Nii Ayikwei Parkes is Booktrust's second online writer in residence.

  • New (and final) writers' tips

    Posted Monday August 24th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    I’ve put up the final three sets of writers’ tips.  These are by specific request.  I get asked over and over again how to find an agent and/or publisher, so that’s what these specifically are about.

    You might choose a different route, for which I wish you godspeed.  These tips, though, are again a specific request for those who want to pursue the agent route.  Which is how I did it, so it’s the route I know.

    As usual, brickbats and bravos to the usual comment spot.

    I’ll be back here in the blog in a little under two week’s time for my farewell to all you good people who’ve made this such a rewarding six months.

    Until then, the tips are yours, and I wish you all the luck in the world.

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  • The forest and the trees

    Posted Tuesday August 18th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    I’ve been a bit silent of late, but I’ve got a good reason.  I was deep into the final stages of that third draft I kept talking about, and the closer you get to the end, the harder it is to let anything else in life in. 

    I could feel myself racing the finish, ready to write that last word, delete that last comma, subtly emphasise that last theme, all in the attempt to make it sing, to make it fly, to make it great...

    Was I able to accomplish any of that?

    Hell if I know.

    Really, by this point for me, there’s a serious forest and the trees scenario.  I’ve spent so much time writing this book (and I don’t just mean the months of writing, I mean the everyday time as well, great hunks of hours in a row, lost in a story, making it work; it’s akin to remodelling your entire house while still living in it) and so much time thinking about it and weaving it together that, here I am, surrounded by thick, thick forest and only able to see the individual trees while I dribble unattractively on my lapel.

    …
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  • Naming the baby

    Posted Monday August 3rd 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    Amidst all the hard (but rewarding) work of the third draft of the final volume of the Chaos Walking trilogy, today is a fun day for me. It’s when I get to tell the world its title. 

    This is partly because I decided to keep it a secret for a while. Not just to let the anticipation build for a bit (but why not?), but also because it felt like I was protecting my book a little; keeping it out of the fray until it was ready to launch.

    It’s ready now, and though I’m still working on that third draft, a real book is emerging, one that deserves a name. And that name is...

    Well, let’s consider titles for a moment first, shall we? Now that I’ve offered four of them to the world, I get asked a lot where I get my titles from, and the answer is often just the same gut instinct that plots emerge from. Half the time, who knows? You’re just bumbling along and suddenly it trips you up, fully-formed but obviously right.

    The Knife of Never Letting Go wasn’t originally called that, for example. I didn’t quite know what the title was going…

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