Dicking About…

Or, what I am supposed to be doing but procrastinating like there’s no tomorrow…

I'm supposed to be writing - after all, I am a writer (“Are you?” Asks the little voice that no one else can hear. “Yes, I bloody well am!” says the me that is ego, or is that superego? I can never remember my id from my ego. “You’re talking to yourself again.”).

I hope that I am not talking to myself. I hope you, dear reader, will feel I am addressing you personally. I know we don’t know each other personally, but hey, this is only my third foray here and it might be that over time, you will come to know more about me than I will about you. You may come to know more about me than you want to know, but hey, let’s not go there today — let’s save that for another time when I need to procrastinate further, and you have nothing else to do.

Okay. Now where were we? Oh yes…I'm supposed to be working on the novel I began for National Novel Writing Month 2023. I wrote a couple of posts about this on my WordPress site – Flailing Through Life on previous years. It was a frantic time, but I met the 50,000-word mark, and I was pleased with myself. Again. This is the fourth time I have taken part in NaNoWriMo.

However, it needs finishing. I'm not a dolt — I do know that 50,000 words do not a novel make, especially if it is of the fantasy/sci-fi fiction genres; these tend towards the ginormous (not that I have any intention of creating something ginormous), 100,000 – 115,000 seems to be typical. Writers Digest.com has some good examples of how long your future creations should be. My WIP currently stands at 58k.

In short:
80,000 – 89,999:       Totally cool
90,000 – 99,999:       Generally safe
70,000 – 79,999:       Might be too short; probably all right
100,000 – 109,999:   Might be too long; probably all right
Below 70,000:          Too short
110,000 or above      Too long

So, you can see where I hover at the moment - Totally Uncool! Even though I wrote another 10k or so. I also scrubbed an equal amount. I am on draft six. And it is only now that problems with the plot have become clear to me.

My husband went and threw me a curveball. He asked some very simple questions. I hadn't considered why the people, in the society I was building, did not know a specific and crucial piece of information. I had not considered why one character didn’t have a conversation relating to aforesaid information, with his partner or friend.

In my fevered-little-writers-dungeon of a mind, it just was. Ah, now I was stuck. So, I decided to ignore that problem. Then I found another problem, this was equally as hard to answer, but from a technology perspective – what is the fuel of this imaginary world? What powers the transport? Ah, stuck again.

I kept ploughing away at other sections - I don't tend to write in chapters per se, and because I had not resolved two or three issues, it ground to a halt. I needed to step away from this one, let it rest for a while and work on something else ( I generally have a few different projects on the go).

And so, we're back to - I'm supposed to be writing. Instead, I have been checking my FB account, my Twitter account (I refuse to call it X), and my Instagram account, making logos and promo stuff on Canva. I stare at my seedlings on the window-ledge and drip feed water like a mother bird (except I use a container, not my mouth). There’s some research to be done on why the odd leaf or two is turning brown on my jasmine tree. I discovered new ways to fold my empty crisp packets. Looking at other people's blogs and Substacks, and, my personal favourite - trying to put my face onto a Star Trek character. I know, that last one piqued your interest didn't it? There are several sites where you can squish a photo of your lovely self into a gap where the well-known character's face should appear;

http://www.faceinhole.com/v2/createScenario.asp?maskid={12D45BD4-D90A-44B3-

http://trekkietar.framiq.com/?

Here’s a couple, in case you're interested!

I got Captain. Yay! (Yes, I'm a Star Trek fan) and proceeded to massage my ego by putting myself in Captain Janeway's body. There was barely enough room in there for one woman, let alone herself and a sad middle-aged woman with middle-aged spread. But finally, I squeezed my stupid face in.

So, this Substack post is all the writing I have done so far today. If it wasn’t for an issue I currently have with my knee, I would be off to my writer's group tonight and would probably own up to having dicked around all day, I'm like that; I have little shame.

Oh, and here's the result of that 'dicking about'...

Worth it eh?!

                

  I wonder what I’d look like as Mother Theresa?