Sunday 22 November 2009

All Change

Next week looks manic. All of a sudden I have paid work commitments (hurrah!) and then my family are descending at the weekend for our annual pre-festive-season get-together. Which is all very well, but I was just getting going on the editing, and now it looks as if I'll have to put it down for a week, and yes I know the value of mulling periods but right now I don't want one, dammit!

The good news is that I've almost finished writing short stories for this year. I have two to edit and a few to sub, which will all be done in odd moments this week (mostly this afternoon, by the look of things) and then I can concentrate on the book whenever I have time to write for the next few weeks.

I find it quite hard working on the book and writing short stories at the same time. I'm learning a lot from the short story writing, so I reckon it's worth it, but I do resent the time I have to spend creating new characters and situations when I could be fiddling with something or other on the book. And there is so much to fiddle with, from the overall structure, through characterisation, to the scrutinisation of every word and image to decide whether it's optimal in context.

At present, it looks as if I'll be able to get back to the book next week, if all goes according to plan. And then I have, ssh don't tell anyone, two whole free weekends in a row, which is very rare in my life. So even if the weeks become busy, I should be able to treat myself to writing weekends.

I doubt I'll be blogging much, if at all, next week. I'll be running around the country - out of town every day, and two nights away - so forgive me if I don't appear in your comments boxes. Back in a week or so, and I'll do my best to catch up with your news then.

8 comments:

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Have a good time.

I need to spend far more time working on my short stories, as I'm pretty dire at writing them, but do enjoy it.

I'll be spending any free time this week dragging my novel to it's 50000 words for NaNo. Can't wait to be finished.

Carol said...

Blimey, it's all go!! I'm not surprised that your not going to be blogging much!!

Good luck with it all, have a lovely time with the family and make sure you make the most of your free weekends before Christmas is upon us and the whole country goes bonkers!!

C x

Lane Mathias said...

Phew - busy days!

You'll certainly appreciate those free weekends when they arrive.

Pat said...

I'm speechless at your diligence - writing short stories whilst working on the book although I have found this last week working on mine has inspired more blogging.
Have fun and remember what MTL always says - you're meant to enjoy it;)

Debi said...

Definitely much to celebrate here. Enjoy!

Shane said...

'resent' doesn't sound too good - maybe a bit of time away from it would be a good thing. I'm wondering what threshold of possible endings to all of this effort would please you. Amending, I hope you don't lose a sense of your telling the story/stories that you originally wanted to tell - I guess that's important in the game of sell. Safe travels, double-Q.

Jen said...

"Two free weekends'? No. Not you. Surely not. Happy Family-ing. I sometimes think enforced breaks are better than chosen ones, they seem to sharpen the mind. And pre-festive family stuff must generate something writeable, no?

Have fun X

Queenie said...

Thanks, everyone - I had LOTS of fun!