Love Quotes & Sayings

Mervyn Love asked:


Don’t be put off by age. People may sneer. People may joke. But the fact remains that old folk are just as good at writing humdingers as the young upstarts. Some would say better. Why? Because us wrinklies have more experience, more insight into life and more memories to draw from than the younger element. And not as much angst.

Also, older folk have more empathy with people going through both the highs and the lows of living in todays hectic world because, more likely than not, they’ve been there, done that and know precisely where to buy the T-shirt. They understand what makes things tick on a deeper level, and have probably arrived at a philosophical appraisal of where life is coming from and where it’s going which can add depth and breadth to their writing.

I was heartened to read in May’s issue of Writers’ Forum about Mary Cavanagh who has published her first book at the age of 60! Brilliant! Go girl! You’ve got plenty of time for another 10 at least!

Mary took a writing course which she says made her much more thoughtful and focussed, and knuckled down to writing “The Crowded Bed” which was subsequently published by Transita. Yes, it can be done.

If you feel that you’re knocking on a bit and are loosing hope for your writing career, think again. Snap out of it and get to work. Draw on that fighting-against-all-odds British spirit which we over-60s appear to be the sole custodians of these days.

Someone reading this is the next Ian Fleming, or even the next J K Rowling. Is it YOU?

Mervyn Love asked:


Tension is built up on a wave of emotion. Emotion fuels the tension and vice versa. Every story needs tension to some degree or other because as a rwiter you want to grab the emotions of your readers. Tension is one way to do just that.

So just what is tension? It is where your character is being pulled in two, even three directions at once.

Imagine Lizzy Battlebridge, the heroine in our tale of everyday country folk, falling for Tom Roding the tractor mechanic. She has been giving him the eye and knows he is interested. Problem is she’s been seeing Ralph the postman for five years now and is really in love with him. Or is she?

This, of course, is the classic love triangle, but in our story we must show the emotions that Lizzie goes through as she is torn between Tom and Ralph. We must show the excitement and even danger of her new love, whilst at the same time telling the reader what she goes through whilst trying to sort out who she will end up with. Plus there is the fear of having to tell Ralph, assuming he hasn’t cottoned on already (but maybe he has!), and her agonies over what Ralph might do and say when she does pluck up the courage to tell him.

Tension is usually something which develops over a period of time and several incidents or conversations, but it is possible to hit the reader between the eyes with a situation that generates tension immediately. This will often be when the tension arises between just two people or between one person and a situation.

Here are examples of both of these situations:

Lizzie is in the Post Office staffroom about to relieve her workmate at the counter when, through the half open door, she overhears two cusomers talking…

Scenario 1: They say that Tom’s tractor hit a tree and he landed on the ground in agony. He’s now on his way to hospital. Lizzie can’t go and sit by his bedside until her shift finishes at 5.30. But wait! She has arranged with Ralph to pick her up and go into Milchester for a Macdonalds and a movie! This is where we must build up the tension as Lizzie is forced by circumstances to go through the evening with one beau whilst agonising over the fate of the other. It could be protracted over several days as one thing after another prevents her from seeing Tom.

Scenario 2: One customer is telling the other they have just heard that the Melksham & Milton Keynes Building Society is in turmoil. The Chief Cashier has disappeared and vast amounts of cash have disappeared with him. Lizzie’s life savings are with MMM. What is she going to do? Of course, there is insurance in place to cover embezzlement, but Lizzie doesn’t know this. Yet. When she does, tension relieved.

In a previous article I have spoken about using suspense in a story. Suspense and tension are blood brothers and virtually inseparable. If you’ve generated one the other should be close on its heels. The difference is, and this is a generalisation, that suspense can be held over a long period of time, whereas tension needs to be introduced at intervals followed by the relief of that tension. Until the next one. Otherwise your readers are going to have no nails left!

So, in our storyline with Lizzie we could say that the suspense of who she is going to end up with runs throughout the story, but scenes of tension, such as Tom’s precipitation from the tractor, make up just part of the story.

Now if you’ve got an hour or so, I would be awfully grateful if you would kindly finish the story above as I’m dying to know what happens to poor Lizzie. Will she, won’t she? I’m on my fifth black coffee and the suspense is killing me!

Mervyn Love asked:


t from a publisher’s point of view. You have three trays on your desk. One is called ‘These could be OK’ and has one manuscript in it. The second is called ‘Could be Ok with a great deal of work, possibly’ This has a five foot pile of submissions in it. The third contains a stack of dog-eared manuscripts which spill over into a sea of paper spreading to the far corners of the office. Your chances of getting into tray No. 1 are greatly improved with a well presented manuscript.

The point is this: if you please the editor with a first class, well presented offering then your stock will go up faster than the price of oil and you’ll have a head start against the other losers.

So let’s get down to it. How can you impress the editor or publisher with the presentation of your manuscript?

1. Use double spacing and print or type on one side of the paper only.

2. Put the title of the work only (not your name or any other fascinating information) at the top of every page. This helps if the person reading your novel drops them all over the floor along with someone else’s.

3. Number the pages at the bottom. This is an absolute must because if the person reading your work drops them all over the floor (what again?) he/she will know how to cobble them back together again. For a novel number the pages straight through. Don’t start afresh at the start of a new chapter. If you put each chapter into a separate document and you’re using Word, click on the link below and go to the ‘Writers Questions’ page if you want to know how to do this.

4. Use a cover sheet which should give: the Title of the work; your name and pseudonym if you use one, address and telephone number, plus an email address if you have one. Also give the number of words, usually to the nearest 1,000 for a novel or 100 if a short story. Finally add the date.

5. Staples are anathema as are any method of binding the pages. Publishers do not like going around with broken finger nails, especially the ladies. You will definitely lose brownie points if you don’t adhere strictly to this rule. You have been warned.

6. Enclose a brief (that is to say - brief) covering letter.

7. Keep a backup copy of your work on a CD-ROM, a memory stick or some other device so that you don’t lose it through computer breakdowns. And if you are using one of those. er, now what are they called, oh yes, typewriters make sure you get your manuscript photocopied before sending it off. Some publishers have, on very rae occasions you understand, been known to lose stuff.

Finally here’s one piece of advice that many lesser writers than yourself fail to follow: get hold of your prospective publisher’s submission guidelines and follow them to the letter. They may differ from the above in some way or other, so it’s worth doing this. Remember editors and publishers are gods and we wouldn’t want to fall foul of their caprices would we? Thunderbolts might ensue?