Is it time for a snoopy dance, yet?

I’m happy to say, since my last post 11 weeks ago, I have achieved the following:

Listened to three audiobooks…

 

Watched season 1 of A Discovery of Witches on TV, which was good but sadly IMHO not as good as the book 😦

And while I do think Matthew Goode is a wonderful actor, I’m sad to say he isn’t the Matthew de Clairmont I imagined. In my mind, I pictured de Clairmont as being more of a Henry Fitzroy from Blood Ties than a Charles Ryder from Brideshead. But alas, I would rather a Charles Ryder than no de Clairmont at all…

Matthew de Clairmont? Now this is more like it…

Started re-watching True Blood, which is totally getting me in the mood for a long, hot, humid summer…

Rewrote scene 37 (as planned in my last post) AND finished scenes 38, 39, 40 and 41. Currently, I’m 400 words into scene 42!!!

So I have to say, I’m pretty stoked with my progress. I finally broke through the barrier I was stuck at for 5 months, and only have 4 1/2 new scenes left to write. Once they’re done, I‘ll be on the downward stretch – just rewriting/editing the third act of my novel (which is about 30,000 words). And I love rewriting/editing 😀

At this rate, it looks like this draft will end up being approx. 110,000 words, and will hopefully be finished in 2019 😀 How wonderful that will be.

Then I’ll have to go back through the whole thing combing for anachronistic dialogue and prose… But I won’t mind that part because finally AGAIN I will have a complete novel.

Time for a snoopy dance…

The first day of the rest of my life…

I thought it was about time I checked in again. It’s been so long since I’ve written anything non-work related, let alone a blog post.

A lot has happened since I last posted:

I’ve finished at least four more audiobooks…

Pretty much completed the renovations of my writing room…

 

(The change is significant, considering how it used to look…)

Caught up with the Print Posse gals…

But still I haven’t written anything more in my novel. In fact, this weekend I plan to actually tear to shreds the last “new” scene I wrote and rewrite from the ground up. But I feel ready now… or at least I think I do. Actually, I feel pretty awful about the whole not-writing thing. Since I started writing seriously back in March 2009, this is the first time I’ve had so much time off. It’s scary and makes me feel like I’m not a writer at all, and then I start thinking “but what will I do if I don’t write?” I’ve kind of planned my whole future life around writing and all my writing plans. Without it, my life (and by “my life” I mean my personal, internal life within myself) would be pretty empty. I would be lost. Writing gives that part of me meaning. A purpose. Self-satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

I have to write!!! I just have to!!!

But right now, not having written for so long (since April), I feel disconnected from a huge part of myself. I have to get back into it. I have to force myself to do it. I only have 11 new scenes to write, for goodness sake. All that stands between me and moving on to my new project is freakin’ 11 new scenes and then a reworking (which I love doing) of the final act. Blah! I just have to do it and break this drought.

That is the plan anyway. This Saturday I am sitting down in front of my computer and rewriting this last scene I wrote. I’m gonna make it better and then I’m going to write the next scene and the next and the next (well, not all this Saturday, but I’m going to at least get started). Then I will feel better. Then I will be a writer again.

Lol I just realised Saturday will be the first day after I turn 40 (my birthday is on Friday). What a great start to the next decade of my life 😀

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

I’ve recently reacquainted myself with audio books…

Back when I lived in Tassie, I delved into the amazing world of audio books, purchasing several Nicholas Sparks audio books on CD and listening to them while I exercised. It’s been more than 10 years since then, and last week I purchased my first audio book since The Wedding on Audible.com – Looking For Alaska by John Green (Between you and me, I have a secret love for John Green stories which, it just occurred to me, happen to be in the same vein as those of Nicholas Sparks. Who would have thunk it, hey?).

These days, between working, looking after the boys and writing when I can steal a morning, finding time to read is tricky. Usually by the time I go to bed and lie down with a novel, I’m so tired I only manage get through a page or two before the lure of sleep overtakes me. With audio books, though, I can listen to them in my car on the way home from dropping off the boys at school in the morning, and on the way to picking them up in the afternoon. And that’s a good hour a day!!!

In one week I’ve almost finished Looking For Alaska, a feat which might have taken me months if I’d been reading the novel at night time alone 😀 

I must admit though, I feel a little overwhelmed by all the audiobooks I have to choose from. I’ve already decided the next audio book I’ll be listening to Brideshead Revisited. Not only because I’ve been wanting to read this book since forever, it’s also only a little over 2 hours long! After that, though, I have no idea.

Night Circus, perhaps? Or The Bronze Horseman? I’ve long wanted to read both of these novels. Or maybe I’ll delve into a series, like Vampire Academy or Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series. Some other YA books have made it onto my wish list too – Eleanor & Park and All The Bright Places. I guess we shall see which one ultimately grabs my attention.

Regardless of what my next selection will be, I’m so excited at the thought of all the books I’m going to be able to devour now that I’ve rediscovered Audiobooks!

Just a quick note before I go – I thought I’d share with you my favourite quote from Looking For Alaska. When Miles asks Alaska why she smokes so damn fast, she replies:

“Y’all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.”

Best. Line. Ever.