Sunday, June 12, 2011

Two Speed Al

This is a long weekend down in Oz. We have ‘the Queen’s Birthday Holliday’ tomorrow. Normally I see myself as a republican, but I guess I’ll celebrate the good Queen’s day if it means a day off from work :-)

For those of you who don’t know, Oz is still a monarchy! We have not entirely cut our ties with the British Empire and Queen Elizabeth II is still our queen Downunder.

Now on to the two speed Al.

Work on my WIP has slowed to a crawl over the past few days.
I’ve recently been knocking over around 500 – 1,000 words a day. Over the past week this has slowed to around 200 – 300 words. Two of my characters have been fencing with each other over romance and misunderstanding. To add to the complications the sister of one has been interfering, with best intentions of course!

But it has meant that I have been delicately feeling my way rather than powering ahead. So things are slow.

However, I suspect I may have solved a bottle neck with a bit of early hours insomnia. I think I have sorted the conflict and will be able to move ahead.

Now that said I am probably a little unfair with my characters as I’ve probably been distracting myself as well. Over the past few days I have worked through not one but two rough outlines for possible future writing projects!

One is a sci-fi/fantasy piece for adults that involves time travel and is set in both the ancient world and present day.
The second is a YA piece that is also sci-fi/fantasy that take place between our world and another.
Both have taken a lot of thought, particularly the YA book because I haven’t written with a YA audience in mind before.

I like both ideas a great deal. Oh for more time to write!

I mean that pretty seriously. I have a lot of writing planned out now!

As you may know my WIP is the second in a series that goes with my first book Veiled in Shadows. At the moment I have two more planned to go with those. Each is a stand alone story (I hate “to be continued” endings) but they all feature some of the same characters and explore the events of the 20th century from different perspectives.

So if I add these projects to my “To Be Written” list I have years of writing ahead of me!

Now in the spirit of being two speed, two photos with very different themes. First Lilli, who is already very much a member of our family. She has been with us for a week tomorrow and is a ball of energy.

Second, a rainforest stream in Mount Field National Park, Tasmania.I saw a wild platypus for only the second ever time in my whole life just downstream of these rocks. They are common, but very shy so hard to spot. Alas my camera was safely tucked in its bag so no photo (sorry Susan). A magical experience nonetheless.

So dear friends a question, does your imagination ever get in the way of the task you have at hand?

16 comments:

Old Kitty said...

Al!! Let the imagination flow!!! I hope you do get your ideas down for your amazing wips planned!! Go, go, go!! Brainstorm away!

Awwww look at adorable Lilli!! Oh she is just lovely!!!

Yay for platypus-ses! Or is it platypie for plural?!?!
Take care
x

Linda G. said...

Aww. Lilli is maintaining her adorability. :) And that rainforest picture is beautiful.

My imagination often gets in the way of cleaning house. This doesn't actually bother me much. ;)

Michelle D. Argyle said...

That's interesting about the holiday! Huh. Good luck with your WIP planning, and your little Lilli is absolutely adorable. :)

Denise Covey said...

Well Al, I 'fess I'm no republican, like where would we get a President from? And all that...We are lucky that we're a lucky country despite our incompetents that are running the show, ha ha.

I'm all for letting your subconscious dictate. That's when writing gets really interesting.

Love your pics as always.

Guess Melbourne is a little cool. Nice crisp sunny morning up in sunny Q'ld. Was 'sposed to be raining, but I'm not complaining.

Denise

John Going Gently said...

So dear friends a question, does your imagination ever get in the way of the task you have at hand?

you know I can listen to piece of music on my ipod when I am gardening and suddenly I have designed a scene in the film I will be making...

not a bloody jot gets done... I can stand staring into space for 20 minutes!!!

Karen Jones Gowen said...

At least you are still at it! Slow speed is better than a complete stop.

Rebecca A Emrich said...

Al, best advice relax and have a tape recoder, seems to just be a time for you, you've been busy with other things.

Theres just life said...

Al, Lilli is adorable. Knowing puppies she has 2 speeds too...Fast and stop.
Beautiful picture of the rain forest.

ME let my imaginations interrupt what I am doing.... never. When it gets going there is nothing to interrupt.
Now I have had other things interrupt my imagination, and boy does it get annoyed at that.

So from your comment on my post I take it you liked the tsunami story line.

Pamela Jo
http://theresjustlifeyaliveit.blogspot.com

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

My imagination is always getting in the way-- especially when I should be consentrating on something else at the time ;)

I love your idea for a time travel story. I love the good ole time travelling stories. I don't think I could write one though.

Sarah Ahiers said...

ugh, i hear that on the WIP pace. I'm right there with you at about 300-500 words a day instead of my required 2k

Elizabeth Barry said...

Beautiful pictures, and Lilli is darling!

I find that I have so many story ideas roaring around in my head that I have a hard time focusing on just one at a time. However, I'm focusing more on my freelance career at the immediate moment, so that may just be my brain needing the creative outlet.

Good luck sorting through the conflict!

Ellie Garratt said...

Lilli is adorable.

I'm a bit like you at the moment, with novel ideas popping up almost weekly. I say get some notes down for each one but don't let it become a form of procrastination!

Ellie Garratt

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

I'm so glad you got to see another platypus, and thank you so much for thinking of me! Maybe the next one will be less shy and will let you grab a shot or two. I hope so. That has got to be one of the most delightful-looking critters in the world. Kinda proves that God has a sense of humor.

Deniz Bevan said...

Lilli's just adorable! I do hope we'll be seeing more of her :-) And lucky you, getting a day off - we had our Queen's birthday already last month, except ours was for Victoria's birthday!

MTeacress said...

Don't be too hard on yourself for dropping to 200-300 words. So many of us stop writing for months at a time. You're still making headway. Keep it up!

Such a cute puppy! We've got a new kitten in our house. :)

Amanda said...

Lilli is so cute!! Man, that would be so awesome to see a platypus! Your book ideas sound great! I wish I could write but will settle for being a reader :) Good luck!!