So, last week I mentioned how the fact that I hadn't been reading much seemed to be affecting my writing. This week, I definitely fixed the not-reading thing, by spending all day Friday and most of Saturday with a terrible headache which made me incapable of doing anything useful. I remember being told when I was younger that I shouldn't read when I have a headache, but I find that fixing my eyes on something like that can help. So, over Friday and Saturday I devoured four and a half books. First I finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (loved it, except that I didn't realise until I got to the end that it was the first in a series - and the next one's not available until August 2011!), and then I gave in to the headache and indulged in some paranormal romance books. I think the steady reading once I started The Name of the Wind did help, but I have yet to work out how helpful the full day and a half were!

Week Three: In Review
The week started out well and by Thursday I had hit the 3K mark on this week's short story. I was writing first person for the first time in a while, and was delighted to find that I slipped into the character's voice quite easily. The story took a couple of not-quite-planned twists, but for the most part it developed as I expected, and I like it. Skipping Friday threw me out of the zone a bit, and since I was still very headachey when I finished the story on Saturday I'm fairly sure that last bit isn't quite up to standard. Still, no point worrying about that now - I'll look at it again when the workshop's over!

Merrilee's post this week was on organisation, which was interesting. I began to read it with some trepidation, worrying about what I might need to do, but actually it made me feel pretty good about myself. I have a room which is pretty much dedicated solely to my writing (although sadly I don't get to use it nearly as much as I'd like), and on the computer I have a folder called Writing which has separate folders for each writing course I've taken, each novel I've worked on, short stories and various other aspects. The only part of the writing space I'm not so sure about it the one inside my head, but I think that's just me being silly - I do think about my writing a lot, especially when I'm travelling.

My paper filing is minimal, but I do have a sort of system in progress. My last novel has a box file; my current one is split between a couple of folders and a lever arch file. If I was at home more, they'd stay together, but when I'm travelling I just take the lever arch (the MS) and the most recent notes. Short stories... well, until now I haven't need to file those, really. Maybe something to look at in the future. Then I track my progress using Duotrope's Digest and Farook's writing counters, as well as a couple of spreadsheets that I update from time to time.

Once again, I didn't get as much revision done as I would have liked this week. I've done a lot of planning, and have notes on a good ten scenes that I need to write, but haven't actually done much in the way of editing or writing. Still, I honestly think I can get this done by the 31st May if I buckle down a bit. I meant to spend most of today on it, but, well, I got distracted. I wrote a couple of scenes, and planned some more, but having said I'd spend the whole day on it inevitably meant that I wasted most of it. It's now 16:30, and I think I'm going to need to get the timer out for some motivation. No, actually, this is serious - I'm going to resort to Write or Die. If I can get 2K of new words today, I'll be happy.

I've continued with the idea generation exercise each morning (except Friday) and have a few more interesting ideas. I did try going back to the ideas later in the day, but it didn't really work for me. I'm not sure why. But I do think it's helping me - random thoughts and ideas are sparking with much more frequency throughout the day, and that's a great feeling.

Week Four: Coming Up
This week is another 1st person story. I hope it will be a bit of a challenge - the character I'm looking at is making some decisions that I personally could never see myself making, so I think I'll find that difficult. I found slipping back into 1st person this week relatively easy, but I suspect that's because the character in question was similar in many ways to some others I've written in the past, at least in terms of general attitudes. This week that will be different, so hopefully it will stretch me a little more.

So, it's pretty much the same plan as last week. No planning needed, so tomorrow I'll jump straight in to the third story and see where it takes me. But I'll keep on with the idea generation exercise, and revising needs to become more of a priority if I'm going to keep to my target. Wish me luck.

Quite some time ago - approximately eight months ago in fact, when I first moved into this house - I promised the Wiffers some photos of my writing room. And since I am way behind in my blogging and currently trying to make my way through the rather messy world of my revisions on Amulet, this seemed like a good time to make good on my word. Well, better late than never, right?

So, here we go.

My whiteboard is on the left, with the collage for Amulet taking up most of the space. While I was working on the first draft of The Bonded, that collage was up instead. I use the part below the collage for random notes, key quotes, and change it whenever something better or more relevant comes along. On the right I keep track of my goals.

Then there's the desk, as you can see. When I'm writing, the laptop's in pride of place. Since I'm editing at the moment, there's revision notes, pens, index cards, and usually the lever arch file containing the manuscript.

And there's the view from my desk, looking out onto the park. I got lucky there.



The rest of the room consists of two bookcases, a filing cabinet and my craft drawers. And that's it really.

I like it. I'm not really at home often enough to take full advantage, of course, but when I am, it makes a pretty good writing space.

What about you? Where do you like to write?