Friday, May 25, 2007

Thinking about writing again

The novel has rather ground to a halt. Not because I have run out of inspiration, but because life has got seriously in the way, as it has a nasty tendency to do around here.

Knowing that the next two months are going to be a hectic mix of work (the sort that pays!), study for my OU course and of course my normal caring duties, which are increasingly complicated at present, I have decided to put the novel to one side until August. Or perhaps not completely to one side.

I still have confidence in my story idea and characters, but I think perhaps I need to do just a little more planning. In the light of that I may well go back and restructure the chapters I have already completed. I think now will be a good time to juggle a few more ideas around without actually having to commit them to paper.

In the meantime, I am doing some more reading on writing. I had heard so much about Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and even looked at it in Borders one day, yet chose to buy something else. Anyway, this week I got my hands on a cheap copy. So whilst waiting at son 1's clinic appointment yesterday I started to read it and it is so much better than I had expected. Slightly quirky, yes, but great fun.

Then today I received in the post a copy of 'Wannabe a Writer?' by Jane Wenham-Jones, Writing magazine's columnist , which promises to be just as good and is, of course, written from a British point of view. Full of not only Jane's own wisdom, but quotes from many other writers and publishing professionals.

I'm going to enjoy dipping into these books over the long bank holiday weekend.

3 comments:

Anne Brooke said...

Yes, sometimes it's good to have a break from the big projects and come back later - refreshed!

Hugs!

A
xxx

Jan said...

Sometimes it's all there, simmering!

Cathy said...

Oh it's definitely simmering Jan...and if I don't get time to get it out one day, it will probably boil over!