Firstly i must apologise for my blog absence recently. Health issues, along with an overwhelming sense of “i Just Don’t Know What To Say” Syndrome have hit me hard. Thanks to the 100k Challenge, I’m still writing, daily, and hoping that some of it, at some stage, might make it into the novel.
But why I’m really here today is to record/share my thoughts on Swanwick 2014…
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.
And this is the room where the magic happens.
All 14 of us were sitting at this table last night tapping away at laptops/netbooks….I wish I’d taken a photo! 🙂
Right, better get back to it….think I’ll have a reading break first though 😉
How are my fellow Wrimo’s doing?
I’m off to Wales for a week in July. A Writing Holiday that I’ve heard is great.
The Summer Writers Holiday at Caerleon has had some great reviews from fellow writers, so I thought I’d give it a go 🙂
Photo by The Writers Holiday
So this is where you’ll find me come the 22nd of July. Really looking forward to it! 🙂
The courses I’ve decided to do while I’m there are:
A Complete Introduction To Romance Writing with Kate Walker as I’m reading one of Kate’s books at the moment, and I’m also enrolled on the Romance course I started last week. I’d love to be able to write good quality romance 🙂
Stretching Your Writing Muscles with Elizabeth Hawksley which I thought sounded rather interesting. The course is described as:
All writers need to loosen their writing ligaments a little to explore different ways of writing and find new ways of tackling their own writing. This course aims to do just that. we’ll look at what makes for bad writing – with examples! We’ll look at how writers tackle those big emotional moments; at how not to cop out when the going gets tough; at different ways of getting under the skin of a character; what pitch and stress can do for your writing and so on. This is a taught course and as well as discussion and looking at short extracts from published writers, the class will have a go for themselves in various exercises. That sounds right up my street! Lol
There are also guest speakers and other small talks and courses….WOW 🙂
I will no doubt adopt the roving reporter cap while I’m there, boring you all senseless with my daily commentary *snigger*
Have you ever been on a “writing holiday”? If so, what did you think? if not, would you consider it? You know how nosey I am 😉
By the way….there are still places available if you want to join me 🙂
Today, I shall be on retreat lol…..cue music and scenes of a sun drenched beach, the sea lapping against the sand…..umm, no. I’ll be on retreat at home 🙂
Hubby is going out for the day (to a chess match) so I have the whole day to sit around in my jim jams and do whatever I want *pokes tongue out childishly*
In a way, it’s kind of like one of Peter Jones’ Boxing Days (you’ll have to read Peters book to know what I’m on about…see a previous post).
So, thanks to Judy Reeves, I have a list of prompts (for writing practice) that I will be using throughout the day:
write about a small thing
you are in a garden
it was Monday morning
write about a mirror
write a February memory
this is not about…..
one Friday night
“after all, it wasn’t what she expected”
That should keep me going shouldn’t it? Obviously, coffee, chocolate and doughnuts will also help lol 😉
The real question is, will the cats allow me? Lol…. This is what I have to contend with most days…
Now I’m thinking a retreat in a coffee shop is very appealing 😉
Have you ever had a writers retreat day? Do you do writing practice?
Yesterday’s prompt was “write about the blues in the night” and I guess you could say I took it literally lol. I wrote the start of a story, a romance, about a guy being woken up in the night by the girl in the flat below playing her sax 😉 Today’s prompt is “Memory thick as mud” after Janet Fitch who I now know is the author of White Oleander. I’d heard of the book, so now I’ll be doing a little bit of research….see what it inspires 🙂
I’ve now got 11 “Out There’s” but determined to get that up to 20 by next Wednesday 🙂
The View Outside 