That’s it! I’m all done with writing and have started the submission process. Done a cover letter and a synopsis. Dark arts that bleed the very lifeblood and momentum you’ve generating through writing your novel, but necessary evils nonetheless. Researched the agents I want to contact. A couple take emails which is handy. Got a
AuthorBen
Are Rejection Letters Fit For Purpose?
I’m just throwing this out there. It’s an idea to be bashed, smashed and totally trashed. I’m starting the submission process for my second novel, the first novel became a magnet for rejections. I did get a couple of requests for the full MS, one of which was rejected, the other is probably lost by
Surrogate Impregnation Premonitions!
The first post this year means I’m lazy so it had to be a real beauty to break me out of this slumber. Well, slumber is not quite true. I’ve been editing my novel ‘Broken Branches’ and the accompanying novelette ‘Branching Out’ so whilst that’s happening there’s not much to blog about. It’s pretty unexciting.
Novel 3: Before The Absolute Beginning.
I’ve just dished out my novelette, ‘Branching Out’, to some beta readers and will be starting the 4th draft of my 2nd novel, ‘Broken Branches’ which means soon I will have nothing else to write about, so now’s a good time to think about starting a 3rd novel. I was in this position in November
Laptop vs iPad…Laptop Wins!
I’m a grown man and I’ve just spent time cutting out teeth to create this photo of a laptop eating an iPad. I need to get a life. Anyway, writing machines, which is best? I love both and I did give my iPad an honest go of being my go-to scribing tablet but it didn’t
MOAppsWrite – Mac Writing Software
Man! Am I the laziest blogger ever?! Been writing a short story, ‘Branching Out’ which is a prequel to my second novel ‘Broken Branches’. Originally thought it would be 2,000/3,000 words, so far I’m on 8,500 and it’ll clear 10,000 easy (which classifies it as a ‘Novelette‘, apparently). Also, between the last post and the
‘Histrionics’
I thought I’d get involved in Chuck Wendig’s flash fiction competition, 100 words on the theme ‘revenge’. Editing this to the bare bones to meet the word count proved harder than vomitting forth the first draft, so here it is… Mr Kingston sat coiled in his chair, scrutinising Mr Harris at the podium, “Thank you,
‘Clarity is Strength, Understanding is Peace, Humbug is Ignorance.’
I recently read ‘Why I Write‘ by George Orwell and within the essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ lie the ‘writing rules’ sometimes quoted on Twitter and elsewhere online. It’s an interesting essay where he points out that jargon, unoriginal metaphors, padding and ‘humbug’ are used increasingly in politics and creeping into other literary arena’s.
Creating a Visual Character Map
In a shameless act of self-promotion, I wrote an article and submitted to Joanna Penn who runs ‘The Creative Penn‘. Joanna’s published it here today, ‘Writing Tip: Creating a Visual Character Map‘. If you’ve come here from there, hello! Follow me on Twitter!
Writing ‘The End’ is my motivation.
@iainbroome posed the tweet; About to record WfYL podcast. Quick poll: what motivates you to write? I replied; Finishing something I created. Finishing is what really gets me on the laptop and hitting those keys. I could think about ideas and story-lines all day without lifting a finger but compiling all those ideas and story-lines into some kind