Revision

Computer still isn't fixed. I can't find the paperwork for it, so don't know what sort of graphics card I need without taking it apart. I miss my Sims like they were family. So grateful for my external hard drive. It also means I have backup copies of all the novels, plays, short stories, etc that I've been working on since 1996, which is a huge relief. Thank you Past-me for having sense to want one, and to Alex for buying it for me as a present.

Speaking of presents, I have bought myself a little post-Christmas gift, James Scott Bell's guide Revision and Self-Editing in preparation for revising my Matti novel. I'll post a review once I've finished reading it, but I found his guide on "Plot and Structure" very good (one of the first writing guide books I've read that is actually useful). In the past, when I was editing Inter Vivos, I followed Holly Lisle's online advice for revision (see link in the margin), but thought it might be useful to get more guidance as this is the area of writing where I have the least experience.

I need to start managing my time better as well, especially as rehearsals become more frequent. May start spending Saturdays in the library again, like I did last year.
2011 is going to be my year!

Finished reading The 19th Wife, very enjoyable. Now reading Trudi Canavan's The Magician's Apprentice.

Happy Belated New Year

Right, let me explain the lack of posts since December. At first it was a case of "nothing much has happened today," which branched into "I'll do it tomorrow". Weeks past, and then suddenly in my mind, due to the delay between posts, my next blog post "had" to be about something interesting, witty and important; well written and relevant. But I couldn't think of anything.
Then Christmas and New Year flew by, and I missed the perfect opportunity to ease myself back into blogging with a quick non-judgemental Christmas greeting. But I didn't, because I was having an off-line Christmas, like we did in 1996 before the internet was commonplace and you actually had to turn on the telly and wait for a designated timeslot to find out the news.
And now it has come to this. A month with no new updates.
What can I say? I psyched myself out.
So here it is, not particularly witty, well written or interesting, but a blog post nonetheless, in the hope to get this thing moving again.

What I'm reading now: The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
What I'm procrastinating from doing now: Learning my lines for Return to the Forbidden Planet (I'm on at end of February folks!); re-reading my NaNoWriMo novel.
Weird proof that wishing on stars works, but not always in the way you'd like: I wished I would finish my novel. So my computer has broken, making it impossible for me to play The Sims 2. Annoying, expensive to fix yet will probably mean my second draft will be completed within six months.

If you're not already, follow me on Twitter @LucyAnnWade

It's nice to be back.

To Do List

Things I need to do:

1) Practice for my audition on Sunday for Return to the Forbidden Planet.
2) Finish off the short story that I'm writing about a selkie, trying to avoid as far as possible having to describe what I will delicately describe as "seal cuddles".
3) Finish chapter 1 take 2 of my Matti and Eva story.

I will not be distracted by:

1) Curse of the Wolf Girl (this book is sucking away my life, so engrossing it is).
2) The Sims 2
3) Judge Judy

That is all.

Good Female Roles in Stories

My life is completely boring right now. At the weekend I did nothing but watch series 4 of How I Met Your Mother and play The Sims 2. Hardly worth telling the internet about, but I feel like I must update regularly or else what's the point?

Tonight I'm off to the library to try to finish Inter Vivos. I just want to write something where the plot of the story isn't "girl trying to get boy to like her". I do enjoy romantic comedy, but I've been getting a little bit annoyed that most films with a female protagonist tend to be about relationships. Now, Alien is an obvious example of a film with a strong heroine who doesn't spend the entire film wondering whether her crush will ask her out, but that part was famously written for a man before Sigourney Weaver was cast. Is that telling? Can anyone suggest some good non-horror movies that aren't about women bitching about men (or their lesbian crushes)?

Anyway, my heroine Nox is more concerned with the fact that she's murdered folk, rather than trying to win the heart of some handsome prince, so that's alright then.

The Wonders of the Camera Phone

As I now have a camera phone, and can take my own pictures (rather than borrow from the internet!), I thought I'd post a pic of "where the magic happens" - no, not the bed (heehee), but my desk.

Actually, it should really be "where the magic doesn't happen, and instead a lot of Sims-2 playing goes on" to be more accurate.

I've just bought Sims 2 Apartment Life, and so productivity will be down by about 95% for the next month at least.

I really want to write a story for this magazine, but I can't think of a fairy tale at the moment. I'm feeling very uninspired right now, especially as Inter Vivos has come to a grinding halt. Hopefully I'll pick myself back up again soon. Just got to curb my Sims-2 addiction first...

5,673 words to go!!!!

You read that right, folks. I have 5,673 words to go to 'win' NaNoWriMo this year! There are a couple of problems on the horizon however that may stop me from reaching that total; the biggest is The Sims 2 Bon Voyage game that I got for my birthday. Must just ration it away and make sure I complete my words before I play it. My house is a sty, I'm a little bit sleep deprived (though I have been 'catching up' by sleeping in most mornings and being late for work), but I do think that for some reason this year, NaNoWriMo has been quite easy. I will rephrase that so the Gods don't spite me for my premature confidence: the words that I have written so far were easy to come up with, and I found it easy to fit in the 1,667 words per day. The hardest part was actually making myself sit down in front of my pc and type them without getting distracted. But I made myself do it and I did, and now I'm almost to the end, and I almost have a short novel in my hands. I am going to celebrate on the 1st if I manage to get it all done. Fingers Crossed!

The sun is out, but it's still cold

Yes, it is. I feel deceived by mother nature because it is so bright outside, but when I go out, I have to wear my winter coat. Of course, this could just be a phenomenon experienced by me with my abnormally cold blood, but I still feel justified in complaining about it.

Anyway. I should be working on the second draft of my play (deadline 30th April), but instead I am playing the Sims and reading Harry Potter (yes, I have the mental age of a twelve year old). My audition was unsuccessful for the leads of Witches of Eastwick, so at least I don't have that to distract me anymore.

I really want to write some prose again, and I was thinking this morning about getting back to Inter Vivos. One of the things that put me off writing it was that I had to come up with all this science and politics to explain events in my story, but I'm now thinking that if I make it more into a fairy tale, I don't have to worry about the correct procedure for heart transplants, and historical guerilla movements, and I can just make it up. I still want to finish this first NANOWRIMO draft, but then after that I can go back and rewrite most of it again. Also, because I chose to write in first person, it means my feisty heroine isn't in fact feisty; she's more passive because the narrator role has made her the observer rather than the doer. So I plan to fix this too.

I'm having a serious financial crisis, so am having to work at my second job every weekend to try to scrap some cash together, which does not give me a lot of free time to write. Time to hide The Sims 2 disc I think. Right after my pet cat gets a promotion...

Momentum Sessions

Well, the momentum playwriting sessions have started up again, and because they don't want to lose us, they have extended the age limit of the group, so I can still go! I'm going to try and give it a really good go this year, as I'm not counting on them upping the age limit again next September. But now I'm thinking, what shall I write? I'm obviously working on a couple of projects at the moment, but none of those fit in with the Momentum guidelines (unless those get changed this year too). Our exercise for this week is to find a newspaper story that you could dramatise (yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have homework) so perhaps that might give me some ideas. Got quite drunk actually after the session was over! Spent a good portion of the time at the pub spouting on about Christopher Marlowe to some unsuspecting BA English final year student. Hope I've not scared him off coming to Momentum now! Could have been worse though, I could have been drinking rose...

Word on my work PC is being stupid and keeps crashing; I was going to do a bit more towards my NaNoWriMo this lunch time, but now I'm not sure that I want to in case the whole thing crashes and my words gets lost somewhere in cyberland. Tonight I'm having a dedicated writing night, as I'm hoping to get through another couple of thousand words for NaNoWriMo, and also to start my story submission for Tripod. This may be a bit over-ambitious, as I may end up doing all the washing up and playing the Sims 2 instead, but you never know! An ode to the Sims 2 - now that would be easy to write.