My brain is full of STUFF

Writing night this week was tough! I've just started a new job and so my head is crammed full of information. Coming home at night from the new commute and sitting down and concentrating on writing was really difficult. AND I'd run out of any useful 'writing aids' such as Maltesers or Baileys!

So I didn't do much but I did so *something*, and *something* still counts. I focused on the short story again (the 'fish' and 'escaping' one). I finished up the words at the end, so now I have a complete first draft! And I tentatively titled it Piscky's Ascent.

Like always I have this immediate burst of enthusiasm when finishing a short story draft. It's brilliant! Beautiful! I must share it with the world right now! But - I am going to put Piscky's Ascent aside and get some distance before approaching it for editing. And when I do, I'd like to go in with some critical questions. What critical questions, though? That's what I need to figure out. Or Google.

I reckon there must be, like, 5 key questions you can ask as you edit, and the answers tell you what needs fixing and what needs finetuning.

Any ideas? Or maybe I'm trying to find the easy way out when there is none...

In other topics, we should say our respectful farewells to Mr Salinger. He wrote a pretty important book. I don't know much about the guy (does anyone?) except he was incredibly reclusive, so I hope he's at peace now.

I'm slowly making my way through It by Stephen King. It's a mahoosive book - practically square - that I find it difficult to hold in the tube! One of the chapters I just read is like an essay written by one of the characters, and it starts with the question: what if a whole town was haunted? I reckon it's the very question Stephen King asked himself as inspiration for writing this book.

My other reading material recently has been fashion & beauty blogs. My latest evening time-waster. I just love browsing product reviews and shopping updates. It's all quite girly and frivolous and fun. I'm a huge shopper at heart - I only just keep myself in check, to be honest - so these blogs are kind of dangerous!

Second book of 2010

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie.

In 1971, during Mao's cultural revolution, 2 sons of doctors are sent to be 're-educated' by living with peasants in a mountain village. They meet the daughter of a local tailor and both fall in love with her, and with Western literature when they get their hands on a suitcase of illicit novels (all books banned at the time). Various little scenes and adventures abound.

The writer was apparently 're-educated' himself, and left China to live in France in 1984. The book was translated by Ina Rilke. I found this quite a nice read, feeling like I was reading a folk tale. I wish I had read some of the books the boys found - some Balzac for instance! - as I think that'd add another dimension to the story.

Onto book 3 now - It by Stephen King. This massive brick of a book is quite hard to hold! But it needs to be read. Borrowed it from Notwelshman.

I have quite a few books on the menu now thanks to my incredibly thoughtful ex-workmates, who snuck onto my Amazon wish list and got me a selection for my leaving pressie! Bless them. I'm so excited about getting into some of these!

Thoughts on a Thursday

I can't believe I only have 2 days left in my current job - it's quite weird to think next week I will be starting a new one. Looking forward to next week! Although I'm excited about starting a new job, I always dislike the first week as you usually don't *do* anything...! It's all setting up computers & email and reading employee handbooks and meeting people (and forgetting their names) and so on.

So, because we had girls' night last night, I had my writing night on Tuesday instead. I sat down with that 'Escaping Fish' short story and hammered out the rest of the first draft. All that's missing are the last few lines. But I've been thinking about the story and will probably rearrange some of the structure. I think I made an amateur approach to it in that I withheld some info from the reader until the end. I've decided I don't need to hide it; actually it will have more impact if I reveal the info before the end, so the reader will be fully informed of what the characters are doing in the last moments and what the implications are.

After I finished that draft, I tried to write more on In Finding, but found it hard to switch brains. So I'll probably pick that up again in the weekend. I'm still a little under 40 k words on that - I wrote quite a lot last weekend, but I also removed an entire scene! Argh, I hate going backwards! Although I did put together a list of 'things that need to happen' / scenes for the story, and I'm not sure in which order they should go. I guess I need to think more about how one thing could affect another thing, etc.

I also made a list of the short stories I want to complete:

- Escaping Fish
- Dancing at the Lilac Orchid (already done, needs rewrite)
- A Slice of Soul (already done, also needs rewrite, have to find the tension)

I think once I have those 3 to a point where I am mostly happy, I will rejoin the OWW (sci-fi & fantasy online writing workshop) and post them for review. And of course, start reviewing other people's work too. I have been a member of the OWW on-and-off since 2002 and think it has been invaluable for improving my writing. Learning how to crit another person's story will always help your own.

Good health

I've just been for a swim!

There's a pool right round the corner from our flat. Duffy has been before, and inspired by him, I bought a new swimsuit & cap on Saturday (v. cheap - from Sports Direct or whatever it's called - £8.24 total!) and went along tonight. The pool is a council one, nice and clean, and not too busy nor too tiny. I guess it's 25m or 33m long. This is a marvel, considering we live in London. Considering how few pools there are in the UK. I was browsing the profiles of all the swim instructors - 75% of them are Australian. A lot more pools in Oz!

I feel so good now. I love that whole body jellyish feeling you get after a good swim. You don't realise how hard you're working out, when you don't feel the sweat building. And the other bonus is that it's no-impact, so I can do all this cardio work without hurting my silly knees.

I am definitely going back for more.

I haven't done any good cardio work at the gym recently, due to sore feet. And I want to make sure I don't turn into pudge now I've moved in with Duffy! :P I have this idea that when a couple moves in together, the guy eats better and the girl eats worse!

the road on the big screen

I saw The Road last night. (It has just been released here in the UK. I hate how movies take 17 million years to get to this country after being released everywhere else).

When I saw the trailer for the movie a few months ago, I was super doubtful. It looked... colourful. The book is grey. How could they translate this book into a film? It's the best story I've read in the last 3 years. So I felt a little protective.

Well, Mr Director Man, I apologise. And Mr Screen Writer Man. You did good. Real good. This is possibly the best book adaptation I've ever seen. True to the book, evoking all the same responses and absorption. I was really impressed.

I loved it.

So, here's an interview with Cormac McCarthy about the movie -- the Wall St Journal managed to wrangle an interview from the private fellow -- alongside John Hillcoat, the director. It's a really great interview, about themes and writing and turning books into movies and apocalypses and fatherhood and luck... so do read it.

And here is Cosmo Landesman's review in the Sunday Times, which is on-the-button.

first book of 2010

The Fire Gospel by Michael Faber

Theo is an Aramaic scholar who discovers nine previously hidden scrolls in a bombed Iraqi museum, and he promptly steals them for translation and publication. The scrolls are a 2,000-year-old gospel, written by Malchus, an associate of Jesus. And he has some new and real things to say about the man, particularly of his last days and the crucifixion.

I first discovered Michael Faber from the Bustees! Back in the day we had a bookclub thread on the forum, and his book The Crimson Petal & the White was one of the books we read for it. I found it long and, to be honest, kind of boring. Following that, I read his novella Under the Skin (hmm, just checking Amazon, the title proclaims it to be a novel. I remember it as a lot shorter than that!) Under the Skin is still my favourite so far - dark, creepy, speculative, an unfurling story - highly recommended.

I like his writing style; it's very readable, balanced and easy. I liked the dark humour in The Fire Gospel, plus the (even if snarky) insight into life as an author, post-publication. E.g., Theo obsessively checks his book's sales reports on Amazon and reads the Amazon reviews (although I did think the book contained too many of the reviews that Theo peruses). I also loved Malchus's ridiculous prose, his self-absorption and bodily ailments, plus the downright deliciousness blasphemy of his accounts of Jesus. According to Malchus, his last words on the cross are: "Somebody please finish me."

But the story itself feels thin and patchy and I felt though it didn't really go anywhere. Meagre character development. At least it's a short book - another novella passing itself off as a novel? - so easy to get through. I found out after reading that it's a retelling of the Prometheus story.

the time to train for any athletic feat is before, not after

A break in the writing today (lots of reading & editing, and a few new words, on In Finding).

This is a neat video from the Wellcome Collection -- a medical & science museum in London that's very close to where my new job is. "Childbirth as an Athletic Feat" (1939) shows a class of expectant mothers practising ante-natal exercises.

"fish" and "escape"

The scene outside my window at work is very pretty today: the graveyard covered in a light blanket of snow, with the winter yellow sun shining through the trees. Trails of fox prints through the headstones.

Two weeks left here and then I'll be starting my new job - very exciting!

Yesterday I wrote about half of a new short story, which was born out of prompts from my also-a-writer colleague Geoff ("fish" and "escape"). Love the rush of a new story idea. Title for this one will be something about climbing.

The evil television

After writing, I watched an episode of Celebrity Big Brother. Think it's an interesting dynamic between celebs because they expect everyone around them to know who they are and their body of work. Quite a few "look at me now" sorts of comments, and some barely-covered-by-polite-faces that say, "I can't belieeeve you didn't know that about me"...

Then I saw a TV ad for Ready Brek which has the leek spinning song on it. Which prompted more visits to the leekspin site and watching videos on YouTube!

There's a Basshunter remix of Leekspin here! (a nice connection, seeing as Mr Basshunter himself is in Celebrity Big Brother)

And here's the band singing the original song, a traditional Finnish folk polka:




Hypnotic and catchy, right? Right? Or is just me, obsessed by leekspin. I'm going to try and find the Basshunter remix to download.

More for 2010:

So, I want to do some Good Reading this year, of Important and Interesting books that I Haven't Read Before. Might build myself a reading list and tick them off as I go. Here's what I got so far:

(Currently reading) The Fire Gospel by Michael Faber

Dune by Frank Herbert

It by Stephen King

A new year, new hope imbued. Flow with it, while you can!

Happy new year!

I just finished reading a lovely book that my work secret santa got me: Orscon Scott Card's Writing Science-Fiction & Fantasy. It's well written, with good useful stuff in it, inspiring me to sit down and write. A tad out of date - 1990! - but worth a read just for that push to write. Thank you, santa!

I'm thinking maybe I need to read a "words of writerly wisdom" type book every couple of months. It'll be like a metabolic hit to the writing muse. Keep her in gear.

Shall we set some new year resolutions? Whenever I set them, they're always about writing. And I always fail! But, hey, in keeping with tradition...

This year:

- I want to submit stuff for publication.
- (That means) I want to write some short fiction.
- And, I want to finish at least the first draft of In Finding.

In order to maintain my enthusiasm and participation and achieve these, I'm doing the following:

- Writing every Wednesday evening, at least
- Subscribing / following online SFF magazines (Clarkesworld and Strange Horizons so far)
- Reading more "how to" books??

There's a lot of other things I'm thinking about doing, that I should do. But "should do lists" have the propensity to grow exponentially. So I'm not going to write that and then feel sad when I fail to achieve it all.

And a report on my recent writerly activity:

• Started writing a query letter for In Finding. I'm doing this as a tool to help me define the story and make sure I'm creating the strongest story it can be.
• Approached revision of short story, Dancing at the Lilac Orchid. Will start rewriting this tomorrow now - think I might switch it to first person POV, but will see how that goes.