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NEW SERIES
BOOK DEAL or bust!
Hazell Evans wrote in urging columnist Vivien Hampshire to keep going in her
quest for a book deal. So now Viv’s moved on, we set Hazell the same challenge…
A
t this time of year I usually take the
opportunity to look over last year’s
resolutions before making fresh ones.
The message
Fay Weldon
I’m a great believer in resolutions, and make
lots of them. But in recent years I have tried
contained a very
to make my resolutions into SMART goals –
(Specifi c, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and
long list of things
Time-limited). This year I listed ten SMART
I needed to do
writing goals, the fi rst of which was to fi nish my
novel, and the last was to send it off to agents
Photo Nigel Sutton
to see if I could get it published.
In between, I resolved to: join a writing group to the fallibility of her satnav, and offered, ‘as an
(I’ve joined three – a weekly writers’ support act of contrition’, to read the work of any audi-
group, a monthly workshop and an online ence members who had written novels.
writers’ forum); send stories and articles off I considered this to be an extremely
to magazines and get at least one published generous, though foolhardy, offer as I, along
(here’s the proof); set up a website (nearly with almost everyone else in the 300-strong this. But perhaps I had overdone it. Sparseness
done); write a blog (I’ve set it up at least) and audience, frantically scribbled down her email is one thing, but a completely barren landscape
enter three writing competitions, which I have address. A few days later I sent off a grovelling just leaves the reader bewildered and lost.
done (no wins yet, but I live in hope). email and the fi rst couple of chapters of my In my novel The Liar’s Club, Jack Ronson has
An impressive list, I thought. I spent quite book, and was thrilled when she replied saying written a controversially successful book, based
some time patting myself on the back.Then that my idea was ‘intriguing’, and that I wrote on a pack of lies, which he privately worries
I realised that the fi rst and last resolutions ‘smoothly and well’. is a fl uke. When an old college friend invites
remain uncompleted. I bathed in this glory for quite some time him to join a secret club, where like-minded
My novel is a good way towards being fi nished, before I read the rest of the message, which members can lie to their heart’s content, Jack
though as you will see, it needs another draft. contained a very long list of things that I is intrigued. When he realises that the woman
Or two. And I am hoping that through this needed to do to bring my book up to scratch. he secretly loved at college, Melody Maws, is a
column, and the contributions and comments And this brought me up rather short, as I had founder member, Jack throws caution to the
of readers and experts alike, I will be able to been congratulating myself (something which wind and joins.
give my novel the best chance possible of being by now you will have gathered I do rather a But soon Melody is found dead, all the
published. After all, this novel is the culmination lot) on having written the perfect modern other members are lying through their teeth
of years of practising – of the three novels that thriller. In some of my wilder fantasies I had and Jack is out of his depth. Is he implicated
are sitting under my bed and which will never almost envisaged this notable author offering in her death? And why does the detective
see the light of day because they are, to varying an introduction to her agent, or sending a copy interviewing him resemble a waiter from the
degrees, dreadful. This novel benefi ts from to her publisher with a handwritten note of club? Is the whole thing an elaborate initiation
everything I have learned along the way. I have recommendation. ceremony, or is Jack in danger of being charged
not, as yet, approached agents or publishers, Back to reality and to the list of Weldon’s with murder?
though I have shamelessly cornered everyone complaints. Jack must use everything he knows about
else I can think of to get their advice, including ‘A writer has to do the job,’ she said, ‘of truth and lies if he is to fi gure out what is going
the editor of this magazine. casting director, set designer, camera man etc on. If he can avoid being arrested, he may even
In October I went to several entertaining and etc. It is a world which we create ourselves.’ have the makings of a fantastic new book.
informative events at the Manchester Literature In a fi lm we do not need to be told that the My novel is written partly inside the head
Festival, including one where world-famous setting is the 1980s – we can see it right there of Jack, whilst he is sitting in the interview
author Fay Weldon appeared an hour late, due on the screen in the huge shoulder pads and room trying to work out what is going on, and
fl icked back hair of the women and the shiny, partly from an impersonal third person narra-
tight suits of the men. There are clues – subtle tive where I strive to stay out of the heads of
and unsubtle – that we can use to ‘fi ll in the all the other characters (much harder than it
blanks’. In a novel, there is only what is written sounds).
on the page and, so it seems, in the case of my So here is the opening scene of my novel.
novel, there just wasn’t enough information to Does it draw you in? Can you picture the
go on. scene? Do you want to keep on reading? Please
I had been rather enjoying (all right, congrat- let me know your comments.
ulating myself on) the sparseness of my writing, Last year I accomplished quite a lot as a
particularly in Chapter One, where I wanted writer. I feel that I have developed and grown.
the reader to get quickly and completely into But I still have further to go. So this year’s
the head of the main character, Jack, who fi nds SMART resolution? Book Deal or Bust!
himself in a police interview room, being ques-
tioned about the suspicious death of the woman • You can write to Hazell by emailing bookdeal@
he is secretly in love with. I felt that over- writers-forum.com and follow the link to her blog
long pauses for description would detract from via www.writers-forum.com
42 Writers

FORUM #99
WF99JAN42.indd 1 24/11/2009 10:12:58
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