Walking and writing

Recently, it was my daughter's 21st birthday. To celebrate we headed down the coast with a small group of her friends to a cedar cabin in the wilderness. There was much eating, drinking, surfing, swimming, laughing, swinging in hammocks, sitting around camp fires - it was a great weekend. A wonderful celebration.

Over the summer, I had been working diligently (and wrestling often) on my second draft of my WIP, and with about a dozen people to cater for and entertain over this particular weekend, I welcomed the chance to leave it at home and party for a while.

But I don't seem ever to be able to do that! Not completely anyway. I may have left the manuscript at home, but the story is always in my mind and no matter how hard I tried to push it out of my thoughts, it always pushed its way back in. (I don't think it helped that the property we were staying on was very similar to the setting of my novel.)

Every morning and every afternoon I headed off up this road for a bit of a walk. And this is where I rediscovered the power of the walk. And even more so, the power of letting your mind wander aimlessly.

Each time I walked up the road and back, I returned with some new insight. Some tiny detail to add to the fabric of the prose. An interesting sentence. A snippet of dialogue. A plot flaw revealed. The place where I could add some emotional depth or further characterisation. Magic.

The manuscript is now "complete". And today I am going to send it to my publisher. Deep breath. Fingers crossed. Wish me luck.

How long can a character survive concussed at the bottom of a river?

Have been busier than normal, fitting a number of "author" events around work, as well preparing for my son's 21st birthday. Lots of fun all round, but am feeling rather weary at the back end of it all.

Attended two great events last week. On Wednesday, the Illawarra Branch of the CBCA put on an amazingly well-organised and fun luncheon. I was fortunate to sit with the kids from Berkeley Public School (pictured left). Thanks to Georgie (CBCA, Sutherland Branch) Mrs Hornig (T/L Berkeley) and the awesome Imogen, Crystal, Chelsea, Zoe, Dayna, William and Stephanie for making the day so much fun. (BTW, guys, I lost the piece of paper with your names on it, so I hope my memory hasn't let me down. Please let me know if it has!)

I also had the privilege of speaking at a South-western Sydney Teacher Librarian Network meeting. It is always such a pleasure to be around people who share my enthusiasm and passion for books - makes the job rather easy when you are speaking to the converted. Thanks, Lyn, for inviting me.

Now, hopefully, life will settle down a little and I can get back to my WIP. I woke up with a start in the wee hours this morning as I realised that I hadn't touched the manuscript in weeks and have left young Seth concussed, sinking to the bottom of the river and poor Bailey and Oscar thrashing about frantically searching for him. How could I do that to my characters?! I'm a bad, bad author.

All for now. :)

WIP - celebration

Have just passed the 25 000 word mark in my WIP and am feeling decidedly pleased with myself - especially as I am working full time at the moment.

Just needed to share.