Jets, cat’s ears and other matters
With all the celebrations going on over in Panormitis, I spent a very quiet day at home yesterday, working. Looking out from the balcony (the day was warm a little humid and very pleasant) the harbour was like a ghost town, I only saw a few people moving about. The bus was running though. The village was quiet, apart from a few people passing the door on their way to a festival somewhere no doubt.
Celebrating
Mind you, we had a bit of shock when a fighter jet flew low overhead on Monday afternoon, doing barrel rolls and, I assume, wishing the island well for the festival. Crickey those things are loud.
View from Kokimides a couple of years ago
So, a Xronia Polla to everyone celebrating their name day at this time and maybe I’ll go to the festivities next year. I have to say, it has been nice to spend the time at home, with peace and quiet, getting on with what I wanted to and needed to do, though tonight (Tuesday as I write) I may pop out for a drink at the Rainbow just to set eyes on other living beings. The only company I’ve had for a while has been Jack. Mind you, that’s often enough.
Celebrating at Kokimides
I’ve been looking at his ears and his slowly growing skin cancer. We may have to take him to the vet before long and have his ears taken off. Yesterday he scratched off one of the black scabs and left the skin exposed and bleeding. I’m keeping an eye on it for infections and I can, if I am very sneaky, get some cotton wool and dab on some antiseptic but, if you’re ever tried putting cream on a cat for any reason, let alone on an open wound, you can imagine how traumatising it is – and the cat doesn’t like it much either. Every now and then I see a blood splatter along a wall, or over the floor and wonder who has been murdered, but then realise it’s just the cat scratching his ears and then shaking his head. Ah well, a little warm water and a sponge and all evidence is removed.
Quiet village
So, apart from corrupting crime scenes, risking life and limb with some Savlon, or similar, and listening to the eerie silence of an apparently empty village, these last couple of days have been very productive. Not with walks and new photos for the blog, hence the old ones, but with words and stories. Perfect.
Panormitis day – Symi sky
Photos of the sky today, taken from a house in the middle of the village on Sunday afternoon. While there, we also saw a buzzard flying overhead with alpine swifts and some black redtsarts, all too far away to get photos with my small camera. We also saw the buses heading up and down the hill, to and from Panormitis as the festival is well underway now.
Symi Sky
I doubt I shall be going to any of the events this year, sorry, but my writing project is fully occupying my head and my time. But I have been offered a lift, so you never know, I may suddenly drop it all and head off for a couple of hours away from the desk. It’s one of those things that not many people understand, when you have a whole novel, musical, script or whatever in your head and can’t put it down. It does tend to make me uncommunicative at times, sorry about that too; I’m not ignoring you if I’m quiet, it’s just that there’s a whole world going on inside my imagination and it rather takes control. Still, if I don’t get to the festival this year I will see if I can borrow someone else’s photos and share a couple with you over the next few days.
Symi Sky
I’ve attended the festival and various others held on the feast day (today) in the past. We’ve walked up to Kokimides above St George and stayed for lunch, we’ve walked to Roukouniotis and eaten there, joined in the celebrations, and we have also walked to Panormitis, as we did last year. If you enter ‘Panormitis’ into the Search Symi Dream search engine (over and own on the right) you will find several posts by me and others about the festival, such as this one https://symidream.com/still-walking-to-panormitis-4/ from our walk there last year.
Symi Sky
Meanwhile, it’s back to the desk for me to get this MS done and dusted before my deadline.
On writing (weak words)
First though, for my Symi-fan readers, a quick update on what I have seen or been told: The weekend weather was wonderful, after light cloud and rain early on Saturday morning. Looking at the harbour on Sunday morning around seven, it was bright, flat, calm and empty; all very peaceful. Out and about on Saturday afternoon, I noticed that the Rainbow is open again now Yianni is back from his break attending a wedding. The Panormitis festival starts today and runs for three days (I may be going, I may be writing) and the boats from Rhodes are mainly calling in to Panormitis rather than Yialos. Today’s photos are Symi photos from the summer taken from Neil’s file and so have nothing to do with what I’m talking about today .
Summer visitors
This morning, I thought I’d put up some of my own ideas about writing. I’m not a writing tutor or anything but I thought a few notes on how I go about things might be of interest to others out there who are writing fiction and going down the indie-publishing route. You could be going down the ‘traditional’ publishing route as well, it doesn’t matter, but as I’ve done very little this week but write, I thought… Well, why not? (There may be more of these kinds of posts in the future, if they are of interest; feedback welcomed.)
And so: Draft three. I’m working on ‘The Saddling’ a new novel which should be available next year. The first draft of this one was actually a screenplay as that’s how it started out, the story idea came from a moment in a dream and developed from there, the first prose draft was partly written on Tilos earlier this year and the draft I have just gone through was based on my notes after reading a printed copy of the MS – much easier than reading one on the screen.
Summer boat
I’ve been asked if a third, fourth, whatever draft is a complete rewrite and in this case it’s not. Some sections have been re-written, yes, some sections have been taken out, other parts improved and others left alone as they are fine. One of the things I like about this edit/draft stage is the tidying up. You’ve done all the hard work, the bashing out of, in this case, 111,000 words and now you can get critical with yourself. This draft was all about 1) making sure the story is there, 2) making sure the facts add up, 3) making sure it’s logical 4) cutting out repetitions. Now, with a draft four, I can look at what I call ‘weak words’ and then sit back and ponder the deeper things like: 1) is there motivation here? 2) Would that really happen? (Difficult that one, as we’re talking about a gothic style novel where there is a little supernatural and where the setting is a place that has its own lore and law.) 3) how can I draw out those characters more interestingly? And how can I avoid words like ‘interestingly’?
Fishing nets
Actually, ‘interestingly’ is fine, but I am now about to check through the draft looking for my weak-words. What are they? Well, for me, they are normally verbs such as: went, started, looked, walked, turned, and to a certain extent, said. There are a lot of ‘saids’ in a novel with dialogue, and it’s the best (simplest) way to tell the reader that someone said something, but too many close together in dialogue and it becomes too obvious. He said, said Tom, he said, he said… So, one way to improve the MS is to think again about ‘said.’ You don’t always need it. For example, if you put a character action after the dialogue.
‘I’m not doing that.’ Barry started walking to the door.’ (Factual, but dull.)
We know Barry spoke as his action is in the same line. What’s wrong there though, for me, is ‘started walking.’ I found ‘started’ 46 times in the 100,000 words MS. (The other thing I did with the draft was cut out roughly 10% of the words, so we’re now down to 100k.) That’s easily done by ridding your MS of ‘started to’ and simply putting ‘walked’, as in this case. But ‘Walk’ is weak. How did he walk? What mood was he in? Why did he walk? What was he really doing?
‘I’m not doing that.’ Barry backed away, searching for an escape.
That gives us some new information and still the movement, but it now means so much more.
Summer water
I could go on like this all day but I won’t as I expect you’ve had enough now, but for any writers out there here are my first few tips:
Don’t think about it, do it.
When not writing, read.
Don’t get it right, get it written (then re-draft and edit).
Don’t pay a lot of money for creative writing courses to get you started, you don’t need them; the only thing useful about them might be making contacts and discussing your, and others’, work. Cheaper to join a forum or set up your own writers’ group.
But I shan’t go on about my thoughts on that one either, not today. I’ll leave you with this longer-than-normal post and get back to my trawl through draft 3-to-4 looking for weak words and maybe, tomorrow, I will have left the house and have some local chat for you.
Symi Saturday photos
A brief post today (a whole day working on the book is planned and I am keen to get started). So, just a few photos for you today to show you views from up here on Friday and Saturday morning. Sunny one day, a little cloudy the next with a gentle fall of light rain this morning. Have a good weekend and, if you’re celebrating, watch out for those fireworks.
Friday morning ferryPomegranates are readyMorning lightFriday skiesSaturday skiesWarm with a little cloud
Boats and cats
I was going to give you a breakdown of the boats to and from Rhodes – Symi – Panormitis for the forthcoming week, then I looked at the schedules and thought: there’s for too much there and you’re better off going straight to the websites and getting the latest accurate information, But suffice to say, there are lots of crossings to and from Rhodes, Symi, Panormitis, Kos and other islands coming up. Check out Dodecanese Seaways at http://12ne.gr where you can have the site in English.
Strays are still looked after in the winter
Also check out the Blue Star line http://www.bluestarferries.gr/en and run a search under their Timetables – Reservations section (scroll down a little) and there you will see that there are boats on Friday and Wednesday, leaving Rhodes at 19.00 on 4th, 16.01 on 7th, 17.00 on 9th and 19.00 on 11th – lots of varying times there including the rather precise 16.01 – so double check. From Symi to Rhodes it looks like the routine will settle in to 5.00 a.m. on Wednesdays and 7.45 on Fridays, so that’s easier.
As you can see, not much news to share and I can’t stay long. Michaelis from the pet shop just rang to say he is on his way shortly with the latest delivery of Jack-cat food; a whole box of the stuff which will probably last the Master only a few days the rate he’s been going. He’s bored, I reckon, and as he doesn’t/can’t go out (for fear of endless chases around the village with a cat box) he spends his mornings bothering me for repeat bowl excursions. The afternoon he spends on the sofa and the nights in the laundry, until around 4 a.m. when he does his business. I read that cats go a bit happy and loopy after a good… download, and run around. Jack doesn’t run very often so he celebrates his… achievement with a big yowl and a lot of shouting. He does this regularly at 4 a.m. I’ve noticed. He’s obviously up and bored then as he ‘goes off’ several more times until I finally give in around six and get up.
And another one
Anyway, that’s what I must go and deal with now; the aftermath of his four-a.m. triumph while waiting for his delivery. Everyone is quite right, this cat like many others, doesn’t have an owner, he has staff.
