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Welcome to The Literary Pig's blog - a safe haven for all those afflicted with
the unbearable urge to write.

Monday 12 December 2011

Have a go, you never know ...

My writing motto is always 'have a go'.  Even with the giant competitions like Bridport, Manchester and Fish (to name a few) if you have a suitable short story that meets the entry rules then why not have a go and submit it.  You can't win a competition if you don't enter - that's Litpig logic for you.  The same approach applies to other areas of writing, where any opportunity to become involved in a literary process could be embraced.  You never know where it may lead...

Over 6 months ago the indoor writer emailed Mslexia magazine (a quarterly publication primarily aimed at women writers, click here for more details) offering to join their Focus Group.  Didn't hear anything and assumed she hadn't been included.  Then last week was contacted and asked to participate in providing feedback for the new magazine layout - now has 2 copies to closely review and compare (old and new format).  OK - some work involved here without any income, but in the literary universe surely it all adds up (though I wonder who's counting).

Another opportunity to get involved is book reviews.  Sally Jenkins highlighted on a recent blog the Waterstones book review scheme.  If you have a Waterstones store loyalty card then you can sign up to receive and review books before publication.  You may not get picked but if lucky you get a free book (and who would turn that down) and your review published on the Waterstones website.  The indoor writer signed up for various new books, selecting several that fell into her normal reading list and also a couple that were outside her usual genres (good to challenge yourself).  A parcel arrived last week with the first book on the list - Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan (to be published Feb 2012) - showing that if you put your name in the hat there's a chance of being picked.  So now we have some reading to do and a book review to write, but any opportunity to write is an opportunity to be taken ...

Keep writing ...

4 comments:

  1. Many moons ago, I responded to an ad in the newsletter of the Society of Freelance Editors and Proofreaders, of which I was a member, for Abstract Writers. At the time I had no idea what that meant, but figured that since it was in SFEP's newsletter it was probably something I could do. So I 'had a go' and sure enough it led to several months' work. I tend to think that whenever we're offered a job, we should say yes - and then go away and find out how to do it!

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  2. Hi Tracy

    Thanks for the info on Waterstones - I certainly wouldn't say no to a free book once in a while! I shall make a point of getting one of their cards ASAP so I don't miss out!

    Great news about Mslexia, and definitely worth the work you'll have to put in, I would have thought. As Julia said, a small job can lead to more work (hopefully paid,) so good luck with it!

    Bev :o)

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  3. Hi Tracy,
    Good luck with the Mslexia job. Always good to get your name around. Thanks for following my blogger blog, though I'm mostly at the wordpress one now. www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com

    Good luck with the Emerald competition. I think you're on the shortlist with me and Sally. Exciting isn't it?

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  4. Totally agree Julia - somehow the skills will come for any job & self-belief is the biggest skill of all! And little jobs can evolve ... I also belief if you volunteer to help out with something, it always leads to other good things, maybe not straight away but in time.

    Good luck Susan with Emerald. It was nice to see a few elite names on the shortlist! The Emerald competitions are always fun and worthwhile entering aren't they!

    Tracy

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