Ali's Garrett

Now blogging at...

2009-07-20T15:35:00.002Z

I'm unlikely to be updating this site any time soon: you can find my latest blog at www.aliventures.com, where I'm writing essay-style content about "getting more from life". Come on over and take a look if you're interested!

Going full-time freelance

2008-07-10T20:35:00.002Z

I handed in my notice at work on Mon 30th June, and from August 1st, I'm going to be full-time freelancing -- writing and website creation.

To say I'm hugely excited would be a bit of an understatement. I'm utterly thrilled to finally have found what I really want to do with my life, and to have found a way to make a living from it. I've been earning a bit from freelance blogging since February, and have created some pro bono websites for my portfolio. Aliventures is up and functioning (though I won't be adding the blog element till August.)

The last couple of weeks have been pretty manic, trying to do as much freelance work as possible, find more freelance jobs, work on the "business" side of Aliventures (writing questionnaires, terms of service etc) and of course finish off projects at the Day Job ...

Still, I'm hanging on in there. Three more weeks, and I never have to work another 9-5, Mon-Fri week again. I'll be free, and it's going to feel like becoming myself again after 20 months of living someone else's life.

Aliventures site now live!

2008-06-21T08:10:00.002Z

I've been promising this for a while. I was originally going to combine site + blog from the start, but made the decision last week to turn the blog that I'd been developing offline into a static web site for now (it'll magically become a blog in a month or two ;-)).

The Boyfriend did the design, I turned it into code, and learned a good bit more CSS along the way. And here it is: Aliventures

If you're after a copywriter, blogger, editor or web site creator, check out the services and portfolio pages. I'm doing full web sites (including hosting, email address, design and layout and optimising copy for the web) for just £199 until the end of August. If you're a fellow writer, you could easily make back the money selling just one extra short story or article as a result of having a clear, easy-to-navigate, modern and professional-looking site.

Or if you happen to know anyone in need of a web site or a freelance writer, why not put them in touch? My business email is ali@aliventures.com -- feel free to give that to any friends who you think I could help.

In a couple of weeks time, I'll be emailing round lots of friends to let them know about the launch of Aliventures ... it's one of the most exciting things I've done this year, and I'm hugely looking forward to expanding my writing and web creation work. :-)

Week off work!

2008-06-07T17:12:00.002Z

It seems like ages since my last holiday -- the four-day Easter weekend. But I have the whole of next week off! We're spending Sun-Thurs in the Lake District (and the weather looks like being good), then Friday will be a day to work on my new website...

As usual, things have been busy. Work's been more stressful than usual, especially with my line manager being away quite a bit recently. I'm trying to cut down on how much I'm doing outside of work and have:

Put my short story correspondence course on hold till September
Stepped down as property committee secretary at church (I just have to write up the minutes from last Thursday's meeting, then I'm done...)

I feel guilty about both -- I was really enjoying the course and wanted to get further on with it before Goldsmiths, and although I got rather put on the spot and talked into doing the property committee job, I feel I shouldn't say "no" to Church things. I'm justfying it on the grounds I've taken on a much bigger role in the children's work recently.

My new personal website/blog template is going well: it's taking a long time to do quite small things, and it's a steep learning curve, but I'm definitely finding out a lot. And the design is coming together very nicely, thanks to the Boyfriend's help. I'm hugely excited about this site, and want to get it off to a really good start.

I've also ordered some business cards to advertise my writing and website creation services; those should be arriving soon ...

The Office Diet now has 242 subscribers (over double the number from May 17th's update). I've earned over £600 so far from the staff blogging too ... so much that Paypal have asked me to verify my account information. I'm going to buy myself an HP Mini-Note with some of the earnings ...

At the moment, it still feels like there's a long way to go before I get to where I want to be with the freelancing and with my other writing. But I'm convinced I'm moving in the right direction!

Health/fitness blogger meme

2008-05-28T20:39:00.002Z

I got tagged for this by Fitarella ... I'm posting here rather than on The Office Diet as I don't tend to do memes there (I think it's a bit too personal for The Office Diet's readers!)

Here goes...

4 Jobs I’ve Had
Babysitter
Occasional office admin work for my dad
Data Entry Associate (that was a really thrilling summer)
User Support, Testing & Documentation

What are 4 ways you know you are living your life’s purpose?
I’m pretty involved with my Church (Sunday School, helping at Café Church…)
I’m writing every day. And my writing is helping people.
In September, I’m starting a post-graduate degree in creative writing J
I’m always learning, growing, improving and pushing myself further.

What are 4 things you do to take really good care of yourself?
Get some exercise every day (and gym three times a week)
Write in a journal, more sporadically than I should.
Eat plenty of fruit and veggies.
Indulge in really good ice-cream. (I’ve just discovered Sainsbury’s TTD toffee/caramel ice-cream. If you’re in the UK, and you’ve never tried it, go out and buy a tub today. You’ll thank me…)

What are the 4 events that have most formed how you live your life today?
Losing weight in my late teens after being chubby for years
Going to Fitzwilliam college, Cambridge university and finally “fitting in”! And especially the Springboard (women's self-development) course I took there.
This one is very geeky but I’m including it for the sake of honesty! Playing a very small online text-based roleplaying game for about six years (aged 16-22). A wonderful experience resulting in lasting friendships … and my boyfriend.
Taking a proper hard look at my Christian faith whilst at Uni – and deciding I could believe it all, for myself.

What are 4 things you do to keep your motivation up to work out and eat healthy every day?
Remember how much I hated being chubby.
Remember how I worked hard to lose weight and keep it off.
Work out at lunch time so I look forward to it (getting away from the office = good!)
Buy healthy, quality foods that I really like.

Name 4 people who have been the most influential in motivating you to change your eating and exercise habits.
Me, first and foremost!
My mum, who was incredibly supportive of me when I went on a diet aged 17, and when I was at uni, always got in the healthy foods I liked when I went home in the hols.
My boyfriend, who loves me whatever I look like and encourages me to relax about food.
“The bully” (sadly, not one individual but several) at school who picked on me for years about my weight.

What are your top 4 reasons for staying off of refined sugar and white flour?
I don’t, really. I go with wholegrains for bread but not pasta, and I’ll have sugar but I do limit how much sugar I eat (I realised that meringues, ice-cream, chocolate buttons, chocolate sauce was leaving me feeling predictably awful after the “crash"...).

List 4 ways that blogging has helped you either attain or maintain a higher level of health and fitness.
Keeps my hands busy so I’m less likely to snack
Running a blog called “The Office Diet” has made me more conscious of my food choices at work.
I’ve been reading a lot of other blogs on health/fitness/dieting – and getting some very useful tips.
I’ve been encouraged and inspired by some of the amazing weight-loss stories out there!

Sadly, I think all the health & fitness bloggers I know have already been tagged ... but if you want to have a go at this meme, go ahead!

Writing on, and on, and on...

2008-05-17T17:17:00.002Z

I am neglecting this blog horrifically at the moment (partly because I plan on closing it within a month or two, and launching something new ... more on that later!)

The Office Diet is going strong, especially with my good friend Lorna providing guest posts (a real blessing when I'm running short on ideas.) I'm now on 110 subscribers ... quite an increase on the 67 three weeks ago :-) Helped in part by yesterday's guest post on http://www.crankyfitness.com/ which brought in quite a few readers.

In other writing news:

I've completed all three of the feature articles for Daily Writing Tips and the first has been published, "Creative Writing 101". It's met with a good reception in the comments, and quite a few links from other sites.
I wrote a guest post for Freelance Switch after they opened up for submissions a week or so ago; they asked me to revise it a bit, so I did, and they're going to publish it :-) And pay $60 which is none too shabby. I'll pop the link here once it goes up ...
Mum and I have sent in our bookings for Winchester; I've got appointments with two agent/editor types and need to organise some material to send in advance. Going to pitch The Office Diet to one and another non-fiction thing I've been working (sloooowly) on to another.

Other stuff which has been going on:

I've finally finished my "Bible in a Year" book. I started it in September 2005... which may give some indication of how good (or otherwise) I am at doing Bible reading daily.
The St Nicholas Church Holiday Club website I've created is up, though it needs a bit more work.
I'm learning CSS/PHP to make my own Wordpress template for my next blog ... it's going to be a combination of a relaunch of this one, a site to promote my writing & freelancing, and some long articles (even maybe e-books) on stuff I want to write but don't currently have much outlet for. More on that once I get a bit further with it. I strongly recomment http://www.wpdesigner.com/2007/02/19/so-you-want-to-create-wordpress-themes-huh/ if you want to have a go at doing your own wordpress them, it starts VERY basic and goes slowly. I managed to complete the whole tutorial from ... about 5pm yesterday to 11am this morning.
I've started leading Junior Church, had them last week (lovely bunch of kiddies) and leading again tomorrow. Great to be getting back into youth work again!

That's pretty much it for now... and I'm starting to realise why the last few weeks have felt busy!

Apologies for the lack of posts...

2008-04-27T15:09:00.004Z

Life's been hectic recently. So here's a rather whistle-stop round-up of the good things:

I'm taking baby steps towards project management at work -- had a pre-project meeting and started writing the technical specification for a (very small) project last week. Great experience for the portfolio/CV.
I finished the website I've been designing/coding/etc for Micah Mobile Ministries. It was a bit of a struggle to fit in with all the blogging and writing stuff, but I really enjoyed doing it, and it was a great charity to have some small involvement with. First site for my portfolio...
The Office Diet is now up to 69 RSS subscribers and over 15,000 hits since the launch Jan 1st. I've not sent out any more book proposals, but I'm planning on pitching it to some editors at the Winchester Writers' Conference in June.
Daily Writing Tips have asked me to do three "feature" posts (at $50 each) :-) I actually suspect they'll be easier to write than the "awhile vs a while" type ones I've been doing, which I have to research quite a bit -- though I'm learning a lot from the process.

I think those are the main highlights! I'm in Oxford for the first May bank holiday weekend, and looking forward to seeing the family (why is it I appreciate them all so much more now I've moved away from home...?)

Book Pitching

2008-04-07T20:13:00.003Z

I wrote my first proper book proposal at the weekend, for a book based on The Office Diet, and emailed it off to White Ladder Press. They replied impressively promptly today (alas, to say that whilst it was an interesting idea, they don't do diet books...) Still, it was lovely to have a personal reply.

Next plans are to:
- Look at who publishes the most popular diet books on Amazon
- Trawl through the Yearbook for non-fiction publishers

Going to Goldsmiths!

2008-04-04T20:24:00.003Z

I heard last Thursday that Goldsmiths are giving me a place on the Creatiev & Life Writing MA!

This made the last week a mad dash to get the AHRC funding form to Goldsmiths, but finally got everything sorted out yesterday for them to have it, all signed off, today. Things have been a bit manic, so I'm looking forward to a slightly less busy weekend.

And I'm also really quite excited. :-) I've realised in recent months how much I miss being part of a university ... having that social and academic network around me, and being a member of something much bigger that myself. I'm really looking forward to having access to a university library again, so that I can have somewhere quiet to work at the weekends: the public libraries nearby don't have much private study space. And I'm going to throw myself into the extra-curricular side of things, this time round ... I want to make the most of every opportunity.

Perhaps the thing that delights me most is that they think I'm good enough. Being accepted seems like more validation that I at least have the potential to be a good (great?) writer. And having my 3rd prize winning short story published on the Writing Magazine site has been an added bit of encouragement this week:
http://www.writersnews.co.uk/showcase/hale2/default.asp

Worthing

2008-03-26T19:27:00.002Z

We had a lovely Easter weekend in Worthing: I didn't touch a computer for over 72 hours! The weather was a tad blustery, but we had a few walks up and down the beach regardless. Many of the highlights involved food... ;-)

We highly recommend Bryce's Seafood Brasserie, for gorgeous food at very reasonable prices and extremely good service

The Pizzaria on Warwick stree (I think Pomodoro Mozzarella) for their calzone, and their amaretti-biscuit-with-rum-and-dark-chocolate-ice-cream...

Liming Grill/Restaurant for their Sangria and sharing platter

A lovely cake shop called Marguerite's on Warwick Street which opened about a week ago... gorgeous little dark truffle chocolate cakes and a lovely proprietess.

It was great to be out of London for a few days -- I didn't see a single police car. Managed to read the whole of Celia Friedman's Feast of Souls, a gripping dark fantasy with strong characters, an intriguing world and compelling themes. Also read Jostein Gaarder's The Ringmaster's Daughter which I enjoyed but which seemed a little thin somehow. (The plot seemed claustrophobic, but perhaps that was intentional...)

The Connaught Theatre was a wonderful venue to see a film in: we paid the extra £1 each to have a box! Same price as our local Peckham Multiplex, but considerably nicer. I wish I'd not insisted on seeing There Will Be Blood, though, as despite the many Oscar nominations, neither of us found it as interesting as hoped ... we both agreed that cutting about an hour out the middle of it would have helped. I think I should resign myself to having very low-brow taste in films.

We felt very welcome at Cornerstone Methodist on Easter morning, and if we'd known about their cafe earlier in the week, probably would have popped in for a coffee. A lovely Church building and congregation, and a joyful Easter service.

All in all, a great break. :-)

No more Tuesdays off

2008-03-19T21:14:00.003Z

Things are busier again at work, and so I'm back in five days a week. I'm really missing having the Tuesday to write blog posts and work on my short story course, but the extra money's going into savings.

Good recent writing-related news:
- I've achieved my goal of finding another staff writer position before the end of March. :-) I sent a guest post to www.dailywritingtips.com and they liked it so much they asked if I wanted to be a staff writer. I jumped at the chance!

- I had a guest post on "I will change your life", a great, very well-written and well produced blog that I love. It's at http://www.iwillchangeyourlife.com/2008/03/19/start-with-your-body-7-life-benefits-from-losing-weight

- I sent a guest post to www.crankyfitness.com which they're going to use (though possibly not for a while)

- I had a story rejected from Woman's Weekly with "much too strong for us, but a good style, so do try us again".

Goldsmiths' still haven't written to me, so I don't know yet whether I have an MA place from September or not ...

Relaxed Weekend

2008-03-09T21:14:00.003Z

I've had a fairly relaxed weekend, without much writing. Saturday started with a shopping trip to Lewisham in the morning, some writing networking with other bloggers via email during the day, then a very nice evening out at The Village Inn (what used to be Page 2) at the other side of Nunhead. Wonderful tapas (especially the blue cheese breaded mushrooms...) and a nice, relaxed atmosphere. Like most of the pubs/restaurants round here, we were surprised how empty it was -- 8pm on a Saturday night, and we were the only people in the "restaurant" back room (though there were some people drinking in the bar.)

Though, of course, the rugby was on...

I've been thinking over my goals for the next few months, and I've decided that I want to focus on building up some income from freelance writing: I'm really enjoying doing articles for www.diet-blog.com and want to try to find at least one other site to take me on as a staff writer. Skellie's Anywired has been really useful, both with practical tips and in making me think it is possible to make a living from this. My ideal combination would be something involving staff blogging, my own blog(s), writing books (fiction and non-fiction), and some small-site web design.

I'm going to start offering a few guest posts to blogs I've been reading for a while, and try to build up some more contacts. I have a few ideas scribbled in my notebook already...

Interview over, should hear in two weeks...

2008-03-04T21:34:00.002Z

I think it went okay this morning. Maura Dooley, who interviewed me, was absolutely lovely -- it was much more of a relaxed chat than most interviews I've had! She said they take about a third of the people that they interview, and that they'd let me know within a couple of weeks.

Of course, I always come out of interviews (and exams) thinking of all the extra things I should've thrown in ... but I'm going to put it completely out of my mind for now. Nothing I can do until I hear their decision.

I also drafted the second assignment for my short story correspondance course this afternoon. Not very happy with it; I didn't feel it was working even at the planning stage, and now I've written it, the storyline seems too loose and the "science fiction" elements almost tagged on. Hoping it'll improve after some mulling and redrafting, or hoping I get a better idea to write...

Interview at Goldsmiths', next Tues

2008-02-29T20:12:00.002Z

I heard yesterday from Goldsmiths' that they want to interview me. Going along next Tuesday at 10, and somehow going to persuade them that I'm worth giving a place on the Creative & Life Writing MA course to.

This is something I've wanted for a long time; I'd hoped it would be UEA and full-time and living a haphazard writerly life, but part-time and evening and weekend essays while working tech support is a price I'm more than willing to pay for the opportunity.

Fingers very very crossed!

Quick update on writing things

2008-02-27T22:04:00.003Z

Updates on various writing things over the past week:

Goldsmiths now have my application for Creative & Life Writing MA -- I'm waiting to hear if they want to interview me...
Now up to 76.8K words on Four Red Spots, and have the remaining scenes-to-add vaguely listed
Started planning my assignment for Unit 2 of my short story course
Non-fiction writing, mostly The Office Diet is going well, but I'm still spending a lot of time trying to market it and making very slow headway, if any...
Had my first post as a staff writer up on Diet Blog last Friday, which was cool :-)

Continuing with Four Red Spots - 71K

2008-02-19T20:26:00.004Z

I hit the 70K mark yesterday on Four Red Spots; despite waking up late and only doing 750 words first then, then a bad day at work, I managed to hammer out a few more in the evening. Got it up to 71K this morning before spending the rest of the day working on blogging stuff (some writing, some brainstorming, lots of networking/marketing type things.)

I'm becoming more and more convinced that chick lit isn't really my genre. I'm struggling to make it interesting; I think the characters carry the story fairly well, but the scenes all seem a litle flat and frankly somewhat pointless. I'm itching to start work on the Big Novel, the project that's been simmering and simmering away for a year now ... but I also want to get Four Red Spots finished. Still, at this rate, should be done by Easter. Another 29K to go...

Five ways I raise my vibrations meme

2008-02-15T19:07:00.002Z

Meme from Womagwriter -- thanks! :-)

Five ways I raise my vibrations:

1. Take a shower. For some reason, my best ideas come to me in the shower. Washing my hair seems particularly good (maybe it's something to do with warm water on the scalp, I dunno.)

2. Get moving. I get edgy and irritable if I've not had any exercise, a bit like a small and yappy puppy that needs walking ... Usually, a cycle ride sorts it.

3. Tidy my desk. I work better when I don't feel cluttered (and when I can find things like envelopes and competitions guidelines).

4. Read motivational blogs. I'm particularly into Steve Pavlina's Personal Development for Smart People and recently discovered an excellent blog called Path to Your Destiny.

5. Drink tea from my Shakespeare mug. My mum gave me the mug last Easter, and I always have my "writing" cuppa in it -- so it's become a great cue to put me in the writing mood. If I don't feel like writing, I make tea in the Shakespeare mug and then I have to write.

All very mundane, really, I feel I should've come up with something more writerly but those are what I actually do! I'll tag Sam next...

Writing Tuesdays: Mostly Submissions

2008-02-12T21:52:00.000Z

Posted/emailed off a final round of submissions for Night of the Empty Moon today, which took up the whole afternoon. If there's no joy from this lot, I'm officially chucking it in the bottom drawer for the foreseeable future...

Disappointingly, one of the very few publishing companies I had listed as a possible has stopped taking unsolicited submissions, and another's website said no SF/F. :-( Still, I suppose I saved on paper/postage...

Got another 1200 new words on the NaNo one this morning, and various other writery bits and pieces -- some brainstorming for possible competition entries, and studying a chapter of my Palgrave book. Also wrote another post in the excuse-busting series for The Office Diet, and made fruit salad, and oat cookies... (there's only so much writing I can do in a day!)

A Cautionary Tale and some NaNoing

2008-02-10T18:56:00.000Z

I had fun on Thursday and Friday morning last week, working on a "Cautionary Tale" poem for a Writing Magazine competition: "The Man Who Talked Loudly On His Mobile In the Quiet Carriage". The Boyfriend (and the Parents) found it amusing, so after a bit of awkward-scansion fixing, I think I'll send it in.

Didn't get any writing done on Saturday due to various Church things then meeting up with friends on the Saturday afternoon.

Today, I redrafted a short story exercise that might possibly be one I'll send to a women's magazine (waiting for some feedback on it), then -- finally! -- got back into the NaNoWriMo novel this afternoon. I'm aiming to have the first draft (100k ish works) finished by Easter, which means doing about 1,000 words a day till then.

Got 1,500 words of new scenes done today so it's a good start. The subplot of Katie's essay is developing, and a bit more about Jan & Keith's rocky marriage. And some more Sidgwick buttery cookie eating took place...

Finally done all the novel edits - the manuscript is FINISHED!

2008-02-05T18:29:00.000Z

I spent quite a bit of time last week with the Lulu copy of Night of the Empty Moon, going through every single page and marking typos and clumsy-sentence type errors. It took a while, and a lot of patience. I was even scribbling away in the pub on Saturday afternoon (whilst The Boyfriend and his friend watched Wales trounce England. At least Arsenal won...)

Today, I got all of the remaining type-ins done (had already typed in the corrections to the first 4 or so chapters). It took most of the morning, but it's finally DONE. Either this weekend or next Tuesday, I plan on doing a big mailout ... I've got the list of hapless agents and publishers ready. ;-)

I've also been working away at The Office Diet, which is slowly gaining momentum -- my page views are consistently 100-150 a day at the moment, and I've had some lovely feedback on forums or by email from readers. It still feels like a bit of an uphill slog; I love writing it, but marketing it seems to take a lot of time. I hoped the mythical "word of mouth" would have kicked in by now...

A cold, and a shortlisting

2008-01-30T18:10:00.001Z

I felt worse today than yesterday, so phoned in sick (the first day I've taken off ever ...) Staying warm and dosed up on paracetamol and lemsip seems to have helped, though.

Writers' News & Magazine arrived today -- I'm sure they're getting earlier every month! -- and I was delighted to find that my "No smoke without fire" short story competition entry had made the shortlist. It underwent a fair amount of criticism and revision, so nice to know that it paid off.

That's a running total of two short listings, one third prize and one second prize in the past year. :-)

Casino trip

2008-01-28T19:51:00.000Z

I and the Boyfriend went to a casino on Saturday (this one, in fact), for a good friend's birthday party. It was a great weekend -- catching up with old friends, meeting some new ones, learning how to play blackjack, free champagne & birthday cake.

And I won a whole £3 :-) (I'm not really the gambling type. Or rather, I am and I know myself well enough not to go chucking down £100 on the poker table.) The Boyfriend and I hung around the casino floor, mooched free soft drinks, and sat in the bar area and chatted.

I also have lots of notes I made the following day towards short stories -- I'd like to write something about a casino; it's a setting with all the perfect elements of glamour, hope, despair, chance, luck, relationships...

Twist-in-the-tale story done and ready to post

2008-01-26T08:53:00.000Z

I finished the twist-in-the-tale short story ("Restaurant Review", which I dislike as a title, but I've noticed Take a Break don't tend to use especially unusual story titles.) Got it to the right word length, wrote the cover letter & title sheet, and popped in an envelope last night.

I'm pretty happy with this one. It's a story I can easily envisage flipping over the page in Take a Break's Fiction Feast and reading ... so I feel I'm getting a better handle on the market. It'll be interesting to see if they do take it, or if they offer any feedback if not.

The other fiction piece I've been working on is a competition entry, which again I enjoyed writing (strong characters) but the conflict revolves around a secondary character rather than the main one. To me, it feels as though the story works, but I feel I'm going against the advice of my short story course and my how-to books! I'm keen to workshop this one, as I think it could need a bit of unpicking and reworking if it's to be a decent competition entry.

Writer Meme

2008-01-20T20:54:00.000Z

I was tagged by WomagWriter -- thanks! :-)

What's the last thing you wrote?
Draft of a short story for a competition on the theme "Autograph Hunter" (this morning, before Church.)

Was it any good?
Pretty happy with it for a first draft. It needs quite a bit of polishing, though!

What's the first thing you ever wrote that you still have?
Err. Maybe a mini-book about a mouse when I was six, or a story about myself, my friends and a giant beanstalk when I was seven. Either may still exist in my parents' loft. In terms of serious writing, probably a short story version of the ballad of Semmerwater I wrote when I was 12 -- I copied it out (in my best handwriting!) into a hardbacked exercise book.

The thing I definitely KNOW I have (because I reread it fairly recently and it was cringingly bad) was a teenage sci-fi novel I wrote when I was 14/15.

Write poetry?
Occasionally. Had one published as a "reader's poem" in Woman's Weekly Fiction Special. Got £10.

Angsty poetry?
Nope.

Favourite genre of writing?
I'd have said sci-fi/fantasy straight away a year and a half ago, but I'm now writing contemporary short stories too.

Most fun character you ever wrote?
Probably Tamsin, who I roleplayed as for several years on a MUD (I played other characters too). Little female psychotic Pit Fighter, a great laugh.

Most annoying character you ever wrote?
"Insipid Woman with Irredemably Boring Life" crops up in the occasional failed short story. I always think she's going to be someone more interesting when I'm planning, but once I'm two sentences into the story, she's already starting to grate on me.

Best plot you ever wrote?
I quite like the twist-in-the-tale story I was working on last week. Usually, though, my plotting is my weak point.

Coolest plot twist you ever wrote?
Whatever it was, but it probably didn't work. ;-)

How often do you get Writers block?
Never had it.

Write fan fiction?
Nope (okay, I wrote some really bad Chicken Run fanfic when I was 15. Please can I disown that for ever?) I used to read a lot of fan fiction, before I got into MUDding and then into a full-time job.

Do you type or write by hand?
Type.

Do you save everything you write?
Yep, usually keeping various drafts/versions. I keep abandoned starts of stories and writing exercises, too.

Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you've abandoned it?
Haven't done so yet.

What's your favourite thing you've written?
Unpublished fantasy novel, Night of the Empty Moon. I love the characters and the story and the themes it explores.

What's everyone else's favourite thing you've written?
Dunno -- not enough people have seen enough of my work. The one I've had most positive comments on is my short story "Shifting Sands" (http://www.writersnews.co.uk/showcase/hale/default.asp) but probably just because people saw that one!

Do you even show people your work?
Yep. Writing friends (including boyfriend and mum), who provide great criticism. I also submit stuff to competitions, agents and so on.

Did you ever write a novel?
Yep. Night of the Empty Moon (100,000 words, fantasy) whilst at Uni. An untitled sci-fi one during Year 9-11 in school. And 60,000 words of a chick lit one for NaNoWriMo last November.

Ever written romance or teen angsty drama?
Not intentionally.

How many writing projects are you working on right now?
Twice as many as I can actually cope with:

Editing of Night of the Empty Moon (needs a decent fantasy background and some polishing)
Finishing drafting the chick-lit novel
A website/blog on healthy eating for office workers (www.theofficediet.com)
A twist-in-the-tale short story
A short story on the theme "Autograph Hunter"
A huge writing-type online thing project which is in the very early stages

I think that's all the stuff technically mid-way at the moment. I've some other things in the planning (jotted notes) stages.

Do you want to write for a living?
I'd like to write for a vocation. I'm less bothered about making a living doing it, so long as I can make a living somehow and still have plenty of free time to write.

Have you ever won an award for your writing?
Nope. (A couple of competition prizes, that's all.)

Ever written something in script or play format?
No.

Do you ever write based on yourself?
All my characters have aspects of me in them.

What character that you've written most resembles yourself?
Katie from my chick-lit novel. Female student at a "hill college" in Cambridge, on a Springboard course, trying to find her place in the world.

Where do you get ideas for your other characters?
People-watching. Friends. Other fiction (books, TV, films, myths).

Do you ever write based on your dreams?
Tried to, once, but it didn't really work.

Do you favour happy endings, sad endings or a cliff hanger?
Happy, "earned" endings.

Have you ever written based on an artwork you've seen?
Only writing exercises, never a whole story.

Are you concerned with spelling or grammar as you write?
Yep. My mother's an English teacher and I did English at Uni, so my spelling and grammar is okay. I don't worry too much in first drafts.

Ever write something entirely in chatspeak? (How r u?)
Nope, though I wrote a story in the form of a blog once, ie. blog entries by one character and comments by others.

Entirely in L337?
Nope. The blog short story did use the word "w00t!"

Was that question completely appalling and un-writer like?
No! I've got a strong interest in digital fiction and innovative ways of telling stories. I've been meaning to do a short story structured as Facebook feed updates for ages.

Does music help you write?
Rarely.

Quote something you've written. The first thing to pop into your mind.
"[He had] a face that managed to find the perfect spot between thuggish rugby player and gay."

And now I tag... Sam!

NaNoWriMo revisited - the read-through

2008-01-19T20:29:00.000Z

I went through the entire NaNoWriMo print out (145 pages single-spaced), and created a spreadsheet summarising each scene -- characters in it, location, time, what happens. The first 80 ish pages flow fine, but after that the plot got very rushed so that I could reach "the end" within the month.

Some parts are better than I thought, others aren't -- the sheer amount of nostalgia for student days is rather self-indulgent. Indeed, the whole thing reads rather more autobiographically than I'd intended. My main character, Katie, also strikes me as a little dull (the other characters in the novel face bigger challenges, Jan in particular, or are just generally more unusual people.) I may need to shake things up a bit more for Katie in the rewrite.

There's several sub-plots which I abandoned part-way, and the timeline is rather screwed up, so I need to add in quite a few scenes in the second part. This is all now noted on the spreadsheet and a succession of yellow post-it notes.

Anyway, it's good to have finally gone back to it. I need to decide now whether it's got enough potential for me to go through the slog of finishing it, and redrafting it, and submitting it...

Guest post on Diet Blog

2008-01-18T19:50:00.000Z

My guest post went up on Diet Blog yesterday morning, and I've spent the past two days eagerly checking the number of comments -- it's up to 17 now, which is good going! I got 50 hits yesterday on The Office Diet, which suggest an extra 20 or so people checking it out, presumably as a result of the Diet Blog post.

If you're interested, here's the link. Note that Jim retitled it (it was "ways to be healthier" originally) -- the American usage "eat healthier" is not mine! ;-) http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2008/01/16/6_quick_ways_to_eat_healthier_at_work.php

Asides from that, I've been working on a 1000 word (currently at 1400 in second draft) "twist-in-the-tale" short story aimed at Take a Break. I'm quite enjoying this one; it came out of a 10-minute writing exercise I did a while back and found whilst digging through folders of writing snippets. Planning to polish it up a bit tomorrow, then ship it around for some feedback from writing friends.

Police raid

2008-01-16T19:08:00.000Z

Rather excitingly, there was a police raid on one of the flats above us in the pre-dawn hours of this morning. I woke up some time around 5am, and muttered to myself about noisy neighbours -- then when the noise continued up and down the stairs in our block, eventually staggered groggily out of bed and glanced out of the window.

There were two big police vans outside, just driving off.

At about 6.30, several of the internal buzzers blared -- including ours. I stuck my head out of the window, called "Hello" to the two police men standing outside (a car this time, no van), and let them in. They marched on upstairs and proceeded to yell threats about "kicking down the door."

All rather more excitement than I usually expect before breakfast.

When they left at 7.30, it was sadly with only a 32inch TV (at least, that's what the box they were carrying said) and not with any of our bongo-playing-loud-cackling neighbours...

Rainy Tuesday

2008-01-15T18:46:00.000Z

It's been raining for most of the day, making me very glad I had the day off! It's been a good, productive day -- lots of writing bits and pieces ticked off, a short story sent out, a few admin things attended to, some much-needed tidying (caused by the reorganisation of desks in our flat) done.

Somehow, I never manage to be this efficient at work...

It's also been quite a relaxing day in many ways: a lie-in until 6.30 (!) and a leisurely breakfast with the Boyfriend: I made porridge, which I love but don't have time to faff around with most weekday mornings. And a joint trip to the greengrocers, during a brief respite in the rain; we're both making a real effort on the "five-a-day" front, boosted by my fruit salads and the Boyfriend's vegetable soups.

And, after a good day of wholesome living and productive writing, we're off to the Nun's Head for Tuesday 2-for-1 burgers. :-)

Another good rejection

2008-01-12T09:49:00.000Z

I got a rejection from My Weekly a couple of days ago; a really helpful email explaining why the story wasn't quite right.

The reasons were:

- The twist was predictable. (I did think this when I was working on it, but it's hard to tell how it would come across to a reader. Useful to know, anyway!)

- The story was quite downbeat, until near the end. I hadn't considered this, but reflecting on it, I realise that My Weekly do publish fairly cheerful, upbeat stories.

- The main female character wasn't sympathetic enough (though her husband was). Again, I should have realised this would be a problem: almost all the women's magazine stories have at least one sympathetic female lead!

So, it was very useful advice, and they also said they'd like to see more of my work. With the good rejection from Woman's Weekly, that makes two magazines which at least seem to think I write decently. :-)

Tuesdays off

2008-01-07T21:19:00.000Z

I've negotiated with the Line Manager and the Boss that I can take Tuesdays off as unpaid leave "for the foreseeable future". They don't want to change my contract in case we get tons of work in (IT tends to be unpredictable like that), and this suits me anyway as it means I can easily go back to five days/week if finances demand it.

For the moment, though, I'm very happy! :-) I'd already booked off all the Tuesdays in January as holiday, but this means I can continue on through the rest of the year. I've noticed the difference already: I didn't spend Sunday evening feeling mildly grouchy about Monday, and today I positively bounced into the office, eager to get cracking.

I've also got a new desk at home! I spent some Christmas money on it, and it's much more comfortable to write/type on than my cramped little old desk. Tomorrow, I plan to get up at six as usual and do a bit of writing first thing, then the Boyfriend and I are heading to Dulwich Library for some exam practice essays (him) and short-story-unit-one-assignment completion (me).

30-day trial

2008-01-03T19:02:00.000Z

I've nicked the idea of a 30-day trial from Steve Pavlina, whose blog is a unique source of entertainment, enlightement and occasional bemusement.

I'm doing a couple of 30-day trials for things I want to do every day:

Bible reading/prayer
10 minutes writing in my notebook

At the end of January, I'll see whether these have made a difference, and whether they've become habits that'll be easy to keep up. Both are activities I've managed sporadically on a daily basis, but I tend to slip back into occasional efforts at best.

I'm also updating The Office Diet every weekday, but I'm planning on doing that all year (!) rather than just as a monthly trial. It's going well so far, and I've been surprised how much I've enjoyed writing non-fiction for a change. Getting to grips with all the technical bits of setting up the site was time-consuming but I know I've learned a lot from it, which is a good feeling. Initial feedback from a couple of friends has been good: constructive and critical where necessary!

The Office Diet up and running

2007-12-30T18:19:00.000Z

After a few afternoon's slog, I've got www.theofficediet.com looking pretty much how I want it.

(My webmail doesn't seem to be working currently, but apart from that, it's all good.)

I've discovered rather more about nameservers, DNS changes and CSS table attributes than I expected ... it's certainly been a good learning experience, if a slightly frustrating one at times!

This is part of the 2008 resolution to move into more non-fiction writing: I achieved the 2007 goal of getting 20+ short stories completed (29 at last count, with another drafted and a 60k word novel for NaNoWriMo) -- 2008 is the year for getting those stories off to market, and building up a non-fiction portfolio.

Once TheOfficeDiet is going steadily (I'll be posting a shortish piece each weekday, and writing a longer article once or twice a week), I want to make a start on the next project -- a "gift-type" book proposal & sample chapter, with an eye on Christmas 2008...

Christmas Break

2007-12-28T22:00:00.000Z

It seems really odd to have a whole week off work (and now the weekend, and I'm not due back in the office until next Weds!) The days of relative-visiting alternated between hectic travelling and sitting around fairly idly with one of many books...

Highlights of the past week included:

The Boyfriend's cousins, and winning chocolate-Cluedo along with Youngest Cousin
St Nicholas's Carols by Candlelight service (with the Family and the Boyfriend)
Christmas stockings (thanks mum!)
Lots of books! My Christmas list was clearly well scrutinised.
FAAAAAAAR too much chocolate. I'm on a permanent sugar high...
Seeing the St Trinian's movie this afternoon; hilarious, non-stop entertainment, well worth queuing for half an hour to get into.

Presents and Packing

2007-12-20T21:52:00.000Z

I've finally got all the presents wrapped, and my packing done, for the next few days: we're off to Shropshire to see the Boyfriend's mum's side of the family this weekend, then heading straight to Oxford on Sunday to be with my parents, siblings and granny for Christmas.

I plan on doing lots of reading (have packed quite a few books) and no writing! I've managed to get a lot done this week -- six articles finalised and the 'About' page written for my new website, and some work on the other big project I'm doing. I feel I deserve -- and need! -- a good break.

My parents' net connection is down, so I'm unlikely to be blogging/replying to emails for the next week.

One more week...

2007-12-15T11:59:00.001Z

Only a week of work left before I have a Christmas break. It still seems odd not to have student-length holidays...

I've been working on drafting some articles for a new website, which I'll be launching at the start of January. (It'll consist of about 10-12 medium length articles to start with, along with daily blog posts and product/book reviews.) I've already purchased a domain name and done a bit of thinking about design. Watch this space for more information... ;-)

I've been making very slow, but positive, progress on an online fiction/game project that I'm hoping to launch by the start of February. This is going to be much smaller than the website, aimed at a tiny group of friends rather than the world at large. It's got almost no potential to be big or make any money but it's good fun.

This afternoon, we're off to the Nunhead Green Christmas Shopping Day -- lured by the banners promising free food and mulled wine! -- and then heading on into Dulwich. The Boyfriend has choir practise, and I want to spend a couple of hours in the library working on the first unit of my Short Story course.

It's rather sad that academic work has now become a weekend treat... I wish I was a full-time student again!

Almost out of the "early-twenties"

2007-12-13T21:42:00.000Z

I had a great birthday yesterday -- it got off to a good start when I took mars bar crunchies into work in the morning (always popular!) I left at lunchtime to open presents from the Boyfriend -- gorgeous cross-stitch goodies, including a much-needed LARGE workbox! We spent the early afternoon lounging in the Nun's Head, enjoying red wine, and nachos followed by a lentil-and-mushroom lasagna and a steak. (I'll let you guess who ordered which. ;-))

We went to the Phantom of the Opera in the evening, which was excellent. The melody is still stuck in my head... After wedging ourselves into the balcony seats, we decided we'll one day be rich enough to buy a box. Just not box 5. And not near a chandelier...

Various Competitions

2007-12-11T18:54:00.000Z

I've been polishing up a handful of stories for several competitions over the past couple of days:

"The Bench in the Park" for Writers' News "The Bench in the Park" title competition (the first time I've tried writing from an omniscient viewpoint, and the first time I've put five major characters -- counting the bench -- into a sub-1700 word story. Quite happy with it, though.)

"A Girl in the Family" Writing Magazine "Adoption" competition (this one got radically changed between the second and third drafts. I cut about 50% of the original on the advice of my writing group, and though it's definitely improved, it still doesn't seem quite there. Got fed up of tweaking, though.)

First 1,000 words of my NaNoWriMo novel Four Red Spots for Wannabe a Writer? start-of-a-novel competition. (I did redraft the opening quite a bit, but have a nagging feeling the story should have started somewhere else.)

"Kim's Kids" for the Willesden Herald short story competition. (I really like this story, and was disappointed it didn't even make the shortlist for Scribble's "The Return" competition -- I think perhaps I veered too far from the theme in an attempt to be original.)

With that lot out the way, I've no more deadlines until well into January, so I'm going to make a start on the first unit of my short story correspondance course...

Short Story Course

2007-12-09T20:51:00.000Z

I got an exciting package on Friday: the materials for my correspondance short story writing course. It looks exactly what I wanted -- practical, academic, strong on content. I need to write out a biography-type statement for the Head of Tutors so that they can match me up with a tutor, then I can get going on my first assignment.

I'm oddly excited about getting back into academic work with some sort of structure: I feel that I've done a lot of practise of short story writing, over the past 12 months, but not much learning about how to put a story together, how to target the right market, and similar. I'm starting to think that my lack of success is because I'm still very new to it, and jumped in feet-first without taking any time to learn the craft.

As well as the short story course, I want to continue working through Palgrave's How to Write Fiction (And Think About It) which I started on a few months back. I'm feeling quite positive about the next few months, writing-wise, so want to make the most of that energy!

Advent

2007-12-05T20:24:00.000Z

It was the first Sunday of Advent a few days ago, and I was relieved to find that Methodist-URCs sing "O Come O Come Emmanuel" just like the Anglicans. ;-)

I like Advent. I like the sense of hope and expectancy, the waiting for something amazing, the sharp chill in the air, the cards and Christmas wishes and thinking about presents and family.

Also, with NaNoWriMo done it's a good time to stop and reflect about the next projects to take on. Or ... well, it should be. I seem to have dived headlong into the next thing I want to do, a huge project which I'd abandoned a while back and have now revived because a small group of friends might be interested. Maybe this time my enthusiasm will last long enough for me to see it through to the end.

I've also written a couple of short stories, one of which I took to the East Dulwich Writers' Group meeting on Monday. I got some great feedback: it helped me figure out the problem (about 2/3rds of the piece needs cutting, and I need to expand the grandmother-granddaughter relationship which is of real interest, rather than having the parents sitting endlessly making small-talk.) A couple of other members also read, two excellent pieces which I really enjoyed. I was very shattered by the time I got home at 10pm but was glad I'd made the effort to go along.

That's one thing I miss at the moment, not working in a words-driven environment. At Uni, I was surrounded by English students, but computer programmers and software project managers just don't have the same love for words... (Sam excepted, of course!)

NaNoWriMo Day 28 (Finished! - 60,458 words)

2007-11-28T21:25:00.001Z

This evening, I typed those two glorious words, THE END.

The last few scenes are not so much sketchy as they are a vague smear resembling paragraphs on the screen.

Still, it's done. I am now in a mild state of bewilderment, having reckoned on spending the next couple of pre-work slots writing it. I think I might do a short story, tomorrow. Also need to sort out my application to Goldsmiths. And I have an idea for a poem.

But tonight, I am going to go to bed early and catch up on some sleep...

NaNoWriMo Day 26

2007-11-26T22:01:00.000Z

I edited yesterday's short story this morning, and wrote a bit more on the NaNoWriMo novel. Creative writing was cancelled this evening, hence more novelling (up to 55790 words now, and shooting for 60k+ by the end of the week). I've also been listening to Mur Lafferty's excellent, very entertaining Playing for Keeps podcast novel, whilst cross-stitching.

The Boyfriend has written an insane amount since 11pm yesterday evening -- around 8,000 words! -- and has finished his novel too. Nick has Weds-Fri booked off work, so it looks like we'll all be celebrating our collective victory on Friday night. :-)

NaNoWriMo Day 25 (Official Winners' Certificate)

2007-11-25T15:00:00.001Z

The NaNoWriMo wordcount validator is now online, and I've just printed off my Official Winners' Certificate. Hurrah!

The short story which I was planning to write this afternoon turns out to be the one for January ... it's a different theme for the December one. So I've been hurriedly scrawling down some ideas for the right competition. I want something to read at creative writing group tomorrow, and I doubt I'll get any other chance to workshop something before December 17th. I've got sketchy ideas for situation, characters and plot now (though I fear it's a bit light on the last of those.)

I'm going to get started on it, just as soon as I've added my NaNoWriMo winner icons to the blog!

NaNoWriMo Day 24 - 52,163 words

2007-11-24T10:33:00.000Z

I'm still going with the novel, managed a couple of thousand words this morning (in between doing two large loads of laundry, going to the green grocers' and Ayres).

We've got friends coming up for the weekend (arriving about lunchtime) so doubt I'll do any more writing till late Sunday afternoon...

I have a vague idea for the next Writing Magazine short story competition, and also a nebulous poem for Woman's Weekly -- this might scupper the next week of NaNoWriMo slightly...

NaNoWriMo Day 23 - The Big Fifty Thousand

2007-11-23T20:06:00.000Z

I appear to have finished early...

NaNoWriMo Day 22 - 48,366 words (Almost there already)

2007-11-22T20:18:00.000Z

I've written 3583 words (so far!!) today -- which makes it officially my Highest Word Day Yet. I got into a good groove this morning and managed 2,500 in slightly under an hour and a half, before work. And then had a caffeine-fuelled writing spurt this evening.

The Boyfriend is struggling with an essay as well as NaNoWriMo, and so neither of us are cooking tonight. I've just had a bowl of salad, and I think I have a couple of sesame seed ryvitas in the cupboard...

(November has been a good-ish month for dieting!)

NaNoWriMo Day 21 (Slowing but slogging on)

2007-11-21T19:20:00.000Z

I wrote precisely 0 words yesterday, because I went to Melton Mowbray for a work thing (was doing a 15 minute presentation at a conference). It meant I got on a train at 6.30am and got back home about 8.30pm ... by which point I was too shattered to write!

However, I did get about three-quarters of the way through Black Swan Green which I'm really enjoying. Possibly my favourite of David Mitchell's novels, out of those I've read (number9dream and Cloud Atlas). I enjoyed Cloud Atlas a lot, but found it a more difficult read -- and I struggled through number9dream, which was (to me) overly heavy on the multiple versions of events and dream/imaginary sequences.

Today, I've written a couple of thousand words, despite being almost asleep over my keyboard at half six this morning...

NaNoWriMo day 19 (42,638 words)

2007-11-19T19:47:00.000Z

I didn't have to go out until nine this morning (I had an all-day meeting and it wasn't worth going into the office for half-an-hour first... especially not in the rain!) This meant I managed a good 2,549 words before making some porridge for self and Boyfriend and heading out into the drizzle...

I'm fairly tired this evening, and going to be getting a train at 6.30am tomorrow -- and not home till lateish -- so I doubt there'll be much more writing done until Wednesday.

The story still seems to have a long way to go -- I think I'm about half-way through the actual plot -- and I've got a few scenes coming up that I'm looking forward to writing. The second Springboard day, with all my main characters finally back in one room again, should be a good one.

NaNoWriMo Day 18 - the 40,000 mark!

2007-11-18T17:05:00.000Z

I managed to get to 40,000 words before Church this morning -- despite getting up an hour later than planned. The extra sleep definitely helped; I wasn't nodding off over the keyboard like usual. (Or maybe my writing's just getting less boring...)

The laptop was having a minor behavioural hiccup earlier, and though it seems fine now, I have hastily backed up the novel onto my USB pen. (I do back up my writing occasionally, but I don't usually write quite so much in less than three weeks...)

We saw Beowulf this afternoon, which was good, though neither of us had expected it to be CGI! Also, it seemed a fairly adapted version of the story I vaguely remember from middle-school days. I wrote a feminist version (well, one with a female Beowulf, and I think a contemporary setting) when I was 12/13 ... will have to attempt to find it next time I'm at my parents', but I suspect it's now on a dead computer in the attic somewhere. Probably no great loss to literature...

Seeing the film also rekindled my Medieval-term-inspired ambition to write a screenplay of Gawain and the Green Knight -- I reckon it could make a great movie! However, I've got the NaNoWriMo novel to finish first, then a contemporary fantasy in the planning stages and a non-fiction/humour book I want to try pitching.

For now, though, I should clean the kitchen...

NaNoWriMo Day 17, 37704 words total (Slowing down)

2007-11-17T16:36:00.001Z

Yesterday I only managed 915 words. (I had a day-job corporate dinner in the evening, which I was getting ready for in the morning and then out at all evening. Nice meal and great to see colleagues outside work, but not good for my word count! The Boyfriend and Nick were there too, so an unproductive day all round, novel-wise.

I've not made target today either, but managed 1559 words so I'm still on track to get to 40,000 by the end of Sunday. Met up with Sam and his sister & friend at Borough Market this morning and did a bit of Christmas shopping -- which was good fun! This afternoon I've been baking for our church fund-raising jazz party this evening.

Somehow, our November weekends have ended up far busier than we'd planned...

NaNoWriMo Day 15 (Halfway!)

2007-11-15T21:24:00.000Z

Halfway through the month, and I'm on 35,000 words.

The plot is slowly but surely beginning to thicken, like a good stew. Katie has just gone to London to meet up with the far-too-perfect-to-be-true Jasper, for a weekend that will indeed be a memorable one, but for all the wrong reasons...

Long (well, early) hours are starting to take their toll. I need to catch up on sleep/rest a bit, this weekend. I think I'm becoming quite horrible to live with (many apologies to the Boyfriend for my constant grumpiness in the evenings...)

NaNoWriMo Day 14 - 32,526 words (Are we nearly there yet?)

2007-11-14T20:21:00.000Z

Katie's brother, Jason, has turned out to have a hitherto unplanned liking for writing teenage poetry and redecorating his bedroom. I've been bringing out more family tensions, trying to hint at the background on why Katie tends to be an apologetic people-pleaser ... and I wanted some scenes of social awkwardness in the car and in a coffee shop of a service station.

Tomorrow marks the NaNoWriMo half-way point, and I'm hoping to edge close to 35,000 words. I feel that the novel is still only about a third of the way done; there's a heck of a lot of action still to happen. I feel I may have put in too many characters (who all need their problems working through and their secrets revealing) , and I'm probably looking at it eventually being 100,000 or more words.

So, despite being well over target, it still feels like I've got a long slog ahead...

Most Encouraging Rejection Yet

2007-11-13T20:34:00.000Z

Woman's Weekly's rejection letter today thanked me for my submission and said "Unfortunately this was too similar to others we've used recently, but we liked your writing style, so do try us again."

I think I'm definitely getting closer. I'm now searching for anything vaguely like it in style but totally different in theme/plot to send them.

NaNoWriMo Day 13 (lucky for some?) - 30,000!

2007-11-13T20:28:00.000Z

Thirty thousand words, or 60% of the way there. I'm still enjoying it, though the story seems a bit light and fluffy and not very worthy ... I think my ambivalence towards chick-lit as a reader has coloured my writing attitude.

I feel Four Red Spots needs to be a little darker, more intelligent and more complex. Katie in particular doesn't have enough depth -- I'm not sure if this is a fault in the preparation (I didn't do much work on her character before launching into it) or if it's just sloppy writing. She's a nice, likeable person, with little ups and downs and dramas in life, but nothing quite big enough for real character change to have occured yet.

I do have plans, but I think maybe she needs to suffer more... I'm starting to miss writing fantasy with proper roguish anti-heroes and dark-and-tormented villains.

NaNoWriMo Day 12 (Picking up the pace)

2007-11-12T20:32:00.000Z

I'm on 28K now, having written a grand 3075 today; about half before work this morning, and half this evening (taking advantage of the Boyfriend cooking!) Katie has babysat for Jan's kids, beginning to discover that Jan and Keith's marriage is looking rocky. She's been trying to pack all her uni belongings into some semblance of order, interrupted by a phone call from her mum, who's worried about her brother, Jason.

And now Jasper has just phoned her, to invite her up to London for a weekend. She's not seen him since the (very drunk) night of Melissa's 21st...

So, the chick-lit elements are definitely there, but I must admit that I occasionally wish I was writing fantasy, or something where the characters faced slightly larger struggles than family/friendship/relationship problems. Still, I'm getting the words down.

I've also realised that, despite careful planning, I've ended up with three characters with similar names: Jan, Jasper and Jason. Grr. I knew there was a reason Jasper was originally called Adam....

NaNoWriMo Day 11 (Halfway!)

2007-11-11T21:13:00.001Z

I am officially half-way there; I reached 25,000 words this afternoon. This was despite having my day somewhat interrupted by a long Church meeting (as a Member, I'm now expected to attend them), and not getting my lunch till after 3. :-(

Some of the scenes I've written recently are a bit waffly, and I'm worried that not enough important is happening in them -- just details of Katie wandering along with student life. Still, hopefully in the redraft, I'll be able to see what's needed and what isn't and pick the cherries out of the fruitcake.

As a reward for meeting target, I made bread, rather badly. In mitigation, it's the first time I've made bread properly (as opposed to with a bread maker) in this millenium. The mishaps were as follows:

Clingfilm placed over dough left to rise stuck to dough, bread rolls gave faint 'whoosh' and flattened themselves when I yanked it off.
Neglected greasing the greaseproof paper. Cooked rolls and loaf stuck to it.
Left the last batch of rolls in a tad too long.
None of the rolls rose very well.

On the plus side, the bread did taste pretty good, if a tad on the stodgy solid side. And greaseproof paper doesn't appear to be poisonous. Though, if I don't post tomorrow, you'll know why...

I quite enjoyed the baking, though, so might have another go next weekend (having found some good advice on breadmaking) ... or I might just go to Ayres...

NaNoWriMo Day 10 (Research Trip)

2007-11-10T09:51:00.000Z

We're off to Cambridge today, to see Arch-and-Anth cousin and take her out to lunch. I'm justifying the break in my writing schedule as "research" ... I need to soak up that Cambridge atmosphere!

I did write about 600 words this morning (Katie is hungover, and Brandon has nicked her food again) but I also had to do laundry and make some porridge. Boyfriend is also hungover -- apparently, lots of people who'd not seen him for a while wanted to buy him a drink!

Tomorrow afternoon is clear, and I should easily manage to make 25K by the time the weekend is out...

NaNoWriMo Day 9 (breaking the 20K barrier)

2007-11-09T20:39:00.000Z

I'm now on 21,787 words total. At this rate, I've figured out I'll have about 80K by the end of the month. I'm hoping I can keep it up.

Getting started was harder than usual this morning, I didn't feel much like writing -- probably because I went to bed too late -- but I managed to crank out the best part of 1.5k words before work, then did another 600 this evening. The Boyfriend and Nick have gone to celebrate one of their friend's birthdays, so I've had a quiet evening. Writing Magazine (and Writers' News) arrived today, and I've been happily flicking through those.

NaNoWriMo Day 8 (evening off!)

2007-11-08T21:37:00.000Z

Not writing this evening (apart from blog posts!) cos I hit over 2,000 before work, and I need a night off.

Katie and Jasper, the Evil Guy who Seems Nice At First, have been snogging. Jan rescued Katie before things could go too far (though Katie, full of champagne, doesn't realise that Jan's just done her a big favour.) And Elizabeth has arrived at the party -- which means my main cast are all in one room for the first time.

I'm on 19,722 words... if I can break the 25,000 barrier at the weekend, I'm hoping it'll be downhill from there...

David Higham Associates rejection

2007-11-08T21:34:00.000Z

I got another self-addressed envelope today; synopsis and sample chapters, returned from David Higham with a form cover letter. I was expecting to start getting postal ones back around now, so not especially surprised or disappointed. (If anything, I'm quite relieved no-one's written to request the full manuscript -- the middle of NaNoWriMo would not be the best time to panic through the outstanding revisions...)

Goldsmiths Open Day / Creative & Life Writing

2007-11-08T21:26:00.000Z

I took yesterday afternoon off work to go to Goldsmiths College's open day. It was incredibly packed when I got there just after 2, having arrived in plenty of time for the 2.30 "English and Comparative Literatures" departmental talk. However, on scrutinising the programme they gave us, this turned out to be an undergraduate talk only, so I didn't go.

The postgraduate talk at 3 was very helpful, though, and I found out that I could apply full-time and then switch to part-time if I didn't get funding -- or vice versa. The lady who gave the talk was also very enthusiastic about Goldsmiths' new Graduate School which encourages inter-disciplinary interaction between gradutes. About half the students at Goldsmiths are post-grads, so I wouldn't be horribly outnumbered. ;-)

Blake Morrison gave the English and Life Writing MA talk (standing in for an ill colleague) and seems a cool guy. I've not read anything by him, to my shame, but he was very approachable and friendly for someone so well-known. I suppose I had half assumed that his role at Goldsmiths' was mainly just a title -- but I got the impression he teaches one of the three MA workshop groups.

Overall, it was a good afternoon, and I've decided I'm going to apply for a part-time MA in Creative & Life Writing... Fingers crossed!

NaNoWriMo Day 7 (Party!)

2007-11-07T21:16:00.000Z

After 15K+ words and six days, I've finally reached one of the pivotal scenes in the story for all my main characters: Melissa's 21st birthday party.

I'm only part-way through the action, but two key characters have been introduced, and a couple of little things (which will later be important in the plot) have been sneaked in.

I've written 3,249 words today, beating yesterday's high score by a whole 3 words...

NaNoWriMo Day 6 - 14,415 words total (new character, smashing targets)

2007-11-06T19:40:00.001Z

Today has gone very well in terms of the writing; I made target this morning before going out, and, as I was out in the field delivering training for some of newbie users today, I got home from the day job a whole hour and a quarter early.

This, coupled with just grabbing a pitta bread with cream cheese and roasted veg for dinner, meant I managed to write a good bit more this evening. I'm now on 3246 words for the day, which is almost twice target -- and I'm stopping there!

The Boyfriend has Nick round for beer-drinking, curry-eating and novel-writing. I did suggest that the first person to "win" NaNoWriMo should receive some sort of prize, but they're less keen on this idea. Funny, that. (I think the Boyfriend is currently on about 10k, and Nick on 8-9k words.)

A new, unplanned character wandered into the story this morning. Thinking back to my previous novels (untitled teenage sci-fi one and Night of the Empty Moon), this tends to happen about 10-15 thousand words in. I think that's the point at which the main characters need a bit more of a supporting cast in order to have a realistic (and deviously complicated) life. The new guy today was Brandon, an odd-ball, food-stealing corridor mate to cause the polite Katie much grief...

NaNoWriMo Day 5 (2079 words by 7.10am)

2007-11-05T18:35:00.000Z

I woke up stupidly early today, and got the first word down at 5.35am. Still, it meant I knocked out 2000+ within about an hour and a half...

Had fun with the scene of Katie and Jan in the Sidgwick buttery, eating smarties cookies. (WHY did I not buy them more often? They were only 25p and delicious...) And writing about places I remember well (and am nostalgic about!) makes the words flow more easily.

The other scene I was having fun with, which I rushed a bit and will probably need to extend considerably in the redraft, was one with Katie having the courage to speak up in her class with a particular ascerbic lecturer. (Not at all inspired by memories of Paper 8 and the deliciously terrifying Doctor Griffiths...)

NaNoWriMo Day 4, 2349 (Writing on the train)

2007-11-05T18:27:00.000Z

(Should have been posted yesterday...)

We went to see the Boyfriend's grandparents today, over in Basildon. I made target before we set off, and took my notebook (and copy of How to Write a Blockbuster) on the train; combined, they helped generate ideas for the next few scenes. If it had been my family, I'd probably have sat in the corner all afternoon scribbling, but I felt I should make polite conversation.

Managed to do a bit more writing in the evening, though not quite beating Saturday's wordcount.

It's been a busier weekend for the first one of NaNoWriMo than I'd intended or expected, but I've managed to get well ahead of target each day, so I'm pretty happy with that. I was originally thinking of going for 10,000 words by the end of today, but 9,090 is good enough!

NaNoWriMo Day 3 (a day ahead of target)

2007-11-03T21:16:00.000Z

I'm currently on 6,741 words, which means I'm a day ahead of target...

Writing's been fitted in to short gaps of today; it's been a fairly busy Saturday (haircut, shopping, lunch, cinema, cooking dinner...) but I've managed to beat my previous daily best, set on Thursday, so I'm fairly happy with that.

The characters are most of the way through their first workshop day, and Katie has just set her goal (under panicked duress): "Discover my purpose in life. Before next summer."

NaNoWriMo Day 2 (Early morning) - 2,038 words today

2007-11-02T19:13:00.000Z

I slept badly last night, and got up at 5.30am, so managed to do 2,038 words before hopping on my bike to go to work at 7.45...

The characters are beginning to emerge nicely. I'm already going beyond what I planned (I wrote about a page in my notebook for each character), and they're reasonably strongly individualised. My antagonist is being pleasingly bitchy...

Was considering doing more this evening, but went for a quick-post-work-drink and now feel rather mellow. (Oddly, I find that whilst wine gets me in a mood to churn out words, vodka doesn't...)

NaNoWriMo Day 1 - update

2007-11-01T22:36:00.000Z

Finishing the day on 2,319 words. Was only going to push it up to 2,000 but got carried away!

Also completed a small cross-stitch picture, and framed it...

NaNoWriMo Day 1 (Met target by 7.20am...)

2007-11-01T18:29:00.000Z

I felt an odd sense of eagerness and wanting to hold back, this morning, when I opened up a pristine new document for the novel. Typing the first few words was like the first magical steps across a snow-blanketed garden.

To begin with, I struggled not to keep editing sentences as I went along. The internal-editor kept up a commentary of you've used the same word three times in a sentence; that's a cliche; you've confused pronouns. After about a page (400-500 words) I got into the swing of it, and managed to rattle along cheerfully until coming to the end of the scene at about 7.20am.

1,858 words. :-)

I beat both the Boyfriend and Nick to be the first to make target on day 1. (Though Nick was the first to start, having stayed up past midnight.) I may do some more tonight, as it's tempting to try to get up to a nice round 2,000...

NaNoWriMo Day 0 (Counting down the hours)

2007-10-31T18:33:00.000Z

I typed in all the edits to the Swimming competition entry (titled "The Day Jessica Jumped") and got it posted this morning -- I want to clear the decks before NaNoWriMo hits.

I've also jotted down a plan for the first few scenes, just to help me get going tomorrow.

There's definitely a strong sense of anticipation. I got a NaNoWriMo email from Chris Baty today, with lots of good advice for getting going, and I'm definitely feeling more motivated to write than I have done for a while. I'm actually looking forward to bouncing out of bed at 6am tomorrow...

My hopes for a NaNoWriMoing November are:
- I'll get better at structuring novels
- I'll learn to write in a new genre for me, Chick Lit
- I'll produce a completed first draft of a novel
- I'll get back into the swing of novel-length rather than short-story-length writing
- My focus will be on the writing, rather than the day job
- I'll push myself, become more disciplined in my writing, and will have fun!

NaNoWriMo Day -1 (Finishing Off)

2007-10-31T18:26:00.000Z

(Should have been posted yesterday...)

I spent today's writing time getting things finished off. I jotted down the names of a few minor characters who are necessary to the story for the NaNoWriMo novel, and gave all the main characters surnames (which took a surprisingly long time -- I find it hard to pick fitting surnames).

I also took the Swimming competition entry to the East Dulwich Writers' Group meeting (which was excellent, both for practical advice and motivational purposes), and the feedback on the story was surprisingly positive.

So, I think I've planned as much character and plot as I usefully can, and am impatient to get going!

Swimming short story

2007-10-29T19:14:00.000Z

On Saturday, I decided to Tidy My Desk. I have a very small desk, so this is a task that must be undertaken with monotonous regularity -- especially as I tend to heap things on top of my printer, thus rendering it eventually near-inaccessible.

I found my Swimming short story draft, which I had conveniently forgotten about, beneath the debris. So I took advantage of an extra hour yesterday to bash out a second draft, having re-read it and decided that the characters and plot were just about salvagable.

It also now scrapes in at just under 1,700 words, after I lopped off the first (rambly) scene of the sisters chatting in the changing rooms, and slashed a red pen through a few meandering bits unnecessary to the story.

The Boyfriend has read it and "could only find two things wrong with it" but is a tad disconcerted by the man-hating... He also deems it suitable for Take a Break, which would be fine if I had written it for the woman's magazine market rather than a competition. I still haven't got quite the knack of competition writing: every time I try something more experimental, it doesn't work.

I'm taking the Swimming one to East Dulwich Writers' Group tomorrow, in the hopes they'll tear it apart and help build it again more strongly!

NaNoWriMo Day -2 (Spider Diagram)

2007-10-29T18:50:00.000Z

I drew a spider-diagram of characters this morning, with Katie at the centre. It's ended up very lopsided, but at least reassured me that there's enough connections between the main characters:

Also wrote a brief bio on Katie's brother -- he doesn't really fit into the main plot, but I thought it would be good to have some family-angst going on in a sub-plot. Though I'm not sure how much I can cram into 50,000 words.

NaNoWriMo Day -3 (The Plot Chart)

2007-10-28T20:27:00.000Z

I had fun with cardboard and post-it notes this evening:
I now have something resembling a plot. I was despairing of it ever coming together, a couple of hours ago (there was no plot and my "good guy" character just didn't fit in) ... but then I washed my hair, and promptly got some ideas!

For some reason, I always think best in the shower...

NaNoWriMo Day -4 (Chick-Lit Catch-up)

2007-10-27T20:52:00.000Z

I've spent the past couple of weeks reading some chick-lit, to get a feel for what works (for me) and what doesn't. A few train journeys for work-purposes helped, and it was great to have something easy to stop-and-start, and easy to lose myself in, while travelling.

Thanks to Dulwich Library (must take books back after church tomorrow!) and Peckham library, I've read:

Two books by Jane Wenham-Jones:
Raising the Roof and Perfect Alibis -- both were good fun, entertaining, though struck me (from having read Jane's Wannabe A Writer?) as being more than a tad autobiographical. Maybe that's no bad thing. They had endings which worked well and tied things together convincingly, something I struggle with. I did feel that the characterisation was a bit "obvious" at times, and they lacked the individual characters who stuck with me from Kate Harrison's excellent Brown Owl's Guide to Life -- but good light reads.

One book by Sophie Kinsella:
The Undomestic Goddess -- similar in style, though without so much humour. A gripping read, though the ending didn't quite work for me, and some of the characters were, again, a bit "obvious".

I need to sit down with my notebook and go into more detail on what I found makes for "good" chick-lit. Strong, interesting, characters definitely work for me, and plots which involve more than just finding the right man ... though it seems mandatory for chick-lit to have some sort of love interest (often a brief fling with an unsuitable chap, with the heroine returning to the "nice guy" at the end.)

NaNoWriMo Day -5, Plotting

2007-10-27T19:26:00.000Z

(Oops, should have posted this yesterday.)

I didn't get much further with the "sketchy" characters, but I now have a series of possible plot points. As yet, I feel I'm lacking an actual plot beyond the main characters all progressing in their lives ... there's no conspiracies, no shocking secrets to be unearthed, no puzzles to be solved. My work tends to be character-driven, but I feel there's still something missing for this novel.

The structure is in place, mostly because it's dictated by the situation ("Four women meet during an University self-development group.") I'm modelling the group on one I attended at Uni, because I am lazy, and that had four sessions, so the novel will fit around a similar pattern.

Self-Development Session 1: The opening of the novel, possibly with characters answering questions about themselves, their ambitions, their lives. (A bit cliched, but from the chick-lit I've read, starting off with a character filling in some sort of questionaire seems a tried-and-tested method.) First encounter and argument between Katie (heroine) and Melissa (baddie).

Self-Development Session 2: After events at Melissa's 21st, and after the Christmas break. Looks like the group might be about to fall apart. The "Group Sheet" ends up being ripped by Katie and Melissa fighting over it. (Again, cliched, I will try to think of a better image.)

Self-Development Session 3: The end of term, and plans for the Easter break -- and for the future. Melissa sets out her career plan; she's going to be Union president next term. (Possibly there's allegations of vote-fixing, from Elizabeth... I've not decided whether to go with this yet or not.)

Self-Development Session 4: Elizabeth finally speaks up, and yells at Melissa -- who is furious that she lost her presidency through Elizabeth finding some emails. A big, nasty, row ends up with Melissa storming off.

There's lots of stuff going on around the sessions (indeed, the things happening in between are the main parts of the novel), but the sessions provide a structure where the 4 main characters are guarenteed to be in the same place.

I'm considering jotting plot points onto index cards and shuffling them around/blue-tacking them to a big sheet. Neither of my previous novels had much planning before I jumped in, but both would have benefited from it, and I'd have saved time in the long run.

Three Rejections

2007-10-26T19:12:00.000Z

Three self-addressed envelopes in the post today was not a good sign.

Take a Break must be having a clear-out, having sent back two stories, and Woman's Weekly finally rejected the one I sent them at the start of June.

Still, the Boyfriend has made lasagna for dinner, and we have wine...

NaNoWriMo Day -6 (More Characters)

2007-10-25T21:01:00.000Z

The four main characters now all have mini-bios, as well as a main problem each, and a personal goal. I distinguish between these -- the main problem is the one I think the character has ("Is an insufferable arrogant twat", for example), the main goal is what they think they need to achieve ("Become top lawyer by age of 21", type thing).

I also have a few other characters roughly sketched out ... most of them now have names at least, though I'm not yet sure how one ("Good guy", provisionally called Michael) is going to come into the story. Plus I was surreptitiously scribbling during a dull section of a meeting this afternoon, so had to keep looking up at power-point slides and pretend I was listening.

Tomorrow, I'm going to flesh out those flimsy characters, and do a bit more work on my main gal (Katie, or possibly Katy). Then I need to pin down the nebulous plot ideas that are beginning to bubble...

NaNoWriMo Day -7 (Let the planning begin)

2007-10-24T18:04:00.000Z

I cannot, hand-on-heart, say that I actually leapt out of bed this morning to begin NaNoWriMo planning. I managed to lurch to my desk at 6.15am, though, and wrote the two lists favoured by Chris Baty.

With the necessary provisos that I wrote these while it was still dark outside, and I make no apology for my (lack of) political/cultural and/or literary tastes:

Things I Like In Novels

Believable, sympathetic characters who I cheer on
Vivid larger-than-life characters
Humour, but in a light way
Witty or profound asides about life
Intelligent, geeky, shy characters who make good
Bar/pub scenes, alcohol in general
Complex and charismatic villains
Tension between characters, especially antagonistic male-female relationships
Playful, zany or weird ideas
People coming to terms with/moving beyond their past
One character rescuing another
English settings (or completely fantasy ones)
Scenes of social awkwardness/strife
Happy endings, which the characters have earned

Things I Don't Like In Novels

Unwarrented sex (tagged on to sell book)
Focus on the workplace if it's an office
Boring, obvious, cliched, one-dimensional charactesr
Too many charactesr who aren't sufficiently different from one another
Foreign settings (sometimes)
Dense, thick, literary prose
Downbeat, depressing themes where good guys lose
Author being twee or clever
Novels promoting themes like:

Woman's main aim is to find true love
Career is more important than anything else
Must be thin/beautiful to be successful
Casual and rampant sex is not only OK, it's praiseworthy

First person, present tense, narration
Complicated plots
Deux ex machina plot devices

Bloated draft

2007-10-23T17:59:00.000Z

My first draft of the Swimming competition entry ended up at 2,900 words -- getting on for twice the word limit for the competition!

Also, disappointingly, the characters who had me initially keen to set fingers-to-keyboard somehow seemed to turn to mushy cardboard during the writing. My heroine is waffly and insipid, her sister (playing the role of the confidant) didn't come across right, and the arrogant Significant Other of heroine comes across as a cliche.

The whole piece has developed more of a Women's Magazine tone than a Competition Entry one: "mousy woman finds inner courage needed to get out of bad relationship." That's not to knock women's mags at all (I read and enjoy several), but I wanted something a bit grittier for the competition.

NaNoWriMo is almost upon us, so I'm undecided whether it's worth trying to salvage any of Swimming before the competition deadline or whether to stick it in a drawer until I want to redo it for a magazine. I'm hoping it won't seem so bad when I read it through.

Arts Council decline the generous offer to give me £4000...

2007-10-22T18:27:00.000Z

The Arts Council wrote to me today to say they'd not be funding me to write a novel.

Apparently I "did not clearly show that the activity you applied for would involve a broad enough range of people" (next time I'll plan a multi-authored novel...) and "did not clearly show the public benefit of the activity" (what, getting to read my novel ain't benefit enough? ;-))

So, looks like I'll be stuck in the 9-5.30 grind for a while longer. There are rumours of January pay rises wafting around the office, but I'm not getting my hopes up too much. Plus I'm not sure that the most tactful response to a pay rise would be "Great! Can I work less too?"

Falconwood and Eltham Park (north)

2007-10-21T09:00:00.000Z

We spent most of yesterday rambling around Falconwood, Eltham Common and the northern part of Eltham Park, loosely following the Green Chain route signs. It was impressively quiet (once I'd tuned out the background noise of nearby roads and, at one point, a construction site). Not quite Shropshire, but a very peaceful break from city life!

We were heartened by nostalgic sites of:
- Small child with large stick
- Children jumping from a low wall on a rope swing ("Catch me, dad!")
- Child hiding behind tree from siblings
- Cheery dog-walkers ("Morning!")

All great staples of weekend country walks!

We had a well-earned picnic lunch of ham sandwiches and fruit salad; Garrett Living hasn't quite reached starvation levels yet, but money-saving measures are firmly in place. We're off to see Stardust this afternoon at the Peckham Multiplex, which still has all tickets at £2.99. Might even stop off in the Gowlett to share a pizza en-route...

First scene cut, rest revised

2007-10-18T20:07:00.000Z

Losing the first scene of my The Return story definitely helped; I managed to put the couple of lines which mattered into the rest of the piece, and the overall structure is definitely better. I managed to get all of it redrafted before work this morning, by somehow getting out of bed promptly at six... and by cutting corners from my normal redrafting process. (I added/deleted bits on screen, rather than printing out and typing a whole new draft.)

The Boyfriend read it, and spotted that a character's surname changes halfway through. Oops.

I also got the edits for my Forbidden Friends story typed in, so that one's pretty much there. I may show it to a couple more people, but hoping it can go off to the competition without much more work needed.

I'm keen to work on the Swimming short story, though also think I need to take the weekend "off" from writing. I'm feeling increasingly knackered, and while I'm enjoying the time I spend working on my short stories, I know a break will leave me refreshed enough to start the NaNoWriMo planning.

Editing day

2007-10-17T21:14:00.000Z

I went through the whole of my The Return entry this morning, on paper, scribbling notes. I think the whole first scene will have to go -- it doesn't fit with the rest of the story, and I need to lose 800+ words somehow. I'm going to try to extract the good bits and slot them into the rest of the story as one-line memories/flashbacks for the main character.

I read a short story for a friend and emailed back some comments on that; really enjoyed reading the piece, which was a bonus! Not the sort of style/genre I'd usually bumble across, so it was a refreshing change.

And the Boyfriend has provided some useful feedback on the Forbidden Friends entry, which I've gone through on paper. I was going to type in corrections tonight, but am zonked, so going to get to bed early and do it tomorrow.

The whole six-am thing has been a struggle this week...

Stacking up words

2007-10-15T20:23:00.000Z

I managed 1,200+ words in 40 minutes this morning (largely due to being very groggy when my alarm went off, and thus not getting to the fingers-on-keyboard position until almost 6.30). The last scene of my entry for The Return competition is now drafted, though it descends into rather sketchy fill-in-the-actions-later dialogue, towards the end.

This evening, I sorted out a couple of short stories to send in for The New Writer's annual competition, for which the deadline is Nov 30th. (As a subscriber, I get 2-for-1 entry.) I'm thinking about entering their article writing competition too, but only have one idea for a literary/writing article: something with tips and advice about writing around a day job. I figure I've had a year's experience at that! Need a second article, though, if I'm going to get my money's worth from the entry fee.

I've decided that a week will be ample time for planning my NaNoWriMo novel, following the excellent advice of Chris Baty's No Plot, No Problem! This gives me another clear week to finish off stuff in advance of November, so I'm thinking of doing a new short story: Writers' News have a competition on the theme "swimming", and I have some nebulous thoughts jostling together for that.

Flying Visit

2007-10-14T17:13:00.000Z

My parents came up to London for the day, to drop a friend off at Heathrow for a 5.30am flight, then across to our flat for a snooze before Church. I was being welcomed as a member of Christ Church today, which I think means I'm now a Methodist. As a member, I get to attend church meetings, vote, and have a * by my name in the list of addresses in the church handbook.

They did come bearing gifts, making arriving before 7.30am forgivable. We now have:
- A date loaf (mostly eaten)
- A jar of damson jam
- Assorted bread buns
- Something which I believe is intended to hold dips/crudites/crisps, three small plastic bowls sitting on a long plastic platter
- Two bottles of wine (one is red, one white and "slightly fizzy")
- A box of chocolates

There must be a short story in there somewhere...

They also took us out to lunch, along with my cousin & his girlfriend (who live in Deptford) and my aunt and uncle (who, coincidentally, were also doing the parental-visit thing this weekend). The Plough was, like two Sunday's ago, amazingly quiet, and the weather was so obligingly sunny that we sat outside -- great conditions for a lazy Sunday afternoon chatting and catching up with everyone.

More Early Mornings

2007-10-11T20:30:00.000Z

Got a good 1,000 words on The Return piece this morning, before work, after a stroll to the bakery at 6.15am... There's something special about the clarity of the pre-dawn chill. It reminds me of camping at Porthpean, probably because that's the only time I've ever been up and outside so early.

Nunhead was amazingly quiet, most un-London-like!

This evening, I've been catching up on correspondance (work was rather brain-destroying today, so haven't done any fiction writing.) Planning to do a bit more of The Return first thing tomorrow, then take the evening off -- and hopefully not zonk out on the sofa like last Friday...

First Rejection Back

2007-10-10T20:28:00.000Z

With impressive efficiency, Robin Wade emailed me tonight to pass on the novel -- well within their seven-day response time. I'd definitely recommend submitting to them, as it really helps to have a quick reply rather than sit around for months.

I wrote about 900 words yesterday morning on a story for Scribble's competition themed "The Return", and did another 1500 or so this morning. Not too happy with the direction it's going -- or, rather, with its lack of direction. At the moment, I've got a good situation but little story. I spent some time this evening on character development and plot/background notes, so hoping to restart it tomorrow.

Forbidden Friends story redrafted

2007-10-08T20:44:00.000Z

With the switch of working hours (8.30-5.30 Mon/Weds/Fri and 9-5.30 Tues/Thurs), I've now got more time in the morning to write. I managed to completely redraft my Forbidden Friends competition entry this morning, about 1,100 words (it needs cutting down a bit.)

The drawback to getting up at 6 to write is that I spent most of the rest of the day feeling tired, and need to get an early night...

Sent out the synopsis-and-sample-chapters malarky to The Marsh Agency via their nifty online form, and packaged up another postal submission, this one for David Higham. I was also hoping to submit a short story to Futurismic, after reading a short article about them in a back-issue of Writers' News, but they're not currently taking fiction submissions. Nor are a couple of other markets I was thinking of targeting it at. So, back to the bottom drawer with that one.

Night of the Empty Moon - edits done!

2007-10-07T19:41:00.000Z

I spent some time on Friday evening/Saturday morning doing the on-paper edits for the entire first three chapters (17,000 words!) of NotEM, then typed in all the corrections this morning before Church.

I've now emailed off sample material to Robin Wade and am in the middle of printing out and packaging a couple of other submissions, for Anubis (who specifically take SF/F/H) and the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency. I don't plan on posting them while the strike is on, though; it's already prevented the Boyfriend from getting any birthday cards/gifts yesterday from anyone except me (living in the same flat) and my Granny (who posts very early...)

This week, I'm shifting my hours at the day job so that I'll be going in slightly later, thus giving me more time to write in the mornings when I'm feeling keen. I was up at 6.30 yesterday and today, trying to keep the early-waking momentum (and thus felt completely shattered for half of today). I'm trying to convince myself it's worth it...

Couple more submissions

2007-10-02T20:06:00.000Z

Sent off a couple of stories (via email) to My Weekly, and posted one to Woman's Weekly Fiction Special. I'd really like to sell a short story to a magazine by the end of the year...

Drafted an entry for the Writers' News No Smoke without Fire competition (wrote it yesterday evening & this morning before work) which I then decided was more suited for People's Friend or somesuch. A bit tame, village/church setting amongst retired women. So I thought up another, much darker/grittier idea whilst cycling to work; I should really start paying more attention to the traffic... Scribbled a few notes at lunch time, and managed to draft the whole thing (1,700+ words) this evening. It's a bit rough, a bit experimental in terms of character, narration and style, but I'm quite happy with it.

Anyway, I've written 2,500+ words today, so pretty confident that NaNoWriMo is doable next month!

Three chapters revised!

2007-09-29T18:09:00.000Z

I've finished revising the first three chapters of Night of the Empty Moon, which were previously the first 2-and-a-scene chapters. I've added just over 4,000 words in total, out of 13,300 so I'm hoping this will have slowed the pacing somewhat!

I'm printing the re-done pages out now, to foist upon the long-suffering boyfriend. I'm planning to go into Peckham library tomorrow, grab a copy of the 2008 Writers' and Artists' yearbook, and pick the next round of lucky agents/publishers...

But for now, in celebration, I am going to drink some Madagascan rum. :-)

Shifting Sands

2007-09-29T16:59:00.000Z

Writers' News have now published my 2nd prize winning short story on their website:

http://www.writersnews.co.uk/showcase/hale/default.asp

I also got sent an unexpected £10 cheque from Woman's Weekly Fiction Special, for a poem I wrote a few months ago -- I'm expecting to see it in the next issue (coming out on Friday 5th).

Now I just need them to write and accept one of my short stories...

More 6am writing

2007-09-27T12:22:00.000Z

I managed to get up at 6am on Tues/Weds/today too, and have just about been keeping up the notebook habit of 10 minutes twice a day. I'd run out of things to scribble in it this morning -- I'm mostly working on Draft Five of NotEM at the moment, so there's not a huge need for new ideas, just pounding away on the edits.

Yesterday evening I was very tired and didn't get much writing done (some notes and editing on a printout), but managed to considerably extend one of Rayst's scenes this morning before work, and have just done some editing and extending on Abela's chapel scene. I've rejigged the chapter breaks -- basically, the first three chapters have now been redivided into the first four chapters, then all the subsequent chapters are n+1 -- and I'm hoping that I can have the new first three chapters sorted out by the end of the weekend.

Then it'll be submitting time again...

In other news, I made a huge batch of mars bar crunchies (6 mars bars, a tube of smarties, two packets of malteasers and lots of butter and cornflakes) last night. Christ Church is having a coffee morning tomorrow, as part of a nationwide fund-raising event for MacMillan nurses. I sadly don't have enough leave left this year to want to take a Friday morning off at random but I thought I could at least contribute some cake!

A looooong Monday

2007-09-24T19:17:00.000Z

It feels like it should be Wednesday by now...

I got up at 6 (well, 6.05. At 6 I rolled over, groped for the alarm, and huddled back under the duvet). Managed to do 10 minutes writing in my notebook, and then about half an hour -- 5oo+ words -- to finish off the very hasty draft of the Boy Meets Girl short story. Thanks to the some musing during the day, I've figured out how I want to restructure and redraft it.

Ended up working late at the Day Job, which is in fairness very rare, so didn't leave until almost an hour later than usual. However, I was still on a writing high from having gotton up before it was light, so came home and sat down and edited Abela's first scene in Night of the Empty Moon to add in a second character, and a bit of background info, and lengthen it somewhat.

Didn't do much writing over the weekend; started Boy Meets Girl, did a 500-word exercise, that sort of thing.

Little Miss Sunshine on Friday was great. Very civilised, being able to take in a drink to a film, and the upstairs of the Nun's Head is a nice venue. It was a very funny, life-affirming movie, with wonderful larger-than-life characters.

We failed to get tickets for Merchant of Venice at the globe on Sat, so had a good long stroll around the Thames and the City instead.

On Sunday we were helping with Cafe Church. I can never quite believe how much washing up is produced at Church events...! The Boyfriend's dad joined us at church then took us for lunch at the Plough which was very nice (both the lunch and seeing Boyfriend's dad). Definitely a pub to frequent ... I think we've never been before as it is directly across the road from Church, and possibly rolling straight out of the service into the pub would spoil our good reputation with the lovely folk there. ;-)

A very quick draft

2007-09-21T17:52:00.000Z

I managed to draft a short story this evening, for Write Space's Forbidden Friends competition. The deadline's not until the end of October, but I've had the idea buzzing around my head for a while.

It's not come out onto the screen as I wanted it -- as usual when I write fast, I changed my mind quite a bit along the way -- and it's currently 200 words over the limit. Still, I'm pleased I managed to get it done; the last thing I feel like doing on a Friday evening is coming straight home to write! And 1,200 words in 45 minutes is pretty fast, so I'm not fussed that it needs lots of work yet.

We're going to see Little Miss Sunshine at our favourite local haunt, the Nun's Head, tonight -- it's a film I've been meaning to watch ever since it came out, as it had great reviews.

In other news, the boyfriend enrolled as a student at London Metropolitan today, marking the start of three years as a Law & Politics undergraduate. I bought him a very large mug to celebrate -- students can never have too many mugs...

Scene finished

2007-09-20T21:31:00.000Z

I think that the new material needed for Chapter 1 is now done. I've managed to tie the preceding and following scenes together slightly more, and slow down the opening to the novel in general. I know traditional advice is start in the middle of things, which is what I tried to do, but the story jumped in so suddenly that it was liable to leave readers blinking in confusion...

Also did a 10-minute write, and scribbled some edits onto a print out of the as-yet-untitled entry for the Times's Ghost Story competition.

I finished reading Jasper Fforde's The Well of Lost Plots this evening; an excellent, hilarious, read, just like The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book. He creates a very convincing world -- I don't think I will ever look at characters, plot devices and storytelling in quite the same way again... A lot of his books are half-price on Amazon at present if, like me, you want to stock up.

655 words

2007-09-19T21:13:00.000Z

Managed to write what I thought was a whole scene for Chapter One, Draft Five but now doesn't tie neatly into the scene after it ... drat. More words needed.

I want this novel to be finished.

I also want:
- No more random mood swings (have been close to tears -- for no reason -- far too much today)
- No day-job
- No rent to pay

Pah. It's been that sort of day. Skipped out on Nick and Boyfriend's pub trip this evening -- well, I went along and had a frugal diet coke, then I came home to eat soup and bread and crisps and dip and crackers and brie and a mini-milk and a malteasers ice-cream bar. (Not all at the same time, I assure you. And in fairly small quantities. And I went to the gym at lunch. But enough with the excuses...)

And I didn't get any extra writing done, though did read some more of Jasper Fforde's excellent The Well of Lost Plots.

Anyway, at least I didn't spend money in the pub. Rent is due in four days, and is looming over me...

Night of the Empty Moon: Draft Five

2007-09-18T21:18:00.000Z

After the long-suffering boyfriend read the whole of Night of the Empty Moon, we both agreed that the first 5 or 6 chapters are badly paced. The first two chapters, in particular, read as though they've had a few scenes lopped out and the remaining ones rushed...

I'm now trying to slow down the pacing of the first couple of chapters, which is hard going. I hoped I could add in and tweak some scenes from an earlier draft, but that draft doesn't exist anywhere in London. (It may be on a floppy disk somewhere in Oxford, or possibly printed out and in the bottom of an unlabelled box file. Oh, how I wish I'd kept better records!)

So this evening I was heavily reworking a scene which only existed in handwritten form on torn-out notebook pages. Luckily my handwriting is pretty legible. The first page was dated 11.02.03; four and a half years ago...

There's still a good way to go, but I have A Plan and hope to get it done with in the next fortnight. Especially now the boyfriend is free from Evil Phones4U and can shop/cook again. I had chucked Night of the Empty Moon firmly onto the "finished" pile after Draft Four, so it's hard getting back into it. But it needs doing. The first three chapters are the ones I keep hawking round agents, and I want them to be as good as possible.

Cheque from Writers' News

2007-09-12T21:24:00.000Z

Hurrah! My cheque for the 2nd prize in Writers' News's "Sands of Time" competition arrived today. I'll post a link to the story once it's actually on their site.

I photocopied the cheque for posterity . . . yes, it will probably seem laughable one day, but it means a lot to me right now.

In other writing news, I:
- Did a 10-minute writing burst at 7am this morning (urgh)
- Redrafted the Ghost short story I'm doing for the Times' competition, and emailed it to a couple of kindly souls who will hopefully provide some comments
- Sent off my application to the arts council -- I'm trying to get a grant to write a new novel -- unlikely to hear anything before the end of October.

The Boyfriend has finally finished with Phones4U, as of today, to much rejoicing from both of us. :-)

Things I Saw Today (that might become stories eventually)

2007-09-11T21:33:00.001Z

1. (Lunchtime, 1pm, Max Roach park) A huge flock of pigeons pecking at the ground round a tree. Very nearby, a young woman sitting on a rug eating lunch and flicking through magazines, seeming completely unperturbed.

2. (Hometime, 4.40pm, cycling down Brixton High Street) A 4x4 with a woman driving and her daughter in the front passenger seat, blocking an ambulance (sirens and blue lights on) by staying in the middle of the road. The ambulance was blaring its horn repeatedly. The woman didn't appear to notice.

3. (Somerfields, 5.15pm, at the checkout) The man in front of me had: 6 jars of honey, 8 kitchen rolls, a box of oat biscuits and a bag of oats. That's all.