Writing short stories for womens' magazines might on the face of it seem like a good money spinner for the freelance writer. For those writers amongst us who have a little bit of imagination it's just got to be a doddle hasn't it?
Well the answer to that is a resounding no. There are many writers out there who have tried unsuccessfully to grab a piece of this market and I'm one of them. I, like many others thought that writing short fiction would be easier than writing articles because no research was required. One only had to think of a plot, bung in a few characters and knock out a couple of thousand words or even less and the job's done.
There was no end to my enthusiasm and when one magazine rejected my efforts I would rewrite it and send it to another. I even kept a spreadsheet so that I could track the comings and goings of all my manuscripts.
I wasn't deterred even when I read about other writers giving it up as a bad job. "It's a market that can't be cracked," they said and this just spurred me on even more. Anyway I stuck at the task like an alcoholic in denial. I had a new ploy too, that was to write them faster than they could reject them, I'd have to win in the end. I studied the stories that were in print and emulated their style but still I didn't manage to find out the secret.
Actually I did manage to get a couple of stories printed and even won first prize in a "Writers News" competition with one of my efforts.
Eventually though I realised that the short story market wasn't for me. I'd spent a year flogging that particular horse and didn't have much to show for it. Well actually that isn't strictly true because I learned a lot about writing friction. I learned about dialogue, plotting, and character development. So much so in fact that I decided that I would be better off writing longer pieces of work so I set myself a couple of challenges.
The first was to write a none fiction book and have it published. The second was to write a full length novel and have that published as well.
I've achieved the first challenge and my book
"Fishing: Learn from the Tips & Laugh at the Tales" is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com, where you can also buy a kindle version if required.
For more info about the book and free sample download click here
Below you will find a link to the first short story that I sent out to one of the womens' magazines. It isn't the most exciting story in the world, but I think it was a good start. It would be nice if you could let me know what you think, especially if you have any ideas about why it wasn't chosen for publication. I will include any comments in a future post so that we can all share the information. Please keep your comments clean I'm sure bad language won't be requred even after you've read it.
To download free PDF of "Ray of Hope" click here.
Cards
On a completely separate note I've been very busy this month and every spare minute has gone into setting up a website. My wife is a very creative person and she is always painting or making something. She decorates boxes beautifully and has recently taken to making hand made cards. Yes I know you've seen hand made cards before and you know that the only person who is impressed by them is the person who made them. A piece of stamped card with a couple of twigs and a pebble stuck on front isn't exactly classy is it. Anyway my wife's cards are different and unique, I haven't seen anything like them anywhere.
Here are a few samples.
The thing is she doesn't make them for profit she makes them because she enjoys it.
I always think that you can tell when somebody enjoys doing something because they put that little bit extra into making things special. Anyway, over the last twelve months she's been making these cards and sticking them in boxes and to be honest we are running out of spaces to put them in. So I suggested we set up a website to sell a few and she said, "If that's what you want to do, then you can get on with it." Well I've finally finished and I'm quite proud of my efforts, if you want to see more, here is a link that will take you to the Card Lady website. I hope you enjoy looking at them.
Click here to visit Card Lady
Anglers, please don't think I've forgotten you. My next post which should follow soon, will be totally focused on fishing and will include a lot of information about the great Izaak Walton.
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