So many things so little time

This will probably only be a short post, but there is so much going on I thought I'd better pause & reflect before I do myself an injury. This week has been busy! I'm slowly upping my word count on the nano writing but major revisions need to be made to the starting plot if I'm to progress with the story in any resonable fashion. This is planned for the weekend (I get paid on Friday so should be able to afford cheese, crackers and wine to get me through some serious novel tackalage). I now actually have the will to finish it, which was badly waining at the start of this week. This was greatly helped by Andrea over at very useful and lovely blog A cat of imposible colour http://acatofimpossiblecolour.blogspot.com/ who reflected that sometimes you just need a break to step away, get a bit inspired again and then go back. Thank you Andrea much appreciated, I am ready to tackle the beast once again!

My cureall (not just for the novel but a horrid spiky sore throat) seems to have been the combined talents of Mawkin:Causley, who I saw at the Nettlebed folk club on Monday (the large amounts of tangerines may have helped as well but I want to believe it was the healing power of folk). The band were great, if you have not yet heard them and like to hear traditional songs with a hint of fun I'd def recommend them (I am slightly in love/awe with one of their number, but even if this was not the case they are very talented!) . Sticking with the music theme tonight it's violin. I have now got a date for my exam (11th Dec) which looms ever closer. Robin is def feeling the strain and is being quite harsh at the moment under the pretext that 'it's for my own good'. If I survive the lesson I will be spending the rest of this evening working on my dress for the work Christmas ball. I found the pattern ages ago but had quite a job finding material that was the right colour and drape (the pattern asks for velvet or stretch knit?!? For an evening dress? I think not) so I've replaced it with some dark blue satin. I guess the acid test to whether this will work will come when I start cutting, everything crossed till that and the first couple of long seams are done.

Next years diary is filling up fast and it's only November, my 'new' morris side Lumbawakk (don't worry I haven't abandoned Havoc, just gained another side as well, although it's border and rapper, rather than cotswold) have been invited to Sidmouth which I'm ashamed to admit I've never been too (I know slapped wrists, call yourself a folkie etc etc). & we have to book the campsite now for August! I made the point that I didn't know what I would be doing in August and our squire said "Well now you do, Sidmouth". That's on way of looking at it I suppose :-).

and then there was nano...

This blog is causing me serious trouble & strife at the moment. Behind the scenes are a load of posts from the time I went missing a couple of months ago (it all started with Italy, I wrote the posts, I just didn't publish them because I had no pictures, now that I have the pictures it doesn't seem to want to let me post them). Technology you and I clash horns once again... might have to get Dave to take a look.

Anyway back into the present, the main worry at the moment is unusually not keeping this blog up to date it's the novel that I promised I'd write for Nanowrimo (more details here http://www.nanowrimo.org if you, havent got the faintest what I'm talking about). So far I have a grand total (that's unfortunately ALL the words added together) of 3,000, this isn't what I'd hoped (I've got a weekly target of 12,000, but looking back to my university writing days (undergraduate minor in creative writing) I always spent way more time doing the ground work and then zoomed to the finish, so I hoping it's redeemable). Had time to write last night but wasn't really in the mood so switched my laptop off and went to bed with hot water bottle. My task this lunchtime was to plot a 'what happens in which chapter' plan. I've decided against that however, as writing spontaniously was quite fun and gave me an extra character who I hadn't planned for, but who could end up being quite useful. So spontenaity seems at the moment a very good thing.

The other slight pronlem on my mind which may or may not be affecting my word count/creativity is my ongoing fight with my demons concerning anxiety of influence. As some of you may know my friend Ali published his book The Girl with the Glass Feet a while ago and is now working on his second novel at the moment (his website is here & very pretty http://www.alishaw.co.uk/). I read Glass Feet within a couple of days of getting it & it is just brilliant, Ali has this amazing talent of setting his scenes in such a wonderful way, his language is quite simpy magic (and it's a good looking book too, I heartily recommend it). But back to my point, its set in a similarly bleak northern landscape to mine and that worries me somewhat, not enough to consider seriously changing my setting but enough for me to feel Ali's prestigeously talented shadow standing over me as I write. I guess I just keep going? Any advice on tackling this one much appreciated.