Oh the joy of it......I wrote yesterday. I wrote 1400 words for the Dickens Challenge. They are utter crap but it was FUN!!!! I wrote in first person which I haven't done since university. My offering for the Dickens Challenge is called Explosive Dreams and it's a thriller. So it is total utter freedom. I write women's fiction with a very heavy romantic leaning so Explosive Dreams has nothing to do with my 'normal' writing. It was bliss. Long may it last.
All things being equal I will post the first chapter on Friday or Monday. We'll see. I began to read through the other challengers' offerings and I was overwhelmed by the quality so I may lose my nerve before publication day but I must remember that I decided to take on the challenge to push me out of a rut and stretch my writing muscles. This exercise is purely for the fun of it. Just remind me of that when I start stressing!
I also edited 22 pages of A Cornish House. Working heavily on my tendency to repeat myself - to be sure, to be sure. I seem to want to make sure that I said what i wanted to say so I say it again. (see!) Awful habit but now that I am aware of it I can correct it. The other thing I'm doing at this stage is writing post-it notes for each chapter and view point so I can visually see the balance. You may remember that this is supposed to be the story of two women letting love back into their lives after the death of husband/father. However my stroppy 15 year old tends to dominate. What I can already see is that she dominates not because of the space and time I have devoted to her but it is just her voice is soooooooooo strong. I need to find a way to balance with out losing this. Madde's story needs to be more compeling........just how the hell I do that I'm not sure but no doubt it will come to me (PLEASE)!!!
Finally on the writing front I did the first mind map for the book that has been brewing since RNA conference last summer.
All in all a pretty damn good writing day and most of it in my room. The downside to my room is no internet connection. This is good because I can't get lost in research or blog searching but bad as quick research is unavailable so I have list of notes to check this morning for Explosive Dreams...........Of course the other thing I kept doing was texting the dh to ask him the questions. He reads thriller so he is much more aware of these sorts of things. Also, I will probably run amouk soon - if I start googling all sorts of technically explosive things from where I'm sitting I may find I have a knock on the door - so i may have to gloss over all technical points for some later time and place.........
BTW is anyone else have problems with spell check on blogger........this is a crisis and a half for me with my dyslexia........
11 comments:
Hooray for you! It was a tough one this week, but I managed to get a chapter out (of course I hate each and every one as soon as I post but keep up my mantra "it's a draft", "it's only for fun", "it's just an exercise". I'm glad you're enjoying a whole new POV and genre. Can't wait to see the first installment.
Oh, i wouldn't hold your breath Lisa!
Am now having fun trying to catch up with all the challengers - the work is great! Hopefully I won't lose my nerve on Monday :-)
Well done on a very successful day!
I didn't know there was a spell check facility on Blogger? Where?
JJx
Well done Liz on a successful day. No problems with the spell check this end (yet).
Welcome aboard, Liz; I'm glad I'm not the only late starter :)
Good day! I know I feel as if I'm walking on the moon after a great writing session.
Well done for having such a constructive day. I love your room too, what a beautiful space. Mine's a complete tip.
Hi Liz, and welcome to our challenge. I'm looking forward to working alongside you on this precarious journey! Thanks for your lovely comment on my blog. Any encouragement helps, and I appreciate your kind words.
I was interested in seeing that you use mind maps in your writing. I've just written some technical/business type books using mind maps and it really helped me a lot in the organization of the information. I used NovaMind as my tool of choice, and found it fantastic.
For each book, I created a mind map with the chapter titles as the first level branches, then the second level branches were the section headings (up to 7 per chapter, as Gideon King outlines in his book "Business Guide to Mind Mapping" which I just got - page 22 - though I had already written my books before getting his book). Then for each of the headings I created the content using keyword and cross reference notes and then expanding to the final text. Worked brilliantly. I put an overall mind map as a visual TOC and a simple MM of each chapter at the start of each chapter.
One of my friends uses NovaMind for writing novels, but I think she does it more for character/plot development. Haven't really asked her too many details.
Anyway, just thought I'd share this in case it's of general interest.
Marg
Yay Liz! Way to go!
I've been a slug lately with my challenge stuff, but I'm getting back into the swing of it.
Spellchecker is fine on this end.
Keep up the good work. =oD
Thanks JJ and yes there is a spell check but mine isn't working :-(
Helen glad yours is!
Rachel yo're not the only late starter :-)
Rebecca it is like that a bit until you come down off the high and those crows of doubt start circling - but God is it wonderful while it lasts!
Debs my room is already slipping from its pristine condition. Will probably post a picture in a month to show how bad things are.......
Cinday thanks for the welcome to the challengers - quaking in my boots here. Read your second chapter this am - excellant build up :-)
Marg thanks for dropping by.....I started using mind mapping with the eldest ds who is very dyslexic. The scholl encouraged them to use mind mapping to organize their thoughts. I found the whole concept worked well for the convoluted way my mind works. I map the main ideas and then map characters and so on. But strangely enough once I have done I rarely ever go back and refer to it????? I hadn't thought of doing it for each chapter because I am a bit of a panster at heart. However my writing might be stronger if I did that! I would love to know how your friend who writes fiction uses it:-)
B.E. your are obviously refreshing the well so to speak. Don't stress it will pass.
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