Some things I should learn by Craig Mowat

As I sit here typing my hand written story into the computer with two fingers, sometimes getting a flurry with five or so, slowly going insane as the word count for my little story passes by the 3,000 mark (with still more words on pages to be typed and words in my head to be written) I realise I really should learn to touch type. I know the process takes a while, and it’s hard and time time consuming, but I get sick of hitting the delete key to go back and fix every simple thing. I feel like a really old printer: uploading ten words then printing then to the screen, with an accuracy of about 80%, so I drop to five words and take twice as long.

And then there is the editing and rewrite I try not to do as I type. It’s really not helpful trying to type a sentence with my inner editor going, “Do you really think that makes sense? Maybe try…” and not sure if I just typed it wrong.

Even with this, I continue. I have to. I have to get this story out of my head. It has bugged me for six months or more and won’t give up. Spare moments writing as much as I can, slowly building, but I have to. I need to know what happens.

This is where it started:

Astor was a bear who loved chocolate. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but you have to realise – Astor loves chocolate above all things. Some bears love honey so much they don’t care how many times they are stung stealing honey from a hive. If Astor found a chocolate hive with bees the size of rabbits it would not stop him.

Actually, Astor often dreamed about finding a chocolate hive. The comb would be made of wafers and when he bit into it the chocolate would run down his chin, still warm from the work of the chocolate bees. The bees, of course, would be a delicacy in themselves.

Astor woke, drooling, with the sadness he always had after waking from that dream and realising it was not true. He closed his eyes tight, trying to keep it in his mind, but the feeling drifted away as always.

What this meant for the others was that Astor was going to be grumpy until someone gave him chocolate. The usual couple to give in to his demands were his parents, but they were away. So Astor went out to the wood, grumpy and hungry, and looking for trouble.

So wouldn’t you have to put up with it to finish?

Oh well, back to it.

Happy writing…