Sweat, Tears and Digital Ink

Personal blog of freelance writer MGMason

Category Archives: Sample work

Pressing Ahead with the Ebook

2 Comments Posted by on November 12, 2013

So… that is that as they say. At the weekend, I finally finished the tenth story to go into my ebook collection. It is a little rough around the edges and needs an edit, but basically all short stories to go into the collection are finished. All I need do now is begin the process of piecing it all together – giving one final read through for all of the stories, writing an introduction (possibly one for each story) and thinking about cover art. Read more of this post

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Creating Chemistry Between Characters

2 Comments Posted by on October 21, 2013

I had a very productive weekend fiction-writing wise! I’ve made a good start on my gladiators vs aliens novel and I really like what I’ve written so far. It’s a long time since I’ve felt so buoyed up by creating something new. Usually I allow myself to get bogged down in detail and planning and I forget to just “go with it”. Friday and Saturday I worked on introducing our protagonists – introducing their lives and developing their characters as individuals. Read more of this post

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The Diversity of the Writer’s Brain

2 Comments Posted by on August 13, 2013

Despite having closed my writing.com account over a year ago, I still subscribe to their Facebook page. Their page has lots of interesting articles, ideas for stories, prompts to list your “two words for today” and sometimes images where they invite you to write an introduction to a story. I lurk more than I comment but sometimes offer my thoughts and should probably do so more often. Read more of this post

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300 words of… Angel’s Mass

Leave a Comment Posted by on December 1, 2012

Greetings on the first day of Advent! Ghost stories at Christmas have become a bit of a tradition in British media. It probably all started with Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and over the years both television and radio have got in on the act. What better day than this to post a sample from my own effort in this tradition?

This is a ghost story set at Christmas Eve in the 14th century. The place is Tintern Abbey, the monastery on which my undergraduate dissertation was written. Right through that winter I started this story (2006-7) the abbey was practically all I could think of so it was inevitable that I would write a short story set there. My effort was a spooky tale about a young monk who receives an unwelcome guest. Enjoy! Read more of this post

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300 words of… The Weight of Reason

Leave a Comment Posted by on November 30, 2012

And here we are finally at my biggest project to date. This I submitted for my first competition in many years. It is a 12,000 word behemoth of a futuristic crime thriller set on an ocean city. Trant is a Private Detective sucked into some weird goings-on when somebody starts to pick off the city engineers.

I’m particularly proud of this effort, not just for size and not just because it is my largest and most intense piece, nor because I feel it meshes well for a genre I rarely read and had no interest in writing (crime), but because it is the first attempt I made at social commentary sci fi. Read more of this post

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300 words of… A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing

4 Comments Posted by on November 29, 2012

A serial killer recounts his story to an Anglican Minister. He wants to confess why he did them and reveals that it was all part of a divine plan. The Minister has heard it all before but is this man a crazed killer or is he telling the truth?

A quick edit on this one because it is mostly dialogue. I designed it that way and I think it works quite well Read more of this post

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300 words of… Tartarus

Leave a Comment Posted by on November 28, 2012

The horror story that gave me so much pleasure to re-write last week now presented in a more horrifying and disturbing tone now unshackled by the rules of Elfwood. I made several changes to the story, not least of all between the relationships of the characters. Lucy, being the whiny one, only went on the trip because she has a crush on Ian… and that now gives her reason to be there in the first place when she is clearly hating it. I have toned her down so she is not quite so irritating.

I really wanted to go all out with this one, to make it a good old-fashioned ghost story with a science fiction flavour. Here is a spine chilling sample. Read more of this post

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300 words of… Dawn

4 Comments Posted by on November 27, 2012

This was the story that gave me such a headache editing it a few weeks ago. It is a short and simple tale about a medical procedure but I felt it was so written in a way that I found editing it quite difficult. I came close to scrapping what I already had and starting from scratch.

I think that would have been too much effort for little in the way of results. Still, anybody who has read the original will find that though the plot hasn’t changed, how it is written is significantly different. Work like this really serves to remind me how much I have improved as a writer. Read more of this post

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300 words of… Evil Begets Evil

Leave a Comment Posted by on November 26, 2012

Sister Marcella, poor young thing, is isolated within the convent. She has medical problems that means she cannot fulfill her duties as a nun with the rest of the community. What’s more, one of the senior women does not trust her and seems to have it in for her. Marcella though, is not all she appears to be.

Most of the changes on this one came toward the end where I fleshed out the attack on the covent. Due to Elfwood rules (the website it first appeared) stating that all fiction had to be for a family audience, I have now been able to make the final two sections far more shocking. The conversation between Isobel and Bernadine didn’t feel quite right so I’ve clarified a few issues too. Read more of this post

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300 words of… A New Age Exodus

Leave a Comment Posted by on November 25, 2012

This is a favourite of mine and for those of us who have a lust to see and do new things, we would feel deeply for Kirsten’s predicament. The only life she knows is the valley. She cares for her crippled father and young sister. All she wants is to get out of the valley and see the rest of the world – but the rest of the world is a parched wasteland. No matter, Kirsten wants to see it anyway. She believes that there is more beyond than destruction and she intends to find it… but what she finds horrifies her.

I’ve altered the character of Kirsten slightly. In the original version I felt she had come across as a little bit of a stroppy madam. Here, I have toned her down a bit and made her far more sympathetic.
Read more of this post

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