Got a novel/play/screenplay in your head? Get it on paper! Here is the page count thread for hopeful and actual writers.

[wilbur]

Are you a writer in need of some motivation? Post here each day or whenever you can with your page count. Or post your hopes for how many pages you want to write each day and then come back and see if you managed them. Even if they are rubbish, at least you will have them down on paper and can make them brilliant at a later date.

I will start. I am hoping to write a second full-length screenplay before August 2008. I have two days a week where I have time to write my own stuff and I am aiming to do 5 pages on each of those days.

Thanks sonic, you're completely right. She totally forgot the bread and just gave me sh*tty filling. She is tremdendous though bless her very old socks. She comes and plays with the dds loads so I can work when I haven't got childcare and is really a very big fan of mine, so I'll forgive her.

I love your review of it btw! If only....

Oh and I don't suppose you'll read this tonight as YOU ARE MEANT TO BE WORKING!!!

Yeah. Massive ones. Just whooped your ass with 'em PhD. Get on with it!!!!!

No more Easter eggs 'til you've done a 40 minute session.

NO EASTER EGGS?????

I'm not here, I'm not reading, I'm not posting, I'm not eating jelly beans while gazing into thin air, I am furiously tapping out brilliant sentences...... honest.

At least she's supporting you in other ways Toots, that makes up for no bread

Right, have seen those big boots and I will NOT be back tonight! Thank god someone's watching us

right toots, you can put away the Boots of Doom now, I've ground out 2pp and going to bed.

wish I knew why I was finding it so hard atm. oh well. hope it's easier for the rest of yiz.

Toots - am v amused at your mother. For exactly those reasons, I would only show something to my parents, well when. Possibly when it had been published. My father would find 20 grammatical mistakes and declare his disappointment in my education.. And then still not say it was good.

I've been not here and, mainly, just shovelling away at the rewrite. Last week good, this week, although I'm going faster, I have less and less confidence in it. I suspect that this is a sign that this part is a bit more trite and a bit less, well interesting. Today - although partly because of the car alarm that went off for twenty, yes twenty minutes at 3.30am - I have ground to a halt. It's not just the lack of sleep, also a lack of any belief that this is a worthwhile enterprise and that my time might be better spent running the house and so on. But then if I don't write, what am I going to do? Just being a SAHM isn't really me.

phd - not finding it a breeze at the moment but getting little bits done.

vonsudenfed, I've had that recently, especially when I told someone I didn't ever expect to be published and they basically then asked why I was wasting my time. Way I look at it though is there's millions of people who play an instrument or play sport without ever intending to go professional, or play games for nothing etc - why is writing any different? I see it as a hobby I HAVE to do else I'll go mental

wow vonsudenfed and sonicdeathmonkey, you're both sounding scarily like me! I'm also writing coz it's the only non-mama thing I get to do atm. I'm stuck being a SAHM for at least the next year, I feel like I've got to have something to show for that period of time. Dc's grow up and go; housework only has to be done again the next day. Writing, which is in the first instance only for you, is therefore a better thing to do, because it's intrinsically rewarding. A long and windy way of saying what SDM said

I've realised why I'm struggling - it's because I can't hear the hero properly. Think I've got poor Heathcliff stuck in Bridget Jones' Diary. Am going to take some time off to read novels with pink covers in hopes of recovering my tone, but will keep an eye on this thread and send you all clever writing vibes.

Got nothing done here all week, too busy with actually seeing my dh and the whole family together for two whole days, woooo hoooo

PhD and sonic, yes you're right, and it's good to be reminded. My problem is that I am a highly competitive perfectionist (!), so sometimes find it quite hard to do something just for the sake of it. But will carry on

Phd - very amused at Heathcliff stuck in Bridget Jones. I'd read that. Have you read any Jasper Fforde? That's pretty much his whole deal - except Heathcliff has to do an anger management course too...

Vonsud - what you're describing is NORMAL and you MUST power through it. It would be EASY to stop working because you think your work is trite and not worthwhile. What you need to do is ENGAGE with the triteness in a creative way so that you become open to ideas that will bring freshness and surprises to the piece, so that just when a reader might think they've got the measure of it, something interesting comes along. Don't let it get the better of you!

Hope that came over in the spirit of support that was intended

No, toots, you are absolutely right.

I do need to go back and look at that section in a bit, and also just work through the mood. Although I am feeling better; I sent some - first 4 chapters - to a friend who hadn't read any before. She took ages to reply, and I started to assume that she hated it, and couldn't quite bring herself to tell me. But she emailed me yesterday - pretty much as I was sitting in bed convincing myself she hated it - and loved it. So I am enthused for the next part of the campaign.

And I hadn't taken offence at all, just got caught up in the muddy details of life, cats with cystitis, that kind of thing.

A cat with cystitis? Ouch! Please tell me you are not having to dose her with cranberry juice...

Have got a fair bit done this week, planning mostly, and a few pages of scenes that I wanted to get down as they were in my head. Am off on hols next week, but at least I feel like I deserve it.

Glad to hear your friends liked the chapters, vs, keep writing while I'm away!

Oh I love it when you really feel like you deserve your holiday.

So glad your friend loved it Vonsud, that's great.

Cat with cystitis? Sounds....fun And good that your friend liked it!

I've finally finished my 'background' notes, nearly 11k words of them Now faffing about not writing anything trying to decide whether to work out the plot piece by piece or just try and write something of the story.

Ouch for the cat you learn something new every day!

Go for it Sonic, that's what I say, if you think you're wandering, then go back and look at where the story should go. Sometimes it helps just to write a bit, then re focus, if that makes sense. I try to have a vague plan of begining middle and end, but it doesn't always go that way.

I'm not actually squirting cranberry juice down the cat (yet) but you can - really - buy biscuits with cranberry extract in for precisely this reason. Quink and I will be discussing this with the vet tomorrow. Sigh.

Sonic - I didn't write this novel in anything resembling an order - instead I just wrote scenes as they suggested themselves to me. I had a rough idea of the plot, but various characters did start going off and doing things (taking a digger to ancient monuments, for example) as I went on, taking things off in different directions. Then I put it all together, twice, writing all the joining bits, and now I'm revising that. Mind you, given I've been working on this book for seven years, I'm not sure I should be recommending any of my methods.

Am still revising, 10000 words or so to go, all difficult, and the childminder on holiday. Sighs again. DH is, nobly, taking DD to toddler group tomorrow so that I get a bit of a chance.

and I have killed this thread! anyone else still out there?

I am, I've been in hiding thanks to being ill . Been far more interested in looking piteous and turfing dd out into the garden at every moment for 'independant play' while I sit at the door in a duvet like some old style TB patient. Managed 756 words of 'real' prose and that's it so far. Can I swop a sore throat and what is probably going to be another bout of sinusitis for cat cystitis please vonsudenfed?

I have no idea how this story is going to start, have plenty of ideas for later but not going to write those bits, I know if I do I'll never finish the beginning

How's everyone else doing?

I'm in hiding too, having done nothing all week bar work and more work, with aerobics thrown in on Tue. Nothing to report, creativity of a noodle.

Don't worry, I too have the creativity of an inanimate object, it's just that I'm revising, so I can carry on anyway.

I am still revising; I am now working safe in the knowledge that when I come to the end, there is still plenty more work to be done. And then I have to write a synopsis and a covering letter, heaven help me. How on earth am I meant to write a sensible synopsis of a literary novel without it sending an agent to sleep? So far I have boiled it down to 'Girl goes to hills and thinks a bit', but suspect this will not do.

Sonic, are you better? The cat is, so I have nothing to swap...

Anyone else out there?

I'm here but feeling a bit despondent about things. I don't seem to be able to keep up the writing momentum I had a month ago - everything is suddenly chaotic at home again (not sure why, I thought I had got on top of all the disastrous mess I was left with after builders/clearing out my dad's house). I have some domestic help, but tbh that doesn't really keep anything in order, and I find I just do stuff myself as it's faster, but of course it eats into what little time I have to write. It doesn't help that it's the school hols - roll on Tuesday. I suppose I should just shelve idea of working while the kids are off, but then I feel bad about that. Grrr. Sorry, bad day, PMS probably. Hopefully will feel sunnier soon.

Glad to hear your cat is better VS, and hope other folk are doing a bit better on the motivation front than me.

I'm getting better VERY slowly thanks vonsud, but the anti-b's I'm on just make me want to sleep all the time Glad the cat's better though How di the synopsis go? Heaven forbid I try and write one of those, wouldn't know where to start.

Sorry things are hectic wilbur, know what you mean - I'm trying to think about college work and rearranging the house at the same time, not good for the creative flow. Treating the writing now as a bit of fun to do when I've got the chance but not pressure myself about right now.

Saying that, I've started writing a screenplay, an idea for one popped into my head and I've never even tried writing one before so it's a bit of fun . Means more neglecting of my novel but at least I'm keeping some practice in.

sounds good sonic, what's it about, or would that be spilling the beans?

for being madly busy Wilbur/Von, but I know what you mean, I've not got anything done recently, been too busy with other stuff. I had chance to write last night, but attempted to do a spot of painting instead, which I've not done for years. Was more messing about with colours but it was nice to loose myself for an hour and not think about much. Will try to do something tonight.

Re synopsis, I wonder if UQD is lurking and could point you in the right direction?