Do
as I say, not and as I do
“Do as I say, not as I do.”
That’s what my dad used to tell me when he talked to me… with his mouth full. I
spend a large part of my waking life advising people how to write, giving them
feedback on it, interviewing authors (and agents, editors, publishers etc) and
blogging about writing, but when it comes to the actual doing, I don’t seem to have
found the time.
Over the past six years
I’ve written four and a bit novels, 100+ short stories, a few articles and some
poetry so I have been prolific but I need a deadline to be so. Give me the
November NaNoWriMos or May StoryADays and I’ll write (type) my
wrists sore, but in between?
I run two writing groups,
one of which is a workshop (the other is pure critique) and every other Monday
night I set three or four exercises each with 10 or 15 minutes each and we all
write like mad until I say “stop”. Until recently (or in between the
write-loads-in-a-month projects) that’s pretty much the only writing I was
doing.
Early 2012 however I was
invited to join Tuesday
Tales,
an online writing group which produces a story per week per member from prompt
keywords and my first story was ‘Two backwards, one forwards’.
This now meant that I was writing every week and it felt great! Then came StoryADay again and another 31
stories in 31 days and I’ve loved it so much (and
realised how easy it was to write c.500 words a day) that I’ll be keeping going
come June and 5PM Fiction was born… so I still write every day,
even if it’s 300 words, because 300 words every day for a year is a 100,000
novel, albeit made up of 365 short stories. :)
Competitions are a great inspiration
and not only get me writing something new (certainly for the themed ones) but
even if I don’t get anywhere I still have the story to do something else with,
like submitting to women’s magazines here in the UK (although it’s more
advisable to write specifically for their markets) or self-publishing to add to
my collection of eBooks.
So, don’t do as I
say, and put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard because if you don’t write
anything you can’t submit it, but before you submit it you have to edit it and
you can’t edit a blank page.
Morgen Bailey biography
Morgen Bailey (“Morgen with
an E”) is a prolific blogger and freelance author of numerous short stories,
novels, articles, has dabbled with poetry but admits that she doesn’t “get it”.
Host of the fortnightly
Bailey’s Writing Tips audio podcast, she also belongs to three in-person
writing groups (based in Northamptonshire, England) and is Chair of another
which runs the annual HE Bates Short Story Competition.
Even her local British Red
Cross volunteering is writing-related (she’s their ‘book lady’) and when walking
her dog she’s often writing or editing. She also loves reading, though not as
often as she’d like, but is spurred on by her new Kindle Touch.
Somewhere in between all that
she writes a short story a week for online writing group Tuesday Tales and
for the second time, a story a day during May for http://storyaday.org (last year’s becoming a 31-story eBook
and will be doing so again with this new collection), although this year she
plans to keep going and has created a new slot on her blog called 5PM Fiction.
Acutely aware of how
important a writer’s online presence should be, she has recently set-up an
inexpensive blog-creation service at http://icanbuildyourwritingblog.wordpress.com.
You can also read / download her eBooks (some free) at
Smashwords, Sony
Reader Store, Barnes
& Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with her novels
to follow. Being an advocate of second-person
viewpoint, she also recently
had a quirky story published in the charity anthology Telling Tales.
She has a
writing-related forum and you
can follow her on Twitter, friend
on Facebook, like her Facebook Author Page, connect
on LinkedIn, find on Tumblr, look at
her photos on Flickr and join her
every Sunday (8pm UK time) on Radio Litopia where she is a regular contributor.
Her blog, which like her, is
consumed by everything writing-related, is http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com and she loves
hearing from other writers and readers, who can comment on any of the blog’s
posts, contact her via any of the above methods, complete her
website’s Contact me
page or plain and simple, email her.
Morgen Bailey
Morgen's incredible proficiency inspired me to write my 300 words very day -for the last 2 days!Contact her, she does great interviews.Mine was her #278 (http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/blog-interview-no-278-with-writer-siggy-buckley/). Good luck with your new endeavor!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Siggy. :)
ReplyDelete