…there’s a big, brown stain no one wants to clean up.
Remember the last time the toilet roll spun off and collected in a pile on the floor? Rolling it back on made it look like a cack-handed attempt to restore order in the universe.
Let’s leave this mess, shall we?
It has been a while since we have sat down to have a chat and catch up; we have seen so little of each other lately, for which I sincerely apologise. Let me fill you in on the changes happening.
While the monkey butler winds the gramophone and sets the record playing, take a seat in the comfy chair.
Would you like tea, coffee, Gravox? Please, help yourself. Milk and sugar to the left.
Let me begin…
I took a bit of time off from writing here on the blog about my writing and creativity, from writing Post It Note Poetry and micropoetry, even from my current works in progress, as it all appeared to be one glorious mess of paper strewn across my desk utilising a filing system dependent on an understanding of Base 6 and Kermit the Frog’s rendition of “The Rainbow Connection.”
I knew where everything was, and is, but the boundaries were beginning to blur and it meant losing focus on the bigger picture I have in mind for my writing. I had too many projects on the To Do list and I was losing focus, impetus and momentum.
In order to separate the strands of my writing I am having a cleaning out of the blog. Some things will disappear, others will stay the same. It means a clearer delineation of my writing projects, my writing life and your connection as a reader.
In the middle of May I decided to take a writing sabbatical until the beginning of June to enable myself to think through what it was I really wanted to do. It was the culmination of a sense of failure I felt earlier in the year, and something I raised with my online writing group. I had a sense of dissatisfaction and felt like I was wading through a pile of dirty washing with no map and coming out the other side with a pair of dirty underpants on my head.
I broke my writing sabbatical (I makes the rules; I gets to breaks the rules) with upwards of 500 words towards my verse novel. However, the small break gave me permission to not write, to take the pressure off. It helped clear the foggy windscreen, replace the toilet roll and consume an unhealthy amount of doughnuts.
What’s on the “Assault on the Literary World” agenda/game plan?
Firstly, changes to this blog:
A Fullness In Brevity – Blog posts on what is happening in my writing and other nonsensical wonderments will continue to appear here.
Post It Note Poetry and Micropoetry – will be moving to tumblr where I will repost my old works and continue with new ones. The link is here (please note the name change to Post It Notes and Poetry – someone already had “Post It Note Poetry”).
I am fond of writing micro poetry on twitter but want to consolidate my poetic scribblings into one place. I intend to release an anthology of Post It Note Poetry and micropoetry once I have sufficient works of quality.
Expected Completion of Draft: ongoing but aiming for 2015 ebook release.
Creativity for the Uncreative – here on the blog I have been writing about creativity and sincerely believe everyone can be creative. I intend to relaunch my blog with this focus in July/August (potentially on a new site), revamping older articles and writing new ones with a definite plan in place for an ebook version when it is completed.
Expected Completion of Draft: ongoing but aiming for 2015 ebook release.
Secondly, what am I working on?
Post Marked: Piper’s Reach – my collaborative epistolary novel with Jodi Cleghorn is edited, finalised and ready for submission to the portals of bookdom once we have written a synopsis *insert curse words here*
This is a project I have a very strong belief in; it’s powerful, poetic, brutal, beautiful and it made me cry.
Novella – The Java Finch (working title)
I have approximately 7.5K words down but am fiddling with the structure and plot of the narrative. I fear it may blow out to a novel but I want to restrain it to 30-35K and write it as a literary novella.
Expected Completion of Draft: end of the year.
Verse Novel – The Broken Chord (working title)
This is a YA WIP inspired by Australian poet Steven Herrick’s verse novel, The Simple Gift and Peter Goldsworthy’s classic, Maestro. With both texts there is a remarkable simplicity of language yet stunning depth of ideas. My story will have a rawness to the poetry, to fit the voice of the protagonist. I am 3.5K words in to a projected target of 15-18K.
Expected Completion of Draft: end of the year.
Degenerate Dictionary – another collaboration, this time with author Jessica Bell. It is an opportunity to play with language, have a bit of fun and put it out as a book when we have enough words and definitions.
Expected Completion of Draft: ongoing.
Poetry and Short Stories – I have a note book of potential story and poem ideas; some are half written and baking in the sun. Others are skid marks at the bottom of the toilet bowl waiting to be flushed. I intend to balance out work on my novella and verse novel with shorter works intended for publication.
It’s a lot of balls floating in the bowl but I now feel clearer in my head regarding the direction I want my writing to go. There are a couple more projects on the horizon waiting for the correct time frame to present itself.
It’s diversifying to other places but simplifying it for you the reader to enable you to get the most out of this.
I will leave the past on the blog, a scrapbook of my beginnings, kind of like reading my teenage journals (which reminds me, I’d better burn those).
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to splash out and buy some luxury in the form of 3-ply toilet paper.
A Fullness in Brevity - Adam Byatt 