How to get writing again?

Work has become crazy busy recently, now that I am in charge of organising events full time. I am trying to finish the second draft of Banshee, my WIP, but scheduling time to write is really difficult, especially when my "day job" creeps into evenings and weekends too.

So I've been thinking about ways that I can still work on my project, but without obviously slacking off during the day and getting into trouble at work.

Here are some ideas I've had to get started again:

* Writing for 30 mins - 1 hour before breakfast.
* Pretend conversations in my head between characters, and then scribbling it down or recording it on my phone.
* Staying late after staying late to write a little bit (this is how this blog post has come about!).

What are your suggestions? Do you have a good way of staying focused when life tries to get in the way of your writing?

York

I've been in York for the past 3 days, at a conference for work. If you haven't been, it's very pretty, even when it is peeing it down with rain, but I swear there are more drunks wandering the street than pretty much anywhere else I've been.

The hotel was nice, and I basically got to stay in a room the size of my old one-bedroom flat, so that was nice. The conference signed us up to go on a ghost walk, which was fun and fine until our guide told us our hotel was haunted by a ghost AND a poltergeist, which meant I couldn't sleep for fear of being prodded by some supernatural being.

I find ghosts interesting. I'd love to say I don't believe in them, and say what a load of tosh it all is, but the irrational side of my brain is absolutely petrified that the world is really like it is in Sixth Sense, where there are dead people literally everywhere, and that I might one day be made aware of this fact. *shudder*.

(above: can you spot a ghost in this picture? If so, please don't tell me!)

Canterbury

I am currently taking advantage of the (hopefully) free wi-fi in my hotel room to update my blog. I'm in Canterbury for work, staying at a nice hotel on Wincheap trying to take advantage of the alone-time to do some writing. Unfortunately, my writing session has turned into an amazing feat of procrastination. For example, I took a detour home via Chilham to see where Jane Austen's brother once lived and where they shot some scenes for the newest BBC adaptation of Emma. When I did get back to the hotel finally, after only writing two lines of notes I then took another detour to writerdom by seeing how much honeycomb I could eat in twenty minutes whilst drinking an entire pot of tea. I then dallied further by reading Carrie Vaughn's story in Fantasy magazine (tis good, go see for yourself).
My attention span is ridiculous. If only I could concentrate for more than 10 minutes at a time I might actually have more things accomplished.
So on that note, I'm going to go back and do some writing.
Wish me luck.

Back! Well, Sort Of...

I'm completely snowed under at work. I have organised an event for 500 people for tomorrow, and for over 1,000 on Saturday, and am in the process of organising another for next week, and so my brain is feeling a little mushy right now.

I'll be so glad when it is April. April is this lovely land where I only have to work for 3 days for the entire month and I get to visit New York. April is this place that is free of stress and full of sunshine. I can't wait until it comes!

Quick Post...

...Just to prove I'm still alive. Last week I drove almost 400 miles for work (which is a big achievement seeing as it's only my second trip out in the car). Went to Esher, in Surrey, and Canterbury (Kent). Was very nice, weather was lovely, and it was nice to be away, even though it was for work and not a holiday, even though I did get to see the sea. Have been enjoying a lazy bank holiday, but back to work (in more ways than one) tomorrow!

Catch-Up

This post may be a long one. Don't say I didn't warn you. You wait months for something interesting to report, and then it all happens at once. I'm going to report things in reverse chronological order, just for fun.

The Monastery OK. So here are a few photos of the lovely abbey.

It was so peaceful, even with a boarding school in the grounds. The monks wore black robes, and were perfectly lovely and polite, if scarce. Apparently there were only 30 there. I had supper with the headmaster (a monk) on Sunday evening, and had cajun chicken and tequila-laced salmon, drank wine and elderflower cordial before retiring to my room at 9:30. It was a good event, the Higher Education bit that I was there for, and a pretty unique experience I suppose. Yorkshire is lovely - I think I may have to have a special day trip to explore properly another time.

The Writing Industries Conference I had a very good day, with the quality what I've grown to expect from a Literature Network/Writing East Midlands event. The programme was just about perfect, and they made up for the fact that attendees couldn't attend everything I wanted to by recording each session as a podcast. There wasn't too much waiting around for sessions to start, but similarly it didn't feel rushed. The theme was about New Media, and the need for writers to diversify to become successful. My agent one to one went very well, but probably not for the reasons you might think. He tore my work to shreds, pointed out the gaping holes that I have been in denial about, and made the most liberating suggestion of my life (in regards to Inter Vivos anyway!). I hate it when people give feedback and they're afraid to hurt your feelings, so they use stock phrases and platitudes, and this guy did no such thing. I know some people couldn't have sat there taking it without crying or arguing or something, but I thought it was great. Because it means that I should not waste anymore time on a project that is fundamentally flawed (no matter how hard I try to resolve those flaws) and that I should work on something else.

The day after my meeting, it did hit me that I wasn't as far ahead as I had thought, but - well - nevermind! Back to the drawing board. I'm going to salvage what I can from Inter Vivos, perhaps take a few characters that I like and play with them a little, and treat Inter Vivos like you do your first ever boyfriend - you look back fondly but think, what was I thinking?

So what does that mean now?

Well, I'm going to stick to Fantasy, which is where I'm more comfortable, and I know a little bit more about. I'm going to have a think about what it is I want to write, what I like to read, and go from there. I may revisit the Banshee story, because I think that has some potential, although the plot still isn't clear to me. I'm going to write more short stories and practice the "craft". And I'm going to be more honest with myself. I knew IV wasn't working - I couldn't get my head around the core science in the book, and no amount of characterisation would fix that. There was a reason I hadn't been able to finish it for NaNoWriMo, why I'd been working on it for 4 years with little success, but I'd blinkered myself to it. Everything negative that the agent said, I knew already but had been denying it to myself.

So all in all, the Writing Conference was extremely valuable. Now I just have to work out what to do next.

A Post About Work...Mainly

Sigh. Feeling very tired today after my one-day weekend. Spent most of Sunday lying on the sofa in sort of a swoon-like position, trying to see the telly past my gigantic Valentine's bouquet. Not that I was really watching the telly as tuning out from the rest of the world for a while. I did watch Adventureland though, that was good.
Work is still busy, as I'm organising events for between 500-1000 people twice a week until March, plus in a couple of weeks time I get to go and stay at a monastery, which I'm both petrified and excited about. What if the room I'm staying in is haunted by dead monks? Dead chanting monks? Dead chanting monks with no feet or faces? *shudder*
Because work has been difficult, my writing has had to take a bit of a back-burner, but tonight I start editing again. It is taking forever. But I'm stubborn, so I'll keep chugging away. Come on chapter five!
I found out at the weekend that I've got an agent one-to-one at the Writing Industries Conference, which is cool. I'm doing my research and planning, and have come up with questions I'd like to ask, so that's good. What would you ask, if you had 15 mins with a literary agent?

Beep Beep!

So, on Friday I drove 80 miles for work (to Rugby and back) and lived to tell the tale! It was my first solo drive since passing my test in September, and beforehand, to say I was scared seems like an understatement. So the day came and I got my hire car, a cute Vauxhall Corsa with a gear stick I discovered later didn't like to go into first. Like when I was at a busy roundabout. Or at a traffic light-controlled obstruction with a huge lorry waiting behind me, beeping its horn every time I stalled (twice; the lights changed to red again before I could move). Oh well. I went on the motorway and managed to get into the middle lane without causing an accident. And when I got lost because of road works coming off the M1, I managed to find my way from the middle of nowhere to the school I was visiting in less than 20 minutes, using no directions or maps, other than the road signs along the route. Just thinking about the whole experience again gives me a bit of a high. Driving = fun.
I'm definitely going to buy a sat-nav though. I mean, it was good that I could find my way when lost, but soon I'm going to have to drive down to Surrey, and then make my way from there to Canterbury, and I think some assistance will definitely be beneficial.

Yale Recruitment Video

OK now, so knowing that I'm into musical theatre, and also that I work in Student Recruitment, why am I finding this video so cringe worthy I might have to take the rest of the day off to recover? http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2010/jan/20/yale-recruitment-video-blog

Better

Right, well, after yesterday's moan, I'm feeling a bit better today. Everyone has down days, right?

Work is still stressful, but I'm now making the decision to never mention my full-time job in my blog again (aside to occasionally say where in the world I am), as I don't want my job to start monopolising my life - it's already taken a chunk out of my personal life, and I really don't want it to start affecting my potential writing career, and so I'm going to start with here. Work - be gone!

I read our Semper group's forum for the first time in ages today, and it was really nice to know that I have friends out there who are all slugging away, united as we are by our common goal to make a living from our writing. Phil has a play on at the Accidental Festival in May, which is great news. Hannah is possibly doing a PhD (so we'll have to call her "Doctor" from then on!). It's all very exciting.

Me? I'm still on Chapter Seventeen, having written a little more on the train yesterday. I'm almost at the end of the chapter now. I think it will need a lot of work in the rewriting stage, but hey, that's what it's all about right? Turd polishing. Get it done, move on to the next chapter.

The Banshee story keeps eating away at me - I have a new fully formed character which popped into my head whilst I was away. I've written a couple of scenes and some notes, but I can't let myself get distracted away from Inter Vivos right now, no matter how siren-like the story calls to me. I have a Plan and I must stick to it.

I'm sorry these blog posts are a bit dull right now. It's not as exciting as theatre, I know. Novels take time, whereas plays less so, and with theatre there are other elements involved, whereas with novels, its just all slog, slog slog on your ownsome. But this is just how it is, I'm afraid. I'll have a think about ways to jazz up my content, rather than the usual "Chapter X is coming along..." posts. Maybe add a gun fight post, or a sex scene post for good measure. ;-)

A Whiney Rant

Well, Reading is over and done with. I'm so sick of travelling around now. I'm exhausted. And broke. Work will eventually repay all the money I've had to spend, but that doesn't solve the immediate problem of the current deficit of my bank account. I have a hundred and one things to do tomorrow that I will have to cram into about 3 hours before I go out again on Thursday. Work sucks.
I'm also of the opinion right now that my writing sucks too. I'm bored of the part I'm working on and want to fast forward to the good bit. Plus I've just finished reading Neverwhere and now I'm glum because ill never write anything that good, etc etc. Sigh. I'm even boring myself now. Will come back when I'm in a better mood.

Portsmouth

I'm typing this whilst simultaneously sitting in Frankie and Benny's waiting for my order. Portsmouth this week, and the weather is foul and my hotel room awful (ok, I can overlook what I have now discovered to be the obligatory pube on the sheets, but toilet roll that someone threw up on? No thank you).
Anyhow, went to see Watchmen and it was really good. Am going to read the novel but have been told its fairly accurate, though the film is more gory.
Will be starting to work on IV shortly, so will update later.
Ooh, steak's here. Gotta go!

Tidings from Manchester

The cycle of UCAS conventions has started again, so I will be away every week now until April. This week it's Manchester. It's not a bad place, but I'm intimidated by the tallness of the buildings and their close proximity to each other. Still, I found the central library and a cosy Starbucks, so after work I was able to get a bit of work done, which I'm going to continue in a sec (after Judge Judy of course!).
Ideas keep fighting for my attention, but I'm trying to keep focused on Inter Vivos. Chapter 15 is still ongoing, but I'm hoping it'll be finished before the night is over. Then its on to chp 16 which is going to be tough. Why is it so hard to write about falling in love? Sex, no problem. Death, piece of cake. But love at first sight? I feel decidedly under qualified. I fell for my best friend; it's so difficult to write about lightening bolts without, ahem, resorting to clichés. Perhaps because (aside from lust)love at first sight doesn't really exist? I wrote a post last week about my thoughts on love, which I never had time to post, and might not do after this one, but its all interesting nonetheless (well to me anyway).
Anyway, greetings from Manchester, how are you?

Banshee

So what is my day job? Well, in a nutshell, I give advice to people about going to university. I am paid to promote one university, but I try to keep my advice as neutral as possible, emphasising the importance of the individual doing what is best for them. I give careers advice, I advise about student loans, about UCAS, about filling in the application form, and also about the different courses that are on offer and what an individual might need in order to secure a place at the uni. I like my job. I mean, it has its bad days, but so long as I feel that I'm being helpful, then I'm happy. Yes, there are problems in terms of the soon-to-be too many graduates for graduate job opportunities (especially in this economic crisis), but university is a life changing experience, and I believe that if someone has the potential and aspiration to go, then they should, regardless of what background they are from.
Ahem.
Anyway, you see, my job is even infringing on my blog now! Crazy!
Sorry to my... I don't know... three readers who have been peeved that I haven't been updating more regularly. I'm going to try to do better from now on (ooh, school parents' evening flashback!).
One of the reasons for the absence of posts recently is that I've actually been busy writing. And it's been pretty good, so far. I know the story, what's supposed to happen, and so I've been working through the first draft of Inter Vivos, and in some places merely connecting the dots, but in others I've had to do a major overhaul of the chapter, else start from scratch and add scenes where none previously existed. I'm on chapter fourteen at the moment, now known as "the longest chapter in the history of the world" because I've been working on it for about a week and I've still not got to the part where the chapter ends! I think when I come to do the proper edit that I'll end up splitting it in two, but I'm not worrying about that now. It will just be a relief when I can finally save it and move it into my "Finished Chapters" folder.
And seeing as activity breeds activity, whilst writing my chapters I also had a new idea for a story. I think I might toy with having two narrators, one a banshee, the other a wannabe rock star university student. Not a love story, but a death story, about losing someone and the futility in not only that loss, but in being powerless to prevent it. It's a work in progress, anyway; something to work on when my Volunteers are reading through Inter Vivos looking for spelling mistakes and huge plot holes (there's still plenty of time to become a Volunteer, btw, so let me know if you're up for it. I might even make you t-shirts).
Just a note about the picture - I was searching Yahoo images for a pic to use for my Banshee, and I came across these slightly creepy but really beautiful dolls. Anyway, the website is: http://www.enchanteddoll.com/ Absolutely lovely, but extremely expensive! (I even found one that looks like "Nox"!)

Sleep is Good

For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to get Inter Vivos finished. I know a few months ago I said that the first draft would be completed by June 2008, but that was obviously a very optimistic fib. I had finished writing the story all the way to the end, but I had left quite a few chunks unwritten to get to that ending, and also, the climatic scenes last for approximately 2 pages, which is terrible, if I do say so myself. So I'm finishing it properly now. Am going to finish chapter three tonight. I've set myself another probably unrealistic deadline, but I'm working towards it, so we'll see how it goes.

Work is really busy this year, I've got early starts every morning this week, and for once I have loads of things to do, and interesting things at that. But I'm going to write anyway. This year I am totally going to finish my novel and send it out there. Oh yes I am.

I don't take 6 hours sleep well, and so am going to have to work out a better way to get everything I need to get done and get enough sleep every night. Once I learn the secret, I will let you all know.

The muse comes a knockin' ... and I'm at work!

All day I've been wanting to write. Crazy, eh? Right from this morning, I've been itching to do some writing. That rarely happens. But instead, I've had to go to work and do office things instead. And I'm betting this latest wind of inspiration won't last until Friday. Hmpf.
Anyho, Chapter Two of Inter Vivos (the rewrite) is almost completed. I'm not sure about the tone in the middle, and there's a bit of language polishing that needs doing, but it's progressing well. Seeing as Chapter One might as well be renamed "God-awful chapter that stalled the writing of this book for seven months, and is still rubbish", the fact that chapter two was easy, and - dare I say it? - fun is great. Perhaps I'll just start at chapter two, to heck with back story. Interesting idea.
I realise that you few people who do read this blog don't have any idea what I'm writing about when I talk of Inter Vivos. Maybe one day if it gets published, we can all come back and read over these sections and go "ah, I see, that's how that happened".
I have a new character in my head at the minute. Well, when I say 'character', really it's more of a name, and a feeling. Jessie. Female. A bit pissed off. She's probably pissed off that she doesn't have a story yet, but there you are! I also have another name too - Raeley/Railey Quinn. Female too. Perhaps fragments will float around inside my head until a story (or at least a few more characteristics) come together to form a plot.
Have been reading Carrie Vaughn's blog today about "Urban Fantasy" (read part one ,two and three). Was amusing that in part two she talks about tattoos on girls on covers and next to this is a photo of her book cover with a girl with a tattoo on the front! Guess it proves the point. Good blog though nonetheless.

Writing is Hard

Writing is not fun. Let me elaborate: Coming up with an idea is fun, plotting a story is fun, talking about it for hours in a coffee shop or pub is fun. Writing the thing is so hard sometimes I sometimes contemplate deleting the whole file on my hard drive, or giving the whole thing to somebody else and screaming "just fix this!" at them until they reassemble my words in an appropriate order.

So as you may have guessed, I'm back working on Inter Vivos. I'm writing chapter two at the moment. I say "writing", when really I'm typing vague words that transition my character from infancy to puberty. Urgh! A lot happens in those years but it's not important plot stuff, it's important character stuff (and red herring stuff) and so some of it may go in the final edit, but I can't edit something that's not even written, can I?

Actually, I had a better time writing this chapter than I have had previous when trying to work on IV. I think the main thing I've figured out is to firstly work out what I need to include in this chapter, then start in a blank document, and type it out, without reference to what I've written before, without trying to save my favourite paragraph that I wrote 2 years ago.

It's almost Christmas, and I can't wait. I'm at work until Wednesday, then I'm off until 5th January. Yay! This does mean that I really have no excuse for not finishing the short story that I've started. It would be so great to start the new year with something good enough to sell. Will keep you posted.

It's Raining, it's Pouring

...and I haven't bought my coat to the office today, so I'm going to get drenched on the way home, if this continues. The rain actually looks like smoke as it's hitting the pavement. Nice to look at, but please don't make me go out there.

I have finished my travelling for work for this academic year, I think, which I'm actually a little disappointed about. I don't like it when I have to do it every day, but sometimes it's nice to not be stuck in the office all the time. Plus I get to buy nice food and work pays for it! The other thing I've liked is that I've had a bit more time for myself, as I've not been working my second job whilst I've been travelling, so I've been able to have evenings and weekends to myself. True, I haven't done anything with this new free time, beside watch TV I wouldn't normally watch (this is what comes from being in a hotel with only 5 TV channels!), but it has felt a little bit like a holiday. But it's back to work in the office, and back to work for my second job, from now on in.

I haven't written anything in about a week now, simply because I've been too tired to write on the trains (well what do you expect from a 6:45am start?!!), and then I've been revising for my driving theory test. Now that the test is done (and I passed - yay!), I can get back to work. I want to finish my Tabitha Grubb short story and get that ready to send out to places, and also finally finish this second draft of Inter Vivos. I haven't got very far. Just need TIME. Sigh. Am longing for those school summer holidays that I used to have in days of yore.

In other writing related news, my short story Calypso is due to appear in an anthology by The Inkermen, entitled Land's End, which is due to be published in August 2008. I'm just checking the proofs now. I quite like Inkermen's manifesto, and so I'm pleased to be a part of this anthology. You can order the book from amazon, or alternatively, let me know if you want a copy by 14th August, and I can get you one at a reduced rate.

Oh look, the sun has come out now. Crazy English weather!

Travellin' Lu

Since my last post I have been to Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, which was quite nice, and also to London, all for work. I caught up on some Drabblecast, but barely did any writing myself. I feel so tired at the moment. Could do with a holiday, though this will only happen in the event of me winning the lottery (that I don't buy tickets for) before the end of September. Well, stranger things have happened.

I have been working mostly on my short story about Tabitha Grubb and Inter Vivos, though I'm finding it hard to stay organised as I'm writing both in the same notebook, and everything is a bit higguldy-pigguldy at the mo'.

What else have I been up to? Well, I saw Joseph for the first time ever whilst I was in London, and it was really, really good! (yes, I was surprised!). Lee Mead was excellent, he stayed in character the whole way through and didn't let the tongue in cheek nature of the show put off his portrayal of Joseph from naive peasant to mighty prince. The narrator (who was played by the understudy) was really brilliant, and the rest of the cast all just seemed like they were having the times of their lives, which made me as an audience member have a great time too. So many shows I see has a chorus who just look like they're going through the motions. So it was all good. I was sitting in the upper circle (row G) and you could still see the stage very clearly, so was value for money to boot!

I am off travelling around the country for work next week too, so apologises in advance for the lack in blog posts until I return. Maybe you can read over the archives or something to keep yourselves entertained in my absence? :-)

Nearing 'The End'

Sorry about the lack of posts recently. I wish I could say I've been busy writing, but unfortunately I've been busy with work. I have since been to Canterbury, which was lovely; though I got lost trying to find the exit at the Cathedral, I managed to write another 7 pages of Inter Vivos. I *think* (fingers crossed, etc) that I shall have finished the first draft by my deadline. Then it will be time to go over it with a fine-toothed comb, and fill in the missing bits, and possibly change the narration from 1st to 3rd person, I haven't quite decided. Guess I shall see how it reads once I've reached the end.

Isn't 'The End' a wonderful phrase? Though I don't think creative work ever really has an 'end' as such - there's always editing and proof-reading to be done, and I don't think anyone is ever 100% happy with what they've written. Rather than 'The End' maybe it should be 'I can't stand to fiddle with it any more - I'm done!'. Also, in terms of stories, characters always tend to live on after the book is finished, and, especially in these days of cash-in spin-offs and sequels, they will sometimes reappear elsewhere later on.

So on that note, I can tell you that I've finished my short story Calypso, and have sent it off to see if it's considered worthy enough for publication. We shall see.