Tag: writing

Lots going on

I seem to have an awful lot of exciting things going on at the moment.

There seems to be so much happening at the moment. We’re on day 9 of the year and already I feel that this is going to be a good year in which I’m going to achieve lots.

I signed up for the travel writing course with the London School of Journalism on Saturday night and by Sunday I had my first two lessons emailed to me. I really wasn’t expecting it to be that quick! Today I’ve had another email from them with a lot more information. I’ve skimmed through the two lessons to get an idea of what’s expected of me so I can start thinking about them. I’ll wait until the weekend to go through them properly though.

Still on the topic of writing, yesterday I was reading Wanderlust magazine and found a short book review that had been submitted by a reader. This is a regular column where readers can submit a review of a ‘must read book’ that they’ve ‘read on location’. There’s no payment involved, but it seems like a good way to start getting myself into print.

I made a quick study of the style of the already published article and then wrote one in a similar style and emailed it off to the magazine. I also used a few of the tips I’d picked up from my skim-reading of the two writing course lessons I’ve received to make the layout and presentation seem a bit more professional. I’ve already got a reply from ‘Tom’ thanking me and saying he’s looking forward to reading it. Reading what? My review? Or the book itself because he likes my review? Does this mean I’m going to be published? It’s all a bit ambiguous. But if I am published then that’s a good start on my 2012 twelve list.

On a completely different topic, today was my first day back at school and I was already discussing half-term plans with a colleague. We got onto summer holiday plans and she mentioned she has booked to go to Womad with a group of girlfriends. I had no plans to go to Womad over the next few years because it falls in the summer holidays when I’d rather be away somewhere for a month or more. I want to go to Womad, but thought it could wait a while. However, when my colleague mentioned it and then invited me along it seemed like fate. Another example of how keeping a list and focussing on the things I want to achieve helps to make them happen. So I’ve said I’ll go. It should be fun to be with a group of people as well.

I’ve just been online to book a ticket, but it’s all a bit confusing. I need to check with her tomorrow which type of ticket she’s got and for which days, then I can get mine booked. I’ll still have time to go to Scotland afterwards (or Japan if the free tickets thing happens), and I can explore Wiltshire or Somerset for a few days before the festival starts.

I’ve got the floatation tank booked in London for half-term and today they’ve emailed me to confirm two sessions. I’ve mailed back to correct it to one session! I’ve also got a ticket for the Hajj exhibition at the British Museum over half-term. During the rest of my time in London the friend I’m staying with suggested meeting up at lunch time one day to go to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen. If we can’t get in there then we may go to the Ritz for afternoon tea instead. I’d like to go to Jamie’s restaurant, but the afternoon tea at the Ritz would mean another challenge ticked off. Choices, choices …

Whilst I was planning my half-term and thinking about the things I can achieve I thought I might as well check out England fixtures at Wembley. I got excited when I realised England are playing Holland on February 29th, until I realised that this is the week after half-term. I thought about trying to get down for the game, but I really don’t think I’d make it on time. I’ve looked at other fixtures and there’s a Belgium game I could go to in June. It’s on a Saturday, so the travelling time wouldn’t be a problem. I’d rather go to the Holland game, as The Netherlands is a country I go to most years and feel a bit of a connection to. Also, the only other game I’ve ever been to at Wembley was an international schoolboys’ game when I was at school myself. This game was England vs Holland, and so it seemed kind of meant to be that the game I see now should be England vs Holland. Except it’s not meant to be. Oh well, can’t have everything.

To apply for tickets for an England game I need a FAN (FA number). I’ve applied for one and now have it ready for when the tickets for the Belgium game go on sale. I’ll have to keep monitoring the FA’s site to make sure I do get a ticket.

I still have quite a few posts about Iceland in the draft stage as well which I’m trying to get finished, but now I’m getting distracted by all these other things. I’m certainly not complaining about having lots of good things going on in my life though!

I’m home

I’ve just got back from Iceland and I already have a huge to-do list.

I got home from Iceland this morning. It’s been a really long day as I had to get up at 3.30am for my flight. I have so many different things I want to blog about I don’t know where to start. It’s going to take a while for me to get everything out of my head and on to my computer. I met some amazing people, heard some amazing stories and saw the Northern Lights. Amazing.

I’ve been practising with my new camera and been taking loads of photos every day. I still have to take one for today to keep up with 2012 task of taking at least one photo every day. I ordered a video camera before I went away and it has arrived. I haven’t opened it yet, but learning how to use it will go towards my other 2012 task of learning how to use three new pieces of technology or software.

Over the coming week I need to book the floatation tank for half term and enrol on a writing course. I also need to sort out insurance for the two houses I currently own (my goal is five); sort out some repairs in the house I rent out; put together a fitness programme; return my new backpack as it’s already got a seam coming loose; get to Martin Mere to take a photo that will win me a trip to Antarctica; remember to take a photo each day; download (and upload) all my photos; try to get out on at least one walk; and get my blog updated. I don’t really have time to go back to school on Monday!

This and That

Preparing for the Norfolk Coast Path and lots of other things.

Three more getups and then I’m off to Norfolk for half term. I’m looking forward to walking the Norfolk Coast Path and I’m intrigued to find out what sort of weather I’ll get. Every weekend has been so different recently and now I keep hearing talk of snow. Bring it on! – I’ll enjoy the walk whatever the weather.

I’ve been googling and searching Amazon looking for books set in Norfolk that I can read whilst I’m there, but haven’t had any luck finding anything. Then this evening my eyes alighted on my copy of Bill Bryson’s ‘At Home’. A bell started to ring in the deep recesses of my mind – didn’t he settle in Norfolk when he moved back to the UK? A quick check, and yes, the book is about his house in Norfolk. So that’s the one I’ll be taking with me. It’s very chunky and so I doubt I’ll get much of it read, but at least I can start it. My habit of reading books set in, or about, the places I visit isn’t helping me get through the BBC Big Read challenge, but I’ll get round to that at some point.

To prepare for the walk I’ve been very good about going to the gym. I hadn’t been for ages as life just kind of took over and ate up all my time. But this past few weeks I’ve been going regularly and feeling good for it. I’m surprised that my fitness level is still pretty good, but maybe all the walking I did in the summer has paid off there.

I had been hoping to go back to the local college this week for a bit more waxing, but decided I’d rather spend my available evenings in the gym instead. So stage two of that challenge will have to wait until after half term.

By the time half term is over it will be almost November and time for me to start NaNoWriMo. I still haven’t thought about what I’m going to write, but that’s ok. I’m just going to use the month to let my thoughts flow free and see what happens. I’m going to concentrate on quantity not quality. If I’m able to write 50,000 words in a month then at least I’ll know that I do have the stamina and patience to think seriously about writing in the future. Then I’ll think about quality.

I finished my first aid course last week. This is only a basic course, but has given me confidence to tackle the more full-on course that I’ll need to do for walking group leader’s qualification. I’ll think about doing this in the spring. That’ll give me plenty of time to read up on first aid and consolidate what I’ve learnt.

So all in all, things are ticking along quite nicely.

NaNoWriMo

Can I write 50,000 words in a month?

I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo. So from the 1st November, for a month, I will be typing furiously trying to write 50,000 words for a novel I have no idea about yet. I’m consciously trying to not think about it till then as I just want to write whatever comes into my head and not worry about quality or if it even makes sense.

This may sound like a crazy way of doing things and the usual advice is to have a plan, write a draft, check the plan, blah, blah, blah. But I’ve always found when I start with plans I over think and struggle to actually get any words down. When I was studying, once I’d finished researching an essay I’d just sit and write for an hour. I found that not only was this good exam practice, it was the only thing that worked to actually get me started. And once I had an hour’s worth of words, I’d read over it and then make my plan and do the next draft and all the rest of the blah, blah, blah stuff.

NaNoWriMo actually encourages my way of writing. (Though I think I’m maybe supposed to have an idea of what I’m going to write about). It’s a month of quantity and not quality. So I’m just going to go for it and see what happens. It’ll be a test of my patience and dedication to actually sit down each night and write. If I can’t do this and write when I don’t have to care about the quality then I’m really going to struggle to write anything in the future where quality is important.

NaNoWriMo

Thinking about NaNoWriMo

I’m not disciplined enough to write a book. But I would like to have a go. If I ever do write one I don’t think it will be fiction as I’m not imaginative enough. It’ll probably be more like a fictionalised account based on a true story. Because I think this will be very hard for me to achieve I’ve included ‘writing a book’ as a separate challenge to actually being a writer on my 60 things to do before I’m 60 list. If I write a book but never write anything else, I’ll only tick off the book task. If I write and get published regularly, but don’t write a book, then I’ll only tick off the writer challenge.

I heard of NaNoWriMo recently on another blog. I had no idea what it was about but a bit of googling soon sorted that out. It stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place each November. It started as an American thing, hence the ‘national’, but is now global.

Basically you register, and then spend November trying to write a 50,000 word novel. By the end of the month you have to upload your novel to their site and their special counting machines do a word count. If you’ve achieved the magical 50,000 you get to copy and paste an online certificate. So no big prizes, but then it is free. And it gets people writing. The best reward of course is that by the end of the month you have 50,000 more words than you had at the start and so have something to play around with and try to turn into an actual novel.

When I was a student and had to write essays I always struggled with the traditional ‘make a plan first’ approach. I agree, this is a very sensible and practical approach and I can’t fault it. But I couldn’t do it. I would write my plan and then stare at the page not knowing how to turn it into an essay. So I came up with my own technique. After doing some research around the subject area, so I at least had a bit of a clue about what I was doing, I would sit down and time myself for one hour. In that hour I had to write my essay. This killed two birds with one stone. It was great exam practice and it meant I had something on paper that I could then edit and turn into an acceptable essay. After reading it through I’d have a good idea of what I could actually do with the essay, what changes needed to be made, what needed to be added (or left out), and so on. Then I’d make my plan and write my essay in the conventional way.

With NaNoWriMo I’ll have to use this technique. There’ll be no time for edits, drafts, research, plans, or any of the other stuff that you’re supposed to do first. Sounds perfect for me!

So depending on my workload, and how my college courses are going, I’ll be giving this go. Hopefully this November, but if not, then the one after.

Becoming a Writer

Making decisions about a writing course.

I’ve always liked the idea of being a writer – work when and where you want to, write about things you’re interested in, get to do things that other people don’t, and so on. However, I realise that I might not like the reality as much as I like the idea. Having constant deadlines, having to write in a way an editor wants me to rather than the way I want to, trying to sell my work, and so on. But unless I try I’ll never know. A few years ago I started to think more seriously about this and managed to get paid £100 for a 200 word article I wrote for the Times Educational Supplement. Then life got incredibly busy again and I never got round to writing anything else. I’ve always kept travel diaries, but haven’t really written anything else. So if I do get seriously involved in writing I think it would have to be travel writing in some form or other (I would include outdoor activity type writing in with this though).

Continue reading “Becoming a Writer”