I’ve just signed up for my first reading challenge on Story Wings and am quite excited about it and I’m wondering why? Most of my friends ask about editing and wonder how when I spend my days working on books and then spend all my spare time reading. My only explanation would be that reading is my passion and why I’m so excited about the challenge is that like everyone else I want to share what I love with others.

The Story Wings Challenge is a paranormal reading challenge and lasts for the whole of 2010. All books you read this year count, even ones you’ve read before, but novels started last year can’t be included. You have the choice of writing a review or not, and even if you’re not entering the challenge, reading the reviews will be great for finding your next novel to read.

I will be writing a short review for each book I read this year and giving them a rating. I will try not to include spoilers, but unlike professional reviews, I some times get carried away when talking about the novel I’ve just read.

When the author WJ. Howard told me she was writing her novel The Courier, on twitter, I thought she was mad.  I still have trouble believing that it is possible to write a novel on twitter and I’ve seen the evidence, The Courier If you enjoy good horror writing and are curious about how a twitter novel would work visit http://twitter.com/thecouriernovel and see for yourselves.

Over the years I have personally entered more writing competitions than I like to remember.  I’ve won some and been placed in others, but why should any writer enter them? The answer is simple, practice. Most writers sit at their computers in isolation receiving feedback from family, friends or other amateur writers and although you don’t usually get any feedback from writing competitions you do gain practice in the most important areas submitting, editing, proofreading and waiting.

Every piece of your writing that goes out into the world should be proofread at the very least. Invest in a good grammar guide or go online and check that you understand the basics. Most writing competitions are used to generate content for websites, magazines or books and what this give you is the ability to say in your query letter to a publisher that you have previously been published, these a the magic words. Why? most publishers and agents are looking for a ready made market for your writing. They want to know that you have either massive potential or that you have been previously published and so are not completely unknown.  If an agent or publisher Googles you, make sure there is something for them to find.

Every writer has to start somewhere, but for some writers the thought of entering a competition will seem pointless and almost futile.  Find a competition and select a piece of your writing, then edit and proofread it.  Make sure that you short story, poem or novel fits the competition guidelines then submit.  What’s the worse that can happen?  You never know you might actually be taking your first step on the road to publication.

Pronouns are the bane of my editing and writing life. We all use them and take them for granted in conversation. They flow from our pen with the same blithe lack of thought that they do from our lips. Here is a list of pronouns: them, they, this, he, him, she, her, who or whom, I, me, we, us and it. As an editor I suggest that authors check that a reader will know what the pronoun refers to and that you don’t repeatedly start sentences with them.

Having myself just published an unedited prologue on a writing site with its own pronoun problem, someone pointed out how confusing it was. Why? It was absolutely littered with pronouns. I knew what I was writing about, but the reader was left completely in the dark. I hold my hands up to this, as I am often guilty of being unable to see fundamental problems in my own writing. That is why I edit and then I give all my writing to my partner to edit and proofread. I want my writing to flow effortlessly for the reader. Nothing is worse than having read a paragraph, then being forced back to the beginning to clarify what you’ve just read. Even making the reader think twice draws attention to the fact that the reader is reading, not experiencing your story.

This is a writing exercise that you might find useful. Imagine you are starting to write a novel and in the first paragraph you want to hook the reader by making an impression. As a writer you have a lot to say and you know you’d like to start with a bang, rather than a long winded explanation of characters and plot.

Example 1

With one last kiss the man walked from the coffin tears streaming down his face, blurring his vision. All around him were sombre and black clad mourners at the grave of his beloved wife. Before he had time to turn, he heard the sound of her coffin closing. The finality of the noise shattered his breaking heart. To love and be loved was a gift taken from him now and all he knew was they were going to pay.

Example 2

One last kiss and Andrew walked away from Sadie’s coffin, tears streaming down his face, blurring his vision and stinging his red raw eyes. Sombre black clad mourners surrounded him at the graveside of his beloved wife. Before Andrew had time to turn and face the reality of Sadie’s death, he heard the sound of her coffin closing. The finality of the noise shattered his braking heart. Andrew stood oblivious to the other grief stricken mourners, as he alone mourned loving and being loved in return by her. The gift of true happiness had been taken with the life of his wife and all Andrew knew was the murderer was going to pay for this dreadful crime.

Example 3

One last kiss and Andrew walked away from Sadie’s coffin, tears streamed and vision blurred as the sorrow took away the restrain of the previous week. Sombre black clad mourners surrounded the graveside. The sound of the coffin closing marked the reality of Sadie’s death. The sound echoed with the loss of love and loving and the finality of true happiness murdered. The murderer was going to pay and for once the punishment would fit the crime.

The Exercise

If you do this exercise, take an opening paragraph from your own work and read it through, noticing how many pronouns you’ve used. Special attention should be paid to personal pronouns such as I, he, him, me, she, her, who, whom, them or they. If you’re writing in the first person, starting every sentence with “I” is also not stylistically advisable. If you have used pronouns, will your reader automatically know what your pronoun refers to.

In the three examples I’ve given, you will find the first is riddled with pronouns, the second I have edited so it has more meaning, but still uses pronouns and in the third I’ve rewritten removing all pronouns. I prefer the second example with less pronouns used will the reader in mind rather than the third that has no pronouns.

Now try to rewrite your paragraph taking out all the pronouns, this is harder than it sounds and you may find it difficult to get as much information into the paragraph as you would like. A second rewrite of the paragraph, making sure you use any pronouns sparingly and only in direct relationship to a subject or object in the sentence, should provide a happy medium and give your reader the effortless read we all want to create.

Please send us, in the first instance, a query letter containing your age and any previous writing experience you may have and a brief one page synopsis.  Also include the first three chapters of your novel and email to us, the address is vamp@vamplit.com or vamplit@hotmail.co.uk.  All writers must be over 18, unless they have their parents permission, their the work must be original and completely their own.  We are only accepting submission of Gothic, vampire, sci-fi and fantasy novels and novellas.  To any writer who has already submitted a manuscript outside this genre, unfortunately we will not be able to publish it, but we wish you every success with your writing.

We look forward to reading your novel in the future.

Publishing on social networking sites is great if you’re just starting out and you may meet many wonderful people.  I’ve been writing on them for years and years and intend to continue.  On the dark days, when my faith is tried by my lack of belief in my ability to write, I know there will always be a cyber shoulder to cry on.  The first money I ever earned from writing was on a site for writers.  However, now that I’m looking for new talent, the same sites I’ve loved and used myself are driving me mad.  I spend hours reading new work from brand new, fresh writers and my hands are tied.  I can’t approach them or show any interest.  So far, I have found five complete novels I would like to publish and many writers I would like to be able to offer book contracts to.

Hands tied, I’m forced just to encourge and give help whenever I can.  Like many people, I understand that getting published is almost impossible, but it could be easier.  We at vamplit hope that we will be able to publish all these great writers’ work in the future.  We hope to find writers who love their craft and, in the new wave of ebook publishing, we think writing and reading a novel will change drastically over the next five years.

If you have a Gothic novel desperate to see the light of day, send it to us with a query letter, synopsis and the first three chapters by email to vamp@vamplit.com.  If we like your novel we will publish it.  This costs you nothing; we are not vanity publishers.  From September we will be publishing, but we don’t expect to change the world overnight.  We have clear objectives and a new attitude to publishing.

How, in the realms of the imagination, could necrophilia ever be sexy? Yet our continuing love affair with the vampire belies a natural and deep seated revulsion of sex with the dead. In 1898 Bram Stoker published his novel Dracula and the vampire in a modern literary sense is launched into popular culture. Dracula was not the first literary vampire, but he has become synonymous with the genre in the popular consciousness. Since the late 1970’s and Anne Rice’s reinvention of the vampire into a heroic character, vampire romances have sold in their millions. When Joss Whedon wrote the script for the original Buffy The Vampire Slayer film he portrayed the vampire, played by Rutger Hauer, as an ageing ineffectual, lecherous caricature of Bela Lugosi. Buffy, the new Fay Wray, would not have loved or lusted after her vampire, but when her character is brought back to life on the small screen things have changed.  Buffy is less of an air head and the vampires have a new spinted group, the vampire hottie.

The vampire is recreated into an angelic soulful Angel, transformed by a gypsy curse from the evil Angelis. Sex with the vampire is still taboo, still something inherently bad and degrading. Angel is transformed by sex from new ‘good’ vampire back into bad old world vampire. Sex with the vampire ends the new order and the only thing that restores it is love. Very moral and worthy for the teatime, teenage audience. As this audience grows up, Buffy comes of age and, although the darker side of sexuality within her is always tempered with almost Catholic guilt, she hopes to find a human love. Enter Riley, the all american, action hero, college guy and still he is flawed.  He is a steriod-raged masochist, who is jealous of Buffy and threatened by her strength.  Once again Buffy is left alone, feeling she is to blame for Riley’s shortcomings. Human men, like vampires, struggle to deal with a girl who is stronger than they are.  Buffy then enters a relationship with Spike and this is where necrophilia hits a brick wall, because technically Buffy is also dead and the guilt she feels becomes a metaphor for what happens when ‘nice girls’ step off society’s notion of right. Buffy, now the motherless waif, is brought back to life by Willow using black magic. The choice of Willow, another girl who is deviating from the paternal ideal of womanhood, as Buffy’s savior brings Mr Giles’s wrath as she is meddling with forces more powerful and corrupting than she can understand. When Buffy finally gives into her baser instincts, she literally brings the house down and then spends her time filled with self-revulsion. Willow stands outside the boundaries of patriarchal law, she worships not “God”, but the “Goddess” and has rejected male sexuality. Yet again ,as with Angel, Spike is redeemed by love and his soul is saved by his devotion to Buffy. Buffy is saved both physically and morally by Spike’s, the vampire’s, death.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a metaphor for sexuality outside the legal and moral boundaries of marriage. Since the publication of Dracula this sexual metaphor has been deeply ingrained in the character of the vampire. Reading Stoker’s novel, the character of Lucy, seduced by Dracula, can’t be saved, her nature preordains her fate. However, Mina, the wife, the stable down-to-earth helpmate, is saved by the men who defend her, who decide she is worthy as a woman. Mina isn’t a woman, she is the cause these modern day knights fight for; she must be cleansed for she is the carrier of the future. Victorian sexual morals coloured Stoker’s writing, just as 21st century sexual behaviour colours the writing of vampire fiction today. Anne Rice, writing about beautiful young men living apart from society, found fame and success just as AIDS and the end of the millennium filled the collective psyche. Again the vampire and sex are intrinsically linked in a metaphorical way.

The vampire has now become the beautiful young man, the Tristam to the modern day Isolde, doomed by a fated love that cannot be consummated. The dead Romeo in love with the living Juliet, portraying an innocent courtly love from the medieval romances. Sex has become unclean and our daughters, the untouched obsession of ageless teenage boys, who agonise endlessly about corrupting their love. These modern day, star crossed lovers are doomed, just as Dracula, Spike and Lestate were doomed, because as society changes, so does sex with the vampire.

Whether we like it or not, the vampire represents us, not the other, alien evil. The vampire is our fear, our savior, our love and our longing for something new; someone larger than life, a perfect love and a perfect lover. Society decrees how we love and share our bodies with each other. Patriarchal societies protect their daughters, as the future mothers of its sons and the vampire threatens this and so, eventually, the townsfolk will arrive, pitchfork and torch in hand. The day of the vampire hero may be coming to a close and with it our infatuation. The superhero may sadly return to our fear of the one dimentional, evil undead.

Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of the signifier and signified, when applied to the literary vampire, helps us explain the phenomenon of the modern vampire.  Culturally, we all have an internalised image of a vampire; mine is Christopher Lee, yours maybe Tom Cruise, but we all have one or an amalgamation of many.  The word is universal; it has to be and it is the signifier our internal image, the signified, giving meaning to the word.

This is a simplistic explanation:  A signifier in linguistics is the marks (letters) we string together to make a unique word. Take the word tree; when you see this word in text, t-r-e-e has no actual link with the natural world.  As we read, we see the letters and interpret them, fitting them to our internal, mental image of a tree.  As children we absorb our verbal language from the world around us.  Sounds become words and words become sentences as we gradually  learn how to communicate with the world around us.  Our brains are like sponges; as small children, up to the age of 11, we have a capability to learn language that fades as we get older.  Before we ever learn about the signifier, we have already learnt what is signified by the words for the things we experience all around us.  To reinforce the link, most books for very small children have both the word and a picture, so that the link is instant in the child’s mind.

So, back to the vampire.  When we see this word, we all have an internal image, as I’ve said before.  What is strange about the vampire in modern literature is that this image is fluid.  What do I mean by fluid?  Compare two vampires Dracula and Lestat.  What is it they share that makes them ‘vampires’?  They are both evil, that isn’t true.  They both drink blood, true.  They are both nocturnal, not true.  They kill indiscriminately, isn’t true.  They both have pointy teeth, true.  So, the only two characteristics Dracula and Lestat share in the above list is that they both drink blood and both have pointy teeth.  Both characters are vampires, the only thing that separates them is the century they were written in.  In the last millennium, the signified for the vampire was different than it is today, the vampire was the signifier for evil and the corruption of good by ancient bloodlines.  After the French and Russian revolutions, unrest raged throughout Europe and the vampire, with his noble, but corrupt blood, is the signified for the old order, the hated royalty and debauched landed gentry who bled the peasants dry.

Today’s vampire is both evil, villain, saviour and hero.  Writers of vampire fiction in this millennium are painting their image of a vampire with a much fuller pallet.  The reader’s relationship with the vampire has changed beyond anything Bram Stoker could have foretold when he transported Dracula from folklore into a new technological age.  The old world met the new in Dracula and the new age, a time of science and invention won or did it?

Why is the myth of the vampire so fluid and organic in modern literature?  In popular culture our ideas and fears change and evolve into the present.  Past, present and even future collide in the vampire.  As old as mankind, the vampire has travelled the long and winding road from oral tradition, into print and finally onto the big and small screen.  In all the world can you think of anything other than a deity that has travel this road and weathered the storms of human existence.

Why has the vampire survived? Because he evolves, changing to adapt to his changing environment. As people celebrate the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On The Origin of Species, we can study the origin of vampires in a similar way. Society in the nineteenth century provided an environment suited to Bram Stoker’s Dracula; although still a religious country, the industrial revolution had produced a culture of secular living and an increasingly educated population.  Add to this the mass production of books, the most common being the “Penny Dreadful”, and the popularity of the Gothic novel in the early part of the nineteenth century and we have the perfect natural habitat of the literary vampire.

Why has the vampire survived into this millennium?  The vampire obviously connected with the population in the nineteenth century and for most of the twentieth century, where the vampire survived almost unchanged.  In the 1960s, the vampire became synonymous with sex in cinema.  From Christopher Lee’s fangs were born a decade of sexually aggressive vampires, both male and female, who paraded across the silver screen in a shabby cape of titillation.  In the 1970s and 1980s things began to change.  The vampire started on the road to bloodsucking hero and has become a phenomenal success, crossing the genre boundaries so many times that it is now almost impossible to categorise a vampire as just a horror or Gothic creature.

The vampire started life as a mythological, undead creature found throughout history and across the whole world. When the secular nature of modern life threatened the vampire’s existence, he evolved into vampiric super villain personified by the actors Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee.  In an age of social flux, our vampire metamorphosed into a complex, misunderstood character who agonised over his need to feed.  The vampire mirrored the changes in western social structure, his social status lowered and, god forbid, he became a new man.  From Lestat to Spike, vampires have become sensitive, suffering from a modern malaise of guilt and depression.  Post 1980s, the vampire has adapted again and again until the vampire novels we read  and the vampire films we watch now are as far removed from the mythical vampire as it is possible to go.

What next for the vampire?  Well he’s already stormed the bastions of teen movie and jumped up and down in excitement with each new romantic comedy vampire novel or film that’s released.  Vampires have been in space already, so is there something new for the vampire?  My guess is there is, because, even taking into consideration the saturation of the market by the vampire, I don’t think we have seen the vampire’s final evolution.  Can you imagine the vampire’s next step on the evolutionary ladder?  If you can you’d better write the novel quickly before the vampire environment changes and the monster must evolve again. 

In an age of chat rooms and text speak, why is punctuation still so important? In simple terms, although the words are vitally important to any text, the punctuation clarifies and gives meaning to the words. We identify new sentences by starting them with a capital (or upper case) letter and finish a sentence with a full stop.

When reading, do you really want to spend time unravelling the meaning from a sentence? I know I don’t and I also know that, if you are writing for the internet, a novel or poem, an editor will expect you to follow conventions in writing. If an editor is struggling to get past your first page, because you don’t use commas or one sentence lasts for half a page, then I don’t need to be psychic to see rejection in your future.

Buy a good guide to grammar and punctuation and use it if your not sure. Listed below are some helpful examples of punctuation rules. Remember there is nothing wrong in keeping it simple. Clear concise writing disappears into the background leaving your reader awestruck by the characters and plot of your novel.

Contractions

Contractions are shortened forms of words, where one or more letters have been missed out. The apostrophe is always placed where the letter or letters are missing.

Examples:

it’s = it is or it has

we’ll = we will or we shall

we’ve = we have

they’re = they are

they’ve = they have

can’t = can not

he’d = he would or he had

aren’t = are not

won’t = will not

haven’t = have not

hadn’t = had not

wasn’t = was not

don’t = do not

Colons and semicolons

Colons and semicolons connect sentences to increase the meaning. Colons separate general information from specific in a sentence. Semicolons link complete sentences that are related. Don’t be tempted into use either colons or semicolons just as an alternative to commas or full stops for effect.

Examples:

Emma was afraid: The lights went out. (because)

Emma was afraid; the lights went out. (and)

The comma

The comma is probably the most used and abused punctuation mark. It should never be used as a pause in reading a sentence, but it often is. There is more than one way to use a comma; here are some for you the bracketed word is an alternative to using punctuation.

Using commas to separate a list of words in a sentence.

Examples:

Emma can draw anything except horses, dogs and giraffes. (and/or)

Emma loves to paint houses, flowers and her pets. (and/or)

Using a comma to join two complete sentences it must be combined with certain linking words such as and, but, yet, or, and while.

Example

Emma is going on holiday, and Laura is going with her. (and)

Emma is going on holiday, but she is going on her own. (but)

Emma wants to go on holiday, yet she hasn’t saved any money. (yet)

Emma need to save for her holiday, or she won’t be able to go. (or)

Emma wants to go to Spain, while Laura want to go to France. (while)

Using a comma to replace one or more than one word in a sentence. The example here shows first without the comma and then with. If the meaning is clear you don’t have to use this comma, just leave in the extra words.

Example

Emma works hard at school and because she works hard she hope to get into university one day.

Emma works hard at school, and hopes to get into university one day.

The isolating comma’s job is different from the other commas. To simplify the role of an isolating comma it separates a weak clause or interruption in a sentence.

Example

Emma is leaving home today, like many girls before her, to get married.

Life is, of course, different for everybody.

Bram Stoker, it would seem, created a monster when he wrote the novel Dracula.

The vampire, I would suggest, will live forever in popular culture.

The Full Stop

The full stop is a very simple punctuation mark. The full stop is used at the end of a complete sentence. A common mistake is linking two complete sentences with a comma. All sentences must have a subject, object and verb, they can not be connected with a comma only a connecting word such as and or while.

Example

(subject) (verb) (object) (subject) (verb) (object)

Emma climbed the mountain. Laura is expected to do the same. (correct)

Emma climbed the mountain, Laura is expected to do the same. (wrong)

The Question Mark

A question mark is used at the end of a sentence that forms a complete question.

Examples:

Did anyone see the match on Saturday?

Does anyone have some sugar?

Does anyone know is this road leads to the harbour?

If the question is a quote of reported speech then you must use a question mark inside the quotation marks:

‘Will you pass me the sugar?’ he asked.

‘Does this road lead to the harbour?’ inquired the bus driver.

‘Did you see the match on Saturday?’ I asked.

A question mark is not used in an indirect question as it is now a statement:

He asked if I could pass the sugar.

The bus driver inquired if this road leads to the harbour.

I asked if you saw the match on Saturday.

The Exclamation Mark

The exclamation marks should be used sparingly! Never use more than one!!!! Usually they are only used in speech, while the exclamation mark should be avoided in formal writing. They can be used in exclamations beginning with what or how.

Examples:

What a lovely day!

How amazing you look!

Exclamation marks should not be used to end a statement.

It is a lovely day.

You look amazing.

This should cover any punctuation you will need. I have simplified as much as possible and I suggest you follow the less is best rule if you want your writing to flow. Remember punctuation is your friend and helps you say exactly what you mean.