Finding time to write

5 - Take breaks - You need to take breaks for maximum productivity. Research shows that the average person can only listen for forty-five to fifty minutes before his attention begins to flag. For creative work, the period of time you can really produce your best is even shorter. Work for twenty minutes and then take a five minute break away from your notepad or computer. Take frequent short breaks throughout your work day, and you'll get more done.

6 – Write, don't think - Take a sheet of paper and answer the following questions about the story you are working on: Who is having the problem? What is the problem? Where and when does it take place? What excites you about the problem? How is the problem resolved? Unless you plot your work in advance, you’re wasting writing time - if you have to stop and think about these questions you've moved from writing what you already 'know' to speculating about what might happen: that's a different mental activity and can be done while you're walking the dog, paying the bills or cooking the dinner. Keep writing time for writing down words you've already pondered over.

7 – Be practical - You've got a story ready to send out and then you realise you're out of big envelopes, your stamp drawer is empty or your last printer cartridge just ran out of ink. Stock up on basic office supplies, and have the tools you need most next to your desk: a good dictionary, a thesaurus, your list of markets and your database or submission folder. Every time you have to get up to check something, you're losing writing time.

Solicitations

There's nothing nicer than being contacted by an editor who's read your work elsewhere and wonders if you have something they can publish.

This happened to me a few months ago, and I'm very pleased to have received my copy of Zocalo, the Art and Literary Quarterly of Oaxaca. I love Mexico and being asked to supply a story for a Mexican publication really made my day; and now I've got the issue in question, I'm thrilled by the lovely artwork on the cover too.

If you think you'd like to appear in Zocalo - the quarterly journal publishes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, artwork and photographs - they are a non-paying publication, supplying one copy to contributors. Please email morknme6@yahoo.com for submission guidelines.

Making time to write

Many of my students have to cram their writing time into tiny spaces in the day. Over the past couple of years we've brainstormed many ideas to see how they can find more time to write - over the next couple of days I'll share them with you. Here's the first batch:

1 - Know your limits - If your writing time is limited, planning how you'll spend it is crucial. Faffing around with half a dozen different ideas means you get up with nothing achieved.

2 - Organise your day - Many of us juggle writing, parenting, working and domestic responsibilities, not to mention social lives. This takes discipline and organisation, so why not make sure your writing gets the attention it deserves. Makes lists for the tasks you must complete. Decide how much writing time you can allocate daily, even if it’s only five minutes, and add it to your task list.

3 - Develop time-Savers - The less time you spend on mundane tasks like research, the more you have for actual writing. I have a standard template I use for stories, including the Dickensian title, and I follow the same four-paragraph structure whenever I write a query. I also have a list of questions I ask myself every time I send submission to a journal for the first time, and a database to record the answers. Look for ways to cut time from other tasks you do more than once.

4 - Invest your time - Some chores take time now but will pay off in the long run - like inputting data into a contact database. I'd rather spend a minute noting ideas when they strike than planning to do it later and then forgetting, inspiration doesn't follow a timetable and smart writers grab whatever their creativity produces. If I'm on hold on the phone, I'll use the time to do some background research for a story, or send follow-up emails to editors.

A thing of beauty,

... and a joy forever. The latest issue of Night Train (VI) arrived late last week and I've been revisiting the stories we selected and gloating over the cover. I joined NT as an Associate Editor (AE) part way through this issue, so some stories were new to me and others were ones I'd deliberated on with the rest of the team. It's an incredible buzz to see all that work become 'real' and I hope the writers think we did their work credit.

Rusty Barnes and Alicia Gifford have taught me so much over the past year, and I know working as an AE has improved my own writing a thousandfold. To cap it all, this issue's stopping place is Normal, Illinois, and that is a name to conjure with. Visit NT, glory in the issue VI cover here: issue VI contents and ponder if you will, what it must be like to live in Normal.

Taking my name (in vain)

A little rant today - aimed at one person, who knows who she is!

Lady, when you wrote to an editor saying I'd suggested you send in your story, did you really think he wouldn't get back to me? Especially as your story (yes, I've read it now, although I hadn't read it when you told him I'd said it was a good match for his magazine) is a near rip-off of a piece that he published in his last issue. All you've achieved by attaching my name to your submission is to get yourself blacklisted by that editor and by me.

A wider point here - sometimes writers and editors are generous enough to lend their names, I do it myself when I see a good piece of work and know where it might find a home, but if I do it, I let the writer know VERY CLEARLY that they can say I recommended them to send the piece and often I'll drop the editor a line saying that I've suggested a writer should submit but made it clear that the writer knows my suggestion carries no weight with the editor. If such offers are made to you, don't abuse them. Don't ever think you can appropriate somebody as a guarantor for your work without their express permission, this is a small world and you will get found out, sooner rather than later.

And if you are lucky enough to place your story, thank the person who effected the introduction and remember that now it's your turn to see if you can help another writer to succeed.

I love it when a plan comes together ...

Especially when I have almost nothing to do with it

Some months ago I travelled to Kendal to lead a workshop on Writing Fiction to Get Published - it was a great morning, organised by Kate and Linda whom I've mentioned before, and a really enthusiastic and well prepared group of students made the whole event an absolute pleasure. After the course, as always, I offered to edit a story for each student and suggest some markets for it. Yvonne Lyon sent me an atmospheric and lyrical story 'Snake' to review, and she has just told me it's been accepted for Silverfish New Writing 6.

Silverfish is a very interesting entity: Silverfish Books - based in Malaysia, actually in Kuala Lumpur which is a city I've spent some time in, and both city and website are well worth a visit!

Congratulations to Yvonne for a very well deserved acceptance.

Absent

Yesterday was a day without computer. So double duty today! First a round up of fun and good things elsewhere in the blogosphere ...

Jim Ruland set a jolly little contest and garnered some thought provoking replies - visit Click for Jim's comp and add your own comments

Bunny Goodjohn had some good advice for aspiring book promotors at
Bunny's sage words

And Jai Claire had a guest reviewer commenting on the new novel by Roger Morris at Review of Taking Comfort

As for me, I went to London and looked at a Living Roof; ran around like a crazy person doing too much work that wasn't writing related; and garnered six rejections and four acceptances. That's a record, by the way - I've often got six rejections in a week before, but never four acceptances.

Green Thought in an Urban Shade

Launched last night in London.

I wasn't there, sadly. Well, I'm not sure if it was sadly or not - given that I have too full a plate of things to deal with right now - but I hope it went really well and that those who did attend had a wonderful time. I'm waiting to hear exactly how it all panned out. The Text-tiles shown here are three short stories, mounted on lecterns, for people to read as they browse through the show. The strand of hair is mine, by the way!

I wish I knew how people respond to the Text-tiles, but you can't stand and watch somebody read a 5,000 word story because it makes them nervous, so I still don't know if they are a valuable addition to the wall mounted texts and sculpture stories or not. I won't say the worry keeps me awake at night, but I probably would get to sleep earlier if I knew the answer!

Good Days and Bad Days

A large part of any writer's life is sending out work and waiting. Sending and waiting. Sending ... and waiting.

This week has been an exceptional one. It's only Tuesday and already I have had two rejections and (wait for it!) four acceptances.

Four!

That's never happened before. Ruthie's Club took a piece of erotica written for one of their upcoming themes, Espresso Fiction took two stories; one for May and one for July, and Traveler's Tales are running an excerpted reprint of a longer essay in their The World is a Kitchen anthology due out in September.

I've forgotten who the rejections were from - which is the way it should be. If you can celebrate your acceptances and forget your rejections you can probably develop the kind of skin a writer needs (something like a one-way crocodile carapace: it has to let through all the inspiration available to you in your daily life and none of the misery that goes with rejection).

Mmmm hmmm - or, The Joys of Recording

Standing in front of a microphone recording your own work is a weird but increasingly common experience. The developments of podcasting, MP3 players, and other downloadable audio systems mean that writers are spending more time rounding their vowels and sounding their consonants than ever before.

I'm sure I'm not alone in finding the recording process terrifying. I love live performance and get a huge buzz from audience reactions but confronted with the skinny grey lollipop of a mike I become totally pathetic.

Saturday was no exception - although I was bolstered by the knowledge that I was going to meet the excellent writer Frances McCallum after I'd read my story and before she read hers, which made things a bit less fraught - and I already knew that Rebekah, who was supervising the recording, was a very easy person to get on with. It all went better than I'd expected and the story should be available to download at some point - although why anybody would want hear me read it to is a mystery to me!

The story, Acorns and Conkers, will feature in the Tales of the Decongested anthology to be published next month (you can pre-order on Amazon now!) and there will be a launch at Foyles on 29 June, more details soon. Meantime - if reading at Foyles appeals to you, submit to ...

TALES OF THE DECONGESTED


Submissions should consist of a previously unpublished short story. Submitted stories must be in English but may be on any subject or in any style. Stories submitted by post must be typewritten, minimum line spacing 1.5, and printed on one side of the page only. Since the idea is for selected stories to be read aloud at one of our events, the maximum limit for submissions is 3,000 words, although shorter is sweeter.

You can submit in the following ways:

Email stories to tales@decongested.com

Post stories to Paul Blaney (surnames A-M).

39 Hall Lane,
Upminster,
Essex,
RM14 1AF

Post to Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone (surnames N-Z).

5 Millennium Place
Bethnal Green
London
E2 9NL

We'll engage to read the first 24 stories that reach us by the 10th of each month, which is when we generally read submissions. Six or more of these will be selected to be read at the next event and included in our story archive. We'll also do our very best to respond to all the submissions we receive. No more than one story per month please. We just won't be able to cope. Please keep a copy of your story, as no submissions will be returned. Stories cannot be altered or changed once they have been submitted. Submission of work will be deemed to imply that you accept the above guidelines.

And then, if accepted, you get to read at: @ The Gallery Space, 2nd Floor, Foyles Bookshop, 113-119 Charing Cross Road. It's a wonderful venue and a very supportive audience.

The craft of writing - being accessible

I never imagined when I 'became' a writer that I would do some of the things that have become a regular part of my writing life. This week, for example, after folding 70 paper stories/sculptures for the Green Thought exhibition, I shall be travelling up to London to record a story for Tales of the Decongested. In addition to putting out an anthology, Paul and Rebekah are asking writers to read their own stories aloud and downloadable versions of the anthology texts will (eventually) be available from a website.

I'm all in favour of this. I think literature should be as accessible as possible to as many as possible. I remember when I lived in Dagenham and worked in Putney, watching people reading the Poems on the Underground which were displayed in the place of advertisments in the carriages. Time and again an individual would start to smile as they worked through the text, nodding gently, feeling that they had shared a moment with the writer. Often people would nudge companions and get them to read the poem too. Many, many times I watched the mouths of young men, both black and white, as they subvocalised the lines, struggling to read something so unfamiliar but not giving up until they reached the last full stop. Young women read faster and didn't subvocalise. I know now, since becoming a writer in residence at secondary schools, tbat many boys never master fluent reading, but even then I knew their sense of accomplishment when they mastered the poem was huge.

Those few lines of verse were a window into 'my' world; the world of reading a book a day, of critical theories of literature, of classical texts densely footnoted ... but they were also a moment in which we all shared the same poem, the same reading experience, and however individual our responses, most of us wore the same smile when we reached the end of that literary interlude.

More galleys

Today I've received the galley's from Deathgrip: Exit Laughing to read through. Looks pretty good - so I'm about to sit down and go into copy editor mode before I sign off my proofs.

When people ask me where story ideas come from, this is the kind of tale that makes it impossible to give an answer. Where on earth did the idea to write about a hundred year old Pyrenean man being tempted by the devil come from? And why does the story end with flatulence? Who knows ... I certainly don't.

The point is, if you write it, and you're any good, you'll find a home for it sooner or later. But if you allow the inner editor to start beating up your inspiration, you've lost the creativity battle before it has even begun.

Golden Swans for Green Thought

These are my preview invitations for the Green Thought exhibition, showing at the Waterloo Gallery, 14 Bayliss Street, London, SE1 from 15 May - 27 May 2006, with an invitation only preview on 16 May 6.30-8.30 pm. The exhibition will be formally opened by Irish Ambassador His Excellency Daithi O'Ceallaigh followed by a speech from Mme Zhang Xiaokang, Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of China and wife of the Chinese Ambassador Zha Peixin.

This collaborative exhibition of paintings by Fion Gunn and texts by Kay Sexton explores and celebrates the parks and urban spaces of Beijing, Dublin, London and Paris.

Question from a reader ... who wants to be anonymous!

How do you know when a story is finished?

Good question. There are two failures at opposite extremes of the scale. One is the story that is written and sent out in a white heat of creativity (I've been guilty of this one) and as a result is as rough edged as a new brick. Sometimes you can get away with this, but most of the time the story shows how little time it's been given to mature. Key features of the too freshly written story will be:

1. Overuse of the characters names (Keith said, Claire said, Keith replied, Claire ran, Keith smile, Claire laughed etc instead of he and she).

2. Overuse of key words or phrases (the Labrador will be mentioned ten times when eight of them could have become dog, pup, hound, animal, the dog's proper name etc. The bowie knife will feature in every other paragraph when it could have become just knife, blade, weapon etc).

3. A rushed ending.

The other is the story that keeps getting polished and never gets sent. I've read some of these, and they are gorgeous pieces of work, but the writer just can't let them go.

The solution to both problems is to workshop your story. Ask readers and reviewers if they think the story is ready for publication. Of course you don't have to listen to everything they say, but if most people say it is, (or isn't) you're being given a strong hint about your work.

If you want to be a writer ...

Write for themed issues

I'm assuming here that by 'writer' you mean what I mean; somebody who makes enough of a living from their words to call themselves a writer - not the other kind of writer, the one who carries a notebook, looks anguished when you ask how their novel/short story/poem is going, and never actually gets anything into print. If you're one of the former, read on, if you're one of the latter - don't. You already know that one day the publishing angel will reach down and make you a best-selling literary genius without you having to do all the soul-destroying actual WRITING that the rest of us are driven to ...

Theme issues are like gym workouts for a writer - they test your imagination, stamina, and flexibility. They tone your style and hone your form and, if you can remember a couple of things, they can be a swift route to publication success.

What to remember

1. You can't shoehorn an old story into a theme - editors, given maybe 400 stories to choose from, will NOT pick the one that is only peripherally related to the subject matter requested. Either write fresh or don't bother, unless the story you've got sitting in your files is that miracle of synchronicity - a story that could have been written for the theme

2. Many entrants will write the 'same' story - I just read for a theme issue about 'blood'(standing in for an editor who suddenly found life got in the way of literature) and over 40% of entrants sent vampire stories, nearly another 40% sent knife/axe murder stories. We took one vampire and two murder stories, leaving the remaining six stories to come from the pool of less than 20% of writers. Either discount your first idea, because it's the probably the one most other people will have thought of, or make sure it has enough spin on it to make it different.

3. Keep your deadline in mind. There's no point writing perfect fiction that arrives when the issue has been put to bed.


Here's a couple of theme issues to whet your appetite:

Nanobison http://www.nanobison.com/index.htm

Theme: Frontier Fiction (deadline: June 20, 2006). This could be old west meets outer space, Dracula meets Wild Bill, post-apololyptic polka ... you get the idea.

We accept electronic submissions only. The required format is RTF. The RTF text can be included in-line in the email message, but is preferred as an attachment.

Please also include a bio of yourself, including references to previously published works, if any. Let us know if you want us to include your email address with the bio. Author pics are not required, but strongly encouraged. Too shy to send a pic of yourself? Then send one of your favorite car / toy / pet / child / object. If we select your story, but you don't cough up a picture of something, we will substitute in an image of our choice, and the choice may not be one to your liking. (that was an idle threat ... we won't put anything up there to embarrass you, really, we promise!)

Emailing Your Submission: s u b m i s s i o n s (at) n a n o b i s o n (dot) c o m
Subject: Submission - Short Fiction (sf / fantasy / horror) - Title - Author - Author email

Payment: Compensation for published works will be $10 per published story or poem. First world English rights reserved by nanobison. A variation of the template SFWA web contract is used. We will by default keep previous issues of the magazine posted on the website in PDF format, content intact. If you wish to have your item discluded from on-line accessibility after the current issue is "expired", please make that known in your cover letter. It will probably not have any effect on our decision process.


Hayden's Ferry Review http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/publications/haydensferryreview/index.htm

Hayden’s Ferry Review is an internationally distributed magazine publishing literary and visual art. Produced twice a year at Arizona State University, HFR seeks work of high artistic merit from emerging and established visual artists and writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Writers are urged to read the magazine before submitting.

Theme: Works of Witness

Poetry, fiction, essays, and visual art that explore social and political injustice on any scale, give a voice to the voiceless, raise a call for awareness and act as a catalyst for change. Postmark deadline: July 30, 2006. Mail to:

Hayden's Ferry Review (SS#39)
The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing
Arizona State University
Box 875002
Tempe, AZ 85287-5002

Planning ahead: Live Literature Event

LIT UP - A Spotlight on Performance Poetry, Literature & Spoken Word

Wed 20 - Fri 22 September 2006, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

LIT UP is a brand new event for arts professionals: a showcase of performance poetry, literature and spoken word events alongside debates and discussions, all designed to explore new ways of developing the role of live literature in performing arts programmes.

Whether you're a director, programmer, venue manager, marketing professional, arts officer, educationalist, administrator, practitioner or indeed any arts professional, LIT UP will help you see live literature in a new light!

Contact LitUp@breweryarts.co.uk to register your interest

The showcase will feature six specially commissioned pieces of new work, alongside performances by a number of established artists/companies, all of which challenge perceptions and bring fresh thinking and skills to live literature events.

LIT UP offers the opportunity to see a wide range of live performances; discuss the work with other arts professionals; and tackle the issues around programming and promoting live literature. A series of formal and informal debates and discussions will look at how new ways of staging the written word can attract new audiences, as well as developing existing audiences, introducing a completely new element to arts programmes.

LIT UP will be a celebration, a chance for reflection and strategic thinking, and a catalyst for leveraging the power and attraction of literature in all forms into a dynamic live artform. It's presented by the Live Literature Consortium, a groundbreaking group of venues who are committed to developing new ways of presenting, programming and promoting live literature, funded and supported by Arts Council England.

LIT UP runs from Wednesday 20 September to Friday 22 September 2006 at the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal. Easily accessible by train and road (just three hours by rail from London), Brewery Arts Centre provides a series of interesting and varied spaces to showcase live work and host forums, formal and social events, all set in the beautiful Lake District.

I ran a workshop Writing Fiction to get Published in Kendal earlier this year and it was great fun: committed students, beautiful scenery and excellent organisation from Linda Graham and Kate Harrison Whiteside. As Linda is involved in this project too, I have every confidence it will be a complete blast.

Beating Writer's Block - Procrastination and the Inner Editor

Finishing what you’ve started

Is as easy as writing the last line first. It really works. Define the mood of the conclusion and the rest follows ...


If the inner editor is your problem

Make yourself finish a complete page before allowing yourself to look back at what you’ve written. If you hand-write, cover the page with a clean sheet of paper, if you type, set the page size to 50% or even 25% of normal, so you can’t easily read what you’re typing.


Do not correct spelling and grammar as you go

Either pick ten minutes at the beginning or end of your writing time, or choose one day a week to do editing on several pieces of work. If you constantly let your inner editor show you what’s wrong with your fiction, you will become demoralised. Keep editing for short sessions and remember - everybody writes shitty first drafts!


Procrastination, the mother of failure

If you work on a computer and find the internet or chatrooms a distraction, keep a pad by the keyboard and every time you stop writing to ‘research’ or ‘browse’ or whatever, just note down the time you stopped and started again. You may be shocked at how little time you actually give to your writing.


Buy a cheap timer

Work for twenty minutes without allowing yourself to be distracted and then have twenty minutes off.

The non-fiction life

As I've said before, making a living out of fiction alone is something between hard and impossible. I freelance as a journalist and writer, and often find that one style of writing informs or triggers the other.

This week's nicest news, for me, is probably going to be that my article on Brighton has been published atTime Travel-Britain.

Brighton is my delight, my entertainment and my constant muse - getting paid to write about her is like working as a chocolate taster: a combination of pleasure and necessity that surely is the best of all possible worlds!

The human cost of innovation

Anybody who has to deal with me in the next couple of weeks will find I'm grumpy. That's because I have to make more than fifty of these paper sculptures for the next Green Thought in an Urban Shade exhibition. When I came up with the bright idea of presenting my stories as individual paper sculptures that people could unfold and read, I neglected to consider that me, myself and I would end up making the sculptures.

I am not a naturally deft person, I can't even plait my own hair, so folding fifty stories is a nightmare. And why, oh why, did I think it would be clever to make the Irish story in the shape of a tree, and the Paris story in the shape of a swan? I couldn't have picked more fiddly and demanding designs if I'd tried.

I should stick to writing, it's what I'm good at!

Pen names - the saviour of the serious writer

If I had to spend all my time writing as Kay Sexton I would be:

(a) very poor
(b) unbearably depressed.

Literary fiction provides a living for very few writers. Rejection is not just commonplace, it's almost universal, by which I mean that almost every literary fiction writer will receive around a dozen rejections for everything they send out. Some stories may receive forty or fifty rejections. Some may never get published. When they do you can hope to make, on average, £50 - £150, or $80 - $400 (American journals pay better) for a story that you may have spent six months crafting.

It's masochistic lunacy.

Without my additional personas - one for science fiction and one for erotica - I would starve. But they are not just ways to pay the bills. I love writing science fiction: I adore world-building and writing about new technology. And I take my erotica very seriously. I believe that women have a right and a responsibility to write about the kind of sex they wish for and value: to change the landscape of sex writing so that it strengthens and empowers women and reflects their experiences in positive and powerful narratives.

I would write erotica and science fiction regardless of the need to pay the bills: it just so happens that both genres pay better than literary fiction.

If you want to be a writer - think about what alternative writing skills you have, create a persona to go with them and open yourself to a new literary adventure.