A jolly time

I am currently on my jollies from the day job and although we are spending this break at home Himself and I have been and plan on being very busy. We are decorating the kitchen and doing another couple of things that we have been putting off forever and also having some time shopping, visiting places, pub lunches etc. Consequently I don't anticipate a lot of writing being done in the next two weeks. But that's okay because I'm on holiday.

A Good Day

I had a surprise when I got home from work today when I had a letter informing me that I had received a royalty payment. This was totally unexpected so made me very happy. Then when I was getting changed, out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a couple of pieces of paper in the bottom of thw wardrobe. When I fished it out I was amazed to see that it was something I had done about 6 years ago. It was a grid that I had filled in following an article that I had read about Iain Pattison and how he came up with ideas for his stories. It 's a forerunner of the Cally/Sally story generator. So now I have loads of ideas for stories. Two lovely surprises in one day.

Ray of hope gone

That last ray of hope I had was shattered when the other story came home today. YA BOO HISS!!! However I am pleased to say that I did send it to the person I meant to AND called them the right name so I need to be more careful about what I record and that will save me the concern.

I also need to work out how to work smarter.

Oh Well

So much for that clutching at straws nonsense. Fat lot of good it did me. The story that had been with the unnamed editor for 3 and a half months came home yesterday or it might have been the day before. All that matters is that it came home. Pity really because I like the story a lot and I know there's a market out there for it somewhere. Nil desperandum, said editor is still holding a story that was sent 4th April so I haven't given up hope on that one. However this is the story that some of you may remember me mentioning before. I either recorded who I sent the story to wrongly or I called the editor by the wrong name. I hope that it's the former and I guess I'll find out in due course.

Clutching at straws

I know this might give you a laugh but hey so what I'm among friends. I've just been analysing my "sent" list and discovered that I've got about half a dozen stories that have been out there a while. The longest is 7 months and then there is a 6 months but both of those are to magazines that have taken that long before when they've said yes so that's okay. However I have two stories with an editor that I dearly want to impress (okay three but ones only been there a month.) In the past when said editor has rejected a story they have had it for an average of 2.7 months. The two stories that they have at the moment have been with them for 3.5 and 3 months resepctively. I mention this to you but I won't dwell on it mainly because I have a memory like a seive and by the time I've had a coffee and read a chapter of my book I'll have forgotten about it but also by the fact that they once had a story for 3.5 months and then rejected it. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Thinking Time

During a quiet period at work today I had time to think about my writing, where it is going and what I want to achieve from it.
It all started after I spent some time trying to come up with an idea for a short story. I hadn't managed to think of anything and I reflected on how good I am at short stories. I have had limited success in this field and last year only managed to sell 4 or 5 short stories. However I do have about half a dozen that have been with magazines for a long time so I am hopeful that I might sell at least one of those. I seem to struggle to come up with ideas and without that I'm stuck.
So I started think that maybe I should give up on that form of writing or at least not give myself such a hard time when I'm struggling to come up with an idea. Maybe I should stick to longer stuff.
You just watch, now that I've said that I'll have ideas popping into my head every few seconds.
Hopefully.

Another Novel idea.

I'm sure that we all have a novel or two on the go or hidden away in a drawer.
My first novel was finished about 4 years ago or maybe 3 I'm not sure. I sent it our to an agent or two but with no joy. Then an author of dozens of novels under 3 different names who clearly has more knowledge of this sort of thing pointed out that there would be a problem with the book that I won't bore you with. She was by the way completely right, I just hadn't seen it before. I thanked her for her advice and we agreed that I should concentrate on another book which I had just started and we thought would have better prospects. That book was finished a couple of years ago. That too has been sent out but still with no joy. Everyone I have sent it to has been very positive about the writing but say that they're just unsure of where they would place it. I still really like that book and hope to see it in print one day. Then I started my third book which was I thought an even better idea than the second one. But when the dark stuff was happening last year it got neglected and as yet I've still not found my way back into it. This week I started my fourth book and I think this is the strongest idea yet.
I'm only a few thousand words into the first draft but I do believe that this will be my best so far.
So as each one gets a bit better than the one before, presumably as I get more experience and learn the craft, how many do you reckon I will need to write before one is good enough to be accepted?
Just out of interest I'd love to know how many books you have written or on the go.