The goals are achanging

In my last post about my writing goals this year I mentioned one goal I wanted to achieve, possibly, but if not do the alternative. The goal was to maybe submit more ideas to a certain magazine that published short stories that was suited to what I write. That goal has now completely changed, because the magazine has changed their rights policy. When I had my story published with them last year, I was given the rights back after publication. That magazine now has a contract (which I didn't get) asking for All Rights. You can read more about it at womagwriter.blogspot.com. You can also read more about it in the current issue of Writer's Forum magazine.

So what to do instead? Well, I am planning on getting all my magical and ghost stories together to put as a collection. I am also going to enter more competitions and write more fillers, starting this week. I will be entering a flash fiction competition this week, and have in mind to write a couple of bits for Writer's Forum magazine. Watch this space...

New writing goals

Happy new year. Yes, I know it's a bit late but have been busy with personal things going on. So, it's a new year, and I have more writing goals with one main one to focus on from this year on. I am going to concentrate on being an indie author and writing and publishing my ebooks/books for adults and children. I might think about sending an idea to a magazine that published a story of mine last year, but not sure. I have to go through any ghost stories I have already written and printed, see if they are suitable then write a blurb for it.

So here are my main writing goals:

1. Publish 'The Valentine's Card' in February. It is out for editing at the moment, and I am sorting out the cover for it. So this should happen.

2. Publish 'Qessa and the Bouncing Blazer'. Edits have been done and I just need to do minor checks on some repetition my editor pointed out.

3. Publish 'The Friend' short story. Will be later in the year as I haven't finished writing it yet. I know what the cover will look like.

4. Either send a ghost story to a magazine or work on ghost stories for a short story collection of my own I have in mind.

5. Get 'The Rainbow School Guide to Anxiety' ready for publication. Nearly finished this. Want to add illustrations to this and work out the cover.

The first three I will definitely do this year. Hopefully the other two, too.

Well, they are my goals for this year as a proper indie author. Good luck with yours.

Preparation for a conference

This time next week I will be in Queen Mary's University, Mile End Road at the RNA conference. Hopefully learning something. I've been to a few conferences and retreats now, so know what I need to pack. So, if you are a newbie to a conference or retreat, here is what I have either already packed or will be packing:

I will be taking casual clothes to wear, with a spare top, trousers, underwear and socks. As well as spare shoes/sandals, and comfy ones. I do like to wear different shoes alternately, as they say it is best for your feet not to wear shoes more than one day at a time.

I have already packed emergency supplies eg paracetamol, plasters etc. This includes my medications.

I have already packed most of my toiletries, some of which were from when I went to the retreat in May. I am taking with me tubes and bottles of things that don't have much in, so if they empty there, I can just throw them away instead of carrying them home again, esp if they're not recycleable.

As a writer I will be taking with me: notepad and pens (be sure to take a few just in case), biz cards, postcards promoting my 1-2-1 author service, my programme and instructions, a small notepad to take notes of anyone interested in my service. A magazine to read in the evening. Oh yes, and a camera, to take photos of the place, people and the food, esp the food. This will be for my blog about eating out with food intolerances.

I will start packing next week with the last minute stuff on Friday morning. I can't wait. I have already worked out how I am going to get there, and it doesn't include having to walk up 46 steps at Mile End station.

I know I will have more with me coming home than going there, as I am aware there will be a goody bag with lots of promo stuff in inc books, and I will be buying a few books, too.

Another major writing decision

Following attending both the short story and serial writing workshops by Woman's Weekly the last week or so, I have made another major writing decision - I want to become a writer for Woman's Weekly and concentrate on those when I write in the afternoons. This is my time for writing projects I want to get published and not being an indie author.

Here is why I have decided this:

I had gone to a workshop last year by Woman's Weekly and got great ideas for stories but didn't think much about it afterwards. I went to a fiction short story workshop on Monday 27 October this year, and had a breakthrough, thanks to Della Galton telling us her formula for writing a story. One of the things she said was that the character had to have a big enough problem to be solved. I realised that this was why I had got stuck with the story I'd been rewriting for the magazine. I also came up with the beginning of another story and the plot for it, also to send to them. I came away so charged up with what I'd learnt that I wanted to write stories for them. I have since changed the story again and just rewritten the beginning of the story I have been working on because yesterday I realised that it had nothing to do with the rest of the story.

Then yesterday I went to Serial Writing and had such good lessons by Suzanne Ahern who writes serials for them regularly. I already had in my head an idea for a serial. I wrote the start of it, developed the characters and plot for it, all things that had been going around in my brain. I was so pleased to get them on to paper. I enjoyed it so much that I now want to write serials. I think one of the reasons is the money you get for each instalment. You can get £500 per episode. So if you wrote a 3-parter serial you would get £1500. So I am going to think of it as a business side from now on and write in the means to be paid, which I hadn't until now. 

Another reason why I want to write for Woman's Weekly is that I've now met the Fiction Editor, Gaynor Davies, a few times and she is such a warm, friendly and encouraging editor to us writers. She said that she would come up with the titles, so don't worry about that. And she works with the writers on their stories and serials. That is the type of editor I want to work with. So watch this space to see what happens. I plan to email Gaynor later this week with a brief outline to my serial I have planned.

How I am becoming a better birdwatcher

Ever since I have been at home full-time, I have taken more of an interest in what goes on in our garden, esp the garden birds. Now that I have started writing about them seriously, I have been reading bird magazines and have become a better birdwatcher. The past couple of weeks I have been tweeting what birds I have seen in my garden, when I have been there and through my binoculars, but then I read a piece by Bill Oddie saying that to become a better birdwatcher you need to record in writing what birds they are, what they are like etc. So, this last week I have been scribbling down what birds I've seen, what they eat, their colours, and their calls. This has made me a better birdwatcher. So much so, that I now want to buy better and more professional binoculars, and I bought a book of birds round the world. Writing down all the birds I've seen and what they do, will form an article that I want to write and email to a magazine later this week.

So, that is how I am becoming a better birdwatcher. Do you watch birds in your garden? Do you use binoculars? If you use bin's, what make you do recommend? At the moment I only have cheap ones but need better ones to see more clearly. Let me know.