Writing projects

I’m finally kicking off on the few writing projects I’ve set myself to accomplish at the start of this year. One is to finish Bullet With Butterfly Wings (a story which is a good ten years old), the other to get some submissions underway.

It’s frustrating in the sense that all my endeavors to get my head down and begin these two small pieces of work get subsumed by the various umpteen other items of interest I put in my way. Imagine I am a drunkard, trying to get home. I have a bundle of money in my hand, and am walking down a busy high street, kebab and pizza shops flashing their neon lights each side of me. The goal is to get home. The reality is that I end up sat on a stool getting Chili sauce on my lap. In short, I am distracted by bright lights and things I like the smell off cooked meat. The goal loses interest.

Ok, crap analogy (but not that crap surely…) – the gist of the matter is that I’m starting to approach the whole writing shebang from a project/time management point of view. I recently came across an audio seminar of David Allen and his Getting Things Done methodology of task and project management. I found it so fascinating that I was implementing his ideas before I even finished the seminar, with his book soon winging its way from Amazon (which I have now returned…long story but I still have one copy remaining, put it that way) and after using it to tackle other aspects of my life I’m approaching how I plan my writing and related work with the GTD approach.

As a technical professional for a good ten years I know what a to-do list on my screen means, and applying it to my personal (and writing) life has interesting effects i.e. if it’s on the list, then get it done and clear it off the list.
So, I’m working on the plot for the remainder of Bullet (and writing myself into the same Caverns Larz, Steve, Al, Alex and Mav are dragged into) and have submitted Crumplezone to GUD Magazine.

There was a story in there that inspired me, called ‘The Problem With The Law’ by Neil Davies and I just loved it. I read it with a smile on my face from the first line. Crumplezone has some similarities in the fragmented, stacattoe’d style, and after a moment’s decision – where I had initially intended to submit New York Story, but felt the length would hold it back – I decided on a quick edit and found myself smiling as I read it in one sitting without spotting a single problem. The story is just mad, and crazy and nonsensical but still has a grounding where a reader can attach their own meaning on to the story. I think the ending is quite brave, especially for me. I call it my Akira ending

Bullet is still bugging me though. The idea of the idiotic Larz becoming the ‘king’ of the bugs is a cracking one because amongst the crew he’s the last person you would expect to have or want that responsibility ( I think of Cartman and the Markalars as I’m writing this…) but I have a few issues around what the other characters do. This is the problem with plotting, I fear. It’s very discouraging to write your plot into a corner where if you’re writing on the fly because you’re in the moment you can wing it a bit more. I’ll have another think and maybe back-track. I need Steve to do something, or have something happen to him. And if Mav, Alex and Al are stuck in a cave with no escape then what can I do with them?

Anyway. Soldier on. Adios.