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