Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today
I was on way home from Swanwick as I drafted this earlier this afternoon. Not sure I’m ready to face the real world yet but the weekend will help.
Mind, it was lovely getting home to the family again, and I was mugged by Lady in a totally good way as well! One happy dog…
My CFT post this week is Making Space Part 2 and here I share thoughts and tips on this for writers. Hope you find at least some of them helpful.
Planning is key to my getting writing done at all and it pays to make space for that planning. It really does help you be more productive. Try it and see!
Image Credit: Pixabay. Captions on CFT.
Publication News: Cafelit
Busy night for me! I forgot to share this earlier this week but better late than never…
Am pleased to say my story, Life is What You Make It, went up on Cafelit on 12th August. Hope you enjoy.
Why does Swanwick week always speed by? Glad to see sun come out in time for the Dregs Party held on the main lawn though.
Really encouraged on the non-fiction front and have written flash fiction stories too. Plenty to be getting on with when I get back home (and not just my laundry!).
The joy of writing is in being creative and discovering and enjoying new forms in which to write.
The joy of Swanwick is you know there are close to 300 people there with you who totally understand that.
Image Credit: Swanwick pictures taken by me but a huge thank you to Penny Blackburn for the one of me reading at the Open Prose Mic Night.
I picked Getting Lost, Mirrored, and Test Pilot to read at the Swanwick Prose Open Mic night. Many thanks to Penny Blackburn for the pic (above).
Another full day of inspiring courses and workshops. It takes a while after you get home to process all you know will be useful to you but that’s fine. Knowing what you want to do is key and coming to Swanwick can and has been helping me hone in on that.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Have three flash stories drafted as a result of Swanwick. All need polishing though. I never get as much writing done as I think I will at Swanwick, because your head (and notebooks) are full of ideas to follow up when you get back.
I also want to cherish time spent with other writers, most of whom I won’t see for another year. This is where social media is such a blessing in that it makes you able to stay in touch that way.
What was great was coming across a number of other flash fiction writers. The form is growing and that will lead to more fantastic stories. Win-win there!
The nice thing with writing for competitions is if a place doesn’t get placed, you have a story you can look at again and rework and submit elsewhere.
Most of the time you won’t be placed. Does that sound depressing? Perhaps but on the assumption there’s nothing wrong with your story, other factors happen such as:-
-
The judge has already read a story very similar to yours and, for whatever reason, the other has the edge. There’s not much you can do here other than make your work as polished as possible and try not to go for the too obvious interpretation of a theme.
-
For open competitions especially, judges may genuinely have a preference for a particular story type or genre and yours doesn’t float their boat. Just get the work out somewhere else appropriate.
Good luck!
I love it when flashes of inspiration strike though nobody says they have to come at convenient times, unfortunately.
My awkward-to-get-to-a-pen moments include:-
Being in the shower when a real cracker of an idea turns up.
Being on the loo when etc etc.
Being stuck in traffic and I’m driving.
Longing to write when on a train but you’re packed in so tight even an exceptionally skinny ant would have trouble finding space. {Anyone come across an obese ant? Just thought I’d ask!).
Oh well…
Fairytales with Bite – Making Space
My CFT post this week discusses why Making Space is a great idea for writers. See http://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/making-space-part-2-the-writing-view/
I believe fairytales and fantasy fills the spaces between reality and chaos. Why? Because so many tales in these genres reflect what we can be like, while others give strong moral messages. Why do we need such things?
- To guide us as to what our behaviour should/should not be;
- To show us what life could be like without kindness, gratitude etc. Would you really not want things to come right for Cinderella, for example?
As writers, we also need to give our characters space to develop in themselves and as part of the plot development. A character who doesn’t change will be of little interest to readers.
This World and Others – Entering Another World
You do feel as if you enter another world when you go to Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. For a week, I do! Coming out of that world again can be a wrench too.
Image Credit: Photos of Swanwick taken by me with the exception of my reading at the Open Prose Mic Night. Many thanks to Penny Blackburn for that. ALREADY SHARED ABOVE.
But going home with ideas to work on will take me back into the fantastic world of the imagination in no time. So that’s all right then!😀 The really nice thing about this?
It applies whether you write flash or other fiction and non-fiction.
When you want to escape this world for a bit, write!
Still room for pen and paper drafts. Pixabay
Allison Symes: Collected Works 