Winchester Writers’ Festival – Thoughts from Scholars and Student Hosts

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The Winchester Writers’ Festival took place on the 17-19th of June and it was a fantastic weekend, jam-packed with talks, readings and panels, and a fantastic keynote speech given by Meg Rosoff. We asked a selection of the under 25 Scholars and Student Hosts to share their thoughts about the experience. It’s so easy to get involved as a student host or volunteer (if you study at Winchester University), and to find out more about the scholarship scheme, click here.

Scholars:

Natasha Orme: For me, the Festival was an important step in keeping the writing flame alive. It was amazing to meet with like-minded people and be mentored by the speakers there. Being able to focus specifically on my genre allowed me to feel that I could really progress with my writing. I had a great time and have made some long-lasting writerly friendships that I hope will continue to encourage and motivate me.

Further Contact Details:
Blog: http://www.natashaorme.com/
Twitter: @NatashaCOrme
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/natashacorme
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/writerreaderloverofwords

 

Georgia Benjamin: The Festival came at the end of a year packed with writing – I’m in the very last stages of an MA in Writing for Children at Winchester University, and the support and advice I gained from the writing community has been invaluable. Everyone was so friendly and willing to discuss their projects and hopes for their writing futures, I felt completely at home and have taken away a fresh sense of determination and inspiration.

Further Contact Details:
Blog: georgerwrites.blogspot.co.uk
Twitter: @GeorgeWrites

 

Clio O’Sullivan: Whilst the festival has been an unparalleled opportunity to develop my writing, what particularly resonated with me is the question put by Meg Rosoff in her keynote speech: what has been a turning point in your life? In that moment I couldn’t answer with any certainty. But over the weekend, as her words reverberated throughout my mind and were joined by others which had varying levels of impacts on me, I came to the realisation that perhaps this was my turning point. Writers have a responsibility to give hope through their creations. When I reflect on the festival I can say that it was my turning point to have the courage to be creative.

Further Contact Details:
Twitter: @ClioCliona

 

Claire Kerry: This is my third time attending the Festival. The first, as a volunteer campus guide in 2014 felt like only a taste, and in 2015 with my mind on an MA dissertation I felt a little out of place. Thanks to the scholarship it felt like the first time I was able to experience the Writers Festival to the full. Attending the workshops and master classes certainly expanded my knowledge, but the real highlights were the one-to-one appointments with agents. Their constructive criticism was invaluable and I left every session feeling encouraged and raring to write. On top of that, to be able to network and socialise with other writers made the Festival something special. I hope we’ll all be sharing our writing with each other for years to come, and maybe see each other again at next year’s Festival!

Further Contact Details:
Blog: https://crkerry.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CRKerry
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRKerry

 

Sarah Corrigan: The festival was an exciting, unique opportunity for me as it was a chance to meet people from all areas of the publishing industry – authors, agents, editors, booksellers, and more. It was great to find more like-minded writers who were also interested in the same genres, and to interact with other creative writing students from different universities. The agent one-to-ones were particularly exciting as I’ve never queried a manuscript before, but after several full manuscript requests from agents I met, I’ve been instilled with so much fresh confidence in my work!

Further Contact Details:
Blog: http://www.theladyofastolat.wordpress.com
Twitter: @SarahCorrigan94

Student Hosts:

Beth Neal: The highlight of my Saturday morning at the Festival was guiding latecomers into the back of Meg Rosoff’s inspirational keynote address. During the rest of the day, I helped support Barry Timms and Ruth Bennett from Little Tiger Press with the technical aspects of setting up their talks. They were both genuinely lovely to chat with, and their talks were packed with words of wisdom! The best part of Sunday was definitely being able to accompany author Andrew Weale to his workshop on the magic of picture books. The group had a fantastic positive atmosphere, and at the end of the session, there were some truly magical picture book ideas proposed.

Further Contact Details:
Twitter: @Bethany_Neal

 

Mel Elledge: For the Winchester Writers’ Festival, I hosted two lovely people – literary agents Sallyanne Sweeney and author/former lecturer of mine, Paul Bryers.
Throughout Friday, I assisted Sallyanne Sweeney from Mulcahy Associates in her Master’s course, ‘Beat the Slushpile’. In the six-hour session, Sallyanne gave aspiring writers the tools to write stellar pitches, query letters, synopses, and stronger beginnings to their manuscripts. She also workshopped with course attendees on their own synopses and pitches and gave them personalised tips on how to improve them. The session was essential for anyone who is serious about writing to be published.
Just before noon on Saturday, Paul Bryers and I set up for his first talk, ‘Rainbow Writing’, which taught writers how to use character, writer, and reader arcs in a rainbow in order to visually plan out their entire novel. He went over this same system with us in lecture, so it was a nice refresher. His second talk, ‘The Time Traveller’s Knife’, was more hands-on, and prompted the attendees to solve mysteries based on the information he gave them. He also discussed time travel and mystery as plot devices, and how to implement them effectively without relying on cliché.

Further Contact Details:
Blog: saidthelioness.wordpress.com
Twitter: @mjelledge

 

Cass Morgan: It was my first time as Student Host at the Winchester Writers’ Festival and first thing I was full of nerves and excitement. I was host to literary agent, Becky Bagnell, who was joined by one of the authors she represents, Sue Wallman. They were both lovely and a great team in their talk together, From Festival to First Publication. It was obvious how supportive Becky is of Sue, who had her first book, Lying About Last Summer, published last month. It was a great opportunity to be a part of their time here, supporting them and ensuring everything was set up and ran smoothly. Altogether, a brilliant day!

Next year the festival will take place on the 16-18th of June, don’t miss out! 

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All photos courtesy of The University of Winchester, Melissa Elledge, Natasha Orme and Judith Heneghan.

Litmus 2016 Launch Evening

Yesterday saw the launch of the University of Winchester Litmus 2016 Anthology, a collection of works by MA Creative and Critical and MA Writing for Children students. It was a brilliant evening attended by students and their plus ones, tutors and literary agents Becky Bagnell of the Lindsay Literary Agency, and Amber Caraveo and Joanna Moult of Skylark Literary Agency.

After some cheerful mingling and introductions from course leaders Judith Heneghan and Julian Stannard, students read extracts from their work, expertly controlling their nerves as they brought their pieces to life.

They say that a picture is worth 1000 words, and we hope that you enjoy the slideshow gallery, and that you have enjoyed following our journey to this launch.

To the students who contributed and organised, took photos, videos and tweeted, all we can say is thank you. It was a wonderful evening, and one to be very proud of.

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Post by The Litmus 2016 Blog Team, with thanks to Alex Carter for the photographs.

The Winchester Writers’ Festival – An Introduction By Judith Heneghan

This is my third year as Director of the Winchester Writers’ Festival. I’m still finding my way, of course, but I am beginning to recognise certain patterns in the yearly cycle: that first bubble of excitement mixed with nerves when the programme goes ‘live’; the anticipation that builds as the third weekend in June approaches; the occasional nightmare about ‘leaves on the line’ that prevent everyone from arriving…

These days, people talk about ‘curating’ an event, but I don’t think I’m that precise. How do you pull together a series of all-day courses and workshops, talks, readings and over 700 one-to-one appointments in a way that allows each individual attendee – writers, all – to have a fulfilling experience? My approach is more instinctive than curatorial. We need to cater for a broad range of genres, forms, levels of expertise, but above all else I look for literary agents, commissioning editors, authors, poets, scriptwriters and teachers who will support, guide and nurture each emerging writer.

This doesn’t mean massaging peoples’ egos and saying their work is wonderful when clearly they need to re-think. Our speakers are there to challenge, critique, encourage, stimulate and inspire. This is the stuff that sustains writers. It is also why I am particularly excited about our Keynote Speaker this year.

Meg Rosoff is, of course, an outstanding and critically acclaimed author of books for young people (including my personal favourite – Just In Case – in which she confronts, brilliantly, just about every so-called writing ‘rule’ and laughs in its face). But being a uniquely gifted novelist is merely one reason why I invited her. I have been lucky enough to hear her speak before, at the University, to a small group of our own MA creative writing students. She threw away my plan for the evening and instead spoke about voice – the writer’s voice. I think we all ended the session a little bit changed.

I am not going to presume to pre-empt her Keynote address. However, I can tell you it is titled ‘What it means to have a voice and where to get one’. And I can’t wait.

The University of Winchester Writers’ Festival takes place on 17-19 June at the University of Winchester. Attendees can book to come for one, two or three days and devise their own itinerary from a selection of 17 all-day workshops and 28 talks. They may also book up to four one-to-one appointments with literary agents, commissioning editors and other writing professionals.

For full details, visit www.writersfestival.co.uk Follow us @winwritersfest

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Post by Judith Heneghan

Harry Gallon – Winchester Reading Series

On the 22nd of March, author and University of Winchester alumnus Harry Gallon read some excerpts from his debut novel, The Shapes of Dogs’ Eyes. He brought with him a representative from his publisher, Nathan Connolly from Dead Ink, who also talked to us about the world of crowdfunded publishing. Dead Ink is slightly unorthodox in that they prefer authors to approach them directly with submissions rather than going through an agent. The company is funded by the Arts Council and publishes approximately six new titles per year.

After the reading, the MA students participated in a workshop. We paired off into groups where one person was the ‘author’ and the other was the ‘agent’. The authors were given about ten minutes to give the agents as much information about their works in progress as they could, and then the agents pitched the work back to Harry and Nathan, who decided whether they’d accept the manuscript. This exercise was meant to get us used to talking about our own work in a way that would help sell it to a publisher.

The final instalment of the Winchester Reading Series was a nice note to end on, and showed us that there’s a separate world to that of traditional publishing. Seeing the publishing paths our visiting alumni took was interesting, and I’m sure many of us are hoping to achieve the same success some of our fellow MA graduates have.

View Harry’s reading here:

And his talk with Nathan Connolly here:

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 post by Mel Elledge

Litmus 2016 Cover Reveal

  

The team at Litmus are proud to finally be able to present to you the finalised cover of this year’s anthology, which will be launched on 3rd May 2016. The editorial team have been hard at work, and the full selection of children’s fiction, adult fiction, poetry, and non-fiction has now been edited to perfection, and is ready to go to print.

Everyone on the team is excited for the launch, and we hope you’ll love it as much as we do.

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 post by Lorna Penny

 

Writing Resources

Throughout my time as both a fiction and academic writer, I’ve amassed tons of useful articles and links to help with all aspects of writing. They’ve been collecting dust in my bookmarks for awhile, so I wanted to share them with you in hopes that they’ll motivate you to finish that project you’ve been working on (and make it much stronger in the process).

Building Characters

• This comprehensive character chart helps you consider every single aspect about your characters, from their greatest fears to their habits and mannerisms.
• A list of villain archetypes for all your baddies.
• Do all your characters sound the same? Try some of these tips to give your characters their own unique voice.

Description

• Some useful tips on how to craft effective description.
• How to effectively create and sustain suspense.
• The BBC’s Bitesize breaks down key steps on how to flesh out description in your writing.

World Building

• Some questions to consider as you’re world building.
• Founded by a cartogapher, The WorldBuildingSchool wants to help you create the best world you can by offering everything from tutorials to information about tectonic plates.
• The ‘7 Deadly Sins’ of world building and how to avoid them.

The Writing Process

• This article will help you eliminate distractions and create a streamlined workflow.
• Some tips on what to do when you’re stuck staring at a blank document.
• Writing advice from some of the best in the business, including Charles Bukowski and Kurt Vonnegut.

General Resources

• The Fiction Writer’s Toolbox includes more than 150 useful links for writers, covering everything from synopsis help to legal matters and publishing.
• This list of 102 resources for writing includes links to inspire your next project and how to find the best software to tackle it.
• A massive list of resources sorted by genre.

Hopefully these resources will help you on your journey to becoming a better writer. Just don’t forget us when you get published!

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post by Melissa Elledge

Separating Writers from their Words

Lately, there have been more and more cases of morally dubious authors coming to light. What I mean by this moral dubiosity is the idea of a writer – maybe your favourite writer – being revealed to be racist or homophobic, or to have plagiarised other authors’ works. What do you do in this situation? Do you keep buying their books, even though you know they’re using the profits to do things that you think are morally wrong?

This is where the idea of separating art from the artist becomes difficult. Loving a book but finding its author irritating is one thing – we just ignore their presence on social media and avoid talking about them as a person. But when this person, whose books we love, is having a very real, very palpable negative effect on other people – can you still separate them?

One of the most well-known and widely publicised cases of this happening is with Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game. While Card’s novel might have been fantastic in terms of its ideas about the rise of the internet and the way futuristic technology would develop, his essays about his own personal views reveal a wildly homophobic stance as well as his intentions to use money raised from the sales of his books to support anti-gay organisations. For more information on this, check out this article on the full extent.

And this keeps happening. Cassandra Clare, author of the popular Shadowhunter series, has recently been sued for copyright and trademark infringement. Although in this case the lines between the perceived offense and the actual truth are much more blurred, many readers of Clare’s work are now reconsidering their opinion of her. To see the full list of alleged plagiarisms being presented as evidence, check out this link.

And this doesn’t just exist within the literary world – musicians and their music, artists and their art. Even sports people and their careers. This is, by no means, an exhaustive debate on the situation. I could talk for hours on the different instances of needing to separate people from the things they produce and whether it really is possible. It is, of course, also arguable that if we never read, watched, or listened to things produced by people whose personal opinions we don’t agree with, we would never consume any media ever again. So I suppose what I’m asking you is where the line is? Where is your personal line on separating the writer from their words? Let us know in the comments!

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 post by Lorna Penny

Is Fiction Stronger than Fact?

It is beguiling to think the pen is mightier than the sword, that social change will come from carefully crafted words. Would-be word warriors might instinctively turn to non-fiction. In non-fiction you can research, analyse and develop arguments that change ideas. The outlets are wide-ranging as well. Aside from the academic treatises that fill university libraries, there are established outlets for features and longer explorations of social and political issues. But current best-seller lists for non-fiction are dominated by colouring books, and books about cooking, eating and style. It seems social issues are not so well read.

Maybe the answer lies in the recent popularity of creative non-fiction. Malala Yousafzai’s blogs about life under the Taliban in north-west Pakistan brought the plight of women and girls to the attention of the world. Ironically it was her near fatal shooting by the Taliban that gave Malala the extra publicity. However, her writing, including her autobiography, has kept her ideas in the public consciousness and supports her continuing fight for girls’ education and rights

Taken from malala-yousafzai.com

But those who seek to write for change should not ignore the power of fiction. Storytelling can capture the readers’ imagination and pull them into a tale of characters and settings that enthral and live on long after they have finished reading. The skill is to show and not tell, to lead and not to lecture. A light touch allows the reader to empathise with the characters rather bombarding them with than long passages of dry explanation.

Dickens was a master at it. We do not remember speeches and treatises against the poor laws of Victorian times but most people know about the vagaries that befell Oliver. Although there were other writers engaged in a social reform agenda, he is the best known. His name has become synonymous with the exposure of inequalities in poverty and wealth, so we now refer to squalid conditions as being ‘Dickensian’.

Taken from Albawaba Entertainment.

Beyond the power of books, fiction written for the screen has also had some impact. In Britain, the 1966 television drama Cathy Come Home portrayed the plight of a young family. Cathy’s partner gets injured and that results in him losing his job. What ensues is unemployment, rent arrears, homelessness and eventually their children are taken into the care of Social Services. There was a massive public outcry when the programme was shown and the housing charity Crisis was set up in a direct response. The play is still quoted in debates about housing.

Cathy Come Home. Taken from museum.tv. Photo courtesy of BBC.

But before we get too carried away, we need to consider the limitations. Fiction will always be just one part of a movement for social change. Some attitudes are so entrenched that even the most successful stories may not be able to dislodge them. Existing ideas and understandings can appear to bend; there may even be some minor changes, but the underlying narrative stays the same.

For example, it was a hundred years between the publication of Oliver Twist and the final replacement of the Poor Law and workhouses with by an alternative system under the National Assistance Act of 1948. And, despite the public outrage following Cathy Come Home, homelessness is still a big problem. The slight shift is that homeless fathers can now stay in a hostel with their partners and children.

There is some progress but it is such small steps and not always immediate. Writing does not often bring about immediate social reform. Nevertheless, writers can be sharp social commentators and critics. Through the critique of the status quo and exploration of alternative ideas, they contribute to a maelstrom of ideas that creates pressure for change.

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post by C.S. Taylor

16th February: Fantasy Novelist Rebecca Alexander to speak at the Winchester Reading Series

Talk and reading with fantasy novelist Rebecca Alexander:

 

6pm – 7.15pm

Tuesday 16 February

SAB 001

Free talk, no need to book.

 

 

 

 

Rebecca is a graduate of the MA Creative and Critical Writing. Her compelling trilogy, published by Del Rey, explores the parallel narratives of sixteenth-century alchemist Dr John Dee and modern-day practitioner of the occult, Jackdaw Hammond.

 

 

 

 

 

‘A fine addition to the urban fantasy genre.’ The Independent

‘An author to watch.’ The Independent on Sunday

‘Finely observed, beautifully written.’ Daily Mail

 

Writing With Your Voice

Some people are quick typists. Thoughts flow effortlessly through fingers into words on the page. Others of us are not so lucky. Of course, you can always capture your flow of consciousness with pen and paper but then the process of getting it into digital format is even more tedious, having had much of the creativity stripped from it.

You can buy good quality voice recognition software for a tidy sum of money and train it to recognise your voice. The trouble is, if you are a writer you probably do not have a tidy sum of money to spend on such fripperies…

That is where the glory of free software comes in. It will not be as fully featured and you will not be able to personalize it so much but it will achieve similar accuracy. It will save you a lot of typing; however you will need to be more alert for editing. Your problem will not be mis­spelled words but misinterpreted words. This can result in some very interesting sentences (it may even add imaginative elements to your writing that you did not anticipate). So let us look at what is available.

On the web:

Sign up for Google Docs (it’s like having Word on the web but not buying Office). Start a new document and then click on the Tools menu. From the dropdown menu select voice typing. A microphone symbol appears on the screen. Click on it, start speaking into your microphone and watch the words appear.

Alternatively, install the Google Chrome browser, then install the VoiceNote2 plugin.

On your phone/tablet:

Voice recognition is built into Android tablets/phones as well as Apple devices. So if you feel a creative flurry coming on, why not get out your phone and speak your story into an email that you can send yourself for editing and polishing later?

If you are interested in other ways of using free technology tools to help you write or plan more plan more effectively then this round up of writing tools is a good place to begin.

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Post by Alistair McNaught