My characters have gone on strike.

They refuse to do what The Half Baked Plan says they must. They insisted it is my fault, letting them have a free rein for the first 83,000 words or so, explaining they have patiently toed the line pretty well these last 9019 words, BUT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.  They’re not doing it anymore, they don’t like my plan.

The pesky buggers just will not do anything except sound like robots, talk crap, and look like cardboard cutouts in a place setting that has hosted a million movies!

So, I’m winding back thousands of words to before they got the sulks.  The annoying thing is I am now going where I was headed before I got the insane desire to plan the ending. Hhmmmmphhhh.

We can outlast YOU, easy!

A change of tack, but still on writing.

I recently signed up for  courses on FutureLearn. My theory is that all of it will help my brain and help my writing by understanding how people lived and reacted in the past. By September when the courses will gang up on me, I should be finished my first novel and into the next.

The courses are:
England in the time of King Richard III – University of Leicester (starts next week)
Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland’s History 1912-1923 – Trinity College Dublin (September)
Psychology and Mental Health: Beyond Nature and Nurture – University of Liverpool (September)
Hadrian’s Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier – Newcastle University (late September)
Exploring our oceans – University of Southampton (end October)

As if that wasn’t enough, last night I signed up for another at Coursera, begins June 20, and I’m expecting to enjoy that immensely. It comes at the right time, before I begin the serious editing process word by word.

Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade (Fundamental English Writing) – Mt. San Jacinto College

So, those who wince every time you read one of my posts (dangling participles? unattached verbs? changing tense? and other annoying shit) expect improvement when I brush up my skills.

“Crafting an Effective Writer” is a course designed to help you review the basics of grammar and punctuation and discover your own unique writing voice in the process. You will end the course by writing an original paragraph full of confident sentences and vivid detail. Along the way, we will guide you through a review of the parts of speech, subjects and verbs, and clauses and phrases.

So I’ll be good for one paragraph then. 🙂