Increasingly Busy Plans

It's happened again; my summer plans have gotten somewhat more busy. Keeping in mind they are still plans, I probably won't be too busy. But essentially I'll be doing a lot of writing. I've got two ideas for non-fiction books, now, and a whole lot of ideas for fiction books, ranging from teen fiction to more adult stuff. And then there's the editing... I have the obvious one to edit, Meet Sam, but that's not it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'll be editing the novellas I wrote last summer. I have them printed off (taking advantage of the temporarily lower printing costs in college) and ready to tackle one by one to turn them into better works of fiction. It's not that I ever intend, directly, to do anything with these books, but I'd like to know I have them there in case I wish to use them. I don't know where the next few years will bring me with my writing, but I know that everything I've completed to date will be helping me along the way, though not necessarily because it'll be on sale. I have two books written that will never see the light of day, mainly because they're really, really bad.

One is a poorly written adult sci-fi, which is becoming, in essence, The Jump. The other is an even more poorly written children's fantasy novel that is not only too long, it's too...bumpy. I mean, the overall plot is good, but the way the book is written is just bad! I remember writing it, age 14 (finishing age 15) and aiming for quantity of words over quality. Well, actually, I aimed for pages. Little did I realise in my youth that while I was writing the same amount of pages for every chapter, I was doing so in single line spacing. The book became quite bit, which I didn't really realise, and it wasn't exactly good. There were things I wanted to express but couldn't, and the whole thing needs a re-write. And a lot of stuff cut out of it. I mean, it's 120,000 words long. About half of it is any use. That may be a slight exaggeration.

So, with four books to edit and two non-fiction books to write (one of which requires research) I'm going to be quite busy. So attempting to write things like my YA Apocalypse novel or The Jump or any of the six or seven ideas I have for adults books is just madness. Madness!

I can't wait!

Last summer, I wrote my three novellas quite close to each other. I spent long days writing them, and longer days doing nothing of any importance. I met up with friends quite infrequently, I rarely found excuses to leave the house (note to self: find excuses to leave the house) and I basically wasted away into an incarnation of boredom. In that state, I'm basically the most annoying person you'd ever meet. I do wonder why some people didn't try run me over in a car...

This summer will be different, though. I'll be keeping myself busy, I'll be making some more socialising plans whenever possible, I may be writing short stories and articles to earn money on the side, and if I'm lucky I won't succumb to the boredom all over again. Thankfully I have dozens of unread books on my shelf, more coming into shops every month that I haven't bought, twelve DVDs in my room alone that I can watch (and obviously many more not in my room) that I haven't seen before (three of which contain six episodes each of Black Books) and enough stored madness to continually drive forth my creative spirit.

If all goes well, I'll have had my best ever summer. I'll be doing my best to keep in touch with friends whenever possible and when that fails and I still need fresh air, I'll just go on walks through Dublin, taking familiar routes for the heck of it, just to get out of the house. Besides, I'll also be working - probably only weekends - so I won't be entirely idle anyway.

Oh, except there's one thing that needs doing first. Exams. May is going to be hell. And the four weeks between now and the start of the exams... well, that'll also be hell. Basically, two months of hell for three and a half months of freedom (which has the potential to become hell).

'Course, there's also the chance I could be coming back to college with some publishing experience under my belt. You know, just saying. (Not that I would necessarily have a book released within three and a half months, but if I play my cards right and if I get lucky, I may be on track to releasing a book, which would be freakin' sweet! A man can dream...)