Have you ever been faced with difficulty writing after finishing a big, high-energy project? I know I have. It usually starts out as me telling myself I’ve earned a (brief) break after burning the midnight oil to finish something. The problem usually is, brief often becomes prolonged. I know, I really pushed to get Mik Murdoch 2 finished. I wrote more than 30,000 words in under 2-weeks to ensure it would be complete by the end of my holidays. Then I took a short break. I didn’t fall into the trap of letting it extend. I immediately followed that up with two short stories I had been meaning to write for two anthologies. That also was a relatively fast write […]
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Get Published Episode 120 – Leah Crichton, Wattpad Success
The road to writing success is a varied one and on today’s show I talk to Leah Crichton about how she has found success via Wattpad. I’ve been interested in Wattpad for some time and, because of Leah and my friend Aaron Kite, I decided to take the plunge. You can now find Boyscouts of the Apocalypse in its entirety up on Wattpad. Just search for Michell Plested and you will find it. Leah and I had a great discussion, which I am pleased to share with you today. I also talk about a workshop I’m planning for school visits. It is about using your own experiences to create stories. I talk about it from a Young Adult perspective, but […]
Read moreYou Win Some, You Lose Some
The Prix Aurora Awards (Canadian Speculative Fiction Award) were announced yesterday. For those of you who weren’t aware, Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero was shortlisted for Best YA Novel, English. Unfortunately, Mik did not win an Aurora. I was disappointed, which shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. But I am honestly thrilled to have made the shortlist. There were many novels nominated that didn’t get that far and I know that just by virtue of being on the ballet, my writing profile has increased. Still, not winning is painful. I was up against some extremely talented and well-known writers. To be included in their number was a tremendous honour. Here’s hoping that next time around, I have better luck. 🙂 […]
Read moreA Ways to Go
I couple weeks ago my publisher, Robert Runte’, suggested I changed this website’s tagline from “from an amateur’s perspective” to “from a former amateur’s perspective.” I thought about his comment for a couple days before I went ahead and made the change as he suggested because…well, I AM being paid for my writing (more often than not) which, by definition, makes me a professional writer. That doesn’t mean I have arrived and can quit learning, however. I’ve still got LOTS to learn. That means, I still have lots to share. For example, I’m only just going into my second book’s edits. It is the second book in a series, which is also new to me. In case you didn’t hear, I […]
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