Support is Priceless - an IWSG post

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  This post is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG), a great place to share troubles and triumphs with fellow writers. To find more blogs on this hop, and to sign up yourself head over to Alex J Cavanaugh's blog to find out more. He's definitely one worth following.


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 About two weeks ago I published a post about the struggles I'd been having keeping up with everything that's going on in my life.
I have study going on, this blog and some writing stuff that I'm trying to make more time for, and they are all things that are important to me. In some way or other they each give me some purpose, providing the escapism I need to help me relax and be myself.

As you well know, there is still the everyday world to contend with. I also have a full time job, as I know many others do, a family and home life all to be juggled too. It's tiring work keeping all those balls in the air, but if you can manage it then it's all worthwhile. After all, if you haven't got to put even a little bit of effort in then it's probably not worth doing in the first place.

I had some encouraging and helpful comments in response to this post, and I want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to those that took the time to help me through. I read each comment a few times, taking on board the advice offered and you have definitely helped me to see through the quagmire and find the light on the other side.

I'm continuing with my studies, after all it's only for another four months and then it's finished. There is an exam at the end but that's a whole different bag of worries. I'm over half way through it now so I'm battling on to get to the end. I just have to keep an eye on my workload and not get myself into a massive frenzy.
I get three months off and then the next part of the course starts in October. This will be a creative writing module, which means I will be able to combine my writing with studying. I won't have to feel guilty about doing one over the other.

The point of this post is to highlight just how valuable it is to have the support of others that have either been through or are currently in the same situation as you. That's why I love this monthly blog hop, it's a chance to help out others where I can, and to share some of my own woes or successes with others.

It can be a lonely place, distance learning and writing by yourself, but even if you can't get to a writers group or tutorial, there is a whole world of like-minded (and possibly crazy, or is that just me?) people to help you through the bad times, and celebrate the good times.


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Wednesday Blog Hop - Something for Nothing

Phew! I've just about managed to get this in this week before I'm too tired to concentrate. The last two weeks have just raced by and so have the prompts for this blog hop.

But here I am this week, rushing it at the end to hand it in before the deadline ticks round. You'll have to bear with my entry this week, it's still fairly rough around the edges, but something is still better than nothing.



So, as usual the rules are:

• use the photo prompt
• use the five words given
• do not exceed 500 words
• post your entry before the following Wednesday
• link up with the wonderful hosts
• check out the other contributions
• have fun!!!

This weeks photo:

This weeks words:    bill, chisel, title, system, bicycle

Our lovely hosts:  Carrie Sorenson at Chasing Revery, Nicole Pyles at The World of My Imagination

And my contribution:

Something for Nothing

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The weather system had been malfunctioning for months now, and Sylvia was coming to the end of her patience with it. In the beginning, it had been wonderful being able to control the weather, but the warranty on it must have been running out or something because all it seemed to do now was break down. It wasn't so bad when they'd had the heat of summer for six months, although that too began to wane towards the end of it. It was no fun riding a bicycle to work when it made you sweat out of every pore before you'd even arrived.

Of course, nobody was allowed to make any complaints about it. She remembered the debates had raged for years before it was decided to take the technology on, it was to be the saviour of mankind in the face of the devastation brought on by the changing climate. So many bills had been passed to make way for its construction, it's a wonder it went into operation at all.

Then there was a spate of deaths surrounding the final months of construction. It had fallen behind schedule and there was one last push to get it out on time. The men who sat up in their sky high offices, wearing their expensive suits and carrying their fancy titles, sacrificed the lives of too many men in order to reach their ambitious targets. They all but forgot about the people doing the actual work, the chisels and the hammers as they called them. All that became of them were statistics.

But Joey hadn't been a statistic to Sylvia. He'd been a loving father and husband, a hard worker who'd do anything he could to help out for the greater good. At least that's what he used to call it. She thought he should concentrate on doing more good nearer to home, with his family. He'd been away for weeks at a time working on the project, and the last time he'd come home it had been the shortest of visits, just a day and a night before he had to return.

She felt like her heart had been ripped from her chest the day she'd got the news, the day he became 'just a statistic'. She didn't care what the weather did now, all it was to her was a reminder of what she'd lost. And it worked so well, or so she thought, that his efforts seemed to have been for nothing.

Word count: 419

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Writers Book of Days - January catchup

January Success rate:  11/31 = 35%

I'm a little dismayed at the start I've made with this challenge. I started out well, the best intentions of a fresh New Year start I suppose, but once I was back at work I seemed to run out of time during the day again.

I tried having some catch up sessions, but the purpose of doing the exerise is lost then really. All I'm doing is trying to get my word count up and check off another couple of days on the list.

So, I have missed out rather a few days in the first month, but I'm going to pick it up again this month doing the right prompts on the right days. If I get some spare time now and again I'll try and go back and fill in the gaps but I'm not going to make it into a chore.

When I have found the time to sit down and do it, I set my timer for 20 minutes and just type until the alarm goes. Each time I'm pleasantly surprised at what I can produce in response to the prompt. Sometimes the final entry only loosely relates to the initial thought, evolving as it does as the words appear on the screen. The mood just seems to take me and the entry takes on a life of its own. This is both fascinating and a little spooky.

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It's A-Z Challenge Sign-up time!

It's finally here, sign-up for this years A-Z blogging challenge! It officially opened last Wednesday and there are already over 500 participants.

For those out there who may still be unfamiliar with this challenge, where have you been?!? I'm only kidding, but seriously?

The idea is to blog something on almost every day in April, using the alphabet as the starter for each post. So, on 1st Apr post something begging with A, on 2nd April use B, 3rd April use C ... and so on.
We get Sundays off for good behaviour, well except for the first one which falls on the 1st, and this equates to 26 days and 26 letters. Nifty, huh?

You can have a theme for your posts or just do it on the fly. Last year my posts were all writing-related, I kept it pretty simple as it was my first year taking part. I loved it so much though I'm back for more!
I have a theme for my posts this year but I'm not telling what just yet. You'll have to wait and see!

This year there is a slight addition to proceedings in the form of Blog Categories. This is completely optional, but if you want to follow blogs on a similar theme to your own then this is a good sign-post for you to find them. Please note though that once you have committed yourself to a group in your sign-up you won't be able to change it.

The categories are:

1. Writing  (WR)

2. Books  (BO)

3. Film  (FM)

4. Photography  (PH)

5. Gardening  (GR)

6. Craft  (CR)

7. Art  (AR)

8. Music  (MU)

9. Culinary  (CU)

10. Lifestyle  (LI )  

11. Fashion  (FA)

12. Personal  (PR)

13. Social Media  (SO)

14. Gaming  (GA)

15. Education  (ED)

16. Politics  (PO)

17. History  (HI)

18. Science  (SC)

19. Humor  (HU)

20. Travel  (TR)

21. Miscellaneous  (MI)

22. Adult Content  (AC)

Just pick the category you want to use and add the code at the end of your name/blog name on the linky list.

Once you've done your post for each day, remember to head back to the linky list and try to visit at least 5 other blogs. It's a great place to meet knew people as well as getting your own blog out there.

Right, I'm heading off to sign up, why don't you join us? Just click on the link in my sidebar. There's plenty of time to get started. I'll see you there!

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It's Friday, let's celebrate!

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It's time again to celebrate any of the small things that have happened during the week, and of course the fact that it's Friday.  Woohoo!!!

For more places to go to celebrate the small things head over to Scribblings of an Aspiring Author, and you can sign up to!

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Today I'm celebrating:

• Submitting my latest OU assignment. The topic was poetry, which I was a bit apprehensive about, but I actually enjoyed writing the essay. It was sent two days late, a considerable improvement on the last one!
• My daughter is doing well at school, learning her letter sounds. It's a pleasure sitting with her as she's learning the process of reading, I can't wait to introduce her to some of my favourite stories and books.
• Managing to get Bon Jovi tickets for Hyde Park! I'm so excited about this, I think I might just burst!

I hope you've all had a good week, why don't you share your successes?

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Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself Blog Hop

So, this blog hop is all about reintroducing yourself to the blogosphere. There's still time to sign up, just head on over to Stephen Tremp's blog and check out some of the others while you're there too.




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I wish I could say that I wrote my first story when I was four and have been writing off and on all my life. The truth is, I think I did write a story when I was about six or seven, but we were doing it as a class so it kind of takes away the sentimentality of it.

The next venture I had into the world of novel writing was when I was 11 and my English class wrote one together. I only had a couple of pages to write but I found I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately not everyone in the class took to it as enthusiastically and the end product turned out to be rather lacking in anything resembling a readable novel.

Following on from school, I went to college, studied science with The Open University and now work for a recognised Institute doing DNA sequencing. Throughout my studies, every year I would look for what course I was going to do next, and more and more I started to err towards the arts courses. Thinking back on it, I'm not sure why I did science instead of English, particularly as I did better in English at GCSE.

About two years ago I got talking to someone at work about writing stuff, and it turned out we had similar interests, so we started a little writing club and wrote stories to share. We even began the first stages of a collaboration, but work and family commitments inevitably get in the way so we haven't got very far with it.

This is what started my current adventure into the world of writing, and indeed blogging. Ever since then I've tried to work on some kind of writing routine, using various different techniques to practice my skills. My confidence has grown slowly and I'm becoming much more comfortable in this new world.  It may sound crazy, but the whole experience is helping me to find who I am, and I'm finally getting to the point where I'm happy with myself and what I'm doing. It seems to have taken a long time but I'm finally getting there.

I've also started doing the arts courses that I've been looking at so longingly and I've really enjoyed getting into a completely new area of study, although I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been a struggle at times.

And so now here I am, I've had this blog for a little over a year now and I feel I'm growing with it all the time. My productivity is increasing and I'm finding it easier to get motivated to sit down and do the work. I've made so many great friends that seem to be on the same level and understand exactly some of the things I've been going through. You can't put a price on support like that really, and I'm glad to have been accepted into the community.

Hopefully this is the beginnings of a long and successful journey, which I will be more than happy to share with you all as time goes on.

Here's to the future ...


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Celebrate the Small Things!

It's Friday, yay! And time for a new blog hop. This one is the brainchild of VikLit at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author and is to celebrate even the smallest of achievements that you manage in the week. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it evoked a positive feeling of satisfaction and joy at having done something.

This is a weekly hop so head on over to Vik's blog to get more details and to sign up, or click on the badge on my side bar.  Enjoy!


This week I want to celebrate:

• Getting through the whole week without slipping over and hurting myself. It has been very icy the last week or so, so it's been quite a challenge!
• Making good progress with my current read, Interview with the Vampire - I'll definitely be finishing it this weekend
• Deciding on a topic for the A-Z Blogging Challenge in April (although this is bound to change between now and then!)

Until next time ...


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