Sunday, September 09, 2007

A great deal of nothing much

So it’s been a nothing much kind of week, no earth shattering revelations or get my blood boiling moments. I went back to work and moved into the new building. Going through boxes of stuff was kind of good though, I found all kinds of things I had forgotten about including a poem and story.

Scarlett asked me if I was going to put my book up on the blog. I know that quite a lot of fellow bloggers have done this, but I’m veering away from this, I don’t find the critiquing that helpful and when I trawl through publisher’s sites there always seems to be a wee rule saying ‘never published before, including the web’. I think I need to hold onto that dream of the multi-million penny publishing deal first. I can be optimistic can’t I?

I had a look through the short story website today; it’s a pretty good database of current competitions. Through it I found a couple of sites that seemed interesting. Well there’s one that I thought was a little dubious if truth be told. The concept behind StoryWar seems to be that depending on the number of views and votes your story gets you get into this Top 50 chart. The other site was Lightningbug for beginning writers or those with a bit of a block. It has prompts and several other resources on it. There’s a page on it about what kind of writer you are, obviously you can fall into more than one category, it’s not a quiz though so don’t expect earth shattering questions.

I also had a look at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators this week. Again this is something I’m not too sure about. They have a pretty healthy ‘chapter’ going in Paris, but I’m always a bit loathe to part with my wonga, so if anyone can let me know about this group I’d be happy to hear.

Apart from that the Rugby World Cup started. My initial reaction to his was: Oh great the metro is packed. I don’t get rugby at all; big men, funny shaped ball, fairly violent. My other observation about rugby is that posh boys play it. See sweeping generalisations and no idea about it whatsoever. We started looking at the opening ceremony on the TV after the jets had swooped by scaring the bejesus out of us. It all seemed very odd, the guys seemed to be straight off the set of Alice in Wonderland in stripy long shorts and primary coloured tops with spiky shoulders and a black pattern on the front. I like that congenial atmosphere that watching sport engenders, but I remember watching the six nations a couple of years ago. There were a whole bunch of us and Ireland needed to win by a lot to come first. I understood that, but Claire and I felt like we had wondered onto this alien planet where we no longer comprehended the language or behaviour. No, it’s just not football is it.

Right, I now have to listen to a demo and give constructive criticism about it. Jane is one proud mother and is convinced that her son, the Big D will one day be the next Folk/pop sensation. He’s pretty good from the thirty seconds or so that I heard before turning it off because I couldn’t hear a damn thing through Jane’s running commentary! Personally I’m always impressed if someone can play bar chords because that’s something I never mastered, but even with my mastery of six or so chords I can tell that this boy has talent. Still that’s not quite the sort of constructive criticism he wants though.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the links. I'll have to check out those competitions.

Unknown said...

V, I'm a member of SCBWI and I tag into the SCBWI-BI (UK) yahoo group. I don't find the SCBWI SA any good at all - it's mostly run by illustrators for illustrators. But the UK group is brilliant - I went over last year to attend a one day thingie - well, okay, so I was going over anyway and it coincided nicely... And it was great. They organise loads of things and some of the girls do great write ups after events which are really good for those who can't make it. And here's the other thing, many publishers will actually bother to look at your MS when you send it if you say you're a member of SCBWI - it means, or is supposed to, that you're taking your writing seriously. I haven't regretted being part of it even though from where I am I can't get the full value. Oh, and the SCBWI publication usually has some good and useful articles.

As for rugby - you want to check ou the calendar the French team put out a while ago... ooh ooh eye candy... and the Scottish lads are a bit tasty too. See, now that's why girls watch rugby - the rest I can't explain! ;-)

Unknown said...

Glad to share SW. There seems to be a time for competitions and a time to write. I'm thinking that I seem to have missed the boat on a lot of last year's comps!
Hi Vanilla, OK well you seem quite positive about the whole thing. I think I will take the plunge. I guess the thing is that I don't know whether I want to label myself as a children's writer, but either way I guess there will be good writing advice and the only book I've finished in the last decade has been a children's book and the only stuff I've written of any length in the last decade has been children's books. There we go I seem to have convinced myself.

Jon M said...

Three chords and the truth is all you need...according to Pete Seeger, I think! :-)

Unknown said...

Once you've joined the parent group try and join up with the SCBWI-BI yahoo group - good information and event listings - they've also got their own website.

apprentice said...

Great links. I agree about rugby, I loathe it. As a teenager I had a part time bar job and rugby guys were pains, as were their cocktail drinking girl friends.

Unknown said...

I know three chords, not sure about the truth though Jon.
Vanilla I joined and one of my many writing heroes is the keynote speaker at some Winchester event... There's quite a lot going on in Paris. I'm going to go to one of the events I think. Yes. I will, well I better sign up. Oh and I have seen the rugby calendar, I looked through it very carefully. And then I closed it and turned to my friend and said: It's a calendar for Gay men.
And Apprentice you made me guffaw in an extremely dirty way when I read your comment. I had forgotten about that. To be honest I haven't had anything to do with rugger buggers (as we used to call them) since uni.

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

Sognatrice was saying recently that it's probably not a great idea to post novels on the web because they're so easily stolen.

I hadn't thought of that, really.

I'd be sick to find out your work had been swiped, so it's good that you are waiting for paper.
I still can't wait to read it.

I don't get rugby either. Really... whahuh?
---
I keep remembering your thrill over getting the last HP book, and as I hadn't read any of them when it came out and my friends thought this a serious (Sirius?) travesty, I was immediately loaned the entire series and have been reading one right after the other for three weeks now. I'm halfway through #6. I am now fully in tune with your excitement (albeit a bit late). One lady told me I did it right by waiting; didn't have to wait 2 years between each book. Didn't have to wait for anything. I also watched all the movies. Pretty good stuff.

Scarlett & V.

Unknown said...

Funny, I said exactly the same thing about that calendar!

Winchester Writer's Day is good fun - go if you can. If I'm lucky I may be able to make my intended trip to the UK coincide, yet again!

Unknown said...

Hi Scarlett, I hadn't thought about people stealing your work. I also think it makes me lazy. There's stuff that I've put on the Pimple, that I is a wee bit crap and is basically a first draft and I then never did anything with it. I guess because the comments just weren't forthcoming. And as for HP, mmm... the wait was half the fun, although we waited so long for book 5 because of the films and then she completely fucked it up (pardon my french) because there was no time to give the book a decent edit. Eh right 'nuff' said about HP really.
Vanilla... we are now thinking of getting that calendar for our new staffroom, it might get those nosy parents to stop peering in! And then again. As for Winchester, don't think I'll be able to make it, I've got to think about the old pennies (ssh but I'm going to India for Christmas!)

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