Oh I just love Ben Folds, such great music! Great lyrics, that man can write!

Such clever songs and words, I'm definitely a fan.

Day 3 is progressing ok, I haven't written quite as many words as I'd liked to have written by now, but it's ok. I did my first writing at work today and it went well. I got a good solid amount written in my break and after very rusty writing on Saturday night, I seem to have recaptured some of the magic. My phrasing is better. I went back tonight and did some minor editing, just adding extra words. Just over 0.1%. Scary when you look at it that way.

I believe I can do this!

NaNo has started and I've written my first 159 words. Got a fair few more to go but I believe I'll get there.

Need to clean my desk up before I can do more writing though.

Started writing last night but its too hard to concentrate with Bryan watching YouTube videos in the background, so I didn't write much at all. Now I need to clean up my desk so that I've got a neat environment to utilise for the month of November. Plus, it's lunch time. Well, technically it's brunch as I haven't eaten yet today. Ahh, lazy Sundays.

WOOHOO!!

Sure, it's a complete change of direction, but I've got the story I want to write. Tomorrow night I'm cleaning up my desk so I can bring stuff up from the garage as I need my writing notes and my pens.

I'm so excited about this.

I'm going to reschedule my breaks at work so that I have a solid 30mins every day of uninterrupted writing whilst on my break at work.

2,000 words a day I worked out is about 4 pages in Word. Even if I just get 1-2 pages done at work, I can do the rest at home, but I think it will really help me having some time pressure. I think the problem in 2006 was that there was literally no pressure to get things done as I had too much time on my hands whereas now I have limited time so I need to maximise my time and use it to the best of my abilities. I'm VERY excited about this. Very very excited.

Bring on November.

I'm not going to post specific details here I don't think, this is more clearing my head.

So, after not managing to achieve with NaNo in 2006, I'm giving it another shot!

Another story to be set in Australia, another story I've had in my head for years, but never written a word, let's see how we go this time!

Don't think there's anyone out there watching this, I just want to keep it separate from my regular LJ.

This year's novel is an alternative universe version of Australia, it's going to be a dark and gritty story and I'd like to use NaNo as a chance to finally write the damn thing, so let's see how we go, shall we?

So I've pretty much neglected this. Yeah. A bit like my NaNo. I've done so many other things in November, those things really don't include writing.

Maybe I'm not a writer, just a dreamer. Maybe I can't really do this. I've barely got 2000 words and I'm not even sure I want to keep them. If I wasn't so bloody fussy, maybe I could just write the damn thing and then worry about it being good, but I can't get a word out.

There are 10 days left in this month.

Fuck. I don't think I can do this. I love my idea, I love my story, I love my characters, but I can't write them.

I'm sorry Sally and Patrick, I really am.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Potato_Famine_%281845%E2%80%931849%29

BRILLIANT TIMING!

It works so well for my purposes!

I'm sending myself (and Russ) an email with my first writing, I'll write until Harry gets here and hopefully keep going even when he arrives.

I'm doing a tiny bit of research too...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_gold_rush

Ok, so if the first gold was found in July 1851, it is reasonable to think the news wouldn't have gotten back to England for at least 5 months. Was that how long the trip took? And Sally's father wouldn't have left straight away. So it is reasonable to think that Sally's father wouldn't have left until at least the end of 1852. So it would be 1853 before he struck it rich. 5 months for the news to reach his family, another 5 months for them to arrive. 1854. Give Sally a few months to get used to the place. So maybe by mid 1854, no, not set in winter, has to be autumn, spring or summer...hmm...actually late spring, lead up to summer, wouldn't mind a good bushfire. Although it will be a lot further south than previously thought...hmmm

Back to writing.

So, not that long to go until November 1st.

My brain is ready to explode.

When I get home, while dinner is cooking (oops, it'll just be meat, got no veggies, and it needs to marinade first...damn), I'm going to get the butchers paper and textas (ok, I don't have butchers paper, just a giant sketch pad, but I do have a wide variety of colour pens, pencils and probably some working textas, but they are in a box...) and BRAINSTORM!

I did some plotting at lunch (had to set an alarm so I'd stop and go back to work) and my story has just expanded (good for the word count) and I need to do research (not so good, no research assistant!)

I have to work out if Patrick is coming to Australia partly because of the Great Famine, or just for the Gold Rush. Both of these things effect when the story happens. It won't be in the 1830s anymore.

I need to do more research. Now I've finally got the story, I need more time. I don't know if I'll end up writing straight away, or if I'll be stuck doing research to make sure I don't need to go back and rewrite sections...I don't know. I'm feeling a leeeeetle stressed about it now. I'm fucking excited, don't get me wrong, but ouch, brain hurting. I was getting to the point where I couldn't write fast enough and so I had to stop to make my hand stop twitching.

Ok, to expand a little bit on the new ideas. Patrick and Sally's father (still no name...) come for the Victorian Gold Rush, SF strikes it rich and buys property and sends for his family from overseas. Sally is now English. Not Scottish. Sorry, Sally. But thank you for picking an accent.

However, Patrick doesn't have so much luck and loses everything, but his gun. And since he's good with bush craft in Ireland, he tries his luck at bushranging. It's not long before he's the most infamous bushranger in the area. He doesn't kill, except in self defence, or defence of others when he rescues Sally. He's a bit like Ben Hall (the Gentleman Bushranger). Such a hit with the ladies.

More on this later.

What is your favourite...

Season? Winter, so the idea of moving to Australia where it's always hot, horrible

Food? What would I eat?

Animal? Horses

Colour? Green/brown

Time of day? Sunrise/sunset

Weapon? My actions

Well, this is a really great idea. Let's do Sally first

1. Your Name- Sally

2. Your age- Early 20s

3. Describe yourself - I'm young and nervous about life in Australia until I arrive and fall in love with the land, spending more time outdoors than is "proper" in the eyes of my parents. They want me to marry the boring police officer and I'm sure I'm stuck with that, until I meet Patrick. Patrick who saves my life after the Aborigines attack our property and kill our servents, I was their next victim, until Patrick came and saved me. He shot the Aborigines and bound my wounds, but fled before the police arrived, for he knew he'd be arrested, even though he killed Aboriginies, they were going to blame the death of the servants on Patrick. Patrick's love brings me to life and the things he teaches me about the land change me forever. And his death makes me stronger than I could ever imagine.

4. Describe your mate (if applicable) - Patrick is a good man, despite the crime he has commited. He came from Ireland for the Gold Rush and lost everything and took to bushranging to survive. He is a devout Catholic and would never hit a lady. He kills the Aborigines because he has just witnessed them murder the servants and see them advancing upon me, but he would never kill in cold blood. He is definitly an early Australia, with the larrikin nature. Sadly, his is a short lived life. But lived with such vigour.

5. Where (and when) do you live? If I'm in my 20s, I was born in about 1810 in Scotland and have recently come to Victoria in about 1830

6. What's your favourite sweet? - I'm Scottish before chocolate, do shortbreads exist? If so, then that...if not, honey and berries available in my new land


WOW! That was great! I think I'll do a few more of these!

With two days left of October, how close are you to being ready for NaNo?

Well, let me get the ball rolling (haha, because so many people are reading this and really care)!

I've got mere days to start writing and I've not written a solid outline. A lot of that is to do with knowing that once I start, I will not stop.

Tonight, I will do my outline. I've had a few ideas of things I can write about to make things go further.

I was talking to one of the Sydney NaNoers at the meet up on Saturday and he told me about the concept of "plot ninjas". Basically, have your characters attacked by ninjas. There you go, you just got extra words. Well, since ninjas really wouldn't work in 1830s Victoria, I can't see that happening. And one of the catalysts is an attack anyway. Besides, I want this novel to be good and publishable, not nonsnesical to get the word count up. No ninjas. No bunyip attacks either.

However, it did give me the idea to add extra stuff I mightn't have before. For example, I'm considering this - starting the book at the end, with Sally dying in the copper's arms (he so needs a name) and then having the rest of the book as a flash back sequence. That way, you know it all has to end badly. Hmm, no, actually, I don't like that so much after all.

Scrap that.

I think I'll start the novel with Sally's sea voyage (RESEARCH HOW LONG AND KIND OF SHIP) at least I've experience sea sickness first hand, so that won't be a problem. It's going to be 3rd person omniscient narrator, because my original idea of it being from Sally's journal entries won't allow for the kind of description I'm after, it also won't let the reader get inside the heads of the Bushranger (who is so going to be called Patrick, blame Coupling). That allows for description. That allows for the reader to discover Sally's fear of moving to this far away land, so far from home and all she knows. She'll befriend one of the sailors or something, defying her parents stiff attitude for propriety, despite the fact Sally is just friends with the sailor. They are going to Australia to be "proper" and claim a fresh start, they're one of those buy respectable ancestors from the painters kinda families. But that was a common thing to do in Australia in those days, so you didn't tend to get called for it, as far as I know.

Hmm, is Loughlin a first name, or just a surname? Could Jack O'Loughlin work as a name? If not, James maybe...Well, Jack O'Loughlin is a name! Awesome!

Ok, so the Bushranger and the Copper are both Irish. Yeah, that's decided. Sally is Scottish. Now this is interesting...(from Wiki)A feminine given name of Hebrew origin, commonly considered a nickname for someone named Sarah (or Sara)

Sally, Spanish, saviour, variations - Salaidh, Sallye, Salli, Sallie, Sal

Interesting...hmm, but she's not having a name change. I found another source that said it's an English name. Well, she's Sally and that's not changing.

My bushranger is Patrick O'Loughlin (that's pronounced O'Lachlan, but looks SO much cooler) (also, Alex O'Loughlin is really hot). My copper is probably going to be a Jack Davenport or a James. Not sure. Just feels like he should have a J name.

Patrick O'Loughlin is such an Irish Catholic name that there's a Bishop Patrick O'Loughlin. Actually, this is amusing. He was Bishop of Darwin. And he died 14th November 1985, days after I was born.

Not making this up at all!

Nifty.

So, now Sally needs a last name. And the Copper Jack/James needs a full name.

This is exciting!!! Back to this later!

At lunch time today I went and saw Melina Marchetta talk at Stanton Library. She's just put out a new book (yeah, I bought a copy and got it signed) and so she did a talk about it.

It was interesting to hear her talk (not for the first time, she did a tour for Saving Francesca that Mum & I went to a few years back). She is not a writer with a plan. She'll have a story in her head for years (12 with the new book) before it gets out. She doesn't have a set writing time every day. She doesn't keep journals.

Interesting to hear how different writers do it...I'm not sure how I do it though.

How do you do it?

Hi folks,

Last night after much pondering, I finally came up with my story idea.

One of the important things about NaNoWriMo is to not write a story you are too emotionally attached to, since this is more of an exercise in meeting a deadline than anything else. And another thing is "previously written prose is punishable by death". So that ruled out a lot of my story ideas. It gave me another novel for The Shelf, but not one that I can write at this point in time. It could also be a great video game...

But the point is, after much consideration and Russ talking at me about all these different ways of getting ideas, I finally realised what I was going to write.

I've had a story in my head for years now, back sometime in early highschool, before the turn of the century, folks! I just had a summary of what the story was about (hmm, wonder if that's sitting about anywhere...) but no actual prose.

And so, my story is Sally and the Bushranger. I've had this idea for so long, just sitting, not knowing what to do with it. But I figured it would make a great novel, since I have been sitting on it for so long, it's taken on a life of its own. The things I've seen/read in the subsequent years since the idea's conception have had an impact on my brain and now I think Sally and the Bushranger can finally come to life on paper.

I always loved bushrangers as a kid. I've been to Victoria, to Ned Kelly's gaol cell, to bushranger museums, I even dressed up as a bushranger for a school dress up day in primary school. All the other girls went as settler's wives (with the exception of a lamington) and I was a bushranger. It was great fun.

As I've been to Victoria, I have an idea of the landscape to describe. Of course I'll have a look at pictures and the like, but I still have an idea in my head. Russ insists that it should be set in Tasmania, but I don't like that idea. He seems like he's ready to write the story himself!

New South Wales wasn't ever home to bushrangers like Victoria was and I am completly unfamiliar with Tassie, so Victoria it is!

I read over Dancing with Ben Hall by Jackie French last night and got that romanticism back in my head.

Bushrangers are romantic. They were wild and free, living off the land how they chose in a time when folk were rigid from all the rules. Sure, they didn't lead happy, long lives, but they lived on their terms. I'll dig out what bushranger reference material I have and maybe hit up a library if my internet research (whenever that happens!) doesn't bear fruit. Unfortunately my resident Australian history expert has just left the country and won't be back for about three weeks, by which point NaNoWriMo is half over, so I won't have that resource to tap into, but apparently there is a document which will help me on the writing computer. Yes, we have a writing computer. We have the entertainment PC and a writing computer. Although the library smells like vomit after my sister stayed on the weekend, I'll have to find my oil burner and reclaim the room. Eek.

Now that I've finally got an idea, I'm really excited about NaNoWriMo. Also, it'll be great to finally have this story written.

Although November just got busier, so finding the time will be the hard part.

I'll have a little calendar in here I think to help me keep track of what I have to do in November.

Well, that's all for now, folks. Not that I think anyone is actually reading this, but oh well.

Hi to anyone reading!

This is my first post in miss_tagama!

Well, let's hope I can make this work.

This year I am doing NaNoWriMo and I'm pretty excited, although I do not have an idea as yet. One of the things I read on the website is that you shouldn't write a story you've had in your head for years, a story you feel really passionate about, because you don't have the time to really flesh it out and it make it what it should be, this is more of an exercise of finishing a project. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty hopeless at finishing things.

Let's hope this turns out a little better.

With any luck, my man will be joining me in this task, but as there are some big changes happening at the moment, he may not be able to. Hopefully he will, but we'll see.

So yeah, I'll make some graphics up for this, most likely not tonight though. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Note - if you are looking for my icons, it's still messicats_icons and if you are looking for my personal journal, it's still messicat and yes, my neglected travel journal is still maharajess.

This is for writing ONLY.

Thanks for stopping by!