Analysing One’s Writing Self

Image: DefeatDragons.com

Writing Baccara
Thanks Kristin and Devon for your comments and advice in yesterday’s blog post. After the day job, I went home via a coffee shop and sat and thought about what you both said, and about BACCARA BURNING. My main question: why is this otherwise decent book not working for me?

While staring between a coffee mug and a bustling Princes Street, it came to me: I do not feel as obsessive towards this book like I do with my others.

All my other books that have either been published or completed to the point of being out for submission, I’ve felt a strong passion for. The characters have worked for me and the story and drive to see it concluded has been the main driving factor. But with this one, nothing.

Yet the two protagonists, Stella and Randolph, mean a great deal to me. I know them inside out, their motivations, loves, hates, habits and foibles. They are in me, and I in them.

Last night and this morning, I started work on polishing up a manuscript not long back from a selection of my trusted readers, and the passion is there. The impulse and drive came rushing back for GREENER IS THE GRASS, and the story was fully there inside my head as I opened it up. Everything. No need to refresh myself with any part of it.

I also pulled out a manuscript last seriously worked on 6 years ago – HUNTING JACK – with a view to experimenting with Kindle, and it’s all there, too; the love for the story, the characters and for what it stands for. Again, no need to refresh myself despite the length of time it’s been since it was last aired.

What this says about BACCARA I don’t quite know. As I said, it’s a great story and I love the characters. The book didn’t go the way I intended before I set out, but that happens with every book I write. The characters fight a lot in it but as a sequel to STELLA it ties off a lot of loose ends and questions. It’s good! But it’s also crap.

The fact I can’t finish it feels like a personal failure. It feels like I’ve lost something that I can’t put my finger on. What a horrible feeling.

Free Ebooks Giveaway on Twitter
I’m running a special giveaway over on Twitter. The 1000th person to follow me on Twitter will receive all my published ebooks for free, and for everyone that helps get me there – everyone who follows me between last Friday 1st April right up to the 1000 mark – will also be in with a chance of winning the same prize. Click here for full details of the great Twitter Ebook Giveaway.

Topical Cartoons
Sunday’s Doonesbury was a cracker; topical and right to the point in a very humorous way. Check it out here.

Crime Pays
Remember a few months ago I blogged about Simon San, a local man who was murdered outside his family run Chinese food business in Leith by a young ned? At the time I was vociferous in my stand against the ridiculously low sentence the killer got, just as I was for the two teenagers who contributed to the man’s death by forcing him out of his car to be murdered in the street.

Well, you’ll be as amazed as me to hear that Michael Roberts (16) has had his 42-month sentence cut to 26 months, and Keir Rodger (16) has had his 34-month term cut to 24 months by appeal judges.

These people are scum. There are far too many of their ilk in Scotland, and should they face tougher – much tougher – sentences than the paltry sums of justice they received, then perhaps people will feel safer in the streets.

Fiction
* Final polish and submit GREENER IS THE GRASS
* Review HUNTING JACK and send to SW
* Submit to some fiction/poetry competitions
* Decide what to do with BACCARA and where to go

Poetry
* Finish formatting and upload all poetry books to Kindle
* Check all poetry books now aggregated on both Amazons
* Finalise idea for new chapbook

Editing
* Finalise RR issue 15 for June

Freelance
* Keep all my websites updated and relevant
* Update website with fresh purchase links
* New gigs lined up for review (Rachel Sermanni, Withered Hand, Kid Canaveral, Jamiroquai, FC Ukulele, Adam Ant)

Marketing
* Publish Podcast #1
* Marketing campaign for poetry on Kindle
* Consider larger promo for HJ on Kindle

SPECIAL OFFERS
Get 25% off STELLA, my spy novella with a twist, when you order the e-book from the publisher’s website at www.eternalpress.biz. Simply quote 612JMZN67VZX at checkout.