The Good (Expat) Life

The Good {expat}Life is one of the projects I'm working on at the moment. It's a humorous contemporary story about Penny and George who have to make a choice between their life in England and their retirement plan in Italy when their business falls flat on its face. They can't afford to keep both and they bravely decide on new beginnings, helped by best friends Daphne and Roger. 

To say that the story is loosely based on the truth is a bit of an understatement, Penny and George live out some of the experiences and situations we may have endured since moving to Italy almost seven years ago. And I can say that I do identify with Penny, though I don't think I'm quite as tough on Simon. He, of course may beg to differ. All the characters are based on a mish-mash of people, a trait here, a habit there and a splash of physical features and abracadabra! So to all the friends (and others) that I have met here, I can put hand on heart and say I defy them to identify with one of the characters. What they may see is a hint of others they know, but one rule of writing is never to use a real person. So apologies, but if you want to audition for a role in the TV sitcom, happy for you to apply.  

Most people, those who don't live abroad, have a very rose tinted vision of people like us who have moved away from our natural home. Mainly they think that we have a swimming pool - ha! First we couldn't afford the maintenance, never mind the installation. And our land slopes downwards, a little tricky unless we were going to install a water ride. And, apparently, we sit on our terraces, sipping Prosecco until the sun goes down after a day at the beach basking in the sun. Well, the odd day may be spent like that, but more often than not we're growing and picking vegetables (cheaper), strimming (initially with two old hand scythes that were left here along with a number of other hand-made tools) the two acres of field-like land that is loosely called our 'garden' and feeding an array of abandoned animali that we've adopted. 
But like Penny and George, we wouldn't swap it for the world.

More about P & G later...

Meet My Main Character Blog Hop

I've been tagged by Dianne Ascroft to take part in this blog hop about main characters in our latest work in progress. Dianne is a fellow member of Writers Abroad and has self published a novel set in World War II - Hitler and Mars Bars.
I'm currently working on a fantasy novel but do have other historical works in progress, so I shall showcase one of those. However, there is no reason why the characters for the blog hop can't be from any genre as you will discover from my tagged authors below. Makes things a little more interesting...

1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?
There are two strong female characters in this project, Eve Lacey and Isabella Bloomfield. Neither of them are based on any particular person—more they are a mix of women I have read about in my research around World War II, particularly about the ATA girls. When I lived in the UK, I met and interviewed an old lady, Pat Brandon, who had nursed in London during the war and she also inspired me to write about this time.

2) When and where is the story set?
The story is set during the years of World War II and starts with Eve and Isobel meeting in a field hospital in France. They continue their friendship when Isobel joins the ATA and Eve is posted back to England.

3) What should we know about him/her?
The two friends couldn’t be more different. Eve is from the country and ran away from her cruel aunt after her father died. Isobel is a wealthy debutante who it seems has everything she could wish for. The women, however, share a birthday and from the first time they meet, their lives run along parallel lines.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
Eve and Isobel fall in love with the same man, Jack Wallace, an ace fighter pilot. Eve has a brief liaison with him and falls head over heels in love but never sees him again. Isobel is pursued by Jack and eventually agrees to marry him. Soon after, Jack is killed in combat and Eve reveals the consequences of her liaison.

5) What is the personal goal of the character?
Both women want to live life in the moment as dictated by circumstances out of their control. However ultimately they both want to be loved and seek to secure their future. 

6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
The working title at the moment is All Will Be Well but it has been known as The Flying Angels as it features quite a bit about the ATA girls.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?
This was the first full length work in progress I penned. Having self-published The Duke’s Shadow, on March 1 this year it has given me the confidence to rewrite all my works in progress. Hopefully, 2015. You can find news updates on my website Louise Charles.

The two authors I have tagged are: 
Vesna McMaster - a fellow member of Writers Abroad and 
Pam Burkes, who writes with her sister as the author, Ellie Campbell. Together they have published four novels, How to Survive Your Sisters, When Friends Go Bad, Looking for La La and To Catch a Creeper.

The Good Life...

One of my WiP's (that's works in progress if you haven't read this blog before) is a blend of fact and fiction. Okay, I know that is not uncommon, but this project - referred to originally as The Good Life but now only as 'Penny and George' - has been based on the diary entrants regarding our decision to move to Italy and the first year here. It's a humorous take - well it's meant to be - and started life as a joint writing project with my luomo chi fa (my man that does). The first draft was way too literal, so now I'm reviewing the whole project, creating additional and fictional characters and having quite a time making a load of stuff up, which upon reading, even close family and friends will not know whether to believe or not.

I'm not sure if it will ever come to the dizzy heights of publication but it does represent the real trials and tribulations along with the many, many benefits of moving to a new country, with a new language and new culture to learn. Whenever I say to people where I live, I see that dreamy look cross their face as they imagine me lying by an azure filled swimming pool, heated of course, with a glass of something fizzy in  hand and a bronze tan deepening by the minute. The only real bit of that vignette is possibly a glass of fizzy, now and again. Definitely need to think more Tom and Barbara style with muddy wellies, animals in the kitchen and home made haircuts...

It's been gathering dust a lot lately, although I have had two or three pieces critiqued over at Writers Abroad and been received with some enthusiasm. Hence my determination to finish what I started.

Until Later...

Spinning Plates is an Art

I've decided to expand my blog entries to three a week - I can hear the groans but it's more for me than anything else. Thing is I have three fairly big projects I've chosen as priority for my writing goals (well, there are more but I may combine them for reporting progress purposes). So, to help keep the momentum swinging and my motivation singing, I thought I'd blog about progress on them.

Wolf Moon is a story which began as a Monday Muse on Writers Abroad. Monday Muses are essentially creative writing prompts designed to encourage writers to... that's correct - WRITE!

So Xanthe is a young girl, not of the earthly kind but she doesn't know that yet, who was born through a muse and she has a mission to fulfill on the Island of Tasosia. Yes, you've guessed it, it's a fantasy genre and perhaps more targeted to young adults, though I'd quite like to think that older readers would welcome a bit of escapism too. I've outlined three novella's, around 30k words in each and I'm halfway through the first draft of the first story. I'm loving the fantasy genre, making up worlds and beings and just being able to really let loose on the imagination. Contrast that with my love of the historical genre which has to have some degree of fact in it, fantasy is quite liberating in a different kind of way. I think I was born in the wrong era, either historical or another land would be really my cup of tea, but I do live a little of those lives, through my writing.

I suppose my point is that it's useful to have more than one writing project on the go. When your words dry up on one, they may spill out for another and it helps to free the mind to allow things to develop. But it's also quite an art I think, in terms of dedication and focus, which requires some skill that I probably will never perfect. So how many plates do you have spinning?

Until Later...

The Editing Journey Has Begun...

Well, time for celebrations. Just edited my first chapter of 'The Duke's Shadow' and submitted it to my Writers Abroad mates for their perusal. It is one of the most scariest writing moments of my life. Not that WA members are witches or unkind critique-ers, far from it, it's just that there is a high standard of writing in our Chapter Group already. I'm not sure I'll make the mark but I'm willing to learn.

I think that is what I need to keep in mind during this 'rewriting' phase. It is a learning process, a big one and one which I've avoided so far in all five (or is it six) of my big writing projects. Of course, I've edited short stories and flash fiction but thousands of words just seemed a step to far. But it feels so good to have made a first step and I'm not in any doubt that it's a hell of a long road!

So what are the learning points this week from the process?

• Read through the manuscript first, familiarise yourself with the writing as a reader would do
• Don't permanently delete anything. Always keep a copy of the original work - I work with versions so I can always retrieve something if necessary
• Back up you work and remember where! I use Scrivener and had a fit today when I couldn't find the revision I'd done yesterday. Finally found it lurking where it shouldn't be
• Make the first step and don't expect to get it all right in the second draft. I'm sure that this chapter will change again before I'm happy with it. Getting started and thinking about improving the writing is quite invigorating
• Remember this is the real writing! The other stuff is just preparation, but as always a good preparation  helps

So, now I've made a start I'm hoping that the flow will continue and that I don't bore you to death in the meantime...

Until Later,

Baby Steps

I've been (yet again) reviewing my list of 'things to do'. And I've come to the conclusion that I've set myself up to fail. I don't know whether it's a hang up from previous employment where it was so target orientated there wasn't time to breathe, or, if it's because subconsciously I want to say 'Look How Busy I am!' and collapse in a heap. What I do know is that I've become so pole axed by the list of actions I'm actually not doing a lot at all. Zilch in fact. Browsing the internet, downloading programmes which I will probably never use and generally just wasting time. So how, I asked myself this morning, is that going to help me get any writing done? Well it isn't.
The trouble is like many 'amateur' writers I look at the authors I admire and read about their non-stop writing habits and how they churn out hundreds of best sellers every year, month, week. Well, that's what it says in my head. I don't think it's actually true. 
It's not about motivation either, because I'm naturally partial to writing, I do write everyday, but I don't particularly do anything constructive with my writing. Well, that's not true either, I do submit to competitions and markets, but I'm easily defeated by a rejection. So I thought I need to re-look at what I want to get done versus everything needs to be done and take little baby steps towards achieving them. 
So my revised approach for the next month is to:

• Continue with daily journal - including my Monday Muses - as this gives me ideas for stories, characters and helps me 'write things out'.
• Revisit The Good Life  stories and submit a couple to Writers Abroad for critique 
• Edit  synopsis and first three chapters of The Promise for submission to an agent
• Re-start my work on Morning Gift at 1000 words per week
• Continue to meet the challenge of four short story submissions per month  
• Blog weekly on her and Joe Bloggs  - signing up to do a daily blog is not one of my priority writing tasks 

I feel better already!

Later...

NANoWriMo BLOG POSTS

Now Known as Blogettes...
I know, I failed at the first post but I do have good reasons not for posting yesterday. Like all writers I have a life of other responsibilities and pressures. And, as I am told by many of my friends at Writers Abroad - family come first and so they should. 


So back to normal (of a sorts) today and as I promised on Monday I'm going to try and post a little snippet every day leading up to and during NaNoWriMo. A kind of diary I suppose. I have called these entries, 'Blogettes'. I'm sure there is another word for it but that will do for now. 


Yesterday I spent the afternoon writing with pencil in my 'bible'. This is a journal (large, hard backed, A4 and lined) where I start to record all my thoughts about the novel, my next Work In Progress. For NaNoWriMo I'm writing a novel based around the rumours that surround the 5th Duke of Portland and his double life. It's mostly fiction of course, but the facts are pretty fascinating in themselves and I'm not going to reveal all yet.
Suffice to say I sketched out a rough journey of the novel, listed the main characters, produced a very sketchy time line (most helpful in identifying some of the plot lines) and started a character portrait of the main character, the Mad Duke. I have yet to define a working title... but hope to have done so by the end of today.


So there you have it. My first Blogette...
Until Tomorrow.

WRITING DRAFTS

Painting A Picture
I subscribe to a number of writing newsletters (in fact, far too many) which fall into my in box on a regular basis. I usually skim read them, scanning for market news, latest tips, writing successes and any little nuggets which may just make my writing life easier. It's not often that I find something new or which affects me profoundly, most of it acts like a kind of 'reminder' of what I already know. However this morning was a little different when I came across a piece entitled 'First Drafts' by Naomi Rose. This writer drew (literally speaking) a analogy between a writer and a visual artist in terms of their initial approach to their creative projects. 


As you know, first drafts for this first time novelist, is very pertinent right now and I'm like a sponge when it comes to anything vaguely concerned with this topic. An artist first sketches out a rough drawing, some of which maybe quite detailed, some more general concepts or ideas but all elements of the intended 'whole'. An artist would never put out their first sketch as completed work (unless posthumously by others as an indication of their skill) and always would use it as their reference piece for the completed picture. A blank canvas and a stick of charcoal are the tools used (my kind of artist anyway) and a connection of thoughts, ideas, settings, people and themes which are then tried out, maybe several times as the creative juices take hold. A kind of giving 'birth' to the form that will eventually be the finished painting or picture. Bringing the canvas to life but with parts missing, parts which need a different approach and colour and parts that may just be airbrushed away. So like first drafts in writing, it struck me, yet I never (until today) had seen it as so... magical and sensual. 
It has really struck a chord as you can probably detect and I'm hoping that later on in my 'editing' slot I shall still feel the same way.
Until Friday,

THE STORY SO FAR...

Mid-Week Progress Report

Ok, I know I'm a little late should have posted yesterday, but things just got in the way...

So, I'm currently in the process of doing a total re-hash of my first ever novel All Will Be Well. This process had taught me loads... not least that I have come a long way since then.

My writing skills have improved ten-fold (most thanks in part to my mates at Writers Abroad) and I'm beginning to understand the editing part of things much more. I thought I did understand it, but I realise now that I thought it was just about spelling, punctuation, checking continuity. How naive could I be? I am now slashing, burning, killing off characters, changing scenes, settings and endings. A bit like writing a new novel I can hear someone say...well, no not quite. The heart of the novel is still there, the story I wanted to write is still there but it is leaner, tighter, more well-written. 

I can't tell you how much back story I left in... back story is great and it is necessary but the reader doesn't necessarily need to know it all. It should be dropped in like little pearls, here and there and allow the reader to fill in the gaps. I just overwhelmed them with facts and events long past. And it's not that this was all waste of time, because I need to know the back story so I can nurture the little pearls... I suppose what it is showing me is that a writing project, however large or small, can be re-written, can be re-moulded and re-shaped to fit the purpose, the main objective of getting published! However, I'm a long way off right now and I'm trying to turn a very sad ending, into one with more hope. A little like me, in everlasting hope of getting this story onto some editors desk... so now for some more red ink!

Until later...