On writing

Feb. 6th, 2014 04:44 am
cryptogirl: Angry protagonists (Isaac Mendez)
Hoo boy. Pain in my shoulder from weightlifting and headweasels set to 'chatter unhelpfully'. Looks like it's another late shift on Word for me. Current earworms time.

A friend has been encouraged into creative writing and I promised I'd write something more substantial than a Facebook comment. I've written more frivolously about the NaNoWriMo slog here, but not much since people started going 'hey this is not utter tosh so how about editing eh' because I’ve been, er, editing.

Such that a newbie can offer deep insight into the writing process, here it is. )

Well, that got long. Any questions?
cryptogirl: (Margot)
Well, we got back from Edinburgh yesterday after a fraught rainy drive in which my husband learned how to download Spotify playlists so he could interrupt Foxtrot with CHVRCHES*. We've had a massive lie-in, ploughed through some of the food my parents weighed the car down with, and we have our first Hogmanay drink of a Fog Cutter with all the ingredients orthodox except the Earl Grey gin, Peruvian brandy and Kraken dark spiced rum. So, not very traditional but BY GOD IT'S DRINKABLE.**

Anyway. It seems traditional to do resolutions of some sort as 2013 draws to its arse-end and we go into 2014, incidentally the Scottish Year of Homecoming.

Achieve all the things! )
cryptogirl: (Peter 2)
So, I finished NaNoWriMo on the 28th, getting 51847 words before midnight. And that was before adding another 500 words or so of epilogue. And now I would go splat, only I have all this editing thing to get finished. Blargle.

What have we all learned from my first winning Wrimo, then? In the spirit of the recent Barnes and Noble piece, I've done a list of 30 things about my NaNoWriMo which may or may not contain copious amounts of Tumblr gifs.

Because writing iz srs bizness )

TL;DR- wrote a novel, turned into a starving artist/hormonal teenager/boring prog fart, really enjoyed the entire process. Even if I scared everyone around me. Roll on the long painful edit!
cryptogirl: (Algorithms)
Social media is a funny beast sometimes.

Yesterday on Twitter, I managed to:

- Discuss the shooting location for Modern Love with a Twitter pal who's a massive prog nut (Shepherd's Bush Tube station, incidentally)

- Have a sobering talk about a friend's customers with substance addictions (while she was hiding as one of them smashed the place up)

- Complain about O2 censoring sites on 3G with their crap porn filter after [personal profile] angua found herself on the receiving end of it (And I only made one joke about ladygardens after a gardening site I was on was blocked.)

- Finish a discussion with an online friend in America who, while he holds views on things like guns that I disagree with, is able to have an interesting and articulate debate about it

- Talk about creative writing with the girlfriend of the legendary paperghost. Thanks to her I'm now aware of the existence of Bata, Bata… Pa'no Ka Ginawa? and she's sending me the link to the English version shortly

- Laugh at the original Doctor Who theme with a listener to the WoW podcast I guested on a while back

And, on top of all that, I totally overcompensated for Monday's writer's block and wrote over 3000 words of novel.

MORE DAYS LIKE THIS, PLEASE.
cryptogirl: (Totoro)
Hello everyone. It's gone 2am and I'm not asleep. Why's that, you ask? Because I'm doing NaNoWriMo again.

Read more... )
cryptogirl: (Totoro)
Yes yes, OK, I have been harried by certain coworkers to write the other bit of this. Since I'm in a cheesy mood since Top of the Pops '78 was on, here it is!

Disclaimer- both participants here are, as last time, stone cold sober. Believe it or not.

MORE RAMBLING GOES HERE )

Coming next- the big six! Stay tuned!
cryptogirl: (Margot)
Yes! It's only a full two months before I ruin every social media on Earth spaffing about Eurovision! And today is the start, because all the acts have been presented to the EBU. So of course, my tuppence worth under the cut. But first ALL STAND FOR THE NATIONAL EUROVISION ANTHEM

Those acts in full )

So there you have it. Ballad-heavy, rare on the novelty, hopefully saved on the night by Graham Norton, worthy successor of Sir Terence of Wogan, and his withering sarcasm. As usual there will be some kind of shindig towards the semi-finals, so watch this space. There will be mandatory Opa and maybe even fondue. MAYBE FONDUE. YOU LUCKY BASTARDS.
cryptogirl: (Pixie patriot)
Today, I have duly flown the Saltire out the front window for the first year ever, in retaliation for 2 years of cringe-inducing running the England flag up an actual flagpole across the road (gotta love toothless Fenland folk :p). I've also dug out Ma Broon's Cookbook in the hope of gaining inspiration for dinner. Mince and tatties maybe? Stovies? Scotch pies? Also, were it not for the lack of muslin and suet, I'd dearly love to do a clootie dumpling, which apparently some enterprising company has made both 'healthier' (no suet, more fruit) and gluten-free. Sorry, but national puddings I refuse to compromise on folks- it's all artery-furring or none. :D

Also, thank you to whoever changed the wiki article from 'Cockland'. Bet it was a Sassenach vandal. Bloody typical, you lot. ;)

Tonight I plan to have a few wee drams, possibly dig out my Scottish book collection and I have various DVDs at my disposal. As well as the stuff on my Gerard Kelly obit post, there's been plenty of internet-found highlights:

- The BBC archives had this wonderful show about the Mallaig to Fort William line by steamtrain. The scenery is just breathtaking.

- Here's a classic episode of Absolutely. I particularly love the Stoneybridge Olympic bid a few minutes in, and everyone's favourite bore Calum Gilhooley at ~28 mins. <3 Moray Hunter.

- Also from Absolutely, national emissary McGlashan has a heartfelt message for our English friends. :P

- And here's a Scottish playlist to warm the cockles of your heart.

And now I must away and do some more writing...
cryptogirl: (Reading pixie)
I thought we'd have a quiet first full day at the Fringe, but alas it was never meant to be. Instead we took on one serious piece of theatre, some character comedy and some musical Fringe veterans.

Read on for reviews... )

Fringe Refreshments of the Day: Swift half of cider at the Pleasance Courtyard, and dinner at Mamma's in the Grassmarket. Gluten-haters should note it was the first pizzeria in town to offer gluten-free bases, and they're awesome for a takeaway slice as well as sitting in. I recommend the Fireball topping with the spicy tomato base sauce, and the dense chocolate cheesecake of death.

Roll on tomorrow's Fringe randomness! Oh, and here's the famous 4 Chord Song to keep you going...

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