Hello from London!

Greenhouse is going interactive this week with a Q & A session. We asked our facebook and twitter friends to pose their burning questions about the business of writing for children.  So here you go!  And if you’ve got any questions, post them in the comments box and we’ll do another session later in the year.

Trends change and I’m always afraid of submitting a genre you were only interested in last month.

Prevailing trends in books don’t just snap in and out – they can run for years. And while one genre can have a popularity surge (say paranormal romance or dark future/dystopian), this is a big industry with a broad spectrum of books being sought, acquired and published.

Also, we tend to look for books that are evergreen rather than ‘on trend’. Genre is just the frame it sits in – it matters, but story/character/voice matter so much more.

What genre are you particularly interested in at the moment and, more to the point, what aren’t you interested in?

We don’t handle poetry. But at the end of last year I took on a verse novel by Sarah Crossan, called THE WEIGHT OF WATER. Why did we take it on? Because we couldn’t have not taken it on – it was just too beautiful/unusual/powerful to turn down. A lot of publishers really wanted this book and I’m delighted to say Sarah is now happily ensconced in the Bloomsbury stable and will publish in Jan 2012.

This job is always a surprise. You never know what’s going to come in and change your mind. So I won’t say what I’m not interested in – because that feels like throwing down the gauntlet to the universe.

But I’d love to see some great thrillers! And I have a sense that we will sell something historical this year – but that is just looking at tea-leaves.

We aren’t looking for non-fiction, short stories, educational or religious/inspirational work, poetry, pre-school/novelty material, screenplays or writing aimed at adults.

Apart from bad spelling and punctuation, what puts you off in a submission letter?

It makes more sense to think in terms of what excites me in a submission letter. And that’s a pitch that has clarity, focus and intent. Here’s part of SD Crockett’s original query to us for AFTER THE SNOW, which will publish in 2012 (Macmillan UK/Feiwell and Friends US).

Set in 2059 in the perpetual winter of a post climate-change Britain; AFTER THE SNOW, is a coming of age story charting the awakenings of humanity in its protagonist, fifteen year old Willo Blake – a wild ‘straggler-kid’ – journeying across the snow covered Welsh hills to the sprawling mega-city of Manchester, in search of his lost father.

Willo’s journey into the dimming world of the dystopian society emerging in the city, and his relationship with Mary, is a journey of awakening empathy and hope for the future. 

I read that query and I knew this was a writer who knew what they were doing. Focus. Clarity. Intent. And take a look at a fragment from my submission pitch below.

2059. The snow begins to fall. Only the few are prepared. A new ice-age has begun.

AFTER THE SNOW is a journey of betrayal and violence. A journey of awakening love and humanity. A journey that changes everything Willo ever thought he knew.

It’s pretty much the same as SD’s original pitch – which says a lot about the quality/clarity of her concept.

A lot is made of starting with a great sentence and in the thick of action. Is this always necessary or can it be overdone?

We love a natty first sentence – because it’s evidence of skill and it does some heavy-lifting. But really the job of a first sentence is to get you to read the second sentence. A razor-sharp proposition in the first line is great – but it needs to be true to the book.

There are so many different ways to be a great writer and some first pages have a slower burn to them. It doesn’t mean that they don’t sing like a prayer bowl.

Agents usually ask for three chapters but Greenhouse only one so does good writing stand out immediately in a few pages?

Yes!

What do editors want to see more of… and less of?

Sarah and I are off to the Bologna Book Fair in March. We will sit at our desk in the Agents’ Centre, with a few tangerines to fight off scurvy, and we’ll have eight hours of back-to-back half-hour meetings for three days. At Bologna we catch up with all the editors, we talk through any issues, we pitch new projects and we find out what everyone is looking for. And we always get the same answer to that question: ‘Something wonderful!’

Sometimes an editor might be getting a bit bald on one area of their list, maybe it’s got too ‘pink’ (pre-teen girls) or too boysy or too heavy on a certain core area. In which case the editor will be actively seeking to correct the balance on their list. And when that happens it’s important we know about it – so we can take advantage of it.

But on the whole, ‘something wonderful’ is as specific as it gets. And it couldn’t really be any other way – otherwise the industry would just chase its tail. What makes this such an exciting business is that we don’t know what’s coming next, what will work, what strange, new chunk of words will get some wind behind it in the marketplace. All we know for sure is that somewhere it is being written. And Sarah and I just hope it comes to us and we’re ready to catch it!

What do you advise writers who want to write for variety of age groups (including, say, young kids + YA as well as kids & adults)?

We say great! It’s rare to be so multi-skilled and a few of our authors write across the age-groups.

Also, sometimes a long-term career isn’t made by doing one thing. It’s made by doing a few things and seeing what works.

In terms of advice for submitting work, focus is important. When I get a submission that has a couple of different projects in it and the author doesn’t seem to know where their age-core is, then I won’t have much patience with it. We need a clear message in a submission.

What do you think about multiple POV? Given that publishers are so keen on ‘voice’, do you think it’s advisable to steer clear from using more than one narrator?

It’s generally easier for a reader to stay with a story/engage with a character if it’s told from one POV, yes. DARK INSIDE by Greenhouse author Jeyn Roberts is told from four points of view – with an occasional fifth. I signed her up at four in the morning after reading her manuscript in one breathless sitting. Talent makes difficult things look easy – and because of that Sarah and I try not to be prescriptive. I would say, though, that if you’re writing for younger children, then think harder about moving POV. And for any age-group, probably don’t head-hop in single scenes.

If you are writing from multiple POV, be aware that you’ve set yourself a difficult task. Often when I read a book with multiple POV’s I come to favour one storyline/character/voice and then I resent the others. If you, as the writer, find yourself favouring one character’s story, then your reader probably will too. And that’s trouble.

How do I know when my book is ready to send out?

Only you can know if you’ve taken your book as far as you can. The first rule of BOOK CLUB – don’t send it out in a hurry. And if you think the middle is soggy, a plot line is forced or the ending is a disappointment, you’re probably right. So set it aside for as long as you can handle and come back to it with a fresh brain. In fact, even if you think it’s spot-on, take a time-out.

If I blog / tweet will it help me get an agent / get published / sell more books?

That’s a good one. Quite a few of our authors were originally connected through writers’ boards, the blogosphere and twitter/facebook.

There’s real benefit in being engaged and part of a community, not least because writing is a solitary business, with plenty of rejection, that family and friends might not understand. The writing community is so supportive, generous and caring of its people – published and unpublished. That has enormous value. You can find a beta reader to critique your work, or some quality advice from someone who’s been through it. So on a personal level that gives an author a lot.

But in terms of getting published, no, I don’t think it helps. What matters is a good book. If I get a submission from a blogger, I don’t read their blog, I read their submission.

Once a book has been published, the internet has huge marketing value for a writer with drive and initiative – and yes, it does help you sell books and connect with readers. But that’s another blog post!

If you’re investing time in a blog solely in order to attract agents, then shut it down. Agents work with manuscripts, looking for glimmers of gold in the pan. They aren’t looking at who’s tied up in the social networks and who hauls the most ‘friends’.

Unpubbed writers posting Work-in-Progress excerpts or summaries on their blogs: yay or nay?

WIP’s are classified in my book – they’re privileged information. In any business it’s better to keep your cards close to your chest until there’s real value in showing them.

If you’ve got any more questions about the business, then let us know in the comments section. We’ll do another Q & A soon.

Bye for now and thanks for dropping by!

EXTRAORDINARY is a big word today. Everyone wants to be it. Whether that means unicycling while doing the splits on America’s Got Talent, or walking alone around the world, or being the very first person to ride a rhinoceros up the DC Beltway – many of us will do what it takes to be different.

EXTRAORDINARY is a tough call. When I was a bit younger than I am now, we didn’t seem to think about being extraordinary – we just aspired to be GOOD at something.  When my mom’s generation was that age they’d settle just for not embarrassing themselves in front of the neighbours. And my grandmother’s generation? Well, the ultimate divide in England was whether or not you cleaned your own front doorstep or had ‘staff’ to do it for you.

EXTRAORDINARY is something I’ve had to think a lot about over the past couple of months as I’ve been preparing my Big Talk for this year – FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY: THE ART OF CREATING A GREAT SALEABLE STORY AND THE CRAFT OF CHISELLING OUT ITS FULL POTENTIAL. What makes a great story? How does it turn from being words on the page into a direct emotional arrow to the heart of the reader? What makes a story an EXPERIENCE rather than just a . . . story?

What I’ll call my EXTRAORDINARY workshop (in content goals rather than presentation!) was trialled last weekend at the SCBWI Florida conference down in Miami. In my first-ever 1.5 hour presentation (look, I never trained as a writing teacher, I’m making this up as I go along and it’s all from experience rather than theory!) I saw what worked and what needed further honing as I took my ‘class’ through ideas of concept, emotion, message, craft tools, tips of the trade, with a small lacing of craziness – like Robert Olen Butler’s suggestion that we write ‘from the white-hot centre of our unconscious’.  I love this stuff – the wild, inspirational, raw approach to writing – which then has to meet the subdued skill of craft. Let’s not lose the madness, the wild ride, as we seek those practical ‘silver bullets’ that we hope will shoot open the query process or ‘how to hook an agent’ . . . 

I wish I could share all the workshop content with you at this point, but you’re going to have to wait or I’ll have nothing to say at this year’s conferences!  If you want to hear more, come to Atlanta (Feb), Seattle (April) or Gettysburg (November). And at the year’s end I’ll try to blog it, as I did with HOW TO WRITE THE BREAKOUT NOVEL, which was last year’s epic. [Look back in my blog posts and you’ll find several sessions on that theme.] And meanwhile, how about pondering how to get your very own WIP to a new level of EXTRAORDINARY?

EXTRAORDINARY is everywhere in the writing world, and nothing is more extraordinary than the generous, committed people who make up the regional leadership and volunteers of SCBWI. Their passion and kindness is truly something to behold. Miami proved my point – from Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld’s stratospheric organizational skills (echoed by her team), Ty Shiver who rescued me from the airport and got me where I needed to be (complete with little bags of home-made cookies and candy), Mindy Alyse Weiss, Michelle Delisle (just for becoming friends) – and so many more. It’s a very moving thing to experience the bonds we share within the writing world.

There are all kinds of EXTRAORDINARY going on in Greenhouse right now, and 2011 has begun with a bang. Julia’s just done an amazing two-book deal with Bloomsbury UK for Sarah Crossan’s debut THE WEIGHT OF WATER. Searingly beautiful though this novel is, I’d have said that getting multiple interest in the UK for aYA verse novel would have been impossible in this climate. Julia’s proved that magic can be done when a great author/book/agent/publisher find each other.

In the US we’ve had all kinds of EXTRAORDINARY too since the year started. THE REPLACEMENT making it into YALSA’s top YA novels of the year, OF ALL THE STUPID THINGS featuring in ALA’s Rainbow list, and picturebook SOAR, ELINOR leaping into the Amelia Bloomer Feminist Book Top 10.

Over in the UK we’ve seen MORTLOCK shortlisted for the prestigious, national Waterstone’s Award and THE BOY WHO FELL DOWN EXIT hitting its THIRTEENTH award shortlist!  We are thrilled with all this, but never rest on our laurels – I’m currently in the middle of three deals at the moment, with another offer expected imminently.

EXTRAORDINARY is indeed a big word, but it can feel intimidating and often it’s overused. At Greenhouse we strive for extraordinary, but we would be very, very happy just to be GOOD at what we do.  GOOD is achievable. GOOD is solid. GOOD is the foundation of a genuine future.

Is your WIP extraordinary? Maybe not, however hard you work. Maybe the whole idea of EXTRAORDINARY gives you brain-freeze because you know you can never be that person.

But GOOD can be done, and GOOD is what we’re looking for. GOOD is something with which we can work.  Aim for the stars of EXTRAORDINARY, knowing that just a little lower resides the more comfortable plateau of GOOD.

As I set off on my next travels, to London this time, I wish you a very, very GOOD day.

Pix:  An extraordinary crystal at Reston Craft Fair, VA; extraordinarily meaningful and dramatic old columns at the National Arboretum, Washington DC

I love New Year!

It’s a long look from a great height.

A journey up an unknown river.

A flower about to unfurl.

At New Year, anything can happen – it’s all to play for, all to risk!

A large Post-It note has just been stuck on my family bulletin board. I bet you’ve all got lists just like it: eat less cheese, look at Blackberry less, get back on treadmill, drop a jeans size, become a wonderful human being etc etc.

Because January is a time of new beginnings - a time ripe for reinvention, redemption, renewal and a big shot of fresh perspective. How are we going to do what we do differently – and if we can’t do it differently, is there a way to help ourselves by changing our attitude to what we do?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the coming year, taking some deep breaths before Julia and I throw ourselves back into the fray. It’s like standing on the starting line for a race, filled with excitement and anticipation.

But I’ve also thought a lot about YOU! You the writers, you the people who long to be published, you who labour so hard over your laptops, throwing your dreams into the Greenhouse’s inbox. Or indeed you who are already published (or about to be), but know that this year will be full of daunting challenge. The unknown can be scary as well as exciting.

What do I wish for all of YOU this New Year? What is the very best advice I can give you as you put your first marks on to the blank page of 2011?

Here is my encouraging arm around your shoulder, and my contribution to your literary Post-It note of 2011 resolutions:

1 Cultivate within yourself a calm, realistic and pragmatic attitude, based on the knowledge that this industry WILL make demands on your courage, emotions, self-belief and stamina. Do not be deterred but do your utmost to remain balanced and able to laugh. This is a business; it is not a personal assessment of YOU as a human being, even though it can feel like that.

2 Put your energies into becoming a really skillful, original and interesting writer – more than into the palaver of seeking a publishing deal. Polish the jewels of language, listen to the cadence of its music, and delight in your craft for its own sake. That way you will always find satisfaction and growth (plus it’s how you’re most likely to bag that deal in the end).

3 Remember that there are many ways to write for an audience, many ways to be heard, many platforms for your writing – the world does not begin and end with publication by a famous and major house. Find what is right for YOU.

4 Seek out and enjoy the support of other writing friends, but devote more time to your craft than to social networking, if you are serious about your writing future. Practice, practice, and practice some more, and take time out from the babble which can feel distracting and even undermining if other people seem to be doing a lot ‘better’ than you are.

5 Think big thoughts, contemplate big subjects, let fascinating questions roll around in your head in a leisurely way, and ask yourself WHAT IF? Your characters can have small lives but very big stories. (And you can also be a regular person, tied to home and family, but still come up with an epic, page-turning storyline!)

6 Experience life, twang and resonate like a guitar string as things happen to you and as you read about and imagine the world. Look unflinchingly into the heart of darkness, wherever that may be. Perhaps that darkness is within you - something you’d prefer to avoid because it’s painful, but which may be the key to unlocking your biggest story.

7 Become a lover of writing craft and make it your goal to do some serious study in 2011. What do the great teachers say about plot structure? Building character? Voice? Writing is not just about inspiration and talent. Roll up your sleeves and prepare for some serious perspiration, learning at the feet of those who have gone down the path before you.

8 Take your time. Do not rush. Care about the detail. Ask yourself very hard questions – like, Does this idea really stand up to close scrutiny? Does that line WORK? Do I use apostrophes correctly (I kid you not)? If this is your vocation, everything matters.  If you were playing a concerto on your violin, would you say a few fluffed notes didn’t concern you?

9 Consider the marvels of metaphor. And other ways of saying things without actually SAYING them.

10 In fact, what ARE you trying to say in your story? What are you trying to SAY? (And that’s a very different question to ‘what HAPPENS in the story?’)

11 Research. Get your facts right, both on the page and off. Don’t send your work to anyone until you’re sure you’ve thoroughly checked that it’s going to an appropriate destination. (As the Greenhouse gets busier and busier, it becomes an increasing time-suck that a huge amount of what we’re sent bears no relation to what we represent.)

12 If you fall off your metaphorical horse, and you’re lying bruised in the metaphorical dust, allow yourself a breather, adjust your britches and clamber back on. Then ask yourself some tough questions: was something wrong with that varmint horse - or does the rider need to trot a bit more before he tries the gallop?

13 Take some risks. Climb to the top of your tall writing tree and experiment with voice. Steer your literary powerboat up an unknown river of genre and plot. Give yourself the time and space to play around with tone and setting. Who knows what might happen?

14 If all else fails, be thankful that writing is not brain surgery. It is unlikely we will kill anyone with our mistakes.  Which suddenly makes everything feel so much better!

And finally –

15 Remember that agents and editors are human beings, not robots. They need to eat and sleep, they have families and lives, they won’t always say just the right thing at just the right time. Try to forgive them when they don’t give you everything you want, when you want it – the reason is invariably that time just doesn’t allow.\

Welcome to your very own 2011! It’s full of promise, full of hope. Let’s get out there and live it to the max.

In your literary year I wish you success – but more than that I wish you passion, determination, humour, optimism, resilience, and a growing sense of satisfaction and assurance in your writing life, whether it’s your hobby or your vocation.

Let’s make this year a great one!

Pix:  Tree feller, Northern Virginia; motoring up Frenchman’s Creek, Cornwall, Englandl; tulip at the National Arboretum, Washington DC

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Here in Virginia the snow is just the right amount to be pretty and festive, without going crazy (though a lot more is coming!). The sky is blue and the air crisp. The turkey is purchased and chilling out with a mighty pile of sprouts and spuds. Stockings are hanging from the mantelpiece, and two small (but exceedingly loud) Dachsunds are pondering the gifts they’d most like to receive (easy – stuffed squirrels and many, many treats). 

The Greenhouse is sliding gracefully into its winter break. Julia has made it into Europe and is safely with her family after days of delays due to the unprecedented Big Freeze in the UK. I am tidying up odds and ends, radically reducing the submissions inbox, and taking stock of what’s on my Kindle for the holidays.

It’s been a great year. A rollercoaster ride as always, but with so many dreams and goals achieved. We didn’t hit every single thing out of the park, but we hit a lot – and even finished up yesterday with our final deal of 2010. Susanne Winnacker’s dystopian thriller THE OTHER LIFE has just sold to Robin Benjamin at Marshall Cavendish – particularly exciting since it means we once again achieved ‘the double’ with deals for Susanne on both sides of the Pond. Transatlantic deals are becoming quite a speciality for us, which shows the value of the ultra-close collaboration that Julia and I enjoy.

So many high spots and standout moments in 2010 that I could tell you about, but that would be invidious – I’d inevitably leave someone and something out. Instead I’ll just say that the crowning achievement of the year has been to see Greenhouse UK take off in splendid fashion, matching Greenhouse US with a constant flow of deals since the summer. Congratulations to Julia – building a business in a recession is really hard, and the competition for talent and sales is ferocious.

But most of all we have to thank YOU. All the writers, publishers, scouts, and friends around the world who have encouraged us, put your faith in us, and followed our great adventure this year. Without you there wouldn’t be any Greenhouse, so we’re raising a glass of virtual champagne to you. THANK YOU ALL!!

Wishing you a wonderful, safe and peaceful holiday season and looking forward to reconnecting with you in January for more adventures of the literary kind.

Best wishes from Julia and myself

Sarah x
PS Hope you enjoy the images of our very own Greenhouse Christmas!

Pix: 1) Julia and I wish you all a happy holidays!; 2) The Wee Man enjoys the snow; 3) Coming in out of the cold

It can be a very fine line between ordinary and extraordinary; the submission that stands out, that goes on to achieve a great sale – and the one that just doesn’t quite make it.

I’m thinking a lot about this at the moment as I start preparation on my speech for SCBWI Florida in January. My title is ‘FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY:  The art of creating a great saleable story and the craft of teasing out its full potential’.  I set myself quite a task there, didn’t I, but it seemed like a strong title several months ago when I came up with it! And when I stop worrying about the preparation and start focusing on what I really want to say, I do think this could cover so many of the issues that new writers in particular want to know.

I’m not going to foreshadow my speech, but let’s just focus in on this idea of ‘standout’. And what better way to do that than by telling you about two great deals which Greenhouse has recently done. The books could hardly be more different and yet they are both pitched at areas of the market that are intensely competitive. Selling a book is a bit like guiding a thread through the eye of a needle – everything has got to align in just the right way, at just the right moment. So what made these particular manuscripts leap out at us – and at publishers?

The two works in question are:

AFTER THE SNOW by S.D. Crockett, in which Julia has just sold world rights to Macmillan - publishing in UK/Commonwealth by Macmillan Children’s Books and in North America by Jean Feiwel’s imprint Feiwel & Friends (Spring 2012).  And yes, before you even ask it, it is indeed unusual for us to sell world rights (as opposed to just UK/Comm or North America), but the final Macmillan offer simply blew us out of the water and couldn’t be turned down. Sometimes, especially at auction, unexpected things happen and this was one of those!

The auction for AFTER THE SNOW was big and passionate and we could have sold this book to numerous houses. It is YA and (I am starting to dislike this word because it is so tediously broad brush) dystopian, set in the mountains of Wales during a future Ice Age.

Born after the snows fell, Willo – a 15-year-old ‘straggler’ boy – sets off into the icy wilderness to find his missing family, guided only by the dog spirit he carries in his head.  Reluctantly taking with him an abandoned girl, he begins an epic journey to the city – a trek that will bring encounters with outlaws and halfmen, but also betrayal and violence. And yet it will also become for Willo a journey into his first experience of love and a greater understanding of his own and others’ humanity.

The second work is somewhat different!

PENELOPE CRUMB, NOSE DETECTIVE by Shawn Stout is younger middle grade, and I’ve just done a 2-book deal with Philomel (Penguin) in the USA who aim to turn Penelope Crumb into a new major ‘character’ (think Judy Moody, Ramona, Clementine). Publishing Summer 2012.

Penelope loves to draw pictures. But when the tables turn and her best friend Patsy Cline Roberta Watson draws a picture of her, Penelope suddenly realizes that she has a really, really big nose. Horrified, she discovers that it’s none other than her grandfather’s nose – and there’s not much she can do about it! Setting off to discover the origins of the terrible protuberance, Penelope not only discovers her granddad for the first time, but also finds a way to bring her family together.

What unites these utterly distinct books? Several factors. Biggest of these is:

VOICE: 

Willo’s voice in AFTER THE SNOW is extraordinary and enables the reader to get right into his head, seeing the world in a unique way. All the action in the story is filtered through that particular perspective – of a largely uneducated boy, raised in the harshest of environments, yet with a magical/spiritual affinity to dogs.

Penelope Crumb’s voice is fresh, quirky and idiosyncratic, full of great phrases and funny insights. We fall in love with Penelope and her particular view of life and people.

Both Willo and Penelope – though light years apart – win us by the force of their personalities leaping off the page. Their creators don’t TELL, they SHOW everything through their characters.

WORLD:

Willo’s world feels unique. Can you remember a story set in the Welsh mountains – or in an Ice Age? I can’t, and it feels very new. We also really shiver as we read – both from the cold and from anxiety – as the kids make their terrifying journey across the hills. Quite simply, I haven’t read this story before, and editors felt the same.

Penelope’s world is reassuringly real and contemporary. And yet it is peopled by such vivid characters – Patsy Cline, Littie Maple, Terrible the Alien. A world of ‘ordinary’ children, rendered extraordinary because we see their small unique details through the magnifying glass of another child’s perceptions. It is childhood that is being captured here and that feels disarming and ‘true’.

SENSE OF PLACE:

Obvious, given my comments above, but I wanted to pull that out. Both stories have a very strong sense of place and time about them.

HIGH STAKES:

Again, perhaps that’s obvious in AFTER THE SNOW where the big issues are survival, danger, revelation. Is there a future – and what manner of future?

But the stakes are also high in PENELOPE CRUMB – because we really care about this girl and her family.  Will she have the opportunity for a relationship with the grandfather she’s only just discovered? Can her damaged family be repaired?

QUALITY:

That may sound a stupidly self-evident word to use, but it’s worth saying that both these authors – S.D. Crockett and Shawn Stout – are quality writers. They pay huge attention to detail, they focus precisely and powerfully on language, and they work with a strong ‘intention’ of what they want to achieve. They are also telling stories that are all their own, rather than feeling derivative. That vision comes across as something fresh and exciting.

This is of necessity a very brief look at the idea of ‘standout’ and how to achieve it, but I hope there are some kernels to take away.  Summing it up, what you need to start with is a unique idea – and that idea must encompass not only the basics of genre and plot, but also a unique sense of a particular place/moment in time – something you strongly want to ‘say’ about the world and your characters. Uniqueness is FABULOUS!

When you have that, focus on finding that special voice with which to tell your story. It may be a highly distinct voice or it may be the voice of an ‘ordinary’ teenager or child. Whatever, it will ideally be a voice that truly convinces the reader that your protagonist is a living, breathing PERSON whose world is compellingly real.

Good luck. And I hope you enjoy the photos on this post, which all evoke images of quality – in very contrasting ways. As contrasting as the extraordinarily different, altogether extraordinary, stories of AFTER THE SNOW and PENELOPE CRUMB, NOSE DETECTIVE.
Enjoy the run up to the Holidays and see you soon!

Pics:  San Francisco: Transamerica Pyramid and Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios; Red Arrows display team over Falmouth, Cornwall, England; Bonsai in National Arboretum, Washington DC

I was on a date a few years ago. Halfway through the evening the guy said to me ‘I’m kind, generous and fun’ at which point I spat out my wine and almost punched the air in excitement. It wasn’t my romantic prospects I was so keyed up about: I’d just been given the best ever example of ‘show, don’t tell’.

‘Show, don’t tell’ is a piece of advice given to writers when they’re starting out. Often at the Greenhouse, we’ll see submissions that start by dumping an awful lot of information and back-story on the first page. That’s a fairly sure sign that the writer is still getting to grips with the craft of how to tell a story. I think Sarah would agree that it’s the number one turn-off in a query.

Reading isn’t about words on a page - it’s about looking through the page and beyond the ink to the scenes, characters and drama underneath.

When we talk about ‘telling’ we mean exposition in which the narrator, or main character, gives information about themselves, other characters or their world. The benefit of telling is that it gets the story down quickly - so don’t worry about it too much if you’re flying through a first draft and you want to lay plot fast. The problem with telling is that it’s dull to read so when you’re working on the next draft that’s probably the best time to be mindful of it.

By taking out unnecessary telling you’re allowing your reader to occupy some space in the story. As a rule: If you need to share vital facts do it within a dramatic context.

The show don’t tell principle is also important in description. Description is tough to get right - it needs to serve a purpose otherwise your reader will zone out. I asked Greenhouse author, Michael Ford, to come up with an example.

‘The house next door looked spooky.’

versus…

‘A forgotten rocking chair sat on the front porch of number 22. It took only a light breeze to make it creak back and forth, as though someone had just stood up and walked inside. Worst of all, it seemed to move when there was no wind at all.’

I’ll bet that images came into your mind when you read that last example. If you were plugged into a machine that measured electrical activity in the brain, your visual cortex would have lit up - you weren’t seeing black squiggles on a screen, you were seeing pictures.

Sometimes to save the story a few pages of lengthy and drawn-out showing, you’ve got to tell. But stories come alive for the reader in the moments when a writer is showing.

A few questions to ask yourself during a revision.

Is the dialogue true to the situation or is it shoe-horning information in an inauthentic way?

Are there big chunks of exposition pointed right at the reader?

Do you find yourself summarizing the drama just to make sure it’s clear?

If you’re still early on in your writing, and getting to grips with all the tough basics, ‘show, don’t tell’ is one of the biggies - and mastering it will give you the biggest leap in learning your craft.

It’s been a busy few weeks at the Greenhouse. Sarah is in London which means we got to catch up over a few glasses of pink and a big plate of pasta. And we’ll have some more exciting debut news to announce very soon.

If you’re wondering about the relevance of the photos with the blog post, there isn’t any - just a few pictures to give you a warm fuzzy when it’s so cold and dark outside.

Like Sarah, I’m a dog-lover. I’ve been trying to make friends with all the dog owners in my building for years. I’d find out from the porter the name and flat number of the person that owned the french bulldog with the dainty ankles, or the three blond dachshunds who were always in a hurry, even the smelly lab with the baggy eye-lids. Then I’d put a note through their letter box saying ‘Hello, I live in 129, I’ve noticed that you have a dog and if you ever want a dog-sitter then come and see me’.  In hindsight this might have creepy and unsurprisingly I didn’t get any take-up.

A few months ago I was eavesdropping in the lift and I heard one of my neighbours mention her dog. Right, I said to myself, don’t let this slip through your fingers. So I pulled my most job-interview smile and launched into my pitch: ‘I’ve always loved dogs, but I haven’t had one for years. I have a job and stuff and I’m normal. Can I have your dog, well maybe not have, but can I dog-sit, or walk him, or just pat his head and put my finger on that little velvet pocket he has on his ear?’ To stop me talking my neighbour agreed and now I look after him on Fridays when I work from home. He’s called Philos, he molts like nothing on earth and he’s very, very cosy. Isn’t he lovely?!