85 Index cards later

In a rare and uncharacteristic flash of productivity, I finished transferring my rough draft from the screen onto index cards. 85 of them to be exact. 

This was actually a harder project than I anticipated. Doing it this way round involved reading through the rough draft of the story, then considering what the key moments were in each scene. What was necessary, what wasn't, so a scene could be summed up on a single index card, in nice large letters. If I was going to do it again, I'd undoubtedly try to get the whole story down on index cards first, before writing the draft. Additionally, I'd make sure I had different coloured pens for keeping track of different character arcs and plot lines. Maybe next time I'll go with a digital version of this idea using a program like Scrive

ner, though I must admit I like the fact I can physically lay out the story on the floor and move bits and pieces around. 

The real test will be to see how this helps with the ongoing revision of the novel, and I'm looking forward to using this to make the story stronger, more complete. The next step though is to get some character biographies completed for all the major players. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates soon. 

Tentative pokings of the Wattpad beast

Just a quick post to say I've opened up a Wattpad account and posted my short story The Visit (under the name Visiting Hour on there. I'm interested to see how it goes, and whether it's a good platform for connecting with other writers and readers. If you want to pop over and say hi, maybe have a biscuit and a cuppa, my username there is IcarusWasPushed. The kettle's on.

Keeping up appearances

Just keeping everyone updated on what's been going on.

First up, I really enjoyed writing the short story, so much so that I went ahead and wrote a second one. It's a little rough around the edges, but expect to see an upload soon. 

I've been really enjoying listening to podcasts on creative writing and self publishing, and recently listened to +Joanna Penn and her interview with Ashleigh Gardner, head of content at Wattpad (If you're interested you can find the interview here). It got my curiosity, so I decided to start an account. It looks like it could be a great place to publish some work and I intend to put my short stories up there. I'll let you know when I add anything, but if you're looking for me over there in the meantime I'm there under IcarusWasPushed. 

Watch this space...