How's It Going?

I’ve had a few people ask me recently how the writing is going and as I haven’t really addressed that question in the last few blog posts, I thought I’d update those of you who are interested enough to still be reading this ;-)

I finished my first (rough!) draft just after Christmas as planned, woohoo!  The pleasure of completing it was massive, let me tell you.  I still grin like a slight loony every time that I remember I’ve managed to get this far with it :-)  There’s still a loooong way to go with editing subsequent drafts and making it in a polished manuscript fit for human consumption, but I am so chuffed to finally be properly on this writing journey!

Like a good girl, I’ve followed all the writer-ly recommendations to put it aside for a couple of weeks so that I come back to the task of redrafting fresher and with a more detached critical eye (allegedly, lol!).  Taking that break has been ridiculously hard though!  I love my characters so much that I wanted to keep on spending time with them and having come this far into a long-held dream, I didn’t want to have to stop.  I’ve practically had to sit on my hands to prevent myself from working on it and thankfully I’ve also managed to distract myself mentally by thinking more seriously about the young adult fiction I’d like to write, with various ideas already emerging, which is very exciting.

Thankfully the break is now over and I can get back to hanging out with Ben, Ned and Miss Bitts, hurray :-)  My first task has been to print out the first draft – all 123 pages of it! – and that’s brought another massive smile to my face :-D  As it’s printed 2 pages to one sheet of paper it looks a bit like a book!!!  I know, I know, I know there’s still weeks and months of work to go until it has any hope of becoming a real book but it’s a mega thrill to see it in that form anyway!

Now the hard work really begins though :-/  So far all I’ve had to do is get my ideas out onto paper, which has been surprisingly easy.  Next, I have to look at serious stuff like rising tension (the story not me!), plot development, character development, appropriate language choices for the age range, etc. etc.

So, *deep breath* and keep watching this space for the peaks and troughs of my writing journey in this next season…

Highs and Lows of 2012

I love to take time at the turn of one year to the next, contemplating what’s happened in the previous 12 months and considering what may come in the sparkly new year!

2012 was a very mixed year.  At the beginning of it, I felt God say to me it would be a year of high highs and low lows and, boy, was it!

The best high was finally writing the first draft of my children’s book – something I’ve wanted to do for so many years.  Even better than the achievement of having got something down on paper though, was the discovery that I LOVE writing, even more than I thought I would. It feels almost magical sometimes how ideas and words can suddenly flow from “nowhere” and being able to create people, worlds and situations is a complete thrill!  Writing gives me so much pleasure that I actually find myself getting tetchy on days I don’t write :-)  There’s nothing I want to do more than write now and so I really hope to discover this year that I’m good enough to get published and be able to do it as a “proper” job!

I probably remember most of the lows better than the other highs though - hopefully not because there were more of them but because I want to learn from them and see some good come out of them.  I’m a silver lining kind of girl :-) plus I know that God works all things together for the good of those who love him, even the crappy things!

The biggest low that overshadowed much of the year was depression, which I only recognised finally in May when it got particularly bad.  It was a rubbish time, but I did learn a lot from it.  I have friends with depression and it certainly helped me understand them much better.  I realised how incredibly unhelpful most people’s comments are when you’re depressed – you really have to have been there yourself to have any idea.

I also remember re-reading the account of Katniss’s depression near the end of “Mockingjay” and my understanding of it was so much greater once I’d been there myself.  Previously it had seemed strangely different to the rest of the writing – patchy, scant detail, almost like an out-of-body experience – but that’s exactly it.  You’re not in your “right mind” when depressed - things don’t make sense or matter, time feels out of sync, etc. - and that passage could only have been written so effectively by someone that’s been there.  Hopefully my experience will make me a better writer when I deal with issues like that (especially in the young adult fiction I want to try my hand at), as well having made me a more empathetic person generally.

Thankfully the depression is no longer a daily problem that cripples me in the way it did but I still have low days and still struggle on and off with the issues that contributed to it.  I feel cross and frustrated on the days when they rear their ugly heads again but the best way I can deal with them is to try to treat them as yet another learning experience that helps me better understand all the various shades of life.  As I face difficulties with a sense of belonging, choices, wanting things I can’t have, etc. I grow personally, gain a whole heap of insights and ideas and hopefully am able to write more authentically.

So, that was 2012 but what about 2013?  I believe God’s said it’ll be a much more steady year (phew!) and a year of breakthrough (yay!).  I don’t necessarily want an easy one – how would I learn, lol?!! – but I’ll take that!!  I’d love to see breakthrough manifested in so many different ways, but becoming a published writer would be one particularly amazing way, please ;-)

The Trials of Winter Writing

On a different note to usual, here’s something very important I’ve learnt in the last few weeks.  Writing when it’s cold is hard work, especially when your fingers start to stiffen with the first signs of hypothermia!  If you don’t want to turn the heating on then here’s my advice (true for anyone working at home – or in a cold office, I guess – not just writers!):

(1) buy a slanket (worth every penny) - http://www.slanket.co.uk/

(2) wear fingerless gloves (often they’re not thumb-less though so why not make your own – these are very simple http://a-friend-to-knit-with.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/toasttoasty.html and these are the more fancy ones in the photo http://www.orangellous.com/cdn/files/patterns/vancouver_fog.pdf )

(3) type fast to keep your fingers warm

(4) if you can’t do number 3 coz the muse is taking a break or you need some thinking time, then have a hot drink in front of you to use as a handwarmer!

Bring it on December!

On Friday, I hit my word count for November.  Good job too seeing as it was the last day of the month!  But I was SO chuffed to achieve that goal, especially as my experience of writing over the last couple of years has been predominantly wishful thinking rather than achievement.

Now I’m looking ahead to my next goal - 30,000 words (or a finished first draft of similar length) by the end of December.  I can already sense that this is going to be more of a challenge – as a new challenge always should be, I guess, otherwise it’s fairly pointless and should be called something else!!  

The last month has been easy writing in many ways.  Some of the time I’ve written individual scenes that have been working themselves out in my head for weeks.  Often I’ve sat down and just seen where a conversation or idea has taken me.

This month’s writing will need me to draw those elements and scenes together into a coherent, progressive story with realistic motivations, causes and effects.  I’m sure that I’m going to be saying “ah, that doesn’t work” more than a few times and have to go back and rework details that I’ve written previously, so that they are logical and credible.  But hopefully I’m also going to come up with new ideas that will get worked through the manuscript to make it stronger too.

In some ways this task daunts me.  How well a story hangs together is fundamentally important to its success.  I’m the first to spot and be highly irritated by discrepancies in storytelling, so I hope I can be as aware and analytical of my own writing.  

At the same time, I can’t wait to have a finished first draft (even if it still needs weeks/months of editing after that) and am so excited about the prospect of drawing my ideas together to ensure they form a fantastic well-developed tale!  My life isn’t simply a series of individual random scenes, but a joined up meaningful whole - even if I don’t always have the benefit of the author’s perspective on all the links.  My story needs to be just as authentic, which won’t be simple.  But I'm up for it, bring it on!

Just Do It!

I’m not only thrilled to finally be getting on and writing - rather than just talking about it - but also to discover that I really love the characters and the story that are emerging.  It’s almost magical how you can sit down and start writing and suddenly something that you hadn’t thought of or imagined or planned comes flowing out onto the page!  

There are plenty of times when I have no idea what to write next but I’m learning to just get on and get something on paper.  Even if it’s rubbish, even if I end up deleting the whole lot in a future edit, at least I had some words on the page that I could evaluate and craft.  If I don’t have that then I’m no closer to having a potential manuscript than if I was just spending my time watching daytime TV instead.

And to be honest, it’s rarely going to be complete rubbish that I have to completely cut.  Even in the midst of a poor section of writing there’s likely to be a kernel of an idea to use elsewhere, or a nugget of dialogue that would really click in another scene.

For example, just last week I was writing a scene that I wasn’t much convinced by as it lacked pace and punch.  It was kinda important for the character and relationship development of the protagonist and antagonist, but even as I was writing it I knew I’d need to go back and do some serious editing on it at some point.  Then suddenly, out of nowhere, came the protagonist’s key motivation for doing what he needs to do in the story – an essential aspect which until that moment had been glaringly missing from my story arc!  All sorts of other minor elements suddenly linked up and gave the whole story a much more solid foundation!  Hurray :-)

This is true of so many creative pursuits though, not just writing.  We need to try in order to move forward and improve.  An artist needs to dabble with paint to hone their skills.  A knitter needs to knit.  A baker needs to bake.  And a writer needs to write :-)

Don’t be afraid to practise, to try.  Just do it (to plagiarise a fancy brand strapline)!!  Whatever you produce may be a dud and it might feel like wasted time, but actually it’s all getting you one step closer to your goal.  Sometimes that might only be a small step, but other times it’ll unexpectedly be a massive leap!