Rant and Links

So it's Easter Saturday and I have laid the table for Easter Sunday and I must say it looks pretty with eggs and jelly beans........ We are celebrating Easter Sunday today. Why you may ask - because dd has school tomorrow and not only does she have school tomorrow she is going away on a residential trip! She is eight.

I know where I am living but she goes to a British curriculum school......had she been going to Choifat she would have Easter Sunday off. Something is not right in this picutre.

So today we will celebrate Easter and thankfully we can attend church this evening as a family (the boys arrived yesterday morning).

Now for something writerly.......links. The first one is to Ray-Anne who has a brilliant post on loglines or what you say when you are asked what the book is about......I needed this post! The next one is to Steve Malley again........here and here. The man has a brilliant insight into the writing process.

The Dickens Challenge and Links

As I wrote this week's chapter for the Dickens Challenge I realized that I have been writing scenes and not chapters as such. I think this was deliberate on my part as I am posting them on my blog I didn't want them to be too long and bore my readers or ruin their eyes! I also tend to write short chapters but not generally as short as the ones in Explosive Dreams. I have to say that on one hand I am loving writing this because I feel so free to write what ever comes into my head and yet absolutely terrified at just putting my writing out there. (I know I post frequently so my writing is out there but my blog is more like the workings of my brain and not the polished prose I hope comes out at the other end of the writing process).

My rewrite has ground to halt with half terms, Oman and DH still being under foot. I am having great trouble finding a routine. Hopefully I can claw this back but sil is arriving on the 6th so it could all be just a dream.

Yet again Steve Malley has put together a useful post this time on size.....of manuscript that is and some useful tips for making yours fit the genre you are aiming for. Over on Susan Hill's Creative Writing Course here she gives some sound advice for writing dialogue.

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.

Word Play

On the way home from dd's Irish dance class night we played a new game. I gave her five or six words and she had to create a story from this. DD is a great story teller - far better than her mother so I wasn't actually trying to work on her story telling ability but on her vocabulary. So in those five or six words I would through in a few that she would have heard before but not necessarily known their meaning - tricky aren't. So before the story could begin we would dicuss these words. For example:

Subscribe, top-hat, gremlin, advertise, and idiot ( I was driving in Dubai and that last word is never far from my lips)

So I had to define subscribe totally and advertise partially before she created and interesting tale of the of the top hatted gremlin who subscribed to the Gulf News because he likes the ads or something like that. Heck it killed a boring journey quite effectively.

I found this word game a bit like the creative process for me - although it's not words but random ideas that are pulled together and bounce around in my chaotic mind until 'ping' the connections start happening. Some times the process is quick (as this summer at the RNA Conference during Sue Moorcroft's character workshop) and other times it's month or longer before these very separate threads knit together.

Over on Steve Malley's blog he has a good post on this but he calls it groping for fishhooks (warning on of his illustrations - picture variety) gave me the willies but he describes the process very well.

Progress report - I made slow progress on revision - just five new pages. Why so slow you ask? Because I spent a long time in my room reading aloud the work and boy did that throw up a bunch more revisions on the first few chapters. I hate reading my own work aloud - very self concious am I - but I found it easier in my own space. Funny that.......

Links

Today I have been taking a much needed break for sorting and shifting to browse blogs. I have missed them but the weight of sorting the house before I leave on Thursday morning has been putting a serious cramp in my web time. So apologies if I haven't commented but I have been trying to scan through to catch up on people's news.


First there has been some excellent news from a fellow member of the RNA, Jean Fullerton. She won the Harry Bowling Prize last year and has just signed a two book contract with Orion. Well done Jean. Her first book was published by Triskelion who then went belly up so this is just brilliant news.

So in my scan, I came across to posts worth sharing. Aside from Ray-Anne's wonderful posts on men, she tends to hit the nail on the head for me. This post on positive thinking is great and I especially like the hat and crayon idea. I have just the Fez to wear for the activity. http://mischiefandfilth.blogspot.com/2007/11/power-of-postive-thought.html

Jumping to Steve Malley's post here ,it touched a little bit on same area. He is writing about the stages of writing. I think the crayons and hat would work particularly well when you get to steps Insecurity and Grinding. Just a thought anyway.



Finally Janet Gover sent me some of here photos from our great day out and this one of me made me laugh.

Another Meme

Alyssa tagged for a meme and I'm happy to oblige but will confess that I'm having a tough time trying to think up new things about me....... probably because I am plain ordinary.

Here goes. So eight quirky, unusual, completely random things about me:

1. I'm an only child so I many times don't understand the politics of my three kids
2. I have always wanted to drive a Mercedes 450slk -I guess there is still time yet
3. I never expected to be a stay at home mum - no complaints here (in fact deeply thankful) but it was just never in the vision of how I saw myself
4. My best friend and I are like chalk and cheese (she's sporty and I'm bookish) yet we have been friends for over 40 years
5. I have always been a sucker for English men (hence I married one :-) )
6. I have a passion for Redbush tea
7. I love embarrassing my children and especially with my honesty when they ask questions
8. I am blessed with a life strengthening belief in God and the belief that there is something good in all people

I won't tag anyone but if you pick up the gauntlet let me know.

I have to point you in the direction of Steve Malley again. He has the first part of a great post on action scenes (this one the fade to the fireplace) and it enlightened me on the Bridget Jones film. Maybe I should have added to the list that I am still far too innocent at 44!

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!