I Kind of Did Something...

Ok so today didn't exactly go to plan.

1. My mum stayed home
2. My cousins came over

Today I realised just how much of a recluse I am. I thought about every situation I could be in and I was continuously brought back to the fact that I would rather stay home with my literature.

Seeing as this has been the topic of conversation in my family at the moment, I had to make nice and socialise today. I was a good girl and spent all morning with my Nan, and all afternoon and night with my cousins.

Which means that although I was itching to get upstairs...and away from people...I didn't get anything that I wanted to done. I finished a chapter of a book I was reading and and I kind of got a summary done for Escaping Destiny. Wow.

And I know I'm going out tomorrow, so I'm not going to get anything done then either. So now I'm a little depressed because this weekend has been wasted as far as getting somewhere goes.

Now my sinus is setting in which means I will dose off in about an hour, but I can't think properly. So nothing more shall get done tonight.

Bum!

I did something!!!

Yes! I did something, granted it wasn't alot, but it was something and in my books it definitely counts!

I made up the folders for Arranged, Practically Dead, Crutch, Language Barrier & Ghoulish Tendencies...yeay!!!

Tomorrow I have a goal, and I promise to post on whether or not I do it.

I want to get Summaries and Outlines for all of my folders...wish me luck!

New Ideas!!!

Ok so I had three new ideas today!!!

True I have no idea where I'm going with them yet BUT they are possibilities!!! I love possibilities!

Tomorrow I have the day off but I'm busy, hopefully I will be able to write down some summaries.

Right now I need to put down my book and pick up my pen, but that has been hard lately.

I have an idea - but I don't know if it seems too farfetched...

I always thought that anyone who wrote a book about themselves was extremely self absorbed. So I am definitely being a hypocrite, because I am writing one...

The last six months of my life have been well...hell.

I want to write about it, get it all out of my system and move on, but it just seems so far-fetched. I never write for people, I always write for myself, but I'm almost worried that if anyone did pick it up they would just laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Has anyone ever encountered this? Did you just write it anyway? Did it all turn out ok?
 

I'm Promising Myself This Now...

• I promise myself that every time I sit down to write I WILL NOT edit, at all. 
• I promise myself that I WILL write until my heart is content and not worry about spelling or grammar.
• I promise myself that I will finish a chapter BEFORE I re-read.
• I promise myself that I will not stress about what is not done and just keep writing.
• I promise myself that every idea will be written down.
• I promise myself that every scene no matter how silly or out of order will be written for safe keeping.
• I promise myself that I WILL finish something.

This is my affirmation to myself. I promise myself that I won't break these promises.

Progress Sheet

Story #1

Title: Rose Wine (Assassins Trilogy #1)
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Summary: Started
Character Summary: Incomplete
Outline: Needs to be typed up
First Draft: 2.5 chapters completed

To-Do: Character Summary, Outline, Finish chapter 3

________________________

Story #2

Title: As It Happened (formerly Guide Me)
Genre: Recount, Non-Fiction
Summary: Incomplete
Character Summary: Incomplete - not necessary
Outline: Incomplete
First Draft: 1 chapter completed


To-Do: Outline, Summary, Start Chapter 2.

________________________

Story #3

Title: Cherry Brandy (Assassins Trilogy #2)
Genre: YA, Fantasy

Summary: Incomplete
Character Summary: Incomplete
Outline: Incomplete
First Draft:


To-Do: Summary, Character Summary, Outline, Finish Rose Wine First!!

______________________

Story #4

Title: Apple Cider (Assassins Trilogy #3)

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Character Summary, Outline, Finish Rose Wine and Cherry Brandy first!!!

_______________________

Story #5

Title: Escaping Destiny

Genre: No Idea...Fantasy/Supernatural?

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Needs to be typed up

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Character Summary, Outline

_______________________

Story #6

Title: Living Ink - Screenplay

Genre: No Idea...

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Needs to be typed up

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Character Summary, Outline, Start writing first act

_______________________

Story #7

Title: DDSS (Dan, Del, Sam, Sel)

Genre: YA

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Make a folder for it, Decide whether or not it will be a series!!!

_______________________

Story #8

Title: The Queens Dresses

Genre: Adult/Romance/Erotic?

Summary: Complete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft: Chapter 1 half written

To-Do: Character Summary, Outline, Finish Chapter 1

_______________________

Story #9

Title: Addicted

Genre: YA

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Needs to be typed up

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Character Summary, Outline

_______________________

Story #10

Title: Practically Dead (Vampire Series #1)

Genre: Adult/Romance/Paranormal

Summary: Half Done

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Done

First Draft:Chapter 1 done, Final Chapter done.

To-Do: Finish Summary, Characters, Finish Chapter 2, print out what has been typed.

_______________________

Story #11

Title: Technically Dead (Vampire Series #2)

Genre: Adult/Romance/Paranormal

Summary: Half Done

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Kind of

First Draft:

To-Do: Make a folder for it

_______________________

Story #12

Title: Ghoulish Tendencies

Genre: Adult/Romance/Paranormal

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Characters & Outline

_______________________

Story #13

Title: Language Barrier

Genre: YA? Romance? Fantasy? Adventure?

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Needs to be typed up

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Characters & Outline

_______________________

Story #14

Title: Arranged

Genre:??

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Characters & Outline

_______________________

Story #15

Title: Mother

Genre: ??

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Make a folder for it.

_______________________

Story #16

Title: Crutch

Genre: ??

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Outline & Characters

_______________________

Story #17

Title: Reborn

Genre: ??

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Outline & Characters, Decision - Screenplay or Novel?

_______________________

Story #18

Title: The Persephone Idea

Genre: ??

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Outline & Characters

_______________________

Story #19

Title: Vampire Series #3 (the Cousin idea)

Genre:Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Outline & Characters

_______________________

Story #20

Title: Finding Ashleigh

Genre:YA? General Fiction.

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft: Chapter 1.

To-Do: Summary, Outline & Characters

_______________________

Story #21

Title: Jail/Gaol Bird

Genre:General Fiction.

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Outline & Characters - work out setting, America, London, Australia (title depends on country...)

_______________________

Story #22

Title: The Mystery of Alyse Stanford

Genre: YA

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Outline & Characters

_______________________

Story #23

Title: The Pact

Genre: YA

Summary: Incomplete

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Outline & Characters, Type Up first part of Characters.

_______________________

Story #24

Title: The Adventures of Dale and Alex

Genre: Action/Comedy  -  Screenplay

Summary: Partially done

Character Summary: Incomplete

Outline: Incomplete

First Draft:

To-Do: Summary, Outline & Characters. Get as much info into Celtx as possible

What's in a name?

It is going to be inevitable for people to read this, see the title of the blog and think what?!

Well the reason for the name "Half-Dead Tortoise" was because it was what I compared myself to in regards to Alyssa and J.Kaye in reference to their writing blogs. Here is the comment I left.

hi!!! i just read her(Alyssa) success story before i came here hehe...
im no where near where you guys are in regards to finished...im like the half dead tortoise...
you did however inspire me to get organised...I GOT FOLDERS...now i need to put some stuff in them lol!
ive always been able to find excuses for everything...maybe i should just suck it up and write what i want...heres hoping hehe.
maybe i should start a blog for the writing as well...it might motivate me to do something...otherwise every post would be: accomplished this week - nothing
well at least i got the folders...now i can remember the names of everything im trying to put on paper hehe...

And so The Half Dead Tortoise was created. Considering how hard it was for me to come up with "Storywings" (my book blog) compared to this blog...i am quite surprised...its like it was meant to be...

Hopefully this blog will serve its purpose and i will have something completed by the end of this year.

Why I write...

I've just dedicated an entire blog to writing. "Why?" you may ask.

It's simple, writing is who I am in essence. Yes I love to read and I like maths and scrapbooking...but writing is part of me. Everyday I write something, everyday I think about writing, most mornings I wake up with a scene in my head that i want to write down (not that i do that often.)

Writing for me is a release. Im good at talking yes, but i can never express myself with speech the way i can with text. Words out loud aren't the same for me as they are on paper. "As the warm breeze blew across her face, she revelled in the thought of seeing the lusciousness of the flowers in bloom once again."

That on paper to me is beatuy, but if you say something like that out loud, you sound like you swallowed a dictionary...nerd.

You can put so much on paper that we just can't say to one another, that is why i write. I can say everything ive ever wanted to say, sometimes i rewrite how i would have done something in real life, how it would have turned out had my wits caught up to me at the right moment.

Writing gets all my emotions out of me, it is in it's simplicity, my release.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.  ~Toni Morrison

Let's see how this goes...

Ok, so yes I class myself as a writer - even though I'm a trained accountant - writing is my passion above all things because it lets me just get it all out of my system and I've been published so there.

J Kaye from J Kayes Book Blog and Alyssa Kirk from Teens Read and Write inspired this blog because they are pretty much doing the same thing on their blogs 365 days of Novel Writing (J Kaye) and Demonic Attractions (Alyssa).

Now I know I am no where near them in regards to "finished" although as a writer one really can't ever be "finished", but i will give it a go, because it also might make me get my finger out and actually write what I want to.

Thanks to J Kaye and her awesome organisation skills she inspired me, I organised all of my ideas into folders and labelled them (something extremely foreign to me).

Now I actually have to put something in said folders...

I've got some stuff in there, the first two chapters to my book "Rose Wine" and the first chapter of "Guide Me".

I will list everything I'm attempting to write and put it up in a post...because I absolutely love filling in check-lists (ironic for an unorganised person isn't it...) so once I see them there all empty and and anorexic...I will just have to fix it.

So lets see how this goes my goal for the year is to get a complete first draft of something completed.