The Writer's Journey

I guess that as writers we all find ourselves at different points along the same track.  Some of us are just taking our first tentative steps, others will have amassed experience bringing increased confidence and some will be recognised and published literary talents - specks in the distance to most of us. 

And what a journey along that track it is.   I’ll bet we’ve all shared some of the same emotions too; frustration (a lot of the time), exhilaration (some of the time) and joy (not nearly enough of the time!) but one thing keeps us going.  It’s probably not the desire for fame and fortune but more likely an innate and unavoidable need to write.  Most of us write because it’s something that we feel we have to do, as if we have no real choice in the matter. 

Writers do need one thing though; readers.  Writers and readers rely on an interdependent connectedness.  Without each other the circle of creativity by the writer and appraisal and appreciation from the reader is incomplete. 

Another thing that most of us probably share is the desire for our writing to be read as widely as possible.  ABCtales provides the perfect platform for that.  Everyday our writing is exposed to further reading and we often garner helpful and constructive comments enabling us to make adjustments and bring improvement to what we do.  This self-reflection and self-editing process is a vital part of the development of our writer’s craft. 

And what of this craft?

Well, prose writers should be wary of creating omniscient narrators, commentary, cliché, repetition, exposition and the dreaded ‘telling not showing’.  Poets should strive to provide figurative poetic language, imagery that enhances and elevates rather than detracts from theme, allegorical ease and metaphor that is pitched perfectly.  They should simultaneously be mindful of the need to avoid sentimentality too. 

If only putting these things into practice was as easy as identifying them!

ABCtales allows us to put our writing out there completely free-of-charge providing opportunity for us to identify if we are making progress along this writing journey.  By engaging with the site we  can develop valuable experience in deciding what works and what still needs improvement.  ABCtales Competitions are also another brilliant way of doing this.

Tony Cook (CEO ABCtales) me and my co-chief editor Claudine recently devised a winter competition specifically for the prose writers and poets of ABCtales.  Details here:

 http://www.abctales.com/blog/insertponceyfrenchnamehere/abctales-competition-0

We provided a writing prompt to get people’s creative juices flowing by asking writers to create a story or poem that opens with the words ‘I woke up one morning’, words already made famous by BB King’s brilliant song.   

I’d really like to take this opportunity to encourage as many people to get involved with this competition initiative as possible.  I guarantee that those of you who do will find yourselves a little further along that writers’ track by the end.

Please sign up to participate.  In doing so you help ABCtales as well as your own writing talent, so just to end on a cliché, it’s a win-win situation.

Good luck everyone,

Peter.