February 2016

A good writing start to the month, carrying on from where I left off. I seem to have got into a regular routine now of writing each lunch time and two nights a week, and am certainly feeling much better for it! Of course there are still days where I struggle and the mojo seems to be lacking, and although I want to write, I find I can’t do as much as I would like. But pushing through and trying to keep busy on those days, and thankfully at the moment, they are in the minority. I looked at my final published blog post and it had the largest number of views since I started doing it. This does make me feel that maybe it is still worth doing, given other comments received too. But from when I feel ready again, I will type up in word and then copy across, just to be on the safe side!

I’ve entered four free competitions within the last couple of months and am quite proud of myself! It’s been good to have other smaller projects besides the main one (novel) and has actually helped me refocus on that since submitting all my entries. Sat down and went through all my notebooks too, to see what was finished and what wasn’t, may be some future entries there, who knows? It will be interesting to see what happens with them as and when I pick them up again.  And so, to wait and see now with the ones that I have submitted. I mentioned last month that I found out I’d been shortlisted for the CSMA competition and although I’ve since been informed that I didn’t win, all the shortlisted entries have now been published so still amazing coverage for me as a writer and just the opportunity of having been shortlisted in the first place. It’s certainly boosted my confidence in my writing. Still waiting to hear from the Writers Group one, but should know by the middle of March, and this also goes for the Writers and Artists Yearbook. The Mogford prize doesn’t close until the start of March, so just keeping my fingers crossed! For that entry, I ended up writing more than the word count, so a good exercise in editing and getting it right (as with all my submissions) before sending it in. Something else I also had a go at was the #SouthBankStory Twitter competition- where you only had the 140 characters in a tweet to create a story about the area. Although I didn’t win from any of the ten that I submitted, I had great fun with them and has been even more exciting to finally have visited and seen places for myself, but more on that later!

Writer’s group meetings have been positive as always. The first of the month I chose to read two poems. Having not written much poetry for a while, these weren’t new, but I also hadn’t read them before at a meeting. Constructive and positive feedback for both, so things I can work on in the future.  Finally, I am getting what I need from the group so I just hope this continues. Think it’s important that I don’t forget where I started with my writing and continue to write poems as the mood suits. As with my unfinished short stories, I also went through my poems and there is plenty of both to fall back on and complete. It was a good exercise too, interesting to see how many I’ve started and forgotten about! Love the scribbling of ideas too, that they really can come at any time and from the most random of things. I must start being more aware of what’s around me, not just the physical, but the snippets of conversation too. (Something else to work on!) Our second meeting of the month was a workshop on self-publishing using Lulu. It was very informative and not something that I know a great deal about, so it is certainly something to consider for whenever I get there!

But the biggest thing for this month has to be preparing for Discovery Day. Having put my novel aside for quite a while, picking it back up again has certainly been an interesting experience. Obviously I’d already started again on this last month, but things have been continuing. Although most of the advice that I’ve heard cites that you should finish a first draft before looking at editing, I’ve found that by going back over what I’d already done and marking up what could be changed has been really beneficial in moving forward with it. I’m continually amazed at all the new ideas and directions that I’ve come up with so far, and how much of the story has changed and evolved since I started it. I’m excited to see what happens next! So far a majority of the characters names have changed, and whereas originally I set the story in real locations, these have now been given fictional names which will allow me more artistic license when creating various settings.  And I’ve been working on a prologue, the first page of chapter 1 and notes for my pitch etc. wanting to make sure I got everything right, so it’s been a busy time!

As for the day itself, it was amazing and inspiring. Started the day in Southbank, walking along the river and taking in the atmosphere. Having never been there and written tweets for the competition, it was lovely to see it all properly, and I will definitely go back! Enjoyed a coffee and something to eat at the BFI after perusing the book market- got an uncollected poems by John Betjeman for a bargain price, and they are not easy to come by! A quick look in Foyle’s there, and some writing and more poetry books! Then it was off to the main Foyle’s shop for the big event. We were, of course, a little early, so wandered round looking at things and bought a couple more books (well it would be rude not too!) and then we joined the queue to see an agent.  The lady I saw, Sheila, was lovely and said I had a fluid voice and to keep writing. She liked the intrigue in my first pages and the fact that she didn’t yet know how the two characters were linked. She told me to go away and finish it, polish it and then send in to either her or another agent, Rebecca- amazing!!! The next part of the day involved a ‘surgery session’ where we had the opportunity to ask another agent questions about getting published, the industry etc. The last part was a panel session with Emma Healey (author) and her agent and publisher. Such an interesting day, and lots to take away and think about now. Just need to get on with writing now! I just can’t stress how much the whole day meant, and I finally felt like I belonged.

                                    

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my novel and why I’m writing it. The basics of it is that I wanted to write the type of book that I like to read, and am inspired by. But I also feel that I need to read more. Not necessarily to write in a different genre but to open my mind and to help improve my writing- looking at how and why these books work, it’s all part of learning the craft. With that in mind I have joined a book club online- ‘Poppy Loves Book Club. I’ve already taken part in my first meeting, discussing ‘A Year of Marvellous Ways. I wanted to read this book for research anyway (set in Cornwall), but I really enjoyed the experience- sharing thoughts and ideas and putting forward questions for the author, one of mine even got answered! I’m already looking forward to future meetings and the chance to read a variety of books, outside my comfort zone.

Lent started this month and instead of giving something up, me and Emma decided to take something up instead, and that was our ‘QuickFic Challenge.’ Using prompts from past competitions as well as other pictures we’ve found online, we give each other a prompt each day and then we have to write at least 250 words. It’s been really beneficial and I love the regular writing, then helping to get into the right frame of mind to work on other things. It will be interesting at the end to look over how we’ve interpreted each picture and who knows, maybe some new projects to work and expand on?!

So a busy and very positive month, looking forward to seeing what the future will bring!