Anna Aden Writes

No money this week. Yes, the coffers are empty so I'm writing an IOU for the tune of twenty-two pounds. It's just being a very busy week, and frankly putting money in a plastic jar has been the last thing on my mind. So I just draw this up, you can see I'm feeling blue. So now I'm a debtor the money jar. Can you believe that? I wanted to quit the challenge - well cut down my number of posts, but Big Momma advised it was good to see this though. Let's hope I catch you. I'm not feeling this money saving thing you know? I mean why would I want to pay this money I owe to the jar. It's a lot of cash. I feel like telling the jar 'you snooze, you lose'. Let's hope I catch up. So it's now in the money jar. Some time ago, in the library, there were two teenage lads fighting over five pounds. Both laid claim to the money, one said he gave it to the other, and the other claimed his father gave it to him. Rather convoluted story. Anyway, eventua...

I watched another screen adaptation of a book. This time it was the Tulip Fever, set in Amsterdam during the Tulip madness. It was a slow start, then plenty of unnecessary sex scene - I write romance, and at times, they can be erotic but sex scenes need to advance the plot in some way. Anyway, the actors needed to get off their kits at various stages of the films, probably to show 'how in love' they were.  Oh the story? An old geezer marries a young woman and commissions her portrait. Soon for no reason at all, the young wife and artist starts to have a torrid affair. You know it's torrid by the number of sex scenes in the film - probably too many. There is the parallel story of the maid and her love affair. Basically the young wife embarks on an elaborate plan to be with her lover, and it goes a bit weird, saying this the plot is very convoluted. Even though set in Holland, it's mostly an English cast, Cara Delevingne is in it, - hard to miss our Cara especially...

As you can probably tell by now, my desk acts as extra storage space. So as per normal starting from the lower left handside. That is my burgundy or red wine mulberry purse. I got it in the sale a few years ago, at House of Fraser, I like high end designer bags because they tend to last longer, saying there I have two I need to fix. One is a Gucci messenger bag and the other is a Hispanitas but I think it will cost far more to fix them than the what I bought them from. The Gucci is about ten years old and Hispanitas probably older - note these are just daily-use (hence the state) casual bags. The messenger is really grubby and I was going to throw it out, but who throws out a Gucci bag? Anyway, let me not digress. Moving up is my copy of On Editing by Corner-Bryant and Price which I've been actively using. Some greats ideas and not so great ideas, but on the whole I'm finding it value for money. So I'll be using elements of it for the next draft pass. Under the book, ...

Another long week at work, it's very busy! Anyway, pretty uneventful though I spotted by the Southbank centre a few times to do some drawings.  It was nice and sunny so rather than rush home, I decided just draw from the book while just observing the world around me. Lunch at work This week at work, they served a nice roast dinner with gammon- you can see it had all the trippings with stuffing, and roast vegetables and potatoes. Excellent value.  Apparently, one of the head chefs have left - he was very very good - the best soups I've ever tasted, so the replacement was trying new things. My only issue was she didn't do wraps - no picture to show. They advertised wraps and all she did was put the flat bread, tortilla on the plate and then the topping. I asked wasn't she going to wrap it? She was like no. ... Okay, I think that's a problem, especially when it was advertised at a wrap. Anyway, I made my mind to be selective, and it didn't taste that good a...

Last week's goal using  How to Edit Your Novel by Corner-Bryant and Price To iterate, I'm not going on the course, however I'm matching the course outline to the book and seeing what I can do.  Show-stopping Scenes Aim:  Learn how to prioritise material so that each scene has a clear purpose and direction, using questions and answers to increase tension and make scenes shine. Outcome:  Check that each scene in your first 10,000 words is really needed and rewrite one full scene implementing the techniques you’ve learned. I read the scene segment in chapter 4 of the book, and it was about five or 6 pages with an example to demonstrate. I didn't rewrite any scenes so I have nothing to show. Instead of I got rid of the first two chapters. They were good and it took me over a month to work on them, and rewrite but using the information supplied in   How to Edit Your Novel by Corner-Bryant and Price, it felt like back story.  The...

Modern Gallery make you think of the world as it is today. I just wandered around the exhibitions in the Tate modern and  seemed focused on oppression of humanity - focusing on the poverty, wars, sexuality, violence, conflict, the underdog and gritty. This was a picture that captured my imagination because it looked so modern. This is a painting by German artist Christian Schad  called Agosta, the Pigeon-Chested Man, and Rasha, the Black Dove 1929 is a large portrait-orientated oil painting of two funfair performers.  https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schad-agosta-the-pigeon-chested-man-and-rasha-the-black-dove-l02264  So in typically America-speak when I saw my people, I had to stop and take a picture, therefore homegirl, Rasha, the black dove is headlining my blog. In those days, I guess the only work she could get was as side-freak show but she is very beautiful, modernly so. It also made me think of what happened to all the black people or people of colo...

I nearly wasn't going to make it. In fact I had this cash on my counter and I was thinking of spending it. Yes, I was. I was going to spend it and put in an IOU note in the box, but somehow, I forgot. Like this is boring, saving is boring. Its not one of the most interesting things to do. I wonder how these money blogs do it, talking about savings etc. Boring. However, it's good to save for an rainy day or emergency, don't just spend, spend, spend and live in the now. Especially if you are in your twenties. Don't get yourself into a huge amount of debt, unless it's student debt. Yes, I'm using my laptop as a display. Money now in the pot. So Disclaimer, I'm not a financial expert or authorised to talk about debt, do not take this as official financial or investment advice.   In the UK folks moan about student debt, but it's really money loaned at the government at a tax-free rate. Like it comes straight out of your pay-packet before tax. You als...

I was haunted by the book, and I had questions to ask if I ever met the author, 'what happened to Florence?' Well, this film answered it. Still even though Ian McEwan wrote the screen play, I'm not sure. There were changes that were a nod to commercialisation but I don't think it worked. It was mostly slow, awkward and painful watching. However my question of what happened to Florence was answered, especially if you are a romantic like me. I'm glad I saw it to find out what happened to Florence but after a while it went down hill and all Hollywood. I don't know...Not a hit. Basically if you haven't read the book, I'd give it a miss. If you had read the book and had any lingering questions, though this film may be long and painful and very awkward it may answer your questions.

Starting from the lower left hand side, is my copy of On Editing- How to edit your novel the professional way by Helen Corner-Bryant and Kathryn Price. I've been working this through this book for my current novel-in-progress. Underneath the book, is my folder which had mynovel-in-progress. Moving upwards is my calculator and penholder. Next to that are a pile of sketches I drew from the book I finished on Sunday. Yay, me! I still feel good about it. So I'm on to the next. After that the book on mastery hasn't moved. It's on my reading list but not sure when. On it is a coaster from Margate, a seaside town.  It was a gift from Sis. Next on the lower right hand side is another pile of papers and notebooks. On the pile is a Waitrose Food calendar, it was a free gift in their monthly magazine. I used to use it as a planner before I bought my daily.

Goal:  Complete all 260 drawings in How to Draw Anything by Mark Linley Start date: 28th April 2019  Completion Date:  19th May 2019 Background:  This is just based on me always borrowing or buying drawing books and never actually going past a few pages. https://dabwrites.blogspot.com/2019/04/guilt-free-planning-finished-manga.html Reflection and review of goal What went well. I got over the boring bits, and I continued. I always focused on the end, and even though my own drawings never looked close to the one in the book, or Mark Linley's drawings, I just kept on! What didn't go well. Typically nothing changed from my last drawing project. I was very self-critical, even feeling guilty that I wasn't trying to make my drawings look like the ones in the book. I keep on having the nagging feeling to go back and redraw until I reached perfection, or at least near enough. It always felt it wasn't good enough but I had to push through this to complete t...

Last Week's goal Using the book, How to Edit Your Novel by Corner-Bryant and Price, I outlined that to the course outline below. Effective Dialogue and Description Aim:  Understand the purpose of dialogue and how to juggle context, text and subtext. Explore ways to use description to kick-start the reader’s imagination, and blend dialogue and description effectively within the parameters of POV. Outcome:  Red-pen and rewrite one short scene to make more of your description and dialogue (to include infrastructure, scene-setting and dialogue/cushioning). Edit your Novel Course -  https://www.profwritingacademy.com/edit-your-novel-the-professional-way Scene Summary:  Angelica is working late and Leyton needs some support on a London trip. Since this is a deleted scene, there are no big spoilers. My Original Scene (this is a deleted scene so no real spoilers) Angelica heard the door and looked up, it was Leyton. He looked deliciously sexy i...

The week was uneventful other than my face broke out in spots. I think it's because I changed my face cream, maybe it was too oily for my skin so I'll have to go back to first base. I felt like a teenager all over again. On Friday, I was caught up working late to finish an assignment. I was intending to go the Tate Modern so I could feature it on my blog but because I left work late, at Waterloo, I decided to feature the South Bank Centre, and on the spur of the moment, I decided to walk across the bridge to Charring Cross Station then on to Trafalgar Square. I'm still drawing, so I've got about eight chapters left. I normally give myself a drawing a day, but I need to remember the whole challenge is about completing the book, so I push myself to do as much as I can. I'm making a bit of progress on writing editing my novel so that's good. I'm using a book called How to Edit Your Novel by Corner-Bryant and Price. I'm doing the really cheap way of...

I arrived at Waterloo in the rain and took a picture of the Royal Festival Hall at the South Bank Centre. Actually, I'm still not sure if these two are separate entities in the same block. I've been here for a few concerts, which are normally reasonably priced compared to the O2 in Greenwich. Normally a good place to check for events once in a while. I didn't go down to the harbour level where they have a skateboarding area - or an area high jacked years ago by skateboarders. This the bust of Nelson Mandela outside the entrance, or should I say one of the entrances of the hall. After going inside, I then decided to walk over the footbridge to Charring Cross and to Trafalgar Square. I was pointless saving that for another blog post. So in the rain,  I walked over the footbridge taking pictures. As you can see the weather is pretty grim  with dark clouds in the air. Not a big deal since I was wearing my new purple rain coat. It's about a five minutes ...

Another twenty pound note in the money pot. On the note is some bloke called Adam Smith - 1723 -1790, and there is a quote about 'The division of labour in pin manufacturing: (and the great increase in he quantity of work that result). Charming. See what happens when I run out of things to say, I start looking at what's on the money note rather than spending it. Who does that? Let's do an interesting fact about me. Long long ago, I actual worked for a money printing company. Yes, I did. My days in a real corporate surroundings, not your wishy washy, 'Oh I was in corporate America' stuff....I'm shading anyone, but come on, now. I read that is authors' bios all the time, and I shake my head, especially when they live in some state no one outside the US would have heard of. Oh well, anyway mine was a top listed firm.  Yeah....it is what it is. You can actually see four twenty pound notes in the money pot if you look carefully, so I have at least  eighty q...

Slow, very slow and somewhat predictable. I'm not even sure it's worth watching to pass the time. It's like a forced sequel. Like the guys at Pixar and Disney thought it was time for a money grab sequel and thought this up. Convoluted story line, though there are a few laughs, the younger characters are the star, so maybe kids will enjoy it. And the baby is fantastic! Great images but there is only so much you can do with a dull animated story. However as I said there are some highlights. Saying this there are better films out there so for me a miss. I only watched it all the way because I had a guest watching with me otherwise I wouldn't have finished.

Does the clutter ever do? No. My desk is normally used as extra storage or an temporary space when I'm tidying up. Anyway, the weekend was hectic due to busy work, then a day trip to up country to Leeds, so I only had Sunday to myself. And on Sunday, I was updating the blog as well. So shall we? Starting from lower left handside and working upwards - clockwise. To digress, it's funny how all clocks are now digital so in a way the whole clockwise, or anti-clockwise thing may be redundant for a younger generations. I remember being taught to tell the time. I was really bad at it. But it's kinda interesting because some people use it for directions as well. On you'll see that person in a three o'clock direction - that way you automatically know they will be on your right hand side etc...Anway back to the desk. There are a pile of books and folders. The wire bound is just a notebook for stuff, yeah, stuff. Then on  top of that are my course notes for plotting, s...

Last Week's Goal Rethink the options.   I outlined a number of options such as: 1 Continue as the planned on the HL course. 2. Enrol for the Jericho editing course in September 3. Enrol on an expensive off-line course in October, 4. Start again 5. Take a break 6.  Do nothing. Quit.  Walk away. Basically, I'm edging towards options 2, 3 and 4. I'm on week 16 of the HL course but again, it's something her first few lessons dealt with thoroughly so useful for some writers but too nitty gritty for me. Option 2 and 3, I should really only enrol with fresh work, or novel. Otherwise if Holly Lisle's course didn't work, what says the other two will? Also I may get more demotivated. So I'm going for option 4, using a slightly home-made and unorthodox way - which is basically taking the course outlines and seeing if I can put my book through the treatment. I'm also going to try some other outlines as well...but I'll start with this first...