Open book blog hop – Being part of an anthology

Uncategorized 2 Minutes

Tell us what you love the most about your work(s) in progress.

I am currently participating in a horror anthology called Spellbound, featuring 27 stories from 16 authors. This is the third horror anthology in the Box Under the Bed series, compiled by Dan Alatorre, that I have been involved with and I really do enjoy it.

There are a few reasons I like participating in anthologies:

Firstly, I enjoy writing short stories from time-to-time. Short stories require a different writing approach to a book as you have much less time to flesh out your characters and develop your plot. I enjoy the challenge of writing short stories and, as horror and supernatural are my favourite genres, that is also a big plus for me. I also like short stories because your can write and finish one in a week. That makes a nice change from the twelve to eighteen months I need to write a book.

Secondly, I enjoy engaging with a group of other writers to create an anthology and I also enjoy assisting with some of the editing and proofreading of the stories. I have found that I learn an awful lot from carefully reading other peoples work with a sharp editing and proof reading eye. I have started to pick up filter words and word echoes and other writing faux pas in other people’s writing. This has made me more aware of these writing technique errors and I try to avoid them as I write now rather than having to do a huge editing exercise at the end of a book.

Thirdly, I believe that I benefit from being part of an anthology and being exposed to a wider readership. If sixteen authors all participate in a book and they all have readers of their books, short stories, blogs and social media, you are bound to meet some new readers. Some of these readers are likely to enjoy at least one of my stories and that puts my name on their radar for the future.

I have two short stories in Spellbound, one is called Death Is About Choices and has a historical supernatural steer, while the other, Glass Mountain, is pure horror [in my opinion]. I know that both these stories have a common theme of fear of death. In both stories, the young main characters are put in a situation where death is likely, even expected. I have en deavoured to delve a little bit into the psychology of impending death in a young person [teenager]. I wonder if any readers will pick up on this common theme.

I created the following adverts and GIF for this new book.

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You can read what other writers think about this topic here: https://fresh.inlinkz.com/party/9d01aa2882b34bc48e9f863de558fc2f

Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

Published

46 thoughts on “Open book blog hop – Being part of an anthology”

  1. Your two stories sound intriguing, Robbie, and I love the title “Glass Mountain.” The title makes me wonder if it’s a mountain in real life (like a survival horror story) or if “glass” is an adjective and “mountain” a metaphor.

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  5. I too love being in anthologies. I find writing short stories a good way to sharpen your writing. They also give me a break from working on my WIP which I need from time to time.

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  8. You make a good case for submitting to anthologies. I have several stories included in anthologies, but I did it the other way around: submitted something I’d already written that fit the theme of the anthology. I’ve never tried to actually write to an anthology’s theme. It might be interesting to give it a try!

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    1. I have never written a short story that wasn’t destined for submission to an anthology, Liz. I quite like being given a theme, it makes settling on a subject easier for me. I have load of ideas but I need a focus to take the time to write short stories.

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          1. I was very fortunate to be of a generation that went to school when themes had fallen from favor. On the other hand, being able to write about a particular topic on demand is a critical skill for the workplace.

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  9. I enjoy participating in anthologies as well, Robbie. I’ve contributed to three of them now, and found the experiences rewarding. It’s always fun and rewarding to be part of a collective work by numerous authors. Your stories sound intriguing and I know that Dan always delivers a polished work. Congratulations.

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  10. I’ve often pondered about anthologies. I like the idea of them, but I don’t think I’d submit to a random one. Maybe if I knew the editor or some of the other collaborators I’d consider joining. But I do love short stories (both writing and reading them). They’re infinitely more creative than novels (where I find things get too structured). A great discussion piece!

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  15. I’m in two anthologies this year. I love the challenge of short story writing, but it takes me a month or more to write one. Since I always have to wait for a character to present their story to me, I spend a lot of time researching what I’m planning to concentrate on before I can even start. I usually start by writing twice the word-count allowed and then I pare it down and usually rewrite it as a short story. It’s a challenge and I love it, but I’m definitely a novelist writing a short story, not the other way around. I really like yours adverts.They’re eye-catching.

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  17. Shorts are great ways to meet people. You should think about submitting to Horror Addicts’ “Haunts and Hellions” anthology – I participated in “Dark Divinations” last year and the publishers/editors do a fantastic job interacting with people. Very cool experience.

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