IWSG August: This is a recorded message...

Hello my lovelies!

If you're reading this, then you're reading a pre-recorded blog post. Right now as you read this (not at time of writing - at time of writing, I'm sitting in my office drinking tea...), I will be in sunny Italy on my honeymoon because (providing everything went to plan)....I got married on Sunday!!

So my apologies for not being able to visit anyone this month and for ignoring my blog for the past few weeks - but to be honest, I'm not sorry enough to stop drinking cocktails by the sea to check my blog and emails. 

I'll be away for two weeks - two weeks of eating pizza, pasta and gelato and drinking all the cocktails I can handle. I can't tell you how excited I am - after months of (let's be frank here) tantrums, tears and feeling generally frazzled, I'm so looking forward to having some quality time with my other half and just enjoy being newly-weds.

Hope you all have a lovely August, and I'll see you all when I get back!

Have you ever been to Italy? Where did you go on your honeymoon? What's your favourite Italian food?

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Celebrating some good news...

So, you might remember that interview for a Marketing Assistant job I went for a couple of weeks ago. Well, I'm happy to announce that I got the job!!

I was so so thrilled to get the call, I genuinely wasn't getting my hopes up just in case, but I was so happy when they rang. Last week they still had to check my references, so I didn't tell anyone just in case it all went wrong – but they rang me up again on Friday to formally offer me the job, and to ask if I could start on Tuesday (i.e. tomorrow). So I said yes! I'm so so excited! I'm so looking forward to tomorrow and throwing myself into a new role – it's been a long time coming, but I finally feel like I'm exactly where I should be :).

The past few days have passed in a tired blur – I've been working in the cafe five days straight and let me tell you, if you've never been a waitress or a waiter, it's hard work running around all day. I have nothing but respect for waiters and waitresses and chefs everywhere. Today I woke up and the only thing that got me out of bed was the thought that it was my last shift today. I've loved working in the cafe for the past month – everyone has been so friendly, and I will genuinely miss the people I worked with (although I'll obviously still visit for ice-cream every weekend).

I also feel like I've been unusually sociable the past few days; going out for bridesmaids dress fittings, seeing old friends etc. Last night I went to the Full Moon Cinema again (if you haven't already, you can read about ourcommunity run cinema here) – this month's showing was 'Birdman' and, as promised, I took my stash of specially bought chocolate and my parents with me this time. My parents hated the film – I wasn't sure if they'd like it or not, but no, they told me afterwards in great detail how much they disliked it. But on the plus side, they had a good chat with the other people there during the intermission and after the film. And I met another writer! Imagine that - two writers in the same village! This guy is younger than me, and wants to get into writing, so I offered to help him out if he ever needed it – it was so nice to find a real life writer in, well, in real life. Plus, on my day off last week, I finally managed to get some writing done! It was mainly backstory and stuff that I would never keep in an actual novel, but it felt so good to be writing again. I definitely need to make it more of a priority in the evenings.

So that's it! That's all my news! Hope you're all having a lovely week :)

Have you had any good news this week? Have you ever seen the film 'Birdman'? What did you think of it?

Reflections for a rainy day...

This time exactly one year ago today, I was touching down in Shanghai to begin six months of teaching English to kindergarten children. I forced myself to go to China because I despised my job and I couldn't bear to be there a moment longer. Breaking out and going alone to such a different country really opened my eyes, and I can't help reflecting on how different my life is now, to how it was a year ago...

So what has happened in the past year?

Well, I came home from China early in December because I couldn't bear to be apart from the Other Half, and my family and friends any longer.

I got a fantastic job in a school I love.

I got engaged.

I got 40,000 words into a novel I started during NaNoWriMo when I was in China - and then discarded it.

I am now 52,000 words into my current WIP, with no signs of slowing down - I absolutely love this novel, and I can't wait to share it with all of you. At the moment (due to a challenge my Other Half set me) I'm writing 7,000 words of this novel a day and I'm loving every minute of it.

If anything, this year has shown me that there's no knowing where life can take you. Did I think two years ago I'd go to China? Hell no. Did I think this time six months ago I'd be this enthused about a novel? No way. And yet, here I am.

Life is indeed what you make of it. I've had my share of difficulties along the way, but I'm surrounded by fantastic people that I love, who I know will support me through anything (seriously, you should've heard my mum when I told her I was going to China. I thought she was going to have a heart attack, but she ended up supporting me all the way).
Right now, I'm just happy to see where life takes me - and, obviously, writing along the way ;).

So how about you? What has this year brought you so far? Did you think you'd end up where you are?

Happy writing!

Lazy Sundays....kind of...

I honestly didn't mean to leave it so long until I blogged again - but I wanted to waited until I could share some exciting news with you all before I did :) (I could also use the excuse that I've been busy - which is perfectly true, but at the same time, I know I could've blogged if I was really motivated to!)

Anyway, first things first....a quick update on my book progress. As I mentioned in my previous post which you can find here, I'm stilling following the guidelines set out in 'How to nail your Novel' by Roz Morris. However, I may have, er, slightly have left my synopsis longer than I originally meant to! I did mean to start it again last weekend, as the Other Half was a away for a week, so I knew I wouldn't have any distractions - but I got distracted reading the AMAZING second book in the Game of Thrones series 'A Clash of Kings' instead (and I can't emphasize how much I absolutely adore this series - it is utterly amazing!). So instead, I think after I've been food shopping and to the gym (and possibly a small shopping trip thrown in for good measure too) today, tonight I am going to sit down and finally look over what I did, all those weeks ago. I know there are some parts I'm going to hate -  already I can think of a few scenes where I just want to cringe and hide - but I'm determined not to let that stop me. I really want this novel to finally go somewhere, so even if I don't like what I see, I'm determined to try and work on it, instead of just throwing it away like I have with so many other novels. I'll let you know how it goes!

So, onto my news - I can't remember if I've moaned over my lack of getting a job over the past few months (try about five) on here - I think I have, or at least, I've wanted to! However, it is with utter relief that I can finally announce that I HAVE A REAL GROWN-UP JOB!

Hooray!! I'm so so happy and relieved right now. I can't express the utter desperation, depression and exhaustion I've felt since, well, before I left university really. The job market really is horrendous, and it's so disheartening to keep applying for jobs and then to keep getting rejection after rejection. However, finally, a publisher has decided to take a chance on me and I am so happy that it's a job that I really really wanted - finally, all my tears and tantrums have paid off!

I know this means that I'll have even less time to write than I do at the minute, but hopefully it'll just push me harder to succeed in my writing - and it's proof that if you just keep trying and don't give up, you'll get what you want in the end :).

Have a great weekend, folks! I'll write again soon, I promise!

xx

Thank goodness for technology...

Well I've been on a bit of an unexpected hiatus lately - not because I wanted to take a break. but because the signal from mobile dongle we were using for the internet just kept getting worse and worse, until I could only stand going online if I absolutely had to!

However, all that's changed now - we moved house at the weekend (because our contract was up, not because of the poor internet signal) and we've just received our broadband package today - hooray! Finally, I can get back to writing and rambling once again ;).

I'm just going to give a VERY quick overview of everything that's happened over the past few weeks so I don't bore you all to death before I tell you where I'm at with my writing - I got a week's worth of temp work at a publishers, me and the Other Half went back up to Cumbria for a week and farmed, we've moved house and I've just received word that the publisher would like to go back and do ANOTHER week's work for them :)! Hooray! It's a start ;)!

Onto my writing now - I'm still working on the same project I started a few month ago (shock, horror - think this is the longest I've ever stuck with a project!). I'm still using the method I told you about in my last post (using the steps outlines in 'Nail Your Novel' by Roz Morris) - so I finished my detailed synopsis, slightly later than I planned, and now apparently I have to put it away for a while so I can come back and look at it again with fresh eyes. Luckily, I managed to finish it before we went up to Cumbria and before we moved house, so I've had plenty to keep me occupied to stop me dwelling on it! I was only going to leave it for a week - Ms Morris recommends a month, but I didn't want to wait that long - however, as I'm hopefully going to be working at a publishers again next week, that'll make it three whole weeks since I last looked at my synopsis (good gracious - time really does fly!). So I'll have had a good long break before I take it out again!

I have to admit, I'm actually a bit scared about looking at it again. I keep remembering certain parts and cringing a bit when I think of them - I really really don't want to open up my synopsis and discover that I hate it all! Hopefully, I'll decide there's something worth saving amongst all the cringey bits!

And now that I'm reconnected to the internet, I'll be sure to keep you all updated on my progress, and I'm looking forward to nosing around everyone's blogs once again and taking part in the IWSG once more ;)!

Have a great day everyone!

xx

Unleashing Creativity...kind of...

Ahh, it's such a beautiful day here in England - the perfect weather to start off the London Olympics! We ended up watching the whole of the opening ceremony last night, so I'm a bit frazzled this morning! However,
the Other Half's parentals are down for the weekend, so we can all just chill in the sun today :).

Anyway, I'm sneakily writing this as everyone else gets ready for our day out, but I have a few updates I just wanted to share with you all....

Firstly - I downloaded an e-book the other day called 'Nail Your Novel' by Roz Morris. I've been thinking about downloading a self-help book to writing for a while, and as I really want to get back into the habit of writing again, I thought I'd just bite the bullet and do it. So far, I think it's fantastic! It gives you all these tips on how to write, but instead of just telling you what to do, the writer provides exercises and games for you to do, to unleash your creativity and help you to spot where you're going wrong. At first, I wasn't too sure about her methods to be honest - but I thought I'd give it a whirl anyway and I LOVE IT!

No joke - in one section, you're supposed to write down each scene/major development in your book on a notecard, and then fit them together - that way, you can progressively see which parts of your book need work. I had a lot of fun writing out the notecards, but I had even MORE fun writing the whole thing up onto a spreadsheet in Excel and then colour coding different sub-plots! (That's just my obsessive organisational skills kicking in there - you don't have to colour-code everything!). Now I'm onto the stage of writing a detailed synopsis for my novel. Apparently you're supposed to write this based on your notecards, and then fill in the blanks. After you've finished, you're supposed to leave it for a week, so when you look at it again with fresh eyes, you'll be able to spot the mistakes.

Well, I'm about halfway through my synopsis at the moment. I don't know if I'll be able to get any more done this weekend, due to the Other Half's parentals visiting - but I'm really going to try and finish it at least by Monday night. I've FINALLY got a week's worth of work at a publishers (hooray!), so I thought it would give me the perfect chance to just leave my synopsis alone for a week!

Anyway, this post is getting long enough now, so I'll end this a link to Roz Morris' ebook, in case you feel like taking a look....she also offers a free sample on her website if you want to check out her writing style, but at £3.30, I didn't think I could go wrong by just taking a chance and downloading it :).

'Nail Your Novel' by Roz Morris

Does this sound like your type of writing style? Do you do exercises like this anyway? Let me know what you think - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Have a great day everyone!

xx

So...did I do it?...

If you've been following my blog over the past few weeks, you might have picked up on the fact that I've been scribbling away trying to write a first draft for my novel by the 19th June...and I know the question you're all wondering now is - did I do it??

And the answer is....no.

I didn't manage to complete my novel, but am I disappointed? Hell, no!

In all my other WIPs, the most I've ever managed to write is around 17,000 words - the word count for my current novel is over 40,000. To me, that's a tremendous achievement. I've never stuck at one project for so long, or remained so excited about a WIP for so long either. I still find myself constantly dreaming up scenes while I'm trying to get to sleep, or while I'm out and about, and I simply have to scribble it down. I keep imagining that moment when I've finished it completely, and how excited I'll be when I can finally share it with the world....

Although ideally I would have liked to have reached around 50,000 words, I'm not going to dwell on the fact that it's a little short of that (ha! If 10,000 words can be called 'short'). All I can do now is keep going and hope that I don't run out of steam - it would be a shame if all this effort went to waste!

So, I'm setting myself a new deadline. Hopefully my writing time won't be interrupted by sudden illnesses (stupid stomach bugs...) or holidays (to be honest, I knew I was going away but I thought I could work around it...turns out holidays aren't the most productive writing time for me) or little things such as graduation (happening TODAY at 6pm - eek!!). I am determined to finish this book to prove to myself that I CAN do it!

So here's my new deadline: 1st July 2012


That gives me a little over a week to finish this draft - and after that, I have all the fun of editing it - hooray!

I can't wait to see if I actually manage to do it. Even if I end up putting the deadline back AGAIN, I think I've learned something over the past few weeks - I'm definitely someone who needs a deadline to work to!!

Happy writing, everyone!

xx