#RiNoWriMo – The Finale! #canidothis ? #ididit !

01 Sep 2017 84 Comments

by Ritu in RiNoWRiMo, Sonu Singh, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #ididit, Author, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, First Draft Problems, Furry Muse, Life Of A Writer, RiNoWRiMo, Sonu Singh, tired, Traci York

Can you believe it? I completed a whole month of writing my WIP? (Along with blogging, and being wife and mother!)

It’s Bank Holiday on Monday… I appear to have promised to take the kids swimming one one day… and those damn uniforms refuse to label themselves… Can I get this WIP nearer the finished end??

Day 28

I am seriously exhausted. I am not sure if I can write any more for a while… My brain feels like it’s turned to mush. And I need to get rested for back to school… will I be able to get myself to the computer?

Hell Yes!

An hour and did a few more words. Then took the army swimming!

Word Count: 1139

Day 29

I’m definitely in a writers funk. I finished a section that I absolutely loved writing last week. The words just flew! Now I know what I want to happen, but I can’t find that smooth path to sail across, to get the story finished. It was hard, but, despite still feeling tired, I managed another few words. I’m not pushing myself… I want this to flow…

Word Count: 1007

Day 30

Thought I wouldn’t be able to do this today. I had to get up early and drop the kids off to my in laws as I needed a blood test done first thing. Feeling tired after having to wake earlier than my body was used to, was a trying time.

But once I got home, and full of a renewed energy. I managed to write, and then looked at a weekly tarot post by my friend Traci York. The cards I am drawn to are surprisingly accurate for my situations at the time, and today was no different!

Knight of Pentacles

Keep your focus. You were so excited and full of energy when you took the first step on your new journey. Now you feel like you’ve lost your steam, and all you’re doing is trudging along, without getting any closer to your goal. Don’t give up hope! Stick to your plan, stay focused on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and remember what Amelia Earhart said – “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”

Thanks, Traci! I am staying focused! But taking it a little slower!!!!

Word Count: 1241

Day 31

The last official day of #RiMoWriMo.

I never thought I would make it to the end! I haven’t even eaten breakfast yet, you know!

When I say the end, I don’t mean of my first draft. No, The end of the month! The story is a little while away from finishing, but it is so close, I can smell it!

I’ve got a busy day ahead of me, those name tapes aren’t going to fix themselves, and then I have to get the boy to cricket training, and a well-deserved meal out with my ladies tonight meant I wanted to give my last writing day a good go before starting everything else.

So I wrote…

Word Count: 1156

PHEW!!!!! I’m done!!!!!!!!!

Taking everything into account this means I wrote 4,543 words this week, and the #RiNoWriMo word count stands at

55922 words in a month!

What have I learned in this last month?

If you have determination and time, you can do what you set your mind to.
Writing can be really, really, really, REALLY exhausting!
Sometimes time away from a story helps you put a totally different spin on it.
Support from some special writing friends, a furry writing muse and family makes a HUGE difference.
You need lots and lots of sticky notes and pens and notebooks… (great excuse to go stationery shopping!)
You can write anywhere if you want to.
NEVER GIVE UP!

My work in progress now stands at a few words shy of 70,000. When did I ever think I could write so much????? This has taken me a step closer to my dream of having a novel out there.

I will let you know when the #firstdraftwoes end and I have a complete manuscript in my hands. No doubt then I will flood you with questions and worries about editing, and proofreading, and editing, and rereading, and covers, publishing and promotion… but that is still a while away.

Now I am off to dream about the day I can conclude my story… whilst ironing labels on uniforms!

Thank you for staying with me on my #RiNoWriMo journey Peeps! Your support has been invaluable. Seriously. Mwah!

Spidey’s Serene Sunday – Part 128

30 Jul 2017 27 Comments

by Ritu in Spidey's Serene Sundays, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Calm, Quote, School, Serene, Spiderman, Spidey, Spidey's Serene Sunday, tired

“The trick is to enjoy life. Don’t wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead.” – Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Wise words that Spidey found today!

It is all to easy to wait for that special time, when you are convinced certain things will happen.

We can wish our whole lives away, waiting for Friday, for the holidays, for the day some publisher finds our writing and makes us an overnight author sensation (just me?).

But what about all the days in between?

There is so much to be grateful for each and every day, some things are small, some huge, but each and every event in your life play a part in slowly forming the person you are destined to become.

We need to learn to take each day as it comes, appreciate the day to day things, then when those special days come, they will feel all the more special because you have been so busy enjoying life that you forgot to focus purely on one thing.

Have a blessed Sunday Peeps!

Spidey’s Serene Sunday – Part 126

16 Jul 2017 32 Comments

by Ritu in Spidey's Serene Sundays, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Calm, Quote, School, Serene, Spiderman, Spidey, Spidey's Serene Sunday, tired

“I’m so tired, my tired is tired.” – Anon

Seriously, Spidey, you hit the nail on the head with this one!

Currently writing this with matchsticks holding my eyes open… (not really, but that’s how tired I am!)

I have been running on adrenaline and my second wind the last few weeks, but Saturday morning, it really hit me!

I had to get up a little earlier to get the grocery shopping done, because I had a nail appointment…

All important stuff. We need food. I need nice nails!

I would usually go on a Thursday evening after school but we have a wedding this weekend in Birmingham, a three-hour drive away. So I will be packing stuff on Thursday night.

To avoid getting up at 5 am to get ready and drive there on Saturday morning, we have to go to Birmingham on Friday night, in the traffic, straight after I finish school for the year.

At least I get to stay with my parents for one night, but seriously, I will be shattered!

But I am falling asleep at the thought of the weekend already!

It’s not that I don’t want to go to the wedding. I love a good get together, but this is not a function from my side of the family, it is a distant relative from the in-law’s side, so forgive me if my heart isn’t in it this time!

And yes, my six-week school break is there, languishing ahead of me, but will I be laying across a Chaise for the whole time, doing NOTHING?

Heck no!

The first week, I will be back in school, clearing the classroom and preparing for the next academic year!

Then the week days are relatively clear, but every weekend, we already have invitations to functions!

I will have to draw the line somewhere!

So, I shall attempt to have a restful Sunday, so I feel slightly more sprightly for the last few days of term with my darling kids!!!

Have a great Sunday and a wonderful week, Peeps!

Monday Meh! (Again)

10 Jul 2017 104 Comments

by Ritu in Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Exhausted, Life of A Teacher, Monday, School, Summer Plans, tired

Forgive me if I am not as wordy for the next couple of weeks…

The end is in sight, but it still feels far away!

Two more weeks until I can slip my teacher hat off and actually relax!

But there are still plenty of jobs to get done before I can do that!

The school kids don’t know yet which teachers they are getting next year, so there is a little buzz around because there are some changes in place. We have met most of our new students, and half have visited us, but there are still a few more to come. There is all manner of paperwork that needs updating and sorting out before the year ends, to tie up loose ends, and prepare for the next academic year.

I will probably need to pencil in the first week of holidays as time to go back into school with my colleagues to prepare the classrooms too!

Then, my envisioned summer of writing and keeping the kids occupied took a different turn, when we got a sudden influx of wedding invites!

At least 4 weekends with functions, one in the week day, I need to figure out when we are going to spend a week with my parents, and we are going to try and get away last minute too!

But on the flip side, I managed to make it public in my household that I do intend to concentrate on writing during the break, so now I have said it, I gotta do it, eh! If my Hubby Dearest wants to be a kept man, funded by the spoilts of my best seller, he needs to let me write it, eh!

Back to the now…

I am falling asleep much earlier each night due to exhaustion.

I have mentioned being so tired in the past…

Image result for exhaustipated

Actually, right now, I am just plain exhausted, and I do give a shit! I don’t like to leave my blogily hanging either! So I will be around, but I might not be as noisy as I usually am!

So I am off to drag myself into the shower, and get ready for the penultimate Monday of term… And I shall try not not yawn…but I can’t promise that!

Have a much perkier Monday than I think I’m going to have Peeps!

That Monday Feeling!

08 May 2017 77 Comments

by Ritu in Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Family, kids, No Sleep, School, tired

I know where I’d rather be right now!

After another night with barely 4 hours sleep, I definitely don’t feel ready to face the day!

And I wasn’t stressing over anything, honestly…or rather I was worrying about Lil Man.

Poor guy is suffering from a migraine since yesterday, and a high temperature.

He wanted to sleep near me so we agreed that once he fell asleep, I would take him to his bed.

Of course the drama queen in our house (not me, cheeky! I know you were thinking that!), Lil Princess decided that it wasn’t fair, him being with me. She went to bed then until 11pm kept coming into my room to say she was unable to sleep.

Finally when Lil Man was asleep soundly, I carried him into his bed. Li Princess appeared to be asleep. Hubby Dearest was still watching TV downstairs, unaware of any Musical Beds being played so far!

But come half an hour later, he came back, “I can’t sleep mummy, it hurts too much!” So the duvet got pulled to one side, and he climbed in.

We all fell asleep… until at 1 am the pitter patter of smallish feet woke me. “Mummy, I can’t sleep, honestly!” Lil Princess had arrived!

Now this should have been the time I marched her back to bed, but in all honesty, I didn’t have the energy! The duvet was pulled up and here I was, sandwiched between two little people!

Then Hubby Dearest showed up.

I instructed him to go take the girl, and sleep with her on the pull out bed in her room! At least this way she wasn’t feeling ‘excluded from this sickness pyjama party!

So off they went. All I could hear was giggling, so had to go and remind him that his daughter had to be up in around 5 hours! then after 20 minutes, more noise as the pull out bed went back.. because Sonu Singh, who had been peacefully sleeping on my bed, thought he would join their party, and went under Lil Princess’s bed, and had started scratching the wood there, disturbing all!

So, after she was settled, Hubby Dearest took the couch, and all was well… until around 2.30 am, when Lil Princess appeared again, at my door.

Too tired, I beckoned her over, and spent the next three and a half hours tossing and turning between these two, getting hotter and hotter!

The alarm went off to soon!

And I had two kids and the cat wedged around me!

Oh Jeez! How am I going to manage today?

Lil Man still hasn’t shaken the temperature or headache so he will be at home with his Daddy. I don’t know quite how I am going to wake my Lil Drama Queen Princess up now…

Wish me luck!