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!

How to Achieve Great Things?

I was lurking around on the NaNoWriMo website last night in an attempt to become competent with social networking (by posting on forums), when I came across the following quote on one of their flyers:

"To achieve great things, two things are needed:
a plan, and not quite enough time."
- Leonard Bernstein

My first thought was: 'Yes! All I need is a writing plan and a few self-imposed deadlines and I'll be fine!'

Then a second thought slammed its way into my head: 'You plan all of the time. All you do is plan what you're going to write and when you're going to write it. And you do give yourself deadlines. Deadlines that are impossible to achieve!'

My issue is sitting down and writing. Well, no, I'm fine with sitting at my computer. I can do that all day - I'm very good at looking like I'm working on some great epic when I'm really re-reading stories written many years ago.

No, my issue isn't with writing. I think the real issue is with finishing. I never think anything is good enough. Lots of it gets sent out not because it is finished, but because I can't see how to make it better, and who knows? Maybe whoever it gets sent to will think it's the best story they've ever read? Though, they haven't yet.

The saga that is my attempt to finish my correspondence course is three assignments, eight submissions away from me receiving a certificate that will be the result of six years of procrastination.

I gave myself a new deadline of August 22. I've already worked out I can't meet that.

I want to send two things off per week. Wanting and doing are two very different things ...

I Do What the Voices Tell Me ...

... and right now, they aren't saying the nicest things.

So I'm taking a break from my desk, in an attempt to get away from the voice inside my head/internal editor (call it what you will) that is insisting that I cannot write anything anybody would want to read.

And my week had been going so well!

On Sunday, I finally bought a new laptop (my old one died just over a year ago). No more having to schedule in time to type up my stories on the desktop I share! Yay!

For most of this week (after I had spent a considerable amount of time setting up my laptop so it had all of the software, files etc. I'd need on it) I've been working on an entry for the Salisbury Writers' Festival Competition. I felt productive. I submitted my entry on Wednesday morning, in time for it to arrive at its destination by the Friday deadline. It wasn't exactly the story I saw in my head, but it was fairly close, and I am fairly happy with what I ended up submitting.

I also wanted to enter the Adelaide Review Short Fiction Writing Competition, but I didn't have enough time to write the story (and it was a fairly 'out there' story, especially for a literary competition).

But today, as I'm trying again to write a novel synopsis for a Writing School assignment, something's stopping me. The 'voices' tell me that the novel plot isn't strong enough, the characters are stereotypes, you see where I'm going!

I've filled in the last two hours by catching up on blog-reading, watching TV, and even baking Jubilee cake (Note: I never bake!).

I think it's time to go back to my desk. Here's hoping the voices have gone to prey on someone else!

2008/2009 End of Financial Year Round-Up

Happy End of Financial Year!

I thought I'd list my (slightly embarrassing) writing achievements of the past year:

• Writing School Assignments Submitted: 4


• Short Stories Submitted: 8


• Short Stories Accepted/Published: 2


• Writing Competitions Entered: 3 (1 flash fiction, 1 novel writing, 1 NaNoWriMo)


• Chapters of Fan Fiction Posted: 4

What can you tell from the above? That I've been slack in doing any writing?
What you don't see are the half-written stories, the rough outlines that are just looking for that magic part to pull the whole thing together, and the ideas that are floating around in my head.

I look foward to a more productive 2009/2010!

In The Door

Blurry eyes. Painful head. An unproductive day at work. But at least I managed to send off my novel to the Get Your Stiletto in the Door competition last night.

Now, I'm worrying. Have I sent it to the wrong e-mail address? Did they get it in time? I guess I won't know.

I've noticed that they've extended the competition's closing date from June 15 to June 20. They must have changed it yesterday, because I only saw it just before I was about to submit my entry (and I'd visited the site that morning to double-check the submission guidelines).

Five more days, I told myself. In five days, you could make your novel actually read like a novel's supposed to. You could actually make it not 'crap'!

But I had to submit it. I'd spent too much time editing and re-writing over the weekend, and lost too many hours of sleep (I was asleep from 11pm - 4am on Friday night, and then had a wonderfully invigorating sleep on Saturday night from 11:30pm - 1:45am), to continue in the same way this week.

So I had to submit it. At 11:00pm last night, only an hour and a half after I'd planned.

Now all I have to do is work on my other stories and wait for August to read my feedback!

Novel meltdown

I have one week. One week left to edit the first thirty pages of my novel (formerly known as NaNoWriMo Novel #1, now called by its acronym, TBW) so I can submit it to The 2009 Get Your Stiletto In The Door Contest. I had every intention of entering it into the competition this time last year, but I looked at the state of my novel and said 'There is no way it will be ready in time.'

At the moment, it's pretty much there. I cut a lot of the ideas that were purely NaNoWriMo padding, and re-structured the whole book. And I also had to divide the whole thing up into chapters. I think it's more balanced. I'm just line editing now, making sure that the scenes flow easily from one to the next, and that my characterisation and description isn't too over/underdone.

It would be nice for my novel to do well in the competition - I'd be ecstatic for months if it did - but realistically I'm more interested in the feedback the judges are offering. Hopefully they will give me pointers on things I can improve, so that I can make my novel better.

P.S. Happy Queen's Birthday to all of the states who celebrate it today! I hope you enjoy the day off! I know I will :)

P.P.S. I've noticed lately that I use the word 'just' a lot. I'm trying to stop! Is there any word that always seems to just pop up in your writing?

The Writer's Retreat

It is just after eight o'clock, and I am just about ready to begin writing. All around me is quiet, save for the chirping of some unidentifiable birds outside and the hum of the computer fan.

It is Monday morning, I have this week off from work, and I intend to write.

The next eight days (Monday June 8 is a public holiday) will be spent slowly striking things off of my long list of writing projects. And not before time - some of them have been hanging around for a year.

My first task is to finish three chapters of Retribution, my Ever After Fan Fiction story. From there comes the more difficult work: sequencing my novel and starting rewrites to get it ready for a novel competition I plan on entering it into, polishing another submission I want to make to an online journal, and trying to find a publication that matches another story I've written (I know, I know, I should find the publication first, and then tailor my stories for them. I must get my head around that concept!)

Wish me luck!

Why I'll always love Fan Fiction

I received a rejection letter on Monday. Even though it was a standard letter, the Fiction Editor had taken the time to not only sign her name but write mine - much friendlier than the "Dear Writer" other magazines have been sending my way. I even liked the letterhead on the rejection letter - shiny silver and purple - and, although it is plain professionalism that sees every one of the magazine's letters go out with this expensive-looking letterhead, I couldn't help but think they could save money in this global financial crisis by sending out the hundreds of rejection letters they mail each week with less gloss. Or maybe that's just me?

I'm not sure if it was the handwriting of the editor, or the shiny letterhead, or the fact that I've just become used to them, but this rejection didn't leave me with the hollow realisation that I'll never ever be a 'real' writer.

Then again, I had posted Chapter Three of Retribution, my Ever After Fan Fiction story, the night before and it's hard to tell yourself your writing is a mess when reviewers are telling you that you write well and are asking to read more. It gives me random thoughts, like: maybe I could write movie novelisations, or perhaps I should concentrate on historical novels! Yes! Mind you, jumping on the Internet whenever I can to see if there's a new review is probably not doing much for my productivity!

Happy Easter

I wish everyone a happy and safe Easter!

I envisage spending the next two days eating my way through the left over hot cross buns, gorging on Cadbury chocolate with my family, revelling in the knowledge that I have submitted Submission 11, and making a good start on writing a novel synopsis for Writing School Assignment Eighteen!

Halfway there...

I am halfway through the amount of submissions I need to make for Writing School!

Even better, I am one more edit away from submitting Submission #11, and I even have a few ideas about queries to non-fiction publications.

This is all very exciting for me, after all of these (years) of procrastination. Maybe my writing brain is finally kicking in?

Looking for inspiration

Today I got back in to writing mode (was I ever really there?) by completing my tenth submission for Writing School. It took me five weeks of typing and re-typing the story before I convinced myself I just had to let it be. Hopefully, I don't take as long to finish off the accompanying cover letter - I plan to have it all done and in the mail by tomorrow night.

In other news, we've finally foregone our old dial-up connection and have ADSL2 - great for accessing the Internet when the need to check a submission guideline arises, but very, very bad for getting stuck on the Internet reading blogs or looking for houses!

My list of potential projects is getting larger. I have three assignments left to complete for my Writing School course, two of which I have outlined. I also have some idea fragments for short stories to write, and with the four-day Easter long weekend coming up, I'll have some time off to sit down and write them - as long as the inspiration that makes the fragments gel together into a story turns up in the next week...

I wrote for six hours (read: sat in front of the computer with my story up on the screen, singing along to my music, thinking about projects that are way down the line in terms of priority, and then every now and then editing my story) today, and so am very pleased with myself!

Now I can go to sleep and enjoy the extra hour as we turn our clocks backward. Sweet dreams!

Australia Day and Heatwaves

First thing I'd like to say is Happy Australia Day to everyone! I hope you're enjoying the long weekend and the requisite backyard BBQ - I know I am!

Second is I am not looking forward to the next few days. The forecast for the next few days is forty degrees Celsius, or around abouts. That's bad for several reasons:
1. It's very hot, even at nighttime.
2. Now that I'm catching the bus to work instead of driving, I have to find ways of keeping cool while walking between work, the bus stop, and home.
3. It gets too hot to go house-hunting, although the bonus is you can work out which houses don't have adequate cooling in them.
4. I don't tend to write much in hot weather. When it's hot, I tend to do things that don't require much energy, or thought. Things like lying on the floor ... in front of the air conditioner.

Enough of the complaining. I actually did manage to motivate myself to submit a story to a magazine today. This is a short story that I actually outlined last June, wrote in September, sent as an assignment to my writing tutor and despite the good feedback am only now submitting it.

My resolution for this year? To stop procrastinating! :)

NaNoWriMo: Day 30: As a long weekend of NaNoWriMo draws to a close...

I spent from 9pm on Friday night until 8:45pm Sunday night, with eight hours off to sleep/eat in between to finish my NaNoWriMo novel for this year, and guess what...

I won!

NaNoWriMo: Day 23: Not As Good As I'd Hoped

I was going in for the kill yesterday. I started with nine thousand words, and the aim was to get to 30,000 by the end of last night. Simple. Reach fifteen thousand by lunch time, twenty thousand by tea, and then do the last five thousand before going to sleep.

I only managed six thousand.

How is very simple. Although I had my laptop with me for the whole day except for when I was blogging yesterday morning and eating, I made the decision that I could watch TV while working on my story. I mean, while I was in my room I was listening to the radio while still getting my thousand words per hour done, so what was the big deal? I was just going to watch Evita and then maybe some of the music channels.

But TV also means moving pictures that you have to focus on and that crush any pictures you have in your head. So although I spent about ten hours with my laptop in my lap (an old laptop that Dad's work was no longer needing while I wait it out to buy my new laptop), I managed only six thousand words.

To top it off, on the NaNoWriMo site, they were suggesting a challenge that everyone be up to 40,000 words by the time they went to sleep on Monday night. That was all well and good yesterday morning. I'm now up to about 16500 words, and there's no way I'm going to be able to write twenty-thousand words today and tomorrow. I have my step-cousin's 21st party tonight (odd to be on a Sunday, I know), and then work tomorrow, so I'll just have to not give up on myself and keep putting one word after another.

I'll write again once I've pushed over 40k!

NaNoWriMo: Day 22: And It Becomes Serious

It's the twenty-second day of NaNoWriMo.

I have written 10505 words.

There are eight days left of NaNoWriMo.

I have 39495 words left to write.

I'd better go and write them.

(I have $2.00 riding on this. Dad's bet me $2 that I won't have 50000 words by the end of next Sunday. In times of financial crisis, you need all the money you can get.)

So what am I doing here? I'm off to do NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo: Day Two

Well, I managed to scrape together 1,712 words yesterday, which is at least on target according to NaNoWriMo guidelines!

Hope everyone else doing NaNoWriMo is having fun and enjoying writing!

NaNoWriMo: Day One: The Game Plan

I was half an hour away from being awake at the start of NaNoWriMo. Just thirty minutes more, and I could have turned on my laptop, opened a new document, and started typing the first few words of my 2008 NaNoWriMo novel.

But I was exhausted, so I went to bed.

Last year's NaNoWriMo I stressed myself out by procrastinating for the first two weeks, and then in the last two and a bit weeks writing at any time I wasn't at work or asleep, and was able to 'win' (a.k.a write fifty thousand words of a novel) two hours before the deadline of 11:59pm on the 30th November, 2007.

Not this year.

This year I have a game plan, and it starts today. My plan is:
On Saturdays and Sundays, write 4000 words per day.
On weekdays, write 2000 words per day.
The NaNoWriMo people say to keep up you should write 1,667 words a day.
Therefore, if I keep to my schedule, I win. Early.

Can I keep this motivation, when I can't even bring myself to sit down and concentrate on my Writing School assignments? I guess we'll see ...