ANZAC Day Challenge and ROW 80 Check-In

Lest We Forget

For all of you not in Australia, you might not have realised, but today is one of our most important public holidays: ANZAC day.

It is a celebration and recognition of what our armed forces have sacrificed. It marks the anniversary of the first military action Australia served in, in World War I (we are a pretty new country, aren't we?). The Australian and New Zealand forces landed at Gallipoli on the 25th April, 1915. It was a complete disaster militarily speaking - 8 months and 8,000 Australian's died (which when you think how small we were, it was a huge number). However, it became an important part of our national identity, as the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) were brave, and courageous, and everything you would hope you would be if faced with that situation.

(If you don't know anything about the landing at Gallipoli, I highly recommend the movie with a very young Mel Gibson in it).

Now the day also commemorates all our soldiers since then.  It is probably one of our biggest national celebrations. 

Melbourne Dawn Service, Today.

As an Australian Army Cadet, I used to get to match in the parade with all the soldiers, carrying their banners. Still remember the time when after we had finished one of the old soldiers told me it was a tradition that you had to kiss the Sergeant Major. 

'Oh, who's the Sergeant Major?' I asked completely innocently. 

'Me.' He said with a cheeky grin.

Writing Challenge:

So, for today's check-in (which is a day late, I know, but this makes it more interesting) I'm going to give you an ANZAC day themed writing challenge. It's pretty simple:

Think on the words lest we forget for a full five minutes, looking at them in different ways, and then write anything that comes.  

ROW 80 Check-In:

My goal was to keep trying to write at least one blog post or article per lunch break. 

Monday I wrote up my half marathon training report for last week for Personal Fitness Base Camp. (Two weeks complete, yah! And I'm starting to be better at handling the longer distances, I think.)

Tuesday I tried writing my inspirational piece for the ROW 80 blog, but have kept that as a writing challenge for Sunday, and instead took part from The Five Day Writer's Retreat and turned that into a silly, but hopefully amusing post for Kait. 

Wednesday I started my brand new blog! I had always meant to have the three: Writing - Fitness - Theology. And finally I do. Buffy and God - The Blog is up and running! I was also super happy I could get www.buffyandgod.com as my domain. I mean, yeah, how many other people would want that? But still, I'm glad it is all mine now. 

Thursday - It's a public holiday, so I didn't have a lunch time, but I've started putting together a video review of Lite'n'Easy, a weightloss program in Australia, which will go on Personal Fitness Base Camp, as well as my YouTube Channel. 

I have also posted on PFBC today about IT Band syndrome (common problem for runners, and how to fix it. Growing up in a medical family does have it's advantages, just saying.)

I've done this post for 100 FD.

And I'm still hoping to post on Buffy and God - The Blog about faith. It might have to be saved as a draft and published tomorrow, though. 

So, I think that is a kick ass effort, if I do say so myself.

Now, I want everyone's opinion. All ROWers and 100FD fans, what do you think:

I'm looking to my new self-publishing project (or perhaps I'll try and get it traditionally published if someone snaps it up soon enough.) And there are three options:

1. Castle Innis book 1 - the first draft is 90% complete. Late 1700's historical adventure/romance. (see Synopses for a more detailed description.)

2. After the Winter - my nanowrimo from 2012, probably 70% complete (as I need to re-write the beginning as well). It's a 1920's romance set by the Italian Lakes. 

3. A completely new, unthought of Chic Lit. As my little sister very kindly pointed out today 'You could write from experience '30 and still single', but add in the perfect guy at the end.' Thank you Jenny! But yes, yes I could. And maybe I would be lucky and it would make the guy materialise. (Anyone else seen Ruby Sparks?) 

So, those are the three options I'm looking at for the moment. Anyone with feelers out in the market, historical romance still going strong? Better off with chic lit? How do we feel about the 1920's? Great Gatsby is coming out to the movies soon, so that could increase interest.

Well That Solves That Problem: I'm Not Meant to Be a Full Time Writer

Today was my first day back at work. 

It was also the first time in a week that I wrote for about 4 hours. 

I had a total of two, maybe three, successful full days during my holidays, and a lot of that included working on this blog and writing agent query letters etc.

The concept of a full day where I have nothing to do but write I thought would be amazingly liberating, would let me write so much more!

Wow, was I wrong. 

It was horrifying. 

But then I started to think that maybe all writing had become horrifying, that maybe I had just lost my will to write.

But no, do not fear. I just needed to be a bit more busy.

Was listening to Writing Excuses last night, an episode called 'pantsing'. They were talking about discovery writing, also known as by the seat of your pants writing, which is what I am currently doing a lot of. One of them was pointing out that when you do discovery writing, you really need to have a large block of time so that you can really get into the narrative flow.

Then another pointed out that this wasn't always good. Writing expands to fill the amount of time you have, like a gas. Having very strict writing times can actually help you to write more.

Wow, I thought to myself, wow. It's like they are talking about me!

Though, that was not all of my problems. It is definitely true for me that if I give myself too long a period, I just slow down and also get intimidated by the amount of time. However, it is also true that if I say I can write at any time in the day, I can very easily end up not writing at all. 

The third thing I found out today is that part of the problem might be the Castle Innis series. Well, not it, but me, but me to it, not just me. If you see what I mean.

I sat down again this morning to continue the amazingly slow work on book 3 (slow, largely because I haven't spent that many hours on it but also slow because it just isn't coming out). I then got a text from my sister saying I should try to get my first book published in Australia, and John Marsden's publisher, Pan McMillan has Manuscript Monday, where anyone can submit the first chapter of the manuscript along with a 300 word synopsis, and they promise to read it. 

So I went back to my first novel, Sally Hunt Book 1. I had spent quite a few hours yesterday editing it (how did it STILL have so many typos?) and had gotten to the part where I knew I had to re-write an entire scene. This morning, after spending about half an hour on Castle Innis, I then went and spent an hour and a half editing then beginning to write this new scene. 

The speed and easy with which it came out was like watching champagne overflow down a pyramid of glasses; beautiful, delicious, bubbly. And it wasn't because I knew what was going to happen, because I didn't, I hadn't expected what happened at all! 

And tonight night came home from work and said I would start writing at 7.30. Since I finished dinner at 7pm, I started reading Stephen King's Gunslinger. However, after finishing the intro, I decided I wanted to move straight into working on Sally Hunt, just because I felt like writing.

I spent the next two hours and think I have nailed most of the new scenes.  I just need to weave it back into the old text. I also need to change one or two more things later on (evidently my readers did not like that I left a lot of things until book 2, so will give some hints at how they are going to work out). 

So, obviously my mind is just in a young adult's language mode. I have had no trouble writing in regency period English before, so it is strange that I have it now, except perhaps I needed more time to switch over. 

But this is the end of the fortnight. And since my next book is a children's story (think E Nesbit style of thing), I might keep the simplified language and come back to Castle Innis after I've done some other historical practice. 

So, back to work, back to writing, back to trying to have it all.

Beginning Of A New Fortnight

Well, what a mess I made of last fortnight (which, I know, actually went for three weeks, which only makes it worse). Just over 30,000 words of the novel done. However, the only way to go on, as I see it, is to cut my losses and just start all over again with enthusiasm and anticipation for my next book.

Tomorrow I'm starting the third in the Castle Innis series. Yah! (Work with me here, I'm trying to build enthusiasm. Is very difficult if you read it in such as sarcastic way.) The previous two books were originally going to be back story for this book, so I already have the prologue and half the first chapter written. However, with new developments in the previous two books, a few things will change. Am very glad I spent that time with Jenny brainstorming the last story, otherwise this would be slightly more difficult. 

I am also going to start a 9am-5pm writing working day. Hopefully in this time I can include editing Sally Hunt a bit and working on this blog etc. I am working on the assumption that I won't actually being doing the TV extra work this week, which is sad in one way, but in another I'm glad I get more chance to enjoy my holiday. The choice between a movie star and a famous author is difficult, but the choice between a back-of-scenes extra and a published author (famous or not)? Not so hard.

Today I did something I haven't done for a very long time: read an entire book in a day. (Okay, when I say long time, now I think about it, I did it just a few weeks ago, but it feels like a long time).  Sadly my eyes are not what they used to be, and did start going a bit blurry towards the end. Am sure that is totally normal and doesn't mean I need glasses or am getting old. Right? I had the new Jasper Fforde, 'The Woman Who Died A Lot', and had been promising myself I could read it when I got through everything else. Today, I said 'stuff it'. I haven't finished The Spanish Bride, or any of the non-fiction books I've been reading, but honestly I wouldn't have finished them anyway. 

There is only one problem. I absolutely love Jasper Fforde, (if you don't know him, but love books and quirky sense of humour of the intelligent mind, highly recommended. Check out his website) and I love Thursday Next as a character. I also find his books addictive, as demonstrated by today. However, he does not inspire me to write at all. I read his books and think 'who am I kidding! With books like these in the world, who  would want to read mine? I'm never going to be able to think of plots this complex and entertaining' which is not at all inducive to writing. So, for the sake of my writing, better I get the entire book read as fast as possible and only on days off, so I can read things that make me want to write on work days. Good logic, no? Gives me a great excuse to do absolutely nothing but read all day. 

On a complete side note, today was actually warm enough for me to lie out in the sun (out of the wind) in tank top and shorts to activate my vitamin D. Was very nice lying on mum and dad's deck, sun on legs, reading good book...that is what holidays should be about.

Back to the topic, it is an important process to work out which books inspire writing and which don't. It is really quite surprising, as you would think books you loved would make you want to write and books you hate would have an adverse effect, but it is not always so. Some books I despise just make me think 'well, someone wanted to published you, so I might have a shot at this after all!' Further, I find some books even by the same author have different effects on me. 

Am currently in search of more work that inspires me to sit down and write. I think it is one of the reasons I took so long with Dorothea Brande's book, because I kept going off and trying to put into practice each little bit I read. Georgette Heyers can sometimes do it, but the Spanish Bride is not one of them. As I'm now moving onto the third book which is set back in London, I think I might read one of the other ones that I know quite well and see if that works. I'm thinking the Grand Sophie, which is one of my favourite of her female characters (though I have to say, Charles as the leading man is not my favourite, but what can you do? Except, obviously, re-write it yourself with a better guy... :D )

So, had better get to bed early, so I can get in a full day of work without losing concentration.

Sleep tight.

Buffy.

What To Do When You Don't Want To Write.

There once was a time, many years ago, when I would write in all my spare time, just to write. My school diary instead of having a list of my homework each day had a new story beginning.

Sadly, that time has passed. There are occasions when I am at work or in the shower, and think 'Man, I really need to write that down now!' And those occasions are great. But tell yourself that you will be getting up two hours before you need to get ready for work to write, and come home from work and after dinner sit down for another two hours to write, every day for the rest of the week, and suddenly the thrill of it seems to be gone.

However, while the thrill might be gone: number of complete novels written through inspiration = 0, number written now through just sitting down and doing it = about 4.5. Therefore, the conclusion obviously isn't to just wait for inspiration to strike. It has to involve a good amount of just sitting down.

So I'm trying to implement some more advice from McDougall's 'Born to Run'. Previously I had been working on Caballo Blanco's advice 'Easy, Light, Smooth', see the post Born to Write. (Yup, have advanced to internal links! Will be going back and putting more in instead of just vaguely saying 'as I've said previously'). Now it was time to take Eric's advice:

p. 259

(just before the final 50 mile race that the whole book has been building up to)

My chest felt tight. Eric worked his way over beside me. 'Look, I got some bad news,' he said. 'You're not going to win. No matter what you do, you're going to be out there all day. So you might as well just relax, take your time, and enjoy it. Keep this in mind - if it feels like work, you're working too hard.'

Basically, I love this advice for three reasons: (I initially said two, but then realised there was a third. Good things always come in threes, like three point sermons, and blocks of chocolate.)

1. The challenge they are about to face is to run 50 miles, which ends up taking McDougall 12 hours. There is no short cut. If you want to do this, this is what it takes. 

2. He puts it all into perspective: you aren't going to win. McDougall's challenge was just to finish the race. My challenge is not to write a perfect masterpiece, that would be trying to win an ultra-race against the best in the world after just a few months training. My goal is to write a draft from beginning to end to see if there is a story there. That's it.

3. However, his advice is not 'if it feels like work, quit' or even 'if it feels like work, try and distract yourself with something else' which is sometimes suggested. Instead, his advice is that you mgiht as well just relax and enjoy it.

For me, I'm getting panicked about word counts per hour, if one hour is behind, I then get flustered and it gets me totally out of the flow, and I'm fixated on every word, etc. etc. I'm working too hard. It's time to just sit back, relax, and write.

So, in light of that, one thing I did tonight was copy all my documents off my little Eee PC, which is super useful for carrying around, but I have to admit that the smaller keyboard did give me more typos. I've now put it all on my nice big Macbook Pro, which has a full sized keyboard, and much nicer button responsivity (yes, computer, I know that is not a word, but I want it to be, so work with me, I am complimenting you after all). 

So, summary of what to do when you don't want to write:

1. Layout the challenge: do you want to write a book or not? If not, walk away now, if so, then it is going to take a long time, and you just have to live with that.

2. Put your current work into perspective: you don't have to write a masterpiece in this sitting, you just have to write.

3. Stop working so hard! Slow down and enjoy the ride.

On my own writing, am back on Book 2 of Castle Innis. Have not finished book 1, but it has had it's chance. I'm going to send it to my alpha reader and see what they think, is it worth finishing off as it is, with a major overhaul, or maybe they'll say not to bother with it and just focus on one of the other 100 drafts I'll have by the end.

Also, in major world stopping news: I've given up chocolate and caffeine.

But how can you be a writer without chocolate and caffeine, you ask?

That is a very good question. I am not yet sure, but will tell you soon.

I had been fooling myself into thinking I was only eating about half a block (yes, a family sized block of Cadbury's, the 220gram ones) a day. Unfortunately, on Wednesday I suddenly realised that I had opened the block only that morning, and by three pm it was completely gone. Worst part of it all, I didn't feel the least full or sick of it.

This was made worse by having weighed myself at the gym on Tuesday... not to give you exact figures, but heaviest I've ever been.

Strangely, spending all your time writing and eating large amounts of chocolate does have negative consequences.

So, since Wednesday I have gone cold turkey on chocolate and caffeine (okay, I'm not quite sure why caffeine got chucked in there, except that I noticed I was starting to drink coffee at work just as a matter of course, and I didn't want to get addicted). I have to admit I accidentally had chocolate on Thursday, as it was part of a dessert so was categorised in my head as 'pavlova topping' not as 'chocolate', but since then I haven't had any at all. (It's now Monday, by the way). This is the longest I've gone without chocolate for ... well, I gave it up for Lent once, but that was a few years ago.

And the most crazy thing is, I don't really miss it. So am taking that as divine help and approval.

If you notice that these blogs start to become weirder and weirder, please notify someone as I've possibly set off a psychotic episode through sudden withdrawal.

(Come to think of it, I did have super vivid dreams on the weekend. I wonder if that is connected? Like the opposite of the cheese effect.)

Good night.

Buffy.

Georgette Heyer, Queen of Gore?

When I started writing this particular series I'm working on now (currently titled Castle Innis, as that is where the first one is set and I can't think of a better general descriptor), I was afraid that I was getting too gory for the genre of historical romance. However, I was reading Georgette Heyer's 'The Spanish Bride' today (keeping in mind that Georgette Heyer is THE regency romance writer, I think she actually created the genre) and I came across this section:

p.171

'A couple of round shots crashed amongst them, the second knocking the Spanish guide's head off his shoulders. His body stood for an instant, with the blood spurting up from the severed neck, and then fell, while the head was tossed through the air to bounce on the ground and roll away till it was stopped by a boulder. Someone laughed, and was clouted into silence by his comrades.'

Seriously, I have not made that up, you can check it yourself. And I know, that image could have been taken straight from a movie like 300 (except for the anachronisms, obviously).

So, have decided I'm not going to worry so much about how much bloody detail I put in, because it is going to be hard to beat that!

On how my writing is actually going:

As I was sick for a large part of this week and got almost nothing written on the second book in this series, I spent this weekend going back to the first book which I didn't complete and working on that (as well as sleeping, curling up and reading, and generally still recovering, though I did go for a jog today beside the river which was nice. Will see how much I have to pay for it tomorrow).

Got 2,000 words done Friday morning, 5,000 yesterday and about 5,000 today. And yes, I admit I said that I thought I had about 10,000 more words to write. However, having written around 12,000 words, I don't actually feel that much closer to finishing! But still, at least it doesn't feel rushed.

I also received the feedback from the reviewer of my first ever novel which surprisingly was really informative and useful. For beginning Christian writers, I am recommending the Caleb Writing Competition (yes, I have just worked out how to put links into my posts. Cool, huh?), which for their unpublished section offers the winners publication and everyone else gets a full report on their story. It also has a published section, but I'm ignoring that for now, for obvious reasons.

My report came back stating that there were a few things to fix up (which they outlined and I full agree with) and after that they would definitely recommend it for publication. Yah! The competition is run by Omega Writers in conjunction with Even Before Publishing, an Australian Christian publisher. Omega Writers group is sponsoring the Word Writers' Getaway, which I am going to not just because it is in Queensland and I could seriously do with some sun, but as my first foray into the world of Christian writers (beyond academics). Is in October, will post more about it when I go. 

So, slightly heartened that they liked my work and thinks it has potential. Now just got to get myself back into writing the mega numbers again. Tomorrow starting again on Book 2 (though book 1 still not finished, but closer.)

Tip for today: Hansom Cabs were not invented until 1836, so not very useful to reference them in a book set in 1790. D'oh. Learn from my mistakes, children, learn from my mistakes.

(Hackneys are the vehicles of choice at the time for general taxiing. Kept trying to think of the word but for unknown reasons kept coming up with 'Turnkey' which I knew wasn't right, or even related.)

This message has been brought to you by the amazing knowledge of Wikipedia. 

Good night.

Buffy.

Just a Quickie

Beginning of a new fortnight. On Saturday managed my 10,000, getting the total for that story up to 60,000 and I think just a chapter or two away from finishing. However, have put it aside, though did spend some time this morning just jotting down dot points of things I want to change and where it's going to go etc.

Spent Sunday practising wordlessness. Managed to almost complete two of my knitting projects (with just minor swearing and undoing of stitches), as well as going to the gym, shopping, managing to put on a load of washing (including changing all my bed sheets - major feat), and cooking Pad Thai (can never get it as nice as in the restaurants, why is that?). Was a very nice day and I think will be a good set up for the week.

This morning started on the next book in the series. Already had the prologue written from years ago. Only problem, I always knew that in this book I planned to have my main character an orphan. However, while writing my last book about his parents I grew to like them too much. So when I read what I had this morning I just couldn't do it, I couldn't kill them off, though it was a wonderful scene. So that is going to be kept for a completely different book that has no prequel and now I have to rework the plot so it's all okay that his parents are still alive and still madly in love.

Am staying the night with my parents, so Mum, my sister and I can have mother/daughters bonding for Mum's birthday. Do not foresee that I'm going to get a lot of writing done. But will then get down and be more faithful than last fortnight.

Until next time.

Buffy.