Thursday 15 May 2008

Given that I have, unexpectedly, got the whole evening free to write, I have of course done very little. I usually write in silence, but this evening I seem to crave noise, so music has been blasting while I fail to add or remove any words. I've also had it on random song mix so am in a strange mood now, having listened to a very odd combination of music. A shared music collection means I've hit the forward button several times this evening!

Having been quite methodical with my editing recently, I now seem to have hit random mode. I keep skipping forwards to find a bit I'm more in the mood to work on. This is of course both confusing and unproductive, as half the point is to make sure everything flows and I haven't just had a conversation with someone that died in the last scene. I think it's because the fear has gone away this evening. I only have two and a half weeks before I have to send off the first 30 pages, a pitch and synopsis for the writers' conference. Somehow this doesn't scare me this evening. It'd better return tomorrow!

I got an email from Waterstones today, advertising their "
What's your story" competition. Basically, you write a very short story, on a postcard sized bit of paper, which you may also decorate. There are a few on their website already and they've invited some authors to do one. The prize is being published alongside the official ones later this year. Lane, I thought of you when I saw some of the drawings behind the stories!


I think even blogger has got fed up with my font hopping. The choice of fonts and sizes has vanished, allowing me only bold or italic. I'd decided on one as well, really! Oh, panic over, apparently I'm in the edit html window...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think some kinds of editing do need to be done in-order, particularly plot and character related things. However, I think other kinds can be done out-of-order. For example: adding more of the five senses, checking for unwanted clichés, removal of unnecessary adverbs, etc; can be applied to any piece of text in any order.

Lane Mathias said...

I'm glad you've lost the fear! That's half the battle:-)
Are you working on Flickers?

Thanks for the Waterstones link. I hadn't seen that and it looks like fun. Will definitely give it a go.

Like the font:-)

Denise said...

Captain - You make a good point. Maybe I can still get something done!

Lane - Yes, this is Flickers I'm working on (or not working on...) No, I need the fear back! I get very little done without it!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Best of luck with your submission for the conference.

I've entered the Waterstones competition this morning and it's rather harder than I first thought it would be. Great fun though.

Karen said...

I find it very hard to write with music on, as it affects my mood!

I've had a look at the Waterstone's link...they're quite a lot of stories on there already, but it looks fun :o)

Fiona Mackenzie. Writer said...

Thanks for sharing the link Denise. I usually write 'Wish you were here' but I guess that won't do?

Anonymous said...

Lots of luck for the conference! Ill keep my fingers crossed for you. You sound as though you are doing a great job! X