I love school holidays

I love school holidays. 

This may sound like a strange thing to say for someone who hasn’t been a teacher for ten years and whose kids are well past their school days.

But school holidays are wonderful.

Because school holidays mean delicious cocooning silence for the first half hour of my morning train commute.

Now please don’t think that this is a rant about the youth of today and their disrespect for others. It’s not. It’s just that the first half hour of my commute is the tiny bit of time that I have carved out for me to write. And for exactly sixteen minutes of that time the local high school kids surge into my carriage and command centre stage.

They don’t do anything wrong (mostly). They are just LOUD. Exuberant. As you should be when you are a teen. The carriage fills with their energy: sudden shots of laughter, high-pitched squeals, the click-clack of skateboards, the bouncing of soccer balls, shouted conversations about assignments, or exams or TV shows. Sometimes there is even singing. (I love the singing.) And dancing. And acrobatics. (True.) They are highly entertaining - and extremely distracting - but only once have I felt the need to say, Oh, come on, guys, keep it down. Please. Which they did immediately with red faces and swift apologies.

Funnily enough it wasn’t until midweek last week that I noticed their absence, that I snuggled into the silence of my empty carriage and immersed myself in the voices of my characters. It was nice, I have to admit.

And I have another whole week until the sixteen-minute daily circus returns. 

Start something, stick with it, finish it … or start something new

Last Saturday I spoke on a YA panel with Lisa Forrest and Rebecca James at the Southern Highlands Writers’ Festival. It was a fun, relaxed session and I enjoyed the company of Lisa and Rebecca immensely. 

During the session Lisa gave an aspiring young writer some sage advice about writing. It went something like this: Read lots. Write lots. Start something. Stick with it. Finish it. Nothing startling, but well stated in a way that was easy to remember. And it provided a timely reminder for me.

So after my stern talking to self on Sunday, I started the week with a new resolve. I was going to get back to my YA WIP; I was going to stick with it and finish it. No matter how long it took.

I started out by reading through what I had written thus far (about 3000 words), poring over the pages and pages of character notes and ideas, trying to get back into the heads of Shay and Riley. There was some surprisingly good stuff here, much of which I had forgotten about. But I knew I had a lot more “thinking” to do, and that I needed to go slowly, think deeply about my characters and take the time to get to know them properly. It was going to be a long process. But I was excited. That was Monday.

On Tuesday I woke thinking about a junior fiction idea I had years ago. A comic adventure idea that was very character driven and filled with much silliness. Ideas were zipping around my head, and I had to get out my notebook to take them down before I forgot them. And before I knew it I was scribbling scenes and working out plot ideas.

So after only one day into my resolve, I have started something new. But I am positively buzzing, the voices of my characters chattering away endlessly in my subconscious. Is this just classic avoidance behaviour? Am I just putting off delving back into my YA because I know that it is going to be hard? Who knows? But right now I am going to combine two of my favourite sayings and go with the flow and do what makes my heart sing.

Start something. Stick with it. Finish it. Great advice – if only I would follow it. 

Scouting landscapes

I've been on a road trip through the central west and outback NSW. Marvellous country. Essentially, I was on holiday, but I was also scouting for material for my work in progress, which is set on a wild property somewhere in rural NSW.

I live in a small coastal village, so it was easy for me to write authentically about life by the sea in Get a Grip, Cooper Jones and Battle of the Rats. The sea is such a part of me, I swear I have salt in my veins.

Although I have spent quite a bit of time in the country over the years, country life and all that goes with it is less familiar. That's why it is so important for me to experience it first hand. To drink in the smells, immerse myself in the sights and sounds, and experience the joys and hardships of rural life, take note of the minuscule that will add authenticity to my work.

Here are some of the visual images I brought home with me. We live in a vast land.

No Stopping Now

I work as an editor four days per week and have Fridays "off" as my PWD (Precious Writing Day).

My current WIP (work in progress) is a teen novel that I think will end up being about 50 000 words long. At best, on my PWD I seem to be able to do about 1000 words, which means that it is going to take at least one full year, minimum - especially when you factor in school visits, life interventions etc - to get down my first draft. Ouch!

Will I make it?

Answer: yes!

Why?

Because I can happily announce that I have already managed to get over 15 000 words down and that means I will keep going until I finish, no matter how long it takes.

I have many 5000 word "starts" on my hard drive - but once I have got over the 10 000 hurdle, history tells me I'm in for the long haul.

And that makes me very happy.
And satisfied!