Rounding off the post-first draft break with a trip to Old Hunstanton in Norfolk.
Wins!
Very chuffed that a non-fiction piece I wrote for The Masters Review (and which received a revise and resubmit a couple of months ago) has now been accepted. It’ll be part of their Writers on Not Writing segment in the November issue.
It’s all about play: being scared of it and of being judged, and how my 3yo’s relentless creative appetite and my foray into short stories has made me a braver and more playful writer.
Plus, this is the first time my work is appearing in a literary magazine, which is super exciting!
Rejections
Didn’t make it onto the shortlist of the Nero New Writers Prize but, reading the extracts of the five selected, the standard was incredibly high. So well done to them! Definitely names to watch.
This also means that my total number of short stories ‘out there’ is practically zilch… Time to get some submissions in!
Learnings
In preparation for starting The Novelry’s Big Edit course, I had a coaching call with Emylia Hall. We had such an interesting conversation about emotional logic, to the point where I kept thinking:
I’m sure I’ve written about that, but now I can’t remember…
Which meant the time had come to read through my first draft. I charged up my husband’s old iPad and spent the day reading and scribbling notes. And the magic is that now I’m working out ways to bring my main characters’ backstories even closer together. As Emylia said, the big plot points need to have lots of emotional payoff…
Readings
Finished: Hannah Deitch’s Killer Potential. The plot of this one is completely barmy – an SAT tutor finds two dead bodies and a tied-up stranger under the stairs, and then the two of them go on the run together. In some instances it felt a bit like the story had gone for shock over believability, but the bonkers events certainly kept me turning the pages!
Finished: Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead. The voice of the protagonist (Demon) is definitely what drew me in to this book. To be honest I nearly put it down after about four chapters because the content is just so sad, but I’m glad I persevered. The emotional distance is cleverly done, because of course he would be based on his upbringing and the oxy crisis unfolding around him. Personally I found the ending very clean in the way it returned to the ocean imagery, but I’d have preferred more emotional wallowing!
Currently reading: Will Storr's Science of Storytelling. Raced through half of this in an evening. It’s so easy to read and I’m finding the neuroscience fascinating.
About to start: Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You.
Musings
Whilst at the beach (and in between stints shovelling sand into a dumper truck) I spent time musing on an upcoming New2theScene members’ competition. For this one, the challenge is to write a story in just 50 words.
And do you know what? It’s incredibly hard.
Coming up with the ideas is one thing (all of mine started off way too ambitious), but then trying to distil the essence of what you want to say into so few words is quite another… It’s been a great exercise in learning to trust the reader – with careful word choices, a lot can be implied!
If you fancy reading some good ones that’re already out there, check out 50WordStories.
And here’s my favourite…
Till next time,
Vicky
