Writing to Reach You

Err, right so, yeah I haven't blogged for a week. Yes I know, remiss of me. I'm sorry. I have been meaning to do so for the best part of a week but one thing and another has meant I haven't. What a fool I have been.

I have used a Travis song for the title because, they are a little overlooked. Not brilliant but nice inoffensive nicenes. Much like David Gray. Also, that's what these posts are all about, I am writing these little blogules, to reach you, my audience. Not in an dodgy way you understand.

So, right, yes, where was I? Not sure why I'm asking you guys, you don't know what I was doing this for.

AH! Yes! First things first. I didn't win the script competition. Fingers are still crossed for the short story one though.

In writing news, as this is a blogule about writing I have decided. I have decided to write a short story for this competition. My plan is to write two stories, the first I have written and features a haunted bird room in a museum. The other is a sci-fi type one, not sure what it will be about. I'll get back to you on that one. The good news of this is, that whichever I don't submit, I will post here.

In other writing news, I am looking at going back to the novel I wrote last year and slightly altering its feel.

Finally two other orders of business.

1. Later this week, I will post a review of the next author
2. I am adding a new TYSIC aim. "To do more sports"
   

First ABC: Rememberance of The Daleks by Ben Aaronovitch

Here it is, the first in what will be my new series of regular(ish) updates about books what I am reading.

A as the more alphabetical amongst us know is the first letter of the English alphabet so it is obviously the place for me to start. The A in this instance is Aaranovitch.

So, the basics first. The book is a TV tie-in from the series that I collect. It's basically a novelisation of the TV episode of the same name. Now there are two schools of thought when it comes to TV adaptations, you either do a very bare bones type up of the script with some very straightforward and to be frank rather dull linking bits where people don't speak.

OR

and this, thankfully is the option that Aaranovitch has taken. You take the script, maintaining the lines and events but you add an entire plethora of additional stuff to it, thus giving you something MORE than what you got with the original TV story.

Aaranovitch takes the daleks, previously just blobs in cases with nothing more interesting to say than "Exterminate" and things of that ilk and really adds something to them. Whilst I wouldn't say he gives them personalities, he gives them some real depth. The sense with which they refer to the Special Weapons Dalek (The Abomination as they call it) gives a real sense of internal racism and fear within an individual dalek faction. He also adds some additional character development notes that take the story and really flesh it out, making an other wise good Doctor Who tale and making it a really solid tale.

Throughout the story we keep getting undercurrents of the past that lead up to the events in the story, background information on some of the characters that never appeared in the televised version. All in all, this is really a very enjoyable book. Short but packs a lot of information.

The book makes you feel slightly more involved in the story because you get to experience a lot of internal thoughts of the characters.

As mentioned elsewhere. I am trying to improve my reviewing technique. So hopefully the next few will be a marked improvement on this.

Is it the end? Has the moment been prepared for?

OK, after yesterdays rather maudlin post full of apologies and the like I feel a second post is in order.

First a quick writing update. Long time readers will know that I entered a couple of writing opportunity things for Big Finish a while ago. Well I haven't heard anything yet BUT they are perilously close to announcing the fortunate winners. I'm no kidding when I say that my heart rate has shot up whilst listening to that bit of news I am so nervous about it. Apparently the audio entries are down to 12 finalists who will be sent off to the BBC for approval on the stories, checking they are not going to do anything like it soon. The short stories have been selected and are currently sat in an office somewhere at the BBC awaiting approval. Hopefully I will have some very positive news on all this soon. Fingers crossed!!

Alas the guitar has had to be put on hold for a week as I have sprained my elbow! Yes, slightly foolishly I have injured myself! Rather spectacularly done I may add. Basically I am a fencer and whilst leading a warm-up session at my local club I fell over. Not once but twice! The first time into a wall and the second on the floor. So my playing has to be put on hold whilst I recover.
Now, on with the news. I think WAR may be put on a back burner, too much aggression ain't good for you etc. However I am pleased to offer you a teaser for a new feature set to be announced tomorrow.

Below is a cryptic teaser.

Useful thing a tinfoil hat Ace.

Again I am late in posting, this is purely because of laziness. That and if I did post more often, this blog would become full of me waffling about absolutely nothing for a few lines. I know some of you may think that it is about that at any rate. To you naysayers I say, that you are probably right, thus making you less naysayers, more yaysayers. A word that sounds much more positive I think. Really, we should all be much more positive, that way things won't seem that bad.

So, what is this particular blog going to be about? What am I going to witter on about in the few words that I am going to lay before your eyes, which I am sure are very nice eyes. Will I talk about the Formula 1? Well yes I will for a little bit. Now I like Formula 1, there is something about the cars, in all their engineered glory, whizzing round the track at incredible speeds, roaring past spectators that I find really entertaining. The race this past weekend in Australia was a much better viewing spectacle than the one a fortnight ago in Bahrain. Which was less a race, more a procession of cars. The Australian GP had it all, overtaking, impressive crashes and a rather thrilling finish. Unfortunately Sebastian Vettel (nice young German driver) crashed out after a really impressive start due to some problems with his car. This is a shame because I rather like Vettel, he always comes across as nice and he's impressive to watch. In the end, Jenson Button won, which was nice because unlike Lewis Hamilton, Jenson tends to stay on the right side of Australian traffic police and he's not going out with a Pussycat Doll, so points to him for that.

As I reported in my last blog. I was writing a short story for the Doctor Who audio people at Big Finish. Well, the deadline was today and I managed to do it! Yaaay for me. I managed to write an entire 2,000 words for the story I eventually submitted around 1am. I had originally got a story that I had been sitting on for a while about a hospital with aliens in the basement, in fact the title of this blog is a quote from it. However when I came back to it to give the story a final read through, I didn't like it, so I abandoned it. In it's place I speedily wrote one about a radio. This I was much happier with.

However, this blog isn't about me being happy with my work. It is about my major problem in the writing stakes. Namely, the problem of editing. Now I love writing, putting words onto paper and creating these worlds is a real joy. I enjoy coming up with lots of different ideas and running with them, putting them into a story. However, despite all these ideas, all these wonderful worlds and beautiful words, I can't stand what it is I write. I read the words of any story I have written and just start hitting the delete key like a man possessed by the ghost of some rabid editor. Whole waves of text fall victim to the scythe that is the delete key. This is a problem that I will need to overcome if I wish to become a published writer. Otherwise I shall end up becoming my own worst enemy and never getting beyond a title.

In guitar news, I have been practising the chords for "Running to Stand Still" by U2.

The hardest part

Well, it's been a while since last I blogged. This is because I have been busy and not really had much to say. I did promise that there would be a forthcoming blog on the Indian Premier League. This got cancelled when I watched some of it and it frustrated the life out of me. I love cricket as a sport and really enjoy the T20 version of the sport. However the version presented on ITV4 is so cut up by ad breaks and pointless moments as to make a mockery of the sport.

Rant over.

I have therefore decided to dedicate this blog instead to one of my other Nano aims, namely that of becoming a published author. The key part of becoming a published author is of course having something to write about, one doesn't become a published author by making a candle after all.

I have currently been developing a short story to enter into the opportunity offered by producers of audio adventures of my all time favourite TV show, Doctor Who. The company named Big Finish can be found here. The company have been running a competition to find some short stories for a new range of short story CD's they are looking to produce. I am in the process of writing three separate stories that I am going to then have to choose between to enter.

Now why am I doing this? Well, unseen and non-existent questioner. I am doing it because I simply love to write. I enjoy the idea of creating a world and a series of events. It's the sheer joy of using the language to create this. Part of me also likes the idea of going into a bookshop and seeing my name on a shelf. That is of course the egotistical side of me which is called, for some reason, Kevin.

My ultimate aim really is to get myself published purely for the reasons state above, I don't care much if they become enormous massive Harry Potter style leviathans. It would be nice but I think unlikely. It would be nice to just know that people at least enjoyed reading them, which is I think a much nicer thing to get from reading.