Recent Posts
Recent Posts Tagged With 'writing'
Feeling the Blanks
Yeah so I haven't written anything in weeks, and even my inspiration for blogging has slowed a little. Getting a few rejection letters (one really mean one, won't say from who!) and generally in a slump. What to do?...
Christmas Countdown
I had an idea to do an advent calendar of flash fiction, but seeing as it's like a week into advent, I'm a bit late. Still though, it could be fun. Word mark: 500 - 750.Secondly, I found this. Roll on irritating everyone with my mandolin! Lastly, I a...
Nanowrimo Letter from Peter Carey
I got this in my inbox today and thought I'd post it here for the edification of the WORLD.Dear Writer,Writing is the easiest thing in the world. Anyone can do it. It's like hitting a tennis ball against a wall. It's like swimming. Anyone can learn. ...
More on the edit.
"I'm in the process of completing my second novel now and what I do is re-read what I wrote yesterday, edit what I have to and continue on. I find that the small conflicts in my story change from my original idea as I go along and so I backtrack all ...
Learning to Love the Edit
Yes, it's true. I'm completely contradicting myself. I'm on linkedin and I put up a question as to whether everyone hated editing as much as I do, and I was astounded by the amount of positive replies. All the people on linkedin LOVE editing! It basi...
Editing
Eugh, I say, EUGH! If the weather wasn't making it bad enough, I also have a novel to edit. It needs *extensive* editing. Hardcore editing. Editing sans lube, if you will. I wish I could make someone else do it, or clone myself,or something. Surely t...
Ghoti
I thought I'd spotlight Ghoti seeing as they've accepted a story of mine that I've been trying to get placed somewhere for a year now. Stellar.The current issue has an interesting triptych from Brandi Wells and I confess that Jessica Maybury is now a...
Ways To Write About Ideas
I got an e-mail the other day stating the remit for stories for a certain magazine. They said that they're really looking for stuff that challenges gender roles, and I was stumped there for a while as to how to come up with something like that. How t...
Six Week Plan and Nanowrimo
So I've set in place a six-week plan. This involves writing as close to 1600 as I can, except on short stories. This week so far I've written 2 stories which need a load of editing and rethinking about them.I'm also aiming to do yoga every day but ev...
Why do an MA in Writing
Before I did the MA in NUIG, I was really cynical about courses like it. I thought that to be a writer you shouldn't go to workshops or anything because of my horrendous fear of 'voice bleeding' or stealing, and to that end, I think I'm still right. ...
The Bio
ah Jesus this is a hard thing to do. I've restarted like 5 times. Anyway. Em. Jessica Maybury has had work published ...Jessica Maybury lives in Galway.Jessica Maybury likes eating carnations.crap. em.Jessica Maybury is from Dublin, lives in Galway a...
1st Draft
...is finished! At a mere 59,000ish words. There are many more to inject into other parts of it. And it needs some stringent editing! Unsure, really, of where to go now. Need to think. Think think think. Maybe if I edit the hell out of it first, then...
Twilight and Dawn
No, not that weird crappy vampire twilight stuff, but the period of time in the evening. My wrist smells weird.As I was writing today I was thinking that I'd gotten out of bed waaaay too late (1 pm) and that I'm actually a morning person when I do ge...
Questions about Life and Lists
Questions About Life and Shit! Yes, yes, pre-order it! It's out! And awesome! Do it all of you and you will live longer. Yes, yes. Yes I said yes I will yesAnyway, here are some questions that need answering and lists that demand making, and I foresw...
To Do Or Not To Do
Here's some of the things I've read in blogs or various articles about getting your novel published:Choose your market first and zero in on itFind an editor who publishes that kind of stuffStudy your genre and internalise everything about it so that ...
Trudging and Tips
Autumn is well and truly here, and I find myself back at all-systems-go in front of my desk, V, candles and, of course, the trusty laptop. Finding it hard to get back into the 2000 word rhythm, but I suppose that was only to be expected. In order to ...
I will arise and go now....
Howdy,Juste un petite mot pour te dire que I'll be away from Sept. 11th to Sept. 25th. On holiday in beautiful Spain! Goodbye rain!Also, just heard that I'll have a story published by Nth Word in their fall issue. Stellar! Cliquez ici to see them in ...
Story in Progress
The stages:1: Hammering it out. This is the part where I don't think about anything and just write what comes into my head. More often than not it shapes itself into a story all by itself, the darling.2: If it's flash fiction, I usually leave it as i...
Pacing
Well, yes. This is the thing I have problems with (apart from all those other things I have problems with). It's very easy to jump straight to the good parts and leave the boring parts like the 'sitting in the car on the *way* to the *spaceship*' or ...
what to listen to while writing
I was downloading some music just there, and there's always a small thrill to be had when listening to someone for the first time. Thoughts:I was wondering what people listen to when they're writing, or if they listen to anything. I find it hard to l...
Agents
I rang Jonathan Williams (literary agent) yesterday, all prepared to send him the first four chapters of the novel. He struck me as a gentleman, the kind not found too often nowadays. I explained to him how the envelope had been sent back to me unope...
Expectations
The extent to which other peoples' opinions influence my work has been preying on my mind for the last few days. Obviously you're not writing for them, you're writing for yourself, but does it matter what they think of you after they've read your wor...
That Pumped Up Feeling
There comes a stage learning new piano pieces when it stops becoming a pain in the ass; when you can play the hard parts all fast; when you feel an unmistakable sense of mastery and general rockingness, even if it's Mozart....Sometimes this happens w...
Plans and the Book
Plans:Ring Jonathan Williams about the returned manuscript because apparently he goes away a lot and it might be expediant to find out when it's a good time to send it.Broach Honeysuckle Rose in the next piano lesson. Click here.The Book:At this poin...
Music and Writing?
I haven't written anything in days but have been listening to music. I could give you one of those exhaustive 'what's on my ipod' lists but I'm not going to.I've had various ideas for flash pieces while walking up the Headford Road, earphones in plac...
Desks and the Galway Arts Festival
I've been meaning to post this since like last week or something. Finding the subject of writers' workingspaces, I thought I'd post on that. Comments with your own variations are welcome!Mine is pretty functional and also cluttered. The clutter is ho...
The Diagram and Fucking Around (musically)
This is a two part post. Woah! I hear you exclaim in sheer exhilaration.Firstly. There's a magazine called The Diagram (click here). They describe themselves as being "interested in representations. In naming. In indicating. In schematics. In the lab...
Concentration
I was going to open with a famous birthday, but the ones for today are boring, so I didn't.I've spent the morning trying to play Losing my Religion on the mandolin (click here for the tab), and I know that I'll spend the rest of the day doing it. The...
Pianists....and Shiny Things.....
Being the all-round natural genius and child prodigy that I am, I've decided to reveal that I am, in fact, a multi-instrumentalist. Yes, that's right. I can play the flute.Well.No, I can't. In fairness, I've had the thing for years and never playedÂ...
