Desert of Zin

Not my voice certainly.  As usual, given half a chance, I could witter on for Blighy.

No, it’s the all important second chapter of The Bandstand.

There are three scenes, each in the first draft, as they have been for a few weeks now.  So, what’s the delay?

I’ll be buggered if i know.  A few weeks ago I recieved some news, good news mind, that has thrown hy head off balance and I’m struggling to keep thoughts straight.  The news?  That’ll have to keep, I’m afraid.  The lips are sealed until things are more certain.  Until then can I get my important work done?

Oh god, I hope so.

I don’t want this to become another of a half-dozen projects that are scattered about the desktop, eventually relegated to the ‘will it ever get done?’ pile.

The problem at the moment, other than keeping my mind on the task at hand, is dialogue.

I’ve never had a problem with dialogue in the past, usually that was my strongest work, but right now?  Nothing.

I know what I should do.  Crack on with later chapters leaving quick notes where dialogue falters and keep the pace of the story while it’s fresh in the noggin.  Lord knows that coming back to it at a later stage once the groundwork is finished would be better.

ha, now I’ve had my epiphany after weeks of hunching over words that characters aren’t saying I don’t have time to get the groundwork laid!  I’ll be out the door to the doc’s in a mo and I might have a sly hour beore The Edgemeister arrives.

Ach, I’ll head out and see that the evening brings.

- Alistair

Hiya, it’s been a while…

Sine the last post, way back on the 6th of March, I bounced abound saying how great it was that I passed the 50k mark with Desert Of Zin.

Whoo.

The problem is that shortly after I hit the mother of all walls and eventually felt that i’d like nothing more than to let the characters die.

That’s not good if you’re already written the sequel and you’re realtively sure that some of them are in it and alive…

So I took some time away from writing, didn’t check the blog, didn’t go to the writing group and generally retreated back into my shell for a while.  And somewhere along the way it seems to have done the trick.

Now, I’m not working on DoZ again, and won’t be for a wee while.  An extended break is definately needed from that.  But last week I found myself writing some stuff that’s set after an idea I had AGES ago.

Something called The Bandstand.

It was a story I started a few years ago and, after the first scene, edited it until I didn’t care about the rest of the story.  Looks like I’m starting to care again.

I finished the first chapter (with the original scene) last night and Ruth gave it an edit.

Tonight I’ve made a handful of changes and after a quick second pass tomorrow I’ll be looking at releasing it by the end of the weekend.

(The good thing is that I’ve got the second chapter under way and with any luck it’ll be finished for edit in good time.)

The reason I’m so hyped about this is simple.  For a good few years now I’ve bored anyone that’ll sit still long enough about how I write stories and I want to be an author and on and on…  It’s about time I actually stop talking about it and release some bloomin’ content.

I thought I’d check in as my last post was way back on the 26th of January…

For the writing, Desert Of Zin book 1 is currently sitting at 40K words.  I have this week off and after uninstalling all the usual distractions from my pc I’ve been trying to hack away at another chunk of the story.  This is easier said than done.

Yesterday I managed the paltry sum of 500 words.  Still, it’s 500 words more than I had the day before and that can only ever be a good thing.

I haven’t done much more today but my notes have taken a hammering and I’m a bit more clued up with what happens next. 

And working through more notes gives me more strength to hack through the writer’s block with.  (and I’m trying not to work to heavily on ideas for DoZ book 3 and 4.  Let’s get the first two finished first, eh?)

Well, things may be moving along at a slightly better pace than before with the writing!

I’ve revised my overall plan and have worked over my existing notes (which always helps) and I’m back on the path. And this is, as you might understand, a great relief.

It’s mostly a case of expanding and revising my existing notes and that usually does wonders for my imagination.

Already I’ve worked out other side stories and sub plots that were just out of arms reach…

Ah, life is good.

Sometimes I just don’t know why I bother.

I can have loads of good ideas (thousands of actual ideas with hundreds, HUNDREDS, being good) but see writing them down? See getting them on paper?

Forget it.

So this evening, a paragraph was managed. A bloody paragraph!

But then, as is rapidly becoming my mantra these days, any amount of writing is good.

Hmmm…

I’m really going to have to get around this annoying block somehow.