Man vs Bookshelf: More Word Count and Mother Tongue

Mark Ayre on 19/09/2018

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 already trimmed 12,000 words, and I was afraid at the rate I was going the novel was going to drop from around 96,000 words to not much over 60,000 words.… Read the rest

Man vs Bookshelf: Word Count & The Good Guy

Mark Ayre on 12/09/2018

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.… Read the rest

Man vs Bookshelf: Stress and Soccernomics

Mark Ayre on 08/09/2018

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.… Read the rest

Man vs Bookshelf: The Black Angel

Mark Ayre on 05/09/2018

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.… Read the rest

5 steps to securing a literary agent

Mark Ayre on 01/09/2018

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 a dried up old hag and throwing a bucket of KFC at her face.… Read the rest

Man vs Bookshelf: A Spot of Bother

Mark Ayre on 26/08/2018

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 you are concerned, last week.

… Read the rest

Man vs Bookshelf: Am I Proud?

Mark Ayre on 21/08/2018

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 shoulder and I thought it was about to break.… Read the rest