Melissa Lawrence

By the time you get to read this post, you will probably have eaten your own body weight in turkey (or spinach pasta if you are vegetarian), drunk enough mulled wine to refloat the Mary Rose (unless like me you are teetotal) and watched enough repeats of It's A Wonderful Life to want them to bring back hanging. Yes, folks, IT'S CHRISTMAS!!! Actually it's Boxing Day but that still counts as Christmas (doesn't it?) and when you work at night as I do, you get a Christmas Day that starts at midnight on 24th December and finishes about 9am on 26th December which, trust me, is a very long day. Anyway, I've had various thoughts about what to write for my Christmas Day/Night post in between finishing making my handmade Christmas cards (remind me to start in July, not November next year!) and lying awake listening to next door's dog barking for its Christmas dinner. I was going to write a witty ditty parodyin...

I'm pleased to say that I'm "feeling the love" a little more this week when it comes to writing (see my last couple of posts!) and I thought I'd share with you what I've been doing to try and fan the flames. On Wednesday, I went on a "date" with my writing and wrote a topical article in one sitting for my local paper, the Leicester Mercury, emailing it off in the early hours of the morning so that I could finally feel like a proper journalist again. Next I did an exercise from a book I've mentioned before called Living Write by Kelly L. Stone which was all about setting long-term (ten year) goals, mid-term (five year) goals and short-term (one to three year) goals for your writing. The idea is that you have, as the author calls it, a "Vision of Success Plus", which should help motivate you to get down to your writing  now , in order to work towards achieving your goals. For instance, if your goal is to have written ...

I've just looked back at my last blog post after a few hours away and it does seem rather negative and self-indulgent which isn't really fair on you, my readers. Also, I've just spent £26 on some bookmarks to advertise my blog as a place where people can go for free advice and tips about writing and I'm not sure that last post really fits the description! So here is a little extra post to make up for the last one. While I was in the kitchen making yet another cup of coffee, a quote that I'd pinned on the wall a while ago caught my eye.  "Remember you love writing. It wouldn't be worth it if you didn't. If the love fades, do what you need to and get it back." AL Kennedy   At that very moment, by a strange coincidence (or not), the song Sometimes When We Touch by Dan Hill came on the radio. This is one of my all time favourite love songs and you don't hear it played very often. One of the lines..."the honesty's too much"......

For the first time since I started this blog, I honestly don't know what to write about. Up to now, I've always arrived at this space with a definite idea such as a book or a website to share with fellow writers, a post based on an item I've read about in a writing magazine or some writing-related tips based on my own writing experiences. The truth is, I've hardly done any writing for days now and I think it's time to come clean and stop pretending that I'm currently working on lots of commissions, that the phone has never stopped ringing and that my email in-box is full of correspondence from editors and agents. Yes, I have a detailed plan of intended work for this month on my wall. Yes, I have at least one deadline (children's poems for a  sports and games anthology www.nawe.co.uk/DB/jobs-and-opportunities/sports-and-games-anthology.html ) and yes, I have the very pleasant editors at Fractured West (see last blog post) "lookin...

What is micro-fiction? In an article I wrote recently for Leaf Writers' Magazine ( http://www.leafbooks.co.uk/ ) I defined it as "an interesting and well-constructed story in 500 words or less". Micro-fiction or flash fiction as it is sometimes known, has become extremely popular and I must admit to being quite a fan of both reading and writing it. So I was really pleased to receive the latest issue of Fractured West ( http://www.fracturedwest.com/ ) which is an extremely professional looking magazine described by the editors as "an independent not-for-profit literary magazine publishing the most exciting short fiction by new and emerging writers round the world". I've only had time to skim through my copy but from what I've seen so far, there looks to be some really interesting and original stuff including one thought-provoking story which is only 36 words long. I'm looking forward to reading it in depth and hopefully submitting something soon. ...