Happy New Year

Another year starts and my main concern is that it is going to disappear as quickly as the last one and there is so much that I want to get done. I am still happy with the writing goals I have set for this year. I am hoping that I haven’t set too much but I know where my priorities are so I can adjust if I need to. I have also taken into account my other goals and commitments.

The last few weeks have been productive, despite the holiday period. I have been trialling some writing software Scrivener. I came across this by accident and it is now available for Windows users. I am playing with it at the moment to see if will work for me, but so far so good. There are a lot of software programs for writers out there but I’m not going to go into them now.

My read through of my fantasy novel is done. There are definite holes and gaps but I'm sure that I can fix them, and I have developed the ending. But the main problem (and it is a first draft) is my lack of description. This is something that has been pointed out before and I’m not really aware of it until I reread my work. I think while pouring out the first draft I am just trying to get the story down. Although saying that some of it is not too bad at all. I even had a little cry in one scene so I’m hoping that means it will work for readers as well.

I have finally reworked my study, clearing out a lot of rubbish and finding alternative storage places for other bits. I have replaced the old table with two long desks and I have much more room. I just need to set up a note-board system and it’s done. Even the cat has her place on the desk.

It is finding the time to escape into it now that I need. Holiday mode means more relaxing time and my body is still repairing from a full year, there are also activities and outings with children and friends. I am still sleeping in a little too often but the drive is still there; that overwhelming urge to write.

Happy Scribbling

The Gardener

Over the last couple of weeks I have been very busy, again, or is it still? I am trying to do so much and it seems that the more writing I do the more ideas I get. So in an attempt to try and increase my sanity I have hired a gardener.

‘Wow!’ you think. ‘A gardener, oh for such luxuries.’

Or did you think, ‘Yeah, right. Her dad pops round with the mower once a week.’

We have to be so careful with our words to ensure that the right message is being passed on. So that readers fully understand the story that is happening in our heads. That transfer to paper can be a real killer for any story.

The truth of the above statement about the gardener is that I have hired a company to pop around on a regular (and depends on the season as to how regularly he does pop around) to mow the lawn and trim the edges.

It may not seem like much, but it was one of those little things that were starting to tip the scale on my sanity. I was getting more and more worked up that I couldn’t get it all done on my own. So I decided to focus on what I can do, what I want to do and outsource some of the things I can’t do. And it isn’t that I can’t mow the lawn. I’m one of those fiercely independent types constantly trying to prove that I can do anything I need to. It just means less stress. And I’m all for that.

The other little bugbear over the last couple of weeks has been the state of the house. Not that it was that bad, not a call in the ‘current affairs type programs’ to look at what she is inflicting on her children type of bad; just a little overwhelming. Piles of notes, books, ‘artwork’, ‘treasures’ found in a variety of places and carried home, study notes (not always in the study), novel notes (again not always in the study). So I spent some time moving things to where they should live and ruthlessly disposing of the rubbish hiding amongst the piles disguised as useful. Unfortunately my daughter has inherited my gene for “let’s hold onto that because you just don’t know when it will be useful, wanted, needed etc”.

I am now feeling calmer, cleaner and more on top of things. Less time stressing and more time writing. It is how the world should be.

Happy scribbling.

Negotiating with Cats

 

I have this thing with the cat of a morning, she jumps up on my desk, works her way around the computer and tries so hard to look like she doesn’t care I’m there as she drops onto my lap. If she were to curl up and sleep then this wouldn’t be a problem. But she doesn’t, she nuzzles me for cuddles and pats, rubs her wet nose against my arm. Annoys the heck out of me until I guide her back to the floor and she either wanders off or starts again.

It use to be that I wouldn’t shut the study door in case I couldn’t hear my daughter if she woke or needed me. But she is nearly 6 she keeps reminding me (although nearly is actually 6 months away). And she can reach the handle and let herself in, loudly chastising the cat and reminding it that it can’t enter the sacred zone because “mama is working and she needs quiet”.

The fact that this is relayed in a loud voice, to a cat that cannot understand, is lost on her and as the flow is already interrupted I take a few minutes to cuddle with her and talk about what we will do for the day. Then she is happy to watch the cartoons and mama gets another half hour of quiet time, so the door will stay shut.

Sometimes I think the cat wakes her out of spite, because if she can’t play with me then someone needs to. But at least that is all I have to negotiate with, or work around for my quiet time at the computer, where I can lose myself in my writing, or concentrate on my studies.

My physical writing environment has been working well for some time now. Everything within reach, space to make it in, small heater under the desk so that fresh Tasmanian mornings don’t keep me from drafting. But the emotional writing space is just as important. And sometimes I have trouble bringing the two together.

Family can be a great support and if they need to support you by leaving you alone for an hour or two a day, talk to them about it. You don’t want to spend your writing time trying to negotiate with a cat.

Happy Scribbling

The Perfect Writing (Head) Space

I have found my perfect writing environment. Actually I have been using it for some time but it was only recently that I realised how well it did work. My writing habits slipped momentarily to writing of an evening, but they are back to mornings. And sometimes if I am very lucky I get to write both of a morning and an evening.

My body seems to have realised that morning time is best for me and my eyes spring open three minutes before my alarm goes off. They do this every morning, weekend or week day. The number of times I press the snooze button is dependent upon a combination of how tired I am and how cold it is outside the covers.

When I do get out, and it’s usually only 10 to 20 minutes after the alarm does go off, I go straight to the study and turn on my heater. Then make tea and back to the study. I find that as soon as I sit down at my desk I am ready to write, or edit as the case has been lately.

It only occurred to me how effective my space was when I realised how productive I was for that hour. When I thought about it, there was no lead up time, no fiddling with pens, trying to find motivation. It was all there in my routine. And I do sit and work.

The only delay to all of this is how long it takes me to get out of bed. The earlier I get up, the more time I have. If I managed to get out as soon as my alarm went off I would have a full hour and a half before the morning madness starts. The getting dressed, finding school shoes and library books, packing bags and lunches and making sure I don’t walk out the door in my slippers.

There was a time I couldn’t settle, I would be up and down and my brain would not engage. I even wrote myself little notes to help motivate me of a morning (see kitchen door). Now it seems so easy. I just had to work out my place and routine. And now that I know I can, I think I can do it anywhere I need to, or want to. The procrastination monster doesn’t even get a look in.

Happy Scribbling

New Found Focus

My new focus seems to be working. I think the break away from everything was what I needed. I have come back at it with renewed vigour and enthusiasm. I am seeing ideas for my first draft everywhere I go; even my daughter being silly and trying to make up slang has given me some new names for characters, creatures and the like.

Writing this fantasy story is something very different from what I have written before. Although I read quite a bit, initially I found trying to come up with strange and unusual (or fantasy appropriate) names difficult. I had even downloaded a name creator program but the names it produced were simply mixes of already famous names. So no help at all.

I am pulling different things together all the time. A textured artwork at the local museum gave me the idea for a textured wall in a cave, then an altar, which led to a special cave, and then a whole new scene and a key to the magic my main character has discovered. I am still amazed how the smallest of things can sometimes spark an amazing idea.

I am trying to remain focused on my two main projects, blocking out any thoughts of my dusty cottage. I am spending a solid hour editing first thing of a morning and it is moving along well. I am not trying to push through any particular number of pages, just working away to try and make it as good as I can. And I have managed to keep my desk area clear, which really helps. I walk straight in with my cup of tea, sit down and start work. There is no hunting for pages, not trying to find a space to work. It means I am able to make the most of my time. I also know the following day that everything is as I left it, my notes are there and I’m not trying to find where I was at in the manuscript.

So all very positive at the moment and hoping it continues.

Happy Scribbling

Plot changes and misbehaving characters

I have tidied the study. It is not completely organised, but much better. I am still typing at the dining room table but that means my editing notes are all exactly where I need them. I do not have to move things out of the way or hunt through piles. I am also set up so I know exactly what point I am at and organised the pages I have done so that changes can be made electronically. It makes it so much easier when it is all together and in a space I can spread out.

During my quiet weekend I spent time working on the weak plot of my first draft. I’m not reworking passages; it’s too early for that. I am creating new scenes that will fit in to help strengthen the plot and the characters. Early on in the first draft process, the main character had the vision of someone dying. It seemed a bit hard, but it did show just how different her world now was, and her place in it.

When it came to the crunch she couldn’t let the other character die and stepping in, despite my pleas, saved her. Characters don’t always behave how we hope they will, but they hopefully behave as they should. My characters often get away from the initial idea I have for a story, and usually they and the story are better for it.

I started thinking about at what point I would kill off this character, the one that I thought should die, but when I re-read the scene where she was saved I realised that my main character had done the right thing. She is too caring to allow that kind of death to happen, and given her skills and new position that is important too.

I am also trying to document some recent dreams. This is not something I do often, but occasionally I have a very vivid dream where the story stays with me for a number of days. I had one last night. I was keen to write it down straight away but found I remembered more of it when I just let it mull over in my mind. So I am letting it turn about and flesh itself out and then I might put it down on paper as a short story. Once dream started to flesh itself out enough to be the beginning of a novel, so who knows where it may lead.

Happy Scribbling