Writers Block Schmiters Block: An Update

Sooooo....

I don't have generalised writers block anymore. YAY! I have a very specific writers block on the zombie book but I think that's because I need to know SPECIFIC details for the next third of the book and do not know them yet. Research can be hard.

But in order to combat The Block, I started writing something else.

Something unplanned.

Something I have no expectations for.

It could be a short story, it could be a novel. It's just going to be whatever it turns out to be. That freedom is kind of liberating, actually. I've been purely writing novels for the last couple of years so this is certainly making for a fun change.
And getting to know the characters as I write them is bringing back the fun and joy.

So I have combated The Block by playing. And it's awesome. And not coming out too badly, I must say! This is a big statement for me - do you remember my last blog post in which I announced the supreme suckage of everything I wrote lately?

Here are some hints of what the story is turning out to be like.

A very, very white Christmas

Watching movies in bed

So. Much. Snow.

Scary stary emo boy

Chilling by yourself cos there's no one else around

Empty college dorm

Potential Satanism

Frolicking in the snow

and....

Aww.

So there you have it. An empty dorm. A satanist. Christmas time. A blizzard. But it's a comedy.

I dunno. We'll see. I'm gonna go with it and see what happens.

I handed in my last essay for the year today (WOOHOO!) so I have one more class next week and then it's all over until next March. Or April. One of those, I can never remember. We visited the biggest printer in Australia today and it was really cool seeing how the end product is made.

If any of you lovely readers are interested in my editing or manuscript appraisal services, I have some vacancies coming up so by all means contact me and find out if I'm the right editor for you!

Have a fantabulous week, all!

Love,

Sairz

What I've been doing and stuff.

Hello Blogosphere, it is I. Sarah. I just realised today how very long it has been between posts, because in class we’re working on blogs and I had a quick squiz at mine and *cough*…so here I am.

Interesting stuff, actually. We're looking at digital publishing and as well as setting up blogs for the class, we had to rewrite a short story we had already written, but as 5 text messages, and look at how the different technology changes the way the story is told. And it did change the story. You should try it. Except YOU should use a good phone that doesn't make you swear because it keeps turning off mid-text message and moving the cursor so you're typing in the wrong place. You should use a different phone. Learn from me.

Anyway, that was just today. The whole rest of the time I was on mid-semester break for what felt like forever (not a complaint) and my exam went awesome (thanks for asking) and it’s not like I was just lounging around in my pyjamas all winter holidays (yes you American and British types! It’s winter and cold and rainy and very hard to get out of bed because I don't have central heating and the air outside of my doona is c-c-cold!) and technically that wasn’t much of a lie about spending most of my days in my pyjamas because, well, I was in my tracky daks (track suit) for a lot of it. But I wasn’t bludging. I was WRITING. I finished my first draft of an MG called What’s so cool about Carrie (Working Title) within the first four days (sing hallelujah! Sing it…haaaaaallelujah) and while giving myself some space away from that so I can crack the whip and slash pages, characters and kill all my darlings with no remorse when I’m not so attached to it, I got to work on the second draft of a YA book I wrote two years ago, which is now called The Kiss Off.

Two years was enough time for me to get out my butchers knife and hack the bejesus outta that book and feel good about it. The only problem with hacking the bejesus out of your first draft is you may end up with only about 30 pages that you’re going to keep and a whole bunch of awesome characters who need a brand-spanking-new story.

Which is what I did. Actually, what I’m still doing, I’m in the middle of the big ‘oh no she didn’t’ climax but don’t have the time or energy to finish it just now cos I’m back at Uni and working (hard for the money…so haaaaard for it honey) and this whole not finishing my book thing is frustrating. You know? Cos as soon as I finish The Kiss Off, I can get back to What’s so cool about Carrie? and get something off to my agent. I’m looking forward to finished drafts. Oh yes I am.

In other news, I just recently discovered Australia has an Ice Hockey league so I have found my sport of choice. I am not a sport fan, but I am an ice hockey fan, oh yes. Go Melbourne Ice! Can you imagine what the mascot looks like? I haven’t seen it yet. Do you reckon it’s just like, a snowball? Or a block of ice from the freezer tray?

I’ll keep you posted. If I remember.

Pretty much that’s been my last month. Writing, working and some ice hockey.

Thought I might share a teeny tiny snippet of what I’ve been working on since I’ve been working pretty hard. This is from the YA novel: The Kiss Off.

My protagonist, Poppy and her friend Vanya are helping their other friend Mads get ready for a date.

So we were in Mads’s room, Van and I scrutinizing every top she owned and Mads was kind of pacing, forehead furrowed as she glared at herself in the mirror.

‘I’m hideous.’ She said, throwing her hands in the air in defeat. ‘Why am I doing this to him?’

‘What are you talking about? Doing what?’ I asked.

‘This. Tonight, why am I subjecting Dev to the hideousness that is me.’

‘Oh shut up Mads,’ Vanya said. Mads crossed her arms and huffed.

‘I’m with her.’ I nodded at Van as she tossed another top into the “hell no” pile in the corner.

‘You’re pretty and nice and sweet and he likes you. You don’t have anything to worry about.’

‘And you can hardly notice the pimples anymore,’ Vanya said helpfully. Mads gasped and slapped her hand to her chin. I pulled it away and clasped both her hands in mine, squeezing them reassuringly.

‘And you’ve got us there to help you.’

For a moment she seemed to be settling down, but then she pulled her hands away, strode to the other side of the room and declared: ‘I’m not pretty, I’m horrible, I’m hideous, I’m disfigured!’

‘What are you talking about?’

And that was when she whipped her top off. Just like that. She pointed to her boobs. Her naked boobs. This was new.

‘Um, Mads,’ I started.

‘I like this one!’ Vanya threw whatever top she was holding at the time at Mads’s chest. It happened to be her gym uniform. Mads threw it to the “hell no” pile.

‘Look at them,’ she said. ‘Look at the left one, it’s growing as big as a porn star’s but then look at the right. It looks like my dad’s boobs!’ I didn’t exactly want to, but since she was being so demanding about it, I checked out her boobs. I looked from the left to the right and back again.

‘They look fine to me.’

‘They’re not fine!’

‘What do you think, Van?’

Vanya huffed, shook her head, bent at the waist and squinted at Mads’s boobs.

‘You say the left one’s bigger?’ She asked.

‘It is!’

‘I don’t think you have to worry. The other one’ll catch up.’ Van stood up and crossed her arms with a nod.

‘And besides, Mrs. McCleary said it’s perfectly normal to have one boob bigger than the other.’ I reassured her.

‘You see it too, then?’ Mads looked panic stricken. ‘That the left is bigger?’

‘No!’ Vanya and I both shouted.

‘You don’t?’

‘Your boobs are fine, Mads.’ I told her, picking up a baby pink singlet from the “maybe” pile. I handed it to her slowly. Thankfully, she clutched it to her chest.

Vanya held up Mads’s vintage electric blue MotoCross jacket, and we had a winner.

‘I think that’d look good with some long necklaces, don’t you?’

See you erm…sometime before the end of the year?

Sairz

Harry Potter and the ADHD girl

Ah, I finished an essay today. BOOM. Feels good. Yes! Just have to hand it in tomorrow. Before I finished that one, I had to start aNOTHER one for my Education class which I'm doing about ADHD/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I'm really quite interested in this topic, as I've seen some kids with it in its different forms while on placement in primary schools at home in Australia (alas, no placement involved while over here in England) and I gotta tell ya, I've been making some interesting observations the more I study ADHD.

My observation? I totally have it. There's 2 types of ADHD, there's the "OMG I'm sitting here but I want to be over there so I'm just going to go over there regardless that you told me to sit here and sit STILL here cos quite frankly, that's a bit of a joke, see my fingers tapping the table like that? I'm totally not doing that. My fingers are oh look at that, there's a bird out the window I'm going to climb out the window to look at the bird and okay ow that branch was actually really scratchy when I hit it and fell down and probably I shouldn't have done that and the teacher wants me back inside but I've done it now. Oops" type of ADHD, which is called Hyperactive-impulsive, where the person who has it, is quite hyperactive, and impulsive (among other things).

And then there's the 'inattentive' type of ADHD, which is basically where you have trouble with instructions and your mind wanders and your working memory is effected, so you can't remember what you did yesterday but boy it was SO funny that time 15 years ago when you were running down the hill to get a bucket of water and had so much momentum that you kept running straight into the lake and fell smack on your face in the water. (Actual story. This is who I am.)

I get in trouble with my family a lot for forgetting stuff, and my sister tells me I have made up half of my childhood memories because she doesn't remember them, even though half the time they are about her.

Also with ADHD, your grades are generally effected because of the whole having trouble paying attention thing, but I've mostly done okay in the grades area my whole life. I never failed a class (though there was this one maths test in high school which if I remember correctly I failed the first one and did a make up test and never found out the score so I will NEVER KNOW if I failed that test too...oooooh....) but I came close once last year. I thought I would try Sociology because I thought I would be interested in Sociology. Turns out I'm not. At least not the way THEY were teaching it.

Anyhoo, if I AM little miss ADHD girl, it explains a lot about me. Like why my mother was compelled to buy me a fridge magnet that said "Yes I'm in my own world, but it's okay, they like me there" because it made her think of me. Nice.

Okay, and now onto Harry Potter! I have just finished my essay on demons and the Devil in Medieval literature for my English Literature class: Narratives of Witchcraft and Magic (can I hear a WOOT!), and have found out the essay topics for the second essay, which I will start about a week after I finish the one about ADHD (I'm a little burnt out, essay wise right now.)

One of the topic questions? Way cool.

"Compare and contrast J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series with at least one other 20^th- or 21^st-century fictional treatment of witchcraft and magic."

So I'm thinking my ACADEMIC ESSAY is going to be about Harry Potter and oh, Willow from Buffy, she's pretty different to Harry Potter. Or Charmed. Or Bewitched. This is going to be way more fun than my usual essays. Mind you, it's still an ESSAY.

I'm not sure about book type witches. Any other suggestions that I should be going 'oh, DUH' about?

Revision happy dances and Vikings

I fiiiiiinished, I fiiiiinished, tra la la la la!

Yes, it feels GOOD to finish revisions. I actually finished it 2 weeks ago but I'd been going over and over the book and was so close to it that I couldn't differentiate between one draft and another, and should this be in the new version or is it better without it? Am I making the book worse or better? I'm making the book worse...I hate this book!

That my wonderful agent suggested I put it aside for 2 weeks. Stop looking at the ruddy thing and think about something else.

So I did, and it turns out that I wasn't making it worse. I was making it pretty darn good, actually. I'm happy. So I pressed send and now it is in my agent's hands, awaiting her seal of approval. Or she'll suggest I do some more revisions. :) I'm not ACTUALLY smiling at that idea, but I'm sure it'll happen. Hopefully only some tweaks.

But anyhoo. I feel good right now!

Yesterday I met some other past and present students from my exchange University here in England who are doing National Novel Writers Month as well. Which starts November 1st. Eep! The count down is on!

I have my plot. I think it's a pretty good plot. And I know what happens for about the first 3rd of the novel. And I know what happens at the end. But about a week and a half in to NaNoWriMo I'm going to hit a snag. In that I don't actually know what comes next. Hopefully by then I'll have an inkling.

Just over a week in to NaNo I'm going on a weekend trip to Wales which is exciting. (and in 4 days I'm off to Paris! But that's beside the point) And 2 and a bit weeks in, I have an(other) assignment due. So I'm not SURE how I'm gonna go keeping on track but we'll find out. Last year I discovered I was pretty good at waking up, turning on the computer and cranking out at least a thousand words before I'd even gotten out of bed. I was in the zone! So hopefully I can do that again.

So anyway, I'm tra la la la la'ing at the moment cos I'm between manuscripts.

If only I can stop procrastinating on my Vikings essay.

I don't understand this frame of mind. All students have it, I KNOW I'm not alone. I think the Vikings are interesting. That's why I chose THAT essay topic. But there's something about the word ESSAY that makes it much less appealing. I'm lacking the will to read about a topic I find interesting. Because the writing side of it is going to be BO-RING. So if I don't read about it, the less I know about it so I can't possibly start writing.

I'll start freaking out soon as the deadline looms and I WILL get it done. This is how I roll. But as well as tra la la la'ing I'm also plugging my ears with my fingers, squinching my eyes closed and nyah nyah nyah I can't hear you, you don't exist nyah nyah'ing at the word Vikings.

Let's see how well that works out for me. :)

Tra la nyah nyah!

Sairz

New York and some more recent stuff

WELL.

I am way behind in telling you all about my trip, aren't I? If you follow me on twitter, however http://twitter.com/SairzBillington

or are my bud on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/SarahBillington

then you have probably been inundated with the randomness of goings on in my neck of the woods of late.

Like walking past a guy wearing a tee shirt, sneakers, and a BABY'S NAPPY. And then when I crossed the road I discovered I was walking behind a dude wearing a grown-up sized baby's one piece. With the poo flap and everything. It was baby blue. The whole one piece I mean. Not just the poo flap.

And the other day, just sitting outside the student union at my university here in Leeds who walked past? Just a bunch of about 15 young men wearing nun's habits. And some of them were wearing the ones from costume shops, you know, the SEXY nun type. I'm talking about really short skirts.

It really is quite random here. But awfully entertaining.

Ooh! And my History tutor/professor (I think he's also a DOCTOR) is the exact stereotype of a History Professor. The older gentleman with white hair, tweed suits (I think he might be missing the patches on the elbows though) and a briefcase. And of course a posh british accent, but considering I'm in Britain that shouldn't be THAT surprising.

But back to New York!

Okay, so Boston had been a total bust and I was still wearing the cursed voodoo bracelet and my flight was delayed, and then I had to wait an hour and a half for the shuttle bus to FINALLY arrive at JFK to take me to the hostel. I got to the hostel at 11:30pm and they were changing shifts and I had to sit and wait for half an hour while the chick counted her till and left, and the guy taking over (who I didn't realise was the guy taking over when he was just hanging out talking to people) finally finished his can of coke and came over to count HIS till and check me in. They were not helpful people at this hostel. I was bloody exhausted and emotional cos all of my communication devices had been possessed by the devil whilst in America, and were not allowing me to call anyone nor text them. I couldn't call Eleanor and tell her I was going to be late. I couldn't call the hostel to find out where exactly they were (Eleanor had those details) and I couldn't even call home to my family to just vent about what a sucky time I was having.

So I got into the room which was maybe 2 metres wide with 2 bunk beds in it, and 3 sleeping people. With nowhere to put my luggage and nowhere to put my feet that wasn't extremely painful to get up to the top bunk, I was clearly not in love with this hostel. And apparently, we were in the wrong room (hadn't heard THAT one before) and would have to check out the next morning and be put into the correct room we had booked. Which was one of us in a mixed dorm and the other of us in a female dorm. Why, WHY would we have split ourselves up?

After taking our luggage down to the storage room (cos we were "Checking out") The next morning Eleanor went for a walk in Central Park bright and early, we both HAD to get out of there, and I scoured the internet for some other accomodation. I found a Boutique B&B on 22nd Street that had a room. It was going to be more expensive but I did. not. care.

I went out too - with no way of contacting Eleanor - and discovered just how awesome the NYC subway is.

In general, New York City is as you expect:

(Yes I took that photo) and even though it's a city and a pretty intense one at that, and I've become a bit of a country loving girl - I really liked NYC!

I went on an NBC Studios tour (Cos I knew Eleanor wouldn't be interested in that) and saw Rockefella Centre. NBC was interesting. Jimmy Fallon's studio is really small. Bummer he was one 2 week hiatus. And Saturday Night Live - there are SO many lights hanging from the ceiling. And audience sizes for these shows are itty bitty. Really cool to be there though. And in the news room, they don't have air conditioning but refrigerated a

ir because air conditioning is moist and that would damage the wicked expensive camera equipment. Interesting stuff, huh? Anyway, I got back in the afternoon, to pick up my luggage. Eleanor had already checked back in. But I was not going to. So that is when we went our separate ways, the end of our journey together which came a couple of days earlier than anticipated, but we were both happy enough with the situation. It took another half an hour and about 5 times of asking to have the luggage store unlocked so I could get my stuff, but FINALLY I was OUT of there and headed down to 22nd.

It was really cute, I think you call them Brownstones?

And the staff were really friendly and helpful unlike SOME I had come across. I had a room with a double bed, a fridge and a sink all to myself (mind you there was about 30cm between the bed and the wall on both sides, but since it was just me it was fine) and I had AIR CONDITIONING as well. A bathroom right outside which was shared but I never saw anyone else on the same floor so essentially it was miney mine mine.

That night is when I took off the voodoo bracelet.

And BECAUSE of taking off the bracelet, New York was great. I did the whole sight seeing thing solo, but I was happy enough to do that. I went on a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty, went up the Empire State Building at night time, I did a bus tour around the island and out to Brooklyn, went to the Natural History Museum, Times Square and Broadway. It was a toss up between Billy Elliot and In the Heights, but I saw In the Heights, which is SUCH an awesome show. And I love HalfTix or whatever they call it, which get you great tickets but way cheaper than if you bought them at the box office.

I bought the soundtrack to the show of In The Heights because that is how awesome it was.

I became a seasoned pro at using the subway, and even took it, my massive suitcase (which I picked up at the greyhound station, where it had been waiting for me for 3 weeks after I sent it on its way from San Francisco) and bulging backpack back to JFK, heading to London via Zurich. Oh - and the people in New York are really nice, too! When getting my suitcase from the Greyhound to the B&B, and when getting EVERYTHING to the airport to the subway which meant up and down flights of stairs, EACH TIME I had a lovely gentleman help me. I didn't have to heave and haul my suitcase. I was offered assistance, thanked them profusely and they went on their way, having done their good dead, and wanting nothing in return for it. I heart New Yorkers. They are amazingly wondersome people.

So yes. The moral of the story is unless you want to live in a world of SUCK do not buy a good luck bracelet from an honest to God voodoo shop in New Orleans unless you are in fact voodoo.

I still have the voodoo bracelet and am actually looking to make an enemy so that I can give them a gift - "wow, pretty bracelet!" and test out the theory. Do YOU hate anyone you'd like me to give the bracelet to?

The end.

For now. Next comes Bath, Reading and London, UK! And after that is Various places in Italy, then Leeds, Scarborough and York, UK and what has not yet happened but is definitely on the cards includes Paris, The Lake District, Wales and Edinburgh!

And I totally think I'm attending Zombie-Aid in Manchester. I would LOVE to watch 1000 zombies go on a zombie walk. Sweet. I really wanted to go to The Battle of Hastings in Hastings this weekend (which clashes with the Lake District Trip, and is also a 7 hour trip each way which made me think twice). Don't know what the Battle of Hastings is? Just a couple of hundred men and women in medieval attire reenact the battle of hastings. Bring on sword fights and armour!

Alas.

Love,

Me

Sorry for my tardiness

I've been a little bit quiet of late, I know.Erm...sorry about that.

Truth is, it's that time of year University assignment-wise and I've been a bit like this:

Except less board looking. Well. No I retract that statement. Totally as bored looking. And more nail chewing. And tired making. And sleeping. There's been lots of sleeping involved. Well, more sleeping during the day because I haven't been sleeping at night. Been trying to sleep at night so it all comes down to a lot of time TRYING to sleep. And TV watching. There's been a lot of that as well. 

And all of that = PROCRASTINATION. Yes, when it comes to academic study, I appear to be a firm believer of "If I don't look at it, it'll go away". Which it never does. It just gets harder cos you have less time to do it in.

When it comes to my creative writing, the times that I utilise this method, it, well it DOES go away. At present, no one's waiting with baited breath, tapping their watch and scowling at me if I don't get cracking. So sometimes the motivation flows away...

But I do have to cut myself some slack. Last year I wrote two books. Neither of which I wrote during term time at University.

So I'm not too phased. As soon as exams etc are over I'll be back to writing.

I have to make the most of my time here, living on Res with the friends I've made...wanna know why?

Cos I'm not coming back next year!

Yes, there have been some developments in the past week or so.

Firstly I FINALLY made the decision: Teaching is not for me. Not a whole classroom anyway. What do I love most in the world? Well, books of course. Being the blog of a writer, I reckon any one of you could have figured that out.

So what industry should I REALLY be trying to work my way into? The publishing industry! I mean, DUH.

So next year I'm going to move back to Melbourne and do a Writing & Publishing degree - get to move straight into second year because of previous qualifications. Woot! Plus might get a little bit of credit for what I've studied here which will be awesome.

And the degree involves two things: Writing (writing a novel is part of the course work!) and Publishing (industry placements at publishing houses!) so I reckon it's going to be pretty sunny.

Yes, I do realise there will be assignments, and I know how I feel about those, but it's looking a bit brighter than this Education track is, for me.

I'm really looking forward to moving back to Melbourne actually, seeing all my friends, my old haunts and interests. As much as I love the peace and quiet of the country, there is a lot more on offer in the big bad.

But before I can do that I have to get back from the WORLD!

Caught a bit of a snag in my Visa application for the UK, and it turns out I won't be allowed into the country until within a week of class starting. Which is kinda crap considering my plane ticket gets me there THREE weeks before class starts. Do they not want people to enjoy themselves as WELL as study? See their countryside, and bask in the...er....rain?

Keep ya posted how all that turns out.

Still being nice and patient in and impatiently patient way when it comes to the two fantabulous agents who have my full MS. Another two weeks and I can give one a polite tap on the shoulder and ask if she's had a chance to flip through it yet. We'll see.

Until then, I have other stuff!

Bye for now. Going to watch some TV. Then do some study. Then watch some TV. Then go and annoy someone, cos they're likely to not be on campus anymore. Who will the lucky person be??

Feeling like Big Kev

I feel like Big Kev today. Do you wanna know why?

Cos I'm excited!

For some reason the picture of Big Kev isn't uploading but you Aussie's out there will know what I'm talking about. But unlike Kev, I'm not excited by cleaning products. Why AM I excited, you ask?

I started my next book today. Yeah. You read correctly. The battle is over, one character is sitting on her arse in the dirt giving the other, victorious character a steely death glare as she raises her fists to the sky in celebration. And she's being written about as of today.
It's going to be slow, because I've been itching to get writng and haven't done as much planning as I need to, and really I don't know anything about guitars yet - but I will - but yeah. The point is that I am no longer a crazy lady being bullied by two figments of her imagination.
It's all okay now.

I am however having major career dilemmas. As I am not a fantabulously popular, thousand upon thousand book selling author as yet, I need a day job. And I'm just not SURE that teaching is it for me.

I love books and reckon I'd be happier somewhere in that industry.
So I need to have a good proper think about whether or not I stick out my current Uni course or scrap the lot and start again.

I'm not in LOVE with teaching, but there are more jobs in it than there are in publishing. And if I did get into publishing, even though I love books and writing and writers, would I become all disgruntled and unsatisfied in my job because I'd be helping other writers get published and not myself?

Frankly I just want to be happy in my life and career. I guess the only way to really ensure that is to keep writing and BECOME that fantabulous best selling author I'd like to be, where I'm comfortable enough financially from writing that I don't need the day job.

One day it's going to happen. But in the mean time...

But anyway. I started my new book today, so I'm excited.