My writing.com portfolio

I've split the links on the right hand side of this blog into the main links section and a section for 'My Pages'. It's got my Librarything bookshelf on there so you can read reviews of books I've read, and I've just added my writing.com portfolio so anyone can read my work if they wish to. There's currently just one short story on there, but I'll be adding more soon!

Writing.com update

Well I've been on writing.com for about a week now. I started off reviewing other people's work, short stories, articles and even a couple of poems. Most of the people whose writing I have reviewed have responded to me and been really pleased with the review. More importantly, I have really enjoyed reading them all. I reviewed a couple of articles by one writer about her home town in Massachusets, USA, and exchanged a couple of emails. She's challenged me to write an article about my home town, which I am currently working on. It also transpires her ancestors originally emigrated to the US from Buxton, England. I know the area as my wife's parents live not that far away from Buxton and the Peak District, so I'm going to go there when I can to write an article on Buxton, and maybe take a couple of photos. It's really good to think I'll have at least one reader who is really interested in the article, it'll hopefully spur me on to write it.

I've added one of my short stories, Crime Pays, onto Writing.com, and so far received three reviews, and an average rating of 4 out of 5 which I'm rather pleased with. I may put some more of my stories up, but really I want to write some new pieces to put up. I'm keen to write both short stories and articles, and I may even try a poem at some point. Since starting on writing.com a few days ago, I've had lots of ideas for articles and stories. The fact that now I've got a potential audience to read what I write is going to be a big motivator for me.

A couple of days ago, some kind person (or group of people) paid to upgrade my account to an 'Upgraded account' which has loads of extra features that the free account doesn't have. Instead of being limited to 5 items in my portfolio, I can now have upto 250 items. I can also enter contests on writing.com, of which there are many. There is one in particular which I've decided to enter, and that's a contest to write an original new take on the Christmas story. I've got an idea for that, so now I've just to get down and write it.

For any budding writers out there, I'd really recommend writing.com. It looks a complicated site at first, but you'll soon get the hang of it and I'm sure it will be well worth it. I'm only wishing there was more time in which to write.

Writing.com

Today I've joined Writing.com (link on the right hand side). The site was recommended to me by friends and is probably the biggest writing site on the internet. Thousands of people publish their own work on the site and/or read and review other people's work every week. It looks quite a big sprawling site which is going to take a bit of getting used to, but looks like it has a lot of potential. The plan is to read a few people's works, post some reviews, and then submit something of my own. Give something to the site first before you expect anything back in other words!

More soon.

A long absence

Nearly a month since my last post. Hopefully this will not be the norm. There are a number of reasons I could attribute my long gap to: being ill with cold/sore throat for two weeks (but not off work, otherwise would probably have been on here a few times), busy at work due to lack of staff, busy working on my gifts website in the run up to Christmas. None of them really good excuses.

The lack of writing on this blog is also an indication of the lack of writing in general I've been doing. I'm working on a ghost story for a Writing Magazine competition but it's still all in my head. Also had an idea for a Christmas story: ditto.

Reading is a different matter however. Since the last post I've finished the Stephen Booth novel, 'Blood on the Tongue', and also read 'I'm Not Scared' by Niccolo Ammanti and 'Good News, Bad News' by David Wolstencroft (creator of Spooks). All fairly good, the best one being the Stephen Booth novel. Reviews of all of them in my LibraryThing library (link on the right of this page).

I tell a lie - I've done one bit of writing. I've done an entry for the History Matters: One Day in History project. The project involves getting as many people as possible to write a blog/journal/diary entry for 17 October 2006. It will be a kind of electronic time capsule stored by the British Library for future generations to look at. I liked the idea of the project, so wrote about my day yesterday. I also spent a bit of time reading different people's entries. It was rather interesting to get snapshots of different people's lives. Potentially a mine of story ideas there!