Writing again

My writing has been in the doldrums for some time now. It’s good to be back at it. All it needed was a bit of encouragement and a damn good kick up the arse. Tidying up that last story felt good and I’m now back on the serious stuff.

I know, the blog has been somewhat lax on its core subjects of idiot politicians and deranged antismokers of late. That will recover in time too. I have a Plan that will mean I won’t spend almost all my time chasing the next bill and that Plan will, I hope, begin to take shape next month. If it goes according to Plan (does it ever?) I will be able to reduce my hours working at Local Shop and thereby spend more time writing and less time knackered. Also, build up some savings at last.

Tonight I have been working on Panoptica. It was always a difficult project because it’s written from the point of view of a totally compliant and entirely gullible drone. That’s a harder mindset to get into than I thought it would be.

As usual, it was hard to know where to start the story. It matters because the start of the story introduces characters and concepts that are likely to be alien to people who actually think for themselves. It’s too easy to make it boring and that was something I really wanted to avoid, especially in Chapter One.

So it needed a hint of dark humour, but the characters can’t be allowed to understand the jokes. I think I have it now. I have a Chapter One I’m happy with.

Most of the rest of the story was already well planned, sketched or already written. There will be minor changes but now I have a fixed starting point and a settled-on main character it will go faster. Soon it will get to the point where the characters tell me the story and all I have to do is write it down.

I just need time, and that means having no worries about bills. As I said, I have a Plan. It won’t make me rich, but it will produce enough to pay the bills with a good enough safety net that I can stop concerning myself with the possibility of unexpected expenses.

It won’t involve benefits. I refuse to claim benefits even though I’ve paid in enough to be able to demand them. I will not be indebted to the government. I have survived nearly 56 years without government help and I intend to keep it that way.

Part of the Plan is closing down the lab. I haven’t had any work for it for years. It’s an unnecessary expense and really, I don’t need it. If I do get a lab based job in future, they’ll provide the lab. There will be a lot of lab equipment available for sale, but not my microscope. I’m keeping my microscope. Nobody touches the microscope.

Someone once expressed an interest in lab equipment. I wonder if he still reads this stuff since I became a bit random at posting? If so, get in touch. The bacterial growth media will be out of date but the equipment should be okay. No really big stuff – the incubators and fridges/freezers came with the lab.

Anyhow, I’m focused on Panoptica now. Real life was already starting to catch up with it and I really want to finish it before it becomes horrific reality. As I said, what I chiefly need is writing time and to not get home too knackered to care.

In early March, I think I can make it happen. Well, March is when it comes into effect, assuming it works.

The Plan actually activates on Monday.

 

Update: The Plan is set in motion. No stopping it now!