Look at me, all ready for study. Yep, I’ve started an MA. This is going to be a busy couple of years – but exciting ones as well 
(And that’s also the new carpet in my study – it’s so nice not to have the threadbare old thing in there any more.)
It seems I’m going back to the bullet pointed goal list. This isn’t all that’s happening – I have some other things up my sleeve – but it will hopefully get me focused.
Goals:
April was the return to short stories, and it’s been a pretty good month. I completed ‘Millie’ and submitted it, and submitted another short as well. I also wrote the full first draft of ‘The Barrier’ and picked up and completed a draft of ‘Fighting the Invisible City’ which I used for my crit group meeting. The feedback surprised me somewhat – people found ‘The Barrier’ more confusing than I thought. Nothing that can’t be fixed relatively easily, but it just goes to show the value of an outsider perspective, because both the city I live in and the communities I associate with meant that some things I thought were obvious really weren’t. And whilst ‘Fighting the Invisible City’ certainly needs some work, it seems to be a fair bit closer to complete than I thought.
I started on a few things as well. A co-written story about Ants which started off science fiction but became increasingly literary, a science fiction ghost story and a post-apocalyptic setting with fairies. I have plenty of plans for May, but more on that shortly
It’s been a while since I did a meme. This one comes via Cassie.
How to Play: Comment to this entry and I’ll give you a letter. List ten things that you love that begin with that letter and then post that list on your journal.
My List: Ten Things I Love That Begin With The Letter T
These things are always surprisingly hard, I find (and I’m not going to cheat and precede everything with the definite article, because I’m good like that…). Okay, here goes:
The list of nominated works for the Sir Julius Vogel awards is out now. It includes Tales for Canterbury in the best collected work category
We do still have some copies left for sale – and we’d love to clear them all before the rights to sell it end in the middle of the year. So consider this your nth gentle reminder.
And as for me, I’d better get on with some reading…
The writing binge has slowed a little, but I’m still making good progress. I’ve finished the first draft of ‘The Barrier’ and sent it out to my crit group. ‘Ants’ – the co-written story – is most of the way through the first draft, and we’ll be working on that more this weekend. I’m spending most of my time on ‘Space Train’, which is going to be an interesting one to place – on the surface it’s near-future science fiction, but at its heart it’s a ghost story.
I’ve been thinking about style a fair bit. A couple of people at my crit group meeting last month mentioned that ‘Millie’ had quite a different feel to it compared to much of what I’d previously written. I’ve been having similar thoughts for the past few months. It started with ‘Blueprints’ really – I got the voice of a character in my head and her story pretty much just spilled out. Whilst later pieces of work haven’t come quite so easily, the process and the result has been quite similar in ‘Millie’ and ‘The Barrier’. Actually, looking back, ‘Disaster Tourism’ had a lot of the same hallmarks, but that was quite isolated at that time.
I know a lot of writers have trouble pinpointing their style. Whilst finding the words can be difficult, I’ve never really had that trouble; I’ve always been quite clear about how I write, the positive and the negative. So this change is unnerving me a fair bit – though overall I think it’s a very good thing for my writing.
So what characterises how I’m writing now?
These don’t go to the heart of it, of course, but I think this is a useful exercise in keeping track of where my writing is going.
I really am at the moment, and loving it. So many projects, and some of them coming together really well – the only downside is too little time.
So, what am I working on at the moment?
I haven’t started on editing Millie yet, but I’m not particularly worried about getting it done. I just need to sit down with a clear head and a printout and get on with it. I don’t have a new title but I have a couple of passable ideas if nothing else comes up.
My main project is a short story I’m calling ‘The Barrier’ for now. It’s about modern day fairies, and I have a themed market in mind, though it may not end up quite what they’re looking for (and possibly too long as well). I started thinking ‘what do fairies do’ ‘hmmm, they live at the bottom of the garden’ ‘so I wonder what they think about subdivisions and infill housing then…’ and it all went from there. It’s set in places I know well, has some characters I love and I guess if we were going for big themes it would be about the destructive effect of prejudice and the conflict between traditions.
I’m also experimenting with co-writing another story (not even a working title yet, but at least some ideas). I’m not sure how this will go – I think working with someone who has different strengths to my own could be exactly what I need to give my writing a bit of a kick. That said, I don’t always play so well with others… but there’s no harm in giving it a go.
Also on the cards – a call for submissions I’d love to write for but am yet to come up with an idea, Fighting the Invisible City – which I need to get back to and take a thorough look at where it’s going and ‘Of the Rock’ which I just need to get on with really. I also have a creative non-fiction piece in progress – talking of which I am so pleased to see duotrope is looking at including creative non-fiction in the near future. That might be just what I need to get back into that genre again 
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