Tuesday 21 December 2010

So Much To Do, So Little Time

As this is supposed to be a blog from a would be writer I thought it was about time I added something about the things I'm working on. So I'm now going to keep a progress bar going on the right hand column so it's clear where I am and what I'm up to. And to also chart how little progress I'm making... Unfortunately with Christmas, and all the incumbent parties, dinners and shopping it entails I've had little time to work on much. But areas of note are:

- Working on a short story for a writing competition being held by the publishers of the Writers and Artists Yearbook (a valuable resource for any would be writer). If you're tempted the link is here, I welcome the competition! The theme is "Compulsion".

http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/short-story-competition-2011/

- The other ongoing project is the novel. At least I think it's a novel - it certainly seems to be getting longer the more I work on it. I'm aiming for around 200,000 words for the first draft so that the second draft can be shorter but still be a good sized story. But unfortunately I keep coming up with ideas that I need to feed into the narrative, forcing me to rewrite what I've already done... I'm also facing the dilemma that I may need to cut a whole chapter as I've realised the story works better if the reader is kept in some mystery about another key character - is he good, is he bad, is he really trying to help or has he ulterior motives? These are questions you don't ask when a whole chapter is from his perspective, unless I cut three quarters of it. Annoying too as I really like that chapter. Oh well, who ever said writing a novel was easy.

No comments:

Post a Comment