Well I made it there! though I did the bare minimum to reach that goal, and it took me most of the day. But hey, I'm halfway to 50K!!!!!!!!! Was feeling very uninspired yesterday, despite the fact that I'm actually interesting in my story, that happens though. I think it might have been a good thing, because a little internal conflict I hadn't planned on showed up and is a keeper. It's nice when little things show up like that, like your own irritability sparks something inside your character that makes them realise something. In this case Roma is realising that maybe she doesn't want Michelle to 'mother' her - it seemed like it was a good thing when she thought her mother Dotty was useless, but now that she knows Dotty isn't her real mother, that there is another mother out there, she's resisting it a little more. It'll be interesting to see where that goes.
I went to bed around about 9pm last night, and did my best to sleep as late as I could (which turned out to be 7.30 - not bad at all!). I still feel like.... I'm not even sure what you'd call this. I'm sore, and tired, and slothful, I'd totally go back to bed if I could, or if I knew I could find a comfortable position to sleep in. Not an option though. I hate being awake so much during the night, I hate not being able to find a position I can really relax into without some part of my body hurting. So I better go and do some stretches, and do some before bed tonight as well, and hopefully, it'll help.
I don't have any specific goals in mind for today's writing, though several things need to happen: Roma needs to go through her fathers old journal to learn more about her biological mother. Jordan will visit her at her home tonight.
They'll try to find more out about her parent's relationship.
They will enlist Ryan to help them try and find her real mother's location.
Michelle will get annoyed by this.
There, I have some kind of plan!
On a side note, I am finding this quite interesting to write, as, I am not Ivy's 'real' mother either, the mother in this book is placed and is possibly actually a family member (the father's sister), I haven't decided yet - she's really quite a loony, but had been present for the all the life that Roma can remember.
So why am I writing this? Does this make me have any feelings regarding my own 'motherhood' of my girl?
No! lol and I can say that quite honestly. The situation is totally different, besides which, Ivy does know her biological mother as well, so there is no need for her to wonder about what the other mum is like.
Where Ivy has a mum, someone who looks after her, adores her, does everything she can to make sure she is happy and safe (me), Roma does not, and never has had that experience of a mother due to Dotty living in almost another world entirely, which has meant that having her slightly older friend Michelle mother her a little has been quite nice for her.
Do I wonder what will happen in my own situation when Ivy is older and wants to explore her options - yes, of course. I'd love for her always to be my little girl, but am totally aware of the fact that I need to share her and give her the space and opportunity to make her own mind up about things.
Am I exploring that angle of our relationship in this book? I've thought about this, and I really don't think I am - everyone reacts differently, characters are not real life, Ivy is in no way shape or form Roma, though if she turned out to be like her then I wouldn't love her any less.
Is it going to play out the way I'd like it to in real life? No, that wouldn't be truthful or honest for my characters, I don't tend to manipulate them like that.
The reason why I have asked myself these questions is because the first novel I wrote someone raised similar ones (MC was asked by her dying sister to take her boy and hide him from her abusive husband), a friend who read the book asked whether I was exploring my newfound motherhood and the impact it had on me - while I could have said yes that would have been untruthful because the premise of the story had been developed several years prior to my even meeting Simon, or to Ivy being conceived.
Do my personal experiences impact on my writing? To this I would answer yes, of course. It makes me treat my characters a little more sensitively than I otherwise might. It has meant that Roma doesn't feel ill towards Dotty, that she actually does care for her and will not go out of her way to hurt her feelings, despite the fact that she's not really aware of what is going on.
It meant that I could easily raise all the thoughts and fears and worries associated with looking after a small child when you have little experience in that area.
Anyway, I think that's enough self assessment for me this morning. We would be silly to think that our lives don't impact on our writing, and even more insane to avoid topics which we can relate to our own lives, we should take everything we know, everything we have experienced and use it as a resource for our writing, draw from it, pick apart the strands, repaint it with our words. As a writer you have to use every resource you can get your hands on at times, your own life can be the easiest, and the hardest one to draw from.
I went to bed around about 9pm last night, and did my best to sleep as late as I could (which turned out to be 7.30 - not bad at all!). I still feel like.... I'm not even sure what you'd call this. I'm sore, and tired, and slothful, I'd totally go back to bed if I could, or if I knew I could find a comfortable position to sleep in. Not an option though. I hate being awake so much during the night, I hate not being able to find a position I can really relax into without some part of my body hurting. So I better go and do some stretches, and do some before bed tonight as well, and hopefully, it'll help.
I don't have any specific goals in mind for today's writing, though several things need to happen: Roma needs to go through her fathers old journal to learn more about her biological mother. Jordan will visit her at her home tonight.
They'll try to find more out about her parent's relationship.
They will enlist Ryan to help them try and find her real mother's location.
Michelle will get annoyed by this.
There, I have some kind of plan!
On a side note, I am finding this quite interesting to write, as, I am not Ivy's 'real' mother either, the mother in this book is placed and is possibly actually a family member (the father's sister), I haven't decided yet - she's really quite a loony, but had been present for the all the life that Roma can remember.
So why am I writing this? Does this make me have any feelings regarding my own 'motherhood' of my girl?
No! lol and I can say that quite honestly. The situation is totally different, besides which, Ivy does know her biological mother as well, so there is no need for her to wonder about what the other mum is like.
Where Ivy has a mum, someone who looks after her, adores her, does everything she can to make sure she is happy and safe (me), Roma does not, and never has had that experience of a mother due to Dotty living in almost another world entirely, which has meant that having her slightly older friend Michelle mother her a little has been quite nice for her.
Do I wonder what will happen in my own situation when Ivy is older and wants to explore her options - yes, of course. I'd love for her always to be my little girl, but am totally aware of the fact that I need to share her and give her the space and opportunity to make her own mind up about things.
Am I exploring that angle of our relationship in this book? I've thought about this, and I really don't think I am - everyone reacts differently, characters are not real life, Ivy is in no way shape or form Roma, though if she turned out to be like her then I wouldn't love her any less.
Is it going to play out the way I'd like it to in real life? No, that wouldn't be truthful or honest for my characters, I don't tend to manipulate them like that.
The reason why I have asked myself these questions is because the first novel I wrote someone raised similar ones (MC was asked by her dying sister to take her boy and hide him from her abusive husband), a friend who read the book asked whether I was exploring my newfound motherhood and the impact it had on me - while I could have said yes that would have been untruthful because the premise of the story had been developed several years prior to my even meeting Simon, or to Ivy being conceived.
Do my personal experiences impact on my writing? To this I would answer yes, of course. It makes me treat my characters a little more sensitively than I otherwise might. It has meant that Roma doesn't feel ill towards Dotty, that she actually does care for her and will not go out of her way to hurt her feelings, despite the fact that she's not really aware of what is going on.
It meant that I could easily raise all the thoughts and fears and worries associated with looking after a small child when you have little experience in that area.
Anyway, I think that's enough self assessment for me this morning. We would be silly to think that our lives don't impact on our writing, and even more insane to avoid topics which we can relate to our own lives, we should take everything we know, everything we have experienced and use it as a resource for our writing, draw from it, pick apart the strands, repaint it with our words. As a writer you have to use every resource you can get your hands on at times, your own life can be the easiest, and the hardest one to draw from.
1 comment:
Your novel sounds quite cool. Definitely a social rollercoaster :-)
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