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 |   Maybe meandering, possibly peripatetic and indisputably irregular. |
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So here it is.. a blog. Repository of some of my present musings and interests. Sometimes things pop into my head that should probably stay there - it is possible I shall share at least some of them here. (Naturally I shall filter out the ones about my sordid obsession with the culinary dark arts, one has to protect the innocent!) Please feel free not to take this too seriously, much of it could wind up being snippets of things that amuse me. Yesterday I came up with this: Few politicians can be considered first class, but not a few are number twos. What can I do with it? Nothing springs to mind, except perhaps blog it. Perhaps in some other life I'm a failed stand-up comedian. I have the beginnings of an idea to introduce another player into the Mr Moonlight story, a nice visual has occurred to me, and a summoning gone wrong seems appropriate. When I finish up here I shall literally put pen to paper. I find writing at least initially longhand helps my ideas flow. When I type up what I've written, I give it a first revision at the same time, and as a bare minimum check my spellings and grammar . I do want to keep tabs on my current reading here. I usually have several books on the go at the same time. Currently I am working through 'Pyramids' by Terry Pratchett. I reread Pratchett's books over and over - usually at work where they provide much needed amusement whilst I eat breakfast. 'The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle', by Stuart Turton was loaned to me by a friend who shares a love of murder mysteries, (especially Agatha Christie's works). It is a new take on the genre and very very clever. The protagonist occupies different bodies - a selection of the guests at the house where Evelyn is murdered. Each day he spends in a different guest, and he has been tasked with discovering the murderer - or maybe saving Evelyn from actually being murdered, it is hard to tell. The book twists and turns and is quite intriguing. 'New Science - Principles of the new science concerning the common nature of nations' is an English translation by David Marsh of 'La Scienza Nuova' by Giambattista Vico, published in 1725. Not far into this yet, I had to find a copy of the frontispiece online, as it wasn't included in the Kindle edition. The first part of the book explains the idea - and uses a detailed description of the frontispiece to convey this. So being without it would have made things somewhat harder. 'The Complete Works of Michael De Montaigne' is again a translation, this time by Donald M. Frame. Montaigne's Essays are famous, I kept reading about them, so treated myself to a nice hardbound copy to dip into - usually just before bedtime. So there we have it - a blog entry - enjoy! (whispers almost inaudibly 'Bon Appétit). |
| That bit about this blog being irregular is particularly factual. I was too busy in November, trying to write 50,000 words, which I just about managed, but since then I have felt rather 'written out'. Still, after a break, I am now feeling ready to continue writing. I've been made a Preferred Author. This made me extremely happy. After I'd read the email informing me, several times, I was bouncing about in my seat and rubbing my hands together. Yes, I do get childishly excited by things like that. It made my day/week and month, and also felt like Christmas had come early. Most importantly, it made me want to write. To write more, and to write more often. I felt that I learned quite a lot of useful things from the combined October Preparation, and NaNoWriMo itself in November. One thing is having goals. I badly wanted to succeed in the goals I had set myself. WDC has a Weekly Goals thread run by The StoryMistress, and since beginning the October Prep, I have been trying to use that as a means of focussing my efforts. Not that I have set goals every week, but I am trying to do so. The October Prep month put together a set of tasks designed to get a novel planned out and ready to write, it also created a superb atmosphere of support and friendly interaction. From it I produced an A5 folder with separate sheets for each important scene that I wanted to write. This allowed me to determine that dependencies and consequences were followed up. Useful for avoiding plot holes and errors. Yet when I started writing, the story took on a life of its own. My bad guy wasn't, requiring some rethinking of how I'd achieve some of the plot. I grew to hate the story. Largely I thought it a mess. Having had time to reflect on this, I have reached a theory as to why. I was writing too fast. Getting to 50K was a good target, I have never managed above half that before. But what I have written is awful. I take a lot of care with most of my writing. I will for instance search to find the correct brand of cigarettes would be smoked in some particular time and place. I have investigated drapers shops in London in the early 20th Century, or whether there are ebony goth girls, (there are and they look fantastic). The other problem I have is that having reached 50K, I stopped. The story isn't finished, but I haven't written any more of it this month. But. I am going to. My Weekly Goals next week will reflect this. Firstly I need to get a grip on what I have written, put it in order, and link that to my outline I found not being able to easily find what I'd written a pain in November: What day did I write about that? What did I say then? Because everything was saved with only the date, I might spend ten minutes reading back, trying to find the particular conversation I needed. I will address this, when I continue, and when I next use the preparation method, because I'm convinced of its usefulness. Back to the writing too fast bit. I think the solution might be to set my targets differently. I'm considering a week on, week off idea. Spend one week with a word count goal of 10K words. Then a week reviewing and revising that, and tying it in to the planned out novel, tweaking as required, then another burst of 10K, and so on. Writing something I read and think 'uggh! this is execrable' is not good. I need time to follow my researching impulses. That's where I add the detail, and often get some great ideas. Did you know that Sir Francis Drake was thought to be a magician in league with demons, and that Spanish sailors thought he had a magic map that showed him where all their ships were? That fitted perfectly with my planned novel, but I found it checking some facts about where he had travelled and when. Changing the subject, I have been enjoying giving out Merit Badges as my own wonderfully inverted version of an advent calendar. Each day I pick a recipient and send them a seasonal merit badge. Fifteen down and ten to go. I haven't preplanned who will get one, so each day I get to choose. Why do I enjoy this? Ahh! that would be telling. |
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). I mostly reject that. I'm eating rice with an egg this morning but Pannya just brought me chocolate milk from 7/11 (bless him; I really don't need it).
