Random Updates

It's a grey, overcast day here in semi-rural Essex. It's been threatening to rain on and off for hours, and I've been tucked up inside at my desk with a glass of red, several open Word documents, and list of writing competitions to submit to.

I've not really had much writing-related to post on here over the last week or two, so I thought I'd share a few minor updates. I'm currently very busy writing new pieces to submit, with lots of start-of-the-year chores and responsibilities taking up a fair amount of time and distracting me from my plot(s!). I had hoped to be doing more writing at the start of the year, but with job interviews and house viewers on top of everything else - time is precious. I'm happy with what I have done, and I know it's only going to increase. Writing-wise, so far, it's been mainly all-focus on editing old documents and creating new ones for competitions.

I've been going through all of my old story (and by story, I mean 'THE story') notes, reading through everything, and having a mass clear out. Sort of like a novel-based spring cleaning. Anything that I don't like, won't use, or that isn't relavent anymore is being moved to a brand new 'Archived' folder. Everything else, has been refreshed, streamlined, and re-applied to what's left. I've gone through all of my hard-copy notes. I've completed(!) the rough draft plan of my second book (in the series). I've collected nearly ten completed chapters, and half a dozen nearly-finished ones to boot. I have to say, reading through everything I realise that I'm actually much further on than I thought I was. And that's such a great feeling! Best of all, I still (mostly) like what I've already written! Woo!

Competition-wise, two that I'm thinking of entering were brought to my attention through a new writing group that I'm a part of. Writebulb was officially formed about a week ago by a small number of last year's NaNoWriMo members, but has really been in the making since the start of last November, and now meets once a month at a central library. Unfortunately (due to a previous commitment) I was unable to attend the first meet. I'm told that the turn-out was pretty good, with fourteen people in attendance! The next meeting is on February 12th, and I'm really excited to make my first meeting! For further details on the competitions, or the writing group itself, visit the Writebulb blog.

I'm also still waiting to hear from a number of places I submitted work to last year. A couple of weeks ago I submitted some poetry to Prole magazine, but I doubt I'll hear anything on that until April. I'm a bit disappointed not to have heard anything from some of the earlier ones - it's going on seven months with no contact now. A firm 'no' would have been preferable to a long, ongoing silence. Still, I'm developing a nice collection of poetry. And, if I haven't heard from those places by the end of the month I'll assume it's a no and start re-submitting some of the pieces elsewhere.

Toodles.

The Serial Writer Competition

tVR magazine (The Verso Review) is running a writing contest!

To celebrate the launch of the magazine, tVR is on the search for a short story writer to pen a story for a year's worth of magazine issues (4)! tVR is looking for a short story of no more that 12,000 words in total, split into four parts (approx 3,000 words each) to run as a serial across the next four editions of the magazine.

One winner will have their story published, and along with two runners-up will receive an annual subscription to the magazine, as well as an e-voucher worth £10 for FirstWriter.com website. You can find more details about this competition, as well as about the magazine, on the website here.

So if you enjoy writing, or have ever wanted to see your work in print, please send in your submissions! There is no entry fee, and the deadline is midnight (GMT) on 31st January 2011.

Good luck!