Persistence is a writer's true friend

Writing. Sometimes, it’s like stumbling around in the dark. Every now and then a light comes on so I can see where I am and where I’m going and then it goes off again. And never more so when life is full of changes and this last month seems to have dealt out more than its fair share.

It’s times like these when real life intrudes that persistence is the writer’s true friend because the writing road is never straight and flat. It’s up and down with bends and bumps and obscured by the fog and the dark.

And then there are the temptations that draw me from my writing. The internet, the housework, never am I more inspired to vacuum than when the writing is going badly!

When the going gets tough and the words don’t come, I’m easily distracted. So I have been retreating to my local library to escape both the temptation that is the internet and the ever increasing number of things that seem to be dominating my time. For some reason, I’m able to hold out from logging on at the library. It’s worked a treat and with the RNA Conference at Harper Adams University coming up in July, I need to get the work done. So here’s to libraries. What better place to be inspired to write than in a place surrounded by books?

A Week of Writing Differently

It’s amazing how a word or two can spark an idea or a change. Ask anyone and in particular a writer and the thoughts and inspiration that flow from the right word at the right time can be amazing. That right word or phrase can come from anywhere – an overheard conversation, a line or two in a book or paper, even the TV. For me, two weeks ago, I saw something on Twitter. It wasn’t a huge piece of writing advice or “how-to” but a quick snapshot of a writer working with her laptop from her car.

The idea swam around my head for a while as many seem to do before I gripped the nettle and had a go. But rather than being stung, I was surprised.

Monday saw me writing by the Menai Straits complete with hot chocolate. The view was amazing but the glare on the screen wasn’t great. Undeterred I was determined to try again the next day.

On Tuesday, I found a spot in the shade on the farm overlooking the rhubarb. It was a bigger success.

Wednesday saw me at my local library where despite a large group of children and parents singing nursery rhymes, I achieved a decent word count.

Thursday was a snatched moment meeting up with my friend and fellow writer Melissa Morgan in Llanrwst. No view but very productive!

To round off the week, on Friday I was in Menai Bridge.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be one of those writers who retreats to their favourite cafe with a large drink although the idea is eminently tempting. But what I have learned over my week of writing differently is that change can be good and that getting away from my desk (and my internet connection) can be far more productive                                                                           than I had imagined.

So I have to thank Laurie Benson for her post on Twitter. A few words sparked some good ideas and got me writing.

The Generosity of Writers

We hear about the kindness of strangers but what about the generosity of writers?

I’d read An Unsuitable Duchess by Laurie Benson which is book one in a three book series about the lives and loves of three titled men in Regency London. All three books are stand alone. I loved An Unsuitable Duchess and eventually worked up to approaching The Unlaced Book Club on Facebook. Soon after I joined, they held a giveaway and I was lucky. I won an Amazon gift card courtesy of Laurie and a copy of her e-book An Uncommon Duke which is the second book in the series. To say I was chuffed to bits was an understatement. Unfortunately, no doubt due to my lack of digital know how, I couldn’t open the e-book.

Not content to leave me with just the voucher, she very generously sent me a pack of goodies including a signed copy of An Uncommon Duke all the way from the US. It arrived today and I’m on page 97 and hooked.

Thank you so much Laurie. It was so very kind and generous and I can’t wait for more of your books.

Her third book - An Unexpected Countess - is out in June and I've pre-ordered my copy.

It’s been a long time since my last post. Despite knowing that doubt is the biggest hurdle to creativity, my writing’s been plagued by self-doubt for months. From questioning whether the idea is good enough, the conflict sufficient to carry through the book and my writing style enough to interest the reader, there seems to be a recurrent theme of whether my writing is ‘enough’. But every now and then something happens to make me sit up and think.

Part procrastination, part research, I have buried myself in a variety of books and found if nothing else absolute confirmation of the kind of book I want to write.

My love affair with happy ever afters began with Mills and Boon many years ago with a book called the The Duke's Secret Wife by Kate Walker. Ever since then I have been hooked on the drama between alpha men and the women who can match them, the intensity of falling in love despite knowing it might not be the wisest of moves from a self-preservation point of view and the happy ever after.

There are some books that stay with me, some books that I read in a day but do they stay for the right reasons? There are books that promise a love story but that then take the most emotive step of killing off either the hero or heroine and stealing from me my happy ever after. I can’t help but feel cheated.

Since I always read in bed just before I turn out the light, I want something to send me to sleep hopeful. Like a good long chat with a close friend, good books have the power to put the world to rights. Life is hard enough.

When I first started writing, I was asked why I write romance. My answer was and still is to experience that heady feeling of falling in love again and for the simple joy of it. That doesn’t of course mean it’s easy! It has however confirmed where my aspirations as a writer lie. Writing has the power to give so many emotions and as a writer, I want the main one to be uplifting, to create a smile and to know that I have written something that people will turn to when they want to pick me up or a few moments of simple escapism.

All I have to do now is get on and write it! That means throwing off a crippling fear of failure, silencing the crows of doubt, gagging my inner editor and ignoring that ever present suspicion that what I write is absolute rubbish. No small feat. But as I keep hearing, the only certain step to failure is to give up.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

This time of year brings out so many different emotions and unfortunately one of them is usually stress as we try to create the perfect Christmas. So one of my favourite times of the year is that pause between Christmas and New Year. The mania of Christmas has passed and New Year hasn’t happened yet. I can put off the thought of making any resolutions and the rush of getting back into my stride which inevitably involves the school run and lunchboxes hasn’t yet landed in my lap.

This pause is just the time for long walks along deserted beaches and a chance to review and rethink and inevitably that means my writing. Am I writing what I want to? Am I enjoying what I’m writing? A year ago, the questions would have been very different with the focus of a publishing contract with Mills and Boon very much at the forefront of my mind and certainly the bar by which I measured my success. I can’t help but believe that writing in that way was restricting. Writing should be its own reward as an idea is created and perfected to my own standards.

So I’m going to enjoy this pause and let the winter wind blow away my preconceived ideas of what success means to me in my writing. The idea of just writing and letting my subconscious take me where it wants to go in the story, telling myself that my writing is just for me (unless I choose otherwise), is so appealing and freeing that I can feel the joy and enthusiasm returning just as warmth returns to cold fingers.

Sometimes life makes us pause and the pause can be good for us.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

A New Book

I think that there are several things that happen when a writer starts a new book or a completely fresh project, some of them good, some bad and then there are some that come along just at the right moment. So today's inspiration struck me as totally apt as I start writing my new book.

We're bombarded by information every day but there's something about being told to 'just write' that's freeing. The idea of writing a book, all 55,000 words in my case, is daunting. There's so much to consider from the conflict to plot to a convincing emotional journey and I've been guilty in the past of trying too hard and not letting the characters tell the story they want rather than what I want.

So I'm going to try and remind myself that - first drafts don't have to be perfect and in almost every case they're not. They just have to be written. I can edit it better later.

Variety is the spice of ... writing

We all know that feeling, that gut instinct that things aren’t going as they should. Oh, we’re putting the effort in, so that’s not the issue, but the cause of that niggle won’t go away and it’s stopping the words from flowing.

If you don’t know what I’m on about, I’m very envious, but if you do, take heart. I’m convinced there’s a Eureka moment just around the corner and it will appear at the moment I least expect it.

I’ve been writing on a regular basis now for five years and I’m lucky enough to have a designated writing space, albeit in the family study surrounded by everybody else’s books and stationery as well as my own. The silence combined with the knowledge that this is where I write is so much of a comfort that it has become my own personal writing cave. I still dream of the private log cabin in varying locations, some days on the beach, some days in a forest, but this space is mine, at least until the family come home.

And until recently, it’s been working beautifully.

Then things changed.

A knock to my writing confidence and the crows of doubt began to circle without mercy pecking away and finding fault. Suddenly my writing cave wasn’t the haven it had been, my work in progress ground to a halt and each time I sat down to write, I felt like I was dragging the reluctant words out. It certainly wasn’t flowing and desperate measures were called for. The trouble was this meant change. My writing self shuddered.

I changed the time when I wrote as well as the place and, the biggest shock of all to me, consciously abandoned my beloved silence.

It’s still early days but the music seems to have silenced the crows of doubt and my subconscious appears to still be in shock by the change of routine in place that the words are beginning to flow again. After all, I can hardly wait indefinitely for inspiration to strike!

It seems a writer’s life is just like any other: the only thing we can count on is change but variety can hold the key.