Writing advice from the Discoveries 2023 judges
BY Discoveries
11th Jan 2023
CBC and Curtis Brown are proud to be partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run Discoveries, a unique writing development prize and programme, which offers practical support and encouragement to aspiring female novelists of all ages and backgrounds, from across the UK and Ireland.
Discoveries invites unpublished women writers from across the UK and Ireland to submit the opening of a novel in English, of up to 10,000 words. Unlike most initiatives of this kind, writers are not required to have finished their novel, and the competition is completely free to enter.
The winner will be offered representation by Curtis Brown Literary Agency and a cash prize of £5,000. All 16 longlisted writers will join a bespoke, two-week online Discoveries Writing Development Course taught by author and CBC tutor Charlotte. Read more about the full selection of prizes on offer to longlisted and shortlisted writers here.
This is the final week for you to send in your submission to Discoveries 2023 is here – be sure to enter by 11:59pm on Sun 15 Jan.
The 2023 judging panel will be chaired by Kate Mosse, international bestselling novelist and Founder Director of the Women’s Prize – she will be joined by acclaimed authors Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Chibundu Onuzo, CBC’s founder and director Anna Davis and Curtis Brown literary agent Lucy Morris.
Here the judges share their thoughts on why you should enter Discoveries and what you can do to make your submission stand out...
Why should you enter?
Kate Mosse: Discoveries is there to amplify women's voices. All of us who are already published we want more of you on the shelf beside us. Writing is a community and the Women's Prize is about women's voices. The most important thing is that every woman who wants to tell a story should have the right to be supported to get that story out there. Not everybody is a writer, but many people feel that kind of untold story inside them. So, Discoveries is for you. We love receiving everybody's work. We love seeing the incredible talent out there.
Chibundu Onuzo: Why not? You've been sitting on this manuscript. And you've been wondering, how am I going to get published and I don't know anybody in publishing…Well, this is the sign. People are creative. People are always looking for signs that they should do things. This is your sign. I'm telling you to enter and see what happens you have absolutely nothing to lose. So go for it.
Kiran Millwood Hargrave: I really would encourage you not to overthink, just enter if you've got a story burning or an idea burning, or just the seed of a story. That's all we need at this stage. We're here to really search and reach out to you as much as you reach out to us. So, meet us halfway and send in your entry.
Anna Davis: Even if you don't know quite where your novel is headed, why don't you just have a go at writing an opening, you never know where it may lead to. And this is a situation where anyone could be chosen. You're just as likely to do well in discoveries whether you're picking up a pen for the first time, or if you've done loads of courses and mentoring and degrees. This is a very equal situation where it's all just about the words on the page, and not about having qualifications and particular experience. So just go for it. And you'd never know.
Lucy Morris: It's free. So why not? And it may give you the boost, the motivation, the guidance you need to start a novel, progress and novel or even finish one.
What are they looking for?
Kate: What I'm looking for in an entry is discovery is imagination, is a wonderful plot, and a book that I want to find out what happens and keep reading.
Chibundu: I'm looking for something I enjoy reading, something that captures my interest. And my definition of that is as broad and as wide as you can think. It might be the character. It might be the setting. It might be the author's voice. I'm just looking to be interested.
Kiran: I'm looking for that spark, that heat that you get when you read a voice or a story or a character that really speaks to you. I'm hoping to find that chemistry.
Anna: It doesn't need to be finished and polished. Get it as good as you can before you send it off. But I'm not looking for something that's ready to be published. I'm looking for something that shows promise. I'm looking for a fresh voice. Something that perhaps asks a question that I want to know the answer to. Something that just makes me want to read on. And that might mean that it has a great plot idea behind it, it might purely be because the writing is so engaging. Think about what you're passionate about, and just go for it. And hopefully your passion will carry through.
Lucy: What I'm not looking for in an entry for discoveries, is polished perfection, and looking for potential. And that excitement that comes when I'm reading something truly special. And because novels submitted for Discoveries don't have to be finished, it might be at this early stage: a single standout element, like an amazingly imaginative piece of world building, or a fiendishly clever plot, or simply a character who I fall in love with immediately.
Writing advice
Kate: Most of us don't feel like writing every day, you've got to turn up, put yourself on the chair, and do it every single time that you can. Then you get your muscles ready for writing. And then you lose the fear of the blank screen or the blank page. Keep at it and the book will come.
Anna: I think dialogue is incredibly important. When I'm reading for Discoveries, I really want to see some dialogue in the material that comes through. Dialogue has immediacy, it has a way of moving the story forward, that is immersive that brings you right into character. When you're working on dialogue, think about the rhythms of natural speech. Think about the individual voices of your characters and the kind of vocabulary that they would use. Always check it through after you finish writing by reading it aloud to see how it flows.
Kiran: I would say really trust your voice. We're looking for people who are not afraid to be who they are, tell the stories they want to tell. We're not looking for something that fits into a particular mould, or genre, or tone. We really just want to hear from you and what makes your voice unique
Chibundu: Just start. That’s the most pertinent advice you need. And you don't need somebody to give you permission to start writing. Just go for it.
Editing your entry
Kate: My top tip for editing is that in your first draft, just get it all down, you won't really know what novel you're writing till you've got the first draft. It's like trying to paint the walls of your house without a roof being on it. You need to get the structure in place before you know what you've got in your hands. But then when you start to do the editing, what I do is say: What purpose is this chapter serving? Is it background? Is it plot? Do you need all of that? And if you do, is it in the right place? If it is about character, are you giving too much away? Be very rigorous with yourself, every word, every chapter has to earn its place in your book, because only you can write your book. So that is why I think editing is so important and can be marvellous and joyous. Because that's when the magic happens for me.
Anna: When you're editing your material for discoveries, it's really important to just take that extra bit of time to get it as strong as you can. We know that it's a work that's still in progress. But you can still just give yourself a bit of edge here by reading it over cutting bits that are unnecessary thinking about whether you're moving your story forward, right from the off and establishing your main character within your first page. See if it does that, see if it asks a question that we're going to want to know the answer to make sure that you're landing something that's really going to make us take notice.
Chibundu: Before I got published, I didn't know anyone in publishing industry and didn't have any literary friends. But I had friends who read books, I had friends who read books, and enjoyed books. At the end of the day, when you write a book, you're not writing books for agents to read, and you're not writing books for editors to read, you're writing books for everyday people who walk into shops and buy books. So their feedback is also very useful and very important. They may not send you a three-page document that is as articulate as an editor mind. But if someone who enjoys reading read your book and says, ‘I didn't understand this, this doesn't work.’ Listen, because at the end of the day it is readers that read books. Lean on your friends and family members for feedback.
Kiran: Read aloud. I am a broken record on this. I cannot overstate the importance of reading aloud. That's really where you hear where the rhythm starts to dip or you're maybe indulging yourself in your writerly impulses a bit too much, what matters to your reader what's going to really stick with them when they are reading this to themselves.
Lucy: One tip for the editing process is to try and take some time away from your work before you start editing it. If you can put it away in a drawer for a bit, you’ll give yourself the best chance of going back to it with fresh eyes and seeing what you spot.
Best of luck preparing your submission to Discoveries 2023. We’re so excited to read your work!