Closing this blog

I have decided to combine this blog with my main one - you can see my writing posts now over at http://kezs-blog.blogspot.com/search/label/Writing

Hope to see you there :)

Bum glue

I got the bum glue out today and finally finished off the short story I started about 4 or 5 weeks ago.  I'm wanting to submit it to RWA's Little Gem's short story competition in Jan - it needs major editing though.  I've just started one of Margie Lawson's deep editing courses so will work my way through the exercises using this story.

I finished the short story course last week with Anna Hackett - Short Story, Big Impact.  Wow!  I learnt so much and I think will continue to learn so much more every time I go through the notes.  Anna was available for feedback constantly, it was amazing. Such incredible valuable - I can't rave enough about the course.

I'm going to concentrate on shorts for now while I find my voice - it'll be a great way to try out new techniques and styles and to hone my skills. 

I've always said I can't write by hand anymore.  I need to sit in front of a computer to have the ideas flow.  Unfortunately its also way too easy to get distracted when sitting in front of the computer - ooh look, an email, while I'm at it I'll check Facebook etc etc ;)

On Tuesday I took my little netbook with me to write with while I sat in the car and waited for B's drama class to finish.  Its been so long since I've used it though that the battery was flat.  So I was forced to *gasp* write by hand in my 'handy dandy notebook'.  I got about 300 words written in 30 minutes - a bit slower than on the computer but with the added advantage of silencing my inner editor.  Its hard to make too many changes while you're writing by hand, so I was just writing.  I typed it up last night and made some changes as I was typing - first polish.

So I tried it again last night - put the computer aside and pulled out the pen and paper, then typed it up.  Again, it worked pretty well.  I think I might be on to something here...  It also has the added advantage that you can whip out a notebook & pen pretty much anywhere and not get a second look, but pulling out a computer just looks pretentious :)

Loving this short story course I'm doing!  Its been really valuable and we've only up to lecture 4!

Another course

Since I seem to gravitate more to writing short stories / flash fiction than anything full-length, I've signed up to do a short story course through the RWA (Romance Writers of America).  I'm looking forward to it!

Speaking of short stories, I submitted another one to a writing.com competition last night.  It had to showcase emotion, so you needed to get inside the protagonist's head and see what they were feeling.  It had to start with the line "Her laughter broke the silence".  I'm not very good at writing emotion, so I wanted to enter the contest to get some feedback and help improve.

So, here it is.  http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1711954-A-date-shell-never-forget 

Warning - this one is not subtle, and is rated 18+ for violence..  I guess I've been watching Midsomer Murders too much lately :)  Actually I've been finding myself analysing the way they put the story together in that show, and how they sprinkle the clues etc.  Most of the time its extremely well done.  It's a great example of that old saying "if you show a gun in scene 1, you need to fire it by scene 3" (or whatever the actual quote is!)

There's some interesting writing advice on this blog post here - http://jobourne.blogspot.com/2010/09/anne-gracie-on-dorothea-brande-and-her.html

I might try it out and see how I go..

I haven't made it back to my novel yet, but I have been doing some cathartic writing just for myself.  I made it back to writing.com last night and dashed off a flash fiction entry for that day's competition.  It had to be less than 300 words and use the words clay, list and nose.  I spent less than an hour on it, and thought it was pretty cute in a limited time span. 

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1710137-Right-under-your-nose

ETA - What do you think?  I had a comment that it was a bit too subtle and I needed to make it clearer who the character was.  

You know what they say about the best laid plans?  A few days after my last post, my mother in law went into hospital and subsequently passed away yesterday morning.  I haven't had the concentration to write much at all - be it emails, blog posts or let alone on my story.  My thoughts have been choked with grief, my concentration span minimal.  For the last week, we knew she was dying, it was just a matter of when her body would give up the fight.  Every phone call would make my body tense, my heart start to race.  As callous as it seems to say it, when I answered the phone at 1:30 on Sunday morning, knowing what the phone call had to be, the main reaction was relief.  Relief that the journey that had been so hard on everyone, was finally over. 

So now my mind has cleared again (until the funeral on Friday anyway), I need to get back into the habit of writing.  I'm not going to stress about word count at the moment and I've given up on the idea of entering anything into the STALI this time around.  I think I need to just journal for a while, get my thoughts out and get back into the habit.  Forget about the novel and just journal.

Still beavering away slowly.  (Can you beaver away slowly or does beavering involve haste?!)  Word count is down partly because I lost my writing mojo earlier in the week and partly because I'm going back tightening up what I've got as well as writing more.  I know I was just going to write and get it all down, but I want to enter it in the RWA's STALI contest (Single Title and Loving It).  You need to enter the first 10,000 words of a manuscript - I'm entering it for the feedback, not with any expectation of winning!

So currently up to 6,340 words.  I'm in the middle of a scene and need to leave it to simmer while I work out where its going.  I have one scene from the beginning of the book that is just completely wrong - the character has changed from when I wrote it - so I need to think about how to rewrite it.  The rest is ok, just needs a lot of cutting & polishing, and a bit of research on setting.  Oh and 1,000+ of those words belong to a scene that actually comes a lot later in the book but I needed to write it when it came to me.  So really I have about another 5000 words to write and then edit the heck out of it all in the next 3 or 4 weeks.  It closes sometime in September.

Having said all that, I am still aiming for my 50,000 words by Oct 24th.  I'll just have to work a bit harder some weeks!

I'm a fraction behind my targeted goal words - I was going to write on Saturday night but kept getting distracted watching the election. 

On Saturday I met with the Newcastle Maitland RWA group - what a fun few hours!  I didn't get any writing done, but we had a lot of fun!  We chatted about the conference and the Clayton's conference, discussed the upcoming competitions, talked about writing craft, chatted some more.  They seem a lovely group of ladies!

Oh and I got a huge bag of prizes from the Clayton's conference!  Yay!

Am I mad?

Yes, quite probably :)

I'm stepping up the campaign to write a book before my 40th b'day - I have 10 weeks (counting this week), and am aiming for the NaNoWriMo target of 50,000 words.  That's only 5,000 a week which is quite doable if I can carve out about an hour / day, 5 days / week.  It certainly won't be world class, but I want to a) get into the habit of writing each day and b) finish something!!  I'm going to just sit and write in the hope that I can silence both my inner editor and inner critic while I'm doing it.  Both of them are very inhibiting when I write..

RWA Clayton's Conference 2010

I had the best weekend.  I took part in the RWA Clayton's conference - for those that couldn't make it to the actual conference at Coogee.  For 3 solid days, we chatted, had guest speakers (real live published authors!) in the chat room, did writing challenges, threw virtual parties.  It was so much fun that it was hard to come back down to earth today.

I learnt so much about writing, had some lightbulb moments, learnt about different genres - from Sweet category to paranormal, from historical to erotica, and I'm sure there were more as well, different publishing styles and so on.

It was really exhausting but so much fun!!  We even had our own Awards night last night and I even won a few prizes!  I feel my writing has improved even just in the few days of challenges - and at the very least my confidence certainly has. 

I made some great friends; its been a wonderful introduction to the RWA.  And the really fun thing is, I "met" 3 ladies who are in our local writing group, so I no longer feel shy about going along to it.  Can't wait til Saturday now!!

New direction

I'm putting aside my kid's book for a while.  I'm not sure what's wrong but it's not "talking to me" :)

In the meantime I have this other family in my head that keeps pestering me to come out.  It's a fascinating process coming up with their backstory - almost interviewing the characters.  "So tell me, why don't you get along with your sister?" lol

Will run with it and see where it takes me.

I've been editing my 'Fractured Fairy Tale' for a fun competition I'm entering.  My first draft had plot holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through!

The competition is part of a Clayton's Conference weekend through the RWA (Romance Writers of Australia).  They're having their real conference in a couple of weeks time and for those that can't make it to that, they also hold a 'clayton's' online conference.  It sounds like a lot of fun!

I wonder if there's a way to write in the shower?  I come up with wonderful scenes while I'm in the shower, but as soon as I get out, I'm slapped in the face with reality.  Usually in the form of "Mummy, can you..."

*sigh*  Off to do my BAS...

Very pleased with my last Flash Fiction entry (first one in the 300 word section).  I've received two 5 out of 5 reviews for it so far!

Plot vs theme

This week's course was on plot & structure.  I've realised that's why I keep stalling with my book - it's boring!  It has a great theme, but not a strong plot as yet.

We're having to analyse the plot points in To Kill a Mockingbird for the next assignment.  It's funny, the parts I remembered of the book from reading it at school were the parts about getting Boo Radley to come out.  When you think about it, that's just a minor plot and while it adds to the theme, it doesn't advance the main plot along at all.  Interesting.

I'm finding I'm reading books more critically now with learning so much from the course.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not though - it's harder to lose yourself in a book while you're analysing it :)

I did a 2nd 1000 word story yesterday on writing.com. I think my work is improving each time and thanks to some really nicely put constructive criticism of my last story, I have more ways to improve.  I'm really loving the feedback, even though I struggle with feeling a bit defensive when I first read it.  The most pleasing thing about yesterday's story was that it only took me an hour to write initially (the first one took 2 hours), and then back & forth over a few hours to polish.  I sat down - while Billy was watching something on TV - put the headphones on, turned the music up so I couldn't hear anything and just wrote!  So it can be done!

I need to keep moving ahead with my book.  At the moment I'm feeling like its a waste of time writing anything because I'm learning so much and will have to go back and rewrite.  But then, that will always happen.  I will always be improving and changing as an author, so I need to just write the best I can at this moment in time.  There's always plenty of time for a rewrite later anyway :)

Apprenticeship

Something I read in a Jackie French book has stuck in my mind.  She said something about it takes 3 years to become a plumber, so why expect to become a writer overnight.  You need to practice every day. 

I've joined Writing.com as a way to get reviews on my writing.  One of the threads has a daily prompt with a competition to write a short story (less than 1000 words) on the prompt topic.  It's a great way to get some impetus to do something each day. 

I wrote my first 1000 word story today - it's nothing special but I was pleased with it because I managed to actually finish something!!  I have a great deal of trouble making my stories "fat" (as Jackie French puts it) so it'll be good practice.

The cat woke me up about 6 this morning, so as I was lying there trying to go back to sleep I started thinking about the next assignment.  It's about writing dialogue - we have to write a 2 paragraph monologue in our character's voice.  I worked out what I wanted to say but I knew as soon as I got up to use the computer, Billy would probably be up and he'd start talking to me, so I'd lose what was in my head.  I grabbed the notebook beside my bed and started trying to scribble it down - it was practically dark and the cat was trying to chew on the end of the pen as I wrote..  Ah the trials!

Anyway I got it written down and then transcribed when I got up.  I think if / when I buy that netbook I'll put it next to my bed for when inspiration strikes!

I was reading something about Ruth Park last night, about how she used to jot down story lines while doing the ironing with umpteen kids at her feet.  It seems that wonderful novels can be written under any conditions - you don't need the solitude and space.  Gee it would be nice though!

The first week of the course consisted of about 1.5 hrs of MP3s to listen to and some handouts to read.  I liked the format - I was able to download them to my mp3 player and listen to them while waiting for Billy at karate and drama.  The topic was Point of view (POV) and voice.  We had to write an opening paragraph to draw the reader in to read more.  Mine is quite silly and would suit a chick-lit or sassy romance type novel - no idea why it sprang to mind, but I enjoyed it.  I actually went on over the weekend and wrote the rest of the scene.

I really need to stop writing scenes and just finish something :) 

So far in the course, the disappointing thing has been not much interaction between the course participants.  Also other than the initial introduction, I haven't "seen" the teacher.  I'm hoping that changes from now on - we get feedback on the first assignment this week.  I don't envy her that job - there is quite a variation of styles and lengths!

I bought Stephen King's book "On Writing" over the weekend and read it pretty much in one go.  Excellent book!

The current plan is to buy myself one of those little netbooks and set it up in the sewing room so I can lock myself away in there to write.  I was trying to write in the loungeroom before Billy gets up - but if he gets up early that blows all the plans.  I need to be consistent about doing it every day.  I'm too tired at night by the time I get him to bed.  With the netbook at least I could write in the car while he's at drama etc.

Its hard to find the time when I have so many other things I feel I *should* be doing.  So much work to do, "schooling", cooking, housekeeping etc.  Writing seems like an indulgence that I shouldn't be doing.  I'm really down and on edge today and need some 'me time'..

I haven't been in the frame of mind to do any more research atm.  Found out on Friday that my MIL has had a minor stroke and there are other possible health problems as well. 

Course starts tomorrow.  I don't know how I'm going to be organised to do it.  We've had an introductory post about ourselves - sounds like an interesting bunch of people!  I'm really looking forward to it, but freaking out at the same time.

Short story

I swapped over today to do some research on a short story I'm planning on writing for the Catchfire Press 'Wood Brick & Stone: The Making of the Hunter' competition.  What I'm planning to write about is in the same geographical area as my book, but a slightly later time period, so I actually found information about both while I was trawling around the internet.  I need to go and spend some time at Maitland library by myself to delve into the local history books they've got there that can't be borrowed.

Yay I now have a surname and a back story for the hero's friend!  Have been searching through the cemetery listings and immigration lists to find something that is historically possible and that appealed to me.

I can see the danger of adding in every little bit of historical fact you find out.  It's absolutely fascinating that Prince Alfred was due to visit Maitland at that time, but is it necessary to the story?

I love this ad from the paper at the time:

NOTICE.
TO MICHAEL HIGGINS.
I WISH you would come and TAKE YOUR TWO
CHILDREN AWAY that you left with me some
eighteen months ago (as I do not intend to keep them
any longer), and PAY ME for keeping the same. And
unless you return in one month from this date I intend
to sell what property there is here belonging to you to
pay for the keep of your children.
ALEX. McDONALD,
Taree Creek.


Got about 30 mins research done - I'm reading through an issue of the paper to get some background knowledge of the time.

Not sure how I'm going to get time by myself to do this course.  Billy is usually up not long after me and likes to talk and have some attention from the moment he gets up.  I try to block out time for work and put my headphones on so I don't get interrupted, but even that doesn't work.  If I'm trying to do 1hr work and 1hr writing each day, that's a lot of time for him to not interrupt!

Creative Writing Course

I'm so excited.  Today I signed up for a 5 week online creative writing course with the Sydney Writer's Centre.  It starts on Monday!  I'm hoping it will give me the kick in the butt I need and help me develop the habit of taking it seriously.

Got about half an hour of research done before the household woke up and disturbed me.  Have found a couple of dramatic incidences that I can use which narrows down the time to a specific year.  Is it ok to kill a very minor character off in a kid's book?

*sigh* Now back to the 21st century with a thud.

Just had an idea in the shower that adds more depth to the novel.  It gives Jamie a reason for behaving like such a spoilt brat in the first place.

So what did I do today?  Nothing major on the book - we were out most of the day.  I did do a bit of research tonight though and have narrowed the time setting of the book down to about 30 years.  Now to do some further reading of the papers in those years and see if there is any event I could use to pinpoint it further.

Still musing over whether or not I need a bad guy?  All of my conflict seems to be internal or just circumstance like being poor & uneducated.

Just found an interesting website - http://austcemindex.com/.  It's a listing of Australian cemeteries, listing of names & photos of the graves..  That's the trouble with research - it can pull you down all sorts of labyrinths and keep you there forever :)

Intro

OK well, here goes..

I want to write a book.  While I'd love for it to be published, I know the chances are slim.  I don't know if I'm good enough or not.  But I still want to prove to myself that I can do it.

After years of saying "I'd love to write a book", I've given myself a deadline of my 40th b'day in October.  I have a children's book in mind (or maybe YA - will see how it turns out).  At least I have the vague story line and the setting, but I don't have enough of a plot in mind as yet. 

I'm trying out some ideas from "Write your first draft in 30 days" by Karen Weisner and actually plotting the book first rather than just sitting down and writing.  It appeals to the left-brainer in me.  Its been incredibly helpful so far already - I have written one scene which I've already had to go and change a dozen times as my ideas have developed - imagine if I'd written more!

So this is my journal to keep me accountable - I'm going to post my journey here so that I don't slack off and let fear get in the way again...