Hello again!

Hello blog fans.

It's been rather a while. For which I am very sorry, I should keep you guys in the loop more. The truth be told I have rather a lot to catch you up on. So, first things first; life on Planet Beth!

We are now a teacher!  And probably ought to stop discussing ourselves in the royal third person...

I say teacher, what I am is a stressed, harassed, and overwhelmed trainee. Despite this I do love my job. I'm on a School Centred Initial Teacher Training scheme which means four days a week I work in a school teaching, observing, lesson planning, dealing with children that puke up during my lessons, marking, and generally being badass and awesome making languages accessible to all abilities. No, that's the job description not bragging. I'm based at an Academy near where I live, it's a great school and the kids are lovely. It is a whole world away from where I worked last year!

On Thursdays we go to training which is where we do all the theory, procedure, and protocol gubbins. Sometimes it's fascinating other times it's mind numbing but that's just life. The course however is superb, really supportive and helpful. Superb is my new word by the way. Everything is "superb".

I have begun to annoy myself, try to say superb without sounding sarcastic?

You can't can you!  This is why I worry about how my students react to it being written all over their work...

Other than my current attempts to teach Spanish to kids whom I'm only really a page ahead of,(I feel a permanent fraud), there's nothing much to report on the personal front. I am after all a boring person with lots of opinions, as regular readers already know. Basil continues to break every six weeks, my room is still too small for my library as I'm still living at home annoying my parents. Proximity ensures that we all rub each other up the wrong way at least once a day. Such is life.

Right. Ok. Have I covered it all? Can I talk about the cool stuff now?

Yes?

Good.

BOOK STUFF!!!

Depending on how you came here, you are to some extent aware of my little side project.

I say little.

It has somehow reached in excess of 92,000 at the time I write this. This is not including the stuff I've written non chronologically and needs to be inserted.

Thankfully at this point I'm almost finished. My upper limit is 120,000, but I'm hoping to bring it in under that when it's edited and re-drafted. I think I can do it.

Writing has been a joy I never expected. It's frustrating when words and these annoying fictional people that have taken up residence in my head refuse to cooperate! Seriously a sixteen year old throwing a strop in your head because she has fictional angst is hideous. I'm not crazy I know these individuals aren't real, and I tell them what to do. Sort of... in terms of narrative they develop and write themselves, most writers have arguments with their characters. I am assured that this madness is totally normal.

Which would help if writers were normal people. We're not. We're bonkers. But it's a healthy form of bonkers that I heartily recommend.

It helps if you have similarly afflicted friends. Which I do and they are wonderful and the amount of spam I send them over Facebook messenger is testament to how much they love me that they have not blocked my ass yet.

Thank you Kit and Lydia for having the patience of saints. I platonically love you guys.

Having people to listen to my madness has been integral to my process I crave feedback and praise, teachers are fuelled by it, authors even more so, Kids with ADHD? Well it's the only way we ever get anything done.

But I've taken it a step further.

I've gone and thrown myself in the deep end and got involved in the community.

And acquired myself a lovely pair of crit partners.

A critique partner is a person you haven't really met but who also writes who can give you objective feedback without worrying about ruining a friendship if they tell you your work is terrible.
This is by no means belittling the role of the wonderful people who have been involved from the start. It's adding an extra layer of quality control and making new friends with the same interests.
Everything I've read has recommended that if you want to write you should find yourself an objective crit of your work. I feel a little bit nervous still about sharing my work but I received a lovely email from a Mailing Lister today that has spurred me to keep writing. Particularly as I'm so close to the end. I wish I could be insightful about my process for you guys but really as my friend Scott said really in the end it comes down to nothing more than drive. The determination to write a manuscript.
Tell someone what you're up to, ask them to keep you accountable, join a forum and find a crit partner if that would help you.
And believe in your story.
Let your characters breathe and grow and let them surprise you. Mine do endlessly.

They also wake me up demanding attention at 3 AM demanding attention like a nursing infant.
That's about the time I start plotting horrible deaths for them.

Yes that's why your favourite characters die, they wake the author in the middle of the night and make them grumpy.

Anyway I had better go write me some book.

Much love,
Bethxx