I’ve been writing and painting and sketching. The writing is flash fiction, poetry (new: Gone), blog post (ta-da), etc. One of my latest is a flash story, from assigned prompts, titled Bait. I missed the deadline to submit as I was on ‘Nanna’ duty. Being Nanna takes priority any day.
I’m doing these exercises to help me break the mental blockage on my large work in progress, Irregular Orbit. I’m +40k words into it now. It is a sci-fi novel, heavy with universe / world building and character development. I am struggling with getting onto paper what I see in my mind, how the story goes, how the characters evolve, how good and evil can switch places before the actors recognize what’s occurred. It is broad and beautiful in my brain… now if I can just get it onto the page intact.
Overcoming the ‘stall’ is challenging. Fortunately, I’ve developed a good social network of writers. Online and in-person groups of talented and successful authors who, in varying degrees, have their work in the hands of readers. This has been hugely helpful. The writers help me hone my craft and sharpen my skills. They provide real feedback. Not polite platitudes of ‘oh, that’s nice, you write so well’ but the real, “hey this is awkward,” or “this doesn’t work the way you meant,” or “this word is flat wrong,” feedback. It has been a good exercise in actually sharing my writing as well. Not hiding it in files or on obscure blogs. 😉
I’ve committed to posting an excerpt from I.O. here by the end of the month. Stay tuned!
sharpwittedfl 