Round-up

Well, it's been a busy few weeks. It involved the holiday to Portugal. A return to college. Catching flu. My TV breaking. And the little teeny-tiny thing that was completion of the first draft of my book. (does a little victory dance)

The holiday was great, even if the food wasn't. It was nice to relax and spend at least a week not worrying about anything.

College has begun, with vengeance. I don't know why people say once first year is over, the hardest part is done. That's very misleading. It's only the second week and I'm having heart-palpations with the amount of work I've to do. Give me one more week and the sleepless nights will begin.
Essays will soon begin to mount up. I don't dare start them just yet though because I simply haven't a clue how to even begin. How can I do an essay on stuff we've yet to cover?

My flu is now beginning to abate. Thank Jebus. But sadly, I think it's too late for the television. That's dreadful news because 1. I'm now missing The Story of The Jews on BBC2 and 2. BBC4 had some great documentaries that I wanted to watch. I'm now unable too.

But that flu/no TV combination wasn't all bad. It meant that I had nothing else to do at the weekend but my whole college weekly readings, and finish my novel. I was a climax and epilogue short prior to Portugal. With college beginning the week I returned, I doubted I'd get the story finished this side of Christmas.
Thankfully I did, and Christmas may be instead spent working on the edits. I feel like rushing straight into edits, but I know it'll be better if I leave it alone for a while, let it mature, so to speak, and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Perfection is Umpossible

I can't help but think I could have my story completely and all by now if I treated my first draft as just that - a first draft.
It's ok to make mistakes. It's ok to continue onwards and upwards knowing it's not perfect. That's why editing is a thing.
I need to get all this through my head because I'm slowing myself up significantly by pouring over every word I type out, then going back to fix certain words and emotions. Note to self: DO THIS LATER. It doesn't have to be perfect right now at all!

Another note to self: get back to work and stop pissing about on the internet.
There! Glad I listen.

Sunshine and Creativity

It's been a case of writers block today and yesterday. I barely got 500 words down yesterday. Today I am simply staring at the blank screen, willing myself to write something, anything, just bust that wall down!
I know my plot. I know what happened, and what's going to happen. It's just getting from what has been (A) to what will be (B) that's the problem.
Truthfully, it's the sun's fault. My window is opened, pushed wide in order for the smallest of breezes to come in. Everything outside looks appealing. Inside means hot, clammy work. Outside means picnicking beneath large oak trees. I know which I prefer. And I also know which I can't have :(
(But that said, perhaps I'll write non-linear - just get something down, then frolic in the dying evening sun? Frolicking in this heat is stroke encouraging.)

Dilemma emma.

I think I need to join a writers group or something. I don't know if my protagonist is likable enough, or at all. I would ask my friends to read over it, give me feedback on her, but they either don't care or are too busy.
By design she is sarcastic and has anger issues, but female protagonist are hard when you are writing for a female audience, there has to be certain attributes that the audience has to identify with. And there is a fine line between likable and dislikeable. The female literary characters that are likable tend not to be bitchy in nature. Hell, she is my character and even I am frustrated with how she lashes out first, thinks things out later. But I love her too because I understand her reasons.
Before it was good, before I was part of a creative writing class. It was brilliant and so supportive. (In fact I doubt I would have finished my first novel if not for the encouragement I received there. I had never finished a story before it and always believed I didn't have it in me to do so.) But I had to leave that when I started college. Now I am at a loss to see an outside perspective on my work.
I think I just have to keep reminding myself - I'm writing this for me. For fun. I'm writing this for me. For fun. Let my character have free reign of the page. Let her voice come through, whether it be shouting or whispering.

Random tandem

Random Item #1
I've decided to Bloom after all. The general consensus from the people I discussed it with was 'sure, you're only sending it in. Not signing anything. No harm in trying so.' I concur. You don't get anywhere in life if you don't try, I guess.

Random Item #2
I shall be seeing Man of Steel in a few hours. Can. Not. Wait.
I will most likely give a quick review in the next day or two.

Random Item #3
What is that above? Like seventy words? I wrote about seventy words, and it took me about ten minutes to do so. My laptop is not only freezing, but it's deleting words randomly. Like it has a mind of its own, a mind that's going crazy. A famous-too-young-and-now-going-crazy kind of crazy.
That's why I decided that I have to get a new one. When college begins again I will need one. One that doesn't take forever, one that doesn't have the blue screen of death every hour, one that I don't get an overwhelming urge to throw out the window.
Well I got one. Woohoo! It's small because I could only afford a cheap one that was on sale, plus I didn't fancy carrying in a big jalopy into college.
It's nice. Not fantastic. But it'll do the trick i.e. help me keep my sanity and rage attacks down.

Random Item #4
I'm trying to figure out how magic will work in my 'world.' 12,000 words in and I'm only now realising I never thought this part out yet. D'oh!
It's gonna be tricky! A lot of Post-its are gonna get used. Hair pulling will occur. Swear words shall be groaned. God, I love creativity! :D

If you want to be a writer, then write

I swear, I don't do anything normal. I just have to go rushing ahead, as always. Knowing it never works out. But yet, I still go and do it. *sigh*

I have this story, you see. It has a girl. A guy. And another girl. It has fairies. A castle. And it has magic.
So has a million billion zillion other people, I don't hear you say. That is true. It's the more intricate plot points and the twist and turns that make the story only like one in a million, rather than one in a million billion quaddillion (yes, I know, I'm making stuff up now. I'm an aspiring writer, that's kinda what we do.)
Anyway, I'm getting off point, I do that...hey look, that dog has a puffy tail...*chases it for an hour*
Anyway, as I was saying. I don't do anything I tell myself I will do.
This story is part of a planned trilogy (how pretentious does that sound!) and instead on, you know, actually writing the first book, I go and write the final scene of the final book.
The final scene of the final book. And I don't even have a title yet for the first one.
I exasperate myself sometimes!