At first, when a writer hears that their piece is lovely, they feel pleased. But five minutes later, the glow has gone. Think about what happens when you eat a chocolate bar – you feel great at first, but go into a slump five minutes later.

But feedback that’s specific, whether positive or negative, has the same effect as a slow-releasing carbohydrate – a steady glow that lasts long enough to bring lasting change to your writing.

The American choreographer Liz Lerman identified this problem 20 years ago among her dancers, who would either give vague praise or tear each other limb from limb. She created a critiquing process that creative people can use as a template for giving each other worthwhile criticism.

I’m going to outline the basic principles for you now. Though aimed at writers, they apply to any art form.

1. Say what you liked.

Writers make a brave move when they share their work with others. But while it’s a statement of confidence in their work, they’re also pretty vulnerable. So recognise that bravery by telling them what you admired about their work. Mention something concrete that you liked, such as ‘Your main character is so interesting and lifelike’, or ‘I really admire your poetic use of language.’

2. Writer Controls Feedback

Accepting negative feedback, no matter how well-worded, is never easy. But it is easier to swallow if they get to decide what feedback they want. They’ll probably have struggled with a particular issue when creating the piece; for example characterisation or plot. Because they know they’re struggling, they’ll be receptive to what the group has to say and you know they’ll genuinely benefit from the critique you give.

3. Questions and Opinions

Now the ground has been prepared, the group can give more solid suggestions and opinions. Start with a question about an aspect of the writing that confused you or didn’t gel with you. Then give a solid opinion, without resorting to saying you didn’t like the piece. For example, you could say: ‘I felt the dialogue didn’t quite ring true here. Maybe you could add in some slang to show that the character is young.’

4. Beware of Theme

The next stage of the Lerman method is discussions of the theme of the piece. This can be fascinating, but be careful that you don’t allow discussions about the theme to override discussions about the actual structure of the piece and the quality of the writing. You must always think about how you can be of benefit to the writer.

So why is constructive feedback a good idea?

Because it shows that you care. The worst reaction any writer can get is a non-reaction. By taking the time to give specific feedback, you’re showing them that their writing is of value, that it’s worth developing further. You’ll be helping to make their writing stronger, and maybe even achieve their goal of publication.

This is a question people often ask me when they come to my creative writing classes. They feel self conscious about their education, or their standard of education in general. The school system encourages them to equate good grammar with writing ability. They almost feel that they have no right to write, because they struggle with spelling.

Here’s the truth as I see it: good writers tend to be good spellers, but you don’t need to be a good speller to be a good writer.

Understanding of Language

If you’re interested in writing, you’re likely to have a strong understanding of how language works. The rules of language make sense to you, and you’re able to see the patterns in words, which makes it easier to spell them. If you’re a reader, you’ll subconsciously absorb the mechanics of language and your vocabulary expands. This all feeds into your writing.

Grammar Doesn’t Equal Writing

But defining writing in terms of spelling and grammar is like saying someone’s a good artist because they can put together a jigsaw. It’s the person who drew the images on the jigsaw who’s the artist; in other words, the person with the ideas. Great writing is about ideas and passion. It’s about your ability to create compelling characters and a fascinating world for them to live in. You don’t need to spell well to do that. You just need an instinctive understanding a story.

So don’t let struggles with spelling or grapples with grammar stop you putting pen to paper. Just get the ideas down, and when you’re done, find a good editor or proofreader to help you bring order to your words.

Oisin self published the book, using CreateSpace for the ebook and a printing company for the hard copy. Since the book was launched on 23^rd of May, Oisin has been caught up in a whirlwind of publicity. He’s used the sales techniques he’s honed over 15 years with The City Bin Company in Galway to gather valuable publicity for his books.

I caught up with him to pick his brains about how to sell your writing. Sit back, relax and enjoy my first ever blog author interview.

It’s always good to start with why. So why did you decide to write a book.

I’m not your typical business person. When I was a teenager, I was into poetry. I’d go into Charlie Byrne’s bookshop in Galway and look at the poetry journals. I even got a few poems published. Then for years, I transferred my creative skills to the world of business. Being able to combine my creativity and my business skills (with this book) is an incredibly rewarding thing. Being able to launch my book in Charlie Byrne’s, the same bookshop I went to as a teenager, was like coming full circle.

How did you approach writing the book?

I had a blueprint in my mind before I started, but I needed to to create a template from scratch. I knew it was going to be about selling, but I didn’t know what I was going to put in each chapter. I began by creating my contents pages, with 120 tips, then I whittled it down to 100. Then I started to flesh each of the tips out, organising each of them into a format. It’s like writing little essays, a page at a time. I think no matter what you’re writing, it helps to break your story down.

How did you gather the material for the tips.

I chose to draw my material from life rather than books. They’re the result of more than 15 years’ sales experience. A lot of these tips are just common sense.

What did you enjoy most about writing the book?

The beginning, that thrilling sense that you’re jumping into water and you don’t know how deep it is. But looking back, I think I should have enjoyed the whole process more.

What was the most difficult aspect of the writing process?

The technical parts: figuring out the template and deciding what format to write the book in? Distribution was also tricky. But CreateSpace made the process easier and their customer support was brilliant. Bookshop distributers take a big chunk of your earnings, so I decided to go exclusively with Amazin.

How did you use your sales experience to promote your book?

Because a lot of the tips in this book come from my own experience, I decided to tell my own story. In interviews, I tell people about how I met my wife, over the counter at my local bakery. People are more interested in the story of you than the story of your book. So I figured out what story I wanted to tell. Presentation is also hugely important. I sent out my book in pizza boxes and when people opened them, they saw the book nestled on a bed of rose coloured shredded paper, all recycled because I work for a recycling company.

Which of the tips in your book are most relevant to writers?

Get your intentions right. Figure out why you want to write. Once you know your why, you’ll know your what. Get back on your bike – writers face a lot of rejection, so learn to take it in your strike, believe in yourself and keep going. And finally, don’t drop your trousers! Value your work and other people will too.

What advice would you give to writers who want to improve their promotional skills?

1. Figure out what your message is. I built my promotional campaign on three keynotes: the topic selling, writing a world class business book and the ability of employees to lead. I could adapt my message to whoever I was talking to.
2. Build a web presence. Create a website that you can direct people to. Make it easy for people to buy from that website. I created Oisin Browne to tell my own story and Binman’s Guide to tell the story of the book. Both the sites are linked, so it’s easy for people to buy the book.
3. Know your brand. Build a personal brand and a brand for your book. Think about what makes your book stand out and what will make people want to buy it.
4. Make sure your book looks good. You have to stand back and think about how your book will look to the punter on the street. Getting a professional cover designer is the best investment you’ll make.
5. Look at other authors. Who are the authors you admire? What choices have they made? How does their book look? Let them inspire you to be as professional as possible.

Sucked Into Glory

But before I decided to deem her Miserybags of the Year, I decided to have a good long look at myself. We write for many reasons and some of them are less noble than others. And one of my less noble ones is the glory I imagined would come my way once I was published. I cringe a little now as I think of my fantasies of crowds clustering around me at event, plying me with wine and cocktail sausages, plying me with questions.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of putting events and awards at the centre of your writing life, when in fact they are only the trimmings. In reality, they’re a huge anticlimax. I got my first taste of this when I was published in an anthology of writing that was first broadcast on a show called The Quiet Quarter on classical music station Lyric FM. It was to be held at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

Damp Squib Launch

Since some of Ireland’s top writers had been included in the anthology, I had visions of wafting around the beautiful, airy concert hall, mingling with the great and the good, a glass of wine in my hand. On the day, hundreds of us were squished into a cordoned area, and the crowds were so dense that the mulled wine was out of reach. The only people I talked to were a woman who said I looked funny and a couple who happened to be eating their sandwiches in the area where the launch was happening. They had absolutely no interest in the launch, but also didn’t leave.

So in a way, this woman was right not to be excited about going to the event in Listowel. Events are fun, but ultimately, they don’t mean anything. If you take that attitude, you’ll enjoy the event for what it is. The biggest lesson for me, in both attending and being part of these glittering literary events, is that writing is all about the story, not the glory.

Here’s a picture of me signing the anthology for the two relatives who were kind enough to come with me tot he launch, snatching a few crumbs of glory.

A lot of writers are quite self contained and happy to work alone. But I find I need outside stimulus. It gives me huge inspiration. I’ve done my time in writing classes and groups, but I felt myself growing beyond them. Not because I had delusions of genius, but because my reasons for writing were different from a lot of my class and group mates.

I want to be a published writer, for the rest of my life. And I needed to connect with people who shared that goal. With the publication of my book, I can’t really say I’m an emerging writer, but I’m not quite an established writer either. I wanted to find writers who were also at that in-between stage.

I’ve met plenty of writers online over the last year and it’s been great, but I like being out in the real world, meeting real people. So once a month I have excellent coffee and really excellent conversation with two writers who are at a similar stage to me, with similar goals.

Orla Shanaghy has achieved the Holy Grail of getting to read on RTE Radio 1′s Sunday Miscellany and has been shortlisted in a couple of big-name competitions, like the William Trevor Competition and the Fish Competition.

Derek Flynn’s  first novel is on the point of being picked up by a publisher. He’s had several nibbles already. He’s also a musician, with two albums under his belt.

Orla Shanaghy, Derek Flynn and I with self publishing expert Catherine Ryan Howard at our social media panel during Waterford Writer’s Weekend.

We share the trials and the triumphs of our writing lives: the rejections, the acceptances, the writers’ block. They allow me to indulge in epic whinges, for which I am eternally grateful. I really appreciate Orla’s sharp, insightful critique, and I’m being slowly converted to Twitter by Derek’s enthusiasm. Their perspectives have strengthened my work, and reassure me that I’m not mad to want to continue to be a writer in the face of what can seem like never-ending obstacles.

But it isn’t just a talking shop. We critique each other’s work, point each other to useful resources and concoct schemes to take over the world through social media. As a result of our collaboration, we’ve had the opportunity to take part in a social media panel during Waterford Writer’s Weekend, which is likely to lead to further social media workshops in the future. And most important of all, there’s the writing. We give each other rigorous but supportive critique. With all of this, we’re helping each other to reach the vaulted plains of established writerdom.

Pic from Deise Darkness Into Light Facebook Page.

And it made me think about the interesting relationship writers have with mental health. At one end of the spectrum, you have your Virginia Woolfs and Ernest Hemingways, tortured souls who were tormented by their pursuit of their art and ended their lives. And at the other, you have the delightful eccentrics, writers whose mental health is robust precisely because they’re able to express themselves freely.

In some ways, writing is brilliant for your mental health.

Mental Health Boost

Writing gives you a way to make sense of the world. You can use words to process your life experiences and shape them in a way that makes them relevant to others. Or you can just have a good rant and clear your mind. When you write, you indulge your imagination and you have the opportunity to play, to express yourself in the uninhibited way that many of us lose once we leave childhood behind. If you’re a writer, you can act a little bit crazy and no one minds, because you’re an artist.

If you want to write well, you need to blow off the dust of ordinary life to find the shining everyday treasures that most people miss. To create memorable descriptions, you’ve got to pay attention to what’s going on around you, to find the extraordinary within the ordinary. This makes life a lot richer and more satisfying and naturally boosts your mental health.

But writing is also bad for your mental health.

Mental Struggle

A lot of the time, it can feel like you’re toiling away with absolutely nothing to show for it. You write a lot of words that no one ever sees in order to find the ones that are fit to be seen. Even when you muster up a piece of writing that’s good enough to be published and you’re successful, it can feel as if your words sink into the void. That can take a toll on your spirit.

There’s a lot of uncertainty and isolation in the writing life. You deal with more rejection in a year than most people deal with in their lifetime. You’re on your own a lot of the time, which naturally gives you time to think. To come up with good ideas, you need to spend quite a lot of time inside your head, which isn’t always a pleasant place.

But there’s one thing that’s certain to damage a writer’s mental health, and that’s not writing at all. When you write, even if it never sees the light of day, you feel balanced and in sync. You’re better able to cope with the world. If you feel blocked inside yourself, why not try writing? It may be the path that brings you from the darkness into the light.

So far, the biggest discovery I’ve made is that we don’t know as much about grammar as we think. I’ve wrestled with questions like, “When does a comma go before an and?” and “Should I break this sentence up with a semi-colon or a dash?” I’m going to share with you some of the lessons I’ve learned so far, which I hope will be useful in your writing and editing work.

 1. Commas Are Going Out of Style

This is what I was told in my first batch of feedback from the course tutor. Previously, any time, there was a long sentence, the individual sections were divided with commas. Now a long sentence is allowed to flow with as few breaks as possible as long as it makes sense. I’m having terrible withdrawal symptoms as a result of this; I itch to put them into the assignment texts we have to proofread.

 2. Don’t Over Edit

If a sentence is basically correct, but reads oddly  to you, it is best left alone. It’s probably written in a different style to what you would choose and if you as an editor were to remove it, you’d be taking from the author’s original style. If you’re proofreading, unless there’s a glaring grammatical error, carry on. Otherwise you’ll be bogged down and waste a lot of time.

 3. Read Carefully

We’re so familiar with the words we read that we automatically correct any errors that we see. That’s why typos appear in even the most word-savvy writer’s work.  Thin letters like i and l and capital letters can be the hardest to spot. When proofreading or editing, slow down and take in each word, so the errors will become clearer.

To find out about The Publishing Training Centre’s distance learning proofreading and copyediting courses, visit www.train4publishing.co.uk.

I wanted to give my Facebook followers that feeling of satisfaction – and of almighty power. I asked them to create a character based on this picture.

They really are a marvellously inventive bunch, my followers. My humble thanks to them for the three character sketches the follow.

Sketch One: Wilbert Harbinger

Wibert is 78 and three quarters. He is highly intelligent. He lives in a crumbling house in Navan, Co. Meath, Ireland. He has chosen it for its isolated location, which allows him to conduct his intelligence work in peace. He has been able to prove that the Higgs Boson particle is a scam and he is part of a dangerous sect, notable by the three spots tattooed into their foreheads. There are very few members left, because they observed strict celibacy.

Sketch Two: Boris Amstruther

In spite of appearances, Boris Amstruther is quite a goer. He is 60 years old and lives in a rundown log cabin. He spends his time rescuing distressed hamsters and guinea pigs which live in the forests around his cabin. Once a year, he goes to the isle of Man, where he races in TT rallies. The only thing he eats is Bovril.

Sketch Three: Lawson Farge

Lawson Farge once stuffed black puddings and sausages in a factory. At night, he still dreams of sausages, and those dreams horrify him so much that he has turned vegetarian. He lives alone by a disused rail track. Recently, he converted to Catholicism and his new faith gives him comfort. He can see into the future and isn’t very happy about it.

Would you like to create your own character sketch, based on this picture?

Every time I put up a post on Facebook or Twitter about buzzwords that annoy people, I get a huge reaction. People are delighted to have an opportunity to rant about phrases like “going forward,” “blue-sky thinking” and “no problem.” I tried twisting people’s minds recently by asking them to come up with buzzwords which actually don’t annoy them. But the mere mention of buzzwords was enough to get their dander up.

Why should they be so annoyed? They’re only words. But every time we choose a word, we’re tapping into an emotion. And when people hear buzzwords, they feel they’re being lied to, or that their concerns are being brushed aside. The worst thing about buzzwords is that they are used to give the impression of sincerity, while being completely insincere.

Politics

If you were to strip the statements of politicians of all buzzwords, you’d find nothing there. Buzzwords allow politicians to say nothing while appearing to say something. They’ll start an interview with a journalist by saying “I’m glad you asked me that,” then completely avoid it, using a string of carefully crafted buzzwords. They can cleverly sidestep questions, avoid admitting errors and doge out of making promises to take concrete action.

Customer Service

Buzzwords like, “Bear with me” and “No problem” are also much beloved by customer service representatives at call centres. They give callers the impression the rep will take action on behalf and sort out the problem. But people just feel they’re being fobbed off when they hear phrases like that. They’d rather their query was dealt with promptly and efficiently.

Americanisms

Even in our own conversations, we tend to rely on buzzwords to get our message across. People on the UK and Irish side of the pond have become fond of Americanisms like “my bad,” which aside from being hideously ungrammatical, doesn’t come across as a real apology. When Irish and British people use Americanisms, it can give the impression that they’re trying a bit too hard to be cool. What’s wrong with our own slang, I find myself thinking when I hear them.

What bothers you about buzzwords? Do you find them insincere? Or do you rely on them from time to time?

5. Figure Out Your Story

Journalists are experts at identifying an angle, an ingredient that makes a story stand out. Before you write a story, you need to figure out what to say with that story. The angle you choose will be your guide rope, preventing you from drowning in your story.

2. Be Concise

Journalists have be able to make their points using as few words as possible – space is at a premium and their audience’s attention span is short. They quickly learn to spot words and sentences that are surplus to requirements. When you’re editing your work, see if you can cut down the length of your sentences, or if the sentence needs to be there at all. You’ll soon start to see the dead wood in your writing.

3. Don’t Be Precious

Journalists can’t sit around waiting for the right words to come along. They have a deadline to meet, so they can’t afford to be afraid of the blank page. They just put in the yards. You can bring that same discipline to your own writing. Write every day, regardless of whether you have an idea or not. To paraphrase Picasso, when inspiration strikes, it’ll find you working.