Sophie Kinsella and some writing progress

I got a reply back from Sophie Kinsella late thursday night which I found really helpful. I asked her whether she'd had any writing training (as I am still undecided on the whole course thing). Here was my reply:

Hi Cheryl (my doppelganger)

I have never studied novel-writing (can you tell?!) However many years ago I went on the Robert McKee screen-writing seminar Story which has lots of useful ideas for structure. They can be applied to novels too. So I would recommend that.

Sophie

How cool is that!! So anyway I looked this up and it looked really good. He is running seminars in November but as I am saving for a house right now I decided on the cheaper alternative in the meantime:

I picked this up at my local Waterstones (where I got double points!!) and so far it's been quite insightful. I'm only a few pages in so far as I've been busy writing but I'll keep you updated on my thoughts.

My writing progress today is quite newsworthy. I did no writing on Saturday as I was nursing a hangover and was out later that day with a friend. Sunday I somehow managed to spend a whopping 5 hours (no idea how that happened) playing scrabble on facebook - luckily for the novel I am rubbish at it so the addiction didn't last much longer than that. Today I made up for it though. I (somehow) in the space of 7 hours managed to write 4545 words taking me to around 34,000 words so I'm nearly half way there. I've a few evenings to myself this week so I aim to take advantage of that and get myself to that light at the end of the tunnel just that little bit sooner.

Facebook - not a total waste of time

Wow, it would seem that skiving off on facebook can be beneficial. Yesterday while scrolling through some updates I noticed the Chicklitisnotdead.com status update say that Sophie Kinsella, author of the Shopaholic books is giving some great insight on starting and finishing your first novel. I headed straight over to the Barnes and Noble website and posted a question off to her. I haven't had a reply yet but shes only on till tomorrow so I should (hopefully) get one soon. I've had a look through the Q and A’s and got a few nice tips from her so far. It's definately worth a look.

Other than my total devotion to Facebook I have managed to squeeze in a bit of writing here and there. Work has been crazy busy all week which meant I lost my lunchtime writing slots and my brain was sozzled the moment my arse hit the couch. Luckily it's a Bank holiday weekend and also boyf is away all weekend so I intend to make as much use of my free time to write write write.

THANK YOU!!

Just wanted to say a huge........

























THANKYOU to all those fellow writers and novel racers (yes I really get to say that now) for all your lovely comments and for welcoming me into the fold. I managed a whopping 1,189 words yesterday in amongst trying to avoid b2b episodes of my favourite tv show which were showing on Comedy Central. I aim to keep up the momentum so I shall leave it there for now and thank you once again.

Some News....

My Holiday is over... Boooooo
I go back to Cyprus in 8 weeks... Hurrah
I have gone a week and have done no writing... Booooo
I am officially a Novel Racer... Hurrah

OK enough of that. Yes following a depressing wait at baggage reclaim at Heathrow I returned home to 91 emails. After deleting most of what had escaped the junk mail filter I found some great news. I have received my invite to be a fully fledged novel racer. I am sooo pleased and feel spurred on to get my novel finished.

My holiday was great! The wedding was beautiful and all went without a hitch. Here is a pic of me and the family. I am the one on the end...in the dress that is.

I had some great pics of the sunset at Cave Greco which seems to have dissapeared off my phone so once I get the other pics off my camera I'll post them. Anyways despite being back from a too short holiday I am glad to get stuck into the writing again. I may have some more time off from work to concentrate on my writing but more on that in my next post. I'm now off to post on the Novel Racers blog for the very first time! Hurrah!!!

Look what I got....

Yes, its my very own signed copy of Lucy Diamond's book Hens Reunited which I won. I was so exited when I got this I showed it off to everyone at work when it arrived. They were quite impressed with the message from Lucy as well!

I also bought myself:

I haven't started any of them yet as I am saving Hens Reunited for my holiday and I can't decide which of the three to take away as well. Also I am still reading The Matchbreaker by Chris Manby. I have been slow at reading this week as I have come down with a stinking cold. First my boss had it and then thought she'd share it with her staff. Luckily, as we had first thought, it wasn't the dreaded swine it was just a cold which she has slowly recovered from so hopefully the coughing, runny nose, and sniffing coming from me will be over with by the time my holiday starts on on Wednesday and more importantly by Friday when my brother will be getting married. Not only do I not want to be sneezing at any crucial moments but I don''t really want to look like crap on the day. I just had a bit of pampering at the Green Room where I had a facial and my eyelashes tinted. To me they look no different but boy did it sting so I'm telling myself it was worth it. It's hard to tell when there are faint remnants of blue/black dye around my eyes. She did warn me that would go in the next few days. She had better be right!

So as I approach the day in which I was supposed to have finished draft one I am feeling slightly guilty that I have yet again done no writing this past week (either that or the fact that i have just scoffed an entire pack of fruit pastilles which you apparently can't count as one of your 5 a day). New deadline as I previously had said is now christmas so I'm getting back to it right after this post. I may not post again between now and when I get back from Cyprus so I will see you all then!