Dear Blog, sorry for ignoring you, Love Me.

Three people asked me about my blog in late December. One of them is a pretty important person in our town and two of them I see often; when I go to work. I talked animatedly to each of them about my blog, what I write about, and how much I love it. I did however feel like a bit of a fraud; as I mentally calculated how long it has been since I actually written a post.

For the whole of November and some of October before that, I was obsessed about NaNoWriMo. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. Every Tuesday, I sat at Lonsdale Street Roasters (coffee heaven, hello everyone) and wrote and drank coffee til my bum went numb on the hard chair. I then went home and wrote some more, on a more comfortable chair.

Racking 'em up!

I ignored most other things. I tried not to get distracted. I still had to work three days a week. I still went to yoga, I went to the shops. But I didn’t watch tv, I didn’t garden much, and I certainly ignored my family more often than normal. My patient and kind Robert, looked after the children. Both the big and the little were restless, filled with end of year angsty tiredness.

Cheers

It quickly moved from celebrating NaNo victory to mad christmas and December rush. We have a lot of December birthdays in our family and immediate circle – a lot. Every spare moment I was buying gifts, wrapping, sending acceptances, thank you notes. We made Christmas cakes, and puddings, and then mince tarts. And ice-cream. After being away last year, and labouring away the year before, it was like we were cramming three years of christmas into one. We had visitors, we went visiting. Frankly, while some of it was very enjoyable and some of it hilarious (especially Christmas eve when the carefully set kettle BBQ went out after half an hour, necessitating a few changes of plan and then later due to extreme drunkenness we forgot to cook the potatoes) it was totally exhausting.

So here we are in early January. I am half-way through a significant milestone. I have enrolled in a yoga intensive for this week. Two classes per day for five days. This is much more important than it looks because of what it represents. For me, this week is about bringing myself back to a position where I can move on. And it is hard. My muscles remember how much work it takes. I know the poses, I know what it feels like to do so many classes. I used to do it all the time. Then I stopped. And I shouldn’t have left it. I should have made myself go, had more courage to overcome the fear of changing schools and leaving my familiar and-well loved teachers from Sydney.

Sydney Yoga Space Intensive 2006

I am back now. Back on the mat. Significantly, my past experience is assisting me. What is so significant about yoga for me, is that it gives me back control of myself. It helps my body become strong and relaxed, it gives me mental and emotional space from my responsibilities and it allows me to feel good about my outer shell, as well as my inner world which it is easier for me to feel good about.

I won! I’ve finished NaNoWriMo!

 

That is all. I won. I wrote 50028 words from 1 November to 29 November 2011.

NaNoWriMo you are mine.

NaNoWriMo Update

Day 20 has just passed. My word count is up over the 30 000 word line. It is starting to look like the downhill slide.

The denouement is creeping closer. I am carefully setting the scene for the fall and resolution.

I have had some pretty huge writing days. At least three days over the month I have written over 5ooo. Another few I have written over 3000. I did not keep my promise to myself to write everyday. The delicious progress bar chart on the NaNo site has little steps in the middle of most weeks where I didn’t progress at all. On my least productive day I wrote 25 words. A long sentence. That was it.

As I press on for the last 10 days (eek!) as I pass 35 000 and then 45 000, I have to keep reminding myself that not every page will be great but that it exists at all is great. I look forward to the race to the finish line. Not least of all because they maybe, just maybe be champagne waiting when I cross it.

I am learning an enormous amount about the writing craft during this challenge.  Here is a sample of the lessons. (Any seasoned writers reading this, please turn the page now, before I fall in your esteem.)

1. Dialogue is hard to write. Actually, good dialogue is hard to write.

2. You need an infinite variety of synonyms for ‘quietly’ or ‘softly’ if your characters are whispering to each other a lot. (Mine are)

3. My characters spend a lot of time with their faces pressed up against the glass looking out – at the view, at the skyline, at the planes. They are always doing it! Is this normal?

4. If you write with action in both hemispheres at once, map out what season it is at any point first. So confusing. I am sure that these sections will need editing, a lot of editing.

5. You need to keep checking your character’s motivations, clarifying point of view. Would she really say that? Is she just not going to answer the phone?

6. Some word, that you don’t often have to type are really hard to spell and look all wrong when you type them; meringue for example.

7. Sometimes the writing is easy, it comes out and flows well. Sometimes it is torture to sit at the desk for one more minute writing what you know is essential description but so boring that you’d rather stick a pencil in your eye that write one more word about the departure lounge at Heathrow. (For the record I just stopped; the plane took off, scene finished, job done.)

NaNoWriMo Halfway Update

 

It’s November 15.

It’s NaNoWriMo halfway mark.

Shortly before 4pm I typed the 25 002nd word of my NaNo story.

HALF WAY! HALF WAY! Sky rockets in flight! #NaNoWriMo
@stellaorbit
Louise Bassett

 

Here is my last paragraph for the middle of the story.

Outside it was warm and the late summer breeze carried with it the promise of cool weather and the change of seasons. They walked to the tube, Cooper still none the wiser about their destination. The afternoon was proceeding better than Matthew had hoped. Pleased with himself, he bounced on the balls of his feet.

Stay tuned. I’m on track and have really started to enjoy the process. I am now so focused on the task at hand, my week has been reorganised around getting me in the chair and in front of my macbook. Seems to be working.

 

I’ve lost control

Vladimir Nabokov, The Art of Fiction No. 40

INTERVIEWER

E. M. Forster speaks of his major characters sometimes taking over and dictating the course of his novels. Has this ever been a problem for you, or are you in complete command?

NABOKOV

My knowledge of Mr. Forster’s works is limited to one novel, which I dislike; and anyway, it was not he who fathered that trite little whimsy about characters getting out of hand; it is as old as the quills, although of course one sympathizes with his people if they try to wriggle out of that trip to India or wherever he takes them. My characters are galley slaves.

Nabokov’s characters did exactly what he wanted them too. I’m close to 7000 words into the NaNo novel and already I’ve lost control. My characters are doing their own things! I’ve written myself into a corner and now I have to write a sex scene. There are continuity issues, my flashbacks are out of order, it’s the past – no wait not that far back – fuck. Wait, that hasn’t happened yet. It’s a nightmare. And entirely par for the course with the challenge of writing this fast. Regardless of my plotting, I’m still having to ‘pants’ parts of the story. There isn’t time to story board the sequences, so by the seat of my pants, I am guessing, making it up. Cranking out the daily words so I don’t fall behind.

Trying to introduce enough tension between the central characters and avoiding any more love interests – man are they trouble!

Sunshine in a cup … Write on Wednesday

This week for Write on Wednesday we are back to our faithful timer and the challenge of writing to a prompt for five minutes. The wonderful Emily Dickinson and “Bring me sunshine in a cup”. 

 

Bring me sunshine in a cup.

Place it gently on the table, right in front on me. Watch the dust motes dance and swirl in the early summer breeze.

Feel the glowing warmth rising. But what is it? What is the strange sensation of warmth and light? Is it the tea? Is it the warm breeze? It is the warm thoughts of home rising quietly within me as I sip the tea. Soon, soon I will be there again. Home. Where the sunshine just seeps in and is not confined to a mere cup of warmth and light. Home. Where the close spaces with their familiarity ease me back into the rhythm of living. Where the simple pleasures of tea, a bath and a moment’s peace in the sun can begin to restore me. To give me back the zest. To give me back the calm. Like a soothing balm the light illuminates my face.

Violas

National Novel Writing Month #nanowrimo

Update!

It is now two hours until NaNoWriMo starts!

I am bursting with excitement and nervous energy. Tomorrow I will be sitting drinking coffee and writing like demons are pursuing me across plains of lava; in other words as fast as humanly possible to get a great start.

I have an arc of a story. It has characters. Love interests (yes plural – holy crap!) It has locations and I can actually smell it now.

Wish me luck.

This much neglected blog will now become further neglected and I am sorry to my handful of loyal readers for that, but a larger cause and a bigger quest is at hand.

 

____________________________________

It is nearly November. In fact there are fifteen days and counting left of October.

This year this means one important thing. National Novel Writing Month.

I have started my preparation. If you can call staring into the middle distance and hoping a story arc whacks you over the head, preparation.

This year I have themes. This year I will start on the first day. This year I will write every day. This year I have some characters.

All of these little preparations are a big improvement on last year. Last year I didn’t start until the first week was almost over. I had no characters. I did not write every day. And I only wrote a pathetic 3260 words.

I have high hopes this time. I am better prepared. I have a child who reliably sleeps through the night. I have a day off a week. I have a couple of story ideas. I’ve made some notes.

I am participating in this grand writing collective frenzy for one reason; to test myself. To see if I can do it. To see if I have enough story writing in me to write something sustained.  50 000 words. It is a tough ask. It is 1 667 words a day. Each and every day for a month.

We shall see. In the meantime, I will continue to hope for a story arc or a brilliant idea. I have still got a few days.

Write on Wednesday … chose your own adventure

3 o’clock. An unexpected early afternoon at home. It was a warm but overcast afternoon. How to enjoy the extra time?

A trip to the shops. A time filler. An afternoon treat. Toddler’s favourite. We set off. Man, woman and child. Oh and the cat. At the bottom of the drive we encounter our first hurdle. The road.

Walk on the path. Walk with daddy, hold his hand. Off we go again. Back on the path.

Oh look here’s the cat. Following. The toddler wheels around to see the cat, then races for the road.

It's a slow procession

We are hold hands with the small boy between us. His legs swing, his shoes scrape the concrete. He twists and wriggles in our grasp. One hand and then the other wrenches free. The small boy pokes at a tiny moth lying prostrate on the footpath. A tiny victim of spring. The man leans down to tell the small boy all about the moth. He pokes it gently. Its damaged wings flutter pathetically but it is too broken to fly away.

Walk on the path. Hold daddy’s hand. I say these words over and over again.

The small boy wriggles free again. Takes a few rapid steps into a front garden. He runs around in circles all over the lawn which is still settling in. I notice the strips of turf haven’t matted together yet, the lines are clearly visible.

Eventually we all make it to the top of the strip of shops. I see a flash of grey and white dart into a shrub across the road. Our cat, sits crouched and anxious, waiting. We make our way down the wide footpath. Every sandwich board is carefully inspected, hidden behind. Each piece of street art examined in minute detail. I am impatiently pacing back and forth trying to encourage my unruly band to follow me toward the supermarket. But there are dogs to pat, rubbish to be picked up, sculptures to fondle. There is absolutely no urgency to the journey. I am the only one who is impatient. I shift from foot to foot. Check the time. Try once more to drag the toddler a few more metres down the footpath toward the supermarket. I am wearing myself out. He turns and runs back to me. His cold hands wrap around my legs and he buries his face in my skirt.

The Versatile Blogger

Too long has passed since I was honoured by lovely Jennifer Smart over at A Sampler with a Versatile Blogger Award.

Acceptance of this award comes with the following conditions; one, I am to tell you seven interesting facts about myself, and two, I share with you fifteen blogs that I have discovered. Without any further delay then, here are some facts and some great blogs you should check out.

 

Seven interesting facts about me

1. I hold a PhD in philosophy.

2. I like stripey things – especially clothes.

3. I love red lipstick and I have many of them; all of them are blue based red.

4. Once I played the piano in a competition in the Cremone Hayden Orpheum.

5. I love rosé. It will never be unfashionable to me.

6. I have read Ulysses. Every single word.

7. Occasionally, I select book purely on their thickness.

 

15 newly (and some not so newly) discovered blogs that I enjoy – in no particular order

Karen Charlton – http://therhythmmethod.wordpress.com/

Twitchy Corner – http://www.twitchycorner.com/

Trish Smith –  http://eatshootblog.com/

Lisa Lintern – http://lisalinternblog.blogspot.com/

Ruth Bruten – http://gourmetgirl-friend.blogspot.com/

K.J. – http://ourbigexpatadventure.wordpress.com

Nicole McLachlan – http://www.ironingandapostrophes.com/

Michelle Higgins – http://4kids1dogblog.blogspot.com/

Tina – http://tinkertines.blogspot.com/

Cat – http://beloverly.blogspot.com/

Very Bored in Catalunya – http://www.veryboredincatalunya.com/

Heather – http://www.notefromlapland.com/

Gill – http://www.inkpaperpen.blogspot.com/

Michelle – http://www.booktothefuture.com.au/

Benison – http://benisonanneoreilly.com/blog

 

Write on Wednesday … the re-write

Last night I dreamt I went to the dam and saw it.
I felt the chill standing there by the thick reeds and mud, while I tried the edge, it was too dark to go in. There was a dark house behind me. In my dream I heard children calling out and I searched the water for their faces. I peered in through the dark rust coloured reeds. I called but the dam had no answer.

It is always the same dream. The house has infinite rooms. Rooms within rooms. Boxes filled with treasures. Secret staircases that rise high into the building with no sense of reaching another floor. Then, suddenly, it is all on fire. Burning to the ground.

. . .

Read More

Write on Wednesday … great one liner

Such is my mother love that even though I know he only wants to sit on my lap so he can eat my breakfast, I let him.

 

Write On Wednesdays

This week’s exercise comes to us from  Karen at The Rhythm Method.
Write one good line to describe part of your day.
As Karen says the one line is like a “tiny little paper plane that must travel a big distance”.

 

Life has a bow wave

Time. Marching on.

There is a kind of truism about the doctor who won’t see a doctor, a hairdresser who can’t get a haircut and accountants who don’t do their tax. Some of it is professional fatigue. After seeing sick people all day, or cutting hair or doing tax, why on earth would you want to do MORE of it? To me, it is also a professional snobbery. If you are good at your profession, it is hard to find someone else who meets your own professional standard.

What about a more esoteric example. What about a philosopher who is struggling to come to grips with time? Someone who has spent a long time thinking about the central questions of philosophy and who has read a large number of books on the subject by other preeminent philosophers? What about her? Read More