In which I am even more incoherent than usual...

[jadesfire]

Since a list of interesting stuff wot I saw does not an update make, and since my brain is doing a fine hamster-in-a-wheel impression, I thought I'd attempt a post that isn't just the random contents of my head.

Okay. So that's a lie. This is the random contents of my head, but hey, a list makes it less random. Right?

#1. It was all kinds of awesome meeting people at the weekend, even if Oxford did its best to soak us to the skin. fan_eunice is just as lovely in person as online, and just as huggy, which is all good. I also got to meet taraljc, pipsqueaky and absolutedestiny as well as Tara's friend from Keble College. One native per tourist is probably about right ;) Anyway, we had lovely tea/lunch/scones at the Nosebag, followed by a slightly damp tour of the city. I love meeting fan-folks, because even if you haven't a clue what people are talking about - I spent large chunks of the anime part of the conversation nodding and smiling and wondering if I could learn to speak in tongues too - it's still so cool to see people who are so passionate about, well. Everything really. It was a lovely way to spend a damp Saturday afternoon and I highly recommend it.

#2. Honestly, I despair of myself sometimes. I have no writing discipline at all. If I can catch myself when I've got enthusiasm for something, then I'm fine, and it carries me through the sloggy parts of writing. Unfortunately, my story enthusiasm for NaNo peaked about 2 weeks ago, leaving me not really knowing where to start. I'm re-reading my research material and trying to work out the nitty-gritty bits, but I keep getting hijacked by pirates and other fic that I want to write, not to mention the story I've promised fajrdrako and desperately want to finish, and LFWS Round 2. It's all a bit of a mush in my head right now, which wasn't helped by a pretty bad mental-health day yesterday.

I might just have to accept that when it comes to writing, I'm a sprinter not a marathon runner, and I need to write my NaNo like that. I have a world, I have a character, I have a couple of plot points that I think will take me halfway through the novel. What happens after that, I haven't a clue, but no doubt it will involve great heroics, derring do and the mystery, revealed! Hopefully.

#3. My current fic writing plans are:

- Finish LFWS story. Well. Start it and finish it - it's got a 500 word limit, so I just need a macguffin and I'm sorted. That should get done today.
- Write first NaNo scene. Assuming the above goes well, this should also get done today.
- Add next scene to Dragon!fic. I'd like to have the whole thing finished by the end of the week, ideally.
- Prod next pirate!AU fic. Started.
- Resist urge to write pirate!AU for every fandom I'm familiar with. *resists*

What I really need is a proper WIP folder somewhere so that I can find things when I want to work on them instead of starting from scratch each time.

And while we're talking about fic, I haven't done a proper fic list for a while, so I'm going to lump August, September and October together. It won't actually be that much more than just an October list, I don't think, since the Big Bang burnt me out a little and I prodded at words rather than actually writing for most of August and September. Anyway, just warning you of more spam coming to a journal near you soon.

Other than that, my life is nicely dull at the moment. We're trying to pick a destination for our January holiday (anyone ever been to Morocco?), I start choir rehearsals this week for the Carol Service in December (it's held in the Divinity School which is always a wonderful experience), I'm on the cake rota this week (*rubs hands together* NOM!) and work continues well. Oh, and I'm going on a "Podcasting for Education" course tomorrow that I'm really looking forward to. It's all good, really.

How's everyone else?

Comments

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

With google docs once you open something via it you can acess it anytime, so email all the WIPs to yourself and then when, in the gmail, shows you the way to open it it'll have html, download and open as a google document (usually the first time it'll say it encountered a problem, then just click on the main 'google doc' screen in the top corner and it'll show what you were trying to open)

I had 5 or 6 versions of mine before I got it *right* or at least *rightish*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I prefer to go straight to Google docs and type in there. or rather, I don't, but at least that way I only end up with one version of what I want. Of course, at the moment, all of the documents only exist in my head, so I'll probably be starting on paper anyway.

Yeah. I wrote one that *should* have worked but just...didn't. I have another idea that might work and after that I'm getting desperate! *headdesk*

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

oh- I thought you had them in files somewhere. Just typing works too! :)

Remember you always have your skips!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*g* Just writing tends to work best for me, for some reason - my stories go a lot better when I start them on paper then move to typing once the ideas are flowing. It's annoying but I can't seem to get round it. We'll see what happens...

*wails* But that feels like cheating! Especially when it's a challenge I feel I *should* be up to. Something will come to me, I'm sure. *prods brain* Maybe if I shake my head hard enough, inspiration will fall out... ;D

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

if a systems works for you- GO FOR IT!

*offers donuts to your muse*

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

You can also upload a Word (or whatever) document directly from your computer from inside Google Docs.

Before I discovered Google Docs, I typed all my WIPs right into a Gmail draft document and kept them all in my drafts folder. That way I could even give them color-coded labels that show up in my gmail folder. For finishing a document, though, or writing drabbles, I use Google Docs because it has the word count feature.

It has worked well for me because I seem to lose my hard drive every so often, and pretty often I need to access stuff from computers that aren't mine.