musing – Writing and Works

A Call For Guest Post Writers!

Good Afternoon lovely readers.

For those of you who read this blog, you may have seen some of my posts about writing and struggling with trying to create an identity for yourself as a writer.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about starting a weekly guest post that talked about writers and their darkest moments during their careers. A few people mentioned that they liked this idea and I’ve decided to try to get things kick started.

Beginning the 5th October, Writing and Works will host a weekly, Wordy Wednesday where one guest writer will post about their first work, what it was like writing it and what the most difficult moments they found themselves in as a writer. The point of these posts is to share how we move past those moments and why it is important to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

If you would like to get involved in this then contact caroljforrester@hotmail.com and let me know your story.

The guidelines are as follows:

The post should be between 750 and 1500 words. [You can go a little over but please, no shorter.
These posts are no to complain about getting rejected from publishers or agents. They are to talk about writing in an open, honest and encouraging way.
Posts should be accompanied by a photo and a bio less than 200 words.
Your post should be with me at least four days before it is due to go online. This allows me time to get it scheduled and to read it through properly.
Make sure to give me a link to your own blog so it can be included in the bio.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask. This is something I feel passionately about as writing can often feel very lonely and isolating.

I would love to have as many writers involved as possible so please tweet, share and reblog this call so we can get this off the ground. I need your help to find writers who will rise to the challenge.

Remember, the fifth of October will be the launch date but I want this to run for as long as possible. I can only do that if people get involved.

Let me know below what you think about this and remember, if you want to join in and write a post then my email address is above.

Happy writing.

Research Lab X

Gardner kept one eye fixed on the progress screen and the other on the gun pointed at his forehead.

‘Easy now.’ He raised his hands slowly and swallowed the last bit of his sandwich. ‘I don’t want any trouble.’

‘I wasn’t expecting you would,’ replied Tris. ‘Is it done?’

‘Not yet. A full recharge takes time.’ Gardner could feel his palms starting to sweat. ‘Look Tris, you could come back, the boss he’d take you back if you just apologise.’

‘Apologise?’ Tris snorted. ‘After what he put me through?’ She shook her head. ‘How long until it’s ready to leave?’

Gardner checked the screen. ‘Ten minutes.’

‘Too long,’ scowled Tris, ‘make it quicker.’

‘I can’t. It doesn’t work like that.’ His hands began to drop towards the desk.

‘Back up.’ Tris gun jerked in her hands. ‘Back up high where I know they won’t be a problem.’

‘Nine minutes,’ said Gardner. ‘We both know you haven’t got that sort of time.’

Shouts began to echo down the corridor from the other side of the steel door to Gardner’s lab. Tris let out a long, slow breath.

‘Eight,’ she said. ‘The door has only got to hold for eight and then I’m out of here and free.’ She pulled the trigger and a bullet spat past Gardner, lodging into the control panel by the door. The panel gave a crackle of annoyance before going dead and on the other side the hammering started.

‘Now you’re even more stuck,’ said Gardner. ‘The suit isn’t invincible and it wasn’t designed to piloted by someone in your condition, it will kill you.’

‘I know Gardner, I designed it remember.’ Tris crossed tucked the gun into the holster. ‘That’s why you’re going to pilot it.’

‘What?’ A small bubble of hysterical laughter rose in Gardner’s chest. ‘No, not a chance.’

‘Please Gardner.’ She crossed the room and laid her hands against the desk. ‘If not for me then do it for Lille.’

Gardner’s jaw tightened.

‘Don’t bring her into this, you have no right to.’

‘He killed her just as much as he’s killing me.’

‘No, it was an accident.’

Tris’ hand reach up and closed around his.

‘You don’t believe that do you?’

Biting the inside of his cheek Gardner shook free. The screen flashed green.

‘It’s done,’ he said.

‘Good.’ Tris glanced towards the door where the banging and shouting continued. ‘Time to make your decision.’

‘Tris…’ the words dried on his tongue as the door shuddered and the metal began to give.

‘If you’re going to do something, do it now.’ She reached for the gun. ‘Remember what Lille said. When it comes down to it, they don’t care if we die. They just want us to kill the right people first.’

Daily Post: Recharge

How Not To Write A Novel: Yes, I’m Still Procrastinating

Hello all you lovely readers, how are we all doing today? Saturday has rolled around yet again and this week I’m actually able to get the my laptop and write this on the day I want to. So let’s start, ‘if we were having coffee…’

Well, it’s been something of a quieter week this time around, and I’ve procrastinated more than I should have. YouTube seems to be the biggest obstacle between me and productivity and I’ve realised that I need to work out how to turn off the distractions and get out with cranking out chapters. To be honest, my motivation towards Dawn Shadows had been a little lax this week, and while I written out pages of notes and started editing chapter four, I haven’t got as deep as I wanted to into the re-write. Instead, most of my writing has been for this blog.

I did want to have the current redraft of Dawn Shadows out of the way by the end of October, but the only way I can see me achieving that is if I sit down and do a chapter a night four or five days of the week. I did have something of a break through with chapter four this morning and I’m now working on completing the second half of that chapter. If I can get that completed today, I can probably get most of chapter five written before going to bed and then start on chapter six in the morning. Part of the reason I’m actually getting this post out of the way now is so I can spend the rest of the day focusing switching off from the blog and focusing on novel writing.

Top Tip For Fighting Procrastination:

Instead of turning to the internet when you get stuck, take a walk or read a chapter from a book. Set yourself another task with distinct goals. This helps to give you a sense of accomplishment but also stops you for ending up going down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos that leave you wondering what happened to your life. It also gets you away from the screen and gives your brain a chance to reboot. Cabin fever is very real and sometimes we need to ground ourselves in order to crack those really difficult plot holes.

This week I also got involved with another one of the Daily Post’s Discovery Prompts. I run a little hot and cold with the Daily Post’s prompt, for example, the current daily prompt which is ‘Sandwich’. I could write a post for that but I would feel like I’m shoehorning the prompt into the story rather than building the story around the prompt.

Anyhow, this week I did get write a piece for the discovery prompt: Superhero, and I was really happy with how it turned out. Despite feeling really chuffed, it looks like it wasn’t a post that many people were interested to read. So far it has received thirty views in the three days that it’s been up.

Now normally this wouldn’t bother me as it is still better than having no one read it at all. However, it knocked me off balance because I’d misjudged the reaction this piece would receive. I scheduled the post to go up at 8am in the morning [GMT], and I’m wondering if this was a mistake. Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to post at least once a day, if not twice, but I don’t want to be putting up post after post within the same hour slot. It seems that after five years of blogging, I still haven’t cracked the code for working out when to post.

If you would like to read ‘Building Heros From Words and Dust‘ then just click the link and take a look. The comments it has received have been really positive so I don’t think the lack of traffic is due to the quality, but more the time I posted it and the content not relating directly to a writing prompt that’s driving traffic towards my site. For those of you who are interested, here’s a quick extract:

I was thirteen years old when I started writing Shadow Dawn and Tara was the sort of girl I wanted to be. She didn’t need anyone to look after her, she was clever, a good fighter, fierce and independent. She had all the confidence that thirteen year old me didn’t have. This is back when Gabriel was the main character of the story, it was still called Obscurite, and it never got past more than about 5,000 words.

Since then the title has changed, Gabriel has been lost, new characters have been added, the plotline has shifted dramatically and there have been more than a few revamp of character design. What has stayed the same is Tara and her awesomeness.

Building Heros From Words And Dust

That’s about all I have to share with you this week. For those looking for some writing prompts to spur on their creativity I’d like to share two fantastic sites that I’ve been using. The first is Promptuarium which is brimming with cool and interesting prompts to catch your imagination and updates every day with a whole host of new ones. The second is Dragonition who put up a fantastic new prompt every day. The range from scenes, to dialogue, to character descriptions.

If you’re ever stuck for ideas on a post, just hop over and see what they’ve got lurking around. You might have already seen some of my stories on here which stem from their prompts and no doubt, you will see many more to come.

As always, let me know how your weeks have been in the comments below, and until next time I wish you all the best. Happy reading!

One Last Hope

Grendal, Chief Clansman of the Ruling High Council For Witches, Warlocks, and the magical sorts, did not appreciate being woken before dawn. His bones complained about the cold and his knees refused to cooperate as he traversed the endless staircases and corridors that led from his rooms to the Grand Hall, where the rest of the council was supposedly waiting.

‘Where is everyone?’ Looking around the room he could see four others, only one of which had bothered to change from their night clothes. Looking at the swaying man Grendal reconsidered the assumption and decided that he’d not been to bed in the first place.

‘Well,’ Grendal demanded, ‘where are the rest of the sods?’

‘Succumb?’ said one of the others. Elmer Throttle sat hunched in his seat, the folds of his dressing gown tightly roped around his midriff and a single fluffy slipper poking out beneath the hem. ‘He believed himself to be a Warawhump, whatever that is. He won’t come out of the cook’s wine cellar and appears to have crafted himself some form of warren.’

‘Bugger,’ swore Grendal. ‘I thought Maximus said he had this newfangled spell-work under control?’

‘He did,’ agreed Elmer. ‘Clearly he was wrong and we’re no closer to finding a solution. I think we might have to face facts and-‘

‘No,’ Grendal snapped. ‘Under no cirumstances whatsoever are we doing that.’

‘We might have to.’

‘I’d rather succumb.’

‘Would you really?’ smirked Elmer. ‘Well you might before the day is out, we all might and then where will we be?’

Grendal ground his teeth together. ‘Fine, summon her. Let’s see what she can make of it all, if she answers that is?’

‘Oh she’ll answer alright?’

Grendal turned towards the new voice, Eliise’s figure materialising from the shadows around the edges of the room. ‘You know I can’t resist a party Grendal.’

Eliise’s smile was wide and her eyes danced with a fire that hadn’t burnt in Grendal for almost fifty years.

‘Of course,’ he growled. ‘You called her here already. Typical. Fine, see what use it is, we’ll all be mad by the end of it, mark my words.’

‘Now, now darling.’ Eliise closed the distance between them and laid a hand against Grendal cheek. ‘You really need to have more faith. After all, how many times have I saved your skin?’

Prompt: ‘New mind-altering spells and intoxicating potions are causing headaches for the Ruling High Council’ – Promptuarium

A really quick piece for tonight’s Friday free-write. If you want to check out some of my other short stories and flash fiction pieces you can see them here. Or go to the home page and check out some of my favourites that are listed there.

This week I also wrote a piece about how main characters can have an impact on the write and how they change as a writer grows which you can read here. This is in response to the Daily Post’s Discovery Challenge: Superhero and a post I’m really proud of so I hope you’ll check it out.

Hope you all have a fantastic Friday.

Quiet Elegance

You called it quiet elegance.

The bite your tongue,

watch your mouth,

mind your language

elegance.

Draped in satin I walked

your walk,

talked your talk,

kept myself inside the lines.

It wouldn’t do to smudge.

The first time I spoke back,

you laughed.

The second time you frowned

and the third time,

I thought I saw a fist.

I didn’t turn the other cheek.

I laid you bare,

stripped out the marrow of you

and passed it to the next woman,

told her to look.

This is the man buying you flowers.

This is his quiet elegance.

Daily Prompt: Elegant

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