Andy Murray Season

Well, it's been a while! I didn't mean to leave it so long, whoops. Anyway, the end of term has been and gone, and it was crazy as ever. Sad to leave, again, and I realised I've been doing this whole packing up for the summer thing for ten years, which is impressive really. Although I can pack very quickly now, it seems that I can't pack concisely however, which can be a little problematic. Also, the amount of books that I gain over one year is frankly impressive. Anyway, I overcame that and managed to say goodbyes (which I hate) and leave everyone, which was very sad. And I am now back home in Sussex, for the summer (which doesn't seem to have emerged yet). After a chaotic return, which included getting overly excited about the Queens final (Murray, whoop!) and the Rally Against Cancer organised by Ross Hutchins, which was fantastic and a brilliant cause, trying to unpack all the books I obtained during the year, swimming outside for the first time this year (yay!) and then getting a horrible summer cold... totally not related, I'm sure. Managed to catch up somewhat briefly with my school friends, which was wonderful.

Oh yeah, and seeing Neil Gaiman! Which was AMAZING. He talks so wonderfully, and he is so inspiring and just brilliant. And his new book is fantastic - The Ocean at the End of the Lane - you should read it if you haven't, because it is brilliant!

Went to the Eastbourne tennis too, and saw one of the women's doubles semi finals and the men's doubles final with Colin Fleming and Johnny Marray, which was fantastic. It's most definitely tennis season. Which brings me onto... Wimbledon, which starts tomorrow. I am SO excited! Totally ready for this, can't wait! Best two weeks of the year. Let's just hope the weather improves. Although a little saddened to think that last year this was the beginning of a fantastic summer of sport. Sigh. Anyway, we're heading to Wimbledon on Tuesday (eeeek!) so excited, it's going to be brilliant. And tomorrow Andy's campaign starts, and James Ward is playing too, and he's awesome. Well, there go the next two weeks!

Writing wise, I have started editing my latest project, and I am so into this story - these characters dominate my thoughts a lot of the time, which is kinda awesome. At the same time, it's weird to be home, because it seems that a lot of the ideas and inspiration from the setting came from here, which is good for adding detail to the setting and everything, but at the same time, just bizarre. Like confronting my story. But so far, the editing is going well. I have added lots of details, and am also deleting things that aren't relevant, doing some rearranging and everything. I even had a moment a few weeks ago (I know, I should blog more, I don't know what happened) when I was talking with a friend and she was talking about something that was irritating in an acquaintance (I honestly can't remember the details) and I was there thinking, yeah I know someone just like that, and tried to think about who it was I was thinking of, only to realise it was one of my characters. Yeah. So there's that. These characters are taking over my life. Which is clearly a good thing and I am kinda in love with this story. It just feels right. So much editing to do, but it is kind of exciting, and I kind of love it. Despite plans to start other projects, think I might just focus on this one for now, and make plans for others for another time. That seems the best thing. Weird how things turn out - especially after swearing to myself I would focus on MG because YA stressed me out too much and didn't work. Of course then comes along a YA story that just clicks! Well, I'm not going to complain about that. Not at all!

Hashtag Am Writing...

So guys, guess what. I started writing a new YA contemporary. If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen all my #amwriting hashtags, with updates about chapters. I am handwriting it, which is very exciting, and have already filled one whole notebook! Onto the second one now, and still lots of story to write. I am very excited about this story. It just seems right, you know? And my lovely CP, Laura is reading chapters as I type them up and is being wonderfully supportive. She is wonderful, just so you all know and too kind to me.

I know, I know.

I promised I wouldn't. Or at least, I did to myself. I think I might have mentioned before that I decided to focus primarily on MG stories, as YA just didn't seem to click for me and was frustrating to write. But, an idea occurred to me the other week, and this character and her story appeared in my head, begging to be written down. Of course I had to obey. I had tonnes of notes written, and then somehow, the first chapter was being written. And now I'm on, what, the twelfth chapter? They're short chapters and I'm handwriting it all because that's how i like to do first drafts (maybe why I'm falling out with NaNo) and I'm loving it. SO many ideas and this story is just flowing.I've put my planned project for May back a bit, although will start planning it next week probably. It's an MG story, so will be very different.

YA, maybe this is just the beginning after all....

It all kicks off tomorrow!

Happy Halloween everyone! I don't ever do anything for Halloween, as I don't really like it and to be honest it always used to scare me. But tonight we're watching Harry Potter so I'm looking forward to that.

And tomorrow, NaNo starts!

I am incredibly excited. I really am.

I can't wait to get started. I've been editing my outline this afternoon and just making it better, and hopefully easier to stick to. I've also decided (I decided a while ago but I'm going to say it here so hopefully I'll stick to it) to go for a higher word count, becuase otherwise I get to 50,000 and I decide the story is finished, so for the first time I'm going for 70,000. Or at least 60,000. I hope. It is my seventh NaNo, so I guess it's time to do something a little bit different. Hold me to it guys!

I'm also, probably more when NaNo is over, but I'll stick it up here now, looking for a critique partner, so if anybody is interested let me know :)

I've been working on my poetry proposal this afternoon, and some more poetry, so better get back to that now!

Good luck everyone NaNoing tomorrow! Here we go again!