I haven't blogged in a year. Ridiculous. However now it is a new year and a new go at doing more than nothing. I have to admit that since I stopped working I have done much less than I ever thought I would do. I seem to play computer games more than anything else.

Well almost. I spend more time with my family, but it is a close call. This year things need to change. I need to earn money. Not to pay the bills, but for more fun stuff. We aren't staving and we can pay all our bills, but it would be nice not to have to worry how much we are spending on holiday or whether we can afford to replace the carpet.

So I have to do something about that. I know I can, I just have to put some effort in to it. First of all I'm going to try to have a weekly schedule, so that I know what I'm supposed to be doing each day. It's not quite a lesson plan, but not far off either. And it's not very detailed.

I hope to be working on my novel on Tuesday and Thursday. On Monday and Friday working on making some extra cash. Wednesday will mostly be housework and weekends is totally family time. In between I need to find time to exercise and meditate.

Each week will be a new beginning, a new start for me, so if I didn't do so well in the previous week it doesn't really matter. The whole thing is flexible at the moment as I've only just made it. I might move the days around as needed.

I will set goals each week and try to reach them. Today is about defining what I want to do and restarting old projects - like this one. Next week will be the first normal week of the year and my first try at really working when everyone else is out.

To begin with Monday and Friday will be more about finding out how to make money and then about setting up either a business or finding actually paying short-term jobs. This will all be online. I've already started in some ways. I've tried things where you click for a few cents, but they are too low paid and not enough work to continue with. I need to find something a bit more than that.

I also want to improve my typing skills. I only manage about thirty words per minute at the moment and that could do with increasing. That could lead to some transcription jobs, which would be possibility. That just depends on how quickly I can learn to type faster and accurately.

That is a lot for now. I won't post every day, but I will try for at least once a week (another goal to add to the list).

It's a new year

And I'm writing. Not here on the blog obviously, but on other stuff. I'm trying to get a short story ready and actually submit it to paying publications by the end of January. I hope I make it.

I have one book 50% ready, at least for a beta reader to read it. I have to find beta readers, but I'm about to start that too.

I have a detailed outline and several chapters of another book done, and I have a sketchy outline of a third book written. I'm afraid I get distracted too easily and often I find that out of sight is out of mind.

I do now have a pin-board by my desk on which I have pinned the chapter outlines for the first book mentioned here. This is giving me a constant reminder of what I should be doing, rather than what I am doing. It is helping. Which I do find a little odd, but still it is often the weirdest or smallest thing that makes the biggest difference.

I didn't complete NaNoWriMo in 2014. I just couldn't quite get into it and I'm not sure why. I will try again this year, but I'm not holding out for any victories. Perhaps I've moved on from that. I don't tend to try to bang out as many words as possible in a short time any more. I tend to stop and think about things a bit more.

But I am trying to polish the first book, which maybe why I'm not in that mode any more. I did write the first draft, just over the 50 000 words, for a NaNoWriMo so it has been very helpful.

Back to the research.

It was months ago

when I last posted. I sort of lost track of everything.

However I am now picking up the threads again. I've got a new story for this year's NaNoWriMo. It's all planned out and almost ready to go. I'm actually going to try the same method with an old story that I've been trying to finish for ages. I think it might help.

I seem to be very good in planning books, just not so good in actually writing them. I usually end up with a first draft of 50-60 thousand words and nothing else. Hopefully this method will help me work out how to get beyond that stage.

I tend to be a little disorganized and end up changing names, locations and killers. Then I have a problem in making the story cohesive. This new method will hopefully make that less likely to happen.

I'll see how it works over NaNoWriMo and then say more about it. There are definitely some things I will continue to use even if I don't stick completely to the method.

As I no longer have a job, I'm hoping to write a little bit more than the 50 000 words minimum. I usually skip some scenes and just write a quick precis instead. This year I want to avoid doing that. I know I don't write as fast as some people can, but I'm still hoping for 5000 to 10 000 words per day. At least during the week. Weekends won't be as easy as I have a family and other things to do.

Still I hope to write something on most days, even if it's just 500 words or something. It is a pity that Nov. 1st is a Saturday this year, so I won't have the largest word count to start of with. Hopefully things will improve on the Monday...

A new week

And a new goal. I am writing, well mostly deleting at the moment. However I am busy working on my novel. I never realized exactly how bad my spelling is when typing, but it is truly awful. There are some words that I just can't type without spelling them incorrectly. Auto-correction is a wonderful thing.

I will need to read through very carefully afterwards, make sure that it hasn't done anything too strange...

Still it feels good to be writing and editing. I've got rid of about 1500 words which I was in two minds about, but I really don't feel that the were working in this context. So they've gone to another file, just in case I change my mind again.

So now I'm back and trying to work on some new scenes and re-writing the parts that I've just cut out. The action still needs to happen, but now from a different perspective and probably off stage. The consequences are needed for the storyline.

Back to writing.

No job anymore

I haven't written for some time, but I did have a reason this time. I was finishing off everything associated with my full time job. The job ended on Friday 28th February so now I am unemployed...

Well OK, I'm now at home writing or trying to at least. It all feels a bit unreal at the moment, but to be honest I'm also more relaxed. A little nervous as well, but mostly relieved that it is all over.

I am finding it a little hard to concentrate on writing, but with perseverance I hoping that will change and it will slowly become easier and easier to write. Of course I could just be fooling myself. Time will tell.

So starting next Monday I am to write (or edit) at least 1000 words each day. I know this doesn't sound much, but I want a goal that is reasonably easy to achieve but is not so low that it is too easy. If I don't manage my goal, then it is added to the following day. So for the entire week I should have 5000 words.

I'm attempting to write as I know I have another 20-30 000 words left to add and I would like to get those written before I get too caught up in editing. However if I get really stuck, then I will do some editing instead.

This week is not quite a normal week, the kids free from school on Monday, then there are 2 birthdays with associated parties and dinners. So as it is so busy this week, I've chosen to really start next week. That doesn't stop me from writing this week, it just gives me a week to adjust.

Writing

I wrote yesterday. Admittedly not a huge amount, but I did write. I had trouble getting into the flow, but it was a new storyline and that might be the reason. I find that the more developed a story is, the easier it is to go on. I'm still playing around with this new one and I keep changing the specifics every time.

One thing I find is that names are hard to come by. Appropriate names that is. I can think of Jane and Mary and Mark etc. but trying to find the right name for the right character is sometimes very hard. But once it's right, the story seems to read better.

I'm sure that's just me though. It would probably read the same to everyone else no matter what the characters are called.

This afternoon I'm going to try some descriptive writing exercises. I find this the hardest to write. I tend to keep things simple, but too simple. I need to learn how to get sound, smell, feel and movement in text.

Now to find my reference book on descriptive writing...

Update

Well I completely forgot to write a post on Friday and I could have sworn I wrote one on Thursday. I have such a clear memory of writing one...

I didn't though. Not sure quite what happened. I did have a meeting at work on Friday and that might have caused some of problem, but still it's a bit weird. Anyway I'm currently in the middle of threes projects.

Probably that is two too many, but when I get stuck on one, I find I can work on one of the others easily and then go back when I've worked a way around the block.

My mind keeps jumping between the three and I'm not sure how good or bad this is. I think, for me, it is good. Each one is at a different stage; one I'm just planning; one I'm just starting to write some scenes; the third currently has 50 000 words and is complete, but instead of full scenes in some places there is just a quick description of the scene.

Two are murder mysteries and one is a vampire, which might possibly end up also as a murder mystery. I do tend to end up with a murder or two no matter what I start writing.