It has been some time since I posted, and for that I will start with an apology (if anyone actually reads this blog, of course). The simple fact has been that I haven't the time to write (or blog) particularly often these days, thanks to a degree and a course combination which has had me hit for six for the last two months.
Moving on from cricketing metaphors (we had quite enough of those in the last entry), the writing of late has been very, very slow. Labyrinthine Ways has had just 3 pages added to it in the past two months, while a new project has also been slow to get off the ground.
I should be pleased I'm still getting ideas. And ideas are something I can build on, whether I'm in practice or not. As things stand, I have some seven ideas to write, and two of those are active projects. When I have more time, I'll be more than capable of pushing on to get plenty of writing done. My latest project, an epic space opera going by the working title of Greatness Thrust Upon (after the Shakespearean quote - you know the one I mean) follows in the Dune tradition of men musing about power, only it has more spaceships and more gratuitous violence for the more blockbuster-inclined souls among you.
The story? I'm not giving that away just yet. Only a couple of people know I've even started work on this, and I'm keeping it close to my chest until I've got a good way into the project and I'm fairly confident I'll see it through.
If it's several months before I post again, don't be surprised, but, in the mean time, take care.
Sunday 1 November 2009
Monday 24 August 2009
Nervous... Forties?
The well-known cricketing cliché goes that once a player gets into his nineties, he'll be a nervous wreck until he finally steers his innings to the hundred. 'How often,' a commentator will bark across the airwaves, 'have we seen it; a batsman having a fine innings until he hits 90, only to then start making streaky shots and for his run-rate to slow before giving his wicket away?'
Well, I'm not a cricketer of note (not the last time I checked at any rate), and it's not the nineties I'm in, but the book has finally gone past 45 pages and is now closing on the half-century, thanks to a long session this morning, where I added 1,000 words to Chapter Five. With just a short scene in the chapter to go, I've reached the bottom of page 49, and all being well, I've finally cracked the chapter.
It's a relief, to say the least. After a summer of struggling for writing form as badly as Ravi Bopara has struggled with the bat for England, I sat down with half a scene this morning to steer it in the direction I wanted to after a couple of aborted attempts to do so. It was worth the effort. Completing the Council scene gives me a platform for the short scene that follows, and I've also got the toughest scene I've yet written out of the way.
So what if the whole scene came in just short of 2,500 words? It was by no means easy, introducing new characters and having the first scene I've written in some time where more than two characters are in conversation, especially as it had various undercurrents and motives throughout. I should be able to build on this over the next couple of weeks to get another chapter or two under my belt.
Hopefully, I'll be able to push on to the ton as well.
Well, I'm not a cricketer of note (not the last time I checked at any rate), and it's not the nineties I'm in, but the book has finally gone past 45 pages and is now closing on the half-century, thanks to a long session this morning, where I added 1,000 words to Chapter Five. With just a short scene in the chapter to go, I've reached the bottom of page 49, and all being well, I've finally cracked the chapter.
It's a relief, to say the least. After a summer of struggling for writing form as badly as Ravi Bopara has struggled with the bat for England, I sat down with half a scene this morning to steer it in the direction I wanted to after a couple of aborted attempts to do so. It was worth the effort. Completing the Council scene gives me a platform for the short scene that follows, and I've also got the toughest scene I've yet written out of the way.
So what if the whole scene came in just short of 2,500 words? It was by no means easy, introducing new characters and having the first scene I've written in some time where more than two characters are in conversation, especially as it had various undercurrents and motives throughout. I should be able to build on this over the next couple of weeks to get another chapter or two under my belt.
Hopefully, I'll be able to push on to the ton as well.
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