It didn't quite fit to tag this onto the end of the previous post. I had nothing planned this weekend, apart from the usual swimming and cleaning. So I planned (hoped?) to finish the first draft to the sequel of Dream a Little Dream. The long sequel, as opposed to a short sequel. The original had 10,000 words in the first draft and 17,000 in the final. My first drafts are always a rush to get the plot out - I have to go back and add the description. And in some cases, attempt to work out who is saying what.

So today I wrote 3000 words over the course of the day and finished the first draft. It currently stands at 14,500 words. So once it's done it will surpass the original as the longest thing I've ever written. And I'm planning to try and get it done by the end of August - the ending ties into SJA and assuming it doesn't get cut in the rewriting & editing process, I don't want to get jossed, if possible.

Today, I also cleaned, tidied, put some stuff on DVD and CD, made flapjacks and did the washing. So tomorrow I just have to swim, shop and make muffins. Monday I'll be making bread, and since I made flapjacks on Thursday and chocolate rice krispie cakes I'll have plenty of food.

Tomorrow I plan to spend my afternoon continuing to work my way through the First Doctor. And the Fourth if I get bored of the First.

When Harry Potter came out and there was a big thing about it, I didn't read it on purpose because everyone else was. It was only after the fourth book came out and long before the first film that I decided that maybe that if so many people are reading it there's something in it. And I was glad I did read it.

Last year someone at work was reading a book at lunch called We Need to Talk About Kevin which was about a fictional boy who did a equally fictional High School shooting. I thought it sounded interesting but had forgotten about it the next day. Until someone else was reading it at work at lunch not that long ago.

Normally, the sorts of things the girls at work are into are not what I'm into at all. But it still intrigued me. And then the other day I followed a link to a blog and on it, the person who wrote the blog had read it and said it was good. I had a look and discovered the local library had it. So on Thursday (the only day they're open after work finishes) I got my first book from the library I didn't have to pay for.

I planned to spend this weekend reading it, except I started on Friday and just finished. And I'm very glad I did get it because it was very good. It's easy to get completely caught up in the characters and the writing style, of the Kevin's mother to his father. A part of the ending I predicted halfway through - if 'I wonder if...' counts as predicting. But none of it came as a surprise, though. Except that I read the last few pages in tears. And like Kevin, who it's impossible to say exactly why he did it, I don't know who I was feeling sorry for.

Reading my RSS Feeds this last week there are some that make me think I am not on the same planet as most of the rest of the population, in that there are major dramas that have gone on that I didn't think anything of at all.

Like, people avoiding LJ/the internet until they'd read Harry Potter. Whereas when I took a break from reading it I read my RSS Feeds. I just didn't read the ones that had spoilers in them - I either marked them as read without reading, or left them unread to read until I'd read it.

And then people are running round like chickens with their heads cut off about LJ going down for an evening. I only noticed because I thought I wasn't tired when I got in, so turned my computer on. By the time I got there I was, but it was fine before I went out and was fine in the morning. I've known websites down far longer than that. So why is one such a big deal? Do people not visit any other website? Do they not have real lives?

You know that thing where you read really good fanfic and then just can't write any of your own because it can never be as good? I had that last night but with my own. I went and read an old one of mine (well, not that old) and apart from a few bits I thought I could have changed, I mostly didn't think I could do any writing last night because how could I possibly write anything even vaguely that good again? So I had planned to do some beta'ing but I procrastinated and read something else of mine. Which was older and loads of bits that needed working on. So I went and wrote 2000 words before I got too tired and went to bed to listen to my neighbour's TV.