Putting It Together

I have mentioned in earlier posts on this blog about my writing. I have been developing a 'multi-strand' piece, set in a single location, with differing characters, and giving these characters their own individual story arcs. I have been struggling for some time with how I could link them together in a successful, cohesive fashion. I think I'm fairly positive how to do this, using a narrator, someone who observes the whole setting. I am now formulating a structure for the whole and writing material for this narrator. I will be leaving off working on this project over the Christmas and New Year period and will re-commence working on editing what I have already written in the New Year (I have a ring binder full of the material I have written up until now. I am very surprised by how much of this there is.)The ediing of written material is actually just as important as the writing. What you leave out is probably just as important as what you put in. So, the expression 'more is less' makes a lot of sense in some ways. Something you learn quite early on as you begin to write and develop your writing skills. It's a bit like acting, it's not always what an actor says and does, the unsaid things, body language, facial expressions etc etc which can be used to put across a whole host of emotions that are more telling in some ways than speech, used to develop a character on stage.

Impaired Hearing

I'm suffering from impaired hearing today. It started last night. I get this on a fairly regular basis. My ears seem to get blocked up with wax. Sorry, I know it's not the most pleasant of topics, but I can't avoid it. It seems the only way to relieve it is to go to the doctor's surgery and get one of the nurses to syringe my ears. It causes really bad headaches and my hearing deteriorates markedly. I've had the syringing done several times. I seem to get really dry skin on my face and around my ears which may have something to do with the build-up of wax inside my ears. I was prescribed a cream to clear up the dryness but I need to see the doctor to get another prescription. I thought I could get an appointment with the nurse by ringing the surgery this morning, but I was told when I got through that I need to see the doctor and then be referred for an appointment with the nurse. Which now means that I will have to go to the surgery on Monday morning before 8 and queue up and get an doctor's appointment. I may not get one on Monday, which means a journey back to the surgery on another day and if I have to make an appointment with the nurse THAT might be in a week or two's time. So I'll have to suffer with impaired hearing for a good deal longer. So, it begs the question, why on earth can't I make a nurse's appointment without seeing the doctor? Surely, as I've been to have my ears syringed several times before, I'm not going to waste the nurse or the doctor's time over something trivial. With the N.H.S. in some sort of financial crisis, it would save one doctor's appointment if I went direct to see the nurse. I can't fathom this out at all. Or is it so the doctor can peer into my ears to see if there's an infection or something so I can then see the nurse or have some sort of medication for it prescribed? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me somehow, I don't know what you think. Actually, I can't think why it's called syringing, as no syringe is used. They use warm water which is injected into your ears with a special sort of gadget which is most certainly not syringe-like. If it was, knowing my dislike of needles, I don't think I would sit around having the thing inserted in my ears or, indeed, anywhere near my person.

I have been working on a new piece of writing. I have had the idea for this story for some time but haven't come across how to develop it, until a few days ago. I have written several pages but have been working on the main central part of the plot which has been going very well this morning. It will take quite a bit more thought and effort to complete it, but when I have it finished and revised it I will upload it to Shortbread Stories, a site which is specifically for short stories which can be downloaded and read using ebook readers and Kindles.  I have now got several bits and pieces at various stages of development in my notebooks which I put away when things aren't quite going as well as they might, but then, when a new idea comes to me I bring them out and do a bit more work on them.

With everything else going on at the moment my digital watch has packed up. Well, it is working, but it's not showing the correct time. So it's not much use to me.  It's a Casio digital watch which I got from Amazon. It has something on it called  'wave ceptor ' which means it keeps the time correct by receiving a radio signal from the atomic clock somewhere in England which happens at midnight. I does mean that the time is always accurate, but the watch has had a habit of going completely nuts and showing the wrong time. I have to say I'm not very impressed, even though it was a cheap watch. I have never had any problems with digital watches until this one started playing up. It had a resin strap which didn't last long which I had replaced with a metal one.  I once bought a really decent digital watch from Samuel's jewellers. It wasn't cheap, around £45 or so. They told me I could buy an extended warranty for it which would cost something like £15, which seemed a good idea at the time, because I needed a reliable watch, so if it broke down and needed repair the extended warranty would cover it. Or so I thought. It had quite a nice strap on it, made of fabric and leather, which was what appealed to me. So I bought it, and wore it, and all went well, it kept good time and I was happy with it. But then, well over a year past the day I had originally bought it, the thing went wrong. The screen went blank. No time. No nothing. Just dead as a proverbial dodo. So I took the thing back to Samuels, thinking, goody, I have an extended warranty, they'll fix it. There should be no problem. But what do they tell me when I take it in to have it looked at? It's the battery or something. It's not covered by the warranty. I'm not happy about this, as you can imagine. You would think that something like a battery malfunction would be covered by the warranty. But apparently not. But they had made their money out of the original sale as well as the extended warranty which for some reason didn't cover the fault. Very convenient and as a result I don't intend spending my money in H. Samuel's jewellery shops ever again if that's the way they treat their customers.

Writing Now On-Line

I have now managed to upload some of my writing. It is on the website called Booksie. There are, at the moment, three pieces, which are in draft-stage, and incomplete, but I am keen to get reader's feedback, so if you follow this link www.booksie.com/ShandyHall77 and give it a go, and maybe leave some comments, good or bad. I will upload more as time goes by, so keep an eye on the link.

Reading My 'Novel'

I have read Carol some of my 'novel' this morning. I'm not sure whether 'novel' is the right word. It was really strange, because I've been writing this for around a year now, and have kept it to myself for so long, and she's had no idea what it's about, so it's a bit like 'letting it out' into the wider world.  It is very strange. The whole process of writing is so peculiar, you create your own world and then people it with your own characters, and it's so private, to suddenly release it is somehow liberating, if that makes sense. It might be better to call this work a 'sequence' as it's a series of stories set around the same location, and how these intercut with each other. I can't explain it better than that. Once I get going, it's actually quite difficult to stop writing, the words just 'flow.' The planning of the thing is quite important and you have to have some idea where the story is heading, so I have got quite a lot of 'story arcs' planned out, which makes the writing a good deal easier.