Arguments...

Today I've been working on Project Crunch (chick lit), on a scene which I've decided will be the opening one.  The only problem is that it involves my heroine and her fiance having a huge argument, and - to be honest - I've never really had that experience with anyone, especially my husband (and ours is the only relationship I've been in...aww, sweet!).  I'm extremely non-confrontational by nature - I'll do anything to avoid a row.  If I'm angry with you I'm 99% more likely to give you the silent treatment than to shout at you.  I'll leave the room to avoid other people arguing and don't even like watching it on TV.  There's enough negativity floating around the world already, I don't feel the need to add to it or willingly expose myself to it! 

So when it comes to writing a row I don't really have much to draw on.  The temptation to make the characters be too nice and too understanding to each other is tremendous, because I feel awkward that I'm consciously trying to generate bad vibes.  I guess it'll be a learning curve - I'll have to write it my way, then keep revising it to make it angrier and more like a real argument.  Because after all, life's not always sweetness and light is it?! 
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Archaeology Rocks!

Sorry about the rubbish pun in the title - I didn't really want to put something like 'hey guess what, I did no writing today!'.  Unfortunately though, that is the case - I have the final (indeed, only) assignment of my Open University archaeology course due in October, but I'm somewhat behind with the coursework so today has been spent in a vague attempt to catch up.

I'm hoping that some of the stuff I learn through the course will come in useful for my writing, although I'm aware that a detailed description of the geophysical tests carried out to determine a site would probably not be the most gripping of reads!  I don't have any story ideas that are specifically archaeology-related in mind, but if I should be struck with one in the future then at least this might add a flavour of authenticity to it...

On an 'archaeology meets writing' note, happy 120th birthday Agatha Christie!  One of my main writing heroes - I adore Poirot - if I get to be even a fraction as good as Agatha I'll be a very happy girl...

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Choices, choices...

Today I had every intention of working on Project Crunch (my chick lit idea), but when I fired up the laptop and went to Documents I ended up being drawn into Project Blake instead.  I've been finding lately that I think of snippets of ideas and changes that I want to make - either while at work (oops, if you're reading boss - I write them down and get straight back to the day job, honest!) or driving, or falling asleep.  Today I just went into Blake to make one of those changes and have ended up working on it all day.  It makes me wonder how more established writers keep themselves disciplined to focus on one thing at a time..? 

I'm also finding that now I have this dedicated writing time every Wednesday, I do struggle with just letting the words come.  I'm something of a perfectionist (in everything, not just writing) and it is a real struggle not to self-edit as I'm going along, or to spend ages trying to think of precisely the right word, when instead I should probably just type everything as it comes to mind to get the action and the scene down, then go back and look at the fine detail another time.  I wonder whether anybody knows of a way of overcoming this? 

Also this week, the analytical part of my subconscious has pushed its way forward and made me set up a graph to monitor the word counts of my projects.  Whether this is a good idea or not in terms of motivation I don't know, but I do like a nice graph so it'll stay!  I don't think there's any way of posting it on here, but in case you're interested, today's standings are:

Project Blake: 1500
Project Crunch: 214 (this is why I was intending to work on it today)
Project Witch: 1430

Witch is an idea for a children's/Young Adult story that I had aaaaaaages ago, started writing, then as usual got distracted by other ideas.  I found the draft I'd started on a memory stick recently so have added it to my stable of projects.  I find that when I read my own writing back later I really like it - it's just while I'm working on it that I feel it's appallingly bad and going nowhere!  I wonder if every writer is like that? 

"All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them." ~ Walt Disney
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A Great Day

Why a great day?  Well, there are a number of reasons! 

Firstly, I am in love with my newest gadget - my Amazon Kindle.  Yes yes, I know it's for reading and not for writing, but it's just so amazing that I can't not mention it!  I could harp on about all its features, but it would be easier to recommend that if you love reading, go to Amazon and get one.  Now!  I was dubious about reading off a screen before I got it, but I needn't have worried as it's actually really good.  I actually keep catching myself looking at it and thinking "but surely that's ink printed onto it?" even though I know it can't be...

Secondly, I have had a productive day and got over a thousand words down towards what I'm going to call Project Blake, which is a 'police procedure' crime novel.  Ages and ages ago I had a random idea for an opening scene for a book like this (fortunately I wrote it down at the time), and recently an 'investigator' character started clamouring inside my head to be let out, so the two ideas have been put together into one project.  It's early days of course, but I'm pretty excited about it.  The old adage 'write what you know' seems a good place to start - I work in the forensic department of our local police force so there is a lot of research material and people's expertise sat right there on a plate for me.  (NB Of course I would never use real-life cases, people or details in my writing.  It's just handy that I can check how things would be done in various scenarios.)

Thirdly, well, it's sunny.  And that's always nice! :o)

"All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them" ~Walt Disney
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