ARGH.

Four days. That’s how long I was away from the internet last weekend. Just four measly days.

A week later and I’m still not caught up on audioboos and podcasts. I haven’t dared open my RSS reader yet and I have long since given up on following any TV shows (though I did watch last week’s Doctor Who on iPlayer, because … well… that’s compulsory).

Perhaps I should dedicate this entire bank holiday weekend to catching up. Perhaps if I eradicate sleep I might have a chance.

It’s been an odd week – short and surrounded by bank holidays. A lot of chores and activities got shoehorned in, while distinctly lacking any sense of real achievement or progress.

Writer

Writing 21 (out of 65) scenes complete – structural/continuity revision

I know the numbers haven’t changed at all, but I’ve got a much better handle on the current scene and feel more confident that I will be able to fix its weaknesses. Have put in some solid foundational work that will pay dividends next week.

Reading “Get Out of My Life: But First Take Me and Alex into Town” by Tony Wolf and Suzanne Franks

I’m only in the early chapters but I really hope there’s some practical advice soon.

So far, I’m just ending up feeling very depressed that within the next couple of years my loving and cuddly children are going to turn into monsters, loathe the sight of me and our house is going to turn into a battle-zone! *Whimper*

Fighter

Kettlebell: 8kg
Deadlifts: 10
Two-arm swings: 15
Left-arm swings: 15
Right-arm swings: 15
Alternating swings: 10
Turkish Get Up: 1
Squats: 10
Clean: 5

I’ve started learning the one-arm kettlebell clean this week, but I’m struggling to get good form:

Geek

These look fab – make World of Warcraft-style achievement badges to motivate yourself the kids to get things done!

Enjoyed watching the Royal Wedding? Here are 12 bizarre wedding souvenirs to remember the occasion in style.

I have recently discovered that you can use Tesco clubcard vouchers to get English Heritage membership – with voucher exchange being triple the face value and given a joint membership can set you back £80, this is a really good deal. That’s our summer holiday outings sorted!

Further to an earlier blog post about how schools teach sports, I’ve stumbled across this lady – Jill the Rockstar Nutritionist.

Her thing is to make healthy eating and activity ‘cool’ and fun – after all, junk food has a ton of money to advertise to children, how do we get stuff that’s good for us look attractive to small children when they’re bombarded with unhealthy messages everywhere they look.

It’s not a new idea, I’ve always admired Magnús Scheving’s catchy enthusiasm in the LazyTown series and The Wiggles “Fruit Salad” song was always a big hit in our house. It also has the potential to backfire if taken to extremes (e.g. stringent ‘healthy’ packed lunch rules in schools where occasional treats are effectively demonised).

However, this does look a genuinely great show and I hope to see more of her in the future.

I opened Scrivener today after two weeks of holiday neglect.

It didn’t go as badly as I expected. I knew I had a lot of work to do on this scene, but I did make reasonable progress today.

However, I have a problem. My original draft was written as first person, but I soon realised that I’d need other viewpoint characters to tell the whole story. So, in this draft, not only am I having to amend to third person, I’m also having to look through a different character’s eyes.

I’ve realised that I just don’t know what makes him tick well enough yet to make this work. To complicate matters, he knows significant plot details that my main character doesn’t and I don’t want them known yet, but neither should he be an unreliable narrator.

The fear of mucking it up is stopping me from hearing his voice as clearly as I need to.

So, a question for other writers out there – how do you successfully flip between viewpoint heads and keep a distinct voice/personality with your different characters? Any good tips?

In the meantime, I think I have some discovery writing to do.

There’s an old stereotype that says geeks rarely see sunlight.

I am now happy to prove that stereotype wrong – I can be just as outdoorsy as the next person, I just transfer my geekiness to camping equipment instead!

This weekend, we took out our “new” (to us!) Avondale Dart away to the Oswestry Camping and Caravanning Club site – a lovely small and peaceful (well, at least until my youngest was let loose) campsite in Shropshire.

We haven’t camped in a while – we used to have folding campers (started out with an old Conway Cruiser then after a while upgraded to a Pennine Pathfinder) but put holidays on hold for a year while attempting to move house.

Now we have upgraded to a six-berth caravan with heating (for our wonderfully erratic British summers), bunk beds at the back (for our warring children who will no longer share a bed) and actual cupboard space!

It’s been a fantastic weekend. We were very lucky with the weather and it’s reminded me why I love camping in the UK. We found a couple of lovely quirkly little attractions nearby without breaking the bank and had a really good getaway.

Roll on summer and picnics on the beach under cover of raincoat and discovering unsuitable roads with an errant satnav!

If you’re interested, I’ve created a Flickr set of our trip for your viewing pleasure.

WANT!

I read a great book last night.

It was part of a fantasy adventure series, probably aimed at the young adult audience, spanning 5 volumes.

Highly complex plot, absorbing characterisation, epic journey through exotic locations. A real page turner.

I was genuinely gutted when I woke up this morning and realised it didn’t exist.

Sigh. Jotting down the fragments that still remain in my consciousness. Maybe they’ll become part of a real story one day,

It’s been a quiet week here in the Naan Household.

We’ve relaxed well into the Easter Holidays (or as much as one can with two very noisy and energetic children in the house) and the glorious weather has been seducing me over to the lazy side of life.

I’ve eaten a lot of icecream, that’s productive, right?!

Writer

Writing 21 (out of 65) scenes complete – structural/continuity revision
Progress, what progress?!

Reading “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” by Cory Doctorow
Okay, my reading may also be feeling a little neglected too. I’ve not picked this up since last week.

Fighter

Kettlebell: 8kg
Deadlifts: 10
Two-arm swings: 15
Left-arm swings: 15
Right-arm swings: 15
Alternating swings: 10
Turkish Get Up: 1 (each side!)
Squats: 10

I’ve been given feedback from the grading seminar I mentioned in a previous post.

It wasn’t a total surprise to me that lack of confidence was an issue as well as the expected gaps in my syllabus knowledge. So I won’t be attending this round of grading, but I’ve got clear guidelines on what areas I need to work on.

Geek

Still obsessing over Dragon Age 2 and not had a whole lot of time for other geekery. Shocking, but true!

This is an awesome (in the original sense of the word) series of videos using Carl Sagan’s words as an unofficial advert for NASA. I found myself viewing these with a lump in my throat and chills down my spine.

The person who put these together explains why:

“I got frustrated with NASA and made this video. NASA is the most fascinating, adventurous, epic institution ever devised by human beings, and their media sucks. Seriously. None of their brilliant scientists appear to know how to connect with the social media crowd, which is now more important than ever. In fact, NASA is an institution whose funding directly depends on how the public views them.”

There seems to be a rash of news reports recently stating that sitting down for long periods of time is highly hazardous for your health, regardless of how much of the rest of your time you spend being active.

This New York Times article, Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?, sums it up:

“Sitting, it would seem, is an independent pathology. Being sedentary for nine hours a day at the office is bad for your health whether you go home and watch television afterward or hit the gym. It is bad whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin. “Excessive sitting,” Dr. Levine says, “is a lethal activity.””

Obviously, as a writer and a geek, I spend a considerable part of my day sat in front of my computer as does my techy husband. With large portions of the population sat in offices for a significant portion of their day, should there be more concern about the dangers of sitting?

Cath Shaffer writes a 7-point article on why the issue should be taken with a rather large pinch of salt: Why I am not worried about sitting for most of my work time

“As attractive as strong-sounding statements like “sitting is lethal” can be, the work has not been subjected to peer review and is not published for others to criticize and analyze. I make it a policy not to change my life based on someone’s unpublished, un-reviewed research. If the science is that great, good for you. Go publish it.”

That’s just the first point, but the following six (including pointing out that highly physical jobs are often romanticised and can likewise be detrimental to health) are excellent too.

As for me, I’m more than happy with the amount of physical activity I’m getting and I don’t intend to worry unduly about the time spent at my desk. All the same, it probably won’t hurt to get up, stretch my legs and go put the kettle on.

Anyone for a cuppa?