Letting go

For years my dream has been to write. I have done courses and read books about the craft and written bits and pieces and had some published in various forums. I have had ideas for two books, written a couple of thousand words, done lots of planning but never had the discipline to actually write them. Deadlines are good for a procrastinator like me and I have signed up for NaNoWriMo and am going to make an effort to get lots of words written.

If I don’t make the effort during November I probably don’t want this as much as I think I do and it is time to let go and move on to something else. Letting go is a recurring theme in our lives at the moment.

My husband has been back to Perth for the funeral of a family friend and met up with the ’gang’ he grew up with. Everyone is going through similar events in their lives and coming to terms with the ‘empty nest’, health issues and changing careers or retiring after a lifetime in one job or industry. His work life is changing too and he will be working one day a week next year and figuring out what he wants to do with the rest of his working life after 25 years in the same industry.

My proofreading partner has been offered a full-time job she really likes and I love my part-time library job and want to pursue more days. We have decided to wind up our business and see where these new opportunities take us.

Making decisions and letting go is scary but life is too short for holding on to jobs and projects we don’t have the passion for anymore. Finding new ones keeps us engaged, active and happy.

I have just discovered Katie Fforde and have finished Wedding Season and started Love Letters.

Good luck to all those having a go at NaNo!

 

Rain, snow and sunshine

What a week! The weather has been the talk all around town with lots of rain and snow. It snowed all around our district except where we live. By the time I arrived in town for work it had all gone! My husband has been on holidays, the sun is now shining and he has planted lots of new flowers in the garden.

 

 

I have done well with Offline October. I did go over the hour a couple of times but not for too long. My writing productivity hasn’t been as good as I had hoped but I have read some books, done my CIT homework and gone to bed early!

Just finished reading Heiress in Love by Christina Brooke and started Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich.

Offline October update

It’s day one of Offline October and I am feeling very pleased with myself. I did a lot of CIT work and although I did need to go on the internet for my assignment I did not go wandering. I stuck with what I needed to look for and got off!

I can keep this up for a month!

Offline October

I have decided to attempt Offline October. What a great idea! I have been spending too much time wandering around the internet, reading this and that and before I know it hours have passed. I haven’t done enough CIT work this semester, I have written very little of my ‘book’ and not spent any time figuring out and writing interesting blog posts. If I limit my internet time to one hour a day imagine how much writing can be done?

As I now know how the camera works my plan was to take photos for this blog and for one of my CIT assignments. How many photos have been taken? Not one! It’s time to get out and about with the camera.

 My goals for October:

Ø  spend more time on CIT work

Ø  write blog posts and take photos

Ø  write my ‘book’

Ø  read some of the books on the pile by my bed

Ø  don't waste time on the internet!

 

Have a look at http://offlineoctober.com/

I am reading The Charm Bracelet by Melissa Hill.

Proofreading, do we even care anymore?

I have been proofreading my husband’s essays. Yes, he too is studying – we are a family of students this year. I don’t pretend to understand a word his essays are on about but he is amazed by the errors I find! They are the usual spelling mistakes and typo’s that we all make.

I have been reading a lot lately, both online and in print and have been surprised by the mistakes creeping through. I know mistakes will always get through even a rigorous editing process but there just seems to be more these days. Or is it just me?

In this instant world we live in I am as guilty as the next person of dashing off a quick response to an email, a comment on a blog or a tweet. I press the send or publish button before I have had a good look at what has been written.

I recently read something where the author didn't think it was fair for proofreaders to charge for proofing words such as ‘the’ or ‘and’ when they appeared all through the document. Isn’t it the job of a proofreader to check every word? I know I often type ‘teh’ instead of ‘the’.

Do you get frustrated by mistakes you come across?

I came across Kate Hunter on Twitter and loved The Parfizz Pitch.

P.S.  Any mistakes in this blog post are the responsibility of the author and she did try to get it right!

Technology, don’t you love it?

Semester two has started at CIT and my subject is Use Multimedia. My first exercise was to create a PowerPoint presentation. Having never done this before I was very proud of my first basic creation.

The next exercise was to add bells and whistles such as animation, sound and narration and the finished product is a work of art!

This week’s homework is to write an instruction sheet on how to use a digital camera. I have talked uni student daughter who is home for the weekend into coming out with me tomorrow to teach me how to use the camera. I have bribed her with lunch in town afterwards. We will then download the photos onto my computer and I will write the instructions as we go. My technical skills are slowly improving and at the end of this semester there will be no stopping me and this blog will be full of technical wonders!

 

Did you notice the Twitter button? I did that by myself!

I read The Happiest Refugee by Ahn Do and loved the saying of his father, ‘There’s only two times in life – there’s now or there’s too late.’

 

This planned life

Last week I spent Tuesday in Canberra and went to the Reading Room at the National Library for the afternoon. It is an amazing room and the minute you walk in you feel inspired to work and create.

I made a plan for my ‘book’ and was surprised by the ideas that popped into my head. My characters now have a back story and I have figured out lots of storylines for them.

I am a planner. I make plans for everything but the two areas I do no planning in are studying and writing. They fit in around procrastinating of which I am an expert.

A couple of weeks ago my first exercise for semester two came in and I needed to create a PowerPoint presentation. I had never done this before and to stop my panicking about it I sat down and planned what I wanted each slide to say. It worked and when it came time to create the presentation it all came together beautifully.

My goal for this week is to create writing and study plans and promise myself I will stick to them.

Are you a planner? Do you stick to the plans you make?

I haven’t read anything other than Twitter and wherever the tweets lead me this week. I did, however, bring home four books from the library. Time to log off Twitter and read a book!