WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW?

It's been a funny kind of week. A bit start and stoppy, you know the kind I mean? But nevertheless, I've been writing - of a sorts!


I have almost completed two short stories, one for submission to a competition with a theme very close to my heart 'A Foreigner in Italy'.
It's being run by a couple who own the The Watermill at Posara in Tuscancy. They host writing and painting workshops and have created the Posara Prize. 
I started thinking about this submission what seems like a lifetime ago - very unusual for me. And, here we are two days (and counting) from the deadline date of the 28th February and I've filled pages and pages with... words. I've chosen to submit fiction as opposed to non-fiction and I've been writing it in the first person, to try and create a personal kind of view. I've also set it in winter (doesn't everybody think 'sun' when they read Italy) and here in the hidden depths of Le Marche. Maybe I should have chosen Venice and the Carnevale! 


I thought I would be able to write reams and reams but actually it's been the hardest piece of writing I've done in a long time, and most days its hard! It reminded me of the Writers Abroad Anthology last year, where we as ex-pat writers chose the theme of ex-pat life to create short stories from. We all found it incredibly hard to fictionalise it, despite all our experiences of writing fiction. How strange. Maybe it just feels a little too close to home despite the advice to 'write what you know'. 
The second piece, is a lighter piece which started as a Monday Muse (another Writers Abroad thing) and is targeted at My Weekly with a family kind of theme (involving chocolate)..
In my other writing 'moments' I've been pontificating on 'The Promise' and have started to review the outline and overall plot. I've already decided to change the title (more later) but I've got no further than creating a 15 word summary of the book - the first step of the Snowflake method.


Talking off the white stuff, snow is forecast for the weekend and it's so cold here in my office, that I can't feel the tips of my fingers. So I can see myself wrapping up like an Eskimo and locking myself in until the I've ticked all the boxes... I think I'm almost there.


Until Later...