It’s been a while

Posted on April 7, 2016 by ashleymanningwriter

March was a very unproductive month. I fell out of the swing of writing, and couldn’t motivate myself to start again. Today I just thought enough is enough, and wrote 500 words. It’s not enough, but it’s a start. I’m hoping that by the end of June I will be on 1000 words a day. That’s my target. I just need to stick to it.

I did finish that story I was writing, back in February and started writing another straight away. The first one will be published soon on here. It’s being edited.  I’m pretty happy with it, and all feedback will be welcome.

I’ve been reading The Lie Tree at the moment. I’m only about 50 pages in, but I’m enjoying it. I saw that it won a ton of awards and thought it looked interesting enough. I’m not far enough in to really comment on it, but I will when I’ve finished it.

On Monday I played through the whole of Gone Home on PS4. It’s one of the most unique games I’ve ever played. I thought it sounded interesting when I first heard about it a couple of years ago, but I don’t have a decent pc to play games on. I struggle to watch youtube videos. When it came to ps4 I bought it, thinking it wouldn’t live up to the rave reviews. But it exceed all of my expectations. It’s really emotional and captivating. The story of a young woman coming home to an empty house after a trip to Europe, and piecing together her family’s story, in particular her sister’s, while they aren’t in the house. I can’t recommend it enough, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I finished it. Even though it’s only 2 hours long, it’s still one of best experiences I’ve found in recent games.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nearly

Posted on February 22, 2016 by ashleymanningwriter

I just hit 8000 words in the story I’m wiring and am getting close to the end. It will be around 10000 words in the end. A lot longer than I originally thought it would be. I’m happy with how the story is going, so it’s not a bad thing that it’s so much longer than I originally thought. The only downside is that it has pushed back my posting of it and me going back to editing From Within.

I’ve decided to post in as five 2000 word posts, probably daily, when I’ve finished it. Which should be this week. So hopefully it will be posted next week or the week after. I think that way it’s easily digestible.

I’m getting better at sticking to 500 words a day, even if it’s not everyday. I’m still aiming and getting better. Every day I don’t make the target feels like a waste. No matter what else I’m doing. I’ve got to take writing seriously. I find that if I start in the morning it gets done quicker, so most days I’m making it the first thing I do. 500 words isn’t much at all, so I’m hoping to build it up to 1000 in the coming months.

I just wanted to give a short update, and now I’m going back to finish Fallout 4, finally.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Back to work

Posted on February 3, 2016 by ashleymanningwriter

Sadly, I’m back at work this week. Which means writing will slow down again. I’m still going to try and stick to the 500 words a day target I’ve set myself, but it’s so easy for it to slip. One day turns into a week so fast. And now we’re already in February. I’m still writing 2015 on everything, and yet here we are.

I don’t know when this new story will go up, but it will be soon. I’m still writing it, and it’s much longer than I originally thought. I want to finish it before I upload any of it, but I also want to upload it as soon as possible to get some feedback. I’m quite happy with how it’s going so far.

I started reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz recently. It’s a decent book, but I keep on imagining the film instead of focusing on the words so when there is a difference it takes me a second to realise, and that’s a little jarring. I am enjoying it though. It’s something I’ve wanted to read for a while and have had it on my kindle for about 2 years. I was sitting there waiting for someone and just clicked on it, more productive than scrolling through Facebook for no reason. That’s my main aim at the moment, to stop getting distracted by stupid things like facebook, or the internet in general. It takes up so much time for no reason. If I can eliminate this, I will have so much more time for the things I actually care about.

The new lego game has just been announced. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And it looks pretty amazing. I love the lego games, and have done since the original Lego Star Wars 11 years ago. I’m really excited for them to go back to the franchise for the new film. I was expecting this last year, as it was the 10 anniversary of the original game, and the release of the new star wars film. I’ve think the only game I’m more excited for is Uncharted 4. It’s going to be a good year for games.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

One Week Down

Posted on January 25, 2016 by ashleymanningwriter

My two weeks holiday have reached the half way point. I’ve stuck to my writing, pretty much every day, getting 5000 words done so far. I’m pretty happy with that. The story is longer than I thought it would be, and I’m not sure how close to the end I am. It’s going to be closer to 10000 words at this point. I’m trying something different, and hopefully it comes out alright. I’m still aiming to post it on here sometime early February. Probably in a couple of posts.

The last book I finished was Star Wars: Aftermath. The first in a trilogy set between episode 6 and 7. It was pretty decent, but nothing spectacular. I liked the characters and hope they are developed in the sequel. I’m definitely getting the second book when it comes out in March. It has a lot of potential, and now that everyone is introduced it should lead the way to a better story.

My biggest problem with it though *minor spoiler* was that there were a couple of times the reader is led to believe a character has died, only for them to walk into the next scene with a really flimsy excuse for their escape. Even the robot gets rebuilt. It got rid of the risk for the characters by the end of it, and I knew they weren’t going to die or get injured.

 

Thanks for reading,

Ashley

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Plan

Posted on January 19, 2016 by ashleymanningwriter

Two posts in one year, I’m calling that a success. At least in comparison to last year. I wanted to try and outline my plan for From Within. As I posted last time, the first draft is finished and just waiting for the painstaking step of editing and editing. I wanted to take a break before starting this, and having two weeks off work (starting yesterday) seems like a good opportunity to start something new. I’m trying to write a shortish story during then, no idea of the length. And then post it on here at the start of February. After that I will start editing From Within.

There is no release date at the moment, and I’m not setting anything in stone. I will also be doing an updated version of To The Other since it’s no longer available. Nothing will be changed plot wise, but there is a couple of spelling mistakes and missing spaces that have been bothering me, so I want to fix those before moving on.

I’m going to try and stick to one post on here a week, starting next monday. Talking about anything I can think of, writing updates, book reviews, general ideas. I want to get into the habit of writing as much as possible, even if it’s stuff that no one would ever want to read. It’s all practise. Eventually someone will want to read something.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment