Oh I feel slack...

I haven't written in this blog for so long. I should be writing but find myself too busy. Perhaps that is just an excuse. My little girl started 3 year old kinder a couple of weeks ago, she growing up, it's wonderful to see, but a bit sad as well. Perhaps I am using her starting kinder as an excuse. I do plan on writing more, I think I need to look for some suggestions to help me better organise my time and motivate myself.
Any thoughts?

I did enter the 'Think Big' short story competition last weekend. A science fiction 1000 word story we had 72 hours to write. I found that a lot of fun.

On another note I am reading a lot, I just finished "Without warning" by John Birmingham. I really enjoyed this book, John really draws the reader in and makes the world believable. The premise is America has been wiped out by some sort of phenomenon and then deals with the aftermath and the world falls apart.
I am reading "the red tent" by Anita Diamant. It's for my book club and I wouldn't have picked it up otherwise, but I really like it. Anita's description are amazing and I am captivated by the world these women live in and the customs they follow. It really is worth a read.

Hopefully my next post has an update on my novel progress.

Chapter 2

So after all that procrastinating I finished editing chapter 2! Yay! God this is going to take a long time...
Chapter 3 here I come! (Only 25 more to go at about 10 pages each)

Apart from that I wish there was something good to watch on TV. My favorite shows are True Blood and Game of Thrones, but I don't have cable so have to wait till I can buy the episodes. Anyway who really has time to watch TV shows.

I hate revision!!!

I procrastinate, clean the house, walk around the house looking for things to do, twiddle my thumbs, pat the dogs, water the garden, wander around the garden and more before I sit down at the computer and start to work. Why? I don't know. I really hate reading some of my worse sentences and how did I think I could glue words together with a comma? Today I had half an hour and managed more than I have all week! And right now I'm procrastinating again!

I got another rejection for one of my short stories, here is what they said While we read it with interest, I’m afraid we’re going to pass on it. Nice enough words, but still a rejection. I've resubmitted it rather then leave it in the computer hard drive to take up space. Recently I read an article written by a man who is well published now (I forget his name), but he said his short story got rejected by many magazines before finally winning an award. So I guess perseverance is the key.

As I prattle on the night is running away from me, so I'd better post this and go write!!

Cheers.

Revision

What is harder, writing the original story or revising it? I think it's revision. I think my story has good bones, but its full of filler, sentences that make no sense, sentences that are ambiguous and abstract. Then the character change, but change so much the ones at the end don't seem to be like the ones at the start. It's going to be a long process but I'll stick to it. If I can't revise a story there is no point in writing them as no one else will fix them up for me.
On another note I've just read my first e-book. An author Mike Wells, has some free e-books and I downloaded one "Lust Money and Murder", I loved it and down loaded book 2 which you have to pay for but it was only 2.99 I am yet to get book 3, but I will. Here is a link to the free copy "Lust Money and Murder book 1"
Happy reading all.

Chapter 1

So I've just finished my 3rd draft of chapter 1. I've spent a fair amount of time on it and I know it'll need some more, but I think I ready to have some one else read it and give me some feedback.
I've decided I will give myself a week for each chapter, at 27 chapters that's 27 weeks, well 26 now, half a year! But with so many commitments in my life it's hard to do it faster. Maybe I'll surprise myself.

At the moment I'm reading Burned by P.C and Kristin Cast. I buy most of my books online and I like having them in paper and one of the websites I used had this book for 3.99 including postage on a daily special, so I bought it. It's interesting, very simply written, but a very complex story. It's part of a series book 7, so I've come in at that end. Not sure if I'll read any others in the series yet, but I will finish this one.
Cheers.

Draft number 3!

So now I have to do it all over again. I dread revising, I feel like it's easier to spill it all out then refine it, but I realize that it is an important part to writing. So I'm trying to think about the process differently, it's a matter of refining whats already there, which is, if you think about it, easier. This time I've decided to print each chapter and work on it as a hard copy. When I say 3'rd draft each chapter will be reviewed multiple times. For chapter 1 I did 2 revisions on the computer and then one on the hard copy I printed out. It's going to be another long process.
Better get to it.

I'm excited!

I did it, finished my second draft. Just like that, it's done. I don't know how long I've worked on it, but it's been a long time. My first draft I finished in three months, full of spelling mistakes and random bit and an awful ending that I didn't like to read—it seemed boring—so this time I rewrote the whole thing, changing the novel totally from the middle. I can't believe how long it has taken me though. I started on the redraft in  2009 and now were in January 2012. I hope that I do the next draft quicker.

I also wanted to talk about some books that I've just finished. First, Daughter of Smoke and bone by Laini Taylor http://www.lainitaylor.com/ Wow! I really enjoyed this book, even though it is a Young Adult novel. It is packed with magic, adventure, loss and love. I can't wait for the next one to come out.
Second was my book club book The making of us by Lisa Jewell. About the children of a sperm dona who find each other and themselves. It was something I wouldn't pick up on my own, but I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the relationships that the characters developed and the ending. There were some very sad sections and I did cry, but that's good, sometimes.

I saw the new Girl with a dragon tattoo film and although I haven't seen the original I thought this one was really well done. I did try reading the first novel and found it a bit hard going, it may have also been the large pile of other books sitting on my bedside table that were more enticing. Anyway I decided to try reading the next one.

So far 2012 has been a great year!

Cheers!