It's like this....

I've always wanted to be a writer.
Certainly I can remember making up stories in my head from at least the age of 5, and English was always my favourite subject.
But I've always been slightly stymied by the 'having to actually write something' bit. I've written bits of dialogue, fragments of comedy sketches, starts of novels, first lines of song lyrics. I've never managed to complete anything.
I always get immensely discouraged by anything I've written. I've tried writing novels; the first three chapters of which have been crap. My friend, the late great Zoe Barnes once told me that the first three chapters are always crap and once you break that barrier; you begin to get somewhere. But I never have.

That is until last year when I was finally pushed into submitting a story to the Inkermen Press collection 'Book'. I submitted a proposal. The editors liked it. I submitted a first draft. The editors really liked it, and, surprisingly accepted the first draft. Apart from a few minor typos, it was published exactly as it was typed.

So there was I, now with a book on a shelf with my name on it. People have read it. People have said they liked it. Some of them are people I've not even met.

I am now a writer.

Which gives me the choice. Shall I be the one who says "I once had a short story published"? Or shall I be the one who picks up this early advantage and presses it home?

Hence this blog.

It is one thing to say to oneself "I am a writer"

It is quite another to announce it to the world, for the world is a notoriously harsh and cynical mistress. Tell her that you are a writer, and she will demand proof.

Thus I hope to embarrass myself into producing more work. Fragments may appear here for your comments. They may be developed. Some may be just experiments to be abandoned. Some may find themselves as e-books. Some may be entered for competitions.

But I have begun my journey.

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