Remember how fantastic NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) was for ensuring that I actually got my fingers to the keyboard? A couple of weeks ago I found the blogging equivalent, NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) which not only has a weirdly cool name but also seemed like a great idea to get me focused on my own favourite personal blog (yep, this one!) rather than always being devoted to those other blogs that pay me a bit more consistently than your clicks on ads.
So, with no further ado … I …

I was just thinking in the shower (it’s no secret it’s my favourite place to think), and I realised there is one step more to my writing procrastination problem that I need to deal with: impatience.
My mother (among many others, no doubt) can well attest to the fact that I have something of an impatient personality. She often tells the story that when I was a child and I came to her and said I wanted to learn how to do something (for example, sew, cook, do something on the …

I’ve got a square Post-It note on the pin-up board above my desk that’s a little bit overflowing with writing-related paraphernalia. Luckily, though, since one of my cats developed an obsession with drawing pins, she’s managed to pull down a lot of the stuff I didn’t need any more (along with some sharp pointy drawing pins that I’ve found her chewing away on at times, and chased her round the house to retrieve. She has a death wish).
Anyway, since she removed one layer of junk, this Post-It note has become …

It’s nearly a month since I lovingly printed my first manuscript to send it out into the world by its little ol’ self. For a couple of weeks I didn’t think about it at all, but confusingly, since I got properly started on my second novel, ideas for changing the first one keep popping into my head at those usual creative moments (just after I wake up, and when I’m in the shower).
A good friend also read the entire thing – despite my usual preference for only allowing strangers to …

I discovered a great fiction-writing blog called Drops of Blood recently and this week Carolyn started a series which is right down my alley … she’s taking note of the various excuses she provides herself when she doesn’t work on her fiction writing, and then trying to find ways to avoid having that excuse rear its ugly head again.
Her first Why I Didn’t Write excuse is a very simple one – she slept too late. (Mental note to self: I haven’t actually used this excuse with myself yet! But I’m …

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve started out writing this second novel using three different first person voices. When I wrote my first novel, it started out being in first person but then I rewrote it in third person (limited). All I keep thinking is this – why couldn’t language just have one possibility for voice, so I wouldn’t have to um and ah about which voice I choose to write in?
I thought I should try and break this down a bit for myself, to see if that can help make …

Don’t worry, dear Cadbury factory, you won’t be going broke: it appears that I will be allowed to eat chocolate again. My second novel is finally on a bit of a roll.
On Saturday night, in front of a TV show, curiously, because my concentration doesn’t normally work that well there, I got some notes down about the key characters in my second novel, the whole point and theme of the novel, and how I can structure it. For some time I’ve wanted to write it from several first person points …

A post this week at the Writer’s Technology Companion tipped me off about a page at that often-lovely newspaper, the UK Guardian, featuring a collection of writers’ rooms. There are links to some 50 or more photographs and anecdotes about where a bunch of successful writers actually write. I’ve seen quite a few stories like this going around lately – it seems to be an in vogue obsession – but I have to admit that it does make me very curious. Despite my champion procrastinating skills I didn’t click on …

It was no idle or random thought that led me to subtitle this blog with the tag “a whole lot of procrastination”. Despite my repeated promises to plan my second novel I have made barely any progress. But I know if I don’t get some serious words happening this weekend, the whole procrastination thing is going to get really boring.
This week Amy over at Quiet Rebel Writer was nice enough to mention Becoming A Fiction Writer as a handy blog for finding solace and support in the journeys of other …

As I’ve mentioned before, I have quite a collection of novels sitting up in my head. With the first one down in a reasonable form – I do have some changes to make to it, but I want to let it sit just a little longer – it’s time for me to get started on the second.
Because a sense of place and culture is a really important part of a story for me, the novels in my head are all connected with different places and cultures that I’ve experienced. That …