I am delighted to welcome Steph Broadribb to my blog today talking about writing groups, as part of her blog tour. Steph's debut novel Deep Down Dead was published by Orenda Books in paperback today - 5th January 2017.
Deep Down Dead vs The Writing Group
(or how being part of a writing group
helped me write Deep Down Dead)
By Steph Broadribb
So what about writing groups, are they a good idea?
Yes or No?
Help or hindrance?
Well, for me, being part of a writing group is a definite
yes, yes, yes, and here’s five reasons why:
#1 - You Get Too Close
After a while I find it hard to be objective about my own
writing. I need someone else’s opinion, and it needs to be someone I trust to
be constructive but also pull no punches about what needs to be better. I need
them to sock in to me straight. Because I want to get the story, and the
characters, and the setting as good as I can before I give it to my editor. The
fabulous folks in my writing group do that. They’re objective, they tell me
their view and I listen. And then I go back to my laptop and I edit.
#2 - You Have To Toughen Up
DEEP DOWN DEAD has been workshopped through the group, both
on the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Novels) at City University London where we
all met, and then later during the editing process for Orenda Books. Their
feedback has helped me shape and refine the story and the characters. And
that’s a big part of it, you have to be open to hearing the feedback and
thinking about changing things – a writing group isn’t about hearing how good
things are, it’s about looking for the stuff that’s not working and finding a
way to make it better. It can make you relook at how you’re doing a scene and
have a total rethink. I love that about it.
Sometimes they make the perfect suggestion for an extra
scene or edge to a character. Rod Reynolds actually wrote one of my favourite
lines in Deep Down Dead – maybe if you can guess which one I’ll give you a
prize! I’m now writing the second book in the Lori Anderson series – DEEP BLUE
TROUBLE – and yes, you’ve guessed it, the writing group have already read a big
chunk of it.
#3 - Moral support
Sometimes things don’t go well. The characters aren’t
working, the plot has more holes than a pair of laddered fishnets, and you’ve
just no idea how you’re going to resolve all the storylines you’re set running.
This is when writing groups really come into their own, because the people in
the group are writers as well. They understand. They know all about the things
you’re experiencing because they’ve experienced them too. It’s normal. But that
doesn’t mean that when you’re up against it on a deadline and the words aren’t
flowing you’re going to be at all rational about it.
This is the moment when your writing group will give you advice,
they’ll tell you that it’ll get better, they’ll talk you through the plot and
suggest ways to fill the holes. You’ll trust them, believe them, and start to
feel better. And they’ll pour you wine. A lot of wine (I’m looking at you Laura
Shephard-Robinson!).
#4 - You Get Out More
My writing group meets roughly once a month. That means I
have to get out of my PJs (oh the glamour of being a writer!), wash my hair,
put on some make-up and venture into London. Basically, my writing group forces
me to leave the house and stops me becoming a total hermit locked in my own
fantasy world. I think that’s a good thing. I can get rather tunnel visioned
otherwise!
#5 - You’re In It Together
In the group I’m a member of we all write crime thrillers
but our sub-genres are slightly different. It means I get to read the drafts of
super talented folks early (and marvel at their awesomeness) – I get to read
historical, noir, action thriller, spy thrillers, gangland crime and detective
fiction plus crime with a supernatural twist – and I love the variety.
We’ve been on the journey together. We got to know each
other when we were doing the MA Creative Fiction (Crime Novels) at City
University London and established a weekly practice of workshopping our writing
and have carried on meeting regularly ever since. It means you can share the
highs and the lows. Swop advice – a shout out to the wonderful Rod Reynolds [The Dark Inside, Black Night Falling] and
David Young [Stasi Child, Stasi Wolf]
here who as the first published members of the group have been so generous in
their advice on what to expect after you sign the publishing contract.
The journey to publication has been all the more fun for
having shared it with them.
About Steph Broadribb
Steph Broadribb
is an alumni of the MA Creative Writing at City University London and trained
as a bounty hunter in California. Her debut novel DEEP DOWN DEAD is out now – here’s the blurb: Lori Anderson is as
tough as they come keeping her career as a Florida bounty hunter separate from
her role as single mother to nine-year-old Dakota, who suffers from leukaemia.
But when the hospital bills rack up, she has no choice but to take a job that
will make her a fast buck. And that’s when things go wrong. The fugitive she’s
chasing is JT, Lori former mentor – the man who taught her all she knows … the
man who also knows the secrets of her murky past.
Deep Down Dead
By Steph Broadribb
Published by Orenda Books (Kindle - 15 October 2016; Paperback - 5 January 2017)
ISBN: 978-1910633557
Publisher's description
Lori Anderson is as tough as they come, managing to keep her career as a fearless Florida bounty hunter separate from her role as single mother to nine-year-old Dakota, who suffers from leukaemia. But when the hospital bills start to rack up, she has no choice but to take her daughter along on a job that will make her a fast buck. And that’s when things start to go wrong. The fugitive she’s assigned to haul back to court is none other than JT, Lori’s former mentor – the man who taught her everything she knows … the man who also knows the secrets of her murky past.
Not only is JT fighting a child exploitation racket operating out of one of Florida’s biggest theme parks, Winter Wonderland, a place where ‘bad things never happen’, but he’s also mixed up with the powerful Miami Mob. With two fearsome foes on their tails, just three days to get JT back to Florida, and her daughter to protect, Lori has her work cut out for her. When they’re ambushed at a gas station, the stakes go from high to stratospheric, and things become personal.
Read my review here.
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