Catherine Pate in the Hot Seat

Catherine Pate lives, works and writes in London, UK.

FE: What inspires you to write?
CP: I think my best work has been inspired by personal experience – it’s sometimes easier to get under the skin of a situation if you’ve actually been in it. I’m also fascinated by the dark places in my imagination, which don’t have any outlet in real life, and that inspires me to write, so I can sort of ‘act out’. Recently I’ve been inspired by observing people who don’t know they’re being watched, not in a stalkerish way (!), but it’s really interesting to see what people do when they’re not interacting with anyone and to imagine what they might be thinking about, or where they’re going, or what their life is like.

FE: What gets in the way of your writing?
CP: The ‘select-all/delete’ function on my computer! I have a tendency to be overly self-critical and to compare myself to all the good writers that I read, which is not a good thing. I know the best way to write is just to, well, WRITE, so I’ve been endeavouring to do that more – to get it out of my head, then prune later. 

FE: Which of your pieces are you most proud of and why?
CP: I wrote a poem for someone that really summed up an intense and hugely romantic week we’d had together. It was a gift, but the process of rationalising my thoughts was therapeutic too, and for once I was very satisfied when I read it back. The recipient of the poem told me recently that they intended to write the words into a song- it made me really happy to think that they had a life beyond the one I’d given them.

FE: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given as an aspiring writer?
CP: It was a technical comment – write what you observe about your characters and let the reader do the work to figure out what that means. For example, “beads of sweat were visibly forming on his forehead and he glanced rapidly from side to side” is so much better than “he sat there looking nervous and suspicious”. 

FE: How do you deal with writers’ block?
CP: I’ve very often suffered from writers’ block owing to the fact that I’m too critical about my own work. Recently I addressed it by starting a journal, and hand-writing letters. It’s a great discipline because you have to get out what you want to say in one go, and can’t delete things like you can on a computer. And the act of regular writing has got me into the habit, so that now when I attempt fiction or poetry, the words flow more easily.

What do I know anyway?

The 'What do I know Anyway?' section (located towards the bottom of the write hand column) is here for the purpose of sharing the ups and downs of a new writer.

I started writing casually around 1999 as a creative outlet. I'd always painted until then but found words easier and more rewarding to shift around on paper. I abandoned my first attempt at a book in 2002 after writing about 200 pages which I thought were pretty good. I sent it out to about 20 publishers and received 3 rejections and a lot of silence.

Over the next years I took some writing courses, joined a writing club, built up a network of readers to give me constructive feedback and learned how to critique others' work. I would also say that I learned how to read properly; to really notice what was being said and how the author constructed characters, events and drama. During that time I became enamoured with the short story, reading as many as I could and writing about 5 myself. I also wrote a screenplay and another novel- which for the sake of argument we will call my first novel. The only thing I ever tried to get published during that time was non-fiction pieces in local publications- articles, interviews and reviews.

By the time I started on my second novel in 2005 I was starting to feel like I might possibly-one day be...gulp... a writer. I couldn't not write.

I approached my second book in a totally different fashion- I felt equipped, like I knew what I needed to do to make this work. Starting it's life as two different short stories, the characters grew and started to feel like friends- the events and people were with me for the entire 3 years that it took me to write it. During this time I also worked a full time professional job, renovated an apartment and had a couple of children. I'm not trying to show-off or anything, just point out that real people with real lives can still write- it just takes time.

In January 2009 I decided that I would start trying to find an agent. That brings us up to date with the launch of the Fiction Exchange and if you're interested, you can find other random incidents from my writing career in this section- posted as they occur.

The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published

I got a copy of this book last year because it was well reviewed and was obviously on a subject that I need help with! It's an easy read, well laid out, easy to jump in and out of and it's not at all pretentious or patronizing, which some of these books are. The author, Rachael Stock has worked for three major publishing houses and has had a lot of experience making decisions about what to publish and what to bin.

This is one of those books where nothing is a surprise but you are constantly surprised that you that haven't done the things that Stock is recommending, so therefore I would say that it's a big help. I found it especially helpful in regards to writing a query letter for an agent. Put it this way, the very first query letter I wrote, I received this rejection: "Not for me, thanks".
I then read 'The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published', wrote a proper query letter and my second rejection was fantastic. Really! You can check it out here.

Joyland

Joyland calls itself a 'Hub for Short Fiction' and is looking for 'new ways to publish fiction'. I've only just found it and I can't wait to read my way through the site. With editors accepting submissions in Toronto, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Montreal, Vancouver and London, Joyland publishes pieces from authors who write about those cities, or who are based in those cities.
Each editor has their own submission guidelines which are posted on their city's page.

This month 'Vancouver' features Alison Frost who did an interview for the Fiction Exchange's Hot Seat earlier this month.

Joyland has a facebook group here

Our Stories- A Unique Literary Journal

Okay so there are a million resources out there for writers, some blah, some good and some that make you want to swoon. I just found Our Stories and am so excited that I'm going to stay up past my 9o'clock bedtime! That's after I'm done swooning of course.

UPDATE: I have had a break from posting stuff on the Fiction Exchange over Easter and when I got back to it, I couldn't load up the image that I'd tried to raid from the Our Stories website. I emailed them to ask if they could 'lend' me one to use and when the editor replied, he also said, "I just got through reading about 160 short stories and commenting on all of them for the past month, so needless to say I'm burnt but very encouraged by the great writing community that is part of Our Stories."

I am even more impressed by these people and encourage you to check them out.

Catherine O'Flynn in the Hot Seat

Catherine O’Flynn is based in Birmingham, England. Her first novel, ‘What was Lost’ was published in 2007 and her second novel is due out in 2010.

FE: How did you get your first novel published?
CO: I sent it out to about fifteen agents in a fairly clueless way. I just went for ones that accepted unsolicited manuscripts (it never occurred to me that I should approach others and try and get my manuscript solicited) and got back either no response at all or a generic rejection letter that gave no indication the ms had been read. I suppose I wasn't that surprised really - I knew the odds against me were enormous and I've never been much of an optimist so I kind of assumed rejection would be the inevitable outcome. Eventually though a friend recommended an agency to me and I sent it to them and they liked it - something which still to this day is probably the single most miraculous piece of news I received. My agent worked with me on the book - suggesting some work that needed doing on the ms. When it was ready she sent it out to four major publishers all of whom rejected it. The main problem seemed to be that it didn't fit in with any clear genre and wouldn't be easy to 'place' in the market. We opted then to go for a small independent publisher (Tindal Street Press), as we thought they might be more risk taking and see beyond genre. This turned out to be true and they put everything they had behind the book.

FE: Why do you write?
CO: I think it's usually just to get to the bottom of something that's niggling at me. With What Was Lost I wanted to answer the basic question 'What was it about the shopping centre where I worked that so got under my skin?' Writing is a way of exploring my thoughts and understanding how I feel about things.

FE: What’s your greatest challenge with writing?
CO: I suppose the challenge is coming up with a story that allows me to do the exploring mentioned above. I think coming up with a story that isn't too big and isn't too little is something that takes up a lot of my time.

FE: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
CO: Oh God - probably that they should disregard advice from novelists keen to dispense it. The only thing I can think of is to write because you enjoy it or find it helpful in some way. You have no control over publication, but if you get something out of it for yourself then whether you are published or not is not the most important thing.

FE: What are you currently working on?
CO: I'm working on what I hope is the final draft of my second novel. I haven't developed a snappy description of it yet. Its theme I suppose is ageing - both of people and of cities. The main character is a superficially corny local tv news presenter who is haunted by disappearances and the stories that never make the news. It's about town planning and brutalist architecture as well. It sounds terrible doesn't it? I will never make a blurb writer.

More about Catherine

More about What was Lost

Gotham Writers' Workshop

With a 'Best of the Web' rating from Forbes, the Gotham Writers's Workshop offers a number of writing classes in 'more than a dozen forms of writing'. They are based in New York City and you can take their classes on location or online.

I took their Fiction Writing I online class a few years ago and LOVED it. I got issued log-in information and was able to explore the class before the first lecture went up. Our teacher posted these lectures weekly and what I loved about it was that I got to work on it when I wanted to. Not famed for my organizational skills, I had a nagging feeling when I enrolled that I would be frantically doing my assignments in the middle of the night before the weekly deadline to submit passed but I found the content engaging and motivating and managed to stay on top of my work easily.

I felt that the coursework was well constructed and I learned a lot. I got clear, constructive feedback from my teacher and well-meaning, though not always constructive feedback from my classmates. Overall, I loved the experience and would especially recommend it to someone who likes to work at their own pace and who can't afford to go to New York City! Gotham Writers' Workshop offers a bunch of different classes and elevated levels of some classes so if you are thinking of taking a class make sure that it's the right one for you.

Apart from any struggles with time-management, the only drawback that I can see from an online course like this might be for someone who is not used to, or sensitive about receiving feedback about their writing. When comments turn up about a labour of love that you posted for the group to critique, they are in black and white in front of you and it can be hard to judge the tone in which it is meant. When I took the course I hadn't received much feedback and although there were a few cringes, I found that it taught me to embrace and receive criticism for which I am grateful to this day.

For more information check out their site

Glimmer Train

Since 1990 Glimmer Train has been publishing short stories by established and emerging writers. Published quarterly, Glimmer Train contains between eight and ten short stories in each issue. To find out more about this fantastic literary journal including submission guidelines and subscription details, check out their website.

Alison C Frost in the Hot Seat

Alison C Frost is originally from Brooklin, Ontario and is now living in Vancouver, BC. Alison has been writing fiction since she was 12, back when she wanted to be a journalist.

FE: Have you had any work published?
AF: I have had short fiction published in Canadian literary journals, but it is a struggle. I have learned to take each rejection slip out of the mailbox and send the piece straight back out. The whole submission/acceptance or rejection process is a long one and there’s no point waiting around. But it is ultimately not the most important part of writing.

FE: Why do you write?
AF: I write because through writing I process, if not fully understand, my experiences and what goes on around me. Things come to me as sentences and images and scenes, the world gets translated/ transformed that way in my head. I feel uneasy when I am not being creative, namely when I am not writing. It just doesn’t feel okay not to be writing regularly.

FE: What’s your greatest challenge with writing?
AF: My greatest challenge with writing is not knowing when to let go of a story and move on. I am not a prolific writer; I spend a lot of time working and reworking the same terrain. I would like to let go of old material and call it done, but that is hard for me. Any piece can always be un-done and reworked. I want to draw those hard edges, but ultimately any piece is amorphous.

FE: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
AF: Call yourself--that is name yourself-- “writer,” at least in your own head. Don’t get caught up thinking you have to reach a level of publication or notoriety or success before you have a right to call yourself “writer”. If you write, if you must write and that is how you negotiate the world, then you are a writer. Believing in the authenticity of that gives confidence and motivation and can keep you going when no exterior element can do it for you.

FE: What are you currently working on?
AF: I am currently on yet another reworking of a collection of 10 short stories that I hope to publish as a book. I am working on several stories at once, trying to figure out how they all work together as one.

FE: How do you support yourself?
AF: I have supported myself through various retail and teaching/editing jobs. I steer clear of any job which might become too consuming for too long since that would take away from the writing. I have only started to get paid for some writing and that feels like a real victory of sorts. At this point, the truth is I am lucky I have a husband with a steady paying job.