So, I haven't written anything in months and months. I've realised now that my writer's block is down to anxiety and being a perfectionist. I was diagnosed with social anxiety about four years ago and now my GP thinks I might have OCD as well, so I've been referred to a neurologist as well as a psychologist and hopefully somewhere along the way I'll remember how to write for pages and pages without stopping to edit everything.

In the meantime, I got a Canon Powershot G9 for my birthday and intend to take up photography as a new hobby, so you'll be seeing more photos than writing from me for a while. I'm finding that photography is far more relaxing than writing, so maybe it'll do me some good.

I never did end up finishing that short story. It was a first-person story about an incredibly dull man which resulted in a rather dull story, and the plot centred around the fact he was incredibly dull so there was very little I could do to make it interesting. Maybe I shall resurrect it someday but right now I have something else occupying my creative thoughts.

I woke up a couple of weeks ago with a really vivid dream fresh in my mind. Now it's developed into the premise for a novel(la) and I wrote the first four sentences on Friday, which is more than I've written in months. It feels really good to have something to work on again. I don't want to jinx it by saying too much, but it's called a summer ghost (it might be a bit pretentious to have the title in lowercase like that but it has a completely different feel when I capitalise it) and is about the ghost of a seventeen year old girl who I really want to call Evie, because she is both young and pure but also at the end of her life, and I think the name sums up those things quite well.

The only trouble is, Evie is also the name of the title character of The Temptation of Evie... I'm so unimaginative, haha. I had already been considering changing the old Evie's name though, as I suddenly realised how The Temptation of Evie sounds like The Temptation of Eve... Obviously she was named Eve because of its links to temptation, but I never realised just how unsubtle the title was. I haven't decided what I want to change her name to yet though.

Anyway, back to a summer ghost. Evie drowns at the beginning of her seventeenth summer but her ghost clings to the mortal world through the only three people who are still able to see and communicate with her -- Sophie, her younger sister; Lily, who was her best friend until they drifted apart three years ago; and Jacob, who until now always liked her more than she liked him. Evie is struggling to hold onto what's left of her memories and feelings, while her three friends are struggling to move on and get over her death. I'm really excited about this story.

Lastly, a meme. Safs tagged everyone to do this, and I don't know eight people on here either so I'm tagging you all too...

The rules:
1. Post these rules.
2. Each person tagged must post 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Tags should write a journal/blog of these facts.
4. At the end of the post, 8 or more persons are tagged and named.
5. Go to their page and leave them a comment telling them they're tagged.

1. I've been a vegetarian all my life. I used to eat fish when I was young because my mum did, but once I got old enough to think about it I decided that fish were animals too and so I gave it up.
2. I'm really restless. The only way I can sit still long enough to watch a movie is if I knit at the same time.
3. I'm socially anxious and always have been. I don't really like talking out loud.
4. I collect Pullip dolls. I currently have five: a Nomado called Calliope, an Assa called Tallulah, a Papin called Lottie, a Zuora called Lily-Rose and an Eternia called February. I have a Hello Kitty on pre-order and her name will be Ruby-Kate.
5. I tend to crush on fictional characters rather than celebrities. My top three fictional character crushes are: Tony Almeida from 24, Sam Vimes from Discworld, and Shigure Sohma from Fruits Basket.
6. I'm messy, clumsy, forgetful and am always losing things.
7. I love Sailor Moon. I think the live-action series is my favourite format. I wish somebody would release an English translation of the manga without flipping the art and changing the character names. I've not seen any of the musicals yet but one of them is downloading as I write this and I'm excited about it.
8. One day I want to get a kitten of my own. It will be called Moogle.

I started writing this short story a month ago and I'm still not done. I just have the ending to write, but even then I think it will just be the first draft and I will have to reorganise the whole thing (even though I doubt it'll reach more than 3000 words).

Shortly after finishing The Temptation of Evie I shared some of my short story ideas with my boyfriend, who politely pointed out that all of my ideas were about the same kind of thing. So I decided to write something completely different -- first person, hetrosexual male protagonist. (I couldn't help but make him a bit of a daydreamer though. My characters will always daydream.) It's hard for me to write like that, but if I get it right I'm going to be very proud of this story.

I wish I was as prolific as my boyfriend. He writes in his moleskeine every single day, and I barely write in mine once a week. The other day I looked at my current story and spent ten minutes just adjusting punctuation and then changing it back again.

Today my sister is going to henna my hair. I have to leave it in for five hours, and I'm going to spend that time finishing my first draft and then she can be the first person to read it.