Back Again

On By Mick CanningIn A Good Place, Author, blogging, books, break, poetry, short stories, Work in progress, writing

Well, I am back.

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I never seriously contemplated abandoning my blog, although I admit there were times I felt tempted. And although I regularly visited my Facebook account, I didn’t post anything to my author page and only really visited to stay in contact with some people.

My sharp-eyed viewer will notice a couple of new pages on this blog. There is now a page with links to all the short stories I have published, to make it easier to locate them should you wish to read or re-read them.

There is also a page of links to all the poems published on here – I had no idea there were so many!

You’re welcome.

There was a lot going on in my life and I needed a lot of space to just try and sort some of it out. Some of it is still on-going, but I think I’m in a position to come back and give a reasonable amount of time to blogging.

But, as well as doing life, I have been busy writing. Probably the main thing I have managed to do is take my stop-start novel set in a fictitious hill station in Northern India from around 35,000 words up to the point where it is an almost completed first draft of just over 70,000 words. And I have a working title for it: A Good Place.

I’ve half-written a few blog posts, although I had intended to prepare lots more. Oh well. For the moment I will go back to posting roughly twice a week and see how that goes.

And I’ve faffed around a bit with a short story. All in all, other than the novel, not a lot. But I am pleased with the novel so far. I sorted out the sub-plots and brought in a number of new characters. And it is finally at the point where I can allow myself to think ‘Yes, almost there!’

And I don’t think until now I’d really understood how absolutely driven it was possible to be when writing; how the Work In Progress can come to utterly dominate your waking life – incessantly thinking about it and tweaking and refining the plots and characters, almost to the exclusion of all else.

Clearly, I need to get it finished.

48 thoughts on “Back Again”

  2. Hurrah hurrah! You’re back! You have been missed. I’m so pleased you have made such excellent progress with your book – I completely understand that all-encompassing drive and obsession when a book really starts to come together. It’s an amazing feeling. So chuffed for you, dear chap. Obviously, this calls for a glass of red later on, in your honour.

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    1. Thank you, Lucy. Indeed, a glass of that claret you mentioned sounds a splendid idea. I actually have a bottle of something good put by for the point where I feel the first draft is actually complete.

      Good to be back, too!

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  7. You’ve been productive.
    When my wip takes the lead, i can be sitting in the middle of a noisy living room filled with shouting kids and talking adults and i’d hear nothing but the voices in my head. my family has complained more than once.
    It’s good to see you back. welcome.

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  15. Welcome back, Mike. This was an interesting and timely post for me as I’m starting to rethink the time I put into blogging. Life changes and other options and priorities pop up. It’s always encouraging to me to see other authors taking time off to follow their muses or enjoy a different part of life. Lots to think about. Happy Writing.

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    1. No, I’d given myself roughly three months to sort some stuff out, and the 1st August seemed a good time to break my fast. I was also beginning to feel if I didn’t come back now, I might start putting it off indefinitely.

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