And here I was on Friday, all ready to be saying I hadn't done anything with my assignment. Such doubt in myself (not as you can blame me lol).
I managed to comlpete question 1 of 3 of Assignment 4 - woo hoo! I have now written 3 reader's letters for 3 different magazines on 3 different topics. I wrote to Easy Living, Sainsbury's Magazine and Writing Magazine. From those 3 titles, it's not hard to imagine writing about 3 separate topics really is it? As they are letters for magazines, I haven't waited for them to be looked at before actually sending them out. Purely because I don't know how long it'll take me to finish the other two sections and by that time, it could be far too late to send them, as magazines want fairly quick responses so that the letters remain pretty relevant to recent articles. For the Writing Magazine, most of the letters refer to articles in only the previous issue, so it shows you how fast it moves!
I'm pretty certain I know what my article will be on for the next bit of the assignment, I just need to find a market for it and I'm not sure who to aim for. Once I've decided on the publication, questino 2 will be quick and easy as it's just an analysis on that publication and we've done that before. Although I am concerned that the article I have in mind won't work as one full article and could turn out to be just a filler, in which case, I'll have to write something else, come up with a second idea! So my target for the step by step article is to get it to at least 500 words. Ususally I'm not very concise so it wouldn't be too difficult but I'm finding that with non-fiction I'm having to pad things out a bit which is as difficult as editing a piece that's too long.
Oh well, onward and upward!
I'm about three quarters of the way through Mark Billingham's second book, Scaredy Cat, so I should have it finished in time for the "evening with..." on Wednesday which will be nice. Although to be honest, I can't see myself actually asking any questions, I'm far too chicken for that kind of thing - need to get some confidence from somewhere! lol
I'm hoping to go to the library tomorrow night to have a think about my article and try and write a bit without as much distraction as there is at home (TV, internet, reading books and generally anything else that could possibly be done instead of my assingment!). It's like being back at school doing all this procrastinating! lol. I need to be good at doing this so I can call myself self motivated for when I go to interviews :) Ok, so I won't be able to actually write the article at the library as I will need to actually do the thing step by step so I can make sure the instructions can be easily followed, but I can write down what the general order is and sort it all out. Putting it down on paper will help. I think finding the cardboard will be the hardest part to be honest, the rest of it should be quite easy (from what I remember from last time anyway). Not sure when I'll be able to finish this assignment with various things on this week and I'm away next weekend and I have a few things the following week, so it could be the bank holiday weekend before I get around to it. We'll see though, maybe I can fit it around other stuff in the week. Plus I don't actually need to construct the whole thing in order to write about it, once I get to a certain point it'll be easier.
Anyway I'm off now - have to face the dentist in the morning :-(
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Friday, 13 August 2010
This isn't working
Hello
This assignment is just not working for me right now. The last couple of weeks have seen a lack of desire to get on with it, mostly for the usual excuse of I don't know what to write about. I also feel these first few assignments have been very similar and having no particular theme to write about makes it harder. I've always found that when given an essay or anything at college/University, for example, you complain that you have to write about a topic chosen by the lecturer, but now I wish for those days back again.
You might think that an open assignment sounds easy as there's 'so many things you could write about', but think about it, can you pin down one thing you want or can write about? Especially then considering you have to do market research, so you have to find a magazine to fit the topic you want to go with and then write it in the same style as that magazine. None of it really gives any freedom, except for finding an initial topic - it's always got to fit in with an editor's style.
These are my reasons for liking writing fiction - although I do realise that if you finish a novel and want to sell it, changes would need to be made, but your writing style and storyline would remain. Writing fiction allows you to just leave this world for a little while and focus on something more exciting and (often) impossible in the real world. Of course you do eventually have to return and find something non-fiction to write about, so you definitely come back to Earth with a bump.
I will try my hardest to stop wasting time and get onto it on Sunday and try and spend a full day focused on it. I plan on doing a step by step article and I already have most of the bits I need for it as I will actually have to construct it at the same time as I intend on taking pictures of the process. Plus buying the bits will allow me to provide a cost - luckily I know someone I can give the finished product to so it's not money wasted.
I hope to come back on here on Monday and say I've completed at least one section of my assignment. :)
This assignment is just not working for me right now. The last couple of weeks have seen a lack of desire to get on with it, mostly for the usual excuse of I don't know what to write about. I also feel these first few assignments have been very similar and having no particular theme to write about makes it harder. I've always found that when given an essay or anything at college/University, for example, you complain that you have to write about a topic chosen by the lecturer, but now I wish for those days back again.
You might think that an open assignment sounds easy as there's 'so many things you could write about', but think about it, can you pin down one thing you want or can write about? Especially then considering you have to do market research, so you have to find a magazine to fit the topic you want to go with and then write it in the same style as that magazine. None of it really gives any freedom, except for finding an initial topic - it's always got to fit in with an editor's style.
These are my reasons for liking writing fiction - although I do realise that if you finish a novel and want to sell it, changes would need to be made, but your writing style and storyline would remain. Writing fiction allows you to just leave this world for a little while and focus on something more exciting and (often) impossible in the real world. Of course you do eventually have to return and find something non-fiction to write about, so you definitely come back to Earth with a bump.
I will try my hardest to stop wasting time and get onto it on Sunday and try and spend a full day focused on it. I plan on doing a step by step article and I already have most of the bits I need for it as I will actually have to construct it at the same time as I intend on taking pictures of the process. Plus buying the bits will allow me to provide a cost - luckily I know someone I can give the finished product to so it's not money wasted.
I hope to come back on here on Monday and say I've completed at least one section of my assignment. :)
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Book Review - Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham
I've not long finished the above mentioned book and although it's not a genre I often read, I did find it a very enjoyable read. The synopsis of the book is:
Alison Willetts is unlucky to be alive. She has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by a skilful manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel; she is aware of everything going on around her, but she is completely unable to move or communicate. It's called Locked-In Syndrome. In leaving Alison Willetts alive, the police believe the killer's made his first mistake.
Then DI Tom Thorne discovers the horrifying tuth: it isn't Alison who is the mistake, it's the three women already dead. 'An appropriate margin of error' is how their killer dismisses them, and Thorne knows they are unlikely to be the last. He must find a man whose agenda is terrifyingly unique, and Alison, the one person who holds the key to the killer's identity, is unable to tell anyone...
There are many crime fiction books out there with a main set of characters who appear in each book and I have found with these kinds of books, they can start to get a 'samey' feel about them. However, this is the first book I have read of Mark Billingham's, so I have yet to feel this about his books. I found his storytelling quite compelling. I liked how most of the book was centred around Tom Thorne and his investigation into the killings, but I aso liked how the occasional chapter was reserved for Alison or for the killer him/herself (I'm not going to give anything away!).
I think this book had a good 'creep' factor in what the killer was trying to achieve and it does almost make you feel that it could happen to you by placing other victims in similar scenario's that you could quite easily experience yourself.
This book and his second book, Scaredy Cat have been made into a new 6-part TV show which will be shown on Sky One from October. I have just started reading the second book tonight as I am going to 'An evening with...' the author in a couple of weeks and wanted to have read a couple of the books. I was impressed with this book as a first novel and you can see that a lot of research went into it.
I'm not sure I would recommend this book to my friends as I don't think it would be their type of genre, but I would definitely recommend it to my family members, who enjoy many other crime writers' work.
7 out of 10
Alison Willetts is unlucky to be alive. She has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by a skilful manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel; she is aware of everything going on around her, but she is completely unable to move or communicate. It's called Locked-In Syndrome. In leaving Alison Willetts alive, the police believe the killer's made his first mistake.Then DI Tom Thorne discovers the horrifying tuth: it isn't Alison who is the mistake, it's the three women already dead. 'An appropriate margin of error' is how their killer dismisses them, and Thorne knows they are unlikely to be the last. He must find a man whose agenda is terrifyingly unique, and Alison, the one person who holds the key to the killer's identity, is unable to tell anyone...
There are many crime fiction books out there with a main set of characters who appear in each book and I have found with these kinds of books, they can start to get a 'samey' feel about them. However, this is the first book I have read of Mark Billingham's, so I have yet to feel this about his books. I found his storytelling quite compelling. I liked how most of the book was centred around Tom Thorne and his investigation into the killings, but I aso liked how the occasional chapter was reserved for Alison or for the killer him/herself (I'm not going to give anything away!).
I think this book had a good 'creep' factor in what the killer was trying to achieve and it does almost make you feel that it could happen to you by placing other victims in similar scenario's that you could quite easily experience yourself.
This book and his second book, Scaredy Cat have been made into a new 6-part TV show which will be shown on Sky One from October. I have just started reading the second book tonight as I am going to 'An evening with...' the author in a couple of weeks and wanted to have read a couple of the books. I was impressed with this book as a first novel and you can see that a lot of research went into it.
I'm not sure I would recommend this book to my friends as I don't think it would be their type of genre, but I would definitely recommend it to my family members, who enjoy many other crime writers' work.
7 out of 10
Well...
My week off work, which I was going to use to keep moving on with my writing, hasn't quite turned out like that. Procrastinating is so easy, there's always something so much more important to do at the time, like check my emails for the millionth time since I logged on :) One thing no one procrastinates on is procrastinating.
I have done a couple of things, I've started editing a short story, which is quite hard as I don't really like reading my own stories. I've also continued on writing another short story, although I'm only a page and a half into it, so should really keep on with that. As for my assignment 4, I've still yet to look at it properly, I know it's about magazines again and I find them so hard to get into. I've never been a magazine reader, I've always been more interested in the fictional world; plus magazines are so expensive, especially when used only as research!
I'm still determined to stick with the non fiction section of the course however as I feel it will help me be more concise. Originally I had thought I may find a hidden talent for that kind of writing, but now I know there's no chance of that! lol Finding topics to write about is a nightmare, I definitely feel like I know nothing about anything, well not enough detail for an article.
Today I have emailed a couple of magazines with article proposals from my last assignment, so we'll see how they go. I've also been looking up a variety of short story competitions that I could enter; never realised how many of them there are out there! But the Freelance Market News and various people's blogs that I follow have been very helpful with this information.
Can't remember whether I mentioned this in a previous post but I've been considering trying to do an interview with an author I'll be going to see soon, but I feel far too scared to do that yet, I don't feel I have the confidence to go for it. Plus I think it's getting a little late for setting it up and then there's lots of planning of questions involved and I also don't own a dictaphone so it wouldn't be the most professional interview. I think I've already talked my self out of the idea for now - I'm sure there'll be opportunities with other people in the future.
Right, I think I'll venture off and read what assignment 4 has in store for me :-(
I have done a couple of things, I've started editing a short story, which is quite hard as I don't really like reading my own stories. I've also continued on writing another short story, although I'm only a page and a half into it, so should really keep on with that. As for my assignment 4, I've still yet to look at it properly, I know it's about magazines again and I find them so hard to get into. I've never been a magazine reader, I've always been more interested in the fictional world; plus magazines are so expensive, especially when used only as research!
I'm still determined to stick with the non fiction section of the course however as I feel it will help me be more concise. Originally I had thought I may find a hidden talent for that kind of writing, but now I know there's no chance of that! lol Finding topics to write about is a nightmare, I definitely feel like I know nothing about anything, well not enough detail for an article.
Today I have emailed a couple of magazines with article proposals from my last assignment, so we'll see how they go. I've also been looking up a variety of short story competitions that I could enter; never realised how many of them there are out there! But the Freelance Market News and various people's blogs that I follow have been very helpful with this information.
Can't remember whether I mentioned this in a previous post but I've been considering trying to do an interview with an author I'll be going to see soon, but I feel far too scared to do that yet, I don't feel I have the confidence to go for it. Plus I think it's getting a little late for setting it up and then there's lots of planning of questions involved and I also don't own a dictaphone so it wouldn't be the most professional interview. I think I've already talked my self out of the idea for now - I'm sure there'll be opportunities with other people in the future.
Right, I think I'll venture off and read what assignment 4 has in store for me :-(
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
No title
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
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
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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