Of The Endings
For the last several weeks I’ve been quite literally sorting out my life. My one bedroom apartment, full of things I needed, loved, or forgot I have, became a game of choice. Items went into boxes, trash bags, or into hands of my friends. I sorted them as necessities that would stay with me till the very end, and as things that could be shipped early, to await for my arrival in the new place. I found old notes for stories and rediscovered some of the earrings I haven’t worn for a while. I made decisions of what I need, and what can be bought again if necessary. And my brain constantly re-listed the things I still needed to do before leaving Ireland “forever”.
For the last several weeks I swung in a triangle of stress, excitement, and nostalgia. (more…)
With the start of 2016 a new edition of 365k Club is back and I’m back as well, writing or at least trying to write. January had turned out quite a challenging month for me, for several reasons, and even though I expected some rough patches, I hoped a much more different beginning. 
It think happens to most of us. We make ambitious plans, we jump on a chance that came unexpected or we simply feel we should be doing more in our lives. Tasks pile upon tasks, obligations we took upon ourselves take our breathing space, and we suddenly stop, overwhelmed by it all, unable to find a way through the chaos we brought upon ourselves. 
I have a confession to make: I like short stories. I like to read them, those morsels of distant worlds, bite-sized and perfect for lunchtime and commuting. I like to write them too as they help me experiment with my style and explore all those tiny bits of ideas that wouldn’t suffice to become a basis of a novel. But for some reason many writers I talk to them online neither writes them or considers them worth the effort. Sure, one can’t make much money by writing short stories only, but there are still reasons to stop outlining that sixth novel in the series and instead tell a story in less than 7000 words. 
I’m not particularly happy with how young adult so called “dystopias” distort the post-apocalyptic genre (and the Huxley and Orwell dystopia in the first place), but that’s a rant for another time. Needless to say, I prefer the mood set by Fallout 2 (and Fallout 3 too), even if not fully realistic, surely more gritty and pos-tapocalyptic than the “youngsters against oppressing faction” we get in books and movies nowadays.
The first year of 365k Club has not only been a wonderful adventure for me, but also allowed me to learn a lot about myself and my writing process. When I signed up, I expected myself to fall miserably, maybe even drop out after the first month, but to my surprise, I stayed, writing my 1000 words every day. But I know exactly how intimidating the 365k Club may feel in the beginning: so many words to be written and so many days in the year. It’s not NaNoWriMo where one can plan a month devoted to writing. It’s a real challenge, because we need to build our writing habit around our daily lives. We need to incorporate it into the daily routines, family life, day job… It’s much harder than telling friends and family we’ll be unavailable for November. 
Looking at my