Monday 16 March 2009

Weekend Break

Had a writing free weekend, visiting friends in Jersey. It was wonderfully relaxing, although I was a bit hungover on Saturday. Spent some time trying to play computer games and generally failing to be any good. I wasn't too bad at Guitar Hero though…
I'd meant to get back to work on the book this evening but went to a screenwriting presentation at Warner Bros. I didn't get back until after 9.00 and what with having dinner and watching the news on TV, time just seems to have slipped away this evening. Had to do some invoicing for the day job and send a couple of email, that's why I'm on the computer, so I thought I'd just quickly update my blog.
Really must sit down to work on the novel tomorrow evening. 1000 words, hopefully more and I'll be well happy.
Cheers.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Liar's League

Have been writing this evening - hooray!
Didn't get as much done as I'd hoped - booo!

Was out last night, to a meeting of the Liar's League in central London and what a great evening it was. Liar's League is an event where writers submit short stories on a certain subject - last night it was Art & Science - and actors read the chosen stories out. Rather than just read them, they kind of perform them, really bringing the stories to life, capturing and expressing the 'voice' of the narration. For those of you that remember 'Jackanory', it's a bit like that, except it's in a pub, so a lot more fun. And the stories are more grown up too.
It's all very informal and highly entertaining, so if any of you are interested, I'd certainly recommend you go along. Although having said that, I think they may need a bigger venue soon, as last night was pretty crowded. We were lucky though, we managed to get some seats.

If you're interested, here's a link to the Liar's League for more info:
http://liarsleague.typepad.com/

As they say:
Writers write. Actors read. Audience listens. Everybody wins.
Good stuff.

Monday 9 March 2009

Go Slow

I had hoped to really get stuck in to writing this evening, especially as I had a good day yesterday. Unfortunately, today was a much slower day. It just felt like a real effort. Perhaps it's just a Monday thing? Maybe I ought to have stuck at it for longer yesterday, while I was really with it?
Anyway, only managed about 500 words this evening, which isn't fantastic, especially as I was hoping to hit at least 1000. Still, if it ain't gonna happen, it ain't gonna happen.
I'm out tomorrow evening, so not sure if I'll manage to do any further work, but who knows - if I get in and I'm in the mood, I shall certainly have a crack. If not, then I hope my mind will be more agile on Wednesday and that I'll manage 1000 words with more ease than this evenings paltry 500.
Speak to you again soon.

Sunday 8 March 2009

I'm back

Okay, so I haven't actually been away anywhere. I've just been busy and bad at sitting down to blog. I fully intended to on a few occasions but it always ended up being too late and I was too tired to write anything.
Tonight the time's getting on but I thought I would make a concerted effort to get back into the swing of it and hopefully better keep a record of my progress with the novel.
For the last week or so, I've been a little preoccupied with working on a screenplay. So far I've written the first draft of Act 1. The feedback has been good and I'm hoping I'll manage to tighten things up and improve it in the second draft. Anyway, that's what's kept me busy and unfortunately away from working on the book.
Today however, I woke up and got back to working on the novel. I read over four or five pages of the last section I'd written, to get back to where I was at with the story but I'd left things in the middle of events that I'd already mapped out in my mind, so I managed to get into it fairly smoothly. I worked on one particular scene today and managed to work through 1000 words, finishing on almost 1500 for the day, which isn't too bad.
The evening has kind of runaway though. I did think that I might pick up and try to carry on tonight but that hasn't happened. I ended up watching TV.
I am raring to go for tomorrow. I'll get straight into it when I finish working at the day job, the one that pays the bills.
I think the end of the first draft is coming in to sight. I've heard that things begin to speed up a little as you near the finish and I think it's true. Knowing that you're close to finishing a book, is a great incentive to work a little harder. Once the first draft is finished though, there's still the prospect of doing some research to fill a few holes and a complete re-edit of the first draft.
I'm looking forward to tackling these though. For me, the real writing will be done as the first draft becomes the second.
I better get off to sleep now. It's been good rambling on here - for me anyway.
All the best.