Twitter and other useful stuff

I know, I know, I'm really bad at keeping this up to date and I just end up making myself feel even more guilty (good Catholic Guilt) every time I read some of the amazing blogs that are out there.

Anyway, recently I've become rather fond of Twitter. First of all I did the whole fan thing and followed Stephen Fry - you have to really, it's a given in the UK that he's a National Treasure and all that, sort of on a par with the Queen Mother (God rest her soul, Knees up Mother Brown, Blitz Spirit and all that). Then I began to nose around a bit and see who else I should follow...

blah, blah, blah
more about my entry into Twitterland
blah, blah, blah


Hugh Laurie, blah, blah, blah

Mrs Stephen Fry, blah, blah, blah

Then...

I began to follow writers, publishers and agents and now...just like every good advert, I'm finding many different interesting things all over the place that I'm using regularly to write with - prompts and so on and also lists of magazines looking for submissions.

I realise that this is the potted version and those of you looking for some real meat to this post will be rather disappointed so far...I know, I need to do better with posting blog entries - I'll try.

Meanwhile, I'll share with you a couple of things that I now use regularly because they help me to plan and to write.

The first thing is Free Mind which is an open source piece of software for Mind Mapping - if you've never given MM a go, do try it - especially if you're at all creative and tend to think in clusters or images.
I've been working on a few Fine Art lectures I've got to give next academic year and Mind Mapping them is the ideal way for me to throw down as many ideas as I can and then begin to link them and organise them effectively.
I've also used MM to plot and develop short stories, it's also great for developing a character. It's easy to list lots of attributes or possible events without tying yourself down to a list of and then, and then.
How to do Mind Mapping is explained nicely here at Lite Mind.
Try it!

Now, the second bit of useful stuff I've discovered on Twitter is an evil way of making you write more which is always an excellent thing to do but as most writers are terrible procrastinators (as I'm writing this I'm avoiding writing an article I've been asked to do) being forced to write is a Good Thing. So, I found this web page called Dr. Wicked's Writing Lab - Write or Die.
Well obviously you don't actually die if you don't write - at least, not on this site - but it is a fiendish way of making you get words down.

And that's what writing and being a writer is all about - getting words down. No one said anything about Great Words - they come in amongst all the rubbish. Writing is a bit like mining for gold I find - lots and lots of spoil comes out and in amongst that you might find something nice and shiny and worth holding on to...sometimes.

Right, that's enough for today.

I'll try to be better about keeping this up...maybe I need to make it more a part of my procrastination.....

Are you busy?

I'm sitting surrounded by books, notes, course handbooks, assignments and other bits and pieces all to do with work. My laptop is perched on my lap (of course) and shares the space with a sleeping cat.
How much work have I done today?
Very little.
I keep telling myself that if I had a proper office or study I'd get loads of work done - I'd be able to leave things out and come back to them, I'd be able to shut the door on it all and go back during the early hours if I wanted.
I think I'd be just the same as I am now - avoiding work.

The really strange thing is that I love my job - it's the best job in the world. I get to have interesting conversations about literature or art every week. I get to read and study things that I would probably just skim over because now I have to know about them in order to teach them. And on top of all that I even get paid.
So why don't I just get down to it and work?

I enjoy the procrastination of reading blogs, of checking Facebook, of updating Twitter, of laughing at the latest posts on b3ta.

Take the internet away from me and my productivity would rocket. I'd also probably read more too.

The answer is clear.




But I don't want to change.

On Writing

How is it that I can see in other's writing where they have gone wrong? Yet in my own I am entirely blind? This isn't particularly the case for writing prose - that's a little simpler for me to see, but poetry…poetry is almost impossible. I can happily teach my students to magnify one moment, one important fact, keep it tight, tell the audience in detail about that one precious thing. Don't distill your ideas by having too many of them in one poem. All these little nuggets of advice, yet can I apply them for myself? No. I suspect I'm still too close to the poems I have written - I need to let them wallow for a little longer - to ripen off. But I want to start to submit poetry to various places, I need to get stuff out there…but I feel as if I have nothing right now, nothing at all.

The simple answer to that is to write more. Write anything. Just write. And perhaps it would be a good idea to go back through the things I have sitting in my virtual drawers - folders and documents within my laptop where old stories sit mouldering away. Revise, redraft, rewrite. Resubmit.

Work.

I could quite happily spend many, many hours reading advice on how to write, how to redraft, where to submit things. But how will this get me to write any more? Truly I am the queen of procrastination.

I think maybe I have to set myself a target of writing at least 1000 words a day. Every day. 1000 words of anything. Anything at all. Just write.

I'll see how that goes…expect regular updates as I shall count writing in my blog as part of that 1000 words.

Procrastination and other stories

This evening I'm off with my friend Jo to see Madame Butterfly at the local theatre. We went to the opera for the first time together in Berlin - I think I may even have posted about our trip. So this is by way of keeping up some sort of cultural life for us both.

I'm not sure what I should wear...should I go in full evening garb? Velvet, lace and satin and add the pearls! Or (more likely) should I simply go smart casual? Hmm....I shall have to ponder this one alongside all the other stuff that is currently floating around my head.

Today I should have been working on my short story, working on an article (due for submission on Thursday) and possibly having a crack at getting ideas for some poetry down too. Oh, and putting my seminar notes up online for my students.

What have I done today?

Erm....

I've looked at YouTube. I've read parts of the BBC website. I've read most of the Metro website and added comments to some stories. I've also spent far, far too much time reading B3ta.com and looking at Facebook and adding photographs.

I know, I know - lazy and the queen of procrastination. I hang my head with shame.

I've also eaten the last chocolate chip cookie - you know the giant ones that supermarkets sell in bakers' paper bags? Five in a bag - I've eaten two of them this week. It's only Tuesday.

Fighting Fear and Being Brave

The deadlines are rapidly approaching and so for that reason I’m writing my blog….procrastinating is one of my very best talents….

Here I am listening to Snow Patrol – I went to the climbing wall the other day, I was the only one there and they had ‘Run’ playing – I knew I knew the song, I was pretty sure it was Snow Patrol, but hadn’t heard it in ages, couldn’t get it out of my mind…so here I am playing all their albums now while I fritter away the day (again).
I have a couple of articles that need to be written, some redrafting that *has* to be done before the end of the month, an academic essay that needs writing, again before the end of the month, more needs to be done to the novel – it won’t get written on its own. But yet, you find me here writing my blog, planning my weekend (all very exciting stuff!), wasting time on my favourite websites and generally procrastinating….


I’m off out this evening with a female friend – we’re going out for Cocktails and are not planning a late night – but as she has been “asked to leave” at least one wine bar in town and I’m just as outspoken…and it’s the first time we’ve gone out on the town together…It could end up being a late and very wild one….Tomorrow I’m going down to climb some real rock near Tunbridge Wells – I’m meeting up with a fellow climber who I have chatted to (briefly) but never met….I’m adventurous I suppose you could say….Life is about experiences. Some of you may remember that I wrote about Fear some time ago – well both climbing and meeting new people are conquering fears for me – and I can honestly say that once you start taking control of things that make you feel a little scared you do become more brave (or should that be silly? Foolish? Foolhardy?). Someone recently used the word Gumption to describe me…I have Gumption – I’m sure that used to be a bathroom cleaner in the 80s….
Oh, and for those of you that may be concerned about my safety tomorrow, what with meeting someone I’ve never met before – I always make sure I tell someone where I’ll be, always take a mobile phone with me, always meet somewhere public – and although this is at a rural location as there aren’t many rock faces in cities, it does get very busy during the weekends. What more can one do? Yes I could take someone else along with me, but that’s my point – I don’t have a climbing partner at the moment – that’s why I’m going to meet someone to climb with….And I do think that sometimes we overstate dangers around us…it’s far more likely that I’d be injured in a road accident than either injured while climbing or by a stranger. But that said, clearly it’s on my mind as I’ve brought it up here in this post….but again I think that’s because so many of my female friends worry about this. Although my dear friend Roo – who left a comment on an earlier post – the one about walking and thinking – she has never, ever worried about talking to all sorts of people – quite often the weirder and odder the better! Roo has always trusted in the kindness of strangers and is quite possibly the most friendly person I know – I can’t think of anyone who ever has a bad thing to say about her or anyone who doesn’t love her to pieces – mind you now I’ve said all that I’m beginning to go off her a bit…Anyway, back on subject, Roo talks to everyone, is calm, relaxed and friendly to everyone and I’m sure this helps…and it’s not that she hasn’t been in tough situations, she is a nurse and trained in London in a large and very famous hospital in the Mile End Road in the East End….so she’s seen plenty of “colourful” life….
Maybe we’re all so tied up with the idea of being Safe and how everything is a threat – Health and Safety overloads – that we can’t imagine that most people are just the same as us…reasonably harmless…

The sun is shining; I should be working on my novel so what am I doing? Surfing the internet, listening to a radio show that was on first thing this morning, and writing a post for the blog….I’ve even got a couple of articles on the go – quite interesting ones too, but am I doing them? Nooooo!

Attention span of a gnat….

Constantly wondering what to do instead of work….Actually I read a very interesting thread on the Friday Cities website – this is the link, but it may not work as the website is a members only site and also by invitation only….and yes…I was invited! If you’d like to be invited to this very interesting site, drop me a line…

Anyway, back to the interesting thread, it was all about How to Stay Offline in order to work…A real problem for anyone working from home and even worse if you’re freelance because you use the internet for research. Fortunately when I sign into MSN – which I tend to keep on because it lets me know when I’ve received an email so I don’t have to keep checking – fortunately, anyone online is also working so although we may say “hello, how are you” and all the rest of it, we generally get on with our work….Or in my case, procrastinating.

Well the thread suggests using Temptation Blocker
as it’s free and will lock the internet for 30 minutes to an hour, thus enabling you to at least do a bit of work. The only way to unlock is to enter a long code so that should put you off. I can quite see how it would work – I’d have to use OneNote (which I use a lot) and take down what I needed to check up on, do further research on and so on and then save them all up until the window of internet opportunity opened again for me. Hmmm, maybe I should give it a go….Maybe there could even be an article in this…..

And just then something caught my eye outside the window – yes I am also very easily distracted…as it’s springtime all the birds are mating….and a pair of huge wood pigeons were at it in next door’s leylandii – feathers and tree branches everywhere. Maybe I should also install a timer on the curtains….