Nick Bryan

writing about writing

London Book Fair 2014 – “Eventual self-published author Nick Bryan goes to seminars, eats crisps!”

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I normally have a writing update in this slot on the blog, but I haven’t done much work this week, as I went off to London Book Fair 2014 in Earl’s Court. So, I thought I’d write about the experience from my perspective as an internet-using nearly-maybe-self-published author, on the off-chance it helps someone else or satisfies some curiosity.

(Although for anyone who is here for the writing updates: I got another short comic story pitch accepted by the nice chaps at GrayHaven Comics, so things are progressing.)

Anyway, for one week only, let’s move the adventure outside my room. I went to London Book Fair and what did I learn?

Forging the Ultimate Edition

As plenty of people will tell you, London Book Fair is not really a place where writers go to talk/learn about writing – it is a publishing industry event where those in the business go to network and discover what is coming up in that world. Not many traditionally published authors seem to go, unless they are one of the few special guests or have a meeting lined up.

However, we are living in an exciting new age. Not only are some authors doing a lot of their own marketing via Twitter, but a fair few are their own publisher too. I haven’t yet self-published anything – although you can buy my stuff on Amazon in these anthologies if you want – but as avid H&C Podcast listeners will know, I’m slowly getting my shit together for some kind of Hobson & Choi Ultimate Edition via self-publishing.

With that in mind, I went to quite a few seminars about the whys and wherefores of self-publishing, and did end up reconsidering quite a few of the approaches I’d been going for before. Firstly: probably will do a print edition as well as digital, at least for my first volume. If it sells fuck-all, might not bother for Volume 2, but I’d been assuming I wouldn’t be doing any hard copies at all. But apparently print readers are still out there, according to a few of the Bestselling Indie Authors who spoke.

If nothing else, my Mum will be happy. And, in fairness, the first time I mentioned this plan to a friend, they immediately asked if there would be a print book – and they’re a Young Person with an iPad and everything.

Obvious Idiocy – the worst kind?

Also, I will likely hire a proper editor, for at least a copyedit to make sure it’s a competitive product. This is something I have been back and forth on, but it was the one lesson every single self-publishing seminar agreed on. And if this venture turns out to be a disaster, I’d rather it not be because I ignored the most obvious tip everyone gave.

I’m also hiring someone to do a decent-looking cover design, but I’d decided that already. My limited Photoshop skills are not up to the task, and I’m not really up for joining the terrible self-published covers club.

So, that was the fundamental returns of London Book Fair for me. I went to immerse myself in self-pub research and I succeeded. I have discovered things. Well done me. If you too are an author wanting to explore this area, it is probably a good exercise – but again, little discussion of the actual writing.

If you’re planning for the publishing end of your operation to be handled by your mum/a publisher, there may not be much to do. But hell, it’s a fairly cheap event, so if you can see any interesting seminars then why not? It’s sufficiently inexpensive that you probably won’t feel guilty if you pay and only go for a day.

Sundry Observations

Nick failed to take a photo at London Book Fair, what a moron

I spent a lot of time in self-publishing seminars (in fact, probably enough time – I was feeling ready to lie down by the end), and the above section does contain my substantial learnings of LBF. But there were other things, and here are the highlights:

  • The Negotiating Author Contracts panel on Wednesday with a group of literary agents was a pleasantly insightful, intelligent, enjoyable discussion. Nice mix of enthusiasm and insight. Worth a listen if it ever appears as a podcast or similar, I’ll tweet it if I see it.
  • I don’t even like crisps that much, but I swear the packet I ate Wednesday luchtime after not eating all day was one of the tastiest treats I’ve ever consumed.
  • Did The Power Of Series Fiction panel on Tuesday. Obviously, I love serialised fiction in all its forms, so good to hear people caring, even if this specific discussion was largely about child-targeted serial stories.
  • The packet of mini-Party Rings I ate later on almost surpassed the crisps. Almost.
  • Author HQ at LBF was sponsored by The Daily Mail, unsettlingly. Gotta get the money somewhere, I suppose. I wasn’t bored for long enough to read the free papers left everywhere.
  • Really should’ve taken a relevant picture to accompany this blog post, but no, the only photo I took during those two days was the one over there of a smashed up bathroom and toilet near my house. Let’s pretend it’s a metaphor or something, okay?

That’s it, I think. Thanks to fellow blogger/writer-type Julianne Benford for accompanying me to the event – read her more informative, less crisp-focused blog post about it here – and already-self-published author and fellow Big Green Bookshop writing group member Chele Cooke for sharing her personal experience between seminars. If nothing else, self-publishing almost feels like a real thing that real people do now, y’know?

Man Edits NaNoWriMo Third On Video – A WriteVlog Experiment (or WriteBlog #21)

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I have a new iPad, so decided to play with the video function and do this week’s WriteBlog in straight-to-camera video form. See me struggle with what a chapter is, the sound on my computer and where exactly I’m meant to be looking!

Good times. In terms of actual content, this is me talking about starting edits on the final third of my novel – which I wrote during NaNoWriMo – and worrying that it is garbage – because I wrote it during NaNoWriMo. There is some embarrassing turning-off-the-sound stuff which I have’t edited out because it made me laugh when I watched it back – potentially I should be a bit more brutal with myself, but for a first effort, I think is okay. There may one day be a second effort.

Anyway, if I bang on much longer, I’ll defeat the labour-saving purpose of doing it on video in the first place. Here it is!

If you’re reading this in a format that doesn’t support YouTube embeds, here’s a clickable link to the original.

2048 – Ideally this would be my review score… (WriteBlog #20)

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When last we met, I was having some massive writing days, but also worrying that I was maiming my ability to function in a basic human way. I was also developing a growing addiction to 2048, the stupid tile-matching number puzzle which has managed to somehow bypass my usual instinctive avoidance of timesink phone games.

Not content with pouring hours into the Doctor Who version on my computer, I have now downloaded the actual app for my phone. It has not improved matters. But anyway, this isn’t meant to be a weekly blog where I moan about my latest procrastination discovery (although that by far one of the biggest challenges I face in my authorial life, sadly) – how’s the actual work going, Nick?

Old Father Time

As you probably know, I turned 30 this Tuesday just gone. You can read my thoughts on the actual milestone here if you’re so inclined, but in writing terms, it… had surprisingly little impact. I rarely work much on weekends anyway, so the only day of hard labour I really lost was the Tuesday itself. Got back into the novel editing with reasonable fervour by this afternoon, having completed my weekly Hobson & Choi tasks.

That’s still going, basically. I’ll probably hit the two thirds mark in a week’s time, and then we move into a slightly different phase and I’ll discuss that when it happens.

For now, though, I had a bit of chat about my novel at writing group last night, extending beyond the scene I read out at the time and out to the rest of the story. That was great fun, even though not every single comment was mega-positive and I have some stuff to think about. Helpfully, I’m still at the early stage of authorship when I’m slightly excited by anyone reading my work and expressing thoughts about it as if it’s a serious piece of story. I love every one of my Hobson & Choi reviews on Web Fiction Guide, even the not-glowing ones. (So feel free to add one. Ahem.)

Maybe one day I’ll be published, read my 1-star reviews and despair, but for now, yes please. Relatedly, someone reviewed the “Hero’s Best Friend” anthology I recently appeared in on Goodreads, and described my story as “Good story, but not a favorite”. Amazing novelty value, I don’t even give a shit about the but. I may have it framed. You can find more details of those anthologies in this post here, if that has enticed you to go buy.

Stop Touching Me, Please

So, that was the keen writery part, let’s now talk about my fuckton of recent procrastination. The big problem with 2048 is this: now I’ve become okayish at it, each game lasts about half an hour. So even though I don’t have twenty-game marathon sessions, it still eats up a chunk of time whenever I reach for my phone to have a couple of goes. I may inflict forced cold turkey on myself soon.

Oh, and I’ve decided to keep my Marvel Unlimited subscription going, because it’s an amazing service in terms of value for money, but having that amount of comics at my fingertips at all times is not good for getting other stuff done. Luckily, I can’t really use it when away from the house, so going to my usual cafe pretty much kills that, even if it has taken me a bit longer to actually get out of the house to go there lately. 2048 is on my phone, so there’s no escape.

Anyway, it’s now 11PM, so this is definitely a time when it’s okay to unwind with a few casual Marvel Comics. We seem to be thoroughly back to business as usual after the birthday. So, yes, that does mean I will stop talking about it on Twitter. I know you’ll all be relieved.

Novel Editing – Snake eats itself, then spits self back out and says “Yick!” (WriteBlog #19)

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I started these WriteBlogs back in October, mostly as a way of creating imagined mass peer-pressure and encouraging me to finish my damn novel edits. Since then, they’ve gone through a range of topics, including thoughts on comics writing and moaning about my near-misses with writer’s block.

Well, this week we came full circle, as I got back into the novel edits hard, and ended up working on the very chapters I was blogging about when I first started the whole cycle. And then… well, I deleted a lot of them. This writing shit is brutal.

To be fair, a lot of this mass word genocide was in line with what I said I’d do – my new Chapter 12 is my previous Chapter 10, and as a result, a huge amount of it needed to be deleted to get it to fit its new place in sequence. I just hadn’t quite anticipated how much purging there would need to be – all of the twelfth chapter is more or less gone.

I managed to bring forward a couple of scenes from Chapter 15 (the rest of which no longer exists) to ease my burden, but the rest I wrote from scratch. And yes, this does make Chapters 13-14 a little awkward.

It’s not all grim news though – the new Chapter 10 I wrote during that last round of shuffling was excellent. Liked that a lot. Also, one particular scene in Chapter 11 might be one of my favourite things I’ve ever written in terms of comedy. I laughed until people in the cafe glared.

Yes, laughing at your own jokes is a bit lame, but they were lines I wrote five or six months ago, so basically completely new.Anyway, the point being: the editing is back on, and it’s proving brutal (more than I expected), but it is happening, which is good. I’ve had serious trouble identifying and making big changes in the past, so it’s a massive relief to see it start coming naturally.

Ow My Face

After writing from about 10AM-6PM for two days running (with a break for lunch), I was feeling pretty smug about my achievements, but also mentally dead inside. I spent the whole of Tuesday night playing this Doctor Who 2048 game – not only is it a complete waste of time, I didn’t even get beyond the Ninth Doctor.(I just played another twenty minutes after opening it up to paste the link in here, and only got to the Eighth Doctor. Dear God, I’m receding.)

Then on Wednesday, I went to writing group and lost the will to think fairly early on. Too much caffeine, then some alcohol, then a trance. There’s some adage about candles burning at both ends or snakes eating their own tail here, isn’t there?

Still: on Thursday night, I write this blog post which is clearly amazing, so there’s still hope.

Truth be told, part of me is tempted to say Fuck it! and continue just because I’m getting so much work done, but that would probably be stupid. Eventually the candle flames out or the snake finds itself eating its own teeth, and then you’re screwed.

Plus: it is my thirtieth birthday next Tuesday, and real-life people may expect me not to spend it ignoring them and typing. But I imagine you’ll hear about that on here/Twitter in the next few days, so I’ll spare you for now.

Bursting The Pipes – Man Writes Story (WriteBlog #18)

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Two weeks ago, I spent the best part of seven days bashing my head against the same short story brief, before concluding that I simply didn’t have the right idea. So, last week, I went off to write other things, only to be distracted by the plumbing in our house going wrong.

This week, at last, I got my shit together. A nice man came over and rearranged our pipework (only sounds dirty) so we can have both hot water and heating at the same time. Meanwhile, I went to multiple cafes, battered the keys of my poor netbook within an inch of their lives and seem to have produced, at long last… stuff.

Splash Bang Wallop

I’d love to take sole credit for my recent breakthrough on the stuck short story, but the kick was actually provided by Alastair JR Ball, good friend and fellow writing chap. Once he made a handy suggestion about setting, the rest of it dropped into place like Tetris blocks.

And so I took myself to various cafes for the best part of 1.5 days, drank enough tea to keep five regular English people going and hammered out the first six thousand words of the probably-about-eight-thousand-word piece. If you’re curious exactly what it is, there are more hinty-details on tomorrow’s Hobson & Choi Podcast.

Suffice to say, you’ll hopefully get the chance to read it in the near future, but it is pretty cool. And funny. And sweary. And maybe at times a bit harsh, but aren’t all the good things? Just me?

Hemingway, Man

One last point, as just talking about myself typing isn’t amazing blog-fodder: I’ve been using the web-app Hemingway to edit some of my old work, during breaks from tapping out the new story. It suggests various ways to smooth out and improve text phrasing, attempts to spotlight long sentences and adverbs, etc.

Now, it isn’t flawless and I’m by no means advocating blindly implementing every change it suggests. Sometimes long sentences are long for a reason, and it also has a fun habit of marking any word ending in -ly as an adverb for destruction.

Still, Hemingway proves a useful broad tool for finding spaces where I can use a stronger, less rambling phrasing, so I’m recommending it anyway. Worth a look.

And now, I’ve got another few bits of work to run through that site, and then the remainder of this story to tap out. Fare ye well.

Not Drowning But Typing (WriteBlog #17)

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Last week, I discussed how my writing wasn’t entirely flowing, words refusing to come out no matter how long I stared at the page. In a typical ironic-sadistic finger-of-fate fashion, this week I had a much easier time getting the material down when I was at the keyboard, but… was frustratingly not finding much opportunity.

No sooner had I lined up a few clear days of work, the pipework in our house experienced severe explosive turbulence, all over our bathroom floor, leaving me waiting in for a lot of plumbers. Don’t worry, this won’t be a whole blog about plumbing. I’ve spent so much time lately failing to get our house watertight again, most of my available computer time has gone to working on my writing, rather than blog posts about it.

Nonetheless, it’s been a good week for the art, so I wanted to get a post done in the name of confidence-building self-affirmation. Here is some stuff that’s happened, in quick-and-dirty bullet point form.

  • Had an agent one-to-one with Bryony Woods of DKW Literary Agency as part of an event at the Big Green Bookshop – didn’t get taken on right there and then, but very positive stuff said about my writing, and from someone who does this stuff for a living too. A lot of others from my writing group took part, and the air of support and positivity around the event was genuinely inspiring stuff. Hooray.
  • Also, got comments back on the second of my two GreyHaven Comics scripts from the editor, and feedback so positive that I don’t even need to do a second draft. Sweet. If you fancy submitting to them yourself, by the way, they’re accepting more story pitches on a range of themes for another two weeks.
  • As I already said elsewhere, Hobson & Choi was second in the Jukepop charts for February, which is pretty damn good. Even if it does make it harder and harder to keep topping ourselves.
  • Returned to editing the novel, did a whole chapter, felt great to be back on it. Happy times.

It’s not all sunshine – for example, the project I mentioned being stuck on last week… yeah, still no ideas and do need to get it done in next couple of months. But all this upbeat stuff made it much easier to cope with the puddle spreading across the bathroom and ruining my socks whenever I went to pee.