Ally Aldridge Festival, Goals, Writing

Spring Literary festivals

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post listing literary festivals taking place in the UK throughout the UK that have caught my eye.  To read the full list, please click here.

This post is to remind you of those taking place this Spring.

March

The Aldeburgh Literary Festival

  • Date: 1 March 2018 to 4 March 2018
  • Location:  Aldeburgh
  • Tickets:  Fee:  Various

This festival is made up of events and you buy tickets to participate in events.  Events vary between workshops, speakers and screenings.

If you miss the event, this seaside town is still worth a visit. They have one of the most beautiful traditional bookshops, a lovely beach and chip shops.

DIVA Literary Festival and Awards

  • Date:  15 March 2018 to 17 March 2018
  • Location: Birmingham
  • Tickets:  Register interest

This event promises to deliver a platform for underrepresented women writers such a lesbians.  This is sure to be a positive event that is making a difference to supporting diversity and inclusion.  Supported by DIVA magazine and The Guardian.

Write by the beach 2018

  • Date: 17 March 2018
  • Location:  Brighton
  • Tickets:  Fee (£139)

This event covers talks and workshops and you can book a one-to-one with an agent to pitch your novel.

If you miss the event, you can always attend Brighton’s Beach Hut Academy’s creative writing courses or mentoring provided by experts in the industry.

Eroticon 2018

  • Date: 17 March 2018 to 18 March 2018
  • Location:  London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£60 to £200)

If Erotica is your thing, then there is a convention just for you.  This event is in its 7th year and often sells out.  It has schedule of speakers and events and is a structured event.

This year has a talk on how to blog about sex for the shy writer – aghhh the world of an erotic writer.  One day I may be brave enough to write and share erotic fiction but for now the thought still makes my cheeks turn read (no, not like that!).  I would probably benefit from the ‘confidence’ talk.

Oxford Literary Festival (FT Weekend)

  • Date: 17 March 2018 to 25 March 2018
  • Location:  Oxford
  • Tickets:  Various

You buy tickets for the events you want to attend.  There are a lot of authors attending and giving talks and there are events for children too.  The event is not at one location but across the city so make sure you are able to get from one location to another if you booking multiple events.  Filter the events by the category you are interested in, i.e. Workshops, etc.

April

The London Book Fair 

  • Date: 10 April 2018 to 12 April 2018
  • Location: London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£45 to £100 + VAT)

This event is geared towards those involved in publishing but and has various talks on keeping those in the industry up-to-date with financial, legal and trending themes in the publishing world.  There are plenty of exhibits covering pretty much every type of genre you can think of.

May

The Bath Festival

  • Date: 11 May 2018 to 27 May 2018
  • Location: Bath
  • Tickets:  Fee (Various)

It is their 70th year running!  This 17 day event will bring the streets of Bath alive with music and literature.  Check the ‘What’s On’ page on the website to find events that take your interest.  Each event requires a ticket and the price differs.

Everyone I know who has been to Bath has always returned gushing about how amazing it is.  They are also home to one of the most well known and prestigious writing competitions (Bath Novel Award).

Ally Aldridge Writing

How to write a synopsis

The challenge

You’ve finished your manuscript and spent even more time editing.  Finally, it is at a standard you are now confident to present.  Now you are preparing to query.

When it comes to querying literary agents they general request the same things:

  • A sample of your manuscript
  • A covering letter
  • A synopsis

Many will ask you to keep the synopsis to one page (or 500-800 words).  That is the challenge:  summarize 80k words into one page.

Create a standard version

Most agents will want similar things in a synopsis.  So it is worth having a standard version that you can use as a template and adapt to meet their requirements.

What to include?

  • Title:  Novel title
  • Plot:  outline the story arc from start to finish.  Only give the meaningful events and you must include the ending.  A synopsis should be written in third person.
  • Main character names:  type these in capitals when they are first introduced.
  • Genre: Target market (in header/footer)
  • Novel length:  word count of full novel (rounded to the nearest whole thousandth number in header/footer)
  • Contact details:  Your contact details (in header/footer)

How to lay it out?

  • Length:  500 to 800 words
  • Font:  Times New Roman or Arial (it must be easy to read)
  • Text size:  ideally 12 pt (no smaller than 10pt)
  • Text colour:  black
  • Background:  plain white
  • Document Format:  Check but generally .doc or docx (you may need to copy and paste it into a body of an email or convert to pdf)
  • Paragraphs:  Indent the first line of your paragraphs and use single line spacing

How to approach this?

Try to break your novel into sections:

Beginning:

  • introduce the main characters/setting/era, etc
  • inciting event – the catalyst that kicks the story off

Middle:

  • Middle (the plan) – how your character(s) will solve their predicament
  • Middle (twist) – something that goes wrong with the plan
  • Middle (new plan) – how your character(s) will solve their predicament

End

  • Conclusion – the epic battle, the tie up of loose ends, the big reveal (murder mystery), they get the guy (or not)

If you can break your novel up into section for the main events, you can try to keep those sections to one paragraph. This will help keep the word count of your synopsis down.

Edit

Keep saving your synopsis and then return to see what you can edit out.  Some fixes will be simple – remove filler words like ‘that’.  You will also need to be critical about what details are necessary to keep and may see you can delete out some minor subplots.  Keep doing this until you have reduced the size to at least one page or 500 to 800 words.

What not to do?

  • Teasers:  The document should clearly tell them what happens and not leave any mystery or cliff hangers.
  • Chapters:  Don’t describe what happens in each chapter.
  • Details:  It isn’t necessary to describe settings and characters or explain every actions the MC makes.  Leave out minor characters and minor subplots.
  • Mention other stories:  keep the synopsis focused on the story it is about.
  • Shrink the font:  This may be tempting to make it fit on the page but if it is not easy to read then… it won’t get read.
  • Fancy font:  Again, if it isn’t easy to read, then they’ll move on to another query that is.
  • Wrong format:  If they ask for the synopsis in a certain format then it is for a reason.

Finally – Tweak to meet the requirements

  • Guidelines:  Check agents requirements.

Whoever you are submitting to will likely make certain requests on how they want the Synopsis presented and you will need to tweak your standard version to meet their needs.  For example, they may ask for a certain font size or style or they may request a word count or number of pages.  Some will want you to include a tag line or to submit it in the body of the email (not as an attachment).

Always, check the guidelines before submitting.
Ally Aldridge Goal setting, Writing

Valentine Poetry Collection

Last year, on Wattpad I set myself a challenge. For the first 14 days in February, I posted one ‘romantic’ themed poem everyday.

I already hIce Cream Partyad a number of draft poems on Opuss but that didn’t make the challenge any easier.  First, I had to identify which poem to post.  Next, I had to edit them (they weren’t great).  Then, I had to remember to post one every day.

 

Poetry is not one of my strong points.  It’s always hard putting my writing out there for others to read and judge but with poetry it’s harder.  It’s raw, personal and makes me feel vulnerable.

Somehow we are already into the second week of February without me noticing, so, I won’t be doing my challenge this year. I’m a bit disappointed as I find it healthy to challenge myself and go outside my comfort zone.  It helps me develop as a writer to do something new, something difficult.

I will still add one more to the collection for Valentines day 2018.  Now I’ve promised, I’ll have to do it!  Please click here to view the collection from last year (and check up on me and see if I kept my word).

 

 

 

Ally Aldridge Festival, Goals, Writing

Uk Literary Festival tour dates

I wanted to do this post at the start of the year but January flew by.  So here is a list of the the literary (and book) festivals that have caught my eye and are coming up this year:

Winter Festivals.png

February

Romantic Author and Reader Events (#RARE18) 

  • Date: 24 February 2018
  • Location:  London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£40 to £70)

If you are a fan of Romance fiction this could be the event for you.  You can check the hundreds of authors attending to see if one of your favourites are going.  Then you can meet them and take your books with you for them to sign.  There will be book sellers to.

They have events all over the world so if you miss this one, check out some of the other dates/locations.

London School of Economics Literary Festival

  • Date: 20 February 2018 to 25 February 2018
  • Location:  London
  • Tickets:  No – Free

Run with the Time Literary supplement, this event has a number of activities such as talks, discussions, workshops for writers through to activities for kids.

If you miss the event or can’t attend, they also offer free videos and podcasts from the event.

Spring Festivals

March

The Aldeburgh Literary Festival

  • Date: 1 March 2018 to 4 March 2018
  • Location:  Aldeburgh
  • Tickets:  Fee:  Various

This festival is made up of events and you buy tickets to participate in events.  Events vary between workshops, speakers and screenings.

If you miss the event, this seaside town is still worth a visit. They have one of the most beautiful traditional bookshops, a lovely beach and chip shops.

DIVA Literary Festival and Awards

  • Date:  15 March 2018 to 17 March 2018
  • Location: Birmingham
  • Tickets:  Register interest

This event promises to deliver a platform for underrepresented women writers such a lesbians.  This is sure to be a positive event that is making a difference to supporting diversity and inclusion.  Supported by DIVA magazine and The Guardian.

Write by the beach 2018

  • Date: 17 March 2018
  • Location:  Brighton
  • Tickets:  Fee (£139)

This event covers talks and workshops and you can book a one-to-one with an agent to pitch your novel.

If you miss the event, you can always attend Brighton’s Beach Hut Academy’s creative writing courses or mentoring provided by experts in the industry.

Eroticon 2018

  • Date: 17 March 2018 to 18 March 2018
  • Location:  London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£60 to £200)

If Erotica is your thing, then there is a convention just for you.  This event is in its 7th year and often sells out.  It has schedule of speakers and events and is a structured event.

This year has a talk on how to blog about sex for the shy writer – aghhh the world of an erotic writer.  One day I may be brave enough to write and share erotic fiction but for now the thought still makes my cheeks turn read (no, not like that!).  I would probably benefit from the ‘confidence’ talk.

Oxford Literary Festival (FT Weekend)

  • Date: 17 March 2018 to 25 March 2018
  • Location:  Oxford
  • Tickets:  Various

You buy tickets for the events you want to attend.  There are a lot of authors attending and giving talks and there are events for children too.  The event is not at one location but across the city so make sure you are able to get from one location to another if you booking multiple events.  Filter the events by the category you are interested in, i.e. Workshops, etc.

April

The London Book Fair 

  • Date: 10 April 2018 to 12 April 2018
  • Location: London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£45 to £100 + VAT)

This event is geared towards those involved in publishing but and has various talks on keeping those in the industry up-to-date with financial, legal and trending themes in the publishing world.  There are plenty of exhibits covering pretty much every type of genre you can think of.

May

The Bath Festival

  • Date: 11 May 2018 to 27 May 2018
  • Location: Bath
  • Tickets:  Fee (Various)

It is their 70th year running!  This 17 day event will bring the streets of Bath alive with music and literature.  Check the ‘What’s On’ page on the website to find events that take your interest.  Each event requires a ticket and the price differs.

Everyone I know who has been to Bath has always returned gushing about how amazing it is.  They are also home to one of the most well known and prestigious writing competitions (Bath Novel Award).

Summer festivals

June

Felixstowe Book Festival

  • Date: 27 June 2018 to 1 July 2018
  • Location: Felixstowe
  • Tickets:  TBC

At the time of writing, the tickets are not yet online.  But, from previous years there have been free events as well as events you can pay for a ticket.  The paid for events have not been expensive (under £10).  Events range from exhibitions, speakers, workshops and children’s activities.  Events are split between the library and the Orwell Hotel.

I’ve been a few times to this festival.  There have been some amazing speakers and engaging workshops.

July

UEA Festival of Literature (FLY)

  • Date: 9 July 2018 to 13 July 2018
  • Location: Norwich
  • Tickets:  Free*/Fee £3.50

This is event is for young people only (18 and under – hence the student price).   I had to include it because if I was young, I would go.  This event has a number of speakers, workshops and activities and as you would expect a focus on YA and children’s fiction.

My dream is to one day be invited to be a speaker but if I ever want that to happen I need to stop dreaming and get writing.

Young Adult Literary Convention (YALC)

  • Date: 27 July 2018 to 29 July 2018
  • Location: London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£19 to £55)

This  event is in addition to the London Film and Comic Convention.  The YALC have exhibit stands where you can speak to authors, agents and publisher and buy books.  They have agent one-to-ones, workshops and speakers at the convention and lots of space to sit down and read.  The focus her is on YA Literature.

The tickets include access downstairs to the London Film and Comic Convention.  If you are a fan of Marvel, DC, Anime or anything like that you can pop downstairs to see their exhibits and stalls too.

August

Cheltenham Literature Festival

  • Date:  TBC: 5 August 2018 to 14 August 2018 (Last year was 6 October 2017 to 15 October 2017)
  • Location: Cheltenham
  • Tickets:  TBC (Advanced booking for members)

The information for the site is currently about last years event which was aimed at families and young adult.  I recognised a lot of the names and books in attendance and the event is supported by The Times and The Sunday Times.  I expect it will be very promising again this year.

Edinborough International Book Festival 

  • Date:  11 August 2018 to 27 August 2018
  • Location: Edinborough
  • Tickets:  TBC

At the time of writing, ticket prices weren’t available.  This is a really big event with a lot of things going on simultaneously and something for every taste.  I have never been but would love to go one day.

Autumn Festivals

September

Children’s Bath Literature Festival

  • Date:  TBC (last year it was 29 Sept to 8 Oct)
  • Location: Bath
  • Tickets:  TBC

At the time of writing this years date and prices were yet to be confirmed. I included it because last years line up was full of house hold names (like Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson, Miranda Hart, etc).  I’m sure this year will be just as promising – this is one to watch!

Many more

There are loads more great festivals around the country and I have only highlighted a small sample.

Please let me know if you are or have been to any of these or have any to recommend.

Ally plus text

Ally Aldridge Blogging, Software, Uncategorized, Writing

Create with Canva Beginners Course Review

What is Canva?

I must confess I am in love with Canva and been using it for a few months.  I started off using it on my laptop and then I discovered there is an app.  Now I can use it anywhere.

Canva helps you create visually effective images for a wide host of reasons.  I used it a lot to create my blog titles and images for tweets and Instagram.  I also have used it to create a party invitation for my son’s birthday party.  I discovered the site via Wattpad when looking for software to create a novel cover.

Here are some examples of what I have created:

What is Create with Canva?

This company is currently offering a free beginners course for people that want to get better at using Canva.  They also have a resources page with useful information and recommendations for blog host sites and other courses you can pay for like how to earn from you blog with affiliate marketing.

Free Beginners Course

I found the course via Twitter and enrolled.  There are five lessons and each lesson is delivered daily to your inbox.  The lessons are bitesize YouTube videos and just 5 minutes long.  You can join their Facebook page to have access to the course in full right away.  Here is what I think:

Dashboard tour: 

This is sent out with the ‘welcome’ email and is an introduction to Canva.

Lesson One: Working with templates, text and color

This covers the basis of using the templates on Canva.  How to amend the template and colour theme.  How to edit the text, add more text and resize.  I thought I knew most of this simply from using the site but they did teach me a new trick – spacing!  Everything in this class used the free features in Canva.

Lesson Two: Working with images in Canva and uploading your own images

This was about using the images in Canva and how to add your own.  Again, I thought I had this sussed but they taught me some new tricks.  I make use of the free images in Canva (there is a vast collection), however, I didn’t know that some of the free images are cropped and you can change the cropped area and use some of the hidden parts of the picture!  There were other tricks they taught that I expect I’ll be making use of in the near future.

Lesson Three: Working with free photos, frames and grids

This lesson started by introducing collages – a feature I have never considered using (seriously missing out).  They taught us how to use different photo layouts from scratch and for Instagram.  Finished with how to use and edit backgrounds.

Lesson Four: Working with shapes, lines, illustrations and icons

This started off nice and simple with adding elements to your design.  I haven’t really used this part of Canva and through watching the lesson I saw how useful they can be.  Gillian also covered some useful time saving short cut keys and how to group objects.

Lesson Five: Getting organized in Canva, creating templates and batch producing designs

This was incredibly useful and I haven’t used any of the features covered.  I learnt how to create a brand theme in Canva (rather than saving notes on my phone), how to sort my files in folders on Canva and how to make a batch of designs.

Would I recommend the course?

Yes.  It starts of quite easy so it is suitable for absolute beginners. It also is likely to uncover a trick that you haven’t worked out on your own, enabling you to get even more out of Canva.

When I signed up, I was worried that it was going to be five lessons telling you why you need to buy the premium service but it didn’t. Every feature I was shown how to use was using the free features available to everyone.

I honestly don’t know how Canva do it. If you haven’t got an account on there you need to go create one.

Presenter – Gillian

The course is presented by a lady named Gillian who has a nice clear voice that is easy to understand and not irritating. You don’t see what she looks like as the video is showing what is happening on the screen.

Links

Canva:  https://www.canva.com/

Create with Canva:  http://www.createwithcanva.com/

Ally Aldridge Goals, Writing

Blogging learnt the hard way

Happy Birthday to my blog

I can’t believe that today is my blogs first birthday.  I feel that I’ve learnt so much and yet, I still have so much to learn.

Here are the three lessons I have learned – the hard way:

1.  When three become one

I started with three blogs on Word Press. Three blogs!  I did it to split up the content:

Plus, I was still posting to Blogger as a back up plan… just in case I didn’t take to Word Press.

I now can see what a mistake that was. It was a lot of work to keep all of them running and current.  This year, I am planning to just post straight to ‘Alison Aldridge’.

2.  Be personal

I was trying to keep my blog professional and leave my personal life out of it. I didn’t think people would be interested in hearing about me.

But, when my life is busy, it’s hard to write about the other stuff and it would be easier just to share with my readers what I’m up to.  I can already see I’ve got an eventful year ahead so moving forward, you can expect to see a few more personal posts.

3.  Be brave

I’ve found that if I want to review something I should contact the company because sometimes they will support you with it.  Saal Digital posted on Instagram asking for bloggers and I applied.  I thought I had no chance but was happily mistaken and now I am the proud owner of a beautiful photo book of my son.

Bouncing of my previous success, I’ve bravely approached a company whose service I’d like to use and asked if I could review them on my blog.  They kindly awarded me ‘Gold Membership’.  Stay tuned to see my review of this – I will reveal soon…  (this is one for the writers).

The future

There is loads more I’ve learnt but the above are the three lessons that stand out the most.  I’ve also still a lot more to learn too.

I’d really like to get into vlogging too – I just cringe at the sound of my voice (and sight of my face – lol).  Plus, I’ve no clue about editing a video. Please comment with links if you can help me or to your vlog so I can see what you do and learn.

Ally Aldridge Software, Writing

Review: Dabble Writer

What is it?

Dabble is an online writing platform for plotting, writing and editing.  It works best in Google or by using their app but can be used in any browser.

Features:

  • Dabble Account and cloud storage
  • Plotting tool
  • Export to Word/text file
  • Word counts
  • Novel series
  • App (works on a PC)

During November, they offered a free trial to NaNoWriMo participants.  We were able to use the site for free and they enabled a word count tracker – nifty!

Price:

Dabble Writer usually costs $9.99 but at the moment there is an introduction offer of $4.99 which if you subscribe will be at 50% forever.

Dabble Writer is an official sponsor of NaNoWriMo. If you took part, check the NaNoWriMo offers page to see if there are any exclusive additional offers for NaNoWriMoers.

 

Projects

I created two projects to test out the software.  One was Daisy Chain (my NaNoWriMo project) and the other was Jewel of the Sea (aka Drift).

  • Daisy Chain:  This required regular updates so I needed to work on the story whenever I was able to.  Switching between computers (and browsers) did cause a little technical issue but the support guys at Dabble were awesome.  The site runs best in Google chrome and the app.  There is also a little cloud that you can click to save your progress and ensure it has been backed up.
  • Jewel of the sea:  I uploaded this so I could experiment the downloading to word feature. I was really impressed.  It puts it into the correct format for agents so all you need to worry about is the line spacing.

Word Count

  • Word Count total:  There is a tracker that shows your overall word count for the novel (or project).
  • NaNoWriMo Tracker:  The word count tracker for NaNoWriMo was incredibly intuitive.  It deducted words if I deleted any and updated my daily goal based on how many words I needed to reach to keep on target based on my total.  They are currently developing a personal goal tracker so writers can set their own word count goal at anytime in the year.

Plotting Tools

This was one of the features I enjoyed using the most as I currently have nothing like it.

It looks a like pin board with post it notes stuck on it.  You can create different boards for tracking different things.

On the board you create different headings (or timelines).  I found it easiest to use it to track my characters developments within the story and plan I needed to happen and when.  It was easy to move and edit these too so it didn’t feel like a digital hindrance.

The ‘post it note’ (tile) has a heading and brief description.  You click on it to open up and a little note paper where you can go into more detail about the plot line.

This is a great planning aid and helped me to visualize the story.

Story notes

This is another great feature.  I’ve never shared my story notes *cringe*.

Dabble Writer - story notes

I split my notes into two categories (headings) ‘Characters’ and ‘World Building’.  Within those sections I create a note on different things that are important.

It is really handy to have everything stored in the same place and organised instead of loads of files saved in different places or programs.  I love having some where to stash my ideas and notes about the story.

Novel series

Within a ‘project’ you can create multiple books.  This enables you to track a whole series all in one place.  Genius!

Dabble future?

Customer Service:  The team at Dabble are extremely responsive to their customers and I think this will take the company forward to a bright future.  They were always on hand whenever I had a question about using the site.  No problem was too big or too small.  I wondered if they ever slept.

Development:  They have developed the site a lot from Sept to Nov so I’ve no doubt that they’ll make true on their promise to continue improving and bringing out new features.  They also ask their subscribers to suggest features and vote on features to help them prioritize what their users want the most.   Here are some of the features coming soon that excite me the most:

  • Goal tracking – set your own word count goal any time of the year (not just for NaNoWriMo)
  • Images in story notes (save a picture of your world map or the engagement ring or a celebrity that looks like you character)
  • Editing mark up (you can highlight a section you know you need to rework)
  • Novel cover (upload an image for you novel cover)
  • Character image (upload an image of how your character looks) and character tools
  • Restore a previous version as a new file
  • More ways to import and export including dragging a project to your desktop to save it
  • Social – enable word count competitions and stats to be shared socially

Am I subscribing?

I am very tempted to subscribe but currently I have a lot going on that I don’t think I will have the time to really make the most of having a subscription.

However, Dabble Writer is something I would definitely consider in the future as I found it a very easy to use interface, fantastic customer service and the features were exactly what a writer needs.

Ally plus text

 

Ally Aldridge Goals, Writing

Goals for the year ahead – 2018

If you read my earlier post from today, you’ll know that I’ve reflected on how 2017 went.  This inspired me to set my goals for the year ahead.

Making 2018 even better

Blogging

I now absolutely love blogging.  I’m addicted.  It is has raised in my ranks of importance.  Here are my goals for 2018:

  • Categories:  Currently, I am running three blogs.  One for beauty review, one for anything related to writing and books and another that shares the posts by both.  It is very time consuming and exhausting!  I shall now be migrating them all to this blog and using categories to present content relevant to the readers interests.
  • Schedule:  
    • I was trying to post two articles a week and did pretty well but sometimes it was hard.   I need post regularly but once a week is sufficient and I can schedule posts.
    • I’ve been using loCal (free online calendar) to schedule my tweets.  I was unwell in December and never updated my tweets!  Aghh!  My poor followers had the same tweets for another month *cringe*.  Setting an end date is important.
  • Personal:  Keeping to my categories has meant that when life is busy I haven’t anything relevant to post whereas if I start sharing more about me (like being a mum or working in education), I could have more content and make my life easier.
  • Vlogging:  I did my first video blog this year and I was really impressed at how easy it was. I know I have more to learn to make my videos better but you’ve got to start somewhere.  I’ve also done some ‘unboxing’ videos on my instagram.
  • Product reviews:  I need to not be shy to contact brands that I love to see if they’ll support me reviewing their product.  I hope that in 2018 I will get the chance to review more products as I really enjoyed my experience of reviewing Saal Digital’s photo book.

Writing

My dream is still to be published and I still would love to go down the traditional route but not found an agent (or publisher) but some of that is my fault as I don’t query enough.

  • Drift/Jewel of the sea:  Stop editing and start querying!
  • Glide:  I know how this story ends and I need to finish it.  Readers who loved Drift (on Wattpad) want to read the next book in the series.  I have had so much support and encouragement and one user even sent me pictures of Scotland to help me.
  • Start a fresh new story:  I don’t want this to distract from the above goals but I’ve got lots of new story ideas and I really need to start something fresh.  I hope to make a start on this later in 2018.
  • Conventions: I love attending YALC and Felixstowe Book Festival last year and I would love to be able to go again.
  • Writer courses:  I’m very busy at the moment with a course for work but once that is out of the way I’d like to continue my studies with Write Story Books for Children and Write Romance fiction.  I’m enrolled on both these courses ready to complete when I have time.  I also would happily do another Curtis Brown Creative course online.
  • Reading:  I got a Kindle at last!  I plan to start reading more in 2018 and hope to discover some amazing reads to review on my blog (and Good Reads).
  • Twitter queries:  I need to learn when these are running so ~I

Ally plus text

Ally Aldridge Goals, Writing

Reflection on 2017

The year began by creating my first Word Press blog.  At the time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I’ve really enjoyed my crash course in learning to use the site.

Making 2018 even better.png

Here is what I learnt:

Blogging

  • Schedule posts/tweets: You can schedule posts so can write ahead of time and space posts out.  Use LoCalendar to schedule tweets (but make sure you set an end date so you don’t spam people).
  • Make it visual: 
    • Canva is a great site to create images for blog titles and other social media sites.
    • Google Drive Photos is an app you can download onto you phone and it  backs up images you have taken. You can then access these online from wherever  you are working to use them.
    • Instagram links can be added into articles and enables you to share pics from your own account and other users images.  I’ve used this to share professional brand images when I forgot to take a pic of the product I’m reviewing before it got all grubby.
  • Support others: 
    • You can share other people’s blogs on Word Press via the reader.  This helps support them and improves your content.  Follow people who write on similar subjects.  Can help when you are busy and hit a dry spell to keep your blog current.
    • As mentioned before, you can share pics by others posted to Instagram.  The image will have a link to their account so if a reader likes their pic they can choose to follow them.
  • Categorise posts:  It puts posts into collection of subjects and helps readers navigate your site or enables you to create pages.  I still have more to learn on this but I think I will be utilizing this in the new year.
  • Brands:  
    • Review brands you love to demonstrate the market you are interested in and to gain support.  Follow their social media accounts to be aware of blogger offers.
    • Offer to review brands you are interested in and you may strike lucky.  This year I got a free photobook from Saal Digital in return for my honest review.  I love the product and will cherish it forever – so happy!

Writing

  • Do courses:  If you can find time to do a writing course they are really good.  I did the Curtis Brown – Starting to Write your novel course.  This covered a lot of stuff I already knew but made me think about it again.  I really improved the start of two of my novels using what I learnt. See my review from earlier in the year here.
  • Enter competitions and query:  Take time to put your stories, poems or manuscripts out there.  Even if it is just a friendly competition – I won a few awards on Wattpad and it got me more readers and valuable feedback. I managed to enter one national competition but I am annoyed I missed the deadline for the one I really wanted to enter because I was taking too long editing – I edit too much!
  • Don’t over edit:  Guilty!  I am so guilty of this. I am my worst critique.  Every time, I think I am done editing… I start again.  I don’t even enjoy editing.  I must stop myself.  I wish I could afford an editor to do it for me.
  • Make time to be creative:  living a busy life can make it hard to find time to write but if you make time and do a little a day (even if it’s just plotting or researching), then you will keep making progress towards your goals.  I try to make sure I sit down at my PC/Laptop at least once a week to actually write.
  • Don’t force it:  If you force yourself to write you can cause yourself to burn out.   I think this was a side effect from NaNoWriMo.  I feel the writing bug coming back – phew!

Ally plus text