What Kind Of Fool Am I?

by Mr Uku on February 24, 2010

The young Mr Uku. A sweet cherub, to be sure. It turns out, that I’m an idiot. And I’ve probably been one from early age.

This may not be as much of a surprise to some of you as I’d like, but I’m going to ignore that and explain myself anyway. I’m an idiot because I’ve singularly failed to do the one thing that every writer should do. That thing is research.

A lack of research leads to confusion. Confusion over what you’re writing and, more importantly, confusion about whom you’re writing for.

In my case, I got confused because there seems to be no agreement between different publishers, bookshops and agents when it comes to reading age and word counts. One group will tell you it’s 5-7 years and 2000 words. Another will say 5-9 and 5000 words. Then there’s bloody Roald Dahl and Andy Stanton and their 20,000 worders that appear in both the 5-8 and 9-12 sections. [read more...]

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Honest Scrap Awards: The Big Reveal.

January 25, 2010

It’s all part of the Honest Scrap Awards and involves me listing 10 things about myself that readers of this blog wouldn’t ordinarily know. Well, that should be easy…

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Theft – Your route to success and a good night’s sleep

November 13, 2009

Plagiarism is something that every writer is concerned about. Even after sending a pitch to an editor, many writers worry that their idea may be stolen. It’s unlikely to happen, but if it does, it’s just tough. I know that sounds harsh, but there’s simply no copyright on ideas.

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Writer’s block is just laziness – Discuss

August 19, 2009

As a writer, I find it’s quite important that I actually write. After all, that’s what a writer is supposed to do; the clue’s in the name.

But when you’re working on a piece, there are times when you’ll find things not going as well as you’d like. You get stuck. Your mind goes blank. Writer’s block has set in, so it’s time to get yourself a cup of coffee and do some serious staring out of the window.

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Business blogging – Nobody likes a shill

July 23, 2009

I’m promoting my skills as a blogger for hire and, with some help from a friend we’ve got a few companies interested. We’ve done this by getting them to think of their online presence as a pincer attack. That is, by having both a main sales site – which we can also provide – and a separate blog.

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