Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

A belated Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone in the blogosphere. I am slowly emerging from the annual orgy of too much work, too much food, and too much cooking. Plus all the lovely bits, like lots of family and lovely pressies. I do love buying for the people I love  - or I would if they gave me any idea what they wanted somewhat earlier than the weekend before Christmas. Thankfully the shops now run lots of last minute pressie sales  - to wet your appetite for the boxing day post Christmas sales, I guess.
     This year I basically cooked two Christmas dinners - one on the Sunday before, for the son and daughter-in-law who were going to her family for the big day, and a second for the extended family on the big day. so I am very definitely over cooking for the rest of the summer. But both were lovely days. We either had all the family here, or talked to them by Skype on the day, including my son overseas (a loooooong way away), and my sisters overseas. Yay for Skype. Not quite the same as being there, but watching my sister talking to me while trying to control a 5 yr old  grandson was just like having her here.
     Christmas - it might bring out the bah humbug in me during the December silly season before hand, but the actual days - wow. There is no night more magical than Christmas Eve, a night when everything is possible and the great mystery enwraps you in its joy. My favourite night of the year. May all the joys and wonders of this season go out to all of you, wherever you may be.

Saved by the Cat

If  you haven't yet come across this gem of a book, then beg, borrow or steal a copy of "Save the Cat" by Blake Snyder. Although written for screenwriters, the advice in it is totally applicable to any kind of genre fiction, and saved me tonight. Up till now, I have been the kind of writer described as a 'pantser" ie I write by the seat of my pants, making it up as I go along.
But that method is not working for my current book. I'm stuck, wallowing in pages of bland, go nowhere words, that would drive a reader to insensibility if they were kind enough to keep reading them.
So I am having to do some pre-planning, to kick life into the plot and find out where I am going. And for that, my fallback guardian is Blake Snyder's 'Cat', filled with simple lists and how-to check sheets. It might look like 'write-by-numbers' hokey, but it actually works. And his suggestions are so simple and easy to follow that even a pantser like me can come up with a simple, 1 page plot map, with all the required story peaks and troughs filled in.
Will I follow it? Who knows. Will it get me writing freely again - already has, and that's what really counts. I'm off on my journey again, out of the swamp, and here's to the adventure to come.