Writing straight to laptop -v- writing longhand

Walks help to flush out ideas for writing

 It has been years since I've handwritten a story in a notebook. Apart from writing group meet-ups and a bit of free writing, I write straight to laptop these days. There was a time when I never thought I'd be able to do that as I was so used to writing by hand. Now it's the other way around. This all started  because I had no time to type my opening for my story onto my laptop. I was going out and scratching out my ideas with a pen and paper (I grabbed some printer paper), was the only way. I covered several sides before I left the house.

That's the way it this piece then went. I did type up what I'd written later, but as I was due to go on holiday and I didn't want to lug my laptop with me, I took my notebook. The idea had formed into something longer. I wrote by hand every morning before breakfast, and sometimes later. So, when I returned from holiday, I decided to keep it going that way. The piece was eventually finished whilst sitting in a cafe a bus ride away from me, where I also bumped into a lady from my writing group!

What did writing this way teach me? My head was still ahead of my writing as when I type straight to laptop, but it also slowed me down. Often I'd start not knowing what I was going to write next to continue the story, but once I started, the pen flew across the paper. That was a surprise. It was a bit like a stream of consciousness. On average, I wrote six pages in the mornings, but when on a roll, that was added to. The action took place in a confined space with only three main characters, and that helped. I didn't have to spend lots of time inventing a village, town or movement to other places. All these things worked in my favour. Because I was writing every day, I didn't have the usual worry about not remembering what came before. I also didn't set myself a word limit, and writing by hand, I had no idea how that was going anyway. Was it going to be a short story or something longer? I didn't know. I just wrote what I wanted to write to complete the piece. I got really into my characters and felt I was there with them. I also knew early on now it would end, so it was more about how to fill out the piece. Some of the walks I took on my holiday helped with that. Walking (with dog or not) helps me with my next moves. I see it in my head. Even the dialogue comes, and thankfully I'm pretty good at remembering what's in my head. I use this technique when I am writing anyway, so this one is familiar to me.

Drawbacks? Well, apart from having to type it up, which is a bind for me, and that maybe just me, there were none. I would read back what I'd written after I had written it to amend spellings, some punctuation and add the missing words my brain put in for me! I am further amending it now I am typing it up, but I haven't completed the typing yet.There will still be rounds of editing to be done.

Having thought about the way I write and whether my work is plot driven or character led, I have come out on the side of character led. I adore inventing characters, especially funny ones, annoying ones, feisty ones. Place and plot come together. If I look at all my pieces of work, they all begin with a character. That didn't change when I was writing by hand.

Will I do it again? Yes, and I have. I had another idea (I have our dog to thank for some of these lightbulb moments. Walking him has certainly helped). This time I knew it was a short story, and it began with a character. Set in the 1970's it is about a young teenager's first encounter with romance. I don't normally write romance, but this is more than just romance, it is also about friendship, and it is set in a fairground. I wrote this totally by hand again, but when I typed it up I tried to find some mood music and ended up with a track by Dire Straits called Tunnel of Love. I'm a big DS fan, but all it did was stop me typing as I wanted to sing along! That's why I usually only listen to Trance when I work because it's too distracting otherwise.

How do you write? Do you write by hand and then type up your work, or do you write straight to laptop? Maybe you do a mixture of the two. Do let me know.

All photos were taken in Cornwall.

Publication Day

 Publication day has arrived for Tinsel Street. All the pre-orders have been sent, and I am madly promoting my book across social media. Have I popped champagne corks? No. I've actually been busy doing some mundane things like getting a wash on the line before the rain comes, walking the dog and going to the high street for essential things.

However, I have today signed and delivered the booking form and paid the deposit for my author event. Everything has changed. I was to hold the event in a local library as part of Libraries Week at the end of October, but someone else took my spot, and though I can move it it to another date, the time is too early. So, I have gone for the stand-by space, which my friend and I decided on while waiting for the initial reply from the library. Yes, I have to pay for it (whereas the library was free), but I get the time and date I want. Plus, it's very local to me. I will be telling you more soon, but it will be held in early November.

To go with Tinsel Street, I have put together a playlist. I love books with playlists and/or maps! The link for the playlist is https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1q4LyKx7Qje4qlH0BKhpq2?si=22148503e2e349ee

And other links to buy a copy of the books are here:

https://troubador.co.uk/bookshop/contemporary/tinsel-street

https://amzn.eu/d/d2UShQQ

And you can order it though a bookshop.

I will be writing more about Tinsel Street soon.

So, why not spend Christmas on Tinsel Street? Enjoy!

I'm now on Substack

 

A haul of blackberries from the park
and a new use for poo bags!

If you hadn't already noticed, I am now on Substack and have posted about three times there. The content is different from what I post here, so you might like to go over and take a look. I have added a link to the side of my blog, but it's come in rather large and I have no idea how to change that! It is rather annoying as the page isn't as clean as it was, so I might do some fiddling with it to see if I can move it to a better place. Originally I just had a side piece with a copy and paste link, but today I found the right link on Substack for using Java and it has worked.

I am still learning how to use Substack, but it's good in that when I go to post, it reminds me to add certain buttons, which I always forget to do! What will I be posting over there? Well, so far I've posted about playlists - finding them and using them for mood music when writing, and the most recent was about reading and when do you give up on a book. I intend to post little bits of my writing there too. My page is free to read and subscribe to, so why not take a look?

Meanwhile, on the writing front, I have been active in submitting to competitions and magazines. Mostly my submissions have been flash or short stories, but I have also entered two poems for The Winchester Poetry Prize.

I am still waiting to hear from the library about a date for my author event to promote Tinsel Street. I have a venue, and the event will be held during Libraries Week. However, someone else has asked for the same date as me, so it's books at dawn to see who gets it! Ha!

I recently met up with my writing group in Waterstones. Not much writing got done as I was chatting to two ladies about their stories. No read-back happened, but that's okay. Sometimes it's good just to chat and make connections, and I did get some writing done. I was a bit narked that I missed the open mic night. No one mentioned it at the meeting, and I got the notification too late through the Facebook Group, or rather I didn't see it until it was too late. These aren't run by the group and only seem to happen a few times a year. I really enjoyed the first one earlier in the year.

Being really good, I took my notebook with me while I was away doing yet more clearing of my cousin's house. This time I was with my two sons and my brother, and I rented a house for us for five nights. We took Rue the dog, who was rather unsettled at first, but there was a garden for him. The people next door had two dogs, and as soon as they barked, he ran back in. He doesn't like barky dogs. There was a lot of sniffing under the fence.

I was able to do some writing - one evening and one morning. I'm still adding to the cli-fi story I am writing and have since typed up what I wrote. I'm up to 10,000 words now, so I have reached my first goal.

That's it for today.

And it's hi and bye from Rue.

Rejection and how to deal with it

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

 A quick post about rejection. I've often spoken about this in the past. All writers go through it. So how do you deal with it? Well, I've just read this excellent article by Rachel Bower on the Poetry School website. Do read it here. I hope this helps.

About my book 'How to Take a Lawnmower Home on the Tube....'

 My collection of flash fiction goes back many years. These little stories have been gathered together (there are more, of course) from the time I began having my work published.

Homeless had no title. As a75 word flash there was no room! In order to file it on my computer, I gave it the title of 'Rough Sleepers'. It was the first piece of 75 word flash I had published by Paragraph Planet. They gave me my first break. The piece has had a slight edit since, but is almost the same. After that I had many pieces published by Paragraph Planet.

And then I found Visual Verse, who sadly are no longer running, but the website is still there and I still have an author page there. Every month they would post up a picture and ask writers to respond to it in 50-500 words, either a poem or a piece of flash. I wrote both and had both flash and poetry published by them. I loved their prompts and still miss them.

With longer pieces, I found homes for in Aayo, Gold Dust and 121 words.

There were some pieces I couldn't include due to offering the piece to a magazine for several months etc after which I am free to publish again.

With the Visual Verse pieces, I had prompts which got my creative juices flowing. For the others it was down to me. Authenticity came from a writing conference workshop. The writer was explaining what he does to create authentic scenes, including being tied up in the boot of a car! North came to me after reading The Wall by John Lanchester about the future and climate change. Sea Sick is another climate piece.

Will You Take This Woman is a mad-cap flash about a proposal and the reaction of the girl's odd family. Strangely, I visualised this story in the back room of my mum and dad's house, though it has no bearing on the story, except my hubby did want to do the old fashioned thing of asking my dad for my hand in marriage! My parents were nothing like these two.

Rescue Remedy is a story I loved writing. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but readers have highlighted this one as a favourite. It's amusing and about an elderly woman who takes a fancy to the young man next door. She loves him popping over to help her, and she will go to great lengths to make that happen.

Bluebells went through a lot of re-writes. It started off as a longer piece and was often edited to fit word counts for submissions. It never quite made it, but I always liked it.

Marigolds is basically a true story I felt I had to write about the time after my mother died.

I realise that Sc-fi now turns up a lot in my writing. Clone was one that made it into here. I love this. There is something about robots that fascinate me. The Rules of the Game is also a robot story and involves dressing a Christmas Tree. And Grafting (one of my favourites) is another. A sort of cross species romance! I have a piece called The Companion which I'm still trying to find a home for. It's a short story and amusing. A 'what if' piece, and I love it. 

I write a lot about religion or faith. Some of it is serious, others are amusing. Wilderness is a ponder on losing ones faith and what happens then.

There are many wacky stories - including a new take on Miss Muffet  in the voice of the spider, and another story in the voices of scrimps (It's Never that Simple in the Food Chain). Another story takes place in prison - The Office, and another is about a condemned prisoner who realises his hanging it is not the end The Writing on the Wall. I know I got that idea from somewhere but I cannot remember where now.

Memory Foam came from something my son told me, and he was also helpful with his knowledge of guns (don't ask me!) in High Noon, where a burglary goes wrong.

Of the new stories, I like Electronic Curtains about a man and his love of birds. But he needs a carer to get him up in the morning, so he wishes he had electronic curtains so he could part them when he wakes. It's very light hearted.

My stories deal with war, love, refugees, climate and contrast with the fun side of life and the wacky. Another favourite of mine is Remote Viewing (published by Visual Verse) about loneliness and poverty.

This is just a quick look at some of the stories in my book and a little behind the scenes take on how I came to write them. Ideas can come as a bolt from the blue, or they nudge in slowly. The stories also span the years since being published by Paragraph Planet, and I will always be grateful to them as I pushed on with my writing. The last previously published story here is The Tomorrow Box from 2023 (Aayo), a ghostly searching for a past and future.

I hope that's whetted your appetite. You can read all the stories for yourself. The book is available through Amazon (eBook, paperback, Kindle Unlimited) and to order through all good bookshops. It is getting 5* reviews.

Supporting other writers

 A few weeks ago I attended a new play in Camden as part of the their fringe festival. The lady who wrote it and acted in it is part of the group I call The London Writers Support Group. We have been meeting once a month for just over a year, and we were all part of Indie Novella Online Writing Course. 

This is a very supportive group, so when Ioana said she was taking her play to the Edinburgh Fringe, our group supported her in her crowdfunding. And then she told us she was putting the play on in Camden prior to Edinburgh, and I booked tickets for myself and a friend.

The venue had a bar/cafe at street level, and the performance space was down in the basement. It was good to see other people from the group too. The play entitled Goodness Me was funny. The play featured thirty-year-old Celeste, whose relationship had just finished. She is lonely, broke and utterly lost. Her life begins to unravel. Her only companion is Lulu, a snarky yet oddly wise Furby. As her guide, Celeste must navigate heartbreak, identity and the pressure to fix everything. Celeste is also a writer trying to get her work published, and the comments in the play really resonated with me and made me laugh so much.

How Ioana remembered all those words, I don't know. Not something I could do. I can't even memorise my own poems! It was a lovely evening, and we all had our photos taken together afterwards. I know Ioana still has to edit down the performance as the Edinburgh Fringe shows are for one hour, and this was longer when we saw it. I'm sure she will manage it, and I wish her the best of luck.

It's good to support other writers where we can. This can be by attending a book launch/reading, buying books and leaving reviews on social media and Amazon. Indie authors write some incredible books and do not get the attention traditionally published authors do. Readers aren't always prepared to take a risk with a new author. But they are missing out on some wonderful stories.

The performance space in Camden was packed the night I was there. Ioana had three more nights to perform and it sounded as if the numbers were good again. I hope the other nights went as well, and that the Edinburgh Fringe is a success for her. She told us that without our group she might never have got the play written. I was so pleased I could be a part of this.

So I have a book out. What next?

Pre-Order now!

 Apologies for the delay in posting. I am going through some stuff which has affected my anxiety levels and writing and other things have suffered. 

I had a lovely mini-break with a friend to celebrate our 70th birthdays and while I was away, my son had a prang in his car, and despite the damage being only cosmetic, the insurance company wrote the car off. I could have sat down and cried. This was my cousin's car which I gifted to him and he named Mollie-Sue after my cousin and her little dog. It was all very emotional. It seems the other guy, after verbally abusing my son and getting his insurance details from him, locked himself into his car and refused to speak to my son. The guy was speeding and knew it.

I had to get my head around all this while I was going around Shakespeare's birthplace and stepped out of the gift shop to talk to my son on the phone. In some ways, it was good to be distracted and to be with a friend, but for a while I couldn't concentrate.

Things are sorting themselves out, but all this came on top of other things. My go-to help is plugging my earphones in and listening to music (this time it was Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears) and reading almost non-stop just to fill my head with something other than all the problems. 

This wasn't how I was going to start my post, but life has just thrown a lot at me all in one go and maybe now the tunnel isn't quite so dark. Hopefully.

So, to writing and the subject line of this post. I was so thrilled to hold my book How to Take A Lawnmower Home on the Tube.... in my hands. My author copies are down to two left as friends have been buying from me. However, I learned something else (you never stop learning), and this may be obvious to other writers, but not to me....ratings go up when you sell through Amazon and reviews are from 'verified buyers', though I get most royalties selling direct. It's a minefield of swings and roundabouts. My publisher also put the eBook on Kindle Unlimited where I get paid per page read. I didn't do this with my two previous books, so it will be interesting to see how this works and whether it helps with my royalties, but right now I've had around 35p sent to my account! Oh, lets all go out on that, ha!

Thanks to all who have bought so far and left reviews. I've sold more books than I have reviews so far, but I know some are still reading!

And so, to the next book. Tinsel Street is now out for pre-order through Troubador and Amazon, and no it's not too early to talk about Christmas! Again I was thrilled to clutch my box of books and it looks fantastic, and of course it is a fantastic read.

Here are some links to Tinsel Street: 

Troubador: https://troubador.co.uk/bookshop/contemporary/tinsel-street

Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/55vAWLt

You can also get it through Google Play and Apple Books and order through bookshops.

I'm currently looking for a venue to set up an author event locally and hopefully I will have some news on that soon.

So, publishing a book is not the end. There is the constant marketing/promoting one has to do to keep it noticed and looking for new readers. Word of mouth is good, so recommendations and reviews are vital. I've also learned that not all friends will buy my books. I remember once doing a talk to a group I am a member of. They loved the talk, but not one of them bought a book (and I gave away a little booklet of my poetry I had put together on my laptop). If you have bought and read my books, I thank you. If you've left reviews, I am very, very grateful. My goal has always been to share my stories with people. I love writing and cannot imagine life without it.

The life of a writer is never smooth, but I have learned to just about cope with the lows. You need to be thick skinned and I'm not. I know others have given up and some people look down on writers who do. But I understand. I've been there and somehow worked through it. Not everyone can, and I didn't think I could, but I'm still here. I'd never be so disrespectful to those who can't face the rejection and give up. It's just sad that so many good writers never make it, never get the break, never have the support and choose to stop.