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12 Books in 12 Months

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Introducing iWriteReadRate.com

A guest post by Adam Charles, Writer and Director of the excellent iWriteReadRate.

iWrite (© jeffrey james pacres http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjpacres)

By way of introduction, iWriteReadRate.com is primarily an ebook website for writer’s work. 

We are developing a dynamic, democratic, open and supportive community for writers and authors to receive valuable ratings and reviews to enable them to prove and improve their writing.  Whether you’re a writer or a reader looking for new stories, we believe there will be something on our site for you. Writers upload their work and our site automatically converts them into ebooks.

I liken my need to build the website to that of being a natural writer.  I don’t mean that it all came completely organically; rather that you simply cannot stop yourself from doing it.  It is a compulsion, a need, a desire as strong as any can be.  Yes, the challenge is big and yes it will be bumpy along the way, but as every writer knows the drive takes over and the act of creativity becomes all that matters. This is what it was like in the early stages of iWriteReadRate. For more on my person motivations read my post: The Story of iWriteReadRate.

Continue reading “Introducing iWriteReadRate.com” →

2

To NaNoWriMo, Or Not To NaNoWriMo

It has been brought to my attention I’ve been casually mentioning NaNoWriMo all over the place for most of the year, but some readers might not have the faintest idea what I’m referring to.  Read on for an explanation.

Continue reading “To NaNoWriMo, Or Not To NaNoWriMo” →

11

West Port Book Festival 2011

Everyone in Edinburgh loves a book festival.  There was one in Portobello at the weekend and there’s another just around the corner in the Old Town.  Peggy Hughes (who Twitter users might know better as the Scottish Poetry Library’s @ByLeavesWeLive) was kind enough to write me a guest post about it.

The West Port Book Festival has reached the merry maturity of its fourth year, with another programme of cracking collaborations, tall tales, award-winners, stars of the future, dead people, open mics, and of course cakes. This year we’re popping up in October  – Thursday 13th – Sunday 16th to be precise.  We have flirted with running in different months (August for starters and seconds and June for thirds) and find that variety is the spice of life.

We have lost a few of our sterling venues from previous years.  The Lot, the Roxy ArtHouse and the Illicit Still (scene of the cause of a monstrous festival-wide hangover in year 3) are all sorely missed, while the Owl & Lion Gallery has risen like a phoenix from the ashes and resurrected itself as the Owl & Lion Bindery, further up the hill in the West Port. We’ve got a new bookshop on the block in Pulp Fiction and are comforted by the never-changing Blue Blazer and its energy-restoring ham and cheese toasties. Some things change, but the ideas and vision behind the West Port Book Festival remain.

Continue reading “West Port Book Festival 2011” →

2

New Writers Awards 2011/12

Today I was emailed a press release from the Scottish Book Trust saying applications for the New Writers Awards 2011/12 are now open.

Which is just as well, because I’d forgotten all about it even though it’s something I should almost certainly apply for.

The New Writers Awards scheme was started up by Scottish Book Trust and Creative Scotland in 2008 with the aim of providing 8 unpublished writers with the financial support to let them concentrate on their work for a bit.  Each recipient gets a cash award of £2,000 and nine months working with a professional mentor, which is very exciting and potentially life changing.

Continue reading “New Writers Awards 2011/12” →

2

Confessions of a Short Story-er

Writing short stories is a very different experience to novelling.

The main issue is that in an ideal world a short is self contained – you can’t have too many threads because it gets confusing.  Over the past 9 months I’ve got used to bashing out big, sprawling narratives that rabbit on and keep introducing new characters all over the place, safe in the knowledge I can rescue the salient points when editing time cometh.

However, I’m finding I can’t hide behind hazy future editing time when writing a short story.  Obviously I can point out in a pathetic sort of way that it’s a first draft and it will change a bit in the edit, but if the whole notion is crap I can’t junk one bit and expand a subplot.  There aren’t any.

Which leads me to a confession: so far this month, I’ve been going back and editing things.  I can’t help it.  I physically can’t bash out a wee story at 1.5k and move on – I feel compelled to re-read and change bits.

In my defense, I haven’t given up on anything and I’m mainly only changing phrasing here and there.  The most I’ve deleted completely is a paragraph.  But technically it’s against the NaNoWriMo keep on keepin’ on spirit of the project, so I thought I should come clean.  After all, when the trust is gone what do we have?

Speaking of NaNo, it has occurred to me that if I’m drawing a graphic novel (or more likely a comic) in November I almost certainly won’t be coming up with 50k of text to go with it.  I haven’t decided on a story yet, and drawing a page takes considerably longer than writing one.  So what should I do?  Write out the storyboard and dialogue and leave the drawings for some other time?  Or sit NaNo out this year?  Answers on a postcard, please.  Or in the comment box, which is easier and doesn’t cost anything.

4

Waiting

There is a bit of an explanation of this story at the bottom – I don’t want to give it away before you read it.

I spend a lot of my days waiting and watching for the perfect subject.

The squeamish ones are best; the ones who are coming to me for their first time.  They keep their eyes closed for most of it, which means I can do whatever I want with them. 

By the time they realise, it’s too late. 

Continue reading “Waiting” →

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