What's Up Wednesday

I've seen this on so many other people's blogs and I've been meaning to start it for ages. What better than a new month? So here goes. Hopefully it'll be a good way of posting something simple every week!

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme created by Jaime and Erin. Go visit their blogs to find out more.

WHAT I'M READING  

I'm currently enjoying ALL FALL DOWN by Ally Carter, which is fantastic so far! I love Ally Carter and so I was very excited to get my hands on this.  I just finished ARSENIC FOR TEA by Robin Stevens, which was amazing. I'm looking forward to reading THE SIN-EATER'S DAUGHTER by Melinda Salisbury later this week! Plus, I've got the new Neil Gaiman to read. So many treats and so many fabulous books are being published at the moment. 

WHAT I'M WRITING (+ A WRITING GOAL)

I'm currently editing, editing, editing. Which I do enjoy, but sometimes I just long for the excitement of a first draft! 

Currently, I'm trying to focus on two different projects (after being sidetracked last week by another old project, which I read through and made notes for). Trying to focus this month on my middle grade story, NOWHERE HOUSE, and a YA project, SWEET LITTLE LIES.

Writing goal for the week: sort out the timeline for SLL and continue editing/making notes on NOWHERE. 

WHAT WORKS FOR ME

At the moment, I'm remembering that I can't do everything at once and that drafts don't become perfect with a click of the fingers! For now, what works for me when editing and trying to get into the flow of it is reading through a draft, adding small bits as I go and making notes about how to extend/change things, make a list of things to work on, and go through the draft, addressing each one by one. For example, with SLL, the next thing I'm going to address is the timeline! 

WHAT ELSE IS NEW

Well, it's Harry Potter Book Night this week (tomorrow at the Picadilly Waterstones), which I can't wait for. Rather nervous too about my role, but it's going to be great. Can't wait! 

Plus, I joined the gym last week! Oh yes. So I'm getting into a good routine and hoping that my foot doesn't give up on me again. All in the name of getting ready to go windsurfing again!

Hope you enjoyed my first What's Up Wednesday. See you all next week! 

What's On My Desk

The wonderful Cole posted this great post about her desk and tagged me to do the same. How can I resist? I adore seeing other writers' desks and so I leapt at the chance to do this myself. It just so happens that I recently sorted my desk, so it appears a little more organised than the usual chaos! At least it means that hopefully you'll be able to see things.

Like Cole, I don't really have all the post it notes everywhere like planners do, but if I'm just beginning something or editing something, then there are usually pieces of paper and stray post its everywhere with notes that I have made! 

I made an attempt to create an annotated picture, which you can see below.

But, here are some un-annotated ones.

Here you can see the stack of notebooks (mainly used, although there are a couple of unused ones lurking in there), the star chart, inspired by Victoria Schwab, Laura, Cole, Emma, and anyone else who uses this system. It's working so well so far, I love it! 

You can see more of my inspiration board in that picture too - including many Daphne du Maurier pictures and Harry Potter/Hufflepuff things! Plus, the wonderful notebooks that Laura has made for me.

Here's the annotated one, un-annotated, plus another angle of my desk. I'm lucky to have a pretty big desk, but still at the same time, I want it to be at least double the size!

The main people reading this will already have been tagged, so I challenge anyone else reading to do this! And make sure to link me to the posts, I can't wait to see what all your desks look like!

And for inspiration, have a look at a wonderful picture of Daphne du Maurier at her writing desk here.

Fowey (again)

I have just, once again, returned from Fowey. What a surprise - it seems to be all I write about these days, which I guess is just a massive hint to get on and move there. But you know, things like jobs have to be sorted. I can keep dreaming anyway... I'm hoping to volunteer once again at the Festival this year, which will be ace!

We had gorgeous weather while we were there, and it made me fall in love with January (a month I usually hate). We had a little bit of rain, but we were also treated to a gorgeous rainbow.

We walked, and drank lots of coffee and cider, and wrote lots, and read. It was pretty perfect really. It's always hard to leave, and this time, somehow it was even harder to do so. Hard to wrench myself away!

And of course it just feels like a dream now. 

 Sigh.

Till next time.

Amanda Palmer and the Art of Asking

You may know Amanda Palmer, for many different reasons - her TED talk, her music, her kickstarter, her marriage to Neil Gaiman - or you may not know her at all. Whether you know who she is or not, if you're a creator/artist/writer etc, you need this book.

Before I received Amanda's book for Christmas I knew Amanda in the sense that I followed her on Twitter, and knew a bit of her music (but not much), had followed her Kickstarter, loved Neil Gaiman, and she was just there. And then she started writing a book. When this book was released, I added it to my Christmas list, intrigued to see what Amanda had written.

Although I wanted to save this book for sometime after Christmas, I found myself starting -and devouring it - in two days. After a rough period pre Christmas, it left me feeling inspired and motivated again - and relieved that despite being completely different people, with different ambitions (like I'm not a performer at all), there was someone who understood, in some sort of way.

Amanda talks about the fraud police (something which I'm sure affects every writer I know), asking for help, doing what you love, and so much more. She writes,

When you’re an artist, nobody ever tells you or hits you with the magic wand of legitimacy. You have to hit your own head with your own handmade wand. And you feel stupid doing it.

She further writes,

There’s no “correct path” to becoming a real artist. You might think you’ll gain legitimacy by going to art school, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it’s all bullshit, and it’s all in your head. You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.

She talks about taking things - "take the flower" and wanting things and working hard and how it has tot hurt enough to make you really want it: "it doesn't hurt enough yet". 

She writes,

There's really no honor in proving that you can carry the entire load on your own shoulders. And...it's lonely. 

She writes about art and creating:

Collecting the dots. Then connecting them. And then sharing the connections with those around you. This is how a creative human works. Collecting, connecting, sharing.

There are so many fantastic quotes in this book, it would be impossible to share them all here. This book was inspiring, reassuring, and motivating, as well as incredibly moving. It was beautifully written and I loved the way that Amanda shared such personal stories, and anecdotes. I never write in books, but I was scribbling in this one, underlining things, and circling things. This is going to be a book that I carry around, that I refer back to when I need to.

Amanda reminds us that it's okay to ask, even if that's the hardest thing to do.

And that I think is an important lesson for us all. 

Take the flower.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Who can believe it's 2015 already?

I can't believe how fast this month is already going. I've been making the most of the month so far though, and have started using the calender reward system that Victoria Schwab, and many of my friends (Laura, Cole, Emma, and more) favour. Victoria has written about the system here. And so far it has been fantastically successful! It's rewarding to see the stickers build up and be able to see exactly what you've achieved. Otherwise, I find that it's so easy to forget what you've actually done and just spend your time feeling bad about things. I highly recommend it! I do need to get some more stickers though, I wasn't really prepared.

The rest of the month promises to be busy, and while of course I'm hoping for lots more reading and writing, I'm also returning to Exeter for graduation, spending some time in Fowey (eeek!!), and then visiting school friends in Leeds - so it's going to be a busy couple of weeks. A mini holiday I suppose - and I think I need it! Will be good to get some perspective, make plans, think about the future, forget about inboxes full of rejections (both from agents and jobs).

But that's life I suppose. And compared to all the grisly and really depressing, scary things that have been happening in the news recently, it's nothing.

I am busy both editing and writing, which is going well so far - one of my resolutions for this month - and year - was to not let myself get bogged down in too many projects or get worried about what to work on. I've set myself clear targets for what I want to achieve and all the other ideas can wait, for now anyway. So far it seems to be working! I've got to remember that there's time for everything - although it doesn't seem like that sometimes. I feel like I have to be working on EVERYTHING all at once. But I've got to remember to take it slow and easy - and there you go. One of my goals for this year, which is so far going well. I hope to keep it up!

I hope that everyone else is having a productive 2015 so far, and are managing to stick to their goals and keep being creative! How's it going for everyone?

Merry Christmas and looking ahead to 2015 (pt.2)

Well. This year has flown by and I can't believe we're already looking at 2015! Putting this year aside, there are plenty of books and events that I'm looking forward to next year, as well as some resolutions of my own.

I actually wrote about some of the books I'm looking forward to here (although, my own personal list has already grown so much - there are so many books, both new and old that I'm looking forward to hopefully reading next year!). I think it's going to be another good year for YA and books and hopefully lots of exciting things are in store.

I'm excited about MuggleNet's first expo, MuggleNet Live! 2015: Expo Patronum, which is taking place on April 18th, and I can't wait to be involved and meet lots of my wonderful and amazing MuggleNet coworkers.

I'm hoping for another YALC. And more trips to Fowey. I'm hoping for lots of great book events, and meeting bookish and writing friends.

I'm hoping to keep blogging regularly on here, and over at a new blog/site I recently started, YA Inspires (I'm still feeling the way with that one).

Writing wise, I'm hoping to send Treading Water out to lots more agents, to edit the contemporary I wrote this summer to a good standard, to rehash and rewrite the MG story I wrote for my dissertation this summer. And of course, I hope for lots of new ideas, and inspiring things, but also focus. I hope to continue loving writing, no matter what.

Most of all, I hope the year is happy and full of good surprises and nice things!

And that's it for this year. I'm going to take a blogging break until the new year. I hope you all have an AMAZING Christmas and a WONDERFUL happy new year! I hope you get everything you want in the new year and have lots of hopes and dreams for the year.

Thanks for reading! x

Merry Christmas and end of the year roundup! (p.1)

Wow. I can't believe it's under a week until Christmas day. I don't know where this month - and this year has gone. I've been rather absent from this blog in the last few weeks, and I apologise for that. I didn't mean for this to be my first post of December, but for various reasons I haven't felt like blogging, and I've been rather under the weather. But I'm feeling a lot better now and looking forward to Christmas!

Recently, I was wondering what have I actually achieved this year? (Yes, I've been feeling rather down). But, looking back at this blog and some of my writing projects, I realised that actually, yes, I have been rather productive, and on the whole had a good year. Sure, there have been really sucky things, but on the whole, it hasn't been a disaster!

First off, this blog - I've kept it up to date, and been able to get into a semi-good routine (that's slipped recently, oops!).  Among other things,

I've written about NaNo,
YALC, which took place in the summer and was amazing,
returning home to live in the countryside again,
a magical year with MuggleNet,
another trip to the Harry Potter studios,
A YA masterclass with Sarah Crossan and Julia Churchill,
Fowey,
and my beloved cat, Posie.

While I wasn't so good at blogging regularly at the beginning of the year, I've certainly got more into a routine this second half of the year - writing about countryside things and things to be grateful for! It's safe to say that it's certainly been a year full of twists and turns. It's funny isn't it, looking back on the year, and seeing what has and hasn't been achieved, unexpected things that have happened, and more. I suppose I have achieved more than I thought, and it's not all bad things.

Writing wise, I have revised Treading Water a couple of times, and got it up to a good standard. I've had good feedback on the story too. I've completed two full length first drafts (and a shorter one), and started at least two other things that I have since abandoned. I've written several short things and done lots of things for MuggleNet - plus I completed my MA.

And now, to celebrate Christmas and all that it brings. To eat lots of yummy food, spend time with people I love, do festive things, sing carols and catch up with friends.

I hope everyone reading this has a really wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year. Merry Christmas to you all - and thanks for reading over this past year!

One last post to come this year - what I'm looking forward to next year.