On Writing: New Ideas, New Story

Tree in the moat of Brough Castle, Westmorland. (C) Philip McDonnell 2018

My last post was on Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, a welcome comrade in arms when it comes to writing.  Since then I have been quiet on the blogging front.  "Why's that?" you cry,  all one of my readers.  "It's because I've been writing...and it's not medieval historical fiction!"

Yes, it's true; I have been writing and it's because I was inspired by our holiday landscape and Mr King's advice.

That last post was written in Lanercost in Cumbria where myself and my wife spent two whole weeks relaxing, reading (obviously), visiting various places from Kendal in the south to South Shields in the East.  Hmm, confusing that.  We also ate a substantial amount of Kendal cake:  the ice-white one, not chocolate-covered version.  Not good for a diabetic...but it was lovely.

(Top-tip: we found the best - that is, cheapest - place to buy Kendal cake was Tebay Services at Junction 37 of the M6!)

We chose Cumbria this year because neither of us had ever been there (other than to pass through on the train as we headed to Gretna for a family wedding).

My wife loves loves prehistory and had discovered the whole northwest of England is rich in henges, circles, megaliths and suchlike.  I'm just always happiest in hills, mountains and woodland and Cumbria, Westmorland, and Lakeland has all of that and more - along with a lot of sheep.

The unexpected bonus was being inspired to write something new, modern and almost a complete departure from my usual historic haunts. (Although this tale includes numerous references to pre-history in a sinister sort of way).  And in the last half of our holiday, that energy to write was amazing.

I haven't been so inspired to write for years.  There was a buzz.  A short(ish) story based around the discovery of an excarnated skeleton in a copse where there was a megalith and the ensuing police investigation.  I was achieving around 2000 words a day (Mr King would be proud) and not back-tracking to edit.  By the time we left on the Friday morning there were almost 6,000 words in the Scrivener file.  (Currently, the total stands at nearly 13,000 but my working day coupled with emergency dentistry, A& E and everything else has reduced my daily count to 1,000 words tops and meant that I have had to go back and edit as the ideas flow and formulate.  As Mr King noted (in a summarised fashion):  plotting is for dullards.

The working title is Stone Dead.  I'll keep you posted.  Now a photo of (Long Meg and) Her Sisters.

A few of the Sisters of Long Meg. (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018