I’m not writing enough. That’s something that you’ll be seeing a lot on here. I want to. I have the inspiration. I have the work space. I have the time. So what the hell’s going on? Probably the fact that I have 3 jobs I’m trying to juggle at the moment, plus freelance stuff that pops up now and then, and let’s not forget the PhD that is racing into it’s final year with the first draft of the novel to be completed by October. And I’m tired, which will be another constant refrain.
Anyhoo! I took my short story that I’m working on to the Commonword Advanced Novelist Group last night. I got some great feedback, especially from the Mello man. And interestingly I didn’t take anything personally, it was all about the writing. I’m going to post what I’ve done so far just to track the changes, to see what happens with it as I edit and apply the feedback I’ve received. The bits in italics are actually my thoughts and shouldn’t be in the text in such a didactic manner, which I knew as I was re-reading it to myself. It’s the background information that the author should have but not necessarily needed for the story if the writing is strong enough. I can drip feed information as and when.
I was interested to learn that even writing in third person I need to follow one character. I did this in the first novel I wrote for my Masters, but then the feedback was that it should be in first person because the writing’s so close to the character. I will have to find the happy medium somewhere. And actually while I’m writing this I could be writing so I think I’d better get on with it!
Muli Amaye 