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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 |
leecetheartist
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5:06p |
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apod
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6:07a |
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| Monday, November 9th, 2009 |
dr_nebula
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12:42p |
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apod
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6:19a |
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leecetheartist
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10:43a |
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| Sunday, November 8th, 2009 |
leecetheartist
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5:12p |
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apod
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6:01a |
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| Saturday, November 7th, 2009 |
azhure
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9:39p |
Saturday night
It’s a Saturday night, and the husband and I are being terribly exciting. He’s playing Uncharted on the PS3 and I’m reading some blogs on the MacBook.
Have I mentioned how much I love the MacBook? Part of this is just being happy to have a light, portable laptop again, but there’s a huge part in just loving the fact that everything just works. Don’t get me wrong, I am always going to be a PC girl first (and one who doesn’t mind having to fiddle with things to get them to work), but I can see why people join the cult of Mac.
The highlight of today was getting to meet my niece for the first time. Madeleine was born yesterday by c-section and is utterly adorable. First niece for my sister and I, first grandchild for my parents. And in a month’s time (or less!), she will have a cousin  Which is suddenly feeling all too soon and yet really far away.
I haven’t written for the last two days. Neither have I missed writing for the last two days. Frankly, I’m utterly exhausted and my well of creativity has been wrung dry. So I’m officially taking a break.
This doesn’t mean that I’m not thinking about writing. I have been, a lot. I’ve been reading a bunch of blogs and articles on writing advice (which I shall link to sometime soon) and contemplating process.
My process has always been this: I am a pantser. I get an idea, and I work with it with no plan, just trying to excavate the relic hidden beneath the earth. And I rewrite and rewrite and rewrite.
Anyone who’s been reading my blog entries will know by now how frustrated I’ve been with this process. It doesn’t mesh with my innate nature, which is someone who likes to plan and organise. And so I think it’s time for me to try something different. Not now, but when I come back to writing again after the sprog is born and life has settled down again.
I am going to try to become a plotter.
At the moment, I’m unsure as to what method of plotting I’ll use. I have plenty of time to explore them, so that doesn’t worry me right now. I’m also going to try to get myself back into a writing routine as soon as I can. This may be the more ambitious part of the plan, but it’s always been the best way for me. I’m also going to seriously track the time that I spend writing and set myself deadlines. And yes, I will probably blog endlessly about this entire process.
Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn. |
leecetheartist
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2:45p |
Saturday - Ravenswood to Tatham's
Today's run has been pretty straightfoward, definitely not as long as yesterday. We had buckwheat pancakes and spek with maple syrup for breakfast with apple and coffee, and then checked out. Kitted up, and paddled on out and down the twisting Murray. The vegetation is starting to change a little bit toward the more estuarine along this stretch. I saw a Brown Goshawk flying off with some prey quite close, and a couple of the dolphins decided to show us how to fiish, they were herding fish against the rocky banks and making some tremendous waves doing so. Saw some nesting Spponbills, nesting Grey Teal and nesting galahs and 28's, plus the obligatory nesting Darters. No ill effects from the long paddle yesterday, which surprises me somewhat, still I was glad that today was only 7km. We stopped at Pelican's for an icecream and a coffee, and then in was only about 1/2 a kilometre to the campsite at Tatham's. It was then that the weather said, "Oh! Let's suddenly let fly with gusty winds and torrents of rain and get the kayakers all wet and cold." The rain vanished as we reached the campsite, and we quickly set up the tents, had nice hot showers, and had lunch. Now we're feeling lazy, so we're lounging about in the tent, enjoying the view of the river and looking at the weather forecast. Tomorrow might be a bit of an explore day about the islands and delta, and we'll stay here again tomorrow night. It's still doubtful as to whether we will be able to do the great crossing of the estuary on Monday. The wind looks like it is going to be rather unaccommodating. Still, we have Plan B, which involves us paddling to the Serpentine and being picked up there and driven across to the hotel on the other side of the estuary. More lazing about is in order, I think. Ta ta for now. |
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apod
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5:20a |
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| Friday, November 6th, 2009 |
leecetheartist
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10:14p |
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apod
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5:32a |
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azhure
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9:55a |
It’s not about Nanowrimo, really
I expect that you’re all heartily tired of me posting about Nanowrimo by now. If so, feel free to skip this post.
I’ve been thinking a lot about writing in general as well about Nanowrimo. And I think that the issues I’ve been having with Nano have nothing to do with Nano at all.
I truly do enjoy doing Nano. I like being part of a group all striving towards the same goal. I like the competition. I like being “given” the freedom to just churn out words without editing, to be able to explore new words without overthinking everything. I think Nano is an awesome thing, and I admire everyone who has a go at it, whether they make 50k or not. You’re all awesome, whether you’re an established writer who’s churning out a draft or if you just want to play in the word mines for the first time and see if you *can* do it.
In retrospect, Nano couldn’t have come at a worse time for me. Not only do I have baby brain and late-pregnancy exhaustion, I’ve also had workmen in the house for most of this week. Plus I only finished a draft of another novel last week – something that always requires some time in between just refilling the well before I can tackle another big project.
So. The plan is to take a step back into another mode of writing. To refill the well by reading a lot, to do some planning and outlining of Never (I’m seriously contemplating writing a full outline and synopsis this time, just because it’s something that I haven’t done before and I’m curious to see if the process works for me). I may still do some writing, and I will very possibly do a good deal of posting about writing process. I just want to take it as it comes for a little while and stop stressing myself out about it all.
Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn. |
| Thursday, November 5th, 2009 |
dr_nebula
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9:03a |
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perthnuts
[ sandgroper ]
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8:13p |
Tattoo-ists
Hey people, Has anyone got any good recomendations for a Female Tattooist in Perth ? Im wanting some assistance with a back piece and after using Guys for 3 tattoos I want to use a Girl with some flare. anyone |
|
apod
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6:21a |
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azhure
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2:07p |
Melting (or, why Nanowrimo is kicking my butt)
Nanowrimo total, as of yesterday: just a smidge over 9,000 words.
It’s humid today, which seems to be the weather pattern that really kicks my butt at the moment. As a result, I’m finding it very difficult to actually focus on getting any writing done.
I’m also beginning to think that Nanowrimo is a goal that’s not going to be met for me this year. It’s not even a matter of whether I can get 50k written in a month. Hell, I could sit down and spend a couple of solid days just churning out rubbish to make word count.
The thing is that I don’t want to churn out rubbish. I’m enjoying exploring a new fictional world, but it feels like I haven’t developed enough of the world itself to be able to write anything that’s going to be of any use. I just don’t see the point in churning out words that I’m going to toss in a few month’s time.
And yes, I’m aware that this is the same discussion I’ve been having with myself about whether to do Nanowrimo or not in the first place. I think it can be a very fine thing – it’s a good way to generate a zero draft of part of a novel. It’s a good way to just play with words, to see if you can write 50k words in a month. I’ve “won” it twice before, so I know I can do that.
But is doing it just because I can a good enough reason? Yes, I want to write this draft, but I also want it to be a useful draft.
I might keep on pushing forward. This might just have to be a lost day of writing.
But I might just pull back a little, spend some more time working on building the foundation of this novel.
Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn. |
| Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 |
dr_nebula
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1:50p |
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dr_nebula
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12:53p |
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leecetheartist
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4:25p |
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apod
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5:33a |
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practice_cactus
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11:05a |
:3
Yo Internet, how's it hangin? I haven't been drawing much and by " much" I mean " at all" but I have been slowly been chipping away at this cat puppet which you've probly already looked at by now. I was gonna keep it a little bit secrety and then do the big reveal but am posting these so you got somethin to look at. I'll draw more hot nekkid bitchez to make it up to you, I promiss. I was also gonna keep it a secret he's gonna have an eyepatch but there ya go. I'm letting the cat out of the bag here, so to speak. What's that ad campaign that ran the guy with the eyepatch? Y'know the guy they copied for Harvey Birdman; Attorney at law. I'm gonna use my little powerful magnets to hold the eyepatch in place cause the ellastic string I got will probly shift around too much. I'm gonna stich the eye area up so it's looks like a scar. I need to come up with a name for him eventually. Somethin like 'Jimmy Boots'. He's gonna be a sorta alley cat. I'm thinkin 'Tommy the cat' by Primus, Top Cat if he was a back alley fighter, general shifty character that hangs around at the docks, and 'annoying junkie that asks for a dollar or two at the bus station and bums a cigarette as he leaves'.  It's all just mocked up to check general placement. The inside of the ear is gonna be white fur. Still a long way off. Been making quick little paper towel template-patterned pieces and making sure the piece is the right way with the direction of the fur before cutting it out. Didn't have to worry about fur direction with the long red stuff. I was worried he'd look like a fox. Luckily triangular ears and nose are universally "kitty".  The head was a tight little foam sculpt I literally had lying around. The jaw was long gone, so I added one, padded out jowels and sculpted the front to be a little more cat-like. The nose was a black teddy bear eye I carved up with a hot blade combining my love of fire, knives and sculpting. The teeth were gonna be claws for a monster plushie I was gonna make, and the eye is one of the knobby bits on the bottom of a plastic bottle I loosened up with heat and just kinda shaped into a cat eye. At one point I considered taxidermy eyes but meh, hand made looks more plushie.
I think I'll make legs for this one cause he's gonna be small and would look better sitting on things instead of behind. I'm gonna try to make a tail for him but if I can't make it sit up and curl like I want cause of the weight of it, I'll make him tail-less.
With each puppet now my confidence grows. I can generally picture the end product and it's not terribly hard work, just painstakingly slow and tedious. My sewing still sucks though. |
| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 |
dr_nebula
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2:21p |
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azhure
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8:41p |
Nanowrimo, Booklife and House Repairs
Nanowrimo progress: 5521 / 50,000 words
Good writing day today, thanks mostly to being stuck in the house for most of the day supervising ceiling repairs. Said repairs are making me very happy to see them getting done. Having the ceiling cave in isn’t high on my list of things to live through.
I also received my copy of Booklife today, and have dipped into its pages already. I’ll likely post about it in detail at some stage, but I’m really enjoying it so far. I’m a fan in general of reading books about writing (and listening to podcasts about writing and reading blogs about writing…and you get the point). I like saturating my life with books and with Story. As we all know, writing is a solitary occupation most of the time, and reading about other people’s experiences makes it feel less solitary.
Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn. |
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apod
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5:53a |
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