However I was totally thrown by a newsletter from Baba Studios to say that they're doing a new tarot - an Alice in Wonderland tarot *flail*
The Bohemian Gothic is the deck as far as I'm concerned but I love everything that comes from the Magic Realist Press so I'm on board - officially.
Right, back to writing *salutes*
- Mood:
calm
The wonderful
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
devaraehas had the brilliant idea of starting an informal writing community and has created ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
chaseinspireThe prompt for November is Changing Your Skin so
melissa_writingfor the magical aspects of tattoos but this tattoo (plus the ferret tattooed lady) are all real; the rest is all fiction. Prudence and Sorrow are from my novel Raven but only have bit parts, this is a bit of back story that I wrote specially for this. “You do realise that a tattoo like this will change you, there’s no way back,” she said as she pulled the piece of paper back to her chest which was adorned her own choice of artwork; a pair of ferrets.
I tutted and held my hand out. “Of course I understand.”
I’d already given her a fold of notes, my wages for the week. I checked my watch again and yearned to jump forward and wrench it from her. She smiled, and held the piece of paper out. I hesitated which made her laugh. Straightening up I took it from her, she held the edge for a second her eyes glowing.
- Mood:
nervous
lilifae last night and was able to talk about all manner of bookish/writerish things - great fun. Quite a luxury for me too as I rarely meet other writers so it's a great opportunity to I've just posted this over at indywrimo.blogspot.com/ so thought I'd double up and pop it in here too.
I'm the queen of procrastination, a reigning monarch in the art of do-everything-else-but. Hence, here I am doing IndyWriMo - quite simply I need something like this to help prevent my book getting stuck halfway through. The best article I've ever read about this is by the magnificent
m_stiefvater entitled, "The Giant Butt-Kicking How to Write a Novel Post."http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/1206
This helped me realise what I was doing which has basically been along the lines of admitting to myself that I desperately needed to do at least 1000 words today right after I'd sorted out the limescale on the shower or got that dog fur up from the kitchen floor. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting any of use should live in squalor for the whole of November. I found that just deciding that I'm already a writer and therefore had to find time to write virtually every day went a long way to getting things done. Sometimes it's just half an hour, other times it's half a day. I believe exercises like IndyWriMo has the potential to help me get a better writing ethic, just by simply doing it every day and of course the vital contact with other writers (yay for that).
- Mood:
busy
I can't take any credit for indywrimo.blogspot.com as it's the brainchild of
kaz_mahoney whose kaznowrimo had to be called off due to an horrendous bout of flu. So, the lovely lilifaeinvited me to join together and do an adapted version - yay!The premise of Independent Writing Month is 1000 words a day throughout November with hopes of achieving 30000 words by the end of the month. Now I need this kind of encouragement, I let life get in the way of doing the whole butt in chair thing all the time. When I sit down and get on with it I find the words flow most of the time. For me it's the finding time aspect that I have trouble with (okay, honesty moment - I'm the procrastination queen) I'm hoping that indywrimo will change my writing habits for life not just for November, lol.
Others are already joining, it seems the reduced word count is less daunting, I know it is for me. Also, it seems that people are using it with the hopes to finish something they've started or get that project on the way that they've been thinking about for ages. We kick it all off on the 3rd November.
The rules: -
**Join to write 30,000 words (at least) this month.
**Check in twice weekly with a word count to inspire others and yourself.
**Challenge friends to join, start that novel and maybe even finish that novel you have at the bottom of your drawer!
- Mood: excited
The husband's leg is broken so the last ten days or so have been spent making tea. This already sounds like an excuse so I may just get the word count over with *snorts*
19,415/50000 = 39% done
I've done away with the widget because 1. it was annoying me but truthfully that's because 2. I couldn't get it to fit on the page properly. Clearly widgit linking was not my forte and also it was taking me about half an hour to sort it out which kind of gets in the way of writing. I'm not mega-impressed with my progress but managed loads yesterday when Star Wars was on which makes me wonder if I should invest in the box set.
I'm on holiday now (yay!) for the week so have high hopes of getting more done.
Here's a new snippet: -
“Somebody walk over your grave? I could tell you where it is if you like? Ask me one day. Now, I’ve allowed you to cross over for a reason. Shall we sit?” she gestured at a stone bench and made herself comfortable at one end. I swallowed and perched as far away as possible but I was still squished into a tiny space by her enormous skirts. She smoothed out a nonexistent crease before continuing.
I like my new character, well she's not new but vastly different to the original. For starters she has clothes which I think she's quite happy about. My word count should leap on as I progress as I have a couple of scenes to pop in from the first version one of which is right at the end. By the time I get there I may well have rethought that too, we'll see.
Book buying now. Despite my convictions to whittle down the tbr pile I was in Waterstones yesterday (yes, I know, not the place for someone whose trying to cut down) and bought: -
Isn't that a beautiful cover? The plot looks fantastic too, it's pushed a few disgruntled books out of the coveted next in line position.
Well, back to work. Am hoping that having James Bond in the background will be as useful as Star Wars.
- Mood: productive
I'm in a grump so am going to vent briefly on my blog and then go and do something with my day. So, The Husband does a half marathon yesterday and appears to have done some terrible damage to his ankle. He can't put weight on it and is hobbling everywhere like a hobbling thing. So what does he do? Let me take him to A & E? No, he drives to a meeting and plans to go hospital this evening.
Grrrr.
Okay - vent over, I'm off to the post office then back to write.
- Mood:
grumpy
I've been away from my blog for a while, but I have a good excuse - honest! In my absence I've planned my re-write, gone through the old novel and extracted the scenes that I absolutely have to keep and been writing. The word count is now *drum roll*
13746 / 50000 words. 27% done!
I've mixed feelings about the amount I've done, it's not super fantastic but I really want to get this finished in November. I do feel like I've learnt a great deal this year in terms of what to write, how much to write, what not to do (still working on that one). I would love for Raven to be my first publishing success, I just have this sneaky feeling that if I get this down on paper the way that it I can see it in my head that it could be. So, while I'm making grand statements about my pretty much un-tested writing talent I may just go ahead and say that I'm not going to let go of my dream to be published.
Something else I've never done is to actually post any of my writing to my blog so in a post of firsts, here goes: -
I paused and stared as the door gradually shut, in the narrowing gap I watched Hektor lick his hand from wrist to finger tip. My stomach clenched as I turned with a speed that made my neck twinge with pain. I groped for the door, horrified at the thought that he may have seen me looking.
Okay, back to work.
- Mood: busy
I've started my rewrite and am horrified and determined in equal parts. Horrified because I've frightened myself at how little of my first draft I actually want to take into the rewrite. I'm abandoning huge swathes of text in a kind of word-killing sword-swirling kick ass kind of way. This is making me feel a little bit, "eep," with fear but I'm liking what I'm producing so I'm not looking back.
That's where the determination comes in and on that note I'm introducing a word count to shame me into getting on with it.
- Mood:
determined
I've been mulling over my novel and taking into consideration the advice I've had on Raven and realised something *drumroll* .... I am going to do a complete rewrite.
What!
No, really. I have my best ideas whilst jogging (although I only jog for about twenty minutes which limits my brainstorms somewhat) and thought of some great scenes this morning. The problem is that these great scenes are currently not in my novel. There are some bits I love that I want to keep so I can slip those in but ultimately I'm unravelling it all and stiching it back together again - which sounds a bit like the bride of Frankenstein's monster.
I've been advised to mull it over a bit and not dive right in - I hope over the next week or so that I'll be able to solve my plot problems that come from reverting to a single POV.
I'm quite excited about the prospect, which is *not* what I expected to be feeling..
- Mood:
creative
Not like me but it's a two-entry day. I couldn't do this justice by tagging it onto the bottom of my grump/rant post.
I bought this on Saturday and it has a forward by Elizabeth Kostova of The Historian fame. I haven't read Dracula for ages so am looking forward to this.
Continuing the theme I've got the Robert Place Vampire Tarot on the way which has court cards of people like Le Fanu in it - haven't bought a new deck in what feels like ages.
Right - I'm off to cook risotto using a recipe so 70's that my Mum (who taught me it) has disowned it.
- Mood:
hungry
I got a second opinion on Raven which I got back today. Lots of nice things said but also some brutal, honest-to-the-bone feedback. Worst things is I agree with all of it *sigh*
After having a mini strop involving throwing my hands up and muttering about a complete re-write I read my feedback again. This time I felt how true it was and some of the doubts I'd had but pushed aside were right there in front of me.
So, instead of feeling grumpy (well, I was a bit but am over it now) I feel quite up for switching things around.
This will mean a new plan and one of my wamping great flow-chart thingies.
Bring. It. On. :)
- Mood: productive
I did my humongous, three sides of A4 flow chart style plan for my next book. After doing it and putting it on my desk I started writing but the words didn't really come. I started thinking about one of the characters from my last book and how he's coping with his change in circumstance (from immortal to, well, it's complicated). And then I couldn't stop thinking about him so I sat down last night and started writing his back story.
So, this morning I typed it up and looked at it. It's like a little stand-alone side story but I want to know more. What's going to happen to him next month, the next day, when he gets home? I'm having to face facts that perhaps he is the story. But he's also a nasty piece of work, so why do I care so much about him? How can I expect a reader to care. I've always liked a baddie who's just that, bad to the bone. But with H. - oh, I don't know.
Oh no! If H. is the story, what does that say about my darling Raven from book one?
Also, I don't think I know enough about anti-heroes to make this work - eep!
- Mood:
bouncy
I was thinking about why I love to write and why I'm a bit obsessed with urban fantasy the other day. I was showing a little girl at work (the library) one of the Titania Woods Glitterwings books which she was incredibly excited about. It reminded me of one of my favourite bookish memories. As a kid my parents signed me up to receive a quarterly magazine called The Egg (I think) which was by Puffin books but child-oriented. They would have special Puffin events listed and there was a book fair with author signings and Jill Murphy was there.
I loved the Worst Witch books when I was young, loved the fact that Mildred got a tabby cat because all the black ones had run out. I was soooo excited that the follow up was out and queued with my mum. I remember all this very vaguely but she asked my name and signed this book: -
I have this clear memory of being so excited about reading it. We were going round a roundabout on the top deck of a red double-decker and I was reading page one but not wanting to read more because I wanted to save it.
*sigh*
Now, how I got from witch school to death and destruction is probably a whole different story :)
ETA: I did my planning after beating myself with a stick and dragging myself away from all sorts of procrastinatory (ha!) passtimes. I now have a bizarre sort of three page flow chart which tracks the main and sub plots. It looks insane but should do the trick.
After all the recent mini-dramas I now have to get on with writing. There have been some brilliant posts recently about writing methods and the such-like but the underlining advice is always, "just write." Buoyed up by being able to write and edit a small(ish) novel in a few months I want to go straight on to the next one so that my writing muscle doesn't go all flabby and wobbly again. I've only written 1,500 this week but haven't sketched anything out so realise that I'm not a writer who can go without a plan. So, here it is:-
- Finish my loose outline by Sunday. This includes a bit of first person POV on a new character so I can find out where they're coming from.
- Tidy up all notes from previous book and order them because I'll need to refer back to them for this one. Note to self, this should probably be part one of plan.
- Write - just get on with it.
- Mood: creative
Mum to her son who was reading in the library: Stop reading, honey and choose some books.
Son: But I want to read this book.
Mum: NOT NOW, go and choose some books and stop sitting there.
What I did was a mental eye roll. What I wanted to do was to shake the mother by the shoulder and yell, "If you want to make the library a place of torture instead of discovery - carry on!"
Rant over.
- Mood: cranky
- Music:HP&HBP soundtrack
I've sent Raven off to get a second opinion on it, I feel that this one is better than my first novel which taught me a great deal. In fact, I really consider Raven my first novel and the other one a kind of practice. But now Raven's gone for a while I have the inkling of a follow up. I can see the first line, a glimpse of a girl in a library - I can see the first line. Because it's scratching away at me I think I may get the first chapter down and then plan it out.
Part of me wonders if this is insane. I'm not published and I'm sort of writing in a vacuum but feel that if I approach it as if I was, I will be. Anyway, if I don't write this idea down I think it's going to start keeping me awake at night.
Glorious weather today for a change. My dog has been back to the vets, omg, it all started as a grass seed and now she's got sickness. She has the constitution of a butterfly.
- Mood: mellow
and they are addictive. It got me thinking about a couple of things. When my partner read my opening chapters for Raven he said she was a bit unlikeable. It made me have a look at her with a (sort of) new eye and try to decide if she is too prickly and isolated to pull the reader in, it may well be that she is. I also noticed that as the book goes on she relaxes more (and perhaps I did too as the writer) and her language is more natural and she is more open.
Now, I know that the reader goes on a journey with the main character but it's those first few pages and chapters that will decide whether Raven is given a chance.
I picked up the first couple of House of Night books and found that Zoey is brilliant; self-deprecating, funny, flawed and beautiful. She's the kind of girl who is popular with men but who you'd like to have as a friend. The first three chapters are perfect in terms of introducting a character, showing what her problem is and making you care about her future. I'm not completely sold on everything about the series though, I'm not sure how I feel about the relatively open-door sex scenes. I'm quite happy to read them (lol) but I don't know if I'd be able to write them myself. The many references to popular culture are brilliantly observed (love the Melissa Marr mention) but it'll age them which may be a shame.
- Mood:
curious
Good grief, what was I thinking? I thought that editing would be easier than writing the first draft - I clearly know nothing, nothing, about this writing malarkey.
On the plus side, my second POV that I'm putting in slots in well, it's fleshing out the other characters better than I thought possible.
On the minus side, I'm procrastinating something awful. I'm even considering doing some ironing to put it off. In fact, I'm writing this to put it off. Ok, I'm done ranting, I'm off to edit, after bringing my wheely bins back into the garden - right after that.
- Mood: productive
I spent some of today doing a bit of shopping which I've noticed has become a bit repetitive of late. I tried to get some clothes for work but found myself stroking some denim and contemplated buying a pair of jeans that I already own in a different wash - I resisted. I then loomed around Waterstones bookshop for far too long looking at books although I have a pile at home waiting to be read AND work in a library where I can easily order them for free if I had a bit of patience (I don't).
I finally broke down and bought a Paperblanks journal ...
http://www.paperblanks.com/old_leather/o
... which I justified to myself because, well, it's got a pocket at the back for bits and bobs and it's very pretty and I'm convinced that I can use it to organise those writing ideas that I put on post-its and then lose.
In fact, I find stationary a bit addictive too and started wondering why I'd stopped using a fountain pen - this is as a result of the Paperblanks journal I think. Anyway, headed home before I went back to stroking denim and got out of control.
- Mood: cheerful
- Music:Smiths
I've made a decision, after a week in Devon, to wind up the remnants of my nail business. If I'm honest, I haven't been enjoying doing people's nails for a while. Some of my clients found it difficult to get their head around the fact that I work in a library. My favourite (and very valid question considering that I'd been pushing back their cuticles for three years) response to news of my library job, "How can you work in a library?" I'd started finding it tricky to lead the double life of an undercover library assistant *snort*. I hadn't really thought about how my clients would react as I'd never told them that I'd always worked in colleges and libraries before venturing into the dark world of nails.
Then there's the writing, its starting to get to be a bit all-consuming in a good way. I'd started to resent that I'd have to put my laptop away to go to a client's house. Devon, with its sea swept air, brought me the clarity that was so obvious that I couldn't see it - one of the three has to go, which one can you give up. Simple really, so I've started telling people. One client called me a bitch, lol, how we both laughed when she said it.
I'm editing my book at the moment, called Raven (possibly), and am re-writing large sections as I go as I'm aware that I had a couple of outcomes going on at the same time and one of them has to go. I'm also adding another POV which is fleshing it out better than I thought possible. And I do feel a bit irritated that I have to go and put gel on someone's toenails at 12.30, lol.
- Mood: pleased
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