I DID IT! I have finished my story Well only the “rough draft” but it’s done......Now for the dreaded editing.....which I am sooo looking forward too. But I finished it and Have come up with a name that I actually like. I had ‘Callie’ but it sounds rather boring, then ‘Poison in the Creek’ which is ok, Then I thought of ‘The Arch of the sky’ or something like that, I don’t exactly remember but mostly it just sounded interesting and had nothing to do with the story. I have been calling it ‘A story to be’ but today I came up with a good title. Well I hope it is good.....Drum roll....... Spatterings of Ash. Does it sound interesting? I told it to my mum and straight away she wanted to know if Spatterings is a word (even if Blogger doesn't think so, but then Blogger doesn't think Blogger is a word or that blog is a word). It is....and it’s a cool word....at least I think it is. Also ‘Spatterings of Ash’ are the last three words in the book. It is currently over 24,000 words. I am happy.... At least happy about what I have achieved....I still have much work to do on it. Especially knowing how bad my punctuation is. Spell checker is so useful. Editing and editing comes next.

Quick Computer Sketch

Me at the computer after finishing ‘Rough Draft’ of my story. No I don’t really look much like that....but anyway.

Or more correctly not writing it

What made me think that all the previous chapters were difficult to write, Chapter 11 The Showdown is just not working! Really not working. I don’t know how to make it work. The fire has finished burning things up and now somehow I need to make the town help Callie (my MC) to defeat the villain. I wish I could just kill him, but that would not work besides it’s not a fantasy story or anything. It’s set in modern times. It’s too realistic and I can’t just make my hero um kill him, I mean how many 15 yo girls go around killing people they don’t like besides Callie isn’t like that. Callie ummmm ahhh. Chapter is really not working. Sometimes I wonder why I even started writing this. Don’t worry I’ll get over it and eventually work out something. Writing a biography would be much easier, or about something that has actually happened.....

Also through the chapters Callie or her mentor had talked to/about God just a little bit like here : “Then why did you?” Brendon retorted.

“I am helping you because the Bible says to love your enemies. Not because you deserve anything.”

And here: “No they haven’t exactly threatened us.” I replied. “Not yet. One thing that really troubles me is that I think out family is having some money troubles. I mean we never had a lot but lately Mum keeps saying that we can’t afford to buy certain things that we used to be able to get sometimes and I have overheard my parents saying things about money but then they see me and stop. What if we do have to sell?”

“God knows what is best. For now, just trust him.”

And here: “I can’t say! O God help me, what am I going to do?”

Does it sound silly? Callie is Christian and I want people to see that but I am not sure how to do it. But other than things like above and the fact that they go to church nothing else Christian is really mentioned. 

Well I got the loan of one anyway. Some friends from church practically never used it so they have lent it to me. I finished my school work, it was the writing that took so long, but I got my 800 words. 800 words are what I try to write for the first of the three days that I spend writing a chapter of my novel, each week. Though often I end up spending more than three days trying to get the 2000 words I want for each chapter.

Then when my school work was done I got out the camera. I switched it on and tried to play with some settings but the camera kept saying ‘too dark’ or something like that. I pointed it at the window to try make it stop, but of course the cap was still on...... Then I looked at the manual it is rather large so I decided that I’d just take the camera outside and see if I could figure it out. I didn’t have much trouble doing that. I actually got some photos of the lorikeets that often visit some of the gumtrees in our front yard of an evening. I had tried before but the photos never really worked. These ones weren’t the greatest, but the trees are rather tall so the birds were a long way off.

Seriously strange self portrait ........ I can hold two cameras at a time......

Then I sat in the grass and took some photos of my brothers (4 and 2) playing with sticks and resting with each other.  The sun was low and the light was golden. I also tried some macro photography of some pink bulb flower things. Tomorrow I’ll be back at it again.

(Incaseyouwerewondering) the camera is a Nikon D3000

Words are amazing, the same ones when put into different sequences can give a totally different picture or meaning. Words can mean anything and everything and yet without what they represent, nothing. Just marks on paper or on a screen can draw out strong emotions, they can hurt or heal. Words build bridges that when we walk upon they take us to another place, time, world, without us even moving. 

I did not make this picture, I saw it and thought O yes it is true and I also thought maybe I should warn those who know me of the peril that they are in. 

Exactly what this says, you and any experiences you tell me could somehow end up appearing somewhere amongst a lot of other words that I write, although I don’t exactly write or create the words, I select them and place them in an order and use them to form a story.  I hope when read they will convey meaning and emotion, like any good story should. 

Writing it’s so hard. I sat for an hour and wrote a page. That’s all! One page...... I’m meant to write a chapter this week for my OYAN (One Year Adventure Novel) and I’ve only written two pages and I’m using font size 14. I’ve written nearly 700 words and well I’m not sure how the next sentence should go, let alone paragraph or page. I’ve been applying, seat of pants to seat of chair technique, but today I’ve only got one page out of it. One of the problems is that one can never do justice to the idea in one’s head, but then if it was only in one’s head and not out on paper/word doc its only there and no one else can share it. If only it was written out properly in my mind then I could just unscrew my head, take it out and then use my magic dust to put myself back together........My story is about Callie who lives on a dairy farm.....back to work.

I thought I should mention something I like, and that is writing and reading. I really enjoy reading books, but not over and over again. There are so many out there anyway that there is no need. I can get through them quite fast, as long as I have time to read. Each time I read a book I learn something new, go on a new adventure, struggle or journey.

I like writing poetry, not that it’s particularly wonderful but still, sometimes I just need to write. I have written over 200 poems, but that does include some really bad ones-ones that really annoy me if I am asked to say them, or are just plain bad- and ones I wrote ages ago.

I have written three, or should I say, completed three stories and started many others.  Another one I am in the middle of......well I was about a year ago, at least I think I’m in the middle of it. My younger sister likes them, and when I was writing them they seemed interesting, but now they are well ... not so much.

This year I have started to write, well I haven’t started to write, yet, an adventure novel, using the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum (OYAN). I have been structuring and outlining and other stuff like that. Hopefully by the end of the year or maybe next I will have completed it. The curriculum is really good in other ways too; I now can see and appreciate a well written book better.  But it is really!!!!! Hard work. If you thought writing was easy, forget it, it’s NOT! Another thing about OYAN is I enjoy reading all the quotes about writing, there is one per lesson.

 I do three lessons per week and a quiz. The lessons involve watching a DVD lesson, reading “The Compass” which is mostly the same as the DVD, often there will be an exert out of a book in there or I get to read a chapter of “Prisoner Of Zenda”, then I am meant to answer all the questions in, “The Map”(to outline/structure my story).

I recently made some wallpapers with some of the quotes. One of my favourites would be, “Outside a dog, a book is man’s best friend, inside a dog it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx. Or “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” William S Maugham.

 Here are the wallpapers.......