In Search of the Writing Niche

After years of attempting to write romance in a contemporary setting and not quite succeeding beyond the first or second draft I've begun to question my ability to be a writer of modern romance fiction. 

Perhaps, I'm not cut out to be a writer. That's a strong possibility and something I often ponder. I like to write. I won't say I enjoy it or love it, because it is usually quite a struggle. When it works it feels good, but those moments are few and far between. I've recently made the decision to shelve the novel I've been working on for two years. It had lost its sparkle and the relief of not having that novel hanging over me like a black cloud of doom was immense.

A week and a bit later, I'm getting twitchy. I've got too much time on my hands. I'm used to being busy and having a story to work on. 

I need to write. It's that simple. Whether or not I ever publish my writing, I need to write. That's a pretty good feeling.

The thing is, what do I want to write? I have considered writing historical, but the amount of research terrifies me. So much could go wrong. And so I put it off year after year, convinced I couldn't do it. That is until last November during the annual National Novel Writing Month challenge.

I decided to wing it. I had some sketchy knowledge from reading historical novels and watching period dramatisations on the television of the period I wanted to set my story in. It was enough to get me started. In the end I found myself writing a time-slip - the best of both worlds - contemporary and historical, with a touch of paranormal.

The writing of a very messy first draft in a genre I've not attempted before was quite a revelation. I had fun writing it. It was very liberating as I felt unconstrained by the way I thought it should be written (being heavily influenced by other writers), which was my biggest problem writing straightforward contemporary romance, and let my imagination have its way.

Is this the way to go? The genre I should really be writing? My husband has said on many occasions over the years that I was writing the wrong stuff. I'd nod, more than half agreeing with him, but carrying on regardless.

I now have the time to do the historical research, I have the books, I have a complete first draft to work with.

Here goes...

Montana Dreams (Another NWS entry)

Crikey, it was a bit hard getting back in here. It's been eighteen months since my last post (hangs head in shame at the terrible neglect) and I didn't know where to find the front door. At the front you'd expect, but things appear to have changed in Blogger world since my last visit. I'm here now, though. The place is dusty with cobwebs strung all over the place. I daren't look in the corners. 

Two years ago I sent off my first RNA New Writer's Scheme novel for professional feedback, which I wrote about in a previous post. The reader's feedback was very useful and I've tried to incorporate her advice in my new novel Montana Dreams.

Montana Dreams began life in November 2013 as my National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) effort. It was so awful, I entitled it The Novel of Boringness. I had little hope that it could be redeemed. I didn't care if I ever saw it again. However, The Novel of Boringness was not willing to be ignored. It left me with no choice but to attempt to edit it. And so it began - a whole new writing experience and learning curve. You just don't stop learning, do you?

What began as an edit soon turned into a complete re-write. The discovery that I could re-write, that the words were there somewhere in the murky depths of my brain, was quite a revelation. I didn't think I had it in me. The basic storyline remained the same, but was approached differently and with more thought than the brain spill that is NaNoWriMo. A large chunk from the first draft never made it into the second. I feel regret for some of the missing scenes and they may make a return during the third draft. Other scenes such as the crazy idea of having a bomb controlled remotely by mobile phone will never, ever be revived. This story is supposed to be a sweet romance, after all.

With much encouragement from Morton Gray, Montana Dreams is now on its way to a reader from the New Writer's Scheme. The relief when it went was immense. The thought of all that time I would have to do other stuff was exciting. However, Montana Dreams won't let me go. 

Draft three is about to begin.

Lochindorb, The Wolf and Frozen Fingers

Much of the UK has been struggling with snow but here in Moray we've been incredibly lucky. Yes, we've had the grey dreich misery but we've also been blessed with blue skies and light from that mythical yellow hot thing in the sky. The sun, I think it's called. The air has been crisp and cold but that golden orb has, on occasion, had some pleasant warmth.

Now, this blog post is not about writing, but I'd just like to insert here that one of the many rules of writing is don't open your story with the weather. Hmmm, I wonder if that is true of Blogs too...

Anyway...

The Other Half, Teen 2 (Teen 1 was off gallivanting in Aberdeen celebrating the 18th birthdays of two of her friends), myself and the two dogs decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and we headed out for the afternoon across the regional boundary into the Highlands to our destination of Lochindorb.

Now for a wee bit of history... forgive the liberties I've taken with the telling - for more detailed historical information I shall provide links/references at the bottom of this blog. 

Lochindorb Castle Ruins
Photo by OpalFire

Lochindorb is a loch (not as huge as Loch Ness but big enough) with the ruins of a castle on an island in the centre of it. This castle was once the lair of the infamous Wolf of Badenoch, Alexander Stewart (1343-1394), fourth son of Scottish King Robert II.

Elgin Cathedral -
an artist's impression

It is said that the Wolf was a bit peeved (my words) at being told by the church, namely Bishop Alexander Bur of Moray, with whom Alexander had a difficult relationship, to live with his wife and not his mistress Mariota de Athyn with whom he had several children. This interference by the bishop and their frequent clashes as well as other political issues at the time contributed towards the Wolf's bad behaviour. (It's worth delving into in more detail if you're interested - see links). As a consequence the Wolf went on a terrible rampage of revenge and arson. He destroyed the town of Forres, Pluscarden Abbey, and then moved on to Elgin to burn the Monastery of Greyfriars, the Hospital of Maison Dieu and finally, the ultimate act of revenge, the magnificent Elgin Cathedral, known as The Lantern of the North.

Elgin Cathedral as it is today
Photo by OpalFire

Of course, these treacherous acts did not go unpunished. Bishop Bur excommunicated him but in due time Alexander Stewart made a plea of forgiveness, paid suitable remuneration and was given absolution by the Bishop of St Andrews. 

That's the history bit done! Do go and check the links - it's a fascinating history and I haven't done it justice by glossing over it.

The scene at Lochindorb when we arrived was pretty - blue skies, snow on the distant mountains and a layer of ice on the loch itself. It was cold and got progressively chillier by the time we left as the sun was setting - minus 3 degrees C!!

Lochindorb
Photo by OpalFire

What struck me when we got out of the car was not how cold it was - we were still well insulated from the warmth of the car - but the stillness and the incredible silence and how it wrapped itself around you. The sky was huge, the water barely moved, there wasn't even so much as a breath of wind. At one end of the loch you could see the rugged mountains in the distance and at the end where we were the heather and bracken covered moor stretched with just the occasional tree breaking the undulating brown-ness. 

Then you noticed the sounds - the unfamiliar birdcalls, voices belonging to other visitors carrying across the distance. Ever heard the ting-ting sound of a stone bouncing across ice? At first it's like listening to a bird but then you realise what it is.  But over-riding the sounds and the silence is a sense of place, historical significance, atmosphere. Fanciful? Probably. Yet, there are places whose pasts are ingrained in its very fabric: Glencoe is amazingly atmospheric, Pluscarden Abbey has a holiness and tranquility that reaches out to you.

The trip was a chance for me to play with my new ND8 filter and practice my landscape photography techniques, and also for Teen 2 to have a go at using the camera she got for her birthday the previous month. So far, I think she's doing better than me at the wildlife photography as she managed to snap a grouse we'd disturbed. All I got was a blur because I'd forgotten I had the ND filter screwed to the front of the lens and that the camera was still set to two second timer delay. Over two hundred photos were taken and very few of them are noteworthy but it was a great few hours out and worth the frozen fingers.

Sunset at Lochindorb
Photo by OpalFire

LINKS/BOOKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Stewart,_Earl_of_Buchan

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/s/alexanderstewartbuchan.html

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/inv-elgin-cathedral.pdf

"The Wolf" by Charles Mackie - 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wolf-Charles-Mackie/dp/1904440185

"Mariota" by Charles Mackie -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mariota-Charles-Mackie/dp/1904440339/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364750603&sr=1-1

"Blood of the Wolf" by Charles Mackie - 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Blood+of+the+Wolf+by+Charles+Mackie&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3ABlood+of+the+Wolf+by+Charles+Mackie

"Elgin Past and Present" by HB McIntosh

The Heritage Centre in Moray is a useful source of information especially for genealogists - http://libindx.moray.gov.uk/mainmenu.asp

Both Elgin Library and the Heritage Centre have a superb collection of local history books

A Wee Catch Up

A friend of mine has started blogging and it reminded me that I haven't written or even looked at my blog in quite a while.

Perusing through my ramblings I notice that I tend to say things and never follow them up. So, here's a wee catch up on the submission half promise I made under the blog post entitled "Resolutions and Books".

I finally sent off a whole novel, not to a publisher, but to the New Writer's Scheme which is part of the Romantic Novelists' Association. I struggled terribly writing that novel and I wasn't overly happy with the finished product. I knew it needed a whole lot of work. I was encouraged by friends and other writers to send it off anyway as I was paying for the critique as part of my membership. 

So I did. I sent it off.

And it came back about two months later.

And, oh heck... my fears were confirmed: it needed A LOT of work.

Yes, there were a few tears shed. It's funny how you know that there is much wrong with what you've written and you fully expect confirmation of that, but when you get it, you're still not quite prepared for it.

I got an amazingly detailed and constructive report (15 pages!), which listed the four main areas the reader felt needed improvement: characterisation, internal v external conflict and development of romantic relationship, the use of POV/Show not Tell, and developing individual voice.

As you can see A LOT of work required.

I thought it probably best to put the NWS novel on the back burner for a while. I'd spent nearly a year working on it and to do it justice I need to step back from it and evaluate how I'm going to tackle it.

Then November was upon us. You know, that month where many writers take the mad inclination to write a book in a month? Well, I embraced the madness and on the morning of 31 October I got my idea, made an outline ready for me to begin writing on 1 November. 

A SHINY NEW STORY! Oh, the excitement of something new is just the tonic I needed. A new set of characters, a new set of problems to tackle and the good thing is I have the advice I received from my NWS story to bear in mind whilst writing it.

Sadly, this year, I didn't complete NaNoWriMo. My Mac's hard drive failed, I was already two days behind target (but slowly catching up), most of my novel (19k) I had emailed to myself but I lost 2k of new words that I hadn't had the chance to back up. It really threw me and I just lost the enthusiasm for the madness.

But I haven't lost the enthusiasm for the story and Fergus and Caitlyn's romance will be finished, hopefully in time for the next NWS submission.

It Feels Good

I can't believe that I've finally done it. After years of battling with my lack of confidence in my writing abilities I've actually finished a novel and edited it. Okay, it is far from perfect and needs much more work, but it's done and is on its way to an anonymous reader for the New Writer's Scheme of the Romantic Novelists' Association. 

But you know what? I learnt something. One of the things I learnt was: listen to my CPs and when that first chapter is proving problematic, leave it and move on. That's the advice they gave me, but I was hung up on getting this chapter right. I felt I couldn't move on until it was sorted. Twenty days it took me to write a 50k draft. It took eight months of frustrated hair pulling, threatening dire consequences to the whole MS, and close to packing it in altogether, to get a grip and work on the rest of the novel. Another thing I learnt, and it's something I knew already, but it wasn't until I'd experienced it that I really understood: a novel won't be right first time and it's a process of evolution, where an idea grows and develops with each layer, splitting and dividing like the cells of an embryo to become something real, complex and more solid.

At the moment I'm feeling quite proud of my achievement and fairly chilled that it's winging its way to a professional writer for feedback. I know that feeling won't last and that I'll be chewing my nails wondering at my temerity in sending an unpolished piece of work out and stalking my post box for signs of its return. 

I attended my very first RNA conference this year, held at Penrith, and it was an amazing experience. I met so many new people and best of all I got to meet two out of my three lovely critique partners - Jane O'Reilly and Jessica Thompson. Sadly, we didn't get to meet the fourth member of our group - Julia Broadbooks - as she lives across the pond in a much warmer climate and couldn't attend (not because of the climate - I just thought I'd throw that one in because our summer has, frankly, been pants!).

The encouragement I received from people I'd never met before and the inspiring workshops I attended at the conference really motivated me to get my novel ready to send to the NWS. For three weeks I got up before my family (at stupid o'clock) and got in a good two to three hours of work editing and re-writing and for the first time ever I felt like I was really trying, really putting in the effort. I put aside my lack of confidence and instead worked with my determination to get it done. 

It feels good...

Resolutions and Books

It's that time of year again when most people want to do better in the coming new year than they did in the one just gone. It's a strange beast this need to make resolutions and promises to improve ourselves. I'm not one for religiously making New Year Resolutions but I always feel a sense of optimism and a desire to get going, to be more motivated and organised as one year closes and another begins. And this year is no different. I think I worked very hard over the last twelve months. I've certainly written a lot of words and when I totalled up the amount I had written I was very surprised by my productivity. The end result has not produced a finished and polished novel, but I have achieved more than I ever thought I could: two completed first drafts and a couple of novels that are about a quarter of the way through. That's quite an accomplishment. Now what I want to do is to take that a step (or two) further. Myself and two of my CPs have already set ourselves each a deadline to have a working draft completed by the end of February and I still intend to work to that. What I should be doing next is polishing that draft and... *takes deep breath*... submitting it. I'm not promising that submission is what I will do, but I shall make the effort to get to that stage. That sounds like a cop out, doesn't it? Yeah, well, maybe it is or maybe I'm just being realistic and taking it in manageable steps at a time. We'll just leave it there for now.

I'm not a prolific reader although I'm always reading something, and there's usually a book tucked in my handbag - just in case. Sadly, I just can't read terribly fast and much to the distress of me and my credit card, the to-be-read pile just keeps growing at a rate not in keeping with the speed at which I read. So, the intention is to try and reduce the ever growing pile over the next year.

Of the books I have read here is a list (not exhaustive):

TOP READS

Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James (Faber & Faber)

Flirting with Italian by Liz Fielding (Harlequin Romance)

House of Silence by Linda Gillard (Kindle)

Inherited Bride by Maisey Yates (M&B Modern)

Not Fit for a King by Jane Porter (M&B Modern)

Ordinary Girl in a Tiara by Jessica Hart (Riva)

To Marry a Prince by Sophie Page (Arrow Books)

Taken by the Bad Boy by Kelly Hunter (Riva)

The Ice Prince by Sandra Marton (M&B Modern)

Secret Princess by Jessica Hart (Harlequin Presents)

Starting Over by Sue Moorcroft

BOOKS READ AND ENJOYED

A Mistake, A Prince and A Pregnancy by Maisey Yates (M&B Modern)

Cavelli's Lost Heir by Lynn Raye Harris (M&B Modern)

Innocent in the Ivory Tower by Lucy Ellis (M&B Modern)

Girl in the Bedouin Tent by Annie West (M&B Modern)

Molly Cooper's Dream Date by Barbara Hannay (Riva)

Once a Good Girl by Wendy S Marcus (M&B Medical Romance)

Tempted by Trouble by Liz Fielding (Riva)

The First Night of Christmas by Heidi Rice (Riva)

Tortured Rake by Sarah Morgan (M&B Bad Blood series)

Strangers in the Desert by Lynn Raye Harris (M&B Modern)

Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger by Heidi Rice (M&B Modern)

North & South

I had to give in and get the DVD of North and South. I had been hearing so much about this series and especially its hero. I have to confess I didn't know much about this particular actor or watched anything that he had appeared in. I'd heard of Richard Armitage, of course. Sarah Kennedy would wax lyrical about him during her Radio 2 early morning show, and many of my Facebook and Twitter friends would chat and sigh about him. And having watched North and South with my eldest daughter I now know why all my female friends and acquaintances are half-way in love with him. He is very handsome and I would say he's giving Colin Firth a run for his money as a romantic hero.

As Mr Thornton in North and South I could appreciate his dark brooding handsomeness but as a character and a romantic hero Mr Thornton really had to work hard to convince me and my daughter that he was worthy of Margaret Hale's love. Miss Hale's and our first introduction to him was shockingly of him beating an employee for smoking in the factory. Later his violent action was explained, it made a kind of sense, but like Margaret Hale I wasn't yet ready to like him, even though I'd softened ever so slightly. Margaret Hale stayed strong and true to her convictions and I admired her for that. Her change in attitude towards the hero was a slow awakening and very convincing.

North and South is set during the time of the Great Exhibition and what came to be known as the Industrial Revolution, a time when machinery was being used more and more in manufacturing and farming. Life was pretty grim in the industrialised towns and the contrast between the life and people that Margaret Hale was used to could not have been more sharply defined. From a seemingly idyllic sun drenched life in Helstone and London, the heroine's father uprooted his wife and daughter bringing them to the north where there seemed to be little sun, lots of smoke and a grey monochrome existence as opposed to vivid colour. The darkness reflected the harsh existence of the factory workers and the attitudes of the masters towards the workers and vice versa.

Despite Mr Thornton's harsh exterior he has integrity and honour and is one of the better masters in the industry. Yet he still had to learn humility and to listen. This came at a huge cost: loss of life, love and almost everything he'd worked hard to raise from the ashes of his father's failure.

Margaret Hale is a quietly strong heroine and deals with her change in circumstance admirably and copes with the many tragedies that suddenly crowd into her young life. But she too is not without her flaws. Her ability to put the needs of others before herself and her strong sense of loyalty almost costs her a deep and abiding love.

I really enjoyed watching this four part series and by the last episode I was rooting for the hero and heroine's happy ever after, convinced at last of Mr Thornton's character and suitability to be a romantic hero worthy of his heroine's love.

New Voices 2011

New Voices 2011 opened for entries on 13 September. There's been a lot of excitement about the competition on the M&B New Voices Facebook site with many members having already uploaded their entries. It had been my intention to upload my chapter perhaps a week maybe a week and a half after the opening date, but the closing date is almost upon us and my chapter is still not ready.

There are a couple of reasons why the chapter still languishes in my Mac. 

FEAR being the biggest reason of them all. Since NV last year I've worked hard at improving my writing, reading craft blogs written by generous published authors offering their advice, reading various craft books, and also reading and analysing novels in the lines I think I might like to write for. Despite all this effort the doubts still hover and taunt me, whispering in my ear that my best simply isn't good enough. Thank goodness for my Critique Partners who won't stand for that kind of nonsense and metaphorically slap my wrists when I wallow too long in my woe-is-me-I'm-crap-at-this mood. So... I plod on... as you do.

Another reason is INDECISION. But I'm not alone in that, thankfully. My Critique Partners are just as guilty I can tell you. There are four of us in our group and all of us have ditched version 1 for version 2 for version 3 and back to version 1 again (or something like that anyway). I have finally settled for version 2. The chapter is written, been checked by my CPs and now I'm giving it some final tweaks, and hopefully, it will be ready to upload midweek. Yeah, if I say that publicly, I've got to do it, haven't I? Or look very silly.

One of my Critique Partners (Rosy Gilmore) has already bitten the bullet and uploaded her chapter and you can read it here (I hope the link works!):

http://www.romanceisnotdead.com/Entries/509-Her-Italian-Fiances-Cousin/Chapter-One

Creative Minds

It has been quite some time since I last blogged. Now that's a familiar phrase, I think I may have used that one before! It's been a funny couple of months where very little writing has taken place, very little reading too. I don't know why this happens with me, but it does from time to time and it usually takes a lot of effort to get my head back into the writing/reading zone. That said, my creativity has channeled itself into another area so it's not been dormant altogether. My alter ego OpalFire (the photographer) has been busy creating mainly flower art using archive photographs as the weather has not been very co-operative - it's not easy to photograph a flower when it is swaying in a determined breeze or being drenched by persistent rain (the photographer doesn't like it much either!). 

I belong to a small critique group and a few weeks ago we made the decision to begin a group blog to give our thoughts about books we've read, writing techniques, and writing in general. At the moment we are still in the setting up stage with one book blog almost ready to be published, and another in the initial stages. So do look out for "Tales From The Bunker" which will go live very shortly.

Although the writing and reading has suffered somewhat, the creative mind has continued to work in other ways, and I'm hoping that a very imminent trip to Rome and Sorrento will kick start the imagination!

Clamouring to be heard

Some days characters are stubborn and unco-operative. When that happens the author has to step in and take over, become the master puppeteer, making these uncommunicative characters walk, talk, feel, live. It's painful at times. Yet, there are days when even long silent characters start yelling 'me, me, me!' AND at the most inconvenient times.

Why have they all suddenly decided it's time to make their presence known? Jealousy, I reckon. One lot of characters have been getting a bit of attention in my head lately as a result of my eldest daughter reading my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel and asking questions.

As I've mulled over Hal and Harry's unlikely friendship, where each would die for the other, Garth, an enigmatic yet reticent hero who literally stepped out of the past has nudged me to remind he's here. He's still not talking to me though - the rotten tease. Then there's Fergus a taciturn man whose past is about to catch up with the present still where I left him - on a farm in the picturesque countryside of Glen Tara. All of them are vying for attention with the heroes of two current WIPs - Alexander, another Scotsman who's never forgotten his first love, and Leon, a sexy Spaniard with turquoise eyes.

What is a girl to do with all these men shouting at her? <ahem> And should I be worried that it is only my male characters that want to be heard? A thought for another day, I think.

A bit of a ramble about writing

What do you think of the new look Blog? I love the serene colours and of course I had to use flowers as my background as I do love floral photography. Sadly, the stunningly gorgeous background image is not one of my own.

This last week has seen quite a few of my writerly friends struggling to write whether it is finding the time due to other demands in life, fear of committing to the page because of shaky confidence, fear of committing to submitting work, or like me the feeling that whatever I write is not good enough and never will be. All these reasons take on an enormous soul destroying grip, and there are many times when it would be easy to say 'enough' and give up altogether. But if writing was easy, everyone would be doing it. So, we plod on doing our best to shut out the demon that nips at our confidence. 

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter make it easer to share these woes and to bolster each other's flagging confidence, without it I think I would have given up a long time ago. I have been very lucky to find three like-minded romance writers and we have formed a very close working relationship to critique each others' work, exchange writing information and to be there when we hit the highs and lows that inevitably come with the writing territory. It doesn't make the writing easier but it is good to have the support network.

My work-in-progress (WIP) is sitting at just over 14k. It was growing in wordage but there was something very wrong with it. A lightbulb moment revealed that I had backstory, conflict - both external and internal, what I didn't have was a story. I had a set of circumstances but I had no idea how to bring these circumstances and my hero and heroine together. This moment of revelation was all very well but the problem of sorting it out hung over me like a black cloud. I couldn't see beyond it.  

It was a truly awful moment. Every word dragged its feet on to the page, some good, some bad, some indifferent. I had lost my connection with my characters. I was getting bored with my own writing. Not good. Something needed to be done before the damage was irreparable. Okay, it was a first draft and first drafts are allowed to be bad but sometimes instinct needs to be taken notice of.

Close to tears and heading for bed the answer presented itself. Voice. It was the voice that was wrong. I had been too busy trying to make my story fit to certain specific guidelines and technicalities, trying to emulate what I'd read in the genre I'm aiming for, that the essence of my writing style was lost therefore making it harder to write my hero and heroine's story.

The rewrite began the very next day with a lighter, less intense tone, and hopefully my real voice.

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I've Blogged. I've begun a few but couldn't quite get the tone right so they sit abandoned in the Drafts folder.

What do I want to say? To be honest I haven't a clue which pretty much sums up my writing at the moment. I entered the Harlequin Valentine themed Secret Baby competition. For this competition all you had to do was to write the first 1,000 words of a longer story. This I did and was surprised at how easy those 1,000 words came to me. With some editing it was ready to go. My entry didn't receive many comments but the comments it did receive were very encouraging and positive, so I decided to go with the story for a while and develop it.

When I wrote the initial 1,000 words I hadn't given much thought to what happens later. So, it has been a frustrating few weeks trying to work out a conflict that is believable and can be sustained for the length of the book. The details aren't all there yet, not on paper anyway. It could be that they are lurking somewhere in the murk of my brain just waiting for the trigger to allow them to spill themselves onto an eagerly waiting blank sheet of paper.

Thankfully, I have the support of my critique group. They have questioned the reasoning behind why my characters behave in certain ways, and it has really made me think deeper about their motivations. It's not all clear yet, but it is getting there. 

Regency Romance

Over the last wee while I've re-read quite a few Regency romances by contemporary authors and thoroughly enjoyed them and I've toyed with the idea of attempting to write my own.  However, writing historical romance has always terrified me.  There is just so much that you can get wrong and there is so much out there to research that I could get bogged down in the amount of information available.  Despite the fact that I have a degree which includes history subjects and I should have an idea of how to go about checking my sources it is still a frightening thing to attempt.

One of my writers' groups set a challenge of writing 5k a week during January just to get us writing after the Christmas slump.  It was a challenge that I accepted all too eagerly, and have failed spectacularly - in production terms, at least.  In my first week I produced the awesome total of 182 words.  BUT these 182 words were of a genre that is completely new to me as a writer.  They came at me out of nowhere.  I have no idea about the characters or even how the story will progress, but the beginning, those measly 182 words surprised me.  My fellow writers were very encouraging and I thought perhaps I should take it further.  The story I began is a Regency romance.  I've only ever written contemporary romance so attempting to write Regency is way out of my comfort zone. 

I've spent the last week researching on-line and discovering that sub-consciously at least I do know more than I credited myself with.  A writer friend also suggested a book entitled "Georgette Heyer's Regency World" by Jennifer Kloester.  It arrived through my letterbox yesterday morning and I've already read quite a chunk of it.  It is an excellent read, very readable, and a superb reference source for anyone interested in the period.

Another suggestion to get into the period was to read Georgette Heyer's books.  I have a boxful of romances that have the princely sum of 2'6 marked on the covers.  They are quite old and the pages are yellowed with age.   I've started reading "These Old Shades".  I'm about to start reading chapter 5.  I can't say that I love this book or its characters at the moment.  The hero, a Duke, is about 40 years old by my calculations and the heroine just 19 - it's a huge age gap.  There's nothing wrong with that in the scheme of things, but I do feel a little uncomfortable with it at the moment.  The hero himself dresses quite flamboyantly, sniffs snuff, has a quizzing glass, and so far, apart from rescuing the heroine (who he thinks is a boy) is not very nice.  The heroine, who I think believes herself to be a boy, has a severe case of hero worship to the point of abasement.  I know there are class distinctions in the period and that the lower classes are expected to fall over themselves to serve their masters in the higher echelons of society, but again, the heroine's behaviour leaves me feeling a little uncomfortable.  The only decent character so far is a chap named Hugh.   At the moment I have no idea what his role is or even why he is friends with the Duke as he appears to disapprove of the Duke's behaviour.  I can only think that at the moment Hugh is a means to an end for the author to show the Duke's character development.

I hope my impression improves as I read through the book.  Georgette Heyer is a much loved author of Regency novels and for that alone I really want to enjoy her work.

A Hectic Time

Well!  The last post on here by me was 29 October - we're now halfway through December.  Not a great start to blogging.  However, it has been a hectic six weeks.  

NaNoWriMo took up the whole of November - 50,000 words in 30 days.  Break that down and it is 1,667 per day.  Doesn't seem much but it's not as easy as it seems.  Apparently, out of 200,000 applicants only 37,000 actually completed the writing challenge.  I'm proud to say, I'm one of the 37k.  I finished my 50k on day 29.  I would like to thank my friends on "Up and Coming Writers" and on "First Class" for the wonderful support, especially on the last two days when 10k was committed to screen.

The novel, begun before Nano started (for Mills & Boon New Voices competition), and completed during the writing challenge, is now emerging in its second draft, and I'm much happier with the way the story structure is working out.

Now Christmas is almost here and I'm feeling decidedly harassed by it all.  The work on my attic conversion is complete (bar the bathroom), and the children are looking forward to moving into their new bedrooms.  Thankfully, there will be no workmen in the house for a while.  The tree needs decorating, presents need to be bought, and a decision has to be made about whether to stay home for Christmas or go to my sister's.

So, for the foreseeable future I doubt that very much wordage will be committed.  BUT I can say that the experience of having taken part in the Mills & Boon New Voices competition and completing that novel during Nano has re-ignited my interest in writing, and it's quite an exhilarating feeling.

The Decision

This time last year I had no inkling of what to write for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and it wasn't until 2 pm on 31 October that the idea came at me in a rush after prompting from a couple of friends who said they would like to see more of a particular character I had written about.  And although Nano 2009 was a joy in comparison to the year before, I was behind with my word count until day 20.  Right back in the early days of the writing I'd come down with the cold and for three days not a word hit the page and afterwards it was a daily struggle to keep going.  However, the friendly (but completely bonkers) rivalry/support of a group of Nanoers on the Open University network kept my spirits up and by day 24 the 50k target had been reached.  What a buzz that was!  I'd beaten 2008's finish date by four days.

This year I have no inkling of what to write for NaNoWriMo.

My current W-I-P was put on hold last year whilst I took part in the slightly insane rush to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  I don't relish the thought of putting it on hold again.  So The Decision has been made.  I intend to Nano the rest of the current novel.  I'm not entirely convinced that this is such a good idea but it's the one I'm going with for the moment.

Not All Bad

Last week was not the most productive for writing.  In fact at times it had been downright disheartening.

I'm not a meticulous planner but I usually have an airy fairy idea of where the story is going with certain actions that will definitely take place at some point along the way.  However, the getting to "some point along the way" has been a bit bothersome.  This is what I call the "in-betweeny bits" and they are proving elusive.  

My favoured method of writing is chronological and methodical - I plod on starting at the beginning and work my way through the middle and on to the end.  Simple?  No.  It's like a dot to dot puzzle - all the pieces need to be joined together to create a whole but getting from one dot to the next is a hazardous journey - one slip of the pen and everything alters.  This I have discovered in a couple of ways.  (1) complete mind blank on what to write next, which is common enough, we've all been there and it's darned frustrating when it happens, and (2) when research knocks your story out of kilter.

Let's deal with the research first.  Thanks to a friend who has a background in science I discovered that my preconceived notion of proving paternity wasn't as straightforward as I had thought.  This put an interesting slant on my story and how I was going to get out of the very tight corner I'd written my characters in to.  I still haven't resolved this problem although I have some ideas, but the worry is that whatever solution I choose may come across as contrived.  However, on a positive note, the lack of a definitive answer to the paternity issue adds to the theme running through the story of betrayal and trust.

The mind blank is the biggest problem at the moment.  The dots are all there just waiting to be connected.  Giving myself permission to write sloppily to get something down on paper hasn't worked, nor has writing random scenes, although these efforts have increased my word count and my novel is sitting at just under 14k.  That gave me a bit of a boost - at least I was getting somewhere even if it felt otherwise.

Matters were not helped by the inner editor heckling from the sidelines, sniggering at the stilted prose and the many, many word repetitions.  With this to contend with it made it difficult to want to read the terrible words that had been committed to paper.  And if the inexcusable assemblage of words across the page was ignored, how was one able to judge whether there was any potential in the work that had been pulled kicking and screaming into existence?  The deed had to be done.  And there they were - the diamonds of the dustheap (to quote Virginia Woolf (1953), A Writer's Diary, London: Harcourt).  And me being my fiercest critic, to be able to recognise the tiny wee gems glittering amongst the dross has got to be a good thing, has it not? Something worth working with?

Despite the problems and the on-going blankness, I'm slowly coming round to thinking that although my writing is far from perfect, it's not all bad.

Words...

... don't come easy to me... <sigh>

Plodding away writing stuff that, hopefully, will become an editable romance novel.  At the moment, however, it seems an impossible dream.  The words are not playing nicely.  I look at the screen, a blank one, and ponder.  And then I ponder some more.  I tell myself, quite forcefully (I can be quite scary you know), to just write!  I wander off and clean the bathroom instead.

Words, stilted and awkward, did eventually assemble themselves in a readable fashion on to the page and the story has moved on a little.  Quite messy and cringeworthy but it's words and words can be edited.  So I keep telling myself.  It is often said that a first draft is messy, but yikes, surely not this messy?

The inner editor has a lot to answer for.  There it sits, on my shoulder, being picky about the words or a phrase that I choose.  Always there, poking its nose in, deflating my confidence and halting the flow.  But wait... come November it's gonna get a jackboot where the sun don't shine.

In fact, why wait until November... <exits stage left cackling hysterically>

Not Quite A Blonde...

Probably not the most auspicious of titles for an aspiring writer.  Let's just say it's more to do with the colour of my hair than a tendency towards dizziness.  Well... for the moment anyway... the six shades of gold and copper are slowly being joined by... <ahem> let's call it white gold and leave it at that.

Now that we've got that little issue (for me anyway) out of the way, I should perhaps say a little about myself and why I've started a Blog.

It seems that anyone who is anyone, and even those who are no-one, are Blogging.  So, why can't this No-one of Any Consequence write one too?

It's been on my mind for a while and I've read a few Blog entries and immediately felt inadequate.  I couldn't possibly have anything of interest that anyone who is anyone and even those who are no-one would want to read.  Besides, if I had anything to say that was worthy of announcing to the world at large would I be able to impart that knowledge in an engaging manner to keep my reader (one of... maybe...) reading?

It's all in the execution - a cleverness with words.  As an aspiring writer, words should be my thing.  Not so.  Writing is incredibly hard.  Many people have read books and thought Pah! I can do that.  If only...  I learnt the lesson the hard way.

I'm very much a day dreamer and spent much of my time creating adventures in my head where they lingered for a while and then would eventually be forgotten.  Day dreaming, I discovered from reading Dorothea Brande's "Becoming a Writer", can be a powerful tool for a writer.  This revelation made me feel a little better about my writing ambitions and the fact that they only surfaced at the age of 17 and not from the moment I could hold a pencil.  Day dreaming, however, has been with me for as long as I can remember.  Perhaps now is the time to put that imagination to work.