Wednesday, February 23, 2005
The Lost Writing Week
And that was that. Yesterday was only one of two days I got to myself to write over the school holidays – and yesterday the kids all went back to school too! Nothing went as planned although it was great to spend so much time with Laura. She’s growing up too fast. I wish she could stay as she is but I know one day I will turn around and there she’ll be – driving away in her first car or going to meet her pals for a night on the tiles.
Laura and I shared some conversations over the course of the week. Private stuff I’m not going to share here, but unwittingly, she has revealed to me not just how grown up she is getting, but her feelings for me too. She laid some ghosts to rest for me; she’s only 7.
I have realised I am going to have to plan my writing better. I thought I had done this at the start of the week but now that I look back, it was all crap and I went about it the wrong way. One of my GDR’s is to reinforce my desire to write with family and friends and I think this is the root cause of the problem. I’m still not taken seriously enough – or I don’t feel as if I am anyway. This, I feel, is holding me back to a certain extent.
I’ve lost my way this month. I think my targets were too high and caused my to tighten up and think more about deadlines than about creating. Only in the last few days when I realised I wasn’t going to meet them all did the writing start to flow again. January was excellent, but February has not matched up at all. When March comes I will go intermediate and pace myself better. It’s trial and error but I need to find a balance or I’m going to get nowhere.
Perhaps this would be a good time to bring my Submission Tracker into the public domain once more and see where I stand...
Short Stories
The Blind Man Of Cathkin Street - on submission to Writing Magazine competition - announcement due next couple of months.
A Bond Of Faith - on submission to Sol Magazine since 13th August 2004 - needs to be chased up.
Heart of a Child - accepted by Wild Child for March 05 - undergoing edits
The Oasis - almost ready for submission
Poems
Robots - on submission to PNG Poetry since 24th Oct 04 (chase up)
8:41 - on submission to About The Arts since 7th Sep 04 (chase up)
Who Am I? - on submission to About The Arts since 7th Sep 04 (chase up)
Disposable Pen - on submission to Binnacle Compo since 30th Jan 05
Perfect Place - on submission to Binnacle Compo since 30th Jan 05
Lost Tears - waiting to be submitted
This list has stagnated over the last month. I need to get it churning again and get my prose to a completed state quicker.
We woke to a snow-covered Edinburgh this morning. Even Leith had its fair share of blanket coverage. As I gazed out the window of the bus to work at the white flakes still falling, Unfinished Symphony by Massive Attack came on my personal radio. A wonderful tune to match the mood of the day, but when I slipped on my arse going down Dublin Street I thought perhaps Looney Tunes music would have been more appropriate.
It took me the largest chunk of the working day to catch up with all my e-mails from the last week or so; 434 emails in my inbox!
Gail and I have been invited to a surprise 50th party, plus I have Laura and Gail’s birthday at the start of March, Mothers’ Day, my sister Fiona’s 30th and two days out for the rugby. I’d love a week on a beach.
A few of us in our writing group submitted short stories into the The storySouth Million Writers Award for Fiction 2004. Well, big congratulations go to my writing pal Mark Vender, whose story El Paraiso was voted a Notable Story of 2004.
Read this excellent piece at: The summerset Review - El Paraiso
3 Comments:
Regards,
Bobby Mackerel
Your sub list is impressive and your articles in KIC were awesome.
Now get back to writing!
Brenda
