Friday 17 August 2012

Paragraph Planet

I'm very excited. Paragraph Planet featured my paragraph, 'Be Quiet Alice' on their site on 17th August. You can read my paragraph and those by other writers both unpublished and published, as well as interviews from contributors to the site including Judy Astley, Emlyn Rees and Gabrielle Kimm.

I discovered Paragraph Planet when reading Anita Chapman's blog recently and saw the link to her second featured paragraph, How It Was.

Anyone can submit 75 words - no more, no less - and it can be about absolutely anything.

How about giving it a go?

Sunday 5 August 2012

Writing About Imaginary People

Sometimes even imaginary people argue back. Does that make me nutty? No, it's because I'm a writer and I'm probably trying to wrestle the character's conflict into the story and onto the page, so that it pushes the story along.

I do think that in order to write you have to be fairly solitary, however, I've found that writers make great party guests. After spending so much time by themselves plotting, planning and writing, they usually have the best fun when they mix with people. 

You'll probably find that writers will never be bored because however dull someone might be when they're talking to them, the writer will always be trying to figure out a way to utilise what the other person is saying. They'll probably be studying their actions, or maybe a personality trait or two so that they can find a way to include it into the latest work in progress. Now I've said this I'll have to concentrate on looking fascinated while doing my 'figuring out'.

Do you agree that writers are great fun at parties?