All systems NaNo
OK, so I think I’ve decided that I’ll go ahead and at least start NaNoWriMo, although the closer it gets, the less convinced I am about my idea and I’m certainly not sure that it has the potential for 50,000 words.
It will require a complete change in my routine, such that that is. No more coming home from work and collapsing in front of the TV, or random hours surfing the Net for sparks of imagination and originality. I need to get organised…focussed. Hmmm. Could be tricky.
Is it just me, or is the WHOLE INTERNET slow tonight? Maybe it’s my ISP, or maybe I need some more memory for my lovely MacBook - I’d guess it’s the latter, I can hear the poor thing sigh when I open the thirty-ninth browser window in a session. Maybe Father Christmas will bring a nice slice of memory and someone to fit it, preferably in the form of Jude Law.
I can’t lick my nose but Boots can
I mean, she can lick her OWN nose, not mine - d’oh!
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My cat can lick her nose which shows such great endeavour I have tried to do the same alas I’m not so clever |
When I used to write…
This is a poem wot I wrote.
The Touch of Rain
Falling softly from the night
indigo sky
gentle yet profound
melancholy
but still hope.
Look out of the window
for a reflection
of my soul
and I will show you
the touch of rain.(c) Me - 2005
Procrastination Idea #3 - books
No writing but plenty of faffing.
Scroll down and admire my new book list, courtesty of Miller’s Now Reading plugin. Rather splendid I think.
To NaNo or not to Nano?
Decisions decisions!
Why am I even contemplating this? I’ve spent the last six months moaning about the shackles of my OU course and now I’m considering putting myself through the trials and tribulations of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. Actually, I am a little further along the path than just considering - I am registered and playing with an idea, vaguely gearing myself up for when it starts on November 1st.
I’ve never done it before and actually know very little about it. They have a very professional website but frankly, all the ra-ra-ra-cliquey-club-forum approach is a turn off; I’m far too cynical for these things, which was possibly my downfall as far as the OU course was concerned. I hate groups and clubs (be they realtime or somewhere in the ether) which are founded on the premise of self congratulation and sycophantic praise.
To be fair, online groups are the worst, where posters have special signatures with rows of kisses and smiley faces and have bizarre conversations about sharing chocolate and wine because they are the only people in the world who are in front of their computers at midnight. Woo hoo! IT’S THE INTERNET FOR GOD’S SAKE!! YOU CAN’T SHARE FOOD OR DRINK AND BEING UP AT MIDNIGHT DOES NOT MAKE YOU A TORTURED ARTIST!
Ahem, sorry…I never realised I felt quite so strongly about that until I started writing.So anyway, I will make my NaNoWriMo decision this weekend.
My cat likes Question Time
OK, strictly speaking this is not a writing-related post but nevertheless, worth a mention. I just watched her wake up, stretch, realise the TV was on, obviously twig that it was Question Time and then settle to watch intently. You can’t beat a socially aware moggie.
Thou shalt know thy characters
Yesterday I went along to a novel writing workshop, given by author Harry Bingham as part of the Guildford Book Festival. It was useful, in that highlighted a couple of things that I already knew from the many books on writing that I’ve read, but had long since forgotten. Consequently I have to go back and re-visit the few chapters that I’ve written of my novel.
One of the things that he touched on, was the need to know your characters inside out. Somebody should be able to fire questions about your character, and you should always have the answers. This might seem obvious, but to prove a point he made us go around the room and ask the person next to us a question about their character. There were many that you’d expect - what do they look like, what do they do, do they have children, etc. But what if someone asked you (as someone asked me) - what did your character last dream about? - you might struggle, as did I. Harry said that we should have a list of questions - as many as one hundred - about characters. You might not use this information, but the fact that you are aware of it will make the characters richer and more believable.
It made me think about some of the questions I should be asking. I’m one of those people who needs to plan before writing, and I usually make some effort to write character profiles, but inevitably I get bored trying to think of questions. So, today I’ve started to define a template for these questions, which I’ve attached to this post. Feel free to have a look and use it if you like.
But can you think of any useful questions? The more unusual, the better!
Funeral for a friend
Songs that we’d like at our funeral are a common topic of conversation between a friend and I. However, as someone who is determined to shoehorn Who Built the Ark into her wedding [the congregation must shout “Noah! Noah! at relevant intervals], I am not entirely convinced by her choices. Not that a wedding (or, God forbid, a funeral!) is imminent, but it’s good to think about these things.
Anyway, have you noticed how TV funerals rely on a cool song to twist the knife in your heart, or a well-placed poem to get the tear ducts going. Anyway, this one was on TV tonight:
Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.Mary Frye (1932)
I like it.
A writing habit
My main problem is that I don’t have a writing habit. I don’t get up at the crack of dawn to squeeze an hour in before work and I don’t type into the small hours when everyone around me sleeps. And actualy, I can’t even claim “everyone around me” as an excuse since I live alone.
In a vain attempt to find my habit, I enrolled on an OU course in creative writing (A215). Did it work? Well, yes and no. To be fair, I didn’t put the work in - I found that I resented having to spend time working on assignments such as short stories and poems when I had a novel in my head that I should have beeen working on. Of course, I would never have been working on the novel because it’s been in my head for two years now and never hit the page. So in that sense, I never really gave the course a chance.
But I did get the assignments done and have a small portfolio of short stories and poems to show for it - and I actually I found that it has loosened up my creative muscles. When I was at school (yes, I can just about remember that far back) I always had dozens of ideas for stories buzzing about in my head. Then I went to college and university and then work and the ideas dried up. Completing the OU course has brought some of those ideas back so it was worth it just for that.
Guildford book festival
The Guildford Book Festival is running for the next couple of weeks so I’ve registered for a couple of talks and a writing workshop. The talks are on crime ficiton, which is kind of my genre so I’m hoping they’ll be inspiring.