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Random thoughts and ideas about writing...
This journal will probably be mostly about new writing ideas and discoveries, with the odd other thing thrown in with it.
I'll do my best to keep writing here regularly, to keep the creativity going and keep me in the habit of writing. Plus if I keep coming back everyday to update my blog I should end up writing other stuff on writing.com too... I will trick my imagination into writing if I have to! (hopefully I won't need to trick it, but just in case *Wink*).
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April 4, 2009 at 4:44pm
April 4, 2009 at 4:44pm
#643794
It's been over two year since I last made an entry?

I can't believe that... and to think in my last entry I said 'at least I'm getting into the habit of blogging'. Well, at least I know why I gave up blogging for so long- although I didn't actually give up, I just never got around to updating again. Anyway, the reason is- fanfiction addiction. A couple of days after that last entry my housemate went away for the weekend, and my other housemate that I talk to always goes home for the weekend, so I was bored. Then I started reading fanfiction, and... didn't stop.

It's quite worrying actually, as it became fairly normal for me to keep reading all night, and I gave up on having proper breakfast and lunch. It wasn't even particularly good writing, either, and I knew it, but I still kept reading, and by the time I was reading more normal amounts of fanfiction, I was well and truly out of the habit of blogging. Actually, to be honest, I still haven't completely managed to stop, although I don't read so much anymore (mainly because I've read most of the half-way decent stuff for the books I like) and I am finally going to try and get back into the habit of blogging.

Soon I also plan to start reviewing here on writing.com again, but that might have to wait a while, since I am in the last year of uni now, and my final year project is due early next month, so I really should work on that. Plus catch up on the actual books I haven't been reading in the last two years.

Still, I have still managed to keep up a reasonable level of writing *ignores the complete failure that is this year so far* and I carried on doing NaNoWriMo each year, so I have now won three times *Delight* This year I don't seem to have written much, so I'm having a go at ScriptFrenzy to try and get myself started again, but since I don't normally write script and I don't know anyone else who's doing it, my motivation is a bit low. I'm behind at the moment (yes, it's only day four!) but there's plenty of time to try and catch up again.

Well, there are quite a few other things I could write now, but I'm going to leave them to hopefully include tomorrow... it will definitely not be another two years before I blog again!
February 5, 2007 at 6:29pm
February 5, 2007 at 6:29pm
#485998
Missed a couple of days blogging, and reviewing. Actually more than a couple of days reviewing, as I haven't done a review yet today and I seriously doubt I will, because it isn't that early, and I'm not in a particularly 'thinking' modd.

This month isn't quite following on from the good writing of last month, seeing that I've hardly written a thing so far. I haven't got much to do in the next three days though, so hopefully I can catch up then.

We took Leo to the vet yesterday, and aparrently he hasn't pulled a muscle, he's probably just hurt himself in a fight with next door's cat (the one that snuck in and stole our cats food). So he got some antibiotics incase there was an infection, and I think he's been better since. I'm back at uni now though, so I'm finding out from my parents how he is.

I don't really have much else to say really, so this wil have to be another short blog... I don't notice as much when I forget to blog that not a lot really happens in my day, because then I have a week or two at a time to talk about, but when I'm blogging more often there isn't so much to write. Oh well, at least I'm getting back into the habit of blogging! And keeing up on reading blogs, anyway (if not commenting), since everyone seems to be away at the moment! Or most people anyway.
February 2, 2007 at 6:43pm
February 2, 2007 at 6:43pm
#485256
Well, I'm actually making a little progress on reviewing. I did one review yesterday, and one today, which may not be a lot, but it's a lot more than I usually do! If I could get into the habit of doing a review a day that would be brilliant.

Of course, the big problem there is that I know I won't keep up doing a review a day. In fact, I'll be amazed if I do a review tomorrow, because I'll be shopping with my friend in the afternoon, and then she's celebrating her birthday in the evening. I could review in the morning, but I know what I'm like, and I don't think well in the morning. Or at all, actually; I'm not a morning person at all.

In other things... my cat randomly developed a pronounced limp yesterday *Frown* so we're hoping he's just pulled a muscle and not done anything really bad to it. If if carries on for long we'll have to take him to the vet, but we're putting it off because Leo is a complete wimp when it comes to going to the vets, and he gets in such a state that it's best to avoid it when we can. Luckily, he's also the most laid back cat ever when he's at home, so we have at least been able to pick him up and check that there's nothing in his paw- which there isn't. If it had been Poppy though, we'd never have been able to look, but Leo is one of those cats who spends most of the day lying on his back with his paws in the air, so it was easy enough with him!

I've hardly written a thing today, so I'm going to go try to write a bit before I go to sleep, but I'm far enough ahead that it doesn't really matter. Thankfully!
February 1, 2007 at 9:39am
February 1, 2007 at 9:39am
#484907
Well, I didn't do very well on blogging everyday last month, but I'm going to try again this month, and hopefully manage it a bit better.

At least I reached my writing target last month- did well over it actually. I was aiming about about 29000 words in the month, and I did 38700! I'm nearly done on my rewrite as well, I think. Well, only about 10k to go. At least, it's 10k in the original, but re-reading the ending yesterday I was actually shocked by how bad it was. I skimmed through half of the most important chapter of the novel! So now I'm adding in all the things I should have included the first time, and turning a paragraph into five scenes *Laugh* Or more!

I'm going to start reviewing this month too... I've been on this site over a year now, even though I wasn't here much for the first few months, and I should be getting into reviewing by now.

Then I have to start my contest and raffle again too... maybe I'll start trying to sort that out later today. Maybe I should look at entering contests too... I'll never collect enough gift point to re-new my upgrade through reviewing, but maybe I'll have some luck in a contest, and that will help. I doubt I'll actually win any, but I might as well try!
January 29, 2007 at 6:02am
January 29, 2007 at 6:02am
#484233
I'm really not doing well on blogging everyday, am I? Still, I'll make a better effort next month.

Not a lot has happen in the past two weeks to be honest, except for the last couple of days, and both things involve cats. I should talk about my sister adopting two cats yesterday first, but the other thing has just happened now, so I'm talking about that first!

I came downstairs this morning (about twenty minutes ago to be honest) and our cat, Poppy, was hovering on the edge of a chair, looking anxiously towards the kitchen, where i could hear sounds of rummaging. It sounded exactly like an animal going through a rubbish bag, and if Poppy hadn't been right next to me, I would have thought she was the one in the kitchen! But she was there, and I'd just seen the other cat, Leo, and our dog, Bailey, upstairs, so it wasn't them either.

I put my head around the corner, and saw next-door's cat up on our worktop, with both our bags of dry cat food tipped over, and him with his head in them, eating away! Just to top it off, after I'd chased him away (which took a while, because Jonah knows me, and just wanted to have a fuss made of him instead of running away!) I found that he'd already eaten so much that he'd thrown up on one of the bags. Lovely! And he was still eating more as well!

I thought cats were meant to keep other cats out of their territory? If so, my two are useless, they couldn't even keep Jonah out of our house- and nor could my dog, for that matter! Leo and Jonah hate each other, but Leo was quite happily snoozing away when Jonah snuck in to eat all of Leo's food! Well, Poppy's really, Leo doesn't eat the dried stuff, and I'd like to see Jonah try and get into a can....

Anyway. Yesterday was a cat day too, because my and my Mum and my sister all went down to the animal sanctuary to pick up a couple of cats for my sister. They're called Meribel and Simba, and Meribel is blakc nad white, whilst Simba is tabby, and they're both thirteen. We thought they were eleven, but the paperwork said thirteen, so they probably are; my sister wasn't worried about getting kittens, but she wanted two cats together. So, we got to spend the morning watching the two of them settle in at my sister's house, which they did surprisingly quickly. Meribel was purring before we even let her out of the carry case, which was a bit of a surprise. I think they had both settled in pretty well by the evening, which is good *Smile*

Other than that though... I spent the first week I wasn't blogging doing homework, and running between campuses to hand things in, and the second week I... didn't do a lot *Laugh* Well, I finished off this month's writing target, so that's one month's achieved, anyway. And I've got a bit of a headstart on next month too, which shoul be helpful, because I don't get any holidays in February, whereas I've only spent one week at uni this month.

So, all I've got to do now is catch up on everyone elses blogs (I was hoping that I would keep up to date and not have to say that this year, but I guess I'll just have to try again)! Oh, and open my contest, and raffle, because otherwise my membership will run out, which I have a horrible feeling it's going to do anyway, but hey, you never know. Oh, and buy a birthday present for my best friend, too, since she's nineteen on Friday. Well, things are less hectic than they were, anyway *Bigsmile*

They've taken the holiday decorations down here earlier than last year, I've just noticed. I know, because I only joined on the 30th of January last year, and when I first saw the site in the morning it was all snowy, then I looked back to join later and it was gone! I thought I was going a bit crazy when all that snow disappeared... It's weird to think I've almost been here a year. It kind of seems like I've been using writing.com forever, but actually I've only really been using the internet for about two years, and started joining forums and things a year and a half ago. Strange... but before that we had dial up internet, and it was too slow for me, and I was always told not to go on the internet for too long at a time because of it blocking the phoneline. Wow that seems a long time ago! It was only about two years though, I think... well I always knew my memory was bad, anyway *Laugh*
January 15, 2007 at 12:38pm
January 15, 2007 at 12:38pm
#481511
Okay, so I haven't updated my blog for a week. That's not good, but I'll try and blog more often, and stay up to date with WDC stuff. Honestly I will.

So... what happened it the last week. Well, Tuesday I got shamefully drunk, and was ill. Wednesday I woke up at 5am, freezing, because I had got into my sleeping bag wrong, with no socks (lost them forever) and wet jeans because I had washed them under a tap whilst drunk. Then, in the morning (civilised time, rather than 5am) I had to walk home in my boots, without socks (I still have the blisters, even though it was a five minute walk), wet jeans, and a pajama top under my coat because my actual top needed washing. So that wasn't a great amount of fun, even though the actual evening around my friend's was. Thursday not a lot happen, and Friday I suddenly realised what a horrific number of assignments were waiting to be done, so I frantically managed to scribble out a first draft of my short story, and half of the second. Saturday I watched the film I had to, and then did the summary (took ages) and the first bit of the review. I also did some more work on my art project. Sunday I finished the art project, packed, and came back to uni, just managing to finish draft two of my story in the evening.

Wow, now we're up to today! Well, there was a slightly alarming start to today, when I just decided to double check that I didn't have another assignment I'd forgotten about. I didn't, but I suddenly noticed that my 2000 word essay on the history of language, which I hadn't even looked at, is due in tomorrow, not thursday. Good thing I looked! I could so easily have missed that, because deadlines are almost always Thursdays. So I've so far spent all of today working on that, and just finished it a minute ago. Thank goodness!

My entries may continue to be a bit boring this week, as I work crazily on doing the rest of my assingments. I still have to do the third draft of my story and a 500 word rationale on it tonight, and then tomorrow I can do the rest of my film review and write five pages of script. Then I'll have everything done, apart from my presentation on Wednesday, which I've already written what I'm going to say for, but I still have to get through the thing itself, which will be horrific, because I hate presentations, and mine is very boring anyway, since I can't use powerpoint or anything interesting like that. Somehow, I'm going to try and not get behind on my writing schedule whilst doing this *Laugh* Good thing I got ahead to start with! I'm okay for today, and I can get away with a small amount of writing tomorrow if I don't do any today, but after that I'll have to actually meet my targets for each day *Shock*

Now, excuse the typos that are sure to fill this entry, once again I am too lazy to check for them. Writing essays kills both my typing skills (already poor at the moment) and my motivation to check for typos- I've been doing that all morning!

Oh, and sometime after all my deadlines are up, I'll set up the next round of my contest.

Don't you just love it when life is so calm, peaceful, and un-rushed? *Laugh*
January 8, 2007 at 6:24pm
January 8, 2007 at 6:24pm
#480029
Well, after two days of writing loads, I had two days of not writing! Well, no actually, I didn't write anything yesterday, at all, but I did write a bit a minute ago, which almost gets me to the target for today. I did nearly 900 words, and the target was 1000, so today wasn't too bad even if I did leave it to the last minute.

Of course, I've lost being able to say 'I'd be on track if I were doing NaNoWriMo', but well, I'm not anyway, so it doesn't actually matter. I'm on track (or three days ahead) for this month's target, so that's good enough. I really need to get back into re-writing my novel though, because I don't have much more to do on my new story for this month, and I do have almost all my rewriting to do. Once this month's rewriting is done, then I can go and write extra on the new story if I still feel like it, but I don't want to sacrifice my old novel, not when I could get it all finished in a couple more months. January and Febuary for all the bigger stuff, actually rewriting bits, and March and maybe April for the small things, and typo checking.

Still need to do all my homework for uni... I'll attempt to make a start tomorrow I think. I've got the tiniest glimmering of a hint of the beginning of an idea now, and that may not be a lot, but it's the best I've managed so far!

I've finally got in touch with my best friend who doesn't go to uni with me- about time I did, really, since she lives about two minutes walk from my house, and I haven't seen her since September, even though we've been back from uni for about three weeks. Well, I have anyway, I've heard vague mentions of going to Germany from her, and then another time someone told me she was in Manchester. Anyway, we're having a wine evening tomorrow, so that's alright, I will see her before we both go back to different uni's (yes, I know that doesn't need an apostrophy, but 'unis' just looks plain weird!). So.... anyway, unless I do an entry early tomorrow, rather than leaving it to the last minute like I usually do, then there won't be an entry tomorrow. Now that I've said that I'll probably post first thing in the morning, and anyway, it's not exactly rare for me to skip a day is it? Now I'm practically arguing with myself, and I've completely lost what I was thinking, so I think I might go and try not to get even crazier... I've even confused myself this time *Confused* And *Laugh* that just reminded me of a bit in a book where someone's conscience is bothering them, and then it stops and she thinks something like, "Right, now I am not only having an argument with myself but I'm refusing to speak to me. That has got to be the first sign of madness" I love that book.... only problem is, it has loads of bits that make me laugh when I read it, but when I explain them to people who haven't read it, I just can't explain why they're funny. Anyhow, I was going to stop writing, wasn't I? Ooops *Rolleyes*
January 6, 2007 at 10:32am
January 6, 2007 at 10:32am
#479453
I did go back and write more yesterday. In fact I got a bit carried away and kept writing until 1am *Rolleyes* I ended up doing 3350 words yesterday though, all on my new story- and it was difficult to stop writing when I did. I've already done today's 1000 words too- twice, nearly *Laugh*

It's great to get carried away with writing again though, and actually forget to check the wordcount every other line. I can't remember the last time that happened. I do have a bad memory though, so that might not actually be saying much *Laugh* It's still great though, and I've almost done the 10000 words I was meant to do on that story this month- well, I've done 7232 of them anyway. I should probably start to slow down- not that I mind writing extra this month, but I do need to carry on with re-writing my other novel. I was supposed to do over 19k of that this month, but I've barely started, getting carried away with the other one instead *Laugh* That's why I made this year's plan so that I wouldn't be writing too many things at once, because I almost always get into writing one thing and then ignore the rest. Unless I'm trying to just write one thing of course *Confused*

Weird though it is to think it, after getting carried away with writing yesterday, and carrying on today, I have written enough that I would be on track if I were doing NaNoWriMo this month. And I'm actually aiming for about 20000 words less than that! Well I'm not going to complain. I'm sure I'll get plenty more times when I struggle to write, so any amount that I get ahead by now will only help. Besides, I'm actually enjoying writing, and managing not to worry too much about it not being perfect, whilst not decending into NaNo-like writing. Which was truly awful. I still haven't dared to open the file my NaNoWriMo novel was saved in. I haven't even finished uploading it all here, let alone editting it. Well, I will one day, when I'm not too busy writing *Laugh*

Now, since the writing is going so well ,I wish I could just get an idea for a short story! I have an assignment due in on the 18th, which involves writing a 1500 short story, but Ican't think of a single iea for that. Short fiction really isn't my best thing, I don't think. I can never get ideas for it anyway; all of my ideas seem to need longer to tell... like a series of novels. Not even just a novel! Well, I guess I just think too much like a fantasy writer- I mean, you don't get half as many fantasy short stories do you? And the ones you do get probably aren't 1500 words. You don't get that many stand alone novels either. Actually, I'm trying to think of a single stand alone fantasy novel... *looks at bookshelves* Ah, the prophacy of the gems was a single novel. That was YA, but it still counts. It's the only one I've got though (despite goodness knows how many trilogies). Wow, I really rambled away from the original idea there, didn't I? *Laugh*

I'm going to go now, before I ramble some more...
January 5, 2007 at 4:11pm
January 5, 2007 at 4:11pm
#479282
I didn't write any more yesterday, but I have done my 1000 words today, and I'm still ahead, so it's alright that I missed yesterday's target. I think I was being too impatient the last couple of days. I started writing earlier today, and before I even started actually writing I read through a load of my planning notes for the story, and worked planned out the next bit a bit more than I've been doing lately. It seemed to help really, because today's 1000 words weren't too hard and I might even write a bit more in a minute. Maybe *Rolleyes*

Nothing much seems to be happening to blog about, really, so I think I'm going to be doing a lot of short entries for a while. Either that or I'll start padding all of my entries with so many smilies that it'll actually take up more space and look like I've written more *Laugh*
January 4, 2007 at 5:08pm
January 4, 2007 at 5:08pm
#479080
I managed my 1000 words -just- yesterday, but it was a definate struggle, and today seems to be even worse. I've done 270 words, but I can't honestly see me getting much further with it. I'll write for ages (or what seems like ages), hit the word count, and find I've done 30 words *Worry*

On the upside, I'm up to date on reading blogs, for the first time in ages. Now I just have to try and do some reviews *Laugh*

Hrm, this will have to be a short entry today, since I seem to have just as many things to write about in my blog as in my novel today, i.e. not a lot. If that makes sense. I can't even tell if things make sense or not at the moment! No wonder I am having trouble writing.
January 3, 2007 at 4:00pm
January 3, 2007 at 4:00pm
#478835
I was hoping I would at least get through the first week of the year before I missed a blog entry, but apparently not. Still, as long as it's only one day in a row- I was being driven mad by blog reminders last month. And no I will not just turn the reminders off- at least they do what they're meant to, and remind me.

The writing plan is going okay... I managed just over the 1000 words yesterday, and that was on my new story, but I haven't actually done any writing today. Yet (hopefully it is just yet). I can't help thinking that I'm a day ahead of where I have to be on my writing anyway, so it doesn't matter if I skip a day, but I know that's a bad idea- it turns out that writing everyday really does help. I always thought that I was bad at that, but one thing I leant from NaNoWriMo is that writing is actually a lot easier if I do write every single day, so once I have done this I will try and make myself do a bit of writing. Actually I'd better just go do that now *Laugh*
December 31, 2006 at 1:07pm
December 31, 2006 at 1:07pm
#478087
Okay, I have been neglecting my blog for too long, but I am here to post my last entry of the year, and and make sure I have some good blog related new years resolutions!

Actually, I seem to have a worrying number of new years resolutions. I forgot about the monthly ones, so that kind of didn't work, but, hey, maybe I can start that up again next year.

So, all the things I want to do in 2007;

Blog often
Keep up with reading blogs, and remember to comment
Stick to my year long writing schedule     (it's not too challenging, so hopefully I'll manage it)
Make at least 100 reviews in 2007 (yes, I'm lazy and bad at reviewing- this is a challenge for me, honest!)

I'm sure there were more, but oh well. Maybe one of them should have been to convince at least one person that I'm not an alcoholic, since I seem to get accused of that quite often. I made a bit of a mistake last time I tried to convince someone that I wasn't though. It was a person I have lectures with, and in the last lecture of the year we had a party, with some cheap wine. I only had three cups, but it must have had a little effect, because I accidentally said to this person 'I haven't had any weekend all alcohol!' *Laugh* I realised a second later that that didn't help my case much. Oh well! At least the people in my actual house know I don't actually drink much. Well, certainly not more than the average student *Laugh*

I have a plan to help me complete my writing plan for 2007 though. So far, almost every target I have set myself, without any other organisation (i.e. not NaNoWrIMo) I have failed, whereas I was never even behind target during NaNoWriMo. Therefore, I have joined a group here, the point of which is setting monthly targets to write to, so that it's sort of NaNo like- although with thankfully lower targets!

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#1190997 by Not Available.


Hopefully this will help me stick to my targets, since the group targets are very close to what I was aiming for anyway. Well, I can hope, anyway!

Oh, I know what else I was going to do! Start my raffle up again, and run it regularly. I have two and a half months to gather 150000 so I had better start working, since, being a pathetic reviewer, I don't stand much chance of reaching that! Still, I am willing to trust to luck. I am sure I will manage to do something to renew my upgrade in March, which I just need to keep going until May, when I have way to renewing again for quite a while easily. Lets hope the raffle goes well! If not, I might have to randomly start entering a lot of competitions, on the offchance that I might win a prize in one of them. I'm not going to trust to that too much though- I might enter contests, but I have learnt my lesson from posting that last story, that quite honestly, I shouldn't. Not shouldn't enter contests exactly, just shouldn't post new stories too much. Or if I do, bury them in folders with boring names, and hope that no one reads them. Which kind of defeats the point, but does at least allow me to enter them in contests. Yes I know my logic is messed up. It always has been and probably always will be.

Now, I expect I have rambled enough, and I apologise for the number of typos that probably litter this entry. My ability to type seems to have completely disappeared over the last couple of months, and I have to admit, I am too lazy to go through and read it all when I always miss typos anyway. Thank goodness my best friend has offered to check my novel for me before I start attempting to get it published! Not that I expect it to make much difference, unless I get a miracle, but it's a start at least.
December 22, 2006 at 1:01pm
December 22, 2006 at 1:01pm
#476641
Finally, I have proper internet at home!

No, I have not figured out what the uni network did to mess up my home one... that is well and truly broken, I think. We did however, finally manage to get a wireless network working! My Dad's been trying to install it on and off since August, but this morning he finally managed it, so now I have internet on my laptop again!

To celebrate, I moved a bit of flash fiction I wrote for another site to here, since it was saved on this computer, and it would have been complicated to move it before;

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I just wanted to celebrate having a new item. Looking at my port I realised that I had hardly any stories, apart from a couple of old chapters that need re-writing, a prologue that needs deleting, and some contest entries. So even if this is very short, it's still a much needed new item!

It's odd, when I joined WDC I was only thinking about putting stories here really, yet now my two main items are my contest and my blog. Apart from that, I have my old raffle (which I need to restart soon- hmm, maybe next year) and a couple of groups to keep savings for different things. The few stories I do have were either written for contests, or things that I'm not that proud of and considering deleting. On my port summary, it says that my item type with the lowest ratings are static items i.e. all my writing. Oh well, I know the first story I put on here was rubbish, and I really will get around to deleting it one of these days.

I also thought that the bigger port space would be my main reason for wanting to upgrade- now it's not that which makes me renew my upgrade at all. Keeping my blog and Create a Culture are the reasons I renew my upgrade- I could easily downsize my port, because there is very little there that I really like.
December 18, 2006 at 5:37pm
December 18, 2006 at 5:37pm
#475928
This is my one hundredth blog entry! *Bigsmile*

I've been meaning to come and do my 100th entry for a few days, but I'm back home for Christmas now, and with not being able to use the internet from my laptop it's been a bit harder to get online. Still, I've re-newed my membership so that I'm here until March *Smile*... which used all of my GP funds, so I had better start logging on more and saving points! *Laugh*

I also finished the second round of "Create a Culture and announced the results on Friday. Wow, that was a bit hectic, with all my uni work due in the day before- I ended up judging 18 entries on Thursday night and Friday. Oh, well, who needs sleep anyway? At least I had a co-judge this time, which helped a lot with the final decisions.

I've hardly logged on at all in the past week, and I apologise for being shamefully behind on everyone's blogs. I will try tocatch up this week if possible, but last week was a bit crazy with getting all my assignments done on time. Still, I managed it (just) and although I have a tonne of work to do over Christmas, I'm not panicking just yet. I mean, I only need to write one short story, an analysis of how I wrote the short story, five pages of script, a film review, an essay,do a creative art piece and plan a presentation somehow linked to that art piece. Easy *Laugh* Assuming I haven't forgotten anything... and I somehow learn how not to absolutely hate presentations. Seriously, I think presentations are the most evil things ever invented- and marking us on how confidant we are is just plain cruel. I won't be confidant, I never am with presentations. Even when I forget that I get nervous until I actually start, it still hits me then. Bah, ten minutes doing a presentation by myself is an absolutely horrific thought, and the free lunch they're providing doesn't take any of the horror off of it at all. Not even slightly.

Still, on to nicer things.... I saw Eragon at the cinema yesterday and that was great. Several of the characters were quite different to how I imagined them, and the urguls were nothing like what I pictured, but it was still very good. I went with my parents that time, and I'm going back to see it again with my friends in the week. Hopefully with going to Nandos afterwards too *Delight*

Oh, and you know I said last time that I was writing a story which wasn't the one I'd planned to write this month? Well, one scene in that gave me inspiration for the one I was supposed to write to begin with, so that all worked out nicely. I left it too late to do my 20000 word target for this month, but even half of that helps. It's my novel which I am re-writing to hopefully start attempting to get published next year. I'm under no allusions that I will manage it, but I'm going to give it a real try throughout next year anyway. The annoying thing is, I sent it out once before (I later realised that it was no where near ready to publish) but now I can't find a copy of the query letter I sent out, and I was sure I saved a copy. Since that letter got me a reply asking for the manuscript, it's annoying to lose it. I've still got the book which gave me advice on how to write it though (and it's completely different advice to any I've seen on the internet) so hopefully the next one will be okay.

On that theme, before I start searching through lists of publishers, can anyone tell me what the 'unsolicited' part of 'no unsolicited MSS' means? That one's been puzzling me for a while.

Anyway, it's getting reasonably late here, so I am going to finish my 100th entry! And promise again to catch up on all your blogs soon- I'm so bad at keeping up to date on them *Frown* Sorry!
December 9, 2006 at 6:37pm
December 9, 2006 at 6:37pm
#474133
Well, I still haven't written a thing, but I'm starting to want to write a story which isn't the one I wanted to write this month. So I've thrown this months plan out of the window *Bigsmile*

I'm not going to use a plan this month then, but take a month off as a reward for finishing NaNo, and start properly with my 2007 plan in January. This month, I am simply going to write, or plan, whatever story I feel like *Smile*

I just discovered though, that the lovely unique calandar I had worked out for a particular story (a lot of my fantasy stories have their own calandar, rather than using ours) I failed to write down anywhere *Rolleyes* I have the names of the days of the week, and the names of the months written down, so I know how many of each of those there are, but there's still a few stray bits that I can't remember, so I'm having to redo the entire thing. Okay, so it's a calendar, there really isn't a lot of work to it, bit still, I'm sure I had it all perfectly worked out, including how much holiday all of the schools in the world got, and when, and now I have to work it all out again. Bah, there are times when being a perfectionist is annoying! I can't just say they get a certain number of weeks holiday, without making sure that it's reasonable compared to ours in the scheme of the whole year, which means working stuff out.

Also, I discovered that the set-up of the year in this world does not easily match four seasons- so I introduced a fifth one. I'm not entirelt sure what it does yet, but it covers that annoying bit of the year between winter proper, and spring. The definition of 'spring' may alter a bit to make room for that...

Oh well, at least it's nice to be getting carried away in an aspect of one of my stories again. I can't wait to start writing it properly, but I'm not going to- yet. Still, planning is enough for me now *Smile* And I can always draft out the odd scene.
December 5, 2006 at 1:55pm
December 5, 2006 at 1:55pm
#473235
Wow, can't believe I haven't updated in nearly a week. It's only seemed like a couple of days.

They've been boring days though... it's strange without NaNo to write, and I haven't managed to get myself to write anything else yet. Well, apart from work stuff... had to do a 1500 word report this morning (so boring) but that doesn't really count.

I can't see that I'm going to get a huge amount of writing done for a bit, despite all my wonderful plans for re-writing a novel, because I have to judge my contest now, and when I planned it around NaNo it never occured to me that I would then be judging it during the last two weeks of term at uni... i.e. when all of my work is due in. At least in two weeks time I shouldn't have too much to do.

Hmm, this really is quite a depressing entry compared to the last one, but then, I suppose it's not that weird to get a bit depressed once NaNo has finished. Especially when two days after you complete it you get a cold *Frown*

If things had gone to plan, it probably wouldn't have been so depressing, since me and my friend were going to have a big celebration once we'd both finished, and get a take away, and stuff, but with her computer problems and not really getting to do much of it, I don't think she wanted to hear about NaNo. Anyway, it just seemed a bit... flat... after I'd made my celebrating post here. Within ten minutes of finishing, it was kind of like it had never happened... I haven't opened the file again yet... I guess I probably should, and do a bit of editting- but the novel wasn't finished, and I don't know when I will have time to finish it. It's a shame, because I quite liked the story, even if the writing was really bad.

Now, having barely been online in almost a week, I really should go and try to catch up on reading blogs again... I always seem to be behind, for some reason, and the moment I catch up I will then not log on for several days, and get behind again.
November 29, 2006 at 7:47pm
November 29, 2006 at 7:47pm
#472062
*Laugh**Delight* I just won! Just got my novel verified a moment ago *Delight*

*Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Laugh**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile*

*Balloon3* Woohoo, and kind of finished a day early- sort of! It is technically the 30th now, but only 42 minutes into the day, so I more or less finished early- close enoguh for me anyway! *Bigsmile*

Now, sorry for spamming you with smilies, but.... *Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Delight**Bigsmile**Delight**Bigsmile**Delight**Bigsmile**Delight**Bigsmile**Delight**Smile**Bigsmile**Delight**Bigsmile**Delight**Laugh**Laugh*

*Flower1* *Flower2* *Flower3* *Flower4* *Flower5* *Flower6*

*Snow1**Snow2**Snow3*

*Bigsmile* (*Left* I can see me using that smilie a lot for a few days!)

*Laugh**Laugh**Laugh**Laugh*

Wow, this has to be the most smilie ridden, possibly incoherant entry I have ever written- not as incoherant as my NaNoNovel however, which quickly decended into pure madness, but *Bigsmile* It was 50000 words of typoed madness, so it still counts!
November 29, 2006 at 7:17pm
November 29, 2006 at 7:17pm
#472055
I am now a 49550 words!

My best friend who was doing NaNo too dropped out because of computer problems, so instead of shouting about it to no-one in real life (since the only person who understands what it is probably doesn't want to hear about it) I am going to post crazy updates here!

*Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile**Bigsmile*

By the way, I am sorry, but my post NaNo entry will probably have more typos than a drunk blog *Blush*
November 28, 2006 at 3:55pm
November 28, 2006 at 3:55pm
#471788
Now I am in a brilliant mood because I have just been sent a merit badge by Stiggles *Delight*

Merit Badge in Determination
[Click For More Info]

For not only persevering and trying to meet the writing goals you make for yourself, but for setting those goals to begin with. You are setting yourself up for success and I'm so proud of you for your determination.*^*Heart*^*

Thank you very much pmanljy! *Smile*

I've only got just under 5000 words to go, and now I can write them in a good mood *Smile* I haven't done today's writing yet (target of 2000 words for today) but I am going to, definately, and then hopefully finish tomorrow!

Seriosuly though, when I've finished it and got it verified on the NaNoWriMo site, there is going to be a very big celebration post in here! I've never really managed to complete targets that I've set myself before- well, not properly, anyway- and I can hardly believe that I'm managing it now. Only two days in an entire month when I haven't met the target for the day, and even then I wrote enough that I wouldn't be behind over all.

Daily targets seem to suit me, but I have found out what I was always missing in that before- if I do extra one day it should not count as less to do the next day. Keeping each days target seperate really seems to work- and since both days when I missed the target were Sundays, I think my Sunday target must have just been a bit too high, that's all- but there is enough other time to write during the week to make up for that.

*runs off to go be in a good mood*

*Bigsmile*
November 27, 2006 at 4:43pm
November 27, 2006 at 4:43pm
#471564
Sorry I am once again behind on reading blogs... I seem to suddenly have a lot to do. I didn't reaise until now that the last week on NaNo also seems to be the week before most of my uni deadlines...

NaNo is going fine, all on target and everything, but I have to write up what I am going to say in a presentation on Beowulf before tomorrow (I also have to read Beowulf *Blush*) and do a 'creative piece' in the next couple of weeks... for which I am basically going to make a mess and call it a collage... and I have to do a book review... and a pitch for a script I haven't written (we weren't meant to, we're just supposed to pitch the idea). So... yeah, that's why I'm a bit behind right now.

I'm not sure exactly when I'll have time to catch up, but I'll try to as soon as I can... and, gah, I have to start judging my contest this Saturday! And I have suddenly realised that my upgraded membership is running out, so I am somehow going to have to sort out gathering enough gift points to renew that- at least I still have enough for a one month upgrade if worst comes to worst and I can't get anything together in time.

Hmm... just seem to be going a bit crazy lately... and have lost the abilty to type without lots of typos.... I haven't updated in ages on my blog... oh dear... and i really am rambling now....

*leaves to prevent further rambling*

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