CONGRATULATIONS to Sandy Nelson who pitched a book in the Pitch Slam to Harper Collins and found out yesterday it will be published!
The first of many success stories we hope....
(the Spinning Gold team are very excited for Sandy....)
Here is her report for the 2009 BNZ Katherine Mansfield Novice Writer Category which she has recently judged.
*technical accuracy in both subject and form (I like to think grammatical inaccuracy is not a fatal flaw, but the horrible fact is that it often does diminish a story’s effectiveness, it prevents it communicating)
*story architecture – a shapeliness to the story’s development
* an avoidance of cliché, in either language or ideas
* imaginative use of language – fresh, startling imagery, muscular nouns and verbs; ways of describing and characterising that make me pause and re-appreciate, think anew
* believable characterisation
* credible dialogue
* a variation in sentence length and rhythm – sentence-making that has music
* writing that shows rather than tells
* a sense of place
* a narrative ‘voice’ that commands attention, that persuades, that makes me want to read on and on, no matter what is – or isn’t – happening…
All these words from Kate just goes to remind us about the most talked about quote from her keynote speech....knowing your own bone and chewing over it....
Spinning Gold Team
