Writing Articles

We’re always keen to add to our writing article database so if you have something worth sharing please let us know.

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Whenever I’ve daydreamed about an agent coming back to me and asking for the full manuscript of one of my books (as we all do) the reverie has always entailed happiness, euphoria and excitement.

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Did you know that each of us Brits sends on average around 55 greetings cards per year?

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An editor’s perfect supplier is someone who gives them the complete words and picture package. Traditionally this means, writing the words and then going out and taking the pictures with your own camera. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Why not let someone else do all that complicated stuff of focussing, measuring the light conditions and using the right shutter speed? Tapping into the picture resources of PR agencies can be very productive. They provide the pictures, leaving you to do what you do best – the words.

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Are you the sort of person who could fall asleep on a washing line? Then an all night writing workshop is probably not for you! The task - to stay up all night and create a masterpiece, or at least a few coherent sentences.

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Right, children, take out your crayons. Today I want you to paint me a heroine.

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Writing can be a bit like home decorating. Once you’ve finished one project, you’re ready to move on to the next. One thing plainly leads to another.

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[B]Thrown to the Poets – getting the most from the poetry arena [/B]

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I have a file called Weekly Progress in which I record all the queries and submissions I make every week and total off at the end of the month the work I’ve done and income I’ve earned. I colour code my successes in sunny yellow, and the rejections in a dismal green. It’s a motivating file to look at. Depending on my state of mind, the dark greens push me to send out more work, or the yellows inspire me to create new articles, stories, essays.

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My rare butterfly was a blur. The blade of grass on which it rested was a photographic masterpiece. Why does my camera focus on what it wants to instead of what I want it to? Looks as though this could be expensive…

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If deep down in your socks you nurture a desire to see your name on the credits of a television programme, have you considered the field of documentaries?

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For a long time, I’d known that I was no longer passionate about what I was doing – helping to write proposals, website content, brochures, leaflets or flyers.

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So, you’ve decided to write a story about life with a nineteenth century traveling fairground. Off you go to the local library to get some background information. You get there, having spent far too much on the bus fair. You pace up and down every aisle and you find….absolutely nothing on nineteenth century fairgrounds.

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Some people swear. It’s a fact of life. Some swear because they are frustrated, angry, or startled. Some swear from habit, the way other people drop in the word ‘like’ or the phrase ‘you know’ at frequent intervals.

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Great. The second rejection of my first novel arrived on the same morning as my decree absolute. Feel good factor: zero. No: sub zero.

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Our habit of photographing everything that moved, (and much of what didn’t), when we lived in Africa inspired me afresh years later. As we prepared to move house yet again I rediscovered boxes of forgotten photographs: but what could I do with them all? Write about them, of course, but how?

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As a journalist or magazine writer, you have the choice of inspiring new thoughts or finding out what people are already thinking about and searching for a new angle on it. In the good old days, this was the classic writer’s excuse for smooching away the hours propping up bars, or gazing at the world from the windows of chatty coffee shops. The modern way, though, is more labour intensive.

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Modern cameras are brilliant. All you need to do is point and click. Within nanoseconds the camera has registered the lighting on your subject, focused on the image that you are taking, made the calculation as to how big the aperture needs to be and decided what shutter speed to use. The end result may even be of publishable standard. But sometimes the camera gets it wrong. Or rather, the camera doesn’t produce the image that you thought it would.

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Friends, writers, potential reviewers – lend me your ears. Well, actually I’d like you to lend me your eyes, opinions and a little of your time, but I thought I shouldn’t mess too much with Shakespeare’s immortal line. I’m going to make use of a few of his titles to illustrate my points and that is disrespectful enough, methinks.

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Picture this: you’ve just come across a lucrative new market calling for freelance submissions. The deadline is fast approaching and a few photos will make all the difference between a good article and a great article. And the rain is tipping down outside….

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Don’t be surprised if on 21st August 2006 your postman is given a new piece of equipment. A vital instrument, key to taking the postal service into the 21st Century. It’s got nothing to do with email. In fact, it’s quite an ancient piece of equipment. It’s called a ruler.

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I’m now in my third year as a full time writer, although full time is probably a misnomer. Nobody writes full time. Nobody can write full time. But I try to be as full time as possible. I am the man who goes to writers’ circles to run workshops, because it pays a few quid and enables me to flog some more books. I am the writer who happens to be writing this piece whilst I’m facilitating a literary festival holiday on behalf of a holiday company. (Now am I supposed to have 8 on this coach to the theatre or was it 9?) Anyway, I’m up for anything literary particularly if it pays at the end of the day. Anyone who has jumped shipped into the full time freelance seas will quickly learn two things. Nothing focuses a writer’s mind like a deadline, or an empty food cupboard.

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I stood up to perform two of my poems in front of fellow scribes as part of the Equal 2 New Writers Development Course recently. Me, a woman who has panic attacks at the thought of going on a bus, and frequent nightmares about sending meals back to the chef when they are cold/wrong/not dead yet - delete as appropriate.

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Apart from the X-rated stuff, there’s something I do quite a lot in the bedroom – and that’s dream.

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I’ve seen quite a few lively debates around our Writelink threads about what does or does not count as poetry. It’s very similar to the ‘But is it art?’ war-cry often heard when people encounter modern art for the first time. As readers and viewers, most people eventually come to the happy conclusion that if they like it, it’s art. If not, never mind – let those who like it buy it.

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Who’d be without the day job? Most writers apparently. Give them a large advance and they’d pack it in tomorrow, and I’m no different. Or am I?

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Yes, I really did sell a picture of a pile sludge and it was published in Water Gardener magazine. Along with 9 other pictures and about 800 words it helped to earn me £300. The article in question was called “Freshen Up Your Fishpond In Ten Easy Steps” and included other exciting images such as:

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PERHAPS NOT THE BEST ADVICE, BUT...

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