Tuesday 28 October 2008

Just one of those days...

Today started much like any other. Until I sat down at the computer and started a quest.

I haven't had one for ages and it feels good. Feels healthy like a good diet makes you feel healthier. A diet for what constitutes good writing is good for one as well. Things like POV, and goal/conflict. What is good dialogue and what is bad?

And as always when this happens or when I google, I think...


WHAT ON EARTH DID WE DO BEFORE THE INTERNET?

We humans can make something as wondrous as this. Of course there are those who have turned it into a tool of depravity. But it can also be a wondrous bowl of knowledge. Where anything and everything that is spinning in the universe can be found.

Every so often I get philosophical. It's a mood directly opposed to other moods I get - especially the one that tells me if I don't get to a shop and find a sale soon I'm a goner.

What are you doing at the moment?

(Okay, smartypants, apart from reading this blog.)

Sunday 26 October 2008

LADIES IN WAITING

Other people's books come out so fast. Ours takes a long time. Why is this so? Asks Professor Knowitall.

Well, when you put x with y it makes xy then you add < is greater than but > minus ab which was a combination of the compound a and b but that is = g force in minor...

Yes I was a genius in algebra.

But then the same goes for queues. I'm always the last. And street lights are always red for me.

And just when I thought it was safe to set myself up in the garden to write. Comes a dark cloud and oops - back inside (false alarm).

But there's a simple answer. A watched pot never boils. You see? I told you I was a genius in algebra.

Friday 17 October 2008

Run with the big dogs

I love writing fiction, but if I want to make money writing, I write non-fiction.

Pitching non-fiction involves searching out possible magazines, reading a few articles, then querying the editor with ideas.

I've spent the morning browsing through markets, looking for my next sale. Some magazines I'll glance through and decide whether or not I'll pitch.

Some magazines I'll start reading and I can't stop. They have my interest. I should pitch to them.

But I get nervous. How could I possibly write anything that good?

Really, I should stop procrastinating (aka blogging) and just pitch an idea already! THe worst thing they can do is never get back to me. A distant second is for them to say no. And if they do, that doesn't hurt. I just pitch the idea elsewhere...

...as soon as I can find a market for it.