Roman tic

Thanks for your question, Elisabeth. Anyone else got a question about Escape Behaviours?

I doll

I made this doll for the daughter of a friend. It isn't perfect but I like that. I think she did too. It was supposed to resemble her her but she doesn't know her self yet, doesn't have an "I", and when she does it may be nothing like her.

I make a lot of things - I can't sit still - when I'm not writing I'm thinking about writing but I still need to occupy my hands. Kids help fill most of my time, in fairness, and they are a much needed constant in my life. However, when they are tucked up in bed my mind is still very busy, even if my bones are tired.

Often my idleness is elbowed aside by painting, other times I make stuff, rarely I clean house. My creations aren't always as enthusiastically received as this doll was. Sometimes I get cold feet and don't give the thing I made away at all, like a pamphlet of poems recently, and I try to keep in mind that not everyone digs pressed flowers. I'm something of an oldy worldy scatterbrain when it comes to gifts. Don't expect anything cool from me! I'm with the give what you'd like to receive brigade but what I'd like seldom corresponds with what others like to receive.

Where's all this going I hear you ask? (Actually I just asked myself as I had no idea when I started this post!)

Not such a big deal? Now I'm making a novel it is. I don't want to get thousands of words in and have written something nobody wants to read. Having written ten thousand words of notes I want to get this novel right for as many readers as possible.

And I wondered....what was the nicest gift you ever received and what do you most want/look for in a novel?

Un-pending

Take note of this table. I sketched it sometime between 1989 - 1993. I will return to it.

Often I happen upon my stories by chance. I start off with an idea in mind and, intending to write about that, put pen to paper/fingers to type pad and come up with something completely different. Often in this instance means mostly every time! But those initial ideas don't go anywhere, they aren't lost, merely pending.

Today I thought I'd open the file and let you have a look at my most recent list of pending things to write:

Number 1:

My thanks go out to That Elusive Line

Also known as Thomas Taylor,
so hop to his blog where you can find

That Elusive writer and illustrator!

(Please don't start critiquing that as though it's a poem! Groan!)

Thomas has been hosting a wee devil on his blog to debate the pros and cons of the e-reader (don't make me say Kindle - aaaargh!), which is something the vibrant and verbose Donna Hosie has had a blog about, too. Which brings me round to,

Number 2:

"But as I look at all the cherishable, unusual, unexpected and simply beautiful little books on my shelves, held...loved...written in...with flowers pressed, letters hidden and tears stained...I'm afraid the ebook will never match that!"

Excellently put James Mayhew! I'm going to be doing a little post - at some point - about those things we keep between the pages of our beloved books. Thanks for the idea.

Number 3:

Now, remember that table? Here it is again. This time in a watercolour from 1992.

And I was reminded of this picture when I wrote this post.

It was merely the pile of laundry which triggered my memory. Memory is like that. I've written a novel about memory, and the title of that post, Family Are Rare, is also the title of my collection of short fiction. See how it all comes together?

Number 4:

And I'm writing about this table, but you'll have to wait for that! I will come back to it - eventually!

Thieve a few

A little piece of NZ, framed especially for you.

I think I may have lost my marbles. Do tell me if you see them rolling around anywhere, feel free to collect them up and keep a few cats' eyes for yourselves, I won't miss the odd one or two.

I have been planning a novel for some months now and next month I am going down to South Island to carry out research for it. I don't have to: in theory I could find all the information I require at my local libraries or from contacts I have made in South Island, and it's going to cost me an arm and a leg, but I really feel I need to experience the place I am writing about first hand. Plus, as there is a lot of oral history in NZ, I need to go to the place itself for that.

I don't want to give too many details away other than to say it is a variation on the idea of a triptych and already it is consuming me. I made a start with writing a few "scenes" back in June, to get a feel for my characters. Much of what I've written so far will not make it into the novel but it has served a very useful purpose, and been worth every word, to really bring my people to life.

This is the first novel I've tackled that's had me scared. I am worried I may have bitten off more than I can chew but there's nothing I love more than a difficult challenge: if something's not hard, it's not fun for me. So I'm doing as much research as I can to be as prepared as possible for everything I am throwing at my characters, and I'm chomping at the bit to find out what they're going to throw back at me.

I've never been to South Island before. When I started planning this novel I spoke to librarians - they were fantastically knowledgeable (as you would expect librarians to be) and went way beyond the call of duty to email links and things they thought might be of interest to me weeks after I had initially queried them! I was given contact details for people living in the place I am going to and was offered free accommodation! I asked an architect about a building and he offered to check out all the details on buildings in my story for accuracy! I have never encountered enthusiasm, helpfulness, generosity or trust as I have found from the people of New Zealand (except, maybe, in the UK! - Especially me, when I lived there!). But seriously, I've been blown away by the offers I've had. So this post is really a big thank you to New Zealand for all the opportunities it has given me.

The only downside is that I have to plan the whole trip! Everything requires timetabling and, as I have droned on about before, I really am not bedfellows with numbers. And the nearer the trip gets, the more stressed I get about catching the plane etc on time, and the more difficult I find organising all of the other things for the correct times and dates. It's giving me headaches - I need to eat some feverfew. I much prefer organising novels than trips! So my marbles have started disassembling and I may loose a few for good. So, go on, take some, I hope they are more use to you than to me!

All are bored

All aboard, all aboard, join me on the jolly blogger...I have...erm...stuff to tell...

Remember the synopsis for my latest project? Well, today I rewrote two thirds of it!

I was happy with some elements of it, mainly the beginning, I think I have strong beginnings because I always visualise the characters and their entrance into the story really vividly: I see my stories almost cinematically, so when I write them - the stories themselves - it is just like describing a film, the way I describe a scene with my paints, breaking it down into its composite parts: that part there may appear green but it is actually a visual illusion, achieved by pixillating many shades of blue and yellow. See?

Okay, so it sounds utter guff when I make that analogy, but the point is, I'm a strong starter. Ring any bells?

Well, I know I want to do something really exciting with the narrative for this novel, but before I can get creative I need to have a solid linear narrative in my mind to work with. Something that is believable, engaging, stimulating, moving, and has that most important of things, emotional truth.

If my synopsis/plot outline isn't believable or moving, how can I expect the novel to be? I work from the standpoint that if you start with the finest ingredients, you make for great food, and great food makes for happy eaters! Ah, enough of the analogies. Are you keeping up there on the poop deck?

Well, I have a plot outline and a synopsis I'm happy with - for now. I'm making a tentative start with writing, that is to say, I've allowed the creative flood gates to open now and any snippets of dialogue that come to mind can be given passage. Toot toot!

Writing novels and painting pictures are similar processes: they both work on a principle of thirds. There's a rule in painting that you don't split the canvass in two by sticking a big object smack in the middle, you have to draw the eye in and around the painting. It's that way with novels. I think of painting a lot when I'm developing plots. And I don't think the plot has to be amazingly convoluted. If you have a good story it's a good story, no matter how many twists or turns it has - tell that. Woman the sails!

Also (Bored yet? I'm on a roll here guys, you might want to pause for tea - and might I suggest a chocolate hobnob? Yes, you may take two...) I think if you have a solid and engaging story which is quite simple, you can add interest, twists and turns by how you choose to reveal that story, through the narrative. Narrative is tricky - it's such a slippery word, means many different things - does anyone fancy a post about narrative with their next cuppa?

Writing isn't always plain sailing, and if you're struggling let me know - I'll fire some useless analogies your way, and if I can help I will - but when the sea's calm and the wind's at your back, it can be the most liberating journey, and the view is sublime.

You may depart, I hope you had a pleasant voyage!

No news is good news

So...obviously the wait to know my fate didn't kill me! But writing 75,000 words in four weekends almost did - won't be doing that again in a hurry, though it is good to know I can be a writing machine when I want to. At least I have another novel to polish at my leisure.

I have an atrocious short term memory which means that when I write I have to jot every single idea or thought thread down in a notebook. I can't make little changes as I write without marking in the change everywhere else it will impact, else I will forget about the change and end up with a very disjointed narrative.

This happened with my first novel. I didn't know how bad my memory was then. I wrote it mostly off the top of my head, knowing the basic story outline but nothing concrete, and hoped the story would work itself out. I changed bits willy nilly as I went along, and made mental notes to go back and 'make sure to write that so-and-so has green shoes' (for eg.) Then forgot about those changes and ended up, four months later, with 60,000 words of pure confusion. It was good confusion, don't get me wrong, I was happy with what I had written, well most of it....actually, about a third of it....but the point is (see there I go again, forgetting what the point is...) it took me a further four years to work it into the book I had thought I wanted. Then I discovered that wasn't the book I wanted, and I rewrote and reorganised it again, wrote another 17,000 words, and this year I was happy with it.

Now I have two methods under my belt and I definitely favour the planned route - it works for my untidy brain - but I like the cut and paste, building an idea from scraps, add and change technique too, so I'll be doing lots of this in my redrafting.

It is now over a week since I heard back from the agent requesting a partial (makes me laugh typing that) and still no more news. How long does it normally take to hear back? And now I am convinced that an ever so polite rejection is on its way.

Beginnings

Hullo,
this is my first blog - ever. I am an unpublished, and unrepresented, writer. Hopefully, I will change this, and this blog is my invitation to all of you out there to share my journey.

I have just sent off my first novel to an agent and had a request for a partial. The wait to know my fate is killing me!