I'm going to write this book, damn it!

 Okay so three years ago, in something of a fit of pique, I started trying to write book. The going was good and I managed to write just over 20,000 words in a few months. And spending the time getting it all out of my head was great. However I then had a few life hiccoughs get in the way. These included going through a breakup, moving back in with my parents, deciding that I didn't want to be going through this pattern of yo-yoing to and from my parents' depending on my relationship status. So I left my jobs and moved to Wales. Around this and starting a new job I haven't been doing that well at writing. And the draft has gone untouched pretty much ever since. 

I recently have begun playing Dungeons and Dragons with friends weekly and have ended up as a note taker for the party. And I have been a bit of a prolific note taker. I had half a mind that I was going to use the notes to effectively write a narrative version of our adventure to then get me back into the headspace for writing my own book. The notes are all still there and this might still happen. However I instead, after a couple of gins, booked onto a free course for writing on FutureLearn from the Open University. 

Part of the course obviously involves different bits and pieces, small vignettes and such. I was hoping to have a place to write those - especially as the chat and discussion function for the course is limited to 1200 character comments. If I want to go anything beyond that this can be a place for me to do that and then link to in the chat. But also It allows me to store all the writing somewhere so I don't lose it after the course access ends after 70 days. 

As much as possible I am hoping to use the activities on the course to develop the story I have been working on. It's a particularly meaningful story for me. I have always been a fan of speculative fiction and big fantasy epics especially. However, being a gay man, I have always found the stories brilliant, but been frustrated that I haven't ever found a book or series that really felt like it reflected me. There tends to be the Chosen One narrative, and a sole female main character to begin with who often fails to not be a damsel in distress no matter what power she is actually given in the story and exists really to be the love interest for the main character. I feel some what dirty and reductive about the genre I love saying this. However my aim for what I'm writing is to be able to feel somewhat similar in tone to the fantasy epics I have devoured, while having gay characters that aren't incidental, women who don't need to be rescued by the men, and aren't there only to be loved. LEt's see how I go.

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