If you'd like to contribute you must read the whole blog before you start to write, otherwise you’re likely to write something that’s redundant, or miss something significant.
I'll consider any thing up to a maximum of 500 words. Please check your work carefully for errors and typos before you submit, as I won't accept anything slapdash or hurried: it’s your job to ensure that your work is as polished as you can possibly make it before you send it in. I’m prepared to tweak the odd comma, but I’m not prepared to rewrite your work for you to make it good enough for inclusion.
Each piece must centre on just one person, location or event. Greyling Bay isn't very big: it will probably have room for more than one school teacher, more than one police officer, but only if they're required. Please don't duplicate professions unnecessarily. Focus on creating characters and locations; on developing relationships between existing ones; and on exploring histories and situations. Don't attempt to cover too broad a subject in one piece: I've deliberately kept the word-count low to encourage the observation of relatively small events. Telling detail. That’s the thing.
Your contribution doesn’t have to follow on from the last: each piece should stand alone as a piece of flash fiction, but contribute something tangible to the overall work. Feel free to develop themes or plots that other writers have introduced: this is a collaborative work. But don't rewrite characters or force them into uncharacteristic behaviour for no good reason.
6 Jan 09
Edited to add: If you're working on developing a particular character or theme, then it would be a good idea if you'd say so in the comments section beneath that character's original piece: that way, we can avoid duplicating work or sending one character off in two different directions at once.
You're welcome to submit more than one piece to me at a time, so long as they both contribute something and are complete alone: I'm anxious to avoid pieces that need to be read in series to make sense.
Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Genre, Tense And Point Of View
I write literary fiction; I read literary fiction; I love literary fiction; and it's what I want you to send me. My definition of literary fiction is fiction which is beautiful, lyrical and pure: as close to poetry as prose can get.
I don't exclude any genres from this definition: I've read crime and fantasy and memoir which all qualify for the label. You are going to have a hard time persuading me to include anything here that is to genre-specific: I can't see too many pointy-eared elves or sonic screwdrivers appearing on these pages. But still: write them so well that they fit right in and I'll give them my serious attention.
Tense and point of view are trickier. For now I'll consider anything but in future I might have to impose a few restrictions to help flow and coherence. I'll see how we get on and let you know if I need to make any changes.
I don't exclude any genres from this definition: I've read crime and fantasy and memoir which all qualify for the label. You are going to have a hard time persuading me to include anything here that is to genre-specific: I can't see too many pointy-eared elves or sonic screwdrivers appearing on these pages. But still: write them so well that they fit right in and I'll give them my serious attention.
Tense and point of view are trickier. For now I'll consider anything but in future I might have to impose a few restrictions to help flow and coherence. I'll see how we get on and let you know if I need to make any changes.
Submission Guidelines
There’s no payment for any work accepted: we’re all just doing this for the love.
Email your work to me at "HPRW at tesco dot net". Mark your submissions "Greyling Bay" followed by a colon, then the title of your piece, and your name. Please make your title pertinent to your work to help everyone know what they're reading: character names, place names or events can all be used, but do try not to duplicate any existing titles.
Cut and paste your submission into the main body of your e-mail: anything with an attachment will be deleted unread. Include your name and approximate location (for example, “Jane Smith, Sheffield”) so that I can credit you appropriately, and your website or blog address if you'd like me to link to it (if you want to be really helpful you can provide the code with your name already embedded in it, to save me having to sort that out myself).
I won’t accept anything that I don’t think is good enough. “Good enough” means that your submissions have to be grammatically correct; properly spelled; and free from typos and punctuation errors. Your work has to consist of more than just a good descriptive passage: it has to tell us something new and intriguing about our town; suggest new directions that other writers could take; and be beautifully written, and pared to the bone.
Finally, no porn; no plagiarism, fan-fiction or stuff about real people or places. Nothing libellous, misleading or insulting. And definitely nothing boring.
Email your work to me at "HPRW at tesco dot net". Mark your submissions "Greyling Bay" followed by a colon, then the title of your piece, and your name. Please make your title pertinent to your work to help everyone know what they're reading: character names, place names or events can all be used, but do try not to duplicate any existing titles.
Cut and paste your submission into the main body of your e-mail: anything with an attachment will be deleted unread. Include your name and approximate location (for example, “Jane Smith, Sheffield”) so that I can credit you appropriately, and your website or blog address if you'd like me to link to it (if you want to be really helpful you can provide the code with your name already embedded in it, to save me having to sort that out myself).
I won’t accept anything that I don’t think is good enough. “Good enough” means that your submissions have to be grammatically correct; properly spelled; and free from typos and punctuation errors. Your work has to consist of more than just a good descriptive passage: it has to tell us something new and intriguing about our town; suggest new directions that other writers could take; and be beautifully written, and pared to the bone.
Finally, no porn; no plagiarism, fan-fiction or stuff about real people or places. Nothing libellous, misleading or insulting. And definitely nothing boring.
Any Questions?
I know that this is an odd idea for a blog, and that you've probably got all sorts of questions you'd like to ask which don't belong to any of the existing threads. So go ahead: ask them here. I'll answer them if I can although if I've been on the margaritas, I might just point and laugh.
Comments
Please use the comments feature to discuss individual pieces of work, to suggest plot and character developments to each other, or to ask me questions or make suggestions for changes or improvements. But please don't try to submit work to me via the comments: submissions have to be sent to me via e-mail, as described in the submission guidelines, and any that appear in the comments sections will be deleted.
An Important Rule
I expect everyone here to be respectful, articulate and coherent. No long, rambling comments and no rudeness; no libel, no plagiarism; and nothing boring. I'll borrow Absolute Write’s central rule and insist that everyone here respects their fellow writers; I will delete all comments which don't comply. However, I do encourage lively debate, so please don't think we have to always agree with each other: just keep it sensible and we should be fine.
Contributors
Rosie Able is a part-time physiotherapist from Luton, who writes in an effort to silence the voices in her head.
Ali Bacon is an exiled Scot living in the West Country. She has a part-time job in I.T. and spends the rest of her time writing, blogging and playing golf. Her first novel, a literary romance, won some prizes but hasn’t been published. Her second (a very different kettle of fish) is due to be finished this summer. Meanwhile she’s had various things published on the web, and is delighted to have had a story accepted for a forthcoming issue of The Yellow Room.
Big Fat Lion is a compulsive writer who is very fond of cheese and onion sandwiches.
Faith Bretherick writes: I am as yet unpublished and have come to writing fairly late in life, having been married, raised children, pursued a series of merely functional jobs and had various pieces of writing returned to me, most notably by the BBC and week-end broadsheets. During my life and from enlightened observation during encroaching maturity, it has dawned upon me just how absurd many aspects of the human condition are, and this has happily coincided with the opportunity to do a lot more writing, which tends to be of a satirical bent. My completed novel 'Tales from Hake on Spinach' is currently being submitted for consideration by publishers.
Douglas Bruton writes: I am a teacher in Scotland. I have been writing for years. I have won recognition in over seventy UK based competitions over the past three years. I was on the 'shortlist' for Bridport last year, a runner up in the Fish Knife Award in 2007/8, won HISSAC 2008 and am on this year's shortlist for Fish. I have been published in lots of online and print literary magazines including Storyglossia, Vestal Review and Blood Orange Review.
Peter Drobinski spent seventeen years working in a university video production unit in south London, starting as a cameraman, then editor, then finally writer and director. He became a houseparent, moved to Sheffield in 1999, and now works from home as a self-employed book-keeper. He’s co-leader of, and occasional contributor to, the Sheffield Forum Writers’ Group: and despite his occupation he insists that he bears no similarity to Bob the Books.
Rona J Frith runs a writers' forum (membership by invitation only). You can read one of her science fiction stories here.
Linda Gruchy writes crime novels, and has published short fiction and non-fiction articles. She moderates an online forum for police officers, and works as a gardener.
Rod Holland has an O-level in geography, which shows how old he is and how little effort he made at school because it is his only one, and he really should have got a few more. But he still thinks school was a blast and remembers it fondly, especially the day he blew up the bike sheds.
Abha Iyengar is an internationally published writer and poet. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, magazines and literary journals, both in print and online, such as Mannequin Envy, Six Sentences, Citizen32, Arabesques Review, Nefarious Ballerina, Dead Drunk Dublin, Nothing but Red, and others. She is a Kota Press Poetry Anthology contest winner. Her story, ‘The High Stool’ was nominated for the Story South Million Writers Award. She is a member of The ‘Riyaz’ Writer’s Group at The British Council. She does digital art and photographs street life, and blogs.
Chris Leonard: prior to my career in the manufacturing industry I published a few short stories and won a handful of prizes for my short fiction and poetry; while I was working I published only in trade publications, company brochures and academic journals. Now I've sold the business and am enjoying a very early retirement, during which I hope to return to creative writing after my extended absence.
Allan Mayer manages a day service for people with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities in the North West of England. His first novel, Tasting the Wind, will be available January 2009.
Nicola Morgan is an award-winning author, mostly of serious fiction for teenagers, but also non-fiction about the teenage brain. A former English teacher and dyslexia specialist, she lives in Edinburgh, where she writes full-time, but she also travels widely to talk about books, writing and the brain. She blogs on behalf of aspiring authors at http://www.need2bpublished.blogspot.com/.
Jonathan Pinnock was born in Bedfordshire and—despite having so far visited over forty other countries—has failed to relocate any furtheraway than the next-door county of Hertfordshire. He is married with two children, several cats and a 1961 Ami Continental jukebox. His work has won several prizes, shortlistings and longlistings, and he has been published in such diverse publications as Smokebox, Every Day Fiction and NecroticTissue. His unimaginatively-titled yet moderately interesting website may be found at http://www.jonathanpinnock.com/.
Anna Russell is a 29 year old writer from Scotland who has had her work published in Open Mouse, Identity Theory and Cause and Effect Magazine. She mostly writes short stories and poetry, but is currently working on her first novel.
Nicola Slade lives in Hampshire where she writes romantic comedy and cosy crime. She has had two novels published along with numerous short stories.
Jane Smith is a writer, editor and researcher. She runs Greyling Bay and How Publishing Really Works, and her book The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric will be published later in the year by Wooden Books.
Sally Zigmond writes short fiction for both literary and commercial magazines. She was assistant editor for QWF magazine and a reviews editor for the Historical Novels Society. Her novella Chasing Angels was published by Biscuit Publishing in 2006 and her novel Hope Against Hope will be published by Myrmidon Books in April 2009.
Ali Bacon is an exiled Scot living in the West Country. She has a part-time job in I.T. and spends the rest of her time writing, blogging and playing golf. Her first novel, a literary romance, won some prizes but hasn’t been published. Her second (a very different kettle of fish) is due to be finished this summer. Meanwhile she’s had various things published on the web, and is delighted to have had a story accepted for a forthcoming issue of The Yellow Room.
Big Fat Lion is a compulsive writer who is very fond of cheese and onion sandwiches.
Faith Bretherick writes: I am as yet unpublished and have come to writing fairly late in life, having been married, raised children, pursued a series of merely functional jobs and had various pieces of writing returned to me, most notably by the BBC and week-end broadsheets. During my life and from enlightened observation during encroaching maturity, it has dawned upon me just how absurd many aspects of the human condition are, and this has happily coincided with the opportunity to do a lot more writing, which tends to be of a satirical bent. My completed novel 'Tales from Hake on Spinach' is currently being submitted for consideration by publishers.
Douglas Bruton writes: I am a teacher in Scotland. I have been writing for years. I have won recognition in over seventy UK based competitions over the past three years. I was on the 'shortlist' for Bridport last year, a runner up in the Fish Knife Award in 2007/8, won HISSAC 2008 and am on this year's shortlist for Fish. I have been published in lots of online and print literary magazines including Storyglossia, Vestal Review and Blood Orange Review.
Peter Drobinski spent seventeen years working in a university video production unit in south London, starting as a cameraman, then editor, then finally writer and director. He became a houseparent, moved to Sheffield in 1999, and now works from home as a self-employed book-keeper. He’s co-leader of, and occasional contributor to, the Sheffield Forum Writers’ Group: and despite his occupation he insists that he bears no similarity to Bob the Books.
Rona J Frith runs a writers' forum (membership by invitation only). You can read one of her science fiction stories here.
Linda Gruchy writes crime novels, and has published short fiction and non-fiction articles. She moderates an online forum for police officers, and works as a gardener.
Rod Holland has an O-level in geography, which shows how old he is and how little effort he made at school because it is his only one, and he really should have got a few more. But he still thinks school was a blast and remembers it fondly, especially the day he blew up the bike sheds.
Abha Iyengar is an internationally published writer and poet. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, magazines and literary journals, both in print and online, such as Mannequin Envy, Six Sentences, Citizen32, Arabesques Review, Nefarious Ballerina, Dead Drunk Dublin, Nothing but Red, and others. She is a Kota Press Poetry Anthology contest winner. Her story, ‘The High Stool’ was nominated for the Story South Million Writers Award. She is a member of The ‘Riyaz’ Writer’s Group at The British Council. She does digital art and photographs street life, and blogs.
Chris Leonard: prior to my career in the manufacturing industry I published a few short stories and won a handful of prizes for my short fiction and poetry; while I was working I published only in trade publications, company brochures and academic journals. Now I've sold the business and am enjoying a very early retirement, during which I hope to return to creative writing after my extended absence.
Allan Mayer manages a day service for people with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities in the North West of England. His first novel, Tasting the Wind, will be available January 2009.
Nicola Morgan is an award-winning author, mostly of serious fiction for teenagers, but also non-fiction about the teenage brain. A former English teacher and dyslexia specialist, she lives in Edinburgh, where she writes full-time, but she also travels widely to talk about books, writing and the brain. She blogs on behalf of aspiring authors at http://www.need2bpublished.blogspot.com/.
Jonathan Pinnock was born in Bedfordshire and—despite having so far visited over forty other countries—has failed to relocate any furtheraway than the next-door county of Hertfordshire. He is married with two children, several cats and a 1961 Ami Continental jukebox. His work has won several prizes, shortlistings and longlistings, and he has been published in such diverse publications as Smokebox, Every Day Fiction and NecroticTissue. His unimaginatively-titled yet moderately interesting website may be found at http://www.jonathanpinnock.com/.
Anna Russell is a 29 year old writer from Scotland who has had her work published in Open Mouse, Identity Theory and Cause and Effect Magazine. She mostly writes short stories and poetry, but is currently working on her first novel.
Nicola Slade lives in Hampshire where she writes romantic comedy and cosy crime. She has had two novels published along with numerous short stories.
Jane Smith is a writer, editor and researcher. She runs Greyling Bay and How Publishing Really Works, and her book The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric will be published later in the year by Wooden Books.
Sally Zigmond writes short fiction for both literary and commercial magazines. She was assistant editor for QWF magazine and a reviews editor for the Historical Novels Society. Her novella Chasing Angels was published by Biscuit Publishing in 2006 and her novel Hope Against Hope will be published by Myrmidon Books in April 2009.
What's The Best Way To Read The Work Here?
You can just start at the beginning, and read your way through it: I'll publish work in the order that it is accepted. Or you could use the labels to find your way around our town, and get to know the people who live in it. If you’re looking for inspiration for a piece of your own, the labels which tag the smallest number of works will probably provide more potential for development than the ones which have been explored more fully.
What Inspired Greyling Bay?
A couple of years ago William Haskins began a wonderful collaborative poetry project called Blue Rock over at Absolute Write, which developed into an amazing collection of poetry, people, and places. Haskins found his own inspiration for Blue Rock in Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, a collection of obituaries for the residents of his fictional town.
While the individual poems in both anthologies are more than good enough to stand alone, they are at their best when experienced as part of a collection. When read together, the interaction between the poems reveal multiple layers of meaning and nuance which are not apparent in the single works; and the juxtaposition of so many different voices and stories create a compelling resonance and depth that haunts me even now.
I’ve played around with ideas for various collaborative projects for some time but I've struggled to find an appropriate form. I didn’t want to repeat the Blue Rock project by working with poetry, as good creative writing should focus on making something new and fresh. I wanted to engage with as many other writers as I could; and I wanted each piece to provide an intense, staccato burst of energy and surprise. And so I came to flash fiction.
I read a lot of flash fiction. I like its intensity; the quivering potential that it reveals; the way that it says so much by leaving so much unsaid. It is an immediate, urgent and unforgiving form which allows no room for error or self-indulgence; but when it’s done well it makes words sing on the page with a clarity that fascinates me.
And that's what makes flash fiction the perfect building-block for this particular collaborative work. By accumulating a collection of varying interrelated pieces here, I hope we can broaden both the ambition and the appeal of flash fiction, and produce something innovative. I'm well aware that this project could be a disaster: but there is a chance that it could end up as an inspiring collaborative work.
While the individual poems in both anthologies are more than good enough to stand alone, they are at their best when experienced as part of a collection. When read together, the interaction between the poems reveal multiple layers of meaning and nuance which are not apparent in the single works; and the juxtaposition of so many different voices and stories create a compelling resonance and depth that haunts me even now.
I’ve played around with ideas for various collaborative projects for some time but I've struggled to find an appropriate form. I didn’t want to repeat the Blue Rock project by working with poetry, as good creative writing should focus on making something new and fresh. I wanted to engage with as many other writers as I could; and I wanted each piece to provide an intense, staccato burst of energy and surprise. And so I came to flash fiction.
I read a lot of flash fiction. I like its intensity; the quivering potential that it reveals; the way that it says so much by leaving so much unsaid. It is an immediate, urgent and unforgiving form which allows no room for error or self-indulgence; but when it’s done well it makes words sing on the page with a clarity that fascinates me.
And that's what makes flash fiction the perfect building-block for this particular collaborative work. By accumulating a collection of varying interrelated pieces here, I hope we can broaden both the ambition and the appeal of flash fiction, and produce something innovative. I'm well aware that this project could be a disaster: but there is a chance that it could end up as an inspiring collaborative work.
The Boring Small Print
By submitting your work to me you automatically confirm that you’ve read and agree to all the various terms and conditions which I provide in this post and elsewhere on the blog, and grant me the rights to publish your work here, on this blog, or in a physically printed form if we ever get that far (I’m not counting on it, but you never know: if that possibility arises I will, of course, do my best to tell everyone who has contributed by email and/or by posting a notice here on the blog).
By submitting your work to me, you confirm that it is your own original work; that it's never been published anywhere else, in any form or medium; and that its rights are not tied up anywhere else.
You are free to publish your own work elsewhere if the opportunity arises. In that case do please let me know of your impending publication in plenty of time so that I can make some sort of announcement about your success (and also so that I won’t get all hoity-toity and go off on a “kill the plagiarist” bender if I discover it unexpectedly). Link your new publication back to this blog wherever possible, and add an acknowledgement along the lines of "This piece first appeared in Greyling Bay in January 2009”.
What you are NOT free to do is to take any of the characters created here by anyone other than you, and write them into a piece for publication elsewhere. That would be plagiarism and might well attract legal action, from me and/or the creators of the characters, places or events concerned. Nor can you publish a piece of work which is directly about Greyling Bay anywhere else, as Greyling Bay is my creation and therefore my copyright.
If you want to reproduce, copy or otherwise publish anything that you find here, you cannot do so without prior written or email confirmation from the original writer of the piece concerned. If you contact me through the blog, or by email, I’ll do my best to put you in touch with the writer you’re after but I can’t guarantee that all the contributors will notify me when their email addresses change, and nor can I guarantee that writers will be happy for you to publish their work: that’s up to them.
I accept no liability for anything published here: all work published here is accepted in good faith as entirely fictional and free from legal implications or restrictions. If you take exception to anything that you read here, liability for any wrongs committed rests entirely with the original writer of each piece: but I will do what I consider appropriate to soothe your feelings and rectify any wrongdoings.
By submitting your work to me, you confirm that it is your own original work; that it's never been published anywhere else, in any form or medium; and that its rights are not tied up anywhere else.
You are free to publish your own work elsewhere if the opportunity arises. In that case do please let me know of your impending publication in plenty of time so that I can make some sort of announcement about your success (and also so that I won’t get all hoity-toity and go off on a “kill the plagiarist” bender if I discover it unexpectedly). Link your new publication back to this blog wherever possible, and add an acknowledgement along the lines of "This piece first appeared in Greyling Bay in January 2009”.
What you are NOT free to do is to take any of the characters created here by anyone other than you, and write them into a piece for publication elsewhere. That would be plagiarism and might well attract legal action, from me and/or the creators of the characters, places or events concerned. Nor can you publish a piece of work which is directly about Greyling Bay anywhere else, as Greyling Bay is my creation and therefore my copyright.
If you want to reproduce, copy or otherwise publish anything that you find here, you cannot do so without prior written or email confirmation from the original writer of the piece concerned. If you contact me through the blog, or by email, I’ll do my best to put you in touch with the writer you’re after but I can’t guarantee that all the contributors will notify me when their email addresses change, and nor can I guarantee that writers will be happy for you to publish their work: that’s up to them.
I accept no liability for anything published here: all work published here is accepted in good faith as entirely fictional and free from legal implications or restrictions. If you take exception to anything that you read here, liability for any wrongs committed rests entirely with the original writer of each piece: but I will do what I consider appropriate to soothe your feelings and rectify any wrongdoings.
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