Have a cuppa with your characters on their day off...

The following section from "Necropolis" by Anthony Horowitz [Book 4 in The Power of Five series] fed my imagination and sparked inspiration:

(from page 155, hardback edition:)
"...all the books in the library are biographies."
"Of all the people who have ever lived and quite a few who are still to be born. We keep their entire lives here. Their beginnings, their marriages, their good days and their bad days, their deaths - of course. Everything they ever did."
(You also learn that these books contain all the things that haven't happened yet)

The young hero enters this very real library through a dream dimension. The speech quoted is by 'The Librarian' who apparently has no other name and is the only librarian in an endlessly large library.

I love this whole concept. It got me thinking and I've come up with a few questions and ideas to prompt further writing and thoughts.

What would be written about you on a good or bad day?
What about those in between days? The days that come and go without major incident. The ordinary days. The days that appear to fly by in blur or drag miserably.

What about the characters in your present WIP? We don't really give them an average day to live during the course of a novel or story. Why don't you take time out to write about one of their ordinary in-between days? If you feel it necessary to justify this time spent then you could use this average day as a catalyst for something bigger. After all, in life, it is often the small things that can affect huge change. A ripple effect can start from what may seem an inconsequential event.

Whether you choose to create more from the day or not - it may help you get to know your character further if you spend a day with them that is outside of the chaos, action or intensity of the plot.

Make a date with your character to have a cuppa and a catch up. Do you really know them? Are they the person you thought they were?

If you try this, please let me know how you get on.

The Power of Five series of books has its own website at http://www.powerof5.co.uk/ . For further information about Anthony Horowitz and his writing he can be found at http://www.anthonyhorowitz.com/ and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AnthonyHorowitz .
................................................

Wasps, leaks & rewrites...

The good news this past week is that the rewrites for my YA novel are going well. After completing a first draft and round of edits I had this nagging feeling that the story would work more effectively when told from the perspective of a first person narrative. But I knew this would require a lot of effort. So I decided to work on 3rd person and 1st person versions of the opening chapters with a view to comparing the two.

After completion I was sure that the first person narrative worked best. I gained a second opinion without sharing my own feelings. This reader was very enthusiastic about the first person narrative saying that it brought the story to life. Therefore, I am now busy rewriting my YA novel in first person. The plot, details & story are there already but nevertheless it is a lot of work to change the perspective. Am I mad? Probably. But mad or not I feel sure I've made the correct decision.

What about the wasps? Well I was writing in my writing hut when a dozy irritable wasp appeared from nowhere. I thought it was a loner come to shelter from the rain. But ten wasps later and a screaming phone call to my husband I realised that there were a whole family of the stinging nuisances. I hate killing anything and so at first tried to shoe them out windows and door. This wasn't an effective method. The wasps were grumpy and one dive bombed my head at such force that I began to lose my nerve. I'm ashamed to say I let my husband put the wasps out of their (& my) misery (aka slaughter them). Even though I don't like wasps I still felt all sad.

And the leak? With the wasps gone I thought I was free to continue with my writing. But then I noticed a slow spreading leak across my writing hut ceiling. I could have cried. Hubbie came to the rescue after my emotional plea and re-covered the offending side of the roof. Phew!

So all is well in my writing hut at the moment. The heater is at full blast and slipper socks are a must but it really is my favourite place to write.

.......................................................

Three books worth reading

I recently entered a competition held by Caroline Smailes and was lucky enough to win a signed copy of "Heaven Can Wait" by Cally Taylor.

What it's about....Lucy Brown has a fatal accident the day before she's due to marry Dan, the man of her dreams. Lucy's given the choice to either go to Heaven or stay with Dan as a ghost. She takes the second option which is dependent on her fulfilling the task of finding a soul mate for a dorky stranger. Whilst she's busy trying to complete this challenge her friend Anna is making moves on Dan.

Lucy Brown is a wonderfully honest amusing character and the after life is imaginatively portrayed. Cally Taylor's witty writing makes this a very enjoyable tale. A heartfelt laugh-out-loud delight. To learn more about Cally Taylor visit her website.

...

Next I recommend two books by Cecelia Ahern whose intelligent enjoyable storytelling remains commercially successful and accessible to a wide readership. Am I envious? Just a tad!

'The Gift' is a Christmas fable about the underestimated value of time and how we choose to spend its limited currency. The story is character and relationship focused with a touch of mild fantasy.

A touching and thought provoking novel that stays with you long after you've finished reading it.

'The Book of Tomorrow': After her father's suicide Tamara Goodwin and her withdrawn mother leave their wealthy Dublin lifestyle to live with family in the country. When a mobile library visits their remote new home, Tamara finds a magical book that helps her discover herself and the dark hidden secrets that lurk within her family.

A wonderful idea realised within a tight plot that enables you to join Tamara on her suspense filled journey of discovery.

Oh and the hard back edition is beautifully designed and so lovely to adorn your bookshelf.

If you'd like to learn more about the talented Cecelia Ahern and her books then visit her website.

...

Time for me to go and work on my own writing. The rewrites are not progressing as fast as I'd hoped. I have a million genuine excuses for this lack of productivity but to be honest they are all pointless in voicing because in the end if I want to write I just need to get on with it. Less moaning, agonising and self-criticism. More scribbling, key tapping and grafting. (That told me!)


****************************

Distraction or Inspiration?

This past week I've found it hard to concentrate on my writing. This is a busy time of year for us starting with my son's sixth Birthday yesterday and continuing at a chaotic pace until after Christmas. Apart from this specific time, life in general holds many distractions for a writer trying to desperately carve out their writing time. I began to consider: which distractions could be viewed not as time away from writing but instead as inspiration for writing?

Distractions come in many guises. Certain activities that distract from your writing time are easy enough to turn into inspiring moments spent. For instance time spent with family at the beach or doing a craft activity with children can help us create realistic character relationships, write about emotions and describe the waves crashing against rocks.

However, many distractions in our life are not so easy. There's the tedious responsibilities such as cleaning the bathroom, paying bills and doing your tax return. Then there's the irritating time drains. For instance: having to ring customer services for the tenth time to inform the obnoxious unable-to-think-outside-the-box customer representative that they have yet again miscalculated your bill.

I ask myself: can any distraction become inspiration?

Can the metamorphosis of distraction into inspiration enable our every moment to become an interesting, productive writing moment?

I think the answer is yes. Being a writer isn't just about sitting down with your manuscript editing and writing. It's about making the choice to commit to your identity as a writer so that during every moment you're willing to actively be a writer.

Maybe with this commitment, even the most irritating or mundane parts of life will become meaningful, useful and/or enjoyable.

On that note I'll get back to you after I've scrubbed the toilet and let you know if I managed to find any sliver of inspiration from that!

......................................

"Why do I Write?"

Whilst working on a novel writing becomes a job. Although still a pleasure, I find myself losing touch with the simple joy of writing for writings sake. That’s not to say that I have stopped writing in my journal, scribbling down ideas and writing (bad) poetry – I still do this, but just not as much.

Recently I realised it had been a while since I’d just sat with a notebook and written about something like the musical quality of the stream that runs past the bottom of my garden or written a story with no other purpose in mind than to amuse myself.

This realisation encouraged me to remember why I write. I clearly have a passion to write books that people will enjoy reading. But what of all the other reasons I write? What drives me to put pen to paper over and over again? Why do I write? Well here are some of my answers to this question:

Whether writing fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a self-indulgent journal entry; writing helps me make sense of life. Putting into words a special moment or glorious sight makes these things real and becomes a scrapbook of life.

I’m fascinated by people and relationships. It’s exciting to illustrate in words the beautiful complexity of human interaction and personalities through the creation of fictional characters.

I crave the infinite possibilities I can create using just a pen and my imagination. This provides me with hours of endless fun and escapism. It also allows me to try living many lives and experiences without physical or practical restrictions. It gives me even greater joy to share these experiences and characters with other people.

As well as a playground for my imagination, through writing, I find I discover learn and explore ideas in a way that I can’t do in my mind bogged down as it is with the noisy chaos of living. It provides a forum for my lifetime need to question ‘why?’

Story is my obsession. Whether I’m writing reading or telling, I use story to frame my every experience and journey through life.

On a basic level that I still can’t understand: I need to write. I crave writing. Writing defines who I am and when I’m not writing I feel unhappy.

There are many articles on the internet on the subject of why writers write.

George Orwell wrote the famous essay ‘Why I Write’. The Guardian has interviewed many writers in a regular feature with the title ‘Why I Write’ and it’s interesting to discover various reasons and explanations. On his website Carlos Ruiz Zafon, author of ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ answers this question. A short but interesting answer was written by writer Bernard Maclaverty. But one of my favourite articles, and the one I’d recommend, details Stephanie Calman’s (author of ‘How not to Murder Your Mother’) reflections on her own motivations to write.

Why do you write?

?????????????????????????????

That old chestnut: Show not tell! (and living with my inner critic)

I've been busy editing and fairly pleased with my progress. But yesterday I was going through a couple of chapters that displayed a terrific amount of 'telling' and not nearly enough 'showing'.

.

Had I regressed? Had I learnt nothing?

.

Trying not to panic I busily scribbled all over my 1st draft , made extra notes and took shaky deep breaths.

.

Yet my inner critic taunted me with:

'well you obviously haven't learnt anything'

and 'fancy making such rudimentary mistakes'.

And 'blah, blah, blah.....you're kidding yourself if you think you can write...blah blah."

.

If you've an inner critic like mine you can fill in the blanks. If you haven't got one of these inner bullies then I congratulate you (and wish I was you).

.

After my initial biting of fingernails I decided to google some 'show not tell' writing advice.

I found some reasonable advice but I was still worried that I had so easily forgotten these basics when writing my first draft.

.

I was finally comforted by an excellent article by science fiction writer Robert J Sawyer. He explains that in a first draft he does a lot more telling in the process of working out events and characters. That to carefully shape every sentence during writing the first draft can be disruptive and block your writing flow.

.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

It all made sense. Of course the editing process was the place to enhance and amend. (Duh!)

I wasn't a complete failure after all. (although maybe a little dim)

I stuck two fingers up at my inner critic and returned to my editing with enthusiasm.

.

Read Robert J Sawyer's useful and interesting article by clicking here. Even if it's old news and you know it already, I think it's worth a read.

.

Please share any of your own editing stories & inner-critic-bully stories.

.

Hope your writing is going well today!

...............................................

"Coming Soon on Wright Story" PLEASE READ: the following post details a new blogging schedule!

(Poster above designed by my daughter & modelled by my son.)

....

For too long my blogging has been erratic and disorganised. Therefore in an attempt to organise, revamp and make my blog reader friendly I have devised a plan. (Oh yes, she says rubbing her hands together)

...

Starting now I will attempt to focus on a minimum of two weekly blog posts.

My posts will fall into the following categories that will be reachable via the 'Contents' bar at the top of my blog:

• Wright Writing - an account of my writing life and relevant writing activities!
• Wright Web Watch - these posts will feature something or someone interesting I've found on the Internet and will revolve around the topics of writing, reading, story, creativity......
• Wright Reading - occasionally I may write a post about a book I've enjoyed or/and found useful.
• Wright Photos - original but totally unprofessional photos may be used to adorn any of the above posts. As regular readers know, I do sometimes like to share pictures taken in my garden and in my home county of Cornwall.

I make no apologies for the cheesy content titles I have chosen. (okay just a little sorry)

I will try and exclude 'Wright Waffle' as far as possible. However, I will apologise in advance for the times when waffle seeps in, sometimes (like now) I just can't help it.

My Twitter page @wrightstory is a good place to discover my day to day musings. (Warning: Wright Waffle will often be found on my Twitter page but at least it will be limited to 140 characters)

Please wish me luck as I embark on my new organised blogging plan. Hope you enjoy (or at least humour) my attempts.

................................................

School holiday lessons....

This is fairly random but I just thought I'd wish you 'Happy Roald Dahl Day' for no other reason than I think RDs stories are wonderful.

It has been so long since I signed on to my blog that it took four attempts to enter the correct information. I realise this is not a good sign.

Where have I been?

Not far. It's just I've been suffering from the overwhelming all consuming school summer holiday time & energy drain. (Drama queen - me? Never)

But I have learnt two lessons from this school summer break. They are not entirely new lessons but the sort that you forget and relearn as painfully as the first time!

1. Working from home is quite useful until the children are at home and kept prisoners indoors by the rain.


2. Setting impossible goals leaves one with nothing but the feeling of failure. (Maybe not impossible but I was certain I'd edit my novel over the summer. Convinced that my enthusiasm would be all I'd need to achieve this goal I failed to remember ill health, a job, husband's unpredictable hours, British weather & a string of the unforeseeable type of events one encounters.)

In addition I have found it practically impossible to dedicate much time to my blog or Twitter these past few weeks - I've had to prioritise in favour of my children . I am now just grateful to have got through the summer without a breakdown. And I'm happy to say that health wise I am doing quite well at the moment and the editing is back underway.

How was your summer?


.......................................

Editing the Seven Seas

This week I will begin editing the first draft of my YA novel.

.

What's with the photo?

What is its relevance?

Mmm, well.....how about:

"Setting sail on the next stage of this novel writing journey".

I know!

Sorry.

But I was a little stuck for images. I had to make this one fit somehow. Sort of.

.

This photo was taken on a showery day in Lerryn, Cornwall. A couple of weeks ago we went on a boat trip from Fowey to Lerryn and back to celebrate my goddaughter's Birthday. Despite the rain showers it was a fun trip for all.

.

So here's the thing: I'm actually quite nervous about beginning the edits.

Why?

Because when I edited the children's book I wrote last year it all went horribly wrong. I edited out every last scrap of joy.

.

But.....................

I learnt a lot in the process of writing and editing that first book.

And I am excited about this YA novel. I'm really pleased with it and in many ways am looking forward to polishing it so that it can truly shine. (Yet another cliche inspired sentence. Note to self: must ensure novel is free of them)

.

Yet, I've still got butterflies in my stomach. (Surely that's an original description of nerves. No? Been used before? Damn!)

.

Maybe I'm so nervous because this novel is worth getting right.

Or I'm just chicken.

Cluck.

.

Please share your editing wisdom.

Ease my anguish - throw me a life raft! (Okay that's the last nauseating pun)

And wish me luck.

.

Well time to depart on this next journey.

Anchors away!

(Sorry I just couldn't help but put in a departing dose of cheese. I promise that my novel will be free of such things.) (Hopefully)

.

.....................................

Celebration - First Draft Complete

Yesterday I completed the first draft of my YA novel. The word count total for this first draft was 74,030. By far the largest single piece of writing I've ever finished.

.

I'm especially happy with what I've achieved because of all the health set backs I've had recently. Last night I was buzzing & jittery - not sure what to do with myself and missing my characters already. I decided on wine, food & celebration!

.

I'm really pleased with this first draft and can't wait to start editing it. Any advice on how long I should leave it before starting the edits?

.

I've so much other work to catch up on but am already getting distracted by the sequel I have partially planned in my head.

.

But for today - a little rest. My 5 year old was awake half the night with nightmares. He bounced to school. I'm dead on my feet. Oh to have a child's energy....