10 Day Writing Blogger Challenge – Day One

I have decided, that I obviously don’t have enough on my plate and would like more challenges please. With this in mind, I have signed up for the 10 day blogger challenge from Hunterswriting.

The challenge was first bought to my attention by at Write on the World and thought it was rather nifty!

I think this will be an every other day challenge however, as I’m also doing the daily prompt and would occasionally, like to blog about other random bits that catch my attention. For instance, shiny things, clouds, phases of the moon and sun etc.

So, first things first: sign up to the challenge – check! Complete!  Name is successfully listed.

Secondly – Respond to first prompt. Found Here

So, the task was to write an elevator pitch for my latest project. I must admit that I’ve cheated a bit, and written a pitch for my manuscript. After all, I am trying to send it out (in between all the blogging etc.)

I’ve tried writing this type of pitch before and started with something quite emotive.

“You have to know who you are, to achieve what you have to achieve.”

The links on HuntersWritings  were very useful! However after a tiny bit of extra digging, I found Storysensei to be particularly helpful when it came to constructing my new pitch. 

“Kyra has seen the future; her home will be destroyed by dark magic. She must return to the wild Spire in the Northern tip of the world and warn her family. However, her Uncle has banished her to the Southern borderlands, under pain of death. If she returns, she will be destroyed. If Kyra dies, the world cannot be saved.”

Let me know what you think. – Would you want to know more?

Related articles

• Elevator Pitch: Short, sweet, and to the point (tonybolognasandwiches.wordpress.com)
• Blogging Boot Camp: The Elevator Pitch (breakingmoulds.com)
• Writing Blogger Challenge – Day 1 (the-view-outside.com)

Daily Prompt: State of Year – Sunny with bright spells and a threat of cloud.

So, this is my response to the Daily Prompt: Write up a mid-year “State of My Year” post.

Well, the state of my year is currently a mixed bag! It’s my birthday tomorrow, so I’m feeling particularly chipper and excited for the next few days to come. I’ve already been given the most thoughtful and touching birthday present, but I’ll be writing more about this at another time. All I can really say, are children are awesome and I love my little nieces and nephew to absolute bits. (Their parents are pretty amazing people as well!)

Perhaps this year needs a comparison to last year?  This July I have a different job to last year, and I love my job. I thoroughly enjoy wandering into work every morning and seeing where the day takes me. This time last year, I had several very close friends. This year, I’ve managed to maintain the majority of those friendships, but I’ve also gained the clichéd soul mate. Soul mate is a very strange term for me to use, I don’t consider myself to be a new-age hippy by any means. I mean quite like scented candles and walking barefoot, but I don’t want to live communally. But I’ve been very fortunate, that after a very very very verrrrry long wait, I found the right person. Or rather, we found each other. It’s very hard to put into words how happy I am in some areas of my life. A frustrating thing for a writer.

I’m also half way through a Master’s course in Creative Writing, and not only do I have one adorable and personality-filled kitten, I have two!

However, this time last year, I was elated that I had finished my manuscript. I was filled with buzzing enthusiasm and energy and determined to have my name in print. So far this year, I’ve been far more successful in my blog, and I’ve also completed a few other projects as a writer. As mentioned in a much earlier post, Rob and I co-wrote a murder mystery event for over twenty people. I am proud of our achievement.  However, so far this year, I’ve realised that the manuscript needs another of the endless re-writes and I’ve not managed to give it any time.

Writing is something too easy to side-line. It comes after the washing up, the laundry, the tidying. I comes after spending some quality time with friends and family and trying to keep friendships maintained. I can’t help but feel a knot of worry growing. I’ve been provided with an amazing opportunity to send my manuscript to a friend, who happens to be an editor. He may even recommend it to his friends who publish books – in my genre!  I can hardly bare thinking about it. I am currently so excited and so determined to give everything ‘my all’ but at the same time that I feel as though I’m (quite happily) running flat out on a treadmill, or down the road of life.  But if I don’t slow down soon, I’m going to miss an important turning.

New rules are needed. Writing needs to move up in my priority. Blogging is good for this, I’m forcing myself to blog something each day, even just a photo. But if I can take time out to write the blog, I should be taking time out to work on my manuscript – again.  I’ll set myself goals – this week, I will write 500 words of the new beginning. New words, not the words I’ve already started writing out.

I’ll let you know how it goes…

Related articles

• How Do You Know You’re Ready? (subitclub.wordpress.com)
• Advice to aspiring writers (kate0murray.wordpress.com)

Starting from Scratch? – Eeek!

Why hello blank page!

After finishing my first manuscript, I was overwhelmed with a sense of completion and pride. I wanted to skip around, boogie, shout from mountaintops, you know, the usual…

Within my initial elation, I decided that every willing victim that I could fine, should read the manuscript to give me some feedback. Thank you all for putting up with this! However, the responses were really positive! I was pleased that I’d been so willing to share the story and have so much friendly feedback. There was some constructive criticism as well, apparently I rush through the chapters too quickly – but then I wanted to create momentum. However, after further reading and advice, I’ve reached the conclusion, yet again – that I’m not done yet.

Noooooo, I thought!  I’ll admit that it took me a few weeks to get my head around re-visiting the manuscript, again. But I’ve now settled on the realisation that the manuscript needs a new beginning, one that sets the scene and the world more clearly.  I’ve started work on this, but it’s frightening to approach a blank page, especially knowing that it’s got to tie back in with a massive weight of work that has gone before.  I feel like I’m writing towards a road block, that once I am able to join a new beginning to the old story, I’ll run out of momentum. However, I am determined to keep going, the entire manuscript needs another, more thorough edit but I feel confident that this time, I know what I’m doing. I have an aim in mind.

Wish me luck!

Fi

Related articles

• Get a New Perspective When You Revise Your Manuscript (joanyedwards.wordpress.com)
• Finally, I’ve Started the Novel Editing! (dthomasminton.com)
• The Book is Ready (swedishmaggie.wordpress.com)

New Home!

Dear All,

I have relocated writingwolf.com to this wonderful new wordpress location. Hopefully this will make things easier for people to follow me. My fingers are crossed!