Writing Fundamentals - First Class

I’ve taken another plunge and signed up for back to back writing courses with Writers & Artists. The process of writing is nothing like I’d expected it to be when I first started about eight years ago. From staring at a blank screen as I waited for ‘inspiration’ to hit me, to here, there have been a lot of mistakes, obstacles, and lessons learned. But I feel like I need some more. It’s been incredibly hard to find people to give feedback on my existing novel, and whilst I am grateful for those few who took the time to do this (even with rewrites!), I’m still struggling with tightening down the plot.

The way I see it, paying for these two courses gives me a captive audience of other writers, and as a bonus, I get to see how other people write their novels. Tonight’s the night, and my novel is first in the workshop to be run through the gauntlet. It’s going to be tough seeing Damaskopolis ripped to shreds, but worth the honest and fair critique that will make it the fun and gripping novel I want it to be.

I could have abandoned it and started any number of other story ideas in my head, but I figured this will be my flagship. I’ll make my mistakes and learning with it, I’ll polish it until it’s gleaming, and when the time comes, I’ll publish it as an e-book if I have to. But at least it’ll be something someone enjoys reading and turning from page to page. If I can accomplish that. If this ends up being the one book to my name, then it’ll be a cracker of a story for a reader, and I’ll be glad.

The Post-Apocalyptic World of Dominic Cummings

The world continues on its merry way. We’ve been watching our handsome baby boy grow every day and there’s nothing quite like seeing him smiling at you first thing in the morning because you’re literally the best thing he’s ever seen. The poor thing. It’s one thing to care about your children, and another entirely to be selfish and put more at risk the way this Dominic Cummings chap has done. I’ve never been much of a fan, ever since I heard he’d had someone sacked and escorted out of the building with a police officer. That smacks too much of the kind of totalitarian bullshit that I saw back in Syria, and to see it used in England hits a raw nerve. But, I digress.

The fact is, I’m watching the news with a sense of wonder and disgust. Never before have I seen politicians so shameless as they are today. Mass protests and scandals that would have brought down entire governments in the past now come and go with almost no change. And the scary thing is that there are people who mistake this form of shamelessness for resilience. This populist, anti-intellectual fad that has swept the globe from Brazil to Moscow will create a world similar to the one I created in Damaskopolis, with apparatchiks like Cummings scheming away and pretending they’re smarter than everybody while buffoonish leaders blab away in front of the cameras and pretend they know what they are doing. And I guess that’s my queue to get back to writing and put all this bad news to the side for now. Ping me if Dominic Cummings is ever fired.