On writing ...

21 August

Today is Jan’s birthday; I won’t say how old she is seeing I’m such a gentleman, but it’s between 57 and 59. She’s sat doing bonsai stuff right now and won’t be doing much of anything at all for the rest of the day. When she arrived home last night she was shattered, but the day in Skegness went off well.

So many times I’ve read the advice to us writers that we should keep a note-book to hand, and like I’ve said before on here, I have them all over the place. That’s fine, but even so it’s not all the convenient when thoughts strike. Take last night after we had settled. Jan was off in the land of nod when out of the blue (a dark blue at that,) came a thought that I needed to make a note of.

Years ago we were members of a Baptist church in Dorktown. I was once asked to help remove and treat some dry rot that was found in front of baptistery pool. I was surprised as to how much space there was under the floor boards and the hard core covering the ground. As it was I couldn’t do the job, it was far too big for one man to even think about doing. Now then, the thought that arrived …

There I was getting closer to falling asleep when from nowhere came the thought that there was so much space under those floor boards that if anyone of a mind to do so, they could hide an explosive device under there, more than one actually. I knew I had to make a note of it otherwise it would gone as so many others have disappeared back to where they came from. But I didn’t want to put the light on and disturb Jan and without it I could see if I would writing over other notes I had made. The thought was saved by having a full blank page in the Ian Rankin I’m reading. The next thought following on from that is to get me a small night light for when it happens again – as it most surely will.

That Ian Rankin novel – it’s called Witch Hunt, and he wrote it under the pen name of Jack Harvey. It’s one of three, Bleeding Hearts and Blood Hunt, written under that name. I shall be looking for the others soon. According to the blurb the main character is Dominic Elder but the main action seems to be Michael Barclay. Perhaps in the second two they will become a working partnership with Elder training the younger Barclay. Whatever, reading the other two will be worthwhile. And anyway, it’s still Rankin and he’s always worth a read.

Arathusia then; I did get some writing done yesterday, around 2000 words I think. These bloody people who live there keep catching me out. Yesterday for instance one of the main guys has suddenly realised that their life as not so good as it should be considering how hard they work. Basically, I have two coastal communities, one relies on small ships for trading goods and services; the second lives pretty much hand to hand and depends solely on a bartering system. On top of that there is the inevitable corruption going on too.

I’m sure it will all work out eventually but as you may see from the above I don’t actually plan my writing. Everyone’s favourite Rowling does plan and there’s a large plan of her first effort doing the rounds on FaceBook again. I did try to plan out and Bristol Fashion the follow up to Shipshape, but I found it to be rather restricting. I still have the plan of course and I hope to be able bring the story to an end with that as a guide, not a rigid framework.

Right now though I’m concentrating on Arathusia and after it is finished I will go back to one of the others I have on the go. Not only is there the follow up but I also have a Fred Cooper on the go too. That one will need a lot more work though, really it needs a full re-write to make it worthwhile. As it is it’s full of holes, weak plots and poor writing. It does have some bits that are worthwhile keeping though, but it will need a lot of effort. It will get done eventually.

My first novel was The Mission, the story of a man who tries to show the police up for the wankers he sees them as. For some time he runs rings around them. He does get caught of course. Now I can go back to my note books … a few weeks ago, there I was lay in bed reading and the idea of a follow up came into my mind. AT the time of writing The Mission I had no thoughts on a follow up. AT least this time I made a note of the full first two paragraphs. But that one have to wait a long time to come into being.

And so for a photo … 

My dinner the other day, and very nice it was too. Those plum tomatoes are really tasty.

Today’s funny …

If all is not lost, where is it?