Finishing Things

I've been subscribed to UK writing magazine Writers' Forum since April, and every month I look forward to flicking through its pages. It contains tips for improving your writing, interviews with agents, editors, and publishers, and competitions. (Though you have to double-check whether the competitions are for UK residents only. Some are, most aren't.) It's sometimes a surreal read, since many of the people whose blogs I read also write for or are mentioned in its pages!

It often has submission guidelines for publications – I did an Internet search once to try and find short story submission guidelines for the Australian Woman's Day magazine, only to find it in the magazine (I have since found the guidelines online).

A column in the November issue suggested that writers could spend the remainder of 2009 focusing on finishing their current projects.

I like this idea. I have two Writing School assignments, and eight submissions that I'd like to complete before December 31. But then I also have four stories to write for EuroFiction, I'm sure someone would like me to write Chapter Five of my current FanFiction novella, and I have this tiny thing called NaNoWriMo that's going to keep me busy for just a little bit of November!

We'll see how we go. I'll be positive and say I will get this all done by the end of this year.

I just have to work out how! :)

Writerly Activities for today:

• Did some research for the re-writing process of my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel. (Yes, I know this wasn't listed on my tasks to finish by the end of this year, but it was what I felt like doing today.)

Being Social

No more weekends free in November - I've just pencilled in the last free day to hold my belated birthday party. Every single other day is filled with birthday parties (other people's!), quiz nights, work things, craft fairs, meet-ups with friends, and potential NaNoWriMo write-ins.

This isn't bad. It's good. Doing social things is healthy - it balances out all of the time I spend at work and at home when it's just me and the computer. It's just that it's November.

My brother (who, through an agreement reached in 1996 when I was thirteen and he was eleven, is my “manager” (And has so far earned $25 from my writing. I argue that if he was a better manager, he'd have earned more!)) said I should give up NaNoWriMo this year. I was horrified (so was Mum, who lost no time in pointing out the error of his ways)! I'll just have to be ultra-organised. No procrastination for me next month!

Writerly Activities for today

• None. Needed to sleep, especially seeing how sleep will be limited in November!

The New Year

26 today. This means I've wanted to be a writer for half of my life. I guess I sort of am – I write, I'm just too afraid to spend time making my stories perfect and so I end up sending them out without a good chance of them getting published. It's one of the things I have to work on.

Plans for the next year? I'd really like to finish making the edits on my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel. Back in September, I received feedback for my novel from the Chick Lit Writers of the World Get Your Stiletto In The Door competition, and amongst the things that were painful to read (like how my MC was surrounded with abusive characters, who I didn't think were all that mean), there were some really good and (most importantly) constructive comments which have bolstered my determination to complete the novel. And it was really interesting to see how someone from a different country (USA, I think) responded to my chick lit character's Australian point-of-view.

And then, of course, the matter of finishing off Writing School. I know, promises, promises!

Writerly Activities for today

• None! It's my birthday - I went out for tea instead!

I Can't Write Without: Milo Coffees

It started out as something to keep me calm and awake. Beginning to study for an Introduction to Database Systems exam at two o'clock in the afternoon, when the final exam was four hours later, was a really bad idea. But you know me – everything I don't want to do I leave as late as possible. So I crammed for four hours, sat in the exam room for three hours, and at nine pm walked out, listening dejectedly to everyone else discussing the answers that they had put down, realising that they were all different to my answers, and knowing I had failed. Miraculously, I ended up with a High Distinction (I don't know if they have the same scoring system in other countries – that's over 85%). Ever since then, Milo Coffees have been my addiction.

What is it? Usually it's two teaspoons of Milo plus a teaspoon of coffee (originally Nescafe, but now most likely Moccona – and I'm sorry in advance to those people who detest instant coffee and don't understand how people like me can drink it) in a mug, fill it up with milk (I don't like making my Milos or coffees with water), and then zap it in the microwave on high for one and a half minutes.

It's not to everyone's taste. When I lived with my brother, he couldn't cope with the smell, though I don't think it smells much at all (Maybe he was just fulfilling his mission in life of being annoying?). And because it's packed full of energy and caffeine, I can't physically drink too much of it. Because of this, I only drink it when I'm writing – it's one of those signals to the people who live with me: when there's an empty mug on the sink containing the remains of a Milo Coffee, I've been working on a story.

Do you have a food or drink you can't live without while writing?

Writerly Activities for today:

• Finished reading No Plot, No Problem! by Chris Baty. Am now all ready for NaNoWriMo?!

Twelve Days Until NaNoWriMo

Can you believe that there's only twelve days to go until the craziness of NaNoWriMo begins? I can't!

And it's getting more widespread. I've done it for the past two years, but this year my friends (who can't understand how I make time to write 50,000 words in one month (I don't tell them that I spend the first week and a half procrastinating about what I want to write!)) know other people who are also doing NaNoWriMo.

The more people who do NaNoWriMo, the better. It's a great challenge, and I like it because it has this magical way of forcing me to write. Special writing magic that seems to disappear on me for the other eleven months of the year!

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Writerly Activities for today

• Began reading Chris Baty's No Plot, No Problem! to prepare for NaNoWriMo

The Question is: “Why?”

I have been thinking about how I write, when I write, what inspires me to sit down and write, and what blocks me from writing. For instance, why can I discipline myself to write 50,000 words of a NaNoWriMo novel in two and a half weeks, but I take eight months to finish a short story? It's made me stop and think why I am like this – and how can I go about improving myself?

As a form of self-therapy, I think I'll highlight one of my writing problems (or some other random writing-related thing) in a blog post each day. I might not be able to provide the answers to my questions, but perhaps that's where you come in?

And if nothing else, I'll be spending twenty minutes a day writing!

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Writerly Activities for today:

• Wrote a synopsis of a short story in order to get the plot straightened out


• Began a pseudo-outline for my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel


• Spent a lot of time reminding myself why I want to be a writer


• Made a list of my current writing projects and wrote a timeline on how I'm going to complete them. (It always makes me feel good once I've organised my projects like this. Now I just have to work out how to make myself stick to my self-inflicted deadlines, and I'll feel even better!)

I'm oh-so-tired!

I'm participating in SlingInk's EuroFiction competition this year. The method behind my madness is that it will force me to make time to write stories, and because it's a competition, there'd be no point in sending just anything off, would there? (And I can't give up - a waste of an entry fee if I did!)

What's annoyed me most is that I have this idea of how I want the story to go in my head, but when I sit down to write it, the quality that's in my head isn't exactly the same as what I'm reading on the screen.

I'm putting it down to the fact I'm leaving it too late to do the writing. We're given two weeks per task, and so far I've done the first draft the Tuesday before it's been due, and then edited on the Wednesday and Thursday nights, whilst being stressed about the looming deadline and the fact that my story, which I can't change now due to lack of time, doesn't have a plot or any decent characterisation.

In other words, it's my own fault! Back to Time Management 101 for me! :)

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Hopefully this post makes some sense. It's past midnight, work's been really busy, and I think by stressing myself out so much I'm making myself feel sick. That's not good! I'd better get some sleep... Goodnight everyone!