Lazy Sunday/Why I've Not Got Any Further With Any More Tasks...

It's been one of those weird days today, where I've been kind of lazy all day and had no concept of time, whatsoever - ate when I was hungry, as apposed to when it was the 'proper' time to do so, etc.

One thing I did manage to do, was finish reading my book, for the second time. After making the initial, first edits, I wanted to read it from start to finish, to see if it worked and it does (shock, horror, gasp!) In fact, I sat on the sofa, this afternoon, after I'd read the ending and thought, bloody, hell, I really feel proud of that!

Of course, it still needs some 'tweaking' and a copy is currently with a friend of mine and will probably need even more 'tweaking', when it comes back from there. At the moment, I'm still in that stage, that can't quite believe I've actually finished doing something, that I've been planning in my head for so long!

I am getting itchy feet though. I want to get the book to the stage, where I'm submitting it to Agents, so it's technically 'finished' and there is nothing more that I can do on it, at that moment in time. I've completely loved the process of nurturing the characters from start to finish and I can't wait to start on my next project.

Me and hubbie have also been working on my website, which is nearly finished and should be ready to launch very shortly. Watch this space....

The End

I would just like to tell everyone, that on the 1st March at 16:50pm, I have officially finished the first draft of my novel. Can I have my life back now please?!!

It's Oh So Quiet!

Oh gosh, has it really been a week since I last posted? I really must get my finger out and post more often. Not that I have a lot to say at the moment. I've been mostly writing my novel and managed to complete the chapter that I was dreading, where something happens to my main character. I've been skirting around writing this for nearly two weeks, but finally I bit the bullet yesterday and did it! So I'm pleased that one's out the way.

No more completed tasks to report at the moment. I got four books from the BBC Top 100 list, so I will be reading those in due course and I also really need to rebook the balloon ride - I think you can start taking the flights from March (may also upgrade to a weekend pass to save me wasting days from work).

Apart from that, it's been another pants week - more redundancies, this time at hubbie's place of work and hubbie is one of the chosen ones, unless he can find another job at the same firm within 90 days. I also missed out on a trip to Leeds to see Caroline Smailes do a book reading, because of the weather, so all in all, not a good week.

So with recent events this week, I've decided that this year will be a 'credit crunch' task year and I will only be undertaking tasks that don't cost anything to do. Cross everything, that should mean another eight tasks will be completed this year!

Back To Normal (ish)

Well, it's been a week since we got back from NYC and in that time, I've slept a lot, been to the Panto and unfortunately had to witness 1000 people being made redundant from our company, including close friends. I was half expecting them to tell me that I was going and had reasoned with myself that at least I could get on with writing, if that was the case. Thankfully our team is not affected but 250 are going from the Head Office where I work and it doesn't make you feel any better, when you see so many people around you, devastated by the news.

So, needless to say, I haven't really started to plan my next task this week, as my mind has been elsewhere. I have managed to plan a little of my novel and started writing again yesterday. I want to try and finish my first draft asap now, as I want it ready to be submitted to Agents in the first part of the year. So, I think it will be back to writing each night - yesterday felt good, picking up the pieces of what I had left prior to Christmas. I've become quite fond of my lead character and I'd like the first part of her story to be completed for now.

I Heart Bank Holidays

This bank holiday weekend, I will be.....

• Booking a beginners French course at the local college
• Searching for a dance class to do this Autumn
• Hoping to hit 30,000 words on my novel
• Going to see the new Shane Meadows' film 'Somers Town'
• Praying for rain so next door can't have their annual BBQ

Hope your bank holiday weekend is equally as exciting!

Back On Track....

The black cloud that has hung above my head, for what seems like weeks now, has finally lifted and I spent a good chunk of Sunday writing an impressive 2,000 words for my novel. Well the fact that I wrote that amount in one sitting is pretty impressive, I'm not sure if the words themselves are impressive, but there we go!!

I've been trying to get some sort of structure together for my novel. Yes, I wrote the synopsis, did a character profile and a chapter synopsis before I started to write the novel itself, but now, nearly 20,000 words into it, things have changed. The biggest realisation is that the existing main plot wasn't enough to carry the whole book, so a whole new sub plot has now emerged, which was kind of there before, buzzing around in my head, but I didn't quite know how it would fit in, but now it's slotting in quite nicely. I've also redone a chapter synopsis, but just covering the chapters I've already written, to give me some sense of how the story is going, but also to hopefully stop any glaring errors - I'm sure there will be some corkers, when I get to the first draft stage!

For that split second when I sit at my laptop, I wonder if I will able to put into words, this world I have created within my head, but thankfully my fingers seem to find the appropriate keys and slowly but surely a novel is emerging.