The Sponsorship
Sponsors: 28
Sponsorship Total: £92.50
Money Owed: £63.50
Money Paid: £29
Page Count: 98
Proof I'm Still Alive
I dunno. Throw a peanut at me or something!
Anyway, writing the sponsored novel has been stressful. I'm just about managing 30 pages a day but god, it's difficult. I think of a storyline to keep myself occupied and then it just disintegrates into babble. I'm starting to just write a series of unrelated bits and pieces. If I'm really struggling, I'm writing bits from 'The Chronicles of Stan' or 'The Great Couch Happening of '69' to boost my page count, or ranting pointlessly when times aren't quite that hard.
Also, I got my guitar and clarinet! I managed to totally ruin the G and high E strings on the guitar (they were worn as it was, then I played for a good two hours yesterday) and I'm finding the clarinet impossible to get any sound out of. I fill my lungs with air, blow, blow, blow harder and then get a high squeak just as I'm going blue in the face. And Dad took it upon himself to put it together while I was doing something else yesterday - forgetting to grease the cork bits. Now I can't take the damn thing apart. Thanks, Dad.
I seriously didn't think the clarinet would be so difficult. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I will get it to work. I'm not spending £90 on an instrument so that it can gather dust on my desk.
- Music:Oik (Reprise) - Caravan
Comments
What I'm most worried about right now is getting the bloody thing apart. Right now I can't put it away, for obvious reasons, but I don't want to damage it trying to pull it apart again.
Perhaps a finer reed might be easier to get sound out of?
Good luck with the clarinet! haha x
As for what the novel was about... well, it started off being some weird stream-of-consciousness exploration of the theme of 'worlds' (I can't think of a good way to describe it, really) and then disintegrated into complete and utter nonsense about 50 pages in :'D
That's exciting, re. the moozickal instruments. I'm told there is a specific knack re. the clarinet - is the word I want embouchure?? Have you got a book to learn from? I suppose there might be youtube videos showing the technique (there seems to be a video for everything these days!). I'm sure you'll be
annoying your neighbourser, I mean, playing basic melodies in no time! ;-PThere must be a knack to it; if so, I certainly haven't found it yet! I'm going to try taking the clarinet apart today and actually greasing the cork, then I'll change the reed (it came with a choice of two, so I'll try the finer one) and get myself onto YouTube.
30 pages a day. Egad! :)
I'll give your advice a go. There must be something I'm not getting quite right and it's great that I've got a few clarinet players on my f'list! I'll probably update at the end of today with how it went/what videos I looked at. Might be handy to keep a record of my learning.
*scuttles off to find a lawyer*