Somewhere in the 8000s

I'm chugging along slowly but surely, writing roughly 1000 words a day.

I got Go Girls season 2 on DVD the other day and true to my obsessive nature have already finished it. It was good but I'm thinking season 1 was better. One of the main characters vamoosed and that made me sad, I hope she comes back for at least part of season 3 which has been given the go ahead. For those who don't know it's a New Zealand show comedy/drama about four friends, in both seasons they set goals for themselves to achieve by the end of the year. It's very funny.

I discovered the woman who runs my gym wrote a book the other day (i discovered it the other day, she didn't write it the other day). Anyway it was very exciting, even though she wasn't published, she knows a few people, and I have someone who actually reached the light at the end of the tunnel to talk to.

On a final note I'm thinking of writing a mini essay on Spartacus: Blood and Sand, about the relationship between Lucretia and the blonde woman whose name escapes me for the moment.

Planning Plans Planned

My novels plan is coming together, my ideas are flowing, and everything's going well (except I'll have to rewrite everything I've written because it doesn't work now).

Planning Is actually quite fun, when it's working anyway. I've been sticking coloured postits on my study wall. Different colours for main plot, subplot and back story. I get to look at all my ideas at once which helps me come up with new ones it's great! It's times like these I'm really appreciative I have a study, a room of one's own and all that... now I just need the money.

Feels like I'm actually doing something

I just put my short story entry into the post box! I'm really happy with it and I'm really glad I've sent it of, taking an active step forward in my goals. It went through about three rewrites and two edits, and while it could probably do with another of both I had to send it today or miss out, and anyway... I'm happy.

I also had an interview today for a volunteer position with the writers festival so fingers crossed. It sounds like an amazing opportunity and really can't wait to get involved (if they'll have me).

On the the actual novel front things have taken a dangerously procrastinatey turn. I've decided to plan rather than just pray it comes to me, which is all well and good, but I'm not actually planning (or maybe I'm planning to the extreme) instead I'm collecting pictures and info so I can put together a scrapbook of ideas; what characters look like, what places look like etc. I think I might need to limit that excessive tasks to night time and make sure I focus on the actual novel during the day or else nothing will get done.

I've also applied for a few jobs which means two things
1. less time for writing and
2. more money to spend on writing workshops (and clothes)

Short Story, Shrek, True Blood

I’ve decided to turn my 2300 words of back story into a 2500 word short story for the Queensland Young Writers Award (link: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/about/ppp/ywa ).
I’ve just finished reading through it and noting changes and am about to start my first revision. Entries for the competition are due the 16th of July so the clock is ticking, but I should at least have something ready to submit by then (unless I’m unbelievably lazy).

Unfortunately my word count for the main narrative is still 3988 but I did see Shrek Forever After today, so that’s something. I think it lived up to the first three (two of which I watched last night for funnsies). Funny and good animation. And I found out yesterday (though I have a sneaky suspicion I already knew and forgot) that it (at least the first one) is based on a book, but they’re very different.

Last night I got to feeling that all the decent TV shows are on hiatus. I’d recently been re-watching Angel, but was about to come to the ‘Conner’ episodes and found I didn’t want to see them. Maybe I’m just too used to DVD’s and find having to wait a week before I can watch the next episode of True Blood just a little too much to cope with (by the way did anyone else find the backwards head thing in the last episode a bit too weird and twisted, excuse the pun). I just want enough good TV available to me that I can watch a few episodes every night… is that too much to ask.

Maybe better than whining I should use all my available TV time for turning my half hearted back story into an award winning short story… we’ll see.

3,988

My title is my current word count (I've also written about 2300 words of back story but I won't include that until I add it into the main document).

Music: The Waifs. I nicked my parents CD to see if I like them and... I do. They probably wouldn't be my first choice but I haven't turned off my speakers in disgust. I like there tude.

Books: The Autumn Castle (Kim Wilkins). it's really good, gripping easy to read, enjoyable, and best of all, it has similar concepts to my novel and has therefore helped me see how these things have been dealt with.
Other books I’ve recently read are The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (now I can see how bad the movie is) and Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schmidt which helped me come up with soooo many more ideas to flesh out my narrative.

Movies: Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki). Many years ago I watched Spirited Away and loved it, so I decided recently to check out some more Miyazaki and again was thoroughly impressed. Howl's Moving Castle was beautiful and inspirational. I noticed a lot of connections to European fairy tales; the chicken legs attached to Howl's castle reminded me of Baba Yaga's own moving home which also had chicken legs, and there were definitely some Beauty and the Beast elements in there too. It was really amazing, I want to see Nausicaa next.

Yesterday I was all set to write all day, so I could reach my goal of 10000 words by Sunday but then my friend invited me shopping, and, well, I did need to go shopping. I bought two necklaces and a headband. The guilt did get to me though and I managed to pump out about 1000 words at 10:30 that night.

In The Beginning

Hello. My name is Sarah and more than anything I want to be a writer.
In this blog I will be recording my journey as I write (or attempt to write) my first novel, and hopefully (extremely hopefully since it is my first) get published.

As an important side note I think I should let you know that the title of this blog came from a complete inability to think of a title for this blog. Instead of coming up with something witty which reflected the theme or content of this blog, I flicked to a random page in “The Goddess Guide” by Brandi Auset and without looking pointed at a couple of random words.

Shakti is a Hindu goddess describe in the above mentioned book as “the primal force of female energy found within each goddess.” She animates the goddess Devi and liberates women from the trivial events of everyday life, leading them to enlightenment.

And

Ma Gu (also known as Ma Ku, but I didn’t point to that) is the Chinese goddess of longevity. Her name apparently translates to “hemp maid” or “hemp priestess”, so basically she’s the goddess of weed. But she’s also a protector of women and a goddess of rebirth and fertility.

It may be apparent that have an interest in mythology. I also have an interest in folklore, magic and fairy tales; hence the novel I am writing is a fantasy, at least in part.
I have yet to come up with a title, but it is based heavily on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty/ Briar Rose/ Sun Moon and Talia and takes place partly in modern day ‘real world’ Australia, and partly in a fairy dimension of my own creation.
In this blog I won’t be giving specific details about my novel (I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you once it’s published and you can read it for yourself), but will mostly discuss how I’m going with it, what I’m reading (and how it helps), what I’m doing to improve my writing, what I’ve discovered through research, etc, etc, and hopefully it will be interesting for you.

Thanks for reading and I’ll check back in soon,
Sarah