Tag: writing exercise

chess, first draft, planning, Ideas, inspiration

A Bad Game of Chess.

John Payne

Something just occurred to me. A great first draft of a novel is like a really poorly played game of chess. I’ve never been any good at chess. I never plan ahead, and I always just hope for the best when placing my pieces (I’m mostly hoping the person opposite me is as clueless as yours truly). This makes for a disastrous game of chess, but a brilliant and spontaneous first draft. You place all the characters where you think they might like to go (I often plan the first few chapters, but no more than that) and then see where they go from there. Let rip with your pen or keyboard, and enjoy the ride. You’re the first reader of your story, after all, so this time will never come again. Until next time, keeeeeeep writing (or reading, or both. Whatever you’re into, I won’t judge).

Let rip!
Ideas, inspiration, time travel

Accountability Buddies

John Payne

Just a quick update. I’m getting on pretty well with the first draft of ‘No Way Back’, my relationship breakup/time travel novel. Thanks to my accountability buddy, Caroline Herbert, all the way over in Canada, my work rate is better than ever. I’m up to just over 10,000 words now, after only a few weeks. I think I’ve finally found the best method for me, which is a little bit of writing every day (with time off for good behaviour on a Sunday). ‘Infectious enthusiasm’ is an overused term, but in this case, it most certainly is not. Caroline’s passion for her writing and novel (‘The Things We Find in the Apocalypse’) has spurred me on to get back into my own writing, so I just wanted to acknowledge that in this post. Thanks for listening, and keeeeeeep writing ✍️

Ideas, inspiration

Unlearning…

John Payne

One poor writing habit that I am working hard at unlearning is the habit of waiting until I have something profound to talk/write about and waiting until the feeling to write grips me before I do so. Waiting for such fine moments emanates from that underlying need for control and perfection, which is basically impossible. […]

Unlearning…

A really inspiring blog from an exceptional talent.

fantasy, short stories

What I’ve Been Doing

John Payne

I’ve not done any updates for a while, but I have been working on stuff. I’ve mainly been typing up ‘The Badger Helper Watcher’. I know it’s a weird title, but I’ve been using it for so long now, I don’t think I could stand to change it. It does have a subtitle now: The Misadventures of Sam and Sally. I will finish that episodic story ‘Good Neighbour’ very soon, but so much has been going on in my real world, that the made-up ones have had to take second place for the moment.

drama, Ideas, short stories, thriller

Regularish Routine Return

John Payne

It’s been a really tough few weeks, but some semblance of normality seems to be on the horizon, so I’ll get back to my regularish writing routine soon. I’m hoping to finish ‘Good Neighbour’ soon and release it on this site, and I need to start drawing up the roughs for the next series of ‘Still Life’ if I’m to release it later on in the year. As always, I’ll keep you posted.