Verillion tagged me with a meme to list five things that I am good at, as a writer, so here goes:
1- Coming up with ideas and opening lines or pages
2- Observing others and mentally noting things for future reference
3- Typing
4- Getting excited about what I am doing
5- Reading material to help me write better
I could equally list another five that I am not so good at like gluing my bum to a seat and getting on with it or scheduling 'me' time for writing.
These last two I will see as learning opportunities as Rob Long would say and I will work them round to a positive... somehow. I WILL make more time!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Catch up News
This weekend I have a ton of paperwork to get through and I've just mowed the lawn. Go figure. I just need to fix myself to a chair and do it!
I heard back from an editor at Puffin who kindly looked at One of a Kind, even though Puffin don't usually accept unsolicited manuscripts. She said she enjoyed it and kept reading as she wanted to know what happened, which is a good sign, I think. However, she didn't think it was strong enough for the small and competitive teen market.
She suggested I re-write it for a younger audience and that I change some elements of it. That novel has been redrafted too many times for me to remember and I've had a lot of conflicting suggestions regarding it, so I'm going to put it in a drawer for now.
I haven't done much writing recently as work has been really hectic. We had a twilight inset yesterday on behaviour from an educational psychologist, Rob Long, who summarised his talk into several mantras for us. Let's see if I can remember them:
Fight fire with water
Analyse the behaviour; don't personalise
The problem is the solution not the student
Every mistake is a learning opportunity
I was also contacted this week by a producer at Teachers' TV who was wanting to talk to me about perhaps helping out with a programme. As it turns out they no longer need me, but the producer said she'd keep my details on file. I've been on TV before, in 2004 when I was filmed at my then writer's group, in Westminster for an interactive part of Jeremy Vine's BBC series Page Turners.
Who knows maybe I will be hitting the screens again?!! Now, back to my marking.
I heard back from an editor at Puffin who kindly looked at One of a Kind, even though Puffin don't usually accept unsolicited manuscripts. She said she enjoyed it and kept reading as she wanted to know what happened, which is a good sign, I think. However, she didn't think it was strong enough for the small and competitive teen market.
She suggested I re-write it for a younger audience and that I change some elements of it. That novel has been redrafted too many times for me to remember and I've had a lot of conflicting suggestions regarding it, so I'm going to put it in a drawer for now.
I haven't done much writing recently as work has been really hectic. We had a twilight inset yesterday on behaviour from an educational psychologist, Rob Long, who summarised his talk into several mantras for us. Let's see if I can remember them:
Fight fire with water
Analyse the behaviour; don't personalise
The problem is the solution not the student
Every mistake is a learning opportunity
I was also contacted this week by a producer at Teachers' TV who was wanting to talk to me about perhaps helping out with a programme. As it turns out they no longer need me, but the producer said she'd keep my details on file. I've been on TV before, in 2004 when I was filmed at my then writer's group, in Westminster for an interactive part of Jeremy Vine's BBC series Page Turners.
Who knows maybe I will be hitting the screens again?!! Now, back to my marking.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Memories
It's back to work tomorrow. Joy of joys!
But before I get caught up in the frenzy that is my life in term time, I thought I'd post a few pics from my holiday in Kuwait. If you haven't joined Facebook, join it. Now.
I managed to locate three friends from my primary and secondary schools that I haven't seen in over ten and in some cases twenty years. Isn't the internet amazing!
I've also been looking into taking up a team sport and a martial art. I will keep you updated about whether these things actually materialise. If they do... not sure where the writing will fit in... mmm so much to do ... so little time.
Here are the pictures in any case!
But before I get caught up in the frenzy that is my life in term time, I thought I'd post a few pics from my holiday in Kuwait. If you haven't joined Facebook, join it. Now.
I managed to locate three friends from my primary and secondary schools that I haven't seen in over ten and in some cases twenty years. Isn't the internet amazing!
I've also been looking into taking up a team sport and a martial art. I will keep you updated about whether these things actually materialise. If they do... not sure where the writing will fit in... mmm so much to do ... so little time.
Here are the pictures in any case!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)