One WIP has been submitted, one is on the back-burner and one I've just started plotting. I'm taking my time with this. With my other two works in progress I found I plotted too quickly, then went back and tried to expand them. One of them paces well, so I changed my mind and submitted …
Starting a new novel
I'm at the ideas stage. A couple of months ago I wrote a blog about the research I'll do for this. You can find it here, but basically it's a story set in the 1990's and centres around a group of friends. My husband and I have been casting people we know as characters and …
Writing Life vs. Real Life
Since mid last year there has been a change to my life. My husband is at home full time, and this is nice. Our days off together include lying in bed with no hurry to get up. Of making coffee from the espresso machine and enjoying organic muesli in the morning. Of planning renovations together or …
That Problematic Chapter
One chapter in one of my works in progress has bothered me. It's a dramatic chapter where a character ends his affair. Every time I've read it in context with the rest of the manuscript, it hasn't made sense. It started with two men thrashing it out realising there was no room for bullshit anymore. …
Stories should have conflict.
Today's blog was sparked by a tweet from Kev St John (@Kev_away) He had given his work in progress to a Beta Reader who didn't like one character because she wasn't a good friend. He couldn't believe this response. This character is supposed to be a bad friend. That was the point. I had a …
Everything old is new again, in my writing.
I'm currently working on the second draft of my fantasy novel, Winter Masquerade. As I'm ironing out its shortcomings I'm finding the problems are the same as I originally faced with my first novel, Drama Queens with Love Scenes. At the moment my new work is novella length and I've been trying to find ways …
Continue reading "Everything old is new again, in my writing."
Social Media Tips for Authors
It's the start of the year and I'm writing this blog, but something has become apparent to me all over again as I review my social media. Algorithms are in charge. In some ways they work with us, giving us a validated experience by showing us popular posts and keeping conversations going with the peeps …
The Perfect Book Title
A friend of a friend came up with the perfect title. That was five years ago and I've come up with several story lines that suit this title. One was an epic tale of a young married couple that takes place over several decades. They would become friends with their neighbours, and after the husband …
A tale of two WIPs
I have just finished editing the first draft of one of my works in progress. This story takes place on a fantasy cruise liner sailing on a chocolate ocean with a permanent rainbow sheet hanging from the sky. In it, Ferris wakes up on the boat, but he's from the real world. He has no …
Just finished a Fifth Draft
These days, that's more that I usually do. But this manuscript is special. This story, The Midnight Man, took me a year to finally start as I was revisiting my earlier works for a new publisher at the time I came up with this story. And while I'm more efficient in my writing these days, …
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