Saturday 15 January 2011

new year, new things

this morning, I did a new thing. I got up early (on a Saturday) and went to the GYM

yes, that's right, the gym. I went to a body pump class. for those of you who don't know, its like squats and lunges and general movement with weights. it hurts. and I feel ok now but tomorrow I imagine I will feel like I've been kicked down the stairs

yesterday, I did another new thing. I posted my story in a forum to get some feedback on it. I've never done that before and it was quite scary. scarier, even, than my writing group, but so worth it. so far I've received one critique but it is so thoughtful and so considered I've taken every little bit on board. a couple of the points I read thinking "you're so right". I guess that kind of objectivity comes from someone who doesn't know me, when comments don't have to be said out loud. anyway, so far, it has been an incredibly positive experience and one I definitely intend to repeat. the story will undergo a few more revisions and tomorrow it will be printed and read outloud a few times whilst the boyf is at the football (its the derby. last time Newcastle absolutely humped Sunderland but can they do it again?) and then it will be sent out. this will be the fourth time its gone out, but the first in it's most recent incarnation of being in the first person. fingers crossed it will fare better

the forum (should you wish to check it out) is part of Winning Words, a website maintained by the lovely Michelle, you can see it here

http://winningwords.org.uk/

ok, thats it from me. good night! xx

Wednesday 5 January 2011

hello again, Happy New Year and all that jazz...

So today I submitted the first short story of the New Year. Woohoo! Exciting times. I have plans to finish rewriting another two. One needs a lot of work. One, not so much. When you're rewriting, do you ever feel like it will never end? Like you don't have enough words in you to shape this little story into what it needs to be?

That's a bit how I feel. I just need to put my head down and actually work hard. It'll get there.

In other news, I may soon have nothing but time to work hard at my writing as I got told last month that I'm at risk of redundancy. I was a bit stressed, but then realised it was out of my control so have stopped being stressed about it. I have, however, found and applied for a job (inhouse) which is all about writing. I know. And had I not been at risk, I might not have checked the jobs board that day, so fingers crossed something will come from that.

Aside from that, I just have to keep writing. The devil makes work for idle hands, or in my case, he finds a remote control and puts it there and then I'm forever trapped in an endless cycle of rubbishy American crime dramas. I'm fast approaching the end of my two weeks off...right, must get a shower and WRITE.

Bye!