I’ve spent three months working on the latest short story to be posted here. It’s called, ‘Debt of Honour’. A young sailor is marooned after a mutiny, but then the ship returns to the island a year later. The Lord might well say, ‘vengeance is mine’ but our young hero has other ideas. I’m entering it for the Global Writers March competition, so once again, here’s hoping.
Whilst we’re on the subject of doing the right thing, I’ve made fair progress with Chapter 1 of my novel. The working title is, ‘A Life of Choice’ and the main character is a young man by the name of Jim Faulkner. He looks, sounds and acts remarkably like I did at the same age when I joined up. By this weekend I intend to have Chapter 1 edited and be working on Chapter 2.
In the knowledge that I’m now converting my autobiography to a fictional novel (laced with fact), I am more content to continue. I would appreciate any comments on my decisions to go down this route. I appreciate comments or criticism of any of my writing.
On poetry, I am underway with a series on the analysis of dreams. I will continue with that idea. My most difficult task in the future is to avoid spending too much time on verse because it distracts me from my ‘conventional’ writing.
tombensoncreative.com 
I think making your book fictional will really free you up. You will be able to tell your story how it would have been, could have been or should have been – putting in the facts you want and using your talent for creating at the same time. I think though you will just have to be careful, Tom, not to keep looking at it as a fictional version of fact, otherwise you will end up neither creating nor being factual to your satisfaction. Your description of a fictional novel laced with fact is a good one – write it down and stick it somewhere you will see it when you are tempted to make it more autobiographical than it should be! Good luck!
LikeLike
Hi Chloe.
Thank you so much for this constructive comment and the support. I apologise for not replying earlier but I’ve been working hard on my latest short story ‘Debt of Honour’.
It’s hopefully going to be published in an anthology produced by our local writing group, The Inkerman Writers. In the meantime I’ve posted it on here and entered it for the Global Writers monthly competition (March).
I’ll be over your way tomorrow to have a peek at your progress cos’ I just know you’ll have made some …
Once again thank you for stopping by.
Take care,
Tom
LikeLike