Another school visit and this week. I met the pupils at Sundorne School. I was greeted by the librarian, Ella Reynolds, who made me very welcome, and met pupils in Year 7 and 9. They worked really well in the creative writing workshop and came up with some great ideas for story lines including time travel, zombie monkeys, crystals and robots, just for starters! Thank you to everyone at Sundorne. I enjoyed working with you and I hope you enjoy the books!
Tag Archives: writing
Church Stretton School Visit
Thanks to everyone who made me so welcome yesterday at Church Stretton School. I was looked after by a group of year 10 guides who did an excellent job. I really enjoyed sharing my books with pupils in year 7 and year 8 – the classes were great to work with and pupils had some really imaginative ideas in the creative writing workshop sessions. Well done and thanks to everyone, staff and pupils, at Church Stretton School.
something a little different in The Week
youtube the week click the link to a new way I formatting the week we see how it go, i will admit my predictions about the rugby were a little off but oh well, listen to me tomorrow on BBC Shropshire radio at 8;45 talking about the books, if you’re in the uk. That’s it tonight – have a good week. The new book covers are out and i think thay look damn good. Pick them up here rose story uk and horse lord if your not in the uk just put my name in to amazon and you find it Tomos Roberts<< copy paste that.
Thanks bye
The Week #Thursday 13th August
Back to the theme ‘Get that book out there.’ So there you are, you’re waiting for your viral moment to happen – you have got on with the Facebook angle, that’s the big one, and done a bit on twitter, another good angle to work if you know the game although, as I said, for the majority of us twitter won’t do much as it is for those that already have a big following – if you haven’t got an audience or you don’t know somebody who does have an audience then you are shouting out in an Continue reading The Week #Thursday 13th August
Day 2 of ‘How to sell’ 11th August, 2015
So, to continue with my theme on launching your book, a word of warning, don’t use the ‘like’ system on Facebook, where you just pay to get so many likes – it’s fairly pointless really, people ‘like’ it because Facebook will target people who like everything they see so you will get your likes on your page but it’s meaningless because the people won’t really react to your content – which is a bit tricky for a writer as we are all about content!! They won’t really react to you at all and are unlikely to buy your book or pass your links on –
how to, writing number three
However, there is hope. My advice to young writers wanting to take on the establishment is to become tech savvy, become social media savvy as early on it’s possible – the better way to get your book out there is to already have a large audience ready to buy your book. To get a large audience you will need to work a certain area so you get lots of people interested in that area, or try building a following on YouTube or another options is to finally just pay for a following. I have seen more and more people doing this on Facebook and the like with blue tickets, if you have got money try that. I didn’t do any of that – I just put all my faith in my writing which meant I had a slow first launch. Then you have to maintain that audience with free snippets, which I put out. It’s also about making a bit of a splash and hoping you get seen. With that in mind don’t just have one thing done and sit back, have more ready so if you do start to build and audience then you’ll need another book or a short story to fill the gap between larger works. As I’ve said, it takes a long time to write so don’t be caught on the hop – keep writing and be ready in case you are successful and have the material to build on that success.
Continue reading how to, writing number three
how to, writing from the bottom up
After that you have to get yourself into a rhythm of writing, perhaps only working on it on the weekends or when it’s sunny might be okay if you are doing it just a spot of fun but if you want to make something of it then you have to be willing to put in an hour or so most days – that’s what I do but I’m fortunate in that I have just finished my last job and have a decent pot of capital to sit on for a while so can write daily. I like to go to the gym in the morning for a work-out ,head home have a quick shower then straight to writing for maybe two hours in the morning before lunch, using the notes in my black binder so I know where I’m going roughly and for those two hours I work on linking all the scenes that I’ve already had. A good tip is to draw maps or pictures to help you with politically or family issues within your story so family trees can be helpful and maps to show cities and the geography of your story. Make sure it all fits up nicely so there nothing jarring when you reading your work back, there is nothing worse from a writers perspective, than your story read back to yourself having a giant plot-hole jump out. So that is how I do it you have to find your own rhythm to write that works for you. Luckily, so far, I don’t get writers block maybe that is to do with my inability to write – but that up to other people to judge, so for me it’s quite easy to just set myself up and go for it.
how to, and what it is to be a writer
What’s it like being a writer? Well, first and foremost, most people will tell you, you have to come up with an idea, concept and work forward from that. I find that just writing down a passage or events that I think sounds cool or unique and from that initial spark the story grows and that idea gather momentum to take the story forward. For example, when I first wrote the Riders of the North it started with just a dream I had about a medieval battle field with heavily laden warriors combating Mongol riders with their composite bow. And from that simple dream the whole project sprang forth onto the pages of my notebook and then I moved it onto the computer and, eventually, into the two stories I’ve published to date, alongside the full novel I’m sitting on at the moment.
The Week #16 15th March, 2015
Hello to ’The Week’ – this week I’m going to delve in to the world of books and, to put a finer point on it, being a writer. From my small grasp of it, writing is a delight! The ability to conjure up anything you want and pen it down is hugely liberating. Creating worlds we would love to go to and people we would like to meet, or even we wish we were. I think everyone should do it more often for themselves. The teaching of English in schools can be improved to have more creative writing in it. I appreciate that it is a difficult subject to teach but if we changed our approach to language and make it more individual, more exciting Continue reading The Week #16 15th March, 2015
Books and Social Commentary by Tomos. A. Roberts 