Writing, With A Pen!

Well, I have taken down my 500 Words logo in the sidebar there -> because I haven’t been making an effort to hit my 500 words a day. I just haven’t been able to make the time, or the space in my brain.

However, I have been writing over the past few days. I have written hundreds and hundreds of words of journal entries (my paper one, the one that helps me sort out my grumpy moods. The one that gets burned when I die!), quite a lot of blog entries (since even my long-lost father-in-law phoned me up to say “I haven’t seen any updates for a while”) and, believe it or not, three (yes THREE) letters. All written since this time yesterday.

Every time I go to the mailbox I’m vaguely disappointed that there is nothing in there for me that isn’t a bill or a circular or even occasionally something I’ve ordered for myself.

It’s so nice to get something unexpected, from someone else, isn’t it? But I can’t complain that no-one sends me anything when I’m not sending anything out either. I have a number of friends who are very big fans of the written letter and will respond, but I haven’t written to them for so long that of course, nothing has come to me either.

So I pulled out the notecards, because they are less intimidating than a sheet of blank paper (of any size, strangely enough). I escaped to the bookstore (thank you, Kevin!) and started to write. Actually I started to rant, but my letter-recipients never seem to mind that, so I ranted on, and on, and off the end of the notecard and onto the letter-writing paper I had brought with me. (Remember that stuff? The pads of Basildon Bond, with the page of blotting paper at the front? Wonder if my kids will even imagine that such a thing existed. Actually mine will because I’ll still be using it, but their friends will wonder where I found such a thing).

And here I am, putting words on the screen again too. But that’s just because I’m supposed to be tidying out a cupboard.

Hey ho.

Maybe I’ll put that 500 Words logo back up again, after all…

So what about you? Do you have any friends you still correspond with via old-fashioned letter? Any you think would be game?

Hooray for A Cold

I’ve been swimming a lot recently, while the boys have been in their joint swimming class (which is going quite well).

Last night, however, I discovered I had caught some lurgy and am now living on Sudofed substitutes again.

The good news on this is that I took my notebook to the pool with me today, sat at the back of the bleachers trying not to make eye contact with anyone, and made some progress on the second of a series of children’s stories I’ve been writing, but which had stalled for a while.

I’m taking Debbie’s 500 words a day challenge even though I know it’s going to be, well, a challenge. I’m aiming for 5 days a week.

Wish me luck!

Best Job In The World

The news is full of the guy who won the contest for the “Best Job In The World” – as a caretaker of a tropical island, which was a brilliant PR campaign by the Queensland Tourist Board, by the way.

Talk of the Nation, on NPR, is doing a call-in show, asking people what their ‘best job in the world’ would be.

I know what my dream job is. And it doesn’t take a huge investment of money or equipment. The only barrier to entry is to carve out time and energy and discipline and self-confidence.

Off I go, then…

Fighting It

So, I wrote a children’s book. It’s a short, 6000 word chapter type book, like one of thos series books that early readers hoover up. My idea was to write a series of them.

The first one went really well, and I think part of it was the simplicity. I used a published book as a model and worked out how many chapters there should be, and how many words in each. Then I wrote until I was close to the word count, put in a few cliff-hangers at chapter ends, a climax near the end, and then wrapped things up.

(It still needs some polishing, but it’s basically there).

So now I’m writing the second one and it is giving me bother. As I’m getting to know the characters better, I’m straying from the format I had set up, and wondering if I should let this book become more complex, which would make it for more advanced readers.

So I’m letting it meander. And I’m stalling every time I sit down to write.

I’m getting to know the characters better and I’m enjoying writing what I’m writing, but I think it’s time to take it back to the original set up.

I’m also struggling with the setting of the book. I’m not sure where, geographically, to put it. If it’s a shorter book I’m not sure it matters all that much: at 6,000 words there’s not an awful lot of room for location-specific descriptions or dialect.

OK. I think that’s decided it: take this one back to the shorter format, and keep the more complex stuff for that other series I have in mind.

Hmmm, back to the drawing board.

(Incidentally, I wish I had a drawing board. I learned to write on a sloped desk and have never entirely adjusted to horizontal surfaces… However, I’m typing this story, so…)

UPDATE 4/4/09: I’ve just gone back in and reworked the first few paragraphs. MUCH happier I still like some of what I had written (some of the stuff that has to go), but this is much more the book I’m trying to write. Yay.

Working Writers – Scalzi and The Big Idea

I really like reading interviews with writers about how they sat down and wrote their latest book/story etc.

I don’t so much like interviews where the interviewer gets all “I want to win a creative-non-fiction writing award so let me describe the sound of the gravel crunching under my feet as I walk up the path to the writer’s secluded retreat on the campus of some university where they scratch out a meager living writing the kind of prose that makes the average person smack themselves on the forehead and say ‘I’m not buying that!’”

So I tend to like inteviews BY writers with working writers who are churning out book after book, story after story, publishing them, moving on, interacting with their fans and other people in their space.

I also like what is known as ‘genre’ fiction: mysteries, sci-fi, historical fiction, more mysteries.

So I suppose it should come as no shock that I was pleased to find The Big Idea column on John Scalzi’s site where he interviews other writers about how they wrote their latest book. (Scalzi is a Hugo Award winning writer, amongst other things, and a popular blogger).

I suspect this is his way of sidestepping the first question writers always get asked (“Where do you get your ideas?”). He asks other writers to answer the question, and they do. Because it’s being asked by another writer and not a lazy journalist, what you get are thoughtful answers in story form (not a brush-off like “I get them from the idea subscription service in Ohio”, a line that most successful writers have a version of, up their sleeves).

And these people are real people who have had all kinds of jobs and have had to fit their writing in around them.

Just what I need to hear.

The Angriest Stoplight

I really enjoyed this short story.

(Warning: there is Language. Bad language. And also very good language.)

I love a good short story. And I foam at the mouth when I read a bad one: one of those ones that goes on and on and says nothing and entertains-you-not and leaves you wondering why in the world you bothered reading it.

This is not one of those.

Writing Challenges

Had some ideas for an entertaining blog entry last night, but when I sat down to write this morning, it all came out flat.

So far this morning I’ve stumbled down to the kitchen, stood blinking in the darkness wondering where I was and what I was doing, grabbed two cups and some milk, made coffee, put sausages on to cook, showered, dressed, coached Boy1 through getting dressed, talked about a book with him, fed two boys both sausages and cereal, taken them to school, talked to Boy2’s teacher, nodded and smiled at lots of parents and children, listened to a news story about Bernie Madoff and his victims followed by a wildly inapproprate tale of a 3rd grade snack Ponzi scheme (way to trivialize, NPR), had a couple of lectures about my various shortcomings (some internal, some external), discussed plans for the day, talked about strategies for keeping Boy1 out of Big Trouble, made more coffee, made herbal tea and, in the midst of that tried to sit down and write.

I know it’s not much in comparison to some people’s mornings but I list this as an illustration to myself that I actually had have quite a lot running through this little brain of mine this morning. Maybe I should get off it’s back and stop berating it for not immediately being able to jump back into that funny place it was in last night after it had had some theta waves from repetitive household duties, and a whole day to reflect on things.

[Hmm. I heard an article on the radio about a study that showed how few things our brains can be asked to hold before we start to exhibit signs of stress, which affects memory and other functions. Here's an article, although not the one I was thinking of.]

I know that one day (if I’m spared, as the wee old ladies used to say) I’ll be able to wake up and grab a pen and start writing straight away, and no-one will demand anything of me. I know that I’ll be able to stay up all night writing if the mood takes me to start at 11 PM (which it often does) with no need to drag myself out of bed at 7 and cook sausages. And this will suit my writing self very nicely.

But, considering all the things that will have to change in my life to get me to that point, I’m not in much of a rush to get there.

–

So, when do you feel most creative? And does it fit in with your current lifestyle?

Creative Challenges

I just heard about a creative challenge called The RPM Challenge, and that got me thinking about all the events out there that challenge you do something creative in this or a given month. Here are a few, but please leave me details of others you have heard about, in the comments.

100 Words.net
www.100words.com/about.php

One of my first and favourite creative challenge sites. Write 100 words a day for a month. No more, no less. It is surprisingly challenging, doesn’t take up great wodges of time, and still keeps you on the look out for inspiration every day.

National Novel Writing Month
www.nanowrimo.org/

The big daddy of writing challenges: write a 50,000 words novel in November. Why November? Because the originators thought it was a good idea to do this in a month with a long weekend built in. (I might have voted for one with a holiday that didn’t have lots of social obligations – Memorial Day, perhaps, or President’s Day – but I guess they were young and unmarried at the time).

NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month

http://nablopomo.ning.com/

Like NaNoWriMo, this challenges writers. This time it’s a blog post a day. You can join the network at ning.com or just post in your own blog. Each month has a theme and you can email the creator to be added to each month’s blog roll. I found some good blog friends by browsing the blogroll one month.

Script Frenzy
www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/whatisscriptfrenzy

Write 100 pages of scripted material during April. This one has sponsors and prizes.

The RPM Challenge -Record an album in 28 days, just because you can.
www.rpmchallenge.com/content/view/844/1/

(Write and) record an album of original music in February. 10 tracks or 35 minutes of music. The creators say (and I agree) “Don’t wait for inspiration – taking action puts you in a position to get inspired… February will come and go whether you’ve joined in or not, but do you really want to be left out? “

Tell Me More…

New Story

I know, I know, you’ve got to finish stories as well as start them, but I couldn’t help starting a new story this morning.

I blame Debbie, who asked me yesterday how my writing was going, and Russell T. Davis whose “The Writer’s Tale” I’m reading at the moment. It’s full of the joys and angst of writing. It reminds me of the horrible work-part in the middle, but also of the satisfaction that comes when things start to come together.

Also, I think this is a story I can really tell. Fun.

Leave Your Comments Here

Writing Buzz

I woke early this morning, sure I had heard my doorbell.

Of course, it wasn’t.

But, since I was up, I decided I might as well finish off a bit of work that was looming over me, tapping me on the shoulder at inconvenient times and whispering “what about me? You know I’m due soon, right?”

So I wrote it.

Then I did a bit more.

And now I’m happy.

All before my first cup of coffee.

Leave Your Comments Here