Alex.J.Cobalt

Why write at all?

I suppose there are many things that can take up my time in the evening. TV. Reading a book. Playing computer games. There are loads of things I can do; and in the evening, I find I have 1 hour of time to do whatever I want with. It’s amazing, really, when you think about it, what time you get in a workday evening once dinner is done, cats are fed, and other chores are done.

I try and write every night, to varying degrees of success. I’m not sure if anyone else has this, but there are evenings when I sit down, music on, document open, and I just stare at it. Maybe play with my phone. Stare at it some more. Write a few words. Back to the phone. Throw phone on sofa in disgust. Write more words. Pet the cat (then groom the cat, because the cat needs to be groomed all the damn time right now). Few more words.

Then it’s bedtime.

And so the routine goes round and round like a carousel. Each day, the same story, the same actors, the same stage. Somewhere in that, I try and write. In the monotony of day to day life, the route and the normalcy of it all, it’s nice to try out new ideas. New thoughts. Go completely wild and write something so out there that might actually work.

Who knows? Maybe it’ll work. Maybe not. We’ll see when I finish one of my novels.

I think at the end of the day, for me writing is not just something that makes me happy, it is the gateway to finding out what makes me happy. And for that, I’ll always find some time for it in my busy day.

This month’s Flash Fictions

I had some rather fun Stories on a Theme as well this month, and another few Teacup Stories and 100 words stories.

100 Word Stories – Humbled || Belligerent

Teacup Stories – Language || Information Gathering

Stories on a Theme – Bleary Eyed || Insomnia || Early Night || No More || Edge of the Earth || Sunset || End || Ochre || Impermanence || History || Wrinkles || Smile || Forever || Quiet

(For those of new who are new, my Stories on a Theme are flash fictions based on a theme over a weekend, my 100 word stories are a flash fiction in 100 words or less based of the title word, and my teacup stories are the flash fiction stories that don’t fall into anything else!)

Other writing adventures

I summited some writing for actual proper submissions this month! That was quite an exciting milestone, something I had never done before.

I submitted a short story (and got longlisted!) to adhocfiction, and I submitted two stories – one to Myslexia, and the other to Every Day Fiction.

Will they get accepted? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s the first time I’ve taken my writing seriously enough to submit it to a real publication. That’s a huge step in the right direction, even if just for me.

What else has changed

I’m on twitter! I’m quite new to the world of tweets, so come say hi to me! I’ve found the lovely writing community over there (by god, all the writers seem to be there. I spent an hour following my favourite authors and already have a few more on my to read list).

Photo Credit: Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash