Happy Valentines
Hey Everyone,
It occurs to me that I am becoming a tad blase with my blogging. Which isn't good, since the regularity of a blog is directly proportional to a blogs ability to hold onto an audience (and since I suspect my audience doesn't reach double figures, I want to hold onto all the readers I can).
Anyways here's the news etc:
This morning I got up at about half-eight and made a list of things to do. Washing, shopping etc. I didn't put lifting weights on there because I am still recovering from that lousy cold, and I don't want to risk running down my body too hard.
What I did put on my list was 'Spend three hours working on short story ideas'.
The reasoning for this is
a) I want to get into the habit of sitting down and writing a certain amount every day (even if this does make for a dangerous veering into Jeffrey Archer territory, smug, slimey Tory swine that he is) and
b) SFX Magazine is running a short story comp (I might have mentioned this already) and I want to have a selection of short stories to choose from, polish and submit. A selection is more than one, so it helps if you have one finished.
As it happened, I had a short story idea that had been bouncing around my head that I figured was pretty much complete as a narrative went, so I threw some towels in the wash, fired up the laptop and ran with it.
The intention was to have the story come in under 2000 words, since that is the upper limit for the competition. As it was, the story came in at 2300 words.
I did finish it, I think it even took over three hours. I hung up the towels and watched the 2000 version of The Great Gatsby. I think the version with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow is probably better.
And the story? I necessarily think it's brilliant per se, and I'm not sure about the pacing etc. But it is a first draft and it does have a beginning, a middle and an ending. Even if the ending is a little weak in my opinion. I always say a song isn't written until it's rewritten, and I guess a story is the same.
Speaking of rewriting, recently I read a newspaper reviewer give Stephen King's new book a hard time because it is essentially a rewrite of The Stand.
I think she was being too hard, since the story goes that Stephen King had to rewrite Carrie three times before anyone would publish it. Ergo he still has a few rewrites left on his other novels.
More short stories to be knocked out over the next few weeks.
Still on the writing front, the Ben Lee show that I went to left me feeling deeply conflicted. IE 799 other people seemed to enjoy the show, Ben was a good showman but it was effectively an acoustic show better suited to a coffee shop than an club and I was bored to tears, wishing I had gone to Bauhaus instead.
Thinking I should abandon the review, given that I'm supposed to turn in the review no more than four days after the show and it has already been over a week as I struggled with the my conflicting reactions to the performance.
I'm also afraid that if I submit the review I'll come across as a snide bastard reviewer. Which I am, but I prefer to save my bile for shows which were patently bad, not just ones that don't meet my taste.
There are much better Australian bands coming through London soon.
Grr. Tough call.
I'm going to get some food and think about it. Then I might rewrite the review in a way that doesn't make me seem like such an asshole.
Over and out.
J
It occurs to me that I am becoming a tad blase with my blogging. Which isn't good, since the regularity of a blog is directly proportional to a blogs ability to hold onto an audience (and since I suspect my audience doesn't reach double figures, I want to hold onto all the readers I can).
Anyways here's the news etc:
This morning I got up at about half-eight and made a list of things to do. Washing, shopping etc. I didn't put lifting weights on there because I am still recovering from that lousy cold, and I don't want to risk running down my body too hard.
What I did put on my list was 'Spend three hours working on short story ideas'.
The reasoning for this is
a) I want to get into the habit of sitting down and writing a certain amount every day (even if this does make for a dangerous veering into Jeffrey Archer territory, smug, slimey Tory swine that he is) and
b) SFX Magazine is running a short story comp (I might have mentioned this already) and I want to have a selection of short stories to choose from, polish and submit. A selection is more than one, so it helps if you have one finished.
As it happened, I had a short story idea that had been bouncing around my head that I figured was pretty much complete as a narrative went, so I threw some towels in the wash, fired up the laptop and ran with it.
The intention was to have the story come in under 2000 words, since that is the upper limit for the competition. As it was, the story came in at 2300 words.
I did finish it, I think it even took over three hours. I hung up the towels and watched the 2000 version of The Great Gatsby. I think the version with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow is probably better.
And the story? I necessarily think it's brilliant per se, and I'm not sure about the pacing etc. But it is a first draft and it does have a beginning, a middle and an ending. Even if the ending is a little weak in my opinion. I always say a song isn't written until it's rewritten, and I guess a story is the same.
Speaking of rewriting, recently I read a newspaper reviewer give Stephen King's new book a hard time because it is essentially a rewrite of The Stand.
I think she was being too hard, since the story goes that Stephen King had to rewrite Carrie three times before anyone would publish it. Ergo he still has a few rewrites left on his other novels.
More short stories to be knocked out over the next few weeks.
Still on the writing front, the Ben Lee show that I went to left me feeling deeply conflicted. IE 799 other people seemed to enjoy the show, Ben was a good showman but it was effectively an acoustic show better suited to a coffee shop than an club and I was bored to tears, wishing I had gone to Bauhaus instead.
Thinking I should abandon the review, given that I'm supposed to turn in the review no more than four days after the show and it has already been over a week as I struggled with the my conflicting reactions to the performance.
I'm also afraid that if I submit the review I'll come across as a snide bastard reviewer. Which I am, but I prefer to save my bile for shows which were patently bad, not just ones that don't meet my taste.
There are much better Australian bands coming through London soon.
Grr. Tough call.
I'm going to get some food and think about it. Then I might rewrite the review in a way that doesn't make me seem like such an asshole.
Over and out.
J
posted by the.exile at 4:55 pm
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