So many arrows.....

Structure! I need structure to my day! When I started writing, short stories were my focus. I didn't give a thought to any other sort of writing. And when I say 'short stories' I mean the women's magazine variety that earn cash.....mercenary little madam that I am! And then I thought I'd enter competitions - and that required a different sort of writing. I could explore deeper, darker themes. Everything chunterring along nicely. But then came a little lull in both markets.......I wasn't selling as much and the sort of stories that were selling weren't the sort I wanted to write. So, what to do? My daughter-in-law presented me with a challenge.....could I write something about her - she's a sculptor - and get it in our country magazine? Well, why not? I wasn't writing fiction but I could do beginning, middle and end and make the 'story' flow, so I had a go. And for a while feature writing featured large in my life. Then came the recession and county magazines could no longer afford to pay freelance writers. So, back to short stories for women's magazines who - glory be! - again wanted the sort of relationship stories I write.
Have you ever, someone asked, thought of writing novels? Well.....who doesn't? We've all got one in us, right? I found I had seven in me before I wrote one that anyone wanted to buy - but I did learn a lot along the way. And along the way I was asked to be a preliminary judge for a writing magazines's short story competiitions. Another arrow in my armoury.
And then came edits on my novel - still ongoing ....and with a deadline! And I still have all the above ongoing as well.....so structure needed. Mornings for edits, afternoons for short stories - all varieties. A bit of competition reading between things i might want to watch on the box in the evenings.
So structure, Linda, structure.......fit in the blogs when you can.......so that's my blog for today, done and dusted......
Happy writing and reading, everyone.