The writing group

Apologies as this blog is now shamefully out of date, what with all the comings and goings of the past three months, finding our feet in Vancouver, moving in and out of new places, and generally trying to adapt to a new life come suddenly.

It’s been pleasant enough. We live by the beach, closer than we did in Mallorca, and the sun shines glorious most days, in more ways than one, somewhat to my surprise. We took the disappointment of Laurie losing his job in our stride, and went with it, and find ourselves in a good situation again, probably a better one overall. That’s probably the right way to live, riding the waves of the ups and downs as they come, swimming, yes, but with the currents and not upstream.

One of the best things about Vancouver is that I’m part of a creative writing group, and an awesome one at that. It was something I had thought about for a while, somehow starting a group and getting to meet people who write for the love of the writing, people who might look at the world a little like I do, who live in the fringes of the possible and the impossible, fiction and truth, people who try to take what they know and make it into words, so that somebody else might understand it too.

I put up the first ad because, despite the advice to try to mix in with the mums of the world, I somehow never seemed to find people I connected with- my true friends have always been few and far between, though well worth waiting for-. The writing group has turned out to be a great source of amazing people, and in fact, it all worked out much better than I could have envisioned. The talent bar is extremely high, and a process of natural selection has resulted in a very well ‘jelled’ group, where everyone is very committed to the craft and the group. I couldn’t be happier with the whole thing.

As for my novel, well, some great writer once said the editing process is much longer than the first writing. I was skeptical, but I can attest now, it’s absolutely true. To maintain a level of quality remotely fit to compete for a chance in the publishing world, A LOT of editing must be done. I read my sentences for the nuances that give the amateur away: clumsy construction, dialogue that doesn’t ring true, dealing in ‘generals’ rather than ‘specifics’, cliché and its anti-thesis, the anti-cliché, which can be just as bad. I read whole sections, nose up, sniffing for moments of boredom, moments where the plot doesn’t hold as much promise as it should. I make notes on factual things that need to be researched. How long is a train drive from London to the Lake District? How do companies decide on which advertising agency to go with?

It’s a slow process, with two children on tow, and all the duties of the full time mother that I am and can never quite convince myself I am.

It’s happening. As long as there’s progress, I’ll get there.