Wednesday, October 25, 2006
What Voice?
5.30am start today. Checked my email before I left for work and received a rejection from Zygote in my Coffee. Wished I hadn't bothered. Sang Save a Prayer by Duran Duran in my head all the way in to work. No moon yet. Streets dark, damp and drab.
First in the office again. Discovered that PrWeb have stopped doing free press releases. There are others I know of but this was the best one, despite the fact you never actually knew where it was going. Not having all that much money to put into marketing at the moment so this is a bit of a set back. So as yet, the second edition of Fringe Fantastic has yet to be publicised - when I thought the release went out on Monday. Typical.
Worked on my November column for The Scruffy Dog Review. There's rumblings we could be moving to a quarterly magazine due to the quality of subs and the pressure we all have with our other commitments. I reckon it would be a good move, not because I happen to be struggling each month but I think it would give us a better structure to promote and edit. See what happens. If November is scrapped then the column I currently have will become redundant.
Related to this is the interview I am doing with a well known Scottish poet. I'm still waiting for a date so I ran through all the stuff I have prepared for it. I'm not sure there is enough questions, but then as has happened in the past, too many means you don't get through them all because you end up talking about loads of other stuff you never considered. I'm confident enough with the whole thing. Looking forward to it but just need a date now.
Re-wrote Only a Bagel giving the characters more in the way of motives, thereby explaining why they are in the situation they find themselves. Also gave more senses a mention to enrich the prose. I'll send it back out shortly.
Worked more on the Slick synopsis for NaNoWriMo. There are some important things missing; believable characters, scene setting (it dives right in), and I am swithering whether to make the detective who gets involved be DI Lennox, the copper that has come to life in a couple of my short stories recently. Could be a good way of getting to know him without him being a main character.
I feel like writing a rant about something but nothing is coming to mind.
Doing well with Rankin's The Flood; into the last third of the book. I want to begin Paul Auster's The Brooklyn Follies this week. Reason being, to give me two fresh examples of writing in third and first voice. Originally I was going to write Slick in first person, but now I'm not so sure.
First - immediate, personal, active and the reader becomes the protagonist. Reader will not see anything else that is going on round about; only what the protaganist sees. I've not done much of this but when I have, I've really enjoyed it.
Third - easier to switch between the protagonist, the police and if needed, the villains. Ability to see other things going on the protaganist is not aware of. Most of my writing has been in this style and it's what I've worked on hardest to improve.
First (for protagonist) with third (for others) - hard to accomplish. But I always said since NaNoWriMo was an experiment I should try something experimental. Would be able to mix the benefits of involving the reader (first) while being able to introduce tension via the omniscient third point of view.
I'll need to think harder about this and come up with a decision soon. Reading these two masters of these styles of writing should help me make up my mind.
First in the office again. Discovered that PrWeb have stopped doing free press releases. There are others I know of but this was the best one, despite the fact you never actually knew where it was going. Not having all that much money to put into marketing at the moment so this is a bit of a set back. So as yet, the second edition of Fringe Fantastic has yet to be publicised - when I thought the release went out on Monday. Typical.
Worked on my November column for The Scruffy Dog Review. There's rumblings we could be moving to a quarterly magazine due to the quality of subs and the pressure we all have with our other commitments. I reckon it would be a good move, not because I happen to be struggling each month but I think it would give us a better structure to promote and edit. See what happens. If November is scrapped then the column I currently have will become redundant.
Related to this is the interview I am doing with a well known Scottish poet. I'm still waiting for a date so I ran through all the stuff I have prepared for it. I'm not sure there is enough questions, but then as has happened in the past, too many means you don't get through them all because you end up talking about loads of other stuff you never considered. I'm confident enough with the whole thing. Looking forward to it but just need a date now.
Re-wrote Only a Bagel giving the characters more in the way of motives, thereby explaining why they are in the situation they find themselves. Also gave more senses a mention to enrich the prose. I'll send it back out shortly.
Worked more on the Slick synopsis for NaNoWriMo. There are some important things missing; believable characters, scene setting (it dives right in), and I am swithering whether to make the detective who gets involved be DI Lennox, the copper that has come to life in a couple of my short stories recently. Could be a good way of getting to know him without him being a main character.
I feel like writing a rant about something but nothing is coming to mind.
Doing well with Rankin's The Flood; into the last third of the book. I want to begin Paul Auster's The Brooklyn Follies this week. Reason being, to give me two fresh examples of writing in third and first voice. Originally I was going to write Slick in first person, but now I'm not so sure.
First - immediate, personal, active and the reader becomes the protagonist. Reader will not see anything else that is going on round about; only what the protaganist sees. I've not done much of this but when I have, I've really enjoyed it.
Third - easier to switch between the protagonist, the police and if needed, the villains. Ability to see other things going on the protaganist is not aware of. Most of my writing has been in this style and it's what I've worked on hardest to improve.
First (for protagonist) with third (for others) - hard to accomplish. But I always said since NaNoWriMo was an experiment I should try something experimental. Would be able to mix the benefits of involving the reader (first) while being able to introduce tension via the omniscient third point of view.
I'll need to think harder about this and come up with a decision soon. Reading these two masters of these styles of writing should help me make up my mind.
Colin 11:19 am