More storms.

More storms today but the good news is that the big one happened while I was at work so it got me off the phone for an hour or so. Not a lot written during my breaks but I'm at least a couple of pages into the next chapter. Not sure if I'll get another chance to tackle it tonight. More urgent stuff is calling.

The rain is starting to depress me. We've had a thunder storm, accompanied by plenty of the wet stuff, every day or evening this week. Usually when I'm thinking about getting on-line. And my car is leaking. Oh joy!

Still rolling around ideas for Nano, checking out the Nano forum and thinking...thinking.

I'm determined to finish the current wip ('shitty first draft') before I dive into something new for Nano so I better scribble faster and harder.



Anyway, I'm going to use Moving Pictures as inspiration.

I was a big moving pics fan as a teenager. Had to con my father, my uncle and other hapless family members to smuggle me into the RSL to see them when I was 15 or 16. And before you ask, it's not because of 'What about Me?' That song I really wouldn't care if I never heard again, although I'd rather hear Alex Smith sing it than Shannon Noll if I had the choice.

It's almost every other song on Days of Innocence, and even a few on Matinee. Especially love Angel and the Madman, Busting Loose, So Tired and my Moving Pics Ultimate Collection is often on the CD player.

So this year, Alex Smith, Charlie Cole and a new recruit did an acoustic tour. And I was there. You bet I was there. Twenty years on, and I still love his voice, still love the music. And it transported me back to my teen years, those heady nights at the RSL, the big outdoor free all-age concerts (yeah, you promoters FREE concerts) and the special underage gigs. Then the nights at Sweethearts, Scandals and a whole lot of dubiously named now-extinct nightclubs.

So this is my starting point for my Nano novel...where it will lead me, I'm not sure.

What a week!

What a week!

Lightning strikes. Thunderstorms. Bronchitis. Antibiotics. Reading catch-up as too listless to stay on computer for too long and moving closer to the light at the end of the novel.....perhaps just in time for NanoWriMo.

The lightning took out a tree a couple of doors down, and we lost our television and fax machine. I'm actually enjoying being TV free. It's peaceful.

Read Tales of a Drama Queen. That one is definitely a keeper. Laughed out loud quite a few times. And read my Bookcrossing bookray book Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.

Wrote 1500 words during the blackout/thunderstorm on Monday night but really didn't write any more until today. So much closer to the end - three chapters to go? So exciting.

There's a bit of wish fulfilment stuff in there. I really really miss my mum. So Chloe has a good one.


Here's the update:

105,022 / 110,000 (95.5%)

End of BIAM challenge.

I'm pleased.

I took on the BIAM challenge this month, as well as the film festival, full time work for three weeks of the challenge, having a guest teenager in the house

and I emerge out the other side having written 17397 words.

Okay, I didn't make the 30,000 but I made it more than half way.

But I have passed the 100,000 word milestone on the full novel.

Total is now 100,675 words (92%).

100,675 / 110,000 (92.0%)

Thankyou chicklitters for the inspiration and the public challenge to do this.

I went to my writers group yesterday, and they were very surprised when I said I'd been working and doing the film festival nada nada, AND written over 14,000 words (at that point).

Also downloaded this nifty tool yesterday and have loaded my novel into it - ywriter2 . I'm cut and pasting chapters after writing them, and it gives me the total word count, and tells me how many more words I have to write, and analyses my word usage. Pretty cool.


I'm on a roll so I will continue this week even though the challenge is officially over and then I may even hop on board for Nano and a new idea.

Good luck for those on the other side of the world completing the challenge.

There's a light...

I can see the glimmer of light at the end of the novel, it's getting closer. Just a bit more burrowing through the tunnel and I'll be there.

I kept writing after blogging on Tuesday night. And will probably continue writing tonight.

But so far this week, 4497 words.

Less than 13,000 left till the end.

96,728 / 110,000 (87.9%)

I'm very happy with my progress and even managed to update Diary of a Mad Cat.

I'm beginning to think that maybe the secret is to be very very busy. Momentum is the key. But a group challenge and support is also a great motivator!

Updated at 10.30 pm - time for bed.

Kept writing and finished the chapter. Very pleased. I've written nearly 95 pages since embarking on this writing binge at the beginning of First Draft.

5128 words so far this week.

Total novel now stands at:

97,359 / 110,000 (88.5%)

Writing mojo is back.

Woo hoo! I've already written more in two days than I wrote in the whole of last week. It's starting to really pick up pace and I am spending a lot of time living with these characters, in every moment my brain's not busy with 'actual'work.

It feels so good to have my writing mojo back...I may not finish the last 16,000 words (approx) in this week but I will certainly be a lot closer to the end than I was before.

So where does this leave me for Nanowrimo???? Not sure. I don't have a new idea just waiting for its turn. Might need to do a bit of brainstorming.


Bilby Creek Total

94,233 / 110,000 (85.0%)

What a cutie! My dad's new dog, Monty!

film festival over...back to Bilby Creek

The real film festival is over for another year. Big sigh of relief. It was great meeting the filmmakers, but the end was a bit of shmozzle, handing out the prizes, Robbie running back and forwards to the prize table. Maybe we can edit the footage of that into some weird short film. As always the night went over time, and maybe next year we will have prejudging and cut the maximum film length down to 8 minutes.

So I was taking a lot of mental notes for the novel....I'm up to the deadline of the film festival in the novel. My mind has been doing a lot of contemplating, daydreaming about the characters...incubation period. Now to get it on paper. Back to work tomorrow, so that will mean at least lunchtime and tea breaks to write. However, I'm exhausted. I still need lots more sleep and i'm sitting at the computer yawning.

92,231 / 110,000 (83.0%)

Reading not writing

I have a confession to make.

I've been reading more than I have been writing.

In between the Film festival work, it has often been easier to stick my head in a book and read someone else's writing than to write myself. Plus, they are all library books (well, mostly) so I have a time limit. Don't you hate when all your library book reservations come in at once?

Last week, I read Couch World by Cathy Yardley, Red Dress Ink. Very enjoyable. I was also reading while I was burning CD's for our govt contract, so it was multi-tasking.

This week, I have read Sophie Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess - finished today with a semi-migraine because I really could not cope at looking at the computer screen.

And I'm half way through Dopeland by John Birmingham, very funny Aussie writer who I've heard speak a couple of times at Byron Bay Writers Festival. Check his blog here - Cheeseburger Gothic

Also have Twins of Tribeca from the library, but I've read about a chapter, and it hadn't sucked me in, so I've moved on to something else.

Plus I have Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister to read from a bookcrossing bookray, so there's also a time limit on that one.


Anyway, today was a drag and I felt like crap with the migraine that never took hold but has only really just left me.

But this afternoon, Karen delivered the Cool Bananas trophy and really lifted my mood.
Cecil b. d'nana is so handsome - a beautiful addition to any filmmaker's mantlepiece.

Little bit of writing

A little bit of writing actually happened in between all the real life stuff last week, although none of it made it to the computer.

But it was significant stuff - Chloe broke up with Travis - so now its onwards and upwards - and she can stop feeling guilty about sleeping with Luke.

So I wrote another 2002 words (sounds like a year, not a word count). It was the year of the first Cool Bananas Film Festival. What does that mean?

Chick Lit Challenge total -

7,540 / 30,000 (25.0%)

2 weeks into the challenge with 2 to go and I'm at 25%. That's okay - still plenty of room for catch-up.

Total for Novel

90,569 / 110,000 (82.0%)

I wish I could write while I'm travelling in a car. I wish I could read for that matter, but I get motion sickness if I try to concentrate on text. What a waste of time. 2 hours today on car travel. I could've been writing or reading. When I drive alone, I sometimes use a voice recorder to dictate and can write 5 pages especially dialogue this way. But when Robbie's driving, he's talking to me, and I'd be too self-conscious to try and dictate my novel. But there's always a bit of daydreaming. Any of you chickies able to write in motion?

Not on track

Man oh man, it's just not happening.

I'm not on track although those pretty word counts still look good...but the rest of my life is threatening to engulf me.

The CD data job I'm doing has grown from 500 disks to 700 disks. (200 already done over the weekend) That's a lot to produce in the next week, as well as my full-time job. But I'm concentrating on the laptop I am going to purchase at the end. And I spotted some cool novel writing software the other day, similar to Dramatica with story generators, name generators, even a submission tracking tool - but much cheaper. May have to invest as a treat.

Cool Bananas Film Festival is only days away. Aagh! And I'm still finalising the programme. Can I possibly step into my character's shoes? I am living it!

My next schedule at work was released today and I knew I had next week off to prepare for the festival, but I was shocked to discover that I also have the following week off as recreation leave. Unfortunately, I don't think I will have enough rec leave credits up my sleeve to take advantage off it, and then the future time I have booked off to have holidays as well. Shame, could have done with some full-on writing time.

Taking advantage of technical difficulties....

Wednesday, I managed to write a few more pages, but the telephone problems on Thursday at work were an absolute blessing in disguise. With problems at our local exchange, we only had calls dribbling through the phone lines and I was talking to a customer every half hour or so with long gaps in between. So I took full advantage, and wrote. 14 pages in longhand. It certainly made up for the time I haven't been able to devote to writing at home.

More pages on Friday brings my totals to...


Chick Lit Challenge BIAM Progress

5,538 / 30,000 (18.0%)

Total Book Progress

88,567 / 110,000 (80.0%)

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel...and I've got my writing mojo back. Hopefully, I will have more to report by the end of the weekend.