Editing is Hard Work - How Do You Know Your Work Is Good Enough

Sarah Duncan has been running a great series of posts on editing. The latest one is here. The big thing is that editing is hard work. I can hear my inner student SIGH. I hate hard work or at least I did. I have learned to love it. Back when I mentioned I was on the 27th draft of August Rock people were amazed so I outlined my process (here). It's long and there are no short cuts. But in the past I would try and find them...The result was that I short changed myself and didn't get the result I wanted (an agent, a publishing deal and an audience for my stories).

Look at it this way...if you want muscles you need do strength training (unless you are still growing when it appears that food and sleep are the only requirement - casts glance at sleeping teens). If you want to be a concert pianist then you practice. If you want a publishable book you have to write, rewrite and edit. I know there may well be a few cases out there where the first draft was flawless but they are rare. So if publication is your goal embrace the work.

For make no mistake it's work and at times I rebel against this. I am lazy at heart. I don't want to read the damn thing 300 hundred times. I don't what to check my verbs, adverbs, adjectives....I don't want to look at each chapter, scene, paragraph and sentence. But I must if I want readers to love the story and not feel the writing. I make sure that each word, each sentence and so on is there for a reason - and just because I like isn't good enough. As Donald Maass reminds again and again in his books...tension is the key to page turning quality...this of course is another matter altogether but while you are examining your writing so closely that should be in the back of your mind....more on this later.

So coming back to that issue...how do you know your work is good enough? Does every word in your story carry its weight and move your story forward? Each sentence? Paragraph? Scene? Chapter?

Now be honest...have you looked that closely? If not check out Sarah's posts because they are a good starting point.

Going Back in Time - on the Blog and on The Cornish House

The past two posts have been well received...thank you. So that had me thinking about my drafts and my process as it has developed. Then I remembered an exercise that I did on the first scene of The Cornish House...and particular on verbs. Yes, verbs...those action things that motor our stories along.

Here's the post.

Now first let me say you would go mad if you did this through a whole 100,000 word script (however it might be better for it) but it's a very useful exercise on a scene or two to check how you are doing on the language front.

I also found it interesting as this was done in 2009 and the first page is different now...although much of it's the same....I wonder if I fished around in my archives what the original first page looked like back in 2006.

Here's page one out of the bound uncorrected proofs...can't remember what changed on this post copy edits and proofing...

Have you ever scrutinized your wirting like this? has it helped?

Growing As A Writer - When Is It Good Enough?

Official Group Photo of the Authors at EAFOL

Yesterday I mentioned I'm on my 27th draft of August Rock. Before I clarify, let me say that I also began book eight this November and August Rock was book two. Just wanted you to know that I didn't spend all my time polishing one book. Instead, I write a new one then go back and take all that I learnt from writing that one and apply it to August Rock or until recently The Cornish House or whatever the current book is.

Also a bit like when you are learning the piano...or at least how i remember it. You learn a piece of music in parts...left hand then right or vice versa. Well for me - with each rewrite I focused on a different aspect because I still had so little experience that I couldn't do an edit for pace, look at spelling and at continuity at the same time. Each phase of editing was new to me so they had to be kept apart. I still can't do all the editing required in one pass...

So if I were set my process out it would look like this...

a. write dirty first draft
b. leave it alone and edit previous book
c. maybe write synopsis for story now that I know my character and what will happen thanks to step a. I also look at this point to see if I have any themes - I usually do but I don't know them or see until the first draft is done
d. look a the twists and turns of the story...are there places where i can turn up the heat and make things worse for my heroine? This draft is about upping the conflict and also beginning to look at pace
e. leave it alone and rework another story which is at a different stage
f. at this point I look at the words...in the past this might have been a couple of drafts, but now seems to be one. I look at verbs - am i always using the same one? Are they strong enough or are they fiddly? I look at word choice - again am I always using the same ones - I get certain words into my head and use them to death...
g. rework another script
h. now I look at sentencse and paragraphs... do they vary? are they in the right order? (see my comment yesterday about page 2 of The Hunger Games - boots before trousers) are they necessary??? This phase hits on my key weakness - repetition.
i. work on another script
j. look at the story at a whole again and break it into chapters - make sure that each chapter grabs you at beginning and end. Finally does the promise of chapter one get fulfilled in the last chapter...

Long process isn't it and now with adding an agent and an editor it becomes longer...
k. agents sees things I've missed and I work on her suggestions
l. editor can see the book as whole in a way I don't think I'll ever be able to...so I will rework again
m. copy editing...who knew my characters sat up so straight so often!
n. proof reading...
o. letting go....

It is true a book is never 'done' until it's published...

Looking at my 'process' above, it sure seems like a lot of work and it is. But I can hope that as I grow as a writer somethings will become instinct, but i know it will always be hard work because I always need to be pushing myself to be a better writer. And by that I mean in the technical/words department and in the story stakes...I was never going to be a concert pianist - i didn't have the passion, skill or most importantly the hunger. However I want to be the  writing equivalent of of that and that means all this 'practice' draft after draft will help me reach my goal - being read.

So now I'm working on August Rock with new eyes...and it's exciting and scary. I want it to be better, need it to be better...

How many drafts do you do? And how much do you try an achieve in a draft?

Point of View - Cornish Style

This past week we have had visitors which has pushed us out of 'normal' routine and off to do some other things as the weather hasn't been great. One day we booked lunch over at the fabulous Porthminster Cafe in St Ives. After a wonderful lunch, we walked into town and at one point stopped to look at the view. Here is the picture of what i saw...

And this is what 6ft 2in son saw...

This reminded me how important it is to pick the right point of view for each scene...what do you want to the reader to see, feel, hear and who is the best person to do it??? Also of course who has the most at stake...

In this case, if you wanted to reader to know what was over the wall the character had better be tall or be in heals....

Links

I haven't done a links post in a while and this week have been full of some excellent ones...

First up is Joseph O'Connor sharing his writing tips here. Point number 4 especially spoke to me.

Picked this one off of Twitter this morning from Bob Mayer - Seven Keys To Unforgettable Characters here

There's a great article from the Gulf News here. In it David Hewson says, "Books come out of something that you invent; and writing about what you don't know makes you work to invent it more effectively." It's an interesting and thought provoking article.

That's all for now...

I'm Impatient and I Hate It

I still struggle with the the virtue of patience and have for most of my life. However now I can wait for for my birthday in fact I wouldn't mind if they just stopped for a bit but that's another matter!

What I'm impatient for at the moment is to move forward in my revisions. I feel like I've been working on these opening chapters for ages and, well, I have and they have improved and grown. I know my main characters far better than i did a month ago. BUT I am itching to get working with the stuff I have written already - the bulk of the novel. I want to see see it take shape.

For the past few days I have been - blocked for a lack of a better word. I didn't stop working - I kept tightening and doing character exercises but what i wanted to was finish chapter three. I had written the first half of the chapter set in Barcelona and I needed a new scene with Victoria. I knew what I wanted the scene to accomplish and where it was set. I even knew who else was in it. You may think I should always know these things, but most of the time I don't - especially in a first draft. Yet this time I had it all even the time of day in my head. What I didn't have were the words. I don't actually believe in writer's block as such, but I do believe that when the words won't arrive something isn't right.

So here I am raring to move forward - I can see the way (even have a map of sorts - you know that dirty thing called a working synopsis which is a new experience for me on a second draft) and I'm stalled. Finally on the train back from Oxford today it hit me. I'm rushing. I'm desperate to reach key parts and I need to write more at the beginning. I just want to plunge in, but none of what happens after will have any real impact or even make sense unless I give the reader more time time to know the characters....I need to work on my virtues...

In the meantime I thought I'd put up the first paragraph and show you my tweaking. Here's version one:

The Toronto air was heavy with yet to fall rain. Demi could taste it as she took a deep breath. The new leaves on the trees glowed lime in the flat light. She paused and looked at the familiar houses on the street she had called home for so long. All was stillness; no kids on bikes, no game of kickball and no shouts of hide and seek. Nothing. She bit her tongue as the words ‘come out, come out wherever you are.’ hovered until a sudden breeze teased the leaves into motion. Only a thunderstorm would clear the atmosphere.

And here's the latest -

Demi stopped walking and looked at the familiar houses on the Toronto street that had been her home for twenty years. All was stillness; no kids on bikes, no game of kickball and no shouts of hide and seek. Nothing. She bit her tongue as the words ‘come out, come out wherever you are’ hovered until a sudden breeze teased the new leaves on the trees into motion. The air was heavy with yet to fall rain. She could taste it as she took a deep breath. Only a storm would clear the atmosphere.

The Forest For the Trees or Info Dump

Sorry for my absence from the blog but I left the power cables for laptop behind in Cornwall...it was like not having my arms and then to catch up on everything....

You would think by now that I would see obvious writing mistakes printed out in black and white in front of me easily - now I'm not talking about typos (my speciality) but, well let's not beat around the bush here - information dumping....show not tell

Yesterday I was finally pulling together the new first chapter for PENDEROWN. I had played with the opening page until I felt i had set the mood right and first scene said all I wanted it to say (I'll come back to this) and then I pasted in the Victoria's first scene. Now this is where my alarms bells were ringing - my alarm bells not those of my IV (inner voice - thank you Annie). You see - Victoria's opening scene is explicit and my inner prude panicked - it said 'you can't have a sex scene on page three and definitely not one like that'. However my IV said yes you can and it's right and it's right for your character....inner battle ensued. In desperation because i just couldn't move on I called on friends.....who of course had no problem at all with said scene. IV wins but Biddy quite rightly pointed out the lovely info dump below that pulled her straight out of the story and if I'm honest IV was trying to tell me about it but the prude in me was too overpowering.

So here's what happened when I took info dump (see above - scene saying all I wanted it to say in one paragraph!!!)

She checked her emails again and there was still nothing from Adam Smith and Associates. It had been a week and a day since she had received the email informing her she was on the shortlist for the trainee position, but they hadn’t told her how many were on it with her only that she had made it out of the thousand applicants. She should be pleased, she knew she should. She wanted this job. It was perfect and here in Toronto. If she landed it then it would become the doorway to a successful career in architecture hence the thousand applicants. But...she chewed her lower lip and slowed her steps. If the answer was yes she wouldn’t be able to make the trip to Europe and well, she would have to decline the offer of a place at Falmouth School of Art for a Masters in Art & Environment, which she knew was just a dream anyway.

and then after reminding myself I should know better by now and remembering Jan Jones's wonderful post on show not tell.....this is what the new looked like (but remember it is still to be worked on)....

Demi jumped when her phone rang. Matt's photo flashed on the screen with his big grin. “Hi."

“Hello beautiful.”

Demi rolled her eyes. They were just words. If only she felt he actually meant it. “What’s up?”

“Just booked our tickets to Europe.”

“No, no you can’t have.” Demi swallowed. “I haven’t heard about the job.”

“Don’t mean to burst your bubble, but yes you made the short list out of a thousand but no way will you make the final cut.”

“Thanks for your belief in me.”

“But I do believe in you and that’s why you should forget the boring job and follow your heart to Cornwall and to the masters you want.”

She closed her eyes and took a breath. She couldn’t reason with him. She had a tough enough time doing that with herself. “Please tell me you haven’t actually booked flights.”

“Relax. I’ve just reserved them.”

“How long will they hold them?”

“Two days.”

“Good. Give me until then.”

Matt was hopeless but she was worse. Bloody dreamers both.She put her toe in and out of a puddle and watched the ripples before she checked her emails again to find there was still nothing from Adam Smith and Associates. It had been a week and a day since she had received the email informing her she was on the shortlist. She should be pleased, she knew she should. She wanted this job. It was perfect and here in Toronto. If she landed it then it would become the doorway to a successful career in architecture.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The storm would be here shortly but not yet. Demi’s eyes traced the outline of the one houses that had been ‘improved’ from a humble bungalow to a grand residence. Her nose twitched. It didn’t fit the neighbourhood but she was sure it had been what the clients had requested. Was life always like that?

She chewed her lower lip and slowed her steps. If the she was accepted then she wouldn’t be able to make the trip and well, she would have to decline the offer of a place at Falmouth School of Art for a Masters in Art & Environment. It was just a dream anyway and one her mother hadn’t shared for her.

A Link

Agent Nathan Bransford is doing wonderful things on Mondays...a one page critique. Here's this week's . Last week's was just as good.

I don' t know about you but this type of criticism is so useful because it helps me to train my eye and to see where my instincts match his or violently disagree (this hasn't happened yet). I am planning to take a page a day of my own work and do the same type of crit while I am in research mode. If I'm brave I may show you the results of one of my efforts.

Do you think this type of work is good or would it work against you? I know I certainly couldn't and wouldn't do it during a first draft but as an exercise I think it might improve my writing - time will tell.

Right now back to my women gardeners....oh and I will blog on Thursday about my trip to Slightly Foxed and a surprise.

Where I Am...Plot Holes and Travel Plans

Literally - I am sitting at the table watching the morning sun. I am in a happy place here thinking about PENDEROWN and also a thousand other things.

First just to say all my photos of the Summer Party are up over at the RNA Blog. I am tempted to put up a few out takes here but that might not be fair.... It was a wonderful party as always but down on numbers due to two other parties in the publishing world that evening. This was actually good because I did have the chance for a few proper catch ups and hello how good to finally meet you in person chats. Everyone is eagerly anticipating this year's conference which now doesn't seem too far away.

So on the flight I read through the synopsis for PENDEROWN - it is an awful one, but it is workable and as it is, at this point for my eyes only, that is okay. I hated doing every minute of it but boy can I see how it will help. As I wrote it out in long hand (yes, doing much more of that lately) I could see plot holes as I worked through the story. These holes were visible to me in the synopsis but interestingly not as I read the script. What does this tell me? One I am a crap reader of my own work (might be true)? Or I had pulled off something else in the script that hid the plot holes? I think it's the later and I think this is really important for those of us who haven't cracked the publication bit yet.

Why? Here I am going to call upon the rejections I have received and the work I recently did on the synopsis for A CORNISH HOUSE. Each rejection bar the computer generated one for the M&B has mentioned how well I write - early on I thought so what's the problem then? As my rejection letters or emails or chats became longer and more of open conversations I wondered what was up...these people were still willing to talk to me and see my work, the comments were almost all praise so what the hell am I doing wrong. When you get theses snipets of feedback and encouragement you flounder - I don't mean it isn't wonderful but no one tells you how to understand what the comments mean let alone how to fix or improve. I am finding now several books and innumerable rewrites down the line I keep having these moments of...so that is what so so meant when she said this...

It may well just be that I'm thick or could be just that I have to learn each skill one at a time. So when I read Penderown after such a long break I saw problems from useless scenes, repetition, etc but I was also carried away with the story (good). The characterization except for Demi worked. Because of all that is not crap in my writing the plot holes were hidden which the synopsis made very apparent. Having done a synopsis after draft one - painful though it was hopefully will have saved me a rewrite or two. I now also understand some of the comments in said rejections - boy were they right and their practised eyes saw so much while they acknowledged the good. They could immediately picked up the problems which until now I couldn't see and to be honest there are probably more things yet that I don't see....

So I have work to do before I begin writing again however when on the plane the other day I did write and again in long hand (because I was too lazy to get the netbook out). As i began I thought I was writing the the penultimate scene - emotional and final. I wrote as fast as my pen would take me and eight packed pages later I looked up and smiled. Job done except for polishing and connecting.

Wrong. I was doing my blog check and stumbled over to Julie Cohen's blog and then today here. The scene I wrote needs to come much sooner. It will make things worse and hopefully the ending better and stronger - well at least I hope so.

So now I am going to take my research list which i made up during the read through and begin that - I am itching to begin the rewrite but I think it's best if i fill in the holes now and who knows what other twists may come out of the research.

BEAR UPDATE: They are having cinnamon rolls for breakfast

Today DD and I are off to the Victoria and Albert to see the Grace Kelly exhibition. Confession - when young she was the person I wanted and tried to look like most. I failed miserable but hopefully was just that little bit more elegant than I might have been otherwise...

TRAVEL UPDATE: It looked like BA's Cabin crew strike had scuppered my plans to go to my uni reunion but plans are under way to get there by other means (and no not swimming the Atlantic or rowing either!)

The Lost Pages Found and Character Arc

St. Anthony and Jane Jones to my rescue and the lost pages of PENDEROWN have now been printed off, duly read and the little scene cards made up. So now no excuse not to write the synopsis....yesterday I began to look at Victoria's story or journey, which ever you wish to call it. I like it and at the moment it works. As I expected I stumbled when I looked at Demi's. When I sketched out the bare bones of what happens with her it's just okay - only just.

So before I begin weaving these two stories together(and that's already worked out) I need to fix Demi. In preparation, I went back to Julie Cohen's brilliant posts on Character arc here.

Today I will focus on Demi and where my inner voice is screaming - not just quietly speaking. Before I can put the synopsis together I need to figure her out and get to know here better - because right now many interesting things happen to and around her, she has her odd moments of glory but basically she is a piece of limp lettuce and this just won't do.

Is this exercise just another way to procrastinate writing the synopsis? Maybe but I just think it might be good procrastination if that is possible.

Have you had a a limp lettuce character you had to throw in the tub of ice water to perk up? If so how did you do it?

Lilacs and Links

Surprise, surprise...I'm still in London and I'm enjoying my little bit of garden. I was delighted beyond words to discover this lilac in bloom last weekend. Each time I step outside I am greeted with a scent that transports me to my childhood. Growing up just outside of Boston, May was the month for our small garden to be rampant with lilacs. In fact they were so profuse that once a week I would take a bunch into school for the display of flowers in front of the statue of the Blessed Mother (May being Mary's special month and in a Catholic school that's a big deal). I can't begin to describe for you how this scent fills me with hope and happiness. I am twelve and I can feel the warmth of sun on my face and the promise of the coming summer.

It never ceases to amaze me how powerful the sense of smell is. Lilly of the Valley means my Great Aunt Agnes who lived across the street. Her little garden didn't have any lilacs, but boy did she had a bumper crop of Lilly of Valley every year. What smell for you brings back your favourite memory or dare I ask your worst? Do you use this powerful tool in your writing? I do sometimes but I think not often enough.

I haven't posted any links in a while and as always there are some terribly useful ones out there. So in no particular order :-

For the Twitters among you two links - BubbleCow The Bookseller

BubbleCow comes up trumps again http://www.bubblecow.co.uk/2010/05/three-vital-steps-to-writing-a-novel/

David Hewson's sound advice on when is a book really done http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/30/when-is-a-book-really-done/

Another brilliant post by Anita Burgh on being organizing which is truly helping me at the moment http://anitaburgh.blogspot.com/2010/04/being-organised.html

That's all for now. Back to decorating (yesterday coming back from Ikea in rush hour traffic I looked like I had just savaged the nearest botanical garden - I didn't I promise) and reading Penderown....

Penderown Progress and Characters

I'm sitting here in London and it looks light the sun might shine for the morning but they say we won't see it again until Monday. Typical for a bank holiday weekend.

Back during the Ash chaos i printed off Penderown and became to read - yes just read - well okay I couldn't just do that. Some typos were just too ghastly to let live any longer. The other thing I have allowed myself is to write up a note card for each scene - keeping it simple:

where

pov

who appears

what happens (or doesn't)

I'm finding this really useful for seeing the story and allowing myself to 'just read'. I am also hoping that these cards will aid me to write the synopsis before I begin the rewrite.

With Penderown in the rough draft I also didn't write 'in chapters' just scenes so that I could break it up after where I felt it worked better and I can see the advantage of this. (This was a tip I picked up from Jill Mansell who writes this way and she writes with fountain pen sitting on the sofa in front of the tellie...the woman is wonderful).

I am pleased to say even reading the story in its raw form I can see my writing has grown. I have taken on some of the lessons learnt in August Rock and A Cornish House. The pace is good and to this point - about a two thirds through the story has kept me gripped and wondering where I got such a devious mind. So I am pleased which is a surprise because in mind mind this story had become a frightening thing that was just too terrible to live and now I can see that it's not. The break since October has allowed me to see what it is a good base it is and from it will come a good book.

Two days ago Biddy Coady, an RNA mate, came for dinner and we discussed all matter of things and at random....we'd be in full discussion of a non-writing topic when something about her work in progress hit me and I immediately jumped in with it and while working through some of my plot concerns with her she aided me with grounding the characters emotions. In short it was a brilliant evening. Do you have a writing sounding board? Does it help?

And finally, something that came out of the discussion with Biddy, how well do you know your characters before you write? It seems to me writers come in two camps on this - do and don't. I really don't know them before I finish the first draft as they come alive as the story goes on. Before I put together the synopsis I am going to do full character sheets on them to see if I can enrich the story with their character ticks - make more of the things I have discovered about them in draft one. Which way do you work?

Travel Realities and An Experiement

Well as expected my flight to the UK tomorrow has been cancelled and rescheduled for....28th of April. To be truthful I had expected worse. DS2 is due to fly on Tuesday and I am now doubtful that will happen. So dd is going to missing the French trip and I will get to play home schooling with her - not a role I want in any way and God help me if I have to do it for ds2 - I might just be qualified to teach him English but only just.... Thankfully we are 'home' and don't have the difficultly of many others catch up in the travel nightmare.

Now back to things writing related...I had all those revelations in York and haven't been able to do much with them because the kids were still here...so today I did a writing exercise. I took the opening of August Rock which I haven't looked at in over a year, a notebook and a pen.

Those of you who read my notes on Martin Amis will have noted that he writes in long hand but he feels the computer is suited to writing. I certainly agree with the later and since my university years I have composed on the computer. With my dyslexia this has been very helpful with things like spell check (sometimes) and my hands can begin to keep up with the racing of my brain.

So taking pen in hand I began to rewrite the opening and to be honest I have to confess, at least to me, something magical happened. Because of the slower method more pictures formed in my head and I felt closer to the work.

So I will put both the orignal and the hand written (obviously retyped) up for your scrutiny and I would be grateful if you told me which you preferred.

The Nare, Cornwall, England, 27^th March 1846

Tobias Trevenen stood on Nare Head looking at the waves crashing onto the rocks below. The wind tossed his brown hair side to side obscuring his vision. In the distance, he watched the four mast barque fight its way toward Falmouth in the heaving water. The sky was increasingly grey as the weather closed in. Toby came here most days to watch the sea as that was where his mother was.

Time was short. Visitors were due from London and he must be at home when they arrived. Father was in a dither and everyone in the house was out of sorts. The approaching storm was peaceful compared with the tension enclosing the house. Mrs. Williams, the house keeper, had hit Toby with a cloth as he had crept out. Her anger with him was rarer than the treasure he had found on his outings on the river. There was treasure at August Rock, but thus far no one believed him. Soon it would be time to look again but not yet.

Now for the new...

The waves crashed onto the rocks below Nare Head while the wind blew Tobias Trevenen's hair side to side obscuring his view of the four mast barque as it fought its way to Falmouth through the heavy water. The sky was increasing grey as the weather closed in.

Time was short. Visitors were due from London and he must be at home when they arrived. Father was was in a dither and everyone in the house was out of sorts. The approaching storm was peaceful compared with the tension enclosing the house. The housekeeper, Mrs. Williams, had hit Toby with a cloth as he had tasted the cream sauce on his way out. She was rarely ever cross with him.

He scanned the mouth of the Helford River seeking the telltale jagged protrusion of August Rock that hinted at the deadly reef that stretched below, but all was hidden in the swell of the storm. He would have to wait for the August spring tides before he could search again for the treasure at the base of the reef. He hated waiting for no one would believe that he had found anything at all there except muscles and seaweed. He played with the gold coin in his pocket.

I think I may be only to a new working procedure for me - draft one on the computer, draft two long hand, draft three computer...anyone work this way?

My Favourite Writing Blogs - The Educational Ones

Recently I was asked to write an article (which turned into a short series - another story) about blogs and twitter and stuff. I seemed to be viewed as a person who uses these tools a lot and effectively (little do they know the truth). So it had me thinking about blogs that I read. I follow over 100 blogs which is very scary indeed. However that does not mean I read 100 blogs a day (I would time for nothing else), but I do scan on my blogger dashboard to see what's new and if it interests me. I always read the blogs of close friends being a nosey sort, but other than that I pick and choose with certain blogs flowing in and out of favour. However there are a few blogs that merit visiting every time they post because I always learn from them - let's call these educational. So I thought I would share with you my must read educational blogs.

The GOLD category goes to four:

Julie Cohen (confession here - she is a good friend too) doesn't always post on craft (many times it is gorgeous men which of course I don't bother with (hah), but when she does I know I will come away with insights and tools to make my writing stronger. I don't know whether to say Julie is a writer or a teacher first or maybe they are just tied but the woman is amazing. Her recent series on character arcs blows most craft books I have read out of the water. Her books are awesome too and just getting better and better.

Sarah Duncan I know her only through email for the RNA blog and have never read one of her books (soon to be remedied as I picked up her latest A SINGLE TO ROME when I was in the UK) but she has been blogging everyday for the past few months and each day has been a concise lesson in some aspect of writing - each one a jewel.

Anita Burgh (another dear friend) who is posting about once a week answering questions from a group of writers that she mentors. Her answers are like manna from heaven because the come from her years of experience and hit the nail on the head (using all muddled metaphors but it's what it feels like to me).

Help I Need a Publisher is the blog of author Nicola Morgan. She claims to be really grumpy, which I don't agree with but she writes a blog that is full of wonderful writing help so grumpy or not I read it. Recently there was an excellent one of self editing and particularly insightful on use of historical language.

So those are my golden four that I never miss - well, not intentionally. In fact many of the posts I print and save to read over and over again until it sinks into my muddled brain. I could put up an honourable mention list but not today. What are your must not miss educational (writing that is) blogs?

Missing in Action

I know I have been gone without any explanation and I am sorry. In the end the simple tweaking of A Cornish House turned far more onerous than I had anticipated. The family were initially quite tolerant, but as my computer time didn't lessen but grew a revolt of major proportions began........ So I went onto radio silence and pushed through until the damned thing was posted to RNA New Writers' Scheme.

I have been made to swear that I will not leave next year's submission to the summer or they will collectively divorce me. They are right. It was completely unfair of me to make them sit around while the sun actually shone in Cornwall just because I had a deadline. I will not do that again. I will find a waterproof/ sandproof laptop! No seriously I did bring a hard copy to the beach, but then spent the next day inputting the changes......

In this whole process I did have a meaningful moment. As most of you know I am dyslexic so I really struggle to proof anything. Even if I read alloud I don't find mistakes because my mind fills in the blanks and rearranges things to suit. I didn't have time to send ACH to be proof read (again leaving things to the last minute) so thanks to the advice of BubbleCow I downloaded a free text to voice programme and listened to ACH being read by the worst voice in history BUT wow........using a different part of my brain I found mistake after mistake. It was brilliant. Where as I have no confidence in my writing from a grammar/ spelling point of view - I do have confidence in 'my ear'. I just wish I had this dreaded man years ago...

So from here on awful man will read my story to me and I will trust my instincts with his help. Having said that it took ages to go through the whole book. Some paragraphs took five reworkings until 'my ear' was happy. My fingers and my brain work at very different speeds and sometimes totally independently. What my brain thinks my fingers have typed many times bears no correlation........The ghastly man only reads what is on the page not what i think is on the page.

Having said all that, a day after the script was in the post I was updating my web page with the revised first chapter and found two glaring typos on the first page........lesson - I still need a proof reader!

Have you tried the text to voice software? Does it help you?

RNA Conference 4 (part 3) - Linda Gillard

Below is the final section of Linda Gillard's Sense and Sensitivity session.

But before that I just wanted to update you on where things are with my own writing. I had to leave Penderrown at 71,000 words and plunge into A Cornish House as the New Writers' Scheme deadline is approaching fast. The good thing is that I haven't looked at the manuscript in about seven months. It is amazing what the fresh eye can see and what I have learned in the intervening time. I have read all the feedback from last year's NWS report, agents comments and publisher comments. I looked for any real consistency and there was none! So it is now down to me as the writer to see where this story needs to grow and shrink. I need to give myself clear page deadlines for each day which have to be met or surpassed - I may be a bit quiet on the blog if I start falling behind (Needless to say that this deadline falls as DH is on his three weeks hols, hence the rain in Cornwall, the kids are all here and we have guests!) So each day I need to revise 25 pages which will give me time for one last read through before submission. Fingers crossed.

CREATING DETAILED CHARACTERS – using photos

Beware: description of character can be where writing sags.

It’s much harder to describe beautiful people than ugly ones! Difficult to avoid cliché. Focusing on non-visual aspects some of the time will help avoid the pitfalls.
(I avoid describing my characters because I think it’s a pit you can fall into. I also think it’s a weakness in my writing, so I don’t draw attention to it.)
You don’t want lists of adjectives, back-story, clichés. You mustn’t let readers switch off. (Some skip description!) Keep your descriptions sensory and vivid, and readers won’t want to skip.
Make your characters vivid by using concrete detail (and not just things you can see.) Be specific.

I often work from photos of real people (sometimes amalgams of more than one) because it makes me step outside my comfort zone and my own limited memory bank.
[Resources: PEOPLE photo packs Note: Here pick a few of your own]

WRITING TASK 5 Sensory Gymnastics!

1. Choose a photo and study it.
Imagine this is one of your characters.

2. Think of a smell associated with that character - their perfume or their natural body smell; the smell of the job they do; perhaps the smell of fear or blood.

3. Think of a sound associated with your character – the sound of their voice, an instrument they play, the music they listen to, a sound their body makes (eg asthmatic wheeze.)

4. Think of a texture associated with your character – the feel of their hair, skin, clothes, or something they touch in the course of their work, something they make as a hobby.

5. Can you think of a taste associated with your character? A food or drink they like? Or if your character lends himself/herself to the sensuous and erotic, something s/he tastes of?…

I want to thank Linda for sharing all of this. It is a fantastic set of exercises and I can already see the benefit.... So to find out more about Linda drop by her website. There is a great section on writing.

RNA Conference 4 (part 2) - Linda Gillard

Yesterday I posted part one of Linda Gillard's session on Sense and Sensitivity. Today brings you part two and tomorrow the final part. Enjoy.

You’ve been recording “TELLING” DETAIL - detail which tells the story




Look at the pictures of settings (note -these are just random ones off of my 'puter) and choose one that appeals - a picture that interests you, or that you might like to “walk into” if you could.

WRITING TASK 2 Settings 10 mins
1. Study the picture and make notes – sounds, smells, textures & tastes.

Try to imagine a full sensory picture of your scene.
Think about air quality, temperature… What would the textures feel like? What sounds could be going on in the background? Or is it silent? What is the quality of that silence?
Can you smell anything?… (Make things up!)

(Is there a detail that encapsulates the scene as a sort of sensory postcard?)

2. Try to develop your notes into a few sentences to capture the scene. Write about the visuals if you like but don’t let them dominate. Try to let the reader know what it was like to be there, not what it looked like.


Telling detail doesn’t have to be visual. (What things looked like wasn’t necessarily the most important thing.)

For the purposes of romantic writing, the other senses might do a better and less clichéd job.

In STAR GAZING I wrote love scenes (and indeed sex scenes) that had no visual element at all because they were written in the first person and the narrator-heroine was blind…

When writing my 1st novel EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY I’d made the discovery about “the spaces in-between” which readers fill in for you

Back story…
Post-illness, conserving mental and physical energy, I wrote short sections and I wrote about detail - the little picture, not the big picture.

When I got feedback from readers I found that focusing on detail had nevertheless painted a big picture because of the wonderful magic whereby readers fill in, as “co-creator”.

In EG I described rocks. People saw landscape.
I described colours and threads and people saw quilts.

In SG I described what rocks, trees, snow felt and smelled like and readers experienced the Isle of Skye.

If you write about details (eg describe eyes) readers will still see the whole. (ie face) Reader will fill in. (Cheshire cat’s floating grin – hard to imagine.)

In SG I described what the hero sounded, felt like and smelled like. There’s very little visual description of him.

Concrete detail will do most of the work for you if you really focus on it and make it vivid. It’s the “active ingredient”. If the detail is real for you, it will be real for your readers. And if the detail is real for readers, they will fill in the background, and that will be real too.

Detail is the writer’s labour-saving device!


WRITING TASK 3 A memory in detail 5 mins

Think of a time when things were very good or very bad for you (or for someone else.)

Describe some small part of that experience - not the big picture (the content/the cause) but a detail (eg the weather at the time, the sounds and smells in the hospital waiting room.)

Might help to begin with “I remember…” Avoid visual description as far as possible.

Stuck Point

Penderrown has been moving fairly well but yesterday I hit one of the points where I started looking on ebay, reading blogs, tweeting.......finally closed the computer coerced dd into trying some gardening. After trying to keep her on task for more than five minutes I gave in to the sun and plonked onto the sun lounger with the current read - Nicholas Sparks True Believer.

Now I woke at five this morning determined to achieve at least 1000 words today. It is now 9:15 and I have written 72 and deleted 20. I am still at that impasse. Demi has an issue and a developing relationship is going to force her to face this. You see she can't lie very well,doesn't want to lie, and can't quite get the words out of her mouth - and the relationship is compelling her into it. I have set the scene - romantic cliff top picnic and boom - stop dead.

Why? Well,I suddenly wondered is this time to force her into this corner? Is it the right in the story or for her? Does it fit with the other events taking place? Is this just too soon for the reveal? Does it work with the bloody time line i set up (won't actually knwo this until go back and reread - confession here - I have forgotten some of the stuff I have written)? If I make her face all this now what is left?

So I turned to blog land again - just hoping for something that might trigger something - well anything to be truthful. Low and behold Michelle Styles came up trumps again:

I went and picked up McKee again. He makes the point that character and structure are interdependent on each other. You are designing events to reveal character and so it is a matter of personal choice whether you choose to work on the structure or the character but character and character change cannot be expressed except through the events in the story and the characters' reaction to that story. True character is the choices that people make when under pressure and the pressure can only happen from events that require characters to take bigger and bigger risks.

Her words gave me another way to look at it which far more sense to my addled brain. Michelle frequently posts on 'craft' and almost always she hits the nail on the head for me.

And another link which totally justifies my lounging in the garden yesterday. Relax from Anita Burgh

Off Track

Well am in London!!!! Had wonderful dinner with fellow writer Biddy and woke up early but not too early after a good night's sleep.

Yesterday I wrote on the flight (pat on back as was lucky enough to be in business and not too distracted by films - more later). I realized after 1600 words yesterday that I was losing the plot....yes, the key conflict of the book was wandering away - not wandering almost galloping. Demi and Victoria were leading totally separate lives and interesting though they were I needed them back under one roof to really make the sparks fly. So I stopped mid scene and today I cut to the second half of the book where the battle begins. However I have never left a scene hanging and moved on before. This is a dark new territory. But I know that it is necessary to put the story back on track and true to its heart.

Now this brings me to films. I have heard writers and me included bemoan the fact that reading is not the same once you have begun the process of pulling apart your own work. You do it instinctively with all and are rarely swept away. What I didn't realize is that I would do this with films now too. On the flight I watched Australia. It was good but certainly not brilliant. Why? Well for me it was too long and it lost its way. There wasn't enough chemistry begin the hero and heroine and its turning point although dramatic well could have been better. So it clearly showed me how crucial it is to cast your leads - they carry the story. In this film the hero was perfect, dare I say flawless but the heroine was cardboard. The same can happen in a book and I know even if their are other things about a book that I don't care for I will read on if I like the characters.

In contrast, I watched the film Easy Virtue again. Now this is an although different kettle of fish or film as the case may be. I found it flawless in its casting and also in the twists in the plot and it ends before the viewer tires. Thinking along the Donald Maass Writing the Break Novel route - giving your characters killer lines - well the film is filled with them which lights it up.

Do you watch films differently than you did before writing took over your soul and have you abadoned your characters mid scene to and jump else where to put the book back on track?

UPDATE: An interesting post by Caren Johnson, Literary Agent, on films and plot holes that speaks in more detail here

To Prologue or Not to Prologue

Personally I like a prologue as it jumps starts me into the story, but I gather the general feeling is no. The reason I raise this is because for my submissions (yes, I did do as I said I would and subbed) I ditched mine. Why you ask? Was it badly written? No, in fact it contained some of the tightest prose in the novel. Was it needed? Now there is the question. What was contained in the two pages of the prologue is central to the main conflict for the heroine so it is definately needed. But is it needed on page one? I thought long and hard about this. I thought about the comments by from the crits. What type of story was I writing? What type of market am I aiming for? My MWS reader asked me to put myself along side another writer in my chosen genre to help an agent place me. She gave me a few suggestions, but I hadn't read most of them or not in many years anyway. Needless to said their books are now on my tbr. I don't yet know where to place myself as my writing is changing and evolving. This is a problem, I know.

So where am I going with this? Well, while in Cape Town I thought about ACH. I thought about where it had come from and how on this last rewrite I turned the book around and balanced it out. It became Maddie's story and not Serena's. In order to do this the stakes rose dramatically. The issues became heavier. It was no longer a book of team angst and light romance. It had pain on the type of pain alot of people don't want to look at or talk about. I stopped and thought about where I found this as I am a glass half full person. Life is good even when it stinks because that's life. Yet the words of one of my first readers spoke to me - 'I was disappointed because I wanted to see you deal with more because it's in you.' (This was about August Rock) So I did with ACH. ACH is a book about letting love and forgiveness back in your life when you can't forgive yourself. It's about hating what you've done so much that you shut down part of what you are. It's about faith and it's about redemption. So I had a choice. Do I do another rewrite and make it lighter? Just focus on the relationship between the two women with a romance thrown in or do I let the book stand as I want it? Do I want to get published or let this sit in the drawer?

I want to find a publisher, but in my heart I knew that ACH must stay pretty much as it stands which more than likely means in these depressed times it will be rejected again and again, but you know what that's okay. Odd to say that, but ACH's message is important and one day it will find a way out.

Having said the above ACH won't get any where if I don't send it out. Which I confess I had thought of doing. I debated leaving it for another year to see if my writing or the world had changed. But then I thought no. I really like the book and my characters and lets put them to the test. So they are out in the big bad world as I write and in someways it is a freeing experience.

Now back to the prologue - so when looking at the script I realized that the prologue was there for me. It was there to keep me focused on what caused all the things that subsequently happened in the novel. I needed the reminder right in my face so that I couldn't back off from the issues, but the reader doesn't. So the two pages of prolugue will now appear 3/4's of the way through the book and I think it will be much stronger for the reader there. I hope it will be the point where the reader think okay, I see where she's coming from now.

I am also hoping that by pulling the prologue out I won't be confronting my reader on the first page. I want them drawn into the world of these to women. To laugh with them and to cry as them stumble and fall along their way to a happy ending because, of course, with me writing there will always be a happy ending - I just may have dragged the reader through hell to get there though.

Where do you stand on prologues? Have you written them? Have you kept them? The ones you've read did they add or detract from the story?