CONTACT ME:
Writing from Alter-Space
  • Home
    • Free Read: An Angel in the Mirror
  • Books
    • The Nightmarist and Other Stories
    • Exodus Sequence >
      • Wired
      • Reflected
      • Walked
      • Spooked
      • Suicided
      • Crashed
      • Woken
      • Experienced
      • Caged
      • Drowned
    • Exodus Sequence 2 >
      • Shattered
    • Fleet Quintet >
      • Transference
      • Flesh for Sale
      • V. Gomenzi
      • Commences
    • A Doorway into Ultra
    • Diamonds on the Moon
    • Clarendon House Anthologies
    • Microfiction
  • Blog

Dictating into the Void

6/24/2018

0 Comments

 
I thought I should report back on my dictating efforts.  
The best thing I can say about it is that DOES make copy-typing faster.  Copy-typing of any kind is gruelling, though:  cue days of aches and pains in back and neck, as I stare fixedly at the screen, typing rather badly.  (Contrary to what one might believe, typing doesn't get any better the more you do it.)  It was painful stuff.  All the joy of handwriting a short story were nullified by the sheer utter tedium of having to convert it onto the screen.
Several small factors made it harder:  my headphones weren't long quite long enough to place my tablet where I wanted it (yes, hello, iPod people, why are your headphones so damn short);  there was also quite an irritating break in typing every time I had to physically stop the playback (by touching the screen's pause button) and often I'd miss.  
You try hitting a half-centimetre circle with a pinkie and see how accurate you are.
So it was slow-going and laborious.  It would have been lovely to have one of those dictaphone things with a foot pedal but when I priced them on Amazon, they cost nothing less than a fortune.
However, at long last the short story was transferred to the screen where I could edit it.  There's nothing quite likely slowly reading your work out loud and then even more slowly retyping it to realise just how bad it is.  I had an awful lot of work to do to get it up to scratch.
It's odd that a piece of work seems so brilliant when you're writing it and that afterwards, when you begin editing it, you realise what crap it is.  The creative process is divine.  The editing process is hell.  How feeble we are at reproducing our imaginations on the page.
Or, at least, I am.
I've just finished writing a second short story by hand (another fantasy tale, part of the same universe).  This one was much harder.  Two thirds of the way through, I had to ditch everything and start again.  This time I'm far more aware of its shortcomings and am actually looking forward to editing it to fix it up.  It also has a plot hole which I don't seem able to fix.  
Perhaps all I need to do is distract the reader.  Heh heh heh.
Picture
0 Comments

Blooming Late

6/2/2018

2 Comments

 
I realised this week that I can at best be described a late bloomer.  The fact that I haven't actually bloomed yet makes it later still!  After a horrible week, full of cruel disappointments and an appalling writing crisis, telling myself that I am still to bloom is about all I've got to keep me going.  It's the positive flip-side to "total failure."  It also helps (though not much) to alleviate the sickening green envy I feel when twenty-two-year-olds win major writing awards and publication deals because, obviously, I wanted to be that 22 y.o. when I was 22.  I wanted to be a child star.  And the rather lonely, neglected, nightmare-filled child inside me STILL wants to be that star.
So I'm having to placate myself with the fact that many extremely successful writers only found that success very late.  I'm sure I'm not the first "ageing" writer to tell myself, again and again, like a mantra "late bloomer, late bloomer, late bloomer....." in the vague hope that it will cheer me up. 
After all, don't late bloomers bloom the most beautifully?
​
Looking for "late bloomer" quotes online made me raise several eyebrows, though.  Those quotes by people who say they only bloomed in their twenties........how is that late blooming?  From my positively ancient viewpoint, anything below 40 to me is still spring-chicken country.  
Wikipedia got it right, though;  however, did they have to put "child prodigy" at the top of their "see also" list - right under late blooming authors??!  
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_bloomer#Writing



Picture
2 Comments

    Author

    I live in Bloomsbury.
    I write.
    Sometimes it goes quite well.

    ​

    FOLLOW
    You can follow
    Diary of a
    Bloomsbury Writer
     
    on ​
    ​wordpress.com
    where it's called
    Writing from
    ​Alter-Space

    ​​

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All
    Commences
    Everlast
    Lent
    Life
    Life In Bloomsbury
    My Coronavirus Diary
    New Novel
    On Editing
    On Publishing
    On Writing
    Review
    Second Draft
    The Difficult Novel
    The End
    Writing Tips

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Markus Trienke, eflon, Larry Smith2010, __MaRiNa__, elminium, InvictusOU812, PaulBalfe, Rina Pitucci (Tilling 67), ANBerlin [Ondré], Sumriana Babyana, stevecadman, Darling Starlings, Saku Takakusaki, Rubén Díaz Caviedes, Ric Capucho, aquigabo!, Key Foster, Mrs Airwolfhound, my little red suitcase, Joe Le Merou, freestock.ca ♡ dare to share beauty, bluebirdsandteapots, the bridge, Flower Power girl, Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon, chakchouka, archer10 (Dennis) 85M Views, this lyre lark, Secret Pilgrim, Hunky Punk, waaanderlust, takkle K, michaelmueller410, paweesit, Rick Camacho, Gidzy, J.J. Verhoef, Honza M., HDValentin, kthypryn, Pfauenauge *back to school...on and off*, diana_robinson, indigoMood, enrico.pighetti, Maria Eklind, timsackton, docoverachiever, Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon, bjpcorp, matty_gibbon, katya_alagich