W.I.P

Right, so I'm still trying to work on my novel about the witch/superhero sisters, which started life as a short story and developed into a first draft during NaNoWriMo 2010. I've been having problems with it because I just didn't know how to tell the story - whether to set it in the present with flashbacks or to tell it chronologically and perhaps stretch it out into a series.

I've finally decided to give the version with flashbacks a go. I had started to write a series, but the reason I got stuck, I think, is that all the good stuff that I was interested in actually happens in the present, rather than the past. So anyway, here goes version 3.

If anyone would like to recommend good novels (SF/Fantasy or not) that deal with flashbacks particularly well, I'd really appreciate it.

There's an interesting competition looking for stories to be included in an anthology at Fantasy Faction. I think I might use it as motivation to finish one of the short stories I've had lying around for months. The details are here, if any of you are interested (good luck!).

Re-Writing: My "New" System

I'm still trying to re-write my fantasy story, and have developed my own system (I can't claim it as unique, as I'm sure it isn't).
First, write a story.
Second, print out said story and read it again, preferably after letting it sit for a few days. Mark on the manuscript where there are errors or where things need expanding or changing for the sake of the story/plot.
Third, create a new second draft, starting from a blank word document, using your notes and incorporating all the necessary changes from your notes.
Fourth, go back through this second draft, and think about phrasing and correct any errors.
Fifth, finished. Share with friends and have a night off.
I'm currently at step 3, and it is DIFFICULT. I'm out of my comfort zone now, writing with my editor's hat on (rather than my creative hat, which has daisies and paper windmills and bubbles coming out the top...). I'm determined to get it finished, I really need to get into the routine of finishing what I start.

And on that note, let me tell you that last week I workshopped a story from the "Corrie Flint" canon at Speculators and spent a little time outlining a plot. This might be my next big project, but I'm aware that I still have so many things unfinished, so near to completion.

I'll let you know how the re-writing system works out. For now, back to the grindstone.

Re-Writing

At the end of August, I spent 4 evenings writing a 9,000 word short story. I let it sit for a while, and am now in the process of re-writing. I was sad to find that it needed a lot of work, but at least I know I am developed enough as a writer to be able to spot my own personal writing flaws, and the flaws in the story, so I can fix it. "Writing is Re-Writing", or however that old adage goes.

I'm glad it is autumn now. Autumn to me is so strongly associated with the start of school, and so I usually use it to kick off new writing projects and make new year's resolutions. One of my main aims for the next month is to think about which story I want to present as my first novel, so I can focus my energies on that, instead of spreading myself thinly across several ideas.

A couple of websites/blogs that I found interesting this past week:

This blog gives some advice about manuscript lengths.

Juliet E McKenna talks about the problem with women characters in Fantasy fiction

Edinburgh and Back Again

Went to Edinburgh for a few days last week. Was great to be back at the Fringe, saw some really great productions. Obvious plugs for my friends' shows - Paper Tom and The 90s in Half an Hour (both excellent) but I think my favourite had to be The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik, on at the Underbelly. It was truly moving, simple, beautiful. Had me in tears by the end. If you're in or around Edinburgh during the Festival, I very wholeheartedly recommend you go and see it.

Works in progress at the moment are mainly Matti (still the working title, I really hope a better one pops into my head soon) and a revamp of my old Three Sisters idea. This newer version started off as a dialogue between two young teens in a cafe. It is now around 7000 words long, and I'm just seeing where it goes. I'm also about to start work on a new short story. I got the idea on the train back from Edinburgh, as I was sitting in my damp clothing looking out of the window. It is about a ghost and a boy. The challenge will be to keep it under 10,000 words long.

New York

I am off to New York on holiday next week and can't wait! I have an itinerary planned, because that's just the type of person I am, and think I have most of the major sites covered. I have tickets for The Book of Mormon and The Addams Family, as well as Bring Me The Head Of Your Daughter. Want to see more theatre whilst I'm out there, but not sure if time and money is on my side!

I'm not sure if I will get to blog whilst I'm away, but I'll let you know all about it when I'm back.

Last week at Speculators I critiqued my short story based on the Selkie myth. It was really useful getting some objective feedback, and they were able to give me some great advice about weak areas that needed solving. It was strange because some people in the group loved the non-linear narrative, whilst others were thrown by it and didn't get what was happening. It is nice having your work criticiqued by such an eclectic group though as it means they spot things that others wouldn't. Thanks folks!

Rehearsals and a New Story

At the moment, rehearsals are consuming most of my time. I had forgotten how good doing a show makes you feel. It's all those endorphins, probably. It is so good to be singing again. In this show, I get to go back to my "alto" roots, after singing mezzo- and top-soprano for the past 5 years. Apparently, my alto voice is "sultry and powerful". :-) I was even given chocolates after yesterday's rehearsal, so can't be doing too badly.

I've also been working on a new short story, about a girl who gets possessed by a symbiont on her 16th birthday. I'm up to the point where she's got the thing inside her, but don't know what to do next. Am going to send it around to a few people to read, and hopefully their feedback will help me see where the story is going. I kinda like what I've got so far, so am a bit loathe to throw away the story just on the basis that I can't figure out what's going on! This is where having understanding but honest people who you can bounce ideas off is great.

Rehearsals and Dorcas

Rehearsals for Return To The Forbidden Planet are going well. Last night we set "It's A Man's World" and it was the first time I got to sing and act in front of the rest of the cast. It was a really fun night, though I'm feeling very tired right now. The show doesn't stop - it goes straight from one number to the next, and is really testing my stamina. At least I'll be a lot fitter after it's all over.

On the writing side of things, I've submitted a story to an anthology, so fingers crossed on that one. I've also decided to write a second draft of Dorcas Grubb, whilst I'm waiting for NaNoWriMo to start. So far I'm up to the second chapter. I reread it recently, and was surprised at how sad the story is, which I think is just about right; if your main character has just lost their father, then I think they would and should be sad. I suppose the story is as much about a family dealing with their grief as it is about time travelling adventures.

I do enjoy being busy. Does that make me weird? :-)

To Do List

Things I need to do:

1) Practice for my audition on Sunday for Return to the Forbidden Planet.
2) Finish off the short story that I'm writing about a selkie, trying to avoid as far as possible having to describe what I will delicately describe as "seal cuddles".
3) Finish chapter 1 take 2 of my Matti and Eva story.

I will not be distracted by:

1) Curse of the Wolf Girl (this book is sucking away my life, so engrossing it is).
2) The Sims 2
3) Judge Judy

That is all.

Frustrated

I am currently working on a short story about two sisters who hate each other and have magical powers. I don't know if it is any good, or if I will continue the story into a novel. At the moment, I quite like my two characters, so I'll see where it goes.
This is what I've been trying to do for the past few months - just play around with characters and settings, trying to find a voice, a story, a protagonist that interests me. So far I've come up with several short pieces, none of which are completed, and I am longing to write a novel again. It's like when you break up with a long term boyfriend - soon after the break-up, you don't want to go on dates again and get to know someone from scratch. You want that shared intimacy, the secrets, the safe comfort that comes with prolonged knowledge. At the minute I want to jump ahead to the novel part, in spite of not having a story, a plot, an idea even about what to write. Which is why I'm trying to write short pieces. Even though it's frustrating the crap out of me. Can't run before you can walk, as the adage goes.

Chatsworth

This past week I've been off work, using up some of my holiday. And it's been bliss. I've planted tomatoes, strawberries, runner beans and both red and green peppers in the garden (as well as a patio rose bush), did a little writing, and, on Friday, hired a car and went to Chatsworth House. It was absolutely beautiful. The house is striking in its grandeur against the lush countryside around it. To be honest though, I was a little disappointed when touring the house - the state rooms were lovely, but the rest of the house we were allowed to tour was more like a museum than a residence, and it's the people that interest me. The gardens, on the other hand, were magnificiant. If you can't find inspiration for a Fantasy world setting there, then I don't know where. The rock garden in particular was beautiful - going to bore you with a few photos, but you get the idea!

Officially I am now part of the Speculators group, which is a SF writing group that meets every week on Queens Road. They're producing a magazine to promote the group, and this was the motivation to finish my short story "Tick", which is the steampunk reworking of Inter Vivos. The word limit for the mag was only 1,500, so I think I'm going to go back to the story and develop it further.

Development for my Corrie Flint/Selena Waterford/Mattthew Gray story is coming along, although I still don't have anything to link all the stories together - aside from the fact that they all take place in London. I'm sure my brain will puzzle it out eventually though.

Hope you all enjoy your bank holiday Mondays!

Hmm

I ended last week with yet another rejection. This one admitted that they hadn't even read my story, which I'm quickly learning is actual common practice amongst 'zines. Surely though, if you don't have time to read submissions, you should close your slush pile for a while? And this was from a magazine where I noticed that in their last issue, there were two stories written by the same person (who wasn't the editor or on staff or a "famous" author). Fair?
Anyway, so I did what anyone else would do - I sucked it up and sent my story out again to a different magazine. I'm going to get this story published if it's the last thing I do!!
Urgh. Having a crappy day. Going to go home later, drink hot chocolate and watch America's Next Top Model.

Editing

I'm feeling a bit down today. One, because I got an email yesterday saying that one of my stories was rejected from a magazine, and two, because on my way to work today I went arse over tit and fell over in the snow. Was very embarrassing (and painful).
Editing Inter Vivos is time consuming and not very exciting. It is good when you get to a part of the story where you suddenly find yourself swept away by it, but those moments are few and far between, and most of the time I'm rewording clumsy sentencing, or else cutting scenes altogether. Chapter one has had to go entirely, which has meant rewriting half of chapter two to make it make sense.
Sigh.
Anyway, on a positive note, I've an idea for a story but I don't know really where to start with it, and whether it might be a short-story or a novel. It is set on a dying Earth-like planet, where the rotation of the planet has stopped completely, and most people now live in the shadowy part along the world's equator, sandwiched between freezing cold and boiling hot. I haven't written anything yet, but I think it might be something I work on in the future.

Rut Be Gone!

I had a lovely birthday (thanks for the phone message, Mekon!) and am now feeling pretty chipper. I guess I was just depressed two days ago when I wrote that post, but a day off yesterday + sushi means that I'm feeling better today. Saw Men Who Stare At Goats last night, which was actually good (I thought I mightn't like it, after hearing it was a "military satire"). The cast were really strong, and the story simple and strangely optimistic, and it was amusing (not 'wet your pants' funny, but good).
I have just under 6,000 words to write before I reach 50,000 for NaNoWriMo, and my novel is almost finished. The banshees have bansheed, and my cast is one character lighter, but it feel good. I still don't think the middle is that exciting - I think if I were to write a second draft, I'd have to add an interesting and adrenaline-fuelled sub-plot to raise the stakes slightly.

So once again the cup is half full.

As soon as this is over, I'm going straight back to Inter Vivos. I have started reading it through, and am half-way through chapter two at the moment. It's really difficult to read it without wanting to take notes and mark it up, but I promised myself I'd read until the end without getting my pen out once before going back and dissecting it to pieces.
I have to admit, the beginning so far isn't very good. There are some good bits, but like the flowers in my really messy garden, they are being smothered by crap.
I got a rejection from Weird Tales about one of the stories I had sent off, so have sent it back out to another magazine, and hoping I'll be second time lucky for a sale.
I'm really hoping that this new year will be when it all takes off for me, so for now I have to keep slogging away.

Monster Story

Hello all. How've you been? I've been feeling pretty tired of late, so haven't been up to much. Been watching Men In Trees on Virgin on Demand, which I'm really enjoying. A less sexy Sex and the City, with some nice characterisation even if I can predict not only the plot but also some of the dialogue (which I'm finding kinda comforting - weird?).

I finished a new short story last week, and I'm just putting the finishing touches to it. Well, I say "new" - I actually started it last November during Damien's writing class, and have only just gotten around to completing it. It's currently called "The Eye That Came To Work", though the more I type that, the less I like it. Still, I think I'll be sending it off shortly to see if I can find a home for it in one of the e-zines. Fingers crossed.

As per usual, Scary Duck's condensed movie made me chuckle. This one's The Hobbit/LOTR: http://scaryduck.blogspot.com/search/label/Condensed%20films

Inter Vivos is still ongoing. Going to head off to the library tonight to do some more. Must work on The Maiden not being a very bad pantomime villain. Think it'll help though when I have a completed first draft, so I can look at her role the whole way through, and decide what to do with her. Gotta stop her monologuing - that's for certain.

Hallowe'en is coming up, and I'm having a Mary Shelley party, where we all have to write a horror story to read to the group. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to write. Hannah said she'd do a comic, which sounds excellent. If only my drawings didn't look like those of a five year olds...

Audio version of "The Tower"

Sorry folks, I kept meaning to post about this, and then totally forgot. Anyhow, I've only just had chance to listen to it myself.

My story "The Tower", which was published by New Fairytales magazine, has been turned into an audio, available now to download as an mp3: http://www.newfairytales.co.uk/pages/audio.html (it's the third one down)

I'm really, really impressed with it. The very talented actor and the sound engineer have made my story sound amazing. I really couldn't be happier with it.

If you like it, please consider donating to the charity Derian House Children's Hospice. The magazine was set up to raise funds for it, and I think it's such a wonderful idea. You can donate if you click on the link above and follow the instructions in the text above the downloads.

Anyway, no pressure! Go listen to my story, and check out the others (which is what I'm going to be spending my lunch hour doing).

Buffy Revisited

Yesterday I watched the first three episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer series 1, and I think they've held up really well. Sure, Buffy's hair and heels are slightly dated, as is the mid-90s Grunge, but the writing feels as fresh as ever. The opening sequence, in which a boy and his date break into school, breaks conventions right from the beginning - it's not the sex-crazed jock who is the threat, but his jumpy, hesitant blonde date (who turns out to be a vampire). And I was shocked that Angel, in those first two episodes, has a personality! Maybe I'm just too saturated by the bland Twilight vamps, but it actually took me by surprise that Angel was sarcastic and charismatic, rather than brooding and mournful. Just shows that both the male and female characters can be strong at the same time - one doesn't supersede the other. The Angel I'm most familiar with is the pouting one from (I think) Series 3, so Angel series 1 is actually really refreshing.

I'm still not finished with my Corrie Flint story - I'm just tidying it up a little bit now. Plus, I can't think of a title. I wanted to come up with something witty and clever, maybe some sort of pun based around fire and talent, but I can't think of anything good. I think the latest draft is called "Burning Talent", but I think I might go with "An Unusual Talent". I can't really decide - neither are right. Suggestions on a postcard please...

Dr Horrible

I have a major crush on Neil Patrick Harris right now. I mean, come on! How friggin' talented is this man? He sings, he's hilarious, he looks good in a suit, and he says "awesome" better than anyone I know. I'm counting down the days until How I Met Your Mother season 4 is released on DVD. I watched Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog in one sitting on Saturday night - highly recommended. Here's Act One, Scene One as a taster for you, courtesy of Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=apEZpYnN_1g -it lasts 7 and a half minutes.

(I tried to embed the video here, but for some reason couldn't copy and paste the whole of the text code - anyone know why?)

I'm still enjoying Dollhouse - wish the Sci Fi Channel had its own On Demand service. Get onto it, Virgin!

Have finished my Corrie Flint story. Wrote it in one sitting the day after the idea came into my head. Sometimes it's just like that - idea comes, pretty much fully formed, and explodes out of you. It was good to be able to write it like that, rather than having to wait until I found a second, like what usually happens. Have to snatch those opportunities when they appear!

Pirates and Procrastination

Over the weekend, I managed to do no writing whatsoever; however I did renounce Satan and become a Godmother, so I wasn't being a total layabout. It was quite nice to take time off, even though I did get grilled by everyone at the baptism about when am I planning on having kids. Aaargh!

Hannah, Robin and Phil are all doing really well at the moment with their separate creative endeavours. It's nice to be inspired by people that I actually know. I'm hoping to go up to Edinburgh to see Broken Holmes, if I can get the time off. It's going to be great.

My mind is buzzing with all the different stuff that I started working on, which isn't good, because I don't have time to do all of them, and really need to crack on with IV. I've been working on the plot for my pirate story; basically, an upper class English woman is kidnapped by pirates on her way through the Caribbean to be married. She is captured by Fat Red, a grotesque female pirate captain, and gradually becomes submerged in her world. A little bit like a sinister "Desperately Seeking Susan" - no on second thoughts, nothing like that at all! The mood and feel to the story is more grungy-rock than 80s pop.

What else? I have half a plot for my space story, and the beginning and end of my monster story. Does anyone else find middles hard?

I'm going to have to forget about the stories for the time being, as I do need to finish IV, else it's never going to get done, and I'm never going to be able to write anything else. Single-minded obsession is what is needed; no more of this multi-tasking nonsense.

*pic from Ophelia's Art: http://www.cafepress.com/opheliasart.153104524

A Dystopian Jane Eyre, with Cyborgs

I'm trying to work out what Inter Vivos is about, in prep for editing it and trying to pitch it to publishers and agents. I know what the story is, of course, but what are the themes I want to bring out? What is the central conflict and message? Perhaps when it's finished (draft 2b) and I read through it I'll have more of an idea. I'm kinda thinking it's a biopunk bildungsroman sort of story, and I think I might be treading on some new ground there a little bit (think Jane Eyre with cyborgs, and you get the idea).

Have started another short story - I'm starting to wonder whether this is productive procrastination - this time for an anthology that I'm hoping to get accepted for. Deadline is in September, so I figure, if I start now, then I'll hopefully be finished by then. My story is about pirates, which is a condition of the anthology, and I have created this wonderful grotesque female pirate - I'm thinking of Claire from Der Besuch Der Alten Dame with a bit of "Fevvers" from Nights at the Circus thrown in - this huge, repulsive, but larger than life woman as a very unconventional anti-heroine. Anyway, I'm trying to decide how (stylistically) to tell the story, but have made a crack at it anyway.

Starting short stories isn't the problem. Finishing them is. I do suffer from The Fear quite a lot; what if this promising story with these intriguing characters is made crap half way through by some stupid plot device I've thrown in? Urgh.

OK, will aim to finish off one short story by next Monday. Can she do it? Stay tuned to find out...

Monsters and Space Ships

Just back from Canterbury, which is a really lovely city, very picturesque. I stayed in this lovely hotel and my room was like something out of a fairy tale, all elegant and white with a big four-poster bed and chandelier. Very nice.

I managed to write whilst I was away, and have almost finished chapter twenty two of Inter Vivos (there are thirty planned chapters) and also worked on this monster short story I'm writing. I came up with the idea when I was taking part in Damien's writing class in November, and just really loved the tone I had come up with, so am continuing on. It needs a structural overhaul, as it was starting during a stream-of-consciousness exercise, but I have high hopes for it.

I'm also working on another story, a proper sci-fi story, with space ships and aliens et al, but I have to keep leaving blanks because I don't know about space travel. How fast does a rocket travel when taking off? How long does it take to train to be an astronaut? I'm sure a Google search would dig up the answer, but it's all very frustrating. Stupid brain.

(Pic from www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com)

Just read "The Book of A Thousand Days" which was just beautiful. Love fairy tales. Also reading the letters of the Mitford sisters, which is great, but has done weird things to my brain - my inside head voice keeps thinking I'm upper class for ages after I've read it, so have to be careful what I say or do! It's like I'm temporarily possessed by Nancy Mitford or something! Peculiar.

Need to get these short stories finished so I can send them out - more so that I have something active to write about in this blog!