Writing for a Living...

...or, rather, a project.

The off-line 'fleshy' writing group that I'm a part of has just received the go-ahead from funders to write, edit, and publish an anthology of short fictional stories based on local historical fact. As with any funding, the creation of the bid, the ensuing deadline, and selection process, all took a long time from the initial idea. Today the project was approved, and everything has to move fast. This means that this Saturday's meeting will revolve around motivating ourselves to start research. Of course, I'm sure a few members started some time back, but even they are sure to invest a little more time into the process. We will have to have our stories ready by the end of November, at the latest.

As part of our group's core delivery we run 'Skill Share' workshops, and we're very lucky to have a published local historian amongst our members. We have arranged for her to host an 'interview technique' workshop, which is due to be delivered mid-September. Part of the reason that this should prove useful, is that the funders would like to see the inclusion of local people as part of the project.

The next few months promise to be busy. I've been lucky enough to be published in a few anthologies, but this will be the first time that I see the creation process behind them, after I hand my story over. I have to say the prospect of sneaking peeks into the publishing world is an exciting one.