Are you an impulse buyer?

No I'm not referring to the toiletries product range. I am talking about buying a product or service on the impulse or spur of the moment.

Today it was a handbag worth £16 in Claire's Accessories, I had gone in for a pair of pink and black earrings and wanted to see what they had as I needed them for a breast cancer charity line dance I am attending on saturday. I found the earrings they were £4 and exactly the kind of thing i was looking for, but whilst I was in there I saw a pink and black handbag. I checked the price £16- the higher end of my budget for handbags - and picked it up and walked to the till.

Whilst queuing I had a proper look at the bag, it was nice and but I found myself thinking, 'I don't need a bag and it's a lot of money', but then the other voice in my head said, 'but it will go so well with your pink and black dress you are wearing saturday.'

Still queing I argued the pros and cons, finally I decided I couldn't afford it and I had a black handbag which would do me just fine, and I felt so very proud of myself for putting back, but stilled gave into the impulse of some cheap pink nail varnish on the till point, and now home I feel a little guilty about it.

Shops are well aware of the impulses a customer have to buy things on the till, thats why most supermarkets have sweets, cd's, magazines and dvd's available on the till to buy. It's a clever marketing ploy, you don't normally have enough time to really think about your purchase you just 'do it' and before you know it your £20 shopping bill becomes £25 pounds. Sometimes you justify the purchase to yourself with excuses or if you're like me you just pay for the luxury separately on your credit card and feel guilty afterwards.

It's not just purchasing of products that can be done on an impulse, how many times have we said something or done something on the spur of the moment sometimes with a detrimental effect on someone else. We mean what we say, but we don't mean what we say, the way we say it.

I haven't worked on my novel today, I have been neglecting other things that needed doing so have been catching up on these, but it hasn't stopped me thinking today about it. I was wondering about my novel's protaganist Margaret and what sort of things she would do on an impulse or on the spur of the moment. I know that she will have to make some major decisions later on which may also be based on an impulse, she will consider doing things that aren't necessarily good and will be based on the voices in her head, but it is what you do with the voices in your head which count.

After all we are merely extensions of the voices in our heads.

Ever had one of those days...?

Today started out extremely well. I won 66p on online bingo lol and planned to complete chapter four of my novel. I was also expecting two amanda vickery books from amazon called,'The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives in Georgian England' and 'Behind Closed doors: At home in Georgian England'. Well the day started by the book not arriving, but i wasn't to worried, as i have two other books from the library which were sufficient for my current needs.

Anyway, I decided to write chapter four using the website 'write or die'. I set the timer for two hours, set the word limit for 3000 words and then I was off, 1hour 20 mins later i was 1750 words in so i thought i had better save and then i was going to have lunch. I knew i wouldn't get to 3000 by the end of the two hours but that was ok. I've never used 'write and die' before so with the timer running i highlighted my words and pushed the keyboard shortcut keys 'CTRL C' for copy.

Well at least I thought I did... I actually pressed 'SHIFT C'

Now on my screen was a blank page and the letter 'C' - not what i wanted to 'c'. Being a microsoft word user, i didn't panic and i pushed two other keys 'CTRL Z' to undo. Nothing happened so i tried it again. I was panicking now so checked the website for help, searched blogs and websites but i found nothing. My 1750 words was gone what a waste of approx one hour and a half.

Feeling totally dejected i went downstairs to my kitchen for that promised sandwich and what do i see behind my front door? One of those green 'sorry we missed you cards' and on it the delivery bloke has put that he has put it by my green recycling box. OK thats fine i think, So i open the door... Oh guess what typical british weather its absolutely tipping it down, the water has soaked through the carboard packaging and my books are wet.

I've just spent the last 2 hours retyping my chapter 4 - Its complete woohoo (said slightly sarcastically - I could have been half way through chapter 5 by now)Oh well never mind what can you do?

So after a crappy day - good chapter i think - I am now approx 12k words into my novel Yay!

Lets hope tomorrow is better...

Your destiny awaits...

I have good news today. That third chapter, the one I have been having such difficulty with is now finished to my satisfaction (pending further editing later). I have even picked out the actor who I would want to play one of the parts if I ever managed to get the book published, it became a success and was turned into a movie. Yes Rupert Friend (Albert in The Young Victoria) I am talking about you, consider yourself hired at some point in the next 10 years.

I don't know if I will ever finish the Novel let alone get it published, be successful, become a movie etc. but I am one of those people who believe that if its meant to be it will be. I believe that things do and don't happen for a reason but we don't always know why and sometimes we're not meant to find out why. I think that we all have a destiny at the end of our life's journey, there will be many paths to reach our destination and we may take a wrong turning, and get lost, get delayed but eventually we find our way back to the road or path and ultimately reach our destination usually learning valuable lessons on the way.

The main character in my novel, Margaret, has a destiny to fulfill. She will also go on a journey and make many choices on the way, some good and some bad. Things will happen which she won't understand the meaning of and will affect her and shape her character. I can't tell you her destiny, or what obstacles she will face, but i can tell you that she is a fighter and she will overcome them.

What about your destiny? Do you believe in Destiny or fate? Are things just coincidence or are they meant to be? Do you know what your destiny is? Should we worry about our destinies?

If you'd like to venture an opinion please feel free to do so in the comment section below.

A sight for sore eyes - is too much planning a bad thing?

I went to the hospital today to have some eye tests. Whilst I was sitting in the waiting room, waiting whilst everyone else was being called in, I used the rare time to myself to think about my novel. In my very first post I detailed my method of writing my chapters explaining that I do this first of all by hand and then type in to the computer correcting any errors and adding where necessary. My third chapter of the novel has proven to be my most challenging one to write so far and even now I am only half way.

I had previously planned chapter three in detail as to exactly what would happen, but I had the difficulty of not being able to 'get going' on it. Yesterday I managed to write only 483 words which was not like me at all. I was considering this whilst waiting for my appointment, why couldn't i get going and why was what i had written - to put it bluntly - so terrible.

So often we plan things in our lives, but even the most well laid plans sometimes do not work out, and a minor detail can result in our plan being thrown out altogether, despite all the work we may have put into it. You just have to look at the Titanic to get my drift. I think that sometimes planning can do more harm than good, as you can miss out the freedoms of creativity and not knowing where you are going can be half the adventure of getting there and not to mention the half the fun.

Do we also plan too much? Or should we just go with the flow? It can be good to have a routine or structure as it can help keep you focussed, but is too much focus a bad thing, and are we missing out on things because it is part of our routine to stick to our structure?

Returning from my own appointment I decided to go straight to my laptop and rather than opening my saved file of chapter 3 I opened a fresh page and began with a stronger sentence inspired by my time at the hospital this morning. I changed my plan, and the time period my novel was set (only by 20 years or so)and followed my heart instead of my head. Now I am feeling much happier and although I haven't yet finished chapter 3, by changing my planned way of doing things I am half way through the chapter and looking forward to finishing it rather than wanting to give up on it.

Personally, I believe that although, planning can be the writers best tool, it can also be the writers biggest obstacle, and unless the writer acknowledges that things don't always go to the plan then he or her will be constantly disappointed.

PS Comments are very much welcome :)

Is a good deed really a good deed?

I did a good deed today. I helped a man pick up some things he had dropped in the street; and it got me thinking a bit about the characters in my novel. The main protagonist is a young girl and the novel follows her life from her birth to middle age. I wondered what good deeds my characters would do if they were real and had existed. Would the girl- I'll tell you her name, it's Margaret-what good deeds would or could Margaret do? Who would she do them for? Why would she do them?

Why do people do good deeds in the first place? For me, it was the way I was brought up, it is natural for me to help people, I like helping people it's a big part of who I am and what I do. I also do good deeds because it is the right thing to do or at least that is what I believe, and I think it would have been rude and selfish to have walked passed the gentleman without helping.

I remember watching an episode of 'friends' where this very subject was explored by two of the main characters Joey and Phoebe. In the episode they discussed the role played by selfishness when doing a good deed. For me not to have helped would have made me selfish, but was I being selfish by helping. One of the advantages of doing a good deed is that it makes you the person feel good about doing something for another. Did I help the gentleman just for the sake of helping or did I help him to make me feel good? And if I only did it to help me feel good, does that mean I am selfish?

After I picked up the lighter which had dropped to the floor, I handed it back to the man. He thanked me, and I said 'it was nothing, it happens to all of us'. I was downplaying the thanks I had received from him. Was this modesty pure and innocent or again was it part of that same selfishness making me feel even better? I admit that if our positions had switched and he was the one helping me I would have been grateful and would have acted in the same way.

On a personal note I have recently broken my left wrist, and have had two operations to repair bones and tendons and my scars are clear to be seen. Maybe this gentleman thanked me so enthusiastically out of guilt and pity, because he thought I felt it was expected that I should help him despite my limited mobility?

Do we also have high expectations of people in helping others and does this differ from country to country? I broke my wrist in the simplest way possible. I fell down a high kerb in Kusadasi, Turkey and landed awkwardly on my wrist. At the time I felt like I was screaming for help for ages, and felt ignored by the people around me who didn't come to my rescue, or that's how I perceived it at the time. Now this could just be me, after all I speak no Turkish whatsoever, and few people had any English over there, so this could have just been the language barrier, but it still took time for anyone to react.

Political correctness also plays a part in all this, are people more afraid to help now than ever before? In case they get sued or accused of anything (more in the case of a child than me as I'm in my mid twenties), or are put at risk of diseases which people are afraid of eg. Aids.

I can't answer any of these questions and I don't even know if anyone is reading this, but if anyone is reading this- What do you think? Is a good deed a good deed after all? please feel free to use the comments below.

Here we go!!!

Day 1 Blog 1

I have finally typed up chapter 2 of my novel. It's been a work in progress for well over a week but finally i have 3000 black words on white paper. so thats a total of 6000 down 69,000 to go. I have also bought some books today of which Amanda Vickery is the author to help with my research into the time period of which my novel is set which is the 17th-18th centurys. These books are: 'The Gentleman's Daughter' and 'Behind Closed Doors' and they will make a welcome addition to my two existing books 'The English Marriage' and 'The prospect before her', can't remember the authors so will look up and post in my next post tomorrow.

Next up of course i have to think about chapter 3, its kind of in my head already, i know roughly what i want to happen so i just need to set about writing it. My personal system is to have all my notes on my pc, on onenote and i have a page of notes for each character as well as my synopsis and my chapter by chapter outline. I then write my first draft by hand in a notebook then type this up as a second draft adding and editing where necessary. The first handwritten draft is the most difficult which is why i do it by hand- i have no internet distractions then such as email, gaming, blah de blah blah blah...

Hopefully i can keep up this blog to keep myself motivated to write and one day (fingers crossed) get this published and so on and also deter from writers block.