What Up Wednesday 28 Oct 2015

Since Wednesday is my only day off half day, I’ll try to update with a What up Wednesday theme for posts. I’m intentionally not making it What’s up Wednesday because the apostrophe doesn’t translate well when my auto links generate to Twitter.

So, what’s up?

1. I’ve been offered a position on the IT team for the libraries, so sometime after Christmas, I presume, I’ll be moved to a big customer first centre to hang out with the librarians and the techies. I’ll still be an assistant, but I’ll be roaming about, learning and teaching and computing. Yes, I am totally excited.

2. We watched the first episode of Mr. Robot, which was really good much to my surprise.

3. Last movie I watched was Jurassic World – better than I thought it would be as well.

4. We bought our tickets to The Force Awakens. We’ll go on opening night after work. Hooray!

5. I watched the rebroadcast of Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch. That was, hands down, one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. I’ve never been to a really, big time play before, so after seeing it on a cinema screen, I can only imagine how much more amazing it was live. I really could write a whole review on the thing because it was so well done, but just trust me when I say you have to see it. It was movie quality with awesome sound and set design, and they moved the play along so well it was just … well, see it when it comes out on DVD.

6. I’m still reading Life and Death. I only get to read a bit at a time, and it is interesting, I’m just snatching a few pages here and there during my commute.

7. I hear from my high school/college bestie on FB messenger. That’s always a nice thing.

8. I’ve been invited to a birthday party for one of the girls at work – that’s a nice thing too.

9. I bought Sims 4 finally because it’s only £30 at Game. Not sure if it’ll work on my current PC, but I thought I’d try it now that we’ve updated to Windows 10.

10. I had an incident with the bus Monday morning. Our stop was covered in “there will be bus reroutes” signs, but no info where we can actually get the bus. The neighbour and I have no had to walk all the way down the road to the next stop up. On the bright side, I now have a little chat with my neighbour in the morning.

11. No real writing done. I really need to brainstorm ideas. At least I have the weekend off to start NaNoWriMo properly.

Preparing for NaNoWriMo–Part 2–Time Management

This is always a topic of blog conversation around this time of year. I have a similar I mention this at least once a day – having a full time job all but kills the creative process.

It will sit there, waiting to come back to life, but the lack of hours in a day just don’t let us resuscitate it.

Someone once told me that you can have children and a working life if you just lose out on sleep. I’ve often thought about that in regards to keeping a book going, but it’s only going to last a couple days max before you fizzle out.

That’s why the only thing I can figure out is: you have to find the time when it’s good for you. Even if it’s a few moments to get some words down, use them. Bad words are better than no words.

Right now, the only way I can get in any work are my blessed, uncommon days off. I get to the library early, and spend about 20 minutes of quiet time before someone else comes in, and I write. It seems to flow fairly easily too because the morning commute gives me a while to think and to imagine what my characters should be doing.

I’ve tried writing on the bus. It didn’t work out very well. All those bumps, starts and stops left me spending more time retyping typos on my phone.

Since I have a work PC, I have to use a note keeping app. A simple design is all you need for a quick sprint away from home. I’m tempted to try using Write or Die to get some words written in the morning.

Granted, I do write a lot better when it’s me, my computer, my office, and the quiet. I like my home time and I like time to be in the zone. Until then, I have to grab my word count where I can get it.

Prepping for NaNoWriMo–Part 1–Distractions

I live in a loud house. Most of us do, I’m sure. When I’m not able to be at home, I’m out in public where it’s loud as well.

That’s why the topic of my first Prepping for NaNoWriMo post is about choosing ways to keep you from being distracted.

I’ve started a Spotify playlist for my current work in progress. As I’m typing this blog post, my husband has a podcast playing, he’s cooking dinner (bless him), the television is on, and the cat’s scratching at the door in attempts to get my attention.

I can only imagine how houses with kids will be on the distraction/noise front.

Anyway, so back to the playlist. I’ve done this before, and it seemed to help me a lot. I choice books that suit the mood of the novel, and books that remind me of the characters. The movie that’s in your head needs a soundtrack, right?

Generally I like a like of silence when I’m trying to write, but the only time that’s possible is if I wrote in the middle of the night. (Pesky day job.) So instead I have to write on the fly, and at home whenever I can. The walls are far from soundproof, and headphones keep me in my own little world when I’m out on my commute, so finding music that puts me in the mind set of the book is really helpful.

Kicking writing butt in October

Well, we’re back from our holiday in Florida. We spent two weeks of soaking up the sun, swimming, going to Hollywood Studios, dressing up for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and feasting at EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival.

My favorite part of the trip always is lingering at the pool and playing on the beach. I never was a big beach person until I moved away and realized how much I miss the sunshine.

After our visit with my parents, and the plethora of supplies we can get from Wal-Mart and Target, we pretty much decided that we’ll have to move back to the U.S.A. soon.

HOORAY!

It’s not that I don’t love out little home, and the fact that I’ve been able to get things done over here, writing-wise. I just think we’ll have way more opportunities now than we will here.

But until then, I’m back to working on my stories. Since I’ve been working at the library non-stop (and trust me, I am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow at all) I’ve not had a lot of time to be creative. That is a number one bummer for me, and I’m sure most people can empathize with my plight. So, I’ve spent some of the holiday and most of this weekend getting writing ducks back in a row.

I started working on the stories that I have kept in the back of my head, but haven’t done much with them. I’ve made a handy books page on the author site (which I’m cross-posting to from here) to give me a good boost of motivation.

If you can see it, you can believe it.

Also, I was just looking at my NaNoWriMo account, and it suggested that those with book covers get finished. So, I’ve made myself some covers to guide me.

I’m also going to start updating my stories on Wattpad more. I think that’s going to be a good homework assignment/deadline/goal to reach for, especially if there’s a potential audience out there.

Therefore, I’ve put the first working prologue of Club Paradise on Wattpad.

It’s contemporary, it’s fun, it’s YA, and it’s everything I’ve been wanting to write for a long time. With that in mind, I’ll be sure to keep the story up-to-date, as well as the blog.

There’s nothing like a nice vacation to clear your head and make you more determined than ever to work your butt off!