Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
Hello awesome people. I haven’t written a post on here for a few weeks, but I have been active over at Her Heart. My latest article there is on motivation and discusses the five second rule and decision fatigue. To take a look click on this link.
Have a fantastic and creative day everyone xx
Hello lovely people! What’s happening in your part of the world? In my part (Western Australia) it’s winter and I’m freaking envious as hell of all the summer pictures I’m seeing from the northern hemisphere. Don’t worry, I’ll return the favour when our summer rolls around 🙂
Okay, now that I’ve complained about winter, let’s get onto the writing part.
I’ve signed up for Camp Nano (you can more about what that is here) and am sharing a cabin with an awesome crew of writers I’ve met on twitter. They are so funny and I’m looking forward to it. Especially as I’m in the midst of writing a first draft so having a cheer squad for the month of July will be fantastic. That deadline of August 24 for Rosie (the first draft!) is starting to feel very real.
I’ve got a few articles up on Her Heart which you can view here. The first draft of Rosie is coming along nicely and I’ve hit the quarter of the way target. I’m looking at several writing competitions for short stories and poetry, which I’m seriously considering entering so long as it doesn’t interfere with Rosie.
Now to other news.
My personal life is rather stressful at the moment for good and not so good reasons. My grandmother is very sick, my husband is about to start a job which means he’ll be home every night (he’s worked away for over 80% of the year for the last 5 years) and a few other things are also happening. Consequently I’m not going to commit to posting every week.
My novel is my writing priority and I can already see that it is proving difficult to juggle it, this blog and my personal life. So it’s time for a temporary reshuffle. But fear not, I’ll still be here, I’m just not setting a time frame for posting.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you guys have a happy and creative day.
P.S. I’ll still be posting articles on Her Heart every second week 🙂
What if? It’s a simple question that often signals the start of something, usually some form of problem solving or an urge to try something different just because. As a writer it is my favourite question to ask myself when I lack inspiration for my current project. There is something about the question, the possibilities held in those two words, that fires up my imagination and gets my creative side flowing again.
What if so and so got sick? Or if another character developed a fascination with flowers? The list is endless and can really take your story to places it may never have gone to otherwise.
Then there is the aspect of applying it in everyday life. For example: I’m not sure what I was thinking about at the time, but I do remember thinking, what if…? Then my brain went on a whole different tangent and I ended up at this blog post. I often find myself starting at one point in a conversation/thought and ending up at a completely unexpected destination, simply because I’ve asked myself what if? It’s weirdly comforting in a way.
Life is full of what ifs and asking them really can change your life.
What if you took a chance on a relationship/job/different lifestyle? What if you took the train instead of driving to work? Sometimes, a small change, a simple question, can really have big results. So ask yourself, what if?
Have a fantastic and creative week everyone!
One of the things I have noticed this week in regards to writing is, unbelievably, my body. The reason for this is because I was doing a little bit of yoga and it came to my attention that my shoulders are about as flexible as rocks. The reason for this is because I sit at the computer hunched over for long stretches at a time. Consequently they sit much closer to my ears than they should do. It is also the reason why the area across my shoulder blades aches. And it sucks.
Incorrect posture on the left, correct posture on the right.
Now that I’m conscious of it, having correct posture while at the computer is hard a thing to do! Perhaps that’s not the case for most people, but for me it is and it’s not something I was aware of doing poorly. So naturally I researched it a bit, because I fully believe that we have only one body and we need to take care of it. Below are the best tips the internet could give me for people who sit at a desk for hours at a time not moving much.
I hope these tips help and remember, we only get one body so look after it! Have a great week and happy creating.
When it comes to writing I am not a plotter. I can plan maybe a few scenes in advance, but that’s as far as it goes. I can’t even plan my characters because they reveal themselves to me as I write. For example I was writing Rosie on Wednesday and the antagonist suddenly revealed himself to me. Up until this point I had no idea who this was and at twenty five thousand words into a hundred thousand word manuscript I was starting to wonder if I even had one. You see I start with a scene of a new story and the writing goes from there.
This sounds lovely and creative and in many ways I enjoy it because I get surprised by what happens as much as the reader does. However this is proving problematic for me in regards to entering The Richell Prize. To enter the competition you have to submit the first three chapters (up to twenty thousand words) as well as a chapter by chapter synopsis. I don’t have chapters!!! I have natural breaks in the story followed by three of these things *. With the way I write the story it doesn’t really lean towards chapters very well and I’m freaking out a little bit. Enter the time honoured art of procrastination. As of this very moment I have sorted out one chapter and not even touched my synopsis. I do have time on my side but the past has taught me that I often vastly over estimate how much time is my friend.
This is why it’s absolutely fantastic that another writer I know, Marie, is entering the competition as well (you can check out her website here. Her book reviews are awesome and varied by the way). Through social media she is keeping me focused and honest about where I’m at with my submission and I have to say I’m really thankful. Without her I would leave it to the last minute and more than likely end up not entering because of it. Then I would be sad and angry with myself for not giving it my best shot and I don’t want to go down that path anymore. What is even better is that other writers we know through social media are supporting us.
The writing community as a whole is great and really, if you’re writing, get out there and connect. Pick a platform, start posting and make friendships. Twitter is pretty good for interaction, but I have to admit that Instagram is my first love. Follow your favourite authors and pretty soon you’ll find other like minded people. Take a look at my accounts on Twitter and Instagram (you can find the links on my contact page) and you’ll see what I mean. And if you want to say hi, I don’t bite or whatever the social media equivalent would be (that’s got me thinking).
So go and connect, writers love supporting each, especially as writing can be a solitary thing to do. And in this era of technology embrace the fact that there is someone at another device, cheering you on. You may never meet face to face, that doesn’t lessen their impact on you. Take it, run with it and write.
Have a happy and creative week everyone!
Anyone who has even attempted to write knows how frustrating it can be at times. Sometimes the words simply will not flow and other times they are there, just all jumbled up and not making any sense. Then there is that magic moment when it all just clicks into place and you are frantically getting it all on paper/computer screen. I’ve learnt a few tips and ticks to get the words down so I thought I’d share them with you.
So that’s it, the tips and tricks I use to get the words down, even if they don’t particularly want to be written. I hope they help and if you have any different ones let me now, I’m always on the look out for ways to help me write.
Happy creating everyone!
On Thursday the 30 of March 2017 I had the privilege of being able to go to my local library and seeing Natasha Lester and Sara Foster in conversation with each other. Basically what they each told us a little about their book, read a small section from it and then asked each other questions about their writing process etc with the floor opening up to audience questions for about five minutes at the end. The whole thing lasted for about an hour and it was an hour well spent.
Probably the most important thing I took away from this was the fact that Natasha and Sara have different writing processes, although neither really plot their books. It was confirmation for me that every writer is different and therefore if your process is working for you then don’t worry about what everyone else is doing.
Natasha is disciplined and she joked how that should be her middle name. She writes every day, except for when her children have two months off from school. Before her children have their holidays though she writes twenty thousand words and lets that ferment in her brain for the next two months. It allows the story to sort itself out in her mind and when the kids go back to school she is ready to write her latest novel.
Sara on the other hand writes in fits and starts. She laughed, telling an anecdote about how a woman tried to use her as an example for discipline. The woman had a little girl with her and asked Sara to tell the girl how she had to write everyday to be a writer, Sara told the truth, that she did not write everyday, but she did think about writing everyday. Not quite the point the woman was trying to make.
The books the two women write are also very different. Sara writes psychological suspense while Natasha writes historical fiction. I have not yet had the pleasure of reading Sara’s work, but she has five books published and that doesn’t happen by chance or poor writing. Natasha’s work I have read some of and she has several books published. I am currently reading her novel, A Kiss From Mr Fitzgerald and I am in the wonderful predicament of finding the writing easy to read but the content makes me slow down a little bit so I can compare the story to today’s society and see how much it has changed. Or not in some cases.
Both women were happy to interact with the audience and it was lovely to see them appreciate the people that took the time to come and see them. Sara and Natasha are with different publishers but their latest novels had the same publication date and this combined with their personal friendship saw them do a few publicity events together, this being one of them. I wish them both every success with their latest novels.
To find out more about Natasha Lester’s latest novel, Her Mother’s Secret, click here. For more information on Sara Foster’s latest book, The Hidden Hours, click here. Both links will take you to the respective author’s website where you can find information on buying the novels as well as the authors’ other stories.
Considering I love to read, the cover of a book isn’t something I have thought a lot about. But I came across a statistic this week stating that 70% of readers say the cover is important and it got me thinking about it. And I realised that on a subconscious level, the cover of a book is actually very important to me.
It is the first thing you see when looking at a novel and if done right, the cover gives you a fairly good indication of what the story is going to be about. It also starts drawing you in and getting you invested in the novel. This includes the title, a good title is attention grabbing and intriguing all on its own.
This made things interesting when I went on a ‘blind date’ at my local library last month. The librarians had wrapped a number of books in brown paper and written the genre on the front with a quote or a brief description of what the book was about. They then invited you to pick one as a ‘blind date’. I ended up with two books I would have never have picked otherwise. One was a non-fiction and the other a Jane Austen novel. The non-fiction I’m slowly getting through, the Austen one I’m tackling this weekend. I’m excited as it’s outside what I normally read these days and I think this is good for me. I had become very comfortable with what I read and know what to expect, these I don’t and that is a good thing.
The blind dates my daughter and I picked from our local library
Book covers are pretty and are often a piece of art in their own right. But sometimes it pays to ignore them and simply focus on the words. That is where the story is after all.
Happy creating everyone!
For this post I’m going to assume you all agree that one of the main purposes of fiction writing is to make the reader feel, if you don’t think this please tell me why, I’m keen to hear your answer. As a writer I certainly want you to connect with my characters and feel everything they feel. To make this happen I need to deal with emotions and that can be a tricky thing, especially if I haven’t personally felt those emotions or at the other end of the scale if I have felt those emotions intensely.
As a writer I look at everything around me as a potential source of creativity and I’m constantly observing. It’s a weird observing though, I miss some of the most obvious things yet zero in on the tiniest details. This goes for emotions as well as the physical aspects.
One of the ways I try to express an emotion I haven’t felt before is to examine it and how I think it feels. For me personally this is usually in some form of poetry. Disclaimer: I’m not a poet, I write what feels right to me so feel free to say it isn’t actually poetry but I don’t know what else to call it.
Below is something I wrote last week and it was in response to how I thought someone else might be feeling.
Goddess of the Dark
Goddess of the dark
Hear my plight
I wish to leave my mark
But I’m afraid of the night
The darkness and shadows
The maybes and unknowns
All ring alarm bells
And I feel all alone
My sistas call to me
Voices crystal clear and true
But my ears are deaf to them
My mind coloured blue
I want to explore
Be the adventurer of my dreams
But something is holding me here
I struggle to be free
My cords are tangled
Snarled and a mess
Goddess help me
I don’t feel blessed
Now I don’t feel like this, although I have felt something similar in the past but not this intense. I showed it to two people close to me and both asked me if I was OK straight away, concerned for my well being. After reassuring them I was feeling great I counted this as a success and feel confident that I can convey this emotion in my novel.
The next piece of writing is how I was feeling at the time and oddly enough I’m way too close to it to actually judge its success. It is a true representation of emotion for me, but I am unsure if others can tell what I was trying to convey.
For Breath
Gasping I wake
The weight on my chest imaginary
But too real to fake
I struggle to sit
Go about my day
But my lungs hold a protest
So back to bed I go
Heat pack for comfort
Heart low
I fight to hide it
But one look and she knows
Worry a pit at her feet
I’m miserable
My body not responding how I want
But it’s my life
At least I have one
I gasp for breath
It’s easier and I smile
This time my body is strong
This time I don’t need to fight
For breath.
So that’s how I examine emotions that I want to show in my stories. I focus on them and how I think they make people feel. Everyone is different so it can be a tricky thing to get across but it is my job as a writer to make the reader understand what my character is feeling. To do that I need to understand who and what my character is but also how a reader identifies with certain emotions. Smiles for joy, tears for sadness etc. are obvious ones. These pieces of writing allow me to dig a little deeper and hopefully make the emotional connection between the character and the reader a strong one.
How do you deal with emotions in your writing? Please let me know in the comments, I’m interested to hear of other ways of writing about them.
Happy creating everyone!
Imagine you’ve read the blurb of a book, getting excited about the story and then you read the first few chapters and it’s nothing but a bitter disappointment. It sucks. Apart from spending money on something that you no longer want, you have also invested your time which in this day and age is a precious commodity.
There could be many reasons for this happening. Sometimes it’s because you’ve taken a chance on a new author and find that their style of writing just does not much the style you like to read. Other times it is poorly edited and the story gets lost amid all the misplaced names and punctuation. And sometimes the story is simply not very good.
But then there are those times you’ve read the blurb and are only half interested in the story. You buy it anyway on the off chance it might prove interesting. It languishes in your To Be Read pile for ages and then one lazy sunny afternoon you pick it up and before you know it the sky is darkening and everyone is asking what’s for dinner while you mumble ‘Just one more chapter’. You reluctantly put it down and hastily throw some food together, shutting everyone up and then dive straight back into that book you took a chance on.
Finally you flick that last page and stare blearily as the sun starts to peek through the window. You’re tired, feel remarkably similar to when you drink too much cider but freaking hell that story was fantastic and you don’t regret a minute of it. For the rest of the day you’re still partially lost in that fantasy world while the real one continues to batter away at you.
Those moments are magic, the shooting stars of the night sky.
It’s what every writer strives for and every reader hopes for when they read that first line. It’s like a pact between the two and when one fails to uphold the bargain there is bitter disappointment from the other party.
Remember that when you create something. Look at it like a reader (or listener/viewer if it’s some other medium) and check your ego at the door, your art will thank you for it as well as your intended audience.
Happy creating!
Samantha House 