Happy Insecure Writers Day! #IWSG @TheIWSG

How quick does the first Wednesday in the month come round? At least I am not ill this time!

So where are we with my writing.

I sent New Beginnings out to agents and publishers and got a little bit excited when one of them asked to read my full manuscript. So I am more or less pressing send and receive all the time! I hate how long it takes for publishers and agents to respond!

While walking the dog yesterday I found myself day dreaming about my book launch… I am also going to an event tonight and meeting some authors and also a lady that I’ve sent New Beginnings to directly. I am really not sure how what your supposed to do in these situations, other than scream have you read my WIP, will you publish it! ALSO there, there is going to be another author whose books I love! OMG it’s crazy kinda stupid.

I am also back to writing again, so novel 2 is on its way i’ve been writing this differently I have been writing scenes and not the novel from beginning to end like I wrote New Beginnings. It has all the character’s in it from my first novel so all a bit exciting there.

Anyway enough of my rambling, on to the question of the month.

Whose perspective do you like to write from best, the hero (protagonist) or the villain (antagonist)? And why?

I guess in New Beginnings I write in the “hero’s” POV partly because as I wrote it I didn’t know who had done it or why they’d done it. In this one again it’s probably from the hero’s again.

I am not sure how I would even go about writing from the villain’s pov…. food for thought.

Thanks as always goes to to Alex Cavanaugh and his super team make sure we are all sticking to the rules and keeping IWSG going! Why don’t you pop along and join the blog hop! 

X

This Time Next Year…

Hey,

So I started this blog to diary my road to my publishing dreams. I have attempted flash fiction, joined a blog hop, moaned about my health, attempted some book reviewing and even attempted a 5 year journal (and failed)

At my last mentoring session at the weekend Rachel said by the end of the week I can start contacting publishers / agents!

And as this weekend the nominations for Crime novel of the year have come out from Theakston’s Festival. I felt that it was only right to mark this occasion by saying this time next year that will be me!!! I need to go on Davina’s tv programme

I have submitted already to two competitions and the third will go in also by the end of the week. I have my list of five agents and five publishers who I’m going to approach first.

Then I will begin the waiting game….

So hold tight….

IWSG Day!

Hey Guys

How do these days come round so quick!?

Since last months post, I managed to submit something to Rachel on Christmas Eve and it is now killing me awaiting her feedback. *goes back to refreshing email* so I am pretty much at a stop point. I’ve not looked at my WIP since Christmas Eve as I pretty much got to the point of not caring anymore.

I should use this time to rest but I need to be doing something. I have started to watch Lucifer on prime and I keep thinking about writing something new but I am just not really sure where I should start… I even joined the library in an attempt to get a book out on trafficking and failed to get past the first hurdle when searching there online catalogue.

Back to work today so I am sure that will bring with it, it’s own endless joy.

So this months question:

What steps have you taken to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?

When I first started working with Rachel she suggested that I aim to write 350 words a day, but I seemed to have not been very good at that either. I am lucky as I only work three days a week so I try to use Tuesday / Thursday’s for writing which is easier than it sounds.

I do thought use my laptop in the evening, so I try and do stuff then.

My biggest problem is you tell me what is wrong with my WIP and I will fix it, but trying to edit something I have no feedback on is the hardest part! I am so lucky to have been accepted by Rachel or I’d be totally in the dark not knowing how to move forward.

I hope everyone is well, and thanks as always to Alex Cavanaugh for holding the IWSG where we all come together once a month and discuss our insecurities and our successes over the past month.

C

IWSG Day!

How do these first Wednesdays of the month come round so god damn fast! I always think I will plan ahead and then it creeps up on me by surprise.

So this months questions:

As you look back on 2017, with all its successes and failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently?

For myself 2017 and my writing journey has been pretty positive, at the end of last year I sent my first application in for womentoring and sadly I didn’t get my first choice but she sent me some feedback which was ace.

Then I applied for someone else and got accepted woo! Which though this is a great thing I feel under pressure to perform.

I sent Rachel where I had got up to and we had a skype chat and she sent me on my way again I am not racing, well racing isn’t the right word to get my first draft done. But I have found more recently that i’m scared of getting to the end. When I used to write stuff at school my stories used to go on forever and never end, I think I forget that my WIP is already totally 87,000 and I need to give my characters a break! They want there lives back!!!!!

The biggest lesson I have learned has been grammatically! HONEST! I remember when I posted my first piece of work to Scribophile and got ripped apart I think to think I may have progressed from there?

I have this be all and end all date in my mind, when we go on holiday next year, but at the same time when I get a deal it won’t be the end will it!!!!!

I have also met online and offline some amazing authors again this year! Who I look forward to hearing more from and about in the future! My TBR pile has also ballooned! and in not a good way!

So going back I don’t know be more lively and friendly to other authors other than wanting to run and hide? Been more confident!? 2017 has been a positive writing journal that I can only hope will get better in 2018! Book deal here I come!

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IWSG Day is when authors come together to share there insecurities with each other and we all blog hop and offer each other advice. You can read more about IWSG Day here.

Creative Writing class 3.4

Hey,

I Usually enjoy my creative writing class, but over the last two weeks we have been doing editing and dialogue, which has left me stressed out about my WIP 😦 part of me is like just write and sort out later but it doesn’t work like that does it! Plus I could of possibly been writing dialogue wrong all my life JOY!

On the positive side, I thought I would share something that I wrote as homework.

My words were: Rainbow, Corn Beef, Elephant, Custard and Crystal

“You are going on holiday and arrive at the airport check-in desk. The person in front of you is repacking their suitcase when you see an unusal and suspicious item in their luggage

With today’s heightened security at airports I was keen to get a closer look, there was no point screaming and shouting if it turned out to be nothing. Plus I was sure they had dogs and x-ray machines to spot these sorts of things. As I tried to edge closer to see I was getting funny looks from people like I was trying to push in or something? There was an big Elephant in the room and I seemed to be the only one who was aware of it. Everyone else was busy discussing if they wanted Corn Beef or cheese sandwiches and whether they wanted Custard on their desert’s or not. This was airline food for crying out loud did it matter? As the women repacked her bag I noticed a Rainbow coloured teddy had been missed that was laying on the floor behind her case, this was my chance as I tried to walk over as casual as possible bending down to pick up the teddy the lady looked at me surprised with my sudden urge to help her after I had been watching her struggle for the past five minutes at least. The teddy felt heavier than I would have expected weighing it up in my hands I looked at her and her face began to drop as she realised what I was thinking. My husband gets cross with me, he says that I am never off the clock and maybe one day I should leave my detective inspector hat at home along with my ID card. But I guess this time he was wrong because who knows where those uncut Crystals would of ended up if I hadn’t spotted the shiny object in the lining of her suitcase, poor teddy though having his insides taken out like that.”

ISWG

A fellow author posted this yesterday the 15 stages you go through when writing your first draft and I was like yeah this post is really good and I can totally relate but by the time I had finished doing some writing yesterday I was back to this is shit!

I am according to Scrivner 56,742 words in! and I generally have no idea whose done it and why! I have an idea of why she was murdered to get to my MC, because who ever did the murdering was sending my MC items to make sure she knew who the body was. Now my MC is back in London she needs to figure out who it is. But shouldn’t I have left things in the book earlier in regards to who did it!? Would the bad guy go after the MC family who she has uped and left at home, so shouldn’t they be in danger? I just generally have no clue what I am writing or why I am writing it. The bad guy has sent the MC all these things and now she is back in London has suddenly stopped!? and is no longer interested till the author works out who the bad guy is! ARG I need a holiday / some help / something! Trying to discuss stuff with the hubby about police procedure for a start is a none starter! But maybe I should just make contact with those people I have mentioned in a previous post. I need someone, I need help!

Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

There is something I wrote years ago that I always think about, maybe it would work as a YA fiction, or maybe it is best left where it is as some of the characters have transposed into my current WIP