NaNo Diaries: Day Twelve

Starlights daughter, Tigsy having a nap

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 6.35am
Word Count: 2649 (Total - 23,796)
Treats: Watching The Lost Kingdom on TV
Other Activity: Sweeping up leaves - a sign it's Autumn
Word of the Day: MAGNANIMOUS - adjective 1. proceeding from or revealing generosity or nobility of mind, character, etc.: a magnanimous gesture of forgiveness. 2. high-minded; noble: a just and magnanimous ruler.






It's unseasonably warm here in Italy for this time of year. Everyone is raving about the beautiful warm days but... it always comes with a price I think. I'd much prefer it to be bright but seasonally cold. Call me a spoilsport but I love the different seasons, each for a different reason and for Autumn its about hibernation. Getting out all my woollies, lighting the fire and closing the shutters ready for Winter. Lovely. But all this warmth is bringing different problems. Red mite. No it's not some weird version of flu but a tiny little devil that attacks our poor chickens. The little critters should be banished now if there were lower temperatures. But no.Instead they're basking in the sun. We've found several in the hen house over the past few weeks and they can kill. So we're disinfecting the coop every couple of days, and dusting the house and chucks. Nearly got them all but they're a pest.
And one of the cats hasn't been seen since Monday. Starlight is a semi feral cat who gets fed with our brood. Not sure where she is or where to look. Fingers crossed she's being fed somewhere else for a while.

An I've got a writing buddy, which I'm very excited about. I've  just finished the Writember workshop with Faye Kirwin, which has helped enormously with my motivation. I thoroughly recommend it if you find you are struggling. To others I might seem as though I have all the time in the world (which I don't, just more than some) but even so habit and structure is so important. Since leaving the world of  'real work' (I have a different take on that now, maybe for another post) this is the first time it's hit home. So I have a target, I've identified my best times to write and I've made a commitment. Now with my buddy, I'm accountable to someone in making sure I get it done!

NaNo Diaries: Day Ten

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 6:02am
Word Count: 2443 (Total over 20k)

Treats: An hour of reading this afternoon
Exercise: Fence building at sparrows *art
Word of the Day: LASSITUDE noun
1. weariness of body or mind from strain, oppressive climate, etc.; lack of energy; listlessness; languor.
2. a condition of indolent indifference: the pleasant lassitude of the warm summer afternoon.

I got told off this morning for setting my clock a little fast (only ten minutes) but it confused poor Simon! I like to set clocks a little fast. Somehow it convinces me that I have more time. More fool me. The big dogs (gigantic in fact) have been getting out the last couple of days. We don't mind them being out, but the Italians are scared stiff of them. Bertie and Freya are two of the softest canines I've had the pleasure of knowing but still, when in Rome. So we were out mending fences at 6.45 this morning, slipping in the early morning dew.  

The bowl above is my random prompt generator. Scientific isn't it? At the end of my writing day (usually after this is posted) I ask Simon to select one bit of scrunched up paper. On the paper is a number from 1- 30 and on Scrivener I have thirty writing prompts. So for example yesterday was no 27. So that is the prompt I wrote to this morning. Simples. A bit like me really. 

Ciao for Now.

NaNo Diaries: Day Nine

My favourite writing tool, the humble fountain pen

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 6.30 (though first up at 5.21)
Word Count: 2700 (total, a little shy of 18K!)
Treats: Certainly not after an indulgent Sunday.
Exercise: Playing frisbee with Naughty Nell
Word of the Day: FRANGIBLE adjective 1. easily broken; breakable: Most frangible toys are not suitable for young children.




As you can tell, I had a day off yesterday - though I did write 1200 words for NaNo. Sunday here in our household is generally a slow day. A dedicated PJ day. Having said that, last Sunday we were picking olives but that's a one off. Simon and I sit down after breakfast and complete a jumbo general crossword. We do a daily simple crossword every day and I also try to complete a Solitaire and have a bash at a Soduku or Killer Kakuro puzzle. Mind games we call them and as I saw my mum slowly disappear to Alzheimer's it's something I take very seriously, as well as seeing it as a bit of fun and distraction.

I've been playing about with my method for completing my NaNo target (or any other writing target for that matter). I do love, absolutely love to write longhand. With a fountain pen. The photo above was my latest treat. It's an 'old but unused' Schaeffer and I love it. I think better when I write longhand, but last week I was writing three A4 sheets by hand, then typing them up and adding to them in a second session. Not very good use of time. So this morning, I spent 10 minutes writing longhand to get the ideas flowing and then two sessions (a session for me is 25 minutes) Scrivenering... result 2700 words plus the 400 or so that I'd scribbled. 

No doubt I'll change it again before the end of the month is out.

Ciao for Now

Writers Toolkit - No 1 Favourite: Pen and Ink

Last month I mentioned my three favourite writing tools. Today I'm going to be talking about the first, my fountains pens and ink bottles. I know that makes two, but you can't really have one without the other, can you?

My obsession with pens started a long time ago as a child when my primary school teacher, whose name escapes me, started to teach me to write 'joined up'. I just loved the way the letters formed and flowed and how we were taught between three lines to make sure that we had the tall and the short parts of the letter in  a uniform fashion. That was probably the only time my writing was legible.
My passion for pen and ink developed as I grew up and observed my father making lists. I have lists of lists, written in all kinds of colours and styles. My OH hates them, especially if I put his name at the top!
But it was he who rekindled my love with the fountain pen. He bought me a 1950's Parker Snorkel pen as a gift several years ago and I fell in love with it. I was taken with the notion that maybe some other 'writer' had held this pen and it would afford me special gifts. It hasn't of course, but I have a collection of fountain pens which I use regularly and most often to write letters to family and friends.
Some of my writer buddies think I'm mad writing in long hand for first drafts, but that's the way I do things. It's not that I can't write directly onto the PC, that is how I write my blogs, but I just love to watch the paper fill up with ink.

However, there are some new fangled Digi pens out there, that write like a real pen (hallelujah!) but also store the words you have written and then it can be downloaded onto your PC. Up to 100 pages of A4, apparently. Sounds like progress and it won't make my fingers all inky.
But I don't think I will ever get rid of my collection, just the opposite, I hope to add to it using the fruits of my writing labours! Well, we can all dream can't we?
Until Later,

Kindle - Does it Light Your Fire?

Did you know that the word 'kindle' not only means to light a fire, or to arouse but also means a brood or litter, especially of kittens? (Thanks to the Free Dictionary for the information). Nowadays, when someone mentions a Kindle, it only means one thing. An electronic reader. I still jar when I hear the term. But as you know from a previous post, I did download the Kindle App to my PC to try it out. And I'm going to share my love - hate relationship with this piece of technology which many have embraced like a long lost friend.

Three Negatives about Kindle

1. Most importantly for me because of its 'feel'. I know I only have the app which just means reading it on my computer screen, but I have held and read on the real thing and it still feels like a computer, just a tiny one. I can't get the feeling I do when I flick through a real book, or the smell of the paper, or the patterns of the words, it's just not the same. Even with sound effects.
2. The books I've downloaded - which in the main have been reference books - have lost some of the printed benefits in the formatting. I know this is probably a publishing issue, but even so, tables and quotes and references are often lost. I've paid for a product which is corrupt.
3. Finally, the price of many reference books in their Kindle edition is just not competitive with their hard copy cousin. And with the issues of formatting, I feel as though I get a shoddy deal.

Three Positives about Kindle

1. One of the main reasons I downloaded the app was the speed at which I could access the publication. With a click of the button, the book was magically 'there' in front of me, and for an expat who has to rely on postage through two countries, then this is a big advantage.
2. Space. I'm running out of it in my bookshelf, which are bulging with how to and reference books on writing. Do I need anymore, my other half asks? Well, is the Pope a catholic is my usual response. This way I can squirrel away as many 'book's as a like without taking up any space - well not space that can be seen anyway.
3. I'm struggling with a third reason, but I want to be fair and I suppose I have to mention the environment. A Kindle owner must be added to the list of those who are 'saving the planet' in terms of paper production and the disappearance of trees and woodlands.

But I'm afraid, once a Luddite, always a Luddite and the book in printed format for me is the only way. But I'm up for a litter of kittens, if that helps....

Until Later...

Writers Toolkit

My Man Friday just loves gizmos and gadgets. In fact when one of those pamphlets arrive with just about everything ever thought of in a gadget, like a talking tyre gauge, I try and get it hidden away in the recycling bin for he could browse for hours. But I do speak ill, because he does invest in very useful gadgets, like the strimmer and the chain saw for instance and which he takes great care of overwintering, cleaning and making sure that they have enough and the right fuel. I wouldn't know where to start!

For a writer the need for gadgets and gizmo's is a little more limiting, though I'm sure there are many of you (probably those who are far more technical than I a confirmed and happy Luddite) who have plenty! I try not to make too much room for them in my writing life, because I'm wary of them becoming just another distraction, and I have enough of those. However, I will be blogging about my favourite three things over the next few weeks.

1. Fountain Pen and Paper - you can't have one without the other!
2. Reference Books - Dictionary and Thesaurus particularly
3. Scrivener - a software programme , way off beam for a Luddite I know, but I'm learning that it can be very powerful for writers

So what tools, gadgets or gizmo's do you have lurking in your toolbox?

Until Later...