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12
Feb

Writing In Review #1

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I restarted this blog – thank you for the comments so far :D

Anyhoo, I said on Friday that I would post a writing update today and I intend to do this every Sunday as a solid review of the words I’ve written and any thoughts I’ve had as I’ve written. This is also to help me revisit the goal I made at the start of this blog and to ensure that I’m actually meeting the weekly target!

You may have also noticed graphics appearing on the bottom of my daily posts – this is so I (and you if you wish hehe) can keep track of my daily word count.

Here is today’s so far (though I think I might write some more later):

My only thought so far is that I was thinking about changing it to first person, only to find that it wasn’t working in the first paragraph and I kind of prefer it in third person – so I scrapped that idea lol :)

Category: Writing  Leave a Comment
11
Feb

Technically, I Don’t Exist!

It’s true, well at least it is in the eyes of banks, building societies and financial institutions.

In the UK in order to open a bank account or other financial product you need to prove who you are, fair enough. But the ID required is particularly limited. The two big one’s that banks can accept – I don’t have:

Passport – I have never left the UK and to be honest I don’t intend to – not because I don’t want to see the world but I don’t like the idea of flying, I worry a ship would sink and that the eurotunnel would crash down around my ears if I was ever to go through it. Completely irrational I know but there you go. Disney world is never going to happen for me lol. As a result I begrudge paying £75 and going through an incredibly long process just to get ID!

Driving License – similar really, I don’t particularly want to learn how to drive, I’m far happier relying on public transport. Seriously, I think I would be a danger to the people of Bristol if I was let loose on the roads! And again I don’t want to spend £50 just for ID :)

There are other forms of ID that can be used … all of which I don’t have, birth certificates are only accepted for those under 20 and while I used to have student ID (this is surprisingly on RBS’s list), that is now out of date lol.

So technically speaking as it stands I can only open an account with banks I already have accounts with, so I’m slightly thankful I went on a bit of a bank account opening spree when I was younger and have three current accounts with different banks hehe (those free gifts were just a little too tempting!).

Would you get a driving license / passport just for ID?

Category: Random  Leave a Comment
10
Feb

Friday Five: Bus Stops, Snow & Firefly!

Friday Five is a feature inspired by Jackson Pearce’s vlogs where I will try each week to come up with five probably completely random by hopefully interesting things. That’s the plan anyway! :)

1. Bus Stops
Well, okay not bus stops themselves, that would be really uninteresting unless you want to talk about the nifty GPS signs that some of them have in Bristol to let you know how long the bus is going to be…

I digress (this is quite common in me territory :D ), what I’m actually talking about is conversations on Bus Stops. They don’t happen often. I’ve been seeing the same guy on my local bus stop for the last few months. We both get the same bus at the same time, Monday – Friday yet we never spoke. Until a couple of weeks ago we started saying morning and then today we actually had a kind of conversation!!!

I discovered he was an Immune System Research Scientist for Bristol University – it was awesome! You never know who is standing just a few feet away from you when you wait on bus stops!

2. Snow
When it started snowing lightly last night I thought I know what I’m going to do tomorrow when I get back from work – I’m going to take a picture of the snow, it honestly looked quite pretty this morning (and was soft too). But when I got back it had all gone!

I can’t say I’m not pleased that it’s gone, I like to go out in safety and I like the buses running hehe but it was pretty none the less and now I don’t have a picture for this bit. Oh well.

3. I’ve written over 1,000 words
Full update on this on Sunday so for now all I’ll say is that the words are okay. I want to try and switch it from third person to first person POV though as I have an inkling it might work a teensy bit better. So that’s my challenge for tomorrow (better to try it out now than find out it’s wrong 65,000 words later :) )

4. Things an agent has seen (and not seen) in YA
An interesting post on the Greenhouse Literacy Agency blog which highlights areas in YA which have been to death and which haven’t in the submissions that they have been receiving (and reflects largely what’s being published in YA at the moment).

Big thanks to the Hot Key Books blog for adding this link to there blog or I would have missed it!

5. Firefly
I started watching Firefly a few weeks ago after receiving so many recommendations on Twitter. From the description on Amazon I wasn’t sure it would be my kind of thing. But the lovely people of Twitter were so raving about it I bought a copy and I’m so glad I did. (Yay, Kaylee!!!)

I shouldn’t of worried – it’s Joss Whedon after all (the genius behind Buffy The Vampire Slayer (one of my all time favourite TV series)). Now alas I only have one disc of Firefly left to watch and I’m going to miss that show (especially Kaylee!!!) – will have to buy the film I think! :D

Category: Random  Leave a Comment
09
Feb

Why I Use Top Cashback

One of the things I love to talk about is saving money and if I ever find out about a way to save money there is no way I’m not going to talk about it here :)

If you regularly shop online (like me) a great way to save money is to use a cashback websites, these are website that essentially pay you a small amount of money when you buy from selected retailers, use certain services, book holidays etc. I use the word selected because not all of these online businesses are listed on cashback sites but having said that almost all of the major ones are.

They work through something called affiliate marketing where a business pays a website a small commission whenever you and me buy something from them after clicking on a special link. The cashback website then pays you a share of that commission in cashback.

I use Top Cashback because:

  1. They pay out in Amazon vouchers, great for a book lover like me (they also pay out in cash via BACS and to charity)
  2. Unlike many cashback sites they have no minimum payout value – you could cash out for 1p if you wanted to!
  3. They pay a bonus if you cash out through Amazon vouchers
  4. Unlike many cashback websites they pay out 100% of the commission they receive (they are funded by the adverts around the website)
  5. They often pay out more than 100% on certain retailers (I’m sure this is down to bonuses they may receive – but I’m not 100% positive)
  6. They’re easy to use

The only downside I can see is that you do have to wait around two months for them to be paid before they pay you.

What do you think? Do you use cashback websites?

Category: Money Saving  2 Comments
08
Feb

She Said, He Said: What I Think Of “Said”

What do you think of the word said? It seems like a nice little word, nothing wrong with it at all really. Okay, so what so you think of the alternatives to said? Words like asked, says (okay that’s switching point of view but still applies, kind of), exclaimed, shouted and the countless others.

I don’t mind occasional usage of these words, sometimes they’re completely necessary in order to work out who is speaking but sometimes when reading passages of dialogue – the page can be full of “said”s (aha, that’s got around my spell checker – still looks wrong though lol). For me personally it gets a little distracting and gives me the feeling that the page is stalling. The writing is trying to tell me something, but it just can’t get it out (reminds me of me most the time :D )

When compared with passages of dialogue with minimal usage of said, they for me tend to flow better, nothing’s getting in the way of the scene that’s forming in my mind.

This is all good in theory but it aint half difficult to pull off, I’ve only written a small amount so far and the temptation to use said left, right and centre is very hard to ignore. It’s only a first draft so I’m not overly concerned yet but it’s wierd how naturally said screams to be used. And if you get into dialogue with more than two characters surely a word like said can’t hurt – just to be clear whose speaking.

Ultimately my conclusion is that said is not a bad word and it can be practically invisible providing it’s not overused, I just have to resist the temptation to use it over and over again! :D

Category: Writing  Leave a Comment
07
Feb

I’m Starting Y186 Soon…

I am so excited – at the end of this month I am starting the Open University module Y186 or to give it it’s name – Starting With Law.

I have no plans to go anywhere with this, besides the cost is a little prohibitive to take it any further but I was bored a few months ago and started playing around with the Open Universities fab Open Learn website and I just happened to stumble (alright click) on the Law section and found it incredibly interesting.

Anyhoo curiosity got the better of me so I registered for this short openings course and I can’t wait to get started! Anyone have any tips about how to survive an openings module? (breath, I’m sure it’ll be fine :D )

Oh, and further to yesterdays post about my writing goal (I’ll include the following in all future posts while I’m writing so even when I’m rambling on about something completely irrelevant I can keep track of how things are going).

Oh and if you want your own head over to www.writertopia.com/toolbox/meters. This one even allows you to set the mood (I’m joyful here by the way lol).

Category: Open University  4 Comments
06
Feb

Screw It, Lets Do It!

So, um – here I am again. Probably the sixth or seventh time I’ve restarted this blog (but whose counting? me actually hehe). I love writing and I love writing about things that to be honest I have absolutely no idea about and so most stuff here will probably be random gibberish, I recommend turning around now and forgetting you ever set foot here, quick – go. now. Before it’s too late ;)

I’ve been toying about restarting this blog up for ages – for a couple of reasons actually but primarily because of this post on Barry Hutchinson’s blog and this vlog by Jackson Pearce. The bottom line is I would love to write a novel, I’ve written a first draft for NaNoWriMo (and then promptly deleted it – or to be more precise lost it) and I’ve had numerous false starts with other projects where what I’ve written has ended up in the recycling bin.

So one reason for this blog is to keep a record of how I’m doing, a way of making sure I write everyday and to actually track the progress of writing a novel from the first draft and through the countless rewriting process. In other words as a way of making sure I actually do it!

But also like I said at the start as a way of posting about things that I like and have probably misguided opinions on.

Writing Goals

The post on Barry Hutchinson’s blog asks us to set writing goals that are specific and achievable so here is my writing goal:

To finish a first draft of 65,000 by 31st December 2012

And breaking this down into mini goals:

  • To write 200 words a day or
  • 1,400 words a week

I think even I might be able to manage that :D

P.S This posts title is the name of Richard Branson’s (shortened) autobiography if you were wondering ;) Also let me know what you think of this theme!

Category: Motivation  5 Comments
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