good news: i have reached my 20K goal, much sooner than planned even. I have the beginnings of a story, really almost a skeleton of a story, with a beginning, middle, and something that could be leading towards an end.
bad news: i have no fucking clue what to do next. i'm trying to expand upon the scenes i have, and i'm stuck. i'm trying to add new scenes, and i'm stuck. i'm trying to write stuff that i know won't be a part of the story, just to get into the character's voice. nope, still stuck.
the whole point of this exercise was to not have my writing end up amounting to nothing more than practice. don't get me wrong, practice is good, but it would be even better to get to the point where i can write a whole fucking story instead of just random bits and pieces.
sigh.
my next goal. keep writing this damn story. finish writing it, even, before i move on to something else.
wish me luck...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
accountability
alright. i'm done fucking around.
i need to start writing something. something new. something with more than 5000 words. something with a story that is at the very least interesting to me. (i'll worry about whether it's interesting to anyone else after i'm finished the first draft).
i'm setting a goal. it's a small goal, imo, but i don't want to fail and discourage myself. by the end of July, i will write 20,000 words on something, anything really. but it must be one thing, one story with at least a vaguely cohesive plot. i don't know what that plot will be yet. i'd better get on that.
i'm going to ask a small favour from anyone who actually reads this blog (and again, i know there are maybe three of you). if you happen to see me screwing around on facebook, or if you actually see me or communicate with me in any way at all, pester me about my writing. the more persistent, the better. i'm going to enlist my husband and my dad and anyone else who is going to see me regularly in these next few weeks. if my laptop is on my lap, i should be writing. i might have to disable my wifi, but dammit, it's the only way anything is going to get done.
i need to start writing something. something new. something with more than 5000 words. something with a story that is at the very least interesting to me. (i'll worry about whether it's interesting to anyone else after i'm finished the first draft).
i'm setting a goal. it's a small goal, imo, but i don't want to fail and discourage myself. by the end of July, i will write 20,000 words on something, anything really. but it must be one thing, one story with at least a vaguely cohesive plot. i don't know what that plot will be yet. i'd better get on that.
i'm going to ask a small favour from anyone who actually reads this blog (and again, i know there are maybe three of you). if you happen to see me screwing around on facebook, or if you actually see me or communicate with me in any way at all, pester me about my writing. the more persistent, the better. i'm going to enlist my husband and my dad and anyone else who is going to see me regularly in these next few weeks. if my laptop is on my lap, i should be writing. i might have to disable my wifi, but dammit, it's the only way anything is going to get done.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
tales from an 8 hour flight
keeping in mind, 8 hours is cake compared to the 15 hour hauls from HK to TO and back, but this 8 hour flight was in the middle of the day, meaning the kids were awake the whole time. i still have a twitch in my eye.
the first major bummer was realizing that there was nowhere for me to plug in my laptop (i've been spoiled by the higher-end airlines, this one was barebones.) it would have been mildly irritating if i'd been planning on watching a movie or playing games on my computer, but i was actually hoping to write. i actually had the desire and the inspiration to do some real work, and i spent the whole time frantically checking how much battery i had left.
i'm currently re-writing scenes from my ms based on the critiques of several betas (when three separate sources with very different backgrounds--both in their lives and in their writing experience-- point out the same flaws in your work, you should probably listen). i'm now trying to work on the scenes again, but it feels like 1 am and my mojo ran away... feh.
so not being able to write, i defaulted to the next obvious thing- knitting. this led to one of the nicest things about the trip. a woman sitting across the aisle from us started to chat with me about my knitting. she noticed that i knit continental (yarn in the left hand), while most knitters from TO, in her experience, knit english style (yarn in the right hand) (for the record, she's english but she knits continental, so the labels clearly don't count for much)(believe it or not, this was quite an interesting discussion. i know some of you won't believe it. you know who you are. you can shush). in any case, i got to chat about yarn and stuff with a total stranger, and she turned out to be quite lovely. she even engaged my five year old in conversation for the last half-hour or so of the flight, which was a relief to my husband and i, to say the least.
oh, and speaking of the five year old, apparently the novelty of air-travel hasn't worn off for him. he squeals like he's on a roller coaster every time we hit a bit of turbulence, he whoops excitedly when we start to land. add this to the incessant chatter, the fighting with his brother about whose magazine was whose (yeah, the crappy duty free catalogues are apparently very interesting to these children) and the occasional whines tantamount to 'are we there yet?'
this incited some dirty looks from people around us, and while i can't really blame them (hell, i was shooting dirty looks at him too) i couldn't help but think 'you people have to deal with this for 8 hours. this is my life'. i couldn't feel too sympathetic.
this has been an especially rambly and pointless post. i'm blaming the jet lag, yet again. someday i'll spend more than three weeks in the same timezone, and then i'll be unstoppable...
the first major bummer was realizing that there was nowhere for me to plug in my laptop (i've been spoiled by the higher-end airlines, this one was barebones.) it would have been mildly irritating if i'd been planning on watching a movie or playing games on my computer, but i was actually hoping to write. i actually had the desire and the inspiration to do some real work, and i spent the whole time frantically checking how much battery i had left.
i'm currently re-writing scenes from my ms based on the critiques of several betas (when three separate sources with very different backgrounds--both in their lives and in their writing experience-- point out the same flaws in your work, you should probably listen). i'm now trying to work on the scenes again, but it feels like 1 am and my mojo ran away... feh.
so not being able to write, i defaulted to the next obvious thing- knitting. this led to one of the nicest things about the trip. a woman sitting across the aisle from us started to chat with me about my knitting. she noticed that i knit continental (yarn in the left hand), while most knitters from TO, in her experience, knit english style (yarn in the right hand) (for the record, she's english but she knits continental, so the labels clearly don't count for much)(believe it or not, this was quite an interesting discussion. i know some of you won't believe it. you know who you are. you can shush). in any case, i got to chat about yarn and stuff with a total stranger, and she turned out to be quite lovely. she even engaged my five year old in conversation for the last half-hour or so of the flight, which was a relief to my husband and i, to say the least.
oh, and speaking of the five year old, apparently the novelty of air-travel hasn't worn off for him. he squeals like he's on a roller coaster every time we hit a bit of turbulence, he whoops excitedly when we start to land. add this to the incessant chatter, the fighting with his brother about whose magazine was whose (yeah, the crappy duty free catalogues are apparently very interesting to these children) and the occasional whines tantamount to 'are we there yet?'
this incited some dirty looks from people around us, and while i can't really blame them (hell, i was shooting dirty looks at him too) i couldn't help but think 'you people have to deal with this for 8 hours. this is my life'. i couldn't feel too sympathetic.
this has been an especially rambly and pointless post. i'm blaming the jet lag, yet again. someday i'll spend more than three weeks in the same timezone, and then i'll be unstoppable...
Thursday, July 01, 2010
first Canada day not living in Canada
thirty years, and this is the first Canada day that i haven't actually been living in Canada. I'm in the UK at the moment, not in HK, and i'll at least be hanging out with my Canadian family here, but it still feels weird.
being Canadian is a huge part of my identity. more than even the knitting...
it wasn't something i ever realized was so important until i found myself actually living so far from home. it wasn't until i started making Canadian friends in Hong Kong that i realized that i missed Canadians, not just Canada. i think it's a case of not truly appreciating something until it's gone.
i'm too tired and distracted (by british children's television, wugh) to properly express what i love so much about Canada. it might be easier to say what i don't love...
umm... well, it can get a little cold.
Happy Canada Day!
being Canadian is a huge part of my identity. more than even the knitting...
it wasn't something i ever realized was so important until i found myself actually living so far from home. it wasn't until i started making Canadian friends in Hong Kong that i realized that i missed Canadians, not just Canada. i think it's a case of not truly appreciating something until it's gone.
i'm too tired and distracted (by british children's television, wugh) to properly express what i love so much about Canada. it might be easier to say what i don't love...
umm... well, it can get a little cold.
Happy Canada Day!
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