hooray another post!

For someone that claims to be a writer, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m actually any good at it, judging by the lack of updates on this blog. But that’s not true, I’m simply writing lots elsewhere – namely my main blog here: http://markmapstone.wordpress.com. 

What’s been happening? 

Well, as stated below, I am in the middle of sorting out my home to move (somewhere), but am running behind schedule and probably won’t get out of here before May now :/ And that’s only if I can find someone to rent my place! 

But on the writing front, I’m doing well. I’m not actually writing, but still making lots of notes in Evernote, reading as much as I can, watching films (in Directors commentary mode) and generally brainstorming plots. 

My latest story line, I love, but fear I’m not good enough a writer yet to write it well enough. It goes like this;

A car accident is caused, a child is killed, the driver/killer is destraught and the parent can’t accept that the driver is to blame. This turns into an obsession of thought and a desire to track back through events and time to trace the connections that led up to their child being killed, to find the true cause of the effect. Think of this as Chaos in the wind of a butterflies wings, perhaps? As the connections are eventually traced if becomes evident that the parent themselves are responsible for their own childs death. 

Why I love this plot: 

I love the idea of fate
I’m astounded by the theory of the ‘6 degree’s of separation’.
These ‘connections’ in the story, will allow me to visit many differing situations easily.
It can be presented in many different ways – either in written type or cinematically displayed.

eg: I don’t have to start the story with the car accident, or at that moment in time. I can fast forward it 10 years easily. I can tell the story from many different angles and it still make sense.

I feel there’s a lot of freedom to explore topics I’m uncertain about – and god I need the practice!

So, that’s one idea. And its the best I have atm. Another idea was to take a Catcher in the Rye approach of a young person, traveling, for reasons not even I know yet, and have them beg for work and beds each day and night in a modern day setting. Relying on the charity of others, and getting caught up in the abusive and addictive personalities that we see around us today.

but as I said above, now I have the newer, better plot, I think I’ll give this one a back seat. 

Ok, that’s enough about stories. Regarding reading, I’ve read Outliers, my mates novel Merewold, Catcher in the Rye, and I’ve just started reading The Other Hand.

When is novel number 3 going to start? Well, as I said i’m moving home, and atm I have lots of decorating to do here. I need to be somewhere settled for a decent period of time in order to get this thing done. The plan is still to write it quickly, yet take 3 months instead of 1 to do it. Most likely starting in June, rather than ending it then. Yes, June, July, and August ‘should’ be good clear months to write. I don’t know of anything crazy going on there yet – hopefully it’ll stay empty.

Maybe I should start to plan my calendar now for it? Hmm, good idea, I’ll do that.

I’m also looking forward to a little more planning time. I don’t want to get bogged down with endless research, but I do want to read as many news articles as I can (I should cut out and keep them), read some more books and think my characters through thoroughly.

I love the light spontaneity of ‘just writing’ –  combined with the structure of set word counts everyday and a deadline to finish. 

Lets not procrastinate the story to death eh? All the fun is in the mental surprises – and  I want plenty of those. 

mark