Jeffery E Doherty - Author / Illustrator
Connect
  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • Olivia Stone Books
    • Paper Magic Book Site
  • Writing
    • Stories and Excerpts
  • Galleries
    • Traditional Gallery
    • Illustrations Gallery
    • 100 Day Challenge
    • Cover Art
    • Leaf Art Gallery
    • Digital Art Gallery
  • Blog
  • Schools
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Links
  • The Guardian Club

What I Learned From Kate (Part 1)

12/3/2012

6 Comments

 
Picture
For those not lucky enough to attend the “A Touch of Magic” writing workshop with Kate Forsyth on Sunday, I have decided to pass on some of the things I learned during the day. First and foremost in this regard is that Kate is lovely, she is genuine, funny, knowledgeable and forthright in her advice.

There was just too much information in this workshop to share in one blog post so I will break it up into parts.

I try to attend the children's literature festival and at least two writing workshops each year and always come away riding a wave of enthusiasm and new-found knowledge. This recharge of inspiration inevitably improves my determination, my writing or at the very least my writing habits. I’m not meaning to take anything away from the quality of any other workshops I have attended but this one seemed to strike a chord with me.


The Workshop

After each participant in the workshop shared what they like to read, a little about themselves and their current writing project, Kate wrote two words up on the whiteboard.

FOCUS (One project at a time)

and

DISCIPLINE (See a project through to the end)

Several participants had three or four projects on the go and some had a bunch of half finished projects they had moved on from. I have to admit, I am one of the latter although more from a lack of planning than from a lack of discipline.

The other thing Kate stressed at this stage was the need to set a realistic weekly word count, and stick to it.



Picture
 Being a fantasy writing workshop, the first part of the day was dedicated to what fantasy is and what the different genres of fantasy are.

My take on the definition of fantasy writing – across all the genres – is:

Fantasy stories draw upon fairytale and myth or have a quality of strangeness and wonder.

The genres covered included;

High (or Heroic) Fantasy

·         Imaginary world
·         Serious tone
·         Epic in scope – grand struggle – good v’s evil
·         Hero’s journey
·         Often multiple volumes
·         Often involve magic rings/swords, mythical creatures
·         Happy ending.

Adventure Fantasy (used to be called Sword and Sorcery)

·         The journey is important
·         Heroes are often warriors, thieves, wizards, pirates or charming ne’re-do-wells
·         Adventures usually end with a happy return to home.

Historical Fantasy

·         Set in our world during a true historical time period
·         Will include elements of fantasy to some degree
          o   Mythical creature
          o   Herbal Lore
          o   Persecution of witches or those with ESP abilities
          o   Fortune tellers
          o   Time Travel
          o   Duel linked time periods

Fairy Tale Retelling

·         Either retells a well known fairy tale, or
·          Deals with personal transformation
·         Quite often YA

Dark Fantasy

·         Focus on stories with elements of horror in a fantasy setting
·         Fantastic creatures – evil to the core
·         Evil appears early, usually after a brief opening scene of calm
·         Evil intensifies as the story continues

Romantic Fantasy

·         Romance – growing love
·         Usually a love triangle
·         Fantasy, magic, mystery elements or setting
·         Blending the two genres together

Urban Fantasy (trend appears to be over)

·         Modern real world setting
·         Fantasy elements intrude into the real world

Magic Realism

·         Magic happens in the midst of everyday events
·         Subtle, the line between reality and fantasy is blurred.

One genre Kate did not touch on is alternate history. Some people believe this category was invented by writers who wanted to write historical fantasy but were too lazy to research all historical details. Any blunders can then be attributed to the “Alternate” part of the genre.

The second part of the workshop looked at The Writer’s Tool Box

·         Character   -   Plot   -   Setting
·         Structure
·         The writing style – language, word choice, sentence structure
·         Parts of novel – Action, Dialogue, Description
·         Pacing
·         Peaks and Troughs  -  Light and Shadow
·         Surprise and Suspense



I will expand on these topics in part 2 of this blog post.

6 Comments

The Year of Jeffery

2/5/2012

0 Comments

 
I was swapping emails with my writing friend Mo Johnson over the New Year break. We were catching up with what we had been up to. I mentioned a couple of thing that I was excited about, finishing the first draft of my new novel, winning some prizes with two of my stories published in Narrator Magazine, selling quite a few pieces of my art and getting some illustration work.

Her reply was, "It sounds like it's going to be the Year of Jeffery."

I thought about Mo's comment and decided that she was right, and that I was going to make 2012 the Year of Jeffery.

I have a number of manuscripts that I am sure are ready to find a home. I have a new manuscript with a storyline that turned out much better than I originally planned - with some serious editing it could be something special. And I have been doing some artwork that I am really delighted with. So this year is definitely the time to do something serious about it.

While looking at some publisher websites researching the best fit for my stories, I found one publisher based in Melbourne that publish speculative fiction novels, a magazine and a small number of children's book each year. One interesting thing about IFWG Publishing's site was that they have a list of their artists. I queried to see if they were interested in considering my chapter book ' Paper Magic' when they opened their books for submissions in March, and I also asked how to apply to become one of their illustrators. I left a link to my web gallery just in case.

I received a reply the same afternoon with an offer for an illustration job. It was an internal colour illustration showcasing a serial novella, 'Avoiding the Searchers' which will feature in all five issues of SQ Mag this year. The Editor loved the illustration and asked if I wanted to submit a illustration for the cover of the May edition. 


SQ Mag is a speculative fiction magazine that prints science fiction, fantasy and horror stories. The last few covers have been sci-fi and fantasy oriented so I thought I would do an atmospheric horror based illustration. I emailed a copy off today and received a reply about ten minutes later. They loved the illustration and if approved by the magazine's Chief Editor, it looks like I'll have another illustration credit to my name.

Hopefully, they will also love 'Paper Magic' when I send it through at the end of the month.
0 Comments

    Author

    Jeffery E Doherty is an children's writer and artist who writes chapter books, picture book texts, junior and young adult novels.

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    August 2024
    June 2020
    January 2017
    February 2016
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2014
    March 2014
    July 2013
    April 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    August 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    October 2010

    Categories

    All
    1970's Queensland
    Aboriginal Art
    Alan Tucker
    All The Colours Of Paradise
    Always The Children
    Art Commissions
    Artist
    Art Prints
    Art Sale
    Awards
    Batgirl
    Bathurst Arts Trail
    Black Death
    Bob Wall
    Boofheads
    Book Review
    Books
    Books Kingdom Of Silk
    Callum Blue
    Canada
    Children
    Children\
    Children's And Young Adult Literature Festival
    Children's Fiction
    Children's Writing
    Christopher Cheng
    Christopher Lloyd
    Christopher Paolini
    Colin Cunningham
    Cover Art
    Cross Culture
    Dark Secrets
    David Mack
    Duncan Ball
    Escape Pod
    Expo
    Family Tree
    Fantasy
    Festival
    Firehead
    Forever Fifteen
    Friendship
    Fun Humour
    Gallery
    Geek
    Golden Bat
    Hal Junior
    Hal Spacejock
    Hayden Panettiere
    Heritage
    High School
    Horror
    Ifwg Publishing
    Illustration
    Interviews
    Isbw
    I Should Be Writing
    J E Doherty
    Jeffery E Doherty
    Jennifer Hale
    Jim Cheung
    Junior Fiction
    Kate Forsyth
    Key Rings
    Kids And Young Adult Literature Festival
    Kimberly Steele
    Kirby Krackle
    Kitty Myers
    Leaf Art
    Lisa Berryman
    Literature And Latte
    Literature Festival
    Literature For Kids Magazine
    Mercedes Mcnab
    Michael Rosenbaum
    Mo Johnson
    Moon Called
    Mur Lafferty
    Murverse
    Narrator Magazine
    Natalie Tena
    Nerd
    NSW Writers' Centre
    Paintings For Your Pocket
    Paper Magic
    Pass It On Newsletter
    Picture Book
    Playing For Keeps
    Podcast
    Prizes
    Publishing
    Relationships
    Reluctant Readers
    Reviews
    Samauri Kids
    Sandy Fussell
    Sarah Davis
    School
    Science Fiction
    Sci-fi
    Sci-fi
    Scrivener For Windows
    Short Stories
    Simon Haynes
    Sq Mag
    Stuck In An Elevator With Mandy Patinkin
    Studio
    Supernova
    The Dancing Suit
    The Secret Signal
    The Year Of Jeffery
    Vampire
    Venero Armanno
    Vic Mignogna
    Walker Books
    Writers
    Writing
    Writing Resources
    Writing Tools
    Writing Workshops
    Ya
    Yvonne Craig

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly