Time to shape up

I'm feeling really really crap today. Tired and headachy. I know this is down to my lack of exercise and poor diet. Sooo... I have decided to give up cheese. Hey if Johnny Vegas can do it so can I - not that I look like him but If I'm not careful I will by the time I'm his age. As soon as my dodgy tan lines have gone I'll be heading to the local swimming pool to get fit as well. My lovely boyfriend got a free ipod shuffle which he kindly gave to me so I think I'll get running too!Hopefully I'll start to feel a bit better and I can focus on other things a lot more like my job and my writing. I still haven't done much in the way of writing this week. I'm stuck in yet another slump. Good news is that I received the OK for my edited version of my short story for the 5-piece photo comp so hopefully I'l be seeing that in print in the Autumn.

Home Sweet Home

I'm back after my week's holiday in Gran Canaria. Apart from having my phone stolen and being badly burnt all over, the holiday was lovely. I am glad to be home but I could do with not having to go back to work in the morning. My spare time tomorrow will definately be spent getting back to the world of writing. I've not done a thing in over a week. I have been receiving some good feedback from some short story competitions I entered. I haven't placed in any so far but I have heard back from the ones I entered and its been positive feedback. ACW wrote to tell me I hadn't won but that I had made it into the top 300 out of 2000 entries. I was pleased with that as it was a story I had written when I was studying English A Level. I don't normally write children's stories but had thought that suited what the competion was looking for. They also offered me a £15 discount for a writing course. Ummm a bit of a ploy me thinks so I shall say no to that for now.
I am leaving the novel for a week just while I am working on an idea for my Waterstones Postcard. I'm still not inspired so I think I will just start and see what order my fingers hit the keys in.
Thats it for me, just wanted to say Hi and hope everyone is well. Must go and watch Britain's got Talent!

What's Your Story?

Waterstones are running a short story competition to celebrate the National Year of Reading. This competition gives writers the chance to be published alongside some of the world's greatest authors and even win an Arvon Writing Course. It doesnt matter what you write as long as it fits their story card. Their favourite stories will get published online and three winners stories will be chosen to go into a postcard book - all proceeds of which go to Dyslexia Action and English PEN. All entries must be in before 19th June 2008 so click here now and get creating.

How much help is too much?

I only managed 395 words words on my novel today as I have spent the best part of this evening looking over the editor's changes to my short story that I submitted for an anthology a while back. While I am happy with most of the changes that have been made I do wonder at what point I can no longer call it my story. A few minor omissions have been made to characters and dialogue. The northern dialect has been taken away, a history between two of the characters created and a slight change to the end. Whilst I am more than happy and agree with all changes (apart from the ending) I do fear that I would be agreeing to too much. Would it still be my story? I know the ideas, the characters and a fair bit of the original story are mine, but can I still agree to put my name to it without feeling like a fraud?

On a role

I have managed to stay out of holiday mode long enough today to write 590 words - this is pretty good considering the only chance I have had today is my lunch break which got cut short due to an annoying client and the last 20 mins as I have been watching the F Word with my boyfriend. Yes I deserve a wrist slap but its a great show and I love Gordon Ramsey and my boyfriend of course. Anyway, that's over double the amount I did yesterday. I figure if I keep this up I can possibly manage 2,000 words just this week alone, and then I can really enjoy my holiday. Fingers crossed (well not while I am typing obviously).

231 Words!!

I managed 231 words of my novel yesterday. At this rate I will have to pass this book to my grandchildren to finish in my honour! I shall try and manage at least double that when I get home from work. Anything is better than nothing I keep telling myself.

In holiday mode

I am off on holiday next week which is good, however, I cannot concentrate on anything. I cant think about anything else. I am already sipping cocktails by the pool and not having a care in the world. I need to concentrate. I need some focus. I am setting myself a goal and I am going to stick to it. I will be writing something every day and I will be blogging about it. I dont want to make it a chore but its for my own good. I know I will feel better for it once I get going.

The Y's and wherefores of proper planning

I've heard a few people mention using YWriter and I have been meaning to download it for a while now. Today I finally got around to doing it and so I have spent the last 30 mins getting to grips with it. If anyone has any hints/tips for making the most of it I would be truly grateful if you can share them with me. It looks like it will be useful in organising my novel and for slotting things in here and there. I have just started setting up my character bios/goals/pics etc. I had previously started this in excel but it didn't really have the desired effect I wanted. Now I will have everything under one roof.

Aside from my novel I haven't done any other writing. I am thinking of setting up another blog though. It is writing related but more to do with mind,body and spirit - something I am also very passionate about but don't really get time to indulge in. I'll keep you posted on that as I haven't thought it through enough to start yet and I certainly wouldn't want to spend less time here because of it.

Getting ready for Summer (if we get one)

Today I went and bought sun loungers (£15 from Asda - not to shabby either) and a bbq for the garden. I really hope they get some use this year. I also bought some new sunglasses to replace the last pair after I sat on them. Hopefully they will get more than one wear out of them. BBC have forecast rain this coming Sunday and Monday. Please someone tell me they are wrong!!