Tag Archives: writing

Stay Strong

I would just like to offer this thought, to those like myself struggling to be published: ‘There’s only one difference between published and unpublished writers and it is this – the first group see their work in print on the shelves of Waterstone’s or Tesco or online at Amazon; the second group are yet to

Revising, redux

I’m getting lazy, or something, about working on the revisions. I haven’t touched it for a couple of days now. I find the idea of plugging in the USB drive I keep it on, opening the menu, finding the file, clicking “open” and waiting for Word to open, then trying to scroll down to wherever

Am I Making Sense?

‘Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.’ Mark Twain I spend a great deal of time dissecting and shredding what I write if I don’t think it could actually happen in real life. But the reality is, life often doesn’t make sense. People do stupid things, irrational things,

Imaginary Lands

‘The books one reads in childhood, and perhaps most of all the bad and good bad books, create in one’s mind a sort of false map of the world, a series of fabulous countries into which one can retreat at odd moments throughout the rest of life, and which in some cases can even survive

Winding Down/Wrapping Up

I think I’ve hit the point in my vampire story where I want to bring it to a close. I could easily drag this on, take it off in other directions, but at this point I’m not sure that’s the best course of action. I have other characters that I’d like to introduce, more plot

Snack, or a full meal?

Somehow I’ve now managed to involve myself in a fourth blog, which is probably not a good idea since I’ve rarely been updating my existing three as it is. However, the fourth is a collaborative blog that was started as a lark with two others just for some fun, comedic writing. It all started when

A couple of grammar points

I wanted to point out a couple of things that I constantly hear, from people who should know better. Without getting too technical and invoking a lot of grammar jargon like predicate and participial I’ll just briefly mention a few things I hear most often. He/Him, She/Her What I hear is “Him and I talked…”

Has This Ever Happened to You?

‘Writing is just having a sheet of paper, a pen and not a  shadow of an idea of what you are going to say.’ Francoise Sagan :::drumming fingers on computer::: I haven’t written anything (except comments on blog posts, and a few minor revisions) for at least two days now. Am I busy? Not especially.

Magical Quote

I was in the bookstore yesterday, where they carry a line of refrigerator magnets printed with sayings and quotes of famous authors and philosophers. I happened to see this one, and liked it so much I almost paid the $5 for the thing, but then decided I really couldn’t justify it: “And above all, watch

Age Appropriate Music

For NaNoWriMo I’m beginning the prequel to the novel I was working on before I was swept away by my vampire novel back in April or May. Confused? Ok, here it is: Up until I got the inspiration for the vampire novel I was writing a supernatural/magical realism kind of story (although the realism seemed