sandbox

….but I just couldn’t. With the computer spread over the dining room table in bits and Ell muttering invocations to the computer Gods, I thought I had nothing else to do than sit down at the kitchen table with a pad and pen and – write; the way I used to. I was so looking forward to it that I was... Sign in to see full entry.

……leaves me not in the least discombobulated, neither does the fact that I haven’t heard anything from any agent or publisher. Why? I don’t care any more. I have decided – or perhaps ‘finally accepted’ – that I am never going to make any money from writing and instead I’m going to have fun. The idea... Sign in to see full entry.

…but, it just so happens that I haven’t needed an excuse. This week, I finished the chapter I started writing about a month ago. I haven’t lost as many words as I wanted to – from 10,712 to 5,432. This is only a loss of 4,280, and considering I want all the chapters to be approx 3,500 to 4,000, I... Sign in to see full entry.

It was an answer I gave to one of Tapsel-T’s comments that got me thinking about the above heading. Do I really, as I said, write Hyperbole and Fantasy? Looking up Chambers, I discovered the meanings:- Hyperbole – ‘ a rhetorical figure which produces a vivid impression by extravagant and obvious... Sign in to see full entry.

OK! So I cried into my beer for a few days and felt sorry for myself, just because a literary agent ignored my existence – big deal. I was never going to write anything else again which would cause me to be ignored, sneered at, scorned, dismissed and generally be brushed under the carpet by anybody... Sign in to see full entry.

‘If you think your project is right for this or any other agency, write or email a query couched in straightforward language. Give the agent all the relevant information, if previously published, when and where, etc. But avoid the oversell. Talking about the book tour and the big contract in your... Sign in to see full entry.

Anyone who reads this blog will perhaps know or remember that I placed six articles on the Constant Content website late last year. I made a few mistakes in doing so, and had to change and re-list the pieces, but eventually I was as happy as a pig in the brown stuff – for a few days…… ….until I... Sign in to see full entry.

....or, how to go bankrupt as a writer. I’ve reduced the first set of notes I took for the beginning of this chapter from 2,376 to 1,161. In the process, which has been driving me crazy over the last day and a half, I think I have added more information and more funnies. I have spent most of the... Sign in to see full entry.

Well, that’s that 3,458 word chapter finished to my temporary satisfaction. I still have to insert a few paras at the end of it to lead into the next chapter which I think will be the trip to New York. That should be an interesting experience as there are 10,712 words in the notes I took when we... Sign in to see full entry.

Over the past few weeks, between present hunting, entertaining, and visiting, I have been trying to write a chapter of the book, without much success. The whole system has been irritating me no end. [After reading the first sentence, and bearing in mind it is a new positive year, I should really... Sign in to see full entry.