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Showing posts from 2013

So Long And Thanks For All The Cheques

Hi everyone. Well, this is a blog post I never thought I'd write. After eighteen years as a "professional" writer, I've decided to call time on my writing career. It's been a very tough decision but I do feel it's the right one although I guess only time will tell. If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know that I've been really struggling with my writing, particularly over the last couple of years. I've tried everything I could to get it back on track. Stopping for a while, starting again, just writing one day a week, changing direction, reading books and articles on "writer's block".... In the end, I've just been finding it too stressful and not really at all enjoyable. Also I haven't earned any money or had anything to really celebrate with my writing for so long now that the motivation isn't there to keep making myself do it on a regular basis any more. It's like Ray Bradbury says in his excellent b

Why I've Decided Not To Self-Publish

Hi everyone. July is the cruellest month or maybe that's April, I forget. But then I've never let the truth get in the way of a good introduction. Either way, July was not exactly the most productive writing month I've ever had and I didn't even set any writing goals, let alone achieve any. The unexpected and intense heatwave was the biggest factor as I don't cope well when the temperature goes over twenty degrees, let alone thirty. Even night working, which usually makes things more manageable, didn't help. It was like trying to write in a pressure cooker but one which had twenty-seven different species of moths and other creatures of the night living in it. Also, on a much more serious note, my closest friend who I've known for over forty years, found out that she only has a few weeks to live, instead of the sixteen months we originally thought. That was a massive blow and as seems to happen these days, writing went out of the window (along with all th

National Flash Fiction Day 2013

I hope you've all been thinking about how you're going to celebrate National Flash Fiction Day as June 22nd is nearly here! OK, so maybe you've not felt like putting up the literary bunting yet but like all these "days" (I'm still waiting for National Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich Day) it helps focus the mind on something we may not have thought about for a while. Actually, I'm thinking about Flash Fiction quite a bit at the moment. Despite my good intentions to stick to only working on my various book projects, the lure of the flash fiction competition and the urgent need for something other than plastic with which to pay the milkman, has proved too strong. I'm currently working on several pieces for the Earlyworks Press Flash Fiction Competition which has a first prize of £100 (not bad for 100 words or less) and closes 31st July 2013. Details can be found at  http://www.earlyworkspress.co.uk/Competition_flash_details.htm    I do enjoy writing

Writing Too Slowly

" Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Sprout?" is the working title for my second collection of poems for younger children, the sequel to my first collection " There's A Gorilla In My Pyjamas ". I reached a milestone with it this week as I finally finished the second draft. It's only taken me three and a half years! OK, so I have been writing a lot of other things in between and I also had quite a long break from working on it when I decided it wasn't worth spending time on a second collection when I hadn't had the first one published. Oh and I also took a year's sabbatical from writing during that time to concentrate on my crafting. Even so, I was a bit shocked to realise how long it had taken to get to this stage. Add that to the two and a half years it took me to write the first draft and I've already spent six years on one project that is not even ready to send out or self-publish yet. I know I am a slow writer. Not a slow "writer

What Do You Think About Most When You Are Doing The Washing-Up?

Hi everyone. This post is a quick quiz, not to be taken too seriously. Your answers might help you decide what sort of writer you are. On the other hand, they might not! What do you think about most when you are doing the washing-up? 1. Plots and characters. 2. The next book/article/poem you are planning to write. 3. How you are going to pay the gas bill. 4. What you are having for tea tonight. 5. How you can get more friends on Facebook. 6. What your next tweet is going to be. 7. The washing-up. 8. Other. (Please specify.) 9. All of the above. 10. None of the above. I have a dishwasher. I look forward to reading your comments/answers!

When Writing Websites Go Wrong

In the heady days when I had money and the surplus cash in my bank account wasn't 0.03p, I paid a website designer around £500 to build me a writing website. It looked fabulous and I received loads of compliments, although interestingly enough, not one single commission or request for work. Instead I had lots of emails (well, one or two) from prisoners wanting me to "ghost" their life story, English graduates asking me for advice on becoming a writer (don't give up the day job) and school children wanting help with their homework. However, the main problem with my website was what would happen if I needed to make even a tiny change, such as adding a news item or updating my biography. I had to email my designer with the changes, wait for him to email me back to say he'd done them, proof-read the changes on the site, email the designer again to say they were OK (or not), then wait for him to email me back to say the changes were now "live". Although he

E-Publish And Go Bust?

Hi everyone. I thought it was about time I checked in. I'm pleased to say that the one-day-a-week system is still working well and I'm making good progress (sounds like my old school reports!) on the two children's novels I'm currently editing, my life story The Emptiness at the Edge of the World and my second collection of poems for younger children. It's a bit weird not having anything to send out (and I miss my reward stickers!) but I guess that's writing books for you, as opposed to magazine work. Which brings me to the other book project I'm currently working on, namely my collection of poems for young adults/teens called I Wandered Lonely As A Snog. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm hoping to publish it as an e-book on Amazon Kindle. And what's the first thing I've discovered about e-publishing? It costs money. OK, so it's free to download your book but before that, there are a couple of things that all the "experts" sa

To Self-Publish Or Not To Self-Publish?

Hi everyone. Hope you are all surviving the snow and the thaw. When I was out in my garden this morning, the snow was literally melting before my eyes and all you could hear was the sound of rhythmic dripping. Very atmospheric! Well, I'm really pleased to say I've almost made it to the end of January without falling off the writing wagon again. I've had one or two low moments but on the whole, writing is going pretty well for me at the moment (possibly because I'm only doing it one day a week!) and I certainly feel in a hugely better place with it (and other things) than I did this time last year. I feel I definitely did the right thing in taking a lengthy "Sabbatical" as it has really cleared my mind and helped me focus on what I really want to write. I think I've known for a while that the end was in sight regarding my freelance journalism and indeed, magazine work in general but it's taken me a long time to accept that, having had a relatively s

I'm Back!

Well, here I am again after a very long absence and first of all, I'm really sorry for just disappearing like that! When I last put up a writing-related post, I'd never have believed it would be nearly 12 months before I blogged about writing again. What I thought would just be a month away from my desk actually turned into a 12 month (almost) "sabbatical", the first one I've ever had in 18 years of freelance writing and journalism. I'd like to say that I've travelled the world, set up a commune in the back garden, had a tattoo, got married (or at least engaged) and been performing in a one-woman play on Broadway. The truth is, I've mainly been setting up a new crafting business ( www.melissalawrencedesigns.com ) and trying to get my act together in my personal life which, judging by the posts I put up this time last year, was something that urgently needed doing. Anyway, here I am at the start of another new year (my favourite time) and full of ho