Hi Peeps,
Had a great day at the North-West RNA lunch at Southport yesterday, catching up with writer friends. And although the summer salad may have been a clue to a coming sunathon, the torrential rain outside our window certainly isn't giving anything away today.
The great thing about donning your glad rags on a grey Wednesday afternoon and attending an RNA lunch is that you get to meet and chat to a wide range of writers in various stages of their writing career; from unpublished writers to famous names.
Their journey along the writing path is as fascinating as their work and it gives everybody a chance to catch up with what's going on in the publishing world as well as enjoying talks from experts in the field - and the wine's good too, although not too much - I fall asleep.
Hey ho. TTFN :)
Thursday 10 May 2012
Saturday 5 May 2012
And so.....
Just thought I'd keep you updated on the saga saga - yes you read it right.
My w.i.p. has had a fairly extensive structural edit and is miles better for the work that has been done. The whole thing, from conception of the book up to now taken about four years!!! Whaaaa I hear you say - however, when I first wrote it many moons ago it was almost unrecognisable to the story it is today.
Since then, some of the names have been changed - a fledgling novelist who has Molly's and Polly's Milly's and Tilly's in their story can make life a bit confusing for the reader (I didn't have all of those names, but you know what I mean).
The plot has been ripped apart and re-stitched (my editor made sure you can't see the joins) reworked and polished 'til I need sunglasses to read it back. It's even had another edit since I showed a passage of it to my friends at the Writer's Workshop.
The characters have had a complete makeover and some of them have disappeared altogether (a couple I particularly loved, but they had no place in this novel) however, they will not be wasted as they were so overpowering they were in danger of taking over, so they will have a novel all of their own in the future.
It is now undergoing a line edit and part of the story was sent back to me to agree/disagree the edits and I must say I got such a buzz - there was a particular scene that brought a lump to my throat. I couldn't believe I had actually wrote this (I did believe me!!!!) and with the exclusion of a line here and there or a re-jigging of a sentence the whole scene was more poignant than I had dared to dream.
But I digress - as is my wont - If I had thought, all those years ago, that it would take this long to complete one novel I probably wouldn't have started writing it - but, we do not know these things, and our writing journey has many false starts taking us around many wrong turns.
However, I can honestly say, I have travelled this journey with hope in my heart and a gleam in my eye, each new discovery has been precious. And I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
TTFN
She :-)
My w.i.p. has had a fairly extensive structural edit and is miles better for the work that has been done. The whole thing, from conception of the book up to now taken about four years!!! Whaaaa I hear you say - however, when I first wrote it many moons ago it was almost unrecognisable to the story it is today.
Since then, some of the names have been changed - a fledgling novelist who has Molly's and Polly's Milly's and Tilly's in their story can make life a bit confusing for the reader (I didn't have all of those names, but you know what I mean).
The plot has been ripped apart and re-stitched (my editor made sure you can't see the joins) reworked and polished 'til I need sunglasses to read it back. It's even had another edit since I showed a passage of it to my friends at the Writer's Workshop.
The characters have had a complete makeover and some of them have disappeared altogether (a couple I particularly loved, but they had no place in this novel) however, they will not be wasted as they were so overpowering they were in danger of taking over, so they will have a novel all of their own in the future.
It is now undergoing a line edit and part of the story was sent back to me to agree/disagree the edits and I must say I got such a buzz - there was a particular scene that brought a lump to my throat. I couldn't believe I had actually wrote this (I did believe me!!!!) and with the exclusion of a line here and there or a re-jigging of a sentence the whole scene was more poignant than I had dared to dream.
But I digress - as is my wont - If I had thought, all those years ago, that it would take this long to complete one novel I probably wouldn't have started writing it - but, we do not know these things, and our writing journey has many false starts taking us around many wrong turns.
However, I can honestly say, I have travelled this journey with hope in my heart and a gleam in my eye, each new discovery has been precious. And I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
TTFN
She :-)
Thursday 3 May 2012
To plot or not to plot
What is a plot? The very heavy Cassell Concise Dictionary I have in my possession explains thus:
3) a complicated plan, scheme or stratagem: a conspiracy.
4) The plan or skeleton of the story in a play, novel etc.
5) Graphic representation.
It says a lot more, but these three things are related in a way that sparked my imagination.
So what? You say.
Well, I don't want my imagination sparked at this moment in time thank you very much. I have enough to be getting on with...However, I thought I would do a rough sketch, not quite a plot, in case I needed a story line in future, sort-of-thing.
Then I decided I'd do a little character sketch of the main protagonists, then, when the profiles were indexed and filed I decided to do a rough first chapter. And a story began to form so I wrote a bit more... and I didn't want to! I don't need this story yet! I am in the middle of something else - an historical if you please and now this new, contemporary, upstart is muscling in and it is so exciting.
I love a good conflict, me. But I digress, this isn't the post I meant to write...I got distracted...
I was going to write a piece about plotting, whether it is a good thing or not, however, I think, no matter what you choose to do you should just write write write and if something valuable comes of it - way-hay!!!
Next time I may even write about other distractions...now that's another tale altogether.
Ta Ta For Now
:-)
3) a complicated plan, scheme or stratagem: a conspiracy.
4) The plan or skeleton of the story in a play, novel etc.
5) Graphic representation.
It says a lot more, but these three things are related in a way that sparked my imagination.
So what? You say.
Well, I don't want my imagination sparked at this moment in time thank you very much. I have enough to be getting on with...However, I thought I would do a rough sketch, not quite a plot, in case I needed a story line in future, sort-of-thing.
Then I decided I'd do a little character sketch of the main protagonists, then, when the profiles were indexed and filed I decided to do a rough first chapter. And a story began to form so I wrote a bit more... and I didn't want to! I don't need this story yet! I am in the middle of something else - an historical if you please and now this new, contemporary, upstart is muscling in and it is so exciting.
I love a good conflict, me. But I digress, this isn't the post I meant to write...I got distracted...
I was going to write a piece about plotting, whether it is a good thing or not, however, I think, no matter what you choose to do you should just write write write and if something valuable comes of it - way-hay!!!
Next time I may even write about other distractions...now that's another tale altogether.
Ta Ta For Now
:-)
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