Saturday

Writing suddenly got hard again.

There’s a lots of other work to do as well:

• Christmas hats to be finished
• year end books to be bought (up to budget) for the library and paperwork to complete
• events I’m committed to attending
• grotto signs to remake (This job feels like groundhog day: the first year I forgot to bring it home; the second year I remembered but it’s not looking so hot with bits of lettering peeling off – so yes, time to make it again.)
• several appointments which I put off until the start of Dec hoping that would be post finished draft…

Even Starbucks’ magic is waning. Still, I’ve found a rather lovely new place to work. Isn’t this beautiful?

This is Thailand Cultural and Design Centre. It’s a gallery space and design library at the top of Emporium Mall which is very close to home. It cost me £22 to join for a year.

I'm so close to finishing this draft and there are no excuses with this lovely space to do it in.

Oh buggerty bottoms

I wasn’t trying to lull Sheepish into a false sense of security… I had a dire week. Really, horribly busy and more shopping for those damn costumes! I even picked up some extra tasks on the way.

In order not to hand in a pitiful word count, I’ve been indulging in some illicit Sunday writing. It’s only illicit according to the Woolly One, but Saturday and Sunday writing has always been part of my routine. The rest of the family are out during the week at work and school and so come the weekend, they want to stay home and play with their toys.

This week’s word count is 3265 words. (Oh bugger, I’ve just seen Sheepish’s word count…and she’s beaten me again. I am trying to remember that getting my words written makes me a winner too, but bah, pah, and other annoyed noises.)

*Sigh* And I’ve another bad week coming up with my flying to London, corresponding jetlag and my TLC Industry Day – for which I haven’t yet got an elevator speech prepared.

Certification

Now that the Slumps have been officially diagnosed and I’ve got the certificate to prove it, I’m feeling a bit better. Even though I realised it, the words of my mentor have reassured me “…they happen, it’s impossible to work at full creative speed all the time. The best thing is – as it seems to me you’re doing – to listen to it.” We’ve agreed that the last lot of words I send in can be either the next 10k of novel or the working synopsis. Thus far I’ve been writing without a plan of any sort… just knowing the story but it looks as though it’s time to prepare some sort of strategy.

In acknowledging the slumps two things have happened: I can get on and do other jobs that haven’t been done because of my anxious slumpy paralysis and secondly my subconscious has started to think about the story again and the bits of plot I might need to introduce to combat the flat feeling.

I’ve done the updated BWG website this morning … my bits of it: Book Club and the Noticeboard as well as the committee page. I’ve sent overdue emails out. Now I’m in the midst of book buying… for May. Then I have to try to sort out a beach holiday for when SiL and her family come to Thailand in the summer; that sounds fun but it’s hard trawling through the many, many options and making choices for other people. I keep opening up the internet, then faced with so many alternatives I shut it back down again.