To Do List – 2nd to 8th July

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Well, I’m liking this whole “to do list” thing I’ve got going on, much better than “goals” lol.

I did ok this week, well, kinda lol

Do my homework (a character sketch of a Hero) for Sally Quilford’s Pocket Novel Course. Yep, did that 🙂

Tidy my work space. I now have 5 piles Ummm, sort of, I’ve got it back to 3 piles, but it still needs going through lol

Sort out the blog awards & memes I received and was tagged with over the last 2 weeks. Done that, although the Meme posts have been done and in my draft folder. I’ve just got to find a free day to post them, I have so much to say about other stuff lol

Upload all my photos to Flickr Ah, now, this didn’t get done 😦 But only coz I was out all day Saturday at a workshop (will tell you all when I get a chance lol).

Decide what to do with the WIP (But Not Forgotten). Hmmmm, yeah, I have made a decision, but you’ll have to wait til Wednesday to find out what 🙂

I’ve got a fairly free week coming up…. Tomorrow I’m having a skin tag removed (yuk yuk yuk), then Wednesday is Insecure Writers Support Group Day (where I will definitely be talking about the WIP) and that’s really all I have in my diary, apart from writing class 🙂

Soooooo, my “to do” list for this coming week is……

Read through my WIP with the idea of making notes on the ending lol

Tidy my workspace, I mean really tidy it lol

Do my home work for the Pocket Novel course

Upload all my pics to Flickr

Read at least 1 book this week I’m fed up not reading. It’s ridiculous!

There, that’s not too bad is it? 😉

I’ve also decided to start taking part in Six Sentence Sundays so my picture prompt will move to Saturdays from now on 🙂

What are your plans for the week?

This Weeks To Do List 25th to 1st (the-view-outside.com)

This Weeks To Do List 25th to 1st

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Notice the small change in wording above? Lol

Ok, so this week will mainly involve laundry *snigger* Actually, it wasn’t bad when I got home, my daughter had done a few batches, although, I haven’t seen anything belonging to the 2 boys, so no doubt, theirs will arrive today *slump*

Is it just me or are there a couple of days when you return from holiday when you struggle to get back into the swing?

So, back to business 🙂

The Things I Want To Achieve This Week

Do my homework (a character sketch of a Hero) for Sally Quilford’s Pocket Novel Course.

Tidy my work space. I now have 5 piles 😦 (I bought some books on holiday, and brought home lots of leaflets, maps, receipts etc, so they all need sorting).

Sort out the blog awards & memes I received and was tagged with over the last 2 weeks.

Upload all my photos to Flickr (I did manage to transfer them all to the Netbook yesterday).

Decide what to do with the WIP (But Not Forgotten).

The WIP was discussed with hubby during the holiday, even to the point where I was considering just throwing it away and starting again (something hubby disagreed with). It’s driving me potty!!!! Ooooo, I tell you, have I learnt a valuable lesson or what! Lol…. NEVER EVER again, will I NOT finish a manuscript lol. So I really need some motivation to sit down and work on that bloody ending….the problem is, I’ve been captivated……

One of the places we visited in Jersey was The War Tunnels (I’ll do a more in depth post later this week). As you enter, they give you an ID card and as you leave, you find out what happened to that person. I was given the card of Louisa May Gould.

At the end of our visit I discovered that Louisa was arrested and sent to a concentration camp for hiding a Russian slave worker and having a radio. The first coincidence was the year she was born. My house was built in 1891 (those who know me in real life know i have a fascination with the Victorian period) and the second was that the concentration camp she was sent to was opened on my Birthday, May 15th. Only tiny coincidences I know, but, it kind of made me feel some kind of connection with her. I bought a couple of books which have chapters that tell her story more in depth, and now I’m fascinated. No, fascinated is probably the wrong word, I dunno, it’s like it’s grabbed me and it’s going round and round in my head. It’s all I’ve thought about all week. I even ended up turning a couple of my daily prompts into stories that were connected to the German Occupation of Jersey.

Sooooo, is this my opportunity to write the historical novel I keep saying I’d like to try? Is this why I’m now hating on my WIP? I know if I wrote her story (or my own take on it) there would need to be a hell of a lot of research *gulp*

But why can’t I get this woman and her story out of my head? 😦

This Weeks Goals….Possibly lol

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Firstly, yesterday’s For Sale prompt…..

There are so many reasons why a house would be for sale aren’t there. It made me think of a situation me and my husband once found ourselves in where we were viewing a house because of a marriage break up 😦 The wife and the kids were still living in the property, but it was obvious they didn’t want to move. She couldn’t even bring herself to show us round, and the house was an absolute mess. She didn’t want us putting an offer in. We felt uncomfortable and reluctant to even go down that route.

Peter and Annabelle Hewitt fell in love with 28 Star Hill the moment they lay eyes on the elegant Georgian terrace. Stretching themselves to their absolute financial limit they managed to purchase the property for just below the asking price. They set to work. Modernising the interiors, creating an office for Peter, a playroom for baby Jack. The financial strain was immense, but, in Peters eyes, a good investment.

After 5 years of struggle, the house was finished, but so was their marriage. As joint owners Peter insisted that it be sold or that Annabelle buy him out. Heartbroken at her husbands affair and the loss of her beautiful home, Annabelle reluctantly moved in with her parents. She was unable to buy Peter out and her anger rose with each new couple who viewed the property.

When the agents call finally came, saying that an offer had been made and that her husband had accepted, Annabelle made a decision. The night before contracts were exchanged, she tiptoed through the front door carrying a sledgehammer and 2 cans of spray paint…….

In future, I’ll post a prompt on Sunday, and then a response on Tuesday 🙂

Thanks again to everyone who offered advice to my Insecure post.

I have decided, yes, I still need to set myself goals, a to do list. I need to work to a schedule, have a plan or a time table. So now, I just need to come up with something that will work for me lol. I’m just sooo fed up with not hitting my goals every week, so I need them to be lower. A cop out? Probably!

So rather than post a list of Goals every Monday, I’m thinking that I’ll just post a couple of things I plan to do this week, not analyse what I didn’t achieve last week, and then work with a daily to do list. I won’t post that daily and bore you all rigid lol.

Sooooo, Saturday, I started my Romance writing course with Sally Quilford so will need to do some work on that.

Today, I’m meeting up with a fellow Nano friend so I will take my laptop, and maybe i’ll get chance to do some editing (if we don’t just constantly talk lol).

Tonight, I’m at my Writing Group, but we have a speaker, so that’s ok.

And then Wednesday it’s Writing Class 🙂

Not a particularly busy week, until you take into consideration I’m going on holiday on Saturday (16th). Yep, I’m off for a week. I’d like to say, I’m jetting off to sun, sea and sand….but something tells me that’s not going to be the case, as I’m off to Jersey, and I’ve been told the weather is not much different there than it is here lol. I better take jumpers and an umbrella then lol.

So I need to do some scheduled posting for the old Blog. Hopefully I’ll have WiFi….but if I go quiet, you’ll know why lol

So I’m kind of loathe to plan anything around the WIP, but I should shouldn’t I?

Ok, let me see…..this week I will edit another 20 pages! There, that’s it, I can manage that can’t I? Lol

So what are you up to this week?

This Weeks Goals 28th to 3rd

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Yesterday’s postcard from the Tate prompted a story for me about a guy who had been thrown out of his apartment, on to the street. All he has left in the world is the sofa and some black bags. The question is….why has he been thrown out? I’m kind of thinking along the lines that he’s divorced, and lives with his son. His son has got involved with some very dodgy characters, which has resulted in the fact that he’s taken all his dads money to pay the debts off….and now he’s disappeared……

I’m guest posting today, over at Creative Writing Studies for the lovely Anthony Haynes. Go and have a peek to read me talking about why I blog, and what I LOVE about it! 🙂

I’ve had a pretty productive week 🙂

Last weeks goals were:

1. Turn the prologue back into 3rd person (again lol).
DONE!

2. Try to nail chapter one, so that I have something to read out at class on Wednesday night.
DONE!

3. Finish sorting out the formatting/layout of the whole thing.
HALF WAY THROUGH!

4. Have another read through and work on the ending. I think I’ve worked out where I want it to go, I’ve just got to write it now, which means changing stuff in other places. So yep, I’ve been avoiding that lol.
NOT EVEN ATTEMPTED!

Oh dear, well ok, it wasn’t that productive. I don’t know why I’m avoiding it so much. No, yes, sorry, I do….because its hard work, because I’m confused and don’t know exactly what I want to happen, because I know it will mean changing other stuff that I’ve already written 😦

So this weeks goals are:

1. Finish sorting out the formatting/layout of the whole thing, and I mean REALLY finish lol.

2. Have another tinker with the Blurb.

3. Try to do something constructive towards the ending, even if it’s only 500 bloody words! Lol.

4. Get Chapter 2 sorted, polished up and in ship shape 😉

I’ve come to the conclusion that overwhelming myself with a to do list doesn’t achieve anything, so I’m trying to be a little easier on myself (ha ha ha).

so what are your writing plans for the week?

My current read, recommended by Jeff Goins

This Weeks Goals 21st to 27th

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I had lots of ideas about The New Zealander, but in the end I decided that he had come to find his family in the UK. After lots of struggles, problems, highs and lows, he finally finds that his birth parents are dead and that he was in fact kidnapped when he was a baby. Perhaps the happy ending could be that he either finds a sibling, or the love of his life on his journey 🙂

Yet again, I didn’t get as much as I’d like done last week. I blame my birthday lol

I had some lovely comments about my prologue from my Writing Group, but the general consensus was, why was it in first person POV? Hmmmmm lol.

So the plan for this week is…..

1. Turn the prologue back into 3rd person (again lol).

2. Try to nail chapter one, so that I have something to read out at class on Wednesday night.

3. Finish sorting out the formatting/layout of the whole thing.

I’m going to a “write in” with some fellow writers tomorrow morning, so that should motivate me 🙂

On Saturday, I went up to Foyles in Central London (my favourite book shop!) to spend my voucher that hubby got me for my birthday. Here’s what I brought home…..whoops! Lol

so what are your writing goals/plans this week?

This Weeks Goals 14-20th May

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

So did you give the photo prompt a go yesterday?

I was thinking along the lines that it was a guy returning to his family home to introduce mummy & daddy to the latest girlfriend. Mummy & Daddy are Lord & Lady Hampton and the new girlfriend is a cockney, who drinks pints of Ale, smokes roll ups and works as a lap dancer 😉

Right, where was I? Ahhhh, yes, the goals…..

I’m afraid, I failed miserably 😦 My reason? I had to have my dog put to sleep on Wednesday night (the 9th). It was fairly sudden, she became ill over the weekend, vet gave her antibiotics for a chest infection (she was having trouble breathing) and by Wednesday night we ended up at the emergency vets, where an X-ray confirmed a tumour on her lung. Too large to operate on and causing her distress. Always a difficult decision, but we didn’t want her suffering any longer. The vet said it was only her spirit that was keeping her alive. She was 12.

So as you can imagine, I’ve been on a huge downer….bouts of tearfulness and generally the inability to even pick up a pen 😦

My darling Georgie, I will miss you so much….the house feels so empty without you….but, I know I have to pick myself up, carry on, because I know you’re somewhere, reunited with Bill (our Shih T Zu who died of a heart attack in 2010). I know in my heart that one day I will see you again.

*blows nose and wipes eyes* Does how you feel emotionally affect your ability to write? It feels like I’ve just been plunged into a dark space, and I’m finding it hard to focus my eyes. Oooo, that sounds a bit dramatic doesn’t it….I’m fine really.

Right, so lets crack on, I needto focus…… I needto get back into some kind of routine 🙂

The original list from last week was:

1. Finish the spell check (and do it again incase there’s something I’ve missed). DONE
2. Check that’s it’s set out correctly (ie paragraphing and indenting dialogue). STARTED
3. Check punctuation (I have a tendency to forget all about it during dialogue). STARTED

The rest, I’m afraid, didn’t get tackled….however, I did print all 202 pages off. I find it much easier editing it when it’s on paper in front of me.

Yep, so guess what the plan is this week?

4. Change tense where needed (one of my worst habits, I tend to flit between past and present during a longer piece lol). STARTED
5. Print off to start the re-write (I’ve decided to change a few things quite considerably). PRINTED OFF
6. Do the research needed.
7. Write the ending (GULP).
8. Write a synopsis.
9. Decide who to pick on as Beta readers lol (Think of questions to ask Beta readers)
10. Think about what to do with it next (depending on Beta readers comments, I could be starting back at number 1 lol).

What are you hoping to achieve this week? And how about editing Do you do most of it on the PC or print off and use the red pen?

This Weeks Goals 7-13th May

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I started working with daily goals last week, and I have to say I failed miserably. So this week I’m going to try working to a weekly list 🙂

So what’s on the agenda this week?…..

My aim this week is to have the whole of my WIP spellchecked, set out properly and printed off for the next stage of editing (from 1 to 5). I’ve decided not to write any more short stories for the time being, I’m determined to get this novel into some kind of finished state before I start the next one in November.

Sooooo, the to do list with the novel is:

1. Finish the spell check (and do it again incase there’s something I’ve missed).
2. Check that’s it’s set out correctly (ie paragraphing and indenting dialogue).
3. Check punctuation (I have a tendency to forget all about it during dialogue).
4. Change tense where needed (one of my worst habits, I tend to flit between past and present during a longer piece lol).
5. Print off to start the re-write (I’ve decided to change a few things quite considerably).
6. Do the research needed.
7. Write the ending (GULP).
8. Write a synopsis.
9. Decide who to pick on as Beta readers lol (edited to add: Think of questions to ask Beta readers)
10. Think about what to do with it next (depending on Beta readers comments, I could be starting back at number 1 lol).

So, any advice? Is there anything I’ve missed?

For your viewing pleasure, these are my piles of “working” writing stuff on my dining room table lol

It was only 2 piles until I decided to start all those extra notebooks lol

So, I’m hoping, that sharing my plans for the week with you guys will mean that I’ll stick to them. You have my permission to beat me with a large stick if I post next Monday that I failed 😉

What are you writing plans for the week? Do I need to find a large stick to use on you? 😉

How To Do Everything & Be Happy

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I met Peter Jones at Swanwick last year and bought his book How To Do Everything & Be Happy whilst I was there. I have to say, he is a great advert for his own advice. The whole week at Swanwick, I swear, I did not see that guy frown. He had a smile, constantly fixed to his face. I remember thinking ‘I wanna be like that!’ so I bought the book (can highly recommend it by the way) 🙂

So here I am 6 months later, I’ve read it, made a few lists, not stuck to them, and my Boxing Days (a term used in the book) have fallen by the wayside…….

So I decided to drag my friend Jayne along to one of Peters Workshops yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyed it!!!! 🙂

I’ve set some goals and when we go back next month he’s gunna ask me if I’ve actually done anything about them lol.

Yesterday’s prompt was about lies….what can I say, I struggled 😦

Hubby’s got the day off work today, which is nice, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be reading that pocket novel lol

Thinking About 2012

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Vikki Thompson

New Year Resolutions….or in my world, New Year Goals 😉

I’m the kind of person who always has so much she wants to do in life lol, just never enough time, money, energy and determination to do it all lol.

So I guess 2012 will be no different to any other year in that regard 😉 I always look forward to a New Year, it feels like a fresh start, a time where we can wipe the slate clean and begin new projects, change things…..but with that also brings the whole concept of failure 😦

I don’t like failure…..nasty, horrible word, and yes, I know all the proverbs and mottos that say its all about taking part, or practice, and picking yourself back up again.

This year I’ve decided to divide my goals up into categories (I don’t like calling them resolutions)….. Me, Writing and Home in the hopes that rather than write an endless list, I can just have a complete set of goals under each heading. So here goes, the official 2012 goals list 😉

ME
In 2012 I want to lose weight and get fit 🙂 I want to have a healthy diet, walk more and look after myself a little bit more. Perhaps even cut down on the fags *shock horror gasp – where did that come from?* I want to cook nice meals, healthy meals, and not have so many take aways lol. Go to the gym at least 3 times a week, and go out, 1 day a week for an adventure. To explore the world, see things and experience stuff 🙂

WRITING
I want to continue writing every day. Enter competitions, submit work to publications. I want to join another writing group (I do actually miss my involvement with The Mermaids the support of it) and enrol on some kind of play writing course, an avenue I’d really like to explore. Use Judy Reeves book everyday and my Mslexia Diary 🙂

HOME
My house is a mess 😦 Seriously! I really haven’t taken care of it over the last few years (for various reasons I won’t go into). It needs a thorough clean and tidy, the garden is a jungle and I’ve got crap everywhere that I don’t know what to do with. Downsizing seemed like a good idea at the time, but you can’t fit the contents of a shoe box into a match box can you? Hell, I haven’t even put my summer clothes away, and my winter boots are still in a black bag in the loft 😦

So there we have it! My New Years ~~Resolutions~~ Goals for 2012 🙂 Of course, 1 that should be listed above but isn’t is write my Blog every day but hey, that goes without saying and anyway, i started it in 2011 😉