Going Backwards

I am the proud owner of 23,000 words of original writing. (Well, not very original writing but I wrote it all myself!) That makes me 10,000 words behind my goal for today.

Yesterday I cut 7,000 words from my story. It was going in the wrong direction and I wasn't liking it. I could see where I'd taken a wrong turning, so I went back to that point and put the 7k words that came next into an "out takes" document. That was less painful than screwing them up and putting them in the bin.

I need to write 2,500 words a day now if I want to get to 50k by the end of November. I don't think I'm going to make it, but at least what I'll have written will be something I'll like. Or I can hope so anyway.

Yesterday I went skating at Somerset House with My Beloved, then we took Boris Bikes to Tate Britain and saw the Late Turner Exhibition.

There's something about seeing famous paintings in real life that you just can't beat. Some of them seem less wonderful (I'm thinking of Manet here). Most of them are more impressive. I loved the picture of a ship in a snow storm and yet the reproduction here really doesn't do it justice.

POV

I'm eleven thousand words into NaNoWriMo and only a few hundred words behind. Which is just as well seeing that tomorrow we're going up to London to skate at Somerset House and then visit the Turner Exhibition at Tate Britain.

I started out writing in third person but after only a few paragraphs I changed to first. I can see where it happened. There was some dialogue which included the character saying "I", and after that it was "I" all the way! So I nipped back and changed the first few paragraphs to match.

It's Nano. If I'm going to write fifty thousand words this month I have to go with whatever works!

I didn't mean to

I wasn't going to do NaNoWriMo this year. When a friend posted on Facebook on November 2nd about being unprepared, I found myself in the same situation. I had no plot, no characters and no ideas. All I had was a blank spreadsheet ready for me to put in my daily word count.

But somehow my friend's post spurred me on and I wrote 2,000 words. I did the same again today. Suddenly I've got a story happening and I have no idea where it's going. It's quite exciting to see what's appearing on the screen.

I don't think I've ever tackled Nano with less preparation and I didn't think it could be done. I'm still not entirely sure but I think I might be doing Nano after all.

The Second Sex Readalong

I went on a yarn crawl at the weekend and met another crocheter that I really clicked with. So I stalked him online (well, I looked at his profile on Ravelry anyway) and found his blog and he's doing a readalong of Le Deuxième Sexe by Simone de Beauvoir.

I'm planning to join in if my blood pressure will let me. I'm going to be putting some of my thoughts in a new blog so as not to overwhelm this one, and I'll also be commenting on Tom's blog; so if you want to see where I'm up to you can do it on my blog or on  his.

You might even want to join in.

What's wrong with personality tests?

The Myers/Briggs personality test is suddenly popular again on FaceBook and it made me think about what bothers me about those sorts of test.

• I hate dividing people up into categories. At least Myers Briggs gives you 16 and not just the either/or of extrovert/introvert. But still.
• It's easy to write a single personality description that nearly everyone will see as applying to them, especially if it's nice and general. I think this is because we mostly remember the bits that apply and ignore those that don't.  Tests that do this are meaningless.
• The worst personality tests divide the world up into bits and then force you into a mould - everyone fits into one or the other personality type by definition. This tells you more about the author of the test than about you.
• The best personality tests ask you questions, then take your answers and feed them back to you in paraphrased format. So you're getting back what you put in and it feels eerily accurate but it's not actually telling you anything you didn't know. Except that the author's underlying beliefs about how to divide up the world usually end up shining through anyway.

But I have to admit that personality tests can be fun. I think I prefer the ones with colours, or elves, or "which Sherlock villain are you?" because at least they don't take themselves seriously.

Warning: Doctor Who Spoilers

Here's what I thought of the latest episode (aired on 23rd August 2014).

I really prefer sci fi to horror, and this was definitely horror. It wasn't a children's story, either.

• A sad, lonely, female dinosaur is horribly killed in flames
• Someone is mugged and his eyes removed
• A balloon carrying the Doctor is made of human skin
• The Doctor mugs a tramp (although he thinks better of it and gives up his watch)
• The Doctor may or may not have pushed a robot to his death

It was too slow and repetitive. How many times do we need to be told

• That Madame Vastra and Jenny are married?
• That this Doctor is really the same as the old Doctor?
• That this Doctor is very, very old (although younger than the first Doctor)?
• That this Doctor is not Clara's boyfriend?

Plus the "Did he fall or was he pushed?" was laboured. I got it the first time.

But there were some humorous moments, and bits of it were fun. Capaldi is brilliant and given half a chance will make a wonderful Doctor. I hope he's given that chance.

Happy Midsummer with a free book!

Happy Midsummer's Day everyone! And a freebie:

I've just finished reading the Touchstone trilogy and loved it. Book One is free for the Kindle, so although this is only the first third of the story it gives you the chance to decide if it's worth spending the £5.92 to read the whole story. (Hint: it is.)

Cass walks through a wormhole and finds herself in another world, one which is similar to Earth in many ways but with disturbing differences. She has to find a way to survive long enough to find a way home.

It's hard to do justice to this story because it's huge in scope, with so many interesting characters and settings. Luckily book one has a glossary! I was completely engrossed in this other world and felt like I was living with Cass through the events she describes. Some reviewers have complained that the story is slow in parts but I enjoyed the rest periods when things were going well for Cass. Given that the whole of the first third of the story is free, you get a real chance to decide if it's for you.

Happy reading or whatever else you're doing today!

Cats

Here is Rufus auditioning unsuccessfully for the role of Ceiling Cat.

(This is Ceiling Cat.)

Here is Rufus playing Hide and Seek.

It's quite a shock when you're on your own in the kitchen making yourself a quiet cup of tea and there is suddenly a noise above your head and there's a cat staring down at you. But cats sleep wherever they want to.

This is Bonnie. At least she is civilised.

Story Competition

Can you write a story about time travel in less than two weeks? Would you like an amazon gift voucher? Then you need to go to Indie Writers Monthly Blogspot for details of their competition.

The competition closes on 15th June. Good luck if you go in for it!