Staying out for the summer

Naughty, naughty. I haven't blogged (well, here at least) for over a month. I told myself that if I wasn't doing any novel writing, then the least I had to do was blog regularly to keep my hand in, as it were. The copious amounts of writing I've been doing for work don't really count for my purposes, I don't think.

Well, nothing much has changed here on Walton Mountain. Work continues to pain me, though I do have a project on at the moment that I love. It deals with children and charities, so maybe that's a clue as to the sort of thing I should really be doing.

I'm working from home today, and as I started at 8am (get me!) and have had an uber efficient morning, I'm going to try (if I can finish a couple of proposals I need to write) to get an hour's writing in late this afternoon. Would be most carthartic and woudl make me feel like I've had a day of super achievement.

Off to rainy Wales for fun and frolics this weekend...

a x

Blimey

I actually managed to do some writing last week.

I've finished my first chapter.

I have a whole other sub plot I've developed.

Yippee!!!

a x

A polite aide-memoire to the lovely commuters of Greater London

Dear commuters,

It has come to my notice in recent months that despite the fact that being Londonders, of course, you are in fact superior to everyone else on the planet, there might be a few tincy little changes you could make to your commuting style to make everyone's day just that little bit better. You know, slidng up that scale from execrable to approaching mediocre.

1. Gentlemen. While it is true that I am not intimately acquainted with your genitalia, I can tell every one of you right now, with confidence, that your manhood is not so large that you need to sit with your legs at a precise 90 degree angle. As admirable as your trigonometry calculations are, airing your testes in this manner results in you taking up the space of three passengers.

2. The Oyster Card is a modern day little blue miracle, isn't it? Well, it is when it works. And I feel your frustrations too when the little bugger refuses to let you through the ticket gate. However. Imagine the scene:

It's rush hour. Everyone's either a) miserable because they're late for work or b) miserable as they've just spent the day at work. The population of China is attempting to simultaneously dash for the 6.50 to Chessington South. You're one of the lucky ones; you've actually made it to the ticket gate. You gratefully swipe your Oyster Card, so cleverly concealed in your purse, across the yellow reader. DISASTER. 'Please seek assistance', the gate pleads. but no, you decide, I don't need assistance, for I am a Londoner equipped with my Oyster Card and I am DAMNED if this gate is going to make me look like some touristy provincial. So you swipe again. 'Please seek assistance'. Again. And again. And again.

Meanwhile, three billion angry, pushy commuters are pressing behind you in scenes reminiscent of 10.55 at the local on a Friday night. Please, for the love of God. Give it up and go to the TFL bloke by the gate. For all our sakes.

3. Simple laws of physics dictate that if I'm on the train, thus occupying the space you want to be in, and I am trying to free up this space by leaving the train through a reasonably small gap, you should wait for me to get off the train before you shove your great arrogant bulky frame on to your carriage home. Just let me off first, please. And don't stand right in front of the doors blocking my exit or I will TAKE YOU DOWN.

This list is by no means a panacea for the daily challenge that is the London commute. But it's a start.

a x

Capturing, plotting, filing

I don't know how writers find time to write. I mean the sort that write books, while they have jobs, and children, and A LIFE. The only time I seem to have a creative thought worth capturing is when I'm busy doing something else (I count sleeping in this one too :) ), and I always seem to be too busy to stop to mentally log it for future use.

I am going to try to find a good way to ensure I stop losing the good raw stuff because I'm 'too busy to stop', and also that I look at assessing these ideas and assimilating them into my plot. All too often the ideas are perfectly detailed tableaux of a very specific moment in my character's story - with no idea of the build-up or what is to follow that scene.

I know.

I need to stop and think what I want to be the build-up to that scene. And the resulting plot deveopment from that scene.

Off to find a good online plotting aid...

a x

Inspired to write #1

Wanted to share something I saw today that makes me want to write a short story. I think it's the incredible level of detail given about the piece of jewellery contrasting so sharply with no information as to why this (sad?) situation has arisen that piqued my curiosity:

http://onepoundring.com/

Why has the owner of such an expensive piece of jewellery decided to set up an online lottery to get rid of it?

Why is someone who could afford a £3.5k ring (or was in a relationship where their other half could afford a £3.5k ring) now so broke that they claim they're forced into this online lottery?

Is the site creator a photographer, because the picture doesn't look like an amateur snap?

Where does the site's owner live?

As someone who has recently got engaged this site has especially intrigued me...

a x

Not so secret writing

It may be just me, and I may just be more attuned to comment from other unpublished writers than your average web surfer, but it does seem that there are an increasing number of people who are tiring of the corporate nine till five and are writing, publicly, and telling all the world about how much they want to become a published author.

Whether it's a sign of these economically troubled times - never has escaping reliance on a greedy corporation seemed sweeter - or that people are simply tiring of the super acquisitive materialism of recent years, it does seem to be that people are turning back to the power of words and wielding them for all they're worth.

I for one cannot bear the lazy, overcomplicated and vague language employed into today's offices and part of the reason I write is to esacpe that. There will no place for 'liaise', 'pushing the envelope' or the perpetually confusing 'touch base about it offline'. VILE VILE VILE.

Off to practise what I preach...

a x

The bizarre case of OK and Jade Goody

Utterly bewildered by the news that OK! magazine has already got its Jade Goody tribute issue on sale, complete with year of death - before Jade has actually passed away.

I know new media has meant that comms have sped up and print titles are increasingly under pressure to keep up with their digital peers. However. Publishing a black bordered tribute issue? Boasting you have her 'final words'?

Before she's died?

Seriously guys. Come on.

a x