Writing Goals and Chocolate

March is going to be a big writing/editing month.

First of all, I've signed up for Nanoedmo to fully edit Diary of the Future. Sure it looks good in the picture above, but I want it to be a great read as well! And it still needs quite a bit of layering, fleshing out the characters and the scenes. The Nanoedmo committment is 50 hours in the month. I can do it, I just need to be disciplined. And I will refer back to One Pass Revision Method, although I'm pretty sure it will need more than one pass.

Next weekend is a Monologue day where our group will meet and discuss the Monologue project, so I need to write a draft of my contribution for next Sunday.



Then we have our annual weekend Writing Retreat to the lighthouse and I'm giving a workshop on using astrology to develop fictional characters. I will have to do an overview of my natal chart, so I've just dug deep into my astrology folders, located my chart and will photocopy it at work tomorrow and make it pretty!


And then the following weekend, I have an AGM to attend, followed by our monthly writers meeting, which clashes with the State Election, so we need to find another venue to meet.


So far this year, I have met most of my writing goals. Short story completed and submitted, essay for groups writing competition completed and submitted (strangely enough about the Blogosphere), initial edit of Diary of the Future completed, formatted and uploaded to lulu.com to receive free copy. I've fallen behind with the next revision of Diary of the Future, but now that I've committed myself to Nanoedmo, I have a goal and a deadline. Besides I have to allow myself some breathing time to read, watch shows, and feed my creativity in other ways.


Now, a question for you....


How do you like your chocolate?


Refrigerated or room temperature?


I like mine at room temperature, especially Caramello. Caramel filling is meant to be gooey not chooey. Trouble is, my chocolate always manages to find its way back into the fridge. Now, I know it doesn't open the door and put itself there. It's my well-meaning partner, freaking out because it might melt, thinking he's doing me a favour. No matter how many times I've told him, that's the way I like my chocolate! Wonder if this little issue has ever led to a divorce?

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So, refrigerated or room temperature? And are you and your partner in conflict over chocolate? Please comment.

Hair today...

Today I broke a lifelong pattern. I went the chop but this time I didn't go all the way.

Usually when I've grown my hair long, I get bored and I react by getting the chop. Which means very short.

Not this time. I still lost about four inches, but my hair is shoulder length again. Not too short, not too long. And hopefully much more manageable.

I joked with the hairdresser that he could sell my hair on ebay, pretend it was Britney's and then we had a discussion about what possessed her to shave it off. Maybe she was tired of being Britney. I could never bring myself to shave my hair off. I don't think I've got the right shaped face and head to carry off bald. But there's some mighty sexy guys out there who look really hot with a shaved head.

I used to be really wild with my hair - different styles, different colours but in my (cough, cough) old age, I've become much more conservative. But maybe the next visit to the hairdresser will change that.

So, it was a day off work. A day to sleep in. Get my hair cut and do some administrative tasks to keep my life rolling along. I think I should have more 'hump' days off. The work week is so less daunting that way. But it's back to work tomorrow. And then only two days to the weekend!

Thank god it's Saturday!

I'm so pleased it's Saturday. I'm not sure how I made it through the week with a bout of hayfever, and fighting off the cold that my beloved wanted to transfer to me.

I had an extremely romantic Valentine's Day - NOT! I worked 12 hours. No nice dinner, just a box of noodles between the day shift and the night shift and not even a card when I got home. Oh well, it's just an excuse to spend money.

So I have spent today in a semi-haze with a migraine threatening like a rain cloud overhead (we've had that too) but hopefully the nurofen will hold it off. I think I just need more sleep. I stayed up late last night and watched Click. Loved the bit where he was adjusting the colour of his face! Tonight I think will be an early night but I might manage an early episode of Melrose Place (now that the DVD has actually arrived).

One of the best-selling concepts in the Chickollage Shop is my caption: 'Erotica Writer seeks Research Assistant. Apply Within.' and I've sold badges, fridge magnets and t-shirts with this caption. If you have bought one of these items, please stop by and let me know what has happened when you have worn it! I'm not sure if I should wear it myself seeing as I'm practically married. Would I be accused of false advertising?

Bonsai Story Generator

Nanowrimo can lead you to some interesting places on the net. Yesterday it took me to the Bonsai Story Generator, a website that will mangle your story in only a couple of seconds, but somehow retain some (and I emphasise some) sense.

So I decided to stick my Cinderella story into the generator and see what it spat out.

Here are some of the resulting sentences:

Her life was no dictator.

(but I bet hubby is!)

He had a post-it note, and the kingdom.

(useful!)

Snow married her fairy godmother, but Cindy often felt the blood rush to her husband that she would only so much He shook a napkin out of rehab to beat her palm.

(well, that's where one would usually get a napkin, isn't it?)

A ménage a problem.

(usually turns into a problem the morning after)

An erotic fantasy of colourful footwear.

(many women's fantasy)

The slipper had a genetic right to have a velvet lined, gold encrusted shoe box.

(of course!)

Dirty socks on a short red silk cocktail dress, and fame made.

(I think this one has Monica Lewinsky undertones)

This program appears to try and keep verbs and nouns in order to make some kind of sense, but it's interesting the odd combination of words. Enough to set off another bout of creativity. Hmm, I don't remember Snow White marrying the fairy godmother!

The Perfect Man - Carribean Women's Blue T-shirt

Speaking of creativity, the folks at Cafepress have added a heap of new t-shirt styles and colours and I've added them to the existing designs at the Chickollage shop. We now have women's shirts in carribean blue, red, violet along with light colours, white and dark v-necks and much more.

New Beginnings - Women's Violet T-shirt

Drop into the shop and have a browse!

Legendary Punk Poet T-shirt

Relapsing & the Cinderella summary

I have a confession. I have relapsed.

Just one, I thought it'd be alright. Well, that turned into one a day. Then two a day. And now I've bought a bottle home.

Shame!

Does anyone know of a Cokeaholic meeting I can attend because that brown liquid is enticing me again?

So today, my father tells me to have an energy drink instead, it'd pick me up. I thought he was talking about Gatorade. But no, he was talking about Guarana. So I bought a bottle, and then looked at the contents. More sugar than Coke, and a high caffeine rating - not sure how that compares because Coke doesn't reveal it's caffeine levels. So tonight I'm drinking water.

I'm a bit miffed that my next Quickflix DVD's didn't arrive in time for the weekend. Why can't Australia Post be quicker? I was looking forward to having a guilty Melrose Place marathon tomorrow night, and watching Click with my partner when he arrives home on Sunday. But now they won't arrive until Monday, and I probably won't have time during the week to watch them. So in absence of trash TV, I will watch quality Australian drama instead - LOVE MY WAY. Let me think, twenty to thirty somethings who drink a lot and sleep with each other and have extremely mixed up relationships - not much difference really! Just the accent.

Last weekend I watched Confetti, the weirdest wedding competition movie - that was fun - and Transamerica - powerful stuff, I can see why Felicity Huffman won the Golden Globe for her portrayal of Bree.

I started reading my lulu copy of Diary of the Future. It is amazing how having it in book format changes my perspective and makes editing so much easier. So it will undergo another edit, some formatting of the collage poetry inside, and hopefully some more poems added, reformatting of the layout, so it doesn't take up so many pages, and resizing the backcover so it appears more symmetrical. Even my father's impressed with what I've achieved so far and with this concrete form of visualisation, I know that I'm on the way to achieving my goals.

I'm bored with cooking for one. It's 8.30 and I'm not really hungry because I ate some dips and biscuits earlier, but I suppose I'll have to eat something tonight. Maybe some more snacky foods - give in to my ongoing olive craving.

Last night, I was browsing the Nanowrimo forums and came across the Auto summarize feature in Microsoft Word (in the Tools menu). So here's the 10 sentence summary of my Cinderella short story (as determined by Microsoft):

Snow White giggled.
‘Snow White and Henry are expecting,’ Cindy told her husband.
Damn the prince and his royal traditions!
Can one prince be enough for our Snow White?
Cinderella placed her hand on Snow White’s stomach.
‘Henry, it’s Cinderella.
‘Cindy, come in.
‘Oh, Cindy.’

‘Cheeky!’ smiled Snow White.
‘Still two princes!

Can anyone guess the plot from these ten random sentences?

Diary of the Future - the novel

Finally, Saturday comes around at the end of a very busy week. But I did achieve a lot this week.

I added another 1200 words to the Cinderella story and sent it off to the short story competition. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Perhaps I may fracture some more fairy tales in the future.

I received my free lulu.com copy of Diary of the Future, and it looks great. I did have a few uploading issues and formatting issues as I mentioned in my previous post, but all this has resulted in is an extra blank page between some of the chapters. As this is my motivational copy and editorial copy, it really doesn't matter. So it's on to reading the novel with fresh eyes - hopefully, as a critical and discerning reader. Sorry, I can't post a pic of the actual book at this stage because my partner has borrowed my digital camera for the week and he is many miles away.

I passed the book around at work, and at drinks after work yesterday. A physical book makes more sense to many of my co-workers than 200 A4 pages. A book looks like a finished product (believe me it's not) - 200 pages looks like it will never end. So now it's on to revising, summarising, querying and submitting. A whole new adventure.

Oh, and I also got new tyres on my car this morning. What a difference brand new tyres make!