IOU an ending to lost property.....

....and this ending will come soon! But not today.

I've been focused on other writing related projects, so it isn't slackness delaying Part 4 going up. The weekend before last I spent 3 days doing storytelling bookcamp a la Robert McKee. I learnt a lot but over 11 hours each day doing my best impersonation of a sponge while sitting in a cramped cinema seat was exhausting. It was definitely worth doing though.

This past weekend I wrote a short story that I'm going to enter in the Guardian weekend short story competition (deadline this Friday scary!). I can't pop it up here as that would disqualify it (as would mean previously published, you have to laugh!). Once the judging has passed though I'll pop it on here (unless by some miracle I win, but I don't fancy my chances, I just need the goal to write towards). I thought I would explore a different genre (a sort of "who done it") for me, but really it's an exercise in character development. I've really enjoyed doing it. It is called Pathetique, and is on the nose 2000 words lol. I've re-drafted the story today following some really helpful feedback from my small critics circle (thanks guys, you know who you are!). It's really interesting what they picked up on. If anything, while I may not directly followed all the feedback, it has prompted me to re-think elements, given the readers perspective. Which has been great fun. My problem is that I know the characters far too well, so some things that are obvious to me needed spelling out more.

So once I have a final version of Pathetique sent out to the Guardian I'm planning to write up the final installment of Lost Property. It is all finished in my head, but I need to put pen to paper so that you can read it. Saying that, it is interesting writing in installments, as it limits you ability to go back & revise. I would probably tweek elements of the first 3 parts if I could, but won't as they are out there now warts and all. Plus for me this is all practise, which make you poor souls my willing guinea pigs. Obviously there's nothing good on TV.

My next project is a short story for the Tonto short story competition. I've got a couple of ideas that are at draft concept stage. I'm going to let them ferment while I finish up Lost Property. So this weekend will be about fleshing up the concepts and seeing if I get really excited about any of them. The joy of the Tonto comp is that you can write as much as 5000 words or as little as a bit of flash fiction, so I'm less restricted on form. For the discipline of writing and constructing I'm going to go for a longer form. I'll leave my flash fiction for this blog, just for you special folk.

Well it is passed midnight so I'd better go to bed. Louis has already turned into a pumpkin on the chair, cutest pumpkin I've ever seen though : )

Happy dreams, whatever they may be