Write: Jan 29th - holiday

I've been working on this holiday fic again, only basic ideas and a little bit of prose from later in the story. It needs work, the whole idea needs a proper plan!

Write: Jan 28th - Holiday!

No, I'm not taking a break (haha!), I'm finally starting to work once more on my new Skins/Naomily story that is basically an Alternate Universe in which Naomi and Emily meet on a holiday in Spain.

There is a basic plan and strangely enough I've already written the most random section from the point of view of a bar man. I've also written a later scene between Emily and Katie.

It's my first proper attempt (at least, in a long time) at trying to include other characters into the story.

I tend to write Naomily, Katie, their families and the occasional Cook or JJ or Effy. Rarely the others and rarely so many of them together.

The holiday will centre around Emily, Katie, Effy and Pandora being a group of friends who decided to go away together

Write: Jan 27th - In This Life finale

Yes, you're reading that correctly. I've finished In This Life, the final chapter has been posted. The Skins Alternate Universe I created is over.

Unfortunately it ended very open so it'd be wrong not to write a sequel! Oops.

Was always my intention really. There were so many undeveloped aspects of the story and unanswered questions, most of which relate to Naomi's world and how Emily fits into that.

Write: Jan 25th/26th

I've spent the last couple of days working on the penultimate chapter of In This Life, a story that has stayed extremely close to my chest and in many ways has broken me before fixing me again.

I have so much I want to write, so many things I feel I have to say. This story sums up a lot of vision of the world. I dint think you'll ever get another story so personal to me.

On a side note, didn't get as much writing done on the 25th as I would have liked. I found out there's a Skins writing competition, finding that out was like being told your life was worth something. Then I read the age limit, I'm 13 months too old. I was and still am devastated that after two years of writing Skins fanfiction, I don't get this opportunity. I've waited for a writing competition for years.

Write: Jan 13th

I started something new, again. Only this time it wasn't a new Naomily story, or even Skins. It's going to be a piece of original fiction. I'm hoping it'll be of novel length when it's completed.

A couple of days ago I said that if I have no job after March (which I'm expecting not to due to funding issues) then I will write a novel. Somehow today an idea came to me. So far it's a basic premise for the story, the character set up, families, that sort of thing. I need to work out a complete character profile for my main characters and some of the significant lesser characters. Then I can flesh out the story idea.

I'll keep you updated.

Tonight I wrote from the quote "life's a show and we all play a part" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the musical episode), it worked relatively well with my main character who will be a confident, bitchy girl on the surface.

I hope this story will progress nicely.

Write: Jan 10th - Nameless

No I'm not writing a story called Nameless.

I just haven't got a name for what I wrote. Nor do I have any details about it for you.

I suppose you could say it's a surprise, a little something I'm working on in the background!

For now, all you need to know is that I wrote 640 words from the point of view of a bar man, who also happens to be nameless.

I'm actually in search of a name for him, but more importantly a name for the leading man in this story. He will be a 'nice' guy, he will be religious, he will care deeply, he will be sensitive, he isn't really that manly but at the same time he's not some poor defenceless, weak man.

Suggestions welcome, answers on a postcard (or in a comment box - pretty sure I accept anonymous ones).

Write: Jan 8th - In This Life chapter twenty-one

I finally sat down to the next chapter of In This Life and after a few moments of "oh my gosh I have no idea where this is going or what I'm writing," I managed to make some much needed progress and even posted a new chapter up on Fanfiction.net as I usually do.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5999648/23/In_This_Life

Write: Jan 7th - Sometimes

This has been the third night where writing wasn't exactly top of my list, mostly because my computer hasn't been on making it less likely for me to write properly. So I opted for my ipod to write on.

I asked someone for a quote, a prompt to get me writing and "The hardest thing to do in this world is live in it" was chosen.

So here it is...

Sometimes life is easy; when every traffic light is on green during the one morning you're late for college or when you're surrounded constantly by people you actually like, who like you and you feel like life couldn't get much better.

But life isn't always that way. There's not always time to smell the roses, or toast some bread before leaving the house and there's not always nice people around giving you that morale boost.

And sometimes, sometimes your dad leaves home, your boyfriend gets murdered and you try to end the painful misery that has become your existence. Not your life, only your surviving moments.

Living and surviving are two very different things.

Take Emily and Naomi for instance, living each day as fully as they could. They're travelling, seeing the world after spending years studying. They're making the most of things and doing it together.

Then there's Pandora, always living with a smile on her face and a random catchphrase to make you laugh, internally anyway.

Out of all of my friends, Cook was probably the only example I could think of who was very good at appearing as though he lived life like every day was his last. But like me, deep down, hidden under his skin, he was swimming hard to keep afloat, to survive.

That was how it felt. I was falling, drowning, struggling to breath, all at once. I was suffocating, not only in the overbearing "support" of my mother, but in life. That's why nobody understood.

Everyone else, they lived. They laughed and cried and shouted and screamed all in the name of happiness, pain, excitement and sorrow. They didn't know what it felt like to wonder if that moment, that exciting scream or painful cry, would be the last one they managed to breath before they succumbed to the water.

Some say the hardest thing to do in this world is live in it. Most of them don't know, don't understand. But perhaps, sometimes, maybe they're right.

Write: Jan 6th - poem

Somehow in my struggle to get to sleep I found myself writing a very brief, random poem. Think I needed to write before I could allow myself to settle.

Clouded. Clogged. Blocked.
Head too full, broken down,
Body weeping.
Exhaustion built over time,
Waiting, wanting, needing,
Until
Desperation.

Aching. Dripping. Shaking.
Too full of things, shattered,
Body crying.
Darkness shadowed, empty space,
Anger rising, always rising,
Never time to stop,
To think,
To calm.

Write: Jan 6th

I didn't write. I got into bed with my iPod at 9.45 planning to do the same as yesterday.

Spent almost 2 hours with loud music on trying to block out the sister's phone call in order to sleep, let alone write.

Hate that she's made me break my resolution.

I can't write when she's made to shut up in a minute because I'm so exhausted that I can't even think straight.

This could be classed as writing, right?

I did read, but I will upload that post tomorrow.

Write: Jan 5th - Wind

I'm tired, so very tired as I write this. It's amazing what a few hours in a busy restaurant surrounded by people can be. And tomorrow I go to my granddad's funeral...so I'm sure you can understand my lack of desire to write. Firstly because my brain won't work. But I put together a random piece of prose that I can't even process in my head. I can't tell you if it makes sense because I honestly have no idea.

I'll read it back in the morning and let you know my thoughts, but for now, I managed to write. Though it is very short.

-

A tree sits on the top of a cliff, weathered into position as a leaning lady. Alone. A cliff much higher than every piece of land surrounding it. Nothing else can grow in the stark, dilapidated surroundings. Not with winds gusting faster and harder than anywhere else as far as the eye could see. That doesn't stop them going up there, walking along the clifftop until the wind blows their eyes almost shut and their coats tightly around their bodies. They're not used to the harsh conditions, can't cope with the battle between human and nature as they attempt their ascent. There once lay a bench under the tree with a plaque 'For Deidre, a woman who loved to feel the wind in her face.' But even that had suffered from the intense winds and salty moisture in the air. So the tree continued to sit alone, in a world where people came and went with as much frequency as the sun, until one day a man cared little for the strong gales. He laid down a blanket and sat crossed legged in front of the beautiful view. And there he sat, with his eyes barely open as he watched the wind blow the sea towards land and back again.

P.S. It's morning and that made enough sense, yay.

Write: Jan 4th - In This Life

I sat down with two files open - my Table I file (which is where 20 prompts from table I of a The Mentaliat prompt community on Livejournal are in order for me to write 20 fics. 1 down, 19 to go) and In This Life. I decided that due to the busyness of the next couple of days (meal for uncles birthday tomorrow, followed by my granddads funeral on Thursday), starting a Skins chapter would be the most useful for writing on a bus. Only tomorrow I won't be coming home on a bus and depending on what my mum is doing, may not be going to work on one either.

Anyway, I do still aim to write, of course. Though the aim may be a little harder, but we'll see.

So the purpose of this post - to inform you, whoever you may be (my two followers who have made yourselves known - hi Charlie, hi Natalia! *waves*) that I wrote 628 words of chapter twenty-one. May not be a lot, but it's writing!

Here's the full story up to date if you're interested in reading: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5999648/1/

Write: Jan 3rd - In This Life (chapter twenty)

Yesterday I began a new project which I worked on further today, I turned about 350 words into 1250 words. I'm not entirely happy with those words, but I wrote them anyway. That's one of the good things about writing fiction, in my opinion, being able to write, rewrite and rewrite again. It's something I enjoyed particularly about my story Guilt. I spent months doing just that until I'd actually rewritten the start after the rest of the story had been completed, despite it being the very first thing I wrote originally.

Now with fanfiction, usually rewriting can't occur on a full story basis. Sure, while I'm trying to put a chapter together, I can edit it as much as I like. But once in a while I find myself wanting to change things I've already published...which can't really be done if 500 people have already read it.

Part of me has wanted to rewrite my story In This Life(ITL), which, for the most part, I an proud of. However, as writers block took hold of me many months ago, it made ITL harder and harder to write.

You're possibly sat there thinking, what are you talking about? Does this post have a point? Why yes, it does. In This Life, after months of struggles has finally been updated. It may not be the best chapter in the world, I may not be as proud if said chapter as I could be. But mostly, I'm just glad I felt able to write it. Now I wonder if I'll have the ability to write more, I hope so. I really, really hope so.

Here it is: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5999648/22/

Write: Jan 2nd - A New Project (Skins fiction)

I'm posting this a little late, but today(yesterday) I started a new Skins project. I know I have many stories that have been abandoned, left behind in the mess that has been the last 12 months of my writing.

I catalogued my work, put together a list known as "A Year In Fic", I did it in 2009 too. That year I wrote 35 stories, 5 of those were from my series - that's an awful lot of writing.

This year I did 23, only 2 of those were longer than one-shots.

That makes me feel disappointed and sad. I could have done better.

In all fairness to me I have had a lot of changes this year - three jobs, a period of being unemployed, a college course that I began, a sister returning to live at home and so disrupt everything in her path. It's not been easy, especially these last few months with my job, course and sister to contend with.

But here I am, with a new year ahead of me and I'm ready, willing and putting my best foot forward. My job is only part time, my course ends in March and maybe my job too. I don't know what the future holds, but you can bet that I'll be there with a pen(or keyboard) in my hand, writing my way into next year.

Maybe I'll consider writing some original fiction, creating a blog to showcase a story full of new people and exciting new adventures. Maybe I'll write fanfiction about the new generation of Skins or maybe I'll stick with Naomi and Emily who I'm so desperately unwilling to let go of.

In the meantime, I will work on my new idea - a story only known as 'How to Fall in Love and Not Die'.

Wish me luck, I may need it.

Write: Jan 1st - For Always (The Mentalist fic)

Whilst many people know me as a writer of Skins fanfiction, I also write other things too. I have some original fiction I've created over time and I have more recently started writing Rigsby and Van Pelt stories in 'The Mentalist' fandom.

That's the writing I did today. On LiveJournal there is a prompt community and I signed up to a 20 prompt table. Here is my first ficlet written for the community.

http://community.livejournal.com/mentalistprompt/28251.html