Skinned knuckles and Short Story Frustration...

Today (Thursday) hasn't been as good as it could have been.

On the way to my excercise class I caught the toe of my shoe on the edge of the pavement and lurched forward. Fortunately my head missed the metal railings ahead of me, but my knuckles suffered a scraping.

So I started the day with small cuts and areas of missing skin- it was quite minor once it was cleaned up. But no experience is wasted, and if any of my characters ever scrape their knuckles, I'll be able to describe the sensation. :-)

I mentioned recently that I've been trying to write a short story for a competition at the writers' club. The judge wants a short fictional story based on a real event in history. And it has to be handed in next Wednesday...

Now I had the historic event decided three months ago, but no matter how hard I thought about it, no characters, and no plot ideas came to me; until a few days ago when my central character emerged, along with a brief plot idea.

So today I sat down with a blank document to start writing. Title? Nothing- which is not a good sign
as usually I have some sort of title at the start, even if I change it later.

I had my opening line, but it wasn't quite right, so I made a few changes, and the writing began.

I only managed to reach 161 words before I gave up.

There are problems and I know what they are:

• I consciously decided to write it in the first person. Personally I prefer third person, but usually let my writing brain decide for me. If it's really a first person viewpoint then I'll start it that way without thinking about it.
• The main character is hiding too much from me at the moment. I need to know her better.
• (And the biggest issue) My writing mind has gone into novella/novel mood, ready for the annual autumn school/college term beginning, giving me undisturbed hours to write.

Really I wish I could be more flexible, but I've discovered from trying it previously, that short stories don't work when I'm in longer writing mode.

Unless a short story idea grabs me and swamps whatever I'm doing at the time, demanding to be written down immediately, I find it better (for everyone) to go with the flow than fight against it.

I'll let you know if I do get the story written...



 

Entering Competitions...

Writers have so many opportunities to enter a variety of competitions nowadays that we're really spoilt for choice.

Over the last few years I've started to enter more competitions, not just those at my writers club.

Actually making that move to outside competitions was a big step for me- it meant I felt my writing was now good enough to be inflicted on strangers. :-)

Last year I entered the Mail on Sunday novel competition. I didn't actually need a complete novel, just the first 150 words with the word 'row' in it. The results are due sometime in the next few weeks.

It was a free competition, so I expect a large number of entries were received-they have in previous years. Only the best entries will get shortlisted, and like any competition, one judge's preference is not going to be the same as another's, so not getting into that top percentage doesn't necessarily mean my writing is bad.

But the positive aspect, is that I've got a start to a story or novel that can be worked on in future.

At the moment I'm trying to come up with a short story for a club competition that has a deadline of next week. Hmmm, this isn't going very well, and it's not that it needs to be long- only a maximum of 1500 words but it has to fit a criteria. I know the setting, but my character/s are being reluctant.

The only downside of competitions in the outside world is that sadly there will always be the occasional rogue, a competition that is badly run, or worse, designed only to part writers from their money, and it can be difficult to spot them.

I follow this strategy: Does it have clear contact details given- a postal address, or is there just an anonymous contact form? I print out the competition details or note them down, so if the page or the rules change or the site disappears I have the relevant information. And check, have there been any adverse comments from writers or other groups about their previous competitions mentioned on the internet.

(Writers share the news about bad things, as well as good stuff.)

Competitions can help you improve your writing and develop your style, as while you're writing you're learning what works for you- and hopefully you will then go on to win, and that is one feeling you can't beat...

Story Ideas from Memories...

I'm looking forward to September arriving so I can get back to a set routine, and stop causing annoyance to my blog readers, due to my regular posting slots going awry.

All writers get ideas for stories from different sources and I thought I'd share with you a recent inspiration.

I'm very much a visuals person. When characters or situations arrive in my conscious I'm always presented with a scene from the viewpoint of one of the characters involved. Pictures will often get my brain ticking over...

I was looking at a few news pieces in one of the online national newspapers, and an article drew my attention, because it was about a place I'd visited a number of times when I was a child/teenager. The Dreamland amusement park in Margate, Kent.

Like many seaside places over the years, their parks have gone into a decline, run-down and then closed; but the visual archive in my memory still has pictures of the place. They just needed something to remind me.

After a day on the beach, first stopping to brush the sand off my feet, so I could put my white socks on, and then my sandals, we would walk along the prom to go into Dreamland for an hour.
I remember the various slot machines and the general pinging and clattering of coins going into or coming out of the machines.
Then out the back doors into an area where you could get a drink, a cup of tea or coffee, and observe various rides.
I remember greenery and big rocks mixed together as a moving object rides by. The areas beyond that didn't stick in my memories, but I suspect that's because that first outside area I saw-in my young mind-was to me, a jungle, a sparse jungle with hindsight...

I've since discovered that a few of my writer friends have their own memories of the place too.

So now I have a character on the outside looking in. I don't yet know her name, or age, nor what her problem is- perhaps she has a decision to make?

It was fun revisiting my childhood memories, and perhaps some of them will turn up in my mystery lady's story...

Have you ever read about a place you knew when younger, and used it as inspiration?

More Words With Jam Competitions...

Bigger Short Story Competitions are open for entries-details and entry form here.

Words with Jam have an annual short story competition, but this year it's not just one competition but three.

There's the up to 2500 word one, and another for up to 1000 words, and finally a category for stories up to 250 words- so if you've been honing your flash/micro fiction skills, here's an opportunity.

There's no theme.

The closing date is 31st October this year.

Short Story Judge (up to 2500) Jane Fallon
Shorter Story Judge (up to 1,000) Benjamin Myers
Shortest Story Judge (up to 250) Zoe Fairbairns

1st prize in each category - £300
2nd prize in each category - £100
3rd prize in each category - £50

"5 runners up in each category will be published in the first volume of our Short Story Anthology (of which they will receive a copy), and awarded £10.
All winners and runners up will receive a printed copy of our first Short Story Anthology (inclusion optional*)."

As this is a pay to enter competition you need to make sure you read the rules and follow them.
But entry is online (so there's no queueing up in the Post Office to pay horrendous postage costs) as is the payment system- details on the page link above.

The main niggle I have is that regardless of category the first entry is £6 and further entries are £4. So if you just want to enter the shortest story of 250 words you're paying the same as a 1,000 or 2,500 word entry...

We all have to make individual judgements when considering pay to enter competitions- is the entry fee too much? Is the cash prize good enough? And, the anthology itself- with this one you do get a free copy (not always given in some competitions I've seen and heard of).

So if you do enter, good luck. :-)

Short Story Downloads...

Glad to say I'm enjoying a spell of sunshine and a relatively dry atmosphere which is helping my lungs feel better.

So while I continue recovering I thought you might like to read more about the short story download site Alfie Dog Ltd.

Australian writer Katie W Stewart (author of the successful 'Treespeaker' and 'Mark of the Dragon Queen' e-books) has an interview with Rosemary J Kind here, the writer behind Alfie Dog Ltd and the short story download site.

Rosemary answers questions about formats and prices of downloads, and also her reasons for starting the site.

So if you're a reader looking for a good short story, you'll find something to entertain you. And if you're a writer with any short stories lurking on your hard drive doing nothing, they may find a  new home.

I know that Rosemary is currently preparing an exciting addition to the website- a blog. And actively working to get the story download site well known.

My winter project is to revamp some of my older stories-that don't fit women's magazine- and submit them for consideration by Rosemary.

If you haven't visited Rosemary's website yet, then click on the link here.

Moving Ahead...

And I mean that in many ways.

I've had my postcard acknowledgement back from Woman's Weekly, so I know my short story has arrived and is now in their system. So now I'm going to forget about it, until a yes or no letter arrives.

I'm getting very little quiet to write or even read at the moment, as my sons are taking their GCSE exams and are in and out of the house, or at home revising and relaxing, so my much valued peace during school hours is gone...

I've also got to start packing the remainder of my writing stuff up to put it into boxes ready for the weekend move. The computer will be moving position- as will some of our furniture-into different areas of the living room/dining room.

I'm hoping I can fit a filing cabinet in by the new desk area too, as I have a lot of papers that are currently sat in boxes and not accessible; likewise quite a few of my reference books are packed away and I'd like them on a shelf or at least stacked nearby.

The advantage of the new location means people moving around in the living room won't be close enough to distract me if I'm working, unlike currently.

With the Queen's Jubilee celebrations this weekend, plus the Monday and Tuesday Bank Holiday days it will give us plenty of time to get everything done.

And if that doesn't work and make me more productive, I may have to resort to a shed in the garden...

My Short Story has Left Home...

It's been quite a few years since I last submitted a short story to a woman's magazine, so I have to admit to a few last minute jitters before I put the envelope in the post box...

I mentioned a few posts back that the story (I've been working on) was originally created in 2007 and had had quite a few revisions since then.

By last week I was finally happy and left it for a final reading this week, and to check for anything I'd missed.

Plus an objective writer/reader read through it to give me an honest opinion; they highlighted a bit of a dialogue/description issue for a minor character that needed looking at, but otherwise enjoyed it and didn't see any spelling or grammar errors.

I even gave it to one of my sons this morning to ask him what he thought- I don't usually ask family members to read my work- but he's the really creative one on my sons, so wouldn't need explanations of why I'd done such and such in the text. He said it was okay- which is as good a response as it will get...

I had the stamps and envelopes but I wasn't too sure of the final weight, as I didn't want it underpaid I went to the nearest post office and checked- 90g, so it was 10g within the large letter weight and I could use the stamps I'd bought before the late April price rise.
It was only 2,000 words, but a story with 3,000 words could probably be in the next price band.

So it's now on its way to Woman's Weekly.

I know it will now be a long wait, but my previous attempts have all been rejected by three months, even when the quoted time was four months.

I really feel confident about this story, so if it gets rejected, I think it won't be because it's a bad story, or lousy grammar and spelling. And if it is a no, it will then be winging its way to Alfie Dog Ltd, the short story download site, for their consideration.

I'm determined it will find a home.

Now I can get back to my longer projects...

A Home for Short Stories...

We were talking about markets this evening during the manuscript meeting at the writers club, and I mentioned the new short story download site Alfie Dog.

It officially launched today, and among the writers who have stories on there are Linda Lewis and blogger Patsy Collins, who have both had lots of stories published in Women's magazines.

You'll find a wide variety of reading from general fiction to humour and many mainstream genres. There are children's stories and teen/young adult fiction too.

There's even a Story of the Week.

If you're a writer with stories looking for a home, even previously published ones, then have a look at the submissions details here.

The site is the brainchild of writer Rosemary Kind, who describes the site as carrying  "a fantastic group of talented writers writing in a wide range of genres. 69 authors, over 170 stories to begin with and more being added every week (we will be over 200 by the end of the month. Available in pdf, epub and mobi formats. Stories to make you laugh, make you cry, make you think. Bedtime stories to read to the kids. It's the place to be for stories."

I'll certainly be sending a story in for consideration, in a few months...

Wednesday (16th May) Is National Flash Fiction Day...

Wednesday's post is a day early so you will be able to take part in events to celebrate the 1st National Flash Fiction Day.

The National Flash Fiction Day blog has a roundup of events taking place starting early on Wednesday morning. You can find the details here.

There's still time to enter the Flash Flood which will be posting 500 word flash stories from midnight on the 15th/16th May. You'll find the details on the Flash Flood link and you still have all of Tuesday to submit a story.

Meanwhile here's an opportunity in The Guardian online- and David Gaffney explaining the basics of flash fiction- if you're unsure of how to write such a short piece.

If you tweet, you can follow them @nationalflashfd and on Facebook facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday

And here's a piece of mine that I posted some time ago, it won the Nottingham Writers' Club Manuscript of the Year competition in 2007, and appeared in the club magazine 'Scribe' (and preserved for posterity, or as long as the Central Library in Nottingham keeps them- they have copies going back to the early 1930's).

Positive Exposure

                                                                  (by Lola de Cortez)
When the work dried up I knew I had to do something. Who would know it was me doing the voice-over for Squeaky Clean washing-up liquid?
     I made changes, finding a nice cosmetic surgeon in Harley Street; who reminded me of my third husband. I had a face lift; botox and breast enlargement, and it certainly got me noticed.
     I was booked for Parkinson, and then invited to present a BAFTA for the best Make-Up and Hair in a movie. I'd have liked something a bit more prominent, but there's always the Oscars.
     I looked amazing on the night, three inch heels, diamonds at my wrist and ears, complimenting those sweet little gems in my beehive. And the dress...a perfect grey strapless floor length silk. It was such a shame I had to tape myself into it.
     It wasn't that it didn't fit,well it was a teeny bit loose about the chest, but I couldn't let the opportunity go- it was reduced in the sales.
     Double-sided tape was all I needed, strategically placed; I even bronzed my shoulders and cleavage to give me a glow.
     If only that silly young man doing all the talking hadn't stepped on my hem. My dress parted company with my chest, and I was bared to the world.
     The next day the tabloids were covered with my moment of exposure, and I must say I looked good for 62.
     The headline blazed '60's Siren Coming Unstuck', and I've been working every day since.

© Carol Bevitt 2007

Busy Week Ahead

As you may have noticed I didn't post anything at the weekend.

I was extra busy as my OH had to take a quick trip up the motorway to see his mum who was ill, so I was holding everything together at home and celebrating most of our 28th Wedding Anniversary by myself.

Though I'm glad to say my mum-in-law is getting better, and my lovely husband did get home Saturday evening with a bunch of Sweetheart roses and a big box of Thorntons Continental chocolates for me. :-)

GCSE exams begin today, so my teenagers are going to be busy for the next month or so...Exam stressed teenagers are probably best not bothered with requests for the return of glasses, plates and assorted cutlery from their rooms (I'm going to be getting plenty of exercise going up and down stairs...).

I'll be organising the final details for Saturday's all day workshop with Mills and Boon author Kate Walker. I'm really looking forward to the workshop, and having met Kate briefly last October at an event, I'm sure everyone attending will enjoy the day and learn from it.

Meanwhile my short story is almost ready for sending out. I've just got to print it out and check for any typos, wrong spelling of similar sounding words, and any missing punctuation, or formatting issues.

I'm happy with the story as it now is, and there's nothing else I can do to it- without ruining it!

So, I'll be back to my normal blogging routine on Wednesday...

A Brief Catch Up and Yoga...

I'm not sure where this week has gone actually, but it's almost Friday again.

I've almost finished the final edit on my short story, now that I've got my formatting sorted out. Some of my new lines didn't indent to where they were set to- no idea why, but it was just one or two lines each on pages 3,4, and 5...

Even stripping all the formatting out of the document and re-doing the settings didn't sort it out- that document has been highlighted more than my hair!

Having asked some writer friends how to solve the problem, both of the suggested solutions were needed to resolve the issue.

It was only recently, when I was reading an article by Sue Moorcroft in Writers Forum magazine about presentation, that I discovered pressing the space bar five times at the beginning of each new paragraph was not a good idea. Apparently it makes extra work for an editor, so I thought I better learn how to set indents properly, and started with my short story.

(As you may have realised I'm still learning how to use the assorted options on Word 2007, so I won't be switching to the 2010 version anytime soon...)

Actually being able to sit down at the computer for a while was quite good, as I'm still aching from the yoga class that I attended on Tuesday. Now I did yoga when I was younger (much much younger) and I knew I was capable of doing the various positions, and admittedly some of them I had no problem with, but sadly the rest were not as successful.

Yes, I'd had one of those 'moments'. My brain still thought I could do it, but my body had decided that a) I'm not 20 years old anymore and b) my body is no longer that flexible...:-)

I'm sure I'll improve with time and practise, as my writing has...

Novelist, Short Story Writer or Both?

Good news on the short story; I've got it down to the 2,000 words I was aiming for. It's now having a 'rest' while I finish sorting out my formatting issues.

When my story finally reaches it's destination I want to ensure that not only is the story good, but it's appearance is right too, so it gives the editor no extra work- if it gets to the accepted point...

The mention of short stories in the interview between bloggers Rosemary Gemmell and Patsy Collins, started me thinking.

Patsy has had a lot of short stories published in Women's Magazines and elsewhere, but has recently seen the publication of her debut novel 'Escape to the Country'- I read it recently and really enjoyed the heart-warming tale which left me smiling by the last page.

When asked about the transition from short-story to novel, Patsy said, " I began a short story that I couldn't seem to end. After a while I stopped trying to keep it short and turned it into a novel."

I can sympathise, that is the problem I have all the time. I come up with an idea that I think is a short story but it quickly becomes clear that it isn't. It's a bigger story with sub plots, more characters and action, that my mind knows is a novel/novella before I've consciously accepted it.

Yes, it's important to be able to write short stories, as they help you learn many of the skills you will later need for writing a novel. I realised that a long time ago.

I started a novel in 1999 and got to 40,000 words, and where I'd originally envisioned the end; but it had become obvious that a) I was only half way through the story- I had a lot of scenes in my head (they're still there too) and b) I needed to learn a lot of writing skills to do it properly.

Some writers are poets, some prose writers, while others can do both. So perhaps there is a similar situation here- some are novelists, others are content to write short stories only, and the rest can do both quite happily.

I'd like to do both, but my creative mind seems reluctant...

Editing and Motherhood...

You may wonder what editing has to do with motherhood, but for me they're interchangeable at the moment.

I'm having a short break from the novel to work on a short story-it's been waiting for me to get back to it for over a year. I knew it wasn't quite right, and I think I was lacking confidence in my ability to produce a saleable story, so the more I tried, the more the story went into reverse or that was how it felt. So I left it, believing it was never going to work.

I've also felt like that whenever I've gone to the parents consultation evenings at school. But yesterday (Wednesday) the milestone of the last ever consultation evening was reached. Never again will I have to go with my long list of teachers to talk to (would I ever get through them all), with my notebook and pen to record the comments from each one, so I could then report back the (correct) details to the appropriate son...

(This is the one aspect of multiple birth families that never gets mentioned in books- parents evenings post primary school are long, tiring and require a lot of brain energy.)

In a few months the GCSE exams will be in full spate- in fact next week it's the art exam. With all the revision classes coming up, stress is building, but there is, as they say, light at the end of the tunnel...

I'm making the most of any calm spells to concentrate on shorter projects, hence the short story editing.

I can now see the light in the story too. The structure problems that I couldn't solve previously are resolving themselves as I change sentences, choose a different word here, adjust a description there, and take lines out- or put them back in.

I'm finally starting to gain that confidence I previously lacked.

I know I'm competing in a tough market with a high standard, so my story will have to be as good as I can make it.

Then it will be up to the sifting readers/editor whether it's a yes or no.

My previous attempts have always received the standard rejection letter, so I can either improve or get the same rejection letter again.

I'll let you know when I finally send it out, and no matter how long I have to wait- and I know it will be months-which type of reply I get. :-)

Deadlines and Decisions...

Over the past few days I've been pondering my Good Housekeeping Novel Competition entry- well my would-be entry that is.

I'm still not happy, and I have to be realistic- as I said last week, I won't submit a sub-standard entry; and at the moment it's not good enough and time is running out- with the closing date the last day of this month, and as entries have to be posted.

 I spent most of February coughing and unable to think due to uncontrolled asthma that had been triggered by the bad chest infection at the end of last year. (I never realised you could develop asthma when you are older.)
I'm still in the process of getting the right inhaler regime for me, but it takes time, and I'm not quite there yet.

I'm not sure how I managed to blog at all last month, considering my brain felt like cotton wool!

In the meantime I still have the rest of the novel to get on with, and that's what I'm going to do for the rest of this year.

As I also have the novella and a few short stories to get on with too, I'm not going to be wasting time.

In a few months I'll be telling you more about the (e-book) anthology in which I have two pieces of flash fiction; one piece under my own name, and the other- historical- under my Serena Lake pen-name.
It's still a work under construction at the moment and I don't yet know the expected date of availability, but when I do, I'll let you know.

And of course, you'll have to meet Serena officially... :-)

Is the Recession Good for Some Writers?

As I was out food shopping today, I noticed more price rises. By making a few changes in my weekly purchases, I can still afford the occasional book- their prices don't seem to be rising the same amount.

In fact, there seems to have been a surge of small pocket type recipe books covering, baking to quick meals, and all aimed at showing the consumer how they can eat well but at reduced cost...

A couple of days ago, I went to a publisher's website intending to browse some cookery books- I'd received an e-mail newsletter.
I came across a few of these pocket type books (to be published very soon) and looked to see who the author was. Well I was a bit taken aback when it said the author was to be announced...

Now it's only my suspicion- but have they rehashed an older work/s, updated it and added some enticing pictures of the completed recipes? Are they looking for a recognisable 'name' to go with it to boost sales?

I could be entirely wrong, but that's the lurking cynic in me!

But when there's a trend that will last for some time (as this recession surely will) publishers are sure to join in. It's business and they're part of it.

For the average (but brilliant :-) ) writer, the current recession is going to be a challenge, when magazines are either paying less than a few years ago, or doing more in-house. Then there's the reduction in short story markets; with the 'only previously published' restrictions implemented by a few...

It means the competition for both previously published, and those trying to get accepted for publication is going to be high.

Even simple things like entering competitions, your writing skills can give you an edge.
E-books are a different matter- especially if you have your own back list. If you've published to Kindle, or other digital outlets, you can control your asking price, up or down; even offer your book free for 24 hours and promote, promote promote.

For many writers these tactics have brought increased sales, so there's income from royalties- but there's no guarantee, and some genres sell better.
Though in long term planning, hopefully many of those readers will go on to buy the writer's other books- and I'm sure it's a good idea to be able to demonstrate a following for your work when you get the interest of a publisher.

The public may not be buying as many tree books, but e-book sales are on the rise, so a little judicious planning by digital authors can pay.

If you have any views on the subject, then you're welcome to share them in the comments section.

Woman's Own - Opportunity or Free Copy?

There's a lot of writers commenting on the Woman's Own (WO) Facebook page. If I was signed up to Facebook, I'd have commented too.

They are offering 'budding authors' the chance to submit a story and the best entries will appear in their Summer Special. The piece clearly says 'There is no fee for publication'.

Now this is not a small magazine, it is part of a big company, so why not pay for those chosen stories?

WO stopped their regular fiction slots many years ago when they moved toward the real-life story market- and probably to compete with the flurry of new magazines opening (and selling in high numbers) that concentrated on real-life, celebrities and fashion.

I bought Woman and Woman's Own for years (before the changes) and loved reading the fiction pages. In fact I grew up with them both, along with Woman's Realm...

Many writers, who have left comments on WO's Facebook page, have expressed dismay and have mentioned that the editor and staff expect to be paid for their work, so why not the writers?

WO have not headlined it as a competition with a prize. And their response to criticism has been that readers have asked about writing short stories for them, and that it's not for professional writers...

I don't mean this unkindly, but (sadly) we all know people who think they can write a short story, but don't even know the basics.

(I speak from experience here (a few years ago) when I was the phone contact for the writers club, someone rang me up and it was clear from their remarks that they hadn't checked guidelines, and expected the well-known magazine they were asking about, to automatically accept their story.)

And then there are the inexperienced new writers who see it as an opportunity to be published and don't yet understand about payments and rights- if they understand about these things and want to enter knowing that, then fine, they aren't entering blindfolded.

I'm not against writing for free sometimes. Usually the writer is doing it for a particular reason and are happy to do so, and that's fine too. I've done it myself.

But if a story is good enough to be published in a magazine with a wide circulation, available to buy in major and chain newsagents and corner-shops, then it's good enough for the short story writer to be paid...

So, an opportunity or free copy for the magazine?

Novel or Short Story...

At the moment my brain is in novel, rather than short story mode. Though I find that when I'm working on longer pieces my new ideas seem to be short story related, and vice-versa.

As I mentioned previously I've been getting on with combining all the information on my characters for my novel (before I rewrite Chapter 1) and it's been helped along by using the odd twenty minutes or an hour (as available) working on the information, between other tasks.

(I'm still waiting for the competition comments- but I hope to get them from the prose secretary via the post, soon.)

While I can't write the novel without quiet, I've discovered that combining the scattered information doesn't need the same depth of concentration as actually writing the story does; so I'm making a little more progress than I expected. And the list of questions I'm answering has given me some insights into my characters that I wasn't previously aware of.

So meanwhile, my short story attempts are on hold, but I'll certainly be making a note of this useful blog post by Sally Quilford, 'The Key Elements of a Short Story', so I can check I'm not missing something when I get back to them...

Reviewing My 2011 Progress So Far...

I've been reviewing my writing progress for 2011 and decided I couldn't reveal my conclusions to date without recalling the parameters I'd set myself in mid-December last year- ten months ago...

So my four targets were:

1: Get a short story published- somewhere.

2: Work on at least one of my novella length stories.

3: The novel- open to decision.

4: Enter some writing competitions.

Now I have to say I've only managed two of my four targets, though the other two have received attention to a slight degree.

The first, get a short story published hasn't happened, as the contender needs a little more work and my accident interfered in a big way.

The work on the novella is underway, and the novel has had some thought- although I haven't had time to put the decisions into action.
I tidied up the synopsis where I could, and with the first three chapters entered it into the annual romance trophy competition at the writers club- I put it in to make up the numbers this year, so I already know some of the faults, but it will be interesting to see what comments it receives.

So number 4, enter some writing competitions has been the other area of progress. In January I entered the Words with Jam last few lines of a story competition. And today I finished revising my 150 words for the Mail on Sunday Novel Competition- the start of, so that will be in the post tomorrow.

If you want to enter, there is still time, you have until the 28th October to get your entry in. Details here.

So I'm going to be getting on with my novella for the remainder of the year.

This coming Saturday I'll be at Sally Quillford's Pocket Novel workshop, which I'm looking forward to and I'm sure I'll learn a lot.

Hopefully next year will be more productive.

Why Do My Ideas Want To be Novels?

I had a slight problem the other day. A character that is going to be in my entry for the annual Mail on Sunday Novel Competition intruded into a piece of flash fiction I was writing. Suddenly Jennifer became Miranda- who on earth was Miranda? The character I was writing about at the time was most definitely a Jennifer...
Later that night as I was settling down to sleep Miranda explained who she was and that she was in my competition entry.

Now the competition mentioned above only requires 50-150 words of an opening to a novel with the word ROW used- fortunately the novel doesn't also have to be written, because if it did it would have to go on the waiting list...

This is where my problem starts- and this happens a lot now- what I think is going to be a short story will, by the time I've jotted down the ideas, have become part of a much larger and longer story. And I know from past experience that a story that goes that way just doesn't work by itself...

I know I should be glad that I have all these stories and characters buzzing around in my sub-conscious and I can fill my notebooks up with details to return to later, but I'm beginning to worry whether I can ever manage to come up with an idea that stays as a short story and doesn't want to be anything longer.

When I started seriously writing again- after many years of nothing-it was as much as I could do to write a 1,000 word short story, but as the years have gone by the natural length of my stories has increased: 1200-1300; 1,500 then 1,900 and now I'm having difficulty trying to get a story I've been working on to a 2,000 word length, when it actually needs to have another couple of hundred words, but it will then become an in-between length- not liked by some magazines...

Perhaps this is just a phase my writing is going through and in a few months I'll be coming up with nothing but short story ideas.

But at least I've got the ideas, so now I need to get on with some of them.

If you are interested in the start of a novel competition, Womag published the details on her blog last month, so go there. Good luck if you enter.

The Things You Find in Books...

Have you ever bought an old book and found something interesting inside it between the pages?

I ask because the Chairman at our writers' club read out some pages of writing that she found in an old book that she recently bought. The woman being written about was clearly the female equivalent of Michael Crawford's character Frank in 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'.

We weren't sure if this woman existed (it covered a couple of months in 1963) or if it was a would-be writer's notes; perhaps it was just delusional ramblings, but there were numerous story ideas that could have been inspired from this hapless woman's disasters...

In the early 20thC it seemed to be more usual to find written inscriptions inside books, dated and signed. Not necessarily from the author of the book, but from the book buyer to a friend or relative.

The ones I've come across always seem to have been written in fountain pen blue ink with that beautiful elegant writing that was taught a hundred years ago.

Perhaps those people felt that book was special, it meant something to them and to the person they gave it to.

It can also be very sad too. I once found an old book- in a charity shop- with an inscription from a parent to a child, then I looked at the date the book was published and the date of the inscription and I realised it was given new. Did that child keep that book all their life and only after their death did it get boxed up and sent elsewhere, old and irrelevant in today's world?

So I think in future when I give a book as a special gift I'm going to start putting an inscription inside so the reason why I've given it to that person (and when) isn't forgotten...