Hello again, I am rigidly sticking to
my resolve to update this blog once a week. Which is more then can be
said for my resolve to work hard and write this book. Still, here is
the tale of how well I have done in my attempts to beat the
procrastination fairies this week.
I realised that all help is going to be
good help, and signed up for a future learn course in beginning creative writing after receiving an email from
them. I had already signed up to one of their courses in programming
apps for february, in another fit of “oh woe is me, what can I do
with my life that will be fun and slightly profitable?” The writing
one starts immediately off the back of that one, so I shall be busy
in the springtime. This will afford all new excuses for not writing
what I am supposed to. It is of course a stretch for someone with
such a massive superiority complex as myself to admit that a
“beginning” course is something I should ever need, my ego tells
me I have been doing this for over 25 years. Luckily the other half
of my brain has pointed out to me that “beginning” is the only
part of it I can ever do, but sadly they don't do a “Getting on
with it and finishing the bloody thing” creative writing course, so
there you go, I'll have to do this one instead.
I also managed, straight off the back
of my last blog, to agree to a dep gig with a band I saw a month or
so ago, which will involve me learning an entire set of original
material that I have never heard, from scratchy mp3 recordings that
you can't hear the bass on. This is on top of the dep gigs I already
have lined up this month which I have not yet learned the new songs
for, and the new band I'm putting together, and the band I'm already
in, and of course my burgeoning lack of career with PlasticSquirrel.
I did indeed manage to clear out the
summer house into the old leaky studio shed. I also ripped out the
sodden carpets from said shed, and snapped the legs off my sideboard
in the process. Still, managed to prop it up again, so it'll be fine.
Had I bothered to empty it and take the draws out before trying to
single-handedly throw it around over the carpet as it came out, it
would still be in one piece. As it is, I had to do some clever stuff
with a car jack, and ask Netty to come out and help me to sort that
one out.
Having cleared it out, I then decided
it needed some road-testing, unfortunately that involved a 4-pack of
Guinness and my Grandfather's old copy of The Screwtape Letters
that I didn't know I had. That was an enjoyable hour or so, though
not so productive. Obviously I then had to put the studio together in
its new temporary home in my neighbour's barn conversion. Which took
care of Sunday afternoon fairly nicely. And Friday night and Saturday
night, are Friday night and Saturday night, and therefore sacred, no
work, plenty of drinks.
Last
Thursday I came close to getting some work done, but I wrote the
first part of this blog instead, and then listened to Zoot
Allures by Frank Zappa for
inspiration. There's been a lot of that. I've always been a firm
believer that to write interesting stories you need to do your
research, which helpfully involves reading other peoples stories
while listening to records and drinking wine. Other lovely methods
include watching movies and TV shows while drinking wine (or cider).
I have been doing a lot of research over the last week, it has been
good.
This
research involved 2 J.K. Rowling books this week, and I came to the
conclusion (when I was about 3 quarters of the way through The
Cuckoo's Calling) that she had
clearly written The Casual Vacancy
as a smokescreen to keep people off the scent of Robert Galbraith.
What with it being a bit humdrum run of the mill and riddled with
stereotypes I figured that she just chucked any old thing out there
so people wouldn't be nosing after her next good book. Sadly, by the
end of The Cuckoo's Calling
I realised that she had in fact lost it a bit. It is a really good
book up until the explanations of what happened come out, and then
it's predictably unpredictable bollocks.
Anyhow,
the long and the short of it is I have not plotted any more of this
book in the last week, and tonight is the first bit of time I have
had to sit down and do any work. But I am writing this instead. I
remain lord high procrastinator of the Shires of Devon, and I
challenge anyone to steal this title from me.
(I
have also resolved to use italics more, I hope you enjoyed them).
