I have just had confirmation that my short story, 'I Wish I Could Be Like' has been accepted for use in a Talking Newspaper tape for South Tyneside.

It's payment with a copy of the tape, but it's a start!

I am a happy bunny. Now to get started writing again!

It's done! I have completed. Now I just need to read it and see if it's any good or if it's self-indulgent tranny crap. And then get other people to read it to confirm my opinion. Well, if it's the former. If it's the latter, ain't no-one else gonna get their mitts on it.

And, to celebrate, I'm going out dressed tonight. I tried for the last two weeks, but life kept getting in the way. But tonight, it's definitely happening!

Anyway, have a word count:

19,717 / 19,717 (100.0%)

I've managed to do some writing every day. I'm so proud of myself! I think if I manage to keep this up for another week, I'll have finished this story. And then it'll be on to the next novel...

6,246 + 7,414 (118.7% more)

9,212 + 1,546 (16.8% more)

ETA: I've just done another 550 words in addition to this. I'd do more but I need to go to bed...

Three days!

7,950 + 734 (9.2% more)

That's twice in two days! Does this mean I'm getting back in the swing of things? Only time will tell... I don't know how long this story has to go. I think I'm about a third to half way. We shall see...

Two Households

7,246 + 704 (9.7% more)

One good thing about being up this early in the morning. It gives me a chance to do some writing. Which is nice. I've been working on my crossdressing short story. I doubt it's particularly publishable, but I kind of need to get it out my system.

Anyway, have a metric:

Two Households

6,246 + 1,019 (16.3% more)

I've just been re-reading what I have written of a short story that I started back in July but never got any further with. It's the latest in my series of attempts to write a story that includes transvestism as a major plot point. I know that I have a 'transvestite novel' in me that I want to write, but I don't know when I'll get to it. Especially when you consider how long it takes me to write anything (appallingly, I haven't written anything of any substance this year. There was 11 pages of this short story and a couple of thousand words of what I intend to be the next novel, but god knows when I'll actually be able to sit down and do some proper writing.)

Anyway, I quite liked what I'd written and it sparked memories of where I was going with it. It had a voice similar to I Wish I Could Be Like although with fewer music references.

I've got a couple of weeks off over Christmas, including a few days when both Candy and Max will be back at school, so maybe I'll try and do something with it then. I'd certainly like to, if only to keep up my pretence to myself that I am actually a writer.

I've just had another reply back from an agent - and another rejection. That makes five so far. I'll keep looking though. And I'll keep writing.

I actually started writing again on Sunday - I decided to try and do a bit longhand to see if that helped at all and, also, because writing longhand is really quite enjoyable and something I don't do enough. I got (literally) one sentence written before visitors arrived... Oh well, at least it was a good sentence.

Reading matociquala's entry on how to be an idiot when you get a rejection letter, has finally given me the impetus to actually write something. That's combined with finally being not as busy here at work as I have been for the last three months. So, I've actually done some writing this lunch time.

And, in celebration, I'll do one of these:

Gaius Maximus(Working title)

New Words: 498
Total Words: 498
Pages: 1

498 / 100,000 (0.5%)

And those 498 words don't include the 50 or so I had already written. Or at least, it includes several of those words and some of the sentences but in different places to where they were before. 'Cos the places they were in were crap.
And no, as is obvious by the fact that I'm starting five days before it starts, I have no intention of doing nanowrimo. Or Novel in 90 or anything foolish like that. It'll be Novel In However Long It Takes (NIHLIT?). Although, hopefully, it won't take six years this time.

You will all be glad to know that I have just written the first 83 words of the new novel... I still haven't got a title for it yet, but that will come, I'm sure.

Hoorah!

For the last few days I've been kind of blocked with my writing. I knew what I wanted to write (it's an addition to the end of the book that I figured was necessary), but I was opening up the document, looking at it and going 'urgh'. I just didn't have it in me to write anything.

However, coming into work this morning (on the Metro, I'm also not in the mood to cycle at the moment. Can you see a pattern forming?) I came up with the opening line of the bit. (Bit? Segment? Excerpt? Section? Bit.) It's partly due to going to Simon Morden's launch for his book The Lost Art last night. One of the questions was about what to do when stuck. To which the reply was to quote from Raymond Chandler: "When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand". Simon said big explosions were equally good for breaking deadlocks. So, my opening sentence for this bit is: "Paré burned". And then I got 996 words to follow it. And they're pretty good, I think. I've got one more bit to write and then I need to re-write the end, and I think I know what I'm doing for both of them.

By the way, Simon's book seems to be rather good - I'm only about 10 pages into it, but they're a good ten pages. And it starts with a big explosion and a fire. And my copy was the first one he signed! Yay! That'll make it worth something when he's rich and famous! And, if I'm rich and famous at the same time, it'll make it worth even more, 'cos it's coming out of my own personal library...

And, I've succumbed. I'm on Facebook now. If you know my real name, you can find me under that. If you want to know, ask me and I'll tell you... Although I haven't yet worked out what use it is. Especially considering I've just deleted my Myspace account.

You may have noticed that I haven't been writing much again the last few weeks. This is down to extreme busy-ness.
( Read more... )

It's been a few days since I last posted anything other than pretty but otherwise pointless world maps. So, I shall rectify that forthwith with random thoughts and observations about what I've been doing the last few days and anything else that comes along. There will, almost undoubtedly, be some talk about writing. Be warned...
( I'll put it behind a cut, to avoid cluttering up your Friends lists. )

I finally seem to be getting into the swing of this story, although I don't yet have a title for it. It'll come, eventually. Hopefully.
( Writery wank and some self-promotion )

I didn't write today. Well, I did, but it wasn't narrative. Over the weekend, various ideas about the story started to come together and I sat down (well, I was already sitting down at my desk, so I remained seated) and wrote them down and tried to put them in some sort of order and come up with some kind of cohesive story. I have something now, we'll have to see whether it's any good or not. It looks like it's going to be a short story or a novella, judging from the plot points I've got there. What it does mean, however, is that what I've already written is definitely going to have to be ripped up. Although it won't be entirely discarded, because it's got some nice character bits in there.

I have my first comment (bar those already made in the dim and distant past by shewhomust who had previously read about the first third) back from my gorgeous readers on Down Among the Yla. trinapink says that, although she hasn't finished it yet (she ran out of paper) she says that "it doesn't suck". Which is pretty much what I'm looking for. I doubt I'd believe it if she said 'it's the best thing I've ever read in the world, ever'. So, yay me!

Well, continuing on with what I did yesterday - although re-reading it, I'm going to have to do some serious rewriting of the opening, but it can wait - I can see a story starting to slowly force its way out of the mire, like a delicate flower in the middle of a swamp. I've got a few ideas about where to go, although no idea about the end yet.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I watched Priscilla, Queen of the Desert again last night. It's a wonderful film. Utterly silly, although with some vety serious points about homophobia. And all three of the actors made excellent girlies. And, all three of them are in some of my other favourite films - Terrance 'Kneel Before Zod!' Stamp in Superman 1 and 2, Hugo Weaving in The Matrix (I still really like the first one. As far as I'm concerned the sequels never happened.) and Lord of the Rings (and V for Vendetta, although that is less favourite. Not bad, but certainly on a different level to the other films mentioned here) and Guy Pearce (In Priscilla pretty much straight from playing a pretty boy in Neighbours going to playing a pretty boy of an entirely different sort) in LA Confidential. A wonderful film with fabulous outfits. Although none I would actually want to wear, you understand. And some gorgeous imagery - Guy Pearce's character sitting on a giant stilletto shoe on top of the bus, in a sparkly silver outfit, huge sheets of silver material fluttering out behind him while he lipsyncs to opera. Utterly ridiculous and yet utterly fantastic!

And, by the way, if anyone has any interest in comics, you should do yourself a favour and check out this week's Marvel Adventures:The Avengers (#9). It's hilarious. It hs the Avengers getting captured and transformed into MODOKs (here changed to MODOC - the C for Conquest rather than the K for Killing, 'cos, y'know, it's for kids...) - giant headed, psychotic, psychic versions of themselves who travel around in floating chairs. And then they go and fight Rommbu. It's very, very, very silly. And I liked it lots.

Well, I've written something. And it's about as far away as I could get from the travails of Vivienne and her Yla chums as I could get. It's really a bit aimless at the moment, just writing to write, really. I don't know if it'll go anywhere or if it'll even be any good if it does, but I am at least exercising the creative muscles.

What I'm doing is writing a piece about a transvestite student. And desperately trying not to make him into a Mary Sue (although it is ever so tempting to make that into his femme name...). I've written 824 words and it all seemed to flow out quite easily (you see? Write what you know!)

As I said, I don't know if it's any good, but I think I can see a glimmer of a story there, even if it's just a short story and I just shove it on my website.

In other news, it's bloody windy and I'm glad I'm not on my bike today. And I have to leave work early because I have to pick Max up from nursery.

Oh, and words that Word doesn't know: crossdressing

I managed to remember my MS today, so I've started to edit it. So far there are bits and pieces that need fiddling with (some of it dialogue, some of it descriptive and a chapter break.)

It's going to take a while to do and then I will actually have to go and put the changes into the manuscript itself. Hopefully, I'll get most of it done over the Christmas break.

I forgot to bring my MS with me to work today. I printed it all out this weekend and everything. I briefly thought of editing directly on the screen but decided against it for various reasons that I can't be bothered to write about.

It's a big chunk of paper, mind you. I mean, obviously, 330 pages, you know it's a lot, but actually seeing it printed out and knowing that it's full of words that I wrote. Well, it made me proud of myself. Hope I can keep that feeling going as I work through it.
( Working through ideas about the dialogue in Ylahyem )