Journal Episode 3 - Writing

What a fortnight it has been here on vocal. My writing journey has accelerated. I have spent the last week working on my Dystopian Sci Fi short story ‘Earther, Banger, Scrubber.’ I began it in order to enter the Doomsday challenge, launching the Fiction Community.

I am so excited for this launch. When I first came to vocal a month ago I was totally surprised that there was no fiction community to be found. How could that be! On a creative community platform where writing is such an integral part of participating. Of course, I write fiction, lots of it every time I sit down to do a free writing exercise. So of course I was all this ‘must be temporary, fiction must be coming’. Well, here it is. Kapow!

So I wrote this story in a week and you can find it here: https://shopping-feedback.today/fiction/earther-banger-scrubber%3C/p%3E%3Cstyle data-emotion-css="14azzlx-P">.css-14azzlx-P{font-family:Droid Serif,Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;font-size:1.1875rem;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.01em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.01em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.01em;letter-spacing:0.01em;line-height:1.6;color:#1A1A1A;margin-top:32px;}

I am proud of it, and hope you enjoy reading it.

I also found the world I was creating opening up, characters popping into the short story who had so much more to them than could be included here, a titillating tatster, and a main central character I loved from the first. Trell. She exists in me now, and her adventures are just beginning. I have already begun episode 2, and can feel a novel taking shape.

Trell adventures in a fallen world, where the air is hot and cloud filled, poisonous to breath. So she has tech to help her, a sac to breath through she holds between her teeth. Her sac broadcasts her voice, purifies the air she breathes and amplifies her shouts. The worn cityscape she adventures over and within is dotted with hulking monoliths, fallen mega towers of the civilisation that came before the world fell. Dangers hunt her as she scrubs, and on her wrist is a display that connects to the satellites that orbit above the cloud. It tracks movement and electronic signatures, giving warning when danger closes. Trell must scan the sky for Hawks and the cityscape and it’s underlevels for Hounds. These two dangers are built, by who her tribe do not know. Great metal beasts slaved to a brain. Cybos. Both hunt for scrubbers and lubers. Evade is the only way to avoid death. Trell scrubs for tech and data. She returns packages to her home. A massive manufactorum, a factor in everyday speak, that provides a habitat for her tribe to live within and a company for her tribe to work for. Everything they produce is used by the factor and it’s supply network or is shipped off world on space faring loaders. Trell dreams of the stars, so rarely glimpsed on nights when the cloud clears.

Of course I shall not allow the adventures of Trell to divert me too far from my main Work in Progress (commonly known as WIP).

In contrast my main WIP is a fantasy novel. The adventure follows three young Mages, three non-gifted mae, and three powerful leaders. A Queen, a banished handmaiden and the arch mage. I look forward to introducing you to their world in the coming months. I can feel the surge of the story pushing at me once more, desperate to be free of my mind and to be given life on the page. The Mae came to me in a free writing exercise. Post humans, the species that follows on from man.

In this series of journal episodes I will tell you about my writing method. I have a lifetime of trying different approaches. Some work for me and some don’t. The same will be true for everyone. My advice is always to have a variety you can adopt from on any given day. If something isn't working and your writing cannot find a flow, switch the method up. Try something different. I am a great advocate of experimentation in your writing. Keep trying new things. It’s how we all learn the best.

Today I’ll tell you about free writing. I use this method.

1. Create an empty and quite place where you are only with thoughts. This could be created with headphones and music or sound in even the busiest location for some, for others you will need solitude. I write best in solitude. I used to be better at blocking out the world about, but now I find beauty and solitude are the best setting.

2. Set a timer. Give yourself an hour, or even 30 minutes.

3. Set a black page before you, whether paper, a journal, or digital.

4. Turn off all notifications.

5. Then write. About whatever comes into your head. Write for twenty minutes to half an hour. You find your natural rhythm.

6. Then go back and do a twenty minute edit. No more. You are doing a light edit to better craft your writing, to include ideas you missed on your page. That’s it.

7. If you have more time and are in a great writing flow, go again.

8. Sometimes you may find inspiration hard. I use a prompt app to give me a word or a phrase or a picture to start writing from.

It’s amazing what you will write, what you will create. Follow your flow, do not fight it or try and redirect it. The great value is to spark the creative part of your brain. Let it fly.