Sep 27

And now for something completely different!

A while ago I blogged about writing real life characters instead of my usual make-believe, and just how difficult I found it. Well, all that hard work has paid off! I’m very very excited to say my auto-biographical piece, titled ‘A little courage’, will be published in Out of the Frying Pan: Bittersweet Tales of Stumbling into Adulthood by Finch Publishing. Scheduled for release in April 2010.

What is my chapter about? Well, it’s the story of my husband and I, meeting as kids, growing up together, and finding the courage to tell each other how we really felt.

So yay! However much I love my genre, writing this piece has involved stretching an entirely different set of writing muscles, and I’m very glad I gave it a go.

Thanks Marianne for mentioning this opportunity to me!

Sep 21

Junk food and good writing buddies

Is it really worth analyzing the writing of this novel draft any more than I’ve already done? I have angsted like an angsty thing about it. Hell, it even led to the creation of a ‘Writerly Angst’ category.

So, you know what? No more angst.

Instead, one of the positive things this draft taught me — well, not taught exactly… reinforced — is just how amazing my writing buddies are. For all the angst (see above) these are people who are willing to listen to you rant ridiculous, and who support you, who hold your hand and nod and actually DO understand. I can only hope I do the same for them.

Here’s to you guys *raises a glass of red wine* (great idea Terry!)

Oh, and one more lesson! If you’re in the middle of a marathon writing day and your body tells you ‘I want junk food’ just do it. Trust me. It’s not worth arguing. Even if that junk food involves (in this order) a chicken burger, chips, donuts, pizza and chocolate.

Just don’t then try and run for 2.4k. That’s a lesson in itself.

Sep 20

done

Well, there we go, first draft done.

Just over 113,000 words in the end. This will grow in the next draft, and probably significantly. This draft suffers from a terrible lack of description. Even I don’t know what a few of the characters look like. And there are at least two vitally important plot points that I didn’t come up with until the end, and they need to be slotted into the beginning.

But that’s okay, because first drafts can suck.

I have more to say, but not tonight. Churned out 7k today. I need to get the hell off this chair.

Sep 14

Brain mush

Novel draft = brain mush.

106k and it’s all happening. Not too long now.

See you on the other side.

Aug 25

Birthday, review, eyes… yeah I couldn’t come up with a proper title

Well, had another birthday on the weekend. Where does the time go, oh my how it flies etc etc. Spent a lovely few days with close friends — baking the most evil delicious chocolate-stacked birthday cake ever! — and my wonderful husband. Don’t feel much older, definitely not any more mature, but I enjoyed celebrating another year with these people in my life.

Right, enough with the sappy! 🙂

Very excited to see a review of Shadow of Drought over at ScaryMinds:

Joanne Anderton’s first person narrative Shadow of Drought simply enthralled me from first word to last word. Anderton manages to conjure up the drought affecting rural Australia bush and is so economical yet provocative with her story that I had to read it twice to get the full nuances contained in the tale. The writer manages to tie in rural suicide, an epidemic in Australia, with the continuing drought, and follows a fine horror lineage from Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery through The Wickerman. Please note when I mention The Wickerman I am referring to the original movie not the one featuring Nicky Cage in a bear suit kicking lesbians in the bum left, right, and center.

Not just a positive review but a reference to possibly one of these most unintentionally hilarious movies of our time! Doesn’t get much better than that!

And lastly, as I type this I am currently not wearing my glasses. The great contact lense experiment has begun! So far so good. It’s been 15 years since the last time I tried them. So far so good. But I keep trying to adjust the non-existent glasses on my nose.