Hey again
I went to a beach volleyball game last night in Liverpool 1 - it was really good, had a great time and although the team we were cheering for didn't quite make it, a good time was had by all.
Now I know I've just mentioned something there that's not writing related, but some stuff will trickle thorough, but also I did have my trusty notebook and pen with me and made some notes there, although it was harder than I'd thought cos I was paying too much attention to either the game or to talking to the gang :)
I'm going to attempt to see how likely it is that I get the "report" written up so that I know what kind of time I need and if I can do it, should I ever need to attend an event and write it up very quickly for publication!
I so wish publishers could access people's computers lol - but only well established publishers and only if you register as a writer and give them permission to do so. I think this would be a great way for them to find brilliant new ideas for stories and I think if you had a publisher contact you and say, you know that story you've been working on, we really like it, finish it! How much motivation would that give you to keep on going! It would be fab - also I think they should provide feedback to what they read. I realise this sounds like a massive undertaking, but it would be worth it for all the writers out there who are scared/nervous to send things into publishers for fear of rejection :-) Maybe I could go on Dragon's Den with this idea? lol do you think they'd go for it? Anyone want to be my numbers/business plan person? :-D
Well hopefully I'll be back on here tomorrow telling you how wonderfully I've written up last night's event
Ta ta
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Monday, 26 July 2010
Back again
Hello
Nice to be back again, it's been a while. Can't believe how fast time goes! Madness.
I have been thinking about this blog during my time away however and I think I may need to focus a little more and give the blog a theme rather than just chatting away about random crap - which would work if this was a journal but it's not, I won't be pouring my heart out :) but the problem is coming up with a theme.
I do feel the last few posts that I wrote had started to trend towards a theme of writing and my assignment etc and I think since that's a major part of my life right now that maybe this is a good area to stick with. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) though, i won't be able put any more stories on here because if I wanted to enter one into a competition or send it in to a magazine for publishing then I couldn't as most submission guidelines say that it cannot have previously been published ANYWHERE and putting it on a blog apparently means it's been published as it is out there for people to read - in my case, all 6 of you lol so I'm not sure what harm that would do, but best not to do it than get caught and disqualified, not that I'd have any chance of winning at the moment lol, but you never know!
I also thought I could interject book or film reviews in between the 'writing' blog posts. Well we can only try this out and see where we get...
My most recent news is that I eventually got my feedback for my assignment 3 and I got another B which I'm happy about. Assignment 3 involved writing a combination of reader's letters, articles or fillers, as long as the total word count didn't exceed 2000 words. I ended up writing 1 reader's letter (to Pet Plan magazine), 2 fillers and 1 short article. Although I got a B, I think that's for the writing itself, which is fine, but I don't think I'm managing to hit my targets very well, or doing enough market research. My tutor hasn't specifically said that or anything but certain comments have made me think this might be the case. My tutor did like my bridesmaids article though so I will try and submit that to a bridal magazine. i have emailed one asking for their submission guidelines but have yet to hear anything back - I even created a whole new professional Gmail email account for the occasion! :) Never mind, onto the next magazine!
With being on holiday for a couple of weeks, I haven't really looked at assignment 4, let alone getting a start on it. I'm going to be off work for a week next week so I might try and tackle it then. I'm also hoping to go to a fair few free events in Liverpool over the next few weeks and try my hand at reviewing them, not necessarily to submit but just for some practice. I think if you were going to submit something like that it would need to be sent in very quickly after the event so it would still be relevant.
I've also thought of another couple of article/filler ideas - one being how to make a nappy cake and my first thought was to try and submit it to a pregnancy magazine but then I realised that was a stupid idea as pregnant people would not be making one for themselves! So it will have to be women's mags, possibly the older age ones and target it as making something for your daughter/daughter in law's upcoming baby or just for a younger age one and target it at present ideas for friends.
Last week I sent a "reader's tip" off to Chat magazine about giving dog's tablets lol, not heard off them yet but I'm not certain whether that's because a. they didn't like it or b. they didn't open it because it had an attachment - but I did put in the subject box that it was a tip and there was a photo attached. Maybe I should have emailed them first and asked about sending attachments because I know most magazines wouldn't open any emails with attachments in case it's a virus or something. Also another reason could be because I have never read Chat magazine so i don't know whether I'll have got the tone or writing style correct for their readership. There's far too much stuff to think about with non-fiction, it's very hard!! :p making things up for fiction is a lot easier - not saying that's without difficulty as well of course as there's definitely lots of research required also, but it just seems a lot more fun!
Oh well, anyway should concentrate on what I'm supposed to be doing and get on with it and try my best, I'll get through it in the end, I'm already 3 assignments down and I've always managed to find something to submit despite moaning at the beginning, and during doing the assignment so let's get on with it :)
I anybody at any time would like to chip in with an idea that they would either like to read about in a magazine or they think I know a lot about or anything they think I'd be good at writing about.
Ok got to go, lunch over now
Nice to be back again, it's been a while. Can't believe how fast time goes! Madness.
I have been thinking about this blog during my time away however and I think I may need to focus a little more and give the blog a theme rather than just chatting away about random crap - which would work if this was a journal but it's not, I won't be pouring my heart out :) but the problem is coming up with a theme.
I do feel the last few posts that I wrote had started to trend towards a theme of writing and my assignment etc and I think since that's a major part of my life right now that maybe this is a good area to stick with. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) though, i won't be able put any more stories on here because if I wanted to enter one into a competition or send it in to a magazine for publishing then I couldn't as most submission guidelines say that it cannot have previously been published ANYWHERE and putting it on a blog apparently means it's been published as it is out there for people to read - in my case, all 6 of you lol so I'm not sure what harm that would do, but best not to do it than get caught and disqualified, not that I'd have any chance of winning at the moment lol, but you never know!
I also thought I could interject book or film reviews in between the 'writing' blog posts. Well we can only try this out and see where we get...
My most recent news is that I eventually got my feedback for my assignment 3 and I got another B which I'm happy about. Assignment 3 involved writing a combination of reader's letters, articles or fillers, as long as the total word count didn't exceed 2000 words. I ended up writing 1 reader's letter (to Pet Plan magazine), 2 fillers and 1 short article. Although I got a B, I think that's for the writing itself, which is fine, but I don't think I'm managing to hit my targets very well, or doing enough market research. My tutor hasn't specifically said that or anything but certain comments have made me think this might be the case. My tutor did like my bridesmaids article though so I will try and submit that to a bridal magazine. i have emailed one asking for their submission guidelines but have yet to hear anything back - I even created a whole new professional Gmail email account for the occasion! :) Never mind, onto the next magazine!
With being on holiday for a couple of weeks, I haven't really looked at assignment 4, let alone getting a start on it. I'm going to be off work for a week next week so I might try and tackle it then. I'm also hoping to go to a fair few free events in Liverpool over the next few weeks and try my hand at reviewing them, not necessarily to submit but just for some practice. I think if you were going to submit something like that it would need to be sent in very quickly after the event so it would still be relevant.
I've also thought of another couple of article/filler ideas - one being how to make a nappy cake and my first thought was to try and submit it to a pregnancy magazine but then I realised that was a stupid idea as pregnant people would not be making one for themselves! So it will have to be women's mags, possibly the older age ones and target it as making something for your daughter/daughter in law's upcoming baby or just for a younger age one and target it at present ideas for friends.
Last week I sent a "reader's tip" off to Chat magazine about giving dog's tablets lol, not heard off them yet but I'm not certain whether that's because a. they didn't like it or b. they didn't open it because it had an attachment - but I did put in the subject box that it was a tip and there was a photo attached. Maybe I should have emailed them first and asked about sending attachments because I know most magazines wouldn't open any emails with attachments in case it's a virus or something. Also another reason could be because I have never read Chat magazine so i don't know whether I'll have got the tone or writing style correct for their readership. There's far too much stuff to think about with non-fiction, it's very hard!! :p making things up for fiction is a lot easier - not saying that's without difficulty as well of course as there's definitely lots of research required also, but it just seems a lot more fun!
Oh well, anyway should concentrate on what I'm supposed to be doing and get on with it and try my best, I'll get through it in the end, I'm already 3 assignments down and I've always managed to find something to submit despite moaning at the beginning, and during doing the assignment so let's get on with it :)
I anybody at any time would like to chip in with an idea that they would either like to read about in a magazine or they think I know a lot about or anything they think I'd be good at writing about.
Ok got to go, lunch over now
Saturday, 24 July 2010
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