A Small Success...

When I first got back into writing, after a very long break, my first published pieces were letters to my local newspaper. It's a good way to start as it teaches you to be concise and use the most effective words for the subject matter.

In fact the first ever piece I had published, as a young teenager, was a letter in one of the early music magazines - when it was still a newspaper version.

Friends on Facebook will already know about this, but I have a small writing success this month; I have a letter in the December issue of Writing Magazine.

December 2016 issue

The Letters to the Editor page is always popular, and you know how writers like to get into discussions about issues that are important to them...

I was sharing some insights into entry fees and restrictions in writing competitions.

A reader in the November edition had voiced concerns about these issues, and as I'm involved with a national short story competition I thought there were probably newer writers who had similar concerns, so I put fingers to keyboard.

Obviously each competition organisation has their own rules and entry fees, but there are some elements all are faced with, and I concentrated on those.

My letter

When there's so much to say and the maximum word count is 250 words, I did have to do a number of edits to still say what I wanted to and keep within that maximum number.

There are some very interesting articles in this edition, so you may want to purchase a copy when you're next at the newsagents.Or you can buy a digital copy.

I have to write a 200 word story for next weeks competition at the writers' club on the theme of 'Lost', so I'll really have to get the red pen out for that.

And as my letter was about competitions, if you know anyone who is a new or developing writer, the details of the 2017 Nottingham Writers' Club, National Short Story Competition, are now up on the club's website, here.

I also got a sneaky peep at the new website design today. It's not quite completed yet, but it's looking good...

Getting Back to Where I Was...

Finally I've had some free time to get back to my Nottinghamshire short novel- lots of appointments at this time of year. :(

As I was retyping the first chapter of draft 2 from my print copy I found myself making a list of comments and notes as I went along, so these points could be dealt with in future drafts.

It was one of those 'if I don't write it down now I'll forget it' things.

So I got out a pack of file cards from my stationery stash (every writer has one of those don't they?), put the chapter number at the top of the first card, and then added the comments with the page or paragraph it related to.

(I know that when I've dealt with those in the third draft I'll likely have more notes to add, but I'm taking it one draft at a time...)

Once I'd finished retyping the chapter I saved it in three digital forms (after losing everything but the print copy I'm being triple careful this time); printed it out and put it into a plastic cover and popped the file card in with it.

I use those thin plastic sleeves that have holes already punched (for various types of file storage) and use green treasury tags to keep the chapters together. I can easily add the next sleeve behind it; then it goes into it's own file box- nothing more annoying than looking for that piece of paper with information you need and not knowing where it is, so everything goes in the box now.

Really I'd like to add a filing cabinet, but my office area doesn't have room for one at the moment- but that doesn't mean it will stay that way...

Though honestly, it's easier to create an office from a bare room, than it is to change one that has furniture you can't move elsewhere.

Do you have an office essential that makes your writing life easier?

One day I will get a filing cabinet...

image from pixabay