Cut, cut, cutting

 
      If I could explain
       the whole thing
        in one page
          it would be
           a short story!













 Am I alone in suspecting that publishers and agents ask for a synopsis as a way of discouraging would-be novelists?

Word of the week (20)

The writer was schbuufy with joy when her novel was accepted for publication.

(Puzzled because you can’t find schbuufy in your dictionary? Take a look at Fran’s Hill’s blog to discover the origin of this expressive new word.)

Short but sweet

So it’s only 75 words, and there’s no payment, but I do feel quite proud of getting a paragraph accepted on Paragraph Planet today. It’s one of my favourite websites for these (short) reasons:

• It takes less than a minute to read each daily paragraph but together they cover a huge range of genres, subjects and styles.

• Telling a story, introducing a character, or describing a scene in exactly 75 words forces a writer to examine every one of those words very carefully.

• If you want to improve your own writing skills you can click over to Paragraph Planet’s companion website Writing Workout and try some of its very short exercises.

 Now back to the  l-o-n-g  job of editing The Novel!

An invitation

No time to write anything here today, as Henry Mitchell has invited me to put a guest post on his blog Tales and Wanders. I met Henry through Alfie Dog Fiction and was immediately impressed by his elegant writing style. I was surprised to find that he didn’t decide to start writing fiction until he was in his 70’s, but I’m not at all surprised to learn that his first novel is soon to be published.

If you haven’t come across Henry before, do click here to take a look at his blog, it's well worth a visit.

How this writer’s mind works (2)

I took a day off from writing to catch up on some jobs I’ve been neglecting in my other world. One of the items that’s been on my to-do list for a long time was to make some cushions. I saw this teddy bear fabric in the market and couldn’t resist it.

As I sewed, I started thinking about all the bears I’ve known over the years: my own long-lost childhood companions, my children’s teddies, those perennial favourites, Rupert, Pooh, Paddington ….

And as my mind filled with cuddly images I began making up a story. Something about teddy bears? No, that would be too easy. This one’s going to be a really complicated murder mystery …

Do you love bears? Have you written about them?

 

Word of the week (19)

 encouragement

What’s disappointing and uplifting at the same time?

An encouraging rejection!

(With thanks to the editor who took the time and trouble to say, ‘Sorry, no, but …’)

 

 

How to write more

I’ve finally discovered the secret of how to write faster, ignore distractions, and generally be much more productive. All I have to do is take a holiday!

At the beginning of each month I optimistically make a new writing ‘to do’ list, but I rarely manage to tick off all the items before the end of that month. I could pretend I’m being too ambitious and giving myself too much work, but I know the real problem is that because I have 30 or 31 days to reach my targets it’s all too easy to get complacent about them – until I suddenly notice those 30 days have dwindled to 2!

After I’d written out my list for July, I realised I would only have 25 writing days because I was going on holiday at the end of the month. I could have made the list shorter of course, but I decided to leave it as it was and carry over any outstanding jobs to the following month.

I set to work straight away and completed everything on the list – with a couple of days to spare! Surprised? I was completely astonished, amazed and flabbergasted!

So my new plan is to include a holiday on my monthly ‘to do’ lists. Now then, where shall I go at the end of August? And September? And October ...?