BLACK HOLES

Monday Meditations
I've finished the second edit of The Promise! Yippee! Well, it would be but it's left more questions than answers and there are large gaps, scrawls and scribbles throughout the eighty thousand words and 270 pages length worth.
At first I felt relieved, but I've suddenly realised how much work I have got to do! When am I going to learn that writing is never about what you first put down on paper, but about making sense out of what you've got left once you've visited it several times with a red pen!
My most burning question right now is how to handle a large gap in time. The story is divided between events that happened in 1945 and twenty one years later... when a promise is finally delivered. I have made reference to the intervening years through dialogue with the two characters but it doesn't feel right at the moment.
It is so obvious to me now that this needs careful handling but how? There is a huge gap in time rather like a  huge black hole! Do I fill in all the blanks? Do I start from the beginning chronologically or start from the end and work backwards? Do I try and emulate Kate Mosse who handles this so well with chapters from each timeline interwoven. I need to sit and mulch this over a little more and hope that it all becomes clear and if not, that a kindly fellow writer and reader of this blog, might help point me in the direction of the exit to the black hole!?
Until Later...

MUSIC WHILE YOU WRITE?

Do you listen to music while you write? I sometimes have the radio on but it gets lost in the background and I never really 'hear' it. This week, however, I decided to try something different. I've been trying to catch up on my   80 thousand words in 80 days commitment and as you can see from my progress metre, I'm not doing too bad. Last week I was stuck on 12k and I've almost doubled that. 


I decided I'd play some background music to help focus my mind. I'm writing a story set in medieval times, Vikings and all that brings, so Lady Gaga didn't seem very appropriate. Neither really did Eliza Doolittle, or Jamie Cullum - all my favourites. I love opera too, but I find it distracting while I'm working because I either find myself trying to translate it if it's in Italian (and badly at that) or I find myself with my hand clasped to my chest 'singing' (Simon wouldn't label it so) at the top of my voice.
So I chose to listen to some Baroque music. Just what is Baroque music I hear you say - or more likely you're much more cultured than I am and don't need me to tell you. Well, according to Wikipedia, Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1750. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era. The word "baroque" came from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl" - something I found quite poetical. I chose this form purely because I didn't think I'd find any Viking music, but I'm sure someone will put me right on that...


So I've been listening to Bach, Handel and Mozart and I must say it had a pleasing effect, I kind of felt relaxed yet in my writing groove and the fingers have been flying all over the keyboard. Whether the words make any sense when it comes to reading them is yet to be discovered!


Until Later...

WRITING ENERGY

 I've had a house guest, my father, and the distraction is not an unpleasant one. For various reasons his stay with us is quite... different. Anyway, I think he's enjoyed it and relaxed and will find the strength to come again soon. My writing has not taken a back seat, far from it, but I've used the time I had to do different things. Mainly editing, which has been time well spent. After all, a book doesn't get written the first time round, not the second and possibly not the first.

That's right, I've been doing BIG editing this week. I wrote a draft novel (80,000 words) for NaNoWriMo 2009 entitled The Promise. It is set in Italy, WW2 and the story is about a POW who falls in love with an Italian girl. Last year a fellow WA member kindly critiqued the first three chapters for me and since then it's been gathering dust. This week two things spurred me on.
The first was signing up to an online self-editing course. This has provided me with a method to get started and hopefully continue.  I've spent a few hours each days looking at it with a fresh pair of eyes, with checklist and critique to hand, and I feel excited about the story again. .
The second opportunity was a visit to the local POW camp in Servigliano, where the first part of my story takes place. I'm not sure why I haven't been before, but it seemed the right thing to do. There isn't much left to see but our guide, Giuseppe, was so enthusiastic and knowledgeable he managed to create an environment in which I could see my characters. I know it's not always possible to visit the settings we writers use to place our story but this was definitely a good exercise for this story.

I now feel more energised to re-write this story with my knowledge gained over the last eighteen months and the expert advice from my WA pal, and my characters have been chattering on all week. I sure hope they stay around!
Until Later

UNLUCKY FOR SOME?

As many of you know, it's Friday 13th today. The fact that I have only just realised with only four hours or so left has left me with a warm glow. What could go wrong now? I musn't temp fate, however and will need to please some God or another to avoid nasty things. As I was thinking about this I had a sudden urge to look up the origins of this fateful day. 
Apparently, the fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen). Just that mere Wikipedia fact (duly checked I might add) nearly stopped me in my tracks.
The theory claims that Frigga was banished by converted Christians to the mountains and became a witch and every Friday would convene with eleven other witches and the devil (no less) and plotted evil happenings.
A second theory claims that it's the day that an attack was launched on the Knights Templar and their Order and was named the most unlucky day in history. This is further supported by the fact that as the Templars Grand Master was burned at the stake he cursed the King and the Pope claiming that they would both die within the year. And they did. Gruesome, huh?


Anyway, this Friday has been neither unlucky or filled with good things. An average day where I've done a bit of everything. This week my 'golden moments' are:

• Reached my target of 12k words for my 80k80days work in project numero uno - I know I should be on 13k by now but I have quite a few thousand sitting in my journal in ink, so it doesn't count.
• Edited three short stories to meet my monthly challenge of four submissions. Don't get me wrong there is loads of work to be done on these yet and one deadline is for Monday!
• Written and edited two Penny and George short stories for the series and am garnering some courage to submit one to WA for feedback.
• Continued with my Self Editing course - which I'm behind on but I'll catch up, honest.

Oh, and I can't go without telling you about the image above. This is Frigga, the goddess turned witch, spinning clouds. How wonderfully literary that is!

Until Later...

MARVELOUS MAY

Well, the first week has been and I'm not just talking about the weather!
It started on Monday when I received an email to say that I'd won the Cazart Flash Fiction prize for April. It was a piece that had previously been shortlisted so it was a double doze of satisfaction. Not sure what the prize is but it's of no matter. It really made my week and spurred me on with my writing at a very 'dry' time in terms of good news.

• I've managed to knock out at least 6000 words on The Morning Gift, and that's just the stuff I processed, I've got lots of notes and half scribbled scenes to add. I re-read the synopsis (which I wrote last year) and was pleasantly surprised at how it all still meant something! So I'm really enjoying this piece of work.
• I've drafted three Penny and George stories, which I've put aside and will edit next week. Again this is part of a work in progress that I've got lots of content on but trying to put it all together.
• The character sketch for my protagonist in the fantasy novel is taking shape and I'm itching to get started - I have a couple of scenes which I wrote as part of Monday Muse, but I really want to do a bit more planning before I let my pen loose!
• There's not been much progress on my edit of The Promise, but in my defense I'm doing a course on Self Editing and using that as my project, so it's sort of in hand.
• And I've submitted a Monday Muse and finally submitted a submission to the Yeovil Literary Prize (with help from our Grammar Queen at Writers Abroad, thanks Paola!).

Phew! Feel quite worn out now and its POETS day so must be well overdue for that G&T!
Until Later

April Witch Prize

Continuing with the commitment to the Write1Sub1 Challenge, I'm the proud recipient of the April Witch Award. I've subbed four short stories, admittedly not all written this month but edited and polished and sent. Since my track record with meeting challenges is terrible, I'm quite proud that I've made it through a third of the year (and exceeded this target in one month).
A good way to start May methinks - I've signed up to '80,000 word in 80 days' challenge with Quillers, and have chosen to split my word count between finishing my medieval Saxon tale, Morning Gift and a new novella in a new genre, fantasy. In addition for this month, I'm going to concentrate on rewriting three stories per week of the Penny and George series and seriously commit to the re-editing of The Promise. 
So I'm looking for the proverbial kick up the a*s* if I start to slack...
Until Later...