Tag: writing advice

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Write your novel in 6 weeks

If you have a story inside that is yearning to get out and in to a book. Or if you’re not sure how to get it on to paper then this is the answer. ‘Write your novel in 6 weeks’ is a course designed to turn your ideas into reality.

I am very excited to be presenting a series of workshops. I’ve designed these workshops to help you develop and shape your story into what could ultimately be a published novel.

I will be drawing from my own experience of novel writing. However, you will have an extra couple of weeks than I take to write a 60,000 word novel!

How do you write your novel in 6 weeks???

Without going in to too much detail here (as that would make for an incredibly long post!) I set aside some time each day without any distractions, plenty of coffee and I write. I’ll take you through the writing discipline. In addition I’ll show you how you bring it all together at the end to produce a professional manuscript. If you’d like to then you could even go on to publish your novel.

This is a local workshop in the Outer Hebrides at the An Lanntair Arts Centre. I’d like to develop it in to an online series of workshops too, possibly by video conference. If you are interested in such an online course then please email me at gary@grjordan.com or leave a comment below.

To book your place on the An Lanntair workshop please visit their site.

If you haven’t seen what novels I’ve written then please visit my shop for brief tour.

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Location, Location, Location (Part 2 – Places nearby)

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I believe some of the best locations for a novel are nearby. In the local area you have places where the smells are familiar, the sights understood and a wealth of knowledge of what lies behind. Place a fantasy castle in the middle of this scene and away you go!

In my novel, Crescendo!, the pairing of Austerley and Kirkgordon arrive on a remote Scottish island, in the fog. Living on the Isle of Lewis this scenario is very real to me and the landing site comes from a location very close to home. When I visit this little harbour, I can see some and their associates clambouring onto land and wondering where everything is. There is a remoteness not found in many places on our mainland and the lapping waves on the harbour causes the senses to be aroused. I’m pleased to say that the rudeness encountered by my characters is not typical of the island people (although some individuals do come to mind) and by placing evil folk in the villages causes the remoteness to be exacerbated.

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It was the west coast of Ireland that gave me the location for the book’s grand finale. I remember visiting and seeing sheer circling cliffs and looking sown into the depths wondering at the splashing surf. Thoughts ran through my head of what could be causing such violence in the water. And ideas sprouted which have been fermenting until this novel.

Finding those locations close to home and then mixing them up with horrors of the novel seems to ground the fantastical ideas. Writing fantasy into the real world is hard and I think the writer has to give something the reader can hold onto while their imagination is asked to soar. Local places help round the writer, lest we disappear, heads lost in the clouds.

A Kickstarter for my new novel Crescendo! is underway here.

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G R Jordan author, poet, and top Dad apparently!