Writing Round the Day Job

Over the past four months, I've come to appreciate rather more how much energy a full time job takes up.

The last thing I feel like doing when I get home is writing. Yesterday I had a whole free evening but didn't manage to get anything done, and went to bed feeling frustrated with myself.

However, today, I made a list of what I wanted to accomplish writing-wise before going to work this morning:
- Plan characters/setting for pirate story
- Start "Washing Up" short story
- Print out "Ill wind" and "Debt" stories

I needed something fairly easy... I have, at least, managed to be considerably more productive than yesterday.

My tips, then, based solely and rather egotistically on what works for me:
- Make a list at the start of the day of what you want to achieve, and what's realistic.
- If that means the list has to be one item long and the item is "write the first hundred words", so be it.
- Don't sign into msn (read email/turn on the TV/whatever distraction stops you writing) until you've got everything on the list done.
- Take little steps. "Write a 5000 word story" won't work. "Plan characters" or "Draft outline" might.

Flat hunting

The Boyfriend came over for the weekend (hurrah!) and we did a spot of flat-hunting. Yup, the days of the Gipsy Road Garrett are numbered, as I plan on moving out at the end of March and we're looking for somewhere to share. Of course, most of the stuff currently advertised is available now rather than late-March, but we had a look at this:

http://www.gumtree.com/london/90/7608790.html

Our general impressions were that it's a good price, given the amount of space -- nice, warm, light, decent sized 2-bedroomed flat. It was in generally good condition, though needed a bit of doing up in places -- one of the lightfittings and the shower/bath in particular. It was in a large Victorian house type building, with a big lobby space where we could both put our bikes.

The main drawbacks were the fact that it's on a busy road (Lordship Lane, in East Dulwich) and opposite a building site, plus it only comes partially furnished. Overall, we liked it enough that it's a definite possibility -- and we liked the area -- but we want to scout around for other things too.

We made a list of the essential things to ask about; broadband access was at the top... ;-)

The manuscript is in the post...

My printer managed all 508 pages, eventually, despite numerous paper jams, a few worrying noises, and one report that the cartridge was stalled. (I went for the highly complex fix of 'turn it off and on' -- you can guess how useful I must be on the technical side at work...)

Anyway, after some faffing around at the post office, the manuscript is hopefully crossing London as I type. I did realise after posting it that it would have been cheaper for me to trek across London with the manuscript in hand, using my trusty Oyster card. But I'm not sure I could've managed that in a lunch-break.

I have now spent about £60 in two days, on paper, ink and postage; writing is becoming a worryingly pricy hobby!

A letter

A letter arrived for me today at work, post-lunch. I thought at first it was from the tax man (who wrote to me last week, asking me to confirm/amend my details -- their records appear to have both my NI number and my gender wrong...)

So I opened it without any especial sense of expectation, only to find it was in fact from London Independent Books, asking me to send the rest of my manuscript for their consideration ... woo! Of course, they may well read it and decide against it -- I'm not getting my hopes up yet. But it's an encouraging sign that my cover letter/synopsis/sample chapters must have held some promise.

My printer has been churning out and choking on pages for the past hour, only to run out of black ink half way through the novel. So that'll be a pricy trip to WH Smith's tomorrow, then...

Long day...

I didn't get out of work until almost six, as I was demonstrating a new piece of software to the government partners we work with. (My line manager did thank me afterwards for staying late, though.)

New flatmates upstairs from the Garrett are settling in well, they seem friendly and chatty. Sadly, the kitchen is just as crowded as ever; I'm finding myself counting down the weeks till I can move into somewhere that's "mine". Our heating seems a tad ineffectual in this weather, too -- I am currently wearing two jumpers.

I've completed my short story for Writing Magazine's "Debt" competition now, though, it just needs printing, cover-lettering and posting. Like the other two I've written so far this year, I'd say it was competent, rather than especially good. But I think I'm improving, or at least getting faster.

Weekend Home

I'm spending the weekend at my parent's in Oxford, which I still think of as "home" (perhaps I still will until I have a family of my own...)

It's been wonderful to have other people cook meals for me (dad cooked breakfast (!), mum prepared lunch and we went up to granny's for dinner). Access to the dishwasher, washing machine, tumble-drier, newspapers, and all the other conveniences of family life, are also much appreciated. The Garrett can seem a bit cramped, at weekends.

February's Writers' News and Writing Magazine were also awaiting my perusal when I got home, since I've not attempted to update the delivery address. (My plans to move out of The Garrett at the end of March became a little firmer when my landlord phoned on Friday to enquire whether I intended to stay beyond the end of my contract.) I managed to get a short story drafted today for last month's Writing Magazine competition, which hopefully I can redraft tomorrow morning, then revise next week.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting a good friend and writing mentor for lunch, which I'm very much looking forwards too -- he's always very encouraging about my writing, and a great source of advice and fellowship. I've not seen him for several months, so it will be great to catch up.

A payrise -- and a rejection

Yesterday started badly, when I woke up with a heavy cold. My mood was much improved when my line manager confirmed that I will be getting a payrise -- and a much more generous one than I'd expected (or dared hope), too.

It's nice both to feel appreciated, and to know that there'll be a bit of extra money there for when the student loan repayments kick in.

On the down side, I had another rejection slip for the novel. I'm planning to try selling some short stories before sending it out to more agents, as I think having anything published in a paying market would help.

The Pit, the Munchkins, and P&Js Lounge

I spent a great weekend with a group of friends up in Nottingham, catching up with some I'd not seen for a couple of years, and others who I saw a month ago but missed all the same.

As has become tradition amongst the group, we all booked rooms in the lovely P&Js Hotel, and spent a fair amount of time sitting around in their lounge eating pizza and playing Munchkin. (Which is, possibly, the best card game yet invented.) More Munchkin was played at Bugman's Bar, where many random Games Workshop types wandered past and asked just HOW MANY packs we'd combined.

(Four box sets and Munchkin Blender, for the record.)

I took the usual supplies of cookies and mars bar crunchies, which always meet with popular acclaim. They were gone by early Saturday afternoon, after good inroads had been made on the Friday evening.

We had a great time at Quazar (so much so that I have a blister on my trigger finger), though were hampered by being split across two teams. Next time, we'll all go on the same side, as with the year-ago memorable occasion when seven of us hammered a score of small girls.

The trip to the Pit surpassed previous years, as we got a table upstairs, rather than down in the hot, loud vaults, and managed to chat, drink, eat, and generally be merry. Though after some of the places my blue pen got jammed, I think I may never be able to bring myself to write with it again...

Congratulations to the Boyfriend for winning his fourth game of Munchkin in a row. We managed to stop him winning a fifth, but only at the price of Daz winning. Leafy won the final game, just.

All in all, a great weekend, fantastic to catch up with old faces, to meet a new one -- Naxster, you are a brave, brave man for bringing your girlfriend, I hope she wasn't too freaked out by us all -- and to get through a few Deadly Sins.

A couple of short submissions

I'm sending off a short story for the December issue of Writers' News 'Painter and Decorator' competition; I was going to post it today, but realised I'd forgotton to include the little coupon from the magazine. Duh. Deadline's Friday, so it should still be in good time.

I've also written a 1000 word article on exercising around a day job and have emailed 'Slimmer, Healthier, Fitter' magazine to ask whether they'd be interested. I've been reading the magazine for years, so I know the sorts of things which they publish. And I have belatedly remembered that I should've included the word count in my email -- oh well!

I don't feel that either are examples of my best work, but at least I'm sticking to my resolution of Completing and Submitting short pieces.

Genre Fantasy

The Boyfriend gave me 'The Redemption of Althalus' by David and Leigh Eddings for my birthday, since I'd mentioned that I'd hardly read any fantasy novels and would like a better knowledge of the genre.

It was an enjoyable read, but it struck me as rather 'loosly' written and in need of editing. Possibly this is partly the effect of spending too long in a Writers' group, but it read like a first draft. I agree with many of the reviewers on Amazon that the dialogue could have been improved, and I wanted to go through with a red pen, striking out superfluous adjectives and words which were repeated three times in two sentences.

The story itself was good, and the world it was set in was interesting. I had similar feelings when I read Shadowmancer -- which was a brilliant story but in dire need of an editor.

I didn't think it was a bad book -- I enjoyed reading it -- but it's always frustrating to feel that something could have been improved by a little more work.

Rats!

I drafted a whole short story about a 'park ranger' whilst at home, thinking it was this month's competition in Writing Magazine. It was actually one from a few months back, and the closing date was yesterday.

Drat!

At least I've finished the one for December's Writers' News, just need to print it out and send it in next week.

I'm thinking of having a go at one of the poetry competitions, too, though I've not even attempted a poem in years. I was thankfully early on in my teens when I realised that any age between 13 and 19 is not the best for writing decent poetry...

Dark Garrett

I arrived back yesterday evening, with Boyfriend in tow, to find that the electricity was off in the flat. Housemates had put it onto the emergency supply, but that had run out too.

Boyfriend knew how to get the key out (after we actually FOUND the electric meter -- I'm sure the landlord told me it was in the same place as the gas one!) and we dragged ourselves out and up Gipsy Hill to get it topped up. It began to rain impressively hard when we were half way there -- without umbrellas, naturally...

It was at that point we decided 2007 can only get better!