Tag Archives: short story writing

End of Year Post

29 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by in blogging, christmas, Editing, freelancing, indie, musings, Short story, writing

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2015 is coming to a close and I don’t think I’m the only person who found this year emotionally draining. It was my first full year of living in Finland and my expat dream didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. The first few months of the year were downright depressing for me with no work at all and a dwindling bank account. But in a weird way, reaching that low point motivated me to set things right and do things properly. As such, my work load exploded from that point on and I now have several regular clients I am doing work for on an almost daily basis. Considering that in the last few years since I graduated, there were months at a time where nothing at all happened to me, it’s been quite an incredible transformation.

That wasn’t the only thing I achieved this year. I had my first print book editing credit. (Unfortunately I don’t have a photo to prove it. Thanks, Royal Mail!) I’ve had reviews and articles published on several websites, making up quite a nice portfolio for myself. I’ve been doing a lot of photography, which I really enjoy, and have even had some pictures published. I’ve kept this blog more or less constantly updated. Most exciting of all, I finished the first draft of my novel! I’ve been working on-and-off on it since university so I’m very happy about that.

Despite all these successes, I’m still not earning a whole lot more than what I was making when I worked part time jobs. Working from home does mean I’m saving money on transport and eating on the go and it is definitely preferable to working retail, but I do still have to work very hard to make just above minimum wage.

As such, my main goal for 2016 is to pitch to higher paying clients so I can gradually wean myself off of the low paying clients and write more stuff that I’m passionate about. Ideally I’d like to do the same amount of work I do now for more money. I know it’s possible. Other goals for this year are:

  • Learn Finnish. I know it’s awful that I’ve been living here for over a year and I know barely any Finnish. I’m maintaining a stereotype about British expats that I all too often complain about. I have had many other issues this year to deal with and I didn’t have any money for classes, but I’ll try to find a way to at least learn a little by myself.
  • Finish the second draft of my novel. I already have a plan in place and a very long list of books to read for research. I’ve already spotted a lot of plot holes and things I want to change so it’s going to be a fun challenge!
  • Practice more photography. Perhaps even get some more photos published.
  • Market more through social media. It’s such an important thing for freelancers but I’ve been neglecting it far too much. Apparently browsing on Tumblr doesn’t count.
  • Keep my blog updated.
  • Submit more short stories. I’ve already found a few interesting anthologies I want to submit to this year. I also have some old stories stewing around on my laptop that I want to get out there.

If like me you’ve had a difficult and challenging year, at least it’s over now and we all have the chance for a fresh start. Don’t let yourself get anxious or depressed because trust me, it’s not worth it and there is always a way to dig yourself out of whatever hole you find yourself in.

Here’s to 2016 not sucking quite as much as 2015!

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Tell a fairy tale day

26 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by in Editing, fairy tale, fantasy, Short story, story, writing

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Yesterday I wrote about my plans for today, Tell a Fairy Tale Day, and how I set myself a challenge to write a new fairy tale story in a day.

It turns out I didn’t really need to plan out the story yesterday, as I had plenty of time to both plan and write it. I suppose because I’m used to reading and writing fairy tales that they come to me much more easily than other forms of writing do. My work as a ghostwriter in the past few months has really sped up my writing so I’m now used to writing good stories in a very short space of time.

But then again, if I had developed the idea today then it would have been very different from the one I came up with yesterday and might not have been as good. I’m very pleased with the story I did write, and that I was able to write 1600 words in a day. Plus the assignment I had to finish this morning. Plus this blog post. Wow, in the years after I graduated I only wrote a few chapters of my novel every year, and now I can write close to 2000 words in a day with time to spare. My life has really turned around.

As it’s still a first draft, I won’t be posting my story just yet. In the next few days I’ll edit it and then decide whether it’s fit for publishing or entering into a contest.

For now, as it’s both Tell a Fairy Tale Day and Throwback Thursday, I’ll re-post a link to a fairy tale I wrote a few years ago, which was the first story I had shortlisted for a contest. Enjoy!

The Stone Angel.

Tell a fairy tale day (is tomorrow)

25 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by in fairy tale, fantasy, musings, Short story, story, writing

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Tomorrow, February 26th, is annual Tell a Fairy Tale Day so I have set myself a challenge to write a fairy tale story on that day. After I’ve completed all my chores like the big pile of ironing and do a final check over for a writing assignment, I’ll spend the rest of the day writing the first draft of my story.

I’ve been preparing today by coming up with ideas and writing the synopsis that I will use tomorrow to write the actual story.

Coming up with an idea for a short story is usually difficult for me as I always seem to come up with a long list of cliches. But I do often find that using pictures, and particularly a series of unrelated pictures can inspire a story. This was how I came up with the idea for a short story I recently finished called Fish and Chips. I had a picture of fish and chips with a bite taken out of the fish, which was how I came up with the idea of someone stealing a bit of someone’s fish and chips. The next picture was of a city that I assumed was in a foreign country which is how I got the idea for the person who stole the fish to escape somewhere new. This became a story about someone escaping from an abusive relationship.

For this story, I used whatever random pictures that popped up on my Tumblr dashboard to give me ideas. It was hard at first, but eventually I started looking at this picture which inspired me:

library

I used this room as the setting and combined it with some of the other random ideas I’d written down and I had the idea for a whole story in about half an hour. After I sleep on it I might decide it’s terrible, as I’m still a little unsure about the ending. But I still think it’s a good basis for a story.

In the next few days I’ll post about how I got on with the writing of the actual story and after I’ve tidied up the first draft, I’ll decide what I want to do with it – post it online, enter it to a contest or extend it into a longer story. I’ll be back again in a few days.