resolve the immediate situation at the start of the next one (but keep the central tension building!) If a reader is going to put down a book, they're most likely to do it at a chapter break, so don't let them go!
Is the unputdownable book always a good thing? Are there types of novel where the experience is enhanced by taking delicious bites of the content and letting your mind savour the detail? Perhaps an analogy to draw here is the difference between anticipating your favourite TV series on a weekly basis, compared to slurping up half a dozen episodes off DVD in a single evening.

So many questions! I appreciate any answers you might have in the comments section...

Nick.
 
 

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