Ask the Author: SGM Ashcroft
Answered Questions (4)
SGM Ashcroft
Write. A lot. Read. A lot -- but read as a writer, not as a reader. Make notes when you come across brilliant writing. Work out why it's brilliant, and try to replicate it in your own work. I found this approach invaluable in learning how to master:
-- Dialogue
-- Shifts back and forth in time
-- Pacing
-- Characterisation
Fiction writing is hugely technical. Become a technician.
To this end I also found the online resources of Jericho Writers invaluable. I didn't even subscribe to any of their many paid-for options, but learned all I needed from their fantastically useful free blogposts. Their post on how to construct a plot became my template for plotting, and it works brilliantly.
And do all of this for your own pleasure. View it as a hobby, an escape, not as a career option.
If you stick at it for long enough -- around eight years in my case –– you'll find your 'voice', and that's when the magic starts to happen. Only then ought you start to think in terms of monetising your writing.
And that's a whole new ball game. If you get this far, and you're still serious about being a writer, you'll need to invest £450-£650 in hiring a professional fiction editor. And when that editor rips your work to shreds -- which they will -- you need to listen to them. You might even need to start from scratch. It's tough, and you can only do it if you're utterly driven. Unfortunately, there are no short cuts.
There are way too many self-published novels by writers who have failed to properly learn their craft.
For me, it's a bit like an O-Level art student sticking up their work with Sellotape in the National Gallery. Yes, it's up there, but who really cares?
-- Dialogue
-- Shifts back and forth in time
-- Pacing
-- Characterisation
Fiction writing is hugely technical. Become a technician.
To this end I also found the online resources of Jericho Writers invaluable. I didn't even subscribe to any of their many paid-for options, but learned all I needed from their fantastically useful free blogposts. Their post on how to construct a plot became my template for plotting, and it works brilliantly.
And do all of this for your own pleasure. View it as a hobby, an escape, not as a career option.
If you stick at it for long enough -- around eight years in my case –– you'll find your 'voice', and that's when the magic starts to happen. Only then ought you start to think in terms of monetising your writing.
And that's a whole new ball game. If you get this far, and you're still serious about being a writer, you'll need to invest £450-£650 in hiring a professional fiction editor. And when that editor rips your work to shreds -- which they will -- you need to listen to them. You might even need to start from scratch. It's tough, and you can only do it if you're utterly driven. Unfortunately, there are no short cuts.
There are way too many self-published novels by writers who have failed to properly learn their craft.
For me, it's a bit like an O-Level art student sticking up their work with Sellotape in the National Gallery. Yes, it's up there, but who really cares?
SGM Ashcroft
Planning is the key to effective written communication. For years I ran business writing training sessions, and the headline message was always: 'Fail to plan, plan to fail.'
Fiction is no different. I suspect that much of writers block results from writers getting tied in knots because their characters and plot are under-cooked.
I spent months plotting out my debut novel, and I also mentally drew the characters, until they became like real people to me. This meant that when it came to the writing I knew
where I was headed, with whom, and why -- every step of the way.
Sometimes the characters led me in unexpected directions but it was nearly always within the general framework I'd set out.
I've just started on my second novel, after 3 months of similar planning. I'm expecting the writing of it to take 3-4 months -- so almost a month of planning for every month of writing.
Planning is like kryptonite to writer's block, for me at least.
Fiction is no different. I suspect that much of writers block results from writers getting tied in knots because their characters and plot are under-cooked.
I spent months plotting out my debut novel, and I also mentally drew the characters, until they became like real people to me. This meant that when it came to the writing I knew
where I was headed, with whom, and why -- every step of the way.
Sometimes the characters led me in unexpected directions but it was nearly always within the general framework I'd set out.
I've just started on my second novel, after 3 months of similar planning. I'm expecting the writing of it to take 3-4 months -- so almost a month of planning for every month of writing.
Planning is like kryptonite to writer's block, for me at least.
SGM Ashcroft
The Mirror & The Light
The third of Hiliary’s Mantel’s magnificent trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, who as Henry’s VIII’s ‘chief of staff’ forever altered the course of British history. Masterful. The best work of historical fiction in, er, history.
Arsene Wenger: My life in Red & White
Part memoir, part self-help guide, part business-guru masterclass, Wenger’s autobiography reveals the inner workings of the driven visionary who single-handedly created the Beautiful Game as we know it today.
Viz: The Big Hard Number Two
Picked up in a charity shop. Puerile, disgusting, utterly inappropriate, hilarious. The UK’s notorious satirical comic is still going strong. Here’s a classic Viz Top Tip: "Old telephone directories make ideal address books. Simply cross out the names of the people you don’t know."
The Man Who Ate Everything
Food writer Jeffrey Steingarten’s absorbing and amusing collection of essays about the everyday foods we take for granted. Gastronomic penmanship of the highest order.
McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists 22nd Edition
Dry as the Sahara and extremely put-downable, but I’ve had to reacquaint myself with UK law as it affects journalists, as research for the second novel in my Hack series. (The main character is a reporter who plays hard and fast with the rules in his pursuit both of hot news and justice.)
The third of Hiliary’s Mantel’s magnificent trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, who as Henry’s VIII’s ‘chief of staff’ forever altered the course of British history. Masterful. The best work of historical fiction in, er, history.
Arsene Wenger: My life in Red & White
Part memoir, part self-help guide, part business-guru masterclass, Wenger’s autobiography reveals the inner workings of the driven visionary who single-handedly created the Beautiful Game as we know it today.
Viz: The Big Hard Number Two
Picked up in a charity shop. Puerile, disgusting, utterly inappropriate, hilarious. The UK’s notorious satirical comic is still going strong. Here’s a classic Viz Top Tip: "Old telephone directories make ideal address books. Simply cross out the names of the people you don’t know."
The Man Who Ate Everything
Food writer Jeffrey Steingarten’s absorbing and amusing collection of essays about the everyday foods we take for granted. Gastronomic penmanship of the highest order.
McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists 22nd Edition
Dry as the Sahara and extremely put-downable, but I’ve had to reacquaint myself with UK law as it affects journalists, as research for the second novel in my Hack series. (The main character is a reporter who plays hard and fast with the rules in his pursuit both of hot news and justice.)
SGM Ashcroft
I went to bed alone, and woke up next to Donald Trump, who was smoking a cigarette. He smiled, and winked at me.
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