The Hunt - Day Three

On Day Three of my daily creative prompt writing quest, I used a plot generator. These provide two characters, a setting, theme and sometimes other stuff. So here they are: 

A spontaneous 38 year old woman 
An arrogant 38 year old man
A night club
Someone being cheated
The Hunt (theme)

It was the theme that intrigued me to pick this prompt. It conjured up all sorts of dilemma's and ways to portray 'the hunt' with significant undertones of some kind of thriller or crime related story. I didn't quite get a story together but I did explore theories such as stalking, blackmail and tricksters. I wanted the bad guy to be the woman at first but I ended up decided she should be like a female James Bond (well there isn't one is there? Not a true 007 type). So I started looking at spy names - names are quite important for my characters as it helps to shape them in my chaotic head. And would you really have a spy called Dolly? Although I did come across one called Diedre and there were many real and valiant female spies in the two World Wars with names you wouldn't associate with Secret Service type of stuff. Nikita, Matahari and Vesper came up tops in my search. But what did I end up with? Gemima Frost - I know...how did that happen? And where did the male character go? 


I can tell you now, Day Four hasn't been any better, but that's for tomorrows post.

Until Later,

Running In the Rain - Day 2

Day Two's prompt was a mixture. Sometimes this happens, I start off with one and another just naturally falls into my thoughts. My first was this picture, a woman running barefoot in the rain. It's a black and white picture and for me, it created an intriguing atmosphere. I imagined it to be warm as she's wearing a summer dress, but the setting doesn't look particularly tropical.
Then I wondered who she was running from (maybe those bad dreams from Day 1) or to? It was at this point that a piece of dialogue I had recorded as a potential prompt fell onto the page.

'The way you flirt is shameful.'

Now, it's often easy to stereotype characters when you first start writing. I try very hard not to do that, but it's not that easy. Anyway, as I'd seen Sandi Toksvig on the telly, talking about renewing her vows with her partner to celebrate the passing of law for same sex marriages my thoughts and scribblings began to follow this path. My original character still featured and she turned out to be running away from someone (and did so with the help of our happy couple.)

For me, it's not important whether the prompt is followed by the end of the writing session, it's more important to develop some threads and that could lead anywhere...

Until Later,

Dream Catcher - Day One

Thought I'd share the creative writing posts I'm using for Camp NaNoWriMo to exercise my writing muscle during April. As you will come to discover, I use a number of different prompt forms. Some are character based, others plots, maybe a first (or last line), some dialogue or a random word or words and sometimes pictures. I find it useful to keep a note of prompts and then choose one, sit down open my journal and write for fifteen minutes.

Day One: As the dream faded, she chased it, forlorn.
This prompt had me wondering who was chasing the dream and was it here and now, in her past or maybe her future?. The word 'dream' conjures up for me, a happy sort of scenario (well at least something that is happier, more positive) rather than a nightmare. Although, my pessimistic mind did lead me to think that 'she' was maybe trying to escape from her more unhappy demons. I'm fascinated by dreams and their interpretations, though I'm not a big dreamer myself. Not when I'm asleep anyway, much different when I'm supposed to be getting things done :). 

Anyway, I found myself at the end of the writing session with the words 'dreamcatcher' in my head and I couldn't get rid of it. So off I went to Google to find out more. I knew they were a kind of native American symbol and I learnt that the term originates from the word for 'spider'. The dreamcatcher is formed from a willow hoop upon which is woven a kind of web. The idea is that the 'bad' dreams are caught in the web allowing the sleeper (usually children) to only have 'good' dreams.

I wonder where all the bad dreams went? Did they escape and end up in someone else's night time visions?

Wakey, Wakey, it's Camp NaNoWriMo!

I've recently lost my writing mojo. I know, very careless of me but this is not a one off event - if I'm honest. I know what works best for my writing mojo and I constantly let it down, so I'm not surprised they've (can a mojo have a gender, I wonder?) slipped away again. In my defence, I've also had a slight health hiccup - as an ex-nurse being more used to being on the other side of the bed - it was quite a shock. And this happened only days after I'd self published my debut novel, The Duke's Shadow, so not only my writing has suffered but also my marketing plan. (BTW available from Amazon in paperback and ebook format)  

So with the advent of a new month today I've decided it's time for action. Without a doubt I am the only one in charge of capturing my dreams.I always write best with a schedule, a formal time commitment. I'm not the fly by the seat of my pants person that I think I am. I'm a planner and I need to give in to and honour this process as THE only way I can function properly. So a new timetable has been created and I've signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo.

During April, I will free write for at least 15 minutes a day, using a creative writing prompt and I shall blog on the outcome on a daily basis here. Sorry to be such a bore, but it's a way of capturing my achievements and show that I'm sticking to the PLAN. In addition, the projects I've highlighted for Camp are revisions of two pieces of work; Wolf Moon and Flying Angels. 

Until Later...

NaNoWriMo - My Approach

As you know it's that crazy month when writers all over the planet sit at their desks with the sole intention of bashing out 50,000 words - known as National Write a Novel in a Month.

It is not, in my personal opinion of course, about writing a polished manuscript which is ready to submit to agents and publishers come December. For me it is about starting with an outline of a story, and with some pre-planning and a fair bit of fairy dust, writing out a number of scenes which may or may not continue with the path you've plotted. Some writers have become overwhelmed with other participants word count, so much so it has affected their own writing targets. And if I'm honest, as a beginner NaNo'er some four years ago, I can understand their distress. However I have learnt an approach which suits me.

My current word count is over 37k on day 13 of the challenge, but in fact I've only spent 11 of those writing for NaNo - I take Sunday's off. I'm told over at the NaNo camp that by November 18 I will have hit the magical target of 50k. Shall I stop there and declare myself a winner? No, I have another project planned for the second half of the month, which may or may not be realised. But that matters not, at least I'm writing.

My approach is as follows:

• Plan the 'novel' out in some form of outline prior to NaNo. This is not cheating, it's preparation and will help to understand your story before you begin. After years of claiming to be a 'panster' and sitting in front of an empty page, this has been a key development in my writing
• First thing each day I write another outline of each scene I'm going to write - a page of A4 in longhand which might have some dialogue, themes or just the hub of what my characters are getting up to. So I know I can at least write something
• My best time of writing is the morning before the internet is allowed to awaken and I work in silence. However, life often gets in the way and if I've take the twenty minutes to do my scene planning in point two above then I can write any time of the day
• The internal editor and those in any writing software I use (my personal preference is Scrivener) is turned off. I write from my notes and let the characters and story lead the way. Some of it I know I won't use, but you never know, do you?
• Finally, I call my project a 'work in progress' never a novel, that accolade will be used for the published product. Which I know is a long way off, but hey at least I've made a start.

It works for me... and your system will work for you - you just need to find it and believe in it. 

Happy NaNo Writing!

The Moon Goddess Fantasy - NaNoWriMo Project

Last week I awakened my sleeping blog with news of my intention to participate in NaNoWriMo 2013.

Well it's day six and my total word count is 17,113. For those of you unenlightened with NaNo, it's where writers take up the challenge to write 50k words in one month, so by now I should be at 10k at least. So progress is good. I'm aiming for at least 3500 words per day, excluding Sundays, because I believe everyone needs a day off, including my characters. And as I'm hoping to achieve 50k by around day 15, I'm planning another 50k on my Penny and George series. So a kind of double NaNo.

The Moon Goddess Fantasy was first inspired by a Monday Muse I did over at my writers group, Writers Abroad. Each week we take it in turns to post creative writing prompts (on a Monday) and then we are tasked to write for 15 mins freestyle or 500 words. Xanthe, the heroine of this story appeared in this muse.

My second inspiration was seeing huge moon, known as Wolf Moon, the original title of the story. A Wolf Moon occurs in January and because it is closer to the earth than normal, looks as if it is much larger. As though you could walk right through it.

Finally, I came across the symbol of the Moon Goddess, one full moon and two crescent which represent, apparently, the three main stages of womanhood; the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone.

The Moon Goddess fantasy is a pleasure to write, I've created a world that no-on can challenge (because it's of my making) and characters that have animal forms such as a wolf, a white peacock and even trolls! This is a story that began a long time ago, so by the end of November I should have in excess of 80k words, though then the hard work begins, and the real writing must begin...

Next time I'll tell you about Penny and George...

NaNoWriMo 2013 Beckons

Yes, I know it's been an awfully long time since I posted but there are two things that have prompted my need to blog.

Firstly NaNoWriMo 2013 kicks off in a little more than a day and I've signed up. Last year, my darling Simon was ill and I had to give up on November 5th. But all is well now and after a stressful start to 2013 I finally feel as though I have my writing MoJo back.

Secondly, the return of my MoJo has resulted in a complete critique of my 2011 NaNo novel, The Duke's Shadow, which I am now preparing for self publication. More on that in a later post...

So I'm hoping that I can encourage you to stay with me and hopefully, I'll be able to attract more of you to help me shout about my publications.