Wednesday, July 2, 2014

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a super-awesome-cool-fun blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other. If you want to take part, head over to either of their pages to check it out!

What I'm Reading
I've just finished reading Hollow City, the second in the Miss Peregrine series. Now I've started on the latest book in the Pretty Little Liars series, Toxic. *sigh* Those books just keep coming and coming and I'm getting sick of them but I really need to know what happens!!! I'm also reading Salt, Sugar, Fat; How the Food Giants Hooked Us which is really interesting, informative and scary!!

What I'm Writing
Before I took my blog hiatus, I worked my ass off to get two - three posts up a week. Part of the reason I stopped it because I just couldn't sustain that any more. I was writing my blog instead of writing my book and my book is the whole reason for my blog in the first place! So when I came back to my blog I decided I would post when I could and when I wanted to but not feel the pressure to have to post all the time, and it's helpful. So i'm still working away on my WIP, the one I finished and then completely rewrote. If all goes well I should have my first draft finished by the end of day!!! *cue applause* so fingers crossed!

What Inspires Me Right Now
Two things - adventure and summer. I'm trying to make the most of the weather by exploring the UK, seeing what's in and around London and heading out of the city for day trips. Last weekend we headed to Epping Forest and took a walk through the trees (unfortunately summer didn't come to the party and we had a picnic in the rain) but even still! For me, it was very inspiring as the scene I was about to go home and write involved a forest. How convenient!

What Else Have I Been Up To?
I'm still unemployed. It's VERY depressing. The UK job market is tough to crack into! So it's been really hard but I've been looking and applying for jobs an awful lot! I also have been making an effort to get out and do as much as I can (as given the job situation I don't know how long i'll realistically be able to stay in London...). SO a week ago I headed into Trafalgar Square where they put on this free event called West End Live. Stars from all the Broadway shows came out and sung numbers from their shows! It was so great! While Les Miserables and Wicked are my all time favourite, I loved seeing the performances from the upcoming revamp of Miss Saigon. The Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia songs got the whole crowd on their feet dancing. It was fun!!

I also went to a creative writing course with my man (who has finally decided to unleash his creative writing potential and write his own book!) The course was on intricate storylines and while it was interesting it was more geared at those who hadn't started writing their book and possibly didn't even have an idea in mind. So for me I didn't find it particularly helpful at this point in time but I think Jesse did. There was also a lot of workshopping which I wasn't a huge fan of.... just lecture me!

I checked out a performance of The Drowned Man which is put on by Punchdrunk of Sleep No More fame. It was really good! It had a similar style to Sleep No More - four floors of set, audience members wear masks and they're free to wander as they want to follow the stories they choose to follow. It was really complicated but a great show. If you've seen Sleep No More.... think bigger - bigger cast, bigger (and way more) storylines.... bigger. It was awesome

We also went to the Southbank Philharmonia Concert on Friday where they performed 'screen themes'. We're talking theme songs from the favourites - Indiana Jones, Ghost Busters, James Bond, Batman, Superman and so many more. Then they ended with a few songs from their new Abba album which had everyone up on their feet. Best Orchestral concert I've ever been to!

The week ended at Wimbledon where we sat for many hours watching an empty court in the rain (and totally not dressed for the cold!) but then finally got to see some quality action. We saw Serena Williams defeated by Alize Cornet. Wowza it was an epic game. Pretty sad actually too, I was cheering for Serena but almost everyone else in the crowd was going for Alize.

So that's pretty much me! How's your weeks been? I'm going to leave you with this little picture as I thought it was quite clever....





14 comments:

  1. Good luck getting your draft done today!

    That concert sounds amazing! Film scores sound so epic live.

    Best of luck with the job hunt, too :)

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    1. Thank you!! Just finished! Woohooo!! Oh it was amazing! I can't wait for their next one :)

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  2. Okay, before I go any further I have to say GOOD JOB getting so close to the end of your draft! Wow! Only a month ago (June 4th) you were gutting your WiP, so I'm very impressed that you're set to finish it today! That's fantastic. I think you nailed it right on the head when you talked about blogging and writing. I've cut back big time on blogging over the past year simply because I think, as a writer, writing should be where I spend the bulk of my time, *not* blogging. Well, Exhibit A: You and your nearly finished draft. When you divert your time and energy to writing over blogging, look what can happen!

    Very cool that your BF is getting into writing as well. Sounds like you're having a good summer so far, though I know how frustrating it can be to have so much trouble finding a job. I'm kind of in the same boat. Best of luck with that, Samantha! Hope you have a wonderful week! :D

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    1. Haha thanks! I'm pretty stoked I JUST FINISHED!!! Woohoo such a relief. Still a lot of work to do on it but it's great to have something solid there! And it's so true, I found I was spending hours writing blogs when I could have been writing my WIP and it just wasn't productive so now if i have some spare time, i'll write a blog but for the most part all my spare time went into my WIP! I guess it helped I was unemployed too so could treat my writing like a full time job....!

      I know, it's so nice to see him do some writing. He has a very different style than my writing so it'll be great to see how he gets on with it! Have a great week :)

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  3. Good luck with your draft.
    I graduated a couple months ago with a degree in theatre. Now I'm living with my parents in a city with no professional theatre jobs. It's tough, believe me. Also, that West End Live show sounds fantastic. I'm glad you had a great time. Thanks for sharing. :D

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    1. Ahh it's tough! I'm in theatre marketing and it seems finding a job in the arts world is NOT easy! That's why I moved to the UK in the first place, not a lot of industry in NZ but now I can't find anything at all... it's a tough world!

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  4. Good luck with your job search. Been there.

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  5. Ransom Riggs is another author I haven't read yet, I need to get on that. :) Sounds like you've had a pretty eventful week. Good luck with your WIP, and with your job-hunting - I feel your pain!

    Have a great week!

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    1. Yeah he's not too bad, I wouldn't say my favourite but interesting enough! Seems everyone knows the pain of job hunting! haha have a good one :)

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  6. I love Pretty Little Liars (the show) in fact I'm really addicted to it lol But I really REALLY wish that the mystery would unravel because it seems like something new and twisty is happening. I imagine the books are similar in that way, and I wanted to give them a try but there are a lot of them. I think I'd get tired of them too haha.

    I was going to say congrats on almost being done with your wip but I see from the comments that you finished, so congrats on finishing!

    And I feel your pain on the job-hunting. Tried to find one for the summer but I wasn't too successful. Hopefully your luck turns around though. Have a good week! :)

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    1. Oh my gosh I'm obsessed with the show as well. That's why I started reading the books but the books are so incredibly different. The show is much better, the books are very OTT. But still, same old mystery, who is A!!

      Hah thanks I'm so happy to have finished! And yeh the job market is no fun! Have a great week!

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  7. Hey, nice to meet you, and thanks for sharing the 'I like big books' photo, that made me laugh! Best of luck with the job search sitch, and with the novel manuscript, yay!!

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