The Almighty Critic has forgiven me & the Ipod oracle

It seems that the Almighty Critic has forgiven me. Or maybe he/she had a second read of my writing and decided it wasn't so bad after all.I found the missing 844 words. The words were hiding in a notepad file entitled 'rescued document' with loads of question marks and the missing words. I came across it accidently last night when I was creating my google base feed for the Chickollage store. So now I have to compare those the two versions of the scene.

I've been churning out the words with regular word sprints. I'm hanging in there on writing 100 words a day and often surprise myself as to my productivity, especially on work days.

Beyond Happily Ever After is now up to 64,821 words. I've extended the word count goal as the story expands, but I truly think I will cross the finish line of Beyond Happily Ever After in around 2.5k words. I've already written the final part of the story. I just need to write the 2 scenes that get me to that point.

Once I've finished Beyond Happily Ever After, I will start preparing the first three chapters of both that and I'm with the Band for a competition coming up in June. Which mean synopsis writing. Not one of my most favoured aspects of writing.

I want to dedicate May to polishing one manuscript for submission (which means - gulp - more synopsis writing but reducing a 5 page double spaced synopsis to a single page single paced synopsis. More gulping).

And then in June, a bunch of RWA writing buddies and I are doing our down under version of Nano. We've dubbed it 50ks in 30 days and we're taking advantage of our winter and the need to hibernate to work on our novels. I have no idea what I will be writing, although I may resurrect Hold the Anchovies, my novel about working as a pizza delivery girl.

So, it's full on and there's lots of work to do!

I thought it was time for another MP3 oracle. This time it will be an oracle by the divine Ipod because I've moved up in the world. I love my Ipod. I love that this it makes a random selection from all the songs on my computer - and I cannot promise I will know all the songs (or artists) it plays today.

Set the Ipod on shuffle, and then hit play to answer the first question. Hit next to answer each subsequent question.

So here goes:

1.How are you feeling today?
I guess that's why they call it the blues - Elton John(um, no I'm feeling good today. Tomorrow when I get to work may be a different story.)

2.Will you get far in life?
Wild Star - Transvision Vamp (you don't cruise,you just ride on by)

3. How do your friends see you?
Before too long - Paul Kelly (he who is nothing will suddenly come into view)

4.Will you get married?

Alimony Blues - Chris Wilson (so I guess that's a no)

5. What is your best friend’s theme song?

Fall to pieces - bluehouse

6. What is the story of your life?
The Angel and the Madman - Moving Pictures (Hmm but who is the angel and who is the madman?)

Moving Pictures have certainly provided the soundtrack to my life.

7. What was high school like?
Don't tell me the time - the Motels (This is probably right, I have never liked living my life to a schedule but it is part of adult life)

8. How can you get ahead in life?

In this little town - Dave Stewart & the Spiritual Cowboys (well, yes, I am living in a little town and I have never been more productive)

9.What is the best thing about your friends?
The Trouble with Andre - Shakespear's Sister (hang on, I don't even have a friend named Andre, maybe that's a good thing.)

10. What is in store for this weekend?
Would I lie to you? - Eurythmics (guess I'm not telling)

11. To describe your grandparents?
Mexican Moon - Concrete Blonde (huh?????)

-"thinking of you underneath the mexican moonlight"

12. How is your life going?
"working through the rooms in my head I came across your image"

I Don't Care - Shakespear's Sister.

"whenever I fall, I land on my feet"

13. What song will they play at your funeral?
Never Can Say Goodbye - Gloria Gaynor (cool!)

Does this mean that I will come back to life?

14. How does the world see you?
Another Stupid Love Song - Amiel

15. Will you have a happy life?
When you Smile - Concrete Blonde (ok, so I need to smile more)

16. What do your friends really think of you?
The Power - Vanessa Amarosi

17. Do people secretly lust after you?
I Think I'm Paranoid - Garbage

18. How can I make myself happy?
Blue Black - Heather Nova (really not sure how to interpret this one)

19. What should you do with your life?
Wreckage - Chris Wilson

'We're wreckage but I love you just the same."

20. Will you ever have children?
Island - Heather Nova

21. What song would you strip to?
Hymn - Chris Wilson (definitely not! - this is an instrumental with a heartbeat)

22. If a man in a van offered you candy, what would you do?
I've got to fight - ???????

23. What does your mum think of you?
Heaven and Earth - Tania Bowra.

Ah, the dichotomy!

24. What is your deep dark secret?
Reckless - Australian Crawl

25. What is your mortal enemy’s theme song?
Mustang Sally - the commitments

26. What’s your personality like?

People Like Me - Chris Wilson

"people like me - we'd rather live on nothing than slowly die to live"

27. Which song will be played at your wedding?

Don't Change a Thing -INXS

Writing, recording and dodging kangaroos

86,461 / 90,000 (96.06%)

Word count is now at 86, 461 words and I've got this old fart 70's rocker Billy Badd who has turned up at a gig with his two blonde bimbo daughters (referred to by Kat as the Bimbettes) and is desperately trying to pull focus. I think he wants the story to be about him. But tough luck Billy Badd - we're moving on and leaving you behind, and I'm hoping that he doesn't show up at another gig.

Bought a DVD recorder yesterday. Haven't been able to record stuff for quite a while but now it means that I can record all the late night TV stuff such as the Countdown episodes which are screening on rage at the moment. Watching it now - Neil from The Young Ones hosted the first one I recorded. I loved the character of Neil from that show. The rest of the characters seemed to need each other to bounce off for real comedy to work (I found Rik Mayall's stand-up routine as the character Rik really dull, but when he was just himself doing stand-up, he was great) but Neil was one of those characters that seemed to be able to create comedy just by himself. I've got his Heavy Concept album but it's extremely scratched so I'm not sure how much I could salvage off it even if I had a record player.

In the second episode, as well as Tim and Debbie (remember them from Australia you're standing in it - when will they release that on DVD?) , they played Moving Pictures performing 'Where they Belong'. At last, something other than 'What about Me?' and it focused on Alex Smith singing. So now I'm happy. I really want to get hold of the televised concert Moving Pictures did in the early 80's at the Hordern Pavillion. I did have it taped way back then, but of course many moves later and even before the moving, I think it was taped over. If anyone can help me out with the footage, let me know.


I'm independent again - I picked my car up after the accelerator cable was fixed, after 4 weeks of car sharing. Then on the way home, one of the tail-light covers fell off, smashed and bounced off into the bush. A few minutes later, I drove around a corner and a kangaroo was standing there. I hit the brakes and the kangaroo took off so I was lucky because my car and the roo could do a lot of damage to each other. So yesterday morning, we went out on a mission to get a new tail-light housing - at the second wreckers we found the part, and that problem is now solved. Then we bought the DVD recorder and I bought the Vicar of Dibley last 2 episodes - it is so funny.

It took about an hour to set up the recorder because Robbie wasn't listening to my instructions and its quite confusing when you want to plug in both Austar and a set top box. Finally, after much arguing and wrenching the TV out of the entertainment unit and untangling chords, it was all set up and I was able to test it out. So recording is great, but for some reason it doesn't like my Vicar of Dibley DVD and won't play it. It's not the disc - it plays on the old DVD player - but maybe the recorder doesn't like English comedy. It has played every other disc I've put in, so I've got no idea what's going on. Robbie thinks it won't play dual layer DVD's but I think it only won't record on dual layer. Anyway, I can always watch the Vicar on the laptop if I need to.

Well, its back to 'I'm with the Band'

Addictions

Okay, I admit it. I have a few addictions. Everyone has to have some vices don't they?

I have a mild addiction to Moving Pictures and collecting their memorabilia. So I have a search set up from Ebay to alert me of any items. The above picture came from a Japanese magazine, and I was lucky enough to do a deal with a guy from America who wanted the other pics that were on offer. Anyway, I ended up with some very nice photos of the Alex Smith and the band and a magazine article in Japanese - shame I threw my Japanese language course after a year but a new job meant a scheduling conflict and I could no longer attend the classes. Thinking back on it now, it would've meant changing my work hours one day a week by an hour - you think my boss could have accommodated that.

This week I also picked up a very nice Chris Wilson poster. I need to get these posters laminated at some point. They are no use to anyone wrapped up in poster tubes. They should be displayed.

And now I'm bidding on a few writing books. Can't seem to get enough of them and there is very little variety of writing books available in Coffs.

Must stop. Must stop. Must stop.

Yeah right.

At least, I am operating in reverse. I'm selling a few old mags (mainly movie mags) which are too good to cut up for collage. Those sales may pay for my recent purchases.

I have a major internet addiction. Myspace, Facebook, Blog Explosion, and it sucks up a lot of time. But on the other hand, I have met a lot of wonderful people on the internet, I've learned a lot about writing and I receive encouragement for my writing. So it's not an addiction that I'm about to give up. Just reign it in a bit!

I often spend time on Blog Explosion in the Battle of the Blogs and surfing other members' blogs. On the weekend the site was down and giving strange error messages. Now the site is backup, there are 12 active battles, and 24 more BE members with battle challenges waiting to be accepted. Which makes me wonder why they don't battle each other? I have never seen so many battles waiting to happen before. Guess we're all addicted to the challenge.

Speaking of battles, my cat and Lucy Pig are currently in a battle of their own on MySpace to see who can get the most friends. At the moment Lucy Pig is beating Dorkus with a 2:1 ratio so Dork is not impressed. You can befriend either the cat or the pig at the above links.

So as for writing, that can be both a battle and addiction. I've forgotten what I'm up to in the Twelve Days of my novel in progress I'm with the Band. As my last post was on Sunday for Day 18, I guess today must be Day 21 because I was posting one day behind. The word count is now over 84,000 words, the pictures for the collage are nestling between two pieces of cardboard so that Dorkus will not mess it up, but I'm still looking for some pictures. I also think I've slowed down in the writing because I don't want to let go. But at least it's still moving forward.

Now I need an early night. My insomnia is acting up again. Guess I have an addiction to being awake and the weekend (when I can be addicted to sleeping and sleeping in!) seems like years away.

Day 12 of 'I'm with the Band'

Total word count is 80,252 - so I've passed another milestone on the current manuscript.



And its an emotional milestone for my heroine Kat. She's just walked out on her husband, he's asked how he can contact her and she's suggested he tries her mobile, which lies in pieces on the floor after he's smashed it.



So the 12 days focus has been quite successful, but the story is not yet finished so for now I'm going to pretend I can't count and continue with Day 13 and so on....whatever it takes to get the first draft finished.

Unfortunately, it's back to work tomorrow but that's okay because it removes my internet temptation.

Day 10 of I'm with the Band.

Catch up post - Day 10 of 12 Days of ' I'm with the Band' was Friday!

Soon Kat will be away from hubby and back with the band. I can't wait!

78,779 / 90,000 (87.53%)

It seems like it will never stop raining. After work yesterday, we stopped at the supermarket and stocked up for the weekend. It's a half hour drive into town for us, only 15 minutes to the supermarket but with this constant rain, there's a good chance that we will be cut off over the weekend. There's very little chance of our house flooding because it's a lot higher than the river but there are swimming pools in the driveway and the yard.

Here are photos from last August:

Somewhere beneath that water is a park. Can't even see the flood measurement sign in this photo.

And the alternative route to town:

The river has flooded again this morning, and while the other road to town is not yet cut, there is a lot of water on the road, and its still raining. So, it's likely that this afternoon we will be stranded.

It's cool! I have chocolate, I have Coca-cola, I have food and now I have no excuse but to write, write, write.

I may venture out later and take some photos.

Day 9 of I'm with the Band

This is a catch-up post: Day 9 of my 12 day focus of current work in progress was on Thursday.

Total word count 77,386.

Still moving forwards (which feels much better than moving backwards) and still moving thought the conflict between Kat and the return of her husband. Kat didn't want him to come back. I didn't want him to come back. But some characters have a mind of their own. It's actually better for the story that he returns from his vanishing act because somewhere in the rest of the story, Kat will have to make a decision about whether she wants her future to be like the present or the past.

Anyway, I got sucked into watching Dexter - fabulous episode- and flicked through magazines looking for more pictures for a collage of this story.

Day 8 of I'm with the Band

77,174 words and its time to call it a night even though I've just commenced a new scene. Something to be going on with tomorrow.

I've been avoiding this section for a while now because it's the part where Kat's husband comes back into her life. I hadn't planned for that to happen - but she was dropped back home after the north leg of the band's tour to discover the lawn overgrown, dirty dishes in the sink, laundry piling up and her hubby drinking and watching football, six weeks after his disappearing act. He's taken her out to dinner at the pub now (because that's his idea of a good night out) and she is SO NOT impressed. Kat's not happy that he's decided to make another appearance just when she's finding herself, and I'm not too happy either because I have to write out their conflict.

Anyway, it's after midnight. I've sketched out the next few scenes earlier today (yesterday?) so I will be able to pick it up easily on Day 9.

It's interesting that the scenes can work so well in your head while you are daydreaming about them, but as soon as you sit down to commit them to the page, that beautiful phrasing, that perfect wording has vanished. And you just have to keep writing until you find it again

And then you finish a scene, and later as you're cooking dinner, the perfect line for that conversation will sail through your mind, and you have to capture it, and hold it until you can get back to the draft to write it down.

In the end, it's all about the rewriting. The replaying of the scenes over and over in your mind until they solidify like an actor's performance and take on a life of their own.

Now I'm just rambling. I hope sleep comes quickly and my characters don't keep me awake all night!

Day 7 of 'I'm with the Band'

I did the stereotypical writer thing today. A great start to the new year. I slept in late, woke up and thought about my characters and a pivotal scene. Decided I needed to rewrite it. So got up, got out the laptop and wrote in my pjs. Ah! The writer's life.

1986 new words today (so far). And yet I only have a total of 76,430 words because much of it was rewriting the pivotal scene. A scene of temptation and betrayal. I feel pretty good about the new scene because I think it captures how torn Kat is in the scene, much more than in the original writing. And I have echoed the dichotomy again in a later scene, but this time it shows that there is no dichotomy and that her mind and body are now in harmony. Still, I will probably ask some people for some feedback on these scenes, to see if I have indeed made the right choice in the rewriting.

After the original scene Kat was pretty laidback about it and forgiven Alex quickly for his misbehaviour! But after the rewriting she was extremely angry with him and also pissed off with her own behaviour. So that meant more rewriting in further scenes.





I'd been talking about how I wished I'd taken more photos of Moving Pictures when I was younger. But I didn't always take a camera with me and I didn't have an SLR back in those days, so I think I was stretching whatever camera I had to the limit anyway.


Here's an example of what happens when you use the wrong speed of film:

Freaky, hey?

Day 6 of 'I'm with the Band'

It's the last day of 2007 and I'm halfway through Twelve Days of 'I'm with the Band', my current work in progress.

We were going to go out tonight but the street party was cancelled due to bad weather. Instead we had sausages not cooked on the barbie. When we got to the supermarket this afternoon, the store was packed with holidaymakers who had cleared out the meat section - no chicken kebabs, no steak. I'll know better next year. It's been raining on and off all night but it's clear in Sydney so we'll have a nice firework show in approximately half an hour on TV.

I escaped from work early today - it was very quiet so I was able to use some flex.

My word count now stands at 76,132 words. (Zokotou doesn't want to play, so there's no word meter this evening). Another missing scene complete. I feel like my head is now completely in the story and I'm Write on Track again.

I have the day free tomorrow as it is New Year's Day and hope to start putting together a collage about this story as well as adding a few more scenes.

The only new year resolution I want to make is to WRITE EVERY DAY.

Every thing else I want to achieve will be set by goals, and I'll probably only set those a month at a time.

So my first goal for 2008, is to finish the first draft of 'I'm with the Band' within the remaining 6 days.

I'm really liking this 12 day technique. It's less than half the time of Nanowrimo and the focus can be on anything from writing, rewriting, editing, collaging - anything that will add to the current work in progress. So I don't feel guilty when I've spent the evening thinking about my characters, watching concerts or listening to music, reading newspaper articles or listening to interviews. It all adds up to thw whole. I'm pleased that I've taken this on and especially at this time of the year.

Well, it's nearly time for fireworks!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

May 2008 be wonderful!

Day 5 of 'I'm with the Band'

74,228 / 90,000 (82.4%)

Day 5 - yesterday.

Watched disc 1 of the Countdown Spectacular (no 1) to watch some old rockers try to regain their glory days. Interesting to note the ones that still had the voice and the moves, and the ones that will never recapture it again.

At last some new words added, and we're moving ahead. A missing scene starts to take shape. Enough of a start for me to continue on Day 6. But a migraine has stopped me from continuing and demanded an early night. All that Countdown?

Well, so much for the early night - that was the theory. In bed at 9pm, wide awake again (migraine gone) at 11.30pm. Knowing intellectually that I have to sleep, but my body and mind fighting me all the way. Not game enough to get out of bed and continue the scene because that will make me all awake and I have to work the next day. So thinking thoughts of sleep in between thoughts of the scene in progress.

Finally sleep visited again at about 1.30 am.

Day 4 of 'I'm with the Band'

Inching slowly forward with new writing, total word count now 73, 534 words.

73,534 / 90,000 (81.7%)

238 pages semi-edited with big chunks highlighted where I need to go back and rewrite.

If this toothache keeps up, then my main character will develop once soon.

Anyway, getting my head back into this manuscript means also getting my head back into the music that has inspired me.

This story has to be edited/written with the soundtrack of the 80's playing in my ear.

On the morning of Day 4, I also finished reading Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie. Whoo- hee. Talk about sexual tension! When I finished it I went back and read the first chapter and the last chapter again to see how connects the two. Highlyrecommended - this is going on my keeper shelf.

Well that's the summary of Day 4, now I shall finish of the second half of day 5.

Day 2: I'm with the Band

73,414 / 90,000 (81.6%)

Today I've completed a shallow edit of around 60 pages.
Words removed. Words added. A net gain of 17 words!

It was a work day today so I haven't attempted new writing but have been concentrating on editing and getting my head fully back into the story.

And for research I've been listening to an interview with Alex Smith on ABC radio:
http://www.abc.net.au/nsw/stories/s1435206.htm

I'm not working tomorrow so on Day 3 there will be new words. And I'll try and work out what happened in the scene that I have one handwritten page of, finishing mid-sentence.

Twelve Days of 'I'm with the Band'

I've been inspired by Jenny Crusie and her technique of focusing for twelve days on a work in progress. Anything that will keep the procrastination demon locked in his cage, and has a finite goal at the end of it.

So I announce that the next 12 days I will be focusing on completing the first draft of I'm with the Band. It will be like a mini tour! As this 12 days includes 7 days that I don't need to be at my day job, it is an ideal tiime to focus on it. It will take me up to the 7th January, and I imagine will be a great way to kick off 2008!

I've read the story so far, completed an outline of what's written and what's missing, and in my hunt for this information through a variety of notebooks, I've discovered one hand-written page of this story that stops mid-sentence. It doesn't even seem to start at the beginning of a scene, and as the next page goes into a scene from Diary of the Future, there must be pages missing from this scene. So it look like I will be rewriting these scenes. But it's very frustrating knowing that there was handwritten stuff out there somewhere which didn't make it into any computer version of the story. I must get more organised and dedicate an indiviual notebook to each work in progress.

The current word count is 74,843 words. The word count is going to fluctuate as I will be cutting words as well as adding words but I envision that the entire first draft will be around 90,000 words.

So here goes: Day 1 of I'm with the Band

74,843 / 90,000 (83.0%)

Returning to I'm with the Band

I haven't got the hang of re-drafting yet. I start panicking, ending up with too many versions of the one scene and never quite working out which one to use or which one I've been editing. I have to focus and get better at this or I will never reach my goal of being published.


So I read the hard copy of I'm with the Band, but it's very possible that there are more scenes than what is in those pages. I need to do a skim through the most recent version and write an outline of what I already have. So I started going through my writing folders and found a document titled 'I'm with the Band Story Notes.' Wow! I'm more organised than I thought. This has a line or paragraph on each of the missing scenes plus the new opening (well two paragraphs of it, but it's a start!). So I shall now skim the latest version and insert the missing scenes into the outline. Then I shall keep writing. I need to give Kat and Matt (have to change the name because they rhyme) a suitable outcome.

One thing I like about this particular work in progress is that it gives me the excuse to listen to Moving Pictures really loud. Seeing the acoustic tour and meeting Alex Smith again in 2005 gave me the inspiration for the novel as I wanted to capture the feeling of being 17 again. And that's the feeling that my heroine Kat also wants to capture.

So here again for your amusement is the photo of me and Alex when I was 17, at Birkenhead Point

and then me and Alex again in 2005 at Coffs Harbour.


Same pose. No reference to the first photo. 21 years apart.