Mark Ayre Writing

It’s Sunday, 11:17 am. I didn’t do enough yesterday. Surprise surprise. I’ve loads of writing to do today, and here I am writing this blog. Of course, I’m three or four blogs behind now as well. No matter how well we do, it always goes back to shit in the end. Though, I suppose there […]

A lot of the time when people write reviews for books or films or games or whatever else, they have to put a disclaimer at the start saying they either have no affiliation with the producer of the reviewed item and therefore please believe them or that they have indeed been paid to review the […]

Hey, isn’t it weird how fast time goes? I know some of you out there will be grumbling “oh, he thinks it goes fast now, he’s only 28, wait until he’s 82, then see how quickly the time slips by. Well, firstly, I’m 26, not 28 and, secondly, I get that, it’s all a matter […]

You have no idea for how many years I’ve tried to sustain a consistent blogging effort. Honest, since I was a teenager, it’s been going on. I would sit down, tell myself I was going to blog blog blog and not stop. Then I’d stop. Sometimes it would be blogging on life, sometimes writing tips, […]

Last month we spoke about how you can best secure yourself an agent, and it’s great to receive your emails regarding your success. Of course, as yet, no one has secured an agent, but it’s great to hear that less than 10% of you have been arrested and so far we are looking at one […]

This blog comes at a very inconvenient time. See, I’ve taken a week off work to catch up on my blogging and to finish the latest draft of my book, and things have been going well. I’ve been working hard. Getting up before eight I’ve been reading my latest Man vs Bookshelf book until around […]

I’ve mentioned before how autobiographies often give you very little to say, and I’m going to mention it again now because, well, I’ve got very little to say. It’s filler. Word count. Not that it matters. Not that I need to fill a word quota. It would be stupid to think otherwise. But I do. […]

A CHILD IS MISSING. A MAN HAS BEEN ATTACKED The black sheep’s shadow hangs over this once peaceful village and, unless James acts fast, it may never see clear skies again Send me the book OR READ THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS NOWChapter one (read online)Chapter two (read online)Chapter three (read online)Chapters 1-3 (PDF download)Chapters 1-3 […]

There are a lot of reasons to buy a book, some sensible, some not so much. One of them is because you emphatically agree with its title. I’ll leave it up to you to decide where on the scale that comes. The gym and me It may surprise you to know, given what I look […]

It’s Sunday afternoon, a week after I finished one blog and started another. In the first, I spoke about the word count of my upcoming novel – The Black Sheep’s Shadow and how it concerned me. I was slashing words left and right and, while I was sure it was improving the story, I had […]

Last week, just before I started this blog, I was sitting in bed thinking about it. Wondering whether I could write two blogs in a row opening with a section about the word count of my latest novel. I decided that I could, and for a good reason. So, I grabbed my laptop, wrote the […]

It feels as though my blog writing game has been well off recently. Asked to guess, I would probably say I had not written more than one a week in the last five weeks, but this cannot be so. They come out every five days, and I’m still three weeks ahead of schedule. But I’ve […]

I’ve been procrastinating again, but then, it’s been a stressful day. A few months ago my girlfriend and I decided we wanted to move house. There were numerous reasons for this, the main one being I am the only person on the current mortgage, and we’d quite like to buy somewhere together. Somewhere bigger. Somewhere […]

The stress, will it ever end? Two man vs bookshelf blogs ago I said I was no longer going to put time limits on when I wrote these blogs, and when I did my writing. I’ve been editing my novel, and it was taking so long, and becoming so draining. I was postponing task after […]

Like a deal with the devil, you handed over a considerable chunk of your life and, in return, got a completed book you’re not quite proud of. Congrats! Look, there’s no need to be a Debbie Downer about this. You’ve done something few people could ever do, and I don’t just mean calling your mum […]

Last week I wrote a blog called ‘Am I Proud?’ in place of two book reviews – one for a book on Screenwriting, one for a book on starting a business. Well, I say I wrote it last week. Actually, I wrote it this week and edited yesterday, but it was released, so far as […]

On Saturday I walked into town and gave a load of the books I’d finished reading to Cancer Research. It was a relief to get rid of them. They’d been cluttering the floor by my desk, and handing them over was a weight off my shoulder because I had them in a bag on my […]

This is going to be difficult. I know I keep saying this but I’m now nine blogs behind. I’ve read so many words since putting down the subject of today’s review, I’m no longer able to recall what happened. Usually, this is fine. Last time we looked at Ari Gold, and who cares I’d read […]

I have five books finished, ready for me to be reviewed. That’s five blogs waiting in the wings – including this one. Expect that to be seven by the end of Wednesday unless I complete this blog by then. Which I won’t. (note. it’s Wednesday now. I’m editing. There are six books done and another I’ll […]

It’s getting late on Sunday night. Ten to eleven. Five to eleven. I’ve been working hard all day. It’s hot. Record-breaking temperatures. I’m in no mood to write this blog right now. And I’m not going to. Today I’ve read half a Stephen King book – not known for his works of a few pages. […]