Yesterday was bliss in many ways. The weather had cleared after rain and thunder storms and DH took the boys to the cinema. I thought - peace - and stretched out on the sofa to read. All week long each and every time I thought I can read someone needed me. So poor FAIR DECEPTION was interrupted. I have longed to read this book because I had read the first three chapters of it's follow-on story here and Caroline was such a plucky heroine that she has stayed with me. So when FAIR DECEPTION was published by Hale I was thrilled.
Yet each time I went to sink into the wonderful Regency setting something interrupted including on the flight back to Dubai in February when inspiration struck and I worked the seven hour flight instead of relaxing and getting lost in another world. So when I picked up the book last week I foolishly thought I would have plenty of time to escape - no, my dear children had other plans. I grabbed small bits here and there which was not at all satisfactory. For some books it's okay to read two pages here and two pages there, but others are best consumed nearly whole.
As I said I settled on the sofa with dd happily rearranging her room and read. I was lost in another world and loving every minute of the escape then boom twenty pages from the end when I am so caught up I don't want to know the world outside the book exists everyone needs me! I deal with request one politely - finding paint and an easel for Ds1. I settled back into book immediately gripped and then two minutes later Ds2 needs me to sort something on the computer. Grrrrrrrrrr. Sorted and then return to wrapping myself in the story. Dh comes home having booked some flights and wants to discuss. Explain I won't be long but I NEED to finish this wonderful book (Doesn't anybody else show respect when a person is so close to the end you can taste it? Before interrupting a reader I always glance to see where they are in the book - the end is sacred!). He looks at me then wonders off. Down to ten pages and DD wants to ice her fairy cakes. Gritting my teeth I pour icing sugar into a bowl and beat the hell out of it and leave her to cover the the world in violent pink icing. I retreat into the story - torn between reading quickly and savouring each word and Dh, bless him, appear to ask if I want a glass of wine????
Can someone tell me why it is that as you approach the end of a book that everybody needs you? Why is it that you can't be left in peace to enjoy the satisfaction of the end????
From the above you can tell that I loved the book. I love Regencies and have done so since I discovered Georgette Heyer. Jan Jones does a brilliant job of conveying a totally different time and creates characters that you care for deeply. Can't wait to finally read the rest of Caroline's story from FORTUNE'S WAGER. In the meantime I will jump back into the Regency world with C.S. Harris's WHY MERMAID'S SING (although I have this in hardcover so it may have to wait until we are back from our trip to Cornwall for Easter) after I finished Rachel Billington's LIES and LOYALTIES that I began last night.
Showing posts with label C.S. Harris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label C.S. Harris. Show all posts
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Black Boxes released in Paperback and the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award
One of the best things as a writer, aside from seeing your own work in print (yes, I have but in non-fiction), is seeing friends' books out in the wide world. So after the lovely writerly day I had had before I was browsing in Smith's in Heathrow's terminal 3 looking for Trisha Ashley's book A Winter's Tale (which I found). I continued to roam the titles and then I made a little spectacle of myself when I squeaked upon finding Caroline Smailes' Black Boxes. I was so excited I whipped out my phone and took this dodgy photo! It turns out she's running a competition here for the best photo. Now, I know I won't win any prizes, but I can say I received more just by the flow of happy excitement that ran throw me!
Sorry for the post yesterday. I really wasn't on this planet, but did want to get the photos up as it was such a wonderful day and so many had seen me snapping away. But yesterday I existed in my own little jetlagged bubble trying to comprehend how I had been in both snow and sand storms in less than thirty-six hours..........
However CS Harris did ask how was the state of UK publishing...well, things are being cut like lunches to say the least and there had been a report in the press about the demise of the launch party unless the poor author paid. Also of concern is the huge discounting demanded by the supermarkets.
I did ask one agent about the market and she said new writers were still being sought (this surprised me) but it was a risky time for the midlist. Publishers were looking at ways to cut costs and this seemed to be their target. Sobering news to say the least.
Finally to the blogs that contained far better reports on the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Lunch:
Friday, July 25, 2008
So Close I Can Taste It
I haven't been blogging - not for nothing to say but the time issue again. My parents are here which is bliss. My house is now sorted and the kids are sorted. Life is good but time keeps disappearing. DH arrives today :-)
Yesterday I woke at 4:30 and couldn't fall asleep again so I crept downstairs and began revision work. I had spent the six hours the previous day while the car was being serviced this week. I sat at the kids table in the local vauxhall garage with a printout of A Cornish House and Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. I began at page one and worked through his chapters and the connections in my head started flying. My poor heroine is having more and more dumped on her but best of all - it all fits.
This leads me to the marathon revision day yesterday. So I revised from five am to six pm yet I didn't reach that crucial stage where these new key scenes need to go. I know what I have to write and I now know where they need to fit in the story but truth be told I might just be a little bit afraid to write them. Why you ask? Well, they will hurt Maddie and me. I will have to pull on all those dark corners of pain that we shove away to make these scenes work and I'm just not sure if I can do them justice.
I have wrestled this story from Serena's (the bolshy teen) grip and placed it back with Maddie but it has come at a huge emotional cost for her. I keep saying what else can I throw at her? So now I sit on the edge of writing some pretty painful stuff.......DH keeps saying as I mention what else is going to happen to her - and this is going to have a happy ending, it sounds more like a slash your wrist job. But Maddie will have her happy ending, I promise, it's just that both she and I will have worked bl**dy hard for it.
Have you had any scenes that it took all your reserve to write because you knew how much it would cost your hero/heroine?
Finally some links - over on C. S. Harris's blog there is a great post on lessons learned.
And finally from d.o.t's blog I found this blog How Publishing Really Works which carries much worth while info......
Yesterday I woke at 4:30 and couldn't fall asleep again so I crept downstairs and began revision work. I had spent the six hours the previous day while the car was being serviced this week. I sat at the kids table in the local vauxhall garage with a printout of A Cornish House and Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. I began at page one and worked through his chapters and the connections in my head started flying. My poor heroine is having more and more dumped on her but best of all - it all fits.
This leads me to the marathon revision day yesterday. So I revised from five am to six pm yet I didn't reach that crucial stage where these new key scenes need to go. I know what I have to write and I now know where they need to fit in the story but truth be told I might just be a little bit afraid to write them. Why you ask? Well, they will hurt Maddie and me. I will have to pull on all those dark corners of pain that we shove away to make these scenes work and I'm just not sure if I can do them justice.
I have wrestled this story from Serena's (the bolshy teen) grip and placed it back with Maddie but it has come at a huge emotional cost for her. I keep saying what else can I throw at her? So now I sit on the edge of writing some pretty painful stuff.......DH keeps saying as I mention what else is going to happen to her - and this is going to have a happy ending, it sounds more like a slash your wrist job. But Maddie will have her happy ending, I promise, it's just that both she and I will have worked bl**dy hard for it.
Have you had any scenes that it took all your reserve to write because you knew how much it would cost your hero/heroine?
Finally some links - over on C. S. Harris's blog there is a great post on lessons learned.
And finally from d.o.t's blog I found this blog How Publishing Really Works which carries much worth while info......
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Christmas Come Early
Sil arrive late on Thursday night and she brought with her my Amazon order!!!!
So where do I start? With Julie's One Night Stand? With Julia's Pasture's New? With Jan's Stage by Stage? With C.S.'s When God's Die? Or with Phillipa's Wish You Were Here?
I don't know but must be discipled and finish the Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox first.....which I am really enjoying but I have waited for these books for so long......
With sil here I may not get much reading or writing done but I used her as a sounding board last night for the changes in A Cornish House and she said to her they worked. DH who was listening said 'and this has a happy ending? How? It sounds more like a slash your wrist job.' It will have a happy ending because that is just me!
Yesterday which went to Friday (remember Friday is Sunday here) Brunch at the Al Muntaha restaurant (200 metres above sea level - the sticky out bit in the picture! ) in the Burj Al Arab. It was too die for........I skipped all the lovely salads, breads and things I could have anywhere and went straight for the lobster tails and prawns. Not that the lobsters were not Maine lobsters or even Cornish ones but they were fabulous and such a decadent treat as was the caviar (got used to this when living in Moscow). I then managed to fit in some prime rib before dd lead me to the puddings. Lets just say that one has to put all thoughts of diets aside and just enjoy. It was a buffet worth living for.....
(the colours in this photos are muted but in life think crayon box primary - red, blue, green!)
Friday, February 15, 2008
Rewrite
I keep telling myself that rewriting shouldn't be hard. The words are there after all so all I have to do is look at them critically! I also keep wondering why this is taking me so long - dread, fear, procrastenation?????
I do know that I'm learning though. As I work through this rewrite of A Cornish House I can see things I never saw before - and the bonus is I know how to fix them now. So why is it taking me so long? I think it is too much other stuff in my life at the moment and fear. I do think I really feel I could mess this one up badly because the story has so much potential that I may let it and me down.
I also find I'm working differently now. Currently I print off twenty pages and read through for typos and repetition (to be sure to be sure) and just the general feel of the story. Once that is complete I print off again and read the work aloud. I hate doing this but what a difference it makes. Awkward sentences jump out at me and require fixing. This is very different from my past working methods. I used to do much more work on the screen and work with long pieces of the script. I think I like this method but we'll see.
What I'm not yet doing which is what I fear most is fixing the plot holes and dramtically changing the story. I haven't really dealt with ACH is months so I need to reaquaint myself with my character and remind myself what i wanted to acheive. It's hard sometimes to realize that I have written 94,000 words and may not have aceived what I wanted to or may have to change the whole thing. So after this rewrite I will have 94,000 well written words that don't tell the story I want them too! Help!
This week there have been some great things on blogs. Directly related to what I have been working with this week is here here on Michelle Styles blog. She talks about how it's fine to tell and not show in your first draft and then how to convert it in your second. I particularlly love RUE (Resisit the Urge to Explain). I think I may need that branded on my forehead.
As a follows on from C.S. Harris's post here here which talks about how a writer writes about the body's reactions to danger ( love her words Cardiopulmonary Reality) Steve Malley goes through the way a body reacts to danger - here. It's a great reference.
Finally there is a fantastic debate/discussion on two blogs that is well worth a read on two accounts - one it's content on the relative merits of catagory romance which begins from the male pov as he reviews one he's been challenged to read here and continues on the author's (Julie Cohen) blog here and two as it shows how how brilliantly the blogging world can work for enlightening and thoughtful discussion.
I do know that I'm learning though. As I work through this rewrite of A Cornish House I can see things I never saw before - and the bonus is I know how to fix them now. So why is it taking me so long? I think it is too much other stuff in my life at the moment and fear. I do think I really feel I could mess this one up badly because the story has so much potential that I may let it and me down.
I also find I'm working differently now. Currently I print off twenty pages and read through for typos and repetition (to be sure to be sure) and just the general feel of the story. Once that is complete I print off again and read the work aloud. I hate doing this but what a difference it makes. Awkward sentences jump out at me and require fixing. This is very different from my past working methods. I used to do much more work on the screen and work with long pieces of the script. I think I like this method but we'll see.
What I'm not yet doing which is what I fear most is fixing the plot holes and dramtically changing the story. I haven't really dealt with ACH is months so I need to reaquaint myself with my character and remind myself what i wanted to acheive. It's hard sometimes to realize that I have written 94,000 words and may not have aceived what I wanted to or may have to change the whole thing. So after this rewrite I will have 94,000 well written words that don't tell the story I want them too! Help!
This week there have been some great things on blogs. Directly related to what I have been working with this week is here here on Michelle Styles blog. She talks about how it's fine to tell and not show in your first draft and then how to convert it in your second. I particularlly love RUE (Resisit the Urge to Explain). I think I may need that branded on my forehead.
As a follows on from C.S. Harris's post here here which talks about how a writer writes about the body's reactions to danger ( love her words Cardiopulmonary Reality) Steve Malley goes through the way a body reacts to danger - here. It's a great reference.
Finally there is a fantastic debate/discussion on two blogs that is well worth a read on two accounts - one it's content on the relative merits of catagory romance which begins from the male pov as he reviews one he's been challenged to read here and continues on the author's (Julie Cohen) blog here and two as it shows how how brilliantly the blogging world can work for enlightening and thoughtful discussion.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Bliss
What can I say? I have clearly died and gone to paradise. I am not only on a coral atoll in the middle of Indian Ocean but I have has just devoured the first of my reads....... C.S. Harris'sWhat Angels Fear. Absolutely gripping.......It kept me glued during the flight and even on the beach today when I could have been well looking at other things........If you love Regency like I do and you like a bit of mystery with a bit love thrown in.....well 10 out of 10. I could rave on about how it was brilliant to look at the period from different eyes but well the sunset on my beach is calling.................
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Confession
I have a confession to make and I feel very guilty - I'm going on holiday - not just on any holiday but to the Maldives! With DH on gardening leave we are taking advantage of the time and indulging in some serious R&R! We are taking the dd with us so the two ds's will not speak to us when they realize that their sister is being spoiled..........
So I will be taking three books with me to read......C.S. Harris's What Angels Fear, Lucie Whitehouse's The House At Midnight, and Rowan Coleman's The Baby Club. Plus I will be taking my own revision work with me not too mention having to write the next chapter of Explosive dreams. I have no idea where the heck this is going. It is utter cr.p but I am treating it like a cw assignment. So the next chapter of my chit lit meets thriller will be written while I sit and look at this view.
So I will be taking three books with me to read......C.S. Harris's What Angels Fear, Lucie Whitehouse's The House At Midnight, and Rowan Coleman's The Baby Club. Plus I will be taking my own revision work with me not too mention having to write the next chapter of Explosive dreams. I have no idea where the heck this is going. It is utter cr.p but I am treating it like a cw assignment. So the next chapter of my chit lit meets thriller will be written while I sit and look at this view.
It's tough but someone gotta do it!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Plot vs Character
A little while ago B.E. posed a question - could a story be both plot and character driven???? My answer was probably yes.......well today over on Julie Cohen's blog she talking a bit about her writing process which is character driven and very interesting.
I think I may start with a plot idea but then characters take over the story quite quickly. All this does no doubt makes my story confused!
Now for a fantastic look at the topic of branding you must read C.S. Harris posts on it here. There are three so far and she promised more this week. They have given me food for thought - particulary in the presenting myself to agents at the moment. Yes, Augsut Rock is about to be shoved out into the world again to take another bashing!!!
Finally, although I can't name names a fellow memeber of the New Writers Scheme of the Romantic Novelist Association had landed a deal with Little Black Dresss. I just can't contain my excitement!!!
I think I may start with a plot idea but then characters take over the story quite quickly. All this does no doubt makes my story confused!
Now for a fantastic look at the topic of branding you must read C.S. Harris posts on it here. There are three so far and she promised more this week. They have given me food for thought - particulary in the presenting myself to agents at the moment. Yes, Augsut Rock is about to be shoved out into the world again to take another bashing!!!
Finally, although I can't name names a fellow memeber of the New Writers Scheme of the Romantic Novelist Association had landed a deal with Little Black Dresss. I just can't contain my excitement!!!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Link
I was over on CS Harris' s blog and she lead me to a fantastic post here by Steve Malley about bad and lazy words in writing. Go read it and then examine your wip!
Monday, October 08, 2007
Sorry for the Silence and Links
Sorry I haven't been posting....there are several reasons for it. First I was focused on bashing August Rock into shape and zapping it off to the Amazon contest. But then I thought do I really want to do this? The answer came back not really because I know that shortly I will not meet the entry requirements of being resident in the UK ( the UAE was not one of the allowed countries) and the other reasons was that i must bite the bullet and sub agents.
So for a few days I was in a frenzy of editing - good stuff and then into deep reflection. Neither of these promoted blog writing moods. Oh and did I mention that we had car to choose and thinking about beach clubs - tough I know but someone has to it :-)
Yesterday I spent my writing time trying to squash my synopsis down to one page double spaced and yet still retain the essence of the story. I went back to my notes for the Romantic Novelist Conference from Emma Dunford's session. She was emphatic about one page double spaced! In the end I got there but I will reread with a clear head today to see if it really worked. After a while I was just cutting wildly! I am hoping it's like a blurb but reveals all yet it could be an unintelligible disaster.
In my Sunday blog search I came onto C.S. Harris blog discussing Plotter vs Pansters. It's well worth a look as it makes plotting seem less onerous to me (being a panster). Finally caught with Ray-Anne's blog this week which I enjoy for her feature of English Cheese as she calls them ( absolutely gorgeous English leading men - this week Jason Isaacs) and wise words. Two of her posts this week hit home - How to eat and Elephant tackling rewriting and some seriously good writing tips.
So for a few days I was in a frenzy of editing - good stuff and then into deep reflection. Neither of these promoted blog writing moods. Oh and did I mention that we had car to choose and thinking about beach clubs - tough I know but someone has to it :-)
Yesterday I spent my writing time trying to squash my synopsis down to one page double spaced and yet still retain the essence of the story. I went back to my notes for the Romantic Novelist Conference from Emma Dunford's session. She was emphatic about one page double spaced! In the end I got there but I will reread with a clear head today to see if it really worked. After a while I was just cutting wildly! I am hoping it's like a blurb but reveals all yet it could be an unintelligible disaster.
In my Sunday blog search I came onto C.S. Harris blog discussing Plotter vs Pansters. It's well worth a look as it makes plotting seem less onerous to me (being a panster). Finally caught with Ray-Anne's blog this week which I enjoy for her feature of English Cheese as she calls them ( absolutely gorgeous English leading men - this week Jason Isaacs) and wise words. Two of her posts this week hit home - How to eat and Elephant tackling rewriting and some seriously good writing tips.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Voice Part 4
Well, it's the bank holiday and I'm now in the count down to Dubai. DH left yesterday and is now there dealing with the fact that the temporary accommodation is not dire but....... The sun is shinning here and my kids don't want to go to the beach???? They are beached out but I keep thinking it may rain tomorrow. So I have a moment - since they are on the 'puter upstairs - to think about writing again. Actually I haven't stopped thinking about writing to be honest. I am itching to get back to it which is good I think.
Back last week I posted two possible openings for A Cornish House and the comments were fascinating a varied - which is to be expected as we all like different things and approaches. I will discuss more of that another time. The wonderful Jan Jones http://jan-jones.blogspot.com/ left this comment :
"...my thoughts are that the opening of any new ms these days MUST be told from the point-of-view of the main character."
I sat there and thought how bl--dy true. There in lies my problem with ACH. I want Madde to be the main character and yet Serena wants this role for herself! typical teenager - why do we work with them???
So Jan's comment set me to thinking about the books I have read this summer. How did each of them capture me in??? Katie Fforde grabbed me with Dora's shock at the transformation of Mrs Edwards from typical country wife to hippy style divorcee in Going Dutch. It set up the whole story of lives transforming - Dora's and Jo's (Mrs. Edwards).
Kate Harrison's The Self-Preservation Society is told in first person. She opens with a prologue that instantly made me relate to Jo - the nightmares we all experience and then once we have felt our own fears we are more open to Jo's over heightened sense to fear. So also caught on page one.
Caroline Smailes' In Search Of Adam is another story told in first person. We are there with a six year old curled up to her mother's dead body. Your heart is your mouth and you are with Jude instantly.
In Therese Fowler's Souvenir in a prologue we see Meg about to do something that is wrong and she is well aware of it but we also know she is following her heart. It is this that takes through the rest of the story. Because of her thoughts on the first page we follow her through the story.
So Jan is so right. We have very little time to capture the reader and bring them along with our main character. So I need to establish whose story I want tell even if it's both as with Katie's book. More food for thought.......
Finally over on C.S. Harris's blog http://csharris.blogspot.com/2007/08/punch-it-up.html she talks about punching up your writing. It's all about making your writing more powerful. If you are in a revision phase then it would be a good time to read this and check your script out.
Back last week I posted two possible openings for A Cornish House and the comments were fascinating a varied - which is to be expected as we all like different things and approaches. I will discuss more of that another time. The wonderful Jan Jones http://jan-jones.blogspot.com/ left this comment :
"...my thoughts are that the opening of any new ms these days MUST be told from the point-of-view of the main character."
I sat there and thought how bl--dy true. There in lies my problem with ACH. I want Madde to be the main character and yet Serena wants this role for herself! typical teenager - why do we work with them???
So Jan's comment set me to thinking about the books I have read this summer. How did each of them capture me in??? Katie Fforde grabbed me with Dora's shock at the transformation of Mrs Edwards from typical country wife to hippy style divorcee in Going Dutch. It set up the whole story of lives transforming - Dora's and Jo's (Mrs. Edwards).
Kate Harrison's The Self-Preservation Society is told in first person. She opens with a prologue that instantly made me relate to Jo - the nightmares we all experience and then once we have felt our own fears we are more open to Jo's over heightened sense to fear. So also caught on page one.
Caroline Smailes' In Search Of Adam is another story told in first person. We are there with a six year old curled up to her mother's dead body. Your heart is your mouth and you are with Jude instantly.
In Therese Fowler's Souvenir in a prologue we see Meg about to do something that is wrong and she is well aware of it but we also know she is following her heart. It is this that takes through the rest of the story. Because of her thoughts on the first page we follow her through the story.
So Jan is so right. We have very little time to capture the reader and bring them along with our main character. So I need to establish whose story I want tell even if it's both as with Katie's book. More food for thought.......
Finally over on C.S. Harris's blog http://csharris.blogspot.com/2007/08/punch-it-up.html she talks about punching up your writing. It's all about making your writing more powerful. If you are in a revision phase then it would be a good time to read this and check your script out.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
That Holiday Feeling
It's a long weekend here in the UK so the weather has gone off..... bl...dy typical. It has been a glorious week and now that Saturday is here it is cloudy and damp.......yuck.
I have loved learning more about my fellow racers. As one racer pointed out in the comments you see a different view of them than on their blogs......true and that's part of the reason for doing it. The other for me was to just highlight how different writers are yet we all work to the same goal. More writers profiled next week!
How's my writing going you wonder. Well, it hasn't been. This week I promised myself that I would read A Cornish House. I have read to page 68. Not very far you say. True. Interestingly it is not because I am disgusted with it. It's not bad - so far. It's because at the back of my mind I have this question lurking - should this be rewritten as a YA novel with Serena's pov the whole way through??? My reader, who is well qualified thinks this is the way to go. I respect her opinion. Serena is a brilliant character and I do handle her well - even I can see that in the first 68 pages. But then I ask myself do I really want to write YA? The answer is I don't know. First I have not read much if any really - unless you count Harry Potter. However I have two readers of YA in the house. I find myself wondering how I would feel about them reading Serena's story. I didn't hold back on her. Her language is colourful and her thoughts direct which I felt in an adult novel is fine. How would I feel about my kids reading it? Not quite as sure but that is not enough to put me off entirely. I can see how the book could be very well told from Serena's view point, but if it sold the publisher would need to know I have more in me and at this moment I don't know if I have more YA's in me because this is new territory. I certainly know I have more women's fiction in me.........The war inside rages on.
On another point, the reader flagged up my biggest weakness as a writer. Before I go into that I want to say she also highlighted my strengths and didn't tell me to pack it in. But I do have a big weakness, my plots are to predictable. You can see the end from the beginning. One knows that Madde will end up with Mark and likewise in August Rock you know that Judith will end up with Tristan. I need to shake it up a bit more. This was on my mind last night when I watched the film, The Holiday. It's light, probably not unlike my plot, when an unexpected thing was thrown in and suddenly I thought that's what my books need. (Spoiler ahead if you haven't seen the film) This moment was when Cameron Diaz goes to Jude Law's house and she hears noise. One assumes he's entertaining a woman as that is what we have been led to believe about this character but no it turns out he's a widow and the noise are his two daughters. I didn't expect it and I enjoyed their story line in the film more after that. Light bulb moment? Maybe........
So I have done a fair bit of navel gazing this week. I have wondered if I have what it takes to write a really gripping novel. I have proved I can write and parts of it I can do well. I have also proved that I can learn from past mistakes. In August Rock my secondary character weren't as well drawn as they could be - in A Cornish House that was one of the strengths. My dialogue is good. My voice is good. Pacing is right except that its too predictable. Do I have it in me to fix this key flaw? I'd like to think so but it remains to be seen. So while I am wrestling with the YA question I'm feeling I should go back to A Cornish House as I conceived it and see if I can fix the problem.........
Finally on craft note - over on C.S. Harris's blog, http://csharris.blogspot.com/2007/05/getting-it-wrong.html, she speaks about how she dealt with two scenes that weren't working. She then tells how she fixed it. I found this really helpful especially as I will be doing a scene by scenes analysis soon. Well worth a look.
I have loved learning more about my fellow racers. As one racer pointed out in the comments you see a different view of them than on their blogs......true and that's part of the reason for doing it. The other for me was to just highlight how different writers are yet we all work to the same goal. More writers profiled next week!
How's my writing going you wonder. Well, it hasn't been. This week I promised myself that I would read A Cornish House. I have read to page 68. Not very far you say. True. Interestingly it is not because I am disgusted with it. It's not bad - so far. It's because at the back of my mind I have this question lurking - should this be rewritten as a YA novel with Serena's pov the whole way through??? My reader, who is well qualified thinks this is the way to go. I respect her opinion. Serena is a brilliant character and I do handle her well - even I can see that in the first 68 pages. But then I ask myself do I really want to write YA? The answer is I don't know. First I have not read much if any really - unless you count Harry Potter. However I have two readers of YA in the house. I find myself wondering how I would feel about them reading Serena's story. I didn't hold back on her. Her language is colourful and her thoughts direct which I felt in an adult novel is fine. How would I feel about my kids reading it? Not quite as sure but that is not enough to put me off entirely. I can see how the book could be very well told from Serena's view point, but if it sold the publisher would need to know I have more in me and at this moment I don't know if I have more YA's in me because this is new territory. I certainly know I have more women's fiction in me.........The war inside rages on.
On another point, the reader flagged up my biggest weakness as a writer. Before I go into that I want to say she also highlighted my strengths and didn't tell me to pack it in. But I do have a big weakness, my plots are to predictable. You can see the end from the beginning. One knows that Madde will end up with Mark and likewise in August Rock you know that Judith will end up with Tristan. I need to shake it up a bit more. This was on my mind last night when I watched the film, The Holiday. It's light, probably not unlike my plot, when an unexpected thing was thrown in and suddenly I thought that's what my books need. (Spoiler ahead if you haven't seen the film) This moment was when Cameron Diaz goes to Jude Law's house and she hears noise. One assumes he's entertaining a woman as that is what we have been led to believe about this character but no it turns out he's a widow and the noise are his two daughters. I didn't expect it and I enjoyed their story line in the film more after that. Light bulb moment? Maybe........
So I have done a fair bit of navel gazing this week. I have wondered if I have what it takes to write a really gripping novel. I have proved I can write and parts of it I can do well. I have also proved that I can learn from past mistakes. In August Rock my secondary character weren't as well drawn as they could be - in A Cornish House that was one of the strengths. My dialogue is good. My voice is good. Pacing is right except that its too predictable. Do I have it in me to fix this key flaw? I'd like to think so but it remains to be seen. So while I am wrestling with the YA question I'm feeling I should go back to A Cornish House as I conceived it and see if I can fix the problem.........
Finally on craft note - over on C.S. Harris's blog, http://csharris.blogspot.com/2007/05/getting-it-wrong.html, she speaks about how she dealt with two scenes that weren't working. She then tells how she fixed it. I found this really helpful especially as I will be doing a scene by scenes analysis soon. Well worth a look.
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