Blog Series, Other Stuff

Hi all! Hope your week is going great. I've had a mad combination of writing, research and frustrating driving lessons, in the last 10 days. Writing has been generally productive, but I still feel I should be doing more (more FG, more!) to feel a sense of achievement. Apart from that, my driving lessons have been hilarious. The instructor is a very funny middle-aged Scottish bloke. When I told him I was a writer, the first thing he said was: "you better not write about me". I didn't promise him anything though - lol.

I've just finished reading Chimamanda's collection of short stories, "The Thing Around Your Neck". My sister gave it to me as a birthday present (thanks sis!). It seemed to me that some of the stories ended rather abruptly, and I'll need a Phd to understand some other ones, but overall, I really enjoyed reading them. I'm waiting now for that next novel...

Hubby and I are off to Denmark tomorrow morning, just for a couple of days. It's one of those places in Europe that you don't hear much about, but when you scratch the surface, the cities, people and culture start to look interesting and you want to explore. I'll bring back Danish Butter Cookies and packs of Legos. I'll also be on the look out for ghost of old vikings, wearing horned hats, lol.

And finally please check out a new blog, put together by me and seven other great bloggers! It's a new blog series called In My Dreams, It Was Simpler and we will be needing your comments, suggestions and other feedback! 

Thanks and have a great week!

FG

The Blank Page

You know the one.

When you pick up your pen to write in your notebook. Or open a new Microsoft Word document and you are faced with a white, blank sheet of paper.

Some days when I pick up my pen to write, the words come tumbling out, the ideas keep flowing, I'm on a roll and my arm aches to catch up with the speed at which my brain is churning out words. But that's actually the exception. Most other days, I spend ages staring at the blank sheet of paper, willing something to happen. Sometimes I manage to scrape a few sentences together, but sometimes I give up after a few torturous hours.

Someone asked me recently, "do you schedule some time to write each day, or do you wait for the inspiration to come and then write when you feel like it?"

Good question. If I had to wait for inspiration all the time, then I would hardly ever get anything done. So most times I have to grit my teeth and force myself to write something, anything.

Or to put it another way, as I read in the "Writing a Novel and Getting Published for Dummies" book (paraphrased):

As a writer, you must realise that the blank page is not your friend. The blank page is scary, and it is your enemy. Cover your pages with words. If you force yourself to write 1000 words everyday, in a month you would have written 30,000 words. Words which you can edit and correct later. Remember, you cannot edit a blank page.

That's a lesson for Favoured Girl.

Have a great weekend all!

Thank You!

A big thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday either on my blog, on on facebook or phone calls, texts and so on. God bless you all!

I had a really great day from beginning to end. I spent most of the morning and afternoon chilling with hubby and receiving calls. He waited on me, cooked breakfast, gave me nice presents and all. Awww.

Later in the day, we got dressed and went out to meet up with friends for dinner. It was so nice to celebrate with close friends, including hubby and my lil sis. Lovely birthday I had, with good food, great drinks, fantastic company and engaging discussions :-)

I had a very special guest there too - our one and only Believer! It was sooo nice to finally meet her, she's a beautiful person inside and out. It didn't feel like we were just meeting each other, it was as if we have been friends for ages, which we kind of are, via blogger, facebook and telephone calls. We even found out that we live in the same estate in Lagos! Now that's amazing - (girl when next you are off to Lagos, I'm coming along!) She brought me some lovely birthday presents too, including a book titled "How Not to Write a Novel". lol! What can I say, she's beautiful, sweet, smart and she's got a great sense of humour. Babe, we'll definitely meet up again soon!

So I had a great start to my new year, and I look forward to accomplishing a lot more in the next twelve months. So that in another year's time I can look back and say I've had the best year ever. I want to move forward in my relationship with God, progress in my career, become a more loving person and reflect Jesus more and more. So help me God!

xxx