Stray

I’ve been reading Rachel Vincent’s blog for a couple of weeks and I’m slowly but surely making my way through her archive too because I think it’s well worth reading for her writing tips.  I’d had Stray on my Amazon wishlist for quite a while but finding the blog prompted me to order it.

It came yesterday and I’ve had my head buried in it since.  It’s brilliant.  I’m only about a third of the way through but I think it’s wonderfully written and the plot is excellent.

I dream of one day having even half of her talent.

EDIT: I finished reading Stray and the rest of the book didn’t disappoint.  Her prose and “voice” had me hooked to the very last page.

Spark of inspiration

I have had an idea.  Which I think is quite a good one.  What I’m not sure about is whether it’s an idea that would make a good ending for this book or could be developed into a main plot for a sequel.  If I use it as a sequel it would make #1 have an unhappy ending and possibly feel unresolved.  

I’d rather develop it further and use it as the plot for a second book as I think it has potential.  I’m really not sure how I’d make #1 feel somewhat tied up rather than just set up for #2 though.  Some brainstorming on my whiteboard might be in order (if it wasn’t already full of my scribbles that is – I’m probably going to have to write it all down and wipe the board clean).

God look at me, thinking about sequels when I haven’t even started writing yet!

New Toys

I’m typing this blog entry on my teeny tiny laptop. It’s even smalller than I was expecting. I’ts so cute! It is taking me a while to get used to typing on it but I have got better.

I’m sat out in the sun on my lunchbreak, listening to a couple arguing while their cute little dog sniffs around my leftover sandwich.

My whiteboard came last night too, so I spent last night brainstorming on that. I think I came up with more questions than answers but it was still quite handy to have. I copied my index cards of scene ideas onto post its and have plastered the back of it with them so I could move them around and try to work out some sort of order.

I think I’ve decided on my opening scene now so I should be able to start writing at the weekend.  Although I still haven’t decided on what POV I’m going to write from, which would obviously be helpful!

Ideas VS Decisions

I’m getting myself all tied up in a knot again over where I’m going with my WIP (I should really give it a name but I quite like calling it that, makes it sound like I’ve actually written something).  I keep getting more and more ideas and I’m really not sure which of them to follow.

I need someone I can bounce my ideas off really.  I’ve tried asking my mum what she thinks of a couple of things but she just tends to agree with me or tell me what she thinks I want to hear, without giving me anything constructive.  The one person who I think would actually be good to run ideas past, I don’t want to because we talked a while back about writing a book together and I don’t want to remind her of that.

I really need to stop book shopping too.  For a start I haven’t got time to read as much as I normally do now that I’m trying to do some writing of my own.  Secondly, every idea I’ve had that I think is great and a bit different I keep finding books where someones done it first.  Sort of.  Usually just vaguely but enough to put a dampener on me thinking I had something special.

No one has done all of my ideas rolled into one though and I still think they’re really good – even if I am getting more than slightly confused by all the different directions I could go.  I really want to tell this story, I think it has a lot of potential and that’s all that matters.  I’m writing it mainly for me anyway.  Because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and to prove to myself that I can.

Character Interviews

Last week I bought a couple of Holly Lisle’s Writing Clinic eBooks, which I’ve found really useful.  I’ve been using the Create a Character Clinic over the past few days to develop my main character.  As well as helping me flesh her out and understand her better, it’s helped me come up with a few story points that I think are rather good, which is nice. 

Now I’ve got onto the section where you interview your characters and I’m actually having a lot of fun with it.  I’m enjoying finding her voice - and discovering that it’s not mine, which was a relief, I was a little worried it would be.  She’s bossy, asks quite a lot of rhetorical questions and I enjoy writing her.

I’m looking forward to interviewing my other characters too.  I was worried about all of my characters ending up all sounding the same, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.  And really, I’m not sure why I thought it would.  When I was little I loved playing make believe and would often have a whole cast of characters when there was just me or me and one friend playing.  And I’ve been told that when I was playing with my Barbies, you’d think there was a whole group of kids in my room because I’d be doing all the voices for all the different dolls.

I’ve also been ordering stuff.  I found a stationary firm online that let you have home accounts as well as business accounts and I’ve ordered myself a whiteboard and a few other bits and bobs.  I’ve put a bid on one of those tiny computers that I found on eBay too.  I may very well get out bid or next time I post I could be tapping away on a laptop no bigger than a hardback book!

I want, I want, I want…

I seem to have the mindset that a hobby is not worth doing unless it offers the opportunity to spend lots of money on accessories and gadgets.  I used to be a triathlete*, which is a shopaholics dream sport – expensive shiny bikes, fancy water bottle get ups, running and cycling speed/distance gadgets, swimming lap counting doohickeys, all sorts of buying opportunities!

I grow my own vegetables so there’s all the various pots, seeds, tools, propagators (heated and not), fancy watering systems etc available there.  I’ve kept up the running (sporadically – am about as energetic as a sloth right now), which means super dooper running shoes and kit are a necessity obviously.

And now writing, not only is it a chance to indulge my previously mentioned stationary habit, I now HAVE to have this tiny laptop!  It’s handbag sized!  Perfect for getting some writing done in my lunch break or while I’m waiting around for things.  I’m quite impulsive and once I’ve got it into my head that I want something I often end up buying it before I give myself a chance to think too much about how I can’t really afford it – but at less than £200 it is a bargain!

Chances are I’ll have bought it before the month is out.

*Translates as, I did one and sulked because I wasn’t very good so decided it wasn’t for me – I hate being bad at things and considering my version of the open water swim was not drowning, I think it’s safe to say I was a bad triathlete.

I want to start writing!

I’ve made a deal with myself, I am going to start writing my first draft on the 1st June, regardless of whether or not I’ve got the whole story outlined, and I have permission to write crap.  But before then I have to try and get as much worked out as I can, stop getting distracted by other things and work harder.

I’ve been alternately working on character development, world building (which seems to keep getting more important) and plotting.  I’ve been using Holly Lisle’s notecarding method, which seems to work quite well for me.  It’s good to get all my random ideas down without worrying about whether they fit anywhere – before they flit away never to be seen again.  It also seems to spark other ideas and I’ll have little flurries of activity, then a pause and then another burst of creativity.

I came across these posts on Rachel Vincent’s blog where she talks about using a similar technique but with different coloured post its on a white board, which I must admit does appeal to the stationary addict in me – and has lead to me plastering my notes and index cards in coloured stickers.

I was planning on writing from multiple POV but I don’t seem to have produced any plot cards from the hero’s POV, about 3 from the villain’s POV and all the rest are the heroine, so that idea might be scrubbed.  But I don’t know because I do have a couple of hero POV scenes in my head, they just don’t seem to serve that much purpose, other than to find out some more about him.

Really, I’m itching to start writing but I know that I need more figured out before I start.  I still have a few glaring questions in my mind I need to answer before putting pen to paper.  So I’m going to spend the rest of this week and next week answering them, getting a better grip on my characters, arranging my plot cards into some semblance of a logical order and preparing to start the writing.  Where the real fun/stress begins!

Eureka moment

I’ve been struggling quite a lot with the setting for the story I’m working on.  Certain plot points mean that really it should be set in a big city – i.e. London.  But, having never lived in London, I was reluctant to set it there as there’s only so much research can tell you.

I was walking round town on my lunch break earlier and I had a sudden epiphany, an idea that means I can actually set it in my local area.  It tips the story over into full on paranormal and I’ll probably have to do quite a bit of research, as well as a lot more world-building but I’m really excited about the idea.  It has made a few of my other ideas slot together better too.

On a different note, I spotted that most mythical of creatures, the Cute Boy on my way back to the office!  Around here!  Who knew?!

Kaput

I don’t seem to be getting anywhere.  Whenever I come up with an idea and feel like I’ve got one aspect of the story nailed, something else falls to pieces.  I’ve decided which of my endings I like best now, but that’s made the beginning completely unravel.

Self doubt has set in – you know the thing… Why am I bothering?  It’s not as if I’ll write anything good.  Someone else is bound to have done my story before and better.  Etc

I think what I really need to do is get started.  Actually do some writing before I beat myself up completely and talk myself out of even trying but now that I’ve broken my beginning and lost all sense of my male lead I can’t really do that.

So I am searching the net for pictures that look like the images I have of my characters in my head and I’m going to work on character development and world building for a while.  Let my muse ponder plot undisturbed for a little while and see if she can fix the beginning for me.

Foiled

I found a perfect book for researching criminal investigation methods and was just about to buy it when I saw that it’s only applicable to the US.  That’s a bummer as it would have been really helpful.  I’ve been hunting around to try and find a British equivalent but the only things I’ve found that have even come close aren’t readily available and the only copies I’ve seen are being sold at extortionate prices.