Another Day in the Life of a Writer

I didn't get quite as far with my next short story as I was hoping. I couldn't find it on my hard drive, so I ended up retyping it all from the print-out, editing it as I went. I think, on reflection, it was quite a good way to work. It's easier to make radical changes if you're typing than if you're tinkering.

I took most of the afternoon off to go to Aquafit with my friend and fellow writing tutor, Lindsay. Neither of us had been to Aquafit for a few months, so we approached the class with trepidation as our instructor works us pretty hard. We survived the class, but by the time we met up again this evening at the Authors' Circle, we were both starting to pay the price, Lindsay with sore shoulders and me with knees that didn't want to work.

We had an excellent workshop at the Authors' Circle tonight. Kate led an exercise where we had to write about either our beds or about things we have hated. There were actually three tasks we had to perform, but I don't want to talk about them in detail here in case I decide to use the exercise with my students next term. Suffice it to say that everybody produced some fascinating material and we ended up having a fascinating discussion as well about incidents from our childhood and from family life.

Something that surprised us was that all the women chose to write about their beds and all the men chose to write about things they hated. I wonder if I'll find the same male-female divide when I repeat the exercise in my class.

So it's been a busy old day, both physically and mentally. I hope you've enjoyed your day and that you've managed to get some writing done. You can reflect on our workshop when you tuck yourself up in your bed tonight. Sweet dreams!

My New Publishing Opportunity

I've got a new business venture today. I've just started submitting writing to a company called Triond which publishes people's work on internet sites. So far I've submitted two 'how to' articles and a poem, so I'll have to see how they get on and how much money they make me.

The exciting bit is that you can log on whenever you want and see how much your writing is earning. That's better then having to wait for twice-yearly royalty statements.

I've got another article almost ready to submit, but I just need to find one of my sixty-word short stories to include as an example. I'm sure I saw copies of them all in a folder recently, but can I find them when I need them? It's so frustrating!

I've been all through my computer files too and I can't find them there either. I hope they turn up soon or else I shall have to write another example.

But meanwhile, I'm off to the University this afternoon for a creative writing workshop. It's being run by a guest writer called Char March. She has given us some interesting work to do beforehand and has said she is going to work us all very hard.

I'll let you know how it goes when I speak to you next - and also whether I found my stories.