The scary idea of pitching and a shortlisted story

It's taken me a couple of months but I decided to order a print copy of Gold Dust magazine in which a story of mine was published in December. I wanted time to read the rest of the magazine, and though it is freely available to read online I was struggling with the small print despite zooming in. Yesterday my copy arrived. I'm glad I spent money to get hold of it. It is concrete proof I was published there! I was that excited opening it.

I can also tell you that I was shortlisted for the Retreat West Prize (short story). I heard a while ago that I was longlisted and thought that would be the end of it. I was thrilled even so. I then got through to the next level - shortlisted. Unfortunately I heard the other day that I didn't get into the top three. I am disappointed but then again I got further than I ever thought possible and it has given me encouragement. My story will be published in the anthology due out in the summer and I believe there is a cash prize and an invite to the launch. So, when I have recovered from the disappointment I will see what a great run I've had with this story. I am proud of this achievement.

February has been a busy month for me. I've been going crazy with submissions - competitions and a few magazines. I seem to have reached a stop now. Maybe I'm out of steam. In April I am attending Write By the Beach run by The Beach House Academy. I went along last year for their first writers' conference on a Saturday (held in Brighton). This year is over a weekend and every delegate gets the chance to pitch to an agent/publisher (two if you are there for the weekend). So, I've been tearing my hair out over a sixty word document for a novel to pitch. It was hard to condense an 84,000 word novel down to 60 words and hope it sounds irresistible. I know pitching is a great opportunity and everyone suffers with nerves but I felt ill just preparing this. Sometimes I think I should opt out and just enjoy the weekend because I know I'll worry the whole time. But then again that would be stupid. It's at these moments I think my writing is rubbish and no will be interested, yet I've had great feedback from ladies from my book group on stories I've shared with them  - they are so supportive - my first fans! God bless them!

The art of organising and note taking....if only!

I think one of my writing goals for 2017 should read be more organised. I work in an organised chaos and am bad at making notes when I write. I'll remember that, I think. Oh yes! (Case in point - couldn't remember the name of a very minor character who appears once and is mentioned once when he had a name! Made no notes 😐. Ended up leaving a ? It will come out in the editing, but annoying.)

So I am going to try and get my act together a bit this year. Over breakfast I went through Writing Magazine to see who was looking for what and cut out the ones I thought I might enter. Instead of leaving the little snippets stuffed in a plastic pocket (where upon I take a few out and then lose them!) I have stuck them on a sheet of A4 paper and highlighted the deadlines and anything else I think is important (word count, for instance). One of the competitions had a deadline of tomorrow so I had to make a quick decision and I did. I fired off a piece of flash fiction I had which fitted the word count and had been waiting in my 'Flash' folder on my laptop.

Over the last few days I succeeded in my first goal for 2017 and finished the humorous novel which was put aside in October so close to its ending. The bones of the last few chapters are there. I know I will need to do some serious editing but at least it is done and I can move on. (We won't mention the chapter I thought I'd lost - see note about notes!). I have no idea when I shall start editing it. I now have rather a lot of editing hanging around my neck.

Going back to submissions I try to have a mix of competitions and magazines. Competitions require a monetary outlay which mount up if you do too many in month. However, looking at the websites of some magazines their submission guidelines can be quite daunting. Sometimes I don't even know what they asking for because their explanation is so weird. It puts me off and I just decide not to submit there. Surely a genre requirement, word count and a look at an issue of their magazine would suffice? Why the obscure and mysterious wording? Am I alone in this?

So, it's back to the submissions and editing. If you are doing the same, good luck.

The last minute submission and the yearly review

Don't write something at the last minute and submit it at almost the final hour. That's my advice. Do I take it? Er....no! This is just what I have done today. My success with poetry this year has been pitiful and I've more or less given it up. And then I saw my local library was advertising their yearly poetry competition. Now, I've been quite successful here in the past - one year I came second and another I had a poem commended. The competition is also free and has the added advantage of being local, so no global entries into their thousands.

I saw the competition late, picked up the leaflet and pondered it. Now and then I thought about it again and then yesterday (deadline is 31st December!) I decided I'd look and see if I had anything fitting this year's theme. I did! You can enter up to four poems. I had three and then dismissed one. And then.,,,,,,oh dear....I decided to write one specifically for it. The idea came quickly. It's amusing (amusing poems don't win prizes but it's a free entry so what the heck. I like them). I re-read my poems again and then sat on them overnight. I don't have longer to ponder them. I read them again this morning and still liked them, including my last minute write. So I've shot them off this morning. The good thing about this competition (and entering late) is that I shall know one way or another by the end of January if any have sunk or swum into the winning zone.

Now I wouldn't recommend writing this way - last minute - because one day you go back and look at it and think what the hell! But now and then I like to take risks. It's anonymous, who's going to know! So there we have it, my last submission of the year.

And now we come to my review of the year. It makes an interesting read but will probably bore the pants off you. Still here goes.

• January - three poems submitted - no acceptances
• February - three poems submitted and two flash fictions - one flash fiction accepted
• March - one flash fiction submitted (accepted) and three short stories
• April - four flash fictions submitted - one accepted
• May - one flash fiction submitted and accepted
• June - A poetry pamphlet competition entry with 20 poems, 5 other poems submitted, one flash fiction and one short story - short story accepted
• July - nine poems submitted and three short stories - (one short story still waiting result) 
• August - three flash fiction submissions and one short story - one flash accepted and one was shortlisted.
• September - Two flash fictions (both accepted) and two short stories
• October - nine poems submitted, (one accepted, four waiting result) four flash fictions (two accepted, one waiting result) and one short story
• November - Two flash fictions submitted - both accepted
• December - three poems submitted (waiting result), one flash fiction (accepted) and two short stories (waiting result)

What I see here is that flash fiction has been my forte and I intend to plug away with that. Flash fiction is anything up to 1,000 words in my book. The shortest published flash I've written was 50 words. I have to thank Paragraph Planet for liking my words enough for me to appear on their website on average once a month! (I love it that my name appears alongside my favourite author Elly Griffiths). Thanks PP. Their 75 word challenge is a great one. Another flash fiction I wrote was originally an exercise from the Open University FutureLearn online writing course. I always liked it and though it wasn't picked in a competition I entered Gold Dust magazine liked it and it can now be read in their latest edition online! (Issue 30) I was thrilled to be told this story entitled High Noon had made it. It has that certain humour I so much enjoy writing. I only found out on Christmas Eve that it was published, though I'd known for a couple of months it was to happen.

My very first short story to be published came out in an Anthology by Eyelands (a Greek based competition). This was an other long wait. My story Reading the Auras was a shortlisted entry appearing alongside the winning ones. The book due out at the end of November was delayed (and then there was postal strike in Crete!). It arrived on Christmas Eve. So, you can see I was in rather a good mood for Christmas!

Deciding to write more flash stories and short fiction is paying off. I adore writing them and people seem to like them. I thought it would be good practice for novel writing as before attempting my first novel I'd only really written really short flash fiction. I did send out one of my novels to two agents. Both returned it and I have since re-written the first chapter and am trying to get some professional feedback on it. While I can get feedback on shorter stories through my writing group a novel is different. I have no one to read those at all so I haven't a clue if they work.

Having completed all my goals for 2016 by not aiming too high I am now thinking about 2017.
My goals look like this:

1. Continue writing and submitting flash fiction and stories widely
2. Get professional feedback on one novel
3. Edit one novel and try and find an agent
4. Continue writing longhand in my special notebook using the prompts from Writer to Writer (I'm so enjoying this right now) and type up some of the stories for submitting once edited
5. Finish the humorous novel (it's very close to the end)
6. Take time away from writing sometimes (I've found the pressure of not writing a novel at the moment so good!)
7. Have a sort of writer's retreat just to relax and write without the burden of chores and family
8. Probably book a place at Swanwick Writers' Summer School in August

I think number 3 will be the tricky one!

I have no desire (right now) to write another novel, though that doesn't mean I don't have ideas. I would like to write a sequel to one and one other humorous novel so I have a set of three! There are other ideas, notes and profiles but I'm not going there yet. I have to consolidate what I have with lots of editing and submitting. This will be the year of the flash and the short!

Looks like it could be a busy year and hopefully a fruitful one. Wishing everyone luck with their own writing in 2017. And if you feel brave tell me your goals.

STOP PRESS I've just found out that I have been longlisted for the Retreat West prize (short story category). That was my one waiting from July! This doesn't mean I'll get on the short list and I have to wait another month for this. Oh the waiting, the waiting! Wish me luck! HAPPY!

A submission....finally

Finally submitted!

In between looking after my son, the one with the broken knee, I have managed to finally get my first 5,000 words edited and sent it out yesterday, along with the synopsis and covering letter. I have entered a first drafts thriller/crime competition. It took far longer than I imagined to get it all right. The March issue of Writing magazine provided a good model for synopsis writing, and that came at the right time. It meant I re-wrote mine and managed to get it to one page. The competition didn't state a word limit for the synopsis, but I felt keeping it short and to the point would be best. It's now tightened up and hopefully it's written in a less confusing way! It was a huge relief to get it sent. I'm not expecting a miracle, but it's been good practice.

I am also glad that this draft is out of the way now because I have just brought my son back from hospital. After a new assessment on Monday at the Fracture Clinic it was decided to operate (the joint had moved out of alignment during the week). So I had to order a car for 6.30am yesterday (we don't have a car) to get us to the hospital by 7am. He had the operation near to lunchtime and hubby and I went to see him last night. They had fixed a brace to his knee and the kneecap is wired together. He was in great pain. It was hard seeing my son like that knowing there was nothing I could do to help. While we were there he was given two more different painkillers, the last liquid morphine and he at least seemed less agitated when we left.

I didn't sleep well, but went to choir practice even though my head was all over the place, and I was getting a running commentary from my son as to the latest (I did switch my phone off while singing!). He text me not long after I got back from choir to say they were discharging him. So, after lunch and changing his bed I set off back to the hospital. He is now ensconced in bed surrounded by his remote controls, painkillers, drink and pillows for his leg. At least he is relieved to be home, as am I. Maybe both of us will get some sleep tonight. It's going to be a long haul. It will be back to the Fracture Clinic in two weeks time for them to adjust the brace. With my manuscript out of the way I won't be tearing my hair out wondering how I will get everything done (chores have piled up).

The next thing on my list, when I feel ready, is to do the next edit of the comedy novel. This is the one I'm hoping to submit to an agent this year because it's nearer finished than anything else.

Now, it's back upstairs to see if 'his Lordship' is okay. There has been no text so maybe he is sleeping.

Submission guides - how to beat the slush pile

Having finally 'come down' from the Winchester Writers' Festival I am gradually thinking through some of things I leaned, not only about writing, but the writing business side - agents, publishers, what they look for and so on.

Today I thought I'd tackle guidelines. I'm pretty sure I've discussed this subject in the past when talking about submitting poetry and if you want to stand any chance of an agent or publisher reading your work, you must adhere to them. I am amazed at the people who still flout the simple stuff, do their own thing (because that's the way they work) and ignore what is required. If a guideline asks for two chapters, don't send them three, if it states they want the first 5,000 words, don't send them 6,000. Stick to the rules. Some other pointers:

• If you have any queries, ring and ask. This is much better than assuming.
• Make sure you have a completed manuscript. Don't just send what you've written so far.
• Wait until your manuscript is the best it can be. Check the spelling, the punctuation and look for inconsistencies. Get someone to proof read for you.
• If the guidelines specify that your submission should be in 12pt Times New Roman and double spaced send it that way. There may be other guidelines. Stick to them.

It was interesting to hear agents walk about submitting a synopsis. Some agents don't even read them, just the cover letter then go straight to the first line of the manuscript. However, if they ask for a synopsis, send one (and stick to the guidelines on this too). If you have never written one, as I hadn't, research them online. It is confusing though, because you get lots of information which often conflicts. The agent Scott Pack said he didn't want to be told the genre or which age group it was written for because he would make that choice! That is different advice to what I found online..

Likewise, with covering letters, don't say things like 'I've tried everyone else and now I'm trying you', Keep it business like, say a bit about yourself, mention who on their list you like and read, so they know you have done some research. Again, research it and don't waffle!

If after all this your manuscript survives that initial process the agent will look at you first line. And that can still make or break you. Without a great first line your manuscript may well be binned without any other words being read.

It's heartbreaking. It's brutal. But it's true. You've spent a year, two years, or more on a piece of writing and it may never get more than a cursory glance. You have to do everything in your power to make your writing stand out. In the workshop I attended on 'Planning for your Success' with the excellent Simon Hall, we did a whole section on first lines alone. Look at other books, how they start. Practice a few one liners yourself. In the workshop we all had a go at writing them. Mine was 'If only I'd met you on the first day.' There were great ones written by others. All made you want to read on. That's what you have to aim for.

Finally, there is the bit you have no control over and that includes (don't laugh), the mood the agent is in on that day - known as timing! If your manuscript arrives just as he or she is packing up to go home they may not want to bother. If they've had a rough day, likewise. And there is also the fact that they may have just signed someone with a similar idea to yours. However brilliant your work may be they are not going to sign you.

If you receive feedback (and not all do give it), read it, learn from it and carry on.

After all this you may be thinking you will never get published. However, if you stick to the guidelines, do a good covering letter and synopsis and have a brilliant first line, you have done all you can to improve your chances. After all the writing you will have done on your novel, don't blow it by ignoring the guidelines, and do pick an agent who fits your genre. (Look at The Artist & Writers Year Book). One suggestion is to go for a smaller publisher. Those with big names on their list are less likely to pick you up unless you are brilliant.

Now go write and submit!