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M Wallis

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M Wallis

Tag Archives: Writing

Pitch Critique

10 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by M Wallis in Creative Writing, Historical fiction

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historical fiction, Writing

With the completed re-draft of my historical novel ‘The Heart of Cruelty’ at around 75K words, a bookseller friend encouraged me to enter for the 2020 Wexford Literary Festival ‘Meet the Publisher’ event.

According to the website, the required submission was:
“You are to write a synopsis or summary of your story;
an extract that shows your writing style, perhaps in the context of your overview of the storyline;
why you believe your work should be selected;
around a page max.”

Around 18 months previously, I had enlisted the help, through Jericho Writers, of a professional editor, Louise Walters. She had reviewed in detail a much longer (110K) version of the novel and recommended a radical redraft. With this now done, I sought her further advice. Louise offered a Pitch Critique (Service 4 on her website) and was happy to work with the specified format.

I emailed the submission over asking to have it back within a month; she replied after only 2 days with extensive mark-up and a separate commentary focusing on a re-draft of the synopsis. She also very generously offered a second look for free.

As I worked through her reply, I was surprised to find that I also went back to my novel and started to tweak it to make the story run truer to my desired structure. I had always seen the synopsis/pitch as a chore, to be done after the novel had been written. Maybe I should have been more disciplined about writing them side by side, allowing them each to shape the other. In this way, the synopsis and its editorial critique could have informed the writing process much earlier on.

Louise’s advice was spot-on: even if my competition entry proves unsuccessful, working on the synopsis under her guidance has focused me on the story and built my confidence about pitching it in the future.

Love is in the air…

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by M Wallis in Creative Writing

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live fiction, Writing

Love is in the air, says British Corporate Thriller writer A A Abbott. But in a dark way. We were both reading at ‘Hearts of Darkness’, a live fiction evening last night at Brewsmiths in the Jewellery Quarter. The theme of the evening was the darker side of love, with the result that the love stories were twisted around themes such as murder, jealousy, ghosts, sex toys, genetic cloning, and ecclesiastical senior management (as applied to the saints).

Big thanks to Andrew and Angela who made us welcome, and to Donna Marie Finn for organising it.Brewsmiths

Books make great gifts

16 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by M Wallis in Creative Writing

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CIRC, Creative Writing, fiction, Telegraph Creative Writing Group, Writing

Especially for oneself, when finding Christmas too much of a headache. Take a look at my Books 2014 page!

October story: ‘The Best of All Possible Worlds’

13 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by M Wallis in Creative Writing, Historical fiction

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Bastille, d'Argenson, Telegraph Creative Writing Group, The Hague, Voltaire, Writing

The Telegraph Creative Writing Group October Competition sets a theme of ‘Life Change’. I’ve had a story about Voltaire knocking around in my computer for a while, although it’s mostly concerned with the writing of his first drama ‘Oedipe’, interwoven with that of the relationship between the Duc d’Orleans and his daughter, the Duchesse de Berri.

Den Haag 2014I’ve just visited a good friend in the Hague, and as we were walking around the older parts of the city I started to think about Voltaire meeting his first love there, about 300 years ago. His late teens and early twenties make a great coming-of-age story. I hope I’ve done justice to it in ‘The Best of All Possible Worlds’.Voltaire Bastille2

Rothko’s 7 core qualities for art – and for storytelling?

28 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by M Wallis in Abstract art, Creative Writing

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Abstract art, Creative Writing, Den Haag, fiction, Rothko, Writing

From the Rothko exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague.

It can be hard to connect with abstract art. Rothko’s blurry oblongs seem at first to be mute and meaningless. But following the progression of his work from the figurative, one sees how images of people, of subway and street scenes, are replaced by rectangles of colour.
Rothko1
The artist speaks to us mood to mood, short-cutting the middleman, leaving out the figures in a landscape, the still life. Black speaks of grief, red of passion, sombre browns and greens of quietude.
Rothko2
Rothko, who would withdraw from exhibitions if his works were not displayed in the right environment, would have approved of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. It’s a wonderful Modernist building from the 1930s, tiled and calm and democratic. Their audio tour was on an electronic device around my neck. I was struck by one section: Rothko’s seven core qualities for art.
Seven core
I wondered if these could also be core qualities for storytelling.
Always unable to remember lists, I typed them in to my phone:
1. Death
2. Sexuality
3. Tension
4. Irony
5. Humour
6. Transitoriness and random chance
7. Hope

If I get to 30,000 words will everything be OK?

08 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by M Wallis in Creative Writing, Uncategorized

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Tags

Creative Writing, historical fiction, Writing

It’s all organised in a complex hierarchy on my computer; the parts, the chapters, the sections. It’s like a house I’ve moved into, a few rooms adequately furnished, my scanty belongings still in cardboard boxes in the spare bedrooms. The Novel. It started as a couple of scenes in a screenplay, a radio play; the equivalent of a student bedsit with a few possessions carefully arranged.
Then I graduated to this partly occupied house. Chapters echoingly empty, although I have vague ideas of how they should be furnished. Characters I had not envisaged are coming to stay. The findings of each day are jotted down here and there; 200 words, 300 words, like lampshades, occasional tables, saucepan sets. Each room is furnished slowly and piecemeal. History becomes an IKEA catalogue: that might go well there.
Will it all end up like my friends houses? Manicured, perfect, spacious, elegant? Or become an unmanageable mess of clutter?
As John Braine once wrote, ‘The novel, once put aside, is never taken up again’ (or something like that). But, then, why would I move out of my house?

A national treasure

19 Monday May 2014

Posted by M Wallis in Creative Writing

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library card, the Oxford English Dictionary, UK public libraries, Writing

90% of UK public libraries enable their readers to log in to the Oxford English Dictionary, free of charge, using the number on their library card. Otherwise, a personal subscription costs over £200 per year.
I’m grateful to the wonderful Library of Birmingham for enabling me free access to this national treasure.
All I have to do now is arrange the words in the correct order, and a work of literature should appear.

TCWG Short Stories 2013

07 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by M Wallis in Uncategorized

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Creative Writing, fiction, Writing

TCWG Short Stories 2013 has been published by the Telegraph Creative Writers’ Group in time for Christmas. A sparkling anthology (don’t miss the writers’ bio section!). Themes include Trees, Time, Newspapers, Flitting, and many others. We all write for the fun of it, and for the enjoyment of sharing our writing with others, and so the pleasure of writing bubbles up through the pages.
TCWG
The Telegraph Creative Writers’ Group welcomes any writer, from anywhere in the world. Come and join us here!

Historical fiction, on the wall in Amalienburg

22 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by M Wallis in Creative Writing, Historical fiction

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Tags

fiction, historical fiction, Writing

Nymphenburg
These are tiles on the wall of the Electress’s Kitchen, Amalienburg, in the grounds of Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich.
If you look closely, you will see that some of the tiles don’t match, but the overall design is still preserved. Isn’t this a perfect paradigm for historical fiction?

Maryland Romance Writers Online Workshops

16 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by M Wallis in Uncategorized

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fiction, Writing

I recently took part in an excellent on-line workshop run by Stephanie Dray of Maryland Romance Writers.

This inexpensive four-week long course explored a number of different approaches to plotting a novel. Although the workshop was particularly aimed at the romance genre, the principles applied to other genres too. I started out with a very basic idea, which might just about have made a short story, and this became amplified over the course of four weeks into a decent outline for a novel. I also rejigged my ‘Work in Progress’.

Although the course emphasised the use of Scrivener and Aeon Timeline, both being helpful software programs, the exercises could probably have been done on index cards or pieces of paper, as the emphasis was on thinking about characters, their motivations, and pivotal points in the plot structure. I have found that the planning and structuring particularly helps me as a part-time writer, making it easier to resume writing after a break.

They have more online workshops timetabled, so I shall be keeping an eye on their website.

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