This week’s post is nice and short as I’ve been out and about a lot for the last few days!
On Thursday I told you a bit about the ‘listening lunch’ where I’ll be reading and sharing some of my poetry. As I’m sure you can imagine, it’s a pretty big step up from a few open mike events with fellow writers and performers (even if unfriendly ones!), to people paying to attend an event. It is hugely nerve-wracking and a complete challenge to my comfort zone.
I know I have to do these things; I know that anyone who want a career as a writer has to sell their wares, so to speak. What I also know is that if I don’t do it, I’ll be really angry with myself.
Although I see prose as my ‘natural’ product, going out and reading the poetry will build my confidence overall so it’s definitely worth doing. In this case the worst that happens is that my friend has to jump in and do the readings for me, and I look an idiot, but that’s not quite the outcome I’m looking for!
So from now on until the listening lunch the focus is poetry, and the novel will have to take a back seat. That means I’m going to put back completion date to the end of November instead of the end of October – I’ll use NaNo as an opportunity to develop the story rather than attempt to write another 50,000 random words.
In fact, Cicero will be springing forth as a fully formed poem in the next few days, if everything goes to plan… That’ll be three new ones in a week, which is pretty good going.
In other news – I know I’ve linked to book lists a few times, but I thought this one might be a good way to explore different writers and writing styles. It’s a 100 week series on the best 100 English-language classics, with an explanation of why they’ve been chosen. Having looked at the earlier list I think ‘classic’ has been confused in some places with ‘have to read for school’, but it’ll be interesting seeing the justifications as to why some were chosen. There are a number of books on the list that I totally disagree with; perhaps they’ll change my mind… If I remember, I’ll comment on it here each week, even if just to say I haven’t read the book!
And finally – today is the annual Emmy Awards Show. I’ve said before how I love the glitz of these award shows, even though part of me is repulsed by the fact that people could live for a year on the value of some of the outfits! As I write, the presentations haven’t started, so I’ll just catch up with the red carpet. Perhaps I could write a story about the people behind the people we see – the make-up artists busily painting over bruises from surgery, or the stylists who have to shave the chests of their male clients because their shirts go see-through under camera flashes… See, watching it is practically work!!
Happy writing,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 
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