Sunday afternoons in the Bradley household

sarahbradley — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:25:49 -0800

After I get up I will have 2 (two) cups of tea and pet the cat and feed the cat, and after I have fed the cat and had my 2 (two) cups of tea I will go to the allotment to catch up on everything that needs to be done. After I have weeded and planted and cut back the raspberry canes and watered (watered!) the compost, I will put my spade in the earth and I will come back home for another cup of ...

Nights draw in

sarahbradley — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:58:38 -0800

Nothing says the beginning of Winter like putting the clocks back. All of a sudden, we're plunged into darkness, getting ready for work before the sun rises and coming home after it's set. Spend your day in an environment where there isn't much light - a wrong-facing office, say, or an internal ward without windows - and going to work in November starts to resemble the existence of a pit ...

A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but cafes are a girl's best friend....

sarahbradley — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:19:43 -0800

Last weekend saw me tagging along behind Ricky on a trip to the South coast. I had a couple of free days, and he had some photographs to take. Although entreated to stand around holding a flash, or to stop passers-by from walking in front of the camera, I demurred. "You want me to take two whole days away from the Big Secret Project?" I shouted. "And get stuck in the middle of ...

I'm editing my book!

sarahbradley — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:14:38 -0700

Another month, another round of unsuccessful submissions. (I'm up to two rejections and a deafening silence so far, readers). I'm playing "Writers & Artists' Yearbook Bingo". If you submit your baby to every single address in this book, and get rejected by every single publisher and agent listed, you shout "bingo!" and stand up, waving your copy of the W&A around with ...

Hands up if you feel ugly

sarahbradley — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:05:36 -0700

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that most of us feel ugly at least at some point in our lives. (I'll go further still, and say that if you've never felt ugly, there's probably something the matter with you). And although I've no stats or evidence to back me up, I think it's more common in women than in men.We're constantly surrounded by images of women - in advertising, on TV, in ...

Writer's foibles

sarahbradley — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:07:55 -0700

I ought to be working, and so... I bring you this blog entry, not on the theme of procrastination (which I believe has already been quite comprehensively covered both by myself and other bloggers), but on writer's foibles and obsessions.As a breed, writers are generally accepted to be a neurotic, eccentric bunch. For one thing, a person has to be a bit screwy to want to spend hours of their time ...

Writing Space

sarahbradley — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:40:02 -0700

I laugh when I read other writers saying, "Write wherever you are". A laudable aim. Who amongst us has never written on a busy train, whilst sitting under a tree, in a cafe, or even in the living room while others are watching the telly?But the truth is - and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it - I've become precious when it comes to writing space lately. My excellent boyfriend, who is ...

The Seven Stages of Novel-writing: Part One: Excitement

sarahbradley — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:41:30 -0700

Alright, so my first novel hasn't been published - yet. (I got my first rejection from a publisher today, fact fans!) But I figured, hell, why let that tiny fact dissuade me from embarking on a second?Towards the end of my first novel, the idea for the second came uninvited into my head one day on the way to work, and yes, you're right, I should have been concentrating on the road rather than ...

Neurosis bingo!

sarahbradley — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:13:45 -0700

For something that's meant to be relaxing, sleeping can be incredibly hard work. There's no time like the early hours of the morning to magnify trifling troubles into insurmountable problems. My brain actively invents problems when I'm trying to sleep, and then won't shut up about them. What am I going to do about my 'problems' when it's 2AM and I'm meant to be asleep? The rational part of me ...

Tiresome business

sarahbradley — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:27:00 -0700

For months now, there has been a running advert in the jobs pages of the Guardian for a "Writer's Assistant". A successful author, mildly disabled, advertises for an assistant to do household tasks that would otherwise distract her from writing, in order to allow her to get on with her work.I can understand why this advert has been running weekly for so long now. The truth of the matter ...

Begin it now

sarahbradley — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:24:02 -0700

"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now." - Goethe I've heard it said before that nobody waits like a writer. We hover with our fingers above the keyboard, continually hesitating. We prevaricate, we procrastinate; we tell ourselves that we've got nothing to say, that we can't think of anything to write, that we can't ...

Shut up, writing demon

sarahbradley — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:05:17 -0700

If you're anything like me, you'll have your very own "writing demon" - an internal self-defeating little joy-sucker who spends his or her time telling you that nothing you ever do will be any good. I keep toying with the idea of giving mine a name. He might get named after somebody I know at work who spends all her time creating trouble and causing disharmony, impacting on other ...

I Quit! Fantasy resignation letters.

sarahbradley — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:00:14 -0700

It's not smart to burn all your bridges in a resignation letter. The world of work is a small place and you never know who you might meet again. A resignation letter that doesn't disguise your contempt for your boss, those you work with, or the general culture of the workplace you're leaving, can haunt you professionally for years. But just say... just imagine that it wouldn't. Imagine you could ...

Bring on the rejection!

sarahbradley — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:30:44 -0700

Last week, after years of writing in snatched minutes under trees, in libraries, in cafes, and other people's houses, I finished the final draft of my novel, and ordered a copy of The Writer's And Artists' Yearbook. It was a significant event. Following the lengthy (and occasionally thankless) task of writing a novel, I've reached the stage of thinking about who's actually going to want to read ...

Bradley's foolproof ten-step procrastination method

sarahbradley — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:47:47 -0700

Want to get some writing done? Frustrated at your current overly-productive rate of activity? Gurn no longer! I can help you, with my tried-and-tested, guaranteed foolproof low-yield ten-step procrastination method. Following my advice, any newcomer to the writing game can easily fritter whole days away in the pursuit of less fulfilling activities that produce no writing output whatsoever ...