Doing It Write Now

Moving On

2011-04-02T23:55:00.000+01:00

I've moved over to Wordpress.com. Don't ask. I haven't finished the blogroll yet - I read way too many blogs. When I finally decide upon and sort out the domain/hosting issues, I'll redirect, but for now I've moved here.

ROW80 Round Two Sign Up

2011-03-30T22:03:00.000+01:00

Round two of ROW80 begins on April 4th, so don't forget to sign up! Read the goals of the participants here. I have to list my goals and I'm trying to learn my lessons from last time. I'll set some goals for the whole round and then choose specific goals for April. I'm sure I'll change my goals along the way but there are certain things I'd like to aim for. I'm currently editing Taunt so any

The Good, The Bad, and The Pukeworthy

2011-03-29T12:06:00.000+01:00

Firstly, sorry to the ROW80ers I haven't visited yet. I'm moving - slowly - forward. A plague descended upon my house again; the day after ROW80 ended, I found myself drowning in kid vomit - gave myself the most awful mental image there, that wouldn't be a good way to go. (BTW, the sickness began after one of the twins locked the entire family into a bedroom - scariest fifteen minutes of my

End of Round One Check-In

2011-03-24T08:41:00.000Z

Last day of ROW80's first round. Well done to everyone who took part and I hope we all meet again in Round Two. Say congrats and farewell to all here. Today is my 28th birthday so it's nice to end the writing challenge in time for a minor celebration. In the last 80 days I've edited (and rewritten the second half of) Verity, rewritten Taunt and finished the first draft of STS. I've

Mrs. Van Winkle

2011-03-20T08:02:00.000Z

I'm not sure if I've met my goals this week, probably not. Visit the others here. Last weekend, I started feeling sick and I ended up sleeping for most of the week. For example, on Wednesday I slept for 20 hours so I just gave up on the ROW80 thing (and the everything else thing) for this week. Still sick but feeling better than before so I'll try to put in more of an effort visiting and

Brief Check-In

2011-03-13T10:04:00.000Z

Check-in: Hit my word count goal on STS. Support the rest of the gang here. Writing daily and hitting word count goals. Thinking about my goals for next round and how I'm going to edit and work on first drafts at the same time. Managing time will be important. Finally a Kindle owner - anyone know if it's worth getting some early reader books for the Kindle?

For Love of Enid

2011-03-09T09:53:00.000Z

Check-in: Word count goal met while working on STS. Soak up the sanity here. March is my giddy month so I'm trying not to post the blog equivalent of hysterical giggling. Been working on STS, minding my own business when all of a sudden the MC unleashed a crapton of backstory - now I see why she's been making so many dodgy choices. Have I mentioned how much I love writing? I haven't been

Dirty Little Hoarder

2011-03-07T18:05:00.000Z

I have a tendency to horde the shinies. There's a reason my OH bought me an ereader back when I was still a paper-snob, we had just moved house and he didn't want to go through the trauma of moving all of those books ever again. I'm inclined to hoard other things as well, eyeliner, nail varnish, shoes, handbags, tarot cards, things that tend to be harmed by destructive toddlers, of which I have

Happy Read an Ebook Week

2011-03-06T09:52:00.000Z

Check-in: Worked on outlines for Tempt and STS. Added to a short story. Visit the rest of the crew here. When I say outline, I basically mean I've written what amounts to a synopsis. Sometimes I'll get an idea and expand upon it but usually, my outlines are pretty high-level and detail-sparse. I have a rough outline for both Tempt and STS (aka the fae novel, couldn't keep calling it that

One Year Indieversary

2011-03-05T11:17:00.000Z

A year ago today, I plucked up the courage to press publish on Kindle - it didn't take long for Little Girl to go live. My first-born. New parent jitters. It was an experiment, I really didn't think anything would come of it, but I wanted to try it anyway - I like to learn and I like staying off the main road. People said indies won't sell. Horror won't sell. Short stories won't sell.

Nowt On Da Telly

2011-03-04T11:09:00.000Z

You know when I'm blogging about pointless things that I'm not working. :) I'm sick this week so am working the bare minimum and catching up on mindless entertainment. I don't regularly watch much television; if I like something, I'll watch it online whenever I have time and overdose on an entire season's worth. I like reality shows that revolve around singing, dancing, cooking, weight-loss,

March Madness & A Haunted Ebook

2011-03-02T08:07:00.000Z

Check-in - word count met, rewrite of Taunt completed. Give some lovin' to the other participants here. (Check out the end of this post for contest info). New month, new goals. In February, I finished the rewrite of Taunt, wrote the first draft of a novellette, finished a short story - and met my daily writing goals in the second half of the month. In March, my goals are: 500 words a day,

Bye-Bye Greens

2011-02-27T08:08:00.000Z

Check-in: Less than 4 weeks to go! Haven't kept track of word count this time but I've definitely hit my target. Send some force to the other participants here. Since last check-in, I've started a short story and gone through Taunt. I'll admit I've been putting it off out of sheer terror. I knew the last third in particular was extremely sloppy - which is why it required a rewrite. I read

Check-In Time

2011-02-23T08:39:00.000Z

Check-in: I've written 8k since the last check-in post. Have a goo at the rest of the ROW80ers here. And while you're at it, check out the cover love my novella sucked up on All of Everything. I saw this and was happy, the end. I've written 5k on one WIP - a short one that is now completed - and 3k on another. Yesterday, I realised I've been writing every day. Getting back into the habit

Best Day Everrrrr

2011-02-20T08:03:00.000Z

Check-in: I've written 6k since the last check-in. Visit the other participants here. Since Wednesday, I've written 3k on one WIP and 3k on another. Half of that was this morning so I feel like I could have worked a lot harder, but sleep took priority over writing this week. :) I wrote a ginormous blog post and deleted it, the gist being how tired I was of working in the same genre for

Insania

2011-02-18T07:10:00.000Z

Can't sleep. I've spent a fair chunk of my life not being able to sleep. The only cure is writing but I haven't been able to do much of that tonight. My best writing comes during those bouts of insomnia - and also when I'm drunk but we don't need to dwell on that one - but, alas, not tonight. I needed a firmer hold on the novelette so printed it out and attacked it with a red pen. I kind of

Ereader-less

2011-02-17T01:58:00.000Z

My ereader is broken. *Cries* It broke in the hospital and we still haven't been able to get it working so I'm now trying to accept the loss. Too many birthdays over the next few months to even think about replacing it. Editing is going to suck. I've been trying to read a paperback since the weekend. No. Just no. I would rather read on my laptop than hold an actual book. It hurts my

Rolling

2011-02-16T09:00:00.000Z

Condensed version: The novellette draft is up to 11k right now. Up roughly 9k since the last check-in post so technically my word count goal is achieved this week. Visit the other participants who are linked here. Long, rambling version: I've written 11k since Saturday. The basic storyline is done, I'm in the process of padding it out with (hopefully real) facts and character development.

The UnRomantic Writer

2011-02-14T13:38:00.000Z

Valentine's Day. Never a card exchanged in my house. I hate cards and dying flowers, and unless a box of chocolates has the name Ferrero Rocher on the cover, it's going to have yucky leftovers like Turkish Delight and Strawberry Fondants once I'm through with them. These things are wasted on me. I'm not romantic, or sweet, or lovey-dovey. At all. Which is why it's strange that on the eve of

Mammy Hat

2011-02-13T10:28:00.001Z

Check-in time - support the other participants here. To summarise, roughly 2k of a draft written, just not the right WIP. It's been hard to take off the mammy hat lately. My OH keeps going, why aren't you writing? I don't know why, but when something major (to me) happens, I don't want to do anything. Ever again. The longer I let it go on for, the harder it is to snap out of it. Himself

Updates

2011-02-09T09:15:00.000Z

Not much for the check-in. Taunt is up to 16k - barely. Things will get back on track, I'm just exhausted right now. Check out the rest of the participants here. My daughter is home, yay. Her burns are healing well (so they tell me, they look awful to me) and she didn't pick up a bug in hospital after all. Little panickers. She's kind of bored and afraid to use her hands but she's *gasp*

Now Why You Wanna Go And Do That?

2011-02-08T14:18:00.000Z

Writers are always asked questions like what made you start writing, where did you get your inspiration from, etc. The question I've been asked most over the years (even before I epublished) is why. Why flash fiction, why such depressing concepts, why fantasy, why overdone ideas (werewolves, vampires, witches, angels, underwolds, afterlife), why such open-ended conclusions, just why. It's

Yeah.

2011-02-06T11:07:00.000Z

Just skip to the end for my actual check-in. On Wednesday I said Taunt was up to 14k. Later that day, I think, my laptop decided to mess with me and I ended up losing some of Taunt. On Thursday, I caught up and brought Taunt back up to 14k. I despise rewriting lost material. On Friday, my daughter scalded herself and ended up in A&E. She spilled a drop of something hot, panicked and

Knock 123

2011-02-04T15:51:00.000Z

I can't stop listening to this song today. It's a perfect writing playlist song for a certain WIP. I love Imelda May. Most of her stuff is rockabilly and she's from the same area as me - the Liberties is full of untapped talent, just sayin . . . . I don't know her personally but I'm a big fan and I always like to hear a familiar accent on interviews. :) I honestly don't know why she isn't

Cleopatra, Coming At Ya

2011-02-03T15:25:00.000Z

This is me procrastinating. I haven't written a non-ROW80 post in an age. I'm on the fence about some stuff . . . again. Kinda sorta thinking about doing something I haven't considered before. Two or three things, actually. They could benefit me in the long term but in the short term, would definitely get in the way of what I'm doing right now. I hate being a grown-up sometimes. Other