Fi Phillips

After a surge in my writing/editing during Camp NaNoWriMo in April , my non writing life took control in May. Add to this the fact that I couldn't get my head around a new scene that I needed to write and my wordage ground to a halt . After throwing ideas around for that evasive scene for a couple of weeks, I finally managed to get it down on paper this week - phew. I also came to the conclusion that my writing output suffers when I don't have a plan in hand, a regular target. I've therefore returned to an old friend. I've talked about the Pacemaker website before. Using your own choices of regularity of writing and wordcount etc, Pacemaker creates a writing plan for you. My writing plan looks like this: Target wordcount: 25,000 (I've already written around that amount. Another 25k should finish my novel). Start date: Today. Finish date: 17th July (I want to complete this before my children break for the summer and take over my sanity). I've chosen ...

It's that time again, the breath before the final leap into the new year. It's that chance to take a moment to look back before we shut the door on the old year, to check over our intentions for then and our wishes for the future. Back in January , I talked about what I had accomplished in 2013 and how I wanted to approach 2014. I think I managed to maintain that wish to see my life, good and bad, with new, refreshed eyes. Later that month , and again in February , I set myself a reading list. I got around halfway through that list, reading some wonderful novels and poetry. The rest are for next year's reading list. Towards the end of February, I began a new series of blog posts - Something Useful for 2014 - that provided my readers with monthly writing exercises. That's something I'll be continuing in 2015, along with my monthly photo inspiration posts. In the first half of the year, I took customer commissions for three separate murder mystery plays...