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Saturday 24 April 2010

Stitching and Writing topic opinions please

I've just seen Justine celebrating because she's nearly reached 100 followers (Congrats by the way), I'm celebrating because I've nearly reached 10 and have just discovered that I now appear in googles blog search, how sad am I? Anyway, two updates today, firstly, as you can see from the picture, a stitching update, she hasn't grown much this week, but I have done a little. And doesn't she look a little weird where you can see the outlines of muscles starting to form, there's something strangely creepy about it. Haven't got much done because I lost my main stitching night 'cos I was ushering at the theatre, but I'm hoping to get some done this weekend, and I've got another stitching weekend planned (hopefully this time without accidently removing parts of my finger with a big knife) next weekend and Ben is going hill walking. Personally I don't think it classifies as hill walking when bits of it will probably have to be achieved on hands and knees, but what do I know? It does also mean that I'm going to spend at least part of each day hoping against hope that he makes it back intact, which probably wont be helped by the fact that they're camping so he won't have much signal, or a charger and probably won't be able to call me. Okay, breath, panic over now :-)
Second update, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, I've got frustrated with my writing and have decided to put it aside and start on something else, as I've got so frustrated that I'm just not doing anything, so a fresh start is probably a good idea, but I can't decide which idea I want to work on. So this is where kindly blog followers come in, I would be interested to hear your opinions on the final three ideas and their pros and cons.
So...

1. Something based around George Boleyn, it'll have to follow the history of his sisters but I want to push him and his relationships to the fore, probably diary style, half written by him and half by the person he falls in love with.

Pros:
  • I quite fancy the double voice writing style
  • It's a period in history that I like
  • The plot is pretty much planned out, firstly by history and then in my head, and I'm fairly sure how I want it to end, and I do like my ending (again, I know, history dictates a lot of how it ends)
  • I quite fancy working my way through a lot of historial (Tudor era) characters and telling their stories, so this would be a good starting point for that
Cons:
  • I'm going to have to do quite a lot of research before I can really get into the meat of writing it, I like the period and have a reasonable knowledge, but details annoy me when other people get them wrong, so I need to show the same courtesy to others.
  • I've never really written something prolonged in first person before, so that may be a bit of a challenge to me.
  • Never tried my hand at a male protagonist before, so another challenge for me, don't know how well I'll be able to write male first person.
2. Something based around Robin Hood and his sister (I know, no sister, as above, I quite like throwing an unknown character into an existing history/legend and seeing what happens). Picture her as being quite strong mentally, and her brother strugglnig to come to terms with the woman she's become while he's been away

Pros:
  • Again, quite well plotted out, partially by the legend and I've got a pretty good idea of where I want to go with it.
  • I'd quite like to have a little romance plot running through it, and would like to see how that develops and where it goes.
Cons:
  • Concerend that I may actually have too much plot and that my head will explode when I try to make sense of it.
  • Has the story and the history been done to death?
  • Again, historically speaking I need to do some research, although this won't need to be quite as thorough and timelined as the George Boleyn one.
3. Traditional Boarding School Story, but from the side of the teachers. When I was a kid I loved Malory Towers, St Claire's and the Chalet School and I figure it would be quite fun to write something in that style, but from the teachers point of view as opposed to the kids.

Pros:
  • First and foremost, I really like the idea and just think that it would be fun.
  • Again, really like the voice and would quite enjoy writing in that style.
  • I hope it's a relatively original idea.
Cons:
  • Going to have to do some reading to find the voice (although, is that really a hardship?).
  • It's going to be slightly removed from reality, as that sort of school just doesn't exist anymore.
  • What's the audience?
Anyway, that's the basics, any comments gratefully accepted :-)

1 comment:

Kttycat said...

They all sound good! But if you way your pros and cons then the first one wins! It has one more pro than con. :) I think i'd like to read either the first one or the second. I kinda like the idea of Robin Hood having a sister. It's a neat twist on the classic. And I don't think Robin Hood is too overly done. I did really enjoy the BBC's version, or at least what I did see of it. Good Luck on whichever you pick!