Things

Yeah, I know, I'm a bad blogger. I'm sorry. But I have a really good excuse for not posting more regularly. I haz been writing. OK, it's not *that* good an excuse, since that's what writers are supposed to do, and plenty of them seem to manage to write novels and be all clever and funny on Twitter AND produce insightful/witty/moving blog posts. Alas, I am not one of them. 


I'm staring down the barrel of a scary deadline, wrestling with book three (it's like an alligator, only more slippery). This writing malarkey can be hard sometimes, and now is one of those times. Of course, this is when my procrastination skills really come in handy, so there's been a lot of...


1. Watching DVD box sets
2. Rearranging my bookshelves
3. Daydreaming
4. Reading other people's blogs
5. Thinking about book four
6. Hanging out with friends and talking about how hard writing is
7. Making playlists on Spotify
8. Online clothes shopping
9. Telling my puppy how handsome he is
10. Walking on the beach and pretending I'm a Home & Away character being all thinky and stuff


So you can see how busy I am. And I'm sure you now understand why the blog has been sadly neglected. It may well remain neglected until the deadline of hideousness is well and truly behind me, but one day (maybe) I'll be a better blogger.


In the meantime, there's the TORN launch party this week, a schools tour coming up AND a sneaky trip to NYC. Oh yeah, and book three to finish. Sigh. I hope YOU are keeping well, though?

In which I have a revelation

This is the story of how I realized that one of my very favourite things was ruining my life. OK, that's being kind of dramatic, but it's really not far from the truth. It all started when Iwatched this video by the ever awesome Charlieissocoollike.

So maybe you watched this video and thought, 'Yeah, duh! EVERYONE knows that.' I watched this video and realized that Twitter is evil. Or at least, seriously bad for me. My addiction (and I do think it's an addiction) had become so extreme that I was checking Twitter after every sentence I wrote. This is clearly not a very efficient way of achieving your (measly) word count target of 1000 words a day.

I started the new book on Tuesday and I wrote 1000 words. This took me all day, what with all the Twitter/FB/email/other random internet stuff.

Same deal on Wednesday and Thursday. I wrote some words, but I was flailing. It felt like I'd started the story in the wrong place, I had no idea who the characters were... it. was. all. disjointed. and. a. bit. crap.

Then I watched Charlie and KAPOW! I realized I could shut down Twitter. A miraculous discovery, don't you think? So that's exactly what I did. For a whole hour yesterday morning. I'm not going to lie, I was kind of twitchy at first. (And when I say 'kind of', I mean 'VERY'.) But I persevered and wrote some words. Then I wrote some more. And before I knew it, an hour had passed and I'd written just over 1000 words. Yes, my entire day's word count in a single hour and the story had started to flooooooooow. So I went back on Twitter for half an hour. It was still there. I hadn't missed anything. The world hadn't ended. I went dark for another hour, which resulted in another 1000 words. Two days' work in two hours. Man, I felt like a right muppet. I was all 'So THIS is how writers manage get their work done! Why didn't anyone tell me?!'

That's how I used to write, pre-Twitter. AND MY GOODNESS IT FELT GOOD. I've done the same thing this morning - another 1k down. I might go for another hour soon. It's hopefully the start of a new regime for me. Even if I don't do it every day, at least I know it's possible. And that's enough.

So, thanks Charlie! And thanks to the brilliant Kaz Mahoney, who's hosting the Spring into Summer writing challenge over on her blog. I'm woefully behind on the word count for the challenge, since I started nine days late. But it doesn't matter. It's nice to hang out with people who are trying to churn out the words, just like me.

Writing can be a lonely business, which is probably why lots of us love Twitter so much. We get to hang out with our colleagues with the added bonus of not having to change out of your jammies if you don't want to. But I need to find some balance in my life if I'm going to make a career of this writing malarkey, and this week I feel one step closer to doing exactly that.

If you feel like joining me in the whole 'switching off Twitter to get stuff done' thing, the hashtag is #goingdark. Come... join me on the dark side. You know you want to.

This post was brought to you by The School of the Bleeding Obvious. Thanks for listening.

Titles hurt my brain

I'm not very good at coming up with book titles. And by 'not very good', I mean 'really quite rubbish'. I didn't even come up with ENTANGLED. Yes, I did manage to come up with TORN, but that was after much anguish and plenty of *facecat* (think *headdesk* but less jarring on the brain).

I spent most of the weekend trying to come up with a title for a book I haven't written yet. There was really no need to spend my time doing this. I should have been writing, obviously. But thinking up titles is the best type of procrastination, since you can convince yourself you're still working. And you are... sort of.

After a quick look at my bookshelves, here are some titles I love and how they made me feel when I first picked up the book:

The Forest of Hand and Teeth, Carrie Ryan (Ewww... sounds gross. Me like gross.)

When I Was Joe, Keren David (Who is Joe and why are you no longer him? Colour me intrigued.)

Twenty Boy Summer, Sarah Ockler (Twenty boys in one summer? Now that's impressive.)

Some Girls Are, Courtney Summers (SOME GIRLS ARE WHAT?! I need to know!)

Going Bovine, Libba Bray (Er...WTF?!)

Shark Girl, Kelly Bingham (Sharks? I love anything to do with sharks so I am bound to love this.)

So what do you look for in a book title? Are titles important to you? Any favourites?

An award and some major procrastination.

This rather awesome award comes courtesy of the rather awesome Becky aka The Bookette. Becky's blog kicks some serious ass, so do check it out when you can.

You're supposed to pass this on to five bloggers of your choice, but I'm going for four (I'm so crazy and alternative, it's true):

1. Nicola Morgan @ Help! I Need a Publisher. The self-confessed crabbit old bat provides invaluable (and often amusing) advice to anyone trying to get published.

2. Yunaleska @ Nayu's Reading Corner. A prolific book reviewer if ever there was one. Oh, and she's also very kindly hooking me up with a copy of a book I've been wanting to read for aaaages.

3. Sammee @ I Want To Read That. Sammee is a fellow YA addict who writes some great reviews.

4. Anna @ The Chocolate Keyboard. Anna's a writer and editor with some VERY interesting insights into the world of UK publishing.


So, it's Saturday, and I feel obliged to inform you that today's Writing Avoidance Scheme has so far involved:

1. Watching Justine Henin v. Serena Williams in the Australian Open final. I wanted Henin to win. Sigh.
2. Washing clothes. The question on everyone's lips is... Will I be able to get those nasty olive oil stains out of my trousers? Only time will tell.
3. Looking for recipes to cook tomorrow. Finally settled on some kind of beany chilli-type thing. Yum.
4. Watching Australian Masterchef. God help me.
5. Having a nap.

Impressive, no? So... what's your favourite procrastinatory pasttime? Come on, 'fess up... You're amongst friends here. This is a Safe Place.

A leetle bit of progress and a leetle tiny kitten

I've written a couple of thousand more words on the WIP. All fears that I might have lost the ability to write have disappeared... for now. The trouble is, the next section is TRICKY. And I think it might even prove to be quite harrowing to write. So I'm doing what I do best and procrastinating. Seriously, if this was an Olympic sport I would be up there with the best of them, procrastinating a-go-go.

Here's a rather wonderful Procrastination Aid for you. I could watch this clip non-stop for hours and hours and hours. That wouldn't be at all weird, now would it?