Blog 53: January blues brrr

Hi there! Well, we are still stuck in that strange place where it’s winter: Christmas and New Year celebrations are in our back window and summer holidays are way way ahead of us. Looking on the internet, as I do, to find out what kind of things are celebrated this month, I can see that numerous people have tried hard to make us feel better in this desolate month of the year.

Today is National Milk Day! Not great for those who are lactose intolerant. I must admit, when I read this all I could think about was those little bottles of milk we used to have with a straw at primary school. I loved those!

Something a bit more fun is National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day. (I know, who thinks of these things, and do they get paid for it?) So, you can partake in that. But the mum in me wants to remind you to change your clothes swiftly to avoid coming down with a cold from getting too wet. You may have snow where you are and could swap this out for building a snowman, having a snowball fight, sledging, or going for a walk. Don’t you just love the sound of snow crunching under your feet when it’s freshly laid? And that white blanket that covers everything making it all look new and clean?

If you want something more challenging, it's also National Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day! Dar dit dit dar and all that! Find out how many dars and dits you are if that’s your thing. Yes, I was curious and looked what Angie was. If you type it in it also plays the sound. I can't show you that but here is my code, so make of that what you will: -

Something more familiar for this month is Dry January. Where you have to stay in and avoid getting wet. Okay, I’m kidding. It is, of course, not drinking. Or can you drink dry wine? Why do they call it dry?

Anyway, another popular one is Manuary where you may see several men out and about basically not bothering to shave, which I guess is an extra way to keep warm in winter. While us ladies will just wrap our faces up like mummies. Some of the ways to celebrate this occasion are apparently to hold a beard growing contest and watch movies featuring “epic beards.” The suggestions are Pirates of the Caribbean, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Star Wars and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The purpose is all to make men aware of the risks of cancer and you can also make donations to charity.

But what am I going this month you ask? Well, you probably didn’t but this is a blog, so what did you expect? I’m planning to pick up writing a story from a few years ago. When I began I was racing away on the laptop. You know how it is. The plot was just flowing out of me and onto the page. But then disaster! I was stumped. I got to a point where I wasn’t sure how to continue. I think I mentioned this in a previous blog where I discussed outlining. So I put it away for a while. During university if I got stumped on an essay, I would stop, then put it on hold and begin one for another topic, while giving myself a break to reset my thinking and come back to it fresh.

My story is a fantasy/supernatural coming of age genre and the main characters are teen/young adults, it's written in the first person. However, I have thought that perhaps I could go into more depth and flesh out the characters more if I added a second POV. Therefore, I've been filtering in chapters for the second main character. It reminds me of several books where there has been multiple POVs that I found enjoyable.

I used to work as a typist for the Greater Manchester Police, and part of my job was to type witness statements, we actually did this from video. If it was a big case, we would have already typed up the interview of the person (or people) who had been arrested. I found it fascinating to hear the different perspectives from all the people involved. I recall attending a court case as part of the experience for the job. When we heard from the defence, most of my colleagues were convinced he was innocent. But then when the prosecution got up, they all changed their minds. It shows how skilled both sides are, especially the defence.

You can do the same in your writing. Getting more than one POV gives you different angles, which may be in contrast, making your reader a bit like that jury and have to work hard to think who is right. Perhaps it is neither or both. It is all part of the fun and challenge of crafting a story, and having it unfold in a certain way.

I've got more idea about my ending now. As I said, sometimes when you're stumped you just have to put something aside and focus on something else. It can also be useful to brainstorm ideas, either in a notebook or with another person. A tutor who taught Writing Drama at university once set up numerous visual stations on desks throughout the room. These were made up of various objects or trinkets. The task we had was to spend some time at each one and let it spark the idea for a story. Ideas can come to us in many ways, and it's useful to have something on you to write these things down before they disappear. In this age many of us have our mobile phones which have an app for a notebook. That's my go-to, well, for pretty much everything I have to remember. And it does tend to be something that the majority of people carry with them, even around the house.

It’s quite interesting going back to my story after so long and altering its structure. It's all wonderful experience for me, not only as a writer but as an editor too. So that’s my goal for this year, try to complete this story. I spent last year focusing hard on editing, apart from putting together these weekly blogs, but this year, I want to focus back on my writing.

Did you work out what you want to do this year? Have you got something you want to work on or something you need to step away from? Whatever you are doing at the moment, I hope you have the support you need to keep on it. And, if you need any help to progress, please get in touch and myself, or another member of the Author Support Network will be able to get you back on track.

Until next time, have fun jumping in puddles, drinking milk, growing a beard, or playing around with morse code. January sucks, but we can get through this month together!

I will be here next week to keep you going. Bottoms up!