November 8th

Posted on by Palo Stickland

Today’s November word count 672 running total 13385

My writing group, ‘Women Who Write with Elves’, attended a long zoom session this morning. Mairibeth MacMillan, author of ‘The Viking’s Cursed Bride’, led a session on Author Branding. It was inspirational, and I will take up her suggestions and update my website and blog as soon as I have time. Working out your potential audience and relating to them across your promotion outlets/social media is essential, as is learning from successful authors whose websites may help us to improve our own.
Our retreat is now almost over except for a closing session which we have scheduled for next weekend.

November 7th

Posted on by Palo Stickland

1673 words are added to my total bringing it to 12713.

Joe Biden is now President-elect. I’m happy as he seems a sincere man although he is not young and it might be a gruelling job. He seems to have a great team around him which will help.
My writing group Women Who Write with Elves are on our retreat! Online, of course, in 2020. Our catch-up session last night was inspiring. Achievements this year have included a self-published anthology, several stories in magazines, a poem in the shortlist of the Bridport Prize and a pocketbook for Woman’s Weekly. Today we discussed how to use metaphors to enhance our writing. One session tonight and one tomorrow.

November 6th

Posted on by Palo Stickland

November 6th 1603 today/11040 total words

Trump still making incorrect statements about the election, but looks like a win for Biden. The news in Scotland is about the effects of Covid-19 on how people are living in the UK. I am reminded of how life for people in Punjab had changed following the Spanish flu pandemic. My mother was born around 1926, and the effects of the epidemic were still being felt in society. People thought it so quaint that their parents were over-zealous about the cleanliness of their kitchens, keeping apart and not allowing the sharing of food or drink. People forgot where these ‘old wives’ tales came from. I can see a correlation in how life is changing for us now. We are becoming scrupulous about personal and home hygiene. Will my great-grandchildren think their parents are odd when they continue these habits over the rest of their lives? My mother-in-law would never have tolerated meat dishes being cooked in her kitchen. She didn’t eat from a communal plate, and towards the end of her life, younger members of the family thought her odd. I know of a couple living in England who have two kitchens in their house because the wife is a strict vegan, and the husband wants to cook meat. I am reminded that my family never hugged. My brothers and I didn’t see our parents in a hug, they didn’t hug us once we passed the toddler stage. I believe that this stems from the pandemic of 1918-20 when members of our family died and left children orphaned. It is a form of social distancing. We didn’t think we were a strange family until we saw others being more touchy-feely. Perhaps the changes, to cope with Covid-19 in our times, will be more far-reaching than we think.

November 5th

Posted on by Palo Stickland

November 5th 2100 words total 9,437

There is still no final result for the Presidential election though Joe Biden seems to be inching towards victory.
Bearsden Writers met this morning to hear about the General Article submissions for the Scottish Association of Writers competition. Three members have experience in entering, and they gave us much useful information. We adjourned for half-an-hour to write an article. I spent a lot of time editing the piece even after our feedback session was over.

The secret of completing the 50k words for Nanowrimo in thirty days is to type as fast as you can and not to edit. I’m now at 1955 and I’ve added some writing that I’d written before. And I’ve counted the submission article although it’s not finished.
In my family history, the earliest date I refer to is 17th Century when I remember the Guru who wrote the Sikh marriage service as my parents were married in November 1944. Then, I note that in the various census of the 19th Century, organised by the British Raj, the Sikhs had a lower ratio of male to female than Hindus or Muslims. My grandmother told me about an old woman, a neighbour of ours, who died screaming that the granddaughters she had killed at birth were at the end of her deathbed – sad times.

November 4th

Posted on by Palo Stickland

1922 words today. My fourth day total is 7337 words.
My writing friend, Leela Soma, who has an online book launch tonight for her novel, ‘Murder at the Mela’, asked me for more details of how I was finding writing every day. My eyes become gritty if I look at the computer screen for too long. I stand to type, this means I tire quickly, so I write for short periods. Half-an-hour to forty-five minutes at the most. We should only look at a screen for twenty minutes before looking away, but I’m not looking up the whole time. I change the page to fit width and height and make no changes to the text. When I finish a section and leave my laptop, I place the word count at the end of that piece of writing. On a card, I write down the next sentence to set me writing when I return. That’s it. The writing must flow, and preparation is the key.
Now, that I’ve completed my word count for the day, I can go back to my knitting (it’s a poncho) and the television which is all about Trump v Biden today. When Trump won four years ago, I was shocked as I had expected Hillary to win. The United States was not able to vote a woman into power then, and this may be repeated with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I am disappointed.