Alan Gibbons

My writing tips…

First things first, you learn to write by reading. Immerse yourself in quality fiction. Instantly, you are absorbing the key skills almost by osmosis: tension, metaphor, simile, description and dialogue. To most people who want to write, this is like teaching your granny to suck eggs. Why would you want to write if you’re not an avid reader anyway!

Scribble down bits of writing that appeal to you. Work out how the writer does it. Is it syntax, the order in which the words are organized? Is it the musicality of the rhythms? Is it the nature of the vocabulary? Once you have worked out what makes it good writing, try to incorporate some of those tricks into your own.

Next, and very important, don’t trust ‘experts’, especially me! You might be told to write about what you know. Really? So you think J.K.Rowling swoops round Tesco on a broomstick, I suppose! What really matters is emotional truth. Whether you are writing something familiar, a story set in your own neighbourhood, or a fantasy story in the Kingdom of the Golden Rivers, your characters have to be real, living human beings, not cardboard cut-outs.

Get a response from your reader. Make them jump by having your character glimpse a silhouetted figure behind them in a mirror. Make them squirm by having them experience the world’s most toe-curling date. Just make them feel, for goodness’ sake!

Most of all, be passionate. Fiction is about empathy, making your reader see through somebody else’s eyes. Nobody writes a good story by being half-hearted. Give your all. Your readers deserve no less.

Doncaster Council appears determined to force through the £622.000 cuts package imposed upon its Library Service in the face of fierce opposition.

The Save Our Libraries campaign is refusing to abandon its opposition to the cuts. At this week’s well-attended meeting campaign members voted to support the following measures:

Initial draft for discussion

Campaign for the book

Charter 2008

The 2008 Year of Reading has been a great success. There have been many exciting initiatives such as the Boys into Books campaign. In many ways, reading has never been more popular. Millions of books are bought and devoured by a huge reading public. Many authors are major figures in public life.

These successes can disguise very serious problems however which are undermining the place of the book and reading for pleasure in national life. Here are some of the challenges we face:

*public library closures- sixty last year and more planned

*a loss of professional library staff- down 13% between 1995 and 2005

*more untrained volunteers instead of qualified library staff

*fewer books in schools, a 15% reduction while there has been 28% rise in spending on education

*a shift from books to computer services

*the closure of school libraries to make way for IT suites

*the sacking or down grading of both public and school librarians

*the closure of school libraries

*the marginalisation of reading for pleasure and the reading of whole books in many schools as teaching to the test replaces the pleasure of acquiring knowledge for its own sake

Given the present economic difficulties, many of these challenges are likely to become more pressing.

We, the signatories of this Charter commit ourselves to campaigning for the following:

1.      The central place of reading for pleasure in society

2.      A proper balance of book provision and Information Technology in public and school libraries

3.      The defence of public libraries and librarians from attempts to cut spending in a ‘soft’ area

4.      An extension of the role of the school librarian and a recognition of the school library as a key engine of learning.

5.      The recruitment of more school librarians. It is a national scandal that less than a third of secondary schools has a trained librarian

6.      The defence of the professional status of the public and school librarian. Opposition to downgrading. In some places this has reduced librarians’ salaries by up to half

7.      The promotion of reading whole books in school rather than excerpts

8.      A higher profile for reading for pleasure in schools, including shadowing book awards, inviting authors and illustrators to visit, developing school creative writing magazines

Supporters of the Campaign for the Book do not see themselves as competitors with professional associations, trade unions and existing library or school campaigns. We seek to create a national network to help coordinate the efforts of all who want to protect the status of the book and reading for pleasure. We will offer our support to local campaigns and initiatives.

It is time to stand up for reading.

It is time to campaign for the book.

For further information contact Alan Gibbons at: aagibbons@blueyonder.co.uk

This is my letter published in the Times Educational Supplement on August 8th, 2008.

This is a recent review of The Demon Assassin in The Bookseller. My latest novel was chosen as the top title in the Thrillers and Horror section.

A genuinely scary time-shift novel, set in a well-realised London at the time of the Blitz. Lots of period details build up the setting: in the films, the billboards, the old Morris Oxford, the house costing £1,300. Yet it’s also a world of werewolves, demons and a curse that means adolescents may develop supernatural powers.

The Times Educational Supplement mentioned my appeal for a Campaign for the Book this week:

Author’s novel move

Published: 18 July 2008

This is a short letter I discovered in the Doncaster Free Press:

Library cuts