Category Archives: General

Work during lockdowns

How are you doing through this pandemic?

In some ways, it’s an ideal situation for writers – a once-in-a-lifetime experience, reduction in outside distractions, plenty of time to sit and ponder and to get those words down.

In other ways, it’s a nightmare – worry about the country, worry about friends and family, jobs, society… it can all crowd in, blocking out creativity.

I’m lucky. As I work from home, I’ve been able to continue working, and in between times I have my own writing to work on. My writing group has moved to Zoom meetings, and we even managed to finish publishing our third collection of short stories during the first lockdown, although we were unable to hold our usual launch party.

We have enough technology around us to make life easier during lockdown. We don’t have to travel to meetings when we can meet via a computer screen, and there are so many resources available to us if we want to learn something new.

But nothing can really replace the experience of meeting in person, chatting and sharing ideas, and just generally enjoying each other’s company.

Hopefully those days will soon return. In the meantime, stay safe – and if you want to write, then enjoy the opportunity, but if you’re finding it hard, just relax and accept that all things have their cycle and one day this will be nothing more than a story we tell to later generations.

Publishing news

I’m pleased to say that I’ve just helped my writing group publish their third collection of short stories, which is now available from Amazon or from local sellers. That’s three books so far, all featuring stories set locally. Beyond the Beach Huts and A Pinch of Salt all feature Whitstable heavily, while A Different Kind of Kent sets its sights a little wider, covering various corners of the county of Kent.

The stories cover a wide variety of genres, from historical fiction to fantasy, and showcase the talents of the writers, who meet every month to workshop pieces of writing.

Writers of Whitstable's 3 books - A pinch of Salt, A different Kind of Kent and Beyond the Beach Huts

Producing a book

Beyond the Beach HutsA writing group I’m part of is currently celebrating the release of its first book – Writers of Whitstable has produced a collection of short stories all set in the town. The collection includes a variety of genres, from around a dozen different writers.

 

The project started around September last year, when it was suggested we produce a book to release in conjunction with Whitlit, a local writing festival. We came up with a theme – all stories were to be set in the town of Whitstable or have some connection to it – and the title – Beyond the Beach Huts, suggesting an insider’s view of the town – and writers each came up with their own ideas.

 

Stories were brought to writing group for critique (we send stories around a week before the meeting, so on the evening we can discuss them) and then the writers continued to work on them privately, returning them for further critique if they felt they needed it. We had a few months for this process, with final copy being in by the middle of February.

 

My role in all this, apart from writing my own stories to contribute, was to accept final versions, give them a proofread/very light edit, send them back for approval, and then assemble them into a book. An editorial meeting between the leaders of the project led to a running order for the stories, and final proofs were sent out for everyone to check their own pieces and also glance over the rest of the book. I was also responsible for obtaining an ISBN and dealing with the publishing side.

 

Meanwhile, one of our members worked on the cover art, coming up with an eye-catching cover that we’re all very pleased with.

 

Once cover and interior PDFs were approved, we sent them off to a printer who specialises in books, and three weeks later we were proudly opening three boxes of books.

 

Minor adjustments to the files made them suitable for Createspace, Amazon’s Print On Demand service, and for ebook, so now as well as copies to sell at local events, we have the book available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle versions.

 

It’s been a really fun project to work on, and the big debate now is whether to do a similar project next year, and if so, what the theme should be.