Nano has finished for another year, and while I appreciate having my time back, I also feel that I miss my characters already.

I should explain. My Nano this year was the second half of a story which I started writing for 2008 Nano. This means that I have been aware of these characters, both actively writing them and contemplating them, for over a year now.

Now, the work is far from over on this project. I have a 100,000 word first draft, fit only for the eyes of a close, trusted writerly friend whose opinion I want on whether I would be completely crazy to contemplate spending more time on this project.

As to the characters, they still have many adventures ahead of them. But should I spend more time on them if the first book is completely god-awful?

Well, I have lost interest in The Fox and Fell and I am now working on a new idea. There is absolutely no way that I can weave the new story into the FF cycle, and so I am now working on another new project. This is amazingly exciting (I love having a new idea) but also incredibly frustrating.

When am I going to stick at one idea to completion? Of course, I can come back to something, but I am annoyed with myself for jumping around between projects.

I have done nothing for the longest time. I haven’t even had any chance to think about anything. This really frustrates me, but my day job is so time-, energy- and thought-consuming that by the end of the day I can barely think about the English language, let alone writing anything.

Check out the day job iliketoverbstuff

I went for a cuppa at my best friend’s house today, and she had read my short story in the Seoul Writer’s anthology, Every Second Sunday. I’d given it to her a few weeks ago and it was so nice that she had read it.
Her comments were that she’d liked the story, and that she wanted to read more. This was incredibly gratifying as I don’t think she has ever read anything I’d written before. It’s also spurred me on a little to keep going with the Fox and Fell cycle.

Since returning to the UK, I have found myself to be completely unproductive. This is partially to do with getting a job, finding a flat, and organizing a wedding, but also to do with inertia.

I have got out of the habit of writing, even a few words a day. It really doesn’t help that the industry I’m in requires you to be switched on all day, not allowing any time for your mind to drift.

Also, I am stalled on all of the things I am working on at the moment – my short story cycle: ‘The Fox and Fell’ and the fantasy novel: untitled. For the novel I know what’s happening next, but I haven’t got the energy to get into it. I did receive a plot point in a dream, which was a bit of luck…

Once the wedding is over I will start at least blogging regularly.

Over the last few weeks I have been relatively productive. I have been working on a project which I thought was only for fun, but at the moment it really is the only thing I have an interest in. This means that I have to do a mental turn and perhaps consider that I will have a different writing career than I expected.

That’s all…

Please forgive any mistakes, I am in a PC room and so am paying for every second I am on this computer! The keyboard is also clunky and seems to miss out words!

I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to do some research before getting stuck into the short story project I’m beginning. This could of course be a deeply layered procrastination exercise that I have convinced myself of because of my fear of failure at this project. This project has the potential to be good, and I want it to be, and so I am convincing myself that I can’t do it yet  in order to avoid the moment when I look at the words on the page and discover that  they do not meet my mental vision of what this project should be.

I have a new story idea ticking over in my brain, which I need to get down on the page before I talk myself out of it. This part of the story does not require research (or at least it can be done on wikipedia) but yet I am procrastinating. This is my main failing as a writer, and will always continue to be. Until I have a deal and a deadline, I have very little to drive me forward. I know many writers are in the same boat, but it is one of the only things that actually gets me down about my writing – the fact that I just don’t seem to do it!

I have finished rambling for now, and have perhaps even talked myself into doing something. It’s a shame I have to go and buy train/boat tickets now! And Christmas shopping…

I have been procrastinating this morning. I actually have my writing program open on the computer, but I have not yet written a word. I have the final third of a short story to rough draft, and because I know what’s going to happen I’ve been putting it off! Must get to it soon as we workshop on Sunday and I want to have something to submit.

So, instead of writing I was looking at the internet (shocker). This story was posted on the BBC website and is fascinating.

It is a photographic series about the studies that writers work in. Very interesting! I am inspired to do a non-writerly exercise – which is a really really bad idea as while I have time I should use it to write with…

Here is a picture of my ‘writing desk’ which is actually in my living room. We do have a ’study’ in our apartment, with a perfectly good desk, but it is now covered in clean washing that we have yet to put away.

Nano

For the last four weeks, when I have got home from work at around eight o clock at night, I have been filled with a feeling of something like dread (guilt perhaps) that I really should eat dinner quickly, grab the laptop, and head out to one of the write-ins that I knew were going on only five minutes away. I also knew that when I got there and started word warring everything would be great, but every night I was exhausted, and absolutely not in the mood.

Last night I got home, tired as always, and as I typed in the key code for the building I realized, with a dash of complete joy, that I didn’t have to turn around and go out again. Because Nano is finished!

Don’t get me wrong, I went into Nano completely excited, and when I was actually writing I felt that same joy (most of the time) but the guilt of not writing – the same guilt that leads me to this blog when I am procrastinating on a piece, was intensified because of the short time frame. Now Nano is finished, I feel as if I have got my life back again. For the most part.

Anthology

This Saturday is the launch party of the Seoul Writers Anthology, and promoting the book is still taking up a lot of time (though admittedly not as much as editing it, plus doing Nano!) I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved, and I hope the other writers are as well.

http://everysecondsunday.wordpress.com/

What’s Next?

I’m slowly mentally mapping out a short story for my next writing project. We have a workshop in two weeks, so I’m hoping to get it done by then. It’s part of a short-story-cycle I have in mind, which I’m already feeling very daunted about.

I’m exhausted already. That’s all I have to say right now.