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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 21, 2012 9:37:10 GMT
My sadness was tempered by the knowledge that Lord Probert beat me to it, so no shame in that as I love his writing. The curse of the Mezzotint!!! In any case I have a strong feeling the story will come out later this year although I might have to revise it a bit because it would be a bit vague if you weren't thoroughly familiar with the Mezzotint.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jan 21, 2012 10:59:53 GMT
In any case I have a strong feeling the story will come out later this year Excellent! Something else to look forward to! |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 23, 2012 12:52:05 GMT
In any case I have a strong feeling the story will come out later this year Excellent! Something else to look forward to! Thanks. I've almost decided not to enter any more competitions. I haven't actually entered more than five in my life but I haven't even come close. It's not just the writing. The last time I won anything - and it was the only time ever, was a teddy bear at a Manchester club raffle in 1982 |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jan 23, 2012 17:59:16 GMT
I rarely go in for competitions either, and I'd avoided the previous G&S competitions to complete unfinished MRJ drafts as I really didn't think I was up to the challenge. I was sort of duty bound to enter this time, since I was partly responsible for suggesting the theme, otherwise I'd have chickened out as ever.
I'm glad I did, though (besides the booklet), as finishing a couple of stories in a short space of time has restored my joy in writing. Constant distractions over the past year have meant that I've got a lot of material started and at various stages, but the frustration of not getting finished and having to keep going back to stuff was getting me down. But completing something has given me the boost to get back in and really get things moving again.
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degsy
New Member
Posts: 17
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Post by degsy on Jan 23, 2012 18:53:09 GMT
Looking forward to reading both your stories when they appear; and great to hear that G&S are venturing back into publishing too. I entered a lot of competitions/themed anthologies recently purely in order to generate a fixed deadline so I could gain some focus and push myself to get things finished (which was the major issue I had with my writing - just too bloody slow). After all, Ray Bradbury wrote a story a week for the first ten years of his career simply because each sale made sure his family could eat, and you can't get a better motivation to finish things than hunger! And so considering that, I thought I should at least be able to do a story a month, which I've (kind-of) managed over the last year. The downside when you get knocked-back (as happened to me several times recently) is that you end up with a story which is tied very specifically to whatever theme you were writing-to and difficult to place elsewhere, if at all, without a major rewrite.  |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 24, 2012 16:28:16 GMT
There is a plus side - I agree though Degsy that the tied story is the bugbear. There's something also about writing' what motivates you rather than what might win. In the case of G&S of course the writing was motivational ;D
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Post by David Kartos on Jan 27, 2012 21:51:31 GMT
Looking forward to reading both your stories when they appear; and great to hear that G&S are venturing back into publishing too. I entered a lot of competitions/themed anthologies recently purely in order to generate a fixed deadline so I could gain some focus and push myself to get things finished (which was the major issue I had with my writing - just too bloody slow). After all, Ray Bradbury wrote a story a week for the first ten years of his career simply because each sale made sure his family could eat, and you can't get a better motivation to finish things than hunger! And so considering that, I thought I should at least be able to do a story a month, which I've (kind-of) managed over the last year. The downside when you get knocked-back (as happened to me several times recently) is that you end up with a story which is tied very specifically to whatever theme you were writing-to and difficult to place elsewhere, if at all, without a major rewrite. Personaly, when I've completed something, I find it very difficult to even attempt re-writing it. But then again I haven't written anything in well over a year now. I recently got back into reading genre stuff, sort of, so I hope that changes. |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jan 27, 2012 22:51:20 GMT
Generally, if possible, I tend to try to get something else written before going back to rewrite something, as I find it easier to come back to something with fresher eyes after a break.
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