November writings

It's been a busy couple of weeks in my writing life. Not only have I kicked off writing a novel for NaNoWriMo (currently about 12,000 words behind the target, at 13,000 or so), but I've started a hatful of short stories, been planning another novel and I've even been doing workshops for Wrisoc. I wouldn't say I've been rushed off my feet - but it's been good to break the day to day monotony with a couple of hours a day of writing.

Nano first. I've wanted to have a go at it for the last few years, but thanks to uni commitments I've not had the time or the patience to sit down for a month. If I could write 10,000 in a day as some do, then it wouldn't be a problem, but if I get over 1,000 that's a big writing day for me - and one that's generally taken me a couple of hours. 50,000 words in a month is just too much to ask of a Bar Exempting student who just wants to crash when he gets home. This year, though, I've managed to get a good start, even if it has faltered. And it's helped to give me a kick-start to other projects. Although the Nano novel won't be finished, there's plenty for me to plunder for other works. And thanks to write-ins, I've become acquainted with a whole new group of talented writers.

Which brings me on to my second big writing project of this month: the Wrisoc workshop. Standing in front of a seminar room of your peers can be daunting, but when you know quite a few of those people have managed those workshops themselves and there are a few people with more experience present there's an extra edge. But the workshop - focussing on clichés, their identification, and how to avoid them in your work - went well. It was a little on the short side, but that wasn't much of a worry. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to go back and do another one at some point over the next few months.

My biggest project at the moment is the anthology. Shuffle is probably the biggest writing task I've ever taken on, and I don't think I'd be able to manage it without having the help of a band of talented co-editors, who will show their value to the project when we're getting regular submissions. Although it has been tough to get people involved on the writing point of view, things are coming together and soon I should be able to go back to universities and societies to demonstrate that this will happen. Shuffle will hopefully be released next June/July on the Kindle, so if you want to feature in the anthology, pop over to the website/blog (see link to the side) and find our guidelines.

And all of this without mentioning the short stories and other novel. My writing life is busy, indeed!

Shuffle Anthology

I've been sitting on this announcement all week. I've told a few people about it (WriSoc being the obvious group of people who know), but I'm going to announce it to the world now. If 'announce' is the word for something only a handful of people will read on my blog.

I'm starting work on a new anthology. I'll be editing it, rather than writing anything for it. The anthology's working title is 'Shuffle'.

The aim of the anthology is to showcase the best work of young writers nationwide. I want to be reading through work bursting with quirk and originality, selecting around 80-100,000 words of it to go in the final anthology. At the moment, I'm targeting a release on the Kindle in around June time.

As I'm trying to get as many people as possible involved, I'm in the process of contacting creative writing departments in universities, writing societies and any other creative organisation I can think of. A post will probably be going on Duotrope's Digest, calling for submissions. I'll be setting up another website/blog, and an email account for submissions.

I can't do it all on my own. If anyone's interested in lending a hand (whether that's in the editorial process, in contacting different universities, or on the technical side - especially the technical side), please don't hesitate to get in touch.

I'll release more details on the Shuffle site itself. Anyone wanting to submit now, hold your work for a week or two, until I've got an email address for you to send it to! I'll be happy to receive any short stories you have (so long as they're original works), regardless of genre.