Plans For Writing...

I’ll admit I have far too many plans when it comes to my writing. But I ain’t gonna drop any of them. It may take me a while but I will plod on. It doesn’t help at the moment with the kids being off school for the summer… damn the summer holidays!

I started a short story over a year ago ‘Barry’ and I subbed it to a writer’s site for feedback, UKA. It went down pretty well and I continued with a second part. Once I had finished that part, it still felt as if the story was unfinished. Barry got under my skin, I thought about him all the time and I had to add more to him. I’m now sitting with him at 63,000 words, but I still don’t think he’s finished. He’s not ready to leave me yet, but I don’t have a clue what else I could do with him. The full thing needs torn apart and checked for typos and things, but I know for a fact I still won’t be happy with it when I’ve done that. I know a few people who would look at it for me, but Barry doesn’t want me to do that just yet. I bet I sound crazy to you for referring to him as real person, well he is! He’s just in my mind and no one else can see him… yet.

What the hell is Barry about you ask? Well if you haven’t then skip this part:
The story is based on a writer called Barry, a foul, obese, unhappy man who lives his life browsing the internet… then he stumbles across a writer’s site where he causes havoc.

The story unfolds his past, a past where he was abused as a child in more ways than one. Murder, rape, deceitful lies and more are revealed in his hidden notebooks… notebooks that end up in the hands of Inspector Valtino.
Earlier this year, I wrote another one called ‘Emily’. She’s now a nice little novella, but I could easily stretch her out into a novel. But I dunno if this will work as a novel. One day I think it will... the next it doesn’t. So, for now she’s been put aside.

Here’s what she’s about:
Mary suspects that her husband is sexually abusing her daughter, Emily. She gets the proof and she tries to kill him. Mary is sentenced to prison, a prison that is led by corrupted screws. She battles with physical abuse inside, while on the outside her daughter is still being abused. She needs to escape…

One morning I woke up and I fancied writing a war style story. So, I did some researching and came out with one called ‘The Hell of War’ you can read the first part here on my website. Again, this is a novella at the moment, but I think I could add so much more to it. The plan with this story is to combine it with two other authors’ works in a horror collection, which will include a novella, each and a few short stories as well. I know trying to get that published is going be hard, but I have a list of a few publishers to try. Plus, if we fail that there’s always self-publishing or e-publishing.

And a wee bit about this one:
Based on a young man’s life in the trenches during the ‘First World War’. The incidents he witnesses from dead bodies to the way men die in the trenches, gives him nightmares, but his mate, Billy tells him there’s something out there worse than death… Billy is always right. Through the winding trenches, they face the true hell of war.

With these three stories I’ve been asking myself, how do you know when your story is finished. Are our stories meant to be completely finished? I want to write the best ending I possibly can to these. Each time I finish writing an ending I think of another one, which to me is better than the last. Is this normal?

I’m fairly new to this writing game. Yeah, I started writing almost three years ago, the first year I mainly wrote erotica, which was once in a blue moon. The second year I hardly had done anything. But this year, I dunno what it is, but I can’t stop. I have written allsorts and I have plans for many more too. I can see a big difference in my writing now, but I still have a long way to go.

Anyways, back to my other plans for writing. Well of course there’s the short stories, I’m trying to think of weird style stories, a mixture of horror and psycho bits. I’ve managed a couple that I am pleased with; one is now published here. The others I need to do more work to them.

I have also taken part on UKA with the prose challenges. It is so much harder to write something using somebody’s rules. The first one was to write about an undercover cop and I found that very hard to do as that is not my type of thing, but I still had a bash it. I suggested a challenge too… hehehe… I am a bitch. I have loads of rules to mine… made it rather hard for myself too.

On EastOfTheWeb, I have recently joined one of their groups especially for horror writers. I hope to learn a lot through there. Like I’ve said horror is my favourite genre and I would love to get it right!

I also dabble with poetry when I’m feeling rushed with my prose. I ain’t seeking to get them published though… I certainly ain’t a poet!

What else am I doing? Oh, yes, a script. A horror script… can’t say much about that, as I don’t want to give that away. I’m working on that with a friend, more details can be found in my news pages on my website.

I’d also love to combine all of my erotic stories into a collection too…
And then there’s the follow on stories to ‘Tabitha and Pirate Jim’.
I’m sure there’s something else, but I ain’t thinking straight. I think my kids are killing each other.

It can’t be good for me to have so much going on. Therefore, I have promised myself that I must try to get some of these finished before I start anything else.
By the way, I’m terrible at keeping promises to myself…

I’ll leave you with the opening paragraph of a story that I had found on my PC, which I had forgot all about, one problem. Can I fuck remember what my plans was with this one!

The Angel
The Angel from my nightmares has followed me here. He wants me to go with him through the darkened valley. I can hear his voice whispering inside my head, beckoning me with his woeful words. I rive at my hair and scream. He slinks back into the shadows, he doesn’t like my screaming.