19 Comments

I too have a manuscript, 40k words... it has sat untouched for years, so long it actually scares me!

Love the prompt, ‘as she turned the lights out the scratching began...’ My every night begins like this... maybe I can rustle up a 100 worder?

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Thanks so much for peeking in, Susie. We have the inevitable 'country noises' here too! Looking forward to your 100-worder ... but, who knows, the 40,000 words might get an airing one winter night.

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Thank you for the mention. And a great prompt :) A temptation to pick up my fiction hat again...

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Thank YOU for picking and sharing the art ... maybe you could nominate my next Art-Full Fiction.

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Do you have a notebook full of ideas for future pieces? It must be difficult to choose just one. But, I’d love to nominate a work :)

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I spent some time yesterday searching 'Top 100 Paintings of all time' and saved a handful to a folder. I'll look forward to seeing what you choose and what story I can weave around it!

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Off the top of my head I may have one, but I’ll give it a little more thought... :)

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I have a thought or two for 'The Swing' by Fragonard

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PS ... do write some new fiction! I'd read it.

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Love seeing all the stories together, and those prompts are so good! I wonder if I could incorporate into one of my Summer of Magic stories... 🤔 Thinking cap on.

And speaking of drafts, I have 2 from NaNoWriMo efforts, both 50k each! One I've recently pulled out, reread and have actually been working on this week, because it makes me laugh, and I think it might actually be good. Can I say that? 🫢

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We are definitely allowed to enjoy our work - I'll tell you a secret, I LOVE seeing my stories bundled up as a compendium too ... I day dream about publishing an anthology of short stories ... so you are DEFINITELY allowed (encouraged, even) to laugh at your work and think it is worth pursuing. Exciting. The brilliant thing is that by doing it over here there are ready-made encouragers to hand!

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Go for it, work towards and publish that anthology! I wonder if anyone on Substack knows of resources for self publishing? I guess we could ask? Thank you for your heartfelt encouragement, I always appreciate it. 🙏🏻

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That’ll be a great question to ask ... all the more incentive to get the work done on the draft!

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On the manuscript: are we talking 2023 goal or 2024 goal for reading it? Love me some goal setting and I’m ALL IN on following this story!!

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Thank you; love the enthusiasm ... Oh, I think 2023 for giving it a re-read and deciding which direction to take it in. Perhaps it might end up shorter ... or serialised here on Substack ... there might be a way of learning in public that could help others (and me, of course). Watch this space, Natalie.

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So much in here to read! Thank you. You have sooo many words under your belt, it is just incredible!! How long have you been writing for?

Thank you for the prompts, they might help me. I am wondering if writing a few short stories will be a good warm up before I write my weekly missive...any kind of writing must help, write?

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Thank you so much, Tracey. I love the short form just for exercising the brain and the writing muscles. I’m into setting myself arbitrary word counts and prompts to push myself to edit hard. I really want to improve that. I guess I’ve been writing for years, a lot in the past five years. But fiction has really sparked in the past 12 months. All of the stuff shared on Substack is new. Thanks for the encouragement.

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You are most welcome. Although I have 'written in the past, it has been mostly all during university where it is directed of course, and I write on my IG for my business but none of it is real writing to me (perhaps I am wrong actually....light bulb moment here, perhaps having this incorrect perspective is why I am finding it so challenging just to write a newsletter...more to ponder on. Thank you!

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Love that moment of realisation. ALL writing is writing! The easiest thing to do is to open your laptop and start writing a piece called 'why I am finding it so challenging to just write a newsletter'. List things if you need to ... call it '7 reasons it is hard to write my newsletter' (I read somewhere '7' is the number folk like best). Don't overthink it! Looking forward to reading it.

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