Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime

work and no play

edited December 2005 in - Writing Tales

Comments

  • Okay writing colleagues. Now that the main event is over, how soon do you go back to your writing?
    Are you the kind of people that can have a couple of weeks off, get drunk, eat plenty and socialise to within an inch of your life before you strike out again?
    OR do you have a couple of days off before the desire to write/fear of losing your thread, force you back to the pencil, typewriter or computer to carry on in the hope that you will finish your masterpiece that bit sooner?
    I have one more day off before I head back to work for three days ahead of the next break for New Year.
    And the sooner I get back to my current script the better even though my dear beloved will insist I spend a bit more time with her while we have the opportunity!
  • Hi Couriejohn. I hope you had a merry one. As for me, I keep a journal. Bits of stories, plots, a bit of real life go down on its pages. I've learned not to make it a "have to" do thing. I need to write. So went life gets busy and the love ones demand their due, I jot in a journal until things calm down (usually when they are asleep.) Have a happy 2006!
  • I keep a journal as well, mainly therapy from work. Sometimes even things about writing get in there. I have a separate notebook for ideas, and another one that I've just started using, for months I didn't know what to do with it. So I've decided to put old fashioned labels in that have been redesigned as stickers (they're of Paris in the early part of the 20th C), along with favourite quotes to keep me motivated. 
  • I'm going to spend January focusing on finishing my book, as I'm way behind my own original deadline - if I'd kept up the pace, I could have stuck to it, but I moved, and didn't.  2006 is going to be a good year for me, though - no more faffing around.  So, as soon as I recover from my obligatory New Year hangover, writing will be my top priority.  However, boredom is, now, beginning to set in, so I think maybe I'll get down to things sooner than that.  My sanity demands it.
  • My room needs a good clean up so I have no space on my desk to write at the moment.  I have planned a New Year Resolution and that is to write at least 500 words per day 5 days a week, no matter what it is for.  So you can tell that I will be back writing again on January 1st 2006 but if an idea pops into my head before that date then that refill pad will be found to write it all down!
    Alana
  • I know this must make me a very dull person indeed, but I couldn't resist tinkering with my current story over Christmas. I managed two 45 minute bursts on Christmas Day while my spouse wasn't looking, then a whole 2 hours on Boxing Day morning when he was out.  Obsessive or what?
  • I call that dedication! Well done Lily, you have put me to shame
  • I've been flat out with all sorts of note making, for the future, remember this, remember that, and yes, I wrote a paragraph of my book yesterday ... Boxing Day ... today I am in the office, dealing with goodness knows what!
  • I've been "collecting material", otherwise known as going out and enjoying myself!
    I spent half of Christmas Day half way up a mountain with friends and dogs, and I went out to watch the hunting fraternity gather at the Clock Tower here for the Boxing Day Meet (one of my characters is mad on horses, and I could almost hear her voice in my head).  It amuses me that they assume I'm a hunt supporter, when I'm actually along as a neutral observer.  I like to see the horses and hounds, and appreciate the history, but I'd prefer it if  they were drag hunting, or riding Point to Point or something.
  • Current writing projects have been buzzing in my mind during Christmas though I've not written anything at the computer or on paper.
  • Dear Evaine.
    Excuse my ignorance, but when you say "Drag Hunting" I presume you don't mean hunting men in outrageous dresses
    Tally, Oh I say!
  • Men in outragerous dresses - you mean like in the ugly sisters in Pantomine?
  • Come on now, I'm sure Evaine wouldn't dream of wearing outrageous dresses to chase men! So impractical.
  • I don't know, some people dress outrageously to hunt foxes.
  • dora - how well you know me already!
    (True story digression - I was in a book shop in town with my boyfriend and my dog, on a lead.  The owner of the shop, who I know fairly well, came in behind us and could only see me, Mark, and the chain, and immediately made 2 + 2 = 5.)

    To be more serious, Drag Hunting is when a man with a sack of aniseed goes out in the early morning and lays a trail for the hounds by dragging it along the ground.  Hence you get the thrill of the chase without following a fox's scent and trying to kill the fox.
  • Do you get to kill the man in dr..I mean the man with the aniseed?
  • A few days distance has given me a new perspective on a couple of projects.

    Spending time with certain family members is also inspirational - I should try writing a farce...
  • ...do you mean something on the lines of Lixxy's posting titled:

    I turned at the sound of the back door closing...
  • ¡Phew! Thanks Jacey for getting this thread back on course. (I've got this vision fixed in my mind of a man smelling of aniseed being chased by a pack of hounds in Benny Hill style which reminded me of when the entire Fitzwilliam hunt appeared in our garden when I was a kid.....etc etc)

    The holidays are proving productive in getting ideas together for a book. In the holidays things seem to fall into place so much more easily.
  • (except I keep repeating the word 'holidays' ad nauseum)
  • Ah,roll on holidays.
  • I'd just like to say, without any intended insult to anyone, that hunting with dogs is now illegal as from earlier this year (February, if memory serves), and a good job too, as such a barbaric and unnecessary practice had no place in modern society, and deserves to be consigned to the history books.  The RSPCA worked hard for 30 years to get hunting banned, and now, finally, they've won the battle, through legal and non-violent means.  It upsets me to see people joking about it, especially as there used to be a Boxing Day hunt not far from me, which I was intensely ashamed of.  I could never bring myself to watch them, for research purposes or no, as I know the language that would come out of my mouth would be rather too colourful for most people's liking.

    Having said all that, I hope everyone has a very productive and creative 2006 - enjoy the thrill of writing!
  • Aww Stan, don't be so mean to holidays! You know you'll only squish them!
  • I finished uni on the 16th dec and havent got an exam till 25th of Jan. so for me I probably wont do much until then (Other than revision...of course) Lazyitus...anyone else got it? It is spreading fast.
  • I dont mean to make myself into a really lazy person. I`m not honest. Just saving my energy for my exam and the 7 essays I have next semester (5 of which are due on the same day)...See I try and make excuses for my lazyitus too now...
  • Sounds like you've got a lot of hard work ahead, pink princess, so enjoy your break. Here's wishing you the best of luck in your exams.
  • thanks sylvia!
  • Sorry to have upset you, TaffettaPunk - but since the Boxing Day Hunt meets about 100 yards from my house, there's no way I can ignore it, so I may as well take notes.
  • Evaine, fair enough - like I said, I didn't mean to offend anyone.  It's just that it's something I feel really passionate about, and do tend to go off on one if people make light of such a serious issue.
  • No offence meant from here, TP, in trying to laugh at the spectacle, but it clearly touched a raw nerve.

    Thanks for the good wishes for 2006, and may it be a good one for you.
  • Thanks, Howard, no problem - I can joke about most things, but not that.

    Anyway, I hope, now, that the RSPCA manage to push through the new Animal Welfare Bill - that would be the biggest change since 1911, and would mean so much to so many.

    Drink lots, tonight, all - I have the vodka ready!

    TP x
  • I'll drink to that, TaffettaPunk!
  • For me, well I managed to get back to some writing after the tedium of thank you letters, trying to drag news from some obscure source for my aunt, the others had a few quick notelets. Anyway they are done now, Mum has been once more for the umpteenth, been referring to getting me upstairs. I suppose it will have its advantages as I can get on with my writing a little earlier but I am not relishing carrying my computer upstairs as my back is not that brilliant and do not fancy another dose of physio - not exactly lightweight and there are a paucity of nice strong gentlemen in the area.  Whether one likes it or not, men and women are not the same, physically speaking, Woll52
  • for me, i write when i have time. it isn't a case of having holidays from my writing. i write in my holidays to escape from answering questions on why mary queen of scots had her head cut off etc etc etc. i never get much chance to write unless i put off a bit of college work, so it sucks. ive got 4 january exams coming up as well as having to write a 3000 word essay to be in at the end of january.
  • jenniferb88 i sympathise with you. I`m at uni and the work load doesn`t get any easier! maybe one day wel will have the time to write things  other than our essays/exams!
  • Hello Dora, re-reading this thread I've just noticed your comment 'Aww Stan, don't be so mean to holidays! You know you'll only squish them!' - very droll. I enjoyed that comment. 
  • I usually find it difficult to stop writing, except after the xmas break when its hard to start again. I set the 'start back time' in my diary for Monday. And stick to it -well most of the time
  • So Sal, have you started back to the writing?
  • Yes Stan, I started yesterday morning then a break and wrote on until four am.  But that included reading, composing letters-admin as well as writing and of course, I always make time for Talkback.  I was still making pencil notes at 8am.
  • Well done, Sal!
  • Thanks Stan
    This does not happen every day.  Most of the time, I am ducking and weaving between writing,bills, boredom, deadlines, panic attacks as much as anyone else.
Sign In or Register to comment.