Justine has posted on 'How to write a novel'. And lots of its true. As someone who is struggling with their first novel attempt I was amused by the advice to not bother with a plot outline if writing your first novel. Hear, hear!

I am stumbling my way through on gut intinct and the seat of my pants.

Little of the way I've approached writing this novel is really text book stuff. I've written and re-written small segments rather than just ploughing on through to a complete first draft. I've come back and tried to fix plot holes and logic errors as I've gone and, at the half-way point, I stopped writing for a few months while I tried to work out what the hell would come next. I kind of new where I wanted to end (at least I thought I did) I just wasn't sure how to get from 30,000 words to that point without a large gap!

I do think I've learned a lot though. Next time I'd probably tried to have a plot outline - even it it was scribbled on the back of an envelope. I'd try and leave less characters hanging.... first shoe dropped, no idea what the second shoe might be or when it might come.

Of course all this wisdom garnered and still not quite finished that first draft. Perhaps this is just another procrastination aid - like computer games and housework!

This morning my face looks like someone slept in it - which of course they did - but why is it that my face looks more slept in when I haven't slept in it?

The link for Asif review yesterday should have been http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=fables_and_reflections_issue_8 I'd edit yesterday's page but this slept in face of mine can't be bothered.

From a review on www.asif by Nicole Murphy of Fables and Reflections Issue 8:

The first story is “The Crying Chair” by Susan Wardle, and it’s a great start. Tabitha finds a chair at a garage sale, and the chair is crying. Tabitha takes pity on the chair and takes it home, and the chair becomes very loyal to Tabitha. So loyal, that when she starts to develop an attachment to her friend Paul, the chair goes out of its way to split them up. It’s a very sweet idea, and a very sweet story. Despite being an inanimate object, the chair does take on a personality of its own, and you react to it as you would any other character: you laugh, you cry, you grind your teeth in frustration.

Also I have a shiny new laptop computer which I'm sure will help me be a better and more prolific writer!