When I call this ‘warming up weekend’ I’m certainly not referring to the weather, which is cold and wet with traces of snow. I don’t feel encouraged to go out, and the only thing to do seems to be to sit in the conservatory and prepare for April’s writing challenge.
I did wonder whether to warm up by writing a short story about something I want Amaryllis to do at the start of the next novel, but I’ve decided not to, in case I need to include some of it in the main novel. It might still be a possibility for later, though. I know we only see the tip of the iceberg where her adventures are concerned! Actually I’m sure they would fill at least one whole novel, but some of them are probably better left to the imagination.
Instead I’ve returned to something I found on my computer last week when I was doing some folder housekeeping. It’s a bit of a cliché that a writer has a cupboard or hard disc stuffed with previous efforts, but in my case it’s absolutely true. In fact when I was much younger I had a cupboard full of writing notebooks with bits and pieces of stories in them – usually just the beginnings. I was always very keen to start something new. Nowadays I have whole stories and sometimes whole novels that I am not satisfied with for one reason or another. It’s probably just as well, for instance, that my long boring historical novel of the English Civil War was written in pre-computer days and there is no trace of it left now.
In this case I’ve rediscovered a script for a musical play (‘Blackberry Crumble’) I wrote a few years ago. I really quite like the songs, most of which are designed to be sung and danced to by a chorus of pensioners before they have their elevenses (tea and scones). However on re-reading it I thought it might be possible to convert it into a short story, so that’s what I’m working on. And just in case the songs are lost forever, here’s a little taste of one.
Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery 