The road goes ever on and on... 80% finished, and that's good.

[hawkwing_lb]

Exam news: French and biology are now completement finis. This is good news. History is tomorrow afternoon. This is bad news. I have a lot of study to catch up on, and not much time. :-) Or, to be honest, inclination: I'd rather stare out the window.

Yesterday evening I had a strange dream. About a bush with green-and-silver wing-shaped leaves and purple blossoms, and invisible butterflies that glowed in the dusk... There's got to be a story in that, my mind says. And I think there is, but what my mind's doing with that initial startling image is - weird. And disturbing.

That makes four definite discrete ideas since Exam Time began. Brain is clocking up overtime like a crazy thing. Now, if only I get to finish any of them... Sigh. This summer is my summer to finish a novel. Yes precious, it is. Nasty novelses, they never workses the way we wants them to.

This summer at least one will.

I've been writing since before I knew people could get paid for it. Scrappy little stories from the time I knew that written stories existed. At twelve, I knew my life's ambition was to write books. By fourteen, I'd written about 20,000 words of a novella that, when I look back on it now, has a crappy premise but reasonably solid prose. The year I turned sixteen, I wrote about 47,000 words - and innocent that I was, thought it was a novel (I've learned better since) - of a story that had a not-too-unbelieveable premise and better - but still not what I'd call super - execution. Execution is the word for what happened to it: it's still sitting in a file somewhere, since it's at the limit of its wordcount and I don't think there's a market for that length stuff by complete unknowns. Not too mention, the premise gets more unbelieveable the more I think about it. It was good practice, but not even one tenth of a way to a masterpiece.

Last year, I got 70,000 words worth of novel - twice. Same novel, same basic story: it took me two run-throughs before I realised that I was trying to tell a story that is more complex than my current abilities are capable of dealing with.

So I shelved it, and moved on. Since Easter, I've got about 20K on a novel that has a simpler execution, is not overloaded with back-story to the same degree, and has fewer absolutely required characters.

I write from character, not from plot. Which means I have to scramble after a workable plot, one that'll let my characters stay in character and make interesting, unpredictable choices. A lot of the time, I think, they run around chasing their own tails. And that's not in character.

I'm learning. One day I'll learn enough, and if luck and persistence combine, find a market.

__________

Other items of newsworthiness today: I've heard that

davefreer

Dave Freer's (http:/www.doctormonkey.com) latest work 'A Mankind Witch' has had a starred review in Publishers Weekly. I've read three-quarters of the e-book version: the final quarter awaits End of Exams. So far, anything good that's said about it, I agree with. Although it might be a little short for my tastes...