Month: January 2016

The Magic of the Blank Page.

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Hello,

 

After being quite worried that I wouldn’t be able to find an idea for my first short story of 2016, I decided to just stare at a blank page. Will I get inspiration? Will I go blind? Will I learn to hate the non-colour of ‘white’?

None of the above. It just so happens that the blank page helped me to come up with my idea. I have tried to go into the exact science of it all but I’m not smart enough and I don’t like it when my brain hurts so I’m settling on this.

The blank page is made of magic.

I can only assume the blank page has always had magical powers. Probably stemming from when it was first created whoever knows when. It somehow has the muscle to either make you start writing a story or mess with your head to the point where a simple white page could drive you insane.

I glared at the mass of white in front of me and the story sprung to mind. Just like that. No problem. My story revolves around the hero Daniel who decides to leave for work ten minutes earlier than usual. Sounds boring doesn’t it? Well, I used that question as a challenge and it has propelled my story. ‘How can ten minutes make such a difference?’ Has already pushed Daniel to sleep with the neighbor, feel sorry for her ‘boyfriend’ (or, at least, that’s what he thinks he is), call in sick for work and to help an old man with his shopping. And all within the first two hours of his waking day. I’m going to build the stories up throughout his day but my sci-fi & fantasy writing nature is screaming for me to make this become a world-saving thing. Or not. Or do I just keep it to Daniel’s world and not involve anyone else?

safety_decisions

Or do I go a completely new direction? One I’ve never written before?

All in all, it’s a pretty cool set of solutions to consider to a few problems I’m having with my story. This time, last week I was afraid I would not be able to write anything brand new.  Now, I’m close to finishing it. Well, a bit closer. I’m not sure what my word count should be.

Before I get back to my story, I would like to thank the many members of the wonderful and very useful writers group ‘Kboards Fantasy Author’s Group’ through Facebook. Those who replied to my question have provided some valuable feedback and ideas. Thank You.

Bye!

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The joys of my own writing. For now, anyway.

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Hello,

For the past month or so I’ve been working on two things:

    NANoWriMo 2015

    Course work.

 

Both have now been completed. Well, the course has been completed for now. One assignment down and one exam to go (In April). I have enjoyed working on the assignment and I’ve learned a lot along the way but working in front of a computer all day and then coming home to…working in front of a computer is tiring and makes me hate my laptop.

This also made me absent from my blog. A thing that has eaten away at me during all the coursework that left me with a bad back and not wanting to be in front of my laptop. Oh, my laptop, I never thought I would hate the sight of you but the last few days I have. Sorry laptop (you’d think I’d have a name for him by now)

Anyway, all the time away has let me think about what I want to do with my 2016 writing wise. The first thing I thought about was finishing my NaNoWriMo story. But then I remembered that even after 50,000 words, I only around 1/3 through that story. And I need to make a lot of notes to make the story work and bring all the elements together. I worked mostly from memory with some notes but seeing how big the story will be, I might give a timeline or storyboard a try. What do you think?

What method works well when planning a large, and possibly epic, style story?

This story has been growing for years so I want it to work. But then I read the following quote:

Ray-Bradbury-quote

And I got to thinking. I want to enter more competitions in 2016 and to increase my following across my Blog, Twitter and Facebook feeds. These are my two initial goals for 2016. I’m aiming to push myself towards this by writing a short story each week. For as many weeks as I am able. Or can be bothered too if I’m honest. I do have ideas enough to write short stories with so I’m hoping that the first few will spark all the others. I’ll probably end up writing stories about people I see out and about. I’ll have to make sure to not look too creepy if I end up people watching for story ideas.

It’s good to get back into the blog writing groove. I look forward to 2016 and more of the same.

Thank you for your time.

Bye!