Having my doubts ...

So, the year started off alright, I've had a boost of energy to get on with my writing, but I'm starting to have blogging doubts and I'm not sure if I want to carry on with either of them at the moment.

I have this blog for the fun stuff and I have a Wordpress blog which is just for fiction stuff. I haven't been posting all that frequently and when I do it seems to be the same old stuff all the time. I try and get back into it and keep up with what others are posting, but I feel like my heart just isn't in it anymore. It's feeling more of a nuisance if I'm honest, distracting me from the writing that I'd rather be doing.

Over the past few days I've seriously thought about knocking it on the head, at least for now, and concentrating on my stories. I've got into a bad habit of not finishing anything and I've got some really good ideas that I want to spend time on and see through to the end. I'm also doing a Literature and Creative Writing degree that I don't want to suffer, put that together with two young children and working three days a week … Phew! Have I really been trying to do all that?

I swing back and forth though, one day I'll decide that's it, my life would be more straightforward without the blogging thing niggling at the back of my mind. The next day I think I shouldn't be too hard on myself, I only need to blog once a week, nobody's really keeping tabs on me. Are you? And it's a brilliant community to be a part of.

See, just by writing this post I'm feeling better about it, and wondering if maybe I can keep it up. Does anyone else get feelings like this? Do you get to the point where you think 'is there any point to this? Why should I even bother?' I'd love to read some words of encouragement, and I know you're all pretty great at that.

What's that coming over the hill, is it a ... WWBH prompt, what else!

Hi folks! The past week really has just flown by, don't you think? I didn't even have time to stop and write anything for last weeks WWBH prompt, and it's left me feeling empty.


Don't worry though, Leanne is here with another prompt for the coming week. Knock yourselves out ...


(Although, not literally :-) )

Oh how I am so glad an entire week has passed. Last week, I was sick with one of the most painful viruses I have ever experienced in my life. It sounds dramatic, and believe me it was. But like most viruses, it was done wreaking havoc in a week's time. So Wednesday feels extra nice this week!


Speaking of viruses, we have a fresh Writer Wednesday Blog Hop photo prompt today! Wait... huh? (There really is no smooth transition for heinous virus to blog hop, humor me. :) ) But there is nothing "sickly" about the stories that came through from last week's prompt (see what I did there? Okay... I'll stop.).


Check out these awesome creations and be sure to leave some comment love for the author's okay?

Rekindled by Bronwyn Marcus

Proposal in a Shoe by Tena Carr

Mystery of the Missing Dancers by Leanne Sype

Getting Ready by Sally Stackhouse

Fun, huh? Okay, here's the short version of how to do the blog hop. If you are a first-timer, please click here for the full description of the guidelines.

1) Use the photo and the provided five chosen words in your story.

2) Keep your word count 500 or less (or a few more words if they're needed...).

3) You have until next Tuesday night to link up your story.

4) Use the Blue frog below to add your story at Leanne's or Tena's websites and follow the instructions.

5) Have fun, don't stress, and let those creative juices flow!

Here is your photo and five words:

lap

uniform

cave

coffin

mind

One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, now WWBH go!

 

Hi folks!

It's Wednesday again, mid-week, hump-day, whatever you like to call it. How's everyone's week been going so far? Mine has been pretty productive, surprisingly, and I seem to be on the verge of settling into a writing groove. I don't like to talk it up too much though, I don't want to scare it away ...

So, did you all enjoy the stories on the WWBH prompts last week? Did you fancy having a go but just didn't get around to it? Well, don't fret, we have a fresh prompt for you right here, to get your writing taste buds a-tingling.

First, though, we have two stories in response to last weeks photo and word prompt:

Skins by Leanne Sype

You never know with some folk by Heather Musk

To take part yourself, just write a ~500 word piece of flash fiction based on the picture prompts that I'll reveal in a moment.

Link up by next Tuesday to the froggy at the bottom, and then on Wednesday we'll reveal how everyone else has been inspired. We'll also have a brand new prompt for you to get your teeth into.

If you are new to the WWBH, please do check out the full rules and guidelines first, we'd hate to have to omit a story for something minor. 

For this week I've gone for a bit of a romantic spin, seeing as it is 14th February this weekend. I don't do anything soppy myself (my husband and I are going to a rugby match for our celebrations, so excited!) but I know some of you are itching to get your romance side exercised. So, take these for a spin and let us know how you get on ...

Go forth, and write! - a WWBH prompt post

Hi folks!

This weeks Writer Wednesday blog hop is in the safe hands of Tena Carr, who is talking a little about deadlines and missing them. I'm sure she didn't see my IWSG post before hand ...

If any of you have kids in school you've probably had to deal with the Science Fair. I swear every school does them, every year.

Since we had been homeschooling our son for a few years, previous to moving to Arizona and putting him into the school system here, we hadn't had to deal with the whole Science Fair mess (and believe me it can be a royal mess). Once again, like last year, we're hitting that last minute mark and rushing to get everything done and ready to go -- You know what I mean - late night, early morning, throwing it all together.

And wouldn't you know the project was due yesterday, the day I should have been putting together this week blog hop... Not much of an excuse considering the project was due in the morning and I had all day to throw something together, but then I spent the whole rest of the day going on little sleep and a husband who had 2 doctors appointments and had also decided that we should spend the day out (between appointments and picking up our son) doing shopping and other errands.....

And.... Ohhh dear, I'm going on and on, and you guys are wanting to know about this week's Hop.

Right, getting back on track... But first, real quick (I promise), we are starting up our blog hop "Featured Writer" button again. Each month a random winner is chosen and a button is created (or you can create your own) and featured on our blogs (Leanne, Heather, and myself; There is also Debb who is on a brief sabbatical who might also put up the monthly "Featured Writer" button). Also, a short blurb will be written in our 'beginning of the month' Hop. 

So how does the Featured Writer thing work? Each time you submit a story, after submitting 3, your name goes into a "digital" hat each month. A random winner is chosen from that "hat" to be our Featured Writer... this month it's Scott Taylor. 

So why not head on over and check out his blog (just make sure you return back here for the blog hop). Scott is one of our regular submitees (ok I'm not sure if there is such a word or if I'm even closing to spelling correctly). He was our top writer (number of submissions for 2014, and I think maybe 2013). For the longest time he was well known, here, for his Cap't Monkey & Tooele Boy short stories (I think he's taken a bit of a break from the Capt Monkey stories, but not from writing short stories). 

And, of course, last week's entries:

• Dear April by Scott Taylor
• Trying to Remember by Tena Carr
• A Knock at the Door by HJ Musk

All-righty, so, on to this week's hop. Since I've already put in so much preliminary info into this blog I won't go into all the rules - You can view them on the WWBH page. 

Briefly:

• 500 words (give or take)
• must include the 2 photos; or the photo and the 5 words must be prominent (bolded) in your story, Please give proper credit (don't steal/share pics as your own)
• while not required a brief mention of the blog hop would be much appreciated... 

The 5 Words to be used this week are:

Dispose
Practical
Gun
Commit
Position

 

 

And the photo the story must be about:

  

Once you've written your story, don't forget to submit via the froggy below:  

Adaptation is key for survival - an IWSG post

Welcome to the second edition of IWSG for 2015. Yes, it's here already, and the scary thought is I'll be introducing you to December's edition before you know it.

But enough of wishing the time away, instead I'd like to give you a quick introduction to me. I was out of the bloggy loop for the end of 2014 and I missed the memo that asked us to say a few words about ourselves in the New Year IWSG post. So, I'm doing it now instead, better late than never, eh?

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My intro ...

I live in England in rural Norfolk, and my regular day job is working for a world-class scientific research facility in Norwich, concentrating mainly on DNA sequencing.

I'm currently on maternity leave, having had my second daughter in June last year, to go with my six year old daughter. Two children is definitely enough, after all you only have two hands, right? 

Writing is a hobby for me at the moment, but I'm doing more all the time and eventually I'd like to earn enough to give up the day job. I don't need to earn millions (although it'd be nice), just enough for what I need.

So, that's me! It's been fun getting to know you all too, and long may it continue.

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So, recently I've been insecure about missing task deadlines. It used to happen a lot, with the result that I felt like a failure, and the effect is cumulative.

I start off with great intentions (don't we all?), marking out in my diary everything I need to get done and when I'm going to do it. I always plan in advance, with plenty of time to draft and edit before submission dates approach. A detailed diary plan is all very well, of course, until something unexpected happens ...

I'm slowly learning to be prepared for flexibility when it comes to these things. If something happens to delay a task, then I need to just reassess and re-jig the plans a little.

I realise this is a straightforward and simple solution, but it just hasn't occurred to me before for some reason. I know it's good to try and get things planned out in advance, and then if I do look like missing the deadline I can just adjust to fit it in elsewhere.

Just like any other creature on this planet has to adapt to its new environment, as a writer I need to learn to adapt my tasks to fit in around every day life. At the moment, this feels like my new environment.

I think some of it, though, also has to do with my (supposed) OCD. I just don't feel comfortable crossing things off without doing them, it just doesn't seem natural. But I need to stop worrying about this sort of ridiculous thing. After all, my diary isn't necessarily messy, it's just a reflection of a working writers tool, right? RIGHT?

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For more information on the amazing entity that is the Insecure Writers Support Group, click on the link and head over. Here you will find the list of who's participating and it's well worth a browse to see what everyone's insecurities are. Trust me, you're not alone, there are plenty of us on the same wavelength.

 Happy IWSG Day!

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Almost caught up!

OK, so we're one week past deadline day for my third assignment, and I carried on true to form and submitted about two hours before the final hour passed. All my good intentions of spending the whole week on it went out the window, but I did a reasonable job on it I think. I'll have to wait until next week for the result, and I think this one will determine if it's still possible to get the Distinction I've been aiming for. Fingers crossed then!

In the last two weeks I've managed to do a lot of catching up, and I'm now only one week behind. Yippee! Admittedly, I did skim read a lot of it, and was pretty selective about which activities I did, but I can always go back over it if I need to. I enjoy doing the activities, I've been producing lots of material that can be put to good use in the future, but sometimes time just doesn't give me the luxury. They're my course books now though, so I can go back to them whenever I want :-)

I'm excited about the next assignment, we're putting together our proposal for the 4000 word short story that is due for the End of Module Assessment. I've never written anything as long as this before, so I'm looking forward to stretching myself a bit. I've got an idea in mind for it, I just need to work out the details and see if it fits the length requirements.

Right then, time to hit the books I guess. I better make a cup of tea first though ...

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