Last post of 2011

The end of the year approaches!  I suppose this is the point where I should ponder on what has happened through 2011 and assess my decisions.  What was good, what was bad, that sort of thing.  But frankly, my dears, I can't be arsed.

Instead, you're in for the same sort of rambling waffle that you've got every other week of the year.  Well since February, obviously, as that was when this blog burst spectacularly into existence.  And it is rather astonishing that I've even managed to keep it going that long.  Fingers-crossed for my carrying on so in 2012!

I'm hoping that I'll be able to continue this blog in much the same way that I've written it this year.  The main purpose - for all that I wander off in merry little tangents - is to discuss my writing.  As I do not intend to stop writing next year, I fully intend to have plenty to splurge onto the internets next year too.

One of my New Year's Resolutions (yeah, I have at least three at the moment, though right now I can only remember two of them...) is to get one of my novels edited and sent off to agents, ready to be rejected and for me to sob bitterly over my failed little darlings.

With this lofty aim in mind, I have just started editing the novel I wrote before doing my MA.  It doesn't have a firm title yet.  In my head I think I call it 'Fall' but my marvellous friend Lottums (the first to read it) still refers to it by its tentative first title 'Live Free Die Fighting'.  I think I'll refer to it as 'Fall' on this here blog simply because it's shorter and I'm lazy.

So Fall started life in a third-year module for my BA.  I submitted the first chapter for one of the assignments, got a mark I was pleased with (shock, I know, but it does happen) giving me enough motivation to continue.  I wrote it while working full-time, finishing just before starting the MA in September 2010.  I wanted to get it done by the MA because I had a vague notion of using my MA time to edit it.  Then I realised that was a stupid thing to think because I would need to be writing stuff for my assignments rather than something that was already written.  My rewriting process rarely involves major changes so I couldn't in good conscience say that I'd done the work for the MA.

Now, with the first draft of Hide and See done and stewing away nicely in the background, and my brother's latest fantasy instalment given over on Christmas Day, I'm now finally back to Fall.  I'm editing it chapter by chapter, finding bits I like and bits I don't.  Generally I think I'm still quite pleased with it, which has made me worried.  Does this mean I'm not able to see the flaws because I'm too attached to it?  Quite possibly.

Once edited, I will therefore be flinging it left, right and centre in the hopes that any lovely people might have time to give it a read.  There are certain elements to this story which are quite personal and while I can feel moved reading them back, I don't know whether the emotion translates to the page.  It makes me appreciate just how valuable those workshopping sessions during the MA were, and the feedback I've gained from various lovely people for other works.  So ta muchly everyone!

There are no wild parties in store for me tomorrow.  I'm getting much too old for those kinds of shenanigans.  Well, I probably always was.  I think I've always been a little old lady really.  So tomorrow, rather than planning for a night of drunkenness, I will be reading (Kelley Armstrong's Bitten), rewriting, staring lovingly at my new bookshelf that my father put up for me today and drinking copious amounts of tea.  Oh, and dodging calls from sales companies who keep trying to recruit me.  I don't trust anyone who tries to give me a job that I haven't applied for.  Or whose only contact number is for a mobile phone.  Anyone got any tips for how to get them to leave me alone?  Because I cannot think of anyone less suited to a role in sales than me.

"Would you like to buy this?  No?  Oh, okay, sorry to bother you.  You're probably right, it is a bit shite."

All of this said in a tentative near-whisper, while straining to hear what they're saying on the other end.  Because I'm a deaf bint too.  Nodding and smiling doesn't work quite so well over the phone.

Right, enough of the rambling tangents.  Chapter Five is calling for an edit and the Dark Knight movie soundtrack is paused and waiting.  And despite the fact that two dozen books are now on a shelf rather than the floor, my room really still needs tidying.

Toodle-pip and have a Happy New Year!