Writing
NaNo started last Tuesday and I'd issued a 'write-at-least-one-scene-for-NaNo' challenge to those people who felt unable to do the whole 50K. So I felt obliged to have a go.
I wrote another 3 scenes for last year's NaNo novel. Actually it was more a collection of scenes with a plot in mind. While it reached the winning wordage, it wasn't finished by a long way. Another way of saying there were a few good ideas embedded in a whole lot of waffle :D
One day I may have the writing ability to do justice to the plot and characters.
Life
I caught a stomach bug. Amazing how something as miniscule as viruses can bring a body down! Even when symptoms subside, it takes time to fully recover. I notice that I've been very forgetful this week.
Owing to feeling grot, I embarked on some comfort reading of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. She's a fantastic writer, and I especially like her earlier books. One fascinating thing to notice if you read through the whole series - at least, those books she wrote alone - is that her story-telling changes over time.
This week
I've edited and in part rewritten a piece of non-fiction. It is finished. AT LAST! :D
Lesson 18 of HTRYN beckons - it's time to do the next step.
Peter Barry estate agents offer a competition, details of which can be found here. Closing date 12th December.
I've had a few ideas and need to start working on them.
Have a good week. And may you have a bug-free autumn!
Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts
Monday, 7 November 2011
Monday, 31 October 2011
Interval
I took time out to write around 1000 words for a competition entry.
Mark Bellingham has written the beginning of a crime story; all you have to do is finish it. Details are here - please note the closing date is midnight 4th November 2011.
Two prizes: “Author’s Choice” prize and £1,000 to spend at hive.co.uk. PLUS the entry with the most public votes will win £250 of books.
Terms and conditions are on the website – along with some very good stories.
I’ve worked on this all day and am reasonably satisfied with the story. It’s not the sort of story I would have considered writing but having started, it was fun to write. It was a challenge trying to match the voice of the first bit of the story written by Mark Bellingham. While this wasn’t a condition of entry, it’s what I wanted to do, giving a funny yet dark story.
Amazing what can be done if one focuses!
Two prizes: “Author’s Choice” prize and £1,000 to spend at hive.co.uk. PLUS the entry with the most public votes will win £250 of books.
Terms and conditions are on the website – along with some very good stories.
I’ve worked on this all day and am reasonably satisfied with the story. It’s not the sort of story I would have considered writing but having started, it was fun to write. It was a challenge trying to match the voice of the first bit of the story written by Mark Bellingham. While this wasn’t a condition of entry, it’s what I wanted to do, giving a funny yet dark story.
Amazing what can be done if one focuses!
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Saturday Summary
Writing
Finished cutting and rewriting my short story. It was an unpleasant surprise when I got a strong and sudden lack of confidence about the story. So I put it to one side and wrote something for a competition.
The mini-saga competition is on Helen Yendall's blog. Only open to subscribers, the story must be 100 words or less and inspired by a lovely autumnal picture provided by Helen. Closing date is midnight GMT on 31st October so not long left.
I like the way short stories make me aware of the function of each sentence, phrase and even each word. I figure practicing on shorts will enable me to extend this to a longer short story and eventually a novel. So thanks Helen :)
Life
Week 2 of Ancient Egyptian history galloped us through Dynasty 0. I've been reading up about Pre-dynastic (before kings) Egypt and am still amazed at the thousands and thousands of years when all man had was stone tools - and the fact that my computer was obsolete after 6 years!
The new refridgerator arrived and is so quiet I find myself listening to see if it's still working. Occasionally it burbles to itself. It's often the little things that count in life - like the pleasure of being able to open the fridge door fully, and without it sounding like something from a house of horror movie, and without the bits of plastic dropping on the floor.
The old fridge served us well but also became obsolete...a long time ago. R.I.P.
And Finally...
After being unable to eat chocolate for the last 8 years (resulted in migraines) I've found I can now eat small amounts of milk chocolate without any ill effects! Today I had a few Maltesers. They were wonderful :)
What small things do you value, that you would really miss if they disappeared?
Finished cutting and rewriting my short story. It was an unpleasant surprise when I got a strong and sudden lack of confidence about the story. So I put it to one side and wrote something for a competition.
The mini-saga competition is on Helen Yendall's blog. Only open to subscribers, the story must be 100 words or less and inspired by a lovely autumnal picture provided by Helen. Closing date is midnight GMT on 31st October so not long left.
I like the way short stories make me aware of the function of each sentence, phrase and even each word. I figure practicing on shorts will enable me to extend this to a longer short story and eventually a novel. So thanks Helen :)
Life
Week 2 of Ancient Egyptian history galloped us through Dynasty 0. I've been reading up about Pre-dynastic (before kings) Egypt and am still amazed at the thousands and thousands of years when all man had was stone tools - and the fact that my computer was obsolete after 6 years!
The new refridgerator arrived and is so quiet I find myself listening to see if it's still working. Occasionally it burbles to itself. It's often the little things that count in life - like the pleasure of being able to open the fridge door fully, and without it sounding like something from a house of horror movie, and without the bits of plastic dropping on the floor.
The old fridge served us well but also became obsolete...a long time ago. R.I.P.
And Finally...
After being unable to eat chocolate for the last 8 years (resulted in migraines) I've found I can now eat small amounts of milk chocolate without any ill effects! Today I had a few Maltesers. They were wonderful :)
What small things do you value, that you would really miss if they disappeared?
Friday, 4 March 2011
Fabulous Friday
It's fabulous because the sun is shining! :D
There has been continuous grey cloud sitting over Britain for some time so this is glorious.
It's also fabulous because I've finished an entry for a writing competition. I've had a rough week in some ways, derailed from some of my routine, so I was astonished when details of a local competition came through (Warwick Words Book Project) and I planned and wrote a 200 word story in a couple of days!
Ok, I admit to having a prevarication pixie sat on my shoulder for half an hour but after I shrugged it off the writing got done.
The story is printed out and put in a drawer to be read next week. There's plenty of time as the closing date is April 16th. I'll be submitting next week and, in a sense, I will have won when the work goes in. I will have broken that first hurdle all would-be writers need to get over: submitting their first piece of work, however short.
It would be difficult to write a shorter piece - haiku perhaps? The sense of achievement and pleasure I feel is out of proportion to the word count involved :D
There has been continuous grey cloud sitting over Britain for some time so this is glorious.
It's also fabulous because I've finished an entry for a writing competition. I've had a rough week in some ways, derailed from some of my routine, so I was astonished when details of a local competition came through (Warwick Words Book Project) and I planned and wrote a 200 word story in a couple of days!
Ok, I admit to having a prevarication pixie sat on my shoulder for half an hour but after I shrugged it off the writing got done.
The story is printed out and put in a drawer to be read next week. There's plenty of time as the closing date is April 16th. I'll be submitting next week and, in a sense, I will have won when the work goes in. I will have broken that first hurdle all would-be writers need to get over: submitting their first piece of work, however short.
It would be difficult to write a shorter piece - haiku perhaps? The sense of achievement and pleasure I feel is out of proportion to the word count involved :D
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