Y is for Yearning

Yearning = a feeling of intense longing for something.  I have a yearning to be published under my own cover. By this I mean my own novel or picture book. I am working toward that with all the things I do each day. I blog, I blog hop, I read and I study, I practice and practice and I write. Oh I write and write and write.

I read the three Divergent novels in the last two days and I yearn to be able to write in a manner that feels easy and flowing as this trilogy is. There a a lot of new writers who have that easy flow to their work.I told someone recently that I knit tight and write tight and I wonder if I loosened up metaphorically whether I would write with more of a loose flow? 

I like my writing and apparently my beta readers like my writing and editors of anthologies like my writing but still I feel it could be a little more relaxed. I should try relaxing.

There are other things I yearn for, some I can never have because they could only be achieved by other people changing who they are so these are more pipe dreams than yearnings. I never realised that pipe dreams referred to the hallucinations obtained from smoking various pipes including opium and other plant based products. I never was interested in smoking but I do admit I like the smell of some tobacco products before they are set on fire.

So yearning? I yearn for romance and love but I am practical enough to realise the closest I will get to that is by writing a novel and having my protagonist live the yearning for me. 

I yearn to travel and feel this is withing the boundaries of  possible. My yearning increased after seeing all the wonderful plaes people have blogged about.

I also yearn to reach my word count before Wednesday so I better get on with it. 


What do you yearn for? 

Now the hard work begins.

so I finished November challenges and started my December ones, wiping off the daily tallies from the window and setting new goals. I put all my sketches in a folder for SkaDaMo from one to thirty so I can best look back and see what I achieved and then I put 30 copies of the picture book ideas templates and the ideas in another folder with a cover for PiBoIdMo. My plan is to continue sketching every morning and to work on the manuscript and story boards for some of the ideas in prepapration for RYS and 12 X 12 next year.

I am continuing with one of the manuscripts and have already had feedback on the other which I sent out to seven people. I have continuity problems and location problems but nothing that cannot be fixed. I need to draw up a time line and family tree and do some really deep character backgrounds.

So lots of work over December coming up and I feel I am ready. Need more water and exercise. Both are essential.

Final day on all those November challenges

I managed 32 ideas in PiBoIdMo and some of those are multiple ideas for a series on a theme.

and I managed more than 30 sketches which I have displayed gallery style all over my own bedroom walls. I am going to continue my daily sketching simply as a meditation each day. I feel so calm and content when I sketch.




my 50/30 challenge is only 5000 words from crossing the finish line and I have been very pleased with the way the story has developed. I love the characters and i have made my beta readers laugh and cry so I think I am on the right track

and my Nano tally skidded across the finish line last night for the original novel and the two combined novels have taken me to 95000 words. I will be over the 100000 this evening and I feel incredibly satisfied with myself and the novels. The hard work of tidying and rearranging is yet to come and finding where to send the manuscripts is a job for another day but today I am simply going to finish the last 5000 to stand on the podium of my own challenge win. I have learned so many things from this month and my learning curve will continue as I launch my way into my new career.