Wednesday, May 22, 2013

What's Up Wednesday

I swear the weeks are just whizzing past!


So word is starting to get out about What's Up Wednesday which is GREAT! I just now need to remember the time zone difference and get them up at the right time! Yikes!

How's everybody's week been? :D


What I'm Reading
I've now officially started on Cody Name Verity, and so far it's pretty good. Has a bit of a slow start but it's enjoyable to read. I've been going to bed really early to try and get lots of reading time in but unfortunately I end up falling asleep within half an hour. My co-workers do find it funny when I say I went to bed to read my book and ended up asleep by 9pm! Crikey!

What I'm Writing
Well I sat staring at my blank page with the title Chapter 8 for just over a week. You know when you read a book that is so boring you have to force yourself to get over it and just read but it's SUCH. A. HASSLE? Yeah, well my book's been like that. So repetitive and boring, and I sat there saying 'this is going no where.' So I did two days of serious brainstorming and then I looked at what my issues were.

I was trying to focus on two many characters at once. There wasn't a sole purpose of the story and there was too many smaller story lines trying to creep in. So I'm pretty much going to scrap chapters 4 - 8 and start over. Chapters 1-3 are where I want them, but I need to hone it in, and focus more on the issue and the resolution... the characters journey. I was also writing in split narrative as I thought that was the best way to get over a certain language barrier, but it was creating too much confusion so i'm kicking the guy's narrative to the curb and going to change a few things up. Hopefully it'll work better this time!

What Inspires Me Right Now
My motivation to get the story right, that's inspiring me. Every time I log onto my blog and check the newsfeed I get inspired. And of course my lovely man who won't let me give up even when I feel it's useless.

What Else I've Been Up To
Sleeping! I've been so tired I've been sleeping so much! A lot of physio as well - I have a slipped disc in my neck which is causing these awful headaches so I've been doing a lot of physio exercises to help that come right. I'm still planning my trips, and at work we're planning a big launch party for Friday night. We're pre-releasing four shows that'll be in our Arts Festival which is very exciting! And the brochure has finally been sent to the printers!

Aside from that, my man is FINALLY coming down to see me - it's been two months since I saw him last so I'm very exciting, and in a week's time we're heading to one of New Zealand's best glaciers which I'm very excited about!

What have you been up to? :)


12 comments:

  1. WOW! All very exciting. Glad that you worked through that bug with your chapters... and it sounds like lots of fun things are in your future! I just read CNV and I loved it. I get what you mean about the beginning... but stick with it, it really takes off.

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    1. That's good to know, I'm still quite near the beginning but I'm looking forward to really getting into it!

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  2. That's so exciting that your man is coming to see you! I hope you guys have tons of fun. :-)

    The fact that you are able to see what isn't working in your story and that you're willing to scrap it is inspiring to me. I've been struggling with my own story and probably need to take a page from your book and start deleting.

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    1. I know, I'm so incredibly excited, i'll have to make him a giant banana and chocolate cake!

      It wasn't easy to do, trust me. All these weeks of work and just pressing delete but it's nice to take a step back and say "actually, this isn't any good for the story and it would progress a lot easier if this was just...gone". It's quite refreshing to hit the delete button and start again!

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  3. I love that so many people are reading CODE NAME VERITY this week. It's so great!

    Like Jaime said - props to you for realizing what was wrong with your story and fixing it. Cutting an entire narrator is such a difficult thing to tackle! I rewrote my first ms from third-past to first-present and it was a ton of work but so the right thing to do!

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    1. Oh my gosh! That would be such a mammoth effort! Good on you!

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  4. Sorry to hear about the slipped disc in your neck! Neck pain and headaches make writing very tough. It's great to hear you're making progress with your story, even if that means rewriting certain parts. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out exactly how the story should be told, and then things fall into place nicely. Have fun visiting your man! You guys deserve a visit after two months apart!

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    1. Yeah, such a pain, but so long as I keep doing these silly exercises and going to physio it should come right :)
      Yeah, I think it's just taking a while for my story to fall into its natural rhythm, but we're getting there :)
      Thanks - I'm sooo excited!

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  5. YES! The companion to CNV comes out in less than two weeks in the UK, so I've been casually peeking into bookstores in case it accidentally gets released early.

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    1. LOL that sounds like you! I really need to get through a chapter without falling asleep...!

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  6. I hope you and your man have lots of fun!

    And good for you for realizing you need to delete things. It hurt the first few times I did it, but once you get used to it and can see your story getting better, it's not as bad :)

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    1. Yeah it's a bit discouraging at first, I'm still trying to pick myself up from it and remotivate myself but i know my story will be better for it :)

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