Trying to write your Gibraltar novel?

Get that novel written!

My last blog post focused mainly on being a writer in the 'professional' sense of the word - copy writing, feature writing, journalism and other types of writing for which, if you're good, happen to have a contract for it and/or you stand your ground, you might well get paid.

But just in the past few days and purely by coincidence, I've had a few conversations with friends in Gibraltar who are in the throes of, or have written, or are thinking about, writing a novel. All three were equally excited about their work as they were wondered what their next steps should be and how to go about publishing these. We also spoke about what is the nebulous thing we might term the "Gibraltar novel", if, in fact any such thing exists, or whether could there be any such piece of literature?

Keeping their names confidential, this is a basic summary of the conversations:

Gina

Lockdown was great, to be honest. I had to stay at home, the weather wasn't exactly great, and although we were a bit worried about money, my husband was able to work from home so it was just me that took a pay cut and we can manage. What this did was give me the time to get down to the manuscript. I already had lots of notes from some research I'd done ages ago, and ideas I keep having that sort of pop up when I'm doing the washing up and dull things like that. I managed to get almost all of it written - just a couple of chapters to tie up loose ends and I can say I've written a novel!

Of course, that's just my first draft. It's going to take a lot more work to finish it properly but I'm really excited!

I don't think it will ever be a "Gibraltar novel". I mean what is that anyway? It's not as if that many Gibraltarians have published novels, is it? This story is set in Barcelona, where I used to live in my twenties. I've set it in the seventies - I was young then and I remember some of the way things were with my family in Spain when Franco died. It's about a working family and how they dealt with the changes that happened in Spain over time - you know, democracy, joining the EU, the whole separatist terrorist events, Spain getting all permissive compared to how it used to be...I'm excited about it. I'm going to try to see if I can get a publisher in UK because there are no proper agencies and publishers here - you have to self-publish and I'm not sure I can do all that.

I have read some local novels: Mark Sanchez (although the one I read was a bit dark for me); and also Mary Chiappe and Sam Benady, the detective novels - I read two - and they were quite enjoyable too. But I prefer something real and meaty and I'm not sure Gibraltar has enough subject matter to interest readers.

Now, I love Gina and she's pretty good at writing and I will read her novel if it ever gets published. Writing a  novel is one thing, but getting it noticed by a literary agency and having a publisher invest in publishing it involves hard, hard work and an enormous amount of luck. I wish Gina all the best. But I disagree about Gibraltar having enough subject matter. The "Gibraltar novel" is never going to be overtly about Gibraltar. It is far more likely to be about characters and it may be set here, or partly here and partly somewhere else and it will deal with all sorts of themes and issues, from historical detectives to the discontent of a student returning from university to a lacklustre career, to a story of abusive relationships, to a crime whodunit set in our glorious marinas. Gibraltar has a bit of everything in it and plenty of material to keep any writer busy for many lifetimes.

To publish.....

Imran

Lockdown was busy for me - I work in essential services. But I have had some incredible ideas because I have been working really closely with some incredible people and people are my biggest inspiration. The only thing is I don't know if I can possibly write a "Gibraltar novel" because I'm not Gibraltarian and when my contract expires I might have to go back to Manchester.

As far as writing is concerned, I've got the basic premise written out, some character sketches and a whole load of post-it notes across my living room wall sketching out the basic plot. It's quite exciting. I've written a novel before but never tried to get it published, but I might give this one a go. I'm probably going to set it in Gibraltar and perhaps have my characters travel - I'm not quite sure yet. I'm not really 'local' enough to write about Gibraltar; it would be seen as cultural appropriation, wouldn't it?

I've been reading some local authors though, which is quite interesting. I like urban fantasy novels and had read a few of Katerina Martinez novels before coming here and before realising they're written by a Gibraltarian husband and wife team! My novel is not going to be urban fantasy - my imagination doesn't run to that I'm afraid! I did think of something steamy based on essential services (I hear they can earn you a fair bit in royalties) but I'm too shy for that, so I'm sticking to a bit of intrigue and some romance, and the novel will also touch on racial tensions as I have experienced quite a bit of that over the years in different places I've worked.

I'm not sure I agree with Imran that you have to have been born here to write a "Gibraltarian novel". A writer as astute and observant and analytical as Imran can pick up the flavour of a place and the issues that dominate that society's thinking pretty quickly. Whether he leaves or not at the end of his contract, his publication would at least add to the body of Gibraltarian literature that is steadily growing. 

Jotting notes in your break helps to get the novel written!

Marie

Lockdown was horrible because I do like to get out a bit every day. I live alone and it was hard not being able to see family, but we all got through it and are here to tell the tale. I didn't think I would ever get round to writing, but I was terribly bored in lockdown so I decided to write down some of my memories of being young. I thought my grandchildren might like it - if they can ever read my handwriting. I have an iPad but I prefer to write longhand in a notebook.

Then I found that I wrote for several hours every morning, and I got carried away writing the story of how my mother met my father - she couldn't stand him when they first met, but eventually, because my father was very charming, they fell in love. But they had quite an exciting courtship because they lived in La Linea and he was involved with the Unions and when the Civil War broke out he joined the Army to fight Franco, and that meant she was in danger and she had to go into hiding....well I'm not going to tell you all of it now. As I write it I am thinking it makes a brilliant story and maybe I can turn it into a novel. I know it starts in Spain but of course, they ended up with family in Gibraltar and then were separated during the Evacuation...a very eventful life they had. Do you think anyone else other than maybe my grandchildren would be interested?

Yes, yes and yes again, Marie! Of course we would be interested. Her parents' story is part of all of our story, part of what it is to be Gibraltarian, part of what has made Gibraltar the place and the people it is today. I hope she managed to go from notebooks to setting it out as a fictionalised account or maybe a memoir. Certainly the material would suit both.

With several books a year being published by Gibraltarians, despite the difficulties of publication, the "Gibraltar novel" may well be a very real thing that our kids discuss in literature lessons in the not too distant future. Meanwhile, we await with eagerness Sanchez', Martinez', Calderon's and Durante's forthcoming publications,and more plays by Felice, among others. And mine, if I can ever get round to editing the MS!

That manuscript.....

Being a writer in Gibraltar

 

How hard is it to be a writer in Gibraltar?

It's a bit of an odd question, many of you might think. How hard can it be to pick up a pen and a notebook and write out a story, or an idea, or a poem? After all, a poem might only be a dozen or so lines, not even full lines of a page at that. How hard can that be? And it can't possibly be any harder to be a recognised writer in Gibraltar than it is in any other country in the world...big(ish) fish in small pond and all that!

Oddly enough, it's not that hard in one sense and, in many other senses, it's really tough. Let me try to explain, and let's see what some of you other writers feel about it.

First of all, in terms of its physicality, writing is pretty straight forward. Most of us have been taught to write. If you grew up in Gibraltar you will probably write in English most readily, perhaps also in Spanish, and if you came from, or your parents are, from other countries, then you may write in a different language. If you're lucky and talented in equal measure, you will be able to express yourself reasonably well in written form in several languages. And, unlike golf, or scuba diving, oil painting or even baking birthday cakes, the  equipment you need can be pretty minimal: pencil and paper. It doesn't have to be more than that. And then you think your thoughts, work out the words, transfer these onto the paper, preferably in a reasonably logical order and in an entertaining and clear way that perhaps other people might want to read. That's about it.

Except it isn't. Writing - real, meaningful writing - is often much harder than that. You might be able to write a paragraph in a few moments, or take a week to perfect a sentence. It depends on the subject matter, or the style you are applying or the objective of what you are writing. And writing to be published can be pretty tough. Certainly no easier than earning recognition in any other field, although you don't sit professional exams and career progression is less clear. As part of the creative industries, writing is as tough to succeed in as fine arts or film making. It's a competitive world out there that tends to undervalue creativity. So what about writing and earning in Gibraltar?

Writing for profit

Gibraltar, like most other modern cities, relies on the written word. Whether it is to communicate news, government declarations, or information about rights and responsibilities, we do so in writing. Note: that does not refer to print material only; online information relies on the written word. So the ability to write well is an important skill for our community. Furthermore, businesses in Gibraltar as across the world, rely on written material to provide information to customers, and to tempt potential customers to buy products or services. The internet has created an explosion of writing opportunities for those who develop skills in marketing, in producing 'content' for websites, adverts, scripts for marketing videos and beyond.

This means that there are many opportunities for writers and if you like playing around with words and using words to manipulate thought, then copy writing or content writing is a way for you to get your writing into the public domain and earn while you do it. This does require learning of techniques and a good deal of practice, but picking up these very specific writing skills opens up job opportunities and you can go further than this to develop a freelance writing career producing content for websites across the world. Practise, determination and producing millions of words will see you earn a reasonable income. 

It might also help you to earn enough to be able to put your writing skills to use 'out-of-hours' to write that novel. Because when people talk to me about being a writer, it's being a novelist or a published poet that is what they mean. But there are many other forms of writing, content writing being one. Journalism being another.

Gibraltar has its news outlets - broadcasters and newspapers, both online and in print. These days, many journalists will study the subject at university and then gain practical experience in a newsroom, perhaps in a regional newspaper in UK or other country. In Gibraltar, the openings for journalists are limited - we are a very small city after all - but they do exist, and good report writing along with the other skills a journalist needs to have, such as writing with utmost clarity and balance to very tight deadlines, asking the right, incisive questions to extract maximum information in a short space of time, and so on, are always desirable. Not an easy career to enter or succeed in, but a place for writers to apply their craft, once they have learned, practised and come to excel at that craft.

Writing feature articles also has an outlet in Gibraltar. Again, this is limited to local publications, but a good feature writer will always be able to appeal to content-hungry editors, especially those of monthly publications that need content that will attract the public in order to circulate the adverts that form their revenue stream. In addition to this, there are features that are needed by many magazines - if you can build a good portfolio of published work then there's a good chance that you might be able to pitch to magazines across the world. Provided your subject matter is of interest and pitched to the right publication, the writing world is your oyster.


But don't let me leave you with the impression that any of this is easy. Publication is hard to achieve. Most magazines have a set of regular feature writers that they are happy with and the editors tend to commission work from these. It's hard to break into this field and convince an editor that your writing is worth their while. As a writer you need to find the angle, the story, and above all, the right way of expressing this in words if you are going to convince a busy editor to take you on. And even when you do, you may well find, that because writing is not considered a high-value skill (goodness knows why, it can take years of training to write one short perfect paragraph of marketing content) that you cannot command anything  more than a modest reward.

But then, do we do it for the money or for the love of it? Or, I do better to ask this a different way: why should we not be paid reasonably well for our work, just because we happen to work at what we love?

In a future post, I'll write about the skills you might need to become the successful novelist, poet, or fiction author or author of a non-fiction book that many writers secretly would wish to become. Perhaps we will see that writing well is much harder than so many people realise. That means that as writers, we need to learn to appreciate the effort and skill that we put into our own work, whatever that work is. Writers are suckers for 'imposter syndrome' and yet without writers, how would we know anything about the world about us, and the worlds within us?

Become a guest writer!

If you have experience of writing as part of your work or being a published journalist or features writer in Gibraltar, please contact me and share your experiences, tips and advice with other readers by becoming a guest writer on this blog. Gibraltar Writers will benefit a great deal from your experience!

  

Write your way through 2020

This is that time of year where people reflect on what they've been up to in the past year, and resolve to achieve a particular goal in the new year. I know from conversation with some of my writing friends that we have a terrible tendency as creatives to beat ourselves up over not getting published, or not getting our particular pet project finished, or for not even dusting down the laptop or getting as far as sharpening the pencil.

Writing - if it's something you enjoy and you want to do - is like anything else in life. If for 2020 you want to get fit, buff your body or get yourself a trim beach butt, then you have to exercise. It won't happen any other way. And if you want to see your work in print and in bookshops, then you have to write.

But how can we do this, I hear the cry, I have no time, I need to learn, I don't know where to start....

Writers, or those who want to write successfully - which for many means mainstream publication, although I would say that if you write for pleasure then you're a writer anyway - have to simply get on with the act of writing. Whether it's opening up a notebook and jotting words and sentences down with your favourite biro, or tapping away on your iPad, you simply have to do it.

To write successfully, as with anything else you want to achieve, writing has to become a part of your life routine. And to do that, especially if you also have to work and have a family to care for, you need to find those spaces in your routine that allow you to do it. So, for example, in the same way someone who likes baking will make sure that they churn out the perfect scones for tea on a Saturday afternoon because that is when they have time to do it, the writer will sneak into a corner of their home (or the back of the car, or under a tree in the park, or in a corner table at the cafe) and spend an equivalent amount of time writing.

One of the wonderful things about writing is that you can do it anytime, anyplace, anywhere. I've managed to draft up a poem while walking the dog, thanks to the record function on my phone and not caring one hoot that passers by consider me an utter oddity for muttering away seemingly to myself.

One of the drawbacks of writing is that unlike the scones, the finished product may take days, weeks, months or even years to complete, so you can become pretty disheartened. I have been co-writing a non-fiction book with my daughter since 2015. We are both full time workers and mothers, the research has been intense, the subject matter complex. But we are getting there, a few hours most Sunday afternoons, a few paragraphs at a time. We still have two chapters, an introduction and conclusion to go plus all the revising, editing and rewriting, but it's steadily happening. It's taken the slow forming of a Sunday habit to get this far.

Other writers I know dedicate an hour per evening most evenings to their writing project once their kids have gone to bed. In fact, one of these sets an alarm so it is exactly one hour, which she claims to give her an intensely focused hour of writing. I can't contradict her because it seems to work perfectly well for her and she's in the throes of her third novel. Still others prefer the early hours and will do the same but before breakfast. You simply have to find that time of day that suits you best and that day of the week that suits you best.

And get selfish. Your time is so precious, so use it to fulfill that writing dream. There are people who go to their sports practice every week religiously and their families support them. You can be exactly the same about your writing. Okay you won't win Olympic gold but you will be the creative writer you want to be.

So back to New Year writing resolutions. The 20% or so of people who purportedly stick to their New Year Resolutions, whatever those may be, are those who:

-     set  one clear goal which can be broken down into small achievable steps
-     take small, steady steps towards that goal and don't try to overreach themselves in one go
-     enlist the support of family and friends
-     ask for support (if you need to get fit, you might hire the services of a personal trainer, or join a gym. It's the same with writing; join a creative writing class; or join a writer's group, or talk to writers you know and ask for help - most of us simply can't say no to helping aspiring writers do the writing that they love to do themselves)
-     cut themselves some slack; one slip up should not derail progress to achieving a goal

Here are some ideas for getting your writing on course in 2020:

Make writing a part of your everyday life

Even if you're not yet ready to start writing a book, experiment with finding that time and place that works for you and write. Even if it's just twenty minutes a day accompanied by your morning coffee and croissant before the kids get up. Twenty minutes is enough to write a short blog post, or a letter to a friend, or some draft lines of a poem, or some notes for a new chapter, or even the first paragraph of a novel. Once writing is part of your life, it will start to flow and by February you will have some material you have produced and can revise and work with.

Fall in love with writing

And I mean the process itself: savour the smell of a brand new notebook; feel the way your favourite pen lets the ink flow across the page; shape those words with a sense of pleasure; sit in comfort, in your favourite spot, where the view and the sounds around you don't distract but perhaps add to the enjoyment of the moment. Don't just focus on the end product - this could take years in the making and impatience will make you give up. Just enjoy the moment of writing, however brief those moments seem.

Read new material

Writers read. Good writers read a lot. Set off some sparks in your creativity by reading something new, in a new genre or form. If you read sci-fi, pick yourself up some poetry; if you like romance, try out a fantasy novel. Give your brain a holiday from the  usual and it will reward you with fresh ideas.

Share your writing more

Find a group of other writers willing to do the same and who you know will give you constructive, kind criticism and fresh insights into your work. Meet regularly and learn from them and with them. The support and confidence you will gain, and the motivation to write more is immeasurable.

Set out a specific goal

Whatever your goal is, don't be frightened of it. It can be as extravagant or as humble as you like. From 'I am going to write one short story I am proud of' to 'I am going to write a fantasy series to rival GOT'. Then this time next year, see how far you have got. With a bit of work, you will have exceeded your own expectations.

My goal in 2020 is to finish at least a good working draft of that non-fiction book. Get in touch and let me know what you've set for yourself!

The Smallest of Things

The glories of new technology, that a simple photograph can be turned into the cover of a short story, and that a short story can be turned into a marketable ebook in under an hour.

Short story now on Kindle!

Having been a writer for some years but never really venturing into putting my scribbling out there into the big wide world, I have arrived at the frontiers of my first half-century determined to be able to see myself as a published writer.  And to do so, I figured I would experiment with the whole Kindle thing and signed up with Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing.

"The Smallest of Things" is a short story, a romance, that lets the reader into Sam's thoughts as they ponder over the three most significant women in his life, and how it was a simple kiss that made such a difference to him.

I had written it years ago, and while recovering from gall bladder surgery over the past couple of weeks, I decided to look into what you have to do to get your manuscript onto a kindle.  I'm not great with technology.  I get impatient with the jargon and have a tendency to need instructions written in monosyllables, with short sentences and preferably an illustrated flow-chart.  But once I got going on  it - my current mantra is "To do is to learn" - it was not that hard at all.

One of the most important things I have learnt is about editing - I checked, revised, redrafted and checked again numerous times - but, and here I raise my hat with reverence to all editors out there - it is tough, you get blinded by the words, spellcheck programmes aren't totally reliable, you have to know your grammar and your spellings, and how you best use language.  And yes, I will probably find an error and need to update the story.  Next time I will be even more careful.  Editing is a tremendous skill, and one I have yet to acquire.

But the whole process was very rewarding.  On the heels of having won the first prize for my poetry at Gibraltar's Autumn Festival last year, I am beginning to feel that I can genuinely call myself a writer now.

I put another short story on Kindle too.  "The Promise" which speaks of the simplicity and the complexity of love also in a short story.  Find them on Kindle and let me know what you think!