Friday 4 July 2008

Empty Nest Syndrome

So... My baby is gone. Final draft sent away.





The place seems strangely empty,



It's little bed lies cold,



No longer the clacking keyboard,



My coffee cup gathers mould.





Still, it's a relief. I'll be honest with you. All those nights obsessing over that particular comma, days spent wondering does that word quite fit?



I can breathe again.


Don't get me wrong, I'm in a position now I would have killled people to get to a two or three years ago. Kill people. Honest. But it's tough isn't it, doing all the editing. I've gone over it so many times that now I don't even like it!

So (he whispered, checking over both shoulders)

So...

I've started a new one.

And lets be really, brutally honest here:

Conception is fun.

And I'm enjoying this, the planning, the excitment, the first fumbled kisses, the -

Did you hear that?

No?

I thought I heard keys rattling. Anyway, I'm loving those electric moments: a character is formed, a thread untangled and then weaved back into place. Phone numbers exchanged and -

I definitly heard something.

Does my baby have a key?

Can it really be back so soon?

Nah - thats stupid, it'll be out for hours. We have the place all to ourselves -

Oh God!

It's not what it looks like, it means nothing to me. It was a stupid one off thing.

I was drunk! I was bored! I was lonely!

Please, no! Disco kettle! Disco kettle where are you?

You fiend, put it's plug back in!

Put down that novelty eraser!

Nooooooooooooooooooo

(Is this the end for our intrepid hero? Can he escape the novelty eraser? Will all his hard work be rubbed out? Can disco kettle find a way around it's, quite literal, powerless state?

Tune in next time to find out.)




6 comments:

Caroline said...

I do worry about you.
I really do.

:)

Looking forward to going through your baby next week.

x

DJ Kirkby said...

Ooooh the conception of a new novel is just the best thing! (Well almost)I torture your mentor by making (yes MAKING) her read my first chapter of any new baby. (I bribe her with photos of my tortoise) I like constructive criticism and yes, I am fully aware that makes me a bit of a freak...

watching9987 said...

Caroline - Worry if you must, but I'm starting to enjoy this now, it's like free association writing. Not sure if that makes it any better...

DJ - I, too, like getting feedback, good or bad. At least then I know, plus it spurs me on to prove them all wrong. All of them. Wrong. Ha!

Caroline said...

Don't know if you caught it from my comments (and I might as well cmmunicate with you here :) ), but 9987 has a full page text 'advert' (with your name on it) in both Stephen and Rosalind's books. How fabulous!

Hope you're having a fun weekend.

x

watching9987 said...

That is kick as cool. Disco Kettle will be jealous (although it's on Google image search where as I am not... And don't I hear about it every single day)
In that case, purely for my own selfish ends, I will have to buy both. And at £10 inc p&p I can't really complain.
As always hope you're having fun.

x

DJ Kirkby said...

I want a full page 'advert' in someone else's book, how cool is that?! Disco kettle cool, thats how cool! How do you get those blog up dates on your blog roll? I want that too. I want everything...going to Google 'disco kettle' now byeeee!