Prodding
I’ve had a title for a book forever. It’s wonderful; bright and clever and completely me. Trouble was, I didn’t have a concrete story to go with it, my mind drawn back again and again back to Will and Charlie and their untold tale (which, ironically enough, doesn’t have a title I like much yet) and completely unwilling to dwell on anything else. But now that their story actually has an end in sight (am only a few hundred words from the sixty thousand mark - holy shit!), I’ve found myself thinking of this new story more and more. I’ve been prodding it, like a tongue at an old tooth, and I think it has substance. Not much, admittedly, but there’s definitely something there.
Posted on 3rd February, 2008 at 10:41 pm | Comment (0)
Spangly
Oooh - new home! New layout! *pets* Isn’t it shiny and spangly and lovely?
It’s optimised for FireFox (Mac and PC), and renders okay in IE, although the menus at the bottom are a bit squiffy if you’re browsing using IE6. That said, if you’re browsing in IE6 you really should upgrade, even to IE7 if we still can’t persuade you to jump to FireFox after all this time.
The pages will be added to as and when I get time. But for now - I got me a novel to write . . .
Posted on 16th January, 2008 at 10:00 pm | Comment (1)
Force
Did you know that the most important thing about being a writer was writing?
I know. It’s stupid, isn’t it? A no-brainer, right? Unless you’re me, of course.
I never thought much about the importance of sitting down and making those words come out. Working at it. But it stands to reason, doesn’t it? Like any other discipline - athletes, football players, singers - you need to practice your ass off before you’re anywhere near good. Natural talents aside, if you don’t use it, you lose it. End of. So all the times I was struggling to find the opportunity to sit down and launch myself back into Charlie and Will’s world, I was simply making it harder on myself. Forcing myself to write everyday - whether it be editing, proofing or committing new scenes to paper - that’s what makes the difference. By not turning on the radio coming home from work, using the dead time to consider the next section, work through dialogue, poke my progress for holes and inconsistencies - that’s what helps. It keeps me motivated and interested. And if time won’t find me, then I have to find it, don’t I?
Why didn’t this occur to me before?
Posted on 13th January, 2008 at 6:47 pm | Comment (0)
Ebbed
The flood has ebbed again. I’m trying not to get disheartened that it’s not coming as quickly as it had been a little while ago; it’s like anything else, I guess - it ebbs and flows, ebbs and flows. I just now have to ensure that I stick with it, working even when it’s hard, even when I don’t feel like it. It’s important that I don’t stop thinking of the story, trying and discarding new ideas and thoughts even when my fingers aren’t physically on the keyboard. I think that’s the only way that I can complete this; I have to immerse myself into this world to make any sense of it and for me, that often means late nights, insomnia, scribbled notes on the backs of envelopes and receipts.
The one positive step I’ve taken - the big, big, enormous, scary massive step - is to locate a couple of readers. It’s painful, sharing this: like masturbation in public. It’s opening myself to a level I’ve never shared before, and receiving criticism for it is just . . . ugh. But how else can I learn? I need people to help me with this. It’s all well and good me rattling out the fucking thing, but what’s the point if it’s senseless? I’m lucky that I have two people that I completely and utterly trust to tell me truth, whilst - hopefully - also not breaking my heart. And I can’t ask for more than anything else.
For the first time in a long, long time, I really think I’m going to finish this. It might not be good, it may not ever be published, but by fuck, it’s going to be complete.
Posted on 29th December, 2007 at 12:23 pm | Comment (0)
Smashed
It may not be completely disintegrated, but what I’ve done is as good as that - maybe better, circumstances considered.
I’ve made a sizeable chink in The Block.
Two weeks ago I was hovering around 25,000 words, the most of which were unlinked and untenable. I’ve spent two weeks hunched over my laptop, going through my rough drafts and notes and trying to put the puzzle back together, dumping what needed to be dumped and salvaging the scant few nuggets I could find in the shit. Today I smashed through the forty thousand word barrier. It’s not much, forty thousand words, not really, not in the grand scheme of things . . . But for someone who was ready to quit a couple of weeks ago? For someone who’s never before managed to pull her story together long enough to get it down on paper? It’s almost as good as completing the goddamn book.
Almost.
Posted on 26th November, 2007 at 10:17 pm | Comment (0)