Don't worry, I'm still around...

I'm just quite bad at organising myself and at actually doing stuff. Also, I've been a bit ill recently, which induces tiredness and lazyness. I also haven't written at all in a while, which means the Guilt Monkeys have been visiting, Failure Hyenas and Shame Yodels in toe. It's hard to feel great and enthusiastic about posting on your Serious Writing Blog if you haven't been doing any writing.

Thankfully, Script Frenzy is coming soon, which means I will definitely be writing a 100-page script in 30 days in April. I am very excited about Screnzy this year, all the more so because a Municipal Liaison for London, so I get to organise lots of amazing activities, parties and write-ins.

On the reading front, everything goes smoothly, I've read the graphic novel Kick-Ass because I saw the trailer for the movie and it looked awesome and a Regency romance novel entitled Everything And The Moon, which wasn't that great. Right now I'm reading Temeraire, by Naomi Novik and I absolutely love it. Not that I expected to dislike a book about ships, dragons and the war between France and England, but still, the book fills me with glee and it should be the subject of my next book post.

Reading - The Lovely Bones

I've just finished to read Alice Sebold's best-selling novel The Lovely Bones. Susie Salmon (like the fish) is 14 when she is murdered by a man who lives in the neighbourhood. After her death, she looks back at earth from her own personal heaven, observing the lives of her loved ones, as they have to learn to live without her and cope with her death.

The front cover and the friends who had already read the book all told me it was one of these compulsive reads that can be devoured in a single sitting and on this subject I beg to differ. Even by my slow standards of reading, taking over a week to read one single novel is a little much.

I feel the characterisation is really the strong point of the book. That and, you know, the story's premise - it's original and gripping and beautifully well-served by Sebold's writing. For once, the back cover isn't exaggerating, the writing really is great. The characters' feelings, their reactions to the dreadful events dropped onto them, their relationships to each other, how they grow and degrade, all of this is masterfully crafted and feels incredibly genuine. I truly admire Sebold for that.

I found the story to be a little bit slow-paced and not just as great as the hype around it had led me to expect, but it should be taken into account that I was spoilt before reading the book. I also found the ending of the book to be quite weird and nonsensical and I liked the realistic elements of the story better than the few supernatural ones. I'm quite eager to see what the movie is like, now.

One thing I'm not that good at is multitasking...

When I made the conscious decision to start practising my writing more seriously, I knew that my issue would probably be to stay focused and determined, to keep at it regularly and establish a habit that I could rely on. I'm interested in a lot of things and I like to try out new activities as well as tried and tested hobbies I've come to love dearly.

I tend to organise my spare times a bit like I do my meals - i.e. not at all. I am mostly a nibbler and occasionally a binger when it comes to food and leisure, but I am never very organised or regular in what I do. I eat when I want to and I practise my hobbies when I want to. It should be that easy, shouldn't it? I like to write, I want to get better at it, therefore I should just be able to do it whenever I want. And that should be quite often because I always like to tell stories.

It seems to me like I pour into my writing a huge amount of hopes and expectations, and maybe, just like with food, these things I expect of myself are what can charge something I love with more guilt and worry than pleasure. And just like with food, I don't want to let that happen and I won't.

Maybe I should christen these posts Wacky Metaphorical Wednesdays, as I seem to be getting the hang of those metaphors. And at least, if they're not that great now, they'll get better!

Writing - The Artist's Way

Mur Lafferty, the author and podcaster behind I Should Be Writing, the podcast for wannabe writers, is currently releasing a series of video podcasts about Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way, a twelve-week course in 'Discovering and Recovering your Creative Self'.

I like courses, because they give you a framework and I thought that doing this along with ISBW would help me do it properly and not abandon. I decided to shell out the £15 for the book despite Lafferty's warning that it might be a little bit heavy on the whole spirituality side for the sceptics among us. I was quite concerned about this because sceptic is a bit of an understatement when it comes to my views on religion. And in fact it does irk me quite a lot when Julia Cameron tells that I will be able to connect with God better and that I will inspiration from it. But I decided I could live with being irked and it may be worth it.

The Artist's Way's method works on introspection a lot and it includes doing three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness journalling first thing every morning. I am very much hoping this will help me improve my phrasing and get rid of some of the stiffness in my writing which I discussed last week. Of course I'm using a notebook with lines stupidly close together so it's a lot of writing and it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to do - of course that probably wouldn't be a problem if I was able to get up a bit earlier or sacrifice my morning internet browsing to do my three pages. So far I've done most of my week-day morning pages at work during free periods or after work and I could feel the difference with the morning pages that I actually did first thing in the morning.

One thing I am worried about is that in doing this course and in getting ready for Script Frenzy next month (I'll be writing my script and organising events for the Frenzy, as I'm one of the London MLs), I will be so busy talking and thinking about writing that I won't actually do any writing. This has happened to me in the past, so I'll have to be careful to not let that repeat itself. It's going to be a challenge, but hopefully one that I can come out of as an improved writer.