The Road to Hell.

They do say that the road to hell (which I don’t believe in, of course) is paved with good intentions, and if that were the case then I would certainly be well on my way to having my eyes pricked with knitting needles by Satan for all eternity.

My novel is dominating, at the moment, and no matter how often I promise myself I’ll make a conscious effort at getting back into a regular blogging routine, I just don’t seem to have enough words and energy left over — most days, at least. I strongly suspect that this will not last, however. It’s a fairly huge project (my early estimates suggest somewhere between 150,000 words and 200,000) and it’s extremely important, as I’m sure you can imagine, to get the early chapters well and truly nailed down so that I can be completely sure of whether the novel is going to go the way I want it to. Once this stage is out the way, though, I’ll probably settle back into a more balanced routine.

In the meantime, however, I’m lining up a few guest bloggers to help keep Gary William Murning Online active and entertaining. If you’re interested in contributing something, please feel free to drop me a line — but bear in mind the themes of my website. If you’re a Christian blogger, for example, it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll use anything that relates to your Christianity. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be interested in anything else you may be prepared to offer. All I want is to keep it relevant to my particular interests/obsessions.

And, of course, I will still be contributing myself. I have a lot planned for this site and mine will never be just an editorial presence. Apart from anything else, I’m too opinionated for that 😉

Finally, I think it’s fairly likely that I will be posting samples of As Morning Shows the Day some time during the next few weeks. So remember to keep checking back (add me to your feedreader, if you haven’t already, or follow me on Twitter or by email, AOL etc, so as not to miss the announcement.)

© 2009 Gary William Murning

A World Outside the Novel.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that there are other things I need to do as well as working on As Morning Shows the Day — like post here, for example, or, generally, look up from my computer screen every once in a while and notice the world outside my window, the world outside the novel.

Such symptoms are always a good sign, of course. I’m 12,000 words in and everything is pretty much as last reported. Having everything outlined in such detail, I’m not constantly worrying about how to fit it all together, what I need to do next etc. All I have to concentrate on is keeping it going the way it is now. And I think I can manage that.

Today, however, I’m taking some time off. With a long project it’s always wise to pace one’s self. As I’m fond of saying, a novel is a marathon not a sprint.

On an unrelated note, can I just remind everyone that whilst I may not be posting as often here as I usually do, I do post regularly on Twitter. (I’ve just checked my stats and, apparently, I update Twitter on average thirty-four times a day… not in the least bit addicted, then!) It is proving a really handy way of keeping in touch in short, economic bursts. Not simply time wasting fun, though it can be that, too, but a very useful tool. Not a replacement to my blog, of course, merely another way of interacting.

Until next time, keep looking up from the screen!

© 2009 Gary William Murning

Animal Biology WebTalk.

My friends, Mike and Lottie, have a very talented son who has created a great website for animal lovers — adults and children alike. After taking a look at it, and finding it to be as good as I’d imagined it would be, I promised I’d give it a bit of a plug.

So, if you have a moment, please take a look at Animal Biology WebTalk. Also, if you have a similar site and would like to swap site links, please drop him a line.

Great work, mate!

© 2009 Gary William Murning

Back from 1974.

This week has been highly productive, although my blog, it must be said, has suffered somewhat. Chapter Two has now claimed my attention fully, my characters coming to life in ways that I could have only hoped for — holding me in those, as it sometimes seems, long ago times of Fuzzy Felts and Mariner 10 space probes. The words and the tone they create are coming quite easily and, with 10,000 words behind me, I’m starting to feel comfortable… settling into the thematic landscape, exploring it and looking forward to the inevitable surprises.

That isn’t to say that it’s all been plain sailing, of course. Chapter Two of any novel can often be difficult. The energy and excitement built up for Chapter One dips a little and, even though the quality of the work may not visibly suffer, self-doubt can (and all too frequently does!) raise its ugly head. This, as I’d half-expected, happened to me this week. It was quite fleeting, and had everything to do with my mood — the inevitable tiredness I was feeling — but I always find it wise to at least try to turn such self-doubt to my advantage.

I did this with the last novel I started (and abandoned) last year. The self-doubt set in and I had to ask myself if it was mood related or if there was something genuinely not right with the work itself. With that novel, there were major problems — not least that I simply found it too bleak and depressing to write well. So I did with that one what I always do with projects that simply aren’t working; I moved away from it and focused on something new. I outlined in more detail and started this current project… knowing that it would inevitably face the same tests, but hoping that better planning and a story that I really felt passionate about would make it capable of withstanding the various trials ahead.

So how did As Morning Shows the Day fair? So far so good. The prose is clean and sparse, none of the heavy-handed exposition I can be prone to when things aren’t going well. The characters seem alive to me, the story hooks in place and the period… yes, it feels like 1974 but I probably need to work on that just a little bit more. More than anything, I look forward to returning there each morning. Yes, it’s work — and, yes, it’s probably going to cause me even more sleepless nights over the next ten months or so. But that’s par for the course. That’s what I expect.

When a novel gives the writer more than it takes — even if it never makes it publication — it’s a success. As Morning Shows the Day so far falls into this category.

I’m enjoying writing every word. Even the ones to keep trying to get away from me.

© 2009 Gary William Murning

Four Yorkshiremen.

A masterpiece of one-upmanship (or should that be one-downmanship?)

Abstain from… Texting.

Apparently, it’s Lent, again. That time of year I look forward because, they tell me, it’s a time when Christians give up things (although, I heard a priest on the radio just the other day insist that it’s also about taking up “better” things… sounded suspiciously like spin to me, but what do I know?) The idea of giving up something because it is part of some sort of religious festival doesn’t really appeal to me, naturally, my being an atheist — but it can be rather entertaining watching from my unabstemious (if there is such a word) vantage point.

Especially when presented with the ridiculous prospect of Bishops in Rome calling on Christians to give up mobile telephones and texting!

Of course, I’m sure we’ve all at one time (!) been annoyed by people using their mobile phones at the most inappropriate times. But the very notion that a tool for communication should be “given up” for a Christian holiday, or for any other reason, for that matter, strikes me as quite simply absurd.

As a priest points out in the video clip, he can use a text message to give advice to his parishioners. He sees the value. It isn’t a replacement for other forms of social interaction, it’s merely another way of keeping in touch, communicating, sharing, laughing, crying, arguing, debating — and, yes, sharing crude jokes, of course. It isn’t something that needs to be given up by most of us. My mobile phone is with me almost constantly. Data flows back and forth in numerous forms — telephone calls, text messages, emails, Twitter messages and so on — and my life isn’t tainted by it but, rather, enriched.

It’s all too easy to condemn communication because it involves a relatively new and speedily developing technology, because “the kids” are obsessed by it. But talking, whatever form it takes, is about sharing — about giving and receiving, learning (sometimes) and, quite often, growing.

It’s about the promulgation of myth and, also, the undermining of it. It’s one of the things that makes us human, and just because we’ve found a new way of doing it, it doesn’t make it bad.

If you really want to give up something worthwhile for Lent, I have a suggestion… but I’ll keep it to myself, because you’ve probably already guessed what it is, anyway. 😉

© 2009 Gary William Murning

If I’m Quiet…

I’m having a little trouble producing interesting posts at the moment — caught up in my work (which I am thoroughly enjoying) — and I don’t want to write about just any old thing that springs to mind. So, for the time being, I may only be writing a blog post three or four times a week, rather than every day. The beginning of a project is always one of the most demanding stages, so this will pass pretty soon, I’m sure.

In the meantime, if you’re missing your daily fix of Gary William Murning Online, I post regularly on Twitter (see the sidebar to the right of this.) It’s not always insightful stuff but it will at least keep you up to speed on what I’m doing.

If this page is quiet for a few days, however, please keep dropping back. It will only be a temporary break.

© 2009 Gary William Murning

Where Monday Finds Me.

Today has been a fairly good day — a very good day, in fact.

Yesterday, the outline finished over a week ago, I finally started writing As Morning Shows the Day. I got the first thousand words in place by Sunday lunchtime and today saw me nail the second thousand words in place.

After the false starts of last year, the constant feeling around for something different, something I’d never done before, Morning… well, it’s really too early to say. I don’t really want to tempt fate. But I do strongly feel that returning to my earlier way of working is paying off. I’m comfortable with the form (a literary family saga that probably most closely resembles John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany — at least in its structure, it’s actually a very different novel… one I feel only I could write, which is always a good sign) and I know exactly where it’s going, leaving me free to concentrate on the language and the voice.

A good start and, more to the point, a novel I find myself looking forward to writing when I’m away from it.

© 2009 Gary William Murning