November so far…

Oh dear, blogging’s not going too well this month is it?  I had a busy weekend so no time to blog.  That also meant no time to Nano, so I’ve been trying to play catch up yesterday and today.  I’m getting there, slowly.  At least I’ve done more than I need to do the last two days – that’s good.  Just need to carry on this way. 

I’m now on another Mills & Boon book – I’ve really taken this ‘read as many as possible’ to heart.  I’ve now either read, or have in my possession to read, all the books my library has in the ‘Romace’ series.  I know this because when I took some books back today I thought I’d have a quick look at them.  I’d read all the ones they have except for one – so I had to pick that one up of course.  He he.  My operation’s now on Friday (fingers crossed) so will have lots and lots of reading time then.  I hope. 

Really want to crack on with Italian Infatuation while I have some available time, so going to finish this here.  To be on track, I need to be on 16,667 words by the end of today.  I’m on about 12,285.  Eek.  I’m not too worried about it though – I’m trying to add an extra 500 or 1k a day, I’ll make it up in no time.  She says.

Actually just one more thing I want to write about – no boast about would probably be more accurate.  My boyfriend’s just bought me a (second-hand) Wii.  How exciting is that.  He’s been uming and ahhing when to give it to me, and whether it should be a christmas present, or just a present.  This morning he made his decision.  If I complete NaNo, he’ll give it to me then.  If I fail it (which I won’t) he’ll give it to me as a Christmas present.  EXCELLENT

Friday moans and procrastinating

It’s FRIDAY.  Oh yea!  My favourite (working) day of the week!

Lets start with the moans.  I’m having problems reading, like actually reading.  When I try to read anything on the computer or even on bright white paper (usually when there’s a light above me) I find the words jump about and sometimes (quite often) disappear.  It’s kind of been going on for a while, but has been really bad this week.  I hope it’s something simple like I’ve got the wrong strength prescription for my lenses, or they need to add a tint to my glasses (not sure what they’d do with contacts), or something.  Got an appointment on Monday.  I don’t think the optician sounded too worried, so I’ll try not to be.  Try.  It also could be something to do with the migraines I’m getting.  Who knows.  I tried to google it, but couldn’t find much at all.  I’ll start worrying on Monday depending on what the optician says then.

It has made writing today pretty hard – to the point where I’ve not been doing anything on the computer that isn’t work related.  It means I’ve had to start some daily words for NaNo on paper - do do do.  I’ve managed about 700 or something.  I’ll have to take some time this evening before I go out to write some more.

I got Flash Forward in the post yesterday.  I wanted to start reading it as soon as I got it, but a) I’m in the middle of another (Mills & Boon) book and b) I’ve got this reading problem.  It’s so annoying.  It had better get sorted before I have my time off after my operation (next Friday).

I think that’s all the procrastinating I can do for now.  Have a lovely weekend people

Sickness and writing

I woke up this morning with a stomach bug.  Apparently it’s going round London.  I have felt so ill for most of the day (not as ill as my mum who came to visit and got it!) so have had to have the day off work.  It’s been horrible, but I’m feeling much better now.

I did think that there might be a silver lining in this (I’m always after the silver lining) – I thought that I’d be able to sit up all day and write loads on Italian Infatuation.  Wrong.  I spent most of the day snoozing, I didn’t even have the will to turn the TV on.  At one point I thought I’d try to write, but once the programme was open I realised it just wasn’t going to happen.  What a waste.

Or so I thought.  I started feeling better this evening so cracked out the laptop again, and have managed nearly 1000 words.  I actually want to write more, but think as I’ve been ill I should probably go to bed instead.  But I might carry on for a bit once I’ve done this.  Whether I do or not is irrelevant, I’ve done a big chunk of my daily words and I’m really happy with that.

I did manage to start another Mills and Boon book as I’d finished the last one last night.  I realised that while reading them I’m paying a lot more attention to the style, the dialogue, the way it’s written etc.  I think I can actually do this.  For a few days I’ve been worried that I’m not going to be up to writing one, but the more I read and the more I write, the more confident I get.  I’m not sure if this is fake confidence, afterall I’ve not actually read back anything I’ve written. 

Fingers crossed for feeling better tomorrow…

I’m Still waiting (in my head sung to Elton John’s I’m Still Standing)

Well, I’m still here, not operated on yet.  I had a nightmare which involved incompetent nurses, emergencies, stupid admin staff and inequiped theatres which led to Friday’s operation being canceled, rebooked for yesterday then canceled again.  Honestly I wouldn’t have believed it had I not experienced it. 

So, I’m back at work until I can have it on 13th November (before you say anything I know it’s FRIDAY 13th, I’m cool with that – at this rate I won’t even have it then anyway, so nothing to worry about, besides I don’t remember a single bad thing that’s happened to me on a Friday 13th!).  I don’t want to be here at all, I want to be snuggled up in bed at home.  I want to be writing and reading and watching TV.  But nevermind, only 7 working days until I have it; 7, that’s nothing!

I’m finding it really hard to write anything today.  I’ve done just over a thousand words, I need to do just under a thousand more to get up to date with NaNo.  I fell behind on the first day, but I’m fully expecting to get less words during the weekends and more during the week.  Just today’s hard.  I think it’s the whole not supposed to be at work thing getting me down.  I’ll plod on though.  When I’ve done this.  And maybe a bit more plotting.  Or research.  Or anything else I can find to do to put it off for a little longer.

I really annoyed myself yesterday, I wrote 800+ words then lost them.  I couldn’t believe it.  I think instead of copy and pasting the words into a word counter, I CUT and pasted.  Then saved before I exited.  How stupid.  At least it was only 800, not like 2k or something.  I won’t be making that mistake again!

Late last week I inherited a laptop.  My boyfriend bought a new one a couple of months ago, so has let me borrow (have?) his old one.  It’s not all that good (it’s quire slow and needs to be booted up twice before it works properly), but it does work  and I can write and surf the net on it.  It will be brilliant when Word has been loaded on it (little hint to the boyfriend there!), at the moment I’m writing my novel into Wordpad.  Not ideal!  It’s so nice to have a laptop again though, I feel like something that was missing has been replaced. 

My boyfriend’s found a challenge he thinks I should do in November, in addition to NaNo.  He’s somehow discovered NaBloPoMo (I can’t help thinking they got the idea of the title from NaNoWriMo – can’t imagine why): National Blog Posting Month.  The idea is you sign up, and post a blog every single day.  Including weekends.  I think this guy either wanted to see me crack under all the pressure I’m putting myself under (I’m still amazed I’ve signed up for NaNo) or alternatively doesn’t want to see me until December.  I don’t understand why, but I’m thinking about it. 

I hope when I get home Flash Forward (the book I bought on Thursday) will have been delivered.  With the postal strikes last week, I seriously doubt it, but I can but hope.  No Plot No Problem (the one I also bought) wasn’t in stock, so I have to wait for that. 

Right, how can I procrastinate now…?

No blogging for a couple of days

That’s right, I’ll be totally off-line for the next couple of days. As off-line as you can get actually - I’ll be in hospital. It’s just a minor little thing so will be out by next week, but will be ‘recuperating’ at home for another week or so.  By recuperating I hope I mean writing!

I’m a little worried that this means I’m going to fail on NovelPI as I’m not sure if I’ll get a chance to write tomorrow and Saturday.  I’m sure I will so am worrying about nothing, but having never been into hospital before I haven’t a clue.

I’ve just bought a couple of books – Flash Forward by Robert J Sawyer and No Plot No Problem by Chris Baty.  I think my timing is terrible - because of these postal strikes I’ll probably not get them until Christmas!  But they’re on their way.  Yippee. 

I also went to the library to return a couple of books, and ended up getting a few more out (shhhhhhh, don’t tell the boyfriend – lets hope this is a blog he doesn’t read properly!).  They are all in the name of research though, so I’m fine with it; they’re all Mills and Boon books. 

I’ve spent a lot of time on the NaNoWriMo website today – looking at and commenting on the forums.  I think that might be my downfall during November, but I’ll try to stay away!  I did find a couple of people who will also be writing Mills and Boon books, so I feel it was all worthwhile. 

See ya in a few days!

Last NovelPI days

Sadly it’s coming up to the end of the NovelPI October challenge (to write 250 words a day – every day).  I can’t believe this time last month I was only thinking about it, and that I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it everyday – and yet now I’ve signed up for NaNo.  What?  Crazy.  There have been a few days where it’s been a really challenge to write, but generally it’s been ok.  I’ve even managed to write with a hangover a couple of times! 

It’s been a really good thing for me to do.  I never would have believed I could write so much in such a short length of time – I don’t know my word count for it, but it mus be pushing 20,000 – well over the 7,500 goal.  I didn’t even think that I’d have the motivation to write EVERYDAY, but happily I’ve proved myself wrong.  There are times I’m happy I’m wrong!  Thanks Kait for organising this – it’s been so beneficial to me!

I’m going into hospital on Friday so have no idea if I’ll be able to write then or on Saturday – I’ll give it a go, but can’t promise.  I also don’t know how long I’ll be in there, so don’t know if I’ll even be able to start NaNo on Sunday.  I really hope I’m out by then – not just for the sake of my writing, also because I don’t want to be there – I think I’ll get better much better at home!

I’ve finished reading the first of my collection of Mills & Boon books.  I  know they suggest that you read a selection of the different series’ to know which one you’d rather write for, but I know ‘Romance’ is the one for me, without a question.  I actually knew when I was in the library looking at them, but after reading this one I know for sure.  And my idea for ‘Italian Infatuation’ fits in with it perfectly.  I’ve worked out the hero’s internal conflict - I wasn’t sure about it before, but I know it and it’s going to work so well.  I’m really excited about starting it now. 

My boyfriend said this morning he’s going to start throwing my books away – one per week.  It sounds really mean, but I know it’s his way of saying ‘get on and read through that massive stack of books you have’.  I can kind of see his point my book shelf is now full and has a growing second layer of books.  Oops.  Hopefully next week I’ll get loads of reading done.   Hopefully he won’t keep to his threat!

I’ve just checked the TV guide for next week.  I’ve been hoping that Diagnosis Murder is on (it sometimes is sometimes isn’t).  I wasn’t too worried though, cause when it’s not on, Murder She Wrote is.  They’re both on!  Woo hoo!  That’s a couple of hours of trashy TV I’ll be watching a day next week.  I’m never going to want to come back to work (I think I know that already!).  How sad am I.  Happily sad though!!

Nano worries

Good morning.  I’m feeling surprisingly refreshed for a Monday morning.  But then the sun is shining, the birds are singing (I imagine, I can’t say I’ve seen any in central London this morning) and best of all, I’ve only got 4 working days this week, no working days next week and then 4 the week after.  Nice. 

I am however starting to get terrified about NaNo.  I’m going to have to write 1667 words on average a day.  What have I let myself in for?  This weekend I managed about 500 total.  It doesn’t help that I didn’t have a computer all weekend so I had to write by hand, which I hate doing.  I’ll have to make sure I ALWAYS have a computer with me in November.

This week I’m going to aim to do as many words as possible a day – warm myself up for Nano.  Also to get through as much of ‘Holiday’ as I can before I have to give it up for a month.  I’m going to be sad to leave it as I’m really enjoying it.  Although at the moment I’m writing scenes where the MC gets dumped and doesn’t get the promotion she was expecting, so it’s a little sad.  I did get pretty emotional writing it as I had to remember how it felt to get dumped then imagine on top of that  losing out on a promotion to an arch rival.  I hope the emotion I felt comes through when it’s read.

I guess I should also do some more planning for my Nano novel.  There’s just not enough hours in the day!

1837 words – more than NaNoWriMo

That’s how many words I wrote towards ‘Holiday’ yesterday.  It felt like a lot.  But doable.  Doable once anyway, I have no idea how I’m going to manage to do nearly that amount A DAY in November.  Eek.  (Eek by the way is my new favourite word, since I signed up to NaNo I’ve been using it A LOT!).

I think I’ve linked twitter up to this blog.  I think that means when I post this blog it comes up on Twitter (I’m new2writinggirl over there).  No idea if it will or if I’ve actually managed it.  I used to think I was pretty good with computers, but it seems technology and programs have moved on quicker than me (I’m only in my late 20’s it’s not like I’m old and having problems!).

I’m starting to have major worries that my writing doesn’t give enough descriptions of places, people etc.  I’m terrified to go back and read what I’ve written recently now in case I want to re write it now.  Untl now I’ve been quite happy doing this ‘just write’ thing and edit later.  I know people have problems doing it, but I manage it quite well – maybe because I’d read people suggesting to do it that way before I started writing so it’s the only way I know.  It’s only now I’m having doubts.  I’m resisting though.

I’m starting to get more ideas for my novel for NaNo, and nicely they’re just coming to me, I’ve not spent that much time actually sat down plotting.  I’ve also been exploring the NaNo website more – it’s great.  You can register where you live then there are ‘meet ups’.  It’s so exciting.  I’m now gutted I’ve got my operation next Friday as there are a couple of Kick off parties that I think would be fun to go to.  There’s one on Thursday I’m debating going to, not a good idea I know when I’ve got to be in the hospital at 7.30 the next morning (especially as I’ve banned my boyfriend from going out that night – I need a shoulder to worry on!). 

The weekend is nearly here.  Yay!  My last weekend until December that I don’t have to do loads of writing (well, 250 a day for NovelPI is still a lot I guess, but not 1667!) and I’m going to make the most of it.  Happy weekend everyone!

Character Names

I’ve just decided that I need to get all the character names in ‘Holiday’ sorted.  I know I’ve said this before, but it’s really annoying me now having (FRIEND) (STEPDAD) etc all over my writing.  I also need to have written down who all the secondary characters are – something I’ve not done until now.  I’m having problems with the names.  I know some people have names already, and I thought I knew them, but now I’ve come to write them down, I’ve forgotten who’s who.  I want to be at home right now to go through my 20 or so pages of notes to find out.  Presuming I’ve written them down.  I hope so.

I had a little count up of how many words I’ve written for ‘Holiday’ today.  With what I’ve written today (so far) I’ve done just over 19,000 words.  WOW! I hope to get to 20k today.  On the last attempt of writing a novel I got as far as 6k and kind of gave up.  I’m really happy I’ve done so many.  I guess I’m aiming for 80 – 100k when it’s finished, so I’m about 1/5 – 1/4 done already.  Go me.  The majority of these have been done in the last four weeks.  That’s pretty good.  About 4 or 5k need to be completely re written as they’re written 3rd person and it’s now going to be 1st, but that’s not something I’m worried about.  I may have to rewrite it all when I’m done so really it’s not something I’m worrying, or even thinking, about now!

I read through the Mills & Boon website the other day for info on their different series’.  That coupled with me going to the library and actually looking at some, and reading one presently, I think I know which one I’m going to aim my NaNo novel at.  The ‘Romance’ series is right up my street.  The more I read them, and read the synopsis’ of them the more I think it.  That’s a big weight off my shoulders, I was worried about that.  No need!

My boyfriend is sorting my broken laptop problem.  He got a new one himself a couple of months ago, so is going to let me have his old one (which in turn was given to him by a friend who got a new one). YES!!!  I was getting a bit worried about how I was going to write my novel for NaNo when my laptop’s not in a very useable state.  Such a relief.

Research

I’m working an early shift today; somehow I always seem to get more writing and writing work done during these shifts.  By 9am I’d already written my 250+ quota of writing ‘holiday’ for NovelPI today.  9am!  I’ve done loads of surfing: twitter, WordPress and the NaNo website.  And, I’ve now worked on the plan for my novel and done some research for it.  It’s a very quiet day at work!

The research has been good fun – looking at how to get married in Italy (always good to throw a little wedding stuff into the day – scare the boyfriend a little, he he) as well as holidays, villas, flights etc to Italy.  I wish I could go there for some real research.

I came up with a working title for my NaNo novel – ‘Italian Infatuation’.  I’m a bit happier with that than the working title for ‘Holiday’ – I hate that. I have a small issue with this new one, I once started a short story I called ‘Citrus Affection’ and in my mind they are very similar.  It’s only a working title so I’m not going to worry about it.

What I have just realised I might need to worry about is the fact that the novel I am currently writing and the one I’m planning both feature a wedding as a major part of them.  I’m wondering if they’re too similar.  They’re not at all, but they could be seen to be.  I’ve always said that if I wrote any Mills & Boon books I’d use a psudo name, and kind of think I will use one for my other writing.  So probably nothing to worry about.  I will for a day or so anyway though. I always do.  Sigh.