Jo Zebedee's Blog, page 4

Flash! On writing short stories

Years ago, I told people I didn’t really do short stories. They assured me I did – because, for around 3 years (and starting again, this month, since I had so much fun going back to my old stories) I wrote a 75 word story every month, and a 300 word one every 3 months, […]

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Green seeds of hope

Several years ago I decided to Sit-Down-And-Write-The-Damn-Book™. You might have noticed but I don’t tend to go into things half-heartedly, and so it was with writing. I was going to crack it and achieve my dream of having my personal sandpit-world, Abendau, out for anyone to read. I sat down, I wrote it and it […]

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The Words Must be Made

I’ve been struggling to find time to write, recently. (Hence so few blogs.) Work is busy. Life is busy. There are a load of little things going on that seem to suck the time from my day – dogs to vets, picking up kids, shopping for the kids who never stop eating, etc etc – […]

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On Idols

A short disclaimer.* I’m writing this because, yesterday, one of my idols passed away. I don’t really have many – I’m not a big celeb person. But, when I was young, my favourite show by quite a long margin was that classic BBC SF with its iconic special effects (for all the wrong reasons) Blake’s […]

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Critical reading

One of the things I cover on my writing courses (starting in 2 weeks at the  Crescent Arts, roll up, roll up, and all that there…) is the importance of critical reading to being a writer. Understanding what we like as readers and why is critical to how we write and why. But, as most […]

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Changing words – When is it a revision, and when is it a rewrite?

This week, I spent a few hours updating a couple of bits and pieces in Abendau’s Heir. I fully intend to do the same for Sunset over Abendau and Abendau’s Legacy once I finish re-reading them (and taking my world building notes. Note to self – get proper worldbuilding software.) Firstly – why did I […]

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Stop Apologising

Last year, at Titancon, Peadar O’Guillin gave a newer reader some great advice: Tell people you are a writer when you stand up to read. Now, this was probably my fault; I had been the first to read that night, and did my usual mumbling introduction of ‘I’m Jo. This is my excerpt,” and perhaps […]

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The book’s written… now what

I haven’t brought out a book this year. That sort of itches at me, that I should have. And, truth be told, I have a project that I could – and possibly should – be considering bringing out. But… it’s not just that straightforward. Not in the current market where so many opportunities lurk, and […]

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Writing parents with mental health conditions

I dunno, you wait three weeks for a blog subject to emerge, and then two come along at once. A couple of weeks ago, on #MSWL (a wishlist from agents and editors about what they’d like to see in a story), a request came up to see more parents with mental health in books. Now, […]

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On confidence

Writing is a tricky old business – and, contrary to expectations, some parts don’t get easier as you go on. I think confidence can be one of those areas where keeping it up can be difficult. My early writing thoughts went like this: ‘I have a book I’d like to write sometime’ Reads book of […]

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