Week 15

This week has been dedicated entirely to my submissions, which were posted off yesterday. Already I am wishing I had changed a couple of works in one of the poems but it is gone and if the magazine doesn’t want to use it I can revisit it and send it somewhere else! I always find myself nervous when sending work off, it feels a bit like those moments before an exam. I am hoping this passes with time, and experience…

I gave myself the evening off yesterday, but I’m back to the grindstone today to attempt to catch up on NaNoWriMo. I am unlikely to reach 50,000 words but hope to get to at least 25,000, which is still not bad for a month (for me!). Due to a change of server, I can’t access my proofreading course at the moment, but that should be reset soon so I’ll come back to it when it’s up and running again. I have a short piece to complete for a group I belong to that I drafted a while back that needs to be polished, but that’s it for this week, I think. Next week I’ll have to get back to my longer piece, and revisit some of my short stories to make them suitable for submission, as well as carry on with NaNoWriMo. By my next post the month will be finished and I’ll be able to tell you how many words I actually managed!

In other news…  When I received my writing magazine this month, there was a leaflet about the Cardiff International Poetry Competition, which I think I will enter.  I have plenty of time, as the closing date is 2 March 2012.  After my last competition entries were unsuccessful, I have to think about improving the way I present my ideas on paper – so a fair bit of self-reflection is required between now and then!  I never thought of myself as a poet, although I enjoy writing poetry, but it seems that my focus is continually going in that direction so I need to revisit any guidance, hints or tips to improve my work.  For anyone interested, the details can be found here:  http://www.literaturewales.org/cipc/

Look away now if you have a sensitive disposition – It is that time of year again, when the Literary Review gives its annual award for bad sex scenes.  Let these examples be a lesson to us all that even popular, prolific authors can struggle with certain scenes.  The article linked here does contain some strong language, as well as an example of one of the scenes being considered for the award: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/22/bad-sex-awards-the-contenders

You can look again now! Finally for me this week, I have found out that I have an unknown skill – nail art.  This has reminded me of some notes I wrote long ago on a scene in a nail salon, which I used in an assignment, where it was transferred to a hairdressers.  In turn, this has led me to think about my many notebooks, in a ‘where are they now’ sense!  I started writing notebooks during my first Open University creative writing course, as we were advised to do so very early on.  Although I cannot honestly say I write in them every day, I always have one in a bag, on my desk or in my bedroom (for those middle of the night flashes of inspiration!) so I can jot down ideas, phrases and observations at any time.  A few months ago I started to copy out notes that were related to ongoing work, or were draft pieces in their own right, but the ad hoc comments and ideas have not yet found a home.  My intention is to see whether any of those notes can be converted into something more substantial.  Wish me luck – there are notebooks all over the place!

I didn’t leave a thought for the week last week, so have searched for a two-in-one this week… I had a couple of ideas but one was very long-winded and turned into a writing exercise, so I am going with the second option!

The first part is to reflect on where you are in your writing.  The second part is to think about feedback you have received, and how you can apply this; or if you have not received feedback, look if you can at work that was selected over yours and try to analyse what the editor/judge saw that was missing from yours.  If you haven’t submitted anything, think about the reasons why. Be honest with yourself about the quality of your writing compared to other published work in your style.  Once you know where you are as a writer, you can look for ways to develop your style or fill any gaps in knowledge or experience – and remember that knowing the audience is vital to know how to pitch a piece of work.  I have seen articles where prolific short story writers have a piece rejected, so send it to another publisher, who accepts it.  The decision may not be about the quality of the writing so much as the appropriateness of the piece for their publication (or publishing house).  If you write purely for pleasure and have no intention of ever sending work off, enjoy yourself!  You may still find that reading published pieces can be useful in finding new ways to write, or new subjects to approach, and help you develop more intricate pieces.

Either way, writing shouldn’t feel like a chore so if a piece isn’t working for you, save it for later and move on to something else!

Good luck and happy writing.

EJ

🙂