Well I guess it’s been nearly two months since my last post and I apologize. I have been writing and going to school part time, working full time and paying husband/father full time (me thinks that’s one to many full times) and the blog has not been a priority. When I started this page it was with the idea that I might freelance a bit, you know try to get my name out and about, but since then I have had other ideas. School has become a priority and I have little visions of an MFA in creative writing floating through my head like faeries high on pixie dust. Unfortunately, reality dictates that I get my AA and my BA first….damn reality! Still it’s a goal….we all need goals…or so I’m told.
In other news I completed my first manuscript. Well at least the first draft of it. Yep my little Masterpiece in the Sky is done. I finished it about three weeks ago and I have promised myself that in another three I’ll pull it back out and re-read it, edit it if you will. The bad news is that since then I’ve literally been able to write….well zilch. I’ve tried, oh lord have I tried, but everything falls flat. The excitement while writing the Masterpiece in the Sky is just not there. Its work, its dull and its cliché. I’ve tried female characters, male characters and sci-fi and mystery. There was a Space Opera for a day, a mystery novel the second. Finally, I tried to combine them both with a cool little plot. The problem….the characters were flat and not likeable in the least. I have found myself backpedalling, questioning my decision to pursue this finicky little art and I find myself in a corner.
Author Lilith Saintcrow doesn’t believe in writer’s block and suggests we write everyday without fail. So I have written drivel after ream of drivel. With my back in the corner I pulled out some old characters from way back in the mid-nineties. I re-examined them and looked at this fantasy world I created. I think it’s good….doable at least. A 6 on a beauty scale of 1 to 10…10 being Angelina Jolie! I sat down and effortlessly put in 2000 words in a little over an hour. It flowed fairly well and best of all I was excited about it. I felt like the character was right there, the story line is a fairly routine one but the main character is not human or elf or dwarf but something I made up on my own and refined for a decade. Maybe it’ll be shite in the end but if I have fun writing it. Who cares!
In related news I’ve been reading like a mad man. 34 books so far this year and while I know some who read this will scoff at such a lowly amount, it is the first time I’ve ever really kept track. I was actually fairly amazed at the diverse style of books. There are westerns, and thrillers, a mystery novel or two and a historical novel, sci-fi and some fantasy. I’m impressed with myself (which is probably far too easy…just ask my friends). If writing is the key to understanding the art of writing than reading must be a pretty close second. So with that in mind I’ll keep writing and keep reading!
Thanks for listening friends of the written word. Keep on reading and keep on putting pen to paper! Er fingers to the keyboard! ;-)
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