See what happens when an easily distracted guy who doesn't take anything too seriously decides to make a serious effort at writing a Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk novel... with a smattering of humour, of course.
Ha, six years ago when I wrote that comment I thought that, by making the admission that I am easily distracted I would be encouraged to prove myself and break this character trait. Seems now like it's more ingrained into my psyche than I realised.
Recognising you have a problem is the first step. Isn't that what they say? Well I've done that. Now what?
I need to be tougher on myself. More competitive. More... more not like myself. Not an easy thing to do. But I'm sure it must be possible. There must be thousands of books and online articles on the topic. I should look it up. Problem is that when there's thousands of options it's too easy to just give up and make the easy choice... stay the way I am and deal with it.
Writing promotes writing, I read somewhere once. This I have found to be true. Maybe that's what I need to do regularly: sit down and just write. I have written a couple of short stories in the last 18 months and they did bring about some ideas for Coma City, but so far not enough to get it finished.
I thought that a change of environment would bring about some new ideas and inspiration. My wife and I had been talking about getting out of the burbs and moving to a more rural locale, where the family could enjoy fresh air and an outdoor life. So, after much procrastination and searching we found our desired locale. About sixty kilometres from the centre of Melbourne but with reasonably easy access via motorways (with a new one to open next year), the Mornington Peninsula had all we desired: beaches, green pastures, vineyards, excellent eateries and, importantly for the kids, good schools.
We found a house with magnificent views across rolling green hills to Port Philip Bay that took our fancy on the first day of property viewing, but we didn't buy it right there and then. I wish we were able to make snap decisions like that, but we decided to keep looking to see if something better came up. There were a couple of contenders but they were either more expensive or required more work than we were willing to apply. So, after about eight weeks we went back to our first choice, had a long chat with the agent and finally made the decision to go for it.
Turns out that was the easy bit. I'll continue the story in my next post... yes, I will make sure I don't get distracted.
Steve
Listening to: Stronghold by Röyksopp.
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