One space or two...?

I discovered something on twitter the other day that shook my entire world.

It turns out that I have been typing incorrectly for my entire life. After a full stop I always hit the space bar twice. That's the way I was taught was correct, that's how I've always done it. A double tap on the space bar at the end of a sentence is like breathing to me. But apparently one space is actually correct and therefore, as a writer by trade and by leisure, I must re-wire my brain and force my fingers to conform.

I think I'm more amazed that in all my years in education, at 6th Form and university, no-one has ever pulled me up on this astounding error, which I consider to be such a vital part of the writing process.

On the bright side, at least I found out now and not 30 years down the line...

   

New Year, New Plan

First post of 2011 - Happy New Year! (although it's not really new anymore...) 

I don't bother making a New Year's Resolution as I never keep them and I tend to make the same ones year after year, which defeats the point entirely.

Having said that, I am going to focus much more on writing this year and in particular, getting my writing out there and published.

Why I don't keep a blog...

There's a reason why I haven't kept a blog or diary for years; I forget about them and leave them to rot, either in the back of a drawer or in the dusty corners of the internet. I'm pretty sure my old Livejournal page is still out there somewhere, rattling around.

I've just finished reading Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger - a very creepy book, especially before bed. I thought it was brilliantly written, she just gets better and better with each novel, although the lack of Victorian lesbians in this one was slightly disappointing.

I've decided to quit whinging about my own writing and have become much stricter over the past few months about making time to write. I've found my lunch hour provides a perfect opportunity to get a few paragraphs or pages out. GoogleDocs is my saviour!

Currently working on a short story about female werewolves. Watch this space.

Why is writing so hard?

I spend all day writing for the company I work for, but in the evenings, when it's my time to write, I struggle to get anything out.
Stress, tiredness, aching fingers... I've used all of these as excuses as to why my writing has been virtually non-existent of late. The main problem I come up against is ideas. I have hundreds of ideas for stories, loads of characters floating around in my head; some brilliant, some er.. not so brilliant. Often I'll have an idea, think 'Yeah, that's great', start writing a few chapters then... nothing. I lose interest/inspiration and it just fizzles out because althought the idea may be good, I have no idea what story I am trying to tell.

Last year, in my 3rd year at university, I wrote the most amazing story (if I do say so myself!) I was awarded a First for my creative writing dissertation, and I was (and still am) so proud of the story I wrote because I proved to myself that I could make my ideas work. It's now about 10 months later and I've written nothing of any significance since finishing my dissertation.

And I call myself a writer!