I’m pleased to announce that another short story, The First Wormhole, has been published in the latest edition of Kzine. I’ve discussed the challenges I faced with this story before so I won’t rehash it here, but I’m very pleased with the reception it’s had. A big thanks to Graeme Hurry for publishing it!
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My latest short story is due to be published soon, and I recently received a draft copy of the magazine. When I originally submitted the story last year I didn’t include a contributor’s note because I simply didn’t know what to put. I still don’t, but I couldn’t put it off any longer and sent in a rather bland sentence or two. There’s still time to change it before the final deadline, but does it actually matter?
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Last month I wrote about how I was struggling to find and maintain a healthy balance when it came to diet and fitness. I didn’t want to be too serious about what I ate and how much exercise I did, but neither did I want to be casual about it. Well, since then I’ve shaken things up a bit. And it all started with my discovery of OKRs. OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results.
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As mentioned previously I’m working on my new book a little differently. Primarily, it involves doing a lot more planning, before and during. I’ve gone from a pantser to a plotter. To recap what I’ve done so far, I basically plotted out my story in detail before I did any writing. This process took a couple of months but it’s produced a few benefits already. Firstly, I was able to double my daily page count because I knew what I was writing before I sat down to work each day (most of the time, anyway).
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Here’s a quick update on my health and diet plans so far this year. As previously discussed, I’m rethinking how I approach the whole issue of exercise, what I eat, etc. My hope is to come up with something that works for me long term, rather than falling into the trap of switching from one fad to another every few months. In that last post I mentioned that one of my new golden rules was to not be a martyr to the cause.
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As a writer of stories it naturally makes sense that I should read a lot in order to improve my craft. That much is obvious, right? Yet I don’t read that much. Or rather I don’t read as much as I believe I must, given my passion. Perhaps it’s unwise to admit this publicly, but I probably read two books at most each month. This used to bother me a great deal.
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I’m currently refocusing on my diet and health, after letting things slide over the last few months for various reasons. However, note this is not one of those horrible new years resolutions! No, never, absolutely not! I’m not planning to follow any particular diet. I’ve done that in the past and come away not any better for it. There is so much information out there, so many people advocating for one thing over another, so many seemingly compelling arguments to support the next great super food one week, only to have it dismissed the next, that it feels impossible to know what to do for the best.
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Another year, another review. As I explained last year, I’m not big on doing deep introspection any more, but the end of the year should at least be acknowledged so here goes… On the writing side of things 2016 has been one of my least productive in years, for a few reasons. I put all my eggs in one basket when I decided to write an entire book back in 2015.
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Since my last post, I’ve been busily working on my next book. It’s been a new experience for me as I’ve always been a pantser writing, making it up as I went along. But things change, and here I am, planning like a machine! The document with all my notes in is ten pages and growing. Now, you might be thinking that at that length it’s no longer just notes but an essay.
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Plot structure. Beginning, middle and end, right? Except of course it’s not that simple. And for somebody who’s best ideas tend to come spontaneously, it can be hard too. I go where my imagination takes me. I’ve known for a long time that structure is a weak point of mine. My first book was basically three largely distinct stories that coincidentally had the same set of characters. I didn’t plan it that way.
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