Building a fantasy world – by Greenhouse author Joanna Meyer
Fantasy writing is not a skill for the faint-hearted author! The world you create – maybe one very different to our own, with its own rules, logic and appearance – has to totally convince the reader or you lose them because they either aren’t interested or because they just don’t buy in to what you’ve […]
Beginnings
I often get asked, “What problems do you most often see in queries and manuscripts?” That’s a big question, so let’s narrow it down a bit and focus on openings. Are there any kinds of beginnings to manuscripts that I frequently see and which tend to turn me off? Yes, there are! Here are six […]
FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY: Part 2
This is the second in a series of posts in which I share a talk I’ve given widely around the USA over the last year or two. I hope you’ll find the posts useful, and before I begin you might like to read the first extract if you haven’t already: http://greenhouseliterary.com/index.php/blog/article/from_ordinary_to_extraordinary_part_1/. Here, I talked about […]
FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY: Part 1
This is a post with a very important sub-title, so here’s the title in full: FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY: The art of creating a great saleable story and the craft of teasing out its full potential. I have given this talk at various conferences around the USA in the past 2 years, and I have […]
WHAT I DO AND HOW I DO IT
No blogs from me for a while now (thanks to those who said they missed me!). Vacation, catch-up, a bad cold, then busy with three deals – and counting. Those babies take time and priority! I’ve taken on two new clients in the last month or two and have gone through literally hundreds of submissions. […]
Time after time
I grew up in a house built in the 1580s. My family tree is charted back to the 1600s and includes a dude in a very fancy wig who has his own plinth in Westminster Abbey, London. The church I used to attend was consecrated in 1094. I went to its 1000th birthday party. Time […]
You mean I’ve got to write ANOTHER one?
[Please note: since chocolate is a well-known healer of woes in the writing community, this post is entirely illustrated with images of chocolate products. It should help.] For most of us the problems of writing just one book can seem insuperable. First, there’s the basic idea that’s got to be knockout. Then there’s all that […]
The Naked Truth (about submissions)
The debate on agents’ responses to submissions has roared even louder in recent months – or it has in the USA. We’ve seen agents changing their policies in various ways (only replying if interested/replying to some under various criteria/giving Twitter updates etc etc), and others contemplating doing so. Everyone has an opinion on what’s appropriate, […]
A case of the Saggy-Baggies
There is a sorry complaint that affects way too many manuscripts – even some of the best debuts that we see. Like Dutch Elm Disease or Athlete’s Foot this malady can overcome something great (a tree, a foot, a story!) and turn it somewhat rotten at the core. It can sap your potential, spoil your […]
Query writing – a guide for the anxious
I toyed with much fancier titles for this post, but then decided to say it straight. What you want to know is how to write a great query and the whole process worries you sick, right? Everyone else in the industry has blogged on this topic, so there’s no shortage of great advice around, but […]
Internet perils (especially regarding underpants)
So it seems that the moral of the week (in the US, at least) is this: if you are going to send pictures of your undergarments around the internet, make sure they aren’t grey and distinctly unstylish. I’ve found myself transfixed by this very contemporary, cautionary tale of personal and professional disaster. When we pass […]