charles barrow's writing

Here is the first drabble I wrote. I think I might have mentioned, in an earlier post, that I wrote it to send to a website that was calling for competition entries. They set the gene as SciFi, and the theme as Inventions . I spent a lot of time on this, a new writing form for me, honing and editing until I was happy. I had a lot of fun with it, and when it was finished I emailed it off, meeting the given deadline, and was very pleased with myself for having had the discipline to complete the given task. Listen, I know some people can knock out a great drabble in five minutes flat, but that's not how I work. I write, I edit, I leave well alone for a few days, I return to write, I re-edit, then ignore for a week, then return etc etc. I'd still be working on it now if the deadline hadn't forced me to send it out. Anyway, there was no happy ending to this story. I logged on, on the day following the competition deadline, only to find that the website hadn't changed, the la...

I've got reservations. Not the type that'll get me into a swanky hotel, but reservations about my story, as a trilogy, and more specifically the endings of each story. And it's daft, but I worry that neither Parts 1 nor 2 have a proper ending - and don't even ask about my fears for the ending that I've crafted for Part 3. With a cool head, I realise that endings in parts 1 and 2 of trilogies are, by their very nature, open, otherwise how would the story continue? So, I suppose, my worries are more about whether the endings, though open, are satisfying. I believe that I've ended each one in a good place, plot wise. Something has been achieved, the task that has occupied the characters has been completed (a monster slain, if you like), while another path has opened up before them. And this is how it should be, isn't it? An ending, of sorts, and then a continuation. It's not an easy line to walk in a satisfactory way, but I think I've done it well eno...

I'm still editing my story. It's been a long road, littered with many perils - too many characters? Not enough action? No tension? Unsatisfactory ending? I've wrestled with them all. But chief amongst my headaches at the moment are capital letters. City, city, Government, government, Abbey, abbey, Sergeant, sergeant. I thought I knew these rules but suddenly I've become unsure and have lost my way. I can't tell you how many times I've changed some of these examples from lower, to upper, and then back to lower again. I've googled and feel none the wiser, I bought a book on punctuation, I've studied other novels, but I never seem to find the exact right example in the exact right context. I've almost decided to use lower case in every single instance, figuring that there will still be mistakes, but fewer on average. After all, this system never hurt k.d. lang or ee cummings. I could do worse than follow their example.

August has come around more quickly than I'd planned for, but summer has finally arrived with it. Although, then, with that comes outdoorsy distractions, beach, country walks, and to top them all the Olympics kicks off and I can hardly tear myself away from the tv coverage. Still, I contine to stick to my eight minute work day morning routine of writing and editing. As stated previously this may not seem worth the while but it's surprising how much work I can get done. It keeps the progress ticking over and more importantly it keeps the story fresh in my mind, and at the forefront, so that when I do get a decent block of time, on a day off, I can really focus in on what needs to be done.

Work on my next book, John Mann - At Day's End, came to a juddering halt a few months ago because my day job became so stressful that I was no longer able to be creative, or concentrate on it. It seemed ironic to me that the very time I needed an escape mechanism, a release valve, I was unable to run away to the fictional world I have created. It was a frustrating time. General feelings of lethargy and distraction were joined by a burden of guilt at time passing and no writing or editing being done. Things were getting bad and there was a feeling of desperation that led me to decide to give up on my writing; just stop, without the third installment of John Mann's story being finished and published. Things really got that bad. Then, last week, I heard in passing about someone who works on their writing for just eight minutes a day, and recommends it as a habit. Just eight minutes? For a fraction of a second I scoffed at the idea. Eight minutes of effort could hardly be worthwh...

I'm deep into another edit of John Mann - At Day's End. It's hard work of course. I've just found a loose thread which I will inevitably have to pull on, just to see what unravels so that I can stitch it back together. One of my favourite aspects of the editing process, which is not normally a fun pastime, is finally being able to turn to my Edit Boards. As I write a story I get words and phrases, ideas and prompts, pop into my head. I don't always want to stop right then and back track to add them into what I've previously written so I record them onto post-it notes and stick them onto the Edit Boards until later. Well 'later' has now arrived and I'm transferring the saved words and phrases into the story. They won't all find a home there of course, some are just destined for the bin. This is an enjoyable process for me, I enjoy this part. This isn't a struggle. As I transfer the contents of a post-it into the story I'll remove it f...

Guilt has spurred me to check back here. I wrote in a previous post that I find I can be writing here or I can be writing my book and I don't always find it easy to keep up with both simultaneously. So I haven't been here but I have been working on John Mann book 3, At Day's End. I've been writing and editing. It has been slow going but I'm still on track to meet my own deadline, so I'm not worried. I've also been planning an exciting research trip back to London in December. I've got some story wrinkles to iron out, and I'm looking forward to hitting the streets on my fact finding mission. I want to research facts certainly but also sights, sounds, and smells. I want to make sure I capture something of the atmosphere of the big smoke.

I'm editing Book 2 at the moment. I'm making hard choices. Kill your darlings, they say. Sometimes that is easier said than done. Take, 'A feint taint of woodsmoke.' It's writerly rubbish and trying too hard. Yet it survived several passes of my red pen, although each time I read it it snagged at me and caused me to pause for a fraction on the road past, like black ice might cause a tyre to lose traction. I always knew it was wrong and its days were always numbered. Eventually I returned to it and scored it through. Gone. Other edits are much harder. One sentence I really liked that had come to me in a bright moment, was a big sacrifice. It's wrongness remained hidden for a long while and even when I realised that I fought to keep it, would not admit it didn't work. I admired it, loved it even but it didn't belong in this story so out came the red pen again. It died hard. Editing can be a chore, can be fun, can be painful in equal measures but if y...