Still Learning | Still Feeling the Thrill

Amongst my other work so far this year I've managed to submit a number of fictional pieces in the hope of being placed in a competition or being accepted for publication. I'm still waiting to hear about some and have had mixed results with the ones I have had feedback on. I am learning (still learning, always learning) that writing for a fiction audience is very different than writing for an academic one. There are different expectations, 'rules' even, which are slowly beginning to make sense to me. As an academic I'm used to rejections and still get a thrill when a piece is accepted/published. It's the same for me with this 'new' writing.

One piece I first drafted a couple of years ago and have fiddled about with this was recently returned rather than published. The helpful advice I received include the following: 'When writing a short story it is usually most effective to tell it just from the perspective of the main character. . . Here it is you the author who is telling the story so we are able to see inside everyone's head'. The editor then goes on to provide evidence of how/where I have done this and how I might chance my style to make my main character more 'active'. I get this now as I think back on the novels/short stories I have read and enjoyed recently. I've revised the story and sent it somewhere else. Watch this space.

A piece of flash fiction writing (300 words this time) I submitted in January was long listed to 50 (out of 650 submissions) in the Bath Flash Fiction International Rolling Competition http://bathflashfictionaward.com/2016/02/award-round-up-february-2016/, It's the first time I've entered this particular competition so pleased to have got this far.

In addition to my fiction work I've written and submitted a couple of memoir pieces in the last couple of months. In my last blog entry I referred to a piece I had published on abctales within which I wrote a little about my relationship with my dad. I followed this up with another short memoir Invisible Mending which focuses on some memories of my mum. As with my other writing I have found this very helpful as part of my personal grief journey.

You can read Invisible Mending here if you would like to http://www.abctales.com/story/gletherby/invisible-mending

That's it for now.

Thanks for reading

Gayle