IT'S DONE!!!

So that's it. The first draft of my novel is officially complete. Right now, I kinda feel like this:




I still can't believe it's true. In fact, at the moment, I'm still going through my manuscript tweaking bits here and there. I know I shouldn't, I know I should leave it for the edits but I've been working on this book so intensely for the last few weeks, I find it odd that I can finally...switch off.

I do apologise if I keep going on about this - but the fact is, apart from finishing my major project at uni, this is probably the biggest thing I've ever worked on and finished (well, apart from all the editing etc that now needs to happen...but let's not think about that yet...).

Tomorrow, I'm going to celebrate by dying my hair and baking a really really awesome cake. Hopefully it'll turn out like this one, but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I'm going to have to physically stop myself from looking at my book for a while now - this book has inhabited my mind so long, it's going to be strange not thinking about it every day. Although, I do need to write a sequel...does it defeat the purpose of getting the book 'out of your mind' if I start working on other books in the series...? Hmm...

And when I get back from my break, I have gems like this to edit and clean up:

"She was trying to go as fast as she could, but the sheer amount of people meant she was forced to go slower."

I know, I know - my literary prowess astounds me too.

Anyway. It's getting late (for me). I'm tired. I have been writing solidly for the last twelve hours. I am genuinely losing the ability to type coherent words (I just looked over this post and realised I wrote 'I no' instead of 'I know').

So until next time, happy writing and have an awesome bank holiday weekend, folks!

On the road again...

Okay, so I know it's been a while since I've last blogged. It's been, what, six months maybe, or more? And I just cannot believe how fast that time has flown in!!

I remember in one of my last posts I wrote about how I'd made some New Year's resolutions that I was determined to stick to - well, let me tell you right now, they haven't happened. But not for the reasons you think (well, ok, maybe part of it IS that I'm still a bit lazy, but anyway, that's beside the point....). So why haven't I accomplished my goals yet?

Simple. Life got in the way. And life just seems to have this funny habit of throwing you into situations that you never ever expected to be in. I'll give you a brief summary:

Basically I quit my job. And I've moved to China. For six months....to teach english.

Yeah I know - a tiny bit of a bombshell! My parents thought the same when I rang them up out of the blue one day and simply said 'mum, dad, I'm moving to China for six months. See you in February.' Trust me on this - that kind of sentence can be a bit of a conversation killer....

Anyway, in regards to my writing, I still don't want to give up. I've actually managed to do a little while I've been out here in Beijing - see, I actually get quite a lot of free time at my job and so I figured, why not use that time to do something useful? Like learning mandarin and writing? (And obviously, planning my english lessons...)

So just in case you were a teensy bit worried about what was happening with me (unlikely I know but, hey, flatter me just this once please :P), that's what's going on with me at the moment. If you want to hear more about my China adventures, you can check out my special TEFL blog here. I'm hoping to get back into the habit of writing on here more - I miss you guys! I miss reading round the blogosphere and see what's happening with other writers, so it's definitely something I'm going to try and keep up with (though we all know how well I keep resolutions!).

Until necxt time, zaijian!

Xx

IWSG #3!

Good grief, is it really that time of the month again?! Scary how much time flies...

Well, I'll keep this short and sweet - I was going to use this post as an opportunity to have a huge rant/grumble/complain (no change there then), but then I thought that I'll keep this post specific to the wonderful IWSG and write another post later :).

So, as you might be aware, I'm aiming on having a first draft of my manuscript completed by the 19th June. And I really did not think about how close that date actually is!! The main thing that I'm worried about at the moment is not finishing it, or losing my enthusiasm for the whole project, which I really don't want to do - I really want to finish this novel and see where I can go from there! I haven't been able to work on it as much as I would have liked too lately, as I've been in Norfolk - I'm back in Oxford now, but this is just a flying visit before we set off up to the great wide yonder that is Cumbria for the rest of the week....which leaves me a week and a half to write about 100,000 words...hmm...

So my plan is this - to keep writing down notes and ideas whenever I can, and when I get back from Cumbria (or maybe today actually, don't think we have any plans this afternoon) I'm going to stick on The Dark Knight in the background for inspiration while I feverishly write. Hopefully everything will go okay!

Can't wait to go and read the rest of the IWSG posts! The Insecure Wruter's Support Group was set up by the wonderful Alex. J. Cavanaugh - you can find the link to the whole group and an explanation of the rules below:

http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.co.uk/p/insecure-writers-support-group.html

Have a great day, everyone!

xx

Of spiders and tea...

It's only 8am, and already I'm not having a good day...

Went to wash up the dishes this morning, and what do I find? A great big hairy spider in one of the sinks....and it wasn't one of the ones that you could ignore or leave be...it was huge and scuttling around everywhere. So I washed it down the plughole with a load of washing up water - I did feel a bit bad because I didn't want to kill it, but it looked so horrible, I didn't want it anywhere near me! And then, when I went into the bathroom to go for a shower, I looked up and what do I see? TWO more spiders in the top corner of the shower! I freaked out and refused to go in...luckily, The Other Half finishes work early on a Friday, so he can come and sort it out for me before we leave for Yeovil :).

I don't know where all these spiders have come from. I mean, our house always seems to feature one or two, but for the last few days it's been ridiculous! I did have some windows open all day yesterday, but I think I would've noticed a dirty great spider crawling in!! Also, is it just me, or do spiders tend to congregate in bathrooms? Its like they think 'hmm, how can we annoy humans the most? I know, let's hide above the bath and drop down on them when we're least expecting it...'

 Anyway, before I start on a massive rant about how much I hate spiders, I think I may have decided on a deadline for my latest project...I'm going to treat today like another working day again (and if I really was at work, I'm sure I'd be getting a bollocking right now for being late and blogging when I'm supposed to be working...oh well) and see how I get on. I'll hopefully have made a finally decision by lunchtime :)!

Oh yeah, and as for the 'tea' part of this blog post - think I'm gonna have to go and make myself a nice strong mug of it to a) wake me up and b) help me get over the trauma of this morning....

OH - and I almost forgot to mention...A big hello and warm welcome to the two newest members of this blog :)!! Thanks for joining and I look forward to chatting with you :)!!

Have a great morning everyone! 

xx

A little something to end the day with...

I'm gonna warn you now- this is one of those rambling posts where I talk about my writing and nothing else. You have been warned...

So, as I said earlier, I was going to treat today as a full working day and I think this concept worked...kind of. I did stare blankly at the screen at 8am, wondering what to do, but once I got writing, that was it - when I next looked up, it was 12pm and time for dinner (or lunch, if you're from the South). This afternoon was slightly harder - mainly because I had to cook a lasagna for supper and once I'd finished that (in a rush, cos I was eager to get back to work), Mother Bear phoned for a chat and then one of my old friends from up North phoned for a chat straight afterwards...by this time, it was 5pm and the Other Half would be returning home soon. So I spent the rest of the time til 5.45pm looking up sample chapters from new YA books I'd heard about and downloading them onto my phone.

And now, well, I've got to be honest. I can't wait to start writing again. Even though I know the first chapter that I'm writing right now probably won't be the first chapter the novel will end up with, I'm just having fun writing it. In fact, I'm really excited about this project (not to sound too up myself or anything...) - but I think that's a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I was excited about my first WIP, but the motivation for that just kinda fizzled out. I will return to it at some point (I hope), but right now, I'm gonna focus on my new work and see where it leads me. Also, it's entirely possible that in another week, I'll have completely forgotten about this novel and will be working on something new, but we'll see how it goes.

Also, I think I am going to impose a deadline for the first draft of this novel. If I work as hard as I did today, it should be just about doable (she says!), but even if I don't stick to it, I am hoping that it'll make me work harder nonetheless. I'm gonna have a think about the deadline/time-span tonight and come to a decision tomorrow, so I'll let you know the plan then :)!

One last point - have got a few ideas for some more interesting posts, and I am aiming on doing some of them tomorrow too. Sorry this has been so boring! It'll liven up tomorrow again, I hope ;)!

Have a good night, folks!

xx

Why I don't like afternoons...

Afternoons are a funny thing. You wake up in the morning being (hopefully) bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, raring to go and ready for anything. In the evening, you're either settling down to watch TV or a lovable family film, before snuggling down into your nice, warm bed to drift off to the land of nod - or, you're getting excited about painting the town red and seeing your best girl (or guy) friends, before stumbling in at 3am and collapsing onto aforementioned warm bed....

Which leaves the afternoons. Afternoons are weird. They seem like they last forever, yet, it's only a few hours long. Maybe it's just because I don't have any more coursework to complete and I don't yet have a full-time job, but I always get into a lethargic state in the afternoons. It's that period of the day which SHOULD be the most productive....these four or five hours where it's just me and my imagination, and I should be cracking on with writing my first-ever literary bestseller....

Instead, I'm sitting here forcing myself to keep tapping at the keyboard, whilst constantly checking the clock and wondering whether it's acceptable to go for an afternoon nap. I'm twenty-one. I should not think that afternoon naps are acceptable. And yet, I find myself going for one more and more. Why? Because, honestly, it gives me something to do that isn't work or housework. Sad, isn't it?

I know, I know, I should be sitting here feverishly writing page after page after page....but all I want to do is sit and stare into space, until that magic hour of 4pm, when I'll jump up, make a cup of tea and have that long-waited for chocolate biscuit (or, judging by the state of my cupboards, a chewy/stale Caramel Snack-a-Jack). What is it about the afternoons that makes us so sluggish and, in my case, grumpy? Is it because, now that we've got (most of) the housework out of the way and eaten lunch, we simply want to hibernate until it's time to perk up again to make dinner?

The Duchess of Bedford had the right idea when she thought of Afternoon Tea...however, I'm finding it hard to muster the energy to go and turn the kettle on, let alone bake a Victoria Sandwich cake, a dozen scones and some macaroons thrown in for good measure.

So, how about you? How do you feel about the afternoons? Maybe you love them and, for you dear authors, it's your favourite time to sit down and write. Or maybe you're like me, and you're more of a morning person....or maybe there's just something medical wrong with me, and I better go and get checked out, pip pip.

xx

"The Stylish Blogger's Award..." - Thank You!

Yesterday I was delighted to see that Gossip_Grl awarded me a 'Stylish Blogger's Award' and I would just like to say thank you to her for thinking of me! It's my first ever blogger's award and naturally, I was excited to see that I'd been mentioned!

So, the way that the award works is that:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share five things about your blog
3. Award five recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

(All thanks must go to Gossip_Grl for the above list - I shamelessly took it from her blog! Hope you don't mind :)!!)

So, the five nuggets of information I'm going to share with you lovely people are:

1. I started this blog to share my journey/thoughts on the writing/publishing process (with quite a lot of random thoughts thrown in).
2. I promote this blog A LOT on Twitter....you have been warned.
3. Everyone who's commented on this blog, or whose blog I've visited, have been amazingly friendly and supportive - this is way I want to be an author, so I can hang out with lovely people all day long!
4. I always mean to add more info/tabs to this blog, but somehow, I never get round to it...
5. I have a very short concentration span - I'm currently not working on any of my WIPs mentioned on this blog and have decided to start something completely new instead!

I'm off to award my own five 'Stylish Blogger's Award' now, so I will be back soon with yet another post updating my progress on my current WIP!

xx

Holy Fizzsticks! Motivation?! Me?! Well I never....

Okay, so if you follow me on Twitter, you'll notice that this morning that I said I was signing off the interweb for an hour or so to concentrate on writing. I have a confession to make....I broke that resolution after about ten minutes.

BUT, I wasn't social networking or procrastinating - I was looking up ways to write out a plot outline. You would think, after having an interest in writing for about ten years and studying Publishing for the last three, I'd have some idea about how to write out a plot outline. Don't get me wrong - I've done it before, but the reason I was looking it up was because I was just wondering if there was any easier way of writing down a plot where you're not too sure yourself what's going to happen...and there isn't.

Turns out the easiest thing to do is to just....write.

Okay, let me explain - I am not currently working on any of the WIP's I have mentioned on this blog. Over the last week, a new idea for a novel/series has come to me and this time, I decided to give into the SNI (Slutty New Idea). Why? Because my old manuscript was frustrating me and I wanted to try something new. So I let this idea develop in my head and in a series of rambling notes on my phone, and today I decided to bite the bullet and do something about it.

It's very VERY likely that I'll give up on this idea after today. But I really hope I don't. So far this morning I've written the prologue to the book, fleshed out a few major plot lines and, the most fun bit in my opinion, written about my characters. I'm not generally into the whole 'what's your character's favourite colour?' and 'which side of the bed do they sleep on?' level of detail that most authors go into when thinking about their characters. I like letting my characters develop and see where they take me - to me, it's a lot more fun discovering that they hate cheese halfway through a story, rather than pigeon-holing them right at the start.

I've only taken one brief break to pop to the shop, make a cup of tea and write this post. I'm going to go straight back into it now - I'm terrified that if I leave this idea for more than 30 mins, I'll lose all motivation - so I'm going to develop it some more now!

Oh yeah, I also had a thought that in order to keep me interested in this project, I might try and complete a draft of the first book within 30 days, just to see if I can do it. Have any of you fellow authors ever attempted this?? If so, how did it go?

I'd love to hear from you! Let me know your writing motivation thoughts/horror stories!

xx