Lucky Seven

Karina Buchanan tagged me in this fun thing making the rounds on the writing circuit. :)

Here are the rules:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written. No cheating.

4. Tag 7 other authors

This is from my ms that has been giving me tension headaches since I started revising it and making me wonder if I'll ever type The End. Seriously, I hate revising! 

"...Why have everything cut and dried and labeled? We can see each other. No strings, no hampering on either side.” Was it really her, softly advocating this madcap policy?  

“You're being way too generous." Lazer judged.

She looked away. If he only knew. 



And now I tag:

Jorja Lovett
Cherie Nicholls
Doris O'Connor
Alannah Harte
Adite Banerjie
Kiru Taye
Julia Broadbooks

No pressure if you don't participate, this is all just for fun!!  Enjoy!

A Happy Holi made even more Colorful

This is such a momentous occasion that just had to blog about this.

Something so exciting happened that I have to share my feelings on the occasion. I got to the top five in the Mills and Boon India Passions Contest. *swoons* 

This morning I was just after the kids to stop wasting time on the ipad and piling clothes for a folding spree and absentmindedly opening the Mills and Boon India page for a looksee at the Holi posts. Side by side I was on phone to sil to wish her. And there the results were. Totally lost the track of what I was saying and sil was like hello?? Where are you?? Somehow finished the call and opened the link. 

When I found my story up there, I couldn't believe it. I said OMG and son was ya what is it? Then my daughter, who been taking an interest in my doings (she's 14) and I were hopping madly and she said, don't step on my toes, mom I'm not wearing slippers.

Today is Holi the festival of colours and this day has been mad from the start. First hubby waking me up smearing clour on my face. Then as soon as I rubbed the sleep from my face son was squirting his watergun on me. I gave back good when I came back from my walk. But I think I suffered rather more.

What a madcap morning. I was drenched through. And you can't know how a cold water blast  running down your back feels till you try it! With her usual logic daughter concluded that I must ask Mills and Boon when the contest voting results come out so they can drench me again because it has proved lucky for me. Kids!

And very rashly in my excitement I promised they can eat every variety of Domino's pizza when daughter reminded me of the pizza treat she had been promised. *smacks head*

It was a wonderful morning. It feels especially good because as almost all aspiring writers know, the downs are so disheartening that reaching anywhere near up calls for a celebration of the effort that has been put into our writing. Right, guys?

For the Indians reading this, how did your Holi go? Would love to hear about your experience.

Thanks for sharing this with me. Ciao!

Waiting...

Don't you hate waiting? It's taxing. Wasteful. Mostly it's irritating. It stretches your nerves...well, till you're fidgeting like you'd like to go to the loo. Uh, that's my son's teacher's expression when his friend was waiting to get his work checked. :)

Waiting for a bus at the stop or your kid to finish home work so you can stop the vigilance and go attend the pile of chores waiting to be done.

Or waiting to hear the result for a writing contest. Can you hear the heart pounding?

Waiting is having time thrust on you when you don't want it. 

One thing about it. While waiting you can experience certain things. When the anxiety of waiting simmers down and you're reconciled to the inevitable. I usually do this while waiting for the bus on the highway. Like notice a woman straggling along with a load of dry wood on her head and wonder about other peoples' lifestyles and realise just how different they are from yours. Or see that woman hitch a ride on a trailer and wonder where she'd be going?  

Recently I was waiting for my son to do dictation for his weak spellings in Hindi. As I sat simmering with impatience, he showed me a diary he has with quotes in it. Reluctantly I began to listen as he read them to me, then I started being impressed. They were really wonderful quotes. I felt proud that he'd actually read them and understood many of them. He asked me to explain those he didn't quite get and we had a cosy time discussing them.

So waiting may not be bad all the time. This inaction in the midst of action.

Of course it has to be got through. Like waiting for the results. As I'm doing atm. It involves daily rise and fall of hope levels till you feel like yelling arrrgh or climbing the walls.

I decided to tackle it by working on the ms I had shelved.

How would you tackle waiting? Do you try to distract yourself like I'm doing or search for meaning during the wait? Or something else entirely

Hmm... opinions? 

SHOW NOT TELL

How many times we have heard of this red flag warning in writing? To tell you the truth, I'm still struggling to grasp it. When I do try to scan my writing through this mirror, it fairly drives me up the wall to try to fit my words to suit it.
 Recently something happened to make me see this in a totally different light that had nothing to do with writing at all.
I had been writing furiously and had to leave it to make dinner. So in the eager rush to get back to my ms, I decided to make an ordinary and quickly procured meal of chapatis and lentils for dinner. It would be good for digestion for my in-laws, I told myself and of course lentils are full of proteins so that's great for kids. My son didn't agree with my time-saving but not so savoury efforts. I told him, Mom's busy, so if you're a good boy, make do with this. He answered with something to the effect of 'do you even care what I like?'
This really struck me. It wasn't the first time I'd opted to 'make-do' instead of lavishing my energy on preferences. In my effort to keep the ball rolling and get things done while making extra time for writing, I'd begun to focus more on needs and less on choices. I was expecting everyone to adjust to my lack of time, but what my son said made me wonder if they were interpreting it as lack of love. Show not tell. That's as important in everyday life as in writing. Love has to be shown in caring, in taking into account our loved ones likes and dislikes, otherwise it's no use telling another person how much we love. Love means extending our time and patience to them.
That incident was something of an eye-opener. So I made my son his favourite stuffed parantha and had my smiling boy back.
Now I've made myself a promise to always show, not just tell!
What about you? Have you had a rush hour moment when you ignored someone? Did you get a chance to put it to rights? I'd love to hear your take on this.