I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.
Gustave Flaubert

Writing is not a genteel profession. It’s quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty.
Rosemary Mahoney

Today’s Word Count: 2,752

Total Word Count: 20,003

Morale: Still flying high. I’m still happy so far, no major problems, I may however need to do research at some point.  

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. Red Smith

Happy Writing

Sandie

For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word. Catherine Drinker Bowen

There are many reasons why novelists write – but they all have one thing in common: a need to create an alternative world. John Fowles

Today’s Word Count: 2,228

Total Word Count: 17,251

Morale: Very high. Now have one suspect cleared with 4 more to investigate. Learning more about John and Elizabeth and so loving my Elderly Sleuths.

I can’t help but to write, I have an inner need for it. If I’m not in the middle of some literary project, I’m utterly lost, unhappy and distressed. As soon as I get started, I calm down. Kaari Utrio

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. E. L. Doctorow

You can’t say, I won’t write today because that excuse will extend into several days, then several months, then… you are not a writer anymore, just someone who dreams about being a writer. Dorothy C. Fontana

Word Count Today: 3,274

Total Word Count: 15,023

Morale: Fantastic – Novel moving like great, although working with three different files is interesting. I’m happy how it is all going at this stage. Just hope I don’t work out who done it before I reach 50K.

Writing is physical work. It’s sweaty work. You just can’t will yourself to become a good writer. You really have to work at it. Will Haygood

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. William Shakespeare

In writing a series of stories about the same characters, plan the whole series in advance in some detail, to avoid contradictions and inconsistencies. L. Sprague de Camp

Today’s Word Count: 1,670

Total Word Count: 11,750

Morale: High even if the words were slower today.

All fiction is a process of imagining: whatever you write, in whatever genre or medium, your task is to make things up convincingly and interestingly and new. Neil Gaiman

It’s tougher than Himalayan yak jerky on January. But, as any creative person will tell you, there are days when there’s absolutely nothing sweeter than creating something from nothing. Richard Krzemien

I don’t think it is possible to give tips for finding one’s voice; it’s one of those things for which there aren’t really any tricks or shortcuts, or even any advice that necessarily translates from writer to writer. All I can tell you is to write as much as possible. Poppy Z. Brite

Today’s Word Count: 2,553

Total Word Count: 10,080

Morale: High Still.

Although story has taken a turn I wasn’t expecting. I now have one story with three files for three different POVs. My Detective was once married to the manager of the nursing home, when that happened I don’t know, that was in my plotting. Not that I’ve taken much notice of my notes anyway.

 If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I’d type a little faster. Isaac Asimov

Happy writing.

Sandie

No one is able to enjoy such feast than the one who throws a party in his own mind. Selma Lagerlöf

Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted. Jules Renard

Today’s Word Count: 2,504

Total Word Count: 7, 527

Morale: Very High

Reading usually precedes writing and the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer. Susan Sontag

Happy Writing.

Sandie

A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream. Gaston Bachelard

Don’t feel guilty about being afraid of the blank page. Don’t think you aren’t a writer if you don’t rush to the computer first thing when you get up in the morning in order to face the empty page. Writing is hard work. Filling up an empty page with your thoughts, your pains, your joys, and your creative ideas takes immense courage. The Writer’s Portable Therapist: 25 Sessions to a Creativity Cure by Rachel Ballon, Phd

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God. Sidney Sheldon

And so we begin, face with another blank page. Does the thought of starting a new project scare the daylights out of you? Under normal circumstances it doesn’t bother me at all, but when it’s NaNo or 50/30 for some reason all these fears come tumbling in on me. Maybe it’s the thought that I have to stick to the one project and reach that 50k mark. Whatever the reason, I don’t enjoy it one bit.

As I mentioned in my last post I have this novel plotted, so I’m interested to see how I go with it this time. I had planned to have post written ready to send out each day, but so far that hasn’t happened, maybe during the week I’ll get a few written together and just have to add how my day progressed.

Here is how I went today;

I started writing at 12.00AM, yes you read that right. I decided this year I would start as soon as the clock clicked over to 12 midnight. After two hours writing I’m happy. I’ll update the word count again later.

Word count: 5,023

Morale: High – fantastic result for day 1.

 For me, writing is exploration; and most of the time, I’m surprised where the journey takes me. Jack Dann

Catch up with you tomorrow

Sandie

‘Murder at the Spring Ball’ is the name of the Cosy Mystery I’m writing for NaNo this year. The setting is a nursing home, it’s the night of the Spring Ball and one of the entertainers for the night is found dead in the change room. Suspects are the bandleader, a woman jealous of the dead woman. The organ player, he had an affair with the dead woman who had moved on to another lover. I should point out that the dead woman is in her late seventies but still very active.

Another suspect is one of the guests, dead woman fleeced her father many years earlier. The final suspect is the clown, who would suspect someone dressed up as a clown? My resident sleuth is an old busy body, very likeable, but a snoop who gets in the way of the investigation. Her sidekicks aren’t much better, but I’m hoping they will add a bit of comedy to the story.

This is the first time in a long while that I have had this much information about one of my stories before I even start to write. I also have each chapter and scene plotted.

I’m thinking my word target may be around the 55,000 to 60,000 words, but if I get to the 50,000 by the end of November I’ll be more than happy. I’ve warned everyone that I’m writing for the month so don’t expect me to me sociable during that time. I’m going down to visit my Mum tomorrow as I haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks (yes I’m a slack butt) but I have been sick and didn’t want to spread whatever it is around the nursing home.

Good luck everyone with your NaNo.

Sandie

Finished ‘The End is Nigh 2009′ challenge over at Kiwi writers. Yes i just had to finish writing and/or editing a current WIP.

Next week I’m taking part in the RWAustralia ‘Edit in a Week’ challenge. No shortage of work to edit in my office. Thought I am slowly working my way through them. Shame I keep finding something new to edit in them just when I think I’m finished. Plus The Writer’s Zone have ‘BI2W’ startig on the 1st September, but I know I can edit for them as well. I’ve just rejoined Writer’s Island after beening cast adrift for a few weeks, I love WI, because I have to prove I’ve done the work by posting my weeks work to the file on the loop.

I haven’t done any writing the last few days, I’ve been busy working on the website for our horse stud. Natan Paint Horse Stud I finally got a dot com for the stud. I’m fairly happy with how it is going, still needs a lot of work, but at least it is started. With breeding season and the fact we have a stallion standing at stud for the first time in a number of years, I thought it was time to have a site. Plus we have some lovely foals hitting the ground this season. The challenge in this project was keeping at it until I was happy.

National Novel Writing Month is just a couple of months away again, I’m thinking I may have a go at plotting a story this year and see how I go. Now that I have a few of years of writing under my belt you’d think I should be able to plot and write. I guess I’ll find out in November. I’m going to write a murder mystery. Now that’s different. I’ll let you know how the plotting goes for this one.

Okay I’m going to bed, it’s 4am, surely I’ll sleep now.

Catch you after the next challenge.

Sandie

I’m taking a new challenge this month, mind you I’ll be starting late. Why? Because I forgot I signed up for the darn thing. I need to have post-it notes around to remind myself what challenges I signed up to do.

So what do I have to do for this challenge? Will I have to choose one or more uncompleted works of fiction or writing related tasks to complete in the 31 days of August. I thinking next week I had better get my finger out and finish the editing I’m doing on at least one WIP.

For now, I’m working on coming up with challenges for the RWAustralia Clayton’s Conference which will run from 14th to 16th August. A big weekend has been planned.

Sandie