I've been up since about 8, working pretty hard on getting some stuff together for The Great Couch Happening of '69. Not only have I put down the groundwork for a 'Definitive Guide' to Whitbrook, the town in which my novel begins and ends, but I've begun to compile an extensive list of crucial tasks that I need to complete to make my book as good as it can possibly be.

( And so on and so forth... )

Today's to-do list:

1. Laundry!
2. Clean rats' cages!
3. Tidy room!
4. Type up 6 pages of the novel!
5. Finish one hammock for the babies!
6. Work acrylic paint into A2 'Iris' painting!

( So, how did I do...? )

Okay, I didn't write at all yesterday so today's goal is to handwrite 9 pages and type up 20. Same thing tomorrow.

The typing up isn't as hard because the stuff is already written; I just need to actually sit down and type it.

My novel's still sat on page 610. Let's do this!

GOOD NEWS. Holly's project is DONE. So I am now free to focus 100% on my novel... and since the CreateSpace offer expires on June 30th, I technically have another month in which to get the first draft done, a cover sorted out, and possibly even a few illustrations! Huzzah!

Camp NaNoWriMo the first is in April this year, so I've set up my profile good and ready to kick-start my book. I'll try and get a wee bit done beforehand as well; the more work I can do the better, and easing back into NaNo mode might not be quite as difficult with a bit of pre-emptive work to get me going. I'm excited!

( Regarding the project I've just finished... )

I have a few things to do today. I've already signed on (Job Seeker's Allowance, bleh) and done all the stuff required of me in that department - enough stuff for one day, anyway - so now I just need to tackle a ton of stuff on the creative side of things.

1. Type six pages of my novel up
2. Write another six pages of my novel
3. One A3 drawing for Holly

That's easily doable. In fact, while I'm still waiting for Jason to get back, I can make a good start on typing up my novel now.

I may also need to do his mum a little favour regarding the funeral today, depending on when she wants it done. She'd like me to type up, format and print out the eulogy she's written/writing for granny. I know it doesn't sound like a hard job, but... wow. I'm actually terrified I'm going to muck it up. Like, I don't know if she wants it to look decorative or for it to be more readable (she requires glasses to read, I know that much, and I don't think she wants to be squinting on the lectern thingy in the church) or what.

I was just thinking maybe a slightly larger font (16 or 18, maybe?), 1.5 spaced so she can tell the lines apart easier and avoid stumbling. That's how I formatted my Prince's Trust Presentation Night speech so I wouldn't end up reading the same line again by accident. Maybe indent the first line of every paragraph... I dunno, maybe I'm thinking too hard about this. I just seriously do not want to mess it up.

Also, I'm amazed that she's trusting me with this. I mean, an eulogy is a very personal, sensitive thing, especially when it's for such a close member of the family. When words are brought together to make one they become immeasurably precious, I think, because of their purpose. This will be the most delicate writing task I'll have ever done. Wow.

Well, we'll see what Maria says anyway. Jason might bring the eulogy for me to sort out today, or she might need more time to work on it.

Other than that, the past few days have been pretty uneventful. I'm getting into the swing of finding a job again, and over the next week I'll be submitting my CV to a few jobsearch sites. There isn't a great deal on the Gov.uk website, to be honest, so I'm better off looking further afield as well. I've been playing a lot of Minecraft, and I've been writing a little bit as well. My novel's creeping along slowly, but slow progress is always better than no progress. It makes me feel much better to be busy!

Today's been a rather productive day. I tidied up the living room, took a lot of my stuff back upstairs, brushed then hoovered the floor, and now it's looking a lot better. Like, we seem to have acquired all this magical floor space out of nowhere. Hopefully we can keep it that way.

( Kelza's Tea, Swimming, More Tidying and The Riddle of the Missing Headphones... )

Updates from Planet Kelza! Hurrah!

( NaNo '12, Kelza's New Job, Its Unexpected Health Benefits and the Best Use of £51 Ever... )

Good news! Two months, three letters and about five million phone calls since I first made my claim for Job Seeker's Allowance, they have finally confirmed that the required letter from university was received. Now I just need to wait to see how and when they will reopen my claim - they said I might have to fill in another application form, but hopefully that won't be necessary. It's not my bloody fault that the letter was sent off late, and it certainly isn't my fault that the Job Centre took so long to actually realise it had arrived!

Oh, and apparently my money will be backdated, new form or not. Phew. That means I can get some better-fitting clothes for an interview and/or work, and I can set up some pet insurance for the ratties and get them registered with a vet. That will put me at ease because I worry constantly about their health.

Speaking of which, I don't think Boffin and Barnaby are well. In the last fortnight they've both been showing symptoms of a respiratory infection. I'm hoping it's not Mycoplasmosis, which requires lifelong care with expensive medication - though if it is, I'm more than willing to work out a budget that allows for their treatment. In the meantime, while I can't get said medication, I'm keeping them warm and well fed with fresh fruit and veggies, as well as a mixture of green tea with lemon and honey which is supposed to do them good and encourage them to drink more. Oh, and I'm cleaning their cage obsessively - a wipe down every day with a wet cloth and full on disinfection every two or three days with boiling water, white vinegar and a rat-friendly disinfectant. So far their symptoms seem to be getting a bit better. Hopefully by the time I get paid they won't be any worse.

I'm preparing to put around £200 aside for their check-up and treatment. Maybe a bit more, depending on what vet I can find. The rest I'll set aside for an emergency. I've learned all too well this last year how crappy things can get if you don't put any cash away for an emergency.

Anyway, what have I been up to? Nothing much. I've divided my time between reading (1Q84 Book Three by Haruki Murakami), playing Minecraft (the Adventure Update came out on the Xbox! Yay!), being with Jason, looking after Boffin and Barnaby and planning my NaNo '12 novel! I can't remember if I've written about this before but I'm taking the notecards approach this time round - cutting up A4 paper into 8 pieces, each of which I will write random plot ideas as well as my established plot points, before arranging it all into some kind of order. This way, I feel I have the direction of a plan guiding me, without the restrictions of, say, just writing a synopsis down in a notepad. If I have a spontaneous idea while writing, I can just throw it in there without upsetting the whole thing. my NaNo 2009 went swimmingly using the very same methods.

The only issue I'm having is a slight creative drought. I have all my main plot points written down now; I just need a whole load of crazy random stuff to chuck in now; the stuff that makes my novel the freewheeling load of nonsense that it is. Maybe I should sit down tomorrow and read through the whole thing to see if there are any plot threads I can pick up...

I have to do well this year. I haven't actually written anything properly since NaNoWriMo last year. If I can make NaNo 2012 a success, it would be a massive step towards kicking this infernal depression and taking my life back. Plus, it would be a big help for my novel; this is the one I want to finish first, and NaNo 2012 could be the big boost towards completion it needs. Maybe I'll even be able to continue with it through to completion this time. I hope so. And then I can begin rewriting. And rewriting again. And rewriting again.

Tomorrow Jason and I are going to a Halloween movie night at Mike's, and then on Monday we're heading off to Southport again, back to the Scarisbrick Hotel! This is where we celebrated our first anniversary back in April, and this time we're going to celebrate the 13th anniversary of Caroline and Alan, some of Jason's family's friends. I'm really looking forward to it; it's going to be a much-needed break, and a great workout too. Going away means we'll be doing a ton of walking around, and this time we'll be making full use of the hotel's pool and spa facilities. I can't wait to see how many calories I'll burn! I'll be bringing my novel plan and a few pages as well, because NaNoWriMo will actually begin on our last night there! It would be great to get a few pages done in the hotel before bed (after midnight, of course!) and some on the car ride home.

But first, however, I need to plan...

I know I keep saying this but I need to start working on the novel regularly again. My life recently has become something of a Jason-work merry-go-round - and while this isn't a bad thing (I adore both dearly), it's sad that my writing, art and guitar is once again being overlooked.

This weekend, I'm going to try and get back on track. I'll tidy my room tonight - particularly the innards of my wardrobe, which urgently need sorting out - and then sit down to write four pages on 'The Great Couch Happening of '69'. After so many false starts with crap-titled novels like the first five drafts of 'Shadows Rising', 'Trinity', 'Voices From Above' (plus its many alternate titles) and 'Crimson Dawn', I'm determined that 'The Great Couch Happening' will go somewhere.

It has to. I've broken both my record of time spent on a project (a year and two months) and my record of pages written - 340-something. All that time and effort simply can't go to waste.

( In which Kelza debates whether to go self-publishing or mainstream... when the book is finally done, anyway. )

So I think I have another malware thingy on my computer. WHERE THE HELL DO THEY COME FROM. There I was, happily browsing the Internet (or as happily as a TalkTalk user could browse, at any rate) when suddenly BOOM! The browser closes, and when I try to open it up again I get a pop-up saying 'install Vista Home Security 2011 OR DIE'. See, the thing is, it looks like a genuine Microsoft program. But then, so did ThinkPoint and Security Shield.

Also, this pop-up, while mostly well-written, contains a few subtle quirks in the language that make my malware alarm go wild. I quote word for word...

"Windows recommend Activate Vista Home Security 2011

Click "Yes, Activate..." to register your copy of Vista Home Security 2011 and perform threat removal on your system."

One: there are elements of Engrish to your writing. Two: I have no recollection of ever having a trial version or whatever of your program. Three: kindly go to hell and perish there a million times.

Methinks it's time to get Malwarebytes on its arse.

Anyway, I managed to write four pages on 'The Great Couch Happening of '69' today, as well as kick arse on Final Fantasy VII. Usually it's one or the other with me. I write and keep writing, or I play FFVII and keep playing. I even managed to listen to a few records, and work a little on my screenplay version of 'The Great Couch Happening of '69'. All in all a productive day. This journal entry will be my final productive act of today, if you don't count sleeping as productive!

Personally, because I'm a lazy sod, I do. It makes me feel better about myself. If someone says to me "So you didn't write or draw anything today?" I'll look them square in the eye and say "I slept. That still counts as doing something with my life!"

Ehem.

( And so the story continued and you all got bored and went off to do more interesting things... )

I forgot the council were coming to rewire all the houses in this area. To be honest, I'd rather hoped that they'd forgotten, too. Alas, we got a letter today - they'll be invading our homes starting Wednesday, drawing up plans to absolutely ruin our decor.

Surprisingly, it's not the looming repainting job I'm worried about. I have, after all, recently discovered that I rather like painting and decorating. It's the fact that I now have to tidy my room.

"But," you might protest, "we thought that since moving house you'd turned over a new leaf! Your room was supposed to be the pinnacle of tidiness, was it not?"

Not so much. In recent weeks I've yet again been spending more room downstairs at my computer, where it's easy to do a bit of research here and there, or have five minutes on Twitter to let my brain recover from whatever project's currently occupying me. Plus I have more desk space down here. Consequently, my room's fallen into a sort of disrepair. I use it for sleeping and getting dressed; that's about it. The desk's full of stuff I've just dumped there and there are clothes all over the floor.

I find a room like that utterly unusable for anything other than sleeping. So, rewiring survey or not, I think it's about time I tidied the place up.

Anyway, creative pursuits have been coming along well. I've started work on a ridiculously complicated cover for my novel; a kind of art nouveau, 1960's concert poster affair. I thought it would be fitting, considering what my novel's about and when it's set. So far I've drawn out an elaborate border, a couch with a hand sticking out of it, a postbox in a field of gigantic mushrooms and some circular psychedelic designs. Because I fail utterly at drawing cars, I've employed Ashley, who's fantastic, to draw the 1984 Volvo 340 for me. It's flying, leaving a trail of swirly colours behind it.

Now I just need to think of a good way to stick all these images together. I've drawn them all separately so I can scan them in (if my Dad ever replaces his now useless scanner) and compose the cover digitally.

Today, I shall confess, has been uneventful. I wrote a few church fillers, an entertainment story and that was about it, really. I've got one story left to finish on a fundraising event for a lymphoma patient that can only be completed once I actually manage to get the organiser at his phone.

Anyway, while the electric's nearly gone (we've had a superbly thrifty weekend to the point where I'm not even allowed to breathe in the living room's heat) I'll have to log off. I'll write something a little more meaningful tomorrow!

It was a sunny day in Hastings - clear skies, but cold. The English countryside was wild with the colours of October, and also the colours of the Norman and English armies who were happily hacking one-another to pieces on Senlac Hill.

( And so it continues... )

( If ever you intend on reading this novel and don't want it spoiled, DO NOT CLICK. )

To those of you who didn't dare click the above LJ-cut, my novel's basically reached a point where it's forked off into three main plots that need a lot of attention, but also need to be interwoven around each-other. I've set a goal of 350 pages for the first plot, 250 for the second and 150 for the third.

This would give me roughly 750 more pages. My grand total, then, would be about 1050. If I follow this plan, then the amount of time spent on each side of the story will be appropriate.

The problem is interweaving these stories and giving each aspect enough attention in doing so. I don't want there to be a predictable structure to it, either. I feel that would totally defeat the purpose of my book. If I write it straight and spontaneously, though, important details will most certainly be lost.

Should I type the novel up from here on, covering each of the above aspects separately and then mixing them all together later? Or, alternatively, should I continue to handwrite, keeping each aspect as a separate project, so I can piece it all together in the rewrite?

I want to write them separately to ensure that I cover each part of the story adequately; to make sure that nothing's left out of one story because I've got the happenings of another distracting me. In the heat of creation, particularly with so many plots going on at once, I tend to accidentally omit important details. At this stage in the story, it's vital that I don't miss anything out.

The thing is how accessible I want my novel to be. I'm still the unfortunate victim of a shared computer, and while typed writing is easier to edit, you can't access it while someone else is on the computer - as, usually, they are. So, looks like I'll be tackling this in several handwritten projects, then, to be put together properly in the edit.

It'll make the whole project less manageable in the long run. In fact, I feel so positive about this that I can actually see myself completing 'The Great Couch Happening of '69' in first draft form some time in 2011!

Holy hell. I managed to write something yesterday! I wrote four pages (1200 words) of 'The Great Couch Happening of '69', and I'm going to aim for four pages a day minimum from now on.

It feels so good to be making steady progress again. I was starting to wonder whether it would be a year before I could get back into writing again. I was burned out completely and utterly after NaNoWriMo '10, and then along came The Prince's Trust, which takes up a lot of my time and most of my energy every day.

Yesterday and the day before, I slept over at Holly's. Typically, these sleepovers include a lot of writing banter and sometimes - on rare occasions, if we can stop gabbing enough to get our heads down - a little writing itself. So, on the second day, after sleeping in cataclysmically late, I made a pact. I was going to start on these novels again, and I was going to bloody well finish them.

So, here I am now, taking a short break for journalling purposes before getting back to 'The Great Couch Happening of '69'. That's the project I plan to tackle first, while it's sat neglected since October. So far, the whole 'getting back into it' thing has been good.

Today was yet another half-day at the Boys' & Girls' Club. The main room is used sometimes by an art club who refuse to relinquish the building so we can snazz it up. I complain because of the lack of time we have, everyone else celebrates about the gift of another lie-in.

I set my alarm for eight this morning. It went off at eight, I decided I was too tired, reset it for nine and passed out for an extra hour's kip. It went off at nine. I woke up, decided I was still too tired and set it for ten. It went off at ten... and I realised I needed to have a bath before going out, so I got up.

It was a weird feeling, going out at noon on a Monday. I'm actually used to these early mornings again, which can only be a good thing. I was one of the first to arrive.

Now for the day's work. It was all about sorting out the woodwork, finishing the coat of matt emulsion, scraping paint off anything that shouldn't be painted. Tomorrow, we're glossing it and having it finished up, as far as paint is concerned. That shouldn't take too long; if anything, we'll be able to get carpet tiles down tomorrow as well so the room's ready for furnishing.

All in all, we have two days left of our community project. The handover's actually on Friday, so that means we have Wednesday to finish everything off. I think we'll need the time - Newton Boys' & Girls' Club is a big project.

Tonight, as well as writing my three remaining pages for the day of 'The Great Couch Happening', I need to draft a letter to the St. Helens Reporter (not the Star, as a previous entry suggested) asking for a work placement. I'll handwrite it for Vicky to type up and send off. It's exciting, but nerve-wracking as well!

I found out today that Syfy are axeing Stargate Universe. Only two seasons were filmed, and they've cut it off just as the plot was starting to get really good, heading in some kind of direction. It must have been a shock to some of the actors who only found out today via. the Internet (David Blue being one; he found out through his fans on Twitter) - and it was a shock for me as well because I thought it had the potential to go on for another two seasons at least. The plot had evolved in such a way that it would be possible.

I don't know what Syfy are playing at, but this has left a good deal of irked fans, myself included, wondering from whence this decision has come.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll be sleeping over at the lovely Holly's! Bllimey, it's been a long time since anyone's seen her. I'm hoping my Flash Gordon DVD will arrive in time for such tomfoolery because then we have something awesome to watch while we stuff our faces.

Getting there, as you know, will be a problem. Sure, it's as simple as getting a bus then getting off at the right place. My navigational skills are deplorable. It took me two hours once to find a theatre that was only five minutes away from where I was. Literally. I am the kind of girl who could get a bus from the High Street, ask for Lowton, and end up in Zimbabwe and Sweden AT THE SAME TIME.

I feel I must talk about my writing progress. 'The Chronicles of Stan', regrettably, has gone nowhere for the past couple of days. I mustn't give up, however; this is a novel that I am adamant I'll complete, and the same goes for 'The Great Couch Happening of '69'. I suppose it's just that after all the NaNo madness, my brain has gone a bit slack. It's like running a marathon and feeling afterwards like you could spend a month in bed. My brain's a bit dead.

I've decided that I'll write Book Two of the 'Chronicles' some time next year, once I've polished off 'The Great Couch Happening'. Book Three of the 'Chronicles' will be written probably some way into my second year of university, after I've had a good sampling of uni life; enough to write in such a setting. Thankfully each one of the books is fairly short as novels go, so I can easily work them in around larger, non-NaNo projects of the same scale as 'The Great Couch Happening'. And NaNo novels, in fact. One book of the 'Chronicles' takes me about seventeen days to write.

This means I'll have to start planning for Book Two - by planning, I mean come up with a 'what if' question, then a title that's of no relation whatsoever to that question, write a whole load of random crap and then make it relevant as the story goes along. And that, in a nutshell, is how I write stuff.

Now, owing to tomorrow's appointment with the lovely Job Centre people, I must go and get some kip. Thankfully I have enough money for transport and records amounting to £10. And for some reason, I am tempted to attend said appointment with one of those Christmas cracker crown things on top of my sort-of-bowler-hat-that-isn't-a-bowler-hat-but-looks-like-one-anyway. The Twitterverse seems to be agreeing with me...

On a musical note, my recent pillaging from Amazon earned me £2 of credit on the MP3 store. It might not seem much, but when you really dig deep and have a good poke around, you can find some worthy gems; albums at less than two quid. I got my mitts on Terry Riley's 'A Rainbow in Curved Air', a very influential piece from the mid-Sixties. I remember reading about it in Mike Oldfield's autobiography and thinking 'blimey! I really have to listen to that!' - so now I have it. When I've got the dosh, I'll get the CD.

That seems to be the way with my musical journey. I hear artists' names in connection with artists I've already experienced, and check them out. Mike Oldfield put me onto David Bedford and Kevin Ayers, who put me onto a whole army of bands from the Canterbury scene, who put me onto other bands because they worked with people from said bands, and so on and so forth. It seems like the Prog genre is one big family; everybody's worked with everybody. It's bloody marvellous!

09:47PM: Have an interview with Lazuli at the end of the book! Of course! That's a nifty way of showing where he might be, one year after reality gets fixed!

09:53PM: Maybe I should try this coffee... anything I put in this flask these days tastes a bit off...

09:54PM: Hmmm. Strong, with a weird biscuity aftertaste. It smells weirder than it tastes, though. And this time, it isn't soapy. For this, I am pleased. I've also only written just over half a page. It's been nearly an hour, now. Bugger.

10:12PM: Wa-hey! A page! Five more to go! I'm turning my phone off to minimise distractions. Not that it's working well, anyway.

10:44PM: Nearly 11, nearly two pages. Oh, wait, two pages exactly because of that little bit I wrote to polish off the page I started on. And the coffee's not all that bad!

11:00PM: There comes a time where every portable CD player requires new batteries. Mine's time is soon, and it had to happen when we're all broke.

11:20PM: Three pages! Currently listening to Matching Mole's 'Gloria Gloom'.

09/08/10 @ 12:37AM: So technically I'm done for the night. Just completed my sixth page. I want to go to bed now as I'm exhausted, but I don't much fancy shifting everything back onto my desk! I listened to 'Cunning Stunts' before 'Little Red Record', and then followed it up with 'Whatevershebringswesing'. It's as wonderful as ever. How long has it been since I've listened to Kevin Ayers? Answer: too long.