I'm 30

The World Cup continues. No jokes this time (a bit like James Corden), just my assessment so far.

Best team by a mile - Germany - even against Serbia they were very unlucky - harsh dodgy sending off - its a strange world when you're english and enjoy watching the germans - was still funny when they missed a penalty though.

Worst team - Honduras, closely followed by England haha

Anyway, I'm blogging cos I'm 30 years old now, and want to do a little reflecting.

I want part of me to always always still be a child. And as I've got older I've kinda wondered if that part in me would die , or fade. Thankfully it's still there, and I look to those {of an older generation} who still have a beautiful inner child, and then those who seem to have completely let go of any childishness and feel proud to have done so.

So I wondered why do I want part of me to remain a child. And I've figured it's cos children have an innocent wisdom about life that seems to get forgotten as an adult and we are taught through society that we have to grow out of it.

One thing I do find as I grow older, its not that I grow out of stuff, but more that I've done stuff so many times that I don't want to do it any more. So I'm always looking for fresh, new exciting things to do.

Come on Ivory Coast :-)

Tying everything together

I'm not even half-way through the word-count yet, but I've been working today at looking at how everything ties together,, and which bits need to be changed, fitted and which bits still need to be done.

In particular I've been looking at the endings... There is one big surprise ending involving the main character, so its kind of tying things into that so that everything fits.

The good news is I'm where I want to be. The other news is what is left will take a lot of time :-)

Macclesfield are so pointless!

I'm off work ill today, and don't feel like either
a) getting out of my pyjamas,
or b) thinking of a point b.

I do however feel like doing a world cup blog -- which in itself is healing....

So, without further ado:

Things I have learnt about the World Cup so far.....

* One of the South African players is in The Kaiser Chiefs.

* Adebayor is secretly cool.

* The ball is too round.

* Honduras are crap.

* New Zealand... This is an interesting one...
According to Martin Keown, "New Zealand have no real legs in midfield"
Wow that must be a first! Trust me, I've watched them play, and there's no way you can tell!

* Everyone's secret outside surprise bet is the Ivory Coast!!!
It's now got to the stage where someone comes up to me and says

"You know what, if you want an outside bet, there's a .... "

"STOP!!! It's the Ivory Coast isn't it?? Well isn't it???"

* Apparently:
Germany... they always find a way.
Italy... they always find a way.
Brazil... they always find a way.

* France - they're a bit stretched in midfield I find. Frank Rubbery :-)

* Pointless teams!!!!! Every world cup, there's the real underdogs who are interesting to watch... your Honduras and your New Zealand etc etc......

but then there's the teams who aren't the worst of the bunch, but who are truly and utterly pointless.

I've decided that if Slovenia play Slovakia in the second round, it will go down in history as the most pointless game of football ever!!

Although neither of these teams are as pointless as Macclesfield. No-one is as pointless as Macclesfield. If you don't believe me, click here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_3/7565103.stm



I've been following the World Cup News on the web site worldcupsouthafrica2010.com.
Makes sense, yeah?

Anyway, on Monday, the big news from the England camp was that defender Ledley King was due to have a scan on his groin injury to see whether or not he would be fit for the rest of England's campaign.

On worldcupsouthafrica2010.com.... on the FRONT PAGE, the TOP STORY, the first sentence read.....


A big world cup day today if your name is Ledley King.


Surely... without doubt... the worst. line. of journalism. ever.


A big world cup day today if your name is Ledley King.


I hope that, because its such a crappy article, that only one person ever reads that article.

But what if that one person is Ledley King??????


A big world cup day today if your name is Ledley King.


"Oh my God! Like, MY name is Ledley King! Oh my God, I'll have to read this."

OR

what if only one person reads that article, but its someone else who also happens to be called Ledley King!


A big world cup day today if your name is Ledley King.


"You're kidding me?? I was going out for a meal with the wife tonight, but now.. well, I'd better read on....."





Vuvuzelas! Good in scrabble, AMAZING in Countdown... how good would that feel!!! "Yes. I've got a 9. It's Vuvuzelas. Wow."

But not so good at the World Cup. I find Vuvuzelas are kind of like Marmite except no-one loves them.

We're told to respect the vuvuzela because it is a traditional INSTRUMENT. Instrument???
How does it qualify as an instrument? I'm going to invent a little hand-held piano, except its only going to have one key lol .

It's not a very inventive instrument. It's like someone in the crowd starting a chant that goes "beeep beeep"

Annoying as I think they are, in some ways I also think the vuvuzela argument has been blown out of proportion.

The BBC, the last time I read,

"have received 545 complaints about the vuvuzela noise during matches."

What??? Who does that?????


"Hi there, I'd like to be put through to the complaints department......."

"Hello. I'm watching the World Cup game, and I can hear a large number of vuvuzelas....

"yes, yes there's a lot of people that's right, all blowing them."

"yeah, well you know, I wouldn't mind if it was just a few people or just once or twice, but it's becoming a habit now, and they won't stop and its getting on my nerves"

"yes, well the thing is I'm just having a quiet morning, trying to read my book and i can't concentrate, they've been at it all morning and its driving me crazy...."

Who makes these complaints?????

Or maybe some of them are e-mail complaints. Maybe from one of those people - we all know someone like this - who complains about everything, and boasts how they know how the complaints system works.........

"I first heard the vuvuzelas at 15:00 on Wednesday June 16th. They continued for 10 minutes. At around 15:10, the vuvuzelas became louder and increased in intensity," etc etc etc

blah blah blah i can see they're annoying, but to ring up the BBC and complain about them being there?? lol


This might as well happen:

"Hello. Yes, I'd like to make a complaint. I've been watching the World Cup coverage, and the opposition have scored."

"Yes. Yes, top corner."

"Well I'm not normally the type to complain, you know, but the thing is, it happened last week too."


"My name?? It's Ledley King."

"Well its interesting you say that, because it's a big world cup day today, if your name is Ledley King."

"No way!!!"


Is that a vuvuzela in your pants, or are you just pleased to see me?


If there's one thing more annoying than the vuvuzelas about this world cup, it has to be James Corden! Could anyone be less funny?? Not to mention his random celebrity guests who appear and give their dull, un-knowledgeable opinions - before James Corden comes on and annoys England players on a golf course.

I lost count of how many times I saw this clip..... It appears to be James Corden's best joke: The gist of it was... you are a scouser and Wayne Rooney is a scouser and the manager is Italian, therefore he might have some difficulty understanding you.

James Corden is everywhere right now. My friend say he is like olives because he is an acquired taste and you have to stick with him.

I tried this for a while, and can confirm James Corden is not like olives, except about as funny as one.

Maybe he's called James Corden cos there is a cordon of funnyness into which he's not allowed to cross.

Got this from a mate: "Watched five minutes of James Corden last night. Couldn't stop laughing. That's because I never started!"
hahaha

Oh well, I suppose after the big game, it's actually quite good to get Dizzee Rascal's opinion ????


Blow when you're winning... you only blow when you're winning........


Do you realise this may really happen.....

When England win the World cup for the first time since 1966, and everyone is celebrating, going mental etc etc, do you think anyone is going to say "Ooh James Corden is going to be on in a minute. I can't wait for his show tonight."

How disastrous will that be? England lifting the world cup aloft, followed by James Corden telling his best joke about an Italian manager who might struggle to understand people from Liverpool. Or maybe he'll have to think of a new best joke?


You can shove your vuvuzelas.. shove your vuvuzelas....



1966: "Some people are on the pitch! They think it's all over... it is now!!!!"

2010: "Lots of people are in the stands. They think the end of injury time must be approaching soon. It has done."

orrrr maybe more like....

2010: "Some people are on the pitch! And these scenes are not what we wanted to see, after what has been a largely good-natured and well-behaved tournament."



orrrrr

2010: "You're both from Liverpool. However the manager is Italian."

Looking over and editing some of the borderline bits

Spent some of tonight looking over the book as a whole, and also editing some of the bits that i don't think will make the final cut.

Some of them make me laugh cos they are so bad. An extrovert, show-offy radio presenter that is just hilarious to read back. However, for the bits that don't seem to work , I'm not cutting them yet, til I've written out all the words. Then I might adapt some of the poorer bits, or cut them out completely.

77,000 words

Wow, exciting!! 77,000!

Today , I've done two bits.

Firstly, the bit where Phil, known in the book as Mark, makes his first appearance and the reader is introduced to his character.

Phil is a real tool in the book to talk about creativity, and the creative process with a lot of wisdom. The great thing is that in real life, Phil is great at ranting, so its brilliant to translate that into making points that I want to make about the creative process.

Two of my characters are pretty close to each other, and my thoughts have been changing on their roles as I've gone through so far.

These are Phil, and Kieran White - based on my old music teacher - he doesn't know he's in the book yet!!!

Initially, I thought of having them separate, and having the Kieran character as the creative character.

However, now, it is more Phil as the creative character, and Kieran as a recurring backdrop to the story, and only appearing for brief moments.. (he plays piano in the streets of york. i think its a great idea to have him in between the monologues as my character is moving from one place to another -- ie little chats with him that break up the monologue)

In this sense, it means that both Phil and Kieran should be characters protraying wisdom, but I must be careful not to overlap their domains.

I've also worked on a second bit today, building up to romance.

~~

"So my philosophy," he stated proudly, "is don't spend all your time thinking about things... thinking about.. ooh what if I did that... or ooh what if i try this.."

His arms were getting very animated now.

"Just use your creative time to actually DO things. Not only is it way more productive, it's the best way of learning what does and doesn't work, and generating better ideas in the future!!"

Alan Dedicoat

Wow, it's a baking hot day today, and I'm inside on a computer and its little fan is going crazy (awww)

Time for a catch-up mini-blog thing.... I won the poker tournament last saturday night at Christian's place.... 5 of us in ... won 16 quid out of the 25 pot... could have won 25 if the other guy hadn't chickened out to go home...

The following day , did my radio show.... i'm thinking of changing my radio night back to thursday... just thinking. Chris and Elaine came to see the studios, then we went to the pub to watch England v Japan.... (2-1)...

I got pretty drunk and the best thing is I'm now massively excited about this World Cup.
It's good cos I thought it might be a thing of the past, and I was losing that childish excitement about it all... but thanks to a few good friends and a lot of publicity (and some beer) I'm now crazy excited about it all!! And England's chances of course! Even without Rio and Walcott.

That made for a real nice sunday , alongside going through the Jukebox's collection of early 90's dance music :-)

Bank Holiday Monday was less interesting and eventful, although I did have a good phone call conversation with my mum , where I was able to talk about a lot of my difficulties I have in relation to the counselling, and she was really willing to listen and be a support, and realise that I don't need her to help me, I just need her to love me. Sometimes she gets angry because things can't be solved and I feel sad cos I just want her to love me -- and even though she does, she can find it hard to say it or show it directly sometimes.

Tuesday, I stayed in and got creative stuff done. Wednesday played a charity match of snooker - Samaritans versus Hospital Radio LOL and a integrated friends from both charities. And lost.

Thursday, saw my Nan. Love her to bits. Came home and watched (via I-Player, my friend "purple kate" compete and WIN the Weakest Link!!!) yeah, surreal... Anne Robinson didn't pick on her much... You know when Anne can't think of anything to say to insult them so she just doesn't .. well it was one of those!

Today, on this GORGEOUS day... I've been to the radio studios.. for their official new opening.. £55,000 studios... we had LOADS of people down.. including the voice of the national lottery balls Alan Dedicoat . . . who did the official cutting of a red ribbon, which had been placed there only 5 seconds before LOL. It was funny , because Alan Dedicoat speaks like that all the time! lol, he's not putting it on.

Someone spilt a drink on part of the new studio equipment, but thankfully it missed the controls.. though only by a whisker! Oh the comedy!!!

I also got to meet lots of interesting people!! Like a guy from York Lions, and Frankie Howard's nephew from the York Theatre Royal who I gave a nice tour of the new radio studios to. (it was him who spilt the drink :-))

Afterwards, caught up with Simon who's back from his first year of uni, and sat out in the sun in the Exhibition beer garden :-)

Edit: Now waiting for The Legend to call and let me know when he's in town as its his birthday night.. so far it's 10:35pm and he's still at a house party lol... its gonna be a late start!

76,000 words

40 per cent of the way through the book LOL...... 76,000 words
Wrote a great monologue bit today. Well, an okay monologue bit actually.

~~~

"Yesterday I had a bad back. Today, I've got a good back."

~~~

"Imagine if there could be just one note, and that single note was the perfect piece of music for everyone. And we had no desire to listen to anything more... for the note itself was all we needed."

Editing session

getting there... editing some of the friendship bits...

Feedback on my book so far is interesting. Four people have said really nice things, and they're all people who's opinion i really care about.


Here are the four most popular criticisms you might get when doing something like this...


1. "You've got too much time on your hands!"

I've thought about what people mean when they say this, and I've figured it really means... "You have no life if you choose to do that with your time."
Obviously the answer is simple. It's your time. It's important to have time for leisure activities, and obviously it's a lot of fun. In the same time, you could spend flicking through channels with the remote, watching something you're not that interested in, or reading or other hobbies.
Yes, this criticism is stupid.


2. People who see progress as a step back.

If you start the day with a clean page, and by the end of it, you've got at least some words on the page you're happy with, then its progress.


3. People who expect you to have finished before you've started.

Yep. This is the commonest one. But I suppose with most long creative projects, people forget what is involved..

"Ive been having fun, trying to write a novel."
"It's really hard to get it published, you know."
- Wohhhhh!


4. People who set you a really high standard for no reason!!

Very common, and quite funny because - i dunno, say i'm your mate from the pub, why does that mean that when I write a book, it SHOULD be amazing.

A conversation I had with a mate.

"I've written 42,000 words now."
"Yes, but anyone could write 42,000 words but that doesn't mean they're 42,000 good words."

that's like saying "I was out drinking for 5 hours last night."
"Ahh yes, but that doesn't mean it was a great night, does it?"

In other words, the problem is .. As a writer, my baseline is of course a blank page and nothing, and I am trying to create things on top.
The starting point of the critic is a really good book LOL

It's like... ok, i'm your mate, but suddenly you're expecting me to be Dan Brown or someone. This i think sadly discourages a lot of people from being creative. The idea that we have to reach some kind of high standard else we shouldn't be doing it.

75,000 words

75,000 - wow i'm pleased with myself tonight. Especially as I've been looking back a lot at what I've already done.

~~

"Like someone had untied a knot in my stomach, and now that the knot was untied, it felt empty."

~~

"When I was 9 years old, I found that if you threw a dart at a dartboard backwards, it usually ended up going into the dartboard the right way round."

~~

"It was the days when it felt like anything was possible."

~~

"Sometimes coming up with the questions is much more fun than bothering to come up with the answers."

Storyline Tracker

Doing this for myself, but thought I'd post here a bit of the plot-tracker for the counselling storyline. Sorry if you're reading it and it doesn't mean a lot.

COUNSELLING STORYLINE
-------------------------------

Done so far:

Pages 1 to 6 - Introduction / Part 1
Pages 21 to 23 - Part 2
Pages 25 to 26 - Part 3
Pages 42 to 43 - Build-Up to Counselling Session 1
Pages 44 to 55 - Counselling Session 1
Pages 62 to 66 - Part 4
Pages 85 to 88 - Part 5
Pages 195 to 196 - Part 6 (mp1)
Pages 199 to 202 - Part 7 (mp2)
Pages 205 to 213+ - Counselling Session 2

--

Plan:

At current writing rate, I will produce 3 more counselling sessions, but am aiming for more, something like 5 to 7 more, although 3 is fine if i hit 3.
Only need to worry about tying up things and the ending in the last couple of scenes, or maybe just the last scene.

73,000 words

73,000

just done more on the counselling theme.. it's coming along really well... and the counselling theme has now reached the stage where I'm going to look at it from the end backwards.. i.e. seeing what's missing, what's needed, what the gaps are....

tea time :-)