Thursday 15 August 2013

Shortbread - much more than sugar and just as sweet!

The act of writing is a lonely business isn't it? We sit for hours, days sometimes, staring at the screen or page with little in the way of company or social interaction. The world turns, we miss major breaking news, family members daring to intrude are either ignored or barked at for fear of losing the thread and for what? Quite often for nothing more than a few thousand words that are secretly filed away in notebooks or on memory sticks.

I was one of those 'secret scribblers' until Shortbread came along. True, I had already enrolled on a local creative writing course but my efforts were still only being shared with my fellow classmates, not the whole world! Then along came Shortbread...

Uploading my first short story was a terrifying experience but probably one of the most important of my fledgling writing career to date. That first tentative opportunity to share work, offer and receive comments and 'engage' with others who understood the need to keep a pen, torch and notebook by the bed offered all the encouragement I needed to keep writing.

My first eleven stories have now had getting on for 8,000 reads and I have had another (Miss Liberty Belle), published this week. Having been immersed in novel writing for the last eighteen months has meant Shortbread has been on the back burner but it has always been there, ready to offer succour to my needy creative soul and reassure me that yes, people like what I write and it is worth carrying on!



Thank you oh so sweet Shortbread, you have taken the fear out of sharing and given me the confidence to keep calm and carry on!

H-J

No comments:

Post a Comment