In search of inspiration...

I've got another assignment back - the one on white water rafting. It was very constructive - lots of feedback on structure and how to introduce information (websites, contact details etc.) without disrupting the flow of the article.

So now I need to revise it and send it off.

I am really struggling to find article topics though. I know that you don't need to be an absolute expert in an area to write a good article - just interested enough to do thorough research - but I feel like such a fraud writing about things when my first hand experience is tenuous at best.

I'm beginning to suspect my future may lie in fiction. Which is a bit of a bummer really as there's more bread and butter in non-fiction.

I am pretty happy writing fillers though so maybe I'll be able to pull a few of those out of the bag.

And my blog continues to take up too much of my time. But its a lot of fun and the increasing number of comments reassure me that there are people reading what I have to write. I like to think of it as building an audience...

No press is bad press

I have mentioned previously that I maintain another blog, my wee Scottish Blog. I am finding this a very rewarding pursuit. Not financially mind you, but the lessons are proving valuable.

This week a friend posted a fairly critical and caustic comment to me. I've mentioned my rather poor record with criticism before. I am not good with it, having a severe difficulty distinguishing the constructive from the just plain mean. I take it all personally and this was no exception.

So I got myself into a right froth, we slugged it out (over flowers and tea, as only good friends can) and I wrote a response on my blog. I have had considerably more hits and comments since this little incident than before.

Lesson learnt - writing is not about pleasing people, it's about keeping them interested. I might have preferred not to have an argument with a friend, but airing it through writing about it did me no end of good and lead to a good piece of writing.

So if you've got something to say - go for it. Bring on the controversy. My hit counter and I are waiting!

Quick critique

My tutor allowed me to paste my assignment into an email in an effort to speed things up and buy me a bit of time before I contribute to the national debt buying software and printers.

This is good news as I have a small problem with entropy - I have a tendency towards inertia which means any loss of momentum can quickly turn permanent.

Further good news is that she complimented my 'thorough research' but felt there was 'some repetition' and stopped short of recommending I send it out for potential publication. Basically, in the most British manner possible, she felt it was shite. Which it was.

So I now have a sounding board for my work who is honest and can recognise dull prose for what it is. Fantastic! Best I get working on a riveting second assignment (that'll shock her!). Or should I solve the software/printer issue first. Hmmm... I think I'll have a sit down and think about it for a while.....

Thwarted by technology

My grand plan to submit my boring article has been thwarted. I use open source software and it seems that in the transfer from .odt to .rtf something is going wrong, with the net result that my tutor can't open my assignment. Could it be a sign?? I write this, not because I think it is a watershed moment in my writing career but because I hope that somebody (anybody) out there can magically fix this and save me the expense of Microsoft software.

I have sent documents written in Open Office before and not had a problem so a part of me suspects that my tutor may just be having me on. Perhaps she has read this blog and knows that I'm wasting her time. No, that can't be it. My statcounter assures me that I have yet to attain cult status.

But until this is resolved, I'll have to post submissions to magazines too - very unprofessional to send documents that don't open. This is tricky, as I have no printer. At this stage, I can't help wondering at how expensive it is to become a real writer.

Much obliged, if not much richer

Yesterday there were twenty new visitors to this page. More than half stayed and read what I had to say. I cannot begin to tell you how good this makes me feel, how validated. Out there, in the Land of Blog exist people who think I may just have a chance in this crazy venture.

And some even wrote to me, with words of encouragement. That's right! - not one suggested that I ignore dear Mom and spend more time with my daughter. They like me! They like me!

But while making my first tentative steps into the literary unknown - which promises to be full of rejection letters and minimal feedback - you, dear readers, give me hope.

My copy of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook arrived today. I am fast approaching the point where I will have run out of excuses for not subjecting some of my work to the criticism of those who could pay the bills. I now have their addresses and am fairly clear on the format submissions should take. Oh dear...

So today I will polish my short story and send it off to a magazine I found in the handbook. I will. Just as soon as I can find a stamp.

For the cause

In my effort to Become a Writer, I have done the following:

• Written a short story about a small-time, small-town crime in South Africa
• Written an article about white water rafting
• Written a series of humorous fillers (well, my Mom thinks they're funny!).

What I have not done is submitted them to anyone for publication. So I guess I should not be shocked that my bank balance isn't suddenly attracting the attention of Inland Revenue.

It just feels like such a big leap. One of two things could happen. First, and, let's fact it, most likely, is that they get rejected. Which, in turn, means my having to deal with rejection. Didn't someone once say something about writing being a bit like opening an artery...

Or they get accepted, I earn some dosh and have to actually face having made a career change. Which is better than rejection but still quite a big shift.

Tomorrow I'll trawl the short story competitions and enter the one which I think attracts the least entries (any advice on this front would be welcome!).

So, so far we've established that I don't take criticism well and that I cannot handle rejection. Remind me again why I want to be a writer?

Writing, it would appear, is not academic

Well, I got feedback on my first submission. The question required that I write a descriptive piece about somewhere I had been. So I wrote about Calderglen, using it as the setting for a fictional piece. It was descriptive in the extreme - you could feel the sunshine, smell the daffodils, hear the children playing.

My tutor wrote back explaining, in small words of not more than two syllables each, that I was supposed to be sticking to non-fiction at these point in the course. Except that was not made clear in the question, and, after some 6 years of tertiary education, I do read the question!

This should also reveal something else about me. I'm not good with criticism, which according to most articles on getting published, does not bode well going forward.

Well, I'm not too bad with constructive criticism from someone whose opinion I value. In theory, I am paying my tutor for her opinion, which gives it a rather quantifiable value. But in having stumbled at this very early hurdle, I am feeling the need for a little test.

My next assignment is to analyse a magazine of my choice and write an article that may be appropriate for publication. Here's what I plan to do. I'm going to pull out all the research stops to write a coherent, but completely boring, article about tea. If she criticises this one, I'll know that she has my best interests at heart - there'll be extra points for using the words 'dull' or 'boring'.

Petty? Absolutely.

Let's see what happens.