I wish I could say that Hong Kong has inspired me so much that I am madly writing and am way ahead of my word target for Nanowrimo. Sadly, not. Hong Kong is definitely inspiring - in fact I would like to move my location of my crime novel here, just so I can include all the amazing and interesting things I see every day. But it's me. I'm not adjusting to the time difference very well (keep waking up at 5am - not my best time of day, even for writing) and after a whole day of talking and teaching writing, the urge to sit and write my own words fades fairly quickly.
I did write 1000 words while at Discovery College the other day, but when I got home, the file had disappeared off my USB drive. Grrrrr. What is really sad about that is that I have very little idea of what I lost - no memory of writing anything spectacular that I'd mourn. I'm not even reading that much at the moment, as the eyes drop their shutters within minutes of me climbing into bed.
But I plan to improve. This is Nano, after all, and I can't start lagging way behind now. Tonight, for a change, there is nothing on. No talks, no meetings. And there is nothing on TV in my hotel room (unless I can understand Chinese, which I can't) so I have no excuses. Besides, last night at the Women in Publishing meeting, Susanna and I talked for half an hour (taking turns) about writer's block and how to get over it, or move past it. One of my recommendations was doing Nano!
It looks a bit suss if you talk about lots of methods to get yourself writing, and then you can't do it yourself! Besides, I haven't got writer's block. I've got speaker's blah, so that's no excuse either. I spent today at the Australian International School with a bunch of lovely people and great kids. It still amazes me to go to a school where it's all in one 7 or 8 storey building. We in Australia don't know how lucky we are with schools that have vast playing fields and room to run far and wide. So, before I start getting ready for tomorrow's school ... there will be words!
1 comment:
Boy, I hear you! After talking endlessly on my blog about how to persist, I can't admit defeat on NaNo without looking like a wimp. So I persist! And I'm glad so far--I may make it after all. But writing in a foreign country while doing endless speaking engagements is another kettle of fish altogether. You're tough!
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