NaNo Diaries: Day Thirteen

Evil Eye Tree in Turkey said to ward off harm

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 6.17am
Word Count: 2454 (Total - 26,250)
Treats: Simon making risotto for lunch, Chestnut and Mushroom
Other Activity: Not a lot, feeling a tad under the weather.
Word of the Day: SAPORIFIC adjective 1. producing or imparting flavour or taste.




Friday the thirteenth. Good job I'm not superstitious and that tree looks scary! My maternal grandmother, Hettie was terribly superstitious. She would allow us to open umbrellas in the house, nor walk on cracks in pavements and even prevented my mother from getting married in May (Marry in May, rue the day). As my parents celebrated fifty years of marriage, maybe she was right. We have lots of black cats here in out feral cat community and the Italians are very wary of them, instead of bringing luck they signify evil. 

Anyway, despite a bit of a stop start to my writing session this morning - where poor Simon got a bit of a roasting for asking me where the sellotape was - I managed to pen a good word count. The trouble is when your concentration is pierced by the slightest thing when your're in mid flow, you can never recover that moment. Still I went on to write and enjoyed the session so maybe not so bad after all. My poor husband will be so glad when November is over... He's a star.

Ciao for Now

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 Six

My Writing Desk... in the Dining Room

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 6.32 
Word Count:2106 (Total 13097) 
Treats: Stopped for cappuccino and croissant while out shopping.
Exercise: Another walk in the woods 
Word of the Day: CREPUSCULAR (adjective) 1. of, relating to, or resembling twilight; dim; indistinct. 2. Zoology. appearing or active in the twilight, as certain bats and insects.

The lie in was not planned this morning but Naughty Nell woke us as 4.20am grumbling and growling. The two other dogs did not join in - if they had we'd have been deafened - but she did not stop despite our sleepy reassurances. In the end I switched on a torch and shone it at the place she was looking at. My Ugg boots. One of them had fallen over and I guess she saw something in their shadow, who knows?

I've written two different stories today. The second was prompted by a Monday Muse posted on my on-line writers group at Writers Abroad. It had created the nuggets of a character in my head who just would not go away so I had to let her have her day. And so she has and a very enjoyable encounter it was too. Love it when I go off the prescribed track, must be the rebel in me!

Ciao for Now

NaNo Diaries: Day Five

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 6.06 - a 
Word Count:2473 (Total 10991) 
Treats: One square of chocolate for a mid NaNo slump but didn't enjoy it all that much. A glass of wine will be very welcome
Exercise: A walk in the woods with Naughty Nell, who ran three times as much as I walked.
Word of the Day - RECONDITE (adjective) 1. dealing with very profound, difficult, or abstruse subject matter: a recondite treatise. 
2. beyond ordinary knowledge or understanding; esoteric: recondite principles.

This is Tigsy, the matriarch of our little feline community and one of Bertie's (the large male Maremma sheepdog) best friends. I have a picture of them kissing somewhere - will dig it out. I don't know why she likes the box, but it's a cheap bed! 

One of the things I've learnt over the last few weeks is how to develop a determination to write, whatever happens. As you can see from my wake up times I rise early in the hope to capture that dreamy thought time which gives me lots of ideas. It also, in theory should be the quietest time. And most importantly it is my most productive time, well in terms of quantity if not quality. 

However, with the arsenal of cats and dogs that we live with, the quiet time is very short lived. I creep out of our bedroom (we have a very tiny house and live on one level) into the room which serves as our dining room and my writing room. It's not huge, but I like it. First of all the two big dogs decide they don't want to stay with Naughty Nell so bark loudly to be let out. Then she objects so starts scratching at the door until Simon entices her back to bed. Just as I get into my writing mode, the cats start to meow with a ferocity that belies their loving nature. First one, then a second until all six are demanding 'Breakfast Time!' 

I ignore all these interruptions, having learnt to just tune them out, until my twenty five minutes are up. I sat back this morning feeling very chuffed with myself and was treated to the snoring duo of Simon and Nell through the bedroom door. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Ciao for Now

NaNo Diaries: Day Three

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 5.15am (I'm not joking, dog being sick)
Word Count: 2003 (the three are very important)
Chocolate: Nada, but I did bake some carrot and raisin muffins
Wine: A Rum and Black (that's Cassis) when I've finished this post





In preparation for NaNo, I've been gathering prompts from a number of sources to use during the course of the month. I've selected thirty of them and created a Scrivener scene for each one of them, which show up nicely in the cork-board view. 

However, I wanted to select them randomly (as I'd be tempted to choose the ones that interest me most at that moment in time and might not like the end ones)  so I've written the numbers from 1-30 on pieces of paper, screwed them up and put them in a bowl. Simon chooses one each night before I go to bed so I can read the prompt and go to bed and maturate the seedlings for my writing. That's the theory anyway.

They're a mixture of images, scenes, dialogue, characters just to provide a little variety. I've recently become a Pinterest fan and have started some of my own boards which you can find here. A great way to collect and gather information and suits my preference for 'visuals'. 

The wellies above featured in my writing session on Day Two. They weren't actually blue. Nor were they spotty, nor filled with plants (but a great idea!). They weren't even in the original prompt. But red wellies did pop into my head some time during the night before as being important to my character. Each to their own. 

Ciao for now,

WRITING RHYTHM

Finding the Right Beat


After a frustrating week last week, compounded by falling and damaging my thumb and wrist, I sat back and gave myself a serious talking too. Having excited myself dizzy by setting a writing strategy and drilling down to the nitty gritty of my writing fantasies, I felt I should have been further on. 
Like all good intentions, strategies, goals and action lists are only as good as the activities which make them happen and that means getting into a rhythm, finding your pace. Letting the dust settle after all this navel gazing actually means you have to look through the haziness and settle into some kind of routine. Oh! I can hear the cry, but isn't creativity ruined by routine? Not in my writing world, in fact I know that despite my desire to be a wandering scribe, I need to develop a system. I buck against this all the time like a teenager asked to tidy their room. One of my strategies for writing was to expand my 'portfolio' of stories for development. To achieve this I set myself the goal of free writing to a daily prompt. Now I do accomplish this most weeks for Writers Abroad where I really enjoy the challenge of our Monday Muse. In previous years I have for weeks on end, written in a daily journal, using a prompt. 
So I know I can do it. 
The reason I've managed to carry out this activity is because I plan to do it at a regular time (that is in the morning almost before I've discovered it's daylight). It worked then and without that pace, it isn't now.  So listen to your heart and see what your rhythm is telling you.
Until Later...