Tag Archives: Writing

The way things could be: Freedom Flights. How far can I stray?

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When I started writing Freedom Flights I intended to produce a fictional story set against as much of the reality of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, until a just peace for Ukraine was reached. However, I gradually realized the fiction was overtaking the brutal reality. Deciding to create a fictional all-women squadron was an initial huge leap from reality, although it was created as a tribute to the real all-women Soviet squadron of World War II, known as the Night Witches or Nochnye Vedmy or Nachthexen.

Commander Evdokiya Bershanskaya gives a briefing to her “Witches”. (Archives Vlad Monster, http://www.ava.org.ru)

https://www.gracpiacenza.com/night_witches_eng.html


Two years on, I feel I’ve strayed a long way from reality, even if I include real events. And to develop things I’m on the verge of creating a road movie episode in which characters might become catalysts for future events. For instance, one character may be forced to take a step no politician has dared to… except perhaps Macron.

Tiger in flight 2012. Author: Peng Chen 

Can one individual force the supply of crucial weapons? Who initiated the surge in drone warfare?

Can a writer make their characters take such catalytic actions… as long as it doesn’t change history?

Whatever I decide to do, rest assured I will continue to remember the brave people fighting for our freedom in Ukraine. At least the aid bill has been passed so we can hope, pray, and breathe again. And maybe my intervention will mean something.

As always, links to the previous episodes can be found on my Freedom Flights page on the left-hand sidebar.

Slava Ukrayini

#IWSG – Derailment

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This fourth Insecure Writer’s Support Group post of 2024 is living up to its title.

Getting to this stage has been one obstacle after another, from health issues to writing problems.  

My Ukraine saga, Freedom Flights, has caused the most distractions. I managed to post Episode 19 almost on time, but Episode 20 missed the end of April self-imposed deadline. Blame a mix of uncooperative bowels, irrelevant change of conversations, and bouts of lethargy.

Read on for more occurrences of writhing and writing.

Slava Ukrayini

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Every month, IWSG announces a question that members can answer in their IWSG posts. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Remember, the question is optional!

May 1 question – How do you deal with distractions when you are writing? Do they derail you?

Apologies if this is brief as I’m struggling for vivid examples. So, I’m listing types of distractions, the worst being self-inflicted… like dozing off mid sentence/phrase/word/thought.

Pain that stops me from typing/thinking.

Random unusable idea.

Somebody changing the subject/interrupting. 

Finding an interesting but useless rabbit

New ideas emerging as I’m being interrupted.

Auto-correction misleading the plot.

Fingers hitting the wrong key and changing intent,

Finally, writing rubbish to answer a simple question.

At this point, I fell asleep… and two hours later woke up and discovered two things:

  1. When I type, I have to close one eye to not see keys double (= MS double vision), which wastes time but is not a distraction.
  2. Falling asleep is a distraction, especially when the reason was pain kept me awake last night, because one leg slipped out of my hospital bed and got jammed somewhere and twisted for four hours until a carer rescued me.

Moving on from distractions, I do get derailed, sometimes to the point where I lose the plot until I force my struggling mind back on track. Other times, the derailment is total, at least until inspiration kicks back in… a few hours later, or next day.

As for dealing with distractions, it’s a matter of pushing through by being committed to the project. For instance, ‘Freedom Flights’ and its characters have grown close to me while writing more casual articles doesn’t hold my attention.

Sorry for posting late.

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The awesome co-hosts for the May 1 posting of the IWSG are Victoria Marie Lees, Kim Lajevardi, Nancy Gideon, and Cathrina Constantine!

Finally, don’t forget to visit more active writers via the IWSG site:

Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG, and our hashtag is #IWSG.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!


Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer – aim for a dozen new people each time – and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

#IWSG – To Read or Not To Read

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Created  and hosted by the Ninja Captain himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, theInsecure Writer’s Support Groupmonthly blog post is here again – and so am I, insecure, although a chunk less as I scheme ahead to NaNoWriMo.

Last month, I was meant to be submitting my Pitch Wars 2019 submission. The required query letter, one-page synopsis, and the first chapter of my completed manuscript seemed achievable by the September 25th-27th deadline. But I was unsure if I had a “completed and polished full-length, fiction manuscript”. I decided it was incomplete and ‘dusted’ more than ‘polished’.

So, what started as an insecure month, evolved into a decisive plan to revise ‘Fevered Few’. The short stories at its heart are becoming episodes and memories driving the main story. And I’m working on a new way to open this renewed novel, now called ‘Fevered Fuel’ and slated for its rewrite as my 2019 NaNoWriMo project.

Anyway, on to the IWSG monthly question.

October 2 question – It’s been said that the benefits of becoming a writer who does not read is that all your ideas are new and original. Everything you do is an extension of yourself, instead of a mixture of you and another author. On the other hand, how can you expect other people to want your writing, if you don’t enjoy reading? What are your thoughts?

Are any ideas new and original?

All writers borrow from others in some measure. Even Shakespeare borrowed – retold tales. Like others, he built on the past weavings of different storytellers – ancient Greek playwrights, medieval histories, and folklore. Can’t we do the same?

For me, reading is like settings and people – enjoyable fuel for the little grey cells.

All this feeds and inspires my writing about Detective Sparkle Anwyl of the North Wales Police/Heddlu Gogledd Cymru – and other scribblings and scratchings.

I’d like to believe Sparkle is unique, but I know she has loaned traits and actions from others. Perhaps, she will inspire someone herself.

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The awesome co-hosts for the October 2 posting of the IWSG are Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Mary Aalgaard, Madeline Mora-Summonte, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor!

(I have to admit how much I admire these guys as I know they have commitments too – like Ronel’s recent release. Ticker-tape applause for all of them – plus toasts too.)

Purpose of IWSG: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer – aim for a dozen new people each time – and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

#WRiTECLUBDFW – WRiTE CLUB 2019

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Although I’m struggling through the Blogging from A to Z tail end/aftermath, I’m about to follow  WRiTE CLUB 2019.

Just what is WRiTE Club? In short, it “started off as a modest competition loosely derived from the movie FIGHT CLUB, and from there it has grown into a writing community sensation…”

Here’s the link for all the details: https://www.dlhammons.com/p/write-club-2019.html 

Monday April 29th is the start of the competition and hard work/thought for us reader-followers:

WRiTE CLUB Calendar

“Over the course of the next eight weeks, we’ll hold daily bouts (M-F) right here on this blog – randomly pitting the anonymous 500-word writing samples against each other. The winners of these bouts advance into elimination rounds, and then playoffs, quarter-finals, and then ultimately a face-off between two finalists to determine a single champion.”

There were a record-breaking 189 WRiTE Club entries from 137 writers!  They received writing samples from writers around the globe that represent 40+ different genres and sub-genres. The twenty clever and avid slush pile readers have narrowed the entries down to the 30 contestants for the daily bouts.

Now it’s our turn. Anyone who visits the WRiTE Club blog during the contest can vote for the sample that resonates with them the most – leaving a critique to help writers hone their craft.

Plus, the readers can win too – if we vote. If you check out all the cool prizes at https://www.dlhammons.com/p/write-club-2019.html  you will find all the rules, prizes and links.

So, if you are tempted to read and vote for some great pieces of short writing, visit  WRiTE CLUB 2019 from Monday April 2019. You might even pick the WRITE CLUB Champion or be a reader/voter winner.

Where are my quills?

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InsecureWritersSupportGroup2

If I was a real Elizabethan writer, and not an Elizabethan wannabe, then I’d be content to discard my dull goose feather and sharpen a new quill, then pull out a new sheet of parchment.

But Elizabeth II is on the throne and computers are more than just a quaint novelty. In fact, I’ve become addicted, whether for emails and accounts, or for writing. I can’t even throw the polyhedral dice to slay raiders without a computer.

 

However, I’m forced to scrawl the first draft of this post without the security of my desktop, relying on my pen not crashing. Yes, my hard drive crashed for the third time in two months. So I’m feeling very insecure – more than I did when the old year ended.

Back in December, the insecurity was just about my writing. Was it worth reading? Was it worth spending time on? Or was it best to spare the readers from what might well be dire? I know too many excellent writer friends to muddy the publishing water with my attempts.

I was thinking of having a New Year sale… of my unresolved ideas. But second-hand goods are hard to flog – I learnt that trying to re-publish my first novel; but then few people bothered with it when it first came out in 2013. Anyway, as I’m struggling with the new plots, they have little value.

Fortunately, or not, my desktop resolved the issue by dying upside down, falling to the dreaded blue screen of death. I couldn’t face asking my technically-proficient wife to install yet another hard drive, so I bought a new machine. Now, for the third time in two months, I’m re-installing all my favourite pieces of software, from Office to Star Wars: The Old Republic.

However, I still need to decide if I’m cut out to be a real writer, rather than a dabbler in ideas. Only then can I install something like Scrivener. Is that going to be my 2016 resolution?

Is there an answer in the following? (And who said it first?)

“Our doubts are traitors,
and make us lose the good we oft might win,
by fearing to attempt.”

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The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. We post our thoughts on our own blogs. We talk about our doubts and the fears we have conquered. We discuss our struggles and triumphs. We offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.

Please visit others in the group and connect with other writers – aim for a dozen new people each time.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

And be sure to check out our Facebook group –https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWSG13/

The awesome co-hosts for the January 6 posting of the IWSG are L.G. Keltner, Denise Covey, Sheri Larsen, J.Q. Rose, Chemist Ken, and Michelle Wallace!

Brysur Fel Morgrig ~ How Industrious Are You?

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InsecureWritersSupportGroup2

Today is the first Wednesday of March so I’m blogging as part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Whether it proves to be an industrious day, remains to be seen. But last month was.

First, a clue to the Welsh I learnt in April – I now know at least four phrases in a language that we hear all around us, if we go outside our compound.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?                                   Henry David Thoreau

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Looking back, I’ve been busy all my life, but often that rushing around has been evasion. I had things to do, but often found other distractions. With my writing that can be detrimental, whether it is playing Facebook games, watching Soaps, or researching without direction.

However, in February I found some balance and managed to write a satisfying amount, mostly some of the chapters of “Seeking A Knife” featuring my Goth detective, DS Sparkle Lodge. I was even editing/rereading scenes when I started each day. The secret, for me, was not to set myself an impossible daily goal, and to treat the zero days as part of the flow.

That’s what we have to do, stand back from impossible targets and find the balance in our lives between work and play. That balancing act will vary from day to day, but over a greater period of time pan out and hopefully yield amazing results.

Maybe that isn’t the way the ants achieve great things, but there will be days when we are as “brysur fel morgrig” – “busy as ants”.

Image courtesy of SweetCrisis at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of SweetCrisis at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. This is my attempt to talk about my doubts and the fears that I am trying to conquer. I want to be encouraging, and by posting perhaps this is a way of saying keep striving. Visit IWSG and some other great bloggers, not all as insecure but great fun.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

The awesome co-hosts for the March 4 posting of the IWSG are Chemist Ken, Suzanne Sapseed, and Shannon Lawrence!