I'm very sorry to say that when I went into work yesterday the copy of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, I was two-thirds of the way through reading, had disappeared from my desk. It turns out the books owner (who was not aware that I was reading it) had taken it home. Worse- he was not in work yesterday and I had to wait until today to talk to him about it and will now have to wait again until he has finished reading it until I can finish it.
This all makes me quite frustrated but another book that I have been wanting to read for some time, fell into my lap yesterday. I am a big Phillipa Gregory fan as you may have previously seen, and The Red Queen was the only book of hers that I had not read. A friend was lending it and the white queen to a mutual friend and so I have intercepted it with the intention of reading it and passing it on to her once she has finished it.
This has considerably lightened my mood and I have already made a start on it, I actually think that having read most of Eat Pray Love has put me in the mood to read it as well. Maybe this will also give me an incentive to write too?
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Eating, Praying and Loving
I'm currently reading the novel 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert and I have to say it's very different to the books I normally read. I had heard of this book having seen the trailer's for the film starring Julia Roberts, but despite being a fan of Julia, I didn't find the film appealing and decided not to see it.
At work I came across a copy of the book, which belonged to a colleague and one evening I picked it up and had a look and started reading the first few pages. It seemed quite good, I like the voice telling the story and as we were quiet at work and I was bored I carried on reading it. Having now read two thirds of the book I have to say that it's quite good, I particularly liked the 'Eat' or Italy part of the book and it has certainly made me think about a few things.
One of the question's the author is asked on her journeys is what is her word? The word which describes her and it got me thinking what would my word be? I'd like to think that my word could be writer or dreamer. but I can think of other words too like procrastinator, optimist, aspiring or caring. There are probably many more words that have slipped my mind right now, perhaps some that I don't think apply but other people may do.
I tried to apply the same idea to my main character, but I don't think her character is developed enough yet for me to be able to identify a word for her, and I'm barely qualified as someone who cannot do the same for myself. I think instead I shall continue with the writing whilst Eating (to keep me going), praying (that I will finish it) and Loving (the writing I'm doing and what i am actually writing).
In the meantime Eat Pray Love is at the top of my list of movies I want to rent.
At work I came across a copy of the book, which belonged to a colleague and one evening I picked it up and had a look and started reading the first few pages. It seemed quite good, I like the voice telling the story and as we were quiet at work and I was bored I carried on reading it. Having now read two thirds of the book I have to say that it's quite good, I particularly liked the 'Eat' or Italy part of the book and it has certainly made me think about a few things.
One of the question's the author is asked on her journeys is what is her word? The word which describes her and it got me thinking what would my word be? I'd like to think that my word could be writer or dreamer. but I can think of other words too like procrastinator, optimist, aspiring or caring. There are probably many more words that have slipped my mind right now, perhaps some that I don't think apply but other people may do.
I tried to apply the same idea to my main character, but I don't think her character is developed enough yet for me to be able to identify a word for her, and I'm barely qualified as someone who cannot do the same for myself. I think instead I shall continue with the writing whilst Eating (to keep me going), praying (that I will finish it) and Loving (the writing I'm doing and what i am actually writing).
In the meantime Eat Pray Love is at the top of my list of movies I want to rent.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Welcome Back!!!
This blog has been permanently on my mind since I guiltily deserted it last December but the time has now come for me to get my act together and carry on with it even if it is for no other reason than to help me get the momentum going of writing everyday.
Since we last spoke, I have to admit that I have done little in the way of writing, partly because I was ill for a while with Pneumonia, partly because I have moved to a small flat of my own, and partly because I ran out of the motivation and steam required to write a novel.
I have actually rewritten the first chapter of my novel three times already and i am still not satisfied with it, but i think it's time to leave it alone and move on and I am happy to report that I have done chapter two and have made some headway on chapter three.
It has been hard getting back into writing and I had been attempting to write everything on the computer but i was discovering that i was too easily distracted by the wonders of the universe, namely the blogs of Miss Snark, Slushpile Hell and Bookends. I am not even at the stage yet where I can submit a proposal and yet I am already reading up on tips and tricks for writing query letters. This would be a good thing if it did not deter me from writing.
Writing the novel on the computer wasn't working for me at this particular stage so instead I decided to do it by hand- which is what I have done for both of the previous novels I have written (why did I not think of doing this in the first place?) I love the feeling of the clean, crisp white sheets of paper under my pen and it has brought back my love of writing and it only goes to show that it doesn't matter how you write as long as you write.
It's nice to be back x
Since we last spoke, I have to admit that I have done little in the way of writing, partly because I was ill for a while with Pneumonia, partly because I have moved to a small flat of my own, and partly because I ran out of the motivation and steam required to write a novel.
I have actually rewritten the first chapter of my novel three times already and i am still not satisfied with it, but i think it's time to leave it alone and move on and I am happy to report that I have done chapter two and have made some headway on chapter three.
It has been hard getting back into writing and I had been attempting to write everything on the computer but i was discovering that i was too easily distracted by the wonders of the universe, namely the blogs of Miss Snark, Slushpile Hell and Bookends. I am not even at the stage yet where I can submit a proposal and yet I am already reading up on tips and tricks for writing query letters. This would be a good thing if it did not deter me from writing.
Writing the novel on the computer wasn't working for me at this particular stage so instead I decided to do it by hand- which is what I have done for both of the previous novels I have written (why did I not think of doing this in the first place?) I love the feeling of the clean, crisp white sheets of paper under my pen and it has brought back my love of writing and it only goes to show that it doesn't matter how you write as long as you write.
It's nice to be back x
Saturday, 18 December 2010
Painting the Perfect Picture
When I was in Primary School, we used to sing a hymn that began: "I'm going to paint a perfect picture, a world of make believe..." Creating a fictional fantasy world is something that many authors who write in the fantasy vein have to do and it was also something that I had to do today to prepare to write my novel.
I have to admit it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, afterall how do you create a world from scratch. My earliest design started as a large diamond shape made up of 4 diamond shapes (the 4 kingdoms making up my world) but I quickly realised that this wasn't suitable fof my needs. Being a bit stuck I decided to seek help a la google, so I typed in 'how to create a fantasy world' by which I found a link to Holly Lisle's website http://hollylisle.com/. Holly is a published fantasy author with some great tips to wannabe writers and using her help and that of my artistic house mate I was able to create my world.
Creating the world and the objects in it was the easy part, naming all of the villages, towns, rivers, forests, deserts, mountain ranges, oceans and lakes was the difficult part. That's the part which has taken me hours, through dozens of internet searches from river names locally to latin translation websites I looked everywhere trying to name everything. It's not happened, my main mountain range which all my characters will have at some point have to cross still hasn't be named but I will cross that bridge (or should I say mountain) when I get to it. :-)
The next stage for me was to download pictures of the various places that I have imagined for my book. I am no great artist and can barely draw to save my life, so I have been googling for images and have also been using Deviant Art which is where my background image of my fairytale castle comes from.
I thought researching my previous novel which was set in the 18th Century was hard as i was trying to be as realistic as possible in terms of architecture,fashion, history and customs; but this fantasy novel which I have free rein on is so much more difficult to write as I am having to literally make things up as I go. At least I can use the internet to help me, I don't know how writers such as Tolkien and C S Lewis coped with out it when creating Middle Earth and Narnia. I don't even know where they came up with some of the names from. All I can say is that they must have had amazingly overactive imaginations.
I have to admit it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, afterall how do you create a world from scratch. My earliest design started as a large diamond shape made up of 4 diamond shapes (the 4 kingdoms making up my world) but I quickly realised that this wasn't suitable fof my needs. Being a bit stuck I decided to seek help a la google, so I typed in 'how to create a fantasy world' by which I found a link to Holly Lisle's website http://hollylisle.com/. Holly is a published fantasy author with some great tips to wannabe writers and using her help and that of my artistic house mate I was able to create my world.
Creating the world and the objects in it was the easy part, naming all of the villages, towns, rivers, forests, deserts, mountain ranges, oceans and lakes was the difficult part. That's the part which has taken me hours, through dozens of internet searches from river names locally to latin translation websites I looked everywhere trying to name everything. It's not happened, my main mountain range which all my characters will have at some point have to cross still hasn't be named but I will cross that bridge (or should I say mountain) when I get to it. :-)
The next stage for me was to download pictures of the various places that I have imagined for my book. I am no great artist and can barely draw to save my life, so I have been googling for images and have also been using Deviant Art which is where my background image of my fairytale castle comes from.
I thought researching my previous novel which was set in the 18th Century was hard as i was trying to be as realistic as possible in terms of architecture,fashion, history and customs; but this fantasy novel which I have free rein on is so much more difficult to write as I am having to literally make things up as I go. At least I can use the internet to help me, I don't know how writers such as Tolkien and C S Lewis coped with out it when creating Middle Earth and Narnia. I don't even know where they came up with some of the names from. All I can say is that they must have had amazingly overactive imaginations.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Happy Birthday!
It's a very special day today as two very important people were born on this date. My sister was born 22 years today and ruined my chances of being an only child forever :-P . As for the other very special lady, I think it would be fair to say that "it is a truth universally acknowledged" that she is very well known would have been celebrating her 235th birthday had she been alive today.
I am of course talking about Jane Austen, author of my favourite novel Pride and Prejudice. She has been a huge influence on my writing and I absolutely love all of her books. I have to confess something to you though. I only properly discovered Jane Austen earlier this year. I had heard of her of course but I had never read any of her books or seen their televised adaptations- it's very embarassing to me having to admit this to you.
For christmas last year, I was given 100 Classic books for the Nintendo DS and seeing the novel on there I decided to give it a go and ever since then I am quite literally hooked on Austen to the point of obsession. After reading the rest of her novels and falling in love with Mr Darcy I felt inspire to write again, despite having never written anything other than fanfiction and the odd few stories in my childhood.
It was P&P which made me feel like I could do anything, and that was when my first novel idea popped into my head. It's an incomplete Regency story with the powerful head strong Austen inspired heroine and a multidimensional male lead. Incomplete as it may be, the idea that I had got me writing again, and I think that had I not read p&p I would not have completed my first novel in Nano and would not be sat here typing this now.
I am of course talking about Jane Austen, author of my favourite novel Pride and Prejudice. She has been a huge influence on my writing and I absolutely love all of her books. I have to confess something to you though. I only properly discovered Jane Austen earlier this year. I had heard of her of course but I had never read any of her books or seen their televised adaptations- it's very embarassing to me having to admit this to you.
For christmas last year, I was given 100 Classic books for the Nintendo DS and seeing the novel on there I decided to give it a go and ever since then I am quite literally hooked on Austen to the point of obsession. After reading the rest of her novels and falling in love with Mr Darcy I felt inspire to write again, despite having never written anything other than fanfiction and the odd few stories in my childhood.
It was P&P which made me feel like I could do anything, and that was when my first novel idea popped into my head. It's an incomplete Regency story with the powerful head strong Austen inspired heroine and a multidimensional male lead. Incomplete as it may be, the idea that I had got me writing again, and I think that had I not read p&p I would not have completed my first novel in Nano and would not be sat here typing this now.
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Good Tidings we bring...
I have excellent news which I wanted to share with all of you. I am pleased to finally announce that I have completed my first draft of my novel 'the stepmother'. I have decided to leave the editing of the novel until after christmas and have a short break from writing.
I have to say I am very relieved to have finished. Once nano had ended i found it increasingly difficult to keep the momentum going despite the fact that i only had 3 chapters to write after the end of nano. This normally would have taken me 3 days and no more than a week, but for some reason i found it incredibly difficult to write. It wasn't so much because i did not know what to write, because i did but i just couldn't sit down and do it. I had lost my motivation.
I was talking to my sister yesterday, who is unemployed as a result of government cuts brought on by the financial crisis. She is very depressed about it and I am trying to help her by giving her something to focus on each day, and knowing that she is a fan of the Twilight Saga and a reader of fanfiction, I suggested that she write her own story. My sister is not a writer and creator of stories as i am but she is a good poet, she told me she would not know what to write about. I am not very familliar with twilight- haven't read or seen and don't intend to (not into vampires or werewolfs at all)- I asked her to imagine that two of the characters were in the back of my car right at that moment and i asked her to think about what they would talk about. We had a short discussion about it and upon my return i decided to try out my own advice in a roundabout way and wrote a letter to my MC. It really helped me and i think i may have been suffering from a mild case of writers block. Nevertheless that block has now been lifted and today I wrote the last two chapters without any problems.
As a result of the completion of this draft I shall be updating my blog over the next few days, but i do intend to keep this going. I have another idea for a novel which has been bubbling under since mid nano and I intend to write that, and then go back and edit 'The stepmother'. I will use this blog to continue to show my daily trials with writing and documenting my efforts where possible.
I have to say I am very relieved to have finished. Once nano had ended i found it increasingly difficult to keep the momentum going despite the fact that i only had 3 chapters to write after the end of nano. This normally would have taken me 3 days and no more than a week, but for some reason i found it incredibly difficult to write. It wasn't so much because i did not know what to write, because i did but i just couldn't sit down and do it. I had lost my motivation.
I was talking to my sister yesterday, who is unemployed as a result of government cuts brought on by the financial crisis. She is very depressed about it and I am trying to help her by giving her something to focus on each day, and knowing that she is a fan of the Twilight Saga and a reader of fanfiction, I suggested that she write her own story. My sister is not a writer and creator of stories as i am but she is a good poet, she told me she would not know what to write about. I am not very familliar with twilight- haven't read or seen and don't intend to (not into vampires or werewolfs at all)- I asked her to imagine that two of the characters were in the back of my car right at that moment and i asked her to think about what they would talk about. We had a short discussion about it and upon my return i decided to try out my own advice in a roundabout way and wrote a letter to my MC. It really helped me and i think i may have been suffering from a mild case of writers block. Nevertheless that block has now been lifted and today I wrote the last two chapters without any problems.
As a result of the completion of this draft I shall be updating my blog over the next few days, but i do intend to keep this going. I have another idea for a novel which has been bubbling under since mid nano and I intend to write that, and then go back and edit 'The stepmother'. I will use this blog to continue to show my daily trials with writing and documenting my efforts where possible.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
So I succeeded...
Hey readers, it's me I am back for good as Take That once sang. This last month has been tricky and I found it next to impossible to keep my blog and novel for Nano going at the same time, and as a result the blog suffered. On a more positive note I did manage to hit my 50,000 words for Nano and am officially a winner (Yay!) I do still have some work to do and have three more chapters to write but the end is certainly near and this makes me so very happy.
The problem I have now is motivating myself to write those last three chapters to finish, now that nano has finished the pressure has been relieved and as a result I haven't finished like I should have done, and this is something I seriously need to get on and do, especially as I know I will feel so much better when it is done. Strangely enough the next few chapters should be some of the easiest to write and I have them planned out in detail in my head. I just have to sit down and convince myself to do it.
I actually have quite a busy weekend ahead of me, I am out all day tomorrow, I am out tomorrow night, working saturday, and then out saturday night so I do have limited time available, but I shall persevere and get this novel finished if it kills me.
On a slightly different subject, I understand that Amanda Vickery's series on the Georgians began tonight although unfortunately I missed it. I hope to watch this over the next few days and once I have I will post a review for it.
Will be in touch soon xxx
The problem I have now is motivating myself to write those last three chapters to finish, now that nano has finished the pressure has been relieved and as a result I haven't finished like I should have done, and this is something I seriously need to get on and do, especially as I know I will feel so much better when it is done. Strangely enough the next few chapters should be some of the easiest to write and I have them planned out in detail in my head. I just have to sit down and convince myself to do it.
I actually have quite a busy weekend ahead of me, I am out all day tomorrow, I am out tomorrow night, working saturday, and then out saturday night so I do have limited time available, but I shall persevere and get this novel finished if it kills me.
On a slightly different subject, I understand that Amanda Vickery's series on the Georgians began tonight although unfortunately I missed it. I hope to watch this over the next few days and once I have I will post a review for it.
Will be in touch soon xxx
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