I'm very happy to have been tagged in a blog hop, haven't
done one of these for a while, and this one is called my Writing Process.
Thankfully it isn't focusing on how I get the words on the page which amounts
to little more than managing to sit down in front of the pc or one of my
notebooks (you know how I love my notebooks) with the intention of writing or
editing a story. Of course there are a few obstacles on route to my desk. I have
a need to see the bottom of the ironing basket and to have hung out the washing
because I-did-say-I-needed-my-netball-kit-tonight. And I can't really settle
until I've cleaned the kitchen because it doesn't clean itself, I said, it
doesn't… oh never mind. Once through my study door, I then have to negotiate
the tricky writing buffer which is THE emails, in their belief that I need to hire
a car every day since my holiday three years ago and have the time, inclination
and finances to create three personalised photo albums and a bonus calendar on
a daily basis. Then they kindly alert me to the revelation that I may
have had an accident at work ten years ago which could pay me £6,000 - unlikely
as I haven't worked in an office for over fifteen years and don't see a great
deal of mileage in suing myself. I suppose I could have had a dreadfully debilitating
accident whilst teaching but suspect that if such an event had come to pass, the
mortification of humiliating myself in front of a class full of writers who
would then weave the indignity into a prize-winning story would have stayed
with me and thankfully, save for the odd tongue twister moment, I have no
recollection of that.
The blog hop batten was passed to me by the lovely,
gracious, witty and generally uber talented Lesley Richardson, copywriter
extraordinaire, who is so close to getting her novel published I can almost hear
the champagne fizzing from her hometown in Ireland. You can see some of
Lesley's writing here.
We swap 'near miss' publishing stories on a regular basis as well as tales of
hair woes (the eternal frizz combat) and hair highs (life-changing frizz-taming
products) which only fellow curly haired people will really understand. Yes, I
know I can't really count myself in the curly haired camp at the moment,
jumped, as I have, to the 'other side', but in my head, I'll always be a curly
haired girl, I just haven't got the panache to be anything else.
So, now I need to answer four questions and then I get to
pass the baton on myself.
What are you working
on?
I was writing a third novel, The Deadline, which is a story
of a girl born to a Nazi officer and growing up in Britain but instead, find
myself involved with two previously written novels at the moment.
The first is, Misguidance, a story I wrote fifteen years ago
and was embarrassed to allow back into my consciousness, such was the utter
drivel I remembered the 100,000 words to be. However, happening upon it whilst
dusting off the rusting filing cabinet in the inner bowels of my pc to make
room for my teenagers' photography habit, what I found surprised me. As
expected the style was awful – contrived, first person narration for a story
which quite clearly needed some third person distance. But I did, and here's
the surprising bit, enjoy the story. More than enjoy it, I couldn't stop
reading.
So, after submitting my second novel, Glass Houses,
following one of its re-writes, I marched off into Misguidance, moving it from first
to third person and bringing it up to date – my twenty year old had to stop
using the land line - oh and I ditched three characters and created another
three and made it a dual narrative and well, I may as well have started again.
I was 30,000 words in when I had some great feedback from an
agent on Glass Houses. It was feedback on which I knew I had to act or I would
never forgive myself. And so Misguidance went back into the drawer – a little
happier than when it had first come out.
And so the cycle continues; at the moment I'm back on Glass
Houses following suggestions from two agents who've both seen the full
manuscript and given very similar feedback – both the good stuff and the could
do better, Jackie Buxton…
How does your work differ
from others of its genre?
Both novels are works of general fiction with strong female
characters leading the plot. Where I hope they differ from books in their genre
is in the choice of hero – I like to choose unlikely ones. In Glass Houses,
Tori, the main character, has committed what people consider to be a heinous
crime. Her 'mistake' allegedly caused an accident which killed three people and
killed many more. It would be easy to despise Tori, indeed, she doesn't always
help herself, but I'd like the reader to think that there for the grace of god
go you or I.
Similarly in Misguidance, its main character, Evelyn, appears
to have caused misery and destruction where ever she's lived, so much so that
there is one solitary well-wisher at her funeral. But when her guilt-ridden
neighbour looks further into Evelyn's past she sees a pattern and manages to
persuade the motley crew which make up Evelyn's past to view Evelyn, and
themselves, a little differently.
I suppose I want you to like the bad guy.
Why do you write what
you do?
I wish I knew! I seem to feel compelled to write about personal
disasters and yet I am quite a happy little soul really. I revel in hearing
stories where people triumph out of adversity and personally plump for books
where characters achieve happiness against the odds. Perhaps my writing is
fuelled by that.
I'm also constantly amused and bemused by the eccentricity of the human species. We all say that people make mistakes, for example, that none of us is perfect and yet, friends, family members, colleagues, neighbours, you name it, can fall out for years, forever even, as the result of an impetuous comment, a single irrational action or some badly timed honesty. In other words: a mistake. It's so easy to shatter what we've worked towards and once broken, it can't be re-built to look the same as it did before. This fragility in what we hold dear is a concept which fascinates me and has certainly leaked into both my novel plots so far.
How does your Writing
process work?
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| Scrivener - highly recommended |
In the line which runs between the writing process of (flying by the seat of their) pantsers and the plotters of the writing world, I
am squarely in the middle. There's nothing I enjoy more than sitting down at
the pc or with my notebook and bashing out the next 10,000 words of the plot
which I didn't know existed until my characters pulled them from my brain and
poured them thorough my fingers onto the page. However I have to do some work
before I can get to that stage. Usually when I'm not at my desk, and most often
when I'm running, driving or even cleaning (much as I despise it), I'll bash
out an idea in my head. But if I can't clearly see the reason for writing the
story, at least one of the characters who will make my story happen and how the
story's going to end, then I won't even put pen to paper. Like a plotter, I have
to have this scaffolding before I can start. After that my writing process is
the anteater's tongue; a sort of tether rolled out to its full extent on page
one and then quickly rolled in pulling the story with it along a clear
trajectory to the ending. How the characters choose to dance on the tongue,
well that's up to them.
Other than that? I use lots of cups of tea, way too many
print outs to be good for the environment, the wonderful Scrivener software so
that I have all my ideas and chapters on the computer rather than covering the
floors of a study, bedroom and landing. I also use different locations. In different
places I spot howlers and see beyond blocks which had made my writing stall. I suppose
some may see this as an excuse to visit an array of different coffee shops. I couldn’t possibly comment.
So, what have you allowed to fester in a drawer for years,
writing or otherwise, and been pleasantly surprised when it's reappeared?
Please share!
Now for my own two tags in the Writing Process Blog Hop.
First up is Annalisa Crawford whose wonderful blog I'd describe as 'soulful humour' - although at the moment
it's all just very exciting over there as she has a new book out, a collection
of short stories called, Our Beautiful Child. And thank you, Annalisa, for
always finding time to leave a comment on my blog, bless you :)
My second choice is Jane Alexander who writes thought-provoking,
often quirky, tales of her observations and findings as she travels around England
and further afield in the search for better health (physically and spiritually).
Catch Jane's blog here.
