When writing's exciting

For most of the time, writing can feel like an uphill slog. You simply have to keep your bum in the seat and your pen in your hand (or fingers on the keyboard, depending on how you work).

Yes, there are occasions when I can legitimately NOT write, because I'm giving a talk, attending a book fair, or perhaps a workshop fro my own benefit; that's all still part of being an author, but it's not writing.

But most of the time, you're actually writing. And ultimately, it's a grind to get the story down, to create something that a publisher's going to want to publish and readers are going to want to read.

During that process, any author will tell you that they recognise certain stages. Here are mine:

1. Enthusiasm.

Particularly relevant to the early stages of working out a story, when ideas seem ten-a-penny and you can't get the notes down quickly enough. Notebooks are strewn around the house, with weird jottings like 'Name change!' or 'find out about cheesemaking' which make you wonder if you were suffering from temporary insanity. But you don't stop - you trust they'll all make sense at some point and be vitally important to the story you're creating. (Beware - this stage can also develop into 'Researchitis', when you get so bogged down in finding out facts to use in your story, you forget about the actual story...)

2. Hard work.

Thrashing it out. 'Growing' the story. Asking yourself questions until you're absolutely certain of this character's motivation or the time of day in that scene. Seeing the story develop into something you've got a real hope with. This probably covers my notebook version, when I'm working the story out in a general sense, and the 'shitty first draft on computer' stage too. It'll also carry me along quite comfortably to a little over half way through the 'first proper write up' on computer, where I'm beginning to edit fairly closely to produce a decently presented and structured version of the novel. Then...

3. The stall. 

You reach a point where, whichever way you turn, you can't see how to make the darn story work. All those great ideas you had seem really stupid now, and you need to fix them. But every resolution you think of churns up a new issue somewhere else, and the story begins to morph into a massively complex beast and you can't tame it. So you stop. Or feel discouraged. Or wonder how on earth you ever thought writing this novel was going to be a good idea. (And also the point where I'm most likely to give up on a story, though it's not happened that often. If I do give up, I hate that the story has 'beaten' me.)

4. Excitement.

I have to force myself back to it, ignore the stall. I'll go over what I've already written, editing the obvious things, but essentially familiarising myself with the story again. When I reach the point where I'm writing new stuff, I've probably rewritten or tweaked a fair proportion of what was already down and causing me issues. I'll have spotted plot holes and stunted dialogue or inconsistencies, made notes on how to address them, and the excitement begins to build as I continue. It's all becoming clearer in my head, the writing's flowing, and I'm then at a point where - quite suddenly - the momentum of the story is carrying me along, and I can feel the pressure mounting and my character's are doing their best to make things right but things are going wrong and there seems no way out for them and then - POW!

5. The Finishing.

There's a resolution. Everything's not necessarily finished, but the story ties up in a logical place and it feels - finally - complete. Like a real story at long last.

6. The proper edit.

The simple (hah!) act of going over the whole story and polishing it until it's glowing.

At the moment, I'm working on Tilda 3, and I'm at the fourth stage. In fact, I'm only taking time off from it now to tell that I've reached it because I'm SO excited! It's getting very Jason and the Argonauts, and Tilda's right in the middle of the action, heading full tilt towards a climax of GIGANTIC proportions.

It might still be a few weeks before I reach the fifth stage, but it feels close. A lot closer than when I was stuck at stage 3, anyway.

For now, I'll keep writing...

No, that's not Tilda - that's Jason!

Socks

My home town has a historical link to hosiery. Sadly, the factories have closed now, and there's very little hosiery production - if any - left. We do have our 'Sockman' though, a quirky statue in the market place who sits admiring a single sock on his outstretched leg.

I'm doing my bit to keep the hosiery link alive though, as I've had a bit of a binge on the old sock-knitting front recently.

People often say they must be complicated to knit, and I'd have to say that yes, it takes a while to get to grips with creating a sock, but once you've got the knack, it's really quite easy. I have one pattern that I use over and over again - I know exactly how the end result fits my feet - and I've mastered the art of holding the four double ended pins so I don't get in a tangle.

They're an easy project. Portable, quick (I can knit a good half of a plain sock in an evening while watching TV), and rather addictive. There are so many beautiful colourways, they seem to grow really quickly when the wool keeps changing colour. I now have so many pairs of hand knitted socks, I can do a complete wool cycle wash, just for them! They are so much better for my feet - I have had chilblains perhaps twice since I began knitting socks about ten years ago. Previously, it was every single winter... Woollen socks (most are 75% wool) last a lot longer too - I've not thrown any out yet.

Also - complete bonus - they give me thinking time when I'm stuck on my writing.

So, if you're interested, here are a few I've made since the autumn...

The wool for these were all gifts. The centre and right pair are the most beautiful merino wool, so very silky to wear, and hand-dyed. The rainbow striped ones have a very thin silver lurex thread, which makes them sparkle. 

All of these have lurex thread in, too. The blue-purple I knitted for my mum for Christmas; had to undo the toes and take them back a little, as I'd guessed the size slightly wrong! But that's the beauty of these socks - they take very little effort to make them fit correctly. The red-green, I knitted for Squidgeling J, also for Christmas. The final ball is a purple-grey-pale lime mix that I'm going to knit for myself at some point. Have decided you can't beat sparkly toes...

I've only knitted one purple sock so far - that wool was a pressie at Christmas. The West Yorkshire Spinners random green was picked up on the way to Bristol; we have to stop to plug Sparky in to get us all the way there, and there's a shopping outlet with a charger AND a super little wool and yarn shop. So each time we've stopped there, I've been tempted by new colours and have succumbed to a ball. Or two. I liked the fact that in the case of WYS, I'm supporting the British wool industry as well - not many places hereabouts stock this particular brand. 

Now these have a story behind them; I was asked whether I'd be willing to make a couple of pairs for someone. She preferred handmade socks but was unable to source them from the family member who used to knit them for her. And - this shocked me SO much - she'd have to pay around £20 a pair if purchasing via Etsy. Seriously - £20 a pair! (Mind you, if the wool costs around £8 a ball minimum, it doesn't give the knitter much per hour of knitting...) I said yes, checked her shoe size and knitted up a pair of odds-and-sods fairly quickly. Forgot to take a pic of those, but she loved them, they fitted - hooray! - and I agreed to knit up two more pairs from wool she'd already bought. They're the ones in this pic. (The blue-grey ones are cabled, but shhhh, don't tell her! She's not picked them up yet.) 

Before you ask, no, I'm not going to make a habit of knitting socks for other people!! For a start, most people's feet are bigger than mine, so it takes longer. Secondly, if I'm knitting, I can't write. And thirdly, my fingers can get quite stiff if I do too much in a period of time (like two pairs in a week). 

I enjoy knitting socks, but I'm going to have to ration buying the wool. I have a bagful of leftovers - I could probably keep myself in odds-and-sods socks for the next ten years, without adding any extra colours. 

See what I mean? I did use some of the stash to knit little stars to use as decorations on my brown-paper-wrapped Christmas gifts this year, but it's not made much of an impression on the pile. 

Maybe I can allow myself to buy one ball a year? Oh, and if I'm bought a ball, I won't refuse it! 

NaNoWriMo 2019 - sickness and success

I decided to have a go at NaNoWriMo this year to work on Tilda 3, and get the first draft up on computer. Previously, I've done NaNoEdMo for myself, which meant that I had a manuscript fairly well developed already, and I worked on editing throughout the month instead of fresh work. This is the first time I've used a NaNo initiative to create relatively new material.

I'm just over half way through, and here's where I'm at:

• written for 15/17 days
• just over 22K words down to meet a target of 50K
• predicted to finish on Dec 8th

It doesn't sound bad, especially when you consider that the two days I've not written were a combination of sickness (lovely little coldy-coughy bug in the run up to Christmas) and family events (had both the Squidgelings at home with a short overlap - first time we've all been together since September, and family's sometimes more important than any goals we might set for ourselves.)

What's a little worrying at this stage is that I'm almost at the end of the story, and there simply aren't the words to make it a decent length. BUT when I looked at what I've written, I realised that I'm not actually 'writing' the scenes. They're more like notes on what's going to be happening, they're not fleshed out in any way, shape, or form. So I'm hopeful that if I hit the end of the story before the end of November, I'll be able to go back and really work on the individual scenes.

I've never been a particularly disciplined writer, but this particular NaNoWriMo has highlighted to me that I don't work well in trying to be creative under pressure. I think I need to take more time at this stage, and use the discipline of NaNoWriMo to focus on the editing. That said, I'll carry on this month, without feeling guilty about having missed the odd few days or ending up with a completely finished script at the end of it. 

Interestingly, when I did CampNaNo in June, we were able to set our own word count target, and as I'd turned mine into a 'words edited' target, perhaps I had unrealistic expectations as to what it meant to write 50K new words...I mean, Kingstone took 74 days to get the story notes down, and another 60+ to get to the point of a 46K first draft!

Do I think I'm being successful so far this NaNo? Well I've written more days than not, and my word count keeps increasing, so yes. It will be interesting to see where I'm at by the end of the month...I'll keep you posted. But right now, I'm off to get the 2,000 words down NaNoWriMo tells me I need to get back on track!

Quilting capers

Apologies to Quorn Country Crafts, but this is very late getting written up!

I went to a quilting exhibition a couple of weekends ago, organised as a charity event by QCC in East Leake. You may remember I'd been before, when the shop was still in Loughborough. This time it was held in a school hall.

To give you an idea of the size of some of the quilts

Many were for sale

It's always good to see quilts others have designed and sewn, as they give you all sorts of inspiration for future projects. This time, I think there were more 'picture' quilts than ones focusing on mixes of colours, which just goes to show how trends and fashions change. Especially when it comes to the use of machined details and applique.

Here are some of my favourites from the day...

Lovely overlapping squares in monochrome

Another optical illusion - love these colours

I loved the lime green with the aqua

Some needlefelting too...

3D butterflies and a fabulous elephant

Twelve months in applique

A thought provoking message with this one

A fleecy quilt, rather than the usual cotton

Loved how the strips framed the central panel

I've never mastered circles...

More fun applique

Lots of machine-stitched applique and embroidery in the panels

Loved these colours

Lots of machined lace as embellishment

Completely hand-stitched...

...and a lovely pattern

My absolute favourite though, was a quilt made entirely out of denim, and slow-stitched, Japanese style. It was such an obvious labour of love, with hours of work going into all the hand stitched details and decorations. It didn't have straight seams, because the denim and indigo fabrics were pieced together fairly randomly, and I loved the individuality of it.

 Afterwards, I had to stop by the shop, of course. I haven't got any fresh projects in mind (I have two quilts on my bed, one in the spare room, Squidgeling T's quilt's in Manchester, I've done two lap quilts and was very, very close to finishing Squidgeling J's quilt) that I mooched for a bit and gave in to a pack of tiny squares (might be OK for a cushion cover), some Christmas project fabric, and a charm pack in lovely pinks and aquas. Perhaps another lap quilt...?

I was inspired to go home though, and finish binding J's quilt. It is the first time I think I've ever been dressed in the colours of a quilt as I've bound the edges!

Love putting the binding on.

Colour co-ordinated quilter!

Close up of the 'squircles' quilted on the top

Mr Squidge, showing off the full size quilt.

Then I took some fabric I'd had for ages - with the aim of using it for cushion covers in the lounge - and cut it all into strips to make a kind of DIY jelly roll. I'd seen a video where you can make stripes along the length of a quilt rather than across, and the way it goes together is rather random. Now if I've learnt anything about myself and quilting, it's that I'm not very good at random. I like to lay everything out and get a balance of colours before I start, so this is a bit of a challenge. I'll keep you posted...

 

Bits and bobs of news

Been a busy few weeks with family and church 'stuff', so here's a few bits and bobs you might find interesting!

Tilda.

The launch went well - Tina was a fabulous host at the Bookshop, and even got me involved in recording a piece about Tilda for the Merton Talking News October Magazine... I pop up at around 7 minutes into the recording.

I had some lovely surprises in that folk popped into the shop I hadn't expected to see at all, and it was lovely to spend the day chatting to old friends and new about all sorts of things. Course, I sold a few copies as well...

If you read Tilda, do please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads; word of mouth is the best form of recommendation, and there are some banging reviews up already. (Five stars!)

Family.

We've been down to Bristol to fit secondary glazing in Squidgeling J's flat, because the old sash windows were so drafty. My cardmaking skills of days gone by came in useful, especially when we had to peel the backing off the double sided sticky tape. All went well until Mr Squidge fitted some shims to prevent the plastic being ripped off when the windows were opened; when he went to test it, he realised he couldn't.

We'd forgotten that once the plastic was on and shrunk, there was nothing to hold onto to open the window! An emergency visit to Wilkos and three handles later... Voila! Opening windows.

Combined with the new boiler that's been fitted in the flat, Squidgeling J is now toasty in time for the winter.

We also went up to Manchester in the same week to see Squidgeling T - he came home with us for the weekend. As is the way of things, we didn't see too much of him as he caught up with friends at home, but it was good to hear about how his course is going. He's not developed a 'rock star' look yet, but there was passing mention of tattoos and piercings... *gulp*

Word Art.

At NIBS in September, the group worked on an 'I remember' exercise focused around people we had loved and lost, with a view to turning it into an artwork for a community project exhibition at church called 'The Art of Remembrance'. On large sheets of paper, we wrote some of the words and phrases we'd generated, often with a more artistic arrangement, and then the large sheets were chopped up.

Well, this week, I've been helping Jacqui Gallon, the artist who is facilitating the exhibition and associated workshops, to sew the paper onto fabric to create the final artwork.

A DIY MA in Creative Writing.

I've taken the decision to work on a course designed by the amazing Andrew Wille with a group of Denizen friends. It's basically everything that goes into a formal MA course, but you can work through it at your own pace. We've tried to structure it a bit, timewise, and I've attempted a couple of exercises. Only problem is that I don't seem to have much writing time... 

So, to that end, I've just bought myself an academic diary to try to plan my writing a bit better. The 'free' days I had hoped were going to be writing opportunities are getting eaten up fast by lots of different things. And yet developing writing practise is a big part of the MA - it almost feels like I'm failing before I've even started. I've been here before though, when life gets in the way and writing's always - ALWAYS - the first thing to get shoved onto a back burner. I would do NaNoEdMo again, but I'd have to set myself a very, very low word count!!

Anyway, I'll stop rattling on here, and get down to writing up an overheard dialogue exercise... If only I hadn't been so interested in eavesdropping, I might have written down more of the conversation!

See you later, Scribblers.

One-of-a-kind

For the launch of Tilda of Merjan, I thought I'd run a special competition. Anyone who comes and buys a copy of the book on the day will have a chance to win a unique, one-of-a-kind book.

I'm not a particularly good artist, but...I drew a map of Issraya on one of the front pages. And then I added sketches, mostly at the end of some chapters. Some even got coloured in. 

And then I thought, 'what the heck', and hand wrote a short extract from book 2 on the end papers at the back.

Intrigued? Here are a few pics to satisfy your curiosity.  

But remember, if you want to see all of the sketches and enter the competition, you need to pop into the Old Curiosity Bookshop and Tea Room in Hathern, sometime between 10am and 4pm on Thursday 17th October for the launch...

From bookworm to author

My lovely publisher, Bedazzled Ink, shared this on facebook today:

As I prepare to launch my third novel into the world this Thursday, I realised it's 100% true for me.

I don't remember reading as a child, pre-school. I know we had books, and Mum and Dad must've read to us, but my first memories about books are from my school days. When I started school, aged 5, my teacher called my mum in, to ask whether she'd been teaching me to read at home. When my mum denied it, the teacher told her that I was always going missing - and I'd always be found in the book corner. Somehow, I started reading.

I remember Peter and Jane books, and a whole series related to Roger Red Hat. I remember being so annoyed with the latter, as they brought out a version that was spelled phonetically; I knew how you should spell 'was' - and it wasn't 'woz'.

The primary school library was in three parts; the reference library was triangular, and sat at the junction where the corridor split to go to the infant classrooms to the left, juniors to the right. Just before the corridor split, there were two more library areas either side of the corridor - infants on the left, juniors on the right. I can still remember the giddiness I felt when I was allowed to go into the junior side, even though I was only in 'top' infants. The only book I can remember reading there was 'King of the Copper Mountain', still a favourite of mine. At home, I was devouring Enid Blyton's 'mystery' books, and climbing the Magic Faraway Tree. I also went on adventures with a couple of brothers whose sole task seemed to be capturing rare animals for zoos. Very un-pc nowadays!

At secondary school, I started branching out. I used to get the Bunty comic, but moved onto Jackie. I read James Herbert and scared myself silly with 'The Rats'. The library was mostly under ground level, with windows high up in the walls. I loved 'Sue Barton', a series about a nurse in America, and added another to my collection every year on holiday. I read Barbara Cartland, and anything else that took my fancy from the mobile library that stopped at the end of our road on a Friday evening, just before tea time. We were allowed six books at a time - I was usually back within a week, looking for more.

When we went on holiday, we children were allowed to take three books each. I'd often finished mine and ended up reading my brother's and sister's books AND bought something new at the beach shop in Whistling Sands before the end of a fortnight in Wales.

I read in my teens, but I don't remember what. 'Katherine' is a title that stands out from that time, and I think I must've read widely but without anything making much of an impression. I worked my way through a lot of Reader's Digest condensed books, which introduced me to memoir as well as fiction.

In the end, it doesn't matter what I read, or what I remember reading. The important bit is that every single book I read got me to where I am now, and I hope that, one day, someone who read one of my stories as a girl will go on to write something as a woman.

That's the kind of legacy I'd like to leave the world.