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.