Writing: A Conversation Without Interruptions

Before I bugger off on my holiday I suppose I should provide you guys a little bit of closure about this challenge. It would be mean to leave you hanging until my return in July, right?

Well it’s safe to do so since I’m so knackered that I won’t be writing anything else tonight. I’ve got some other odd jobs to take care of in the house and this is as good a time as any to do it. Plus Daredevil is on. ^_^

As of this post my words for the month are as follows:

Funky thermometer kindly supplied by Fundraiser Insight
Okay, that should read 15,128, but this counter doesn’t seem to work that way. o.O

Far better than I ever anticipated and something that I’m incredibly proud of.

It’s been a bit of a crazy month; illness, family visits, birthdays, scabby weather. Despite that, I’ve achieved a great deal compared to last year (and no, I don’t count giving birth to my boys… how the hell am I going to top that?! :p).

I’m hoping that my holiday will put me on the right path to achieving even more. I still hope to have my ebook completed to release by the end of the year and midnight epiphanies with regards to SORB should help me decide, once and for all what I want to do with it.

Thanks for sticking with me this month and cheering me on with this challenge, here and on Twitter. Your support has been incredibly motivating and a lot to do with how I’ve even made it this far. The others should be finishing up too, so why not pop over to their blogs and see how they’re getting on. They’ll appreciate it, I promise!
Alison Wells
Dee Kirkby
Lisa Redmond
Lynne Collins
Maria Smith
Rinelle Grey
Ruth Livingstone
Wayne Kelly

I suppose every week can’t be as good as the one I experienced a short while ago. Life is about ups and downs and swings and roundabouts so it’s natural that some days/weeks/months/years are better than others.

But I feel low. This challenge has given me a sharp wake up call as to what I can and can’t do and how realistic (or not, in some cases) my expectations of myself are. That’s a good thing. It’s important to know one’s limitations and in so doing, be able to plan one’s projects in a sensible way. I just wish I could have figured it out in a slightly different way. Meh.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. I should mention that I received a very pleasant surprise on Thursday that forms an excellent counterpoint to my current, blinding misery (yes, that’s a slight exaggeration, but I’m a writer. I’m allowed to do that).

I wrote a letter to Writer’s Forum last month. I can’t remember if I mentioned it or not, but it was the group task for the Phoenix Subs Club. I wrote several other things too, but this letter, that I pinged out on a whim in five minutes on a dark and manky Tuesday, has been published in their letters section! I’m so thrilled! In fact, when I read the pages on Thursday I was so stunned that I actually screamed aloud. Frightened Sprog2 half to death and then had to spend the next ten minutes calming him down. Sprog1 barely looked up from the TV, by the way.

The letter is published under my true name (which I never write here, though you can find it on Twitter and over at The Write Feeling) and is titled ‘Fair Weather Writer.’ If you’re interested in writing magazines, or if Writer’s Forum is a mag you read already, look me up. I’m in there and I’m sooooo happy!

Right. Digressions over, I suppose I should tell you how I’m doing with the challenge:

Funky thermometer kindly supplied by Fundraiser Insight

Oh. -_-
I should stop bloody whining; this looks a hell of a lot better than I thought it would. In fact, I’m nearly there. Heh, okay, I take it all back. :p

Okay guys, how are you all getting on? All well I hope! We’re nearly at the end; the finish line is in sight!
Alison Wells
Dee Kirkby
Lisa Redmond
Lynne Collins
Maria Smith
Rinelle Grey
Ruth Livingstone
Wayne Kelly

While the beginning of this week started really well it went downhill towards the end. I should focus on the things that went well rather than beating myself up about perceived lack of progress, but this challenge is proving harder than I thought.

This time last week I was playing catch up. Today I’m still not quite where I ‘should’ be if I were keeping up to my daily word counts, but I’m further along than I thought I would be, which is handy.

As of today, but chart looks like this:

Funky thermometer kindly supplied by Fundraiser Insight

This includes two short stories I wrote in the middle of last week and some flash fiction I hammered together. Since then I’ve been pretty focused on editing (making it very difficult to record new words) but since I’m getting items submitted to various places I can’t really complain.

This week I imagine that I’ll struggle to keep up the pace. I still feel rather poorly and I have to give more attention to The Write Feeling to get some work in. I also have more family visiting this week (woop!) so it’s going to be another busy one.

Meanwhile, the rest of the 15k crowd are still quietly plugging away. Why not hop over to them to see how they’re getting on?
Alison Wells
Dee Kirkby
Lisa Redmond
Lynne Collins
Maria Smith
Rinelle Grey
Ruth Livingstone
Wayne Kelly

This has been a considerably calmer week. Yes a couple of family visits (Dave’s side this time, not mine) but I still managed to get a couple of bits done. Nothing major, but I think it’s enough to stay on track. Which is all I wanted, really.

My chart at the moment looks like this:

Funky thermometer kindly supplied by Fundraiser Insight

And hopefully I’ll be able to nudge that counter along a bit more in the coming week. I know it hasn’t moved all that much since my last update, but anyone keeping an eye on my Twitter feed (isn’t that all of you *innocent face*) will know that I’ve been editing furiously for the past three days.

A short story for a competition run by Writers Online. If you’re not familiar site then you really need to check them out. I subscribed to them, their newsletter and Writers Magazine last month and since then I’ve been experiencing such an incredible buzz. With each page I read, with every interview I enjoy, every tip I soak up, I can feel myself learning more and more. Couple that with the Phoenix Writers, you fine blog folk and my daily practise I can see the improvement in my words with every fresh one I write. Even my editing process has changed and I can feel that my eye for self editing has become sharper.

I don’t want to harp on about it too much (awww, go on, girlie!) but I’m so proud at my ruthlessness. At first draft my short story was 1,661 words. Second draft was 1,903 and I panicked on realising that the parameters stated 1,500 – 1,700. Fourth draft got the piece back down to 1,670 and then I somehow managed to take off even more! Less is more, people! I’ve never been so aware of how true that is. And applying my methods from The Write Feeling has made it snap. Now, I’m sure if I were to take the piece to group on Saturday, there would be a hell of a lot more I could do with it, but, given the tight deadline, I had to skip that this time.

Next month! Next month I will be more organised and write my story in good time to have it critiqued by my wonderful, wonderful group. I’m a little horrified at sending this off without having it looked at, but needs must. Next month, I’m going to get it super-duper right!

Anyway, now that I’ve rambled away from the 15k in May topic I’ll return there with no further ado.

Have you checked in with the rest of the crew? You should, if you haven’t; there’s a collection of lovely blogs out that that deserve your reading attention. If you need the reminder, here they are:
Maria Smith
Dee Kirkby
Wayne Kelly
Ruth Livingstone
Lynne Collins
Rinelle Grey
Alison Wells
Lisa Redmond

Do you have any challenges on the go? How is your month of May all panning out?

Yes, this is a bit late. Oops. Probably should have posted this on Tuesday, but a combination of too many birthdays and general fatigue made it impossible. o.O Well, not impossible so much as I just didn’t feel like it. :p

I said I’d be taking part in the challenge; aiming to write 15,000 words in May. Well, despite the long procession of guests and celebrations I have been writing! Mainly on my phone and on paper (paper, what’s that?!) but it has been happening. When I kicked off last week I had 1,689 words by day two. Now, this is what my chart looks like.

Funky thermometer kindly supplied by Fundraiser Insight

Phew! Not so bad then.

Also, it’s not just me mad enough to take part in this. I thought I’d point out some of the other mad folk taking part in the 15k in May word count challenge. Here they are:
Maria Smith
Dee Kirkby
Wayne Kelly
Ruth Livingstone
Lynne (In Peterborough)

I don’t think I’ve missed anybody, but if I have, give me a quick slap and I’ll add them on.

Hope you guys are all doing well and carefully, gleefully plugging away. Catch you next week! For another (hopefully on time) update!