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Archive for the ‘Being organised’ Category

Trying to balance all the things

Posted in A writer's life, All the things, am wrinting, Australian author, Being organised, Creative passion, Trying to focus, tagged , , , , on May 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I’m sure everyone has issues trying to do all the things.

I was saying to Matthew how hard I was finding working, writing and exercising and balancing between them. That doesn’t include all the other things such as social activities, reading, housekeeping and well thinking. Matthew said he was finding it hard as well.

I currently work three days a week. Lately, I’ve been a bit tired after work. I think it’s the cold. I am doing writing related stuff but not drafting so much. That I do on Thursdays and Fridays and on the weekend when I get some time.

I should say our house currently resembles a tip. We have been focussing on writing etc. I think we need to correct this on the weekend as I find chaos stressful.

I have to say while I am still feeling very energetic and enthusiastic I am struggling with balance. This week has been a bit unusual though. The kitten bit my foot and because I have metal in my knees I have to be careful of infection. And as I’m allergic to penicillin-based antibiotics and there wasn’t much to choose from I had to take sulphur-based ones that make me feel ill. Headache, nausea and tiredness mostly. I’m still on Flagyl. Grrr to the kitten. Both cats are now banned from the bedroom.

A typical Thursday for us is I get up and do some writing (I get up way earlier than Matthew) and then we go to the pool. I do aqua aerobics, Matthew does laps. Then we do the pensioner lunch thing at our local club before we head to the National Library to write. On Thursdays the reading room stays open until 8. We usually leave around 5 or 6 but that’s it. Light dinner afterwards. Friday I write and maybe socialise.

I’m also in a novel crit group, so I’m reading a draft novel a month. I get this month off as my novel is being critted in June. I listen to books, currently The Underhistory by the amazing Kaaron Warren. I’m reading through Ruby Heart to pick up typos and refresh myself on the characters etc. I’ve started a file for Amber Rose, the third book in the series, in Scriviner. I’m reading it aloud so that takes time. I’m nearly done and then I’ll start on Emerald Fire. I drafted two short stories in the last week for my Robot Heart collection. They need more work. I’ll need to pull all the stories together and get moving. I think I’ll relegate short stories to the weekend.

Today, I’m going to write fresh words on a couple of WIPs, Lightning Strike, the next magical/werewolf story following from The Changeling’s Curse and another project I’m not too sure about which I’m 10,000 words in.

Theoretically I know there’s this concept called pacing but I never understood it.

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It’s never too late to work smarter

Posted in A writer's life, Being organised, Dragon fantasy, Dragon Wine, NanoWriMo, Uncategorized, Writing advice, tagged , , , , , on November 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

I’m up to my knees in NaNoWriMo and Skyfire, Dragon Wine Part Five, and these wonderful things occur to me. I really need to work smarter. As a mature woman you think I would have had all this worked out by now, but I don’t.

It started at first with labelling my hats. You see I make hats and I put them in hat boxes and every time I wanted to show someone a hat I had to pull them all out and look at each one. Then I bought a labeller. OMG! They all have labels now so I can find them a lot easier.

Now we have started labelling food that goes into the fridge and the freezer. Have you ever come across some frozen mass and thought-What the hell is that? Or mmm should it go or should it stay? Or Oh Joy Steak! and then frowned wondering when was the last time your bought steak and was it left overs from your 50th birthday party seven years ago?

So joy! We are labelling shit. The fridge well that just keeps on giving. I swear when I got back from Europe there was take aways in the fridge that I put there before I left. So to preserve lives and sanity, we are labelling stuff. Matthew I am pleased to say is getting on board. No more chances of inadvertently killing some one with some toxic pasta sauce etc. We just use masking tape and marker. Although looking at the packaging for the tape I see Matthew has bought food labelling tape. Good man!

Now why am I writing this and what does it have to do with NaNoWriMo. Well it would really help if I had a detailed plan of what I was writing. Never mind, I think that shit up just before each session and maybe I can get by with just me, my crazy mind and the seat of my pants. What really, really gets me is that I don’t have character descriptions. If I used my Scrivener I could do that as I went. But being lazy I am using word and do you think I wrote this stuff down? I want to write the colour of Eneit’s eyes. I’m pretty sure they are described somewhere in Deathwings or Bloodstorm, but grrr…If only I was more organised.

There is totally a theme here. I am throwing away old clothes. I’m too fat for some and as I no longer work in an office I don’t need others. But in the past, actually my whole bloody life, I think “Hey I have a pair of pants like that. Or where is that dress?” Only to discover after about a week of intense searching that I probably threw them away in the charity bin six months before. You think I would bloody well learn. Nope! So this time I am making a list so that I can check the list instead of doing a rampage search throughout the house and garage complete with expletives and many beeps.

There you go. I have a list. Silver business suit gone. Blue dress that was too short to be decent and you meant to add lace to the hem to lengthen it but you are too fat and old for it now. Gone. Etc. I have an issue with the shimmery blue and shimmery mauve tights though. Because as soon as I get rid of them, I am going to have some costume or some such that calls just for those tights. So they are going in the dress up tub. I just have to buy a tub and you guessed it-label the god damn thing.

So moral of the story. Be organised. If you aren’t organised. It is not too late to bring order to your chaos. I am on the last two bits of this series. Do I really need to write character descriptions now. Maybe, damn it maybe!

This post is brought to you by an insane, chaotic writer, who is behind on their NaNoWriMo project but is so happy that she is writing the said project that it is hard to stop dancing around the office and write.

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