A Bit of a Hiatus…

On By Mick CanningIn blogging, writing

Well, blimey. Another of those passages of time when I’ve been just so stupidly busy, that I’ve hardly had time to take breath, never mind look at blogs or think about doing any writing myself. And…it’s going to be quite busy for another couple of weeks.

Yet, here I am grabbing an hour to write something and, hopefully, catch up with one or two other blogs. And I have no idea what to write about! I usually have a few ideas mulling over before I sit down at the keyboard, and one or two half-finished posts on the computer that I can draw on. Today, though, zilch. I have one finished post that is on a somewhat contentious subject, which I’m going to leave a few weeks so I have time to properly respond to any comments it generates (who knows, though, perhaps there won’t be any?), and a couple of partly begun travel posts. I need more time than I can spare at the moment to sort out photos for those.

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Random and totally irrelevant photo of the week.

Yet…a blog is a personal thing. We’re not journalists, with deadlines to meet and news stories to tackle before they go cold. We’re not being paid to produce highly detailed technical notes on a particular subject. So my personal blog, today, is simply about my progress, or lack of, with my writing.

So, yes, nothing for the last couple of days. But I promised that I would produce an Author’s page on Facebook by the middle of the month – I will!  – and that I had a bawdy, riotous, Elizabethan short story to post in a couple of instalments at the same time. That one is a bit more interesting! Having promised I would do that (primarily to give me the impetus to write it), I got stuck in and by the end of last week I already had over 8,000 words done.

Far too long for a couple of posts, which I feel should be limited to around a thousand words. Certainly, I almost never read posts that are much longer than that. I don’t have the time, unfortunately. So I have a bit of an editing job to do on that.

When that is out of the way, I am going to collate some of my longer short stories together to publish as an e-book and, perhaps, a POD paperback. I won’t have the novel ready this year, so the short stories will be this year’s publishing project. I hope I have enough decent ones to be able to produce a themed collection.

And then? Back to the novel!

Tally ho!

18 thoughts on “A Bit of a Hiatus…”

  1. Takes a lot of tending, blogging, doesn’t it? I’ve just commenced some long-form writing myself so will have to see how I can juggle the time. I’m also aiming to read at least two novels a month, so there’s another draw on time.

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      1. I haven’t thought about publishing Mick, but it’s a given that if I’m satisfied with the end result then at least it’ll go out in digital form worldwide — there’s no reason these days not to do so, is there? I write for the pleasure of it (as I’m sure you do too), and whilst some feedback and acknowledgment is always very welcome, not to say helpful, there’s no pecuniary imperative. I’m feeling a bit constrained by the (typically) sub-1k word blog format, and want to breath a bit with character development — see if I can do it, essentially. It’s about an art scam within a polyamorous love triangle, but narrated with some vaguely comic, artificed language.

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        1. I have a feeling it will be an interesting, involved and worthwhile read!
          I understand what you say about the 1000 word restraint, but I see that as a way of avoiding the temptation of putting everything that I write onto the blog.
          Yes, easy to publish as an e-book, and I certainly manage to avoid any pecuniary advantage from publishing!

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  2. Ah, the blasted conundrum of trying to fit everything in to 24 measly hours. I feel your pain. Especially when novels come into it. I am very much looking forward to the contentious post, I sincerely hope I catch that one. The bawdy one also sounds great! I agree with you about keeping posts to around 1000 words, much more than that is off-putting as a reader. My own output has slowed until the next novel is signed off and ready to go – I made the mistake last time of starting new projects before it was completely done and ended up putting myself under unnecessary pressure to keep up with everything. Although I am chomping at the bit to start up new stories, I shall resist for now. Keep up the good work on and offline and remember to put your feet up once in a while!

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    1. I kind of had a feeling – Lord knows why! – that you might like the idea of the bawdy one, Lucy. Hopefully, it will not disappoint.
      Yes…1,000 words. It’s a bit arbitrary, but I do find myself dropping out of a post once it is clear that it is much longer than that. Time again!
      Anyway, I am the master of beginning new projects by the bucket load before the old ones are finished!
      Feet up? Ooh, nice idea!

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  4. I also try to stick to the 1000 word thing, but then I’m not exactly verbally prolific so it’s not too much of a reach.

    Just a thought; if your long read story is persistent in wanting to be a long read story, you could set it up on a stand alone page, link to it in your menu for long-term access, and intro it in a short blog post. Best of both worlds, and if you tagged it “long reads” you could pull in the crowd that likes that sort of thing.

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    1. That’s an interesting idea, Dave. I’d planned to let it run to as long as it wants to go, but then do the shortened version for the blog. The other version would be a little different, and would also go somewhere else at the end.
      I’ll have a think about that.

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  6. I find it’s always difficult to find time to write a post – I need to allow myself about three hours and just lately, I’ve had lots of ‘dry spells’. As for keeping a post at less than 1000 words, I do struggle with that one quite a bit as I have a tendency to ‘waffle’ which is neither necessary or desirable in a blog.

    I hope you manage to get your short stories published, even as an e-book to start with and then hopefully, you’ll find time to continue writing your novel after that. I bought ‘Making Friends With The Crocodile’ on Kindle and very much enjoyed reading that. I love your paintings in your art gallery too – I still say that one of the blue doors on your blog page is one of my favourites although I have to say, I also quite like the random painting you have on this post – I’ve no idea what it represents other than what is in my imagination You never know … it could be the inspiration needed for a future book x 🙂

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    1. Thanks, Ellie. I tend to find I need a minimum of an hour to write a decent post, frequently much longer than that. It really depends how inspired I feel that day. As for the 1000 words limit (which is, of course, a little bit flexible) I simply use my own feelings as a guide; if I’m trying to catch up with dozens of blogs and the WordPress count tells me that a post is, say, 3000 words long, I won’t go there. It just takes too long to read.
      I’m delighted you enjoyed you enjoyed the book! Thank you! And I must get my head down and get on with the writing.
      The random picture is actually a photo – although I agree it’s not very obvious! – and what is it? Ah, that would be telling…

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