Artificial Intelligence - Can you spot it? and is it the death of the writer?

 

In the Royal Marines, I used to call them TLA's, three-letter abbreviations. These days there are many two-letter abbreviations, and the most prominent one currently is AI.

Artificial Intelligence has undoubtedly been in the news and the courts in America. Do we need to be worried as writers?

I mentioned this to a writing colleague of mine when we were discussing the newly announced ChatGBT app on his Youtube channel. My fear was and still is that I could lose out to work completed by an AI bot. His answer was;

"Nobody writes like you, and nobody writes like you. AI won't change that."

I like William's positivity, but it was a surprise when I discovered that a writing app I use daily now has an added AI text generator

William's show suggested that AI should be considered a tool for writers. He then went on to show ChatGBT in action. The first and obvious problem is that it needed to be faster. To compound that problem, the questions he asked either had no answer or gave answers patently trawled from the internet. Only a little AI, if any, is present there

What is AI, then?

AI, short for Artificial Intelligence, is a field of computer science that focuses on creating intelligent machines that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as speech recognition, decision-making, and problem-solving. AI technologies include machine learning, natural language processing, neural networks, and robotics. AI aims to create machines that can learn, reason, and adapt to new situations, ultimately improving our lives and transforming how we live and work.

Can we trust what we see? After all, to use ChatBGT on Bing, you need to have a Microsoft account. ChatBGT then has access to all the information about you over the internet. That's a significant advantage to the AI stakes for a start. On balance, I would treat anything coming from an AI bot similarly to how I treat research on the internet. If I'm researching for an article, I, the writer, must ensure information is first-hand and accurate. An editor would only publish something that has been appropriately researched. Would an AI bot go to a WiKi page that could have been reviewed and updated with spurious information? We have a long way to go before article writers and professionals from all fields can trust the work coming from such bots.

That's my brief view on AI for writers, or is it? I'm not currently a fan of AI entering the realm of writing and the arts. They are very human pleasures because they are something that humans gain solace and enjoyment from. Where would be the fun and joy of me loading up the basic plot for my novel and asking a Bot for 90k words in 45 Chapters and leaving it to get on with it? Something to think about.

Do you have any views on AI? Would you use AI for an essay? Could you spot AI-generated work?  

Just to let you know, there are a few lines in this piece generated by AI 😉

Substack - A New Venture and more Writing!

 

As if I didn't have a busy enough writing life, I've found something that will give me more writing to do in a week but, at the same time, may bring some rewards.

Substack - no, it's not a song ( think about it) was launched six years ago and is a blogging/email newsletter hybrid thingy. I say thingy. I don't know why I say thingy, but thingy it is.

I have posted a few posts on Facebook about my starting to use Substack, and this week I will explain further how it works and how I plan to use it.

I have registered on Substack, and that has given me a URL

 https://stuartbilverstone.substack.com/ 

Having registered, I can leave that URL loafing around in emails, in the middle of blogs, social media posts, etc. That gives people the opportunity to visit my Substack page. To be able to register with the page, they will need to input an email address. As I have set the page up as a Free Access page, all that is happening is that the page is building an email list. That list remains private and only for me to use. 

When I post a newsletter/ blog on the page, it will email everyone on the list, saying there is a new post and the link.

Substack allows placing your writing behind a paywall (Dominic Cummings, for example, put his shenanigans behind a £200 paywall). I have not taken this option, meaning you can safely register and know that I won't be asking for a subscription. That's not to say I may offer extra enhancements to the page through a subscription, but that is many miles down the road. I will need a lot of emails to do that, and that will be down to me to boost that with my content and encourage more people onto the page.

What happens next? There is a post on the page, last week's blog post, which has had 13 views, and currently, I have four subscribers. Thank you to Mrs B, my Sister, a fellow writer and my old mate Bob.

I plan to post regularly on there, initially two weekly, aiming to get to weekly very quickly. I don't wish to post the same content as this blog page. I have a 'Writing Tips' piece that I am working on for the following post/newsletter.

There we are, then. Substack is a new venture for me and will be much more writing. My blog continues, and my novel is nearing the final third. I shall still be looking at entering short story competitions, and of course, there is the full-time job with the NHS, which brings in the real money!

Remember that URL, and I hope to see you on the page.

 https://stuartbilverstone.substack.com/ 

Numbers in writing? Surely Not

 I missed out on celebrating my 50th Blog Post last week. Never mind, I'll be looking forward to a centenary post by the end of the year. That might be something to celebrate.

As usual, it's Thursday evening, and I'm thinking, "What shall I write about this week?"

The fifty-first post will be about my novel, Beasting Dartmoor (working title).

Numbers have dominated writing for the last couple of weeks. How many words can I get down today?

Is that what you normally think about as a writer? Numbers? Well, yes. 

I'm looking to complete my debut ( sorry if that seems pretentious) novel later this year.

To enable me to do this, I need to write about 250-300 words for at least four days a week. Happily, I am achieving that and, most days, exceeding it. I still have a lot of material to go into the project, and in the next week, I should be approaching the 20k word count.

The genre of the novel is a crime/murder thriller. Well, I hope it’s going to thrill the reader. 

As it currently stands, there have been four murders, the authorities are at a loss as to what is going on, and there is a figure in the shadows. It is principally based in the Dartmoor, Exeter and South Devon areas, although there are sojourns to London and a village in Somerset. 

I have a gap in the storyline at the halfway point of a chapter. I need a short story to lead into the next chapter. This may be the point to tease in the main antagonist. This person has just been a shadow to my protagonists, Greg Reid & Detective Sargent Marie Fliss. I have a description of the character I have in mind for this crucial role in the story.

Numbers again. I need roughly 800 to 900 words to complete the chapter, which is three days at the average word count, but it could be an hour's work if I'm on a roll. A bit of planning and we'll see what happens

As part of my 'Novel in a Year" workshops, I have an opportunity to have a piece of my work reviewed. I'm about ready to send off the first 5k words, which is both exciting and terrifying. I will also let a colleague at work read the first few chapters. She is a poet, and there is a reason I would like her to have a read. She might guess who my characters are,

There we are, then. Some exciting times for novel writing are coming up over the following months, and the motivation is at an all-time high.

Dark Skies and Street Lamps

I decided to take a Daily Kickstarter from last month's Writers Forum magazine for this week's Blog.

The sky at night - not the well-known programme, the dark sky above us each night. But how much of it are we seeing?

As Yorkshire's National parks and other wild places celebrate their Dark Skies, would you like to see fewer or no street lamps where you live?

Those that know me will remember that I have been a keen astronomer. My love of our Solar System and the Universe started in Primary School in the late 1960s. When Kathy and I moved out to Stoke Fleming in South Devon, I got my first telescope and started viewing the cosmos.

The rear garden of our bungalow faced south over Start Bay. It was and probably is still a

very dark sky. From Spring onwards, the Milky Way appeared from over Start Point in a beautiful display. We are looking at the third spiral arm of our galaxy, The Milky Way.

My first steps with a telescope brought an incredible view of the great planet Jupiter with its four main moons. When we lived in Stoke Fleming, I was fortunate to view nearly all of the planets in our Solar System, including Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn. I was lucky to view the blue planet Neptune. It is truly amazing to understand that by looking through a telescope, you are not only witnessing worlds many millions of light years distance but are looking back in time. My Maths teacher, Mr Simmons, always told us that travelling back in time would be easier than going forward.

We have Exmoor National Park in Devon, which has Dark Sky status. In Cornwall, Bodmin Moor and West Penwith have the same accolade.

When we moved to East Devon, we eventually settled for a few years in a lovely bungalow with huge gardens front and back. Unfortunately, the back garden was west facing, and the orange glow tainting the sky was Exeter. I was able to see a few sights. Kathy even bought me a star for Christmas which flirts around the western horizon. To see the southern sky, I had to use the front garden. The view was spoilt by…yes, you guessed it, street lamps.

Councils have been trying hard to lower light facing upwards by investing in LED, Light Emitting Diode, Smart Street and Intelligent Street lighting. However, in these days of ever-increasing costs, these have taken a step backwards.

Not too far from where you are, even in towns and cities, there is a little place that can be your own personal dark sky. Take a look upwards. You'll be amazed at what you can see.

My first effort at Jupiter and its Moons

Links:

https://www.darksky.org/

The Writing Industry - Is this where woman can regularly break through the 'glass ceiling'?

 

What I will write about today may promote some comments, and I would love it if it did. First, let me say that this piece is written not to be detrimental or discriminatory to anyone. It's a pleasing observation of what I am finding and experiencing in the writing community.

Hopefully, we've got that out of the way and can continue.

I have delivered every month, two leading writing magazines. I diligently read the from the front to the back cover and thoroughly enjoy their contents...even the poetry!

The one thing I notice each month in both is the number of female contributors that outweighs the number of male contributors. That is, the writers of the articles and the letters submitted to the editors.

Likewise, I'm the only man in the 'Novel in a Year' workshop I started last Saturday.

Undoubtedly, there has been a significant number of highly talented female authors. Author of Handmaid's Tail, Margaret Attwood, is a great proponent of women writers. The late Hillary Mantel, a local writer here in East Devon, had outstanding success with her 2009 novel Wolf Hall, a massive hit on Television. Seeing that they are getting the recognition they deserve is pleasing.

Let's look at the Television too. One of the greatest shows in recent years, Fleabag, written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and with Sharon Horgan and Emma Thompson, represent some of the best screenwriters in this country and globally. 

In the film industry, some of the biggest blockbusters have female writers. Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh were responsible for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Linda Woolverton is a resident writer for Disney with past credits for The Lion King and Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

On Twitter, I follow many female writers, editors, agents and publishers, and there is no doubt that there is a fabulous female presence in the writing industry.

Is this one of the industries where women have been able to break through the 'glass ceiling'? I sincerely hope so.

So, where are all the men writers, then? I hear you ask.

Well, they are about. Harlen Coben was on BBC Breakfast on Thursday morning promoting his latest book, I will find you. Celebrity writer Richard Osman has a series of crime novels starting with the Thursday Murder Club. No matter what you may think of celebrity writers, each of Richard's three books has hit the top of the bestsellers immediately after publication. He must be doing something right! Let's not forget some of my favourite writers, John Le Carré, Thomas Hardy and Ken Follett. International bestsellers include John Grisham, Neville Shute, Ian Rankin and Lee Childs. All are fantastic writers in their genre.

So there may be a chance for me yet, I'll keep plodding along with my bits of writing here and there, and I will finish my blockbuster novel sometime this year. You never know. I might appear on Television as a new talent promoting my writing one day.

Fruit Cake?

 Fruit Cake is unfairly maligned - That's the statement.

First up, Full disclosure, Fruit cake is my utmost favourite.  

An often asked question. What did the Romans ever do for us? Fruit Cake, the Romans, gave us Fruit Cake.

That is likely not the answer you were expecting.

The earliest recipes for Fruit Cakes are traced back to ancient Rome. Ingredients then included were pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and raisins mixed into a barley mash. Later on, in the middle ages, honey and preserved fruits were added.  

Fruit cake recipes proliferated throughout Europe. The recipes varied significantly by country, depending on the ingredients available. Church regulations over the observance of fasting forbade the use of butter; however, Pope Innocent VIII (1442 - 1492) granted its use in his Butterbrief of 1490. It permitted Saxony to use butter and milk in Stollen fruit cakes.

In 17th century England, fruit cake was yeast-based and used Rum and dried fruits, which extended the shelf life.

Pianoforte

 In Italy, Panoforte (meaning strong bread) is a dense, chewy cake,   heavily flavoured with spices, dating back to the 13th Century Sienna in Tuscany. Also, there is Panatone, filled with dried and candied fruits with a bread loaf consistency. It's now well known across Europe and this country, especially in shops like Lidl and upmarket places such as Fortnum and Mason in London.

In England, rich dark fruit cake is traditional fare at Christmas. They were also traditional for wedding cakes, where the top tier was preserved and saved for the christening of the firstborn child. This tradition has fallen foul of the influences of our American cousins. Sponge and heavily creamed cakes seem more in favour.

Our wedding cake was four-tiered. The bottom two tiers, made by myself, included nearly a litre and a half of Rum, dark brown sugar, butter, eggs (from the farmer in the village), Black treacle and flour. The bottom tier was 20 inches and took nearly five hours to cook. The top two tiers were vanilla and chocolate sponge cakes.

Throughout the 90s, whilst serving with the Royal Marines Band at BRNC Dartmouth, I had a little side hustle making christening cakes for band members. There were quite a few young families in the band at that time.

My Mother used to make Grandfather, her father, a Dundee Cake each Christmas. Dundee Cake is a traditional Scottish fruit cake flavoured with Whisky and decorated with almonds. Being a proud Yorkshireman, my Grandfather always had his piece of cake with cheese. I am trying to remember which cheese he had. He had a favourite Danish blue cheese, but I think that was that one. I, too, like to have cheese with my fruit cake, a lovely mature cheddar is my favourite, and I go a little further and have an apple.

In answer to the question, is Fruit cake unfairly maligned - probably yes, but plenty of people enjoy it.

Now, what am I going to have for afternoon tea?

An Early Start, Productivity, and a Lesson to be Learnt

 An early start to this week's blog, Monday. Unfortunately, last week's idea for a pitch is a non-starter. I have found a book recently written about the subject and advertised on Facebook. I wouldn't want to steal the authors' thunder and hard work. I could write the same story from a different angle, but I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that in a local publication.

It doesn't matter. I've still got plenty of research I can use for something similar.

To maintain my writing productivity today, I have written a letter to The Rugby Paper. I've been a devil's advocate about the furore about lowering the tackle height for grassroots rugby.

I have some time this week, so I will take my notebook with me, as I always do, and see if I can come up with an idea for a short story. I sat in a Costa on Saturday and jotted down a few notes, which may be working their way into a story. However, I must be careful this week as I have a hospital appointment and can't write too many notes while in the waiting room.

In the notebook already, I have an outline story about someone getting on the wrong ship after a run ashore the night before. I wonder if a story about a Matelot and two Leander class Frigates tied up alongside each other will be a thriller. I have an idea to transform it into another location and an entirely different type of ship. It doesn't need to be a ship, either! 

In exciting news, I have been accepted onto a Novel in a Year series of workshops starting in March. The aim is also to have at least 20k words of your novel critiqued. The objective for me, at this time, would be to complete my thriller novel and have it ready for either editing or being sent off to an editor for consideration. I have been aware of the workshops since early December last year and decided to park working on the novel for a couple of months. Then last night and this morning, I had a salutary lesson to learn.

I write mainly on Pages and Scrivener. Scrivener is an app where you can write your novel, do research, create your character and have different versions available if you wish to go back to them. It is also great for compiling the completed work in many other formats.

Scrivener backs up its file, and mine have been backing up to Microsoft OneDrive. As you might be aware, Microsoft 365 services had a problem with an update they uploaded on Tuesday. We have a problem at work early on Wednesday as the NHS mail runs their online service. I have a OneDrive app on my phone that opened ok, but when I got home and wanted to access my novel, I found that I now had a BIG problem. Scrivener couldn't find my book!

In the middle of the panic to reconnect to OneDrive, macOS Ventura wanted to start an update. I went to sleep with an updated MacBook but still no OneDrive.

This morning, Thursday, I updated the OneDrive app, and yippee, the novel is back. Phew. I have now backed it up to somewhere else and emailed it to myself. I shall also search out a
hard drive I have somewhere and put that to use.

That's a lesson learned, then. One, I know many writers have learned over the years. It's certainly one that I won't forget.

(C) All photographs copyright of the original owners.

Welcome to 2023 and some Flash Fiction News

 Most probably due to the Royal Mail Postal Strikes, my monthly writing magazines arrived on the same day. I was eager to see the results of the Flash Fiction short story competition in the Writers Forum I entered last month. I wasn't expecting to see that I had won as they would have been in touch beforehand.

Sadly, I wasn't placed or highly commended this time, not to worry. However, it was interesting to read the editor's comment. It was a 500-word story with a twist ending. The editor wrote on the results page,

'I was surprised to receive so many entries where the main character turns out to be an animal or dead. Such old chestnuts will always struggle to turn a judge's head. A few entries did manage to bring new life to the 'dead ending, but they didn't make it past the shortlist.'

I didn't realise that this is how the judges were thinking about these subjects. I want to feel that my story brought life to the 'dead ending'. It was one that I had used for the Ottery Literary Festival, where it was awarded highly commended. After further editing and a few changes, I entered it for this competition. I received favourable results when I took it to work for a couple of colleagues to read through, and it got the reactions I wanted when they got to the end and the 'twist'.

I will not be using it again for competition other than to submit it for the Ottery Writers anthology or save it for an anthology of my own. I'm now getting a collection of these short stories.

I have another flash fiction short story, this time only 300 words, ready for the Bath Flash Fiction Award to be submitted any day now.

Anyway, for your enjoyment, I will now post the story here. As a note, the details at the end are not accurate. They are close to being correct but far enough away so as not to be recognisable to anyone.

THE Sun shone brightly on Lion-sur-Mer. The late spring sunshine on the Normandy coast starkly contrasted with the dark and dank weather 78 years ago, on the morning of 6th June 1944. Today, on the beach once code-named Sword, a crowd gathered for a service to honour those who had bravely stormed ashore on that momentous morning. Several re-enactment volunteers joined returning heroes and their families. Dressed in the uniforms of the times, they conveyed the scenes and feelings of the battles past.

There is a brilliant blue sky, and it's already a hot day. Thankfully the service didn't last too long in deference to the ageing heroes and the heat. 

The assembled crowd enjoyed a cooling, refreshing drink before boarding an air-conditioned coach for the journey to the cemetery at Ranville. I decided to yomp towards Ranville just as the allied troops had in 1944.

The coach passed me. The boys didn't have the luxury of transport on that fateful day. The purring engine of the passing coach differed vastly from the loud explosions, gunshots and the rattle of tanks rumbling along this road 75 years ago.

In 1944 Brigadier Lord Lovat marched his 1st Special Service Brigade down this road with his Bag Piper to the fore. The bagpipes caused much mirth amongst the passing tankers who waved their support to the lines of troops marching, whose task it was to relieve the paratroopers dropped overnight at Pegasus Bridge.

I was close to the bridge, yomping ahead in the day's rising heat. There I could mingle with the re-enactment volunteers to pay my respects. After a break, I picked up my kit and continued towards the cemetery at Ranville.

 A loud bang had me diving into the roadside ditch to take cover, but I quickly realised it was the jeep belonging to the re-enactors backfiring. The roar of engine noise as a couple of Douglas DC3 Dakotas flew overhead, dropping their parachute passengers off over Pegasus Bridge. Although today was a hot sunlit day, you could almost smell the fear and death that permeated the area on 6th June 1944.

I neared Ranville; the coaches were offloading the families. I was puffing a bit when I finally arrived at the cemetery.

I went straight to the row where the lads we had lost that day laid to rest. A family joined me alongside the resting place of my colleagues.

"Here's Grandpa's grave. Hasn't it gone cold suddenly?" one of the women remarked.

I turned and tried to answer but knew I couldn't. I looked down at the headstone as the woman placed a small wreath.

I realised it was my headstone; it was me who they were remembering. They are my family.

Ford, Frederick Henry

PLY/X204848

No. 48 Commando

Royal Marines

Died Tuesday, 6th June 1944.

I'm in limbo; I've been here every year since 6th June 1944. I'm not at rest. I'm trapped.

It's Christmas Eve!

 It’s Christmas Eve, and in this country, everyone is getting excited and looking forward to family gatherings. After all, Christmas is all about family apart from the religious meanings.

We have been planning for next year already in this house. 2023 is going to be a busy year for us both. February, we're going to see Frankie Boyle in Exeter, followed by the Royal Albert Hall in March for the Mountbatten Festival of Music. Early Spring will be a shake-out of our new camping equipment before a week away in July on the beautiful Roseland Peninsular.

In September and October, we are lucky enough to have tickets for two of England's group matches and another at the Rugby World Cup in France. All arrangements and bookings are in place.

Over the last few days, I have considered where my writing activities to be in 2023.

I already have a piece of Flash Fiction ready for a competition. Entries have to be in by early February. I would also like to target some other short story competitions. The story writing bug has bitten me!

All being well, I have a few 'Novel in a Year" writing workshops to look forward to, throughout 2023 and into 2024. I hope the opportunity to join at least another one will become available as well as that one.

Ottery Writers are going to be publishing a short story anthology. I will aim to get at least one story into that publication.

We have just been up to East Hill here in Honiton for a Christmas Eve walk with

Murphy our little fur baby and now we are tracking Santa on the IPad!

There we are then, everything is prepared for the big day tomorrow. The only thing left to do now is to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a big thanks to you all for taking the time read my blog posts this year. The year ahead promises to be exciting.

VERDIGRIS , Drum Major, LOOK THERE VERDIGRIS!

Something unusual this week. But first this...

I have bought myself a couple of reference books for my writing exercises. One of them is a book of 5000 writing prompts. I have already used one for a flash fiction piece. I'm not 100% how long and which competition it will be in just yet. I have a competition for 500-word flash fiction that is closing on 31st December. I want to get a couple of entries written to take advantage of the entry price and because it is New Year's Eve. Not that I will be drinking, though. I'm working that weekend.

Ok, let's get on to the unusual part of this blog. Well, I say unusual. Many of my former and still serving Royal Marine Band Service colleagues will recognise and have experienced 'challenging' outcomes of this word.

Verdigris - A noun meaning the green patina that forms on copper, bronze, and brass. It can also refer to the shade of green ( which is blueish).

The Royal Marines No.1 Ceremonials consist of a tunic and trousers, a White Pith Helmet (Helmet WP), a Cross Strap and Music Pouch and a White Belt. All consist of Brass elements.

Those who haven’t experienced an inspection in Full No.1 Ceremonials will probably not have experienced the wrath of the inspecting officer and Drum Major when verdigris is detected on your brasses. Extra parades…urgh!

There were and most likely still are many different ways to clean said brasses. My preferred routine was to use Brasso first, then, using an old toothbrush, scrub off the Brasso with Goddard's Silver Foam. Any copyrights and trademarks are fully acknowledged. All was finished off by drying with a towel and a quick buff-up with one of the famous yellow cloths ( also used as a spit and polish cloth for boots) from the NAAFI shop.

The benefit I found with cleaning brasses was that if we had multiple gigs in a short time, it was easy enough to buff them back up to standard, even if it had rained. 

I tell you this on the big proviso that no Drum Major is ever informed!

Successes, no failures and getting busy once more

 

This week, a former Royal Marine colleague and fellow Blogger inspired me. I received an email from James Pilates with his latest blog, apologising that he hadn't blogged for nearly three years! He has been a very busy chap during that time, and at least my blog is only three months adrift!

These last three months have been a less productive time for my writing, but the tiny bit I have done has been at least successful. My Flash Fiction story 'Trapped' received Highly Commended in the Ottery Literary Festival, which was very pleasing.

During the festival, I attended a workshop, Introduction to Short Story Writing. Our lead was author Jenny Kane. Jenny passed on her knowledge wonderfully and was a true inspiration to us all. I've joined her mailing list for future online courses. In the meantime, I have been searching for more short story competitions.

Having found a few competitions, I have been fervently writing and editing a few more stories. I started one at the workshop, which has since turned into a rather good story with a twist. Having edited it over the last couple of evenings, I had a colleague at work have a read, and it went down quite well. I will leave it again for a few weeks before a final edit.

Another story that I am working on comes from the opening of my novel. When I first came up with this opening many years ago, I did wonder if it was a short story. I am doubtful at the moment. 

The question being is, it is a story or a scene from a bigger story. I want to get it to work in 300 words. Other than that, I might look at it working it up into a longer story of 1000 to 2000 words.

With all these stories potentially written, It got me thinking about what to do with them. If one were to win a competition, it would appear in a competition anthology; however, I have thought about compiling a collection of my own. It's a thought.

Writing work does come in fits and starts for me, and at the moment, I've again got a few things that will keep me busy for the rest of this month. I will keep updating this blog, and there is another project that I must briefly mention.

You may realise that this blog is on the Microsofts Blogger platform. With the greatest respect, Blogger has been an excellent platform for many years, but now it's time to move on to a newer platform. Blogger is proving to be rather difficult with formatting. I should be able to do much more on a unique platform. I've got my eye on one, so it is up to me to find the time to set it up.

There we are, then, the latest update. I have thought about posting my 'Trapped' short story. I must be careful as I might use it in another competition sometimes, and I would like it to be protected.

I'll blog again in a couple of weeks. I won't let it be three months this time!

Being a Writer

Being a Writer

I am a writer.

There, I’ve said it and it was a bit scary, but yes, I am a writer.

Therefore, what makes me a writer?

I am 57 years old; I have been writing for probably for 55 of those years. In my later years at school, I was fortunate, and it is with grateful thanks to my mother and two school teachers, who were also unsung World War Two heroes and published authors, that I managed to leave school with  GCE ‘O‘ Levels in English language and literature.

To be honest 2019 hasn’t been the best and I’m on my third job of the year (don’t ask); my wife’s father passed away after a brief illness and to top it all she has been made redundant as well.  However, five months ago I embarked on a comprehensive creative writing course. A long-held dream is starting to come to fruition.

I have been published several times over the years; letters in national daily papers, cricket reports in local papers and articles for in-house journals. Earlier this year The Rugby Paper published one of my letters and I had very pleasing personal triumph when Writing Magazine, this country’s biggest selling monthly writing publication, published a letter from one of my assignments.

The Comprehensive Creative Writing Course which I have embarked on covers all aspects of writing. It has been divided into Fiction and Non-Fiction. I have chosen to start with Non-Fiction. As recommended by the bureau and also because my interest is in writing articles for magazines. The early modules are aimed at getting into that market. Writing letters is the first and possibly the easiest way to see yourself in print, with the added bonus that there are lots of publications which offer prizes to the star letter. Getting into the habit of writing a letter to a publication 3 or 4 times a week can prove quite profitable. Filler articles are another way to get into print and they are exactly what they sound like. They are small pieces that an editor uses to fill any gaps they may have after the articles and advertisements are added to the page. Identifying those opportunities is an important first lesson to be learnt and as the modules continue, this early lesson is further evolved into a detailed analysis of magazines. I now have a spreadsheet with which I can input information gleaned from magazines to compare it with others, easily identifying freelance opportunities, size and types of articles, apparent readership and more importantly the correct editor to send the pitch to. On another, I have set up a formula to calculate word counts of articles without having to laboriously count each word. Alongside this is my submissions and financial workbook where I track my submissions by date sent, to which editor and whether I have had an answer back or not.

My smartphone has proved a useful tool for me as a writer as well. I have a very useful app from which I can view and research magazines from markets all across the globe and I can access the writing folder on my laptop through cloud services. I have a couple of apps where I can collate notes, another where I can ‘mind map’ any ideas and one that will capture any clip from any websites I visit. There are not many articles that don’t contain photographs and with nearly every phone having a powerful camera fitted, high-resolution photographs can be easily edited and uploaded to cloud services for use later.  Cloud services are essential for any writer. Who knows when you may drop your cup of tea or pot noodle all over your laptop and it breathes its last. Using the cloud you can log on from anywhere and from any computer and then be able to see all your files to work on.

My latest piece of work is an article entitled ‘Dog Toys and Why They Play’ aimed at the leading dog magazine in this country. After consideration by my tutor and on her recommendation, I have sent this off to the contributing editor. Time will tell if the Editor will use my work.

It cannot be stressed enough that all writers will receive rejections throughout their writing careers.  A rejection doesn’t always mean that your work is not good enough; it may be that your work just doesn’t fit the editors’ requirements at that time. If an editor has any suggestions to improve your work they may well give you those in the rejection letter and this can be a piece of valuable advice for future articles or pitches.

My next assignment is to write two pitches and articles for two different publications. Realistically with lead times etc., I am now looking at articles that will be published in the New Year, the research goes on.

In and around this course work I have also found time to write short stories, one of which I even entered into a competition in The Writers Forum magazine. This was the first time I had written a story since my school exams in 1978!

Being a writer has really energised me as a person and joining Ottery Writers has given me so much inspiration. Never in a million years did I think that I would be reading out my writings to a group.  This inspiration had led me to write more short stories; I have ideas for a couple of books in my notes now and even an idea for a possible comedy play.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading a bit about my life as a writer. Living in East Devon and Hardy’s Wessex, you cannot help but be inspired by the works of Thomas Hardy and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Indeed Coleridge’s famous poem Kubla Khan is carved into the entrance of the park in Ottery St Mary, his birthplace.   At Ottery Writers we have members with varying interests in the writing world; poets, novelists, fantasy writings and children’s stories are just a few. The field of opportunities for writers is vast. These talented people continue to inspire me every week to challenge myself further.  I do have several ideas for stories and who knows one day and hopefully not too far in the future, I too can proudly present my newly published novel.

Referring back to the beginning; yes I am a writer. I wouldn’t call myself a professional just yet but that is certainly going to change soon.

I’m on a wonderful journey and loving every minute of it! I hope you can join me for the ride.