New Year; More Blogging

So, Happy New Year! One of my New Year's Resolutions is clearly going to have to be to blog more regularly, so I'm going to try to update this blog weekly. I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year.

I can't believe it's 2010. Ten years ago, we had just celebrated the Millenium. 2000was quite a chaotic year for me; it was the year my gran died, aged 56, which changed my life. Firstly, we had been living with her to look after her, and we used to go round every weekend, so she was a big part of my life. I was only 7, nearly 8, at the time, and so it was my first experience of death. My gran's death was a catalyst for many things, including my mum's depression which has a big affect on day-to-day life, and my parents' divorce, which happened in the same year. It is probably the year that I remember the most clearly from my childhood, and I think it was when I grew up (although apparently I was born as a forty-year-old, lol) and when I started to really question religion.

So, I'm finding this year is starting off as being quite reflective. I can't believe that all that was ten years ago, and this year is going to be just as big a year for me as 2000 was, I think - but hopefully in good ways. I'm going to America, then I'm turning 18, and in September I'll be moving out, moving away, starting a whole new section of my life at universtiy. And that's scary, but exciting too.

So I'm hoping 2010 is going to be an amazing year. I'm going to do my best to make it one. So, my New Year's Resolutions:

1. I am going to keep up with the writing, but I have a goal for the year - I want to have one of my novels polished up enough to be able to start sending it out to agents, and I plan to start sending at least one out to agents this year. I want to finish the trilogy too, start new projects, but make sure I perfect the old to the best of my ability.
2. Blog more!
3. Try to find my motivation (if anyone has seen it then I could really do with it being returned!) and dop the very best I can in my exams this year.
4. Read 100 books this year.

This has been an odd and rambly post but I hope you'll forgive me as I haven't posted in a long time. I'm going to end it on a sad note, because I really want to mention someone who passed away at the end of 2009. My best friend's dad had a stroke and ending up passing away on Christmas Eve, which was of course devestating for my friend and her siblings. I just wanted to mention him as he was such a kind man, a real gentleman who's going to be missed by a hell of a lot of people. It was all so sudden and I can't really believe he's gone. RIP.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone - hope you have a great day! I shall be posting more in the future, I promise :D I see a 2010 resolution in the making...

May your day be merry and bright!

All Hallow's Eve? No, it's NaNo Eve.

It has begun. We're 28 minutes into NaNo '09 and I'm excited! I've writeen 550 words so far, but will not be staying up late, as I'll be meeting up with some local WriMos tomorrow!

More updates coming soon...expect them to become less and less coherent. :D

Names!

I have a basic idea of what my NaNo novel is going to be about. Now, I need character names! The main characters are a brother and a sister, and I think I'm going for Jesse for the brother. I'm struggling to think of a girl's name for his sister, so I'm throwing it to anyone who has any ideas...

Please?! :D

I also need a surname, ya know, if you think of any!

*Cross-Posted to 'Family Portrait' blog.*

Disciplined Writing!

I am making this week the week I try to finish Snap Shot - probably an unrealistic goal, since I have, if it's the same as Family Portrait, just over 20,000 words to go, in the 8 days before NaNo starts. However, I am aiming to write at least 1500 words a day, and the other day I wrote 4000, so maybe it's possible. It's all good practice for NaNo! I'm aiming to have it finished by Christmas, including the month out for NaNo.

So, I am having to be disciplined. Inspired by some other blogs, I am gonna set out my rules for this week and next month:

NO: endless repeats of FRIENDS. Not only do I have them all on DVD, they're always on E4/Channel 4, and I love them. Cpnsidering I can practically quote every episode, this is a waste of time. It is. So, no more. Also, I must sit down and write something every day, even if it's rubbish.

LESS: Facebook. Seriously, I don't care that much what people are doing and who's playing FarmVille - why do I feel the need to compulsivley check? I think internet in general needs to be limited.

I won't say less AbsoluteWrite, because I've told everyone on the TWFT thread to kick me off if I'm procrastinating too much!

So, let's hope Snap Shot will get a big wordcount boost this week. :D

I'm a useless blogger

Okay, it's been a long time since I've blogged, and I'm sorry! Lots of things have happened since my last post, such as me passing my driving test :D and getting up to 50,000 words on Snap Shot! So, I'm going to try and blog more regularly on day-to-day stuff, but this blog post is about NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what it is, check it out here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

Anyway, the basic gist of it is that I will be (attempting) to write a 50,000 word Novel during the month of December, one which will be completely unrelated to Family Portrait/Snap Shot/Camera Shy. I'm going to attempt to blog daily about my progress - small updates, as you can imagine with 50k to write, but I'm going to try. I'll post here and maybe on my other blog, not sure as it's not Family Portrait related, but I thought I'd let you know what I'm up to!

I'm sure encouragement will be required when I'm struggling to juggle school/uni applications/writing. And hopefully some celebration too if I hit 50k!

I seem to have a label for NaNo, so maybe I've already blogged about it. Ah, memory loss at 17...

A Tragic Day

At seventeen, the worst thing you think will happen wilst driving is smashing the car up and having to face your mother's wrath. We think we're invincible - recently passed our tests, freedom to go anywhere, do anything.

I woke up this morning to a text message informing me that a friend of ours - a guy who had been in my year, my tutor, my classes, and had hung around with a similar group of people to me for the past six years - had died in a car crash last night.

It's still sinking in: it's unfair, that someone so young, with so much ahead of him, had his life taken away. In the car there was also an eighteen year old, who I vaguely knew, and a nine-year-old. They both died too. I could not believe it when I heard; it seemed like some awful prank. Not only is it a sad loss for their parents, siblings, families and all the friends they had, but it's also a wake up call: who knows when their time is coming.

I had to post in memory of them all, but especially for the guy from my year, who will be missed by us all. I have just left flowers at the scene; RIP, to three young men whose lives were taken far too soon.