And so it’s June… I’m very satisfied with my productivity in May – especially the last couple of weeks. My motivation is back and I am writing again.
Blogs and sites
Over the last 13 or 14 months I have published almost weekly a blog entry At the Quill – my blog about writing, reading and self publication – for Blogg52, a blog challenge that’s been running in Sweden. As I have now completed 52 weeks of that, I’ve chosen to switch the challenge to Stop and Stories, my new blog of travel writing. At the same time I shall try not to abandon At the Quill, though it won’t be as frequently updated.
I’m hoping to revive Articulations, my blog of creative writing and illustrations. In connection with that I’m trying to reconnect with my Twitter network (for all the word games and micro poetry that Twitter’s helped me write in the past) and I’m once more exploring flash fiction online.
[In the above, the links all originally went to subdomains and separate blogs. Now they are all back under the same domain. 16 May 2019]I’m also investigating Soundcloud. Long-term followers will know that I have occasionally published a “podcast”, and of course the subtitle for this blog is Words, Images, Sounds. It feels important to at least try to have some sounds here. However regular podcasts are just not going to happen. I think I’ve established that. So rather than call them podcasts I’m thinking of them as just audio blogs. Perhaps simply recordings of me reading one or more blog entries.
The major hurdle, apart from actually writing and producing the recordings, is finding a place to record them. In this new flat where I live in Brussels there is an echo in every room. I may end up having to sit in a sound-proofed tent in order to get a decent quality sound recording. That’ll be fun in the summer heat.
Elin’s Story
Away from the blogs, I am also very pleased with myself for the progress I’m making with Elin’s Story – my historical novel now six years in the writing. After a number of fits and starts, since January in fact, last month saw me push on with outlining the chapters and scenes of the latest – and I really hope final – version of the novel. Today it’s June 8th and I completed an outline for the final chapter of the first part of The Long Way to London. Tomorrow I will push forward into the second part, which is further forward than I’ve ever come before. To be sure, I’m not actually writing the story – just the outline – but it still feels like I’m getting somewhere.
Meanwhile, following the successful revamping of At the Quill and the satisfactory launch of Stops and Stories, I’m now looking at an overhaul of the appearance of this, my main website. I want something that feels contemporary and looks good both on computer screens and smart phones. The high hopes I had when I introduced the present theme at the end of last year have been disappointed. I think it’s clunky. I want something with a little more swoosh! Look in again at the beginning of July and see if I’ve found it. But for now, it’s June!
Cheerio for now.