Great.
Procrastination!
Me.
Not working - lots of that.
Not editing - just the newly finished SHINEY NaNoWriMo MG masterpiece awaiting polishing with a red-pen.
Not writing - apart from the haikus.
The ill-health-thing that my anti-biotics are busy blasting away is turning my brain to mush. What else could be getting in the way of any of the above or - God forbid - sleeping?
TWITTER and the multi faceted Bransford Blog.
I'm doomed!
I'm in charge of videoing the Y3/4 production of Hosanna Rock tomorrow - I can't even click the right button to make my Twitter link active apparently - can I claim it was black light problem?
Speaking of the Bransford Blog - I've only bought 3 books published in 2009 - MG all - :0 - the other hundred are older :s
Steve Feasey Changling - weretastic
Two from the Gladiator Boy series - which were... both from the Gladiator Boy series.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Sunday, 6 December 2009
NaNo not writing - editing - STAYING LOST
Editing - taking words and polishing them until they paint a world
STAYING LOST
The crowds, who moments before had been shouting and dancing, froze. Then they began moving in unison; zombie-like they shuffled forward. Supporting the team. Supporting each other. A wall of black and red, the supporters leaned forward – closer – drawn towards the spot where he stood. Hands gripped at their scarves, imprisoning them so they could no longer whip around faces or away.
Jon smiled, it would take more than scarves to disturb him and spoil his aim. Nothing would be allowed to interrupt his preparations. He loosened his shoulders, swinging his arms. He began to pace backwards in a carefully controlled curve. Once he reached the place – the only square of grass that contained the exact spot to being his run up from – Jon held up his linked fists, and eyed the shot with care.
Along the line of his arms he saw the two men hurrying down from the castle keep – the main building of Tudor School. Jon recognised the Head Teacher, Mr Gray, even he was on his way to the rugby pitch. The second man was a little shorter than the headmaster. He looked vaguely familiar too. Jon couldn’t wait for either of them to get down to the field. Time was running out.
Jon blew out his breath, steady and controlled. Leaning into the heel of his back foot, he rocked a little as he prepared for his run up. His concentration was complete now. His eye was on the line, invisible to everyone else, that the ball must follow so he could make the kick successfully. Everything he had been taught to do was second nature. The seam on the ball was the most important thing in his universe at that moment.
Wrong shaped ball, but supporters are supporters no matter what the sport.
Football is my sport - I've been to over half the football grounds of England, Wales and Scotland. Maybe I should try to complete the list?
Go Man Utd - a good day for the Red Devils. I'm glad Scholes scored.
Saturday, 5 December 2009
The new Harry Potter is worm called Annelid?
I love Come in Character <3 - it makes me think - it makes me think creatively!
I'm going to be obsessing over the perishing, little critter now...
In a hole in the ground there lived a....
pink, segmented worm who had taken streamlined to a place that was both streamy and liney - well, linear anyway. It had stripped down the kinds of extraneous, dangly pieces other life forms seemed to favour to the bare bones. (Pardon my worm humour I just thought you ought to know that Annelid was a highly evolved kind of critter.)
I could have some fun with this one.
I'm going to be obsessing over the perishing, little critter now...
In a hole in the ground there lived a....
pink, segmented worm who had taken streamlined to a place that was both streamy and liney - well, linear anyway. It had stripped down the kinds of extraneous, dangly pieces other life forms seemed to favour to the bare bones. (Pardon my worm humour I just thought you ought to know that Annelid was a highly evolved kind of critter.)
I could have some fun with this one.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Inspiration comes from
I've been thinking about inspiration rather than Muse (for a change) .
Last week, I wrote a haiku that I loved. It is one of the fastest poems ever written. It probably took less than two minutes from reading the #haikuchallenge word to posting it.
Why did the poem leap from brain to Twitter that quickly? I blame the buzz word *before. It cut through the thought processes to the place where inspiration lives and leapt out... Athene-style... fully formed.
LIFE IS NOT A GROUND HOG DAY
Can't we go back to
the before that was our now?
This time get it right?
There was a line in a play - written for TV - I think by John Godber and Jane Thornton.
It is haunting: Can we not have before again?
It's not a long line of dialogue, as these things go, but it is one of the most important to me.
Where do you find inspiration?
Last week, I wrote a haiku that I loved. It is one of the fastest poems ever written. It probably took less than two minutes from reading the #haikuchallenge word to posting it.
Why did the poem leap from brain to Twitter that quickly? I blame the buzz word *before. It cut through the thought processes to the place where inspiration lives and leapt out... Athene-style... fully formed.
LIFE IS NOT A GROUND HOG DAY
Can't we go back to
the before that was our now?
This time get it right?
There was a line in a play - written for TV - I think by John Godber and Jane Thornton.
It is haunting: Can we not have before again?
It's not a long line of dialogue, as these things go, but it is one of the most important to me.
Where do you find inspiration?
Sunday, 29 November 2009
What kind of writer are you?
OK - my hands are up - I admit it: I'm a research-geek kind of writer
I put the plan in planning:
1 plan to write - time allocated
2 plan the characters and setting - create photo wall and pen sketches in the working note book
3 plan the 14 to 20 chapters that will give me the story arc - depending on length/ target audience
4 plan the main events in bullet format - whole book (any sequal type information that occurs to me as I go along)
While I write? I have a card index for each character mentioned (main to merely visiting) which I add to while I'm going along. I hate continuity errors in things I read, see or (heaven forbid) write.
Name drop moment - an-author-of-my-acquaintance laughed at me (Thanks, Steve Feasey)
He inspired me to attempt to work slightly more off-the-cuff. I was light-headed at the thought; the desk I work at was less heavily ladened too.
Enter NaNoWriMo Challenge
STAYING LOST
I planned my character profiles - making sure I knew them from head to toe and inside out (including their preferred underware!)
Then I planned the start, middle and end - the desired outcomes for the book.
To increase my writer-ly skills (:-)) I decided to experiment with POV. While writing the book I alternated, one chapter at a time, writing from JJ's (public school boy)and Nerysa's (ex-navy SEAL, bodyguard) perspective.
NOW THAT NaNo is NoNo
Spending November writing from different points of view should help me write the complicated multi-layers of the non-ghost story I have planned. Adding space and time into the mix --- challenge much! Imagine how that looks in my planning format :)
I put the plan in planning:
1 plan to write - time allocated
2 plan the characters and setting - create photo wall and pen sketches in the working note book
3 plan the 14 to 20 chapters that will give me the story arc - depending on length/ target audience
4 plan the main events in bullet format - whole book (any sequal type information that occurs to me as I go along)
While I write? I have a card index for each character mentioned (main to merely visiting) which I add to while I'm going along. I hate continuity errors in things I read, see or (heaven forbid) write.
Name drop moment - an-author-of-my-acquaintance laughed at me (Thanks, Steve Feasey)
He inspired me to attempt to work slightly more off-the-cuff. I was light-headed at the thought; the desk I work at was less heavily ladened too.
Enter NaNoWriMo Challenge
STAYING LOST
I planned my character profiles - making sure I knew them from head to toe and inside out (including their preferred underware!)
Then I planned the start, middle and end - the desired outcomes for the book.
To increase my writer-ly skills (:-)) I decided to experiment with POV. While writing the book I alternated, one chapter at a time, writing from JJ's (public school boy)and Nerysa's (ex-navy SEAL, bodyguard) perspective.
NOW THAT NaNo is NoNo
Spending November writing from different points of view should help me write the complicated multi-layers of the non-ghost story I have planned. Adding space and time into the mix --- challenge much! Imagine how that looks in my planning format :)
Saturday, 28 November 2009
NaNoWriMo WINNER
NaNoWriMo - author!
Listening to Vampire Weekend
I STAND CORRECTED
You've been checking on my facts
And I admit I have been lax
In double screening what I say
It wasn't funny anyway
Good job it wasn't a few seconds earlier or I'd have to admit to listening to Jay-Z :s
Now, apart fom the editing, I have finished my second novel oI< - does this look like I fell over backwards? That was what I was aiming for.
Written for the age 8/10 - 12 Middle Grade - so bang goes my chances of getting Nathan Bransford to represent it :) (I knew there had to be a downside of writing MG - I was going to say boys - but it has wider appeal than that.)
STAYING LOST
Jon Jacob Ashton used to have family; he used to have everything. Now he has nothing between him and a very effective assassin but the hacker his father had arrested, the forger his mother saved from a beating on the Champs Elysee and the bodyguard who shot out the tyres on the family limo when she didn't get a job interview.
If they get lost... and stay lost... he might get to live.
Complete in 51,670 words
Listening to Vampire Weekend
I STAND CORRECTED
You've been checking on my facts
And I admit I have been lax
In double screening what I say
It wasn't funny anyway
Good job it wasn't a few seconds earlier or I'd have to admit to listening to Jay-Z :s
Now, apart fom the editing, I have finished my second novel oI< - does this look like I fell over backwards? That was what I was aiming for.
Written for the age 8/10 - 12 Middle Grade - so bang goes my chances of getting Nathan Bransford to represent it :) (I knew there had to be a downside of writing MG - I was going to say boys - but it has wider appeal than that.)
STAYING LOST
Jon Jacob Ashton used to have family; he used to have everything. Now he has nothing between him and a very effective assassin but the hacker his father had arrested, the forger his mother saved from a beating on the Champs Elysee and the bodyguard who shot out the tyres on the family limo when she didn't get a job interview.
If they get lost... and stay lost... he might get to live.
Complete in 51,670 words
NaNoWriMo - so close to ending
NaNoWriMo - time is a ticking!
Listening to Sea Wolf - The Violet Hour:
In the dark you tell me of a flower
that only blooms in the violet hour
It isn't so much a violet hour as a pitch black one. I intend to finish during this 24 hour period so I have my Spotify playlist and endless cups of tea to supplement the chocolate supplied by the one who got more chocolate than a sweet shop for his birthday!
STAYING LOST
The boys ducked back out of line laughing. Their plan was so simple. They turned back to find the quicker way into Hyde Park. At the bottom of Tyburn Way was a corner - a narrow footpath that led to the public toilets. The fence was not much of a deterrent there. It was low and incomplete since the tree that had leaned over the metal railings had been removed before it could fall on some unsuspecting pedestrian.
Racing, chasing and overtaking,they dodged through parked cars and static traffic along the Tyburn Way. Jon didn't think of the others who had made their way along that route with less haste and a lot more trepidation hundreds of years before. The walk to Tyburn Tree had been slow and pained. Some had walked bravely; others, who were already broken, dragged out each step on their journey towards their executioner; Jon ran the route with joy – the kind that comes from unexpected freedom.
Listening to Sea Wolf - The Violet Hour:
In the dark you tell me of a flower
that only blooms in the violet hour
It isn't so much a violet hour as a pitch black one. I intend to finish during this 24 hour period so I have my Spotify playlist and endless cups of tea to supplement the chocolate supplied by the one who got more chocolate than a sweet shop for his birthday!
STAYING LOST
The boys ducked back out of line laughing. Their plan was so simple. They turned back to find the quicker way into Hyde Park. At the bottom of Tyburn Way was a corner - a narrow footpath that led to the public toilets. The fence was not much of a deterrent there. It was low and incomplete since the tree that had leaned over the metal railings had been removed before it could fall on some unsuspecting pedestrian.
Racing, chasing and overtaking,they dodged through parked cars and static traffic along the Tyburn Way. Jon didn't think of the others who had made their way along that route with less haste and a lot more trepidation hundreds of years before. The walk to Tyburn Tree had been slow and pained. Some had walked bravely; others, who were already broken, dragged out each step on their journey towards their executioner; Jon ran the route with joy – the kind that comes from unexpected freedom.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)