I don’t want this to be all about bragging - it's the bragging that made me leave Facebook - so I’ve used sub-titles
to show you what you can learn from this.
Can’t write? Don’t
worry.
All story-ed out is what I have been for the past few years. I’ve
been writing and selling stories since 1981 so it was little wonder that my
story ideas dried up. Did I worry? No. Did I miss story writing? Yes. But to
fill in the gap I got busy with article writing and I have five regular columns
to produce each month. Add to that the grindingly slow process of putting my
cyclist’s life together and I wasn’t being exactly lazy. (see below) Now, suddenly, almost three years on, I’m getting
story ideas again. Better still, I’m writing them. I remember Eileen Ramsay,
the novelist, telling me about the fallow fields outside her home. She compared
them to writing. It didn’t look as if anything was happening in those fields
but things were busy underground and in the Spring… well, we all know what
happens. Life (ideas) return.
Who told you that you
were lazy, had a big nose, flat feet…?
Many of you know that, as a child, my mother told me I was lazy because
she was always on the go and I was always curled up with a book or pen and
paper. If you believe anything bad about yourself, ask who told you this and
question it now you’re an adult.
Don’t let rejected
stories fade away
I sold a couple of stories during those story-less years but they
were old ones which had been turned down. Now they’ve sold. I often wish I’d
kept count of the sold stories but I stopped not long after 400. Count your
successes. Take another look at those rejections and see if they can be
improved. Maybe they can be shortened or lengthened to suit a different market.
Aim for more and more
Last month, March, I sent out seven stories and four of those were
brand new. I hope to beat that in April but I won’t beat myself up if I don’t. If
you sent out one last month, try for two this month.
Personal experience
makes it easier
I had joined in an online discussion about nightmare guests.
Someone had written about a guest who arrived at 2am shouting up to the bedroom
window, ‘Coo-e. I’m here at last.’ That
was my opening line for a new story. I remembered a couple of sets of guests
who had not exactly been delights and I was away. It took me just over an hour
to write the story because personal experience always makes it easier. I worked on it later and again this morning, changing words, moving sentences around and now reckon
it’s ready to go out. My confidence is returning.
A little help from your
friends
Up until yesterday’s story I had been sending any new ones to Glynis
Scrivens, my cyber-sister, asking if they were any good. I had grave doubts
about all of them but she assured me they were fine. I’d lost my confidence
during the fallow years. Every writer needs a writing friend who will tell them
the truth.
Recently I’ve sold to My Weekly, The People’s Friend and The
Weekly News but this week I got what I had been wanting – an acceptance from
Take A Break’s Fiction Feast.