#WriteCBC tip and task from Alex Hay
BY Katie Smart
6th Jul 2023
Welcome to our July 2023 #WriteCBC prompt challenge. I hope you’re ready to be inspired by our latest writing tip and task! If you haven’t taken part in a #WriteCBC Twitter competition before, we’re excited to welcome you to our writing community. Get up to speed by reading this blog full of information about how to play and the prizes on offer. It’s a lot of fun, and you might just win a free place on one of our six-week online writing courses.
This month’s special guest is Alex Hay, former Writing Your Novel student and author. In 2022 Alex was awarded the Caledonia Novel Award, for his unpublished historical heist novel The Housekeepers. After winning the award he went on to sign with Caledonia judge and Curtis Brown literary agent Alice Lutyens. We’re so excited that The Housekeepers is now out in the world, it was published by Headline earlier this week. Read about Alex’s time studying with us, how he works with his literary agent Alice and his path to publication here.
Alex’s writing tip:
No matter the genre of your story it’s important to think carefully about setting. Time and place will have a huge impact on the atmosphere of your narrative. The world your characters inhabit will also greatly affect the way they behave.
Great storytellers have the magical ability to transport their readers to any place and any moment in time. Research will help you build a vivid setting for your story.
When thinking about the setting of your narrative, you might want to start mining your own personal memories and photographs of a place. If that's not possible, do some research and travel through the wonders of the internet. Old magazines, maps, archival documents, photographs, and film are all immensely helpful tools when thinking about your setting. Including relevant details about time and place can help ground your reader.
This advice about setting can be applied to any writing project. Looking at images and maps can be a great way to orientate yourself within the location of your story, particularly if you are writing about a place that's far away or from a bygone period in history. You can also use real locations to inspire fictional ones.
Alex’s debut novel came from his desire to play with the structure of the heist plot – think Ocean’s Eleven. Next came the fascinating setting of 1900s London, part of the inspiration for this setting came from Alex reading of The Lost Mansions of Mayfair, full of sepia pictures of the grand houses that used to make up Park Lane – which have been lost to history either during the Blitz or due to redevelopment.
Settings hold so much fascinating potential for story. Think about the history of the place – what significant past events haunt the location. You also might want to examine what the original purpose of the location was versus how it is actually used. Don’t forget the historical and societal context surrounding your setting – this will influence your characters’ views on politics, religion, and other beliefs.
In The Housekeepers the glamourous mansions on Park Lane provide the perfect backdrop for the narrative and its exploration of class, particularly the dichotomy between the staff ‘downstairs’ and the elite family ‘upstairs’. In fact, this power structure is the catalyst for the major the events of the novel… When Mrs King, a housekeeper to the most illustrious home in Mayfair, is suddenly dismissed after years of loyal service, she knows just who to recruit to help her take revenge and pull off the heist of the century.
This leads us nicely onto Alex’s task!
Alex’s writing task:
Choose a distinctive setting (e.g. university, work, a childhood home or a holiday destination). Write a scene where your character is leaving that place for what could be the last time. Why are they leaving? How do they feel about departing?
Start by envisioning your significant setting. You can use one of the examples provided by Alex or choose a different approach entirely. Remember to draw on your own personal memories of a place or do some research into a particular location for your mini-scene.
Now think about the motivation for your character’s departure and the emotions you want to portray. Here are some suggested answers the key questions you should ask yourself…
- Why are they leaving? Perhaps there’s been a moment of conflict, maybe an argument causing them to leave a partner, get let go from a job, or stand up to a loved one. Maybe something has run its natural course – they’ve just graduated, the holiday of a lifetime is over…
- How do they feel about leaving? Are they relieved, annoyed, in a state of disbelief? Or are they harbouring the hope that this won’t be the end after all – that they’ll be back for closure, revenge, or a new beginning.
Just because this is the last time the character is at a location doesn’t mean there isn’t room for description. You might want to include new observations about the place – perhaps there’s a particular feature or imperfection that the character hadn’t noticed in all the times visiting before. Remember, we want to read something intriguing that feels grounded to your chosen setting.
We can’t wait to read your tweet-length scenes. Tweet @cbcreative with your responses to Alex’s task and you might win a free six-week online writing course place. Competition closes Fri 7 Jul, 10am (winner announced at 11am). Find the rules here.
Congratulations to this month’s winner, Sade Ajayi @58whitestripes
- Eunice always said they’d have to drag her out feet first. The sun, bright and mocking, shone through the stained glass windows. Blues and reds coloured her pristine white alter. The splinters and paint ripped her nails out as she tried to hold on.
We loved Sade's opening descriptions of the sunlight shining through the stained glass windows, immediately grounding readers to the chosen setting of the church. The celestial setting is a stark contrast to the dark undertones of this scene. Who is dragging Eunice out of the church? And for what reason? The final sentence raised the stakes and left us desperate to read on! Well done, Sade– you get a free place on a £220 online course.
And this month’s runners-up – each getting a £50 course discount – are David Geey @DavidSGeey and Adam Cook @AdamCookWriter. Congratulations, all!
To redeem your prizes please email help@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk
Brilliant fun – hope you all enjoyed it. We're taking a summer break in August, but we'll be back refreshed and ready for another #WriteCBC in September!