Faber Session 28 – Notes and Thoughts

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

Apologies if you’ve received this post twice! In my excitement I mucked up the scheduling…. This one is the live link 🙂

I had a lovely day yesterday…..I went to a new cafe I’d never been to before and had a Cream Egg Brownie!

Wandered through Covent Garden and then accidentally stumbled across the HUGEST Paperchase I’d ever seen! Three whole floors of goodies!!!!

Well, as you can imagine, I was so overwhelmed that I came out with nothing, but, if The Hubsters reading this, I’d like a Paperchase voucher for my birthday please! Lol 😉

So last nights Faber class was the last one *all say awwwwww* Seriously, I’m quite sad 😦 But I can’t make up my mind if I’m a really good advert for their courses or a really bad one. I started the course with 65,000 words, by the middle of the course I had 24,000 and now I have 500! LMAO! Yeah, ok, this 500 are probably far better than the previous 89,000! My novel has gone from But Not Forgotten to The Last Word Cafe to Still and my structure has changed from 3rd person, to 1st person to both! 😉

Part of Saturdays session and most of last nights was about synopsis and pitch. We were given some examples of bad intro letters, bad synopsise and good ones. There aren’t really many tips I can pass on to you to be honest. I know, you’re disappointed right? The reason being is that our synopsises (spelling ??) are tailored to our Faber submission which will be going into the Anthology, which is then given to the agents. Last night we had to read them out and the feedback on mine was that it was too “facty” (is there such a word? Lol). I didn’t give enough information on how the past will affect the present and how my characters actually feel. Yeah, I can get that, but gawd only knows how I’m going to do it! 😉

So we ended up at the pub for a quick drink 🙂

I’ve got one more session at the Faber offices, a guest tutor and then we’re all meeting up (the students) a couple of times before we have to do our pitches in June.

So I guess I’ve got lots of work to do…..have to submit everything by the 19th April! *gulp*

I can highly recommend the course and Tim Lott has been a great tutor. But, it’s the guys on the course that have made it all worth while. Their advice, suggestions and support has been invaluable. I shall miss them so much.

So when I finally have my book published (notice I said when, not if) Anna, David, Gareth, Hannah, Janet, Jason, Linda, Marci, Michelle, Ros, Sam and of course, Tim, will all be in the acknowledgements 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little piece of Faber each week? I’ve enjoyed sharing 🙂
It’s been a ride, and I soooo, need a holiday! Lol….but first, there’s work to be done 🙂

Faber – Session 2 Creating Ideas/Planning

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I arrived in Bloomsbury with plenty of time to go to the London Review Bookshop. I discovered last week that they have a cafe (oooooo), but as I started the diet (again) today, it was just a Latte and a writing session. The cakes looked amazing though, I have to say *pouts*

A quick butchers around the shop (oh dear, how did that Philip Roth find its way into my bag?) and it was off to class 🙂

Really enjoyed last nights session/class 🙂 We talked about planning, our concerns (mine was/is endings lol) and we were sent away with the first piece of work (by a fellow student) that needs critiquing 🙂 Ive got a date for mine now…. 26th November, which means I have to actually submit it the week before *gulp*

We talked about different methods people use to plan their novels. Tim is in favour of index cards, but also gave us some tips on what files he uses on his computer.

We did a couple of writing exercises (a quick synopsis and a descriptive piece) and some free writing. I was shocked that some of my fellow class members had never done free writing before.

So in the way of homework this week i have to read and critique my fellow class mates work, read the 2 handouts, and do a bit of research on some of the books that came up in the discussions (fiction and writing guides).

Ok, but I bet what you really wanna know is what exactly I’ll be submitting?

Well, I spoke to a fellow student in the break who gave me a bit of advice (on whether to use a new novel or one I’ve got further on with) and then I collared Tim as we were packing up. And the news is….. Tim advised me to compromise lol (actually I had to twist his arm up his back because initially, he refused to comment saying that he couldn’t make that decision for me….but i persisted lol). The plan is to submit 5000 words, 1000 of those being a synopsis, of……But Not Forgotten, and let my class mates give me an opinion, on whether they think I should continue with it…scary huh? If they think its a no goer, as my second piece, submit The View Outside. I told him that But Not Forgotten is a mess, not finished and that I’ve lost heart. He said that all that can be sorted, and that after the critique, I’ll have a much better idea of where I’m going.

So I guess I’m feeling relieved 🙂 But, still a little anxious. I’m going to change The View Outside into 3rd person, see how that feels and then quietly work on the synopsis for But Not Forgotten.

The question is…. Do I write the synopsis using the exact same messy plot that it has now? Orrrrrr come up with a new one?

I dunno, I don’t make things easy for myself do I? Lol

The To Do List 1st to 7th October

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Wow, it’s October, can you believe it!

It was a busy week last week, which culminated in the BookCrossing Uncon on Saturday 🙂

I took 15 books with me and came back with 6, so I consider that a result lol 😉

So last weeks list looked like this:
1. Finish Tim Lotts book. Done! really enjoyed it, and I’ve now started one of the other tutors books.

2. Investigate writing Pod Casts. Done! I can recommend Warwick Writing Challenges by Professor David Morley, although, he’s very English lol

3. Sort out books to take to Bookcrossing Uncon. Done! And been!

4. Place Nano order for ML stuff. Done!

5. Clear inbox! Done!

6. Update Blog Film Fest list. Done!

7. Finish at least 1 of the romance books. failed miserably 😦 I think I only read a couple of chapters. I was so intent on getting Tim Lotts book finished lol

8. Try to come up with Sorrento Sunrises black moment. Hmmmmm, semi done lol. I’m really struggling with this. A reason why she has to go back to England, gawd, it’s hard 😦

So a fairly productive week, although I’ve fallen behind by a couple of days with my prompts, which actually means I haven’t written anything since Friday *sharp intake of breath* so I’m beginning to get agitated lol.

This weeks list:

1. Catch up with prompts.

2. Finish one of the romance books.

3. Continue working on the Black Moment.

4. Finish Sabrina Broadbents book.

5. Outline some ideas I have for Blog Posts.

6. Check Nano forums…gear myself up!

7. Do some more work on outlining Sorrento Sunrise (for the Writing Group).

There, that should be quite manageable 🙂 I try not to pile too much on myself or nothing will get done 😉 But, my priority for today is to work on a little interview thing for Anushka (at Finding My Creature). When I’ve finished that, I can start on the list 🙂

So what are your writing plans for the week?