Friday, November 29, 2013

Exciting day

Yesterday was quite an exciting day. I had quite a few driving challenges, but I made it through the day. I just took it really slow, ignoring the irritated drivers behind me and kept in my lane. Although my nerves kept chewing at my composure, I remained calm. If I panicked, my sister would have panicked too, as she is not used to people driving her around. Luckily my sister knew exactly where we had to go; it was just a matter of me never having driven there before.


I ended up spending most of the day in the car yesterday, taking my sister on unplanned errands, but it was all okay in the end. I didn’t have an accident, which I had dreaded, which is all that matters really. But let me tell you, I slept like a baby last night after all that driving. 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

I get to drive




It has been an interesting few days. My brother is away at a conference for a few days and my one sister, the second best driver, has had an accident with her chef knife and now her hand is stitched up and in a sling, which means that I get to be the new number 1 driver for the family. I have to take my oldest sister to the train station in the mornings and fetch her at night, which I totally don’t mind. I think it’s great that I get to drive more. Usually I’m one of the last people they ask to drive. I guess what counts in my favor is that my mom doesn’t like driving anymore, so I got moved up in the ranks. I know it’s not something big to be excited about, but it’s a change.

My biggest driving challenge is going to be tomorrow when I have to drive my sister to Stellenbosch to have her hand re-examined. Now I have been to Stellenbosch a hundred times, great town, but I have never driven myself there before. Okay, there was that one time and I drove up the wrong side of a one-way street, but it wasn't my fault. There wasn’t a clear sign to tell me it was a one way street and the streets in Stellenbosch are really narrow and…Don’t worry, I will be fine. I will look at it as an adventure. Besides, it has given me something to blog about that isn’t depressing.  I will let you guys know how it went. 

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Please stop the killing

(By Wj32 (talk · contribs) (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


Dear Mr/ Ms Poacher

Please stop killing and hurting innocent animals. They have done nothing to you. They were created just like we, humans, have been to roam this earth and they have the equal right to live, exist and be free. Please stop ruining our heritage. Stop killing our wildlife. Stop taking away our future. Stop ruining this planet. 

Please stop all the killing.

Murees Dupé


(By Dieu-Donné Gameli (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Not only is our planet dying, so are our wildlife. Wild animals are currently being poached to the point of extinction and soon the only way we will see a wild animal like the lion, elephant, rhino, etc, will be on the internet. Soon there will be nothing left for the future generation to enjoy. I don’t know about you, but to me that is tragic. In South Africa, my country, rhinos are being killed every few hours and it sickens me that more can’t be done by the government to protect these precious creatures. Today my world just seems a lot bleaker. 

Monday, November 25, 2013

Active voice is tough

Understanding something and actually doing it is a lot harder than one thinks. I know what active voice is. I have spent hours surfing the internet looking for great examples of what it should read and look like. Now, actually going back to my manuscript and re-writing everything in the active voice is not that easy. I know what I should do, but knowing how to do it is where it gets hard.

Examples of active voice:

  •  I walked down the street. 
  •  My dog ran away. 
  •  I jumped rope today.

I know what I should do, but I don’t have a great understanding about what active voice really is and when I am using it. In certain instances, passive voice still sneaks in. I am not ashamed to admit it, but I am very slow on the uptake. I mean come on, correcting a bad habit is hell, but it doesn’t mean I won’t get it eventually. I just have to give myself the time to understand it properly. I have to accept and get over the fact that it might take me a while to learn all that I need to and I won’t be learning all of it in just a few days. What is my rush anyway?

Friday, November 22, 2013

I need to take it back to the basics


I have figured out why I haven't been in the mood for writing. I am the kind of writer that likes listening to music when I write or even when I 'm simply trying to get into the mood to write. At the moment I haven’t really listened to any new music and none of my old stuff really compels me to write at the moment, probably because I have used them to write my old work. Now I need new inspiration. It also doesn't help that I don’t know what kind of music I am really in the mood for. I will know when I hear it.

I have decided to focus all my attention on learning writing techniques and understanding them. So I won’t be doing any writing until I have learnt how to fix the mistakes that I have been making for the past 10 years. What is the point if I am just going to keep making the same mistakes over and over? So I will be learning and reading. My brother made an interesting point the other day, about how I don’t really understand all the rules about writing, because I write in English and English is not my first language, meaning I didn’t really learn all I had to. I just assumed what I knew would be enough.

Some of my writing mistakes are:
  • I tell instead of show.
  • I write in the passive voice, instead of the active.
  • I am not good at descriptive writing.
  • My dialogue writing is not very good either.

These are only a few mistakes, but to me they seem like a huge deal and I am well aware that they are the writing basics. Now you understand why I am rather going back to the beginning so that I can learn how to write. I can’t believe I actually thought my work was good before, when all these mistakes were there all along and the funny thing is that with all my writing books, I didn't realize I was making all these mistakes.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Everything is okay again, I am back

After two days of file deletions and new antivirus uploads, my brother has fixed the problem. He said that the malware somehow got embedded in my internet software and was piggy-backing on that. All of it is just too complicated for me to understand, I am just glad that the person who was making changes to my files can't do it anymore. My brother assures me that everything is sorted out, but I am still a little paranoid about being online, especially since he said that is how the malware got installed. He said that I might have visited a website or downloaded something that was infected. I just hope that this is all over. I kind of feel icky about this whole experience.

I have antivirus software on my computer, but I still feel kind of paranoid about keeping my writing on my computer from now on. I had a backup on the flash drive and I am thinking of keeping it there and working from it. I don't like the idea of someone just accessing my computer and taking a peak into all my private stuff.

Enough of my drama. How is everything with you?

Friday, November 15, 2013

URGENT! I HAVE BEEN HACKED

Hey Guys

My PC has been hacked, so please ignore all blog posts that might appear on my blog until further notice. Also, I am not sure how much of my info was compromised, so please also ignore any emails from mureesdup@yahoo.com until further notice. Thank you.

Monday, November 11, 2013

My brain is jumbled


I am feeling really disorientated lately. My head is filled with ideas for new stories, learning new writing techniques and all kinds of other stuff. For some strange reason my focus is off and I am not really writing anything at the moment. The inspiration is fleeting, I guess. There is no doubt that I will get it back, it is just strange how unclear my ideas and thoughts are right now. Perhaps I just have too much on my mind.

I spent most of the day watching the series Bones. I recently started watching it because my family got me the entire series so that I can educate myself. After that I re-wrote part of my first chapter and ended up looking for freelance jobs.

Does your thoughts and ideas ever get jumbled?

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Finding your place as a writer

When it comes to writing, there are many types and forms, there are also various techniques and most of all, there are different levels to writing. I had thought that I was past the beginners level, but sadly, I am still very much a beginner and just as green as I had been when I had first begun.

In order for you to advance in writing, you continuously have to learn and improve your writing and your techniques. I had kept to myself all these years and did not know that I was making the same mistakes over and over, regardless of how many times I had re-written my book or how many drafts I had. Luckily I have been given the chance to learn about what I was doing wrong and fix some of those mistakes.

Finding your place as a writer can be tough, but it is important to know where you are starting from. Me, I am a beginner and I am still on the starting line, the only place I can go is forward.  

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Writing can be hard (IWSG)

Sometimes we all feel discouraged and writing can look more like a mountain to concur than a hill. I know I recently felt like this. But I read the road to publication by Sherrilyn Kenyon and I felt a lot better afterwards. If you ever felt dismayed by your writing, please, just read her story about her struggle and you will feel better, because if she could go through all that she went through and not give up, neither can we.

The InsecureWriters Support Group was created by the wonderfully talented Mr Alex J. Cavanaugh, so that writers could talk and communicate to others about the fears and insecurities that they might have. You can visit Alex Here, or if you want to join us in discussing our insecurities on the first Wednesday of each month, you are welcome to join by going Here.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Good-luck with NaNoWriMo




I know I am a bit late, but I wanted to wish everyone participating in NaNoWriMo the best of luck and I hope that the writing will pour out of you and that the creative ideas will come freely. Like always, I am not participating, but I will cheer you guys on.

Not quite myself

I have no idea why, but I have not been feeling like myself. Even being in my own skin feels alien.  The good news is that I still managed t...