————————————————

If I was excited about writing yesterday, I’m even more excited today. In fact my head is full of blogs I could write about writing, so this writing theme might last a while.

The strange thing is that I’m not quite sure where this writing thing is going. I have two projects which both clammer for attention at different times (and a third shy project which is makes an odd appearance in my brain every so often) and I’m not sure which is going where and what is my priority. And I’ve been struggling with this. But at the same time I’m excited because I feel like all these projects are developing and I can’t just focus on one and ignore the other two, I have to just go with what comes out on a day to day basis.

On top of that after being in my real job for eight months things are really falling into place and I’m starting to love it. This was meant to be a job I enjoyed, but that gave me enough free time to write and with the aim to get into my writing career. I wanted to feel good about my day job, but I didn’t expect to find myself thinking about staying in it and developing the role for years to come. Now I feel like I want to really get my teeth into the day job, whilst also making money from writing projects. We’ll see how that ambition turns out over the next couple of years!

Anyway the thing that got me excited was reading Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook. I intended to buy it a while ago as an avid Doctor Who fan, it didn’t occur to me that actually as a writer I might get double the joy from it (triple joy if you count all the Kylie stuff too!). After spending an anti-social hour at my sisters reading my brother-in-laws copy, I have now borrowed it and my plan for an early night disappeared as I couldn’t put it down. Starting to see Russell’s journey of developing and writing series four has alleviated me of my guilt about not being properly “disciplined” and sticking to one thing. As I grow in confidence with my writing I am also growing in confidence with my method. Or rather lack of method and lack of structure.

The biggest struggle for me in writing fiction is getting the first draft down. I like conceptualizing the story, I essentially have three books worth of “Project no.2″ storylines, that have been growing and finding their feet. Whilst they may have found their feet, I have yet to find their voice. That is the struggle. I have my blogging voice, but what is my fiction voice. How does the way I write here translate to writing fiction? How can I get the outline and the concept into something genuine?

And therein lies my next challenge. I have written the first few chapters of “Project no.1″ and “Project no.2″ multiple times, but neither of the results feels authentic yet. I’m not sure ploughing ahead and trying to write the entirety of both is a good idea when I think they will end up needing to be heavily edited or completely rewritten. I think I just need to keep working on those first few chapters until they feel right.

I’m sure there are people who will disagree with my writing methods. I don’t care. I had a whole other paragraph here, but I think Russell T Davies says it much better than I ever could:

“Firstly, any writer telling another write how they must work can always sod off, no matter how brilliant they are.”

and…

“It’s fascinating how many successful writers start talking like censors – saying, ‘You must write like this, you must not write like that.’ The very people that should embrace freedom, and the right to make mistakes, become the people laying down laws. That Bonfire of the Vanities goes on and on. Stoked by writers! Don’t they realise they are becoming dictators?”

I believe in my stories, though they evolve as time goes on, the basis is there. Just as I have learned to blog and do it with ease in a way I am comfortable, I need to learn to write fiction too. There are days I know I can absolutely do this, and others when I think it will never happen. But deep down I want it to happen, and in some ways I need it to happen. Watch this space.