Woo!,

I've been pretty vocal about the fact that this week has been busy, and I was well prepared for the fact that my word count was going to kind of tank. (Well, not tank, but not quite get on the ladder really.) It's been difficult to see where I would be able to fit in writing and I really have been struggling with getting any sort of word count recorded. 

Thankfully (really?), well, thankfully yesterday I spent a scheduled few hours in hospital being poked and prodded and spun around at low speed with lights flashing. It was quite as *fun* as it sounds. The good thing is that between all the bits and pieces I was getting tested or questioned about, I was able to sit in the reception with my iPad and type furiously to try and catch up. I'm pretty blessed to have a myriad of writing tools and several of them are actually very portable which does help when I have spent 90% of the time I've actually been in my flat this week asleep. 

It's been annoying because I really want to work on the novel that I decided would be my project this time around. Thankfully I got well enough into it today that I've managed to not only get to the 10k I was aiming for this weekend, but actually caught up with how many words I was supposed to be on today - 11290 (and a little bit more). 

I'm going to try a little harder this week in order to get some words in on the train in the morning and on the way home, and maybe some at lunch time, too (though that might be pushing the boat out a little bit) because I really don't want to fall behind again. 

As much as it is Camp, and Camp is a lot more laid back in terms of deadlines and such than November, I don't want to fail when I've decided to go for a little bit less than the November target.

Ah well - we'll see how it goes. Catch you later. 

Well, That's an Unfamiliar Phrase,

Even though I am exhausted, and it's been a long week and my mouth has been in pain many times where I am missing a tooth, I can honestly say that I love my job. 

I started my new job on Monday morning and it is a very steep learning curve, believe me, but knowing a lot of different things for my job is not the problem. The "problem" which isn't really a problem per se is that I went into my last job with at least a small amount of knowledge, whereas with this I am learning pretty much from scratch. 

To say that I have not got as much writing done as I might have hoped would be the understatement of the century. I barely got a few thousand words done after the weekend, which means that I am struggling in terms of word count. It always seems that drafts of my novels end up as a sort of Frankenstein's manuscript with bits and pieces here and there that need to be sewn together. Part of the reason that they all need bringing together is because otherwise, I have no clue what my actual word count is; it's all guess work and underestimations. 

I don't miss my old job, but I do miss having the time to write whilst doing my job. Whilst in the call centre it was more than possible to be scribbling a few paragraphs or drawing up a little plan or something, but my new role is much more intense, and I don't have that luxury. Granted, having a few canine compadres wandering around more than makes up for it. Then again, I'm biased. I prefer most people's fur babies (dogs, cats, rabbits etc...) to actual babies because generally, they don't make quite so much noise - though I do love a terrier more than anything and they can be yappy little sods. 

So I have a million and one things to try and get done and nowhere near the amount of time I need to do they, but I'm just going to try and get stuck in. 

Catch you later

My Own Limitations,

Camp started a few days ago now and I can't say that I'm where I wanted to be. 

Last year I had this great starting day of fifteen thousand words, and yes, it nearly made me keel over, but it was excellent in terms of how much I got done. 

This time around I started in my sweat pants, so lord only knows where this is headed. I've also had to head to the dentist to get a tooth out. And I'm starting a new job. And trying to find a new place to live, too. 

We're only three days in and I'm already dressing like a hobo, but thankfully still making normal foodie things. 

And I really need to sleep. 

Erecting the Tents,

No, like actual tents. Well, metaphorical...

It's 10 days until the second Camp of the year kicks off and this time, I definitely feel a lot more committed to it, which is probably because I actually have a project on for this one. 

Yesterday I mentioned having finished the first draft of the first volume of The Single Girls' Collective, and the plan for Camp NaNo is to carry on with this project and produce a solid 35K as a draft for the next volume. I'm referring to them as volumes because I don't know right at this moment if they will be novels (50k+) or novellas. I'm just trying to run with what they are at the moment and then the framework can come later.

With Camp looming, we've all been talking about cabins, and events and such, which has been wonderful. I'm helping to organise a London based cabin, and there should be some really fun goings on. Also, there are five weekends in Camp this year, which is beautiful, because it gives me more blog time (if I stick to just Sundays, which is obviously the commitment I made at the beginning of the year) and also because, for those of us who work office hours, it gives us more time for solid writing!! 

Now don't get me wrong - Camp is still going to be intense and my estimate of 35K is still a daunting thought because it is a lot of work. It still takes a lot to drag your butt home after a day of work and sit and work or to do it before work, or on your lunch time. After NaNo, I know that it's easy to fit in about a hundred of so words whilst you go for your pee break from noveling, but still, it's intense. 

So the rest of this month is probably going to be making playlists, stocking up on snacks and making sure I have enough coffee to hit the ground running with this.  

I will be staying up from midnight a week on Thursday to welcome this into my life, and hit the ground running. Feel free to join me, one and all.

Catch you later.

Testing Limits,

I woke up this morning after fifteen hours of sleep, which has become very unusual for me. 

I wasn't asleep for fifteen-ish hours because of depression or anything like that, which is obviously very nice, but because I have been really pushing myself to do things recently and something I really wanted to do was attend a lecture series at Birkbeck this week. Part of the reason that I wanted to do this was because I wanted to remind myself that I didn't enjoy university that much really, so I don't want to go back. It didn't work...

I'm not being naïve, I know that events like Law on Trial are there to sell Birkbeck as a school and to encourage people to study. They're a fantastic marketing campaign to prospective students, and I am now looking at courses more seriously than I was previously, though I'm thinking about the 2017 intake, because with the best will in the world, I know myself pretty well these days and I know that I will not be ready to do this in September of this year. I would rather prepare myself and be ready to do this than make an absolutely unholy mess of the whole bloody thing.

It's not just the possibility of going back to university though which has had me testing my limits. I've been trying to be a lot more socialable (because I sometimes suck at talking to people I do not know) and trying to spend more time doing constructive things than in my flat. 

This week I spent most of my evenings at Birkbeck. The lecturers were there to discuss the issues surrounding the upcoming referendum and I walked in there thinking I knew how I was voting and why. Right now, I feel like I have splinters in my bottom, because I am sat on the fence, leaning either way without really being sure how to swing. I don't get like this. I am very good at making deicisions about what I believe in and what I want to vote for, but right now, I am flumoxed. 

In all of this, as you can imagine, I have been getting less sleep than I am used to, and it has pushed my body to its edges. I have been very busy in the last few weeks generally anyway, so believe me, I needed my fiftteen hour catch up sleep. I was pretty exhausted by the end of it, but I did manage to finish writing the first draft of the first volume of The Single Girls' Collective, and for once I cannot wait to get to editing it, though that was on the backburner this week for obvious reasons. 

Before this post runs to a mile long, I'm going to wrap it up by saying watch this space. Catch you later. 

Annoyingly,

I was thinking about something on the tube home today, and I genuinely am struggling to put my finger on what it was, which is irritating, but I couldn't actually write it down because I was feeling really off. 

And, I remember! Cool, so:

Hype.

For a four letter, it's a big thing. Or it can be. Hype is one of these things that changes everything. It's a good thing for some and a bad thing for others.

Hype gets annoying when there are suddenly 60 kinds of adult colouring book in The Works and they're starting to cost something ridiculous. I know it's a fad and will end like they all do (I mean, what happened to Scoobies and Loom Bands and all of that stuff in the end) but I don't really understand this hype that surrounds them. I never really understand where it comes from. 

Maybe it's because my interests don't really change that frequently or in such a volatile fashion. Which is strange because I can have a really short attention span, which I have proved many, many times. Thankfully managing to commit to the current project though, which is more than can be said for my characters.

Oh I cannot wait for this to be done! 

Catch you later 

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.