Bron Rauk-Mitchell's Blog: Bron Rauk-Mitchell - Journal, page 8

Day 11 - back in the groove

After an introductory session with a new pysch today, especially coming on the heels of a small down swing, I felt emotionally and physically wiped. It is often the result of sessions like this, where I am asked to recount my history, etc etc. Band aids are ripped off, scars are opened and it's raw and messy. By the time I left the session I was on the verge of tears and I was completely scattered. All of those experiences and emotions were churning around in my head for a large part of the day. I couldn't focus enough to write things out, so I sat down and watched DVDs with my daughter, keeping my notebook and pencil close by so that I could jot down random ideas.

http://campnanowrimo.orgOnce I could sit down calmly at the computer, I was determined to finish any editing that remained for "This is NOT a Fairy Tale"; but as I began the process of editing the documents, words flooded out and I ran with them. It didn't matter how rough they were, or how cliched, I just had to get them out of my head. That was my method with this manuscript for nanowrimo 2015; I would pour out what was buzzing around in my head, and then I would go back later to make sense of it all. And that seems to be the best method for this particular manuscript. That burst of writing sent me over the 1000 word mark for #campnanowrimo, and has brought the total word count, for the manuscript, closer to 20 000 words. I know I said that the point of signing up for this challenge wasn't about word counts, but seeing the word counter tick over a little more every day reminds me that I am making progress. This is NOT a Fairy Tale has been a work in progress for a few years or more, even if I didn't start the actual physical writing until 2015.

It has occurred to me lately that I need a few more characters, and I need the characters and stories to overlap a little more than they do already. Having the Bookshop as a central point is a start, but this would be stronger, overall, if the stories intersected more. But it could become a messy jumble if I don't plan this out carefully; I have plotted out the characters and their stories so that I can see at a glance which characters could naturally match up story wise, but I want to try something different, something a little more visual. I'd like to map this out onto a whiteboard or large piece of cardboard so that I can hang it up in my office, to have it in front of me as I write. I think this could be a more effective way to keep everyone straight.

#BYBin30 : I have made a little more progress with pr-aA sAt; that is BOTH the book and the character. I can see her more clearly now; not only her physical appearance but how she is as a character. Yes she is an Egyptian Mau but she is much more than an ordinary moggy, not than any cat is ordinary :) She was lacking depth; if kids are going to follow her adventures there needed to be more to her than I had noted down. She needed a much more defined personality and a clear purpose beyond being a cat; and of course being a Cat is enough of a purpose in some ways but for the sake of this book she needs a bit more purpose than simply existing. I don't want this book to be a dozen rehashed historical events, loosely tied up together by two dimensional characters; it needs to be an adventure against historical backdrops. It needs a sense of magick and mystery, and I'm on my way to achieving that now. 

Another small celebration :)

A portion of the poems that I have completed this year.
collage made at www.photovisi.com
Today marks #100days of consistent, daily writing. In that time I have completed 64 poems (some were started over 20 years ago, but most have been from 2017), written many more draft poems (the number is well over 200 at this stage), resumed blogging and writing reviews, started sharing my writer's process with others, made a dent in organising over 20 years of writing files and more. 


On January 1, 2017, I started a new personal writing challenge,  #anideaperday2017 . Ideas are very rarely a problem for me, but I like the thought of creating ideas deliberately, and taking more pains to record my numerous ideas. In 2015 this started out as a story a day, but that faded. In 2016 I changed it to an idea per day, and made it through most of the year, but the ideas were mostly disorganised. For 2017 I expanded on the idea to include the photos and scribbles that I often use as notes to myself. I've still got a ways to go before I am organised with the record keeping but it's already far more organised than in previous years. The ideas include new characters for projects that I'm working on, ideas for blog posts, courses, articles, names and more. The treasure chest of ideas is bursting, ready to explode. The catch is to actually use them and not just hoard them away.

From January 4, 2017, I have begun to throw myself into poetry, and I have already surpassed my most prolific time from years ago. The dream of releasing a book of my poetry is looking far more possible this year (finances aside) and now I'm looking at releases VOLUMES of poetry. The response has been fairly positive so far. I'm still cautious about sharing my poetry as it is very intimate; this is showing everyone who I really am behind the facades, It's easier for me to strip in front of strangers than it is to share my poetry.
When I first began to share it online in 1999, with an international audience, the response was positive but over time I lost my confidence with my writing and went into a black hole. Writing has always been a way for me to make sense of the world around me. Writing is something that I do constantly, even if it doesn't always make it out of my head. Writing kept me company when I felt at my loneliest, and my darkest. And poetry has always been far more effective than a journal ever was at recording my life's experiences. I love poetry in all it's forms, but my personal favourite is free-form or realistic poetry. I've always written from the heart, so it's often raw, and can be confronting. To find that my words resonate with others is a bonus; I write for myself, but I share my writing with others in the hope that they realise that they are not alone. I know it sounds corny and clichéd but at times I tend to be a walking cliché, so there we are. The reason that the words are pouring more freely this year is because I just stopped caring what people's reactions could be and I just wrote. And that has given me a freedom that is very addictive. And can only lead to some interesting experiences.

I have poured this new literary freedom into other areas of writing; blogging a little more, sharing more over on Patreon and my Facebook writer's page, and sharing sneak peeks into my drafts here. But all of this writing, this stirring up of emotions, this stepping outside of my comfort zone does occasionally set off my anxiety and I spend a few days here and there hating my words and ideas. I am just coming out of the latest cycle; I did keep writing in that time (though my blog posts for #BYBin30 and #campnanowrimo are in draft form at the moment), but I was gentle with myself, I recognised that taking it a little slower was fine as long as I kept going in some way.
 Today I was still coming out of this pit, but I did make some more progress with "pr-aA sAt";  it just a couple of key background points but it will help move the story along and give it a bit more magick. I can't get into it too much as I want to keep as much of the mystery as I can at this stage but it helps me to get past a few stumbling blocks in the storyline, and that is more important than having excerpts to share.

I have continued with the editing and tidying up of "This is NOT a Fairy Tale"; I've written an additional800 words since #campnanowrimo started, which isn't a lot, but my focus is still on editing and organising what I have from 2015. I will share an excerpt from what I was playing with; it's from Chapter 4 and some people may find it a little confrontational.

The mother-fucking beast lunged out of the dark at him. Hunter had no warning it was coming. This was an unexpected attack. Hunter had been having a great day; a rare thing lately. He felt better than he had in a very long time. These unexpected attacks were the worst. There was no way to prepare at all. The beast would leap out of nowhere. Duck and cover seemed to be the best method to dodge the worst of the attack. The beast’s razor claws were slashing; left, right, up, down… Claws were gripping at any available bit of Hunter’s skin. The beast tore through his clothing as if like a hot knife through butter (great, he was resorting to using clichés). He felt raw. Tired. Drunk. Everything around him began to slow down. He felt as if he was jogging through molasses; with weights on his wrists, and on his ankles. His feet wouldn’t move. The ankle weights turned to lead boots. His arms were unresponsive. His head was full of cotton wool – he could not think. He could not keep a train of thought in his head. The attack was savage; it was brutal. He forgot how to breathe. “Breathe!” he reminded himself. The adrenaline rushed through his veins and he finally remembered how to use his feet. They were still heavy but no longer did they feel as if they were encased in lead boots. Running as if intoxicated, he stumbled around, trying to get free of the beast. But the beast was winning this round. The beast was stronger than ever. How had it crept up on him unawares this time? He felt no sense of warning at all. And his guard was down. So the black dog was able to take him for all that he was worth.

Hunter was not sure he could make it through this attack. It had been some time since the beast had put him through the wringer to this extent. He was feeling dizzy and he was not sure he could keep going. Suddenly the beast dropped him and slunk off. Hunter was not going to question this lucky stroke. He sat up to gather his thoughts, assess the damage and grab a breath. He could see he’d need stitches and some medical treatment so he did not get infected. Whump!!!!! The beast came in from behind and knocked him on to his face. He’d lost track of what the beast was up to and had let his guard down again. His ribs cracked, with a sound to rival that of thunder. The pain took his breath away. The beast was determined to kill him this time, Hunter thought. Could he crawl away in time or would he end up defeated in a pile as his last breathes were squeezed from his lungs?

Oh jeesus – did he have to sound so fucking corny in his dying moments? Oh come on, he had to have had some fight left in him surely. He was not going to roll over and let the beast have its wicked way with him. But it was tempting to lie down and just sleep. No fighting. Just rest. Just sleep. Hunter was weary. He could not keep on fighting. Not this time. The fight was gone out of him. He was so weary. Beyond weary. He was exhausted. Falling apart. He did not want to get back up. Just rest. It would be OK if he didn't fight this time. Everyone would understand that the fight was too much this time, wouldn’t they?

So all up I'm happy with how this 100 days has progressed, on the writing front. I'm sure I could have got more accomplished in that time, but that kind of thinking does lead me back down into that deep pit, so I'll stick with celebrating the small achievemnts for now.

Review: Homebased Comic

www.homebasedcomic.comOne of the plans that I had for for 2017 was to return to reviewing books and comics. That was delayed after a series of unfortunate events in my life, but now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I thought that I would take the plunge once more. I know that there is a lot of debate in the indie creative community as to whether there is any value in reviews, as some people can be incredibly petty and vindictive when leaving reviews, and that kind of review can cause more damage than 100 great reviews. But reviews do help with sales and ranking on sites such as Amazon, and many writers ask their readers for even a brief review to help them gain attention. I'm not the petty or vindictive type, and if I honestly cannot find something nice to say about a book, I just don't leave a review. It's that simple to me.

www.homebasedcomic.comIn 2015 I was accepted to regularly write reviews for www.mariannedepierres.com, but life took another unexpected crappy turn and I had to put writing reviews on hold; letting people down in the process. I have a large pile of books and comics that I will be writing reviews for but I thought I would edge back into it slowly with some thoughts on Homebased Comic. 
www.paulcaggegi.com/homebasedHomebased Comic is the work of one of my fav creative people Paul Caggegi; freelancer extraordinaire and stay-at-home dad. It's no exaggeration to say that Homebased is my new fav web comic, and one that has lived up to my expectations from Day 1. Homebased shares the adventures of Carl, a homebased parent, his partner Jen, who works a hectic full-time job, and Fiona a.k.a The Kid. 

The comic is very elegant in its apparent "simplicity"; black & white, uncluttered, and domestic. I have always found the "mundane" to have its own magick, and Paul's quirky personality and almost self-depreciating humour shines through clearly, making this stand out from similar strips. While written from the perspective of a stay-at-home dad Homebased resonates deeply with me, and I suspect it will resonate with other parents too. I look forward to following Carl's future adventures.

Day 5 - Digging deep (Trigger Warning - Domestic Violence).

For as long as I can remember, writing has been very therapeutic for me, which can be seen clearly with my poetry. My poetry is emotional, raw and honest, and that is what appeals to a lot of people reading it. I always have a lot going on in my head, and pouring some of that onto paper or into a document can help to make sense of some of my world. A lot of my work has elements of myself in it, and it's part of who I am as a writer. Not to say that my work is auto-biographical; I'm a writer, so at lot of what I write about is purely from my imagination. But I do pour a lot of emotion and life experience into a lot of my work; which isn't usually a problem for me. However, as I've stated already this week, for #campnanowrimo I am working on something that I haven't looked at since #nanowrimo 2015. This week has involved mostly reading over what I had written back in 2015, polishing it up, removing anything that I inadvertently duplicated and so on. As previously stated, I have been surprised at the quality of the work for an early draft. But today, as I read through more chapters, it was an incredibly confronting experience. To see such raw emotion in black and white was not something that I was prepared for. Yes, it's my writing, but I hadn't remembered how much emotion I had actually poured onto those pages, and reading through every word brought up a lot of personal, and emotional, issues for me that I haven't finished dealing with. This is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of "This is NOT a Fairy Tale".

*** Content warning - domestic violence - trigger warning.***

Turning the key in the lock, Amy paused, took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. Which version of her husband would great her inside the house? Would she be greeted by her sweet and charming Prince, or would she be greeted by his nastier alter-ego?  Amy listened carefully, but she could not hear any sounds coming from the house. That wasn’t necessarily a good sign either. She took another deep breath, steadied her hands, grabbed the knob and gave it a cautious turn. Once Amy was through the door, she looked around for some clue as to whether Eric was home, and what his mood was like. It was better to be prepared, before she came face-to-face with him. Those extra few seconds could sometimes be enough to prepare herself for which version she would be facing. It was exhausting to live this way, but she did not have many other options at this stage. 

Whump! Amy screamed as Eric’s fist met with the right side of her face. Her head snapped back with an almighty crack, her legs buckling under the force of the impact, and an indescribable pain seared through her face. “You fucking skank!” Eric spat on her face, grabbing her hair and yanking up hard back on to her feet. Blood was trickling from her nose into her open mouth, and she gasped for air. He pulled her roughly through to the lounge room, and threw her down on the floor. She was in shock. He had never punched her in the face before. Before she had a chance to run with that thought his foot thumped into her ribs, hard. She screamed again. The crack that her ribs made, combined with the immense pain informed her that her ribs were most likely broken. She began to panic. She needed to get out of here until Eric calmed down, or at least distract him. She tried to roll away from him as his foot swung back again, gathering momentum to kick her again. She pleaded with him, “Eric, no! Please stop it”, but from the murderous look on his face, he was too far gone to hear her. She took as deep a breath as her ribs would allow and screamed for help as loudly as she could; preying, hoping, that the neighbours would hear her screams. But that only enraged him further. His foot made contact with her ribs in the exact spot as before, and she almost passed out with the blinding heat of pain that racked her torso. 

Would he kill her? He’d never hurt her this much before; he had hit her before but not like this. This was savage. This was brutal. This was hell. She tried to see her sweet prince but Eric was not to be seen – in his place was a monster, something from a nightmare. An ogre. Who would save her? Who would come to the rescue?

I have never experienced anything quite like this scene that I have described; I have been attacked over the years, in different situations, but not like this. However, I was able to channel some very powerful emotions that I have experienced over a lot of years, from some really screwed up traumatic experiences, and pour it into the scene. Which, for someone with an encyclopedia of issues, is a way of dealing with the mess as much as possible. But, it is also my hope that my words resonate with others; i.e they can see the world from a different perspective, or they can recognise themselves in my characters and realise that they are NOT alone in their experiences. 

"This is NOT a Fairy Tale" was a book that kicking around in my head through some really fucking horrible years; I wrote several scenes in my head as I struggled to make sense of what I was living. Emotional and verbal abuse, neglect and isolation. The professionals that should have been listening to me weren't, and I didn't want to burden others, but I often felt as if I was on the verge of insanity. During #nanowrimo 2015 I was finally able to deal a little with the past, and as I opened up emotional scars I poured what I was feeling, what I was reliving, into this manuscript. I had only just been diagnosed with C.P.T.S.D and I wasn't just remembering events; I was reliving them through a series of non-stop flashbacks. So to re-read these chapters today, when I have been having flashbacks for much of this year, it was a shock that I wasn't expecting to deal with. Perhaps it won't have the same impact on others that will be reading this book. I guess only time will tell.
source: www.publicdomainpictures.net/browse-a... - Things were definitely not as confronting with P.C.T.A. Today was another easy day of reading and research on pertinent subjects; I went a little deeper with reading up on Egyptian Mau's, trying to have the correct information needed for our Mau, Pr-aA sAt. She is NOT a modern descendant of the original Egyptian Mau's; she IS one of the original Mau's. She is distinctive, but at the same time I want her appearance to be believable, so I'm reading up on information from breeding and show sites, as well as from sites that are dealing with Egyptian history. Yes I am playing with elements of history within the story, but I need there to be enough fact to make this work. I am already dealing with a version of our world where magick exists, but that aside, almost everything else needs to be as realistic and accurate as I can. I'm having fun with this stage; scribbling down ideas, reading up on subjects and working out how to piece it all together before I begin to throw myself into the actual writing. I haven't come up against any real obstacles yet, although I will able to use artistic licence to get me out of any real bind; but I prefer to save that for a major obstacle, and count on plausibility to get me through wherever possible. 

Day 4 - behind the scenes

Although I have only written 66 words today for #campnano, I have spent time combing through the rest of the This is NOT a Fairy Tale's files from #nanowrimo2015. I had over 18,292 words written during the challenge; and most of them are actually still usable. Unlike most of my drafts, a large portion was polished and is usable. There are some really rough areas, and I have found some accidental repetition since I started this month's challenge (so I'm glad my focus for this week was less about word counts and more about housekeeping).
source: www.picgifs.com/graphics/boats/graphics-boats-324452-789469As the book contains many separated yet intertwined stories I took the time to set up each chapter as it's own document, allowing me to keep on top of the story, and to prevent me from becoming to overwhelmed. At this stage there are 18 confirmed chapters, and material drafted for a few more chapters, but over time as the story develops and the individual stories are woven together there is no doubt in my mind that additional chapters will be needed. Some of those may be written for this challenge, but if they aren't I will not be disappointed as I'm already well on my way to achieving the goal that I set for myself. Other campers may feel as if they are behind due to their own words counts, but I'm paddling my boat at my own speed on my own course, so I'm pleased.

I'm also excited with the progress I am making with the research for P.C.T.A, and I'm kind of enjoying the whole idea of #blogyourbookin30days. I'm not sure I would want to do this often, but it's a great way for me to keep track of what I am doing when I'm not actually getting the words down. Today's research was mostly online research; e.g. I read up a little more on the Egyptian Mau, especially comparing modern Mau to the Ancient Egyptian Mau. So far it seems that there would be a small difference, which would only be noticeable to "experts", but it is an important detail for the story. While this is a fiction story, it is set around real places, events, people and so close attention does need to be paid to some details.
source: www.picgifs.com/graphics/movie/graphics-movie-900752-854532But the more I read, the more I regain the enthusiasm that I have had for this book and the more that I can see myself finishing it off sooner rather than later. I have a lot more research ahead of myself, but I am already getting some clear glimpses of sections of the story. I find that if I have a mini film running through my head that it is far easier for me to write those scenes without feeling as if I forcing the story to move along.

While I don't have anything to share that I have written for #blogyourbookin30days I will include an excerpt from chapter 2 of "This is NOT a Fairy Tale". This was from the November 2015 #nanowrimo daft, and the chapter is titled "A Life in Ashes." I did share a few excerpts as I was writing this draft, but I still feel a little awkward sharing too much with the general public. But this year has been a big year for me sharing a lot more of my writing, exposing a lot more of myself (in the literary sense) with others, so why not share some of it here? :)

Sydney stared blankly at the tiled wall in front of her, as she absently filled the kitchen sink with hot water. The house ran efficiently under her touch, even when she was on auto pilot. Bubbles frothed merrily as the water level slowly rose higher in the sink. Loading the glasses carefully, one at a time, into the water she smiled, thinking back fondly to the days of her courtship. Philip had swept her off her feet, with his romantic gestures, his sweet words and his electric touch. They had fallen in love at first sight. A chance meeting, a whirlwind courtship, and a dream wedding; it was almost a scene from a fairy tale.

 She laughed ironically. A fairy tale! Bah! She didn't know when her life had changed; she could not recall that one defining moment where it had all changed, but now her life was as far from a fairy tale as was possible; unless she was the fair maiden locked up in the impregnable tower. Fair maiden! She snorted loudly at that idea. More like the old crone these days. The stress of life was taking its toll on her. She didn't need a magick mirror to tell her that. She had seen a few stray grey hairs poking out from her bun this morning; there were a few more fine lines around her mouth, from pinching her lips firmly together to stop from saying what she felt in her heart. Sure she supposed she still was somewhat attractive. She still did not look her age most days; it’s just that the stress showed clearly on her face more often these days.

She sighed as she switched the tap off. It would not do to add cleaning up a flood to her list of chores. She would barely finish in time to get ready, to go out for dinner, as it was. Although if the water had spilled over she could have washed the floors at the same time as cleaning it up, and saved herself a few minutes in the process. But it wasn't worth the possible scene. It wasn't worth hearing once more, just how stupid she apparently was. She sighed and carefully began to wash the glasses; it wouldn't do to crack any of them.  Her face still smarted from where he had slapped her for chipping his favourite beer stein. It wouldn't do to draw any more attention to her careless ways so soon.
source: www.picgifs.com/graphics/w/washing-up/graphics-washing-up-815217.gif

Day 3 - Knotting out a problem

It's still a little new to me to be blogging every day about the progress that I am making with writing a book. I've become a lot more comfortable sharing about my writing process, so it shouldn't be that difficult to blog about it, but it feels a little pretentious. Hopefully, given time, it feels a little more natural and it's not as if I will be doing this with every book. I'm pretty much musing aloud at this point, so hopefully you will bear with me :)
ource: www.cat-breeds-encyclopedia.com/Egyptian-Mau-cat.html 
It's been an interesting day with "Pussycat through the Ages" (hereby to be referred to as PCTA, as the working title really isn't working for me). I spent more time reading up on the wonderful Egyptian Mau; and I found them to be even more fascinating than I had previously. I have yet to decide on the colour of the Mau for P.C.T.A, but there main colours are black, silver, bronze and smokey, and then there are also diluted versions of these colours i.e blue, blue silver, blue spotted, and blue smoke. While I did write that I was starting from scratch, there are significant ideas that I plan to keep; the Mau's original name will still be pr-aA sAt, which is Egyptian for Daughter of the Pharaoh. Over time, her other owners will give her new names, but she will always be pr-aA sAt at heart. Mau's have scarab markings on the top of their heads but pr-aA sAt will have a more unique marking if possible, for purposes of the story.
https://au.pinterest.com/bronmitchell73/research-pcta/
I went back over yesterday's main plot issue, and on further examination it does affect the rest of the story, so after brainstorming for a while with my daughter I went back to my original idea and decided that that was the better option; now I can focus my efforts on more research. History has always been one of my great loves, both Ancient and Modern history, and history was one of my majors at University, so I'm enjoying writing this book as I hope to pass that love on to young readers. I created a pinterest board dedicated to topics relevant to P.C.T.A, and I also visited the local library borrowing as many books as we could manage, on several of the periods relevant to the book. I do believe that I will either add more chapters, or I will look at having this be the start of a series, although I'm not so keen on the latter option at this stage. Whether I add more chapters depends on how the first 12 are; it definitely has possibilities to work but for now, given my energy levels and so on I'll stick to 12 and take it from there.

I have had a full on day and my pain levels are high, so I have very little progress to report for #campnano at this stage, but I have added another 200 words to my daily total tonight. It's still early days yet, and a little each day is far better than trying to be superwoman.

Day 2 - Blogging outside of my comfort zone

All up, yesterday was an incredibly productive writing day; not just because I signed up for the 2 writing challenges, and blogged about it, but also for the other writing projects that I spent time on.
While being on forced R&R is giving me ample opportunity to immerse myself in writing, every day, I still cannot fight the feeling that I should be doing other things before the writing. Just having my daughter living with me at the moment does free me up to write; she is self sufficient, she is artistic so she knows what it's like to feel that urge, and she's fairly low key to be around (most days), so it's easy for me to jump into my writing every day, but still the guilt is often there. Even knowing that I can't do much of anything else while I'm recuperating doesn't always shut up the loud sound of the inner voices. So when I have a day like yesterday, I acknowledge it quietly to myself.

Today I was fairly low on energy but still I made time to write. #campnano2017: My main focus for "This is NOT a Fairy Tale", was to slowly sort through what I had written in 2015. I am taking one section at a time, looking at it with fresh eyes, and tweaking it here and there. I'm trying not to make major changes at this stage as it's still important to me that I finish that first draft. I have tightened the existing character outlines, but there is still room for improvement. I may have only written 172 words over the past 2 days but I am also collecting my thoughts, and tidying up the draft files that I haven't touched in a longer time, and that will allow me to pick up any major gaps, double-ups and so on, so it's crucial that I do this early on.

#blogyourbooksin30days: Last night, after blogging about my plans for both challenges, I spent time creating the outline for "Pussycat through the Ages", and undertaking some preliminary research. I have written the outline for this story in the past, but I decided for this challenge to start from scratch. I have a prelude and 12 chapters planned at this stage. 10 of the chapters are about significant events throughout history, as seen through the eyes of a pet cat. I have a feeling that I will add more events but 10 seemed workable at the moment.

Prelude: Ancient Egypt.
Chapter 1: Modern Australia. A young girl with a passion for art and history, and the owner of a gorgeous Egyptian Mau with distinctive markings (even for the breed), is attending a special exhibition on cats and art throughout history when she notices a familiar face appearing in many of the pieces. A cat with very similar markings to her own beloved Mau. She is curious; are the cats the same cat in each piece, from the same family etc.

The next 10 chapters will not necessarily take place in chronological order, and these are still just rough ideas at this stage, just to keep me focused.

Chapter 2: Pompeii
Chapter 3: World War II
Chapter 4: Renaissance England.
Chapter 5: Rome in the period of Augustus.
Chapter 6: Egypt - Hapshetsut.
Chapter 7: World War 1.
Chapter 8: The Great Depression in Australia.
Chapter 9: Ireland - potato famine.
Chapter 10: Salem Witch Hunts.
Chapter 11: French battles the English (Joan of Arc).
Chapter 12: We return back to the current time.


Today I identified my main weakness with this book, and that is I find myself almost, but not quite, obsessing over small but crucial details. I do not need to solve these details right now to push the story forward, but part of me wants to have those details hammered out fully before I proceed with the story. This is a trait that is common with a lot of my writing projects, and often results in me walking away from the project, or writing in a haphazard fashion. I brainstormed the problem with my daughter, but we had to take a break from the subject, as it cut close to a subject that we are both dealing with; the loss of our beloved cat Smokey. For now I have decided that the details will have to be sorted out at some later point, and I have enough ideas to carry on with. The next few days will mostly be reading up on subjects, refreshing myself on some information and writing down points that occur to me. Blogging to this extent about my writing process is definitely causing me to step outside my comfort zone. Hopefully it doesn't scare me back into my ivory tower :)

New Month, New Challenges

Over the years I have signed up for a few writing challenges, and usually my track record has honestly sucked. It didn't matter what my goals were, how realistic or hopeful that I was; there were always interruptions in the form of illness, family emergencies, lack of support on the home base, technical failure and so on. 
www.publicdomainpictures.net/browse-author.php?a=8245Most of the time, I was trying to write in an environment that was incredibly toxic and not favourable to writing; a troubled family can provide great material for writing but it is almost impossible to write under those 
conditions, and if you have any illness e.g. depression, that atmosphere makes it even more difficult to write well, let alone consistently. This is a topic that I will be returning to in future posts.


However, over time our family circumstances have changed, and then changed again, and I found that while I still sucked at completing challenges I did write a little more each time. I began to approach these challenges in a whole new way. If the goal was to complete a draft manuscript, or reach a word count, I gave myself permission to aim to write every day, or to write as much as I could in the time, or to use the time to brainstorm.  This method can be difficult to stick to when other writers are aiming far higher, and my competitive streak can begin to show through, so I have to remind myself that I have set a workable personal goal.  www.publicdomainpictures.net/browse-author.php?a=81846I take part in the challenges with others for company, for inspiration and advice, not to compete. Not at this stage, and not any time soon. My aims are to write more often, to challenge myself, to slowly chip away at that looong writing to-do list; and more importantly, to regain my confidence in myself as a writer. Sure a trophy, a prize, a badge would be great, but at the end of the day I prefer knowing that I had met the goal that I had set for myself.
Last month I took part in #chaboocha (The Chapter Book Challenge). The goal is to write a draft YA manuscript in the month of March. I'm fond of #chaboocha as it is well run, the other members are usually very encouraging and through #chaboocha, I gained my confidence to take part in smaller challenges. This year my aim was to spend time working on my anime-styled fantasy graphic novel, "Torn". If I finished it, that would be a wonderful achievement, but as long as I worked on it as much as possible for most of the month I would be satisfied. As has happened before a family emergency occurred but I was still able to keep writing; and I ended up working on 2 projects. That wasn't intentional, but while I was waiting to board our coach, when my daughter and I headed interstate to take care of urgent family matters, I was struck with inspiration for a book that I had started work on for #chaboocha a couple of years ago.

What I take away from the monthly challenges is more of an understanding of my writer's process, and the weaknesses in character development, plot and so forth. So I take something away from the challenges that is far more useful at this stage to me, than actually finishing the challenge to the letter of the rules & regs.

I had no plans to sign up for any challenges this month, beyond #anideaperday2017; I have clear writing goals that I am working on, but last night two of my fellow writers mentioned challenges that they had signed up for this month, and on checking them out, I realised that they would work well with what I had already planned, and so I signed up for #campnano and #blogyourbookin30days. With both challenges I have set my own more achievable goals, but I'll be doing it (virtually) alongside other writers, and I'll be more accountable as my efforts will be recordedalong the way. It never hurts to have a record of your progress right in front of you.

http://campnanowrimo.orgFor #campnano I'll be resuming work on "This is Not a Fairy Tale!" I started work on this for #NaNoWriMo2015 and I completed 18,346 words, which is the most that I have written for any of the writing challenges. My goal that year was to write every day, and that was what I did. For #campnano, my goal is to polish what I have written already, edit my chapter breakdowns, work on my character outlines (they are rather weak at the moment) and write an additional 10,000 words. Of course if I do not make the 10,000 words but still build on what I have, I will be happy. It would be a feather in my cap if I could finish the manuscript this time around, but progress is progress at this stage.
http://blogyourbookin30days.blogspot.com.auFor #blogyourbookin30days I will follow the abridged version, because that works best for me at this stage. I'll be blogging my progress over the next 30 days; plans, research, word counts, issues that arise. I have picked a project from my files, with the working title of "Pussy Cat through the Ages". I will be ditching the title as soon as I can, but it works for now :) This will be a Y.A book, set against the back drop of several historical events from the eyes of a pet cat, all with a touch of mystery and magick. The idea has been sitting basically untouched in the files for a few years, and it's something that I am eager to see completed. Blogging as I work on the book will hopefully assist me with getting into the habit of blogging regularly. At this stage I am aiming for 12 chapters, with at least 10 of those chapters requiring some detailed research.

Of course I will also be continuing to write more poetry, as this is helping me on a personal level, and I have an outline for another project to work on, but there is no rush to finish that project either. It's not unusual for me to have plans to write, but this is the first year that I have finally emersed myself in writing, and I'm enjoying the feeling. If the bottom of my world did have to drop out, I'm glad that I was able to gain one thing from that; the time to work on my writing while I gather up the pieces. 

Welcome to the madness :)

Ever since I can remember I have walked in many worlds; I have always had characters, places, ideas running through my head. I often joke that inside my head are multiple doors to multiple worlds, and many characters run from one door to another. It can make for some interesting conversations.

I've always been creative, and eager to gather experiences and knowledge. I call myself a jack-of-all-trades, which in modern times is sometimes viewed as an insult but it's term that is very apt for me and one that I wear with pride. I find it incredibly frustrating to wear only one hat, and over time I have gathered many skills. Some skills need refining, and that is a challenge that I am up to. There is always something new and shiny out there to learn. I often find people asking me if I have some particular skill that they need, and I'm always quick to answer that I'm happy to learn.

Creating and mothering are my two biggest passions. I am a Mum of 4 (although only my daughter currently lives with me), and I find the two often go hand in hand. I am not a creator that is a Mother, or a Mother that is a creator; I am both equally. But being a Mother often needs to take precedence, and it's a challenge to balance creating and mothering. It is somewhat easier now that the children are growing, and can understand what Mummy does, but being a single Mother has additional challenges.

Children cannot live on words. They cannot live on stories. Stories can feed their soul, but not their bodies. My own health issues have added to the challenges. I have anxiety issues, depression and complex PTSD among other issues, which makes going out to work in a traditional job a little harder than I would like. I have found myself in my tightest situation financially this year, after a run of horrid luck, and therefore I am more determined than ever to find the key to supporting my family through my words. 
I have dozens, of writing projects on the back-burner (as well as other creative projects); poems, a comic series, several series of books, stand alone books, movies scripts, adaptations, songs and more. Most days I feel like Alice in Wonderland with the amount of impossible thoughts I have before breakfast. I would like nothing more than to bring these to life, and this far into 2017 and I am slowly carving through this treasure trove of writing projects. 

2017 has been my most prolific year of writing...ever. As of writing this, I have completed 58 poems, since January 4, and I have written EVERY SINGLE DAY since January 1. The amount varies but I am still writing EVERY day; that is 80 days straight, and I haven't stopped even when injured and dealing with emergencies. This year I have finally found my feet, when it comes to my writing process. :) I recognise all of the writing that I was able to accomplish during times of trauma; all of the ideas I jotted down, the research that I undertook, the writing in my head - all of it was important, even if it didn't follow the rules that others created as to what is considered "writing". I have often given thought to passing on my hard-learned tips for writing while living with an illness or disability; I had a taste of this after a friend invited me to join his panel at a convention last year, and the more confident I grow with my own process the more I feel that I have to share with others also struggling. With that in mind, I will blog about this subject and see where that leads.


Thank you for joining me on my journey through my worlds. <3