A little break...

After devoting my entire evening to writing an essay on Much Ado About Nothing, and then analysing a Tennyson poem called 'Mariana', I decided on having a (I think it's well deserved!) break, to write a blog post, as it's been a few days since I've done one.

After the comments left on my last blog post (I love reading your comments, and now your blogs, Molly and Jessica!) I thought I'd tell you a little bit about my novel. Basically, I've been working on it on and off for the last couple of years, and I guess it's sort of a romance novel - romance is key, but there's also a lot more too it. It's called 'Family Portrait' I've actually written the blurb, so I thought I'd post it here, so it can give you an idea of what it's about!

Two very different families are about to collide, and no-one knows what the consequences are going to be. Mary-Ann Mendora has a past shrouded in mystery, and she couldn’t be less suited to the sweet, squeaky-clean Ella Kingsley and her family if she tried. As she tries to make the best of her new life, will her past return to haunt her, and ruin the life she’s beginning to build? And will she find out that the Kingsleys aren’t all quite as squeaky-clean as they appear? One thing’s for sure – the Mendoras’ and Kingsleys’ lives will never be quite the same again…

It's now up to 40,000 words, which I'm very happy with - although I'm worried about how long it's going to take me to finish, I'm less than a quarter of the way through all the things I want to happen! Never mind, I enjoy doing it. :) I hope that it won't be a pointless endeavour, but as I do enjoy it so much, I guess I wouldn't be too worried if only me and a few friends ever read it! My ideas come from all over the place: some of it's inspired by things I've 'roleplayed' on roleplay game sites - you may not have ever come across these, they're usually related to some sort of book or movie franchise, and you play different characters in their world. It's great for writing and imagination practice, and I used to do it quite a lot - now I find I just don't have the time! Other ideas come from my friends and me: scenes where the main character is with her friends tend to mirror things that happen when I'm with mine! I really love writing, always have done, and I've found I still love it now - even though I'm having to write quite a lot in school now, with English Lit and Lang - my only problem is not having enough time!

I have a very odd playlist on Youtube entitled 'Writing Music' - and I find that I have an extremely strange mix of music that I like to play whilst I'm writing. Most of it is songs, but there are a couple of pieces which are just piano pieces. One I have to recommend is 'River Flows in You' by Yiruma. I don't often listen to piano pieces repeatedly, but this is one I listen to daily, and it almost makes me cry every time I do, it's so beautiful. I'd really recommend listening to it!

Jessica - I'm really not too sure what I want to do at Uni yet: I think I want to do English Language/Lingustics, but it could all change! I'm not planning on doing creative writing at the minute, but like I said, who knows! I've been looking into Salford Uni, as it seems to have really good English courses, and also on the advice of teachers, I'm possibly going to apply to Oxford or Cambridge.

Molly - I'm glad you enjoyed the Virgin Suicides - I was really surprised that I did, but glad I'd read it! Middlesex is good: it's stranger than The Virgin Suicides (if you can believe that!), and although I'm not enjoying it as much as I did The Virgin Suicides, I am enjoying it. You'll have to let me know what you think!

Right, I'm off to do a bit more writing of my novel; thanks for the comments, I really do love reading them! =]

Birthdays and a little more writing

Time seems to pass so fast - I didn't even notice it's been a good couple of weeks since I last posted on here! It's mostly been school work taking up my time, as usual, but I've also been really getting into writing my novel - I get a bit obsessed when I get into something, and so I;ve been spending a lot of time on it! I've just finished chapter eleven, and am emailing it to a friend of mine every couple of chapters. I find this a little scary; whilst I like my story, someone else is an entirely different matter! But I figured it ought to be read! Both she and I are quite picky about spelling, punctuation and grammar, but I find I don't notice it so much with my own work, so it's really great having her read through it: she finds a lot more mistakes than I can when I read it! I'm now up to 35,000 words (I use microsoft word's word counter regularly!) which is over 100 A5 pages! I'm quite pleased I've stuck with it: it's surprising how much you can write when you set your mind to it! Molly, I used to write short stories all the time too - I loved doing them. Contrasting you, I have probably been using my creativity more since I started Sixth Form - but that's because I chose to English Lit and Language, and dropped all science-y and maths subjects!

After Molly's comment, I figured I'd tell you a little about my family, as I'll probably refer to them at some point or another on here! I have a sister, who's 15 - we don't get on too well a lot of the time, and she does my head in, but I'm pretty sure that's standard for many sisters! I have a half-brother too, who's 26, but he moved away recently so I don't get to see him too much at the minute. I live with my mum and sister, but my dad lives in the same town. That's all the family I really have where I live: the majority of my family live in Germany, so I don't know them all too well!

It was my friend's little sister's birthday last week, and I couldn't believe that she was turning six: I remember the day she was born! I'm really close to their whole family, and so was invited round for a family evening on her birthday. It was really nice, and she loved her birthday present - a cute tartan check dress and a necklace - and wrote me a very sweet thank-you card! She also said that I was one of her best friends; she's so sweet, and always has to speak to me on the phone when I ring my friend!

I'm going to get back to writing my novel now, as I'm enjoying it so much at the minute: the homework's all done for this evening, so I have some free time to be creative before an early night - which hopefully won't be disturbed with gales of wind and loud rain and hail as it was last night!

Finally a balance!

It seems that, for now, I have figured the secret to success at A-Level - organisation. Unfortunately it's not something I'm great at, but over the last week I've managed to stay organised and focused, and have found I can cope with my homework - which is great, as the teacher's are piling more on than ever. I'm glad I don't have exams this week, as all my friends do - not sure I could cope with revision on top of it all!

I watched the film of 'The Virgin Suicides' on Friday night, and was really impressed by it - I wasn't sure if they could make a good film out of such an odd but amazing book, but it really worked: Molly, you really should take a look at the book! In reply to your comment, I've heard of most of the books you've mentioned, but never read any of them - my sister's always reading Jodie Picoult, and they never appealed to me - but then I said exactly the same about Twilight when she was reading them, and I certainly don't agree with that anymore! On that note, I'!ve given in once more, and am rereading the Twilight books again - I finished the first one again this afternoon. They really are the most romantic books I've ever read!

I've just finished reading a very dull chapter on Russian Collectivisation (for school - I wouldn't recommend it as a bit of light reading!) and so thought I'd come and post on here, as a bit of a break before I pick up whatever book I decide to read tonight, and because I haven't posted on here for a few days! This organisation thing is great (while it lasts!) - I have much more time for reading, and for writing the novel I'm attempting to write, which has reached 30,000 words!!

Other than that, there's not all that much new going on at the minute; I'm looking forward to next month, when I turn seventeen, and will be able to have driving lessons! I was thinking today - for some reason, I was wondering around thinking deeply! - about how I look forward to things. People always say that school is the best time of your life - something I really cannot believe is true (especially not when my parents, who'd both dropped out of school by the time they were 16 tell me it is!) - but I am certainly guilty of wishing it away. I'm always waiting for the next weekend, the next school holiday, and ultimately the end of sixth form. I'm thinking I should perhaps be enjoying what's going on at the minute, rather than always waiting for what's going to come next...it's hard when the current events are just school and homework!

I have work experience tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to as usual - I work with all ages, as it's a very small school (only 47 pupils!) and so I switch between classes, which is nice. I really don't know what age group I'd like to work with - it seems to change depending on which ones I'm with! I love the little ones, but I think I'd be worried I would 'baby' them too much - but we'll see how it all turns out, I guess I don't need any firm decisions yet!

Well, I'm off to read some more - and enjoy the results of me being organised while it lasts! - but I'll post again soon. By the way, really great you've got a blog Molly - love reading other people's blogs!

Routine once more...

Shockingly, I am posting on here...and have finished all my homework for the evening! It's a nice feeling - luckily I didn't have too much tonight, as I got an awful l ot of it done last night - although last night I ended up staying uo till gone midnight in order to get it finished, which I hate doing. Still, now I have a nice free evening to relax, which is lovely!

I hope you had a good first day back, Molly - I'm finding it hard to get back into the routine myself! I seem to have turned practically nocturnal over the Christmas Holidays, so the getting up isn't great, as I only had to be up early for a few days that I was working in the holiday. I'm into another book at the minute - Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. It's an extremely weird book, but I read another by him, 'The Virgin Suicides', and thought it was really well written, and very good - so I'm trying this one out. I honestly can't say what my favourite book is - I've always loved Harry Potter, and recently have fallen in love with the Twilight series too. I'm a hig fan of Meg Cabot, and seem to own most of her books, but I read a lot of classics like the Brontes and Jane Austen too. A very varied taste! haha what I can say is that my bookshelves are literally full to burst - I have books piled up by the side of my bookcase, so I'm hoping I can persuade my dad to build me a big bookcase soon!

The holiday seems to have played havoc with my appetite - I have never really eaten breakfast since I was a really young child, but days of waking up at twelve and then eating immediately means that I'm now hungry when I get up at half seven! (Well, supposedly half seven - it seems to end up being later and later each day!) Very strange - I'm eating loads, so maybe it's a growth spurt - maybe I'll make it past 5"2! Although I doubt it!

The routine of school makes me feel like I've never been off - but at least I can be thankful I don't have any exams (yet) as many of my friends seem to at the moment. Still, the coursework essays are being piled on! I have work experience tomorrow afternoon, which I do every Wednesday, at the local primary school - it's probably the highlight of my school week, as I really look forward to it. It's really encouraging to see kids learning, and to help them out with things and think 'wow, they get that because I explained it', or see them spell a word they couldn't the week previously. Every week just further cements my plans to become a teacher.

Well, I'm off to enjoy my free evening - I hope anyone who's back to school isn't too snowed under with work!

New Year, not so New me!

Happy New Year everyone! I know we're five days in, but this is first chance I've had to write a blog entry. So, Happy New Year to anyone reading this, and especially those who comment on my blog - it's lovely to know people have read it! =]

So, the not so new me part - well, surprisingly, I'm on here because my homework's doing my head in, the essays don't make any sense, and I need some form of escape! I'll just say this is warming up my fingers for the few pages I'm gonna have to finish up tonight. I have started both essays, one of which is just time consuming, but the other is pure evil - Russia History - and is possibly the worst thing I've ever written - it's quite clear I don't know what I'm talking about :s ! So, a quick update on here, then I'll be getting back to it - both are due in tomorrow, which is my first day back.

I really cannot believe how fast this holiday has gone - does anyone else feel like this? One minute I was looking at the two weeks off, stretching in front of me - the next it's time to go back! I guess I've just got to be grateful that we get a week off next month...although at the minute, that seems all too far away!

I've been preoccupying myself with lots of things this holiday -homework not being the prominent thing! I've been working on a novel I've been attempting to write for an awfully long time - I'm up to chapter 9, have written about 70 A5 pages, which is about 20,000 words. I seem to have been working on it forever, and every now and again I have writing sprees, then I leave it for a bit. I enjoy it - even if I really should be doing homework instead of working on it! I've been up late working on it for the past few nights (except New Years Eve, when I went out =] ) and it's getting somewhere - even though it'll be a few years before it's finished! I've also been doing an awful lot of reading and re-reading of my favourite books - I think I;ve read about 25 this holiday - although unsurprisingly none of them have been the ones I was assigned to read over the holiday!

I think that it went so quick because I was ill for the first week of the holiday - but then don't holidays always go quick? All in all, it's not been too bad a break - and I definitely needed a break from school. To be honest, I'm getting fed up of Sixth Form. I'm not sure what it is: there's a lot of work, but I can cope with it, and I am doing so; I don't hate any of my lessons really, well, not as much as I hated some of the ones I had to do last year; and I have good friends. I think I'm feeling like I've grown out of it - I'm ready for Uni (which is still another year and a half to go!) and ready for different people. I remember feeling the same way at the end of Primary School - but none of my friends seem to be feeling the same way.

I hope you all had a good New Years, and here's to a great 2009! My New Years Resolutions: to get quite a lot of my book done, and to be a little more organised. I think I have more hope with the former than the latter!