After a thunderstorm rolled through last night, this morning dawned bright and sunny. I wished I had the time this morning when I left for work. Running late like usual, so even though I had my small Kodak digital camera in my purse, I couldn’t take the time to go snap pictures. The fog, backlit by the sun, rising over the river was spectacular.
Earlier today some heavy rain accompanied by thunder rolled through. A couple of times, the weather forecast on the radio warned of grim weather coming our way. I had to check The Weather Network to confirm the local reports. Heavy rain, thunder, hail (stones large enough to cause damage), and high winds – possibly even tornadoes.
Up until about 10 minutes ago, the sun shone brightly. The clouds are starting to move in. For a brief time the winds picked up, too. Now all has settled down again… but for how long?
I bought my tickets for the May 7th workshops when I was out and about on Wednesday. The morning session is How to Find an Editor and Why You Need One. The afternoon session is How to Write Effective Dialogue.
Since going back to my manuscript file this past Wednesday and actually working in it (I know – pretty amazing, eh?) after successfully avoiding it for some time, I’ve managed to add 1964 words. It might have been more than that but everytime I put it down and went back to it, I changed things… found better ways to say stuff in fewer words and then added more in other places. My word count has jumped to 99347 and this is only Part 1! But there is a major purge coming so I will likely lose a good chunk of them. However, with the change in direction I’ve gone in, I could be back up to that and higher before I finish this particular segment.
The only problem I can foresee with this week’s work is I’m going to have to go back and incorporate some of the techniques I’ve learned at recent workshops into earlier portions of my WIP.
Maybe I should tell my WIP to RIP and start a totally new project?
I’ve not posted anything since I wrote about the writing workshop. Since then, I’ve been busy writing whilst managing to avoid my manuscript. I’ve got three short stories completed – one of which I mailed off today to the Writers’ Union of Canada’s Writing for Children contest, one possibly will be an entry for the Scene of the Crime Festival’s annual contest, and the third just to increase my inventory of stories since you never know when you might need one for something.
Yesterday, and the day before, I worked on a re-write of a short story I did a number of years ago called Dracula’s Castle.
Only today did I open my two manuscript files. This morning it was formatting only to eliminate “Tabs”. If there are any left in either file, then they are hiding well and truly deeply. After coming home from mailing my contest entry, I actually opened the first file and found the revisions I made after attending Brian Henry’s Writing for Children & Young Adult workshop and have them (and a few more) incorporated into Chapter 1.
Like all the Brian Henry workshops I’ve attended, I came home motivated and raring to write. More so this time because I got a critique of my first chapter from him! Yippee!
So once at home I began making the changes he suggested. There are more yet to come, but I didn’t have my printed copy with his notes in front of me at the time because I was using my laptop and there just wasn’t room for everything.
On Sunday I’ll be attending another Brian Henry workshop. This one is Writing for Children and Young Adults. I want to be able to take the first chapter of my YA work-in-progress but it’s a bit too long for Sunday so I’ll have to get my skates on and get it tightened up and down to the maxium number of words Brian wants us to bring.
You’ve heard of the KISS method? Well, had a known solving my wonky S problem was going to be this easy, I would have done it ages ago.
When I had my nails done yesterday, I finally broke down and had them cut them back a bit. I loved them as long as they were but have to admit, not terribly practical. Anyway, when I fired up the laptop for the first time yesterday with shorter nails, the wonky S was no longer wonky. Looks like before, I wasn’t getting enough fingertip/nail on the key for it to strike.
Life is once again good so I’ll have to watch my language… $hoot.
Shortly after 6:00, the scratching on the bedroom door and the whining started. Crazy animal doesn’t know it’s the weekend and that lie-ins are permitted!
I mean, he does the same thing 7 days a week for at least 20 hours a day – lies around and sleeps. But for those of us who have to get up at 6:00 or earlier (Mon-Fri) we enjoy that extra half-hour to an hour’s shut eye.
But look at the face… How could you stay mad at a face like that?
I just checked in at Janice Horton’s Bagpipes & Bullshot blog. Her book entered Amazon.co.uk’s Bestseller charts yesterday morning and got up to #19 (Books/Fiction/Women’s Fiction). It reached #25 in the Kindle/Romance/Contemporary Bestsellers. And up to #34 in Amazon Books/Romance/Adult Contemporary.
Wow! What a day!
Congratulations Janice!
My Scottish roots and writing by Melanie Robertson-King
