A third.

Hi guys,

It's been half a month since I last posted, and things are busy. And only getting busier.

But, I had my last exam on Wednesday, and got some results for essays and my major project.

I can't write essays. This doesn't surprise me, but I also know it's because I lack passion for them that I can't write them.

I can write fiction though. I got a Distintion for my Major Project. You remember the one I mentioned ages ago, that's a kind of prequel to my WiP? Maybe not. But I got a Distinction! It makes me feel good.

My daily word goal - it's increased from 300 words a day to 1000, because every time I sat down to write, that's about what came out. Of course, some days I write less, but it's not too much of an effort to make up the lack again.
And because of this, I'm a third of the way through the first draft! I'm very excited about where the plot is taking me, and when I stopped today, I left it at a place where the reader gets the first hint of a major revelation.
I can't wait to sit down to my writing tomorrow.

Another thing about being busy, is that as well as not updating here, I haven't been around to any of my favourite blogs. I miss you guys! But, I've got the whole month of January off, so there'll be lots of writing, posting here, and reading of other blogs.

I'll be back soon with a Christmas post. Until then, take care guys.

Done!

Hey there!

I submitted my last essay today. And had my Spanish oral exam too. I am done with my Bachelor degree (except for the Spanish written, but that'll be cool with the help of a study group :)!

Does this mean I can read as much of whatever I want now? Does this mean I can do as much salsa dancing as I can? Does this mean I can finally concentrate on my WiP???

No.

If this was a vlog, this is the part where I hunch forward and pout at the camera. Because guess what?

I'm moving. And I don't even know when. Due to some things (which I won't go into right now), my house is being put on the market this week. My housemate and her boyfriend have started getting the house cleaned and packed away. Now that I'm done with assignments, it's my turn to do as much as is left. The house could be turned over as soon as next week, or as late as the end of December.

No dancing (hopefully some though). No reading (except during breaks at work, or on the bus).

I will try and do at least 300 words a day though. There are no other (English) words taking up my brain so I think I can manage that. 300 always leads to more anyway. It's just a small amount so that I don't feel guilty about not writing more.

It's a great idea I got from Anne Lamott's writing book Bird by Bird. If you're ever feeling down about your writing or life (what writer doesn't feel this occasionally?), read it for some inspiration.

:D

Mooncow

Hey guys. I had a massive brain fart today.

Whenever I looked at the clock, I was seeing an hour earlier. Or I figured that my calculations in catching the early bus would give me the extra time I needed to get some chores done before work. I dunno.

I got called ten minutes after my shift was supposed to start and in that second I realised my mistake. And I completely flipped out. When I got to work my boss was saying:
 "Calm down, it's okay. She was worried about you."

I had a private lesson first up. I like to think that I'm a professional swim instructor. I always get to work early, try to involve the parents, and treat my students, the parents and my co-workers with respect.
Clearly the mother of my first student today thinks so too, at least partly.
 "I just hope she's okay," she said to my boss when I didn't turn up.

It's flattering to think that something must have happened for me not to be there. It's also touching when the parents show concern. I get a similar feeling when they express trust and/or gratitude.

Nothing happened to me. I just turned into a space cadet for the day.

This has made me realise something today. I am getting pretty stressed. I think I need to take a break from the Internet for a while and focus on my studies. It may take a week or more. I will be back though, because having increased my followers over the past few weeks *waves* has made me confident in my posting, and it's a great motivation to post.

So, keep well. Hasta luego.

Theme days

So, it's the first day of not-NaBloWriMo. And I want to keep blogging! If the month of blogging did nothing else, it made me realise that blogging is fun. I've always liked reading other people's blogs, but never thought I would have anything worthwhile to say. But thanks to you guys who followed and commented in October.

I have come up with an idea that will keep me blogging regularly. It's something a lot of bloggers already do, but I'm going to borrow ideas as well as start my own. And it will give me (and you lovely readers) some structure to stick to so I can write about the many things I'm passionate about, yet not worry I'm leaving anything out. It will also be a pirate rule (more of a guideline) just so I don't stress. The main idea is to get rid of rambling posts (like this one).

At the moment I don't have one for every day, but here's a list of my ideas thus far:

Wordless Wednesdays: Post pictures :D I got this idea from The Giraffability of Digressions and I'm Not Hannah

The Body Positive Thursdays: A bit wordy, but I wanted a day where I could write about the importance of positive body image.

Fiction Fridays: This was inspired by the idea in my last post, but I realised that with work and current WiPs, I wouldn't have the energy to post to another blog regularly. Hence, a once a week treat for you guys.

Swimming Saturdays: Where I can talk about what I learnt about swimming and the teaching of swimming that week.

Salsa Sundays: This one I won't start for a few weeks, as I've taken a hiatus from salsa dancing until uni finishes this year :( but keep a lookout.

And that's what I have so far. This is going to be fun.

No Tener Pelos en la Lengua

I've been a bad NaBloWriMo blogger again *ducks head sheepishly*. Moving on.

For two years now I've been studying Spanish as an elective to my degree. We've only just reached the point where we have covered all the conjugations and sentence structures. A few days ago we learnt a few sayings and this one made us all laugh, but I think it has great relevance to writing, and it will be a little mantra of mine from now on. 

No tener pelos en la lengua is translated by the text book as meaning 'to be outspoken, to be frank'. Literally it means 'to not have hairs in one's language'*. Hairy language, eh?

While we were chuckling about this, I thought it was a good way to think about one's prose or poetry, and in choosing the best words, paring back the language. This is something that John Steinbeck first taught me when I discovered Of Mice and Men in year 11. He's still one of my favourite authors. Then this year I took a poetry class and learnt it again. Then last week, Sarah at The Unwrapping reminded me of it again (go read her blog, it's beautiful). Aqui es una escritora si no tiene pelos en la lengua. (Sorry if the grammar is incorrect).

And of course, I submitted the first draft of my CP for assessment (I got 100%). One of the things my supervisor told me to do when editing is to 'tighten the language'. Get rid of all the hairs. So that is my mission over the next two days. Take my draft and turn it into something concise and sin pelos. 

On another matter, I was reading another Sarah's blog. Her latest post is on something I posted about in the first week of NaBloWriMo, body image. The post touched me, and I was so glad to see someone else speaking about the many intricacies of coming to love one's own body.
Once again, this is a website, and organisation, that is doing wonders for so many people in regards to self-love:

www.thebodypositive.org 



*Something I've yet to master, however.

Duology

Today I had my second meeting with my supervisor about my Creative Project. Last week I submitted the first draft as the first assessment for this unit, and my supervisor sat down with me and told me where my strengths were, and where I needed to work a little bit harder.

My main thing is to tighten the language - to cut out superfluity and repetition. Apparently my structure is good, which makes me happy and means I can concentrate on the language.

Other things that came up though, are that now we can come to the labels for my project. Before now I have just been writing, and writing whatever came out. Now it turns out that what I've come up with is a YA/crossover fantasy. This is okay with me, but it's weird to think about my work in terms of marketability and audience. This kind of thing has always seemed so far off. But the point of this unit is to mimic real-world scenarios and I have to think like a professional.

Another thing I have to think about is that instead of a novella, I am now working on a novel extract, which means that once this unit is finished, I'll have enough material to keep going.
When I first mentioned my Creative Project, I told you that it was going to be the back story of the older sister of the protagonist of my WiP (the poor thing has been so neglected lately). Now it seems like I have enough material for a duology. And I know I'm going to have to finish both before I give any other ideas a go. Sigh.

And I may well be sighing, but this is all very exciting. Things are happening!

Ideas

No poem today, sorry.

But I will talk about ideas.
I'm only an emerging writer - one with only a few small articles published, and just finishing my Bachelor in Writing - but ideas, and the overflow or lack of, are something that every writer knows about.

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I finished the first draft of my Creative Project. I've edited it down the best I could with the time I had, and emailed it off to my supervisor. There are so many things I could have expanded - way too many 'show, don't tell' moments in the manuscript. But my supervisor will give me my comments and I'll be able to keep going. That's a week from today.

In the meantime, my brain has free reign to think of other things. And there's a new character who won't leave me alone. She just won't. All of a sudden her whole life is in my head and I can't get rid of it.
I wrote down as much as I could, then closed my notebook. I want to prove to myself that I can finish something, so this shiny new idea will have to wait. As well as my CP, there's the WiP I've been writing with what little time I have. That has first priority as soon as classes are finished this year.

And it's not just that new idea. There's another really cool fantasy concept that I came up with a month or so ago. It also has to wait. And the other things I started when I was a teenager that I never finished that I'd like to go back and rework someday. They'll have to wait too.

I get a little overwhelmed by all these ideas sometimes, and a little impatient with my current WiP's. But on the flip side it's something amazing that I wouldn't give up - it means that if I'm ever stuck for ideas, I don't have to worry. By writing all these ideas down, I'm giving myself insurance for those days when I'm feeling uninspired. Which seems unlikely at the moment, but I'm sure they exist.

Does this happen to you?

This one's a little dark. Poem 1

The following poem was written during a class where we were discussing The Well Mouth by Philip Salom, an Australian poet. It's a dark collection of linked poems all concerning death in one way or another. I'll try and post a link to the book on Amazon, if there is one*.

Poem One

Take my life

and keep it

It is my present

to you

Guard it,

so it's safe

I'll be gone awhile

*Here's the link. They misspelt his name.

Mini Poetry Posts

I have been thinking...

I have this poetry critiquing class at uni. Sometimes while taking notes, I will jot down a small, (ir)relevant poem. At the moment I think there are only three or so, possibly only two. But would any of you like to read them? Just for a laugh?

Ps I will post them anyway :)

Happy

Before writing this post, I had this thought: the reason Art is and always has been around, is because humans need to know that they're not alone. Whatever the situation, there is a piece of music, literature, film, theatre, poetry, visual art, dance and more to fit it.

I've been listening to Happy by Natasha Bedingfield a bit lately (I downloaded the album after seeing Easy A). And it seems to be eerily parallel to my life at the moment. Let's take a look at the opening lines:

Landlord's knocking at my door/cussing me out: my housemates and I were given a Notice to Remedy yesterday after failing a house inspection. If we fail the next inspection, we'll be given a Notice to Vacate.

Got laid off my job the night before: I still have a job, but might not for long if I end up homeless...

Can't figure how/ I'm gonna fix tomorrow when/ yesterday's still a mess: Late uni assignments, housework, social life, work... you get the picture, the usual student stresses.

I wish that I could step away and breath/ this world's tryin to swallow me/ clear away the clouds inside my head: This is just generally how I've been feeling for the past few... months I guess, on and off.

Now for some happy thoughts:

1) Writing - I finished the first draft of my Creative Project manuscript. I've started editing now... it's exiting.

2) I have many incredible friends who are awesome in their own right, as well as being supportive when I need them to be.

3) My family - always there for me. I love them and I'll always know that they love me.

4) I'm good at my job, and it's fun.

5) Spring! Sun! These things never fail to make me smile. I've been waiting all winter for them.

6) I'm starting to get into the mundane, everyday stuff that makes me happy, so I'll stop this post here.

7) Check out the song, it's good for lifting your spirits.

Mishmash

Hi hi,

I'm in a flat mood today, so I feel this blog will not be as full of exclamation marks as usual. Possibly that's a good thing though, as F Scott Fitzgerald did say that using exclamation marks was like laughing at your own jokes. Oh dear, that might be what I've been doing in all my other posts. Cringe.

Anywhos, I have a few announcements:

1. I'm joining NaBloWriMo, because I thought it might be a good idea to actually force myself to use this blog more than once a month.

2. I now have a twitter account! And I will add a follow tag on the side of my page for those intersted :)

3. I don't talk about my swim-teaching much here, although it is one of the joys of my life - I love teaching this valuable skill to kids, and seeing them improve each term, because of ME is amazing. Sorry, I'm getting clucky, ignore me if you like.

So, I'm doing a Towards Competitive Strokes course this weekend, and I'm looking forward to it. It'll help me instruct kids on how to do butterfly, breastroke, and the other strokes with more finesse. I'm doing it mainly because I've never been sure of butterfly, and now I will feel more confident in my teaching ability.

4. Last post, I promised to let you know how my CP was going - it's going okay. I'm still on the first draft, and I'm at 10450/15000 words. I can't wait to finish the first draft and edit it down.

I should mention that I'm having lots of FUN with it. I can write freely for the first time in my degree. It feels good to have free-reign over my characters for longer than 15oo words.

So that's me for the month, until I start NaBloWriMo, in which you'll be hearing from me every day. Are you quaking in your boots yet?

Hi! Remember me?

It's been a while. I got wrapped up in dropping a unit of study, taking on an insane 'winter term' unit, and stressing out about my internship. Which is going great by the way.

The lady I mentioned in the last post is Wonderful. She's so enthusiastic and supportive.

For my first article I wrote up a short piece on this Australian poet, with an accompanying interview.

People, I cannot tell you how nervous I was after submitting that first piece. I was nail-biting for the first week until I got an email containing feedback. And then I didn't want to open it up because I was convinced they wouldn't want to keep me on as an intern after the horrible job I'd done.

But then they loved it. Maybe not loved it, but there was praise involved. They only had to change a couple of details before publishing it. So I was happy and telling everyone about it until I had to write my latest piece, a report(ish) on this event. Which I submitted today.

So now I'm a mess of nail-biting again. And the same thoughts are going through my head - are they going to hate it? Will they still want me working there?

Yes, I know I'm being irrational, but this is my process. I'll be absolutely ecstatic when (if) they like it again.

Other news: in my final semester of uni! And the subject I'm most excited about is the Creative Project. It's pretty much six months of writing. Heaven for me.

My first task in this unit is to submit a Project Proposal. This is fine, because I'd been thinking about what I wanted to write about for the last few weeks before term started again.

I'm going to write a back story to my side project Los Peregrinos (LP). In LP, my main character Tawny is the guardian of her nephew Kai. Kai's mother, Tawny's sister, disappeared five years ago in the world of LP.

The back story is of Sal (mother and sister), because it's been bugging me why she would disappear on her son and sister like that. Did I mention she and Tawny are orphans and she had to raise Tawny? Anyway, lots of interesting things going on there that I'm going to use this unit to explore. The story of long lost Sal.

If you're lucky, I might keep you posted on how this project goes.

So Glad

I've got a hectic day coming up on Friday. First I have my CPR certificate - I need it up to date for work - then I'm meeting up with the lady in charge of my Internship Placement, and then it's straight to work in the afternoon.

Pick out the most important item in that list. And it's not the thing that's could save someone's life.

I'm meeting with the lady in charge of my internship placement on Friday! I spoke to her last week and she sound like a very happy and enthusiastic woman. What did she say as soon as I mentioned my name?

"Hi Astrid! I'm glad your coming to help us, and that we can help you, and that everybody's helping everybody!"

Looking forward to Friday very much...

Internship (woo, woo, woo)

I have an internship! I won't say too much because the details aren't finalised yet, but I'm very excited. And it could lead to being:

Published!

Just a few small articles, but small steps still add to an entire mile walked. Is that too cheesy? 'Cause that's how I feel.

I've been meaning to write this post since last week, but the news came the day before my birthday, and I've had an assessment hanging over my head.

Along with that news came the little piece of information that if I work hard this year, I could get a scholarship to honours next year! These two tidbits made my day, and were an awesome early birthday present.

So yeah, internship. The chance to be mentored by writerly types, and write a few small articles in the process. I may ask if I can blog about my experience there, it would give me a reason to be more regular with my posting.

And in reply to those who commented on my last post: thankyou :)

I wish I was the kind of person...

Who didn't get disappointed by two Credits for her semester grades.

I got two Distinctions as well, but the Credits were for a creative writing class and a literature class. Two things I'd like to be good at.

It's one of those times where I think to myself - am I going in the right direction? Should I be doing fiction writing if I'm only getting Credit?

Well... of course I should be! All I can think about is writing, and when I'll next have time to sit and get another chunk of the story out - no matter how crap it seems at the time. So I'll keep going.

And it's good to remember that anything creative is subjective.

Exhaustion, or I'm Going to be Busy

It's been another while since my last post.

But I'm done with assessments and exams! So glad, and trying not to think about the possibly dreadful results I'll be getting in a month or so.

In other matters, I can go to social salsa dancing again! I went last night (King O'Malley's in Canberra for anyone in the area) and had so much fun. And I slept like a baby last night becuse of it. The choreo for SSC10 is getting trickier though. We started partner work two weeks ago and I'm finding it harder than the shines.

Partner work requires both the follow and the lead to know what they're doing and sometimes it's hard to tell who's in the wrong (usually it's both though). Having said that, we have time to get it down, we haven't even learnt all the steps to the whole song yet. Polishing come later.

Uni finishes, and work begins! That exclamation mark is not enthusiasm, it's to accentuate how tiring and how much time it takes up. At the moment my schedule is 5 - 7 1/2 hours a day of swim teaching, and dancing four times a week. The only time I get to myself (and this is when I'm not visiting Sydney on the weekends), is two afternoons a week, and one day on weekends. I'm not exaggerating.

In this spare time I'll hopefully be blogging, continuing/editing my story/novel Los Peregrinos (and cleaning the house, blech) and reading as much as possible.

The aforementioned story can be found at FictionPress.com under the name aquizzle. I already have one review - not much but I'm excited anyway!

So after this wordy post, I'm going to go attempt to see what I can do with my little project.

Or sleep.

One down, two to go!

It's been more than a week since my last entry - which doesn't bode well for a blog just taking off.

But it's because uni is coming to an end for the year so I have assessments and exam preparation.

Handed in the first major one today! A 22 minute screenplay for a unit called Screenwriting in Teams. So glad to get it done because the story was just sitting in my head and I didn't want to read it again. That's not to say the story's bad, I just wanted a break from it.

Two more assessments - an essay and a creative writing portfolio - and a Spanish exam then I'm done!

Also, the team and I had our first training session for Sydney Salsa Congress '10 (SSC10)! (Lots of exclamation marks in this post!) We just worked on shines - solos - since two of our members were absent. Ah it's so exciting, despite an incredibly annoying cough that's lasted for the past week or so.

Oh yes! The Reader, I was going to tell you what I thought of the rest of it.

Since my last post, my opinion has changed. This is due to attending the Lit Studies lecture on the novel where I realised the lack of characterisation was due to Michael's wanting to distance himself from her after finding out her history.

Then I cried. I got to chapter 10 and felt like I'd been slapped in the face. Before reading it I knew that Hanna was a war criminal being tried for her crimes in the Holocaust; I also knew about her and Michael's cross-generational affair. So, a few controversial issues that I'm sure you've heard about - but nothing about the ending.

A bit of a shock. Sad. Sigh.