One Lovely Blog Award

I have been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by Samantha Bacchus. I have been following Samantha's blog since I started writing my own. She was my very first follower and is always very encouraging and supportive. You may also follow her on Twitter @Sammylou37 and her Samantha Bacchus Author page on Facebook.
CLICK HERE 
Basically I have to give 7 facts about myself.

THE RULES

• Link back to the blog of the person who nominated you.
• Share 7 facts about yourself.
• Nominate 15 blogs that you particularly like, or fewer if you can’t think of 15.
• If I’ve nominated your blog, please don’t feel obliged to take part if you don’t want to, but if you do, that's great! Thanks.

7 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME



When I was a little girl, my dad used to take me with him to watch motorbike scrambling at Hawkstone Park in Shropshire. Even now, I can still smell the fumes of the bikes' engines.

Before starting my A Levels, I spent the six week summer holiday as an au pair in Cassis, just outside the port of Marseilles. This began my love of France and the French way of life.

I collect thimbles and now have well over two hundred of them. Each one is a memento of a place visited or holds a memory of someone who has bought it for me. I have learned the word for 'thimble' in a number of languages! 

I am an official Eddie Stobart Club member and have my own spotter's handbook where I record all the trucks I see on our roads and motorways. It could take another two years but a truck named 'Janet Eleanor', after yours truly, is on its way!

I love picture books where the illustrations send a powerful message. I used many such books when I was a 'Philosophy for Children' trainer. One of my favourites was 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan. 

Confession time - I just adore chocolate! Boxes of it, bars of it, chocolate desserts, chocolate cakes, chocolate sauce...Once, someone even bought me a chocolate smelling candle in a tin and on one occasion, we planted a chocolate perfumed flower, Cosmos atrosanguineus, in the garden.  

I am a big fan of Welsh rugby. Even though it's usually only on the Big Screen, I enjoy watching the national team play especially in the Six Nations' tournaments. Cardiff on international day comes alive! 



So there you have it. Seven more random facts about me.

I have nominated just a few bloggers this time because it's only a few months ago since I did a similar thing for another award. Here are some other interesting blogs that I follow, having found them more recently, and recommend that you pop across and have a look:


Judith Barrow - http://www.judithbarrow.co.uk/category/blog/
Kath Eastman - http://nutpress.co.uk/blog/
Juliet Greenwood - http://julietgreenwoodauthor.wordpress.com/
Lynne Hackles - http://lynnehackles.blogspot.co.uk/
Evonne Wareham - http://evonneonwednesday.blogspot.co.uk/

Thank you for reading! You may follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page. 

You've Got To Be In It To Win It
Or 'it's not the winning but the taking part.' How many times have you heard these expressions? This week I've been trying to keep both sayings in mind when I've been editing some competition entries. 

My Writing Magazine arrived this week along with a Competition Special 20125 supplement listing hundreds of competitions. There are competitions for all genres of writing from short stories, poetry, flash fiction, novels and articles with closing dates right through to the end of May next year.

There's so much choice so which ones do I choose? At the moment I am limiting myself to submitting short stories and flash fiction. I like writing poetry and have sent a couple of poems to Poem Pigeon but I need to hone my poetry writing skills before submitting to bigger competitions! My novel is in its embryonic stage, so-to-speak, so the novel competitions are out too. As a relatively new writer, I try to enter the smaller competitions, perhaps run by writing groups rather than the well-established organisations. The prizes tend to be much smaller as are the entrance fees and that makes me think that established or published authors will not be entering. I have also been told that the themed competitions tend to attract fewer writers whereas in the 'open' competitions, you may have a story already written that you could submit. In her blog, 'Words about writing and writing about words', Patsy Collins regularly includes information about competitions that are free to enter.

Why enter? Jonathan Telfer, the editor of Writing Magazine, has made some good points. He thinks that competitions can be:

- a 'valuable motivational tool' when competitors are asked to meet the challenge of a 'tough brief'

- a way of 'taking a break from our current work-in-progress' and 'trying new topics and themes'

- invaluable in raising your profile as a writer. 

In the main edition of Writing Magazine October 2014 there is more advice in Gary Dalkin's article 'Hope and Glory' on page 12. He, too, explores the benefits - other than winning - of entering writing competitions. 

'The advantage of targeting competitions is what it will bring to your writing, developing your craft in new ways.  This is the real prize. Of course it will have the spin-off of making you more disciplined and dead-line focused...Along the way you may find you are more versatile than you ever imagined. You may find you thought of yourself as one kind of writer and discovered that you are actually several sorts of writers all in one...Even if you don't win you can't lose.'

It's that last short sentence that's going to stay with me as I pay the entrance fees - only the small ones, of course! - and submit my entries.

Which competitions do you enter? What benefits are there? Have you won any? I'd really like to hear what you think. 

Thank you for reading my blog. You may follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

PS Hot off the press - Congratulations to Susan Jones for making the short list of the RNA new talent awards. Good luck, Sue! 

PPS Don't forget about the excellent opportunities offered in Alfie Dog Fiction's International Short Story Competition. Closing date 30th September.

Where have I been this week?

When I look back over the last week, I realise I've visited many and varied places in a short space of time. I've taken journeys to rural mid-Wales, a Norfolk village, Ypres, London, France and Greece. And all this without leaving the house...

I expect by now you've guessed that the journeys have been taken through my own writing, critiquing other friends' stories and reading a novel. I've journeyed in miles and time to a Radnorshire village in 1947, to the years just after the war, and witnessed rationing and dealings on the black market. Rose, one of the protagonists in my novel-in-progress, suspects her father of being involved and I'm at the part where she resolves to find proof of his misdoings. Not all journeys are literal, of course, and as the story progresses we will see the character of Jack Jenkins evolve and change along another journey, his life journey. 

Editing one of my short stories, 'Whispers In The Olive Trees', took me to Greece and the Peloponnese where I could feel the sun on my back. My character, Alex, was on a journey of her own to discover the father she knew nothing about until she read her mother's diary after she had died.


I witnessed another murder in Redington, the Norfolk village where Susan Jones sets her stories. On Creative Frontiers last week, she left us with a cliff hanger each day until the culprit was revealed in the final installment. 

Last Friday, my writing buddy, Helen, and I met up to critique each other's writing. Her latest story, 'Betrayal', deals with the main character's physical abuse at the hands of a boyfriend and shows her journey of denial, withdrawal and finally remorse when she is faced with the consequences of not having warned her friend, Lisa. To witness that journey was disturbing yet the message was very powerful. 


There were very dark times to visit, too, in 'The Promise' by Lesley Pearse. I journeyed back in time to 1914 to London, France and Ypres and and witnessed, first hand, the horrors of the first World War both at home and on foreign soil. At the heart of the novel is one woman's journey through change, independence, loyalty, grief and love.

'Writing will be like a journey, every word a footstep that takes me further into undiscovered land.' - David Almond

'Reading takes you on a wonderful journey to places you have probably never been. Sit back and enjoy your journey.'- Marjorie Taylor

Where has your writing and reading taken you lately? What journeys have your characters embarked upon? How have they changed? I'd love it if you left a comment. 

Thank you for reading my blog. You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

Must dash! I've got to re-visit North Wales and Kashmir before Wednesday's Book Club meeting about 'The Kashmir Shawl' by Rosie Thomas This is one of my favourite books and I'm looking forward to hearing what other members thought of it.

No More Dilly-Dallying
That's it! I've got to get back to it, writing the novel-in-progress that is. Feeling guilty to claim I'm currently writing a novel, I've even changed my bio on Twitter to 'attempting to write my first novel'. There's something about the addition of that word 'attempting' that let's me off the hook, don't you think? Not really. I want to do this so it's up to me to get on with it!

A number of people have helped me decide not to dilly-dally any more. The first is my on-line friend Samantha Bacchus. As well as publishing a collection of short stories alongside working on her book, she finished the first draft of her novel at the end of July. Her comment on her author page 'Now the hard work begins...' acknowledges that the rest of the journey towards publication will not be easy but it brought home to me how important it is to get my story written. The only way is to get back to the novel, stop procrastinating, stop saying what I am going to do, and write!

Another author who has impressed me is someone whom I've only met recently at an event during the Candy Jar Book Festival. She's Michaela Weaver and her book 'Manic Mondays' was published in May this year. It was interesting to hear about the story of her novel through to publication. She was so encouraging to me and the other aspiring novelists who attended that I came home inspired to write my story.

Finally, it was arranging a meeting with writing buddy, Kelly, that made me realise that I had nothing new to show her since our last meeting which was back in June. I had to do something!

How did I prepare for our meeting?
- I went back to my novel file and read and re-read the chapters already written to immerse myself in the story I wanted to tell.
- I'm a planner at heart so I mapped out a linear account of all the events that would happen to the family in the story. 
- I then started compiling a grid of the novel's characters, sorting them into main, subsidiary and minor with their respective details, dates, features and traits. Already some of the dates and ages in my completed chapters didn't tally because I hadn't done this beforehand. 

When we met, Kelly and I talked about the importance of having credible characters and I found the grid is helping  me find out more about each of the characters. If we know everything there is to about our characters then what they say, how they react and what they do will be all the more believable. By next time, we're going to work on some detailed character studies. We definitely won't be putting all the information in our novels but we will know our characters very well.

The main thing that came out of the meeting is that I'm back and I'm going to write my novel. I think I'll make myself a badge like this. Please feel free to nag me too! ;-) 

On her blog 'Writing My Novel - No Working Title Yet', Teagan Kearney makes some very useful points in this post, 
Creating Characters.

What are your thoughts on creating believable characters? What do you do to get to know them 'inside out'? I'd love to hear what you think. 

Thank you for reading my blog. You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

PS My story 'Defeating Dylan The Dragon' has been published by Cafe Lit to end its week which has had the theme of fantasy. I hope you will enjoy my take on a Welsh legend.

Who Writes Short Shorts?

By a 'short short', I mean a short story which is no more than 1000 words long. I have written stories of 100, 300, 400 and 500 words but these have usually been for Flash Fiction competitions which have had a very tight limit. As writers, perhaps we shouldn't be concerned with word count because a story should be as long as it takes to tell the whole story. Most of my stories end up over 2000 words and lately, I seem to be favouring ones that are even longer, with around 3000 words. However, word count does matter when submitting to magazine editors and especially to competition judges where there is a set word limit. 

Over the next weeks, I'm setting myself a goal to write a 'womag' type story of around 1000 words which would fill about one page in the magazine and I'm looking for your help. As many of you know, I'm still chasing that elusive first acceptance. I'm doing my homework by reading the different magazines and trying to get a 'feel' for what the editors are looking for. What do you think are the elements of a good 'short short' story? What was the first story you had accepted in a woman's magazine? What made that one stand out from others that you had submitted?

I did find a home for two longer stories this week when I submitted them to the Candy Jar Books Short Story competition. The word limit for each story was 3000 words. 

Candy Jar Books is a publisher based in Cardiff and has been running a book festival all this week. I attended two events - 'How to be a Fibber Extraordinaire' with author, Laura Foakes, and illustrator, Emma Taylor, who were running a children's workshop based on their book, 'The Liars and Fibbers' Academy' and an adult writing workshop with Michaela Weaver about her book, 'Manic Mondays'.  It was good to meet both Laura and Michaela and hear about how they published their first books. 

Thank you for reading my blog. I'd love to read your ideas about what makes a good 1000 word story so please leave a comment. :-)

You may follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer page.

 

The Moral of the Story
Do you find that when you write or read fiction there is often a message which underpins it? This may not be a deliberate decision on the part of the author. It may have arisen subconsciously but it's there, nonetheless. Some of you may remember me saying that many of my short stories seem to follow a recurring theme of  'moving on' where the message is that in spite of a crisis, a relationship break up or personal loss the main character tries to resolve the problem, be strong and move on. This is what happens in the story I've been editing this week. After the premature death of her mother, Alex is given her mother's diary and tracks the story she reads in there back to a Greek village. It was there where her mother spent a summer twenty years before and where her life was changed for ever. Again, I didn't ever plan to use the message of 'moving on' to support the story. It just seemed to happen.  

In contrast, the first ever writing task I was asked to do in 'Telling Tales', the short story course I attended two years ago run by Lynne Barrett-Lee, was to take a fable, a ready made story with a moral or message, and turn it into a contemporary story. The suggested list of fables and their respective messages that we came up with in class was vast. Many of us remembered  the childhood versions of Aesop's Fables taking pride of place on our bookshelves. Here, we wrote stories around the messages we wanted to convey.

The dictionary defines a fable as 'a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral'. To me, the word 'moral' implies that the story will teach the reader something rather than just convey a message. A story I wrote recently was published on Creative Frontiers. The characters are dogs who live on a bleak Welsh Valleys estate. If you'd like to click on this link, Animal Story, and read it, why not say what you think the message of the story is? (Please don't use the title! ;-))

Thanks for reading my blog.
Have you written any animal stories? Do they have a message or moral? I'd love to hear about them. 
You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and visit my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

"The Play's the Thing"

Last week, I went with my daughter, Jo, to see 'War Horse' at The Lowry  in Manchester and what a treat that was!  As I'm sure many of you will know, it's a National Theatre production based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo. Although it premiered in 2007, it seemed fitting to be watching it in this centenary year of WW1 and even more appropriate to be writing this post today , 4th August 2014, exactly one hundred years since Britain declared war on Germany. As we watched the performance unfold, we almost forgot that the horses on stage were puppets which were so cleverly brought to life by the expertise of the puppeteers. The human cost of the war is well documented. An estimated ten million people died and we are quite rightly remembering them in numerous ceremonies around the world today. What the play did was to remind the audience that there were forgotten heroes too, the horses that accompanied the soldiers to France. In 'War Horse', Michael Morpurgo gives us an insight into what the horses experienced on the battle front. He imagined the story of one of the horses, Joey, who was sold off a Devon farm and had to leave Albert, the boy who owned him, to go to the Front to be used by the British cavalry. The poignant story was told through the horse's eyes and we saw scenes of Joey charging towards the enemy, being caught up in barbed wire and eventually being captured by the Germans. He was used to pull guns and ambulances and spent the winter on a French farm. By writing from the horse's point of view, Michael Morpurgo didn't take sides. He was able to explore the futility of war and create in his opinion, 'a story of reconciliation and reunion.' 'War Horse' is more than just about 'a war, a horse and a boy,' he says. 'It is an anthem for peace, and reflects, I think, a universal longing for a world without war.'


Steven Spielberg's film helped to familiarise people with the book but it is the success of the stage production that has contributed to making 'War Horse' a best seller. As Shakespeare said, 'The play's the thing...' Nearly five million people have now seen the play in theatres all over the world.


Is there a book that you have seen adapted as a film and/or stage play? What did you think of the adaptations?

Thank you for reading my blog and I'd love it if you left a comment. You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.