Jo Zebedee's Blog, page 5

Repeat. Relearn. Reshuffle.

I haven’t blogged for a few weeks. I haven’t really had anything to say that would uplift people as I was in one of those doldrums writers go through, where we question where we are with our writing, where we want to be, what we should be doing (writing) vs what we are doing (Sandbox […]

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Writing retreat – worth it or not?

A few months ago, I created a new Facebook group for writers of spec fiction who live near me and when we put up a post asking what the community wanted, two things came up: workshops, and a writing residency. Well, now. A residency. I am a writer who literally writes all my books surrounded […]

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Writing events – dos and don’ts

When I was at university, I studied theatre studies (yes, I’m a luvvie, who knew?) and I loved it, except for one small matter: I don’t like being on stage. Hell, I don’t even like having my picture taken. This wasn’t really something I thought about when I decided to become a writer. Writers write. […]

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The missing mythology …?

Today, this article came up in my twitter feed: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo... It looks at reasons why we don’t have a plethora of mythology writers, and I’d question the article on more than one front. Firstly, we do have writers who are championing Irish mythology in their modern writing. Peadar O’Guillin’s hugely acclaimed The Grey Lands duology […]

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On Writing Science Fiction

There have been a couple of blogs around about how some genre writers find it hard to admit to writing genre. Ed McDonald (Author of Blackwing, one of 2017’s hottest debut books in fantasy) wrote a great blog about it here: https://edmcdonaldwriting.com/2018/04... Now, I’m not going to say that writing science fiction (and fantasy, but […]

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What does a non-response mean?

This is an important blog for anyone on the query mill. What I wanted to talk about was non-responses from agents and how this has changed over all the years I’ve been querying (my first recorded queries go back to 2012.) It’s important to talk about because of what people think a non-response means (the […]

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writing aspirations

A few weeks ago I asked the question, on facebook and in a forum, about what individual writing aspirations people had. I have a few myself. An adaptation comes high, particularly of Inish Carraig (I have other plans for Abendau…). I’d like to attend a Worldcon and be on a panel – and have people […]

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How many books a year …?

There is a perception about me that I write very quickly and therefore should have no problem churning out a book, or even, two a year. Many writer friends do this and I have no snobbishness about it – I don’t think that speed has to equal a lack of quality. But, on a personal […]

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On beta readers

Often, when I’m delivering courses on writing, I think I bore my audience silly about my constant exhortions to find beta readers. And, to be fair, some writers I know do manage very nicely without that external input, preferring to either work on their own or leave any revisions until their editor gives feedback. This […]

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On organisation

A large part of any job is learning to be organised and, as a writer, it’s no different. It may be your extended hobby (ha! Bet you never knew any hobby can take up so much time…), it may be something you take more seriously and want to have a serious go at, it may […]

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