Tag Archives: books

The writing community, I love it

19 Monday Aug 2013

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Reader, one of the things I love most about being a writer is the community. Writers actually want to help each other! I know, it’s amazing.

support

We have a transport company and I can tell you there isn’t much genuine help and community in the industry. You have to guard your work and contacts as if they were gold nuggets. It’s common for people who you may have helped out to undercut you and steal your work. Everybody is suspicious and a lot are dishonest.

In the writerly world things couldn’t be any more different. In the writing community we join groups. Writer’s groups, Critique groups, support groups and any other kind of encouraging group you can think of! I thinks it’s grand.

Since joining the online writing community of facebook I’ve become friends both online and in some instances the relationships have flowed over into face to face meetings.

I don’t know why, but for some reason rather than clawing our way over the fallen bodies of our fellow writers, we help each other up and encourage each other to keep going. It’s an incredible community full of people who want to help and encourage you, not just use you as a step on the ladder and leave you behind.underwater

I’ve been plodding (ok, tearing my hair out) along with the edit of Something in the Water, and at the same time trying to write a synopsis. Now reader, I’m not going to try to tell you how hard it is it break down a 65,000 word novel to a dry 1 – 2 page description. You try to do it with your favourite movie! Suffice to say it’s difficult. Especially for a first timer like me. But, I am honoured and privileged to have a huge amount of help from two different online writing groups. People from both have spent a huge amount of time helping me with the synopsis and I can’t thank them enough.

tear out hair

As much as I’d like to name them I don’t know if they’d appreciate it. So I’ll just say thank you and know, that you know who you are.

So reader, are you a writer who has found the writing community the same? Have you found similar support in other groups? Have you had a totally different experience?

Another day off, but here’s something

12 Monday Aug 2013

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Here is a little something for you as I’m MIA.

under the pile<image credit>

My day has looked a lot like the image above, and although I have several blog posts half ready, I just didn’t get there today. So, dear reader, I hope you enjoy the article about writing good reviews. See you Friday.

If I were to be interviewed

15 Monday Jul 2013

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I’m always reading writer interviews and I think about how I’d answer some of these questions. So I thought I’d interview myself. Weirdo that I am!

Question: How would you describe yourself?

I’m fun loving. 40 plus (I’m not telling). I love reading, writing and day dreaming. Happily married with hundreds of borrowed children.

Me NYE 2012

Question: Who’s your favourite author?

I love many authors, but my all time faves, writer’s who’s books I purchase as soon as they are out, are Diana Gabaldon, Kerry Greenwood and my new fave is Cathryn Hein.

Outlander Series

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Question: Why write?

I started mucking about with writing in my teens and have had several half hearted goes at writing a novel every ten years or so. Until we started our transport company that kept my darling husband away through the week. Then I began to consider writing in earnest. Writing has become an outlet, a companion and an obsession.

Question: You wish you’d wrote? 

Probably Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” series and of course, you know what I’m going to say, “Harry Potter” who wouldn’t like to have written those books.

Question: Something we don’t know about you? 

Mmm, well that’s a hard one, as you probably don’t know much about me in the first place. But, I lived on a sheep station in the Riverina when I was in my twenties and was a cook in the homestead.

sheep99

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Question: In one sentence tell us about your WIP? 

I’m editing Something in the Water at the moment and it’s a contemporary suspense romance set in the beautiful squalor of the Solomon Islands.

Question: Publishing? Are you? 

I dream of being published. So far though, I feel as if I’m still practising, I am unpublished. I am going to try for traditional publishing for Something in the Water, hopefully before the end of the year.

Question: What would you be doing if you weren’t writing? 

Likely, just reading and listening to audio books. My garden would probably be in a better state and I’d have a winter vegetable garden.

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(see what a mess my roses are)

So, there you have it, a mini selfie-interview.

If you’d like to know anything else, feel free to ask. I can’t guarantee I’ll tell you, but I will answer <wink>

I’ve been sitting here a while . . .

04 Monday Feb 2013

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. . . and trying to work out what to write about.

Writing-George_Goodwin_Kilburne_Writing_a_letter_home_1875

I mean to say reader, we all know I want to be a published author. I can tell you little snippets about my writing, the process, even the ups and downs, but so what?

There’s only so much I can say that is interesting. I will tell you that I seem to like writing the first draft more than the re-writing of the same.

Writing a first draft is fun and exciting. It’s new, with new characters and new adventures. It’s really like reading a book as you go. Only the words you’re reading are flying from your own fingertips. It’s fun to plot twists and turns, to have new characters walk into the story and surprise you. That really does happen, sometimes I think to myself, where did you come from. The characters do unexpected things, things the writer didn’t plan, but they did it none the less!

In the writing of a first draft, you can expect the unexpected. The first draft is exploration and discovery.

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Re-writing is a whole other matter. Re-writing is plodding over the same words, reading them, reading them again, shuffling them around and then perhaps, reading them out loud to listen to them. And mostly still they don’t seem quite right, don’t quite say what I want. Re-writing is reading a paragraph or sentence until you hate it. Listening to a character until you are sick of the sound of their voice. But still you want to do that same paragraph, sentence or character justice. To present them in a way that other people will want to read about and get to know them.

Sometimes reader, to be honest, I wonder why I bother doing this. Every notion I ever had of being a published author is changing. Gone, it seems, are the days of submitting to a publishing house and finding someone who loves your story and pays you to print it for you. We are in a time of rapid change in our media and social lives. I mean here I am, writing my bit of dribble and who knows where you’re from. I may have a reader from Istanbul or California, or around the corner in North Rothbury.

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So why do it? Why bother? I think I bother because I love the journey. Admittedly I just enjoy it, writing that is. I love researching all the itsy-bitsy stuff. For example, I’ve started a new first draft,( I’ll tell you all about it later, in another post) it’s YA outback kind of story and after the initial excitement of planning a few detail and general plot ideas, comes the research. So reader, now I know lots of stuff about Dunedoo Central School. I have plans to drive to Dunedoo NSW and stay the night. Sometime soon I’m planning a road trip and I can have a good scout around the area. As I say, I love the research stage. The stuff you learn! Fascinating!

Maybe that’s why I bother. To learn new things and in a weird way, live a different life for a while. Pretend to be someone else, if only on a page.

Really I think I love to write for the same reasons I love to read. To lose myself in a different world.

Why do you love to read or write?

monday monday, can’t trust that day . . .

12 Monday Nov 2012

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Here we are reader, another Monday, a writerly Monday if all goes to plan, but as the Momma’s and Papa’s say, you can’t trust it.

Another thing reader, if you came in here looking for advice on writing, I think there’s a pretty good chance you are in the wrong place.

However, if you are here to read about the hills and hollows, twists and turns, or even the ups and downs of a fledgling writer?

Then my friend, you are right where you should be!

This week I can share that the first ten days of NaNoWriMo have been great, my writing’s going smoothly, or it was. I’ll come to that later.

As you know reader, I purchased a fantastic “How to” book in “Nail your Novel” by Roz Morris, and I got planning and plotting, I even wrote a detailed synopsis. And then I waited for days until November One! Waited and waited, or so it seemed. Then 1/11/12 rolled around bright and early on a Thursday morning and as soon as I was out of bed. (Well after cleaning my teeth, going to the loo and making a lovely cup of coffee) I opened up Scrivener and began.

I couldn’t believe it reader, it poured out, the story that is. And what’s even better is, I was loving it. Loving that my writing seemed to be quality, each word felt like a ‘Keeper’. When I read back over it, I wasn’t horrified, I had expected to be horrified. I was last year. But beyond a few small tweaks, I really liked what I’d written. I sent some scenes to my favourite readers.

And yay, they all came back wanting more, please. MoRe PLeaSe they said. Wow, this is encouraging, I wrote on, and on. It flowed, I’d think of a small plot twist and felt as if the story was gaining strength, gaining momentum.

I loved it.

But now reader, I seem to have hit a little bit of a sagging middle. My next job is to dig deep, suck it up and write on.

So this week, I’ll be dreaming about tropical idylls, swaying palms, underwater scenery. Watching DVD’s of spear fishing, free diving and imagining the sand between my toes.

How about you? What will you be doing, writing about or even imagining?

The Casual Vacancy – my thoughts

15 Monday Oct 2012

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Well reader, I’ve finished listening to JK Rowling’s latest, and I liked it.

I read only one review before I read it and saw JK interviewed by Jennifer Byrne. I loved the Harry Potter series, but have always thought that JK Rowling seemed a bit of a miserable sort. I’m not saying that more cheerful interviews don’t exist, but every interview I’ve seen she seems fairly negative and a bit sour.

The Jennifer Byrne interview was the only one I’ve seen where she seems the tiniest bit happy about anything. Jennifer Byrne looked like she was working hard to lift the mood of the discussion and didn’t really ever succeed. Even when JK was speaking of happy things like her kids, she looked like she could easily break into a moan about something. As I said, maybe it’s just the interviews I’ve seen and others portray her differently.

I think “The Casual Vacancy” fits her demeanour. Jennifer Byrne described it as dark. I thought it as raw and miserable, a bit “East Enders”. The ending was forgettable, literally forgettable, I had to go back the next day and re-listen as I couldn’t remember how it ended. I think that’s telling, perhaps it was just me, but I felt that the book didn’t end in the right spot.

It kind of reminded me of Martina Cole’s style, for anyone who hasn’t read her books, they are very much focused on the grimy side of life. I did enjoy the way she made the characters come to life and I could certainly empathise with them, from the rough Krystal to the resentful Mary. It’s all about the people and how they react to each other.

I spent the first half of the book waiting to see what they were on about, then when I realised what was motivating the dynamics, it lost momentum for me. The most memorable scene for me was when self mutilating teen, Sukhvinder described a memory of Krystal and a rowing competition.  I think if all the book had been written along a similar vein, it would still have shown the hardship and misery, without leaving a feeling of hopelessness.

The book isn’t a light hearted romp and if JK was trying to get as far away from Harry as possible, she succeeded. Having said all that, I thought it was ok, I liked it, I didn’t love it and I wouldn’t read it again. But it’s not terrible. I would recommend it, if only out of curiosity to see what JK does to get away from Harry Potter.

Dave on the other hands hated it, he liked “Fifty Shades of Grey” better, and said Fifty Shades was a better story and well written in comparison. LOL I can’t comment as I’ve not listened to or read Fifty Shades.