NaNo Wrap-up and IWSG Day!

National Novel Writing Month is over!



Here's another snip from The Antipodean Time:
The DJ segues into a couple of other French-language hits, then spins back to the '90s. People come and go in our group. Then our new-found friends say they have to leave, and wish us goodnight, and suddenly, we're alone among groups of strangers on the dance floor.
Simon's a good dancer, loose and fluid, and not afraid to be silly. He takes my hand a lot and we jump around probably more than necessary. But it turns out I picked the exact right dress for this; it's got a bit of a flare, and I twirl about as often as I can.
Then a slow song comes on, an old one by a band I love from New Zealand. We wrap our arms around each other and start swaying. There's that spearmint and pine scent again, where I've got my cheek against Simon's shoulder. His hands are low on my waist, then he moves one to cup my cheek, and I look up, and he lowers his head, and we kiss. Briefly, and tentative, and so soft with the promise of pressure held back. A pact, for later.
Our cheeks brush, and I tuck my head into the curve of his neck once more. A slight shiver courses through me. Anticipation, bolstered by how safe I feel. He's not some stranger I've just met; he's extended family. And by rights this should have happened when he was in Montreal two years ago. I could have avoided a couple of stupid relationships if it had. And he could have been with me in Barbados.
Well, it doesn't matter now. My job would likely have worked out differently, too, and I would've missed a lot of opportunities.
But I think I've also lost two years of great kisses. I can't wait to make up for lost time.

Today is Insecure Writer's Support Group Day!

This month's question is: "Let's play a game. Imagine. Role-play. How would you describe your future writer self, your life and what it looks and feels like if you were living the dream? Or if you are already there, what does it look and feel like?
Tell the rest of us. What would you change or improve?"

  • I wouldn't call it an improvement, but the changes would look like this:
  • I would have graduated from school.
  • All notes on paper would be typed up and filed in the appropriate places.
  • All files in emails would be sorted.
  • Basically, everything would be in its appropriate Scrivener file, and backed up.
  • I would have a regular schedule of edits and submissions going, whereby I'd be editing one story while submitting the previous stories to agents or publishers.
  • I'd have an anthology of short stories released!.

That last is something I've been meaning to organise for a while now...

The awesome co-hosts for the 4 December posting of IWSG are:

I'll be putting up some new goals once this round of ROW80 is over -- one of my main goals in between this semester and the next is to visit some bloggers I haven't had a chance to visit in a while!

Next week should be busy on the blog, as I'll try to organise my Year-End Books Read Statistics posts, to stay up for two weeks!

What does your future writing self look like?

Comments

Jemi Fraser said…
LOVE that snippet! Sounds like a great story :)
I think I'm going to have to borrow some of those organizing tips too!
Yours sounds completely doable.
And congratulations on NaNo.
M.J. Fifield said…
I love that you included backing up your work in your list. :)

Congrats on your NaNoWriMo win!!!
Wishing you a happy and successful new decade 🤗
Roland Clarke said…
That extract promises so much. I like your realistic steps forward - an achievable dream And congratulations on being another NaNo winner.
Congratulations Deniz on completing NaNo ... and I know you've achieved lots of other things ... here's to a happy and successful work and blogging world for the coming decade - cheers Hilary
Deniz Bevan said…
Thanks so much everyone!