A short message

Just wanted to stop by as it is Sunday but I don't have a lot of time as Son number 2 wants to borrow the laptop and it's part of the bargain if i want to watch Dancing On Ice.
Just to say to Sally and Moondreamer who both tagged me for a meme. I've been giving it a bit of thought and I'll post tomorrow when I have more time.
I didn't do much writing this week but then I knew that I wouldn't get chance to. I did manage to write one story though. It's not very good yet but its something to work on.
I did get one rejection this week but I also submitted one story so its still 21 things out there.
Okay, I'm getting the evil eye from the child and I did tell him I'd only be 10 minutes about half an hour ago. However I will be back tomorrow.

All part of the Apprenticeship

After I'd visited here the other day I did some more work on NMBK. In all I probably wrote about 1000 words. This morning I scratched about half of them. I realised that I had one of my characters reacting to a situation in a way that they wouldn't. It wasn't a wasted excerciseethough because these are characters that I haven't worked with for a while so I need to get to know them again.
I wrote a short story yesterday and edited it this morning. I'll give it a couple of days then polish it again and then I'll submit it. I have a magazine in mind but I'll wait until after the final polish to say for certain.
I submitted 5 things this week so that makes 13 this year. If I can get a positive response to a couple of them I'll be happy. Writing, submitting and getting stuff out there is all part of the apprenticeship. I currently have 22 pieces out there but 1 of those I can give up on. It was to a place that only tend to let you know if you have been successful and as it's been so long since I submitted i guess I haven't been. So let's say that I have 21 pieces out there at the moment.
You know what? I have actually started to think of myself as a writer. Before I was just someone who liked to dabble in writing short stories but in the last few weeks I have started to connsider myself a writer. I'm only on the first rung of the ladder I know but I now realise that I am on the ladder.
Got a busy week at work ahead and Tuesday and Wednesday will be write offs as far as writing goes but I'm going to get some done in the rest of the week and I'll make sure that I sub at least one thing.
How much subbing do you guys do in an average week?
A book is calling me so I'm off now. I am reading Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir. It's about Lady Jane Grey and I can barely put it down. That's the kind of book that I want to write.

A Satisfactory day

Today is an extra day off for me, one that is dedicated solely to me. So it was without any guilt about not hoovering or ironing etc that I gave my morning over to writing. What a productive morning I've had. First of all I submitted two stories to a competition (the same one) then I checked out www.helium.com which I read about in Writers News. I'm not quite sure what I'll get out of it but it was worth a look. It looks like they have weekly free to enter competitions so that might be worth keeping an eye on. Then I pitched an idea to an editor for an article I've been working on. Finally I've just spent the last hour re-accquainting myself with NMBK which is the novel that went on the back burner while the ugly stuff was happening. I read through the last part that I wrote probably back in October or sometime like that and then even managed to write some new words. Only a couple of hundred or so but it's a start. I was going to have a look at the BBC Writers Room website because it's a long time since I was there but I didn't get round to that.

Anyway, just thought I would share my satisfaction with you all. I would be really interested to hear about your writing day.

Must go, I'm off to the hairdressers now. Two hours of pampering - yay!!!

A Meme

I'm off work for a couple of days so I was browsing through a few blogs that I visit on a regular basis and I found that Sally had tagged me. She called it The War and Peace of meme's and she's not wrong.
Here goes

What's the last thing you wrote?
A short story.

Was it any good?
I liked it, but I've liked a lot of things that I couldn't interest a publisher in.

What's the first thing you ever wrote that you still have?
A story that I started on the morning of the day that the Twin Towers were attacked. It was supposed to be a novel but didn't have the legs for it then. I plan on revisiting it sometime.

Write poetry?
Sometimes

Favourite genre of writing?
I don't know what genre my writing falls into (agents have said the same thing.)

Most fun character you ever wrote?
George in BTL.

Most annoying character you ever wrote?
Ellen's mother, also in BTL

Best plot you ever wrote?
It's still in my head.

Coolest plot twist you ever wrote?
I liked the one at the end of BTL (Sorry to be a bit vague but this is something that I hope to sell)

How often do you get Writers block?
At least once a week.

Write fan fiction?
No.

Do you type or write by hand?
The first draft is always done by hand.

Do you save everything you write?
Yes.

Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?
I tend not to abandon work just stuff it in my Work in Progress folder.

What's your favourite thing that you've written?
My personal favourite is Elaine which was published in Sexy Shorts for the Beach in 2006. It was what made me get serious about writing.

What's everyone else's favourite thing that you've written?
No idea, no-one has ever told me.

Do you even show people your work?
Only editors and publishers

Did you ever write a novel?
Yes. That would be BTL

Ever written romance or teen angsty drama?
I've written romance, whi hasn't?

How many writing projects are you working on right now?
Probably about half a dozen.

Do you want to write for a living?
That would be a big yes.

Have you ever won an award for your writing?
I was placed second in a competition when I was 15 if that counts.

Ever written something in script or play format?
Yes.

Do you ever write based on yourself?
All the time. I think you have to put something of yourself into your writing.

What character that you've written most resembles yourself?
Ellen in BTL.

Do you ever write based on your dreams?
Yes, I wrote something recently that was based on a dream. I only wrote the first couple of hundred words so far so it's more of an idea than anything concrete.

Do you favour happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?
I like an ending that works. Unfortunately life is not full of happy endings so it's wrong that all stories/books should have one.

Have you ever written based on an artwork you've seen?
Yes. I wrote a story last year that was inspired by a greetings card that I'd seen.

Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?
Always. Even in my emails at work which winds some people up.

Ever write something entirely in chatspeak? (How r u?)
No.

Entirely in L337?
Excuse me?

Was that question completely appalling and un-writer like?
Possibly, who knows?

Does music help you write?
It doesn't help, but it doesn't hinder either.

Quote something you've written. The first thing to pop into your mind.
"Her dad had said it was too expensive but Helen had bought it for her anyway." Taken from The Purple Pashmina which I wrote recently so that's why I can remember a quote.

Looks like Sally got there before me with most of the tags. However, I tag Captain Black

Missing payments and defunct machinery

Can you believe it's almost the middle of January already. Where is this year going? I was just kidding but in all seriousness time is short, life is short, time does pass quickly, so if there's something you want - go for it now.
The Festive Season is well and truly behind us now and life is back to normal. It was good to get back to doing the day job normally but that meant that there wasn't so much free time to write. I managed to get a fair bit done though. I edited a short story that I'd written the week before and submitted that. I also re-polished an old story and submitted that and entered a competition. And I started working on a non fiction article yesterday.
I've had fun and games with my printer this week. It will print everything but a Word document or more accurately, anything but a saved Word document. That is frustrating because it holds everything up. I've had to send things to myself and then open the attachment somewhere other than home and print it off there. ARRGGGHHH!!!! Himself was going to reload the drivers yesterday while I was at work. I guess I'll see in a minute if that's worked. I fear the thing may be for that place where all defunct printers go which is even more annoying because I've just bought cartridges for it.
Got a bit of a delicate problem which I'm hoping will be sorted this week. I had two stories in magazines in December and as yet I haven't been paid for them. I hope that I hear from them this week because if I don't I'm thinking that I may have to contact them and okay, I accept that they owe me money for a serivice I provided but it's not a problem I've had before so I'm not sure how to deal with it. The thing is that the filters on my mailbox have been sending stuff to the junk file that shouldn't go there so maybe they have tried to contact me and the message has been sent to the wrong place. The payment would be made electronically so they would ask me to provide information. Working on the premise that they probably pay at the end of the month they will be preparing that payment run in the middle of the month which hopefully will be this week.

Life's rich tapestry

Well, what are we now? Six days into the new year? So far so good. I have written every day and have already submitted 3 pieces of work. Two were short stories and one was a letter which probably doesn't count as a piece of work but it was a submission. I also wrote a short story which would have fit the Mother's Day market but as that falls on March 3rd this year I've probably missed the boat on that one. So I adapted it slightly to fit a more general market and I'll give it another edit and submit it either this week or next.
I think I'm going to revisit NMBK this week. I'll maybe edit a bit of what I've already written and read through it. I need to get a feel for it again and then make some progress.
I had a quick count up earlier and found that I have 15 pieces of work out there at the moment though I can discount a couple of those I think. They have been with their relative editors for so long I'm guessing they are "no's." I know editors are busy people but a quick email saying "thanks but no thanks," wouldn't have taken too long to send and would have been appreciated. I guess though that as they were both sent to small press magazines they may have gone out of business now so I'll not worry about it. It's all part of life's rich tapestry.
My alto ego Roxie has started to wake up last week with a couple of ides so maybe she'll do some writing this week.
So all in all I'm pleased with my efforts in week 1 of 2008. Like I said before I've written every day and I've already submitted my monthly quota. Hoever I won't sit back on my laurels and I'll be writing and submitting more this week.
Exactly what will be revealed next week.

New Year and all that

With the New Year just around the corner I guess thoughts turn to plans for the future. I know mine certainly do. Along with all the usual stuff (lose weight, excercise more, be kind to people you can't stand) there are things that I hope to do with my writing. In the past I have been pretty non specific about exactly what. It amounted to "I want to be a writer." But my writing has come on so much in the last year and now I need to be more focused. Or I should probably say that I want to be more focused. In 2007 I had my best year ever in terms of success and although that success is incredibly modest when compared to most people's it was my success and I am proud of it. So what if I only had 6 pieces published in 2007. That's 5 more than in 2006 which was 1 more than any year before that. I submitted 47 pieces of work so 12.7% of them were successful. So okay it's not great but it's a start. The first step.

So in 2008 I aim to

1. Submit a bare minimum of 5 pieces of work a month. - That would take me to 60 which would represent an increase on 2007's output of 27.6% which any company would be happy with.
2. Work on the WIP folder regularly. There are some ideas in there that just need developing.
3. Finish the first draft of NMBK. It's been left alone for a while while the other stuff has been going on and I don't need to but would like to get back to it.
4. Make a contract with myself to work a minimum number of hours each week on writing. Twelve and a half would take my working week up to 50 hours. That should be achievable especially if I can get a few hours in on Sundays.
5. Continue to enjoy writing. Afterall, if the big break doesn't come in 2008 I've still got the day job to fall back on.

So there you have it. In a nutshell they are my New Years writing resoloutions.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to stop by and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Enjoy your day doing whatever it is that you do with hopefully people that you love. That's what I'll be doing.
Lots of love
Gonna B
x

Santa's on his way

With just 2 more days until Christmas the day job shows no sign of slowing down - at least until 4pm tomorrow. At least the good thing about this time of year is that the public are generally in a good mood, or at least most of the time. However it also means that there's lots of work to do. In fact, I'll be working today and I have to tell you that doing the day job on Sundays is one of my pet hates. The only saving grace is that I work for a charity which does sweeten the pill slightly.
Anyway, my writing week. There wasn't a lot of it to be honest. I looked at a couple of stories from my WIP folder and even tweaked a bit but nothing substantial. I came up with an idea for a short story, or at least a title which I wrote down and shoved in the pocket of my jacket. Must retrieve.
I also finished something this week. I finished the first draft of the project that I've called Topsy. It was such an achievement because it means so much to me personally. Writing it helped me through such a difficult time. I don't think that I will try to get it published in the big wide worldbut I do intend to work it to the end and turn it into some sort of "book" just for me. Not everything I or any of us write has to be for profit or mass publication. Sometimes we need to do stuff just for us. This was/is one of those things.
As I sit here in my living room with my laptop on my knee and the Christmas tree a few feet away with presents under it I feel calm and to be honest a bit warm and fuzzy inside. When I was little I used to dream of writing something that was published and wanted to see my name in print more than anything else. I have achieved that now but the feeling is still there only now the goalposts have moved. Now, I want to see my name in print MORE OFTEN.
Anyway, that's about it really. I'm going to have a cup of coffee and walk the dog before I go to work. Or it would probably be more accurate to say that Himself will walk the dog while I follow him round dropping Christmas cards off at the neighbours' houses. Then after work it's going to be a long hot bath and then cook a ham. Tomorrow won't be so bad because I'll be working with a dear friend and we plan on playing the Chipmunks version of Jingle Bells for the last hour . If you've never heard this particular rendition of this festive classic you should because it is hysterical and the first thing I'll do at work this morning is play it a couple of times. Then on Tuesday I'm going to have a day with my menfolk and the dog and reflect on how blessed I am to be loved by some fab men. What more could a girl want for Christmas?
Hope yours is all you want it to be.
x

This blog and other stuff

as you may know I have been thinking in the past couple of weeks about my writing and where its going etc. I was also thinking about this blog. I love making entries here because it's like catching up with an old friend. But sometimes it'll be Friday night and I'll realise that I haven't visited here all week. Sometimes it's because I've been too busy doing other stuff but other times it's because I've not had anything to say.
Sunday is a day when generally I have the time to blog and so I have decided that each Sunday I will tell you about my week. I know that it works for some people so I'm going to give it a go.
So let me tell you about my week.
As I mentioned the other day I sold a story this week which is always good. Yesterday I received my contributers copy of TL Fast Fiction (Summer Special) I always feel a bit odd seeing my name in print. Maybe I just haven't gotten used to it yet. Ginny Swart had a couple of stories in there and I also saw one from Sue Houghton so I'm in good company.
I'm still editing my Topsy project but that is therapy more than anything else. It doesn't seem like a real writing project any more.
That's my writing week in a nutshell. Not really a lot but it's been that kind of week.

w/c 16/12/2007 This week I'll..

nothing. Or at least to commit to nothing. In case you hadn't noticed it's Christmas in 9 days. It's the busiest time of the year in my day job and I'm working every hour God sends and then on top of that I haven't bought Himself a present yet. I've no doubt that I will do some writing but I'm not sure what.

A second job

I have been thinking about what I want from my writing next year and trying to work out how I am going to achieve that. I have decided that I need to take on another job and that job is freelance writer. I have discovered recently how much can be achieved when someone puts their mind to it so if I'm serious about writing I need to make a serious commitment to it. What I need to do now is work out the minimum amount of time that I can commit to writing and contract myself to that time.
I hope that there'll be plenty of over time available.

Twice as nice

I sold another story today which is always a good thing to do. It was one that I wrote couple of months ago when I was writing as a distraction so it has now paid off twice. First there was the distraction value and then the hard cash that I'll be paid for it. Can't be bad.

Christmas

I found these questions on DJ Kirby's blog and thought I'd give it a go. I'd be really interested to know your answers

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Paper

2. Real tree or artificial?
Both The main tree is artificial but we rescued a small real tree a couple of years ago. It’s rooted so has lasted a couple of years but if I’m honest it does look a bit ill this year.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually around 10th December

4. When do you take the tree down?
As soon after New Years Day as I can get away with.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Never had it

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
A doll with hair that grew, unfortunately I can’t remember what it was called

7. Do you have a Nativity scene?
Yes

8. Hardest person to buy for?
The mother-in-law

9. Easiest person to buy for?
My other half is pretty easy to buy for. We’ve been together a long time

10. Worst Christmas Gift you ever received?
A jumper bought by someone who shall remain nameless. It was polyester and powder blue, need I say more?

11. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Scrooged.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Around October

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?The whole roast turkey dinner. It comes as a package so you can’t pick out a single thing. It’s just all yummy.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Clear at the moment but there have been coloured

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Silent Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Home

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Morning. Himself and I open our stockings in bed and then we open the rest as a family after we’ve walked the dog.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
The greed and commercialism

w/c 09/12/2007 This week I will...

1. Evaluate what it is that I want from my writing and start to form a plan.
2. Finish the first draft of Topsy.
3. Continue to edit Topsy.

I'm still here

Like I said last Sunday, the week that we have just had was going to be a huge week for me away from writing. As a consequence of that I haven't thought about writing much (other than the short story that I subbed by email). But I am here, I am alive and I am well. A cloud that has been hanging over me for the last few months or so has lifted at least temporarily and at this moment life is good.

Setting goals

I've given some thought this week to what I want from my writing in 2008. I've come up with a couple of things but one of the things I have to be realistic about the amount of time that I will be able to give to writing. Unless I win the lottery sometime soon or get a call from an editor who thinks that they made a mistake by turning down my novel I'll be earning my living from a full time job. That has to come first of course (unfortunately.) Then there are my family commitments.
I don't want you to think that I'm making excuses already because honestly I'm not. I'm trying to be realistic so that I don't set myself unachievable goals. There would be nothing more disheartening fo rme as a writer if I felt like a failure because I'd set my goals to low. On the other hand though I don't want to set them too low either.
I think I need to give it more thought.
Watch this space.

w/c 02/12/2007 This week I will

1. Continue to edit Topsy (it's very slow progress)
2. Develop another idea from the WIP

Won't commit myself to too much this week as I have a couple of big days pewrsonally this week. On these days especially Wednesday I don't see me doing any writing at all.

Just to add one more thing, I'm going to try and come up with an ending to the story that I worked on from the WIP folder last week.

Will hopefully hear in March

I submitted another story to Thats Life (Australia) today. Hopefully I won't hear anything (apart from the acknowledgement that Mary sends out) before March. Anything less than that and it will probably be a rejection. I've not subbed much recently so this is another step in the right direction.

Something to ask Santa for

I was just working on my Topsy project which hopefully will be finished in a week or so (fingers crossed.) I was doing actual writing rather than editing and as I've said before, my preferred method for a first draft is with a pen on paper. I was looking at the words as they formed or rather the shapes of the words and I have to say that today I liked my handwriting. Unfortunately that's not always the case, sometimes I think that its scrawl. But today it was really rather pretty. It must be down to the pen I was using. It wasn't mine though, it was one that I borrowed. Maybe I'll have to ask Santa to bring me my own.