If Only It Were Simpler,

Sometimes I get flustered by everything that is going on in my life, and certain things have to drop. 

I dropped this yesterday because I was spending time with someone I haven't seen in over a year and will now not see for the next few months. This weekend, like the last few weeks in general really has been pretty mad. More than anything, I need to give myself some time to sleep. 

As always, my problem is balance and it's tricky. Naturally I love spending time with friends etc, but then again I also keep reminding myself that if I don't sleep I get sick, especially in the summer, as I'm very prone to heat exhaustion. 

Trying to find the perfect balance is something very difficult. I find that when I am really involved in a novel, that can be the biggest pull of all. 

I've always been very defensive about my drafts, particularly first drafts, however letting people near passages of what I'm currently writing has been productive, so it may not be too long before I put a sample of either that, or Yours, online and see what the response is.

Though for some reason, my friends are more likely to tell me their response verbally as opposed to actually writing on here...

Anyway, I'll catch you later.

It's Not Sunday,

I was looking forward to a productive week before heading off to Edinburgh this weekend, and the truth of the matter is I have done a fat lot of nothing. 

I've been too ill to leave my flat, and at points, too sick to get out of bed. I thought it was my recurring chest infection, but when I ventured out to the GPs to query the constant pain in my throat that painkillers weren't touching, I found out I actually had a throat infection with blistering in my throat. It was as disgusting as it sounds, and I was struggling to breathe for a good couple of days, which is why I feel so damn feeble now. 

Put simply; I didn't eat for a few days which meant I was even dizzier than normal. Before anyone thinks of making jokes about that, I have a problem that makes me dizzy and no it's not vertigo. I'm now trying to get back onto an even keel but as quite a small person, I didn't have a significant amount of fat to burn. (Although thankfully Lent is my season to gorge on chocolate, so there was a little bit to keep me going.) The problem is that it means I'm running out of energy quite quickly and needing to sit down a lot. Obviously, that's not overly conducive to getting anything done. 

Part of me is now looking to the trip to Edinburgh as a chance to regain some of the momentum I lost this week and really get on with things, and then there's a nagging part of my brain that tells me I really need a laptop to be able to get on with things on the train. I'm not going to give into it because a laptop is just any techy accessories that I don't need, so a pointless waste of money. It would also make Alphie (my lovely AlphaSmart) redundant, and I would hate to do that. Sticky keys he may have, but that little blast from the past is beautiful. 

I'm trying to plan how else to get work done on the train (and stop myself being really, really bored. I had hoped that I wouldn't allow myself to work on anything new until the point that Yours, was FINALLY fluffing done, but even that is looking unlikely. The best thing I can think of is printing off the pages that I already know need re-writes and doing that on the train, then biting the bullet and continuing to write for another couple of novels on which I have been working. The other thing I have to factor in is the almost complete lack of wifi because Virgin trains make you pay for it unless you're in first class. I'm going to end up really wishing that I had a flask, too. 

I'm under no illusions that I will get any work completed while I'm there, but with the journey there and back taking up so much time the idea of wasting all of it playing 2048 (and believe me I could do that) is pretty haunting. I also don't want to lug a rucksack full of wool there to be knitting the entire journey. 

Ah well, I don't leave until Saturday, so there's time to figure it out yet. Depending on what my arrangements for tech stuff are, I might be missing the Sunday blog post this week, but will endeavor to post on Monday if that is the case. Have a very Hoppy Chocolate Feast!

Hazar!,

My aim for this month was to have over 200 blog views, and I'm so glad to say that I have achieved that, so if you have been a part of that, a massive thank you to you. 

This blog has been many different things over the time it has been running, and that has happened partly because of how long it has been going and partly because I have a short attention span sometimes, and can be very indecisive.

I am just going to take a step back to when I was writing about films for a moment though (which I did just to get into the habit of writing for this a lot) to ask quite a simple question - what the hell is with the ending of Magic Mike XXL?

**If you haven't watched it by now, don't get at me about spoilers - you have had ample chance**

I get that it was their "last ride" and everything, but when you're going to put something like that to bed (wrong, but oh so right phrasing) you put it to bed as best you can and don't leave them smiling like a bunch of sexy idiots on a pier. It would also be my opinion that you don't do it without Matthew Macona-honey (yes, I have silly names for other actors than Bumblebitch) because maybe the law says I can't touch that, but I definitely still would...

The ridiculous thing is that when I put that on last night, I was thinking; I'm going to watch one of McConaughey's serious films and that oh so clearly did not happen.

Aside from that, I have finally been getting some editing done which I'm sure most of you know is quite frankly a chuffing miracle because it is pretty much my biggest nightmare. It's slow going, but it's happening. I'm trying my best just to make a significant dent in it at the moment, and also have a life at the same time. 

Hello Out There,

It feels like forever since I last did this, but it's actually been less than a month and I'm pretty thankful for that. 

It's been a hell of a month with a few different things going on and in all honesty, it has been making it difficult to be able to just get through my university stuff, without thinking about anything else, but I have realised something and I hope I never forget this again. ~ No matter what is happening in my life, I can't let go of the things which are important to me, because it makes me lose my grip on reality a little bit. 

What I mean in particular is things like politics, novelling, live music events and all the things I enjoyed pre-uni. And all the people I enjoyed spending time with pre-uni. 

I am glad it is nearly over, because I want to have a life that isn't all about imposed deadlines and reading things I don't want to read and I'm not interested in. If you've been reading this blog for a while (first off, thank you and second) I can be quite a passionate person about the things that matter to me. Unfortunately I no longer feel that way about my degree. I have found that I feel that way about my job though, or some aspects of it, which is why I'm looking at staying within the same industry. 

I think it's at least in part because of the fact that it gives me time, as well as experiences with such a wide range of people and that never really hurt. I have time to figure out what I want to do, time to spend doing the things I love, time to spend with the people I love and time to live in a city that still has the power to make me fall in love with it over and over again despite me having lived here for getting close to four years. 

I want things to change after I have finished university and although I know that I will still take a while to get Yours, to the point where it can be published onto the Kindle and Kindle apps, I'm going to make a commitment to blogging every day in June, just to get myself back into the swing of sitting, thinking and writing at least once every day.

Anyway, 6 days until the exam, so I'd better get back to it...

Everything In It's Place, Even If That Does Mean The Floor,

Generally, if someone asks me where something in my room is, the answer is preceded by a lengthy erm, and normally sounds something like, I last saw it on the floor near the... Currently that is not the case, and no, it's not because I have started believing in all that tidy room tidy mind ----stuff (really trying not to swear at the moment and it's really difficult!!) that other people spout. No, it's because I am moving out of my current abode into somewhere new, in another different part of London.

As much as it's really exciting, but also really stressful because of the actual physical transportation from House A to Flat B, what I find more frustrating is that because the majority of my stuff has already been boxed by a slightly over-enthusiastic Ben and myself yesterday, I keep thinking oh, I could do... oh, no I can't, it's in a box, or I could wear, ... no, also in a box. It's only those times where you can't get to them, such as when you're moving or on holiday that you think of those really obscure pieces of clothing that live at the back of your wardrobe on any normal occasion and you think, yeah, that's what would make me the happiest person I can be right now. I think my brain actually like me being like, well, that sucks. 

Another fantastic example of this is thinking about novel notebooks that I haven't touched for so long that they required dusting before packing - and yes, there is a point to that, and it's so you don't transport the old dust to your new place der, I am not the weird one here -.- - and they're now in the bottom of a big box, which is at the bottom of a big pile and behind a stack of other, let's call it what it is, crap (and no, that is NOT a swear word, just FYI) so of course my brain now goes, here are all the wonderfully magical things we could do with this... And I end up being like, Dear Brain, Hold your horses, Chill your bean and Keep you ----socks together for just a week and then we will make all of these magical dreams come novelliciously true, but I already know that is not going to happen, because using the words Calm down to my imagination is like telling me Don't stress, and if you want to know how pointless that is, speak to my boyfriend, because he really knows. Yeah, if my brain and I had a contract, I would be seriously trying to renegotiate it's concept of when it's acceptable to be thinking about novels, because this flexitime nonsense that it has going on at the moment is just not really working for me. I genuinely worry that I will be in work at some point, someone will tell me about some vicious ailment they have and I'm going to spout some glittery garbage about how I'm dispatching the unicorns to fix it. As much as it would probably be amusing for a few minutes, I'm pretty sure that I would end up some combination between sectioned and fired, and none of those look too pretty from where I am sitting.

So, I have a to do list longer than any piece of string, and it seems to casually keep getting bigger, I have two Orchids to attempt to move without inducing plant-y panic attacks, and my very antique typewriter is currently in quite a lot of bits across my coffee table, which if you follow me on Twitter, you will have seen. As much as the many parts are now a severe amount cleaner than they were when he was all together, he's not quite as easy to put back together as I thought/hoped, though I'm pretty sure that I have it in theory now, it's just the actual practical getting all the screws back in the right place, but I've felt that way about driving for a while - as in, I'm well aware how to do it, it's just actually getting my brain to stop going ARGGGGGGH, I DON'T LIKE THIS!!! WE'RE BEHAVING LIKE TOO MUCH OF AN ADULT!! MAKE IT STOP!!! and to actually engage with the task at hand, aka not crashing, is a "little bit" more difficult than I have ever hoped for.

Basically, the upshot of all of that is that the novel that was meant to be edited by the end of last year might end up getting put off until the end of this year... I don't know. It'll happen when it happens, and I'm far too comfortable with that fact quite frankly. It also means that I'm probably not going to be posting blogs as often as I would like, and I am attempting quite loosely to aim at once a week this year, and if I could set aside an hour, of one day every week then I would be like 'here's the day I will attempt to publish it on' but considering how chaotic just everything is, I don't really think there is much point. But, the good thing is that the a forenamed 'computer which potentially works' ought to now be known as 'Zeus' because he's fast as lightening, has a funny symbol on the front that looks like Zeus' headdress and also because he is basically the God of all my writing machinery, so might as well be named such, so when he and I move into our new place, we have no worries of major technically hiccups getting in the way of dissertationing, blogging or general wordsmithy, so that is a major plus.

So, essentially, follow the yellow brick twitter page....

Waving, Not Drowning,

Today is a really weird sort of a day, partly because I don't really know exactly where it began. At half past four this morning I was still up with my housemate, my wonderful boyfriend and my housemate's friend, whilst they were drinking and my lungs basically forgot they were lungs.

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a crazy mess of things where I've ended up in A&E twice, celebrated the year anniversary of my relationship, the absolute and finally death of the Craptop and also the assembling of The Computer Which Possibly Works. Now that he actually works - and looks sexy and is almost completely silent doing it... - his name is Prodigy, after the case that he's built in. There's also a deal been struck with regard to the birth of this little beauty, but more on that in a minute.

So, yes, A&E. What happened? 

I've always had issues with my health, that much cannot be disputed, and I also have a somewhat reluctant relationship with food, however this was quite literally my stomach deciding it didn't want me to eat anything ever, and because I had, it was going to flare up to the extent that I thought I was dying. I know it sounds a bit dramatic, but my heart was doing funny things and I couldn't breathe, so I left work on one side of the hospital for a waiting room on the other to be given Gaviscon and strong painkillers. Two days later I was back to discuss the painkillers with the doctors since they had a bit of an adverse effect - I basically felt like my brain was passed out while my body was fully conscious, and the pain wasn't going away. 

It's all getting a bit better now, because I'm being careful about what I eat, when I eat and how much Gaviscon I have with me at the point - why does everything that settles your stomach tastes like it came out of the garbage? - and because a friend suggested some lovely tablets that are like Kalms for your stomach, and they appear to be helping on the whole.

Then, of course, there was the anniversary. The 4th of September marked a full year since I went on my first date with my lovely Ben, so we celebrated by going back to Jamie's in Kingston, eating some overly delicious food and getting me addicted to yet another bloody cocktail... In one way, this year seems to have raced by in so little time, but in another, because we've done so much, it feels like so much longer.

Now this has been a long time coming, but the Craptop is finally dead. It's hard drive is now in my new computer, after being fully formatted and all that sort of I-have-no-idea which means it can now Rest In Peace...s. Even though the build for this computer has been going on for a few weeks, I still find it really weird to have a fully working desktop again, but it was only finished today, so I need to give it some time. It's also going to take me a while to get used to Windows 8.1. This thing is seriously confusing my brain, but all I really care about is that it's up, it's running, it's beautiful and it makes practically no noise. I think there is actually more of a hum from the screen than the actual unit itself. 

Anyway, because Ben put in so much effort to get Prodigy up and running and ready this weekend, we struck a deal. The excuse of computer equipment can no longer be used with regard to the editing or formating of Yours,, which means that it will and has to be completely finished by the end of 2014... All I can say to that is, oooooooh shit...


As of now, there is crap all over my bed, it is late and I have work in the morning, so good night to all. 

I'm Not Done,

For roughly the last year, I've been saying, to everyone else as well as myself, that all the needs doing to Yours, is a little bit of editing, some formatting and then it's done, but when it comes down to it, I've done two edits already and am stalled half way through a third, and there has to be a reason for that, right? 

Last night, I sat in my bed and rather than wonder about the reason for it, I started writing about it, and writing about it turned out to be another piece of that whole puzzle. I've ended up starting a new section of the novel which hasn't really changed much over the last year and a half. Why? Because it really wasn't done. 

In a way, the story wasn't over, because there was an important part in the middle which wasn't written - part of it had been because of a bit of a plot hole which was pointed out when a friend proof read for me, but describing the - we'll call it logistics - of something isn't always enough, and now I realise that here, it really wasn't. There is more to be said about it, there is more work to be done. Granted I have no idea when this will be done, but it feels good to know that I wasn't just stalling because of one of those fears to do with self-publishing.

It was the write thing to do not to go straight at this and throw it on the internet before it was ready. It was a good thing. 

So, now I'm on some new medication which pretty literally requires me to drink copious amounts of tea and makes typing difficult, this is going to have to be even more of a labour of love than it ever was. I guess that I just have to have faith it will get there. 

After exams are over. 

93,

It might become a common recurrence that blogs I can't think of a title for are just numbered. 

So, the tube strikes are over and London appears to have survived them reasonably well. I'm kind of wondering if they just let them happen occasionally to check that the bus system is working as well as it should do. I know that here in London, we complain about the buses quite a lot - especially when we have to use the buses to get to the tube or the train - but the fact is that we're doing a lot better than most places. With most buses running at least once every five to fifteen minutes, it's not overly long to wait, considering in some cities, the buses can be as infrequent as once an hour.

Now, what joys are there to look forward to? 

Well, for me, I'm going to Pisa on Tuesday, which is obviously exciting, then I have a birthday party on Saturday, then essays due on the Monday, Friday and following Monday. I could say that I'm excited about that, but I honestly wouldn't mean it. 

For the rest of London, there is another tube strike planned for Tuesday, and oh, my parents are coming down this weekend! I know that doesn't really impact other Londoners - guests, families, tourists and the like roll through this city so often that crowds have become a permanent fixture - but trust me, I'm excited. 

In the more distant, but still not overly far away future, I'm turning 21 on the 19th of March, and a little before that there is the anniversary of the blog - it's turning three years old. I can't decide if I think that is an achievement or not. 

And in the more hopeful but don't hold your breath section, Yours, is still somewhere in a stage of editing. With literally everything else already done to it, I really need to pull my finger out and just get a move on with it!!, but the essays apparently have to come first. (I think that the pressure of needing to do essays is the best way of getting me to do editing, which is kind of worrying...)

The overall conclusion is, I may not be posting anything for a little while, because I have no idea if there will be Wifi in our hotel, but there will be photos and a blog or two when we get back. For those of you on reading week - make the most of it!

90,

So, after reminding myself with my last blog that I need to stop procrastiKNITTING, I have since managed to finish editing roughly half of the novel - content, not formatting unfortunately - watched far too many episodes of Grand Designs, come up with yet another design for the house I would like to build one day, which of course made me wish all over again that I was studying to be an architect and also managed to finish the back, the front and almost a full sleeve of a new jumper (baby sized). 

Whilst I know that my Knitsmithy ought to take a back seat to my Wordsmithy for a little while, it's more difficult to convince yourself to go on to review what you have previously done than it is to either knit more of a cutesy little hoodie or to stitch it together, and I think the reason is this. 

When it comes to Wordsmithy, it takes a lot of time and effort, and once done, you are best advised to leave it alone. When you have finished knitting something, you can give it away as a gift or just torture stuffed animals with what you have produced, and you can do it with the TV on without knitting the characters from The Big Band Theory or doing something equally ridiculous. In the space of a couple of weeks will have managed to produce three baby jumpers, two of which are adorable, one of which was my first attempt at knitting something to a pattern and there was more than once when I threw it on the floor and complained that I wasn't playing anymore because it was too big of a pain in the ass. Yes, I am a grumpy fool.

Even with half done, it is really difficult to focus on editing Yours, at the moment on account of the lack of sleep in my life, which is being caused by the really uncomfortable mattress. As is a custom with rented accommodation, our mattresses are at the point where they are sagging as you sit, so until the arrival of the new ones which have thankfully been ordered, I am resorting to sleeping on the airbed that I keep in case we have house guests, because my back doesn't take well to springs poking it at random intervals. 

At least it's now half way there...

In The Wake of NaNoWriMo,

So, it's now over a month since NaNoWriMo ended, and I can quite honestly say I haven't touched what I wrote since the day I hit fifty thousand words (19th November 2013). While that isn't a bad thing necessarily - I know many people that think the draft of a novel is like red wine, you have to give it time to breath - the fact that all I have done since then is a couple of handwritten pages in a notebook that seems to be going on forever is sort of playing on my mind. 

My thing is I have a very active imagination, and when I don't force myself to sit down and let some of the ideas come out in a constructive way, they form some pretty vivid and often pretty confusing nightmares. Now, you'd think that being used to this would mean I would convince myself to sit down and force myself to write for a set amount of time per day, but even during NaNoWriMo that's simply not how I work. Additionally, when I do decide to write and get very drawn in by something, I always have to go to bed before finishing writing something, because I'm too tired to carry on, and that also influences the things I dream about. 

Oh, and I always feel pretty burnt out after NaNo.

I am however thankful that now my urge to write has naturally returned, though I'm still struggling with convincing myself to edit Yours,. I feel like there is almost a fear surrounding it, and I'm not sure exactly what's causing that fear, because I accept it could be a great many things and most of them are pretty common to other writers as well. 

Editing means finally finishing something. In a way, it's the same as reading the last chapter of the book. Whilst you are still reading the book, the characters have an existence, they have a life, but as soon as the book is finished and put back on the shelf, whether the characters were living or dead by the end of the story, there existence ceases in a way. It's the same with writing.

I've been told a great many times that it would be a mistake to pick up a book you once wrote and re-read it, because for whatever good it could do you in identifying your style, your characters and all that sort of thing, you'll find bits you aren't happy with and things you could have done better, so when you finish the last edit on a book, it should be the last time you look at it, which can be quite saddening. 

Though characters are more like an early kind of Sims characters than most of us would like to admit, it is possible to become rather attached to them, and I very often do. There are definitely times where I have an intense amount of hate for my characters, and other times when the things I write about them make me want to have a little cry in the corner. I know that it's strange to try and understand, but they have an importance in my life for a while, however long or short, and then as if in a puff of smoke without any real provocation, they are gone. 

Then again, it's possible to say that I'm fearing the day that the printed copy of Yours, arrives on my doorstep, because as much as that day will mean to me, I then have to find a way to accept that it's no longer mine. When you first start a novel, or first write it, it gets to be all yours until you let someone read it. Unless you tell them, no one else may even know of it's existence. As soon as the printed copy arrives, it has already been through countless hands and you've had no say in where it goes, and as soon as you push the button that starts all the commands to do something with that book - whether it be load it into the Kindle store or Amazon, or even upload it to somewhere completely free - you are letting go of any sort of control of it. Anyone who wants to can access it, and say what they like about it, and you might hear it and that's a scary thing.

Which leads onto the inevitable really scary thing. Someone might call it trash. Someone might insult it or upset you, or use it against you, or see things in it that you think have no basis. Essentially, people can think and say what they like about it, and there's nothing you can do about it. 

Tough. 

I think most of you reading this will know that I've been in this position before, and I know how scary it is. The fact is, though it's going to take me a while, I'm going to get to the point where Yours, is out there and there's nothing I can do about it, and I'm going to be happy that it is.

I've been in the position where people have said things about my novels that I don't like or that hurt, and sometimes it's been by people who were pretty close to me, but the thing is, I know I have to take that with the good things that people say too; you can't close off your ears to an entire half of the argument. If you're sat teetering on the edge thinking should I, shouldn't I? The answer is going to be, yes, you should, because most of the time, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than you regret the things that you did, so go for it. Publish a novel, or a group of poems or short stories, or even just one. That thing you can do?, show it to people, because it is impressive and it is real. 

I know I need to give myself a rather large kick in the bottom to get this ready and finished, and I will, and you should to. 

Be proud of your wordsmithy. 

Welcome Back to the World,

I got back from Greece on Sunday to something amazing. 

God knows I have complained enough times about the state of my laptop - teetering on the edge of existence ready to fall off. I'm not sure if I actually informed you all that a week before I went away, it fell rather violently. The hard drive stopped playing dead and instead was dying rather rapidly, and there was seemingly nothing I could do about it. Admittedly, that is partly because I'm not an IT genius, but thankfully, I know someone who is. :)  

Not only did he stop the hard drive dying before the only existing copy of the novel I was trying to write to NaNo targets was destroyed - it was the only thing which wasn't on the back up drive, since I forgot to turn the computer on to do it's scheduled back up - he also got me a new hard drive that will probably outlive the rest of the laptop by a couple of years, which is pretty awesome. 

Not only does this mean the Craptop is back in action; it also means that it's not acting like a craptop. It's running faster, it hasn't crashed since Sunday and it almost looks prettier, too. Probably because I'm not directing my hatred at it anymore.

Admittedly, this means I no longer have the excuse of "the Craptop" as to why I'm not getting things done towards publishing the next novel, but I have the excuse of uni has started up again and I'm in lectures for a while SIX HOURS A WEEK (that was sarcasm by the way, but uni does take up more time than just the lectures) and I also have a new job, which will be keeping me pretty busy. 

It is however, only 27 days until my favourite day of the year - the wonderful launch day of National Novel Writing Month - and as usual, nothing will get in my way of celebrating that joyous event, so at some point during the time between now and then, Yours, needs to be edited and emailed to the two lovely people who have agreed to read it, and tell me how much they either love or hate it. It's a pretty scary moment when that happens. After that, it's ready to go into print and a touch of reformatting will make it ready for being an e-book.

Just a General Blog,

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of chest infections. On this ride you will see a week of coughing, spluttering, and difficulty breathing. For your discomfort there's added pain and congestion. < At least an introduction like that would give you far warning, but I've done this before, so I already know what's involved. 

Oh yes, it's that time again where I have a week of vegetating on the sofa/my bed, the emergency appointment at the doctors' surgery where I'm told that it's "not that bad" and it's almost seen as them doing me a favour handing me a prescription for antibiotics, when I have to pay £7.85 for the privilege of being well, not being able to drink for a week and being reminded every time that if I'm using oral contraceptives that I need to be careful during that week, as antibiotics can affect the pill. I would really love to know why the bloody hell that can happen, but I don't care enough about the answer to ask. I love how it's seen as "not that bad" when my breathing is noticeably laboured at the moment and I have a pain right under my sternum, but I guess that in the grand scheme of illnesses, things could be worse. 

Anyway, I slightly feel like these blogs are somewhat like that game you see American kids play in movies and TV programmes when they're in school - show and tell!! 

I'm finally no longer the only resident of my house, because one of my lovely house mates returned a couple of days ago prompting a miniature movie marathon yesterday - it was two films: The Blair Witch Project and Chocolat. (I'm not reviewing either of them currently, by the way)

I love Chocolat because Johnny Depp seems like a normal human being in it, and I like The Blair Witch Project because nothing actually pops out at the screen to scare you - it's all in your head. I prefer eerie to gory when all comes to all. 

As for everything else, well Yours, is still on hold (the coma is a part of the title by the way) whilst I get another edit done and also ask someone else to look over it, I'm possibly working on the sequel to Fairies - maybe, you'll have to wait to find out - and I'm looking forward to NaNoWriMo2013. After finishing Yours, in 20 days last year it would be really nice to see what this year can bring around - and I'd also like to see if I can finally have another 10K Day. It'll have been a Long Time Waiting. 

Best get back to work, but listen to the song. It's pretty beautiful. 

Writing Restraints,

In theory, the novel entitles 'Yours,' was meant to be coming out on the 7/3/13, which for those of you who don't know, is the two year anniversary of the CharliesWrite blog being up and running. There's a new problem with this though...

Well, no, it's not a particularly new problem really, it's an old problem revisiting.

Some of my joints (mainly my wrists and my knees) have a pretty bad habit of playing up, and rather than accept that, I just try and get on with things as I would without it happening. Now that would be fine, if I wasn't changing keyboards every five minutes and doing extra damage to my wrists.

If you've never used a manual typewriter, take it from me - DO NOT START! They have very powerful mechanisms in the keys, which you won't be used to if you use a computer or laptop. (I, of course, swap between the two). Then there's the keypad on my iPad - whole new kettle of fish, the time I spent testing Aphri (one of the electric typewriters - who lives in London) and then also Hephi (the other electric typewriter - who is currently living in Manchester with my mum). PLEASE NOTE - NONE OF THE TYPEWRITERS ARE CALLED CLICKY!

Anyway, the last few days my wrists have been in and out of compression bandages and I've been in and out of pain with them. They seem to have cleared up now, so I'm going to spend the next few hours trying to get some work done and see how far I can get with sorting out 'Yours,'. In theory - and this one really is just a fleeting theory which may not happen - all three of the books COULD go into paperback this year, but I don't know. I'll have to think about it and see what else comes up.


UPDATE: Well, that was the theory, but as I'm sure most of you know: theories evolve!

Unless I was willing to stay up all night today and tomorrow and live on coffee, ignoring everything else on my social calendar, there is no way that Yours, would be edited in time for release on the Kindle on 07/03/13, which I do apologise for. However, as a treat for those of you who do want to celebrate the birthday of the CharliesWrite blog, Fairies and Insanity Breaks will both be FREE on the Kindle again from 07/03/13 until 10/03/13.

You're welcome :P

On Tone of Voice,

One of the things which people always comment on about my writing is that I apparently have a strong narrative voice. I do have a list of habits as long as my arm, including (my very favourite) a tendency to describe the mundane, but here's the reason. You know all that time we spent talking about how English teachers make too much of what an author  meant by something? This sort of idea: 

 I've found that they can, to a certain extent anyway, be right. 

If you ever decided, for what reason I don't know :P, to read Insanity Breaks then you'd see that throughout the book the character explains different things to do with her smoking habit. The same is true of Iris' (the main character from the soon to be released novel Yours, - more details coming soon) love of drinking tea, but here's the thing - when I write, I'm writing what is pretty much a dramatic monologue of a characters life, so the things which have importance in their lives will be included, and the things which don't will be left out. Pretty simple, right? If I've put it on the page, there is generally a reason, and granted that reason is sometimes just a vast description which some might call unnecessary, but mostly there is a reason. 

I will just point out that until midnight on 10/2/13 PST (8am 11/2/13 GMT) Insanity Breaks is available to be downloaded completely FREE onto Kindle or any Kindle app compatible device. For those who don't know what it is, it's the first novel I ever finish (Fairies was just the first I had the balls guts to self publish) and from start to finish it took me about 9 months. Fairies was written in one month and Yours, was written in 20 days. Those three, plus a monstrosity named As Yet Untitled (which went straight into my computer's recycle bin!) which took a month to finish, represent my four NaNoWriMo years. :D Useless piece of trivia...

Back to what I was saying about voice: I write what I know, from the perspective I know. All my characters are different, they do have different attitudes, different beliefs, different experiences, but their fundamental nature, THEIR VERY EXISTENCE, comes from the noise in my head. I would agree that my characters often speak from a very similar perspective - they tend to be lower middle class, reasonably well educate women who are either on their way to university or have been to university, they're normally some form of creative and they pretty much always believe in love. Now, I don't see this as a bad thing, because the fact is that most authors do it. Nicholas Sparks makes millions from writing pretty much the same novel over and over with different characters, in a different city and with a slightly different ending. His lead male tends to be a poor boy, with intelligence, but the girl's parents always see him as a whim, because he's sexy and from the wrong side of the tracks. The women are always beautiful and unobtainable creatures, but they have a young summer romance anyway -Yeah, this is the trash I read in the bath :) - and then they get separated. John Green (maybe I'm just a reflection of a teen cliche but I do love his writing at the moment) tends to write from the perspective of a fringe dwelling, witty teenage male (except A Fault in Our Stars, which pretty much made me cry all through it, but then the difference is only that the character is female...) My point is simply, if you like one of the novels, you're likely to like all by the same author, because it's from a perspective you can understand or relate to. Is that so bad? 

I will say one thing, author's voices develop and change over time. Our narrative voices are shaped by our experiences just the same way that we are. Things which seem of an immense amount of importance in what we write when we are sixteen (Insanity Breaks) will look quite different from the things we write at nearly twenty (Yours,) and everything that comes after will be different because every day that we open up our senses to the world, we see a little something we never saw before, or we hear something, or we feel or understand something in a different way and it's important for that to happen, because otherwise, we're not learning anything and if we're not learning anything, what do we really have left to say?