When I'm writing, I have to set myself the time and space to do so. I have often berated myself for not writing in a structured way and I realised only recently that this is OK. That's my way of writing.
I do need quiet, no interruptions, no texts, no phone calls, no answering the door, just the dog sleeping next to me encouraging me to get into the flow.
I decamped from my office/studio space to my bed. A place with a view and I realise I need a view!
Armed with mac and reference materials, I went through everything once more. Every time I re-read my words, I find new ways of expressing sentences and make changes along the way. What I'm finding is in the editing, I'm actually not adding words but taking them away, which is not the plan as I have to add another 8,000! But I think it will be ok. I'm feeling confident about it. This blog helps me as I feel the need to check in with myself, I think I'm the only follower! Have a happy Wednesday and hope the blue skies are out today. Finally here in Liverpool we have blue skies and the torrential downpour has receded. Love xx
As you know the challenge I set myself was to write my handbook for writing personal statements in the time I was in France - I had collected so many notes over the years and the idea had formulated and stewed for a great while, but I did it. On the Friday before I set off back home to the UK, I sent off a submission proposal to a publisher and the other day I heard that they liked it. They can see it will compete favourably with other titles in the personal statement range. I'm chuffed. More so about the fact that I set myself the challenge and I achieved. At the outset I was going to self publish, so didn't put any expectations on myself - it was only at the latter stage that I began to ponder "I wonder if this would be of interest to publishers?" That's when I dug out my Writers and Artists Year Book 2010 and found them. It's still early days and more to add to so keeping fingers crossed all things will work ok. I have focus groups this coming week which I'm going to do with two schools, hoping to get a third, then I can glean some real life case studies and questions that they want answered in the book. Exciting times. Just need a sexy title now : )
Now to the next idea of writing my healing book about ME. (by M.E. I mean, myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome which I had in my 20s) .... that's been brewing for 20 years!!
Now the world cup has begun, I'm going to spend time art-ing and musing - got my latest one to finish and I found some lovely napkins yesterday in netto to collage on a layer. I got the idea from France as they're really into using napkins as paper. £1 from netto not bad heh!?!?
Note to self: Write in blog more often as it's self directed check ins that I need!!!
Have a beautiful day - it's gorgeous here ...bisous xx
Whilst sipping my current favourite mint tea (with mint leaves pulled fresh from the garden) I realised that I wanted to set myself another challenge. I had read back over my blog posts from 30 March and realised that keeping a blog was a great way for me to 'check in' with myself and to see how I'm doing, writing, creating, art-ing (+not farting). I remembered how I felt beginning (and nearly completing) to write my Personal Statement Handbook, it took over from my original intention, to write a book about my M.E experiences when I was in my 20s. So now it's time to revisit the ME pink book - do I remember what it looks like, well here it is. It's time to get back to it. I'm delighted I have my Handbook because it really complements the work that I do, but my new challenge is to keep following in this direction of writing daily and I know that no sooner as I start writing, it all comes flooding out. Thank you everyone who's supported me, in particular a wonderful retired english teacher who I've know since I was oooh, let me see, 4 (we're talking 38 yrs ish) known as AN, and she wrote on my fb page today
"I recognise good stuff when I read it. You know English was my subject, I am immodest enough to tell you I have a way with words...........SO DO YOU. Every success to you. I really enjoyed reading the Blog update!!!"
So thanks AN, it has inspired me to continue. Plus my friend Lesley's nail varnish yesterday reminded me of the colour of my book, so I must go and buy 3 for the price of 1 at Tescos. Agggghhhhhhh the joy of supermarkets that have offers! (pas en france).
It has been over two weeks since I last wrote here. I think that this blogging malarkey is working because I have been beavering away on my handbook/guidebook/manual. So far I'm nearing 10,000 words, and I'm liking the way it's going. This started out as a challenge to get this done before I go home to UK and it's looking like I may be getting there. Three weeks have passed and I have achieved a fair bit.
What I'm finding very interesting is the flow process I find myself in when I sit down to write. What normally happens and this has evolved, is I will proof and edit what I wrote the day before. This gets me into the mindset of where I was up to and what things I had been saying. I also have a word doc on my desktop that I add to when I'm about to stop writing for the day, so that I can go and check on this first thing the next day, or the next session.
At the moment I'm writing all the time, in the morning, through the afternoon and in the evening, taking regular breaks, drinking lots of water and eating almonds (plus other stuff of course) All good brain food.
And so what I have right now is a working doc, that is taking the form of "8 Steps to creating your Personal Statement for University". I'm on step 7 right now. I started with the steps and the activities, then I will put the coat on the rest of the book, the introduction, the references, the links, the FAQ's, the Index.
This came to my attention today and I find it very interesting:
From Jon Kremer’s free book marketing newsletter: In 2009, traditional publishing produced 288,355 titles and print-on-demand (POD) services produced 764,448. Traditional publishers published 45,000 novels, 32,300 childrens' books, 19,300 religion titles, 15,400 science titles, and 26,000 economics titles. The top POD publishers were CreateSpace (21,819 titles), Lulu.com (10,386 titles), Xlibris (10,161), AuthorHouse (9,445 titles), and PublishAmerica (5,689 titles).
I found this quote on word document and not sure where I found it.... sorry to whomever
"I have decided today to change my definition of success. Instead of measuring it in ££ Pounds, I decided that the best way to be a success would be to spend as much time doing what I love. That way even if I didn’t make lots of of money at least I would love what I was doing., happy from moment to moment".
