So much for writing at night
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
But - I am the kind of person that often needs to make a RADICAL change in order to knock me out of my rut, and this was that radical change. I have learned an enormous amount from what I have been doing, setting off for a walk first thing, and making sure I come back with something. I've learned to really observe the world around me, putting energy into seeing and hearing in a way that I have never done before. I've learned just how much inspiration this close observation can provide me for my writing, as I make notes on what I see and hear, sometimes things that I know no-one else is noticing.
It gives me enormous pleasure to be using my senses like this - when I am out and about, I watch how people interact, and when I sit in a cafe I don't have my head buried behind my laptop anymore or checking my mobile phone. I wonder if anyone has noticed me noticing - do they wonder at the single woman sitting there, with no book, no newspaper? Just a pen and notepad. Is anyone watching me?
Because of this, for the first time ever I have been writing fiction based on real life events, or how I saw them. This is really a revelation - first it takes the pressure off me to "make up" everything, all the time. It lets me give my imagination a kick-start, which I had been doing with prompts and the New Scientist articles in my book, but hadn't done in this way before.
My routine also severed my umbilical connection to the Internet. I do my best every day not to turn it on for the first few hours at least, but when I do, I also now feel freer to just turn it off again, pull out the cable, block the wifi. It's a great relief! If there is something I need to look up first thing in the morning because I hadn't got myself organised the night before, I feel in some way unclean!
So, the current plan is to shift everything back a few hours. I've managed to get to sleep earlier, it took a few days, and I am getting up earlier, but right now I am quite confused about when my writing time is. I love going out first thing, getting the blood moving. I often go out quite grumpy and come back totally exhilerated! I also like not starting to write straight after my walk but to let what I've observed percolate, while I get on with other stuff. So, maybe this should be my writing time right now? 6-9? Late dinner? Early dinner? I've started a new healthy eating regime too... the working at night had the effect of utterly throwing off my mealtimes so I kept skipping a meal, which didn't help.
To sum up: I need to sleep. I need to eat. I need to write. I need quality time with J. I need to let him sleep too. I haven't quite figured out all of those things, but it's only Jan 26th, there's still 11 months and 5 days to go!
Two highly worthwhile writing-related endeavours - deadline 25th Jan!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
The deadline for submitting your short story is tomorrow, Jan 25th. What Greg wants:... a collection of short stories sold to raise money for relief efforts in disaster-striken Haiti. All proceeds go to the Red Cross.
- Do not exceed 1,000 words.
- No stories containing graphic violence, death or destruction.
- We want stories with a lot of HEART, a dash of COMPASSION, and unmeasurable amounts of HOPE. Stories that anyone can read. Stories that leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Stories that make you smile at strangers. Stories that … Okay, you get the idea.
Frank, editor of the excellent Metazen, gathered pieces of writing for his Metazen Charity Christmas Book and asked for donations which went to the Sunrise Children’s Village Orphanage in Siam Reap, Cambodia. As he said:
And this he most certainly did. You can still donate - and read the Charity Christmas Book, which contains my story, Come Back Tomorrow, here.Authors can be so selfish. We sit and we write, pour things onto paper hoping to evoke, mull around in our minds and manipulate the lives of non-existent people. I would like to manipulate the life of a real person, in a positive way.
Thank goodness for people like Frank and Greg. Thank you, Frank and Greg, for giving us the opportunity to do something.
A (Non-Complete) List of UK and Ireland Lit Mags Which Publish Short Stories
Monday, January 18, 2010
Midnight Street -horror, science fiction, dark fantasy and slipstream EZINE
Notes from the Underground - Comic stories, sketches, cartoons and comic poetry, Longer short stories up to a maximum of 1800 words, Very short stories of only one or two sentences, Travel Writing and reportage, Poetry PRINT EZINE
Prole - "Prole promotes accessible literature of high quality. Anything that we publish will be intelligent, engaging and impact the reader in a variety of ways. We want to appeal to a wide audience and reconnect a broad readership with excellent examples of poetry and short prose. Anything that sniffs of literary elitism is highly unlikely to make it through the editorial process. If it does, it�s only because we won�t have noticed and the piece has other areas of merit. Obscure references and highly stylised structures and forms that exist only to aggrandise the writer and appeal to the coffee lounges of our older universities are not welcome." PRINT
Pulp.net - short stories - on a break right now. EZINE
Under the Radar: "Because of the increasing high-standard of work submitted to us, and because we've aimed for some time now to be able to include more short stories, reviews and articles in each issue, we are taking Under the Radar up to the next level." PRINT
So much for writing at night
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
This is the blog post where I take back everything I said a few weeks ago! No, actually, that's a complete lie, I don't take any of it back. I have been trying out the routine I described here on Jan 1st for the past few weeks, but the writing at night element of it just isn't working. I loved coming into my study at 10pm and writing until 2am, but then I was so hyped up I wasn't getting to sleep til 3am... and was waking J up in the process. I was feeling jet-lagged, and both us were sleeping badly, which really ruins everything. It just wasn't working.
But - I am the kind of person that often needs to make a RADICAL change in order to knock me out of my rut, and this was that radical change. I have learned an enormous amount from what I have been doing, setting off for a walk first thing, and making sure I come back with something. I've learned to really observe the world around me, putting energy into seeing and hearing in a way that I have never done before. I've learned just how much inspiration this close observation can provide me for my writing, as I make notes on what I see and hear, sometimes things that I know no-one else is noticing.
It gives me enormous pleasure to be using my senses like this - when I am out and about, I watch how people interact, and when I sit in a cafe I don't have my head buried behind my laptop anymore or checking my mobile phone. I wonder if anyone has noticed me noticing - do they wonder at the single woman sitting there, with no book, no newspaper? Just a pen and notepad. Is anyone watching me?
Because of this, for the first time ever I have been writing fiction based on real life events, or how I saw them. This is really a revelation - first it takes the pressure off me to "make up" everything, all the time. It lets me give my imagination a kick-start, which I had been doing with prompts and the New Scientist articles in my book, but hadn't done in this way before.
My routine also severed my umbilical connection to the Internet. I do my best every day not to turn it on for the first few hours at least, but when I do, I also now feel freer to just turn it off again, pull out the cable, block the wifi. It's a great relief! If there is something I need to look up first thing in the morning because I hadn't got myself organised the night before, I feel in some way unclean!
So, the current plan is to shift everything back a few hours. I've managed to get to sleep earlier, it took a few days, and I am getting up earlier, but right now I am quite confused about when my writing time is. I love going out first thing, getting the blood moving. I often go out quite grumpy and come back totally exhilerated! I also like not starting to write straight after my walk but to let what I've observed percolate, while I get on with other stuff. So, maybe this should be my writing time right now? 6-9? Late dinner? Early dinner? I've started a new healthy eating regime too... the working at night had the effect of utterly throwing off my mealtimes so I kept skipping a meal, which didn't help.
To sum up: I need to sleep. I need to eat. I need to write. I need quality time with J. I need to let him sleep too. I haven't quite figured out all of those things, but it's only Jan 26th, there's still 11 months and 5 days to go!
Posted by Tania Hershman at Tuesday, January 26, 2010 16 comments Links to this post
Labels: creativity, exercise, observation, routine, the writing life
Two highly worthwhile writing-related endeavours - deadline 25th Jan!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
I am in awe of people who don't just talk but DO. Greg McQueen and Frank Hinton are two of these people. Greg McQueen is rousing writers to help the people of Haiti through "100 Stories for Haiti":
The deadline for submitting your short story is tomorrow, Jan 25th. What Greg wants:... a collection of short stories sold to raise money for relief efforts in disaster-striken Haiti. All proceeds go to the Red Cross.
- Do not exceed 1,000 words.
- No stories containing graphic violence, death or destruction.
- We want stories with a lot of HEART, a dash of COMPASSION, and unmeasurable amounts of HOPE. Stories that anyone can read. Stories that leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Stories that make you smile at strangers. Stories that … Okay, you get the idea.
Frank, editor of the excellent Metazen, gathered pieces of writing for his Metazen Charity Christmas Book and asked for donations which went to the Sunrise Children’s Village Orphanage in Siam Reap, Cambodia. As he said:
And this he most certainly did. You can still donate - and read the Charity Christmas Book, which contains my story, Come Back Tomorrow, here.Authors can be so selfish. We sit and we write, pour things onto paper hoping to evoke, mull around in our minds and manipulate the lives of non-existent people. I would like to manipulate the life of a real person, in a positive way.
Thank goodness for people like Frank and Greg. Thank you, Frank and Greg, for giving us the opportunity to do something.
Posted by Tania Hershman at Sunday, January 24, 2010 1 comments Links to this post
Labels: flash fiction, fund-raising, writing for charity
A (Non-Complete) List of UK and Ireland Lit Mags Which Publish Short Stories
Monday, January 18, 2010
Midnight Street -horror, science fiction, dark fantasy and slipstream EZINE
Notes from the Underground - Comic stories, sketches, cartoons and comic poetry, Longer short stories up to a maximum of 1800 words, Very short stories of only one or two sentences, Travel Writing and reportage, Poetry PRINT EZINE
Prole - "Prole promotes accessible literature of high quality. Anything that we publish will be intelligent, engaging and impact the reader in a variety of ways. We want to appeal to a wide audience and reconnect a broad readership with excellent examples of poetry and short prose. Anything that sniffs of literary elitism is highly unlikely to make it through the editorial process. If it does, it�s only because we won�t have noticed and the piece has other areas of merit. Obscure references and highly stylised structures and forms that exist only to aggrandise the writer and appeal to the coffee lounges of our older universities are not welcome." PRINT
Pulp.net - short stories - on a break right now. EZINE
Under the Radar: "Because of the increasing high-standard of work submitted to us, and because we've aimed for some time now to be able to include more short stories, reviews and articles in each issue, we are taking Under the Radar up to the next level." PRINT
Posted by Tania Hershman at Monday, January 18, 2010 93 comments Links to this post
Labels: Irish lit mags, lit mags, places for writers, publication, short fiction, short stories, submissions, UK lit mags