I can happily promote a blog post, but the idea of shouting about a book that I have written SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME! Below is me in cat form being told I will need to promote my book. Book promotion feels like a different ball game to me. Now, before I begin this […]
Tag: Writing
How to Revise your Manuscript: First Draft to Final Draft – by Lisa Poisso… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog
Writing a novel is such a minuscule part of writing a novel. People who’ve never written anything longer than a school paper have a hard time imagining that pouring all those words onto the page isn’t the major part of the battle. Experienced authors know better. Writing the manuscript is just a fraction of the […]
The Myth of Plan First and Write Later – by Louise Tondeur… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog
on Jane Friedman site: I hadn’t heard of plotting versus pantsing when I wrote my first two novels—and I didn’t know much about planning at all. For those who haven’t heard of plotting versus pantsing, it refers to one group of writers who prefer to plan first then write, as opposed to a second group […]
via The Myth of Plan First and Write Later – by Louise Tondeur… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog
Anton Chekhov on the 8 Qualities of Cultured People
If We Were Having Coffee & Talking About Writing… #SundayBlogShare #AmWriting — BlondeWriteMore
Bit of a mixed bag this week, so I thought I would imagine us having a coffee and talking about writing. Obviously I would ask you how your writing is going first, before launching into a lengthy account (complete with hand actions, dramatic hair flicks and eye rolls) about how I am doing creatively. Here’s […]
via If We Were Having Coffee & Talking About Writing… #SundayBlogShare #AmWriting — BlondeWriteMore
Awaiting a Verdict
While this is an older post, I believe it to be most relavent. I do enjoy digging around in old posts. Thanks Frank!
Neither of my previous books has been subjected to independent, professional editing.
Everything I’ve ever read about how to succeed as a writer tells me this is a mistake.
My aversion to the use of a professional editing service is more than just a reluctance to spend money when there is no certainty of recovering the investment via increased sales. I hate the thought that, once the work has been “interfered with” by a third party it is no longer truly mine. This is almost certainly irrational because the final decision as to whether or not to include the changes suggested by an editor is mine and mine alone. Still, there remains the lingering doubt that, once I accept that a suggested change represents an improvement, that aspect of the work cannot be regarded as uniquely mine.
Glaring errors
In recent times I have read traditionally published books, supposedly subjected…
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How To Outline By the Seat of Your Pants — A Writer’s Path
by Stephanie O’Brien When you start to create a novel, one of the first questions you have to ask yourself is, “Should I start by creating an outline, or just fly by the seat of my pants?” Both of these options have their merits. As I noted in a previous blog post, creating an […]
via How To Outline By the Seat of Your Pants — A Writer’s Path
The 8 Fears That Hold Writers Back From Publishing Their Books – by Scott Allan… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog
on The Creative Penn: Intro by Joanna Penn: I truly believe that everyone should write a book. Because every person who writes a book will buy and read a whole load more – and together, we are a self-sustaining industry. In this article, Scott Allan outlines 8 fears that hold writers back and how […]
Cyberspace has done it…
“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficent means for going backwards.” – Aldous Huxley
“I know there’s a proverb which says ‘To err is human,’ but a human error is nothing to what a computer can do if it tries.” – Agatha Christie
Cyberspace has done it
Cyberspace – has eaten my poem
Two pages- copy, sans paste
Without a trace
The shortcut copied
But wouldn’t paste
Said nothing was there
Anger at an inanimate object
As useful as catching waves
Yet time away might save it
From my temptation to destroy
That which stole from me
So patiently it waited
Fumbling to copy it all
No, of course it wasn’t – being
Extremely technically challenged
Can’t I just blame the new PC?
My MAC, saved as I typed
This old dog – slow but steady
Never wins the race
Technology I’ll never conquer
It keeps me in my place
Humble, frustrated and confused
In the deepest despairs of
Cyberspace, my ire is raised
About to trash it, not my fault
When technology is granted
A royal reprieve – F.F.T.T.
Feline Focus Therapy Training
In the immortal words of
E.M. Forster – “I don’t know
What I think, till I read what I said”
Two pages, a poem in the ether
No ropes to pull it back
I stare at a blank page
Bisous,
Léa
Submitting to journals: the Jo Bell method
[This article is now taught as part of the Open University’s Creative Writing MA, and I’ve had many many messages to tell me that people have increased their publication record, sometimes by 200% in a year. It’s also included in our new book How to Be a Poet]
I’ve spent some time lately with poetry journal editors – and also with the poor beggars who, like me, send off work to them. It’s struck me anew that many people, especially those at the beginning of their writing career, don’t have much idea of how submission works and what time span is realistic for an editor to consider a poem. Also, they’re wondering how to keep tabs on the seventeen different pieces that they’ve sent out, in order to avoid the no-no of simultaneous submission.
What follows is the Jo Bell Method; the method of an immensely, award-winningly disorganised poet who nonetheless has…
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