Welcome: suggestions welcome!

Hi and welcome to www.brevitything.co.uk's forum pages. These pages will be developed over the next few days, so think of this as a temporary state of partial activity.

The idea is for these pages to develop to host a forum suited to your needs: writing tips and guidance, a place to swap constuctive critiques, reading recommendations, market opportunities, ideas for courses, positive and negative writing experiences and so on.

That's the aim, though I'd like your input on this, so the initial shape of the forum reflects what users are going to find handy!

Post back and tell me what you think...

Nice to see this up and running!
Reading suggestions are always appreciated- some great books are certainly hard to find and easily missed, so a section for that would be great.
Same for second-hand book sites/stores, especially for the older ones that might be out of print or not easy to get a copy of.
Otherwise, I'm always looking to know what styles people prefer- I'm not a great fan of dialogue without "marks", and I like descriptives, but I know a lot of people that don't! (can't understand it myself...)
Anyhow, goodluck, look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Reading lists are a great idea. Do any of you belong to writing groups, or reading groups? What about creative writing courses? Are there any creative writing books you'd recommend?

To start the ball rolling:

On Writing, by Stephen King - real advice from an underrated author
Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight - excellent stuff on short stories
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler - a bit movie-centred, but an excellent introduction to the monomyth, and a crucial read in understanding the importance of structure to narrative fiction
How To Write A Novel by John Braine - nearly 40 years old, but clear no-nonsense guidance

There's loads of others...

Oh, and I'm currently reading Sam Bourne's latest thriller, The Final Reckoning, whicvh is pacy summer fun at the moment (about half way in)...

Hello

Thought I'd just lend my support. Flash fiction is such a specialised type of fiction for me as it's not quite a short story as such and one that I would really like to explore yet know very little about, e.g. any flash fiction anthologies, tips (of course apart from online ones!), marketability etc.

All the best with the forum!

Jen
x

Short fiction (in the UK at least) has limited traditional markets, and flash fiction is even more rarified. Established authors can have anthologies published, and often do (Stephen King puts one out every 7-8 years or so), and sales are generated off the strength of that 'brand name'. There's a plethora of small fiction magaziones and specialist publications which take short fiction - Writers News is a very good source of leads for this. After that, the market is pretty much internet and competition-related.

There are strong (though competitive) markets for short fiction for a female audience. Many of the women's weeklies take some fiction, and Take A Break magazine has a "Fiction Feast" edition which comes out every 2-3 months. There are genre publications and some literary magazines as well, both offline and online, and some opportunities may pop up.

As a rule: write the story, for the sake of writing the story. Worry about its length or suitability for market later on. Concentrate on getting the story right. There's nothing wrong with retooling a story for a market / audience / competition wordcount if needed at a later date.

Hope Clark, who runs http://www.fundsforwriters.com/http://www.fundsforwriters.com/ has weekly free email lists of open markets and competitions. There's a US bias to this, but it's a useful free resource. Writers News is worth subscribing too, for the subscription-only additional market material that comes monthly.

PAert of the job is establishing a reputation. Treat writing like a vocation. Don't be afraid to work for money, and sometimes for not very much money at all (there are plenty of net markets, but only some pay, and those that do tend not to be able to afford much - the idea that the net is free at source, like the NHS, is very much with us). But get some credits under your belt, and see where it takes you.

Hello

Thanks for the info and the link - very useful!

What I've found with my meagre writing experience is how it's such a painful learning curve and I'm still trying to achieve perfect balance between the technique (oh yes that really existss!) and one's own inner creativity - listening and taking in constructive criticism yet being true to ones own inner creative voice. All very hard work and emotionally draining too. Hopefully you hit jackpot with this story or that piece of writing and this makes all the preamble worthwhile!

Jen
x

I appreciate that these kinds of things can be a little slow to get off the ground...

That being said, any suggestions on how to get things up and scampering?

All ears, you know...!