Saturday, September 16, 2006
A Full Day's Writing
Got up, had coffee and wholemeal toast, and checked my email. Some great news! I am to be Poet of the Week at the Fringe Fantastic for the whole of next week. Wayhey!
No dancing (for Laura - not me) this week, so I went up town and headed into Waterstones. I knew what I was after, and found it after a wee browse round the reference, poetry and Scottish book sections. I came away with The Forensics Handbook by Peter Moore. It's a look at crime scene investigation techniques and forensic evidence gathering and analysis. It's not too scientific, and told mostly in layman terms to give me an idea and background for future stories.
Apart from the research side, it's a fascinating read and I sat with it drinking my coffee in my usual cafe for almost an hour.
I got home about lunchtime to discover, to my disgust, that even though I had asked for a Steak Bake in Greggs, they had given me Cheese and Onion pastie. I was less than enamoured. Once I had eaten and positioned the new plants in my aquarium I bought on the way home from town, I got to writing.
I did a quick web site update then got to work on number 5 of DE's The Scruffy Dog Review Blog exercises. This is the three article combination into one story.
This took a lot of thinking. I used the white board on my wall to map out various combinations and once I had settled on a good, baseline story, started to link it all together using bubbles and arrows . Slowly it came and then I began to write.
I had to keep referencing the stories and there was a wee bit of research involved as I chugged along, but by half past eleven at night, only stopping for cups of coffee, dinner, PC crashes, and to feed the animals, I finished it. It came in at 4100 words, and is called, Water of Leith.
I suddenly realised when I had finished, that I've written almost 10,000 words of fiction this week alone. Two things about this. Firstly, this is bloody excellent work. Secondly, I've got nothing to fear come November when NaNoWriMo begins.
My head is buzzing from all the concentration and work I put into the planning and execution of this story today, I doubt I'll have any trouble sleeping tonight.
No dancing (for Laura - not me) this week, so I went up town and headed into Waterstones. I knew what I was after, and found it after a wee browse round the reference, poetry and Scottish book sections. I came away with The Forensics Handbook by Peter Moore. It's a look at crime scene investigation techniques and forensic evidence gathering and analysis. It's not too scientific, and told mostly in layman terms to give me an idea and background for future stories.
Apart from the research side, it's a fascinating read and I sat with it drinking my coffee in my usual cafe for almost an hour.
I got home about lunchtime to discover, to my disgust, that even though I had asked for a Steak Bake in Greggs, they had given me Cheese and Onion pastie. I was less than enamoured. Once I had eaten and positioned the new plants in my aquarium I bought on the way home from town, I got to writing.
I did a quick web site update then got to work on number 5 of DE's The Scruffy Dog Review Blog exercises. This is the three article combination into one story.
This took a lot of thinking. I used the white board on my wall to map out various combinations and once I had settled on a good, baseline story, started to link it all together using bubbles and arrows . Slowly it came and then I began to write.
I had to keep referencing the stories and there was a wee bit of research involved as I chugged along, but by half past eleven at night, only stopping for cups of coffee, dinner, PC crashes, and to feed the animals, I finished it. It came in at 4100 words, and is called, Water of Leith.
I suddenly realised when I had finished, that I've written almost 10,000 words of fiction this week alone. Two things about this. Firstly, this is bloody excellent work. Secondly, I've got nothing to fear come November when NaNoWriMo begins.
My head is buzzing from all the concentration and work I put into the planning and execution of this story today, I doubt I'll have any trouble sleeping tonight.
Colin 11:33 pm