I am definitely getting there

My fingers are not crossed, how could they be, I'm the one typing this blog am I not? Of course with the technology around these days, there is no knowing.  However, maybe it isn't as good as they make out in adverts, films or in fiction?  I was trying to have a conversation over Skype at the weekend and after 15 mins or so, we gave up and used the old fashioned method, no not smoke signals.  Although with my land line, smoke signals would probably have more clarity and none of that tinny buzz.  Or is that because someone is listening in...:)

This particular post is about my successfully jumping over an enormous hurdle.  Trust me, it is.  Formatting might be easy for some/many, but not for me.  And I have done it.  Formatted my book, She Dreamed Of Flash Fiction and all on my own.  I followed the instructions given to me by my tea loving friend, (though how anyone can drink tea without milk and sugar is still beyond me), and have been told that I got it right.  (See his 'tea' blog; http://www.thephilosophersbrew.blogspot.co.uk/ ).

I have bought three books off the internet on how to do it, but some of us just aren't meant to use instruction manuals.  In the end what actually worked was a 1:1 tutorial when I last went down to London.  Anyway, the resultant glow of happy smugness from Cheshire must have shone bright enough to be seen globally.

I think those of you who are similar to me, and have a love/hate relationship with computers/technology etc, and just want to knuckle down and write, will understand that this has been a major achievement for me.

The other extraordinary thing is that for once I had the cover ready for uploading, even before I'd written the book.  And this made an immense difference to my determination to write, edit, and then get through the learning process, faster than any of my previous writing.  A fascinating experience that I recommend trying to anyone suffering with 'writer's block' or are between novels; my current state of being.

Never having written stories with so few words (not including social media), I decided to really challenge myself, hence the two hundred word limit.  I never looked back.  It was exhilarating.  I actually wanted thirty stories.  But one of them, (supposed to be based on the African girls kidnapped from their school), just refused to be written.  So in the end it was only twenty-nine mini tales.  They were drafted in two days. Obviously the editing took a lot longer but it was so much fun compared to the 'mountain climbing' slog of my novels.

The irony is that the reader part of me prefers long, short stories.