Word Count: 40,459

I was on local radio this evening, reading one of my short stories. Go to the Short Stories tab and read it. It’s titled ‘Leaf Tea’ – I’ll add more in due course. During the interview I talked about the NaNoWriMo challenge and what effect the pressure to produce has had on my writing. There’s no time for finesse, I said, that will come later; and there’s a great temptation to narrate, without developing character.

I’m reminded of Anton Chekov, who said ‘Don’t tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass.’ At the moment I’ve got no time to show, I’m just telling a story. But this isn’t good writing practice and there’ll be lots of editing at the end.