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Sarah Painter

Author of contemporary fiction with a touch of magic

writing challenge

Writing Challenge Check In: Week 7 (Almost There!)

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red_typewriterHello!

Just a super-quick check-in today as my Big Deadline is tomorrow and I’ve got at least 10,000 more words to write… Meep!

At this time of year the focus is on Christmas parties, school nativities, wrapping gifts, hanging decorations and sending cards, and it can feel a bit strange and isolating to be tapping away at the keyboard, but do know you’re not alone.

And, if we manage to hit (or get close) to our goals, that sparkly wine/cheese and port/tin of chocolate will taste all the sweeter…

Good luck, my friends. We’re almost there!

Writing Challenge Check In: Week 3

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red_typewriterHello, my lovelies. How was your week?

I hope you all managed to get lots of words written or a chunk of editing completed. Whatever goal you set yourself, I hope it helped you to get work done when you might not otherwise, and to appreciate your progress, no matter how small.

Speaking of small… I managed just under 3000 words. I really wanted this to be the week that I hit my ‘5000 word’ target, but it wasn’t to be. I have excuses, of course. I always have those.

I got stuck. I got ill. The kids were off school on Friday for a random in-service day.

I also have a bit of news. I will be, um, altering my goal for the remaining five weeks of the challenge. Purely to demonstrate the importance of remaining flexible while juggling different projects, of course. Ah-hem.

I heard back from my amazing editor on Friday. She’s read through draft two of the follow up to The Language of Spells and, as I suspected, it needs a fair amount of work. (Translation: A flamethrower would come in handy).

I’ve spent the weekend re-reading the book on my Kindle and marveling at just how wrong I can get things, and at the unbelievable inefficiency of my ‘process’. My brain seems to find it irritatingly necessary for me to write all the wrong words, before I can clearly see which are the right ones. Sigh.

So, my goal for this week is to rewrite the first third of the book.

How about you guys? Are you busy with your NaNoWriMo word counts? Editing away? I wish you luck!

Writing Challenge Check In: Week 2

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keep_goingHello my lovelies, I hope your week was word-filled and wonderful!

Okay. I’ll level with you all. Mine was… Fine. Not brilliant, but not bad. I got 3322 new words down (which doesn’t include the words I wrote and then deleted when I realised they were very wrong).

I got stuck.

I’m still a bit stuck, to be honest, so today I’m going to write ‘around the problem’. I’m stuck because I have decisions to make and I’m resisting making them because they feel final and scary (which, of course, is nonsense), so I’m going to force myself to write practice scenes, stuff that isn’t intended to be in the book at all. And I’m going to write about the story in my novel journal.

And, hopefully, that’ll help. I’ll let you know next week!

So. How how about you guys?

Writing Challenge Check in: Week 1

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aqua typewriterSo. The first week of my eight week writing challenge (also known as ‘Work My Arse Off Before Christmas’) has passed. How did you guys do?

I had a mixed week… I didn’t write at all on two of the seven days and only managed 300 words on Wednesday and Thursday, which left me frantically working on the weekend to catch up a little.

To hit my goal of 40,000 words, I need 5000 per week, and this week I got just 3071.

It was a wobbly week for various personal reasons, though, so I’m fairly pleased with that total. I’m reminding myself that all progress is good progress. I mean, even if I only ever wrote 300 words per day,  I’d still complete a book every year.

Onwards!

Friday Five: November. Seriously?

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ID-100114850Yes, yes, I know I’m always commenting on how quickly time flies, but really… Seriously? November?!

1. For many writers (both aspiring and professional), November means one thing: NaNoWriMo.  I’ve previously established that 50,000 words in a month is utterly beyond me, but I’m still setting myself a writing challenge. Read about it here and feel free to join me!

2. I also wrote about NaNoWriMo for Novelicious.

3. Still need inspiration? Rainbow Rowell (author of one of my favourite books of this year, Eleanor & Park) has written a brilliant pep talk for NaNoWriMo.

4. In addition to stationery and writing challenges, the change in season has brought something else to the front of my mind: knitting. After a break over the spring and summer, I’ve picked up the pins again and started a new project. (This pattern, in case you’re interested.)

5. Contrary to the weather, I’ve just started Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell. I’m a big fan of her writing, so have high hopes… I’ll report back later!

[Image Credit: Free Digital Photos]

Eight Weeks and a Challenge

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red_typewriterI was going to title this post ‘eight weeks to Christmas’ but I thought you might throw things at me…

There are, however, eight weeks of the school term left, which is both a nice-sounding amount of time for a writing challenge and a terrifying amount of time in which to get everything else in life sorted. Basically, if I only had to wear one hat (my ‘author’ one) for two months, I think I could finish the first draft of my new book.

However, that is sadly not the case… This term is always busy (Halloween, school concerts, Christmas preparations, seasonal coughs and colds) and I will also have (at least) one more rewrite of my second Carina book, too. Plus, of course, my posts for Novelicious, promotional stuff, and any other bits of freelance writing which come my way.

Still. I would dearly love to skid into the Christmas holiday with a good chunk of the new book written. It’s an idea I began writing last year and it makes me all tingly with excitement. I put it to one side when I got the Carina deal in order to write the sequel to The Language of Spells, but it’s been tickling the back of my mind the whole time.

So. Eight weeks. Even allowing for everything above and the fact that I’m a slow writer, I’m going to aim for 40,000 words.

I’m going to check in here every Monday with an update on my progress and if anybody fancies joining my eight-week challenge, please ‘sign up’ in the comments. Just state your goal (it can be anything you like) and visit every Monday to let us know how you’re getting on/get support/demand chocolate.

April Challenge

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calendar picI’ve been working on the new book for a couple of months but still feel like I’m in the planning stages. I’ve been doing lots of thinking and have started a book collage, but I haven’t written as many words as I’d like.

In fairness, I’ve had quite a lot of freelance work on (and I took a two-week break to do revisions on the ‘old’ book), but I feel like it’s time to get serious on this draft.

So, I’m taking my own advice and setting myself a ‘don’t break the chain’ challenge for April. I’ve printed out a free calendar page from here and I’m going to give myself a lovely blue cross on every day that I write 1000 words. Would anyone care to join me?

Creativity, time-out and tasty rice

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Okay, confession time: I’ve been in a writing slump.

I had a knock-back (or two) and I didn’t manage to shrug them off with a casual ‘it’s their loss’.

I’ve spent a lot of time wondering what I’ve done wrong, questioning the direction I’ve taken, my genre, and my ‘voice’. Perhaps not surprisingly, this has had a knock-on effect on my creativity.

I’ve been reading blogs (more than usual), aimlessly clicking through the internets and, instead of being inspired and uplifted by the brilliance (and community) found within, I’ve felt drained and miserable.

In short, I was beginning to think that whatever writing talent and drive I’d once had, was gone. Used up. I was a husk, I tell you! A self-dramatising husk!

So, I decided to take time off and focus on other things: Sewing, reading, gardening and walking. And, praise be, it’s working… For starters, I’ve felt happy again. Huzzah!

Then, while I was potting these flowers, I felt the tickle of a new idea in the back of my mind. Next, a character’s voice began chattering in my head.

It seems that creativity can be like a shy woodland creature; if you blunder towards it, it runs away. If you pretend you’re not looking, sometimes it creeps out of the undergrowth and nuzzles your hand. Or something.

Hello, little deer. Are you my missing creativity? Please say 'yes'.

So. Since I’m feeling a wee tiny bit better, I’m going to take part in Karen Mahoney’s Spring writing challenge. I’m signing up to write 30,000 during April. That’s just 1000 words a day. 1000 more than I’ve been managing recently, but still. Gotta love a deadline. Anyone want to join me?

In other news, I had the urge to cook something new on the weekend. I spotted this spicy jambalya recipe on my sister-in-law’s drool-inducing cookery website and decided to give it a go. I hoped that the addition of chorizo might persuade my son to choke down some rice, much in the way that a bucket of parmesan makes risotto palatable to him.

Some recipe notes in case you want to follow in my footsteps (and I urge you to do so – it’s yummy):

I didn’t have a carton of tomatoes, so used a tin of Napolina chopped tomatoes instead.

I used trusty Marigold Swiss vegetable buillon for the veg stock and followed the amount stated even though it looked like an alarming amount of liquid. It wasn’t. It cooked perfectly in just over 20 minutes.

As I was making this for the whole family, I omitted the chillis and I’m glad I did. It was still super-tasty but both kids said they wouldn’t have wanted it any hotter.

I adore lime so I doubled up on this, cutting a whole lime into wedges and giving everyone a piece to squeeze their own.

The rice goes all deliciously smooth and silky (from the fat in the chorizo, I assume) and the smokiness of chorizo and paprika cut with lime juice is sublime.

We all loved it – even my son. Towards the end of his bowlful he was mainly just picking out the chorizo, but I’m okay with that. I’m all about celebrating the small successes this week.