Picking up the Pen

In November 2007 some 'things' happened in my life that reminded me

1.  Life is short
2.  Life is what you make it

With this in mind, I picked up a pen.

I'd always wanted to write - and never had. Why? Because I thought authors were pretty amazing people who oozed creativity and were somehow born with a quill in their hand. I had an inferiority complex (which occasionally still knocks the feet out from under my confidence) and never gave it a try.

It took a brief moment in time, when my life was suspended due to illness, and I thought "what the hell, there's only one way to find out if I can write". As the God Nike said - Just Do It.

The way you pick up the pen is your own business. I personally surfed the Internet and found Romance Writers of New Zealand. A number of competitions were advertised on their website - the Clendon Award aka Finish the Damn Book (deadline for entry February) and the Chapters Bookshop Short Story Competition (deadline for entry March).

Motivation found, I sat down and wrote my first 55,000 word manuscript. A Mills and Boon 'Sweet' set in New Zealand. I wrote it in one month  - I guess you could say 'I was on a mission'.

At this stage I hadn't had the confidence to venture along to a local area meeting of RWNZ so I sent the manuscript into the Clendon Awards with the best edit I could - namely a spell check :). Thank you to Barbara Clendon for the wonderful critique (I can't believe she persevered through the entire, overly descriptive text - a great story/very slow pace).

I then went to the February meeting of RWNZ, Waikato/BOP group, and found out what a real edit was (lol - too late to get my manuscript back). I talked with my new found, like minded, friends about my intention to enter the Chapters Short Story and received amazing support for the idea, including offers of critiques. With the knowledge that I was no longer going it alone I wrote my short story. Tui Feathers. I got it critiqued and found out about the words WAS and HAD and all the 'ing' mistakes that make great ideas weak on paper. Annoyingly these lovely ladies didn't re-write the story for me. They only told me the 'rules' that I naively broke. It improved my writing immeasurably within the first six months. The critiqued short story Tui Feathers won the Chapters Bookshop Short Story Comp and published in the Womans Day Magazine in 2008. Success.

I'm not a particularly amazing person and I don't think I absolutely ooze creativity.

I CAN write - because I picked up the pen.

I CAN be a successful author - because I keep picking up the pen.

My intention is to never put it down.

Haven't moved an inch

Worked hard this today to add 1500 words to WIP. Then stopped to go back and edit chapter three, four and five for my critique partner.

Net total after I chopped out the excess fat and sharpened up the Prose? 100 words. I literally did not move an inch down my manuscript.

The up-side is that I figure my editing must be good if I'm able to be that ruthless (and it deserves a chocolate). I also haven't completely lost those words. The majority have been put in a cut and paste file - they're foreshadowing and enlightenment that were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And I'll have better chapter(s) to put them in either for this book or a later one in the series.

Which brings me to the important points of this blog post:

1) Never just "delete" your words. If they're good writing that you feel sorry to cut, then put them into a separate file. They could be what you're looking for later, or they could give inspiration when it's what you desperately need.

2) Never be afraid to cut the fat out of your ms. It slows the story down (no matter how important it is!)

Thy Name is Procrastination

Updating a blog is worthy - surely - of some time from my day.



Also worthy were:

Housework, check out facebook, cleaning school uniforms to be put away for two weeks, tidying the attic, watch a movie (paranormal, which makes it homework (I still call Buffy homework as well)), check out facebook, build a website (been meaning to do that for a while), phone a friend, check out facebook...



Ok - so I had a day with no kids and I did everything but write...not good. I have a scene that's giving me trouble which probably means I need to "can it" and let the characters tell me what's next, rather than me trying to force my characters into something they don't want to do. Characters can get a bit bossy like that.



Tomorrow I'll get onto it, when I arrive home from the day job. Tomorrow I'll read the chapter out loud and see if that kicks me into gear. I bet it works. Of course I'll need to check facebook first.

High Concept

High Concept

What is it?

Something vague - maybe clever - possibly inspiring.

Writing isn't just about a story and characters that won't go away (mine wake me up every morning with a fully formed scene in my head - it drives me nuts because I can't write every morning).

Writing - really good writing - is about the High Concept. What is the purpose, what is the goal. What do your characters really want and what makes them tick. A high concept means you have to do some homework. You have to understand you characters motivations - truly understand them - so that what happens and how the story evolves is directly related to a cause and affect that takes you to an amazing place.

It's a story that makes the reader feel both clever and empowered (because you let them in on some secrets "on purpose") and also like they're just along for the ride (because they didn't see "that" coming).

I'm working on a High Concept for my Paranotte series - and its HARD. If I want the writing to be really good, I need to watch out for every word and make sure it conveys the speed and intensity required at each point. I also need to be clever with foreshadowing, which doesn't work properly until you absolutely know where you're going.

Writing...? It's not a walk in the park - gotta love the challenge

T