A Revised Life

It seems a little ironic that my last post was all about how well I was writing and how it was all coming together and then I haven’t done much of anything since. I don’t want to start with poor excuses. I was knocked over by a bug (the viral type) and really I didn’t feel too sick, just the sniffles and a cough. But it also drained all energy.

So very little was done other than what absolutely had to be to keep life ticking over, such as clothe, feed and bathe child, dropping and picking up said child from school and the day job. At the end of two weeks everything was a mess and I hadn’t even thought about writing, let alone done any. I didn’t even manage to pick up a book to read.

It then took another week for me to really feel human again. And then of course I started to feel guilty about not writing and stressed about the amount I wanted to get done. I find the more stressed I get about my writing, the less I do. So I have made some decisions to reduce this stress and thus increase the writing.

The first is to focus mainly on one writing task. The most important one at the moment is the editing of my first manuscript. This is because it is the longest project I have been working on and I can no longer justify to myself spending a further 12 months working on it. It needs to be finished and I have set myself an absolute deadline, in chalk, and now on the web...16 July 2011.

I know that this is achievable so my main focus is to achieve it.

I will continue to blog because I have found that useful and interesting and some small part of my ego hopes that I am reaching other writers and helping them...But I am going to reduce it to one blog post a week. Reduce you laugh, as I haven’t posted anything in weeks. My initial aim was three a week, so I think one for a while will keep me on track and means more time for my editing. I can always increase it as things change.

This year is slipping away quickly. How are your plans and goals going? Are they on track or needing reviewing?  I am hoping that by the end of July I will be ready for a big swing in my goal setting.

Happy Scribbling

Writers write

A great quote that I came across recently was “Writers write, aren’t they lucky?” I came across it on one of the many websites and blogs I check out. I haven’t been doing that so much lately, mostly because I am actually writing myself, but it is helpful to see what others are up to.

When I am writing, it helps me write. This may sounded a bit confused but I find the more I am writing the more writing I want to do and the more I get done. I also tend to forget that until I am back in a good writing rhythm and then I start to regret the time wasted not writing.

So at the moment with my daily plans and consistent writing actually happening, I am writing more when I sit down and I want to sit down and write more often. I am even sitting up, switching on the bedside lamp and picking up paper and pen as ideas flood my thinking in the moment I am drifting off to sleep. I find myself making one sentence notes on hair or clothing styles, ideas to be edited into or out of my manuscript, random words and even short and children’s story ideas.

I find writing very relaxing and my day job at the moment is so hectic I didn’t even take my sneakers off when I reached the office today. At the moment I am fairly emotionally exhausted by the time I get home, but after a little family time, sitting down and letting the words flow onto the paper, or screen, is actually very relaxing and very freeing.

It is quite often at that exhausted point I’m not sure I really want to start anything, and the computer and I start that glaring competition to see who will win but I usually find that it does help. Particularly with a first draft, I am not consciously thinking about how the story is working, or whether what I am writing today fits with yesterday’s scene. It is the words just flowing onto the page. And I find that very relaxing and surprising, I never really know what might appear until the words type themselves across the screen…In many ways it is like watching the story unfold from a distance and that is the main reason I love writing fiction.

Happy Scribbling.

Half a Step Back

Someone once shared the insight that writers see the world from half a step back. Actually it was very good writer and teacher, at the best course I have attended to date (but I might go into that another time).

That I could see the world that way, and that others did as well was such an enlightening moment. It not only gave me purpose, but it helped me feel better about not fitting. I quite often get the feeling that I’m not quite in the mix with everyone else; that I am experiencing life but not quite the same as those around me. It also meant that maybe I was a writer and thought like other writers, or saw the world like a writer.

When I start to get a bit overwhelmed, or feeling “out of it” I can use that idea again. It has become my mantra “half a step back” and it usually puts me back in perspective and a smile on my face. I may even use it for my memoir, if I ever write it. Or something about green. I have this thing about writing green...

Anyway.

Writing can be personal, insular and solitary. I think it is important for us to spend time with like minded people. Whether that is other writers, or even readers; people who enjoy the written word. It helps put you in perspective it can be a great way to improve your writing or just assist with motivation.

There are different ways to do this, writing groups, reading groups, classes and courses. Even the internet now offers so much, online courses, online forums and of course some writers out there have a blog of their own where they share information, ideas, their writing life and their writing.

Once you get over the initial fear of sharing your writing with others it can be very useful. I have also found in many of the course I have attended that no two people in the class with me had the same style or genre. Or if they did have the same genre, they came at it from a very different angle. The exercises in classes like this really show how differently people think and write. It is also a chance to bounce and critique your own work.

I find feedback very useful, not everyone appreciates it but I need to know that what I am writing works for readers. I may enjoy the story but I am more involved than anyone else and there are times that you know the characters or the place so well that you don’t see what is missing. It might be in your head but not clearly on the page and readers can help with that.

Think about how you view the world. What do you do with what you see?

Happy Scribbling

New Found Focus

My new focus seems to be working. I think the break away from everything was what I needed. I have come back at it with renewed vigour and enthusiasm. I am seeing ideas for my first draft everywhere I go; even my daughter being silly and trying to make up slang has given me some new names for characters, creatures and the like.

Writing this fantasy story is something very different from what I have written before. Although I read quite a bit, initially I found trying to come up with strange and unusual (or fantasy appropriate) names difficult. I had even downloaded a name creator program but the names it produced were simply mixes of already famous names. So no help at all.

I am pulling different things together all the time. A textured artwork at the local museum gave me the idea for a textured wall in a cave, then an altar, which led to a special cave, and then a whole new scene and a key to the magic my main character has discovered. I am still amazed how the smallest of things can sometimes spark an amazing idea.

I am trying to remain focused on my two main projects, blocking out any thoughts of my dusty cottage. I am spending a solid hour editing first thing of a morning and it is moving along well. I am not trying to push through any particular number of pages, just working away to try and make it as good as I can. And I have managed to keep my desk area clear, which really helps. I walk straight in with my cup of tea, sit down and start work. There is no hunting for pages, not trying to find a space to work. It means I am able to make the most of my time. I also know the following day that everything is as I left it, my notes are there and I’m not trying to find where I was at in the manuscript.

So all very positive at the moment and hoping it continues.

Happy Scribbling

Holidays and the Procrastination Monster

I seem to be doing everything else but write today. The procrastination monster is in full swing. It is the last official day of my holidays and it’s raining, so we are having a pyjama day. The TV has been going all day, mostly cartoons and dvds. I even played hours of a match three computer game until I couldn’t focus on the screen any more. I have scanned the internet, checked the TV guide, checked facebook and other blogs I follow but I until now I haven’t written.

This has, in some form or other, been going on for a few days. So with the end of the day drawing closer and a day job only hours away I thought I should make an effort to get some words on paper and think about why I have found it so hard to do anything meaningful for some time.

Part of the problem is guilt. We are already at the end of April, that is one third of the way through the year and I haven’t achieved what I had hoped to by now. So here I am, feeling so bad that I haven’t written as much as I wanted to that I can’t write anything. I need to refocus on what I want to do, not what I haven’t done and start from there.  Part of my solution is trying to get back on track with this blog, a little writing is still writing.

I have been working on my first draft, a little, but not on my first manuscript which needs the editing. I think I am worried that I can’t make it as good as I want it to be. But then if I’m not even looking at it, I can’t fix it. I am all organised for heading back to work, and for the kids to school, which allows some free time first thing in the morning. My plan for this year was to start the day with some editing time. I work best first thing, and it is quite, alone time before the kids get up. An ideal time really.

For my first draft I also need a little more planning time. I am still enjoying the process, and new ideas are flowing, but the overall plot is still a little weak. I need to spend some time thinking about where it is going and what else might happen along the journey to help flesh it out a little.

I was recently asked if I plot out my stories in detail before I start. I don’t. They usually start with an idea, a scene forming, or a character in a particular situation or characters interacting and then as I write them down the story seems to develop from there. As the characters grow and the story starts to take shape then I start to do some planning around where the story will go and how. It doesn’t always go to plan, but it gives some guidance to the process.

I had mentioned recently that I was trying to write a dream I had. It was rather vivid and the setting was clear as I wrote it down. But even though I have only written a few pages I am already wondering where the characters came from, how they to that dusty, run down cottage. What they will do there, whether they will stay. The range of characters staying there with them and why they are there.

I can already see something significant forming from just those first few pages. But the more time I spend thinking about it the less time I have to work on the other projects I have going. I have this fear of working on so many little projects or starting large ones, that none of them will actually end up finished.

I think I will allow myself some guilt free time playing with some story ideas, knowing that I am going to get stuck into editing tomorrow. Or at least I plan to. After all I want to be a writer. And to be a writer, I need to write.

Now that my fingers are warmed up and typing away I think I’ll scribble just a bit...

Happy  Scribbling