Booklog #8

76.  That's the number of books currently in the 'To Be Read' category on my Kindle.  76!  I can't help but wonder whether there'd be that many if they were physical not electronic...probably not, I suspect (there'd be nowhere to put them for one thing!).  If they'd all cost me full price, then for the well-being of my bank balance I'd probably be begging someone to take the Kindle away from me before I book-shopped my way into abject poverty, but fortunately a good portion of them were either free or less than a pound. 

I can't believe how quickly my buying habits have changed.  It took me ages to come round to buying music as MP3 downloads instead of CDs - I always felt that I'd never be able to give up the feeling of actually owning it physically, but now it's been a long time since I bought a CD.  I'm a total Amazon junkie - all my music downloads come from there, as well as my ebooks! 

As I always say to people whose response to the Kindle is "ooh, I could never read on that, I like the feel of a real book too much" - well, I still like a real book too!  But not to the extent that I'd consciously turn a blind eye to the benefits that the Kindle can offer me.  It doesn't have to be one or the other - there's room in our lives for both, folks!

This week I've started:
Er, nothing I'm afraid - once again it's been a busy time at both work and within the Open University study camp so I've only had time to plug away with the long books that I'm reading. 

This week I've finished:
Um, nothing here either.  But I hope that by next week (Boxing Day!!) I'll have reached the end of Shatter. 

I'm still reading:
The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt
Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
Shatter (The Children of Man) ~ Elizabeth C. Mock

Only one more post before Christmas...good luck with any last-minute prep you might be doing! 
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A Good Bad Day

Only ten days till Christmas - are you prepared?  I'm quite clearly not, having bought about two gifts so far (argh!).  This has been playing on my mind all day today and putting me off writing, I've felt that I should be using the time to sort out Christmas shopping.  "Here we go," I hear you say, "another excuse"- but no!  Even with that distraction, I still managed to get 1581 words done towards Project NaNo.  This is far better than I ever managed on a 'bad day' before NaNoWriMo, so it would seem that the experience has done me good. I'm better at getting into the 'NaNo Frame of Mind' and just typing whatever words come without editing every single sentence five times before moving on.  That said, I did have to resort to bridging a couple of tricky gaps with AND THEN SOMETHING HAPPENS WHICH LEADS US TO...  I'll go back and fix those at a later date.  ;o)

This made me think about the whole concept of working from/at home.  I couldn't even hazard a guess as to how many articles, books, blog posts and such must have been written about this topic - about how important it is to stay focused, avoid the TV/housework/bookshelf and to make sure family and friends know you are Working and not Available To Run Errands, Babysit etc.  I know all that, yet it is still incredibly difficult to put it into practice!  I'm lucky that I don't have children or pets to take up my time, I'm good at leaving the TV off and ignoring housework is practically written into my DNA, but my gosh the internet is my downfall.  I think the only solution would be to work somewhere with no wi-fi, but then I wouldn't have my special mug, cosy fireplace or slippers...it is a dilemma indeed. 

A quick side note in relation to technology - I've tweaked the blog a bit, adding 'About me' and 'Contact me' links at the top and amending the widgets down the side.  I just wanted to say that if you have any comments or feedback, or ideas for things you'd like to see or questions to ask me - please just let me know! 

Finally then, to wrap up, I watched the Galaxy Book Awards last night.  It's such a rare treat for there to be a programme on about books!  There were two reasons why I especially enjoyed it - firstly, one of my heroes, Terry Pratchett, received an Outstanding Achievement award.  I've always admired Terry's amazing imagination since I first read his 'Nome' trilogy as a child, he is such an inspiration and it's so sad that he is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.  If you have the means available, I would urge you to donate to the Alzheimer's Society (UK) or Association (US) to aid their fight against this terrible condition. 

The second reason I enjoyed the show was a little more self-absorbed.  There's an award for 'New Writer of the Year' and I couldn't help but lean towards hubby and whisper that could be me.  Self-indulgent, yes, overly-optimistic, almost certainly, but I allowed myself a little moment to imagine how I'd feel if it was me and my goodness - did it feel wonderful.  I know that money, awards and fame are not the keys to happiness, but if that warm glowing feeling of appreciation isn't pure motivation then I don't know what is...

Every artist was first an amateur ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Booklog #7

Season's greetings!  I'm feeling slightly festive today, after writing cards, putting up decorations (well, supervising hubby putting them up anyway) and doing a test run of baking biscuits to give as presents.  I'll be honest - cooking is not my strong point, even this basic shortbread recipe turned into a bit of a stress, but they seemed to turn out okay so I'll make another lot just before Christmas to give away. 

But onto the books! 

This week I finished:

The New World ~ Patrick Ness
This is a short story that was free on Kindle, with a strong sci-fi feel.  I suspect it's a kind of mini-prequel, designed to lead you into reading Ness's other books.  Although I like fantasy (Tolkien etc) I'm not into sci-fi so much, but for free I thought I would give it a try.  There's absolutely nothing to criticise about the writing - the short plot moves along well, the teenage heroine and her parents are well developed as characters in such a small piece and the ending is a real cliffhanger - but it's just not my cup of tea.  If you enjoy sci-fi as a genre though, I daresay you would really like Patrick Ness.  3/5 

This week I started:

Nothing except The New World - it's been quite a busy week for me.  I did download a few Kindle books, which are now sat in my ever-expanding 'To Be Read' category... 

I'm still reading:

* Shatter (The Children of Man) ~ Elizabeth C. Mock
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett (I'm up to Part 2, have put it aside while I work on getting through Shatter)
* The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (chapter 25, it still hasn't got any better!)

Best wishes! 
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Frustration...

Our snow (such as it was - it never got beyond about an inch deep) has gone and today's predicted fall never came, so my hope that I would be able to sit at the table and gaze out at a beautiful winter wonderland somewhat fell through.  It's probably a good thing though as the more my eyes are looking out the window, the less they are looking at the laptop! 

Kicked off today with some studying - I was able to finish the first section of the 'Fifth Century Athens' block, which seemed to go on forever, so am now only one week behind schedule instead of two (argh!).  Refueled with a sausage butty and it was on to some writing.  I was hoping to re-channel my 'NaNo' frame of mind and put myself Into The Zone where the words just flowed, but it didn't quite work out.  I suspect that my husband going through the TV listings magazine for the Christmas period and asking me whether I'd want to watch this, that or the other did not help.  Seriously, I love him and all, but he does not assist with getting the creative vibes going in the room.  I need to be alone to write!  :oS

Anyway, that aside I did manage to get about 400 words down towards Project NaNo, bringing the new total to 10,471.  The next 10k day has been scheduled for next Wednesday (15th) so I will definitely take that up again (it was great fun last time, as well as productive!).  I just need to remember to send hubby off on some sort of mission for the day.  Perhaps he could do his Christmas shopping? 

Wishing you a warm and productive week! 
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Booklog #6

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This week I finished:

Nothing!  Everything I'm reading at the moment is quite lengthy.  ;o)

This week I started:

Shatter (The Children of Man) ~ Elizabeth C. Mock

This was a free download on the Amazon website, so I thought I would give it a try.  It's an epic fantasy with magic, mystery and lots of characters and places with funny names.  And when I say lots, I mean lots.  I'm up to chapter 9 and there are three separate sub-stories going on (though two have converged now, which helps) and frequent references to the various belief systems, gods and mystical forces that exist in their world.  I don't want to criticise, as the characters and storyline are good - but it feels like I've had everything thrown at me at once but without any explanation.  If I'm honest, I felt so overwhelmed that I nearly gave up on it, which is rare as I hate to leave a book unfinished. 

I've pushed on and it has improved, but I still don't have any feel for how things 'work' there, if you know what I mean.  What are the rules of that world?  There was a series of articles in Writing Magazine about constructing a fantasy universe and one of the pieces of advice was that the 'rules' have to be set down clearly so the reader knows what is considered 'normal' and can get their footing, as it were.  If elephants can fly there, then show that this is the norm so that the reader doesn't wonder why none of the characters have noticed when a herd flies by.  If there's a complex religious belief system then you need to explain it to us early on so that we don't feel a bit stupid for not understanding it (like I did, and to a certain extent - still do at chapter 9!). 

I am intrigued to know what happens to the characters - even if I don't really understand yet what it is that's threatening them - so I'll carry on to the end.  Hopefully I'll pick up what's going on along the way! 

I'm still reading:
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
* The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (still up to ch 22)

Have a great week! 
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The results are in...

As the UK is in the grip of what seems to be The Worst Winter Ever And It's Only The First Of December, I write to you from within a huge jumper, thick trousers and fingerless gloves.  No, I'm not outside, I'm in my living room (with the fire on!) but once my fingers get cold it takes an awful lot to bring them back to life.  For every ten minutes I sit here writing, I feel like I need to spend five minutes huffing on them.  But enough about my rubbish circulation...

Yesterday was the final day of NaNoWriMo and as you can see from my little blue box on the left, I did not make it to the 50,000 finish line.  I'm very happy with just over 10k though as it's much more than I've ever been able to produce in such a relatively short space of time before now.  The feeling that all you need to do is just sit and write whatever comes out of your head is really liberating and on the sessions I was able to sit and do it, I did get quite swept up in it.  Now I have eleven months to think of an idea that I can use for next year's NaNo...  ;o)

Today I've been catching up with some studying.  I got the mark back from that last essay that I was stressing about - 72%!  Hopefully for the next one I'll have a bit more confidence, given that my tutor obviously thinks I'm better at this than I do.  We've moved on from Homer now to fifth century BCE Athens - the foundations of democracy and all that kind of thing.  I've been reading about Athenian theatre and listened to a play called Persians by Aeschylus.  It's not a cheery way to spend an hour, I can tell you - there's a lot of wailing and lamenting and 'aiaiai'-ing!  I'm sure that once I get a bit further into the study block it will become more apparent how this links to Greek society and so forth. 

Persians and the associated coursebook reading has taken up most of the day, but I've also been doing some tweaking to the blog, trying to make it more what I would want to see if I were a reader.  I hope it doesn't feel too cluttered, I don't know how (or if it's even possible) to make the main section wider so that things would be more spread out.  Hmm, maybe I need to add Blogger for Dummies to my collection...

Lastly I just want to share two links with you.  I saw them while browsing some other blogs today and they just made me laugh, hopefully you will too! 

Nine Circles (credit to Nathan Bransford as it's his blog)

Awesome Bookshelf System (credit to John Baker as it's his blog)

Best wishes - stay warm!

Picture from here

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Booklog #5

This week I finished: 

Let me describe the book I finished this week and see if you think it sounds familiar:

Socially awkward teenage girl is forced by circumstances to start a new school in a dreary grey place where she feels trapped.  She meets an alluring boy who constantly blows hot and cold towards her, leaving her unclear where she stands with him.  She tries to find out more about him from other students and school records.  Along the way she ends up in hospital after a terrible incident.  Eventually she confronts the boy about his feelings for her only to find that he's a supernatural being and has been trying to put her off him in order to keep her safe.  Despite this eventual declaration of love (which she has yearned for) she continues to fret that she's not good enough for him and wonder how he could possibly be interested in her.  When they have to part she pines for him.  

Okay, so things do take a different path in the second half of the book, but up to that point you'd have been hard pushed to deny that I was describing Twilight wouldn't you?  It's actually Fallen, by Lauren Kate, but despite the fact it felt a tiny bit 'been there, read that' I still enjoyed it a lot and really got caught up in the action.  The supernatural beings aren't vampires, which makes a nice change - you can probably guess from the title what they actually are...plus I think I gave it away last week!  There's a good balance of action and dialogue, and the school and its colourful cast of pupils are described very well (though I wouldn't want to visit).  I like this because I find it really frustrating to finish a book and still have no real grasp of how any of it looked.  I think you enjoy a story so much more if your subconscious is able to use the words provided to paint a picture as if it's going on around you, making you feel involved as opposed to just a spectator.  Definitely something to aspire to with my own writing!  4/5

Other than that, it's been a quiet week in terms of reading.  I haven't had chance to start anything new, mainly because I've got such a backlog of magazines built up that I've had to try and clear some before they take over the house!  However, my book club should be starting a new book this week, hopefully a good ol' whodunit this time. 

I'm still reading:
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
* The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (I've slogged my way through another chapter, now up to 22!)

Till Wednesday then - happy reading!  :o)
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10k Day

'10k?' I hear you thinking, 'she's been running when she should be at home writing?'  There are many reasons why the answer to that is a resounding NO - 1) it's cold here and there would have to be a very good reason for me to leave the house and 2) run 10k - me?  Have you met me?  Okay, no, most of you haven't met me, but I can assure you that I couldn't even run 1k, let alone 10.  I'm not overweight but equally I am just not that fit! 

No, 10k Day is a concept thought up by my new writing buddy Milli Thornton over at Fear of Writing whereby writers commit to trying to write a whole 10,000 words in one day, checking in periodically to post updates on their progress (and what snacks are helping them get through it!).  As one of them fell on my Writing Wednesday I thought it would be silly not to at least try, so after a late start (I won't bore you with why that was) I applied the BICHOK principle (Bum in Chair, Hands on Keyboard) and began. 

I chose to work on my NaNoWriMo project, which has been sadly languishing while I've been working long days and/or studying. #shame#  Fortunately, I'd thought ahead and done some plotting last night so that I had a bit of a route map to follow today, rather than having to think of the plot AND all the words.  So I got off to a flying start...if you're a friend on Facebook then you may have noticed my status and subsequent comments keeping the world updated with how I was doing.  I also updated my 'Toyah the Writer' Facebook page (feel free to look it up and 'like' it if you wish!) which in turn automatically updated Twitter (again, 'ToyahTheWriter'...do you see the branding I'm trying to apply?).  I do so love all this social media! 

Keeping tabs on the Fear of Writing blog page, which is where we were all checking in and updating each other, I forged ahead with periodic spurts of inspiration where the words really did just flow from my mind, down my arms and out of my fingers into the laptop.  It's quite a magical feeling!  Nourished by a bacon sandwich, chocolate biscuits and numerous cups of tea and coffee I managed to get to 3576 before it was getting dark outside and my stomach was telling me it was time for dinner...not the 10,000 I'd been hoping for, but certainly better than I've managed to get down in one day before now.  Progress! 

If you have something you're working on (not necessarily NaNoWriMo, it can be anything at all) and are in need of motivation, the next 10k Day is this Saturday (27th) - check out Milli's blog for more details and to check in.  The feeling of camaraderie is quite something, it's just so nice to have people cheering you on when you feel like it's just you and your laptop struggling along! 
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Booklog #4

Firstly, apologies for being a day late - November is Birthday Month in our family and it seems like barely a weekend can go by without meals out to celebrate various relations turning a year older.  It was too late to engage my brain last night when we got home (and is almost too late now, but luckily I drafted this on paper during my lunch break). 

This week I've sampled two 'Quick Reads' - novellas by well-known authors, intended (I presume) to tempt you to read their full-length novels.  I've never been a massive fan of short stories as I prefer to get really immersed in a long book, but these were less than a pound to download to the Kindle so I couldn't resist...  Oddly, they both have similar names - The Perfect Holiday (Cathy Kelly) and The Perfect Murder (Peter James).  But that's where the similarity ends! 

I haven't read any Cathy Kelly before but I have to say that I quite enjoyed The Perfect Holiday.  I don't usually go for what I would call 'normal life' stories, i.e. stories that aren't predominantly comedy, fantasy, history, thriller or whatever.  I don't know why but they've just never appealed - perhaps because part of me thinks that they wouldn't be different enough to normal life to be interesting.  However, I liked the way that the stories of the various characters staying at the same hotel are interwoven and also how the events that unfold lead to their lives changing in different ways.  Although it touches on serious subjects (alcoholism, bereavement) it's not overly gritty and serious and still feels quite warm and touching.  Without wishing to sound condescending, it just has a nice feel to it and I think I'll most likely go on to try some of Cathy Kelly's novels.  4/5

The Perfect Murder, on the other hand, has no such warmth and humanity - quite the opposite!  The main characters are a middle-aged married couple who are so fed up of one other that they each plot to murder the other.  I won't throw you any spoilers of course, but will just say that it's a clever plot with a good ending.  I've read Peter James' Looking Good Dead which is also very good - if you're looking for a new thriller writer to try, you could do worse than him.  4/5

And so to wrap up...

This week I finished:

The Redbreast ~ Jo Nesbo
I think you've probably gathered from my previous posts that I didn't enjoy this much.  Everything does get resolved and explained in the end, but to be honest I was so annoyed with it that I read it as quickly as possible and someone else from my book club had to explain it to me!  2/5

Angels ~ Marian Keyes
Now that I've finished it, I think this has just about the right balance of comedy and seriousness.  Things are revealed well into the second half of the story that explain a lot of issues lightly touched on in the first half and I found myself less and less able to put it down the further in I got. It starts out seemingly quite frothy and light but becomes a very compelling read.  4/5

This week I started:
Fallen ~ Lauren Kate (seems quite Twilight-esque so far, but with fallen angels instead of vampires)

I'm still reading:
Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (up to chapter 21)

That's all for now - happy reading!  :o)
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E.P.M. (?)

And breeeeeeathe...  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, yet another Wednesday has been spent in Essay Panic Mode.  How does this happen?!  I always manage to get ahead with the course work and then let the assignment slide right until a few days before the deadline.  But anyway - the positive thing is that I managed to make 1000 words out of nothing, about a relatively complex topic, in less than a day.  If I can do that then surely making up stories out of my head should be a breeze? 

I have two whole months now till the next essay is due - plenty of time to get some writing done.  NaNoWriMo is 17 days in now, over halfway, but as you can see from the blue box on the left, I'm not exactly close to halfway in terms of word count.  #shame#  I think my target is going to have to be revised down to 10,000 words this time round, maybe next year I'll be better prepared for aiming for 50k! 

I'm not unhappy with what I've written so far but I'm having to think up the plot as I go along - I know where I want to get to later but getting there isn't as straight-forward as 'he did this then he did that then they went there' etc.  Well, it could be that straight-forward, but that wouldn't be much of a challenge would it?  I might save that idea as a last resort though...
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Booklog #3

I hope you've had a good week...the weather here has really gone downhill, with gale force winds, driving rain and all the fun that is winter in Wales.  What better excuse could there be to stay in of an evening and curl up with a book?  Not that I need an excuse of course..! 

This week I have a sneaky surprise 'started it and finished it' entry for you in the form of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.  It's a former Whitbread Book of the Year and is well-known for its autistic teenage narrator.  I'd always thought that I wouldn't mind reading it but never got round to buying it, or knew anyone who had it that I could borrow it from, but on Friday a chance discovery brought the two of us together! 

For my day job I work for our local police force - as a civilian, not as an officer - and my department is within one of our main divisional HQs.  While lunching with a friend on Friday she asked if I'd seen the library yet.  Library?  What library?  It turns out we have a sort of 'trust library', where people donate books and they're stored in the atrium (where some of the lunch seating is) for anybody to take, read and return (that's the trust part!).  And fair dos - there are three units with five shelves each and they're not only full but also neatly arranged into genres...someone has been busy!  We browsed the shelves and my friend recommended Curious Incident to me and I recommended The Ice Cream Girls (Dorothy Koomson) to her.  I started it on Friday evening and was hooked - had I not had to go out to a university tutorial on Saturday I probably would have finished it that morning!  As it was, I finished on Saturday night - possibly a new record, as although I do read fast I'm not usually that fast.

I won't drop any spoilers here as I really do recommend it to everyone, but I will say that it is funny and sad and moving and educational (both about autism and about maths!) all at the same time.  It's very cleverly written, in such a way that you recognise various things happening slightly before Christopher, the narrator, does.  I felt that this was a good thing as it meant they were still a surprise to you, but that you also then got to witness his realisation and reaction separately to your own, so that becomes part of the story too.  He's a very interesting character and you really do want everything to work out for him.  Though of course I won't say here whether it does or not...  ;o)

I give Curious Incident... 5/5.  Everyone should read it! 

And now for this week's 'I'm still reading' list:

The Redbreast ~ Jo Nesbo
The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (up to chapter 20 now, following a massive push!)
Angels ~ Marian Keyes
Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett (I decided to start reading it rather than watch it on TV first)

That's all for now - thanks for reading, have a great week! 
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Kidnapped by Homer

Sigh.  I had plans to forge ahead with Project NaNoWriMo today, however Homer (he of ancient times, not he of The Simpsons) had other ideas.  Somehow, yet another assignment deadline has rolled round and I have 1000 words to write by November 19th about either A) the theme of 'virtue' in the Iliad, or B) the relevance of material evidence (i.e. pots, statues etc) to the society which Homer wrote about.  ARGH! 

I love studying, I really do - acquiring new knowledge is a most amazing feeling, even if it's not very useful in a practical sense.  But when it comes to assignments and being tested on that knowledge I go into panic mode.  I've never missed a deadline or failed to submit something, but I always feel that what I've managed to scrape together is terrible (is there a theme here? this sounds like my other posts!) but will have to do, then when I get the mark back I'm generally pleasantly surprised.  I felt this way about the final assignment for my last full-length course and I ended up getting 98% for that!!  I suppose that as with most things in life, it comes down to confidence and self-belief.  I need to believe that I know enough about this subject and am a competent enough academic writer to put it into words. 

Not that I got as far as putting it into words today.  I'm going with option A but have spent all day researching for it so that I have something to write.  There's a tutorial this Saturday where my geographical study group will meet up for a couple of hours, so I'm hoping to get some additional inspiration from there.  Fingers crossed anyway! 

Trojan Horse, http://www.canakkale.gov.tr/eng_twoeast_westwar.htm

Incidentally, the mark came back for the last assignment that I was complaining about (ha ha!) - 75%, which equates to a B grade in Open University grading.  Not too shabby! 
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Booklog #2

Greetings!  So another Sunday evening is upon us and as usual I have that 'pre-Monday morning meh' feeling.  I often daydream about how liberating it would be just to jack in the day job and write full-time, but then I remember that I have bills to pay!  Still, at least I'm taking baby steps towards that day...

NaNoWriMo (see my previous post) has somewhat taken over my free time this week so there hasn't been much reading going on.  However I couldn't resist pushing on and finishing The Book of Secrets by Tom Harper.  I give it 4/5 and would definitely recommend it if you enjoy the 'race for the historical artefact' type of story.  I wouldn't say it brought anything particularly new to the genre - you could pretty much guess how things were going to end - but it was very well-paced and the interweaving of the historical story of Johann Gutenberg and his invention of the printed book with the present day story of Nick and Emily was done well.  They alternate chapters for most of the book and each one ends leaving you wanting more from that side of the story, but then as you start the next you remember the cliff-hanger that the other characters were left in and become absorbed in their story again.  All in all a very enjoyable read. 

Today I started reading Mythology for Dummies, as a supplement for my Open University course.  I'm a big fan of the Dummies series and I'll admit that I have quite a collection, from Scrapbooking to High Blood Pressure...whether that makes me a Dummy I don't know?!  I really like the format they follow, breaking a big subject down into sections and then into smaller sections, using lists and bullet points and so on.  They appeal to my obsessive sense of order and I really feel that you could learn about anything from them. 

Other than that, I'm still reading:

Angels ~ Marian Keyes
The Redbreast ~ Jo Nesbo
The Children's Book ~ A. S. Byatt (halfway through chapter 15 - I feel that the only way to bully myself into making progress with it is to hold myself accountable to you!)

Till next time - happy reading!  
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NaNoWriMo, baby!

Image by owlbookdreams via Flickr

No, I'm not spouting gibberish - NaNoWriMo (link may not always work as the site is very busy) is short for National Novel Writing Month and I made the spur of the moment decision last night to sign up...

The idea is that you write every day during November, working towards a target word count of 50,000 words.  If you manage that then by the end you have a completed first draft of a novel.  A short novel, admittedly - they're usually more in the 90,000+ range - but a novel nonetheless, which you can then either continue to work on and make longer, or edit into something worthy of submission.  Given my problem with obsessively self-editing myself after every sentence, I figured this could be just the kick in the butt that I need to make me Just Sit And Write! 

So the proper start was on November 1st, but as I only heard about it for the first time yesterday I'm two days behind.  You update your profile with your current word count as often as you like and it gives you stats about your average words per day, words left till you hit the overall target, words till you hit today's goal and that sort of thing.  And there's a graph!  I do love a nice graph, they're so motivating!  If I'd started on time I 'should' (though there are no hard and fast rules, just suggested guidelines) be up to 5000 words by the end of today.  Of course I'm not, but I am up to 2002 (the 2 are important!) which I feel is pretty darned good - the most I've ever written in one day in fact.  And the best thing is that I'm not too displeased with what I've written - just letting it come out of my head onto the screen has not resulted in the terrible dross that I feared it would.  You can see my latest word count on the little blue gizmo thingy on the left of the screen. 

From what I can gather there is a lot of criticism of this whole idea, not least because it advertises itself as a contest and explicitly states that it's all about quantity not quality.  If you make it to 50,000 words (and you have to upload them so their gadget thingy can verify that you haven't just copy-pasted the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog 5500 times) then you are classed as a Winner and you get some goodies (I'm not sure what).  Many professional writers/people in the publishing world think this is bad - writing's not a competition (in that sense at least) or a race, and I would agree with that.  If people go through this process and then send the end product straight off to a publisher or agent, I can imagine that person would probably be pretty peeved at having to read through them all because 99% of them must be awful!  The first draft is just the foundations, not the finished house!  The site does say that the work done in November is just the first part of the overall process - once you've written it you do have to edit it - but I guess a lot of people must choose to ignore that, thinking that they've got all these words down, so that should be fine.

Anyway, I'm being honest with myself and acknowledging that it's unlikely I'll get to 50,000 words by the end of November (unless I take the entire month off work).  For me it's going to be more of a way to train myself to just let the words flow, with the added bonus that by the end of it I will at least have a substantial chunk of story to do with what I like.  Next year will be different though...next year I will be a WINNER!  ;oD

Booklog #1

Happy Halloween!  Okay, so now that's out of the way let's move on.  I'm not a fan of this festival, or at least of what it has become (I have no problem with the original Pagan Samhain, which is actually very interesting).  I don't see why I should be obliged to use my own money to buy sweets or whatever and then hand them over to children/teenagers I don't even know, just because of the date.  I get that it's fun to dress up, have a party and all that, but walking the streets going to strangers' houses and asking for sweets...isn't that the exact opposite of what we're taught as children?!

Anyway, onto this week's books! 

I haven't finished anything this week (too much studying getting in the way!) but these are my 'in progress' reads:

Image by Pickersgill Reef via Flickr

The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt

Be prepared to see this one listed every week for a loooong time - it's really heavy-going because there is so much detail stuffed in there, not a single thing can be mentioned without a long ramble about a bunch of other topics and history related to it, diverting your attention from the plot.  I know A.S. Byatt is a well-established and highly-respected author, but I can't help but feel that there could have been a lot of pruning done to this book before publishing it!  I can only manage a chapter per sitting, so it's going to take me a long time to get through it, which is not like me at all.  But I hate not finishing something I've started! 

The Book of Secrets ~ Tom Harper

Much more my cup of tea - I'm a bit of an addict when it comes to Dan Brown-esque 'race to find historical artefact/secret before bad guys do' stories!  This one concerns the very earliest printed books and alternates between the present day chase and the historical story of what they are searching for came into being.  A book about the invention of books - what could be better?  I may well have finished by next week as it's very fast paced and every time I pick it up I find it hard to put down...

Angels ~ Marian Keyes

I've read a fair bit of 'chick lit' - Cecilia Ahern, Sophie Kinsella and Lindsay Kelk being my favourites - but never any Marian Keyes.  Given that she is considered to be one of the best I thought I'd try one - after all, if I want to write one myself, I need to see some good examples of how it's done!  Amazon is recommending all sorts of different authors of this type to me at the moment, so I plan to go on and download more samples onto the Kindle to get a feel of whose work I might like. 

The Redbreast ~ Jo Nesbo

As I mentioned last week, I’m reading this because it’s the current selection of the mini ‘crime’ book club that I’m in at work (don’t worry – we meet at lunchtimes, not while we should be working!).  It’s of the ‘dysfunctional alcoholic police detective’ vein of crime novels, but I have to say that it’s not doing much for me.  It was written in Norwegian originally, so obviously takes place in Norway, but this means it uses acronyms that I’m not familiar with, and there are so many  characters with similar sounding names and jobs within government/the police that I can’t remember who’s who.  Not that I’m really that bothered though, as I don’t feel any connection with or sympathy for any of the characters, even the main detective.  There’s a lot of reference to WWII, Nazis, neo-Nazis and political stuff that – not to sound like a total airhead – just doesn’t interest me.  Overall it feels very grey and two-dimensional...perhaps you need to have read Nesbo’s earlier books to ‘get’ the detective more, but to me he just seems really sulky and overly critical of himself.  I want to tell him to pull himself together!  Needless to say, I’ll look forward to when this one is done and hopefully our next selection will be something more like Agatha Christie/Sherlock Holmes where there are a list of suspects and a bunch of clues and we can try to guess whodunit before the sleuth reveals the answer. 

Question!  If something exists in both book form and TV form, which would you consume first?  I have Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth on the Kindle, but it’s also being shown in a brand new six-part series on TV at the moment, which my satellite recorder is storing up for me.  If I read the book first, the series will be taking up valuable space on my recorder’s hard disc while I read (and it’s quite a long book).  But if I watch the series first to get it off the recorder, then when I read the book I’ll have preconceived ideas of what the characters, places etc look like, which would have been quite different had I read the book first. 

It’s a bit like when the Lord of the Rings films (which I adore, I’m not criticising them) came out – they overwrote the mental pictures that I’d created of everything from reading the books many years previously as a young teenager (and then again several times over!).  I can’t remember now how I used to ‘see’ Rivendell, because all I see now is how Peter Jackson believes it should look.  It’ll be the same when The Hobbit is released I suppose, which makes me quite sad because that book is a real childhood friend.  I can still see the exact mental images that I had as a child of Bilbo in Smaug’s lair, riding the barrel, riddling with Gollum and so on.  Once the film comes out it will wipe these out and replace them, because seeing that with my eyes will undoubtedly create much stronger memories than the ones I made up in my mind.  Having said that though, I’ll almost certainly not be able to resist seeing it anyway!  

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I like days like these...

Greetings readers!  You'll have to imagine me beaming at you down the cables (? airwaves? fibre optics?) as today has been a really productive day! 

Not only have I done some writing (Project Blake - police/forensic) but I've also finally finished my archaeology course AND caught up to where I should be on my Exploring the Classical World course.  HURRAH!!  I can't say I'm sad to finish the archaeology - though I love the general idea of it, I've learnt that I'm not really made for the science side of things, I think I'd be more the anthropologist who comes along to look at the stuff after they've dug it up and cleaned it, and work out whose it was, what it was for etc.  But hey ho - I gave it a try and that's what life's all about isn't it? 

Classical World though is another thing altogether, I love it!  You may remember that last week I was doing my first assignment (still no result back by the way :o( ) about Homer's Odyssey, well this week looked at the 'prequel' poem the Iliad, which is just as fascinating, all about the Trojan War.  It's about 25,000 lines long so we don't study all of it (thank goodness!), just a variety of extracts, but all the same it's so thought-provoking to consider and learn about an era from so long ago.  Having been there last year and seen it first-hand, I can't wait to get to the blocks about ancient Rome! 

Totally unrelated to either writing OR studying, but taking up a semi-large chunk of the day - hubby and I also sorted out our greenhouse ready for winter (the frosts have started already here), so my tomato and pepper plants are now safely housed in the conservatory away from rain, wind and cold.  Here's to the stir fry their produce will eventually end up in!  :oD

Until my first proper 'Booklog' post on Sunday, goodbye and have a great week! 
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Books, books, books - a new idea!

Hello!  Yes, I know it's Sunday night and you're probably wondering why on earth I'm posting, but I was just reading another blogger's post ( The Taming of the Shelves ) and it struck me that the amount and variety of books which I read must surely impact on my writing.  I thought that looking at this in more detail could be interesting, or at the very least might suggest books that you may not have tried but may like to. 

I'm what you might call a butterfly reader - I flit from book to book depending on my mood, so at any time could have anything up to six or seven different ones on the go.  This has increased since I got the Kindle (oops!), the way that it saves your place within each book is just so handy - and of course popping onto the site and downloading new stuff is so easy that it's hard to resist.  People sometimes find it hard to understand how I can read multiple books without getting confused, but it's second nature to me.  Surely it's no different to watching different TV series?  I've watched Lost, Heroes and Sex And The City, but I never got confused when Carrie wasn't on the island or Sylar wasn't in Bloomingdales! 

So my idea is to post here every Sunday about what I've read during the week, what I think of it, and anything else book-related that occurs to me. Of course if you have any recommendations please do post them - I'll try most things! 

As it's quite late right now - and I have work in the morning - here's a quick starter for ten.  This week I finished reading:

Company of Liars ~ Karen Maitland 
Please Forgive Me ~ Melissa Hill
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ~ Washington Irvine
Heart of Darkness ~ Joseph Conrad
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ~ Lewis Carroll

I'm still reading:
The Book of Secrets ~ Tom Harper
The Children's Book ~ A S Byatt
The Redbreast - Jo Nesbo (this is for my book club)

I'll do some reviewing and scoring next week - but right now my bed's calling me!  :oD
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Homer...but not THAT one

Hello!  Well you'll be pleased to know that I have done some writing today instead of playing Wii...however it's been in the form of the first essay for my new Open University course, rather than any of my projects.  It was unavoidable though, as the deadline is midday this Friday and because I'm out at work at that time, I have to upload it on Thursday night.  So I have even less time available!

Fortunately it is only a 500 word essay - a critical review of an extract of Homer's Odyssey (an epic read, to say the least!).  However because it's only 500 words I have to be pretty picky with which ones I use.  That's one of the benefits of these courses, they do teach you how to be economical and efficient with words, getting your meaning across in the most concise way possible.  Of course fiction does require a little more than that to stop it from becoming dry and lifeless, but the idea is the same.  Pretty much all the writing advice books I've ever read have mentioned at some point the fact that however many words you put into your first draft, you'll need to take a good percentage of them out to make it into something that an editor/agent/publisher would consider. 

This makes me think of the problem I have whereby I self-edit as I go along.  I seem to be trying to take out words before I've even got them all down!  Maybe what I need to do is try to be as wordy and waffly as possible (in the safe knowledge that any or all of it can be removed later) so that I can steam through and make proper progress with the story, instead of hanging around at the beginning worrying about the small stuff.  I wonder whether there is any way of flicking my brain into this mode..? 

Thanks for reading!  Knowing I have to write to you every week is very motivating - even if (as today) I didn't do any project work, it can be quite thought-provoking to consider how what I have done can relate back to writing. 

Have a great week! :o)
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A shameful performance

Dear readers, it is with great shame and feelings of guilt that I must inform you that I have done no writing today.  Wait, WAIT...before you all unfollow me (!)...let me tell you that I have instead spent time working out with the Wii, so it hasn't all been time wasted! 

I've had Wii Fit for ages now but go through phases of using it all the time then ignoring it for weeks, possibly because it's a bit too casual and allows you to choose what you'll do (when offered with that choice, I'm never going to pick the rock hard exercises!).  For some reason this morning I felt the urge to put it on, when I fired it up the little Balance Board character told me that it had been 101 days since our last session.  Eep!!  It's a good job he doesn't have a face because if he did I think he would have been giving me an angry scowl...

So I did half an hour of Wii Fit and managed to burn enough calories to cancel out a piece of toast (or so it told me) when the postman turned up with an Amazon parcel which contained a game I'd ordered ages ago and forgotten about - EA Active.  I figured I'd give it a quick whirl - just to see what it was like before I buckled down to work you understand - created my virtual me (with some very fetching gym kit that I'd quite like in real life!) and started an 'easy' workout.  All I can say is: IT'S A LOT TOUGHER THAN WII FIT!  If you want to work out at home, this is the game to get!  The programme I did took about 25 minutes but it really got my heart going with a mixture of stretching, sports games (shooting hoops etc) and cardio.  There are video guides to all the different exercises and constant feedback from the virtual trainer and it's all set in a variety of nice backdrops (if you have time to look at them!) with a cool music playlist. 

Look at that - I've turned into a games reviewer!  Maybe that's an avenue of writing I should pursue..?  ;o)

I hereby solemnly swear to do better and WRITE next week.  Adios till then!
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Back to full strength...well, almost.

So firstly I must apologise for not posting last week...we went to Paris for the weekend, but travelled by coach with - seemingly - the sickest people that could be found en route, who spent the whole journey sounding like they were about to cough out their internal organs.  I did my very best positive thinking, surrounding myself with a mental bubble to keep germs out, but inevitably something got me and I started with a cold just as we were a couple of hours from home on the return journey.  Curse you germs!!  It kept me off work for a full week (I went back yesterday) and while ordinarily a week off work would have been a wonderful opportunity to get some writing done, I just haven't had the mental capacity!

On the plus side though, Paris was amazing - I love it and I want to run away and live there!!

Today then, with a couple of symptoms still lingering, I had to kick my own butt into gear and get some words down.  And I'm pleased to say that I have!  Project Crunch (chick lit) is now over the 2000 word mark, at 2444.  I've finished the opening argument scene that was troubling me in my last post and though I know it'll need revision to tidy it up, I'm pleased with how it's turned out.  And I'm glad to have got one chapter under my belt! 

Lastly, just a quick update on my relationship with Mr A. Mazon-Kindle...it's true love!  The hardest part is holding myself back from buying book after book with just single clicks on the website (I find it easier to browse online rather than through the device.  I've got quite a good mix downloaded now - some fantasy, some historical, crime, chick lit and a mixture of modern fiction, as well as a selection of blogs (I love 'Overheard in New York - so funny!).  I think that in a year's time or so, when it's much fuller, it will have become one of those 'how did I ever live without this?' kind of things.  If you like reading - get one! 
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Arguments...

Today I've been working on Project Crunch (chick lit), on a scene which I've decided will be the opening one.  The only problem is that it involves my heroine and her fiance having a huge argument, and - to be honest - I've never really had that experience with anyone, especially my husband (and ours is the only relationship I've been in...aww, sweet!).  I'm extremely non-confrontational by nature - I'll do anything to avoid a row.  If I'm angry with you I'm 99% more likely to give you the silent treatment than to shout at you.  I'll leave the room to avoid other people arguing and don't even like watching it on TV.  There's enough negativity floating around the world already, I don't feel the need to add to it or willingly expose myself to it! 

So when it comes to writing a row I don't really have much to draw on.  The temptation to make the characters be too nice and too understanding to each other is tremendous, because I feel awkward that I'm consciously trying to generate bad vibes.  I guess it'll be a learning curve - I'll have to write it my way, then keep revising it to make it angrier and more like a real argument.  Because after all, life's not always sweetness and light is it?! 
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Archaeology Rocks!

Sorry about the rubbish pun in the title - I didn't really want to put something like 'hey guess what, I did no writing today!'.  Unfortunately though, that is the case - I have the final (indeed, only) assignment of my Open University archaeology course due in October, but I'm somewhat behind with the coursework so today has been spent in a vague attempt to catch up.

I'm hoping that some of the stuff I learn through the course will come in useful for my writing, although I'm aware that a detailed description of the geophysical tests carried out to determine a site would probably not be the most gripping of reads!  I don't have any story ideas that are specifically archaeology-related in mind, but if I should be struck with one in the future then at least this might add a flavour of authenticity to it...

On an 'archaeology meets writing' note, happy 120th birthday Agatha Christie!  One of my main writing heroes - I adore Poirot - if I get to be even a fraction as good as Agatha I'll be a very happy girl...

Image via Wikipedia

Choices, choices...

Today I had every intention of working on Project Crunch (my chick lit idea), but when I fired up the laptop and went to Documents I ended up being drawn into Project Blake instead.  I've been finding lately that I think of snippets of ideas and changes that I want to make - either while at work (oops, if you're reading boss - I write them down and get straight back to the day job, honest!) or driving, or falling asleep.  Today I just went into Blake to make one of those changes and have ended up working on it all day.  It makes me wonder how more established writers keep themselves disciplined to focus on one thing at a time..? 

I'm also finding that now I have this dedicated writing time every Wednesday, I do struggle with just letting the words come.  I'm something of a perfectionist (in everything, not just writing) and it is a real struggle not to self-edit as I'm going along, or to spend ages trying to think of precisely the right word, when instead I should probably just type everything as it comes to mind to get the action and the scene down, then go back and look at the fine detail another time.  I wonder whether anybody knows of a way of overcoming this? 

Also this week, the analytical part of my subconscious has pushed its way forward and made me set up a graph to monitor the word counts of my projects.  Whether this is a good idea or not in terms of motivation I don't know, but I do like a nice graph so it'll stay!  I don't think there's any way of posting it on here, but in case you're interested, today's standings are:

Project Blake: 1500
Project Crunch: 214 (this is why I was intending to work on it today)
Project Witch: 1430

Witch is an idea for a children's/Young Adult story that I had aaaaaaages ago, started writing, then as usual got distracted by other ideas.  I found the draft I'd started on a memory stick recently so have added it to my stable of projects.  I find that when I read my own writing back later I really like it - it's just while I'm working on it that I feel it's appallingly bad and going nowhere!  I wonder if every writer is like that? 

"All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them." ~ Walt Disney
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A Great Day

Why a great day?  Well, there are a number of reasons! 

Firstly, I am in love with my newest gadget - my Amazon Kindle.  Yes yes, I know it's for reading and not for writing, but it's just so amazing that I can't not mention it!  I could harp on about all its features, but it would be easier to recommend that if you love reading, go to Amazon and get one.  Now!  I was dubious about reading off a screen before I got it, but I needn't have worried as it's actually really good.  I actually keep catching myself looking at it and thinking "but surely that's ink printed onto it?" even though I know it can't be...

Secondly, I have had a productive day and got over a thousand words down towards what I'm going to call Project Blake, which is a 'police procedure' crime novel.  Ages and ages ago I had a random idea for an opening scene for a book like this (fortunately I wrote it down at the time), and recently an 'investigator' character started clamouring inside my head to be let out, so the two ideas have been put together into one project.  It's early days of course, but I'm pretty excited about it.  The old adage 'write what you know' seems a good place to start - I work in the forensic department of our local police force so there is a lot of research material and people's expertise sat right there on a plate for me.  (NB Of course I would never use real-life cases, people or details in my writing.  It's just handy that I can check how things would be done in various scenarios.)

Thirdly, well, it's sunny.  And that's always nice! :o)

"All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them" ~Walt Disney
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Productivity Dive... :o(

I'd planned that today would be a great day, what with the new laptop being all set up and ready to go, but sadly I was laid low with a headache until well past lunch time.  The headaches I get are usually due to eye strain from computer screen use, so I didn't want to risk provoking it into returning by jumping straight back on the laptop once it had gone. 

Instead I decided to go through the not-insubstantial backlog of Writers' News and Writing Magazine that has been building up on my bedroom floor *ahem*.  I've subscribed to both for years, but I'm a bit of a lover of magazines all round and have a lot of other subscriptions too, so they often form something of a queue (well, more of a mob!). 

If you're a writer or poet and have never read either of these fine publications then I highly recommend that you have a look.  Not only do they provide great advice and stop you feeling quite as isolated, they also recommend writing-related books and this can save you money because there are a lot of those out there and not all of them are helpful.  My own collection of writing books is a modest size but all of them have proved interesting and inspiring - these are my favourites:

• On Writing - Stephen King
• Your Writing Coach - Jurgen Wolff
• Wannabe a Writer? - Jane Wenham-Jones
• The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes - Jack M. Bickham

Of course it's perilously easy to fall into just reading about writing and not actually doing any writing - much like I unintentionally did today.  But I guess it's the second best thing that I could be spending my Writing Days doing! 

Beginnings

So I am well aware (and slightly guilt-stricken) that I started this blog in March, and that it is now August, but I am finally in a position to make proper, regular, use of it.  At the beginning of August I changed the work pattern of my full-time day job, so I now work four longer days and have every Wednesday off.  Wednesdays are now my Writing Days!

I've had three Writing Days - the first I spent feeling weird (like I was skiving off the day job) and organising my office and books etc, the second I spent catching up with the archaeology course that I was a bit behind on and the third (yesterday) I spent procrastinating while excitedly waiting for my new laptop to be delivered (it wasn't, as it happened - it came today).  But now my shiny new tech-baby is all set up and I'm ready to go! 

Of all the ideas bubbling around in my head, choosing which one to put my energy into first has proved tricky so far, but I think I've decided.  It's a non-fiction work- a guide for British couples wanting to get married in the USA, and I'm really confident about it.  When I was planning my own wedding (which was in New York) there were no books and very little information available if you weren't willing to scour the Internet.  Fortunately I LOVE scouring the Internet and researching minute details for hours on end, but I know that I might be in the minority there, so I believe there would be a great market for my book.  Of course there's a lot of research to be done before I get to the writing stage but I'm very excited nonetheless! 

I plan to blog the progress of 'Hitched' separately as it develops, which you can find here: Hitched Guide blog  If you follow it, it will be even more of an incentive for me to keep going! 

Thanks for reading!

Toyah

"All of your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them" ~ Walt Disney

Every journey begins with a single step...

Once upon a time... 

Allow me to introduce myself - my name is Toyah and I have wanted to be a writer ever since I can remember.  Story writing was always my favourite activity in junior school, and when - at the age of 12 - I saw a boy younger than myself being interviewed on Blue Peter about the book he had written (which was being published), I decided that if he could do it, then I could do it too!  I filled notebooks with stories and poems, and even had two poems published in school anthologies.  But when I got to high school, then university and eventually the world of work, I found that I had less and less time and energy to give to my scribblings and they pretty much dried up. 

I'm now approaching thirty, and - frustrated with myself at my lack of progress in the writing world - have just completed Start Writing Fiction with the Open University.  I got really good marks and very encouraging feedback from my tutor and have decided that this is my new starting point.  Today is Day One.  From this point onwards I will put 100% effort into my writing so that by the time I come to approach forty (which seems like an age away!) I will be able to introduce myself as: Toyah Coolican, Professional Writer. 

Please feel free to join me on this journey if you are a writer, a wannabe writer, a reader, or just a person who likes reading random blogs (!).  I hope that by sharing every step, and with your encouragement, I will keep myself on the straight and narrow path to publication.