Friday 17 February 2012

The Tale of the Never Ending Epic


So, as with all (or at least most) self professed book-nerds, I am undertaking the writing of a novel, that seems increasingly likely to be an epic of perhaps three parts.  This had not been my intention at the beginning, yet as I stumble over my 121,515th word and begin my 24th chapter, I would roughly gestimate that I am perhaps a mere 20% into the story.  The main bit, where all the adventury, actiony stuff has only really just started.  This is where I ask myself, what the bleedin' heck have I been waffling on about for the last 100,000 or so words?

I have been writing the thing for about seven years, though if you count how long I've spent actually writing in those years, it probably only equates to a couple of months or so.  I would read a fabulous book, get inspired, sit at my desk to pick up where I left many moons ago, only to find that I had no idea where I was in the story, what was going on, or what needed to happen.  I would then have to read the thing from the beginning.  But of course I wouldn't just read it would I? I would have to tweak it, and add bits and remove bits, so much so, that by the time I got to the point where I could get some fresh stuff down, I'd have got bored, or distracted, usually by someone else's book.  And once again my own poor novel would sit on my computer, gathering virtual dust until the next time I should feel inclined to have another crack at it, at which point I would have to start the process all over again.  It was not an overly productive way of going about it.

It's only in the last year or so that I have decided to get serious with it.  Whether that means serious enough that upon completion (if that day ever arrives) I would try to inflict my work on an innocent and unsuspecting public, I still don't know. I wouldbe lying if I said that I hadn't at least entertained the idea of being a published author, what book lover hasn't at some point, but I think I maintain some level of reality that I don't think it's very likely...but still a girl can dream!! The aim rather, is just to get it finished. To be able to say, 'I may not have accomplished much in my life, but I was able to write an entire novel'.  Ok, yeah, it would sound better if I were able to say 'I published a frickin' book people, now worship my awesomeness', but I would settle for something with a beginning, a middle and an end. I even went so far as to try and cut back on the amount of books I read. Ha, what a fool!! Like that was going to happen.

I guess I had better start getting to the point of this post.  Basically, what all the above means is (and I wonder how I've written over 1000,000 and not really started my story!!!) that if I can't cut back on my reading, then I am going to have to sacrifice something else. I have already all but abandoned my artsy fartsy stuff, limiting anything I draw, paint or sculpt to being related to my own books. I don;t really watch that much TV, and releases of video games that I actually want to play are few and far between. So the only thing I could think of, was my Youtube reviews. Now, I am not saying I am giving up on it completely, they're just to fun to do for me to go cold turkey, but I am going to have to change the kind of reviews I do, and obviously how many I upload. As yet I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to do it.  At the moment I'm thinking of doing a haul type video every month or so, then a round up video, quickly reviewing all the books I managed to read.  I would have done this before, but I don't particularly work well with deadlines and routines.  I find that things stop being fun and I lose interest. So, yeah, uploads are going to be pretty sporadic, so I apologise for that.

But that does mean I can get my book written FINALLY. And who knows, maybe I could upload some chapters, though only once they've been tweaked, and that's only when I've completed it so...it might be a while.

I'll still be lurking about on a regular basis on twitter and I will do my upmost to make sure I keep my reviews on Goodreads up to date, and try to keep the blog going.


2 comments:

  1. Good luck on "following your dream" and pursuing your writing.

    Does this mean that I can have a signed copy? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. >.< yes, if I ever get there, I shall make sure you are one of the first to get one!!!

    ...you won't be allowed to give it back though if you don't like it!!

    ReplyDelete