This week - Nanowrimo and Snow

"Everything begins with a story" Joseph Campbell

Well, I finally completed the Nanowrimo challenge! I am still busy writing though, because even though I managed to write the 50, 000 words to complete the challenge, I still haven't finished my story. I have at least one maybe two chapters to go. I am looking forward to finishing and then leaving it alone for a couple of weeks before I finally read it through and begin the next stage in the process.

I really didn't know if I would be able to do this. I had never written anything longer than a blog post before and always said that I didn't think I could write anything that long, but now I have and I loved it and that has opened up a whole different world for me to explore.

Yippee!

For the last month I have been so concerned with getting the words down and finding the story, I haven't really concentrated on writing, on the beauty of the words, the painting of the picture and that is good because that is my favourite bit about writing. The part I feel most comfortable with. So now I am looking forward to taking the bones of the story and making it beautiful. It is like I have just completed a detailed sketch for a painting and now I can pick up the colours and make it come alive.

Today outside my kitchen door

The weather has turned really cold here with minus freezing temperatures and yesterday we had our first sprinkling of snow. By this morning it had almost gone but I braved the cold this morning and opened my kitchen door and took this photo. The little ornamental tree in the white pots already has buds, ready and waiting for next year.

Creativity exists more in the searching than in the finding.
- Stephen Nachmanovitch

This is for week 11 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
You have all week to post your link - words or pictures or both!
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Squirrels and Sammy and Finally Finding The Story

Hello, I hope you have had a good week.

Here's my round up of the things that stuck out for me this last week. . .

My cat Sammy spotted TWO squirrels outside the window, he couldn't believe it. Then one of them jumped from the bird table on to the windowsill right in front of his nose and proceeded to run up and down, sending Sammy frantic. He started to make those strange sounds cats make when they're engrossed in watching birds from a window. Then in his frenzy up and down after the squirrel, he stepped in his water bowl and shot in the air. I am sure he was convinced the squirrel had got him!


Warning this one isn't nice - I saw a young guy lean in to his toddlers face and shout. The toddler laughed, the young nervous mother said Daddy is playing, but Daddy wasn't playing, I heard the anger and felt the aggression, as I watched in the supermarket car park an unfolding drama that made me sad that things like that happen and children are bought up in to it. He had a manic look and a swagger, she had a brace on her teeth, pale skin and no confidence. As we drove away I heard the tirade of verbal abuse he turned on her and she once again turned to the child and said. . . Daddy's playing.


I am still writing for Nanowrimo, I started writing without a plot, no ideas, just trusting the process and feeling my way through. And this week, I saw my story take shape and the characters begin to live. I started writing down what they were saying and describing what they were doing rather than 'making it up'. It was a wonderful experience, I am hooked on writing.

What did you see this week?

This is for week 10 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
You have all week to post your link - words or pictures or both!
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Photo - Sammy sleeping in the sunlight.

The Winds Blow and The Words Flow

"The birds they sing at break of day, "Start again..." I hear them say."
- Leonard Cohen

This week I have seen....

• Roaring winds that have stripped the trees of the remaining leaves and blown anything that was light enough to be blown over, over. :-)


• The squirrel has been back, actually looking at me through the window! Up close I've discovered that his tail looks like the seed head on a Dandelion.


• In a nearby village I noticed that the pub is boarded up and offered for sale. (See the picture) Looking up, I noticed the old looking lantern with the satellite dish above it and the 'for sale' sign too, also you can see the Ivy just creeping into the doorway.


• I have seen the inside of a tow truck! We came out into the supermarket car park and the immobiliser on our car stopped working and actually lived up to its name and immobilised us. :-) We came home in the back of a tow truck with our car on the back. What was really interesting. was seeing things that normally I wouldn't because we are much lower on the road. It was a familiar route but now I know what is behind the hedgerows that usually I can't see over.


• Also more words, I am still writing every day for nanowrimo and as I said last week it is such a learning experience and I am so glad that I decided to take part. The novel is secondary to all that I am learning, there will definitely be a blog post about the experience some time in the future.

"You don't have to see the top of the staircase to take the first step."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

What did you see this week?

This is for week 9 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
You have all week to post your link - words or pictures or both!
Click here to visit - I Saw Sunday

Words, Words, Words.

This week I have been busy writing as I am taking part in Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) where the challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It started on the 1st November and carries on all month. As I have never written anything longer than a blog post before it really has been a challenge to write my target amount of words every day.

It has been a real roller coaster of emotions but at this moment I am loving it! I'm learning so much about myself and about the process of writing. Also I am really having to walk my talk about 'trusting myself' and 'trusting the process' - one step at a time it seems to be working.

Luckily I still have things to report for I Saw Sunday and I didn't even need to leave my desk.

We have been having a squirrel visiting the garden lately and he has now discovered how to leap from the bird table to the windowsill, where he sits so close to me.

I can see him in such detail it is amazing. It sends the cats crazy they can't believe this creature is sitting calmly just inches from them. :-).

From the windowsill he can access the hanging bird feeder that he is ingenious in his attempts to try and get it open. I really should set up the video camera it is happening so close it would be a really good bit of film.

I managed to get a photo of him earlier in the week before he discovered his ability to leap onto the windowsill. Unfortunately It was taken through the window and isn't very clear.


Then tonight (Saturday) I was sitting here at my desk with a nice cup of coffee and there filling the sky outside my window was a huge professional firework display! The next village has an annual huge event to celebrate bonfire night (Guy Fawkes night) and it just happens that my computer chair gives me a wonderful view and front row seat!
Loads of Whooshes and Aaahs as the sky filled with magic!

What did you see this week?

This is for week 8 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
You have all week to post your link - words or pictures or both!

Click here to visit - I Saw Sunday