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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Hello world

World, how are you?
Todays pictures
I love trees- this picture is a bit strange....
Spring motive



Since Saturday I ´ve followed the same daily routine-


-Breakfast

-Catch one train (How I hate all the delays!)

-Catch the rapid transit railway

-Take the subway

-Writing and Reading Workshop +lunch

-Drive home 50 km by subway,.....

-Dinner (Can I call it dinner?)
-Send a life signal to fam and friends

-Write and Read till.......I fall

-aSLEEEEEEEEP


So today I decided to make a break for some hours. I had to go out for a while to move my body and look what´s going on ousite my "course-world". I took some pictures and now I want to write something else.


Although it´s very exhausting I´m enjoying the course. I work on my First Person Narrative about one trip to Greece and at the moment I try to revise my 3rd draft. Writing´s real fun for me although it´s not easy, but everyday after confering I always get new ideas for revisions, I love that. And I learn a lot about how to revise- it´s so interesting;-) Can use that for my MS, too. But with the knowledge about global, local revisions,... I´m not sure if I´ll ever be able to revise my whole MS ( about 180 pages). I´ve been working on my course-draft since Saturday- just 3!!!! pages.
Yeah,......uhmm,.....well,.......never give up would be a good advice for myself.

Quote-corner:

There is no such thing as good writing, just good rewriting;-) L.D.Brandeis

So, now back to work. Have a good Pre-Easter time!






Saturday, March 27, 2010

Brainstormíng and Research

Haven´t thought that I could use my blog for "research";-)I wrote about my "fight" days ago- mind vs emotions. Minutes ago I finished reading Williams "Use of Force" an interesting short story filled with many different and challenging themes. The fight between a doctor and his patient, an adult and a child (man and girl) and the fight of mind vs emotions. A story about force and how to use it. At the moment I ´m thinking of "Lord of the Flies" and ....hmm, I´m not sure,think it was a book from Steinbeck concerning similar themes.
Well, all in all a strong story with a special focus on the eyes of the girl.
The force of a look- and if looks could kill the doctor wouldn´t be alive any longer.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Show, don´t tell!

The third time this week that I´ve read about this advice- "Show, don´t tell!"
Therefore the link to A. Nolan´s "Show Don’t Tell Roundup" - I like her blog-http://anitanolan.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/show-dont-tell-roundup/
I won´t revise my MS this week, but I´m ready for writing in April. Now I´m just ready to go to bed. Good night;-)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Spring! Spring! Spring!





First flowers this year.
I love walking around and taking pictures especially in spring. I love flowers. I love nature. Today I nearly loved everything. It was about time to see some colors out there. And walking in the sun, in the fresh air is lovely, so relaxing!:-)
I´m glad I took that time today with my friend and her daughter. I won´t have much time next week so I have to arrange many things tomorrow and Friday .
The next course will start on Saturday. I look forward to it, think I´ll learn something new about writing as well. Maybe I´ll get new ideas for my MS;-), too. As always I´m a bit worried about my "conversation skills", unfortunately I don´t have much possibilities for practicing but I´ll do my best. Yeah, a challenge again!




I like the play between shadow and light, the contrast of the colors,...







So, happy spring to all of you!
Enjoy your lives,
don´t worry to much
and keep your eyes open
for all the beautiful things around you:-)








Sunday, March 21, 2010

Fight;-)



You know the feeling of having to do something you don´t want to do? (Like ironing e.g. ;-)
Today I had to handle this feeling. Then I tend to delaying and I just do everything else. Everything unimportant... I know,that´s a bad attitude.
Like a fight brain against heart...that comparison is a bit too stong.Whatever.
I did my job but I needed this kind of pressure; I knew I had to be ready before B. arrives in half an hour.
Today my mind is the winner.
So, clear the ring for the next round! Mind vs emotions!
In this context I have to think of the picture besides (inspired by "Sense and Sensibility" and C.)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Surprise, surprise!

You love surprises?
Then bake a cake without using a recipe!
But you have to try Yeast dough! That can be fun. I did it today,
because I will entertain 1! guest tomorrow.
I just wanted to bake 6 little curd cheese pockets- see what happened!
Have to deliver some to friends+family:-) Next time I´ll use a recipe, but then, where is the surprise??


Friday, March 19, 2010

Good bye!

Think, the winter is gone for this year.
Just some snow left on the mountains. Spring is coming! I like this season as much as fall, it´s a great time for taking pictures and inline skating:-)
...although snowy mountains or a snowy landscape also have something special-as well as summer.
Well, I like all seasons, but spring , summer and the beginning of fall I love the most.
Thinking of Vivaldi´s 4 seasons -also great music, and I can´t decide which musical season I like most.

Music-corner: Vivaldi´s 4 seasons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSw7CcAXPWk&feature=related

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Spanish music

Music is great and so diverse. Today I was in the right mood for some Spanish music. Needed something to stay awake so that kind of music is fabulous, especially the rhythm and the tempo.
After work I visited family, enjoyed time with the kids,...everybody is ill at the moment:-( so therefore some cheery music!

Music -corner: Lawson Rollins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g9HvbKiHNc&feature=channel


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB5vsRbOWws&feature=related

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

...affects

Thought about my reading and the main themes in literature today. I know, there are too many to mention. At the moment many of my stories deal with the themes of relationship, love (how unexpected), fear, death, age and race relations.

How do these themes affect my writing?
I think of my MS where all these topics are represented.
Hmm, interesting...
So, how does literature affect our lives? Or vice versa?
Seems to be a "thoughtful" evening:-)

I think of another blog-post and the movie "The hours" where all the main characters are affected by the same story. Interesting movie based on V. Woolf´s Mrs. Dalloway- with a great actresses- especially M. Streep. (I love nearly all of her movies.)

How does reading affect my writing and what about the other way round?
How can my writing influence my reading between the lines, my interpretations?
Thinking, thinking and thinking...thinking it´s too late for these kinds of questions-
but no question at all-
literature affects our live, that´s for sure.
And everybody has to find out how.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Antiques- Art

Yesterday I met some people from the course- had a funny time with lots of food (Japanese!) and conversations. Really great fun although it was very stormy and cold in V.
Today I stood up at 6 in the morning despite the fact I could sleep in. Drat!
I am so used to my daily routine....I cannot stand it in my spare time.
But -the good news-
I had enough time to write and visit a friend and my family at noon.
There I discovered an old piece of art- in my eyes. Nearly 100 years old. Someone embroidered it at the age of 11! It´s interesting to discover family history;-)
It is half as old as my solution from the picture puzzle-

A friend gave that old radio to me- I love the design. Reminded me of my grandfather´s radio.
And I love to combine old and new pieces in my flat. I like that mixture although I don´t have a lot of old stuff here. But the highlight of my collection is my old wooden double organ (+pulldown pedals) and because of limited space here I stored it at my parents´house.

So, writing and reading- today.
Sometimes I am in the mood to read poems. And today I was in the right mood for writing some.
And after revising my MS in the morning, I wanted to write something different.
But now, back to some reading for the next block.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Adaption

The only thing worrying me today is the revision of my MS.

At the moment I have the feeling that my new beginning doesn´t fit to the rest of the story.
So I try to find a solution.

Now, is it better to adapt the new beginning to the entire novel
or just do it the other way round? Try to adapt the whole story to the first pages???
Have to think about it....

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Changes

What´s the best about bad weather? Working at home without the desire to go out. Actually I had to go out to buy something, so I got a breath of fresh air to get new ideas for my writing. Some days ago I took my bike and drove to my parents´ village, we had spring temperatures, 60° F; now just about 28° F !! and snow storm. Crazy weather...

But I´m enjoying a nearly perfect weekend. I have finished a lot of my work during the week, so there is much time to spend on writing, reading and sleeping:-) Yep!

As you already know I´ve started to revise my draft. Well, I changed the whole first page and deleted all.(The deletion was the worst part. But I remembered an advice and copied these paragraphes into a new document to save them in case of needing them again.)
And of course I have saved the complete "old" and unrevised version as well.

But after rereading the new beginning I realized something unexpected. My today´s style of writing seems to be different from the one I used last November. Maybe I can describe this style to be a more vivid one, but all in all my writing has changed a bit.
Changes aren´t bad, they can help developing something new.
Well again one of my great philosophical sentences (sometimes I need to be a bit ironically;-) but I suppose, this statement doesn´t help me at all .

NANOWRIMO (thanks to B. for the hint) has changed a lot in my life. Since November I have written nearly every day. Never before have I written more in my entire life, I´ve really missed a lot of fun and challenges. But never more, I won´t give up writing:-)

But now I wonder if I can adapt my novel to my "new" style of writing. Would I have to change the whole MS? OMG! Could I do it? What a question. I could do it, if I had to. But at the meantime I should try to stay focused on revising the story bit by bit.
Maybe just I see/ feel a big difference at the beginning, which has been the beginning of my writing... maybe another reader wouldn´t see or read what I´m feeling about the introduction.

The problem for me is that I cannot judge whether it changed to the better or not. I have to revise the first pages a bit more to send the new beginning to B. I´m curious about the feedback.


So I want to revise my MS in the way I´m writing now, I have to do it , because I cannot stand some sentences. So enough to do, but I like it;-)

Friday, March 5, 2010

Travel-maps

At the moment time flies with unbelievable speed. This week I got lost in Word documents, books, in talks with friends,...so I didn´t waste time at all, I finished a lot.

I took some time to play a bit with my newest toy- my cyber travel map. It´s a welcome possibility to recall the past, recall all my journeys.
Long time ago I marked all the places I had seen on a world map, now I do the same in another way. I like it and I was astonished to realize that I´ve seen more than I´ve thought of.
It took some time to rethink journeys and think of all the cities I´ve been to. It´s not so easy to remember all places, because I´ve been traveling since my childhood. I even cannot recall all my flights.....
I am a little bit frustrated that I have forgotten a lot, many names of cities, places but now I calm myself despite that fact.
I´m not too old, I´ve just traveled a lot, that´s all:-)

With 14 or 15 I made my first trip overseas - with my family. They transmitted the travel genes to me;-)- so I always have to travel to see the world. And for me (who knows and appreciates to live on the bright side of life) world travel has always been enriching- culturally as well as personally.

Quote-corner:

“Experience, travel - these are as education in themselves” I love that one! It´s so true for my life.
Euripides

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Recommendable music;-)

Music -corner:
Have to share it with you- received that link from a friend of mine- from an award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music"
Musicians around the world added their part to the song as it travelled the globe.
It´s really amazing- just listen and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM&feature=player_embedded