Welcome to a new monthly feature "My Top 5" all posts will go up on the 13th of the month. Access this blog feature anytime by clicking on My Top 5 in the labels in the sidebar.
Top 5 Stephen King Novels:
These are my all time top 5 Stephen King Books. King has such a vast imagination that anything goes. In no particular order:
It - The past and the present were seamlessly integrated
The Shining - Great location, great character.
The Dark Half - Had huge appeal when I was using a penname
Nightmares And Dreamscapes - Fantastic short story collection. I loved the way King used two mundane objects in Chattery Teeth and The Moving Finger
Black House - written with Peter Straub, I completely fell in love with the main character.
What are your favourite Stephen King books?
Other Top 5's:
My Top 5 Favourite Ghost Stories
My Top 5 Favourite Poems
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
ROw80 - Round 3 - Check in 5
Goal: To complete prep work for 2nd draft of a novel
After checking in on Sunday I added spreadsheet data for chapters 5 & 6. I checked over the 4th section of my course. The next assignment seems more about rewriting existing poems than writing new ones so I'm going to schedule in one night a week for writing new poems so I'm still producing fresh work. I did my 5 minutes of pranayama and finished reading and reviewed The Invisible Man by H G Wells.
On Monday, my mind being full of the recent mindless events meant all my goals went out the window but I'm more focused on writing now as it's time to start moving towards getting out of this city once and for all.
Tuesday was a low production day due to only getting two hours of sleep on the Monday night but I began adding data for Chapter 7.
I'm off on a business trip for a few days so I'm planning on reading poetry if I get the chance.
Stay save everyone.
After checking in on Sunday I added spreadsheet data for chapters 5 & 6. I checked over the 4th section of my course. The next assignment seems more about rewriting existing poems than writing new ones so I'm going to schedule in one night a week for writing new poems so I'm still producing fresh work. I did my 5 minutes of pranayama and finished reading and reviewed The Invisible Man by H G Wells.
On Monday, my mind being full of the recent mindless events meant all my goals went out the window but I'm more focused on writing now as it's time to start moving towards getting out of this city once and for all.
Tuesday was a low production day due to only getting two hours of sleep on the Monday night but I began adding data for Chapter 7.
I'm off on a business trip for a few days so I'm planning on reading poetry if I get the chance.
Stay save everyone.
Monday, 8 August 2011
Book Review - The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
Review - I couldn't get into this at all, unfortunately the narrator came along every few pages and pulled me out of the story. The main character Griffin is pretty much arrogant and his only aim is to abuse his position, as there was never another prominent character in the story that really played on my sympathies I had to force myself to keep reading.
I did enjoy learning about Griffins first few days of invisibility and the way that things most people take for granted or don't really think about caused him problems but by then it was too little too late for me to really get into this.
Rating 2/5
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Website Updates and blog updates
I have added a review index to the blog and removed my reading list as that had become redundant.
On the website:
Issue 7 of Dark Metre, a horror poetry newsletter is now available to read on the current issues page.
Horror Poets have been updated.
That's it this month.
On the website:
Issue 7 of Dark Metre, a horror poetry newsletter is now available to read on the current issues page.
Horror Poets have been updated.
That's it this month.
ROw80 - Round 3 - Check in 4
My Goal: To complete prep work for the 2nd draft of a novel
On the last check in someone asked about my spreadsheet, it's quite a basic affair but first I'll explain what my plans are for tackling the rewrite.
One thing that was missing from my paper thin 1st draft was location details, you'd think my characters were walking around in a blank canvas. As I can rebuild my locations independent of plot and character development I'm focusing on that.
The spreadsheet itself will give me an overview of every appearance of every location in all my chapters. I'll also be using it to fill in the timeline. One thread of my novel starts back in a character's past.
The next stage will be to complete any necessary research for building the locations and writing out a description of each location on a separate piece of paper. I can then keep that in front of me when I start rewriting the actual novel.
Next prep stage will be to:
Once all that's done, it'll be time to look at individual scenes. I'm trying to break it down as much as possible into manageable chunks before weaving all that information back together.
My spreadsheet has 8 headings for:
Chapter - which chapter the data is for
Location - What locations are present in each chapter
Journey - When characters need to get from a-b
Day - what day of the week each chapter takes place
Time of Day - the time of day i.e morning, afternoon, night
Year - the year i.e 1963 or 2011
POV - The PoV character for the chapter
Character's present - What other character's are present.
I may insert headings for emotion and important info revealed
I've completed spreadsheet data for the 1st four chapters and can already see that I've got space to insert new chapters to follow through the 1963 timeline. I still need to go back over most of my entries to fill in day's.
On my other goals, I finished my current assignment, have done no reading since last check in and didn't do my exercise goal.
How's everyone else doing?
On the last check in someone asked about my spreadsheet, it's quite a basic affair but first I'll explain what my plans are for tackling the rewrite.
One thing that was missing from my paper thin 1st draft was location details, you'd think my characters were walking around in a blank canvas. As I can rebuild my locations independent of plot and character development I'm focusing on that.
The spreadsheet itself will give me an overview of every appearance of every location in all my chapters. I'll also be using it to fill in the timeline. One thread of my novel starts back in a character's past.
The next stage will be to complete any necessary research for building the locations and writing out a description of each location on a separate piece of paper. I can then keep that in front of me when I start rewriting the actual novel.
Next prep stage will be to:
- Complete research for vague bits in the plot.
- Redo all my character sheets, and figure out my antagonists theory.
- Add new location and character sheets for the two story threads I'll be fully developing in the 2nd draft.
Once all that's done, it'll be time to look at individual scenes. I'm trying to break it down as much as possible into manageable chunks before weaving all that information back together.
My spreadsheet has 8 headings for:
Chapter - which chapter the data is for
Location - What locations are present in each chapter
Journey - When characters need to get from a-b
Day - what day of the week each chapter takes place
Time of Day - the time of day i.e morning, afternoon, night
Year - the year i.e 1963 or 2011
POV - The PoV character for the chapter
Character's present - What other character's are present.
I may insert headings for emotion and important info revealed
I've completed spreadsheet data for the 1st four chapters and can already see that I've got space to insert new chapters to follow through the 1963 timeline. I still need to go back over most of my entries to fill in day's.
On my other goals, I finished my current assignment, have done no reading since last check in and didn't do my exercise goal.
How's everyone else doing?
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
ROw80 - Round 3 - Check in 3
My Goal: To complete prep work for 2nd draft of a novel
Even though we are experiencing a rare appearance of something called sunshine in the UK, I managed some productivity.
Wrote another poem and its related commentary which means I'm on track to have my current assignment all finished by Friday. Yay. The end is in sight.
Managed to get some reading done but not as much as I would've liked. I was expecting to be finished with H G Wells by now.
I have a couple of ideas in mind for blog posts but so far I haven't sat down to write them.
Completed filling in my spreadsheet data for Chapter 1 of the novel, which will actually become chapter 2 when I start the actual rewrite.
All in all, slowly chipping away. Visit the other participants below:
Even though we are experiencing a rare appearance of something called sunshine in the UK, I managed some productivity.
Wrote another poem and its related commentary which means I'm on track to have my current assignment all finished by Friday. Yay. The end is in sight.
Managed to get some reading done but not as much as I would've liked. I was expecting to be finished with H G Wells by now.
I have a couple of ideas in mind for blog posts but so far I haven't sat down to write them.
Completed filling in my spreadsheet data for Chapter 1 of the novel, which will actually become chapter 2 when I start the actual rewrite.
All in all, slowly chipping away. Visit the other participants below:
Sunday, 31 July 2011
ROw80 - Round 3 - Check in 2
My Goal: To complete prep work for 2nd draft of a novel.
Not made much progress since I checked in a week ago. Been stupidly tired all week that my motivation got up and left.
I decided to introduce some fitness back into my life and have been doing 5 minutes of pranyama with the ipad. I'm already starting to feel more awake.
Today, I pulled myself out of the slump:
Wrote a new poem for my course, typed up a couple of summaries
Read some poetry for a change and read a chunk of The Invisible Man by H G Wells.
As for my actual ROW80 goal, I started transferring my location details onto the spreadsheet and also been filling in what characters are present and the pov character. I've started adding years to the timeline and will need to work out what day and time of day events actually take place. (Ok I admit, I did the bare minimum just so I could check in today.)
Hope you're all having a great weekend:
Other Recent Posts you may have missed:
Last Monday Poetry - Love Poem to the Sea
ROW80 - Round 3 - Check in 1
Not made much progress since I checked in a week ago. Been stupidly tired all week that my motivation got up and left.
I decided to introduce some fitness back into my life and have been doing 5 minutes of pranyama with the ipad. I'm already starting to feel more awake.
Today, I pulled myself out of the slump:
Wrote a new poem for my course, typed up a couple of summaries
Read some poetry for a change and read a chunk of The Invisible Man by H G Wells.
As for my actual ROW80 goal, I started transferring my location details onto the spreadsheet and also been filling in what characters are present and the pov character. I've started adding years to the timeline and will need to work out what day and time of day events actually take place. (Ok I admit, I did the bare minimum just so I could check in today.)
Hope you're all having a great weekend:
Other Recent Posts you may have missed:
Last Monday Poetry - Love Poem to the Sea
ROW80 - Round 3 - Check in 1
Monday, 25 July 2011
Last Monday Poetry - Love Poem to the Sea
Love Poem to the Sea
by Katy Bennett
I am here
in this sprawling
concrete asylum
while you are there
a vastness beneath the sky
an endless body of calm and inspiration.
I envy the seagulls that circle above you
free and alive every day
while I fight
through the hordes day in
and day out. Growing
weary of the rat race
and the chains.
I’ll see you again soon, my love.
Missed last month's poetry? Read it here.
by Katy Bennett
I am here
in this sprawling
concrete asylum
while you are there
a vastness beneath the sky
an endless body of calm and inspiration.
I envy the seagulls that circle above you
free and alive every day
while I fight
through the hordes day in
and day out. Growing
weary of the rat race
and the chains.
I’ll see you again soon, my love.
Missed last month's poetry? Read it here.
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