Momentarily Hilarious

You know those things which you read on Facebook that just crack you up or you suddenly feel very strongly about and you either join the group or hit the like button, why do we do that? 

Let's face it, all we get from these things is crap clogging up the Newsfeed and annoying notifications because someone with normally less than half a brain decided to comment upon it. It's REALLY annoying. 

And now, I find myself trying to deal with the amount of crap in my inbox, and half of it is Facebook. So I've changed my settings. No more notification emails. I don't read them, I don't want them, bye bye. 

But these groups and "liked" pages are still EVERYWHERE!! 


THIS IS WHAT I DO WHEN I CAN'T SLEEP! 

I rant and I delete people, or groups or liked pages from Facebook, because it is so mind numbingly dull that it might just send me to sleep. 

Hey Facebook, fancy making it easier and just give me a list and let me hit the DEL key? I would really appreciate it.

In a Palace That Only We Know,

The mind is a strange place. It is a palace to the arts and whatever we choose to think within it. It is the seat of our power as human beings, and it is a palace which only we can be familiar with the details of. 

Soooo, I know I haven't posted anything on here recently about how life is going, and that's because I have actually been pretty busy trying to sort my life out!!

As I posted in August, Fairies was finished and edited for the Kindle edition and was given a new ending which I think is the biggest improvement. There were a few minor changes with typos, missing words and the like, but it was almost there, so it only took a few hours to find the magic and get it to be where I wanted it to be.

Due to this edit, I made the decision to make the paperback unavailable until such time as I have a minute to be able to reformat the files and put the new edition into print. Sorry about this for all those who don't own a Kindle, but the exciting news is that once it is redone it will be on both Amazon.com and .co.uk as well as across the European sites. The great thing about that is that it won't be as expensive. Great news, right?

On to the next piece of awesomeness. The first time I wrote for NaNoWriMo, I got about half way through before life intervened. Nine months after starting the competition, the first novel I had ever completely found it's closing words. Pretty much a dramatic monologue of the life of a very unlucky teenage girl, Insanity Breaks had become my baby, my outlet and something I wasn't ready to share with the world.

I have said this before and will say it again, I am nothing like Grace. I'm not, but a lot of me went into that novel, and I'm proud to finally say that it's self published along side Fairies. It took a heck of an edit, which was pretty brutal to be honest, probably why I had been putting it off for so long, but yes, it's done.

NaNo 2012 brought about trials of it's own and although I never actually got the 10k day I wanted, I did manage quite a few dars banking 5/6/7k which meant that I pulled up to the finish line of 50k on the morning of 20/11/2012, a comfortable ten days and fourteen hours before the deadline. There were tears, tantrums and trauma as usual, a fantastical trip back to see my homepeople at NaNoManchester and plot twists a plenty that left me surprised with the main character Iris. I went from loving her to hating her to admiring her and loving her all over again several times a day. Yours, is probably something I will have to back burner for a while before editing, because there's a lot of mental taxation involved whenever you try and write something which jumps back and forward through time about as many times as a Delorian, so editing may be a bit of a pain in the butt cheeks.

So, what's next on the agenda?

Keep writing, of course. Keep writing, keep dreaming and keep believing that I can do this. I can find the words I want to write, my ideas can animate a page and I can keep focused, keep driven and maybe one day live the dream.

I posted that onto the writer page to update everyone on Facebook as to what I've been up to recently. I know a lot of you are probably well aware of the fact that I finished NaNoWriMo within 20 days this year, which was pretty impressive. Last night I sent the first draft of what I wrote to the one person I trust to assess the story line without looking into the formatting, the grammar and the wording -too much- which is pretty great. Still pretty friggin' scary though.

 

There are a few things I am going to get working on, but since nothing puts the 'prod' in 'productivity' for me like NaNoWriMo, progress will most probably be slow, but steady. I enjoy the chance to let my characters grow, to let scenes, ideas and situations develop within my mind until I can write about them with the kind of clarity which actually conveys the meaning I wanted to.

 

 

First off though, I need to sort my life out. 

 

Charlie x 

 

:D

New Software

I just downloaded one of the free photo editors available on the App Store, which jams photographs together. And so I have made a couple of photograph jams — Greece, Eeyore and then a couple of vain ones for the fun of it. They all have my Taizé necklace in them. I'm struggling to remember a time when I didn't wear it...
I have a new one now to join it. Courtesy of mum. It's beautiful.

Charlie x

:D

I Sometimes Get a Little Bit Worried

When I'm watching films, because somebody had to come up with the things that are in the film. The dialogue and the characters and the plots don't poof out of nowhere - well, they kind of do, but they need a someone, a sort of vehicle to creation if you will. 

I know the things that go on in my own head. I know the ideas which give me nightmares. I know the things I have written and the things I want to write, to an extent. When I sit down to write, I don't always know where I'm going, but it comes from somewhere, and although we need external stimuli to fuel us, a lot of it comes from within. How we process things, how we analyse them and where we find the links between two seemingly unconnected events. That's where it all comes from. 

What worries me is this: 

Films like Death Race - Jason Statham being Jason Statham to an actually amazing and very interesting plot - and Death Race 2 - someone who is not Jason Stratham, but remarkably like him, acting like Jason Statham in a very Jason Statham way to a pretty good and still reasonably interesting plot - quite frankly worry me, because not only did someone create the idea, but they also made it feel real. They made it feel like it could happen. 

*SPOILER ALERT*

Both of the films rely on the idea that the American economy and criminal justice system essentially collapse, leaving prisons at the mercy of business owners. Now, to make the system profitable, they begin to use the prisoners against each other, inciting violent action between these men - the certain prison in which it is set is home to pedophiles, rapists, murders and the like - and the aim is to kill as many of the others as possible. In a correctional facility, this seems a little squewed, especially when you find that the winner of the Death Race, or rather any man who manages to win five races, is given his freedom, this seems really silly. It's like kill a man to get in, kill several to get out. 

Anyway, the reason this makes money is because people watch it on TV, 50million people. Then they move it to the internet, charging hundreds of dollars for subscriptions and still millions watch it. 

I think, and I bloody hope, that this isn't going to happen. I understand that fake violence - wrestling, cage fighting and all that sort of thing - lacks a certain thrill, but this is primal. I take no joy in watching people beat the living day lights out of each other. Granted a good old car chase scene, I love, but when the cars get damaged, I get upset. I like cars. 

The thing is, there are some people in the world who do terrible things, but this? I wonder if it would just become like the weekly football match. You buy in because you need to be able to talk about it in the office. 

Charlie x

D:

Just Dropping in to Say Hi

I'm such a procrastinator. I know I'm only writing this because I'm a little POed about how slowly writing my latest essay is going. 

I get narky and irritable, and I get distracted. Right now I just WANT to do the cleaning and that only happens when I'm desperately bored or really hung over. I love philosophy, but the ethics of advertising isn't really my favourite thing in the world to be frank. 

I know it can be considered a hot issue, but I would rather be writing my novel. Probably because my novel is such a slut and I get further with it more quickly. Yes, I just said that. 

So rather than just get on with it and get it done, I'm having a good old gripe about it and thinking of all the other wonderful things I could be doing with my day.

Sorry it's a short one, but I really better had get on. 

I will leave you with a link to the video I'm currently listening to though. 

Beautiful Music

Charlie x 

:@

5am

In theory, 5am has no actual use on account of all normal people being asleep in that region of the morning, but alas, that is not currently the case for me. My sleeping pattern is now so screwed up that the only thing I can think to do to fix it is stay up until midnight tonight and then hopefully reset it in that way. 

Anyway, figuring that there has got to be some better use of my insomnia than eating potatoes and drinking Martini - I know, I'm odd - but not really being able to be bothered to type up any more of my novel - Hermes' down side is his lack of internal memory - I figured I ought to drop a few words in for all of you lovely people. 

I am going to need so much coffee to survive today...

Okay, so a certain circle of writers that I speak to have been doing this "ooh, tag me and we'll interview each other thing". Frankly, I considered myself to have far too much of a life, but since it proves not, I'm going to answer the questions which I find entertaining. - I may be answering your questions, but I'm disregarding your silly rules!!

1. what inspired you to become a writer ? 

There are so many bull ---- answers I could give to this, but to be honest, I don't actually know. It was one of these things that just kind of happened. When I was about 11, I had my first computer and I had always read a lot, so I started writing as well. I was encouraged a lot by my Year 6 teacher, but I don't think I would say he was particularly inspiring with it. I think I already had decided it was the direction I wanted to go in - when I was being a fire fighting, dolphin training ballerina singer actress that was. I had time on my hands back then, okay?

2. where do you get your ideas from, when you write your stories?

I would say that I get inspiration from everything around me, but what makes it work is the fact that I think about things in a particular odd little way that seems to work for me. It's really strange, because sometimes, I say things or I write things that really I think are particularly unadventurous pieces of drivel, and then someone tells me that actually, I've captured something perfectly and that click of understanding that you want just happens, although sometimes, the curtains are just blue and it's not a reflection on ------ all. 

3. in terms of your writing, where do you see yourself in five to ten years time? 

At one point, I would have said that Salinger tripping off into the woods had the right idea, but considering my answer to the last question, I should hope you can see a change of point of view there. Geographically, I hope I'm still in London. I like London, because it's a quirky, busy and ever changing city in a way that lots of other places aren't. I moved here a little over a year ago and I see differences from when I got here to now. I go back to other places and they're still the same sleepy little places. Hopefully in that time I will have managed to publish - and I don't mean self publish.

4. is writing a hobby of yours? that is to say, do you simply do it for fun? 

I'm certainly not in it for the money... I write because I want to write, I self publish because I want to share my thoughts and ideas - that's also the reason I blog. Writing for the cash is obvious. I really hope no one sees me in that way. 

5. is writing something you would like to be well known for? 

The instant answer in my head is no, because of people like the lady who wrote 50 Shades. She is well known and, quite frankly, I've read the series and it was all drivel. Why did I read it then? Something has to really make me lose the will to live for me to put it down. I can only think of one book in recent years that did that to me. I guess though, there are people like Robert Muchamore and John Green who are reasonably well known, and pretty awesome, so it's swings and roundabouts really. 

6. are any of your stories worthy of a sequel, or more?

The first thing to note here is that I used to SUCK at endings. I worked on it and got a lot better, but I don't like tying off all the lose ends in a big, neat and pretty pink ribbon. 

I want to write sequels to both the books I have self-published, but there is so much difference between an idea and a novel and sometimes, making the ideas you have work isn't possible, and it's a shame, because if you know you want to leave space for a sequel, you can pretty well set up for one and not say things that you wanted to say perhaps. What I like about all my novels is that they are actually becoming very interconnected. Characters, places, companies or ideas pop up in different novels and try to tie things into a web. I like that. 

7. are you working on anything at the moment? 

Of course. I have a few things at a few different stages though. I have my NaNoWriMo piece which is essentially the dramatic monologue of the life of a young woman, which is essentially then setting up for me writing a novel called Butterfly House. Like Fairies was my first little trip into fantasy, this will be my first proper trip into horror, but I'm still collecting my thoughts and consolidating my ideas with that one. Other than that there is - somewhere - a half sort of sequel to Insanity Breaks in the pipeline and an idea for a sequel to Fairies in its absolute infancy. 

Yes, there is always a lot going on in my head. 

8. what is your favourite part of writing (word building, dialogue, character progression, scene descriptions)?

I like to be heavy on the description. I can't help it. I notice little ridiculous things for no reason and I like to give that to my characters. I like building the characters and seeing how they interact, but I also like the part where I get to sit back and see how there is literally ME all over every page. You can't keep yourself off the page and there is no reason to try. Okay, it can feel invasive, but you are in control of whether people read your stuff or not, and let's face it, when you write fiction, people are always going to assume things about you because of what they read between the lines. 

9. what type of story do you prefer? (short stories, novellas, novels etc)

I prefer my novels. I have some ideas for some short stories, but there just isn't the opportunity to get as involved with the characters and I like how attached I become to them. Crying at the end of a novel lets me know I've created characters I can love and that feel real to me, and I want other people to feel that, too. Oh God. 

10. if you could be anywhere in the world but your home town, where would you choose to be?

Well, first off, I'm not from London, but I will include London, because it feels like home, even though it is not a town. I'm pretty fond of Niagra, Iceland and Florida, but it would be a fight between Manhattan and Fiskardo in Kefalonia. I don't know which would win. Probably Fiskardo. 

11. everyone has their own list of The Rules for good writing. what are yours? 

• Once again, I don't think it's right to even try to leave yourself off of the page.
• Description is a major key factor
• I don't care if the place exists, just make it feel real to me. 
• Characters need to be related to.
• Nothing is ever perfectly tidy

12. do you plan? if/when you do, do you always stick to it?

The most like planning I ever do is character files and then I never look at them while I'm writing. As I go along, I sometimes keep time lines, because I like to skip about in time - it's the way my head works - but no, I don't plan. I'm not very big on knowing where I'm going to, because that feels pretty boring. I even change the way I walk home so that it at least feels different. 

13. other than writing, what makes you tick?

There's a world outside of writing? 

Just kidding. There's this infant that I love to look after, who's the daughter of a friend of mine. Erm, I kind of enjoy the course I'm studying? I like the generic stuff like music and traveling and friends and blah blah blah yawn, but writing is one of the only things I get passionate and energetic over. And politics, but the less sad about that the better. 

14. if you were stranded on a desert island with food, water and shelter, what five items would you want with you? 

1. Puppy. - I have had this dog since I was seven and I'm nearly twenty. I don't care how sad that is. I don't really go away for an extended period of time without him, so yes, him. It. Whatever. 
2. A change of clothes - I'd want to at least wash what I was wearing and not have to run around nude. 
3. iPad - I can type on it pretty well and it's far more reliable than the Craptop, plus it does music. :)  

 I could be content with just that!!  

15. on said island, what five books would you like?

1. The Monsters of Gramercy Park by Danny Leigh is an ultimate favourite, so I would have to have that with me.
2. Sunshine by Robyn McKinley, because it's the best vampire book since the Anne Rice series. 
3. A Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I have already finished An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns, and Looking For Alaska is my current bed time story. That one is next on the list. 
4. A Thinkers Guide to God by Peter Vardy. I've read bits of it when it's relevant and it would keep my mind somewhere near Philosophy.
5. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - in case I run out of toilet paper... In all honesty, I know Dawkins is a fantastic scientist, but he needs to butt out of trying to be a philosopher, because you can't just paste over religions and call it indoctrination of children and essentially fairy stories. That really just winds me up. 

16. what do you find most rewarding about writing a book? 

Proving to myself that I can is a pretty special thing, I guess. Other than that, I just like that it brings out how I think about things or feel about things in a different way, or presents things to me in a different way, and then I get to take that back into my life.

I just found something called GoodReads...off to check that out and then maybe sleep before getting the train back to Manchester!! 

Continuing good luck to all of those facing NaNo this time around!! 

Charlie x 

:)