New Sketch - Holly & Pigs in Blankets!

Here's something I sketched today whilst feeling festive! Merry Christmas Everybody!

Feeling Festive

Last night I watched the last Hornblower TV series episode, Duty. I had forgotten it was set at Christmas and New Year, with Horatio Hornblower getting married, getting coated in snow in the middle of the ocean, and finally toasting the New Year with his new family back in England. I loved it, and the perfect time of year to watch it in the end.

I loved the new song by Hurts, called All I Want for Christmas is New Year's Day, it's starts out strange with the video set in a graveyard seemingly at a funeral, then oddly a Christmas Tree, complete with lit candles, comes rising out of the grave! Suddenly everyone is happy and feeling the Christmas cheer, as we see their little faces all aglow with the warm candlight. It really captures the spirit of Christmas. I love it.

Hurts - All I Want For Christmas Is New Year's Day

So now I'm feeling festive. Thank you Hurts and Hornblower. :)

Girls Are Like Apples...

I saw this and loved it, so wanted to post it here:

Girls
are like
apples on trees.
The best ones are
at the top of the tree.The
boys don't want to reach
for the good ones because they
are afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just get the rotten apples
from the ground that aren't as good,
but easy. So the apples at the top think
something is wrong with them, when in
reality, they're amazing. They just
have to wait for the right boy to
come along, the one who's
brave enough to
climb all
the way
to the top
of the tree.

'Small Survivors' #Nanowrimo Banner

Here is my brand new banner for my Nanowrimo 2010 novel, 'Small Survivors' - I'm really proud of it! This now graces my Nanowrimo forums posts!

My Nanowrimo Novel premise is basically this:

"A group of strangers are abducted by a top secret government agency, who perform an illegal experiment on them and shrinks them to just six inches tall. Small Survivors, Giant Terror. What happens next? "

Let me know what you think!

You can also read more about my Nanowrimo exploits, and see more graphics and characters for my Nanowrimo novel on my dedicated Writing Blog!

Just A Little Gratitude...

Today I am grateful for...

• reaching my Nanowrimo word count goals today,
• the sunshine,
• having a relaxing day,
• having loving and supportive people around me

Thank you.

13,837 Words - Farther Than I've Ever Gone Before!

Wow, I've reached 13,837 words so far in my Nanowrimo 2010 novel! This is now the farthest I've ever gone with a novel before! I think it helps that I'm posting my word count on my Twitter, and I'm posting on here too! Plus I really want to write and complete this novel! I tend to have a problem finishing what I start, so now I want to make sure I complete this, so I have something completed (however bad this happens to turn out), so I can at least have something I can proudly say I have seen through to the end.

My novel is a little shaky at times, some scenes I have written have way too much boring dialogue I am sure, and some scenes are not well enough explained or detailed, some almost completely lack description, some I've forgotten to 'show don't tell' and for some strange reason, I seem to be writing in past tense in some scenes when it's meant to be present tense - to give you a sense of immediacy and excitement! My only consolation is that I can remedy all of this on the rewrite - which it will need plenty of work doing on it then. But at least I will have a framework to rebuild and perfect it around. Right now, I'm attempting to suss out my plot, remember all my characters names (with notes to help, otherwise many characters would have changed their names and spellings many times over by now), and try to decide what to write next! It will all come together in the end. Right?

7943 Words - I'm behind, but not that behind!

Having missed the two previous days and not done any writing for Nanowrimo, I find I am behind! But I managed to write an extra 1376 words today - Yay me! I just updated my word count on the Nanowrimo site, and took a tentative look at what my writing buddies are doing on there, fearful they will be way ahead of me, and what do I find? Chris Baty, the founder of National Novel Writing Month, is on 7504 words! He's actually behind me! Only a little, but it's boosted my confidence! If he can be a little behind, and still confident that he can do 50,000 words in time, then I'm sure I can too! I only have a few words to catch up on - I can do it! :)

I have had my characters abducted by a bogus bus, gassed, put into a top secret experiment where they have been shrunk to approximately 6 inches high, put through scary tests trying to outrun giant cockroaches, spiders and lab rats, and now, I've just exploded the lab, and set them free! (They had to climb their way out of all the fire, debris and ash, but they madee it!). Now I hope I can manage this a lot easier, though I am struggling a little.

Two things I need to remember:

• Show don't tell
• Let the characters follow their most logical course of action next - they will write the plot!

Now how easy is that? I hope!