Two Months In

I was hoping to really get serious about writing this year, but so far? It's been a little bit of a bust. Not completely, of course, but work has been terrible since the first of January and it's making things really hard writing-wise. However, I have had my holiday in Australia and now the house is empty of all guests, so even though university starts back tomorrow and work is still a living hell...it's time to be serious.

I have two projects I want to work on over the next month, and I'm going to start this afternoon. I am about to go for a long walk to clear my mind, as that's when things tend to start to gel for me, and after that...I will come back and start doing two things.

The first writing project for the month is a short story for this competition. One of the other writers in our local speculative fiction writing group is also entering, so hopefully we can give each other a bit of encouragement and feedback and whatnot. I had intended to start it while I was in Western Australia, but because of the stress of work and other things, I spent most of the holiday pretty much just vegetating. Which of course isn't necessarily a bad thing, but as I had also wanted to work on the second project...never mind. While I was away I did come up with a basic story idea that I am going to flesh out this afternoon. I'll create the .doc and start sketching in some shapes, basically; I just need to get a feel for the thematic push of the story, and then I need to hear a bit of the voices of the two lead characters. It's basically about two young girls, and the way family and tradition and culture can both create and destroy lives. I keep having to remind myself that I only have five thousand works in which to do this, gah.

The second project is my NaNo -- I really, really want to make the final push on the first draft of The Juniper Bones. I was thinking about the ending sequence on my walk yesterday afternoon, and I am pretty sure now I know what I want to do. Although I printed out what I have of the third part of the novel with the intention of editing and brainstorming while on plane rides and then didn't do much, while I was on holiday I did become a bit clearer on what Wills Penrose was doing and why. And that, combined with my revelations about Chaesha yesterday...yeah. I know what I want to do, now. It's just a matter of doing it.

I've also commissioned an artist friend of a forum friend to do me a picture of Morgan and Baedeker on their wedding day; it was a bit of a lark, but as it turns out I am really loving her style from what I have seen so far. I am now considering other things I'd like her to draw; I'd love a picture of Tess, Eliot and Lavinia, and of Erik and Rowan, and then one of Chaesha, Janerin, Inamoran and Amanita. Hell, I'd probably love Jeramie and Kiriana in her style, too. We'll see. Right now...I just need to get back into the writing side of things. Here goes!