Doing the right thing …

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.

Rhyme and Reason

I may be close to my 620th poem in three years but I don’t consider myself a poet.  I would prefer to be thought of as a writer who dabbles in verse.

Whilst this year was in it’s infancy I had three short stories, a monologue and a poem entered in competitions.  I made a vague promise to myself that I would cut back to no more than two poems per week.  Storytelling I decided, was to take precedence. 

It’s not yet the end of February and I’ve already written 26 poems this year.  Before I’m judged too harshly please consider the content of my verse.  Since January alone there has been; medieval conflict (a series of 7), vengeance of a marooned sailor, assassins, New York, romance and a couple of collaborations about passion. 

The thing I do enjoy about poetry is that I can relate a story idea rapidly and the thought process used in rhyming actually forces me to work harder with the plot.  Why is that a good thing?  For the main part because it is a simple framework to expand later into a short story.  My latest theory is to try to open with action, as I would with a conventional piece of prose.