Is That A Light Up Ahead In This Tunnel?

I actually did some writing this week. Not a lot, but some. And I even got some words I was happy with.

I've started teaching a new semester of students in my high school writers' class. It's an elective for 14 year olds who want more English, and perhaps don't want all the usual elective subjects like sport, or technology. Now in its second year, it's proving to be popular. And I'm seeing some great results from the kids.

But this week, while teaching kids about openings to stories, I had a few ideas of my own. So I wrote three openings. Three random pieces from nowhere that have given me ideas. And I plan to expand them into fully formed tales.

I may be coming to the end of my motivational slump. And that's something I feel good about. I hate feeling guilty about not writing.

The Drought.

I haven't had a story sale since late last year. A few good, personal rejections. A few not so personal rejections. A few rejections that were so impersonal they almost hurt. For a number of reasons, I had reason to think one or two of these would be acceptances. I was wrong.

In the meantime I have had a couple of publications. Good magazines, with high profiles and reputations. There was even a decent review.

But the drought I'm experiencing isn't only in regards to sales. My motivation seems to have dried up as well. Not a writer's block. I have ideas, and I know how to 'make' ideas, just the willingness to sit down and write those words.It's been months since I've sat down to write new words. Well, new fiction, at least.

I started the new semester at work this week. A new group of students in my Writer's class. I've started showing them how to structure stories, and I learned a couple of points myself.

I'm hoping this is what it takes to push me back into the writer's chair. And yes, I realise it's something I need to make myself do.

Back To Work.

I've just finished two weeks' holiday. And, of course, I was busy. I had a list of jobs to do, and didn't manage to finish the list.

I got very little writing done. One good day last week where I wrote some good words, only to discover they had disappeared the next morning. No I'm reasonably computer savvy, and I save as I go. And yet that document is gone. Completely. I spent far too much time trying to recover the file, but to no avail. I simply cannot explain what happened to it.

The next morning I rewrote as much of it as I could remember, and I must admit I think I did a better job on the second occasion. Of course I cannot compare the two pieces, but I was more satisfied when I read it back. I think it might be a keeper.

But back to work tomorrow, teaching. And it's going to be a busy term. I must work out the best way to make time for me, to make time to write.

To motivate myself to write after teaching English at school, working with words all day.

This I something at which I must work.

Red In Tooth And Claw.

My writing buddy and crit-fiend, David McDonald, has a story out in the latest issue of Dimension6.

Although I've yet to read this issue, I read an earlier incarnation of Red in Tooth and Claw a while ago. I enjoyed it then, and I have no doubt it's improved since.

Congratulations, David. A fine sale to a quality magazine.

Dimension6 continues to be published three times a year, and is free to download and distribute. Keith Stevenson, the editor and publisher, produces high quality stories and five issues in he is yet to disappoint.

Issue #5 also includes stories by SG Larner and Jessica May Lin.

Run, don't walk, over to the Coeur de Lion website and download.

What? Are you still here?