Writing has been taking a back seat lately to music. Here’s the inital results on youtube.
After months of avoiding writing; recording songs, going to art classes, playing computer games, drinking too much etc. I have decided to throw off the covers and get back out of bed. I’ve got a load of ideas buzzing around, and some new techniques I want try.
New poem online at everydaypoets.
My Gameboy Horror Flash read by Matt Cowens.
I’m very happy with the professional job Matt did with the story.
Edit:
http://www.everydayfiction.com/podcast-edf030-fodder-%e2%80%a2-written-by-paul-graham-%e2%80%a2-read-by-matt-cowens/
Hope that works. Messy.
Last week I received my first ever rejection email. How exciting. I knew it would be coming, as after submitting the confused mess of a story to the website, I thought: that’s a big load of crap. But I think that about everything I write so I decided to let it ride. The problems pointed out make perfect sense in that I crammed a 3000 word story into 1000 words to fit the entry requirements and my ham-handed attempt at farce did not work at all. I would post it here but it’s plain embarassing.
I feel a little scared about sending anything else out at the moment, I mean, one rejection I can take, but two? I’ve still got a couple of stories waiting for assessment at a couple of publishers, they might work.
So anyway, this is to say goodbye to Luddock’s Departure and may I never send out crap like that again!
I don’t know where I’m at now, at the moment the stuff I’m working on is the truth, ugly or freaky little moments from my childhood and teen years that I’m really just changing the names. I suspect this may be cheating for a fiction writer but they just have such a different feeling about them, true, not contrived. I might try sending one out and see what people make of it.
I think I’ll vomit some more ancient low quality poetry up for any language masochists out there.
Lots of famous people were depressed. Writers, artists, composers. So I have been told by my counsellor. As though to be mentally ill is some sort of badge of honour, some sort of stigmata of the gifted.
Well, I don’t find it aids the creative process, it just makes me feel like shit. At my lowest, there’s no great output, just the hateful ranting of a small child. I’m trying to come to terms with being mediocre at all this stuff. There’s a lot of seriously good writers out there.
Sometimes I can write myself out of the bullshit in my head, but more often I can’t. The problem is plotting, I just can’t plot when I’m not right in the head. I find plotting the most bothersome part of this whole business, to actually come up with something interesting and entertaining and maybe even surprising. The dialogue, description and setting are just joining the dots.
I’m not even sure I like writing. I mean when something works it’s a real thrill, but most of the time it’s just slog, dead ends and head scratching. I’m really positive right now.
This story was published today in Deadman’s Tome – a horror ezine. Again I don’t think it was horrific but it had to go somewhere. First and last time I give away a story for free…it’s a longer piece and I prefer writing longer stuff. It’s about witchcraft, blackmail and greetings cards. It’s all a bit bizzare-o, I’m still not sure about it. It starts on page 63 of the new issue (June 10)
This is a short (horror-ish) story about a boy finding a magic toy with consequences. I wanted to write a story like this ever since I read “The Master Blaster” in a kids short story book when I was young.
You can follow me on Twitter: PaulWGGraham.
About me…right, I’m Paul Graham, 37, married, no kids, and I work in a bullshit IT job. I also write short fiction and poetry. You can read some of it on everydayfiction.com, everydaypoetry.com and demonictome.com. I’m new to blogging so this site will be a big pile of gonads for a while till I get settled in…Bear with me.
