In the Bag

Hooray. Finally after way too long I've finished chapter 4! What a relief. The big problem now of course is what the hell happens in chapter 5?

That's the trouble with pansting (is that spelt right?) In the past I've always had at least some kind of outline, or failing that stepping stones that highlighted all the important scenes I had to cover. This time around I have zilch, just notes scribbled down on characters' motivation and such like. It's all new territory for me and I'm not convinced my muse approves.

But I do love the story and can't wait to see how all the various threads are going to untangle themselves before the end.

What do you mean, that's something I have to work out for myself?! You're joking, right?

The Deal - Day Two

Not so good today. I managed just under 3 pages so still haven't quite finished chapter 4. However, guv, it's not my fault!!! My eldest daughter arrived home from uni earlier than I expected so of course had to spend time with her. ahem. Well okay so I didn't really but she decided to put on this terrible film that we'd tried to watch last night but gave up because it was so awful.

You know the type of movie where it's so bad you can't drag your eyes away? On the off chance that something amazing will happen or there'll be this brilliant, imaginative twist at the end that makes the rest of the drivel worthwhile?

Er, yeah. Well 90 odd minutes later we were still waiting for the something wonderful to happen. And then it did. It ended.

Sigh.

I really should've just kept on plugging away at Lil and got that chapter finished!

The Deal - Day One

Okay here's the thing. For the last 12 days I've managed absolute zilch on Kil Lil. And the longer it went on, the harder it was to even think about opening the document, never mind actually write anything.

Not that I've been lazing off completely. I have been busy querying agents, and I find that all quite stressful! (yes so I am making excuses... shoot me...!)

Anyway, apart from the fact I hate it when I'm not writing I was also feeling incredibly guilty because Amanda's been eye deep in revisions and doing an absolute fantastic job. So yesterday Sara and I had a Discussion and decided on a deal to get us both back into the loop.

We decided that today we both had to write one paragraph on our wips.

Not much you might think, but I reckon a lot of it is all psycological. If I could just manage to open that doc and write one paragraph, I'd be back in the swing of it again.

So this morning I dived back into Lil and argh. Double argh. Three hours later I'd managed the grand total of 3 pages, and can I just say it was like trying to pass gall stones (been there, done that...!)

Tomorrow our deal is to finish one whole page, so with a bit of luck I might finally wrap up chapter 4, which has been hanging around for the last three weeks bugging the life out of me.

And as a side note, do you notice I am putting links? Yay me!

Penile Brains

What is it with these emails ads? I've been plagued by that doctor one for ages offering all sorts of sexual edifications but the latest blast reads like some dusty penny dreadful before descending (or maybe ascending is a better word) into complete gobbledegook.

Like, what?

I block and bounce until I feel like I'm playing ping pong with my mouse. What I really want to do is hit reply and tell them to FOAD (see Miss Snark for clarification on that one!) Recently I read the best thing to do is just delete as if you bounce they KNOW YOU ARE REALLY THERE.

Well, oopsy, too late for that one!

I don't care about the odd ones that slip through but when I open up my emails and have 8 of them it really pisses me off. Which I suppose is the point but honestly - what is the point? Am I missing it?

Above and Beyond

My son went off to camp this morning and I'm missing him already (yes how sad. haha). I think the dog missed him in advance, as 11 pm last night my son wanders in to inform us she had crapped in the middle of his bedroom and the stink had woken him up. Argh. I was so not a happy bunny.

Anyway. So I checked his case about 20 times over the weekend to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything and 8 am this morning off we set for the school. I have to say, the teachers are fabulous to do this camp thing every year. It's not something I'd like to do - be in charge of a hundred eleven and twelve year olds for a week. Talk about going above and beyond. It kills me hosting a sleep over for three of them!

So big thank you to the brilliant teachers for giving up their time and I just hope it wasn't a taste of Things To Come that one of my son's friends was ordered off the coach prior to departure for misbehaving. Oops.

Name of the Game

I have a perfectly reasonable working title for WIP. It's not like totally knock your socks off fabulous or anything like that, but it kinda sums up the tone I need ( and I need a title that 'works' for me before I can get stuck into writing!)

Okay so here's the thing. The other day one of my wonderful CPs dubbed it Kill Lil. Hehe. Very funny. The trouble is, now whenever I think about this story, I call it Kill Lil in my head. It's very distracting because my heroine is neither a killer nor gets killed (although the hero thinks she is dead but that's not the point... or is it? Hmm, candle flicker moment!)

All right. Kill Lil it is!

Back in the Saddle

I was so fed up with not writing that I thought bugger it, never mind if I don't have my middle plotted out, just start the story already!

So that's what I did yesterday, when my dh took our son out fishing for lures (I passed on the offer to join them because come on. Just how riveting is it shopping for lures??)

I had about 90 minutes spare and I'd already checked out my loops and Miss Snark, brainstormed work related issues with Sara (aka gossiping... ) and it was just getting beyond ridiculous. I HATE not writing! I get so crabby it's not funny.

I came off line (I always have to come off line before I write. It's just another of those weird rituals I must perform) opened up a new doc, typed in my New Title and voila I was off!

Only three pages, but wow. I feel soooo much better. It's like therapy!

Real Life... what's that...?

Real life's been a bit of a bugger at the moment and is playing havoc with my writing.

Er, okay. So that's just a big fat excuse as to why I've managed sweet zero on the writing front over the last couple of weeks. Three weeks? OMG. Is it really coming up to four weeks?

So here's some less buggerish stuff going on in my life at the moment:

Eldest daughter recently started her nursing course and is really enjoying it. (This is the child who faints at the sight of a needle. I'm agog as to how she's going to handle that side of things and let's just not mention bed baths. Like, please.)

Youngest daughter is doing work experience at a child care centre and is being given a lot of dirty bottoms to clean. Heh heh. Not that I find that funny. Not at all. At least she's given disposal gloves. Heh heh.

My baby (aka only son) is going on his school camp in just over a week and is very excited. I'm not sure how we're going to get through four nights without his noisy presence in the house. Might need to stock up on lots of chocolate.

Oh yes. And driving home from college the other day the tyre on my car exploded. I was just a little bit traumatised.

Wish my muse would buck up and drop a fully formed plot in my lap. I mean come on. Is that really so much to ask?!