And not a sign of Noel Edmonds...

I've just discovered

www.swapshop.co.uk which is a bloody good idea.  The nice thing is that it's more of a bartering/alternative currency thing than a bona-fide swap shop - e.g.  You put an item up for "swapping" - someone accepts it and you receive "swap points" which you can then "spend" on items that you would like. So you don't have to actually swap your item for anything that your recipient wants.

What a great idea!  I've got so much stuff I can get rid of this way!

And I've got a writery type question about superfluous characters.

I've been struggling with a novella for several months now. Time enough for some people to have written two full-sized novels, I'm sure. Firstly I think I'm finding it difficult because I had to provide the publisher with an outline of the plot before commencing, and that's not the way I write. Like Stephen King I like to discover the plot at the same pace as my readers and although I generally know how things are going to end, I make it up as I go. Having the plot already outlined in my head means that the book is already written and I'd rather like some more magical means of transposing it onto paper rather than my fingers.

Bah.

But - possibly in rebellion at sticking to the outline given - I've suddenly introduced a new character who I don't really want to delete as he's already got a backstory and history with the main character. But. His only real existence within the story is to sit and have lunch with said main character and whilst I could give him a reason for being there, it doesn't impinge on the plot at all, and so he is, as Willow sings, "mostly filler."

What do you guys think?  If you meet an interesting (hopefully) character in a book and then the author doesn't actually do anything with that character other than to have lunch with main character, would you be annoyed?  And why?

W00T!

I wrote more today than I've written for YEARS.  Don't know why, perhaps, as alex_beecroft said yesterday my sub-concious was up to something and I was percolating the story in my head.  I don't know. I rather felt I was being lazy... :D  However!  instead of trying to force through from where I was in the middle and breaking my mind I jumped forward and did what I usually do, wrote the end - or rather a large chunk of leading up to the end and PING!!!!! something unblocked - the character that I thought was Mostly Filler turned out to have a rather vital use after all and I had FUN writing something for the first time since I started Hard & Fast and that was over a year ago. I had to make myself stop in the end for two reasons : 1. I had to go to the cinema and 2. the next section is the HEA... and I need to think that over without melting into utter candy-floss vomitorium sweetness.  I'm forcing myself to try and write an ending for a change, and not a "cheat"....

But it was 3241 words, and I haven't written that much since Standish, I think!  Thank you all for brainstorming with me.  Not that I don't miss my mother 99 percent of the time, but I really do miss her for being able to chat person to person whenever I had a writing problem. I miss having someone I can chat to voice to voice.  Dad's a darling but 1. he don't really get the process and 2. He forgets what I said five minutes ago.

film Night: Kung Fu Panda.  Perfection.  There's no other word for it.  If you like animated CGI's you'll love this. If you like Kung Fu films and know the genre, then you'll love this.  If you love Dustin Hoffman, you'll love this.  I loved every second of it, from the classic animated graphic novel style beginning to the inevitable ending. The humour is laugh out loud funny (and for an English person to say this, believe me, you'll be rolling in the aisles if you aren't English) the action pretty much relentless, characters GREAT but the animation Rules.  Really.  Really and truly. It's SO beautiful that it's almost distracting.  You want to sit there and wonder and marvel at the movement of the hairs in an eyelash, or the random waving of a flag, the blowing of peach blossom or the movement of water and you CAN'T because there are animals Kung Fu-ing themselves into oblivion!!

My tip?  Don't sit too close to the screen. Sit at the back or you'll find it all blurry and it will ruin it.  But don't miss this one. It's amazing.