Okay...it's been a while. A long, long while.
I wish I could tell you I've been up to lots of exciting productive things to do with writing. I haven't.
Why? Cos I'm a great big procrastinator, that's why.
It's a thing. It might even be catching. I'm sure my writing buddy, Lucy has caught it from me. Maybe one day I sneezed without covering my nose and she caught it. I mean check out her blog post on the P-word here
Or maybe I caught it from her? Nope, I was definitely procrastinating before her (I'm older, have had more practise) and it really needs to stop. I mean, I've been meaning to update this blog for... years.
Part of my problem is this fella on the right. My fiddle. I'm obsessed with music, I play way too many instruments (usually because I'm procrastinating with one so I move to another) but the fiddle especially has me on its hook.
And because of this, by the way, I've decided I might even write on that very subject here on this blog. I've recently started taking lessons after years of winging it and in doing so, have learnt a lot about myself, my writing and generally my reluctance to attempt things that aren't immediately perfect. But wait, I'm going off topic. Did you notice? I'm actually procrastinating about writing about procrastinating. I'm a bloody genius at this game.
Anyway, when I read Lucy's blog, I smiled, only briefly, because the two of us have been trying and trying to finish our goddamn novels for years. I won't count how many years, I'd have to use my fingers. It's that bad. We did Nanowrimo (at least two years ago) and made great strides but in the middle of it, I decided I should really move house, put this gaff on the market and spend all my days looking for a new place where I could stare out of a romantic window and pretend to write.
The sale fell through and was followed by a period of mourning. How could I write another word when I could no longer spend my days looking up new houses on bloody Zoopla? It took a long time to adjust to the boredom of staying put and then there was that podcast I wanted to start and...
You get the gist.
Don't get me wrong, Lucy and I have great big bouts of productivity - usually followed by tumbleweeds and elaborate excuses. We then have the audacity to return to our abandoned novels and imagine we'll somehow remember where we got up to, who was who and where we were going. I might even have written her characters into my novel...that's how bad it is. I'm sure she had a Sasha and I definitely have one...
Lucy has been an inspiration recently. Working away -she's had all sorts published and her novel is really shaping up. I have spent the new year ...tidying bits of my novel to avoid writing any more of it. Oh, and looking out short stories, thinking 'would I not be better concentrating on these wee gems?'
I have a tutor, who is super helpful. Charlotte Baker https://charlottebake1.wixsite.com/author
I need the discipline of a tutor - a deadline, someone who might get cross if I don't come up with the goodies.
I started an online course with Charlotte this week, where she asked us to think about which genre we might belong to and what we might add to that genre. I was going to sit down and write something in response to that a minute ago. But then my eye spied Lucy's blog.
And then I remembered my blog. And now...
You can read some of Lucy Brighton's finished stories here https://www.lucybrighton.com/portfolio-collections/my-portfolio/old-enemies