It was so hot here yesterday I ended up stripping down to just a nightie and flip flops to sit and work in. That felt both refreshing and quite liberating. I'm not complaining. The last house was the coldest house in the world and cost us a fortune to heat. At least that's one thing… Continue reading Wednesday 17 July 2019
Tag: The Beast Within
Busy writing, editing, proofreading …
My own work has become quite lax of late, with me either feeling very sorry for myself (tooth extraction) or concentrating on work for other people once again. (And I have toothache!) Last week I was busy finishing a "heavy proof" for lovely-already-client, and a new edit came in from lovely-new-regular-client. I was also approached… Continue reading Busy writing, editing, proofreading …
Goldthorpe Writers: “death at the pit-head”
I didn't go to the meeting last Monday because I already had a dental appointment, and one we'd been waiting for for a long time. I had an email from the library anyway, saying none of the others could make it either. So I didn't miss very much. This week, we had apologies from two… Continue reading Goldthorpe Writers: “death at the pit-head”
Diary of a Novel: plotting the murder
I haven't been completely idle since 10 June when I last updated the novel-writing diary. Aside from completing three large editing projects for a client, I've also started work on a pocket novel and joined a new writers' group. Yesterday a short editing job arrived all the way from Hong Kong, from a new client.… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: plotting the murder
Diary of a pocket novel – and an oxymoron …
I've always wanted to write a pocket novel. There are two of our weekly magazines who publish pocket novels (PNs) – or apx. 39,000-word novellas – and as far as I know they both publish something like two PNs a month. The word-count requirement fluctuates, but they're roughly 35,000 – 45,000 words long at one… Continue reading Diary of a pocket novel – and an oxymoron …
Diary of a Novel: advance character work done
Over the past two weeks, including the weekend, I've been quite busy doing a client edit that turned into a major rewrite. Writing uses up most of my creative energy. I gave up teaching because that depleted my supplies too. I try to just copy edit rather than development edit or rewrite so that I… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: advance character work done
Diary of a Novel: special characters – part 2
Okay, at the start of this week I'd hit a brick wall and was struggling with whether or not to have a "supporter" character in my story. I've been playing around with this all week, shuffling between various scenarios. Could my supporter also be my opponent? Could Marcie's mom be both cheer-girl and devil's advocate?… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: special characters – part 2
Diary of a Novel: special characters – part 1
Now, when I say "special" I don't mean "special" as such, I mean "other important characters not mentioned already". According to Ron D Voigts and Writing the Killer Mystery, these "special" characters consist of the following: sidekick opponent supporter My "sidekick" was easy. That's going to be Woody (aka Mark Palmer/Woodstock) from Night Crawler. He was… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: special characters – part 1
Diary of a Novel: the suspects
The intention was to take The Beast Within away with us on our recent holiday and do some work here and there ... Unfortunately, we were so busy enjoying ourselves that the story was completely neglected. Fortunately, before we went away, I did some extensive work on my suspects. The first of my suspects was always going… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: the suspects
Diary of a Novel: the killer
I had a lot of fun working on my killer this week. Wednesday was the day I did this work, and I didn't even reach the end of the chapter in Writing the Killer Mystery for creating the killer. I was itching to get creating. This story, The Beast Within, has been stewing for many… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: the killer
Diary of a Novel: the victim
Details of the victim have been percolating in the back of my mind this week, while I did other stuff. When I finally came to sit down and write the ideas up, I was surprised at how much I'd learnt about her. (I'm not throwing out any spoilers, remember. This will be on the book… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: the victim
Diary of a Novel: the sleuth
I didn't get very much work done on the novel at the weekend as we did shopping and gardening on Saturday, the poet had a gig Saturday night, and we were out all day Sunday, walking. Saying that, I did start work on the characters on Saturday morning, writing 85 words. This was mostly writing… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: the sleuth
Diary of a Novel: Great beginnings
I didn't do any more work on the novel on Tuesday, so I wrote the grand total of 197 words, bringing my running total to 464. Instead, I carried on with the edit that I'd started on Monday. I worked on that all day Wednesday as well, and most of Thursday, submitting it yesterday teatime-ish.… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: Great beginnings
Diary of a Novel: 2 April 2019
Having abandoned – temporarily – Catch the Rainbow, yesterday I started work on The Beast Within: a Marcie Craig mystery. Marcie Craig is the main protagonist and amateur sleuth in my first novel Night Crawler. Whereas that novel was set in a pub where she works as a rock DJ, this story is set in… Continue reading Diary of a Novel: 2 April 2019
“Orbiting” projects
Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply to last week's post – here, on Facebook and elsewhere. The general consensus is that I finish the book and, on the whole, I agree. But while the case continues, I think I'll leave it on ice. I have other stuff I can be getting on… Continue reading “Orbiting” projects
What took them so long?
*** AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION REQUESTED *** For the past four weeks there has been an inquest into the Birmingham pub bombings of 1974. Much of my book, Catch the Rainbow, was set against that period. Some of the plot hinged on speculation and suggestion behind the atrocity on my part. So far, quite a lot of… Continue reading What took them so long?
Getting organised – so many piles of work!
Today I thought it might be a good idea to get myself organised. I have so many different projects on the go, it was time to weed some out. But before doing that, I wanted to put them into their own individual piles. Here is how my current Work in Progress (WiP) is looking (sorry… Continue reading Getting organised – so many piles of work!
NaNoWriMo rules, OK
About a year ago ... actually, exactly a year ago, I was preparing for NaNoWriMo 2017. I had a book contract under my belt for A History of Cadbury and I'd learnt how to use Scrivener. During NaNo I wrote that book and spent the following months (between other work) editing it, polishing it, submitting it,… Continue reading NaNoWriMo rules, OK
Diary of a novel: The Beast Within (Week 2) – planning work
We took last week off for the bank holiday. The last time we booked time off was a fortnight in June, when the heatwave was at its height. But we didn't get to enjoy a single moment of it as we were moving house. So we decided to take last week off. And this time… Continue reading Diary of a novel: The Beast Within (Week 2) – planning work
Diary of a novel: The Beast Within (Week 1) – planning work
I didn't have a lot of time in week 1, which I already knew about. I had two appointments in the midlands that took out two complete days, and I had editing work to do on the three days I was in the office. Saying that, I did manage to do some planning work in… Continue reading Diary of a novel: The Beast Within (Week 1) – planning work
