My latest read and the excitement of travel

I apologise if you were expecting a post yesterday. I did think about it (honest), but decided to have another laptop free Sunday. It's good for me! Instead I spent most of the day reading. I started a book called Slade House by David Mitchell. This one is the Book Club read which we will meet and discuss next month when we go out for our Christmas meal. I'll have long read it by then as yesterday I'd got through over half the book (it is only a small book) and have read more this morning and well expect to have it finished later! I am loving it!

This is the first of David Mitchell's books I've read, but I think I shall be coming back for more. It's so different - a ghost story. Every nine years a sort of porthole opens and a guest goes into the house. At first they don't want to leave, then they can't. I shall carry on reading at lunchtime as things are winding up to an end but I have no idea how this will happen.

My youngest son has gone off on his travels again today. Right now he's on a plane heading to Croatia and then he has a few days in Slovenia. He's become quite the traveller over the last few years and has been to more countries than me, though I do love travelling and get quite excited by a trip.

I love going out and about. Right now I have a list of art exhibitions I'd like to visit and a longer list of places in England, and some abroad. I'm always making plans, checking out hotels and things to do, looking at train timetables and thinking about when I can go. I love planning for day trips as much as for longer trips. And I enjoy writing and photographing my trips. I have another blog called piece of the attraction where I post about all this. Maybe my son gets his wanderlust from me. He's not the best communicator but he does use Instagram so I tell him to post a photo when he gets to wherever  he is going so I know he's okay. I love his photos. I'm not Facebook friends with him as I think he's entitled to not have his mother tut tutting about his posts, but I've caught him on Twitter a few times and seen other sides to him, especially his humour. He makes me laugh with his one line quips. I like to think he gets that from me too!

My older son is the computer and science nerd. He's my IT man! He can be obsessive like me, and stubborn. He once had a thing about wearing suits with waistcoats and wanted a pocket watch! He likes hats is an animal lover and thinks deeply about stuff. We have long conversations sometimes. He's a bit of a loner and like me is a Trekkie fan. They are very different, the boys, but I see bits of me and my husband in both of them, and I love them to bits. Now at 30 and 27 they still surprise me.

I'll finish here with a few photos. Have a great day all.

Me in my late teens

My youngest as a child
(sorry for the quality, photo of a photo)

Pondering on ways of writing and the influence of comedy

Rough notes for 'Austin Stapley'.
 I don't mind sharing this as it won't mean much
to you, but it does to me. This is only one
half  anyway.

While uploading the second episode of my online soap I noticed something strange. Before I cut and paste from my Word document, I take one last read through for any errors or wording I want to change. It's like I am looking at it for the first time and I find things (this morning there was a typo), like a word I'd prefer to use. I hope this doesn't mean I should have done further edits, but no I am not worried, particularly, I am excited. I am re-living the whole story and being with my characters again is like coming home. Writing this taught me a lot about planning. On the whole I worked out what was to happen in each episode a few ahead, but not by much because I didn't want a rigid structure. Often I will think things will go one way and then suddenly a character will say I want to go this way. Sometimes I had complete light bulb moments and connections I'd not even realised where there. The only real rules I had was to keep each episode within an approximate word count (1,200 - 1,600) because I don't like reading long stuff online, I'm much more a book person, and how many episodes it would run to. I also tried to keep the tension going by quick-ish scene changes.

When I first began to write it, I mainly wanted it to be fun. The serious stuff came later, and I had to edit earlier episodes to make sure it was a natural progression. My way of writing certainly seems to be an idea first, write the first chapter, or some piece in my head that needs to be set down. After a while I realise I am going nowhere! This is when the planning comes in - notes, timelines, back history, character profiles, research. Once I have enough rough stuff I continue writing. But it never ends there because other things crop up, new characters, something I want to write about which needs researching (if I have no personal knowledge).

At present I am writing a series of short chapters on Scriggler with a working title of The Adventures of Austin Stapley. This is a piece of humorous writing which started as whole scenes in my head one night when I couldn't sleep. I got as far as Chapter 5 and then I left it to concentrate on other things. I came back and couldn't see a way forward. So, yesterday I began my planning. It's a rough outline, subject to change and order. These are mere outline notes. I have only published two chapters on Scriggler so far. I want to keep a few chapters ahead because once on I cannot edit again! Not on there anyway. It is a working draft and far more immediate than the year it took me to write and edit the online soap. There is no way I could have put that up as I did it!

Writing is still a learning curve as discover new or easier ways to work, but I've always been imagination first, the rest later. Maybe that will change in time, who knows. I am not sure that I could ever write something totally serious. Humour is in my blood (I blame my Dad), I see the funny side in most things (which my Dad did). Looking at comedy my favourite TV programmes are the silly but great comedies - Dad's Army, Blackadder, Monty Python, 'Allo 'Allo. I love the humour in Doc Martin (I was beside myself on Monday when I watched) and I love Coronation Street for the same reason. It has serious issues but humour is never far away. I love reading the serious stuff, but I'm not sure if I could write it.