Thank Heavens for That!

I got locked out of my blog yesterday.  Being the techno-twit that I am (I know how to do what I know how to do, but beyond that it's all QBASIC to me) I wasn't sure if I'd done something wrong, or if there was a problem with the site.  So I did the only logical thing ... I turned it off and hoped it would all be better when I switched it back on again.  And, hurrah, it is!  Turning it off and hoping it will fix itself is certainly up there with hitting it with something heavy, or spraying it with WD40 in my lexicon of how to mend things.  

Spent a lovely afternoon yesterday watching Saracens put Leicester Tigers back in their cage.  Good rugby ... and some very nice legs, bums and pecs on show on and off the pitch!  Shocking, I know, but, hey, I'm an unattached girl, I can ogle as long as I don't drool in public.

Got the last week of my first year at OU next week.  Exam piece is to be submitted on or by Thursday lunchtime.  I'm partly relieved, partly terrified by the prospect of handing in that final story.  My last mark for my TMA05 wasn't what I hoped - I got 72%, which isn't tragic, I know, but a bit of a smack across the chops after an 89%.  It took me a good week to climb down from my huff and re-read my tutor's assessment, which was (to summarise) that the relationship between the two characters needed to be further developed in order for the reader to have some emotional involvement.  So, not, I think you'll agree, total pants.  Seeing as it will have to be revised before it is good enough to be considered being sent anywhere for either a competition or for publication (ah, the dream of seeing my name in print for the first time), I think I'll post Janus Man so you can see what all the fuss is about.

It's the constraints of word counts that frustrate.  I think it has made me realise that I prefer the parameters of writing novels.  You have the time and space to develop your characters at whatever pace you feel the story needs.  It's true that writing a short story (especially if you only have 2,000 words) is a bit of a nightmare and I do take my hat off to those who can do it and who choose that as their discipline.  It's a great skill to master as, similar to poetry, you have to distil your language, reduce it down and concentrate it so the flavours are distinct, but make the whole a rounded, satisfying slice of life.  It's a shame it's such an under-appreciated art-form over here.

So the next thing you will be watching me do (hopefully, if you stick around), is start my novel.  I do, after all, have to put all this new-found knowledge into practice, otherwise it's been a pointless exercise.  And I have to find something to keep the juices flowing between now and October when Level 3 starts.  First of all, I need to decide if I'm going to take one of my previous ideas and work on that, or find a completely new subject.  Ah, so that's what my writer's notebook is for!!

Watch this space.