Friday 23 February 2018

The Joy of Guest Posting



Recently, one of the Hornsea Writers group has been active on other people’s blogs. Writers are sometimes invited to produce posts for other bloggers and it’s usually a positive experience. Such pieces can be anything from straight promotional opportunities through items on the techniques of writing to interviews providing more information about the writing life.
Stuart Aken writes a monthly column for an online magazine, has been interviewed twice recently, and was invited to post a guest piece about his local area on another site. Now he features in an online broadcast about his experience of ME/CFS that prompted him to write a memoir with advice for others.


Saturday 17 February 2018

No, it’s not just a matter of time

There are topics that almost all writers report being told or asked; ‘Where do the ideas come from?’ and ‘I’m going to write a book when I get the time,’ to name just two.

There’s an assumption behind there that all it needs is time, and the hard part will be getting the idea in the first place. Not so. The ideas are there for the taking (but that would be another blog*).



As to having the time… how many jobs do you know where time is the only issue? What about interruptions, crises that pull arrangements off course…? Time management theory these days advises people to build in the unexpected so that they don’t spend every waking hour generating frustration because their day did not work out to a schedule that looked so good on paper.

Writing, as so many other activities, can be derailed by a whole host of things, some predictable, some not. For instance, how many people would list a love affair between two electronic devices as an concern? 


*basically, the ideas shop.

Saturday 10 February 2018

Romance - All Hearts & Flowers? Not here!

Not long to go now. Bought your heart-laden greetings card? Eyeing which bouquet of red roses you can afford? Which bottle of sparkling to proffer?

Saint Valentine’s Day certainly gathers to itself all the cliches, but surprisingly enough Romance novels don’t. They never truly did, despite the epithet. Take a look at the selection written by members: not a hearts and flowers Romance among them.

Madeleine McDonald’s A Shackled Inheritance centres on betrayal, hypocrisy, and the evils of slavery. Stuart Aken’s Breaking Faith explores exploitation and control in and around the world of glamour photography, while Linda Acaster’s Beneath The Shining Mountains leads the reader into a nomadic life so different to our own, romanticised by television and derided by history.



Yet what all three authors bring is an exploration of human relationships – the aspect that fuels just about every fictional story ever produced. Even Watership Down wasn’t truly about rabbits.

So let's have a little truly satisfying Romance this week, shall we? Ah, why not.

Saturday 3 February 2018

Staying Sane While Writing

If you want to write...where better than a writing group? Most of the authors I know don't like rocking the boat. They have a routine, it works. They don't like meeting new people. They don't have the time.  I had all of these concerns as a new member of Hornsea Writers. For me stepping out of my comfort zone was necessary to see things from a different angle.
But it has been worth it. 

New writers and old think that groups are not for them. Some believe their work isn't ready, or the group might be clique-rich, not their genre. But, as I have (re) learned since joining Hornsea Writers, there are some vital reasons to get out and meet people, and it's not all about words on the page.

Shellie Horst