The person who makes words into stories

Recently, I read a blog post by fellow blogger, AliB where she made the analogy of being a writer to the Roman god, Janus, who faces both ways. With one eye looking outward, and the other inward facing.
And I began thinking about how much of a writer’s time is focused on the actual writing. It makes no difference whether you’ve taken yourself on the journey to self-publication or through a traditional publishing house. It’s a requisite that, as a writer, you will engage in self-promotion.
We’ve all got to start somewhere to forge that balance between writing with the public persona, and the introverted writer - stereotypical as we are! Normally, I’d be busy, tip-tip-tapping at the keyboard, but I’ve realised it’s not possible to get where I’m going if I keep facing in one direction, and here’s the second face. The one with an outward glance.
My writing goals, very much listed in order of importance:

1. Finish re-writing my historical novel. Through several levels of re-constructing, rewriting and editing.
2. Query aforementioned historical novel, before I…
3. Begin [to finish] my series of steampunk short stories, then…
4. Finish rewriting my science fiction novel.

You can see a theme recurring here. Lots of project hopping and not stopping to finish the writing process. And that’s what I intend to fix. Finish and query – an eye in the other direction, (the finishing post), and then I will be the person who makes words into stories.
Of course, there's much more to the public element than just looking toward the end goal, but it's a start, and besides, that's a whole 'nother series of blog posts!

Connecting with Writers

I am joining the Writers’ Platform Building Campaign. The idea is to connect bloggers, writers, and help build your own platform, whilst encouraging other bloggers.
It’s a wonderful way to meet and connect with other writers and industry professionals, and I love the idea of paying it forward.
You can sign up and find more details about this exciting event at Rach Writes blog.
I must admit to being ever so excited at making new writerly friends and discovering interesting bloggers.

Learning as a writer

Lately, I've been rewriting. In fact, to rephrase that, I've been learning how to rewrite the first draft. To do this, I've read several very good books on how to structure stories, craft, and I'm going to share my thoughts on these 'how to' books in the coming weeks and months, I'm sure.

For now, I'll just say that the information has helped me realise that not only do you have to sit down and type away, word after word, sentence following from the next, but there has to be a sound structure to the writing, otherwise, the story falls flat.

I have begun to notice this in the books I now read, and I hope that skill will transpose to my own ability to objectively edit my stories. I'm very much on a steep learning curve: one that I am enjoying, but also striving for perfection - is there ever such a thing in one's writing?

Rewriting as a Writer

This week I went back to the first draft of a novel I wrote three years ago. Yes. You heard. Three years. What on earth have I been doing while that one was stewing! Well, I’ve written other stuff, critiqued and edited short stories, got myself halfway through a literature degree, and moved twice.

And through it all, this story has been maturing on my hard drive, various pen drives and in hard copy, thoroughly rotting away in a large folder file.

The reason I’ve not gone further with it is because I’ve been stuck on the rewriting. I had never really fathomed out the process of putting together the strands of story to make a complete whole.

So, while I’ve had practice in writing, I’ve not had the necessary skills to pull it together. I’ve undertaken to fix that, and this week has been my first full week, writing and re-writing as a writer, instead of just writing stories.

I have a plan. I know where I’m going with it. And in the words of Jim Butcher, I’m desperately trying to make my way through that ever ‘swampy middle’.

A short break

After a short break, whilst spending some precious last few weeks with a dying relative, it seems strange to be sharing my writing life and my thoughts again. Although it feels as if I've been away for such a long time, in reality it's only about three weeks -- just as long as some summer vacations! Normal service is being resumed, and I have a couple of posts in the pipelines about books I've been reading, and what is helping me (finally) in understanding the writing process.

I also got my results back from the literature module I was studying, overall Grade 2 pass, which is as good as I expected. In addition, I passed my short introductory course on Shakespeare, and I look forward to the next module which begins in October.