As Another Year Grinds to a Halt, A Few Quick Words on 2012...

And so another year is over... another year in which I ended up writing considerably less than I was hoping, but did learn some useful things about writing.

Without a shadow of a doubt, my greatest discovery of the year was one I've made very recently, namely that I have a valid excuse for not being as productive as other writers. You see, it's all my evil day job's fault!

Now I hear what you're saying. Other authors have evil day jobs, too, and they still manage to write a few thousand words each day. True. But these authors probably don't have my day job. You see, my day job involves a fair bit of writing. So much writing, in fact, that it completely uses up the part of my brain that deals with words and emotions, leaving me with very little energy to go about my own writing afterwards. Other writers probably don't have this problem because their day jobs don't require them to flex their writers' muscles. Mine does, unfortunately, and it's making me rather less productive than I could wish.

Now this may not come as much of an epiphany to you, but to me, it was. It took me ten years to realise how much the nature of my day job is affecting my writing – ten years during which I hardly made any progress on my magnum opus and frequently thought I was too lazy and undisciplined to be a writer, even though I knew on a rational level that I'm neither lazy nor undisciplined. And then, bang. Suddenly, I made the connection. In retrospect, I'm amazed I didn't make it years ago. But it has had a positive effect, in that I've become a little more forgiving of the glacial speed at which I write. This may not sound like a good thing to some of you, but trust me, to me, it is.

As for the other things I learned in 2012, well, I've mainly become a much better writer on a technical level. When I look now at the stories I produced just half a year ago, when I first began to write smut, I find many cringe-inducing flaws. I'll find myself thinking, Don't use that word! It's unsexy! Or, Don't use so many dialogue tags! It looks amateurish! Or, Don't interrupt the action with observations! It will ruin the flow of the scene! Or the greatest cliché of all: Show, don't tell, for heaven's sake! Don't tell your reader your heroine is aroused; show that she's aroused!

Sadly, many of my early stories – which feature all the above mistakes and more – are only now getting published, putting me in the unenviable position of having to promote work which I know is seriously flawed. As a die-hard perfectionist, I hate that sort of thing. All I want to do is take out my red pen and correct all the mistakes I come across, but I can't...

Oh, well. Live and learn, eh? That's my goal for 2013. Learn to become a better writer, and hopefully become a more productive writer, as well.

I can dream, can't I?

Oh, and best wishes for 2013, everyone. :-)

Sunday Seven: A Few More New Zealand Photos

I promised you some more New Zealand photos from my 'real' camera a while ago, so here they are...



A long exposure of my favourite tree in all of New Zealand, just off the shore of Lake Wanaka. If only the sunset had been a bit more impressive that night... and the water level a bit lower... and the wind still...



A few lone pines on the edge of Lake Tekapo, one of New Zealand's largest lakes.

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Roof decoration in Duntroon. Sadly, the restaurant beneath the roof was closed for renovation. Too bad -- I would have loved to see the interior!



A kea (snow parrot) I photographed on the road from Te Anau to Milford Sound, which got a massive amount of snow the night we arrived at Milford Sound. The road has two parking lots where birds gather to beg tourists for food. This kea started rummaging though my camera bag the moment I turned my back on it for a second. It was bold as brass.

We saw many great signs in New Zealand, including a brilliant sign pointing to Shag Point (a shag, of course, being a type of sea lion). I loved this particular sign for its sheer exoticism. Yes, we did see penguins in New Zealand (about two hundred of them, I reckon), and yes, we did see a few crossing the road when we left the colony at Oamaru late at night. Thankfully, we were driving slowly, as instructed. :-)



The remains of an old jetty off the shore of Lake Te Anau. I love taking long exposures like this, but again, the sunset was disappointing.



The entrance to Milford Sound from the foreshore walk. I took a lot of pictures here -- more than in the fjord itself, which, while very impressive to visit, doesn't really lend itself to photography.

And this concludes my New Zealand photography for now...