Walking to the Beat

I walk to work. Not all the way but I do park at least one and a half kilometres from the office and walk in. I was using this time to listen to the music I don’t usually get to listen to and improve my overall fitness. Since I have started a fairly regular routine at the gym my fitness has improved greatly and I cover the distance in less and less time every day.

The music helps as I find I start walking to the beat and so it keeps me moving along. As it has grown colder in the last few weeks I have found it too difficult to try and untangle my headphones and flick between songs with my gloves on. So in the last few weeks I have travelled without music and instead listened to the traffic and sounds of the street as I walk.

Using the senses to enrich our writing is very important and it’s something I have discussed before. But I have rediscovered the importance of hearing for myself again and so I wanted to share.

We hear so much without really thinking about it. On my usual trip there are several places I have to stop and wait for the traffic lights to cross the road as I am travelling in the same direction as the traffic. But with my hearing unobscured I can hear when there is a lull in the traffic and can then check before crossing the road. Probably not the best example to share, but it shows how hearing can make a difference.

All noises are important and can give a real sense of place. One morning last week I could hear the click, click, click of a cigarette lighter. Someone standing in doorway to get out of the wind while they tried to light up. With the sound I could picture the small wheels turning and the flint trying to catch. Then I started to think that one sound can take you away somewhere.

It took me to a party in my youth when we all seemed to smoke. The guys used to fiddle with my lighter so when I went to use it there would be this amazing (and scary) huge flame. Then I would have to track down the one guy I knew would fix it and that quiet, intimate time laughing over the silliness of it while he tried again to show me how I could fix it myself.

It reminds me how many stories are out there. Just that one sound started so much moving around my head that I will try now to focus more. Of course there are the cars and trucks zooming past, all making different noises, some with music so loud I don’t need my own music.

There are the people you pass on the street. The snippets of conversations, phone calls, clicking of heals, thuds of a runner. And then of an evening when I walk back to the car, in the dark, there is a whole new range of noises.

It also reminds me to make sure I use sound in my writing. What sounds did you hear today? Maybe tomorrow you could head out, sit somewhere noisy and listen to the world. Then imagine where it might take you.

Happy Scribbling.

Another Productive Week

I have had another productive week. My editing is moving along quickly but also reasonably well. I’m making sure that I’m not rushing the process but putting in the time to make sure I get it finished by my deadline. And so far I’m ahead of schedule. Although saying that I am coming up to some difficult chapters that need re- working.

When I finished the chapter I was working on this morning I was feeling somewhat apprehensive about the following chapters. All the little changes that I have made along the way now mean that the next two chapters need more than a little changing. And I couldn’t work out how I was going to do that.

I took some time out, did a little housework, took a shower, and it all started to come together. So I spent a little more time making some notes on where I wanted to go and now for tomorrow’s editing session I feel confident and a bit excited. Having to rewrite two chapters is going to slow me down a bit, but I want this to be right.

I have somehow in the last week shifted my work patterns. I am usually freshest and work best first thing of a morning. But of late it has been too cold of a morning and very dark and my body is just not so keen to leap out of bed. I am making up the time of an evening and more easily than I thought I would.  I am happily spending one to two hours a day editing.

Despite my clear focus I am starting to think about future projects and future options. My fantasy story is still rattling around in my head and I hope to start work again on the first draft as soon as my current project is finished.  I am also thinking about some competitions, different writing opportunities and learning about Twitter. That seems much scarier than I thought possible but I believe it is important to continually learn so I am trying to look at it as a learning experience.

In the meantime it is still all focus on editing. They key is not to rush to the light I now see burning at the end of the tunnel.

Happy Scribbling.                                                            

Productivity and the Inner Critic

I have had a super productive week. I have been focused on my main project, the final edit of my manuscript and I am flying along. Some pages need very little attention and some need a whole lot. Part of the feedback from my readers was that too much fell apart for the main character so I am changing one of the relationships she has.

This has actually been an interesting experience and as I know what I want that relationship to be it hasn’t been too difficult. The rest of the editing  is making sure it works, correcting little errors, ensuring flow and that information doesn’t change from chapter to chapter (nothing worse than the protagonist’s main love interest changing eye colour half way through) and building on some aspects where there were small gaps or not enough description.

My only problem is the inner critic. When I am working on first drafts I am able to shut her out completely and ignore all she tries to tell me. It is a first draft after all, I just want to get the story down, and I can work on all the little details later.

But now I am focused on every word, every detail and every punctuation mark she is starting again. My main aim at this point is to make this manuscript as good as it can possibly be, to bring it up to a publishable standard. I hope . So in some ways the inner critic can help.

When she mutters “that really doesn’t work,” I know I need to re-write that section, or sentence, so that it does work. When she says “that doesn’t sound right,” I can read aloud and work out what does sound right.

It is when she starts to nag, the whining voice at the back of my head, “You know it’s never going to be good enough.”  

Then it is time to shut her out. Ignore the taunts and the worry she causes and concentrate on the pages in front of me. If I focus on her then all would be lost. I would just give up. Dump the pages and start something new. But then I would end up doing the same again.

Maybe this novel won’t be published; maybe it won’t be available in the local bookshops, its glossy cover with my name on it displayed for all to see.

But maybe it will...and I would much rather focus on that voice and that image. Otherwise we would never achieve anything.

Happy Scribbling

Fighting the Procrastination Monster...and winning

I am finding that the procrastination monster is looming again. But this time I am able to fight him off. I am thinking about cupboards, cleaning out the plastic cupboard, the laundry cupboard, the bathroom cupboard and even contemplated my chest of drawers. Thankfully I managed to catch myself before I got too carried away.

I even told myself that if I was that determined to reorganise and clean out the bathroom I could use it as a reward when I finish my editing. So despite little distractions pulling at me I have managed to sit at my desk (with my new lamp) and get some very productive work done.

The weather has been both a help in this and a hindrance. I find it difficult to keep motivated when it’s cold and raining day after day. My body also seems to need more sleep at this time so it has been a little difficult to get up of a morning. On the plus side I’m not able to get out into the garden so there is more time to be inside and writing.

At this point I am still confident that I can complete the edit by the set date. I’m also looking at this as good practice for deadlines set by publishers on re-edits. Fingers crossed that I get that far...

Happy Scribbling.