Sprinting At 5mph

Image: Steve Johnson

The month is starting to run away from me. Where September saw me firing forward on all cylinders and charging through my work like Angry Birds through a Green Pig’s house (Google it), this month I don’t seem to making much progress despite working my ass off. It’s like I’m putting as much into running as fast as I can, then I look back and can still see the hills towering behind me.

Tiredness this week is very much a factor. It’s all coming from the day job, which on its own is fine but my sleep is totally screwed. I’ve never really got back into my routine since those two nights of Big Ben dreams. I suspect by Saturday I will be fine when I can get up at the luxuriously late time of 7:30am and will feel as though I’ve slept for half a day.

My third workshop assignment at the Muse Online Conference was very easy to write. Just as well because I was so tired when I got home from the day job last night, I lay down for an hour’s kip and ended up sleeping until 8:15pm. I got feedback from my previous assignments—all good, with a few ideas and constructive comments left for me to ponder.

What we’ve been asked to do so far is construct a short story but the method being applied is not how I would normally write short fiction. Under normal circumstances, I would come up with an idea, get a grasp on the beginning, middle and end then write it flat out. The way our workshop leader, Devon, is getting us to do it, is to take the kernel, run forward with it into the next scene, go back and write what happened before all that took place, then shoot way forward to the very end. The result is that whatever one might have had in mind as the way the story is going to go, gets completely turned on its head with new ideas sprouting out. The old “what if” scenario comes into play a lot more. There’s still a few days left so goodness knows exactly what the short story will look like when it’s complete. It’s great fun to do it this way—something I’ll try much more once the conference is done and dusted I’m sure.

While everyone (1 billion viewers I heard) was cheering on the Chilean miners rescue, I was also browsing the BBC website. Drowned out by the noise of the intense media coverage from Chile, this little shit got away with 5 years in jail (though he’ll probably only serve 2.5) for murdering a bloke in Leith while he was delivering Chinese meals. 16 year old John Reid will be back on the streets well before his 21st birthday, which is a disgusting thought in this day and age. Read the story, it’ll make you feel sick.

The first party that changes a life sentence to an actual life sentence will get my vote for life.

And speaking of votes, the Scottish “parliamentary” elections are next year and wee Alex Salmon is gearing up for it over in Delhi. The only time he’s on the telly these days is when he’s talking up Scotland to other nations while on free jollies, never when the shit has actually hit the fan.

One has to think back and wonder just what exactly his “government” has achieved since they took over. The SNP have become almost invisible on the political landscape in this country and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens in 2011. They’ll never get re-elected, but then after the General Election I can’t see Labour doing anything either. And the Tories? Ever since Thatcher, they’re about as popular here in Scotland as a Catholic priest at a kids’ birthday party.

Until tomorrow…

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