Category: Ramble Page 2 of 55

(November 16 -22)

I had a moment of inspiration for one of the new stories that I’ve been struggling with. It’s a timey wimey one, but with a gothic flavour, so finding both the correct tense and voice has been a particular challenge. It doesn’t sound quite right in the past tense, so I’ve been writing in the present tense, which is coming out too sterile for my liking.

In trying to work out the right voice, I then imagined it being read aloud, and suddenly had this image of a classic M.R.James type narrator sitting in their drawing room, dusty old book open before them, telling us the tale.

Somehow this nailed it for me. The present tense helps emphasise the times-wimpy ness, but the classic gothic narrator voice sets exactly the right tone. I’ve gone back and reworked the first few pages of the story and, yep, I think it’s gonna work.

(November 9 – 15)

I’ve done it. I’ve decided to do a fresh edit of the novel right from the start (again). I’m in a curious place where I have the motivation to write, but am not especially inspired by any of my new or current projects so I may as well make a push to get the novel into a decent shape. Besides, I’m still not quite happy with the evolution of my characters. They get to where they need to go, and they start in the right place: it’s just all the bits in between that need some work.

True, there is a risk of overworking it and turning out a story that’s even more sanitised than a George Michael single, but I just can’t help feeling that I really need to retread the journey right from the start in order to nail the finish.

(November 2 – 8)

As I sit here writing this, we’re on the second day of counting votes in the US election and my feelings towards it somewhat parallel my writing energy over the last few weeks. Sure, it looks like Biden may well pull through but there still millions of people over there who willingly voted for one of the worst people in the world—and many of them will have voted for him out of basic self-interest, or because they want to see harm done to the people has already harmed and will gladly harm again.

It makes one question the value of democracy. There are deep problems in the USA that have their origins long before this election, and those problems mean that someone like Trump can not only become President, and lie, cheat, steal, and cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people through his first term, but that people will still vote for that.

And while I’m pretty sure that no one reading this will start screeching ‘woke politics’ at me, we should note that this is not even about politics. If a person can’t accept that lying, stealing and bringing harm to people are bad things, plain and simple, then who is the one with the problem? These aren’t political issues; they are moral and ethical issues.

And how does this parallel my writing efforts? Well, it doesn’t really, but I have endured a certain lack of direction over the past weeks. I don’t specifically write to get published, but it is a natural endpoint. To write a story and have no one read it makes the story somewhat pointless. Just as to have a democratic election and have people vote for a demonstrably terrible candidate makes democracy seem somewhat defunct. All that effort to ensure people have choice and a say in their future, and what do they do?

I suspect the closer connection may well be that anxiety around the election, and the fact that there are a few too many parallels to US politics over here in Australia, has simply resulted in some mild writer’s block. But isn’t it much more fun to draw random relationships between my backroom writing and global politics?

(October 26 – November 1)

I’ve been struggling quite a lot with my writing over recent weeks. I’m not sure if it’s a form of writer’s block or not. I’m still getting words out, but they continue to feel somewhat directionless. As such, I’ve decided to try a couple of things to fix this.

Firstly, I’ve discovered that no matter how much time I have in the morning, I have a limit to the amount of time I can spend writing. I start to lose steam at around the 30-45 minute mark. Given this, and given that I’ve been neglecting my exercise for some time now, I’ve decided to get back on the cross-trainer in the mornings. I’ve previously rationalised that it would eat too much into my Very Important morning writing time, but as per above this clearly isn’t the case.

Secondly, I’ve been wondering if having too many unfinished projects over my head is causing mental clutter to get in the way of any fresh writing. I’m frustrated by the fact that I’m one chapter away from finishing the first draft of my novel and yet can’t quite motivate myself to wrap it up. I’ve also got the science-fiction short story that I’ve been working on for several months now and can’t quite get right. I also have one or two other short story projects that are stalling.

Consequently I’ve decided two things: firstly I will get back into doing some exercise in the morning (so at least I’m making good use of my time no matter what); secondly, I will finish the damn novel. Hopefully both of those measures will get the blood flowing.

(October 19 – 25)

I had an idea for a new story, quite a timey-wimey one, so I’ve been doing some work on that this week. In fact it was so timey-wimey that I needed a special plotting session just to get the timeline for various events laid out. It was fun, but definitely made my brain hurt. And while I now have a sequence of events, I still don’t know what order I’m going to tell them in. In other words, I don’t yet have a plot.

In lesser news, my horror story did not get picked up by the magazine I sent it off to. I have, however, been thinking a lot about the Slightly Odd Tales project (and the possible podcast offshoot). Consequently I decided to publish the story on Medium (and to continue publishing select stories on Medium).

You can read it here.

(October 12 – 18)

The rewrite of the science fiction story is going well, but I’m still not convinced that it’s doing the trick. It may be necessary to ‘put it in the drawer’ for a while so I can review it with fresh eyes a few weeks or months down the track.

I have plenty of other stuff to be working on in the meantime …

(October 5 – 11)

I have gone back to the science-fiction short story—this one seems to be my real passion project for the moment. Unfortunately something’s still not quite working with it. Normally I’d let it go, but I know there’s a really good story in there somewhere and I’m determined to get it right.

In this minor rewrite I’ve done some more work on the main character. While she started out as a fairly strong and cocky character, I’ve opted to play more on the psychology of the particular situation she’s stuck in; as such there are a few more cracks to play with. 

I’m still thinking a lot of Winston Smith, from my recent reading of Nineteen Eighty Four, and how leading characters can often be the ones plagued with doubt and who ask all the questions.

I’m also doing my usual polish of the language, trying to bring the mood and visuals of the story more to the fore.

Finally there’s some restructuring required. Without giving anything away, there’s a thing that happens at the end which is somewhat undermined by another thing that happens earlier. Unfortunately this earlier thing wraps around an event that is kind of fundamental to the story. I’ve been running various alternatives around in my head, but I won’t truly know which one works until I write it into the story. (The end, incidentally, is non-negotiable: it’s pretty much the whole point of the story).

(September 28 – October 4)

Because I’m not nearly unfocused enough already, I’ve started on a new story. It’s a cool conceit though: a writer friend and I are attempting to write a story each based around the same title and basic premise, and then we’ll see what we each came up with. I’ve got a decent idea, but it’s taking time to properly form. Hoping that if I get started on it, the rest will slowly fall into place.

(Sept 21 – 27)

Funny story this week: I received a rejection for a story that I didn’t even recall submitting! Perhaps I’ve been a bit more efficient at the submissions this year than I realised.

Otherwise, this is clearly the part of the year where my writing motivation takes the biggest hit. Again, I’ve managed several hundred words on the science fiction story and have more or less wrapped up the first draft; but it’s been in 200-300 words chunks instead of 500-600. As always, I’ll take what I can give. Some words is better than no words. Unless they’re those particular words.

I did have a moment of revelation regarding the science fiction story. One of my likely weaknesses as a writer is that my main characters can sometimes be relatively bland (this happens when they’re there to have things happen to them, rather than when they’re there to make things happen). Sometimes it’s just the nature of the story I want to tell, but it always means there’s a better story hidden away in there waiting to be told.I haven’t quite nailed the main character in my science fiction story. She started off spiky and independent, but then the story pushed her in a different direction. I’m now pondering making her a bit more eccentric and unpredictable. It feels like the right direction to go, but I can tell this one’s going to take a few more drafts to get right. This is the problem with having a plot that’s already leading towards a defined conclusion: it’s rarely the characters who are doing the driving …

(September 14 – 20)

Managed a few more hundred words on the science fiction story this week, but took a break over the weekend to tidy up a slightly older story. It’s one that’s already had a few edits, but the [dis]advantage of coming back to a story after several months have passed is that you see all the minor flaws and blemishes right away.

In this instance most of the work was in getting the language to flow a bit more smoothly, but I also excised a two-paragraph chunk that was clearly getting in the way (in fact, it so obviously clogged things up that I’m amazed it survived this long).

Anyway, the fresh draft was done and submitted off to a magazine. I don’t fancy my chances too greatly, but it’s always good to have a story or two in play—and it would be super cool if this particular publication picked it up.