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Silent(ish) Sunday

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As some of you may remember, I am involved in a relay writing project with a bunch of lovely people I met on the internet. Entitled ‘The Life and Times of a Working Barbarian’ it involves each of us taking it in turns to pen instalments of a gripping fantasy saga containing lots of Strong Female Characters and, apparently, a fair number of worms.

For various reasons the barbarian took a bit of a break at the start of this year, so what with one thing and another I haven’t written a chapter since the start of October 2013. I’m therefore spending my afternoon reminding myself what has happened since, as it turns out my next chapter goes live tomorrow. There’s nothing quite as motivating as having totally forgotten an impending deadline…

I strongly urge you to do the same, and check back tomorrow to vote on what happens next.

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Put the lime in the coconut

I just filled my hair with coconut oil on the advice of RocknRoll Bride. I smell completely amazing, and I’m sorry you can’t all come and smell me. The only thing stopping me from eating my own hair at this point is the fact that I think it’s one of those things, like chewing gum, that stays in your intestines for a hundred years. Also it’s quite difficult to ingest more than a strand at a time, which is very time consuming. Continue reading “Put the lime in the coconut” →

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Operation Stop Pootering And Write (day 3)

I think we could call today a write-off, although not in the sense that I actually wrote anything.  Well, actually I wrote quite a lot but none of it was creative. I did eat some mushrooms, though, so that was pretty rewarding.

I’m not going to berate myself for my lack of actual writing, though, because I did a lot of thinking about writing – and wanky though this might sound it was probably necessary.  I’ve been thinking about what I need to do to make my current project better (in brief: a lot), and about how to approach that in a sensible and constructive manner (ie not creating another whiteboard of shame situation).  And tonight I am going to go to bed at a sensible time so that I can get up early in the morning and start putting that thought into practice.

In the meantime, here’s one of those Vines I keep making instead of writing anything proper…

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The Make Time To Write At Any Cost Diaries (day 2)

This week I am making a concerted effort to find and protect my writing time, because life has gotten on top of me recently and all I’ve really done is make a couple of Vines. This is day two…

7.56am haul myself out of bed, late again. Tomorrow I will put my phone on the other side of the room so I can’t hit snooze.

7.58am Realise I am going to have to make a decision between coffee and removing the onion smell (if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, read yesterday’s post). Fall to knees screaming ‘noooooo!’ Choose to shower because I work in an open plan office and don’t particularly want everyone in it to spend the day sniffing the air going ‘what is that?’

8.20am wrangle with some hair related angst. When exactly are you too old to do your hair in two plaits? It is a worry.  There again, I have the stylistic tendencies of a 9 year old girl in most other respects – I probably shouldn’t fight it.

8.30am read a tweet on my way out of the door claiming that Sarah Waters redrafts things up to 34 times before sending to an agent or publisher. Nobody should live at that speed. Seriously, I’ll be dead by the time I’ve done that many redrafts.

6pm get home. Open post, drink some water, consider going for a jog.

6.40pm head out for a jog.  Just call me Haruki Murakami.

8pm congratulate self on not dying. Open up my shiny new copy of Mslexia for some ‘sit down and write’ inspiration.

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8.15pm my brother comes round for a visit (and to collect a phone charger. Multitasking). We catch up over some minstrels.

9.25pm brother heads home. I sit and finish drafting an application for a mentoring project. This involves 20 minutes of editing fiction! Result!

10.55pm write a blog post about how incredibly well I’m doing. 20 minutes in one day!  With momentum like this, who needs writing retreats…

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Protect Your Writing Time At All Costs (day 1)

This week I have resolved to find and protect a little bit of creative writing time every day. I’m off to a flying start…

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7.40am realise I have slept through my alarm. Decide writing time will be in the evening.

5.45pm arrive home from work. Read a good article (via Twitter) about writing – 4 signs that you’re not writing enough and 4 things you can do about it – and resolve to crack on with things.

6.05pm wash a load of dishes

6.20pm decide that whilst I am doing said dishes I might as well research some book vloggers on the YouTube. I hear video blogs are all the rage these days and am concerned I am behind the times.

6.25pm decide to go with the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, which is apparently used by school teachers doing Pride and Prejudice these days and is generally a good and popular thing on the Internet and in the field of education.

8.50pm realise I have watched 25 episodes of the Lizzie Bennett diaries and done no writing or editing. NB – the only reason I notice this is because my other half arrives home and interrupts me.

9pm he puts on Doctor Who (The Face of Evil, if you’re curious – it’s a Tom Baker one involving lots of manly RADA thighs). I pretend to write a blog post, but am actually on Twitter catching up on feminist music to listen to this June.

11pm notice I smell very strongly of onions. Probably because at some point during the YouTube experience I made a load of onion soup.

11.05pm write blog post on my phone.

Maybe I’ll do better tomorrow…

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Talking the Talk (with Henry David Thoreau)

I just found this on Pinterest (because where else would I be on a Saturday afternoon when I told myself I’d get some writing and editing finished), and I felt the urge to pick it apart a bit (because again, I’m supposed to be working).

Thoreau quote: Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you've imagined

‘Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you’ve imagined’ – Henry David Thoreau.

Continue reading “Talking the Talk (with Henry David Thoreau)” →

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