Moving On

Posted on January 9, 2014 by ashleymanningwriter

I finished my story on the 3rd January. It was supposed to be 24000 words but I ended up with 26000. I will go over and edit it, but I’m not going to go out of my way to get it down to the right number of words. There will be ways around it. Nothing’s confirmed yet, but I will be able to tell you what’s happening on Tuesday. How much I will reveal? That I can’t say. 

I finished The Lifted Veil by George Eliot yesterday. I enjoyed the story. It’s creepy, dim, depressing, sinister but most of all just interesting. While not that much actually happens in terms of plot, I still wanted to know what happens to the characters. I’ve never read anything by George Eliot before, and while I struggled with the writing style at points I do want to read more. 

I have a presentation on Monday, which is simply reading out something I’ve written, but with a small introduction. Eye contact is where I’m going to fail on this. I don’t know the piece from heart and I don’t think I ever will. Even if I did, it’s going to be hard not to hide behind the piece of paper in front of me. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ashley. 

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

2013

Posted on January 1, 2014 by ashleymanningwriter

A year of achievement, progression and the boredom of a year 3 uni course. I achieved more in 2013 than I thought I could have. Published my first book, wrote the short story Jimmy and uploaded it here, to good feedback, and wrote 22500 words of a 24000 word story. So that’s near enough done as well, should be finished tonight. I will be revealing more information about what the story is in a couple of weeks, but I don’t want to jinx it just yet. 

I feel more confident as a writer now than I did a year ago. But uni did get in the way with that. I spent two months not writing and wanting to give up because of just how pointless uni seemed. It was a good thing that I had a project to do over the Christmas break because that really got me back on course. My first resolution for the next  year is to not let uni get in the way with my life. There is only a few months left of it now and before I know it, that’ll be over. I’ve met some great people there, but I’m glad it’s almost over. 

For 2014 I want to produce more. I want to finish The Fragmented Sequence and get some of my other ideas down on paper. That’s resolution 2. The third is to get closer to writing 2000 words a day. 1000 when at uni, or later hopefully work, 2000 on days of. 0 on special occasions like the many nights out I enjoy. Yeah, because I will be going out more this year. 

Number 4. Be honest whenever I can about anything I can. Stop watching films because they are considered good rather than actually wanting too. Stop playing games just so I can say I have. If I’m not enjoying something turn it off, shut the book, or just throw it away. 

When I started this blog I wanted to upload one short story a month. I have not done that. Number 5 is to change that. 1 story every month, no exception. I also want to keep to the once  a week at least posting on here. Every Tuesday. 

I would also like to share this brilliant poem.

http://hellopoetry.com/poem/hes-a-bit-different-that-one/

Enjoy.

Before I leave for another week here is what I’ve been upto.

I had a pretty good Christmas. Fun times, board games, films, family and some good presents. I watched The Lone Ranger. It’s really fun and I recommend it to everyone.  Sightseers on the other hand. Watch only if you want to waste your evening. It’s stupid, not funny, inconsistent characters, stupid plot, and the list goes on. I did not want to watch it, but did. That film alone (but others helped. Mama, Side Effects, Boo) make me want to only watch films I think I will enjoy. Hence the resolution. Just fed up of watching crap that I didn’t want to watch in the first place. 

Matt Smith has left Doctor Who. I can’t quite believe it. While it took a while for him to really get into the role, in my opinion, I can’t imagine it without him. I don’t like the look of Capaldi. I seem to be the only one with this opinion but I’m really not looking forward to it. I will watch the first few episodes, though, to be sure. 

Oh and just so you know, I spent the last couple of days writing a post on my laptop, without shutting it down or saving it. (Should stop relying on sleep mode) then my laptop crashed. I had over 3000 words written about last year and the new year. It would have probably been a boring ramble, but that’s why this post may seem a bit all over the place. Sorry for that. 

Anyway, Happy new year! I hope you all have a good one! 

Thanks for reading, 

Ashley 

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

Achievements.

Posted on December 23, 2013 by ashleymanningwriter

I’ve stuck to writing 2000 words a day. Kind of anyway. I’ve gone over three times now. And today I broke my record for most words written in one day. 6000 words. I’m incredibly happy about that. Not just because I did it, but I didn’t burn out at all. I could carry on right now. I have the next scene in my head. The only reason I’m not is because I’m starting to feel tired.

The current story I’m writing was originally going to be around 24000 words long. There will be a second part, of I suppose around the same size. I don’t think this part will be over in 24000 words. I also hit 20000 today. The best place to be in a story as I find it’s when the momentum of the story takes over and writing becomes so much easier. I know I’m reaching the end, of this part but I think it will go over. Not by much, maybe 2000 words. There is a reason why it’s important I don’t go too far over. I will explain more in the new year when things have been finalised. I don’t want to jinx it. Sorry about that, but bare with me.

I am incredibly happy for breaking my record today while also reaching that 20000 milestone. It’s been a good day. 

While I’ve been writing this story I’ve been grabbing Fall Out Boy cds at random and playing through them. I’ve also been putting them back randomly and now they are out of order. That will be fixed soon. My favourite two albums are Infinity on High and Save Rock and Roll. The others have good songs on them, but there are too many songs I want to skip. 

I’m off to play some Castlevania and then bed. I will post again soon,

Thanks for reading,

Ashley. 

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

Holiday Time!

Posted on December 17, 2013 by ashleymanningwriter

I’m not in uni for the next couple of weeks, and while it’s not advised I also plan not to think about uni for the next couple of weeks. I’m going to focus on getting some more writing done. I started writing a new story yesterday. More details on this story will be revealed in the new year. At the moment I’m hoping to write 2000 words a day. I achieved that yesterday and have done 1600 today. Will continue after this post. I’m enjoying this story. It’s a relief to be writing something that isn’t on a dull topic set by tutors. I have no idea how long this story will be, or what exactly is going to happen after the next 100 words or so. Hopefully inspiration will strike before tomorrow’s words. 

I’m behind on all of my shows. Sleepy Hollow, Agents of Shield, Revolution, Arrow, Parks and Recreations, Graceland, How I met your Mother. I haven’t even started Dracula or The Blacklist. I’m hoping to be caught up on some of these over the next couple of weeks. 

I have The Game Trilogy book 1 to read. Never heard of it, but I liked the cover. Hoping to make a start on that by the weekend. Hoping to read at least one book before going back to uni stuff. 

When I write I try for a minimum of 1000 words a day. Sometimes I make it. More than not, I don’t. My aim during the holiday is 2000 words a day. I will try to stick to it as closely as possible. I hope to one day write an average of 2000 words a day, everyday. There is a reason for this. Years ago. 7 or even 8 years ago. I read Stephen King’s On Writing. Not because it was about writing, but because it was reading time during English and it was the only book Stephen King in the school library. It’s a great book. Everyone should read it. Not only is it really interesting to read about his writing style and method, it also contains stories from his life which are brilliant to read.

Anyway at some point in this book King writes about how he sets himself a target to write each day and he doesn’t stop before he reaches this target. His target is 2000 words a day. King is one of my heroes as a writer and I feel that I should aim for his kind of level in words. I’m not saying I will ever be as good a writer as he is, but as with every “advice to a new writer thing” I’ve read, especially those written by my heroes, I try to take as much of it on board as possible. Maybe it’s a bad thing to copy what other writers do. The thought “it worked for them, so maybe it will work for me too” is not always good, but it’s made me more serious about writing.

I find it really hard to keep to my 1000 words a day for more than a couple of weeks at a time. I may never actual achieve that goal, but 2000 is my long term goal.

Thanks for reading, 

Ashley

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

The Final Week

Posted on December 11, 2013 by ashleymanningwriter

One more day to go at Uni. Just Victorian Fantasy tomorrow morning and it’s over for 2013. I also have a Fiction portfolio to hand in on Friday but that’s near enough done now. I’m looking forward to not having uni hanging over me at every turn for a few weeks. Even if it is only a few weeks. I can’t remember what book I have to read for the first week, but that’s my reading for Christmas. It might be The Lifted Veil by George Elliot. I don’t need to think about that just yet. 

Tomorrow we are studying A Christmas Carol. I read it once, years ago at school but barely remember that. I think everyone knows the story though. I have reread it for tomorrow. It’s much shorter than I remember, but still good. I think the descriptions are still creepy today.

I’ve spent most of my time writing the Fiction portfolio and listening to a mixture of Fall Out Boy and Green Day over the last couple of days. After Friday I’m going to get on with other writing. Hopefully it’ll go well. I have a few short stories I want to write alongside the novel. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ashley

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