Month: March 2015

The loss of notes for a finished story and the lack of notes for a new one.

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Hello

So, I’ve been working my way through the first edit for the story I’m going enter into the 5000 word competition at www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk. I got into the habit a few years ago of writing stories down instead of keeping them in my head and waiting for a competition to present itself so I could use it. What if such a thing never happened? Anyway, I wrote down one such idea and it will be my entry into the aforementioned comp. The story centres on a man with a special gift that he does not know and has yet to discover why it is in fact special and why he has the gift in the first place. He takes drastic measures to try and find answers when a random crime happens in front of him and gives him an idea. Will the idea help him or will it be his down fall?

I’m not sure yet to be honest. So far my hero is following along with a new friends plan for world domination in the quite literal sense. I’ve already spotted a few changes I’d like to make to my story so I’m sure that will be fun chopping and changing stuff to get them in (yawn) This story had been floating around in my skull for years until I committed it to paper and made plenty of notes to back it up with. But, after years of it just sitting on my laptop and waiting to be edited (sad face) it finally got its wish.

And now I cannot find the smeggin notes I made. None of the bloody things. Not one single chuffin word. I’ve checked my high number of note pads and books and nothing. Goose egg none. This does mean I’ll have to remember it all again but this may be a good thing. Possibly. I’ll let you know how I get on.

With this loss of notes I decided to try something different. I decided to write another story, this time a western, and only make notes as I went along. I can only makes notes as I write with any plot points and such being created along the way. I’m not sure how this will work out but so far I have given my hero, currently named Benedict, a back story involving his parents and possible the reason why he is going to do…whatever it is he is going to do. In truth, I have plenty of ideas knocking about but so I’ll either use them for something else or throw them all in at once for this new story. May god have mercy on my soul.

Well, thank you for reading and I’ll see next time.

Bye

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…Authors… just a wee WURD about getting negative reviews…

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Hello

I thought I’d share this wonderful post I was put onto by Chris The Story Reading Ape (Thank you and http://thestoryreadingapeblog.com) by Seumas Gallacher. Who’s blog is cool by the way.

I’ve not been doing that much in the way writing except a little editing. I’m going to wait until next week when I’ve got more stuff and things to talk about and that.

So, enjoy!

…Authors… just a wee WURD about getting negative reviews….

That’s time travel done with. What’s next?

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Hello

I’ve finished my time travel story! I managed to answer all the questions I had rolling around in my head about it and then come up with two possible endings for it. And now I’ve moved onto another project.

Okay. Picture the scene. I’m typing furiously and marching my way to the end of my story. The hero and villain are engaged in a battle of wills for the fate of the country. As I was writing it I wasn’t really sure where the ending would come from. I had a vague idea but I always prefer it when the ending naturally presents itself. And then two endings did. Great. Another question to answer. Which ending to pick? The happy one, which in itself leaves the reader (or it should anyway) wondering whether our hero has made his decision for the right or wrong reasons, or the apocalyptic one, where everything goes to hell in a hand basket.

I have to say I’ve never been so worked up about the ending to one of my stories in my life. I felt like I was going to tear up when I thought about my apocalyptic ending, which is brought on by an unexpected event. Should I go down the sad route? I thought over and over again. But then I realised that I didn’t really like that ending. Hell, I really didn’t like it and I didn’t think it fitted well with the story. So, I went with the happy one, which leaves unanswered questions. I always prefer books and films that leave you to discuss its ending with others till the end of time rather than have it spoon fed to me. I did write the apocalyptic ending out as well and I’m even more convinced I picked the right one. If ever gets published I’m sure I’ll be proved wrong.

Anyway, once this was done I decided to enter a competition. I had found one but misread the deadline date and it was the end of May 2014. Not 2015. Well done eagle eye. Although it didn’t take me long to find another short story competition to enter. And I can use an already written story for it as well! So now I’m back to editing. Again. Like always. The competition is the British Fantasy Society Short Story comp at www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk. 5,000 words and for any type of fantasy. Wish me luck.

Okay. Have a good week and do good things and all that.

Bye!

Time travel and moral ambiguity. Obviously?

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Hello

With my last post in mind I am still no closer to knowing what I would do if I knew when and how I was going to die. And no one else does either considering I didn’t get an answer to the question I posed last time. Yeah, I’m sticking with that for the reason why nobody answered it. I’ll sleep better if I do.

Anyway, I closer to the end of my sci-fi story. Well at least I think I am.

My hero Arthur had just woken up on the day of his death and was about to put his plan in motion. He did just that and it all went exactly as he wanted it to. But only if you forget about the explosive reaction of a certain someone within the government. That someone was watching him all the time and kidnapped him and took him to his lair. Makes my villain sound like the claw or something. He might be? I’ve taken Arthur to his final show down with the villain of the piece and I am enjoying writing it. I have said in the past that I mostly enjoy writing battle scenes but battles of will’s between hero and villain are actually pretty cool to construct in themselves as well.

So how did I end up having to develop moral ambiguity within my story?

This did creep up on me I have to say. I’m about half way through the ending of the story and my hero is faced with a problem. Should he let the government head honcho continue ruling as a secret dictator, which has made the UK very wealthy, or stop him completely and thus restoring the UK population to its free and sometimes reckless self. I’m not sure which way he should go. On the one hand my hero, who is only just beginning to live life the way he wants to after years of slogging away for seemingly nothing, could rule the UK and become an even further behind the scenes dictator of a dictator. On the other hand he could destroy said dictator along with the government and put the UK into potential chaos, but it would be a chaos that could lead to a better future without being pushed down by an iron fist the public currently don’t know anything about.

I got to this point all on my own and then I read a wonderful article by Alex Davis in the February edition of Writing Magazine that concerned character-building. There is a section about moral ambiguity that I seem to have covered all on my own. Though I have opened myself up to asking more questions and making sure I’ve got it right. I may even have to rewrite parts of the story so it will flow.

And with that in mind I’m going to go away and try and answer them. Once my story is finished I’ll post parts of it on here for your eyes to peruse. Or not. Your choice of course.

Bye Bye