Writing eh?
So, we are moving back to the UK. I have to ask myself if it is worth taking my writing seriously.
I freely admit that to-date I have taken very little seriously in my life, at least as far as work is concerned.
I always had the ability to ease through exams, but I didn't have the dedication, or the calling to become a real scholar or historian. I breezed a doctorate, but I never had the makings of an academic.
I'm a pretty good gardener, but could never apply myself to working for other people, and have never had the drive or the bottle to really set myself up in business.
I can teach, and I can talk for ages on a range of subjects, but the truth is that I struggle with the didactic model; either I end up doubting myself, or I resent the idea that other people might, quite rightly, question what I'm telling them.
I can build. Well, I build like a farmer and I've never really seen anything through terribly well.
Oh, and of course, I can write. Well, I write like I do everything else, pretty well for someone who doesn't do it for a living. I entertain a few people with my stories and I wonder whether I have it in me to do more.
So, it's no good wondering. I hope to use the time and extra energy I'll have once we move to the UK, and before we find some land, to get serious about my writing, to work on my craft and maybe produce something that might get published and marketed by a publishing house. I am advancing slowly on one novel at the moment and have two more at the idea stage, so there is lots to work on. I just need to apply all I have learned so far.
On a really nice note, I saw the first few pages of The Golden Banner in French translation yesterday. I am hoping that I will soon hae three or four chapters ready to send off to "une maison d'edition". It would be great to see if the novel might be considered for publication in French..... well we'll see.
I freely admit that to-date I have taken very little seriously in my life, at least as far as work is concerned.
I always had the ability to ease through exams, but I didn't have the dedication, or the calling to become a real scholar or historian. I breezed a doctorate, but I never had the makings of an academic.
I'm a pretty good gardener, but could never apply myself to working for other people, and have never had the drive or the bottle to really set myself up in business.
I can teach, and I can talk for ages on a range of subjects, but the truth is that I struggle with the didactic model; either I end up doubting myself, or I resent the idea that other people might, quite rightly, question what I'm telling them.
I can build. Well, I build like a farmer and I've never really seen anything through terribly well.
Oh, and of course, I can write. Well, I write like I do everything else, pretty well for someone who doesn't do it for a living. I entertain a few people with my stories and I wonder whether I have it in me to do more.
So, it's no good wondering. I hope to use the time and extra energy I'll have once we move to the UK, and before we find some land, to get serious about my writing, to work on my craft and maybe produce something that might get published and marketed by a publishing house. I am advancing slowly on one novel at the moment and have two more at the idea stage, so there is lots to work on. I just need to apply all I have learned so far.
On a really nice note, I saw the first few pages of The Golden Banner in French translation yesterday. I am hoping that I will soon hae three or four chapters ready to send off to "une maison d'edition". It would be great to see if the novel might be considered for publication in French..... well we'll see.
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We are moving for a whole host of reasons, Richard. We are home educators and it is very much more difficult in France than in the UK; both Sarah and I miss friends and certain aspects of life at home which can't be found elsewhere. Above all though, we left the UK so that we could have some land, build our house and farm, something, under most circumstances, impossible for people of modest means in Britain. Planning law however is beginning to shift, and I am not referring to Cameron's idiotic idea of letting people do whatever they want. Since 2008 the Welsh Assembly Government has been discussing a policy called One Planet Development, and part of that policy will allow people to undertake ecological projects in the countryside. To cut a long story short, Wales at least has caught up with where we and large numbers of other people were nearly twenty years ago.
Any project under this plan must show that the people involved will have an ecological footprint as if we only have one planet on which to live; within a generation Wales is committed to cutting its national ecological footprint in the same way. Projects will need strong management plans and will have planning consent based on Section 106 Agreements; resale will be on the basis of continued sustainable management and in all likelihood capped resale value.
So, Sarah and I have always considered low impact development to be very important and repopulation of the British countryside to be vital, both socially and ecologically. The law has changed in a way we never imagined possible, and sometimes, if you believe in something you have to put your money where yourmouth is. We are coming home to continue where we left off.
I think that teaching can be a good thing, Richard, I worked as a university teacher in my twenties. In the end though, as I say, I am uncertain about normal didactic models. You never know, failing all other options I might yet end up doing some teaching.
I have been writing quite a lot recently in fact, but you are of course right, I need to rediscover the discipline that I had when I wrote my first novel. I think above all though, it comes down to a question of confidence. Well, when we are back in the UK, to start with at least I will have no land and no chickens and no ruins and no projects....... all I will have is the blank paper and my pen. The question isn't whether I will write, the question is whether I am capable of writing something significant that will sell.
A torrent of words, sorry. Thanks for your response, Richard, much appreciated. Listen, we have talked about reading one another's stuff, if you have a story you'd like me to read, do tell me, okay?
I think that teaching folk and encouraging them to question you is a good thing. Talking to our academics, that's exactly how their minds work: they question everything. It's nothing personal, it is just how their brains are wired. So long as you've got some answers, or a handy fact to divert them into the right zone for research, you're good to go. IMO ;-)
As to the writing, maybe putting an hour or two aside a day to crack on may be just what you need. Maybe filling in some time with money makers and keep the creative home fires burning.