NaNo Diaries: Days Twenty Five to Twenty Seven

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 6.15 am

Word Count: 2100 (Total - 50,950

Treats: A Story Binder download (for another post)

Other Activity: Uploading my novel to Createspace Grrrrr.

Word of the Day: ONIOMANIA noun 1. an uncontrollable desire to buy things.

Yay, I hit the magic 50k mark this morning! Feeling oh, so chuffed. I haven't been posting because I've also been formatting my next publication for release next Tuesday 1st December. I love the process of self publishing my book, I feel very much in control of its destiny. Quite a scary place to be and I'm sure with practice it will get easier. Needless to say I'm on another learning curve even though I've been here before... 

Now for a large glass of something,

Ciao for Now

NaNo Diaries - Day Twenty Four

Freya, a proper softie...

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 6.43 am - very dark and grey!

Word Count: 1800 (Total - 44,636)

Treats: A 2016 Calendar - doesn't take much to make me happy

Other Activity: Proofing my book with my lovely husband, by the fire

Word of the Day: SPLENDIFEROUS adjective 1. splendid; magnificent; fine.

We share our lives with several animals, as I've probably mentioned before. The picture above is Freya, our four year old Italian Sheepdog. Yes, she's only four years old and is a mighty giant of a beast who thinks she's a lap dog! This is her on our bed, and remember we have another dog like Freya, Bertie who is not as big and the Naughty Nell to keep us company. Freya likes to make her entrance about 5am (having slept on the sofa until then). She paws at my side of the bed until I make room for her by my feet. Nell usually ends up in the middle of us! And I won't mention the kitties... No wonder I wake with a crick in my neck.

My lovely husband and soul mate, Simon has been helping with the final polish of The Good{Expat}Life today. He's gone through it with a fine tooth comb and it's amazing after three edits how many errors have slipped in unintentionally! We've had quite a laugh sat by the fire with him and his red pen, me and the laptop and a fire burning in the corner... cosy editing. 

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

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 Four

Morning Pages Wake Up Call: 6.02 but groggy - shouldn't have had that extra glass of wine
Word Count: 2039 - a bit of a struggle today
Chocolate: Nope, but a home-made pizza, yum
Wine: Just had to mop up 5 litres after the glass dama broke... payback




Meet Naughty Nell, our one year old Spring Spaniel. She provides a lot of inspiration for me, look at the size of that log! Things might be tough but it doesn't mean you don't do them. And that's how it's felt with my writing today. Tough. 

I took an 'Artist's Date' today, part of therapy recommended in Julia Cameron's The Artists Way. I don't have many dates, I'm a bit of a home girl but today we went to the beach with Naughty Nell. As you can see it was a glorious day, around 18 degrees and a very calm sea. And when we got back I picked up my day four NaNo story and wrote another thousand words even though I really felt like having an afternoon nap, especially after that pizza! I'm glad I persevered though, I have a wonderful sense of achievement and writing those numbers on my word count is so very satisfying.

Ciao for Now

April Witch Prize

Continuing with the commitment to the Write1Sub1 Challenge, I'm the proud recipient of the April Witch Award. I've subbed four short stories, admittedly not all written this month but edited and polished and sent. Since my track record with meeting challenges is terrible, I'm quite proud that I've made it through a third of the year (and exceeded this target in one month).
A good way to start May methinks - I've signed up to '80,000 word in 80 days' challenge with Quillers, and have chosen to split my word count between finishing my medieval Saxon tale, Morning Gift and a new novella in a new genre, fantasy. In addition for this month, I'm going to concentrate on rewriting three stories per week of the Penny and George series and seriously commit to the re-editing of The Promise. 
So I'm looking for the proverbial kick up the a*s* if I start to slack...
Until Later...