Getting My Mojo Back

So far 2018 hasn’t been the most productive year of my writing life.  There have been many other things to deal with and for the large part I have been concentrating on my recovery from my illness in February, which has taken longer than expected.  But in September I received the news that my brain has healed well and I don’t have to have any more surgery which, quite frankly, I was dreading.  My Rheumatoid Arthritis unfortunately still isn’t under control and I’m having to trial different medication, but that I can deal with. I’m still here and for that I am truly grateful.

Both illnesses cause me to experience fatigue so after a day in work, it is often difficult to summon up the energy to write but I’m trying to slot little bits of writing in whenever I can and by trying to do a little bit each day, even if it is only a little bit, I can finally feel my writing mojo returning. 

I’ve only managed to submit two stories this year, hardly likely to earn my fortune, but I’m delighted to say that both of them have been accepted by The People’s Friend.

The first one, Working It Out, is in this week’s edition of The Friend.

I was overjoyed last week to receive an email asking me to be the online Writer of the Week.

Seeing my story in print is still something of a novelty to me and thoroughly exhilarating. I’m not sure when the next one will be published, but I can’t wait. It’s certainly given me a much needed push to write more.

So a big thank you to The People’s Friend for helping me to get my mojo back, and hopefully there will be many more published stories to come.

I'm In The People's Friend

I'm delighted to say that this week the story which was accepted by The People's Friend just before Christmas published.  

Originally it was called Stage Fright but has been renamed to Second Chances.  

The idea of the story came when I was watching my sister-in-law perform in a PTA school production of the Wizard of Oz.  She had never acted before so to watch her was a bit of a revelation - I've never had the guts to go on stage myself, and was very proud of her.

It made me think about what would happen if someone had acted professionally before but had to put that career on hold.  What would happen if all of a sudden she was back in the limelight again - albeit on a small scale.

And so the idea was born.  It's taken quite a few re-writes to get the story to a stage where is it publishable but it was worth the effort.  

I usually hate reading my stories once they are published, I'm hyper-critical about what I could have done better but I actually enjoyed reading this one.  Perhaps its because it has always been one of my favourites.

So, this is story number 5 that I've had published but the thrill of seeing my writing in print isn't wearing off yet.

To celebrate I sent another story to the People's Friend this week, I have a couple out with Woman's Weekly and a few more with Take A Break.  

The aim: keep on sending stuff out so I've got more chance of seeing my writing in print again.

By the way - my sister in law does not look anything like the picture above!

Happy In Between Christmas and New Year

Okay, so this isn't exactly a Christmasy image, but we are betwixt and between now, and one of the over-riding images of Christmas this year for me was settling down on Christmas Eve with my boys and watching the Snow Chic documentary.  It was a fascinating insight into the life of penguins without being too highbrow.  My youngest son adores penguins, so this made it even more enjoyable.

The other image of Christmas for me was my 14 year old son sitting on the end of my bed on Christmas morning, opening the presents from his stocking.  My mind kept floating back to when they were little and although he showed as much enthusiasm as in years gone by, there was rather a lot less room left in the bed for us.  Its nice that he still has that youthful exuberance though, I wonder if it will still be there next year, or whether I will have to drag him out of bed!

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and have survived the food, the drink, the excess and the water!  My heart goes out to all those people who have been flooded out of their homes this year, I can only imagine what that must feel like.

It's been a difficult year for our family this year and perhaps because of that I was counting my blessings this Christmas.  I've blogged about my difficulties at work, but now I'm in a new job and am enjoying it so much more - what a difference nice people make - although it's been a challenge to get my head around it all, which has left very little time for writing.  Towards the end of this year too, I have also encountered some family problems which, although not resolved, I feel at least we are coming to terms with now.

My main thought just before Christmas was that I would be glad to see the back of this year,  but then came a little ray of sunshine in the form of editor, Alison Cook, from The People's Friend.  Alison is such a lovely person, even when she's rejecting my stories, but this wasn't a rejection but an acceptance!

My story had been with them with September which proves that you should never give up hope, and it's just about the only story I have out for submission at the moment, so you can imagine my delight.  It gave me that extra boost I needed to believe in my writing and really made my Christmas.

I had decided that I wasn't going to make any New Year resolutions this year but this has made me determined to put more effort into my writing, and get more stories written and out there - after all you've got to be in it to win it.  

I'm getting myself organised in the lull between Christmas and New Year, and now that I'm more settled in my job, I hope that I can get into a better writing routine on the days when I'm not in work, and have a bit more enthusiasm to continue writing after work on the days that I am.

I'm also aiming to be a better blogger this year - but I say that every year!

Happy belated Christmas everyone.

A Bad Day At The Office

Not only was yesterday indeed a bad day at the office, sorting out the mess other people had made, but when I arrived home the bad news continued.

When I opened the door I was greeted by the ominous sight of an A4 envelope at my feet.

At first I thought it was The People's Friend returning my story, but it wasn't, it was my novel which I only sent out last week.

Sure enough attached to it was a standard rejection letter.  Whilst I'm pleased that they didn't keep me hanging around before giving me a no, I was slightly wounded by the speed at which it had been rejected.  

And then lo and behold, when I opened up my emails it was to receive a rejection for my story too.  And although it was a nice rejection, as always from The Friend, the result was still the same.

A double whammy you might say.

Oh well, these things happen and now I will have to send them both on elsewhere.  At least I've done the groundwork so it will be a simpler task this time round.

Onwards and upwards - I think I need to buy some more stamps before they go up in price at the end of the month.

A Lovely Rejection

Is that an oxymoron?  Until Friday I would have thought so too, but then I received the loveliest rejection I have ever received.

 

It was from The People's Friend and was full of useful feedback, telling me why the story wasn't right for them, which I very much appreciated.

 

But most of all it was the heartfelt encouragement telling me not to be too disappointed and to keep on sending stories to them.

 

Well I will.  I have another story which is earmarked for the magazine, which I hope to be sending out shortly. 

 

And I'm not going to give up, not when I get such lovely emails from this editor.  She is a credit to both the magazine and the publishing industry as a whole.

Completion!

Finally finished the dreaded last assignment and sent it off this afternoon.  I feel free!!!!

Actually it hasn't been such a bad exercise as the play was based on a story I wrote in draft a while ago.  For the length of the script I've had to give it much more depth, and now I'm wondering if I can convert it into a serial, which I've never tackled before.  Should be an interesting exercise.

For a while now I've been a bit of a butterfly brain, flitting from one project to the next and never getting anywhere.  This week, I've got so fed up with it that I've adopted a strategy of prioritising each project and working on it until its finished. 

I know that probably sounds simple, but I just haven't been doing it.  It's worked with the assignment, so next I'm going to tackle a story I wrote for assignment 9 of the course.  I'm hoping with some careful tweaking I can turn this into a story for Take A Break Fiction Feast (Its a bit too gritty for The People's Friend). 

By working this way, I'm hoping to complete  a lot of projects which have been stagnating.

How do you prioritise your writing?

I'm In The Friend!!

I'm so excited to see my story published in the November 9 edition of The People's Friend.

 

The story was originally titled The Proof of the Pudding, but they have renamed it Playing Cupid which is fine by me (maybe an improvement?)

 

Its so long since I read this story that to read it in print was a wonderful, I didn't even cringe too much over places where I thought it could be improved.  In fact, as I was reading I thought it sounded like it was written by a proper writer, not little old me.

Half of the anticipation of seeing it in print was wondering what picutre they would use to illustrate it.  I'm not sure I envisaged seeing my couple sitting across a cafe table, but I do like the obvious spark they have for each other.

 

It's really spurned me on to send some more stories off to them, I don't think the novelty of seeing my work in print will ever wear off.

 

I just have one query though, now that I have had a story published would it be considered cheeky to send future submissions to the editor who commissioned this one, or should I just send them addressed to The Fiction Editor as before?

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Have a great weekend everyone, I'm off to celebrate what has turned out to be an exceptional week.

Good News!

I had a productive month in September, submitting five short  stories to magazines.  Sadly these weren’t new stories but some of them have had extensive re-writes so I’m pleased that at least I’ve got a few more stories out there.

Sadly, I didn’t manage to sub anything in October, but I did draft my final assignment for my Writer’s Bureau course and drafted one short story and half of another one. 

Mostly, though, I’ve been thinking seriously about how I want my career / work life to pan out and how I can set the wheels in motion.

And finally, I’ve had some good news from The People’s Friend.  My story “What’s Cooking?” which was accepted a while back is going to be published in the 9 November edition of the magazine.  I can’t wait to see my story in print!

Success with The "lovely" People's Friend!!!

I didn't want to say anything at first, in case I jinxed it, but I've had an acceptance for a short story!  It’s the first one I've had in a long, long time and only the second one to date, and it's with The "lovely" People's Friend.

In times gone by, whenever I sent a story to The People's Friend, it seemed to bounce back with a standard rejection so fast that I used to check for the elastic attached to the envelope.  I felt that I was so way off the mark in subbing for this magazine that it wasn't worth bothering.  But recently a few writing friends have had such positive feedback asking them to resubmit, following which they made a sale, that I began to wonder if I should try again.

After reading Wendy Clarke's blog, and her glowing reports on the mag, I began to do more than wonder.  As Del Boy used to say, "Who dares wins", so I flicked through some past copies of the magazine, decided on a plot that I thought would suit and wrote it. And then rewrote it.  And rewrote it again.

When I received a response almost by return you could have knocked me over because this time it wasn't heralded by the ominous thud on the mat, but was from a lovely lady called Alison Cook.  She sent me a long email explaining why it wasn't quite right for them, but giving me options to change my plot and characters, and that they would be happy to look at it again.

To be honest, I was just chuffed to receive such detailed feedback from an editor that I thought about what I could do for a few days, and then sat down an rewrote it. 

And then I didn't hear from them for ages.  I tried not to get my hopes up that it was being seriously considered, and kept expecting an email back saying "sorry not this time", so when I did receive the email I hardly dared open it.

But I'm glad I did because it was good news, and Alison seemed thrilled to be telling me that it was going to be published.  I think my family thought I'd finally lost the plot as I danced round the house in joy.    When I signed the contracts and posted them back I felt like a proper writer. 

The good thing is that The People's Friend pay on acceptance not on publication, so the money's in the bank and I can't wait to see my story in print whenever that may be.

So now, its nose to the grindstone to get working on some more.  No point having a success if you don't capitalise on it!