Christmas greetings

Wishing you all a magical Christmas!

Does it count?

One of my goals is to be published in Mslexia, so I was thrilled to see my name in the current issue. Unfortunately they hadn’t chosen one of my short stories for their New Writing feature, they had only printed a comment I made on their blog. Oh well, it’s a start!

P.S. Mslexia are running a free prize draw for some very useful books for writers. Closing date 31^st December. Find it by scrolling down to the bottom of their home page.

Word of the week (8)

She was luminescent with bright ideas.

NaNoWriMo – the end, or a beginning?

I gave up all hope of reaching the target 50,000 words of NaNoWriMo about halfway through November, but I kept writing right up until the evening of the 30th.

My final total was 23,791, not including some handwritten notes and all the words still churning about in my head! I confess that I couldn’t resist slowing down and doing a bit of editing as I began to see connections between random scenes and plot threads, but it was still a lot more words than I usually produce in a month of ‘normal’ writing.

Was it worth it?

Definitely!

By the end of NaNoWriMo I had the very rough outline of a new novel. 

I can’t call it a first draft because it’s so muddled, and padded out with a lot of waffle, but I’m confident there’s enough material there to shape into a respectable first draft. It has a definite beginning and ending, plot points to lead me through the middle and, most importantly, a cast of characters who are all very real to me.

I’ve saved the whole thing but I probably won’t look at it again for many months. I first need to get back to real life and catch up with everything I put on hold at the end of October. (I haven't even done my Christmas shopping yet!)

Word of the week (7)

gumption

If only she’d had the gumption to use that word before!

(Wondering what my Word of the Week is about? Click here for an explanation.)

 

Farewell, Friend

I was engulfed by a wave of nostalgia when I heard that the last British typewriter

has been made in the Brother factory in North Wales.

I remember, as a teenager, attending an evening class in typewriting because my mother was convinced a typing qualification would guarantee me a good job when I left school.

I remember the teacher playing a record of marching music on a gramophone (another piece of ancient technology), and slapping her hand on the desk as she called out the letters while we trainee typists tried to – press – the – right – keys – to – the – rhythm – of – a – brass – band

I remember struggling through a timed typing test as part of a job interview, and the relief I felt when I was told it was only a formality as the job mostly involved writing by hand.

I remember the sinking feeling I had when I read in the Writers & Artists Yearbook that magazine editors and publishers would no longer consider handwritten manuscripts. I had given up paid work on the birth of my first baby and even a second-hand typewriter seemed an unaffordable luxury.   

I remember the thrill, after months of scrimping and saving, when I became the proud owner of the cheapest portable typewriter I could find.

I remember the frustration of spending hours carefully typing out a short story only to discover I’d made a mistake! 

I remember how modern I felt when I swapped the manual typewriter for an electric word processor, and then how nonchalantly I gave them both away when I progressed to a personal computer!

I wouldn’t want to go back to the old days of carbon paper, stuck keys, and the messy business of changing ribbons, but discovering that the last British typewriter has been donated to London's Science Museum has made me wish I’d kept my little bit of history. 

 

Word of the week (6)

What shall I call this strange, old woman who has wandered into my novel? An eccentric vagabond? An aging hippy? A tatterdemalion!