Goals for 2015

Okay, so my 2015 Goals didn't work as well as I'd hoped.

Writing: I kind of crashed and burned mid year, but even before that, I wasn't sticking to the writing goals. I also had a hard drive fail in May, but that doesn't excuse my lack of writing in April and March.

Financially, I was on track to get the 50% reduction I wanted until June (I was at 65%, SO CLOSE!), but again, that psychological crash happened and messed everything up. Now I'm at ~ 80%, so a 0.2 reduction on last year.

Travel: This, I managed, even though the bucket list isn't written. I got to Barcelona, Munich, Rome, Venice and Innsbruck, so I really did get out. Not all those were on my Bucket list, but Rome and Venice were, so that goal can be ticked.

So, okay, emotionally it was a bad year - I'm not sure if I'm going to write about it or not - but I achieved some goals and made progress in others, so it wasn't a total failure. I just need to keep at it.

So here goes.

From last year: I'm taking a leaf out of the book of one of Magical Words Bloggers, and creating a set of Goals for 2014, rather than Resolutions, because Resolutions can be failed and forgotten, whereas Goals are works in progress.

Goals for 2015:

1. Financial Goals:
a) Reduce my debt by Half, and
b) Stick to a weekly budget.

Actions:

• Maintain my budget logger

2. Travel Goals:
a) Make a bucket list of cities, sites and London theatres, I want to visit.
b) Visit at least three of those places this year, one city, one site and one theatre.

Actions:

• Write a bucket list of cities and sites I want to visit
• Write up a log of what shows I've attended in what theatres and therefore which theatres I still need to visit.

3: Health Goals:
a) Aim to loose at least 10kg, preferably 20kg.
b) Keep a Food / Mood & Activity / Mood diary.
c) Walk to or From work at least 5 times a week
d) Do Yoga or Pilates, at least twice a week every week.
e) Attend group all year and work on issues / write about issues / make notes on progress.

Actions:

• Set up a Food / Mood and Activity / Mood diary
• Set up a weight tracker
• Maintain my emotion diary

4. Writing Goals:
a) Write 300 New words a day. Doesn't matter what the writing is - blog, stream of consciousness, story, emotion diary, brain fart - just as long as they're NEW words.
b) Finish CM1 by 31/03/2015 and SEND IT OUT TO AGENTS.
c) Finish Draft 2 of CM2 by 30/06/2015 and Get it into my Critique Group.
d) Finish Draft 1 of CM3 by 30/09/2015.
e) Write Draft 0 of CM4 in November 2015.
f) Blog at least once a month, preferably at least once a fortnight.
g) Write one review a month on the Online Writing Workshop.

Actions:

• Set up a writing tracker
• Set up a submission tracker
• Set up a blogging tracker

5. Reading Goals:
Read one fiction, one non-fiction and one writing reference book every month. My fiction reading especially has plummeted in the last five years, but I have no real excuses - I've still bought books, I'm just stacking them up, so now it's time to get through a couple.

Actions:

• Set up a book log

So there you are. Wish me luck!

Nano has begun.

9903 words written so far, so not a bad effort.

Four days ago actually. I'm nowhere near as psyched about it as I have been in the past. Probably because I'm working all the hours available to me, including Saturdays, and I'm just really, really tired.

I also peaked a tad too early in my preparation. I was rearing to write the story around the first week of October, and the fact that I had to wait a further three weeks to start dampened my ardor just a tad.

I'm thinking that this could even possibly be the first year I don't succeed. But then I know I'm damn stubborn, so I'll probably get there in the end. It might be just by the skin of my teeth...

There is one other rather cool thing I'm doing this year, which I'll have to rave about in another post 'cause I'm falling asleep right now and it rather requires enthusiasm to rave, but I must and will tell you all about my adventures with a speach-to-text software package I'm playing with. It's really saving my fingers.

Anyway, need to sleep. Will report back later.

G'night.

One Month 'Till NaNo!

The count-down begins. Only 31 days until the month of madness recommences.

I really do love it.

I can't believe I've been doing this for four years already. I can't believe I didn't do it for the three years I knew it existed prior to 2007. I can't believe that after this November I'll have written stories with a collective word count of at least 250k. I can't believe I'll have finished four stories that could, given some help, be turned into real live novels!

But I do believe I'll have a damn good time doing it. To force yourself to be so intensively creative for such a short period of time is such an amazing experience. And to have written 50,000 words is such a mind-blowing achievement!

It is also totally insane. Last year I spent my walk to work talking out loud to myself recording bits of my story on an mp3 player - and seriously alarming the people I passed. No, I am not drunk, I'm just crazy! And in typing on my laptop to reach the 100k mark I completely stuffed both my wrists. I couldn't type anything for months and I was in constant pain. I have an ergonomic keyboard now - I learned that lesson, never fear.

But damn, it is worth it. I have a proof copy of the mess I wrote last year - An actual book with my (pen) name on it! That's really very cool. I also love the fact that I have managed to finish three novels. I've spent so many years saying 'one day', and never doing it - and now, it's done!

Come on November! I can't wait to see what you've got in store for me this year.

A question of pens...

Not that he reads this, but Happy Birthday M-Moose!

This post is all about Zebras - I swear!

I went shopping online today for a very important implement; A new pen for NaNo.

This can be no ordinary pen. It has to have ink that flows quickly and freely across the paper I most prefer using so I can write at the speed of my brain. It has to have a non-slip grip so that when my fingers start getting sweaty, with the stress of keeping up with my mind, I don’t loose the pen. The same grip has to be comfortable and slightly giving so I don’t end up with ridges or blisters on my fingers from the extended use I make of it. It has to have a large diameter so that when, in my panic to get my word count up, I grip too tightly I don’t give myself cramp. It also has to have enough ink to last me for at least 50,000 words. No mean feat I can tell you.

The search has been long. Over the years I have survived many inferior pens. When I was at school I liked Schafer pens, tapered and angular, but these actually gave me blisters somehow. After I had started writing regularly I spent years using uni-ball micro roller-ball pens, bog standard and relatively cheep, which were great for easy-flowing writing and weren’t too uncomfortable although the finger-ridges thing happened regularly. Only problem was the damn roller-ball point kept detaching itself with my vigorous use. I would always manage to break the pen well before it ran out of ink. I went through at least thirty before giving up. I tried Bic four coloured pens as these were slightly more chunky than the usual pen, hoping to overcome finger cramp, but they have no grip and my fingers just slid right off.

And then about five or six years ago I started using PaperMate’s four-coloured multi-pens. Really nicely chunky, a soft, non-slip grip, a lot of ink (four times as much!), comfortable... But it just didn’t flow as quickly as I wanted, and it’s standard nib-size (1.0 I think), is too thick for my preference. I like a fine line.

Well, they don’t sell PaperMate’s here, so last year in Plymouth I went looking for a substitute and discovered a Zebra brand four-colour pen. I had already fallen in love with their Tapli Clip pens as work-pens in Canberra (unfortunately TapliClip are now discontinued :S) so when I saw the four-colour ones, I grabbed the very last two in the WHSmith in Plymouth.

And right there, for me, heaven in pen form had been discovered. The nib size was perfect, the ink flowed beautifully, the grip was great and NaNo was a breeze – well, I notched up 100k words, so yes, it went well!

Unfortunately, I never saw the pens in ‘Smith again, although I looked routinely hoping to buy more. My current two are all but out of ink now, so I have been studiously looking for replacements. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I searched Plymouth, I searched London, I searched Melbourne over Christmas, I searched Aber, I searched Shrewsbury, I searched Birmingham: No Zebra four-colour chunky pens did I find. So I went online. I went to the UK Zebra website and the US Zebra website and even to some websites in Japan, Zebra’s home country, but they no longer make them.

*deep groan*

I was properly horrified. My favourite pen has been discontinued! Even worse, they haven’t (as yet) come up with a replacement for it! I am devastated. Why do these companies have to keep improving and re-inventing the wheel? Have they not heard of the adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’?

*sigh*

I discovered a sort-of substitute four-colour chunky pen from a company I have never heard of – Reynolds – which works ok, suffering from the same problem as the PaperMate pens being not-flowy enough and a bit too thick for me. And although they’re good enough for everyday writing, they’re not good enough to survive NaNo. Not as I do it these days at any rate.

So I went searching today for substitutes. I looked under ‘4-Colour’ and ‘Multi-pen’. I found bic's but steered well clear of them. Then I thankfully discovered a good website selling hundreds of different brands of pens. I found three four-colour pens that look like they might be chunky enough to be comfortable. Actually, there were only three four-colour pens on the site! Two Pilot pens – the Feed GP4 and the BegreeN Feed GP4 and something by a company called Tombow – their Reporter 4-Colour Pen. I thought I’d try out each, so I bought all three. They were dispatched almost immediately. I should get them in the next day or so.

And then of course this evening when I got home, I looked at the shell of my favourite pen and realised it wasn’t called a multi-pen or anything nearly as snazzy. It was called Clip-On. Just that. How very undescriptive.

So just on the very off chance that they might exist in some hereto-undiscovered corner of the universe, I went looking for the 'Clip-On'.

And guess what they have up on the WHSmith website at 10% off right now?

You guessed it, the Clip On! I bought six, which is all I can really justify at the ‘mo as at over 3 quid a pop, they’re not cheep. But they still exist!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy!

*Kat Happy Dance*

Of course, they are still discontinued, but ‘Smith have a surplus supply so yay for me! When I feel sufficiently extravagant, hopefully before WHSmith run out, I will buy some more.

But for the meantime, I’m very happy. I have discovered a supply of my favourite Zebras and they are on their way to me right now!

See, I told you this post was about Zebras! NaNo 2010, Here I Come!

Finishing the Book...

Something else rather major I did in May was finish the final draft of my 2009 NaNoWriMo book. And sent it off, to get a real-life, hard copy thereof.

So damn exciting, and I'm so damn proud of myself! And I'm swearing too much again... shall stop now!

But WHOHOOOOO!!!!

... of course, the very first sentence I read contained a typo. My dragons don't die, they debate the philosophy of right and wrong. But them's the breaks! :D

The WWIP

The title of this post stands for The Writing Work-In-Progress. Ie, the current NaNoWriMo story. Which is called 'Coeurmorph I: Dragons of Death' by-the-way.

I decided that this year, I was going to complete my NaNo story. I've done three NaNo's so far and the end result has been three complete messes. This year, the mess is going to be sorted into a linea-storyline, with-complete-sentences, as-few-mistakes-as-possible, first draft.

I am determined to do this and to do so before the first of July.

This way I can get an actual bound copy of my draft, which as a winner of NaNo, I am entitled to. This is one very cool thing about doing NaNo, of which I have yet to take advantage.

In order to facilitate this achievement, I have persuaded the three young ladies who, along with myself, managed to complete NaNo in Plymouth, to join me in finishing their stories. We meet every couple of weekends and write and discuss problems and are going to exchange our (hopefully) finished masterpieces with each other so that we can also get some feedback before the actual publication.

Exchange is to occur at the end of March. Ie, less than four weeks away now.

I have only edited about a quater of the damn thing and that took me from January to now.

EEEEEEEK!

Of course, in writing this post right now, I am procrastinating. I'm brilliantly good at doing this. So, back to the story woman!

Caught up... finally!

After the rather (for me) alcoholic weekend in Brussels, I fell behind in my word count for NaNoWriMo. I have just managed to catch up. Today I have made a massive effort. I wrote over 6000 words and I am very proud of myself, if rather mentally exhausted.

In the process I have discovered a couple of things about this writing business;

I can write about 1000 creative words in an hour. That’s not my actual typing speed, but seems to be the limit of my creative output, as it doesn’t matter whether I hand write or type, it works out to be the same. It’s the speed at which my brain and hands coordinate to make sense I think.

So a relatively good output level.

Unfortunately after about 2 hours, my brain starts dribbling out of my ears. I simply cannot sustain creative endeavour for longer. Obviously I need to build up my level of creative stamina. In order to get to the 6k today, I had to write in blocks. Two hours of writing followed by two hours of time out and total zombie-hood. And it was truly exhausting!

The creative life is also a lot about avoiding procrastination… it is really hard to make yourself sit down to write. And I am very good at procrastinating. But that is the amazing thing about NaNo and the target of 50k words in a month. The panic induced by the deadline and word limit makes you work. It forces you to just get stuff down, and forget and forgive yourself for all the mistakes you make. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you park yr butt and DO IT!

I have, in the past, been able to sit down and spend five or six hours writing, where the story just poured out of me, for perhaps two or three days at the max. No conscious thought involved really, it just flowed. I thought that this was the way you were supposed to write. The problem was, that this only happened about once a year when the muse was feeling amiable. The rest of the time, it was sessions of a half hours flow or less, once a month if I was lucky. And these only happened when I’d actually been writing consistently – writing anything, not necessarily a story.

Not once has this happened this month… oh, for moments, maybe. For a flow of half an hour perhaps, but then, thought intrudes once more, and I plan and I stage manage and I think; character 1 needs to go over there, and maybe character 2 can come here. I keep waiting for it to catch fire. And it seems like it has been on the brink of doing so for ages. But it doesn’t.

I have had some interesting discussions with my characters… and a couple of arguments too, which is incredibly disturbing, but it has been a collaborative discussion, and each step along the road they all make has to be worked out in detail as I go along. No liquid gold.

BUT, and this is a big but, I think that what is happening now is the way a writing life should be, and the way it in fact actually is. There are occasional bursts of inspiration, but the majority of the time it is going to be all about planting your butt on a chair, and your fingers on the keyboard or around a pen, and writing. Come rain, hail or shine, hell or high water. Repeat. Ad nauseam.

In the end, it is all about perseverance. I am incredibly grateful to NaNo for giving me this insight. Oh, sure, there is the craft, and the story and a whole lot of other things to pay attention to, but if you don’t get the words onto the page then you don’t have anything.

I don’t care if I am never published, I love writing, and I love telling stories. They make my life greater than it ever could be. I can be a hero who saves the world in my own head. I can be a villain without actually killing anyone. I can be in love with a thousand people, and I can cry my eyes out in grief, crown kings, make people happy, and make people great, all without leaving my house.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not all about living vicariously! I’m overseas doing the city hopping thing every chance I get at the moment, and intend to have a lot of real adventures before my life is through. But I don’t think I’m ever going to get the chance to save the world… well, at least I sincerely hope not. It is fun to imagine I can though…

And I can do it through writing. Thank you NaNoWriMo.

A Mad Dash for Three G's

One of the things I love about this city is that eventually everyone you’d ever want to see visits here. I’ve just seen Patrick Stewart in Macbeth, Ian McKellen will soon be playing here in King Lear and this evening I saw Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Pryce!

So – G number one was Neil Gaiman in conversation with Claire Armitstead from the Guardian, at the Criterion Theatre in Picadilly, It was an interview, but really he needed so little prompting, she just sort of nudged him in appropriate directions

I was running very late too. I just made it to the theatre for 1800, which is when it was supposed to start, but like all good theatrical events, it was running five minutes late so it was all good.

Neil is in town for the UK opening and promotion of ‘Stardust’ the movie, which I will in due course see, but he talked of many other things as well. It was an hour’s dialogue – and the crowd were allowed to ask questions at the end too. It was fascinating. He’s a lot nicer and gentler in person than you are led to believe from his writing and he said some very interesting things. Like he writes something to discover what he thinks about a subject rather than to illuminate others, and that he isn’t concerned with offending people when writing; in person he’s squeamish and polite, but the minute he’s in a story he looses his inhibitions and just writes what the story asks of him. He also said that if he ever tried to write something for money it invariably went wrong, but if he wrote what interested or intrigued him, the money just sort of worked itself out.

Richard kept my company at this event, and as we were both due at the Apollo to see a play at 1945, he was understandably concerned that we make that performance in time. However as the Gaiman interview was over by 1900 we had about ¾ of an hour up our sleeves and so decided to go to have a look in a Neil’s book signing down the road to see how long the line was. The signing was happening at the Piccadilly Waterstones (the biggest bookstore in Europe) and when we got there we were told to wait for about 2 minutes and then were ushered into a separate room. I really don’t know how we managed it but R and I ended up first in line for the signing. So of course we waited. And waited. Until Neil finally came in at about 1925. I got some photos and two books signed and Richard got his copy of Good Omens signed, which he’d been carrying around the world with him in hope of such an opportunity as he’d already managed to get it signed by Terry Pratchett it’s other author. So it was a bit of a mad dash for us, over to the Blue Posts to pick up the tickets from Jase and then to make it to the theatre on time, but we did.

So, the second G was seeing Jonathan Pryce in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ at the Apollo. It was an absorbing play. The dialogue was electric and the actor’s were superb… only, I was a little lost as to what the whole thing was about, until interval, when Jason was able to illuminate me. The film apparently makes it a lot clearer, but essentially the main plot of the play is a competition: 1st prize is a Cadillac, 2nd Prize is you keep your job, and 3rd Prize is you’re fired! So, it’s four door-to-door salesmen in the US competing to sell real estate, and if they don’t get any sales up on the board they lose their jobs.

I found it compelling, but just as I was a little lost at the beginning, so I was a tad under-whelmed at the end. The twist really wasn’t one for me, and although the dynamic between the actors was good, a couple of them kept loosing their American accents, which I found quite jarring. Add that to that the fact that I wasn’t feeling so great and the end result was that I enjoyed it but wasn’t fired by it – no pun intended.

So the third G? It was goodbye to Martin tonight. He’s off home tomorrow and so we had a last beer at the Belgium bar De Hems (I had strawberry beer this time – can’t wait to go to Belgium!) and an Adelaidean contingent photo and then I had to retire.

Sad to see him go but he will be back for Christmas… won’t you Marty??!!