Sprained eyeballs...

I'm sleeping badly. Yesterday my eyeballs felt like they'd stepped off the kerb and twisted themselves. Sprained eyeballs - weird - but thats how it felt. They're a little better today. I only missed an hours sleep last night while I surreptitiously (excellent word btw) co-ordinated eldest daughters return from party between 1am and 2am via text message on mobile set on vibrate so as not to disturb SO who had an early start this morning to take son off to all day soccer tournament. Daughter taxied in the end and I didn't have to do a late night run - whew.

I got an immense thrill out of a post (see below) from Beattie's Blog the other day...

check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ZDeMEH-6U

(Graham was tipped off to this clip by Mary Varnham of Awa Press. The bookshop featured is Maria's Bookshop in Colorado.)

Booker Prize winning The Bone People by Keri Hulme was first published in 1984. Its one of the best sellers in Maria's Bookshop and one of their favourite books in 2010. One of the things they like best about the book is its lyrical quality. This is cool book news of the first order!!

I am trying to order, sort and catalogue my writing brain for some upcoming talks. If only all parts of my brain would come to an agreement on my take on writing and publishing. My style and approach is continually evolving. And even when I have my own rules I know these are just for me and other people use their own variations to great effect. For example, a fab auckland writer I know aims for a high content of show over tell with brilliant results. I like to go for a more even mix and then read bestseller books that don't even seem conscious of what 'show not tell' means. But it can all work. A good piece of writing is the sum of all its parts. And even then you must still add the reader to the mix to get the final result. I used to be more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants (still true of short stories and picture books) but I'm becoming more pre-planned and organised about my novels.

I have a YA bodice ripper novel lurking in the background which I would one day like to finish. (This has been the writing affair I have been having recently while my two main projects have been waiting patiently for me to come back and finish them off). In this bodice ripper I have two love interests and a major plot development/twist involving both and I cannot decide how to let it play out. In this case planning probably won't help me. I have to write the story to find out who the sweet and wise female lead Plum will end up with. And thats only about 40 or 50 thousand words away. Argh....In which case the one true golden rule to be a writer is, you must actually 'write'.