Paint or Draw " The Crown "

[number9]

Have heard that The Crown in All Saints Street is inviting people to draw, sketch or make a painting of the pub.Just write your name & email address on the back of the picture.

Just pop in the post TN34 3BN or push through the letterbox.

I believe entries will be displayed on the pubs windows.
Deadline for this is the end of Jan.

[Richard]

It is not the easiest pub to paint or draw and it does little to inspire me.
Originally a coaching inn, so it included stables up the hill, adjacent.
But it was rebuilt. In 1985 and no longer has much character.

[seahermit]

No, I couldn't see the point either! What is special about the pub? In any case, painting is often like writing in that the idea/inspiration has to come first, of its own accord - there has to be a reason why an artist would be so moved as to draw/paint a building and there is very little romance about this rather ordinary one. I find it hard to write to order and I imagine many artists would feel the same way - unless of course the landlord was knocking on the door!

[Richard]

This is the advert in the Observer:
https://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news ... rs-3089552

Not sure what the vouchers are.
And the only other incentive is for your design to appear in the pub window.
A private business looking for publicity!

Now, seahermit, if it were a poem or short story (or drawing or painting) designed to encapsulate what you felt about Hastings, with the incentive of the three best efforts being judged by a respected panel, and published in print, local newspapers, and aired on radio stations, then it may be tempting.
I've been there and done that and the downfall seems to be that the judging criteria are not explained and the publishing is not guaranteed at all.
Still, if you have an incentive that is tempting enough the 'reward' may be sufficient.
In this case probably not.

What would you like to request and how would you incentivize it?

[seahermit]

I have always been surprised that, in a town with so many writers, there is not really any printed outlet for them - a good literary mag maybe or atleast a regular section in the Observer.

I don't count the Hastings Independent Press, I know they have a page for poetry but take a look at what is published and I don't think you will bother again!

I would certainly submit a short story or poem if it got a bit of publicity, or maybe promise of a spot in some future public reading. But the Observer is not really a local paper or much interested in local talent - it's part of a large conglomeration of presses across the country.

[Richard]

seahermit,

Not sure if this is any good:

https://www.christopherfielden.com/shor ... itions.php

[seahermit]

Looks quite interesting, for competition addicts! I suppose I should have been more proactive and had more of a try with competitions - I did get short-listed once with a poem - but I am put off by the hundreds of competitions out there, where does one stick the pin in? Also, many poetry competitions I checked out were pretty obvious scams with no real reward at the end of it - loads of those on the internet.

The best way to get noticed is probably still the literary mags etc. - amazingly there are still some of those around, I will probably have a try with some stories this year.

[Richard]

seahermit, it is notoriously difficult to publish literary material and gain reward.
Much more so than writing it.
Finding outlets, attracting attention, making sales, etcetera.
It seems like you would be well-suited to having a weekly column in a paper where you could recount a story or a view on local or wider matters.
Perhaps describing an event in parody or prose form, with a snapshot scenario and/or poem.
You need to start somewhere and having a website where people could leave comments, suggest ideas/make requests sound good.
That would be your showcase, with a blog where you could then insert comments you approved and present fresh snippets from your musings.
Eventually makes sales from there perhaps, for short stories, you would need to suggest postal costs.
The best way is probably via E-book, from you website, where no postage/packing or printing costs are involved. Customers downloading direct, for a small fee.

[seahermit]

It is VERY difficult to get published and gain reward. Writing is the easy part. If you set out to make your fortune, it probably won't happen. Many great writers also had paying jobs as government clerks, bank cashiers, hack journalists, spies ..! But some are lucky, so it's worth not giving up.

Best way is to write because you love to do it. Anything else is a bonus. I am building a website, not brilliant but a start. And I have had an offer of a "co-operation", which I am considering. Or I may try to do it on my own, depends whether the whole virus situation improves this year. For now, survival comes first!

[seahermit]

The other night, I watched the whole BBC serial "Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy" with Alec Guinness (was on Amazon Prime). Was absolutely superb, faultless acting and gripping story. The feature film (Gary Oldman) was quite good but a pale shadow of the BBC version. I am going to re-read the novel later.

I am very glad the BBC are still producing dramas of this quality, shows it can be done. Much of the other stuff on TV is painful to watch, wooden acting and unconvincing.