A lost day...

Uggggggh!  Sorry for uttering something so unprofessional, when the title of my blog has 'Professional' in it, but today has been a complete write-off and I've achieved nothing.  I shan't go into detail as to why because I know I'll probably say something I'll regret - and what with this being the big ol' World Wide Interweb it is bound to be seen by someone it shouldn't - so I'll just say that it feels very clear that what is precious to me (my time on my Wednesdays) isn't viewed in the same light by others.  Just because I'm at home, apparently it means I'm free to do whatever other people want.  It's clearly okay to monopolise my time with other (trivial) things, indirectly implying that they are more important and consequently that my whole writing thing is a waste of time.  And if I try to make the point (however tactfully) that these days are for me, for my writing, for what I'm trying to make into my job, then it's also clearly okay to dismiss that as if I was just being awkward and had said that I'd prefer to stare at the wall instead of go along with their plans.  As I said: uggggh! 

So in the absence of any progress whatsoever to report on (can you tell that I'm somewhat narked?), I thought I'd show you this:

It's today's page of my '3650 Things to Make You Happy' calendar.  Check out item number 2 - 'easily digestible chapters' (there always seems to be something specifically related to me on this calendar - it's a bit spooky!).  This absolutely sums up the problem I had with The Children's Book (see Booklog #12)...it was completely undigestible!  Like chewing your way through a huge and really tough steak - takes ages, isn't enjoyable during it and at the end you're left unsatisfied and overwhelmed. 

Musing on why this bothered me so, I realised that 99% of the reason I read is for entertainment - it's rarely to give my brain a serious workout (that's what puzzles are for!).  I don't want to have to work hard to empathise for the characters, or constantly have to try and decipher why they're doing whatever they're doing.  I want the author to make that relatively easy for me, by giving me digestible chapters to work with.  I might make this my own Golden Rule, if I can think of a catchy name for it.  Any ideas? 

Oh and also - what's the deal with 'waiting for tree sap' (number 8)?  Waiting for it to do what?  I don't really get that one! 
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Booklog #13

Ooh - number 13, will this be the unluckiest Booklog..? 

This week I've finished:

* The Golden Acorn ~ Catherine Cooper
This is, admittedly, a children's story, and when I say 'children's' I don't mean that Young Adult sort of group that Real Adults can just about get away with enjoying, it is properly for children (perhaps 10-12 year olds?).  But it was a free (I think) Kindle download so in the spirit of trying things, I tried it.  It's actually very well-written...even though it is relatively simplistic, the plot is solid, the characters are charming (mostly, there are one or two less pleasant ones!) and the action is well-paced. 

It's the adventure of a young boy called Jack, who turns out to be The Chosen One to fulfil a prophecy which will save some supernatural beings (water nymphs, faery folk, dragons etc) and the forest they live in from fading away and dying.  Essentially the message is about bravery, standing up for your friends and that kind of thing - Jack has to take a leap of faith more than once and must learn a lot, but by the end he's a better person for it.  One thing that did annoy me was that the ending is very abrupt - I suppose it may well be preparation for a sequel.  For that reason: 3/5

* The Library of Gold ~ Gayle Lynds
Ah, I do enjoy a good historical-artefact-chase-thriller!  And when you mix in a mythical library (a library!  A book about books - what could be better?!) I'm sold.  Luckily, the characters and the writing also lived up to the high quality of the promised storyline and once again I found myself engrossed in a book that I just didn't want to put down.  It's a thrilling chase around the world (including Athens and the Parthenon, which was nice after having just studied it) with assassins, gunfights, spies, double-crossing and clues aplenty.  I won't spoil anything for you, but will just say that if you enjoy Dan Brown you'll enjoy this.  4.5/5 (half a mark deducted as I feel that a perfect book has re-readability, and of course this doesn't because by the end you know the answers to everything)

This week I've started:

* White Fang ~ Jack London

I'm still reading:

* Picture Perfect ~ Jodi Picoult
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
* Murder on the Flying Scotsman ~ Carola Dunn
* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard

This puts me at 10/100 for the 100 Books in a Year Challenge. 

How's your reading going this year? 
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OneNote after another...

I spent almost all last weekend buried in the new Romans block of my course and it was totally worth it - I actually managed to get ahead of the schedule!  So as a result I've enjoyed another study-free day today and decided to spend time working on Project Crunch. 

Instead of writing the main story I've been doing some character profiling, building up the details behind my heroine to make her more real in my mind.  This is advised in many of the writing books, magazines and websites that I've read, so I figured that it must be worth a try!  I think that the better I am able to get to know her as a person, the easier it will be to make sure I write her consistently all the way through.  Not just in terms of hair colour, eye colour and details like that (though it has been handy to write all that down in one place!), but knowing what she feels about various things.  Is she a TV addict?  Does she want children?  What are her flaws?  Does she like her appearance?  And so on...all sorts of different factors which build up together to make a real personality and (hopefully) not flat and lifeless. 

Because she will go through some pretty big changes during the story, I'm conscious that I can't just have her flick from being one type of person with a certain set of values at the start to someone totally different at the end.  She will change (I know she will - I know how it ends!) but my challenge is to manage it carefully, pace it and make it realistic.  I'm actually looking forward to this - though she's not the most loveable at the start (nothing horrendous, just not your average bubbly ditzy chick lit heroine), the various plot points I've planned out will gradually turn her into someone that I hope readers will like and emphasise with.  I can't wait to see it unfolding before me! 

Just to explain why I titled this post the way I did...I want to advocate the wonder that is Microsoft OneNote.  I'd never heard of it before I got my laptop last year (perhaps it only comes with Office 2007?) and didn't really know what to do with it when I first opened it, but now I love it!  It's like a virtual filing system - within the programme you save separate 'Notebooks' (essentially a ring-binder - I have one for each of my writing projects).  Then within each Notebook there are tabs, which split the project into sections.  Within each tab are Pages into which you can type or paste anything you want.  And unlike MS Word there are no restrictions as to where you can type - you literally click anywhere on the page and just start typing.  There are also Sub-Pages in case your main Page covers a wide range of information. 

So, for example, I have a Notebook for Hitched.  Within it are two tabs labelled 'Planning' and 'States'.  Within 'Planning' are Pages titled 'Introduction', 'Legal Stuff' and 'General Travel' - there will be others as I progress with working on it.  Within 'States' are Pages titled...well...each US state name (yes, all 50!) and within each of those are Sub-Pages for 'Basic Info', 'Significant Landmarks' and things like that for each state. 

It's an incredibly easy and customisable way to organise a lot of information so that you're able to go straight to whatever you wish. I'm still experimenting and tweaking to find the best way of using it for my other projects, but if you have it I would definitely recommend that you check it out.

Thanks for reading - till next time!  
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