Writing Smiting - the movie!

You may remember my post at the beginning of the month about being blocked up and wanting mental Draino. The title of the post was Writing Smiting . While I think the imaginary in that post was pretty clear, here is a short animation to illustrate it, just in case you were waiting for the movie adaptation.

Writing Distractions

It was so warm and sunny yesterday I kept the patio door open while I wrote. Mid morning, Fudge lured me outside onto the decking to play with him. The sun was warm, the air was fresh and the world was still. I felt so relaxed and peaceful. Playing with Fudge made me happy. Some say heaven is a perfect moment captured for eternity. If that is true, then moments like these will make up my heaven. For about ten minutes I was at peace, relaxed and without a care in the world as I enjoyed a simple game surrounded by nature. It is hard to focus on writing when I have distractions this good to tempt me.

The Boundless Living Challenge

I blogged about this in November last year, and my hair brained scheme to get a literary agent in 45 days.

Round three of the challenge has rolled around and this time I have officially signed on, with my first Boundless Living Challenge blog and everything (I know, there is a danger of spreading myself too thin, but it is only for 45 days).

The Boundless Living Challenge was started last summer by Bob Doyle to help people change their lives in 45 days. You pick an area of your life you want to work on - your goal can be as big or as small as you want to make it - and then you use the Ning community to help you reach your goal. There is a lot of help and support and, I think the main idea behind it, accountability to your other participants make sure you reach your goal.

The Challenge is completely free and some people have achieved amazing things in the last two rounds.

Now it is my turn.

My challenge for the next 45 days is to write the complete first draft of my new novel Gift. For those who follow the blog, you know I've already started work on the planning stage. Now it is time for the writing. I don't plan on using the next 45 days for a Nanowrimo like dash of creative out pouring either. I want to write the best darn first draft I can, and from the preparatory work I've done, I think it is going to be a pretty good novel when it's finished.

You can see my first challenge vblog entry here (don't I look pretty).

So what would you change in the next 45 days if you took up the challenge?

The Snow Got Me!!!!!!!!!!

Vblogging has arrived!

There is a television programme in New Zealand called Downsize Me. Each week an expert in nutrition and one in fitness help a different person slim down and shape up over an eight week period. I have decided to do my own DIY downsize me challenge over the next eight weeks and vblog about my progress here every Saturday. My goal is to lose 8kg, but more importantly to get back into regular exercise and a healthy eating pattern. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I started today with a 45 min walk on the beach with Janna (and a video of Blackrock beach to prove I was there). It was a hard 45 minutes - I really have got very out of shape - but I feel better for having done it.