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Morning all!

Well, the heatwave in adelaide has finally broken.  I've been out and about rather than writing, I'm afraid.  Although I have transcribed a fair bit.  I'm up to 10,000 words with transcription, which means I've probably got around 40,000 written in notebooks.

I have worked out, though, that I've started the story in the middle somewhere and there's going to be a fair bit of writing that needs to be done at the beginning of the novel otherwise I'm going to have to do a lot of backflashes.  I don't like backflashes in other people's novels so this is something that I really want to avoid.

Hope your writing week has been wonderful.

Md

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Hi all,

I can't believe I'm actually on time this week! 

Firstly, big congratulations to Marelle, Well done you! You're an absolute inspiration.  And I have a tiny favour to ask.  When you work out what to do with your finished manuscript could you let me know too?  I should be finished by this time next week, fingers crossed.

Actually, Fiona, if you have time - could you tell us what you did when you finished your first manuscript?  I would be immensely grateful.  You may already have given this information already, I'm afraid I missed it if you did.

Quick note to Merryd, when I was half way through my story I realised that my beginning didn't explain enough and so had to add to it by way of another couple of chapters.  I think half the battle in writing is to realise what needs improvement before someone else brings it up, and lets face it we are probably our own worst critics, at least I know I am!  Keep on battling, I'm sure everything will fit into place in the end.

As for writing at night?  I find I am at my best as I'm naturally a night owl, plus being a single parent of three children, working parttime (which I'm not now, yippee!) and being a housekeeper, taxi-driver, teacher, cleaner, counsellor and all the other things that come up with running a mad household, generally evenings were all the time I had left to fit in my writing.  I found when I wrote through the day I'd make excuses not to write - housework, shopping, five minutes with a good book that would turn into five hours at the blink of an eye!  I am getting better though.  I just read the last chapter I've wrote previously and that gets me right back into my little world again!  In fact I've gotten so bad I have to put my alarm on to go and pick up the kids from school and family daycare!  Time flies when you're in another realm!

A big thank you to you all for your positive feedback, encouragement and motivation.  Happy writing!

Claire x

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Hey ya.
Slack-Man is back...
Have my parents over and am getting NOTHING done.
Maybe it's the "5 conversations at a time" thing.
Translator for my mum, translator for my dad, translator for my girlfriend, contributor and the one that clears up misunderstandings. YAY!
It helped to confuse the living (expletive) out of me and my control over either language is faltering. Since I am native in both tongues you can imagine the gibberish.
Then there is the fact that it seems like home time after work is "latch on Inkwell time" and spend the next 6 hours talking.
My inner dialogue does no longer get a word in.

Enough of that...Marelle (K): Cool beans!!!
Merryd: Cool beans as well. Hit those notebooks before they stop making sense. That gets to be a major task if you continue along those lines. AND you can't back them up easily.

Okay, before Marelle or Fiona give me a hard time, I'll do my best to catch up. I am due to have some time after my parents leave.
Did I mention that this is week 5 of 6??? (!!!) Anybody have a cryogenic chamber I can use for the remaining 6 days?

Catch ya!

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Welcome back Inkwell!

That's kind of the question isn't it Clairea. I'd also love to know what Fiona did with hers. Me, I tried starting on an edit but I'm afraid I'm still a little too close to it. Every time I found something that maybe didn't need to be there I kept thinking, oh but I like that bit. I've actually made a start on something else. I don't know whether I'll follow that all the way through but I just need to add a little distance I think. I don't know if that helps but it's all I can think to do right now.

And Merryd, isn't the end of the heatwave wonderful? It's even been raining! I was absurdly excited about that despite having washing on the line.