Menolyrhythmicism... process, process, process

If, at times, I have seemed a bit distracted, it comes with the territory of taking writing seriously. At the end of November, the NaNoWrimo challenge may have ended, but of course the writing has not. The story keeps on keeping on! The issue since then has been to remain dedicated to the production of this thing, which has grown like topsy and has the potential to scare the underwear off me.

Part of what helps is to listen to Vedic and Gregorian chants, as well as Celtic music and the odd bit of Jethro Tull. There's no question that the sound of the music tempers the mood of the writing. It is interesting, also, to find that the fingers sometimes keep in time with the rhythm.

I have been very good at behaving and not going back over each paragraph with a fine-toothed editorship. This is a large part why I have written more than ever before in terms of fiction. The difference between long fiction and short stories has become very obvious to me also. The temptation to string a host of short stories together and call it a novel was there, in the beginning, but am getting over that now.

Have also permitted myself to begin thinking about the editing process. NaNo are doing a two-month 'Now What?' focus over January and February, so that we don't all slack off. I have downloaded something called Hemingway and also Grammarly, which may - or may not - help the editing process. Am actually very strong in editing skills myself and a problem which is showing up with Grammarly (which is active on everything I write now - even this!), is that it is set for a very particular version of English according to the United States. No disrespect to our Western neighbours, but I wish to adhere to The Queen's English and am not at all happy at being told I ought to be 'using what is proper for my target audience'. Is it suggesting my only audience is in the States?!!

Seeing past that, though, having those 'other eyes' does help to highlight potential problems and with the proof-reading aspect of things - another and different skill. Again, am not too bad, but it is the case that one can overlook the same problem over and over again, because the eyes get used to it. This is evident even in a few posts here!

Anyway. It's continuing, this authoring bizzo. There's a bit of a hollow in the guts at the thought of making it real, but it's long past due. What is more, I can officially display this...