Tag Archives: Kate Forsyth

A little about setting

27 Monday Apr 2015

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Hello again reader, sorry it’s been so long. All I can say is life seems to have taken some interesting twists and turns and I’m just now beginning to catch up.

My days have been jam packed and writing is only one part of the routine. But I am pleased to be able to say it still has top billing. I’ve actually been blessed with more time to call my own, but somehow, it’s also been sucked down a vortex of having to share my house again.

One of the things I’ve been contemplating is my story setting. With any novel, there needs to be research done. Even when you know your subject, there are points and information that will need checking.

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Sinclair Girnigoe Castle, Caithness, Scotland UK

Sinclair Girnigoe Castle, Caithness, Scotland UK The setting for my YA timeslip.

I began writing a YA time slip story about ten years ago, I got about half way through and got lost. I found I couldn’t write it when I had never been to Scotland. In an effort to not simply stop writing, I decided to write an Australian Historical. Maybe a short story. Just to keep my writing happening.

I found a suitable competition for a story of about 3,000 words and thought it sounded perfect. 100,000 words later I had my first ever finished first draft. It was wobbly, had no structure and way too many adverbs and adjectives, but I finished.

Fast forward seven years and several million words, well maybe a bit less, but you get the idea, and I’ve dragged out the old manuscript and have started again.

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Hunter River, setting for my historical fiction

 

The setting for this is the early settlement of the Hunter Valley and it’s been so much fun to research where we live. There is so much I didn’t know about the river and the people. Every time I come across a familiar name in historic accounts or articles I want to add yet another character to my too long list.

The setting in my stories are pretty much a character in their own right. From the wild northern coast of Scotland, to the brown ribbon of the Hunter River, I love to weave in a sense of place for my characters to move about in. I also love to read stories that ground me in the setting. I want to feel as if I am standing in the characters shoes and looking out through their eyes; smelling, feeling, experiencing everything they do.

Some of my favourite authors are really good at this and I find reading their stories inspiring. My top 5 favourite Australian writers are Kate Forsyth, Juliet Marillier, Cathryn Hein, Margo Lanagan and Felicity Pulman. But I can’t fail to mention Diana Gabaldon, Jilly Cooper, Stephen King and Nora Roberts.  I love lots of different writers for different reasons, and we’d be here all day if I listed them all. Now reader, how about you? Who are your favourite authors and why? I’d love to hear from you, so don’t be shy.

The time has come . . .

11 Saturday Oct 2014

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Reader, I keep promising myself to get back to blogging regularly, and yet here we are again and it’s been ages. I’m not going to check how long as it will just send me off on a tangent that, in turn, won’t get a blog written.

So to bring you up to speed, I’ve been a bit busy.

Packing

Packing

August saw the big count down to the long, long, long awaited trip to the UK. Since 2005 I’ve been trying to write “Castle Quest” and could never really get it finished as it was set in Scotland. So what you say? Well, I’d never been to Scotland, so how could I write about it realistically? In short, I couldn’t. I had several attempts at saving, and each time was unsuccessful for a variety of reasons, but this year was different.

You may remember reader that I attended a weekend writing course with Kate Forsyth last year in Sydney? Well here’s the link to Kate and the Australian Writer’s Centre. At the course, called History, Mystery and Magic, we had a wonderful time, but Kate told us of a course she was going to be running in the following September in the Cotswolds, England. How lovely, I thought.

The Lygon Arms, Broadway, The Cotswolds

The Lygon Arms, Broadway, The Cotswolds

Well somehow, Kate convinced my darling husband that I should go, so I booked in and paid a deposit and then I panicked! I had a lot of money to save and I’d committed to going to the other side of the globe on my own! ON MY OWN.

Lygon Arms

Lygon Arms

Thankfully, Dave decided to meet me for the second half of my trip and so we went to Scotland together. It was the honeymoon we’d never had, well sort of. For me it was a research trip with my own personal chauffeur and sounding board.

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The highlight of my trip was . . . well the whole thing actually, but as far as my writing was concerned it was visiting the setting of my story, Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, near Wick in Caithness Scotland.

Castle Sinclair Girnigoe

30,000 words and I’m not ok

18 Monday Nov 2013

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Good morning reader.

Well here we are, day 18 of NaNoWriMo and I’m exhausted. I’ve been sick for a week and a half and have tried to battle on. Screen Shot 2013-11-18 at 8.32.32 AMThe whole of November has just been hard going so far, and it’s not looking like getting any easier.

I came out of the gates with a bang and was pretty consistently writing 2,500 words or more per day. Except when I was in Sydney for the writing course with Kate Forsyth. I told you about that last week, you can check it out here.

Then I started getting sick, but I persevered and was totting up that word count nicely. The only thing was, I wasn’t getting better. I was progressively feeling worse. I blithely ignored all the advice from family and friends and wrote on. Brave thing that I am. Uh, nope. Stupid, more likely.

After almost a week of sticking my head over a bowl of steaming Vicks Vapour Rub in hot water between word wars, and getting no where. Of sucking on Strepsils and taking decongestant medicine, and plotting my next scene while feeling like each breath was being drawn through wet hessian. On Friday I gave up and I went to the doctor. Of course it wasn’t lungs full of phlegm that was the problem but a strep infection in my lower trachea. No wonder all that head steaming and decongestant did nothing. So, I am on antibiotics.

All this is not the worst of it. The absolute worst is that my story has reflected my decline in health. Slowly creeping down into a miserable place. Not where I wanted it to go at all. So probably the 10,000 words I struggled to force onto the page in the last week were all for naught! I know! It makes me crazy. I could have just rested and recovered and been no worse off. I guess I have no choice but to go back to where it started to go off kilter and rewrite. I may as well just do it now and get it over with.

Have you ever read a book where it seems to change tone mid novel? I know I have, I remember reading a book where the main character started to feel annoying. I later read that the author started to hate her and it reflected in the story.

So, for me, it’s back to the drawing board. I hope your day is sunny and bright. It’s cold a raining here. But that is quite good writing weather.

Rainy day

Might just turn on the heater. It’s hard to write with cold fingers.

News Flash

11 Monday Nov 2013

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Reader, I’m sorry for missing last week’s usual Monday offering. I have been so excited and totally forgot to share the post I had prepared for you. Note to self- I really must remember to use the Hootsuite thingy I pay for.

wild girl Bitter-Greens

Well, I will delay gratification and tell you about last weekend. I attended a writing course in Sydney. The course was History Mystery and Magic with Kate Forsyth. I wanted to go because, as some of you know, I have a first draft of a historical romance story that badly needs editing but so far I’ve been unable to edit it. That’s mostly because of fear. Fear of getting the historical elements right. Fear of sorting out the meandering plot. Fear of hating it when I go back.

Kate is a wonderful teacher and quickly ascertained where we were all at in our writing. Unfortunately for me, she pegged my reluctance to edit straight away and I found myself in the hot seat when it came to research and editing procrastination discussions. Kate modelled her comments, feedback and encouragement individually but in a way that was helpful to the whole class and not just to whom it was specifically addressed.

I was surprised by the number of student who were starting out. I had assumed the class would be packed with writers further down the writing track than I am. There were some, but most not. This turned out to be a real plus for me. Because Kate seemed to restructure the program to cover a broader spectrum of novel writing. Everything from narrative arcs and plots, researching effectively to basic editing tips. I so needed to hear each and every word she uttered. Kate has a uniquely engaging teaching style that includes everyone and covers every need that was revealed when we all introduced ourselves.

I could waffle all day about how good the class was, how much I got out of it, etc . . . but instead you can check out the Australian Writer’s Centre here. Kate’s website here, and I can only recommend you check it out yourself and save up your pennies and attend a course. You won’t regret it, I promise.

On the the really exciting news. I was so encouraged and inspired by Kate, that I’ve booked in to attend a week long intensive workshop and writing retreat with her in Oxford UK.

Oxford

Yes me! I know that previously I’d never even have considered doing anything so brave. Travelling overseas on my own wasn’t even something I considered. But Dave came for an after course chat and drink with some of our class mates and Kate and thought I should go after hearing Kate talk about the trip.

So, the deposit is paid, the insurance is sorted and I am going. Stay tuned for lots of exciting squee moments, and I’ll try not to drive you all crazy with my crazy blethering.

Are you a traveller? Do yo have any exciting or essential tips to give me? Please, feel free. I need all the encouragement I can get. More importantly, what sights should I simply not miss?

A new book, and more editing

28 Monday Oct 2013

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Reader, it’s only days until November and that means 30 days of intense writing and not much else.

NaNoWriMo

Except I’ve enrolled in a two day writing course with Kate Forsyth. Yay, I am so excited. To add to the already hectic schedule that’s scribbled on my calendar I am still trying to get the editing finished on Something In The Water.

As I draw closer to the time to send SITW out to some publishing houses, I get ever more nervous of doing it. I wonder if I will ever feel that it’s ready to go. Each time I read through it I find I am still changing things. Restructuring sentences and deleting extra full stops. Instead of feeling as if I’m getting closer, it’s making me more nervous about it ever being good enough to send to an editor. I could pay to have it edited but I really don’t have the money, so instead I’ll go over and over and over it.

books

The feed back from Charlotte Ledger has been helpful, and as I apply her recommendations it only serves to make me feel that I’m not up to par. On the other hand, I think I should just send it out and see what happens.

Finding where to send it is a whole other ball game. I’m simply not sure where it sits in the market. I didn’t write it with any particular imprint in mind. If I’m honest I didn’t even know what an imprint was when I wrote the first draft for last year’s NaNoWriMo.

As I approach the pointy end of writing, the bit where I have to do the hard slog and not just spew out convoluted prose, I can see that my dream to be a writer is a dream worth the blood, sweat and tears. And yes reader, there has been all three. While day dreaming about my story I’ve managed to cut myself instead of the carrot I was chopping. I’ve trudged up steep hills to visualise a scene for my story. I’m cried because I can’t get a scene right and feel like giving up. Or cried because my hobby is now a job and therefore it required that I actually work and not faff about.

So, is it worth it? I think so. Whether I ever get to sign a contract to have one of my stories published or not, I know that I will continue to write. Because I actually enjoy it. Well maybe not the editing, but the making stuff up, absolutely.

Do you write? Do you feel like it’s all too hard sometimes? Or is it just me and my wimpy tendencies? (note- you can lie here)

writers blockBy the time we chat again reader I’ll be firmly bogged down in NaNoWriMo and just back from a weekend of writing in Sydney, so keep an eye open for a crazy dribbling post from me. Have a good week, I’ll be getting my house in order before the madness begins.