What I’d give to be British at the moment. Then I could use all those awesome expressions that sound utterly fantastic rolling off a British tongue than an American one. I mean, seriously – have you heard an American cry out, “Crikey!” or “Blimey!” It’s pretty awful. I tried it, myself. Not a pretty picture.
My writing issues seem to dog my steps no matter what I do. I’ve given “Benedict” an overhaul, and it looks to be on track, but I’m not feeling the story at the moment. So as a way of re-energizing those little gray cells (thank you, Poirot), I tried to do something completely unplanned and started writing a new story that’s not LGBT, and so far I’ve got around a thousand words written, and I’m enjoying the work so far.
Behold my chicken scratch!
Yep, I turned to my notebook and am writing the darned thing in longhand, which has been a pretty eye-opening experience that I both enjoy and loathe in equal measure. I enjoy it because I miss writing in longhand, and the process seems to flow more smoothly once I start moving my pen. I don’t know if that’s psychological or something that’s affected by the actual movement of pen on paper, but it’s a fantastic feeling. Plus I can take my work-in-progress everywhere with me.
The downside is that I can’t go back, delete stuff, and replace it with new text. I’m stuck scratching words and phrases out and squeezing their replacements in whatever available space is there. And above all, it’s an incredibly slow process since my wrist can only go so fast, and it can’t keep up with my thoughts as they flow the way my fingers can when I type.
That said, the story’s taking shape in ways that are unexpected, and I’m setting it aside because it looks as though this is shaping itself into a novel. Yeah, my first non-LGBT novel if things work out.
Considering the problems I’ve been having lately, I’m now wondering if I’m somehow resisting short fiction. I’d love to write short fiction and bulk up my backlist there, but every time I sit down at my desk, I either open the file for Helleville and tweak with it a little or I pull out my notebook and write a few more pages on my new story, which is untitled but I’m temporarily calling Molly Midwinter. I try to focus on “Benedict”, but my attention keeps drifting, and I’m not as enthusiastic as I am toward the two novels-in-progress.
So things continue to be pretty hairy hereabouts. And my current stint as a juror isn’t helping things out. I find that I can’t sit down and write once I’m back from the courthouse because it’s the wrong time of the day. :S At any rate, I’m still trying to fumble my way through things, and hopefully, by the time the trial ends, I’ve made some progress in one way or other.
