Must Do’s 4th to 10th February

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

A quick reminder to those of you who enjoyed part 1 of Janet Govers Media Workshop. Part 2 went live yesterday 🙂

So how have I done this week? Not very well (be prepared for a really whiney IWSG post on Wednesday). I’ve discovered what my problem actually is, now I just need to work on overcoming it lol. So yesterday I printed off the whole of the WIP, and now, I just need to read it lol. It kinda feels like editing, but it’s not, I’m not actually gunna touch it. Just work out where I need to add things.

So last week the list looked like this:
1. Go through Mels Critique of TLWC. Done! Thank you honey 🙂
2. Keep up with 1000 words a day. Kept up, as such, but not on the WIP 😦
3. Catch up with e mails and blogs etc. Done! But I feel like I’m fighting a losing battle lol. It’s a bit like when you have kids and tidy up….5 minutes later it’s messy again lol
4. Prep for the weekend (Writing Retreat). Done! Although, I didn’t get as much writing done as I’d hoped.
5. Sort out Blog Awards and prep post. Half way there, still working on them lol.

This weeks looking like this:

Looking forward to Sunday and a trip to the seaside 😉

What are your writing plans for the week?

Must Do’s 28th Jan to 3rd Feb

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

I’ve struggled a bit this last week, although the WIP (The Last Word Cafe) now stands at 24,000 🙂

But first, let me tell you about the RNA meeting I went to on Saturday. Good food, good company, and a fantastic workshop all about dealing with the media conducted by Janet Gover which was thoroughly entertaining and very interesting. Although, it will be a loooong time before I find myself being interviewed lol 🙂

If you’d like some advice about how to deal with the media (as a writer) pop over to Janet’s blog post where she gives valuable advice and tips. Part two will be posted next Sunday.

Ok, so how did I do last week?

1. Get first 5000 words of The Last Word Cafe edited. Done!
2. Faber homework (reading) Done!
3. Keep up with 1000 words a day. Have struggled a bit this week but I think that’s because I’ve been editing so much, so I’m kinda worn out lol
4. Catch up with e mails and blogs. Done!
5. Do Synopsis. Done!
6. Clear Desk. Ha ha ha….nope 😉
7. Prep for mini writing retreat. Well, the RNA meet was a last minute thing so I didn’t actually have the mini writing retreat.

This week is really busy…Faber, a book launch and then The Hubster is away for the weekend.

What will I do with myself for the whole weekend? 😉

what are your writing plans this week?

Monday Must Do’s 7th to 13th Jan

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

Before I go into one about all that’s coming up this week I have an announcement to make don’t I 😉

The Hubster has been reading all your stories about what I got up to at 4am, and he’s chosen his favourite. But first, a special mention to CC who took up the challenge on her own blog, writing a piece of Erotica that made both Rob and I blush and giggle. Especially as I read it to him on the steps of the Victoria & Albert Museum whilst we were queuing to go in last Wednesday morning. I had to lower my voice in places I can tell you!

Do go and have a read, it’s brilliant….but bear in mind, it is Erotica ok, you have been warned! 🙂

Between Us

But * drum roll* the winner is……. Bel Anderson The hubster liked this piece the best 🙂

Hours of anxiety on top of three quarters of a bottle of red had made her tongue as dry as a nun’s gusset. Despite the uncomfortable twisting of her heart, she had to smile. That was one of Dylan’s favourite sayings. Dylan… Foolish tears burned the corners of her eyes. She had to move on, but it was almost too hard bear. Silently, so as not to disturb the gently snoring form of her husband, she swung her feet to the floor and tip-toed out onto the landing. The stairs creaked slightly on her way down, reminding her of all the times they’d crept up and down in the early years, their hearts in their mouths for fear of waking the grizzly, lightly-sleeping children. Things changed; things had to change. In the moon-lit kitchen she fumbled in her bag for her mobile. No messages. Vikki stared at the screen, biting her lip. His was the last number she’d called, wishing him a Happy New Year. If he’d sounded happier to hear from her, perhaps she wouldn’t be feeling so anxious now. What if that unsatisfactory exchange turned out to be the last they ever had? The lump in her throat doubled in size. He was eighteen. He had his own social life. Not coming home didn’t mean he was lying bleeding in an alley. The phone landed back in the bag soundlessly. The glass clinked a little against the tap. Vikki stepped out of the kitchen.

CONGRATULATIONS BEL! I’ll be emailing you honey to get an addy to send your prize. Thank you so much, everyone! We really enjoyed reading your ideas and stories 🙂

So that’s the first “must do” of the week….the 2nd is to thank Pat Wood for nominating me for my 10th star in the Blog Of The Year 2012 Awards 🙂 Thank you so much Pat!

This only blogging 4 days a week malarkey is hard lol

Ok, so my plans for the week…..

As you can see I’m keeping it simple lol 🙂 The WIP is coming along well, thanks to the 100K challenge (see page above for my daily word counts) and some of the resolutions have been going well….note that I said some *sniggers* Should really do an update once a month on that shouldn’t I 😉

Off up to Faber tonight for the 1st class since before Christmas!

What are your plans for the week?

Insecure Writers Support Group – January 2013

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

Firstly, thank you soooo much for all the entries on yesterday’s post. You guys are amazing! Fantastic stuff! I haven’t replied because I don’t want to influence the hubster in making his decision, so at the moment I’m keeping stum! When he makes his decision on Sunday I can then have my say lol. I’ll announce the winner next Monday (7th).

Right, now where were we…..I won’t be posting on Wednesdays normally, apart from once a month 🙂

IWSG Day, created by the brilliant Alex J Cavanaugh seems to come round so quickly every month, but I’m not complaining 😉

I don’t often share how I actually feel on my blog, so IWSG Day is an opportunity for me to have a day of self pity and wallowing lol.

Sooooo, I’ve just started the complete rewrite of But Not Forgotten, which is now The Last Word Cafe. I spent most of the Christmas break flitting from 3rd person to 1st person, weighing up the pro’s and cons, and basically making a decision….which I then changed a week later lol.

I started thinking about my own reading preferences, went back over the last few books that I’ve read. And it seems to be that I like reading first person POV, so it would make sense to write in it wouldn’t it? But, what made me decide to go for 3rd person was the fact that when I write in 1st person it just sounds like me. Who was it that said find what you’re good at and use that to your advantage? Someone in my Faber class told me she loved my voice or rather, my characters voices….Ok, well, if that’s the case it looks like the novel will be in 1st person and expect some very strong South East London (pronounced SOWF EAS LUNDUN) accents 🙂

So yep, the decision has been made (thank gawd!) and I’m now on day 3 and feeling nervous….because I so want it to work and I’m terrified that it won’t *bites finger nails*

Terrified seems like such a strong word, but it’s true. I want to come away from the Faber course feeling I’ve achieved something, that it was worth it. I will not fail and will have my novel completed by June. I’m trying to stay positive about the Agent pitch I’ll be doing in June….but, lol 😉 Still, I guess I should take comfort in the fact that last year the best piece of work (in our tutors opinion) wasn’t taken up by any of the agents!

I can do this can’t I? Or am I completely delusional? Lol

IWSG: NaNo Down, 50K to Go. (writingreadingandlife.com)
You Decide! 1st Person vs 3rd Person (ninetyninepercentgaming.wordpress.com)

New Years Resolutions?

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Or should they be called goals?

No, no To Do List today….this is my 2nd week off 🙂

Ok, I make a list every year (don’t we all?) but I can’t share with you last years list as I don’t know what I’ve done with it lol. I thought I’d stuck it on my blog, but I didn’t 😦 I think that means we can safely assume that I didn’t stick to them lol

So, what am I planning this year?

1. Read a fiction book a week/a writing guide each month. I’m so fed up not being able to find the time to read, well, that’s what I tell myself, that I don’t have time 😦

2. Have at least 1 writing session per week “out” somewhere. Go to a coffee shop, or the library, anywhere to get me out if the house to write!

3. Tidy and declutter the house. *groan* but it really needs doing.

4. Continue with the diet. I lost a stone, but half of that has gone back on (what can i say, its Christmas! lol) but I need to keep going to get back to what I was in 2008 🙂

5. Go to the gym more. Isn’t that on everyone’s resolution list?

courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos

6. Write every day! I’m use to this, I’ve done it for a whole year already. Plus I’ve joined Sally Quilfords 100K in 100 Days Challenge.

7. Get WIP finished by the end of Faber course. First 5000 words of The Last Word Cafe needed for February.

8. Go out somewhere once a week. We use to do this, I’m not too sure why we stopped lol

9. Cut down the smoking. *gulp*

10. Keep a “Writing Journal.” Like Jill Dawson described.

I have a few other goals like drink more water, have a Peter Jones style Boxing Day once a month, plus cook more lol. But the 10 above are the ones I really wanna stick to 🙂

Wish me luck! What are your Resolutions/Goals for 2013?

If you’re off out partying tonight, have a good one. It’ll be a quiet one here on the sofa as hubby’s not very well. Not that we’d planned anything anyway lol 😉

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Two Most Common New Year’s Resolutions and How to Keep Them (herfitnesshut.com)
Goals and Resolutions…Part 1 (allthingsmidcoast.com)
While Thinking Of New Year Resolutions (sunnysodday.wordpress.com)
New Year’s Resolutions – think big and eat more chocolate (earlyinitiative.wordpress.com)
Points I’m Taking Into 2013 (journeytomoksha.wordpress.com)

The NEW WIP drum roll

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’m up at Faber all day today, so I’ll post about that tomorrow….in the meantime…..

Ok, after my critique recently (and my IWSG post) I’ve had to totally rethink my WIP *gulp* Thanks for all your words of encouragement on my IWSG Post, by e mail, and Facebook. Right, that’s it, I’m bucking my ideas up….rolling up my sleeves….gritting my teeth, and DOING IT!

It’s been hard trying to use the same characters and the same basic plot line to come up with a new story, but, I think I’ve cracked it. So here goes, tell me what you think. This is more a blurb than a synopsis, although, I have written a synopsis that I’ll share at a later date. It needs a bit of editing 😉

Be careful what you wish for… At the age of 40, Laura Hopwood finds herself in desperate need of excitement. The arrival of her husbands long lost brother means that again she finds herself torn between both men. Daniel, the one she’s married to, is dependable, doting, and just plain boring. Whereas Ronnie is mysterious, moody and dangerous.

But there are two things in life that Laura loves more than anything, her daughter Ruby, and the cafe she inherited from her parents. Just how much is she prepared to risk to recapture the excitement of her youth? Did she make the wrong choice 20 years ago? And will the devastating consequences of her actions mean she’ll lose everything, including her daughter, when she finds herself having to make a similar decision 20 years later?

So that’s the basics 🙂 I have to say, at the moment, I haven’t really decided what will happen (although i have a pretty good idea!). But, I’m quite excited about it! Which is a good sign yeah?

But I do have 2 problems, so I need your advice…

1. POV Last time it was in multi 3rd person, which didn’t work. So I’m thinking perhaps I should do it in 1st person? Having Laura as the protagonist. In class they suggested Ruby, as I know from personal experience what she would be going through, but, I can relate more to Laura if that makes sense.

2. Timeline Where do I start the story? It originally spanned 25 years, but I’ve cut that down to 20 (and could possibly shave a few more years off that) Do I start at the beginning, or now when the action starts and feed in back story?

So I guess I better unveil the title…

I wanted a strong setting. They didn’t need to be rich accountants anymore. So now, Laura & Daniel run a cafe that Laura inherited from her parents. It’s also where she met Daniel & Ronnie in the first place, so has been the central, consistent setting throughout the whole story.

So what do you think? Honest opinions and any advice much appreciated!

Insecure Writers Support Day – December

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Bloody hell, where do I start!

Today is Insecure Writers Support Group Day, the brain child of Alex J Cavanaugh it’s where a whole lot of writers post about their insecurities, once a month, and get support from fellow participants. Seriously, I urge you to join! You will soon discover you are not alone 🙂

Ok, back to my post…..

If you’re a regular reader you’ll know that in 2010 (my first Nano) I ended up with a 65,000 word unfinished story entitled, But Not Forgotten. I did a spell check on it last year, and this year I’ve tinkered with it, a bit, only the first 10,000 words. I then decided a few months ago that But Not Forgotten wasn’t working and gave up on it (a previous IWSG post). But there has been something haunting me about it ever since. So I submitted the first 4,500 words of it for my critique in my Faber class (see the response here ) telling the tutor that I was unsure about it, couldn’t finish it and wanted to know whether I should.

Was that complete madness? Looking back now, probably. I’d considered it to be 2nd draft (after a spell check and slight tinkering) but, if Chris Baty is right and what you’re left with at the end of Nano is actually draft zero, then what I actually submitted was first draft lol.

The response, (you can see if you click the link above) wasn’t good and although I know, deep down in my heart, every single word they said and suggestion they made was true it’s still left me questioning whether I’m cut out for all this? Whether I can actually do it, be a writer I mean. When do you draw the line? When do you admit defeat and come to the conclusion that you will only ever be a writer as a hobbyist and that you’ll never have any commercial success? I’m not motivated by money, but, having given up an actual “job” to pursue my writing over 2 years ago I’m now feeling that perhaps that was a bad idea and that I should just go get a job?

But I got the answer I wanted, right? It’s crap, bin it! Lol

So now I have the daunting task of starting again. A new story with the same characters. A new POV and only part of the existing plot line. I don’t even know where to start! Lol. In June I have the opportunity to pitch to a room of agents and publishers….SHIT! It’s a great opportunity, and I don’t want to blow it, but will I ever have anything that’s good enough?

I’m hopefully starting on it again this week, but I said that last week! *takes deep breaths and reaches for the alcohol* I now understand why there are a lot of writers out there with drink problems lol 😉

I hope everyone else is having a better month…..will pop over to as many as I can today 🙂

Insecure Writer’s Support Group: #NaNoWriMo 2012 Edition (writingreadingandlife.com)
IWSG: A Cloud of Caffeine And Happiness (ascenicroute.wordpress.com)
Insecure Writers Ahead (patwoodblogging.wordpress.com)
Insecure Writers Support Group Day – October (joannegphillips.wordpress.com)
IWSG: Surrounded by Awesome (writingreadingandlife.wordpress.com)

But Not Forgotten Needs Forgetting

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Ok, what can I say about the critique *laughs hysterically*

If I just say that it looks like 65,000 words will be going in the bin within the next couple of days does that indicate what they thought? 😉 (a metaphorical bin of course!)

Seriously, I knew it was a mess, which was why I decided to use that piece. I just didn’t realise how much of a mess it was 😦

I knew I’d tied myself up in knots, I knew that was why I hadn’t been able to come up with an ending, but, what I was hoping was that I could tinker with it, make it better. What I didn’t expect was to find that the general consensus is/was to start from scratch!

A different angle, a different POV, don’t start with the suicide, in fact, don’t kill him off….WOAH! Concentrate on one aspect of the story and forget the rest! OMFG!!!!!!! I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT!

So now what? Complete restructuring that’s what! A completely new novel really, only using the same characters and only part of the original plot line *slumps*

I don’t know if I have the energy!

Don’t get me wrong, everyone was helpful and sympathetic, but I came away thinking perhaps I’m not cut out for this, and what the hell am I doing in this class? Be prepared for a major self pity trip post on IWSD next month, honestly 🙂

I went for a Spa day today. I was going to cancel because all I wanted to do was sit in my jim jams, drink hot chocolate and sulk lol. But, I made the effort, went, and had my nails painted. I went for a walk and contemplated stuff. It was a nice day 🙂

I’m signing out with Edwin Collins

I need to think……

Writing Retreat Day 3 – Going Home

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Our 3rd and final day came and went all too quickly! My word count total now stands at 22,647 which is kind of disappointing, because I’d hoped to reach the 25,000, but, I’m still ahead on what I should be for the 11th of the month.

We gave out some prizes this morning, for word counts and by the time we had left, collectively, as a group, we had written just under 100,000 words! One of us hit the 50,000 at 10 to 11 last night. Amazing! Congratulations go to Richard for being the first “winner” in our region 🙂

A huge thank you to Elizabeth for setting it all up, to Trevor the smoking night security guy for keeping me company outside in the darkness, and to West Dean College for having us. A beautiful location for a writing retreat and OMFG!!!!! Dali’s Lobster Telephone!!!! Who knew that was there 🙂

Sunrise this morning.

The entrance hall.

Small staircase.

I will now spend the evening unpacking and sorting out next weeks to do list. I did manage to spend yesterday afternoon editing my Faber piece that I’ll be submitting, so I guess I’ll be working on that tomorrow, plus trying to keep up with the Nano word count….wish me luck! 😉

Writing Retreat Day 2

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

An early start this morning, as breakfast was at 8…..but I found myself outside at 7.45 having my first cigarette of the day with the security guard. A lovely man who told me all about the wildlife on the estate….seee, I’m learning stuff too! Lol

It’s now 3pm and I’ve just crossed the 20,000 threshold. 20,172 to be exact! Sorrento Sunrise still stands at just over 18,000 and the new words are on a couple of short stories using my writing prompts that I do every day. I’m kind of looking at this years Nano as being a disaster, but I guess it isn’t really. I’m still gunna hit the 50,000, but I’ll probably have lots of unfinished stuff lol. And there was me saying I didn’t want to be one of those writers who had a drawer full of unfinished manuscripts! Whoops! 😉

So what excuse do I have? Well, apart from the fact that the “T” has rubbed off my netbook key (this is it’s 3rd Nano), none what so ever! I don’t regret going for the Mills & Boon….the object of the exercise was to see if I could write one. Perhaps the answer to that question is…..I can’t *snigger*

I had a wander around the grounds today….wow!

And this is the view from my bedroom window.