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Calling all writers: UKFF Writersroom/Workshop


Fatty Facesitter

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I've spoken to a few of you recently about writing related stuff and thought now would be a good time to introduce a thread about, erm, writing stuff.

 

So let's get straight to it: What are you folks working on right now? For instance I know we have several bloggers on here, in addition to authors who have put out one or more books (Woyzeck, John Lister, take a bow) and we also have a wonderful playright in Harmy_Generator who no doubt would have many pearls of wisdom to disperse. Up Chuck usually writes chunks of stuff. I'm sure there's several of you I've forgotten to mention or don't know of that have experience in any of the respective fields. Another person I thought who may be able to contribute greatly to this is Ronnie. I don't know if he's ever written any plays, books and so on, but his command and understanding of written English is outstanding.

 

I'm also more than happy to have this as a place where people pimp some of their work. Again, I know we have bloggers here and there was even a blog thread a while ago, but the more links, plugs etc. that generates, the merrier.

 

In terms of the workshop aspect, it would also be great to see people post samples of their writing so people can comment, offer constructive criticism and also ideas to expand and improve their stuff. There may also be some interesting articles or writing exercises you've found online that might be of use to your fellow budding writers here.

 

Another thing that would be nice to see is more tips and tricks for actually getting one's work out there, depending on what they were aiming for, be it a book, a blog or sending out a script. Some recommendations for publishers, websites, and so forth would be great.

 

I hope this thread will be a handy tool for people to discuss their literary goodness, whatever level they are aspiring to get to.

 

**Note: The author is this thread is in no way responsible for any work posted that winds up getting stolen, by Chilli or anyone else!**

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Nice idea. I currently have GrappleTalk.com, though I'm taking a break from it until exams are over. Away from that, I'm writing my final year dissertation on the impact of television on the development of British wrestling in the 1970s and 80s.

 

As a starter for ten, I've found a lot of problems getting my stuff recognised. For example when I had the Ian Freeman/Ken Shamrock interviews and fight set up as an exclusive no MMA site seemed interested - I even emailed a fully written story to a couple of bigger sites to at least try and get a response. It appeared on Fighters Only after the two of them starting going at it on Twitter. Even with smaller stuff I spoke to someone at Cage Warriors the other week who told me Ross Pearson had injured his leg and was looking at six months out, I tweeted it to a bunch of sites and journos and no one would even RT it.

 

So obviously, what I'm doing is not working - how do you get sites to take notice of your content, particularly when it's exclusives or news breaks?

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I'm one half of Read Between the Lines, a book review site. I enjoy book reviewing, and it's always nice to get free books, but I'm very critical of my own reviews - I leave ones for ages on end sat in Drafts because I'm not happy with it, and even the ones I publish I'm never very enamoured with. Except the one I wrote for Astro. I'm proud of that one.

 

I keep having random ideas for novels, but I'm even more critical about my fiction writing. I used to enjoy writing a lot more, but work has taken a lot of the verve out of me.

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Another person I thought who may be able to contribute greatly to this is Ronnie. I don't know if he's ever written any plays, books and so on, but his command and understanding of written English is outstanding.

Thanks, Nick. I'm an unimaginative bore, so my writing tends to be limited to articles and reports, official or serious things rather than entertainment or creative pieces. I'd be happy to look over pieces of work and make the odd comment, though, and elaborate on any linguistic points if people have any queries.

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I write the odd piece for Football programmes now and then. I do still all tingly when I open the programme and see stuff I've written in there. The editor is always encouraging me to write fiction, but I might show him the 50 Shades thread to explain why I shouldn't.

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What is your main aim with your writing? I did a degree in Sports Journalism which I graduated from a couple of years ago with the aim to be a writer. After that I stumbled into the world of TV and video production where I currently remain. I write occasional stuff on my blog, and also recap WWE Raw for The Daily Mirror all of which can be found on my website - http://martinhines.com

 

Might be just me, but I find that the majority of 'creative'/media jobs are got by way of word of mouth and recommendations. This isn't a humble brag, but every vaguely creative job I've ever had has been as a result of someone recommending me for the position. For pretty much all the work and jobs I've done, I would never have been aware the position was even available, as none of them were 'publicly available' so to speak.

 

So the best advice I would give you, is the classic networking. I got my first job out of university because of a tip off from a classmate. I got another job as a result of that because of a recommendation from one of the journalists who would occasionally come into the office, and when I moved jobs to the main one I'm at now, it was again as a result of someone who had worked with me briefly months before, and thought I'd be good at the new thing they're doing. The more people you know, the more people who might come in handy one day.

 

To counteract that, I've never got a job I've had to legit apply for via CVs and covering letters, so I'm clearly doing something wrong somewhere.

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I'm going to local college this September to do a Journalism course when iv'e completed my degree, i'm slightly worried that my chances of earning a job in the field may be quite low but it's something iv'e always wanted to do so iv'e decided to give it a shot.

 

Iv'e been thinking of starting a blog for ages and probably should soon with a view to starting this course. Iv'e always enjoyed reading/writing and did an internship with a local paper last summer that made me think it would be a job I could enjoy.

 

Iv'e dabbled with the idea of trying to do some fiction and have had a few ideas, mainly concerning the American Civil War which I find fascinating but I have no real way of gauging whether i'm any good or not so it's something I always eventually decide against.

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That would be something else I'd be interested in discussing - how worthwhile is a journalism qualification on top of a standard degree & work experience? I looked into an MA and wasn't really sure it was worth the massive price tag and two years spent doing that rather than networking and getting experience.

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The course im doing is approved by the National Council for the Training of Journalists lasts a year and costs roughly a grand, alot of it seems to be placement along with some basic stuff. I regret not going down the degree route for Journalism now to be honest but where I wanted to go didn't offer it. I'd be more than happy to work for free for awhile or move around to try and find something but I imagine at the very least i'll have to get some sort of call centre or shelf stacking job while I pursue it. I imagine it would be worthwhile if your entering the field for the first time but as you seem to have experience and are already doing stuff in that field i'm not sure how useful it would be.

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The course im doing is approved by the National Council for the Training of Journalists lasts a year and costs roughly a grand, alot of it seems to be placement along with some basic stuff. I regret not going down the degree route for Journalism now to be honest but where I wanted to go didn't offer it. I'd be more than happy to work for free for awhile or move around to try and find something but I imagine at the very least i'll have to get some sort of call centre or shelf stacking job while I pursue it. I imagine it would be worthwhile if your entering the field for the first time but as you seem to have experience and are already doing stuff in that field i'm not sure how useful it would be.

A lot of newspapers will only employ people (especially graduates) with NCTJ qualifications. In a lot of cases, people can have a first class honours degree, solid work experience, recommendations etc, and not get a look in if they haven't got an NCTJ qualification as well. Seems strange, but there you go.

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we also have a wonderful playright in Harmy_Generator who no doubt would have many pearls of wisdom to disperse.

 

Pearls of wisdom?! Don't know about that! I haven't written much at all recently, actually, other than that Wodehouse-rip-off blog I mentioned on here recently, but I'll do what I can!

 

Those talking about networking are absolutely right, the combination of knowing the right people and luck have a massive amount to do with a lot of people's success. I am bad at both!

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I won a 'write a novel in 30 hours' competition a few weeks ago, so my first novel will be published by HarperCollins in the near future. It'll be a kindle-only deal, and around 99p, but it'll have a bit of publicity behind it, so I'm basically seeing it as a way to put myself on the right radars. It's actually a novella at 20,000 words, but I'm throwing in some short stories and an essay about writing something like that in 30 hours to sweeten the deal a little.

 

Everything takes time. I thought I had it made two years ago when I got an agent, but my first novel (a very fucked up psychological thriller) didn't sell. I've now written (and am redrafting) a second novel, which is intentionally rather more mainstream (more of the thriller, less of the fucked up), so we'll see where that goes.

 

I'm also writing a serial on my blog called Magic Falls. It's a dark modern fantasy thing, and I set it up as a challenge to myself, primarily to get myself writing more. My first novel took me four years, and my second took me two years. If I want to do this for a living, I need to speed up at the very least. So this is a 52-week project, with a minimum word count, and I'm not allowed to start working on a segment until I've published the previous segment.

 

I've also run a writing group for a few years, and I'd recommend doing it to anyone. Either join one, or set one up. It's piss-easy, and you can network a little through it by inviting guests to speak. It also helps you get better. I wrote a patronisingly simple guide to setting one up here.

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