Writing Ray - The Difference a Year Makes

So yesterday I happened to be pottering about on my Youtube channel and I saw a video I did last July entitled Why is Writing so dang hard? It was about 8 minutes of me grumbling about my difficulties with writing and how although I had several story ideas and many notebooks half-full with scribblings that none of it ever materialised into actual novel-sized pieces of writing.

In that video I showed two notebooks that had both got some notes on the first five pages or so - those are the notebooks for my current WIP that I have been working on this year. The yellow legal pad is now nearly full with plotting notes and scene snippets that I did in pencil (exclusively in that notepad I don't know why I just preferred it that way). The other notebook is not quite as full but it still has quite a lot of pages that are crammed with snippets, thoughts on characters and story timelines.

So if you think that a year ago, all I had an idea that was bouncing round my head, some scribbled thoughts and little else. Fast forward to now when I have nearly filled a notebook and have written **Monday Edit** nearly 67,000 words on this idea... that is some pretty awesome progress. Just since the start of 2014 I have written more than twice as much as my longest previous piece of writing.

According to Scrivener my book is currently equivalent to 215 pages in a paperback so when I get to my intended word goal it will be around 285 pages. If I overshoot a bit maybe it will end up as a round 300pgs. It will be a very strange thing indeed to have to print over half a ream of paper that will have my words all over them.

That's not to say that this year has been a cakewalk getting all this writing done. I've had to juggle my full-time job, my Open University studies and my home life while trying to write. My boyfriend has been amazingly supportive of me, even when he's nagging me to actually get my OU work done when I've been neglecting it for too long. But I think without the push from him last year to try and write this idea I might not have got started and I'd still be that grumbling non-writer lamenting the inability to get her thoughts out onto paper/pixels.

No gushy post about my writing progress will be complete without me mentioning, once again, the Amazing Alpha Reader/Slave-driver that is my best twinnie Jess. She has been my touchstone throughout this project. Every time I've sent her a scene to read I've been sat anxiously wondering "will she like it? What bits will she not like?" and when she sends me her feedback it all gets filed in the "Do not forget" part of my brain and when it comes round to editing this book those emails are getting printed out as the starting point.

So again, THANK YOU WITH SPRINKLES ON TOP Jess for keeping me locked in my Writerly Cage and rewarding me with cashews when I done good :P I'm pretty sure you're first in line for a dedication if/when this book gets itself into an actual printed format. You're the best first reader a girl could wish for.

Twinnie Jess on the left :)

  A year can change a whole lot, while I'm not 100% confident in my abilities as a writer (heck I don't like to think what the real percentage might be), I have irrefutable proof that I *can* get my ideas out in a reasonably coherent manner and create a story that at least one person wants to read. Which is a pretty damn good feeling. Who knows where I'll be next year? Charging ahead with edits on Book 1? Maybe have a first draft of Book 2? Be Plotting Book 3?? All of the above?!

I'm looking forward to finding out. I hope you guys don't mind me dragging you with me on the adventure.
Later
Ray x

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Hows about a Fresh Start?

So regular visitors to the Library will have noticed that 2011 has been a bit of a bat-shit crazy fest for me and as a result my blog has suffered with frequent lapses in posting followed by short-lived binges.

Now as we're coming to the beginning of June I've had the realisation that I might need to shake things up around here - seriously -  to get myself back into a proper routine. My new job has left me with vastly reduced reading time (unless I get chance to read during my lunch break) and in the evenings I tend to plump for tv/dvd watching in lieu of spending more time on a computer after 8 hours of staring at a screen and answering phones. Don't get me wrong I am *immensely* glad that I have a job but I'm not wholly chuffed with the idea that I might literally become glued to a keyboard if I try to follow up work with blogging every day.

So what's the plan I hear you ask? Well first up shall be a good redecorating, I hope I can find another blog template that I love as much as this one but I think I need to change it not only for practical reasons (the centre column is just too narrow) but also for aesthetic ones. It feels quite dark and brooding and God knows I don't need to keep my blog looking almost funereal after what's happened this year.

After that I think I need to re-evaluate how often I post, and more importantly *what* I post. I continually run into problems with book reviews as I tend to read so quickly that by the time I get round to reviewing a particular book I've read 4 or 5 more since that one and my thoughts about the book are not as distinct. But I don't really make up for the general lack of reviews with other quality posts, I very rarely do discussion posts because I don't feel wholly confident in my ability to articulate my opinions on topics that I feel strongly about and because more often than not the topic has been covered by better bloggers than I.

The solution to this problem? I don't have a concrete plan as yet but I reckon if I try to do double-barrelled review/topic posts that are related somehow then they might add more depth to each other and I get two posts stemmed from one idea. I hope to think of more ways to add quality to my posts as I discover more of this new side of the metaphorical leaf.

I gotta give a massive thanks to the people who have been there for me during these past few months, I may have completely lost the plot without your support and while I may not have my shit together entirely just yet I know y'all will be at the ready to patch me up when cracks appear.

You guys rock, don't forget that.

Get ready for change
LadyV

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Blogging Resolutions for 2011

Since I saw that my blogging bestie Jess did a post yesterday about blogging resolutions and some books that she really wants to read next year I thought it would be a cracking idea for me to think about it and do a post of my own. My blogoversary is in January although technically I was only properly blogging from about the end of April so it makes sense to have a plan for my first whole year as a blogger.

Blogging Resolutions
1. Read Slower- No really, I think that this year I have read too quickly and in doing so I find that I tend to miss little nuances about books which I really ought to savour and I get through books so fast that I forget my thoughts on them by the time that I want to write a review. So next year I would like to try and take my time a bit more when reading, to not read a book in single late-night gulps so I can keep my opinions about them straight long enough for me to review them properly which brings me onto my next resolution.

2. Review More Books- I think everyone who reads my blog has thought at some point "she reads so many books but where are the reviews?" heck *I* think that sometimes. I know I haven't done reviews for even a quarter of the books I read this year which is rather crap when I'm supposed to be a book blogger, it'd be worse of course if I had loads of ARCs from publishers that I wasn't reviewing but still I should be doing more.

3. Blog More Efficiently- by that I mean take less bloody time to write out a simple post which shouldn't take several hours to finish. I seem to spend ages doing posts that I could have done so much faster if I'd not procrastinated and messed about. I need to have templates for the meme posts I do and have a decent amount of stuff scheduled ahead of time so when I have slumps like the past week or two  there will still be posts going up on the blog even if I'm not actually writing anything new. It does nothing good for my blog traffic and only ticks off my wonderfully patient followers if I go for over a week with nary a peep and no explanation for the absence.

4. Comment More- Jess mentioned this as well but I think for me it goes doubly. I really need to step up my participation on other blogs. I follow over 300 blogs (which perhaps is a number I need to cut down) and there is no way for me to look at every post that appears in my feed but the ones that I do read I don't tend to comment on unless I have a fairly strong feeling or opinion about it. I think that next year I should dedicate time every day/week to read other blogs and comment on them even if it's only a quick "great post/review" style comment.

5. Be Less Afraid of approaching authors/publishers- I'm one of those people who hate ringing people up on landlines and is really not that good with talking to strangers in a professional capacity. To that end I get really nervous about the idea of emailing publishers about being put on mailing lists for review copies and authors about interviews or whatever. I know from following many of them on Twitter or via their blogs that YA authors in particular are the loveliest bunch of people who are really friendly and love to get to know the people who read and blog about their books. Compared to some authors who couldn't give the time of day to reply to a email from a fan, the YA authors I know of make a concerted effort to answer questions and interact with readers as far as they can.
My problem is that I am still slightly in awe of them and feel somewhat unworthy of approaching the "Mythical Author Beings" to tell them how much I loved their book. So next year I want to try and man up a bit and actually email the authors I read to ask questions about their books or to ask for a blog interview/guest post etc. The same goes for publishers and review copies although I think that will be to a lesser extent since I'm sometimes too much of a moody reader to be completely reliable about reading a book by a certain date and that's not fair if I have an obligation to a publisher to review it by a deadline.

I will do another post soonish about some of the books that I really must read in 2011 because that will take me a bit of research through my TBR list and I need some time for that.

So what are your blogging resolutions for 2011? What books are you *dying* to read next year?
Leave a comment or link to your own resolutions post
LadyV

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