Today is Monday and I wish it was Thursday. I know it has been drilled into us all since childhood that we shouldn't wish our time away but I'm finding it a little tricky right now to obey this rule.
It's the end of term this week. On Thursday, at lunchtime, the students finish their lessons and run screaming into the glorious freedom of the Christmas holidays. My problem lies in the fact that, up until this time, a large part of my job is to keep them quiet, focused and working. Given that they have already converted into 'Christmas mode', I'm sure you can appreciate how difficult this is.
So I'm preparing myself for a difficult day tomorrow. As we're all aware, I'm not a big fan of optimism so I will be bracing myself for the worst rather than hoping for the best and ending up disappointed. How's that for a cheery sentiment?
But I want to think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts like IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!! And I don't feel so snuck-upon this week, having managed to get a little bit of wrapping done over the weekend (although not as much as I'd hoped). Given that Christmas tends to turn me into a five-year-old, I'm staring at the pretty lights strung around my bedroom going 'oooooh' and covering myself in tinsel at every available opportunity.
Also in prime position in the happy thoughts category is the extra time I will have to write when I'm on Christmas holiday for two weeks. I'm on Chapter 30, meaning (once I've finished it) the Christmas aim will be accomplished! Hurrah! I'm not fool enough to think that I won't have plenty of other shenanigans to occupy my time during the break but I should still have more time to write than I do during term-time. And hopefully time to look for agents. Time and courage for that one.
Right, back to Chapter 30. There's a prophesised phone call, a house belonging to (relatively) friendly criminals and a generous smattering of witchcraft. Sometimes my novel sounds really weird.
Monday 17 December 2012
Monday 10 December 2012
The Sneakiness of Christmas
The festive season seems to have snuck up on me a little this year. Suddenly there are only two weekends before Christmas (with both Saturdays already booked up) and I haven't even got a tree up yet. Presents are, thankfully, almost done in terms of buying but the wrapping process looks incredibly daunting and will probably wait until a couple of days before they're needed. An unwise choice but one I will probably foolishly take regardless.
This sudden realisation that Christmas is coming at exactly the same time as it does every year has meant that I haven't done quite as much writing as I would have liked this week. I'm currently working on Chapter 28, which isn't a terrible point to have reached but I would have liked to be done with it by now.
In a more positive spin on the being-on-chapter-28-thing, I gave myself the target of getting to Chapter 30 by Christmas Day so, providing no calamities befall me, this should be perfectly achievable. Technically speaking, I should be on the big 30 by this time next week. And I do so like being ahead of a target so I'm sure I'll dig up at least some motivation to keep going even while mounds of unwrapped presents threaten to collapse and smother me.
On the subject of my other work - as in the real job, the one people actually pay me for - I found out today that I've got a new job! Hurrah! I interviewed for it last Friday. It's in the same place I'm working now but the role is more interesting (proper librarian stuff with books and everything) and I've got more hours, which naturally means more book-buying-funds.
Right, I'm off to go scowl at Chapter 28. I need to join up two bits of a phone conversation and two bits of face-to-face conversation, and then all those bits together. I really need to learn how to write things in order.
This sudden realisation that Christmas is coming at exactly the same time as it does every year has meant that I haven't done quite as much writing as I would have liked this week. I'm currently working on Chapter 28, which isn't a terrible point to have reached but I would have liked to be done with it by now.
In a more positive spin on the being-on-chapter-28-thing, I gave myself the target of getting to Chapter 30 by Christmas Day so, providing no calamities befall me, this should be perfectly achievable. Technically speaking, I should be on the big 30 by this time next week. And I do so like being ahead of a target so I'm sure I'll dig up at least some motivation to keep going even while mounds of unwrapped presents threaten to collapse and smother me.
On the subject of my other work - as in the real job, the one people actually pay me for - I found out today that I've got a new job! Hurrah! I interviewed for it last Friday. It's in the same place I'm working now but the role is more interesting (proper librarian stuff with books and everything) and I've got more hours, which naturally means more book-buying-funds.
Right, I'm off to go scowl at Chapter 28. I need to join up two bits of a phone conversation and two bits of face-to-face conversation, and then all those bits together. I really need to learn how to write things in order.
Monday 3 December 2012
Chapter Twenty-Six
I normally like to come to a nice clean point in my writing at which to pause before writing these blog posts but this evening I couldn't do it. Chapter Twenty-Six is being a bitch.
It is especially irritating because finishing Chapter Twenty-Six would put me at the mid-way point in terms of chapters, which would be something of an achievement. But because my brain hates me, I just can't get the damn thing right.
So I'm taking a breather. I'm giving it a mini-stew. I am going to do something else for a couple of hours - write this blog, get some tea, watch the latest episode of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries - before I come back to it. At this point, I will be hit by a dazzling burst of inspiration and complete it with not a single spot of trouble.
This is my plan - only time will tell if it's anything other than imagination.
Chapter Twenty-Seven is already underway, though. Rather like Chapter Twenty-Six was before I'd finished Twenty-Five. I really hope this isn't going to become a habit. I got in a little bit of a muddle at times with the beginning of this book when I wrote too much of it out of order. I want to keep as much as I can to the sequence of the novel and yet I'm not just going to ignore an idea if it pops into my head. Ah, dilemmas!
Right, I'm off to go and ignore Chapter Twenty-Six. It is going to sit in its word document and think about what it's done. Once it's had time to consider its life choices, then we'll talk.
It is especially irritating because finishing Chapter Twenty-Six would put me at the mid-way point in terms of chapters, which would be something of an achievement. But because my brain hates me, I just can't get the damn thing right.
So I'm taking a breather. I'm giving it a mini-stew. I am going to do something else for a couple of hours - write this blog, get some tea, watch the latest episode of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries - before I come back to it. At this point, I will be hit by a dazzling burst of inspiration and complete it with not a single spot of trouble.
This is my plan - only time will tell if it's anything other than imagination.
Chapter Twenty-Seven is already underway, though. Rather like Chapter Twenty-Six was before I'd finished Twenty-Five. I really hope this isn't going to become a habit. I got in a little bit of a muddle at times with the beginning of this book when I wrote too much of it out of order. I want to keep as much as I can to the sequence of the novel and yet I'm not just going to ignore an idea if it pops into my head. Ah, dilemmas!
Right, I'm off to go and ignore Chapter Twenty-Six. It is going to sit in its word document and think about what it's done. Once it's had time to consider its life choices, then we'll talk.
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