David Mitchell: Why I write
What advice would you give to new writers?
A maximum of one killer metaphor or simile per page should be ample, and watch out for the word "seem": it debases one's own currency, somehow. Think about how the writers who you love manage to make you love them. Prose that contains too many sentences beginning with the word "I" soon gets as tedious as people who begin too many sentences with the word "I".


I'll be adding the above to the writing resolutions. This eveing will be spent tippling on non-alcoholic champers (tastes vaguely of dry roasted peanuts, weirdly) and finalising the list of "Things to do in 2008", before putting it somewhere for safe-keeping, never to be seen again by human eye.


Put up or Shut up, Susan Hill (sort of) implored in the most recent post of her online Creative Writing course. This year I'll be putting up, and will be a veritable writing demon. The impending arrival of baby #1 has given me a focus and deadline that I have lacked previously.

Feeling very very optimistic about 2008!

Best Christmas present ever!

Back from the hospital, and all is well.

I saw my baby, and their tiny little heart was beating away like billy-o. That's him / her posing for the camera on the left :-)

From the size, they have dated the little sprog at seven weeks and one day, so slightly younger than we thought.

I don't think I have ever felt so relieved in all of my life. Ah, the joys of parenthood! I'm sure this is just the first of many, many worries about the wee one.....

Tenterhooks....

Although I haven't "officially" announced it, most people have deciphered my shamelessly obvious hints and concluded, correctly, that I am pregnant. Eight weeks, to be exact, which I know is prior to the golden public deadline of twelve weeks, but I just couldn't help myself. We've told family and close friends, given that the impending festive season was going to make my sipping of a soda water look thoroughly "bah, humbug!" otherwise.

Today is going to be the longest day of my life. I've been awake since around 5 a.m., and I've been counting down the hours for the last two days. At 3p.m. I am booked for an early scan, as I experienced some bleeding earlier in the week ~ very light, and not accompanied by any pain (this is apparently a good sign, according to the 4000 websites I have pored over for the last few days) .

It has happened on three occassions now, and being a highly-strung worrying type I am beside myself.

I have convinced myself that I no longer "feel" pregnant ~ the sickness has subsided, the breast tenderness that would keep me awake half the night has disappeared ~ and so I am reconciled to the worst outcome. At least that way any good news will be a bonus.

Only four more hours, and I'll know if my little bean is still hanging on in there. This will either be the best or worst Christmas I've ever had.

Apologies for the lack of festive tone to this post, but I felt the need to get it all out there.

Update will follow as soon as is feasible.

Distinctly pleased!

I've just received my mark for the OU Creative Writing course A215, and am thrilled to announce that I received a DISTINCTION!!

Only 6% of the course finishers acheived that grade (91 out of 1444) so I am very very pleased indeed.It's one hell of a boost to my writing confidence, and seeing as I'm full of bouncy new motivation for the WIP it will inspire me to bang that word count up quite considerably.

My voice and use of language were classified as "excellent", which is especially useful to me as I've never been fully confident in my voice, and have a tendency to over-write.

If only I could have a drink to celebrate (but that's a whole other lot of good news .... ;--) )

*************************************

Good news is abounding all over the place. Bestest best friend in the world has just got engaged, and I couldn't be happier for them. And it means I'll get to go to another wedding, one where I get to watch it all unfold before me rather than being slap bang in the middle of things, like I was at the most recent wedding I attended (i.e. mine).

But the universe is nothing if not balanced, hence my shocking unpreparedness for Christmas, and the husband's perforated ear-drum. Ah well, Christmas is only one day, and ear drums heal (I'll just have to shout at him in the other one....)

Progress continues apace

Things acheived yesterday:

A big in-road was made into the mountain of bags and boxes which are still, shamefully, cluttering up our spare bedroom since we moved TWO YEARS AGO!!
This resulted in two HUGES bags of rubbish and two HUGE bags of charity shop stuff, as well as a pile of vintage stuff from my younger days which I anticipate will make a mint on ebay ~ sadly I don't fit into any of it anymore, it's all stuff from when I was 15-19 ish (and at least a stone lighter), but it's very good 60's & 70's vintage. Sadly my days of retro dressing pre-dated the vintage boom of the last few years, as sported by Moss et al, and so I was regarded as something of a jumble sale odd-bod back then. But hey, pioneers are always misunderstood, aren't they? I'll be sorry to see it go, to be honest, those clothes represent such a wonderful time in my life, but my house isn't big enough to be a museum to the younger me. Time to move on.....

Also got quite a bit off writing done yesterday evening, and a bit more this morning too ~ all longhand, as the laptop is officially dead, but momentum is picking up gain.

So, all in all a very useful day.

Incidentally, found out today that a colleague of mine has run off with her next door neighbour. Now, if I put that in a story I'd be criticised for resorting to cliche. Stranger than fiction, eh....