Back on the up-slope of the week, and onwards towards the weekend we go.
I printed off Hunting Jack this morning so I could begin reading it. Thanks Devon for your advice – I’m going to build up my character notes as I go. I suspect I’m going to have quite a full book, and notice some inconsistencies along the way, so it should be a good exercise in every sense.
This situation caused me to refer to the notes I drew up for Slick last night, and the differences are marked. Whereas with Hunting Jack, which had no character outlines, plot notes, or even research, Slick has an abundance of everything. What a difference four years writing fiction makes!
HJ was written totally on the run and without ever knowing what came next. And it tells. Starting to read through manuscript this evening has given me a confidence boosting injection, that my writing has improved since that was written. Of course it also makes it harder to read because I want to edit it as I go.
I took a long bath tonight and began reading a Paul Auster novel. Auster is one of my favourite authors, and it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed any of his work. He always gets me so involved on a novel, but it’s always done in such a subtle way. If ever there was someone to learn about building up characters from, it’s Auster. I’ve got a couple more books of his in my office still unread, so I kicked things off with The Brooklyn Follies while soaking myself.
The bath didn’t help the headache, though, and so I had to pop a couple of Nuerofen to get to sleep. It started coming on around lunchtime yesterday, and got worse as the afternoon progressed. It made working, both in the day job and at home, most uncomfortable.
I made a good start to the four April DWT articles – actually it turned into five after one idea sprouted into two – and I fully redrafted Whisky Snatching, and got it submitted to its first new market in nearly two years.
Whisky Snatching was written for a competition in the summer of 2006, and after it never won, I updated my spreadsheet tracker and left it, thinking I would edit it, and send it out quickly. I think it got lost as all my other submissions around it grew; one wee row in amongst two thick ones top and bottom. It felt good to see it out in the world.
Payment came through for the e-book edits I was working on last week, and after checking the job listings, I worked on the website for one of my web clients.
Freedom from the Mundane 