I am taking time off work for a severe viral infection, and what better to do than post?

halfamoon has an Unpopular Woman Love Post up. Being a champion of the underdog, I am enjoying it tremendously. (Check out my Cally-from-BSG thread - 'ware spoilers.)

I'm re-reading Fire by Kristin Cashore. I've raved on about this book before, but seriously, it's amazing. Fire has a wonderful quiet strength to her, and there are lines in the book that are so simple, but just cut to the quick. I've been in tears over it four times already, and I'm only about two-thirds through.

It's been a few days now, but JD Salinger died. I truly love his work, especially his stories about the Glass family. Salinger's works are some of my top dip-into-and-reread books. They're the main non-fantasy books I get really excited about, and there are not many of those. I am sad he's gone.

(With that sober end to the post, I am cross-posting for the first time from Dreamwidth. If something goes peculiar, that's why.)

There is a fat cat on the way to work. He's a really beautiful colour - brindled russet tortoiseshell with a white chest and belly. He has a cute stubby tail. I like to stop and stroke him, even when I'm running late. The other day, he was hanging around the school reception, and one of the kids came in shrieking about how fluffy he was.

I think of him like a good luck charm, and it must be working for me. I got onto my teacher training course. In seven months, I will be learning to be a teacher for small kids. I am so pleasedly wibbly I don't know what to say about it yet.

There are loads of super awesome posts on the Chromatic Recasting meme; dhobikikutti has a master list here.

such_heights has done an awesome set of picspams lately. I have been inspired! I am also sleepy, which lends itself well to timewasting. I have not done a big image post in a while, so if I break something on the internet please let me know.

Ta-da! Some female crushes over the years. This goes roughly chronologically. Please do not judge my sometimes questionable taste...

( Watch out! 23 images behind the cut )

I am well past the halfway point of my first draft. Witness!

First draft: 61% done!

Slow and - well, not that steady, due to pre-interview stress, interview, then post-interview stress. Very tired, very stressed. I would find pictures of kittens to soothe myself, but I am too tired.

First Draft: 56% done!

There are a bunch of things I want to talk about: the fantastic and addictive Typing of the Dead, Amanda Downum's interesting but flawed The Drowning City, the fabulous but woman-bereft Sherlock Holmes, the not-fabulous-but-enjoyable and even more woman-bereft Borderlands. But there are things I need to do! Argh. Why do I not have more hours in the day?

First draft: 50% done!

I've been writing this draft since halfway through November. My target is to finish it by April-ish, and then I shall leave it to stew while I have a rest.

I was thinking about motivation and writing. What do you folks do to get yourself to write, or indeed do other things? How do you beat that procrastination demon?

To get me in the zone, I have this 200-song playlist with songs directly or tangentially related to my story. I also have a giant document of people I would cast in the story. This has been especially useful for this story, because there are lots of people in many different groups - criminal, law enforcement, et al - and the pictures help me keep them straight. I've envisioned Rekha Sharma as my protagonist for so long that I can't imagine her any other way.

I also have a picture of a shy albatross on my desktop, and its disapproving stare encourages me to get on with things. Which reminds me, I should probably get going...

You guys, you guys! Not only did ms_feuille and I do actual DIY yesterday, we also have a proper library now. No more cardboard boxes of books and DVDs lying about. And it's alphabetised! (As an eleven year old, I would routinely alphabetise my parents' book collection.)

More excitingly, I have a snow day today! The day stretches out ahead. What shall I do? Write? Go and see Sherlock Holmes? Watch more snow come down and wait for the apocalypse? Who knows?

The writing this week was not quite as epic as it has been. A lot of it has involved rewriting a largeish section that wasn't working right. But now I am unstuck, and will forge forward with determination. I'm on getyourwordsout, which serves as a good motivator.

First draft: 45% done!

With my protagonist Talya I've winged it, working out her personality and story arc as I go. However, I got to a point at which I needed some concrete thoughts to solidify her. To this end I revisited Alicia Rasley's collection of writing and editing articles, and one of my favourites is Who Cares? Character Values and Conflict. I recommend taking a look!

Kristin Cashore also has a cautionary tale about making up your setting and characters as you go...

I failed so hard at doing this last year - and the year before that - that I'm determined to do it now. The bold ones are my favourites; re-reads are asterisked.

( This is what I do with my time )

There's that meme that's going around about the events of the year, but there are too many questions for my liking, and so! I shall do my top media for the year.

( Top 10 Books of 2009 )

( Top 4 TV Shows of 2009 )

( Top 3 Games of 2009 )

( Top, er, 1 Film of 2009 )

May the new year bring you joy aplenty - and more books and TV shows to squee over and mock! What are your New Year's Resolutions? I tend to avoid them, but I'm tentatively going for carry on writing, continue on my goal of becoming a teacher, and generally keeping on an even keel. Yay for equilibrium.

Man, now I want to watch Equilibrium again...

Christmas was lovely. We had apricot stuffing, GIANT GOOSE and all the trimmings. As for TV, Strictly Come Dancing was more fun than ever, I'm cautiously optimistic about the David Tennant Hamlet, and Dr Who confused me with more Donna (yay!), emo Doctor (boo!), overtones I still haven't processed yet (boo!) but TIMOTHY DALTON (awesome!).

More excitingly, Kristin Cashore tops her Graceling-awesomeness with Fire. Just saying.

I have this post planned in which I talk about my favourite books and games and media and things for 2009. However, that's going to have to wait, because my optimum writing method is writing by hand before typing it all up for the next draft. The Epic Amounts Of Writing I've been doing means that I have a lovely sheaf of papers which feels very satisfying to poke. It also means I'm completely out of practice with typing, and my hand keeps dying. Oh, well, we must suffer for our creativity...

Zero Draft: 41% done!

I'm now ensconced at the parents' house with ms_feuille in tow, waiting for the sister to return from her Vienna trip. It's deliciously warm, and lovely to have a cat around. They're also showing David Tennant in Hamlet on Boxing Day. Score!

May you all have a wonderful time over the holiday, with snow or without. And I certainly hope you have a better time than my protagonist. Right now I'm throwing everything at her to see how she deals with it. The answer: not very well. There's also a lot of organised-crime scheming going on which I haven't quite untangled yet, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Zero Draft: 28% done!