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Sharing Sunday – Grief
The next dreamer on the list is Jerrie. We share a mutual acquaintance in the form of retail jobs and had a swell time sitting next to each other in class (oops sorry to the lecturer who shall not be named but we were sort of mean). This next story is gorgeous. I remember reading it and workshopping it in class. I hope you love it just as much. Grief I woke up that morning knowing exactly what I was going to do. In my imagination I could still see you there, feel the warmth of your body and the touch of your coarse skin, the stale feeling of…
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Staying Positive When It Comes to Rewriting
I thought that I’d have this down. I thought that writing my second draft would be easy. I thought I could stay positive when I started the rewrite. I was wrong. So, so, soooo wrong. I was cocky and expectant. I thought that by now I’d surely be able to finish it and be ready and raring to go for more edits. Did you know that only 5% of an a first draft makes it into the second? Five per cent. Do you know how terrifying that actually is? This novel has been a work in progress for 12 years from it’s conception as an idea I had in year 9.…
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Sharing Sunday – A Settling of Ash
Today’s sharing sunday goes to my beautiful critic partner and best friend, Peta Hawker. I remember drafting this piece with her and urging her to give more. I loved Esther and whole premise of the story. I hope you love just as much. A Settling of Ash A settling of ash Esther sat hunched on the shore, the waves crashing at her feet, her head hanging between her knees. At her back rose the elegant tower she could no longer call home. It was only a day ago that she had stood on the balcony of her parent’s room and watched the army move closer to the city,…
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Sharing Sunday – Nightfall
My beautiful friend Av is my first victim dreamer for my weekly Sharing Sunday segment and I have to say that I love her. She is such a beautiful and authentic soul that it’s hard not to smile around her pixie like self. Please make her feel welcome and enjoy what she has for us today, it’s truly sizzling. Nightfall by Avrille Bylok-Collard Are lovers meant to be like this? Figures that dance in clandestine shadows to dissolve in the morning light, like salt in a beaker or fluttering lenses in the night? There are many things I’d sacrifice to press my palms against yours in the full summer sun, caressing your…
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Eat, Shoots and Leaves.
It’s taken me nearly two years to read this book. One because I was studying at uni and two I didn’t really have a lot of time to read anything that didn’t immediately grab my attention. I thought I’d give this a chance. So I read it, it wasn’t as easy to read in the 13 minute gap I had to and from work but it was surprisingly witty and hooked me in. Eats. Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss is definitely a book I’d recommend for any grammarians out there and you wan’t to know why? I didn’t hate it. That’s right. I didn’t hate it. I thought I would because…
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Talking to Characters
So today is the start of a new week, one where I’m committing myself to getting back on top of my blog schedule. I was feeling burnt out because I was trying to do too much, again. I really need someone to come and clobber me over the head to tell me to stop doing that. I keep doing it. Damn. Today I had schedule time to do some rewriting of my novel before finishing up some B-School fun sheets but my creativity seemed to take a hold of the day and not let up. I’m totally okay with letting it do this. It’s been a while since I’ve been able…
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Sharing Sunday – Olive Branch
So I’ve decided that Sunday is now going to be called Sharing Sunday and I’m going to make a practiced effort to share bits and pieces of my writing with you. That and Sunday’s generally tend to be the days where I schedule everything around Body Attack and So You Think You Can Dance, but it’s now moved to Thursdays (really annoyed about that this week. I was looking forward to it!) Any way without further chatter from me here is Olive Branch. My first toddler steps into creative non-fiction aka literary fiction. I hope you like it. It’s also a bit long, so bear with it. Olive Branch…
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Writing Coaching
So, I had this huge post prepared for yesterday but I was wiped after work and the little work out I did. I was falling asleep on the couch so I didn’t get a chance to really write down what I wanted. Oh well. It doesn’t matter. I’m taking Rach and Tara’s b-school offer. Check. My next issue was trying to find something that I wanted to really accomplish. Entrepreneurship sounds ah-maze-ing and not because some people are earning the big bucks, but because I can work to my own hours and be my own boss. I can find freedom in that very thought and it’s one that is so…
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Editing Etiquette
I’m not sure what everyone thinks about the etiquette that’s involved with editing, and while I’m not an expert, I do know that there is something that they did touch on, very briefly, in my classes, is that you need to have a good balance when it comes to editing and the marks and all that jazz. Why? Well you’re are supplying possible changes, not trying to overwrite it to make it your own. I’m finding this excessively hard now that I’m in the process of editing a full length manuscript. My friend tells me that they like all those adverbs and every book I’ve read, every workshop I’ve done…
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Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
So I finished the book and I’m sitting here wondering: Why the fuck did it take me so long to get around to reading it? (sorry about the colourful language. I try not to use it too much out of my fiction work and when I’m really angry or excited). My answer is: Mandi you had uni and FTCM and work and OB and your novel. That’s a lot of ands. I finished it and now I’m staring at my book, which fell apart when I set out to read it while it was hot outside, and I keep seeing the gold mine that this book is. There are so…