By Slanted Light

I haven't done a meme for ages, and this one is all around right now, so I'm going to have a go. Plus it's cold out there, and I'm building myself up to go for a walk, and this is a nice delaying building-up strategy. *g*

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 authors.
No tags, because there's barely that many of us on lj any more anyway, and lots of people have already done it... *g*

1. They came together that night because neither of them had any other place to go.

2. “My Will, the watchman,” Merriman had called him, and for years Will had watched in the imperfect world, growing up in it, been Old One and boy in the calm after the storm.

3. They watched Cowley stride away, ignoring the milling police, gesturing to Kate Ross, who nodded back, clearly began finishing her conversation with one of the ambulance drivers.

4. Doyle extracted himself with difficulty from Marge’s tender ministrations, catching the amused eye of Herb – or was it Alf? – in the wing mirror as he clambered out.

5. Doyle stalked straight past Bodie, standing waiting for him in the early evening light.

6. Bodie'd said it a hundred times - more, over the years, and so many more in his head.

7. London was shrouded in mist as Doyle tooled slowly through the traffic up the Fulham Road, heading for Bodie’s, riding on automatic, even as he weaved in and out between the cars to get ahead.

8. By the time Sunday came around, still raining heavily, Doyle’s flat was shining, he’d written to his mother, uncle and two of his sisters, had a go at baking bread, and was so bored he was contemplating a run even if he’d have to wear a swimsuit to do it.

9. “Northumberland.”

10. It was one of those May mornings where the sun shone, the birds sang, and because it was 6.30am on a Sunday, Doyle thought, swinging out the door to his flat, and pausing to take a breath of fresh air, you could actually hear them.

11. Doyle woke to an incessant ringing from the bedside table, dragged from deep sleep and dreams before his alarm went off.

12. Underhill had found them.

13. "Look at that." Doyle gestured out the window at their view of the snow-covered street with his cup of coffee.

14. The sun had unexpectedly come out, and the summer felt almost like summer, which wasn't what Bodie'd expected when he'd dressed for the grey sky that had lowered sullenly outside his window that morning.

15. It’s never Valentine’s day for them.

16. “I’m gonna put it in my letter, you know.

17. Something was wrong with Bodie.

18. As most right-thinking people should know, it has never been hard to tell the difference between a Scotsman with a grievance and a Ray(mond Doyle) of sunshine, but on this particular day, in this particular office on one of the more discreet streets in Whitehall, William Andrew Philip Bodie found himself having trouble.

19. Two o’clock, Bodie thought as chimes rang out in the downstairs flat, and all is well.

20. The world rushed past outside the train in blurs of green and yellow and sky blue, cut by darker lines of trees and bushes, dotted white now and then with sheep, or brown with cows.

Huh - interesting... I can't see any patterns myself! Can anyone else? I was going to say that if it's Pros I usually start with Doyle, but that's not true. All but two of them, both written for the Yuletide challenge, are Pros. *g* Quite a few are scene-setting, but definitely not all... nope, no patterns that I can see!

And pick my favourite opening line... not sure I can do that either, cos they're quite different... I like #1 because it feels melancholy to me, and #7 because I quite like imagining it, #10 because it makes me feel warm and blue-skyed (did I mention it's cold today?!) and #18 because it was fun to write...

Does anyone who's read this far have a favourite line from those above? Or maybe one you don't like?!

Could you please comment with the following:

- a mood
- a food
- a type of crime
- a piece of furniture.

Thank you! *g*


Thank you!

...twinkly lights and bookshelves nearby.
I'm sooo sleepy again! Actually had a pretty good day - got up early, sorted out a new Job 1 project and arranged to speak to Dubai about it after Job 3 (not the whole country... *g*), went to Job 3 and put my foot down after half an hour of faffing and went off and did some more stomping of feet (nicely *g*) and convinced someone with the power to say do it that Attention Needed to Be Paid, and within five minutes we came up with a brilliant idea or two to help and I got started on them. Yeay. (Can't stand middle managers who just say well the situation's not ideal... when they really mean I really can't be bothered....) Had a piece of very delicious pannetone at morning break - yum, had no idea it could be nice fresh! Spoke to Dubai (not all of it. *g*), which was nice as it involved two weeks of proofreading from paper and a probable two more weeks of it after that. Yeay. Petrol, supermarket (I need to avoid that place better...), home and pottering, on with current Job 1 assignment, got lots done... and then collapse. Enough! So the last 15 pages draaaaagged out, and I didn't get them done until just after 11, and I should also have done that 26 pages over there, but... oh, but that just doesn't seem to fit in when I've been at Job 3... Um.

Oh! But also, book delivery from Wordery when I got home - yeay and yeay! Oh, go on, let's have the book-delivery porn too... *g*War and Peace is because I've been watching it on the Beeb and quite liking it, and thought now might finally be the time to give it a go (and because Wordery has a January discount if you buy two or more books... *g*), and Thank you, Jeeves is my next books1001 read - how fab is that? *g* I've had some good assignments from that comm - Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, and now this one! Also, I'm reminded that I never did write the Pros fic I mostly plotted for Discovered in the Style of... - the challenge I was given was P.G. Wodehouse and unreliable narrator, and I seem to remember getting bogged down in needing to re-read the stories. And re-reading them. *g* Hmmn... Oh, too much to write and too little time! If only we lived in a world where we could be paid for writing fic (so that we could write it instead of Job 1 and Job 2 and Job 3 and... wouldn't that world be luvv-er-ly? *sighs*)

And why am I yammering on when my eyes are melting...? *headdesk* To bed, perchance to imagine Bodie and Doyle in a P.G. Wodehouse novel... *vbg*

I thought this was an excellent idea of golden_bastet's when I saw it in my flist this morning, so I'm kind of pinching it! *g* I already keep a master list of my Pros fic on my sidebar, but I like the idea of keeping track of this year's challenges too. Well, and actually doing some again. *g* Plus listing them here might mean I'm prompted to remember what they are and when they're due! My brain just isn't big enough for this internet-life - I've always needed to keep a paper diary too, and if you organise it right, lj is close... *g*

List of all my Pros fic

Challenge 1 - Picfor1000 - Challenge #14: Money (That's What I Want) at picfor1000 - due 29th February 2016

Challenge 2 - Pros Bingo at discoveredinalj - deadline 30th November 2016

mercy	broken cups	Klansmen	handcuffs	pub crawl
jealousy	in the tree house	ghosts	Mixed Doubles	first times
angels in disguise	babysitting	WILD CARD	getting lost at night	getting found in the dark
Blackout	strangers	wrong target	striptease	remember me
Queen and country and ducks	Private Madness Public Danger	George doesn't know	George knows	the things we don't think about because they hurt

Challenge 3 - to join in the Community Pros Bingo Card at discoveredinalj

The trouble with Wednesday is that it's Wednesday - you can see freedom from there, but there's all the drudgery to get through first. Tuesday's even worse, though if you're lucky you can snag onto some of Monday's freshness. Thursday... well, now you can just about see the weekend, like catching the scent of the seaside on the air before all that blue sparkle comes into view... *g*

So I will try the Virtual Office again today, despite two days of disaster-feeling (I am actually up to date for my deadline, it just didn't feel as if I was yesterday). But I shall format my day a little differently, I think.

I also woke up realising that it was all wrong that I'm not currently planning a trip somewhere. I haven't for ages, and I should. Actually I do have some trips coming up, all to London, which I can start planning (one of them around a Job 2 course, but the other for a weekend of chat and chilling out in London!). I have a wine course voucher from my brother to use up - trouble is, it's an evening's tasting etc., based in Cambridge, where I'm not any more. But I should just book it and go, cos that'll be different too. And I've taken a week off in May of course. The trouble with that is that I need to renew my passport and my right to abode before I can go jaunting off anywhere too exotic, and before Job 2 craziness kicks off. Job 2 craziness will of course use up all of June and July really, but then... I did say I wanted to get to Alaska this year, if my long-suffering mate is a) still there, and b) still speaking to me. Maybe I can incorporate a bit of wandering into that... *g*

And then I realised that I didn't have anything planned for this weekend except The Voice at 7pm on Saturday and Poldark at 9pm on Sunday, and maybe I should see if I can find something more exotic to do then

Right.

1. Reading The Book Thief - I'm supposed to be finished for book group tonight, but it didn't grab me I started reading, and so I didn't pick it up often enough. I'm nearly 70% through though...
2. Fiddle practice
3. Riverford delivery put away
4. Worked out the right-aligned picture thing, with the writing formatting around it rather than above and below it - thanks owned_by_a_cat!
5. Replied to attend Lunch Club talk thingie on 16th
6. Visited milomaus's desk...
7. Work! 10.30-11.20 (5 pages, pretty solid work. Suppose that's just how long this one takes...)
8. A wee wander of other desks... And it's World Book Day! Other people's desks are so much more interesting than mine... *g*
9. Write Pros - yeay, Part 4 written! I do like managing at least a bit of writing every day...
10. Snack and The Book Thief 414/560...
11. Work! 12.30-1.50. 11 pages, 32/43 - much better pace! Lunch now...
12. And stopping by a few desks, and to chat at my own... *g*)
13. Lunch and The Book Thief. 497/560 - maybe I will do this!
14. Fiddle practice.
15. Work. 3.15-4.15. 42/42.
16. Download future assignment.
17. Hacktrack mile walk. Fresh air! Sunshine!
18.Break - The Book Thief - Finished! All the way to 5.40pm, but finished!
19. Work! 0/28-8/28
20. Bookgroup.

So, I work from home now, in a place of my own, with my own desk in a big room with a kitchen right there, and when I get bored with sitting at my desk I have a couch (actually two, but one's taken up with my fiddle), a standy-uppy-desk-thingie, and a bed that I can sit on and work too. Brilliant, right? Yes - except that I'm fairly reluctant to sit in front of my computer proofreading other people's non-fiction writing for long stretches at a time. (So why do it? Well, there are good things about it too, and I don't hate it - I just find I'm reluctant to get on with it). I gather this isn't just me, it's a common problem with work-at-homers. I've tried all sorts of tactics, and today I'm going to try two things.

1. Keeping track on here (probably to shame myself into getting on with it... *g*)
2. Every 5 pages I stop and practice fiddle for five minutes and then write for five minutes.

Work might still take all day and night, but hopefully I'll get writing and fiddle practice done in snatches of five minutes each. Oh - I know! I should write Pros, shouldn't I - maybe you all will jump in and egg me on too (or maybe it'll just be annoying to see wee snatches of Prosfic appear, and you'll all ignore it until I get to the end, but in theory at least there'll be a story by the end of it...
Yes - that's what I'll do! And to save me flolloping about over one of my previous stories or whatever (if this works then I shall use it as a tactic to get on with them tomorrow and on other days!) - could someone please suggest a theme for a wee Pros fic that I write today? And when I say theme, I don't mean a plot (cos that's half the fun of writing), but for instance... "the lads are depressed", or "in hiding" or a single word that has to be turned into a fic, or summat like that. For instance, A Nice Day to be on the Canal came from the prompts mountain, Grimsby and the jitterbug.

Okay, now I just have to hope that there's someone out there so that I have something to look forward to after my first five pages of work (I have 60 pages to proofread today... that's 12 x 5 minutes of writing, which is an hour!) And if I'm working from now until midnight, then I should be able to fit two hours of writing and fiddle practice in without any bother, right? *crosses fingers and gets on with it*

( A cut for progress )

( A cut for the story )

(Ignore these numbers, though you may see them alot over the next month - and hear cries of despair if they stop being crossed off...)
1667 - 3334 - 5001 - 6668 - 8335 - 10,002 - 11,669 - 13,336 - 15,003 - 16,670 - 18,337 - 20,004 - 21,671 - 23,338 - 25,005 - 26,672 - 28,339 - 30,006 - 31,673 - 33,340 - 35,007 - 36,674 - 38,341 - 40,008 - 41,675 - 43,342 - 45,009 - 46,676 - 48,343 - 50,010.
(Actually this is just a wittering post in general, so feel free to ignore - you know, in general. *g*)

I have words, and I have enthusiasm, and I wish I didn't have to do work at the same time because I want to be writing, and I have a broken filling/tooth and an appointment with the dentist on Friday. I am wearing two pairs of trousers in my room today, and multiple top layers, a blanket over my lap and a hot water bottle tucked in between - but thank goodness the heating seems to be coming on!

I did actually leave the house this morning - I have carrots and I don't like carrots so I decided to make carrot cake, which required about £10 worth of ingredients that I would normally have as standard in my cupboards, so isn't really a good idea economically, but still... And so I stopped at Wholefoods for coffee and cake and to gird my loins for work. I like that we're getting the pretty pictures in the froth over here now, though they're nothing like what's standard back in Aus/NZ. *g*

*pause* Noooo! The heating's gone off again already - it was barely on! I shall have to light a guttering candle soon, and huddle around that... /*pause*

*much later (due to actual lj pause for actual work*) - Yeay, the heating came on again! Actually it came on when I went downstairs to refill my hot water bottle, and J and K were in the kitchen making dinner, and J suggested he turn the heating on... *g* (They were going to anyway, but they would have waited until they realised it was cold cos they were sitting still too *g*) They also offered me a glass of wine - go Monday. Yeay lovely landlords.

And now I have finished work and I have... an hour and a half to write about 700 words to reach my goal for today - eeep! What am I doing here?!

*later again* - dunnit! *points to word count* Of course I have no idea right now how I'm going to get Kenyon back to town without boring the both of us stupid, but that can be a job for tomorrow. I rather think I shall sleep on it... *yawns* And I shall post about Doctor Who, and catch up on replies (sorry, again...) and... and... zzzzz....

...and I was tempted to post it to discoveredinalj, pairing people up, but I think the majority of people are still tied up writing for the Big Bang, so... I shall post here instead, and see. *g*

I'm re-reading a book in which the main character co-writes with other people (in between also writing her own mega-story), and I was thinking about how it'd been fun when I did that in the past. I wrote Let Nothing You Dismay with erushi, and (slightly differently, because it alternated with pictures), Of Myrrh and Light with empty_mirrors, and it was really good bouncing off each other - plus it was good inspiration to write, with someone else depending on you, and waiting for your next installment!

So, I was wondering... *g* Would anyone like to have a go at co-writing a story with me? Taking turn and turn about, writing little bits each at a time, until there's a whole new Pros story? It's got its own challenges, not swerving each other's plot or characterisation, trying to weave your voices together so that it can be polished at the end rather than picked apart, but as Cowley might say, When it works, it work... *g* Or if you'd like to do an illustration in between each bit of my writing that could be fun too (that's how Josey and I did Of Myrrh and Light, her pictures to my writing which was prompted by her pictures, which... *g*)

It could be by email or in a private lj post between us, or whatever works for you, and at whatever pace works best too (though I'll try and be fairly quick in my turn-around, because that usually works best for me - striking whilst the iron's hot). I'll have a go at cross-overs if I know the other source material, and the only condition I can think of on my side is that it's B/D (doesn't have to be explicit, just that B/D are definitely together). In fact I might even slide a bit to the side and offer to write another fandom if it's one I'm familiar enough with (eeh, scary! I've only done that once before, and even then it was really B/D - an LC Jack the Ripper story, Towards Home...) But I can be brave. *g* And the idea is that this will kick-start me into finishing some of the stories I have that are nearly-there, and one or two ideas that I've promised people before. I'll get there, I want to write Pros again, I'm just... trying to catch the coattails of the right muse when I see them out of the corner of my eye... *g*

I'll take on as many as offer to play with me - I do work best under pressure... *g* Feel free to comment or email if you'd like to... if a few people do then we could even have a whole wee flurry of new Pros fic... *g*

*crosses fingers and wanders off to watch Stake Out...*

For the first time in ages I seem to be having a day where I'm just content to sit in front of my laptop (even just to work - I've caught up on yesterday's, and I'm halfway through today's!) and be here. I found this when I was wandering, taking a break, and rather liked it (yes, and yes and yes! Number 9 is where i often go wrong... *headdesk*), and since I don't do Tumblr couldn't find another way to re-post it where it won't disappear, so...

from YA Highway, over on Tumblr, but it was also (originally?) from The Guardian in 2010...

Hilary Mantel’s Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

1 Are you serious about this? Then get an accountant.

2 Read Becoming a Writer, by Dorothea Brande. Then do what it says, including the tasks you think are impossible. You will particularly hate the advice to write first thing in the morning, but if you can manage it, it might well be the best thing you ever do for yourself. This book is about becoming a writer from the inside out. Many later advice manuals derive from it. You don’t ­really need any others, though if you want to boost your confidence, “how to” books seldom do any harm. You can kick-start a whole book with some little writing exercise.

( 3 Write a book you'd like to read... )

And I'm rather excited to report (even if to no one except me), that I actually started writing a story the other day - a Pros story... It started off as a "little writing exercise", as in 2 above, but I think it might run... *g* If this keeps up, I might actually find myself working on some of those stories that I either owe, or just need to finish!

Sorry to spam your flists today... there may be more... *g*

Some whiffling to keep me going today - feel free to ignore, I shall be editing/updating here to prod myself to keep going with various goals!

It's snowing, cos I'm with the lads in Dorset in 2010... *g*

NaNoWriMo catch-up...
Saturday - Managed 3479 words yesterday, which was two"average" NaNo days' worth of writing. It's a start, right?

Sunday Goal One - caught up to Wednesday 7th November (ack - 10 days still to catch up - more days than I've actually written for yet...) (1056 words written so far today - I'm better into it than I was yesterday already...)

Sunday Goal Two - 12,000 words! Okay, not an official goal, but round numbers are nice... *g* But how is it past noon, suddenly? Noooooo!

Sunday Goal Three - 1500 words written today (another unofficial, but round-number goal!) But... why Firrester Farm? Why not Kirrin Farm? What was I thinking last time...? Stoopid sequel-writing...

Sunday Official Goal (Four) - Yes!, 1690 words written, officially what I should have written every day of the challenge. Now only... another 1000 words and I'll have caught up another day...

Sunday Decision - I do not need to go to the supermarket, I can make do with what I've got and shop tomorrow between Job 1 and Job 2. More writing time today! So now I'm clean but have at least an extra hour or two to write today! *g*

Sunday Goal Five - yeay - 13,000 words!

Sunday Goal Six - 13,450 words - that's another day caught up, the 8th! I do like these many little goals... *g* So it's now the 9th of November...

Sunday Goal Seven - 14,347 words - past 14,000 words and Goal Eight - 3689 words so far today, that's more than yesterday!
You know it was really cold in Dorset, in 2010... *shivers*... I'm surprised every time I stop writing and get up to go and do something else. It's not actually all cold and snowy... *g*

Sunday Unexpected Goal - I've just doubled the number of NaNoWriMo words I had written at midnight on Friday 16th (7179). Ha - and apparently at this rate I'll be finished by the 1st January 2013... *g*

Sunday Goal Nine - yes! I have achieved Day Nine! 15,000 words - I have now written exactly half of what I'm supposed to have written by this point in the month... *headdesk* (But yeay!)

Sunday Goal Ten - I have achieved Day Ten! Only eight more days to catch up... otherwise known as approximately 13336 words... Today I have written 6412 words so far (18.06pm) and will finish on December 22nd this year! *g*

I love this day - I am still writing, and I have caught up yet another day. I don't have any more goals, the most I though I could ever wish for was to write 15,000 words, and I thought that was a bit bloody unrealistic... Just yeay! I'm currently on 18430 words altogether, 7772 of which have been written today, which is nearly 5 normal NaNo days worth! I have caught up to the end of last Sunday - just a week's worth of writing-catch-up to go! *vbg*

And ending the day on 19,329 words... It would have been nice to carry on to a round 20,000 but I'm at a bit of a sticky bit where the book veers from the possibilities of adult CI5 agents, and I need to mull... plus perhaps it'll give me a bit of a boost to be able to accomplish 20,000 tomorrow in a teabreak or two... *g*

I think today might even deserve another post all of its own in celebration - maybe even with gorgeous lads in pictures... *g*