Almost Christmas

It's almost Christmas, and this may possibly be my last post before the New Year.
I would never have imagined that this year I would complete the first drafts of not one, but two novels. Thea Gael, my NaNoWriMo effort, is not too bad as first drafts go, but nothing really happens in it, and so I don't really want to spend time editing it at the moment. I finished The Dragon Prince last week, which is possibly the first book in a series, aimed at children aged between 7-10. I'm still playing with the tone of the story, but the essentials are all there. Now all I need to do is to finish Inter Vivos and I'll be set!

So I will be starting the New Year with two first drafts to work on, as well as a semi-completed first draft of IV, and two budding ideas - one for a stage play and one for a novel (Dorcas). Also, I was thinking over High Street Aphrodite this morning as I got up late, and also Hoodies.

I think next year looks to be a busy, but productive, year, and that's just the way I like it.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Back

Right, hello, hello! Sorry about the delay in blogging, but I’ve been on a self-imposed exile from work and the internet, and so have not had a chance to post until today. I’m finding it a bit difficult to type at the mo’, due to the fact that my guts feels like I’ve swallowed a helium balloon (damn you IBS!), but I will bravely carry on. :-)
So, I have been a hermit for a whole five days, venturing out only to rehearse (dance rehearsals recently), go to the bottle bank, and buy mobile phone credit.
What have I been doing with myself? Well, I wish I could say that I have finished Inter Vivos, and that it’s already doing the rounds with publishers, agents, etc. but the truth of the matter is that I managed to write about 1,500 words of that, plus some of my children’s novel, and not a lot else. I cleaned, I baked, I became addicted to MTV’s Cribs, I slept, I developed an unhealthy ant-killing obsession (they go pop if you crush them, hee hee!) but that’s about all. I am sorry that I didn’t get more done, but I don’t feel too guilty about it. I didn’t realise how sleep deprived I was until I unset my alarm on the first day of holiday and woke up at 2pm the next day.
Anyway, Inter Vivos is getting there, slowly but surely. I pretty much know what’s happening now, which is good. So now, as always, it’s just a case of writing it!
Still haven’t heard from TWP/Momentum about Hoodies. I already know that I’m not going to be chosen for a reading (my play has too many characters, and I’m not one of their golden favoured few), but some feedback would be appreciated. I already know what I want/need to change in terms of story and characters (namely the Naomi-Jase bits), but another critical eye is always appreciated. They have to let us know soon though, surely, I mean, the festival is in about 6-7 weeks time!

Update: February

Well, I feel that I should update my blog about my progress so far:

1) I have extended my self-imposed deadline for the completed first draft of Inter Vivos until end of April/first week of May, due to the problem that I’m stuck and having a crisis of confidence and so I’ve not touched it for about two weeks.

2) I have come up with the plot of my first draft (at least) for my youths play. I have also decided that ‘Shilton Rec’ is a silly title and so I’m back to calling it ‘my youths play’ or ‘my hoody play’.

3) After doubting my abilities as a writer for most of the weekend, I have written myself a list of all the things I want to write about, however unrelated they may seem. I thought that writing a list of what it is that I care about, and the things that interest me, will make me ultimately stronger as a writer, because instead of trying to write about everything across twenty different genres, I can try to become the best that I can be in the areas that interest me most.

4) I am contemplating taking a year/couple of years out from doing amateur musicals to focus more of my time on writing, and am also looking into doing a part-time/distance learning MA in Creative Writing to commit myself to writing as a career (plus I really want to do something academic again).

5) I am thinking about the ‘chick-lit’ novel I started writing a while ago, and am going to try to start writing that again, as soon as I have a spare minute. I may also go back and complete ‘The Dragon Prince’, my children’s story.

So that’s about everything that I’m doing/thinking about doing right now. I could do with some time off work/rehearsals to actually do some writing, but obviously this is impossible.