Making The Most Of Your Time (lessons learnt this week)

* Book an appointment into your diary and just WRITE!
* Treat your writing as a proper job - with a start time and objectives. (I am hoping to be able to set aside a solid 2 hours every week from now on)
* Put together a list of things to complete prior to the start time and make sure these are completed.
* Prepare your writing space before and ensure you have all information and equipment to hand.
* Do all your displacement activities beforehand. If any 'jobs' pop into your head while you are writing simply jot them down for later.
* Start small. Don't get overwhelmed with the thought of the whole project.
* If you are having trouble writing a particular scene, write something else!
* Don't feel guilty. This is your time.
* Two hours is enough if writing solidly, but be prepared for the time to just disappear.
* Don't forget the occassional break to move about or you will seize up!

A Day for Writing

As I said, I had set aside yesterday for writing. As the day approached it spurred me on to get everything ready for the day so I could just write. In fact, Tuesday night after Jamie had gone to sleep I cleaned both the bathrooms and the front room, so that I would not be tempted to do them before I started writing! At nursery I was given a letter that could have taken up all my morning, but I simply put it to one side and left it until daddy got back.

Did I accomplish anything? YES. I was very proud of myself as I wrote nearly 2000 words, as well as fleshed out a lot of the plotline of the novel and analysed 'What is Chick Lit?' For the first few minutes at my desk I felt overwhelmed with the task in front of me! I had intended to spend most of the morning plotting and asking questions, but I found this quite difficult to start with, so I started to write one of the key scenes in the book. This made me think differently about things and ideas popped into my head as I wrote. OK, so I did visit Facebook a couple of times, but one was to try and find a name for my hero (didn't get it from FB but had a couple of suggestions). After lunch I had given myself back ache with all that sitting at the table, so I lay on the sofa and finished reading my latest edition of Mslexia. I also started watching a couple of things I had on SkyPlus but decided my writing time was too precious and so deleted them. I did however, reward myself with an evening of TV once Jamie was asleep.

Talking of Jamie, I did feel a bit guilty (and distracted) knowing he was at nursery and I was at home writing, but it also felt good to know I had accomplished something for myself.

Chick Lit Novel Started...

Saturday I went to a meeting of the Poison Pens. I have had the beginnings of a chick lit novel running through my head for a number of weeks now and attending the meeting gave me a determination to put something onto paper. We were also lucky that Nanna decided she wanted to take Jamie out and picked him up just after 10.30am, thus giving me a few more hours to catch up and prepare something to take to the meeting. Of course there were a number of other jobs that needed doing as well but I have to say that most of them were writing related!!

As usual I am glad I made the effort to get to the meeting. There were 5 of us and the advice I recieved was brilliant. It certainly got me thinking about the next page. Members helped me to identify what type of book I was writing and what I was trying to achieve. Is it a predictable chick-lit book or something different? I hope something different...

Richard kept asking questions: Why did she go? What does she/he look like? Who is chasing her? What happens next? It certainly made me realise that I had not done enough plotting before putting pen to paper, but I felt this time it was important to get something started. Talking through some of my ideas helped push the good ones to the front and the not so sure ideas out of the way.

Since the meeting I have found that the creative process continues as every so often an idea pops into my head. Lets hope I can continue this momentum. I have a spare day tommorrow and hope to plot and plan a little further...

Points from the meeting:
* Sometimes we need to write ourselves into the novel. Your intiail first line might not be your final first line. You may find it starts better later on.
* Questions, Questions, Questions will flush out the real story.
* Names of charcaters are important.
* Writing should be strong enough without the need for explanation marks!

Sometimes I wonder if I am wasting my time with writing, but attending the meeting always inspires me and pushes me forward. I do enjoy the process of writing and all the related activities, and as www.david-hurst.co.uk/ says in June's edition of Writing Magazine (www.writers-online.co.uk/) "Enjoy it. If you are not enjoying the journey, you're on the wrong road". I intend to walk the road for a whole yet at least.

Always carry a notebook

"Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever."

Will Self quoted in June's Writers' News www.writers-online.co.uk/

Again this week I did not heed the warnings and just as I was dropping off thought of a fantastic first line for my novel.....too tired to make the effort to grab pen and paper, I told myself I would remember it in the morning. Sadly that line will never make the first draft as (obviously) I forgot by the time morning had arrived!! I shall never know whether it was the incredible opener I imagined at the time or whether I was just dreaming.....

A timely email....

There is only one reason for stress. We may tell ourselves that there are many reasons: our job, our children, our partner, our lack of partner, health problems, financial difficulties, and more. But underneath all of these is only one thing: fear. Fear creates stress because it involves the perception of being unsafe, being out of control, being a victim of life’s circumstances.

We see ourselves as unsafe rather than safe when we make two assumptions: first, that in order to be safe we must be in control; and second, that we are not. Fear is tied to the need to control, and it will dog us until our dying day unless we give up that need. If we do give up that need, we realize that we have always been safe, and that the only thing keeping us from that awareness is the fear that we are not.

We can’t become safe by establishing control over anything or anybody (including ourselves) because our control can never be more than temporary. We can control a person’s behavior (a child, a family member or friend) for a while, getting them to do what we think is right, but in the end that person will slip out of our grasp, leaving us upset, disappointed, heartbroken or irritated unless we give up control. We can control our career or finances for a while, but chances are something will come along and ruin our best-laid plans.

We put a lot of energy into controlling ourselves. We discipline ourselves, criticize ourselves, set ourselves endless agendas, and more. This has value, but there are repercussions. The more we control ourselves, the more our subconscious rebels and eventually kicks up such a storm (through resentment, illness, accidents, and so on) that our life really spins out of control.

We have negligible control over the big questions in life. If we try to make it otherwise, we get STRESS. We can’t control life because we are part of it. Trying to control it is being a drop of water trying to control the ocean. If we learn how to become part of life’s ocean instead of reacting to it, however, we can feel supported. To do that is to see what is around us as an integral part of ourselves, instead of as something separate, alien and potentially threatening.

We let go of stress when we relax into being part of what is. If we can be fully present, without resistance, with each passing moment, we find that life is going in exactly the direction it was meant to go, and that everything is perfect.

Stress-Relief: Part Six by Ingrid Bacci http://www.ingridbacci.com/

And Relax.....

This week has been a bit of a nightmare. I have felt quite ill all week; shattered and really not myself at all. Went out with some friends on Wednesday and was so glad I made the effort as they helped put everything into perspective. One commented she thought I was stressed and I had to agree with her. When I thought about it, I have been spending too much time chasing my own tail, and of course doing the extra hours at work has not helped. Jamie is very precious to me and I don't want to neglect him. However, mummy needs to relax and the way I like to relax is to read, and of course write, and writing has always been a great therapy to me. Now, where's that pen? I have a week before the next meeting of the Poison Pens.....

Bank Holidays

Has been great the last week or so having some extra time to play with. I decided against entering the competition for which I had been writing the New Beginnings poem. Two reasons 1) I thought the prize was a free place at the writing festival but that was only for the winners of the short story or the writing for children competitions, and 2) I felt it had all been written before. I have printed off what I have done and intend to come back to it at a later date. I had wanted to weave the experience of the Psychic Supper into the poem so I might go back to the notes I made that night and see if something else comes out...

Thankfully I have started using my NetBook more, but it is still difficult to use when Jamie is around as he wants to 'play'. Now that Jamie is two I am aware of the need to keep him occupied and stimulated and I do feel a bit guilty if I start writing when he is about. This week I am going to try to write after I have put him to bed. The trouble is, Jamie thinks his bed is the one mummy and daddy share so this may be more difficult than it sounds!!