And so it begins......

Blog two of the writing diaries, here we go!

Last time I mentioned that I had thought out a story line and was working on the characters and investigating the facts to go into my novel.

Thanks to the wonderful technology of Google (and lack of public library in my home town) I have been able to make some vast progress on investigating my setting scene and surroundings for the novel and have come up with a bullet-point summary for the main characters who will be acting out the story itself. I have even mapped out the different chapters and what content will go into each section.

So having come thus far, I decided it was time to switch on the laptop and make order of these thoughts going through my head to start typing out the opening scene.

The first three paragraphs came easy enough, my creative splurge doing most of the work for me. But after paragraph number four, I found myself slowing up and having to think of how to phrase what I wanted to say. When writing a blog it's so natural and free flowing as you are putting order to the chaos of thoughts and events that have already happened. With writing, you're trying to conjure up and imagine the scenario along with the thoughts and feeling associated with that character. It is definitely a lot harder than you can ever imagine!

It probably didn't help that it was quite late at night and I was half falling asleep at my laptop whilst listening to X FM and the snoring of my lodger in the room next to me.

Maybe I should best leave the week nights purely for researching and do my writing of the weekend, once I'm fully refreshed and focused on what it is I'm trying to say.

Novice or Insane?

Every year I always try to make two or three resolutions and then aim to achieve at least one of these things - what is life without goals to work towards?

2010 was my year to learn to drive and experience a proper exploring holiday - which I achieved. I passed my test at the end of September, 2 days after flying back from Indonesia.

My 2011 goals are to get myself a car (which I have achieved), re-decorate the house (which I have had to put on hold, owing to the fact I thought my money was better spent on another holiday!), become financially stable to the point where I don't need to have a stranger in my house (which is a work in progress) and finally, get creative.

This last goal was not set with a particular theme in mind, in fact I was probably thinking more on the lines of getting back into painting and drawing again, but I feel I need a challenge - and my next adventure could be just that.

I have decided to try and write either a novel - or some short stories. I'm still unsure if this could be a good thing - or will just drive me round the bend. But, everyone needs a challenge in life and my very good friend suggested over lunch that it would be also be fun to blog about the ups and downs that are involved with doing this writing.

So, after much deliberation and some futile Internet research, it has taken me about a month to think of a half decent story outline - which I might add has a beginning, a middle AND an end - and I am now onto the next stage of building up the characters and researching into some facts for my story, so I can make it as accurate as possible.

So far so good, but I feel the real test will be putting pen to paper (or finger to keypad) and actually trying to start the opening chapter. Hopefully it will not take me another month to get the creativity flowing in being able to produce that first paragraph.