Competitions – Page 18

If I wanted to be accurate I should say another handful of chapters – six.
On 10th May I posted to say that I would not be promoting my titles for the remainder of the month. I have stuck by that idea.

What else have I avoided?
Apart from checking up on and commenting on the Indie Author Review Exchange anthologies I’ve tried to keep my Facebook visits down to two or three per day.

The two anthologies being collated and compiled by the group are to raise awareness and funds for charity, so I don’t want to miss anything important regarding them.

On that very topic, ‘You’re Not Alone’ by Ian D. Moore and friends now has a release date:
11th July 2015, so if not already noted in your diary for eBook purchase – please do so now. The paperback version will be along a little later, but there will be plenty of us giving out reminders.

Have I cut back on other social networking sites apart from Facebook?
Yes, and without going into detail on the names, the exercise has already paid dividends in one main way. I have been writing more – much more.

Where is the progress?
Primarily the progress has been with Acts of Vengeance, my sequel to Beyond The Law. Not only have I written more chapters, but I’ve done so without the frustration of stopping for lengthy periods to get into ‘discussions’.

My other stream of progress is with one of the stories I have running in the background. When I hit a stumbling block with my primary project I don’t make a fresh coffee and stare at the screen – I make a fresh coffee and get on with a different story.

What is the other story?
I know it isn’t to everybody’s taste, (which is also true of oral sex), but I’m writing an erotic novel titled, Give and Take. On the subject of taste, the first two chapters are available on my main menu to give you a flavour of the story. Look under the heading of Work in Progress.

Why am I writing such a thing?

The first reason is because I was asked by more than one person after they’d read my erotic anthology, Coming Around and other erotic stories.

The second reason is quite simply because I can. How well I’ll do the job I don’t know, but I want to give it a try.
For those who ‘enjoyed’ the Fifty Shades series I’d like to prove that there is more to the subject than a rich guy licking his lips and a virgin who doesn’t know what the initials BDSM stand for.

For the record, I read the first of the Fifty Shades books and I reviewed it on my blog. No, not because it was so good – but because I was incensed by how bad it was.

Now with all those lovely thoughts in mind, I’ll move over and let you get on with your day.

Thank you for the visit and any feedback.

It matters not whether it’s an outfit, a job, a car, the look of a room, the layout of your desk, or the way that you do something – it sometimes gives the spirits a lift to create change.

As a writer it helps to have more than one project on the go, moving from one to another as and when the mood takes you, or when ‘resting’ a story between drafts.

What are we doing when we change something?

We are refreshing. I recently set up a new item on my blog menu to give some basic guidance on the writing of short stories. I said within those guidelines that I’d follow up with a piece on writing short stories for competitions. That is now done and appears in my menu under the Competition Writing heading.

What was that about change and refreshing in the intro?

When I started creative writing it was poetry, and then I tried short stories. The poetry was left behind as the whole concept of short story writing captured my imagination. It took a couple of years before I dared to consider a novel, but once I’d dipped my toe in the water – I was smitten. That particular change has proved worthwhile and fulfilling.

What is the relevance of my personal writing progression to this post?

In recent weeks, apart from my other projects I’ve produced two short stories for anthologies. The incentive for writing the stories was that the proceeds of sales of the anthologies will be forwarded to charities. I will return to the subject of the anthologies to talk about them and promote them closer to their publication.

A lot of people are excited about the cover and title of one of the two charity anthologies, and quite rightly – because both are excellent. Over the next few days I’m pretty sure there will be many who ‘share’ the cover and promote the collection before its publication. I’ll leave that to them for now, and I’ll get underway with a similar strategy a day or two before the publication date.

By far my favourite Facebook group is the Indie Author Review Exchange, founded by fellow author, blogger and friend, Paul Ruddock. It is from that group, now numbering 570+ after only a few months, that an open request was made for authors to take part in the two charity anthologies.

I noted that not only were there authors who hadn’t written short stories for a while – it became clear that there were those who had never ventured into the challenges of writing short stories.

Why is it a good idea to try writing short stories?

The short story is a separate discipline to that of novel writing, or even novella writing. A short story requires tighter word usage, fewer characters, a tight timeline and a single unwavering plot which starts with a personal conflict of some description.

There is no allowance for a cast of thousands, or lengthy and flowery descriptions of imagery. The dialogue should move the story forward as rapidly as the action. The character in crisis should be the one who plays the major part in how the original conflict plays out.

In my own humble opinion I believe that even the occasional short story helps the novelist to tone-up, refresh, and reassess where they are with their writing craft. I am presently working on three completely different longer pieces at the moment, but taking a break to produce two short stories was a breath of fresh air, which I am sure has affected how I am now approaching my novels.

Are there any other reasons for writing short stories?

It may not be obvious to all writers, but there is money to be made and prizes to be won with short stories. Yes, they have to be of a high standard, and yes they will require to follow certain guidelines, but isn’t that true of any competition. If you’ve never considered the short story competition market and you’d like an insight, please check out – Competition Writing.

What am I working on in novels?

In terms of priority my front runner is Acts of Vengeance, which is the sequel to Beyond The Law. Rapidly following that one is A Life of Choice, which is a fact-based fiction, coming-of-age story. The latest contender for my literary affections is Give and Take. I am intending it to be a full length erotic novel, so the story is very much an experiment. If you’ll pardon the pun, the secondary reason for writing such a story is to provide relief when not working on the other stories. Give and Take – Chapter 1.

What else have I changed recently?

Whilst working on my two short stories for the anthologies, something came to mind. I went to my blog to check it out, and I was surprised by how many main subject headings I had on my main menu.

When I was leaving my writing aside for a break, I spent about half an hour refreshing my menu and selecting items that could be stepped down to sub-menu level.

You will see that my tips for writing short stories are all under one main heading. My short story anthologies are under a single heading. My four published novels are under one heading, and one that I’m particularly pleased about is, placing Work in Progress under one heading.

In one session I believe I have: improved the appearance of the main menu, made it easier to navigate, and made it more manageable for me as the main user. I look forward to any thoughts on the topics I’ve covered in this post.

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