My writing week (18)

Hi all,

Another week, another few thousand words. It's the start of spring and I have written every day this year so far, every day for two-thirds of a year, yaaa me. In the past three weeks I have picked up the word count as I started chapter fourteen, the chapter where everything changes.

I read a few more chapters of the novel I am critiquing. I've been reading it on and off for three months now and frankly, I would not be pleased with me taking so long if I was the author. If I am going to do this again, I think I will have to forget about reading any other fiction while doing it and just concentrate on it. Incidentally, apart from a few quibbles, the novel is better than a number of published novels I have read.

I have not read much of anything else, except a few articles on writing. In the AGE David Rakoff is quoted as saying, and I tend to agree, that writing is "like pulling teeth from my dick."

I read in the local Border Mail about a competition where people have three days to write a 150 page novel. I can't see how anyone could do that. Even with extensive planning, if I wrote for say eighteen hours a day for three days I reckon I would be lucky to finish 100 pages of utterly incomprehensible crap. Of course if you are writing a romance novel that might not matter.

I've spent a bit of time fixing a few problems with my webpage and then fixing the problems I created trying to fix the problems with my webpage, and then fixing the problems I created trying to fix the problems I created trying to fix the problems with my webpage. I think it works now though. www.grahamclements.com.

So where are all the writers from my masters and other writing courses? I can find no web presence for any of them except Chris Pavey. If they are serious about writing I would think they need to have a presence on the web. I would like to watch their careers unfold and I am sure it would spur me on if I saw one of them become successful.

Graham.

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