Writerly Witterings May 24, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces, Journal, Novel , 9 commentsOoh, I’m feeling all popular today! And just a little bit important. The reason for such jollity? I have been tagged by Cally – and a writing tag, to boot! Crumbs, I have come over all ‘jolly Jilly Cooper’ for the occasion. In my usual mode of dimwittery, however, please do not be alarmed should I digress.
1. Do you outline?
Nope, not really. I have a vague idea of what’s going to happen but tend to take the organic, instinctive approach – aka making it up as I go along.
2. Do you write straight through a book, or do you sometimes tackle the scenes out of order?
Straight through. I make notes about scenes I want to include but, generally, I like the knock-on effect of events unfolding. Like domino toppling. Freefall. Parachute optional.
3. Do you prefer writing with a pen or using a computer?
Oh, Lord, my handwriting is appalling. Looks rather arty but is impossible to decipher. My scribbling would’ve been more effective than the Enigma machine, according to lovely bf. So, straight onto pc it goes. I can type 50 wpm which is a lot faster than my brain goes. Notebooks and scribbling only for poetry/notes/ideas/bits and bobs though.
4. Do you prefer writing in first person or third?
First, I think. Currently alternating as I can’t decide which works best. Not sure it matters, to be honest. I prefer to read work written in first person though. Seems cleverer, somehow! Maybe I’ll continue in first person then.
5. Do you listen to music while you write?
No, I can’t bear it. I like silence, stillness. My thoughts can be pretty riotous and that’s quite enough ta very much. Oddly, I quite like to hear the clatter of the keyboard. Audible proof that I’m writing, perhaps. I’ll sometimes pop on the music/radio that my characters are listening to though. They’re having a girlie dinner party at the mo and the main character is groaning inwardly at Katie Melua’s ‘pitiful childlike wailing’ (conservative hostess’s choice after Norah Jones). (Sorry Katie.)
6. How do you come up with the perfect names for your characters?
I make notes of names that I like, names that I loathe. I used to proofread school reports and found some amazing names. Fave: Dahlia. Chavviest: Shannelle. I had a customer once, terribly posh, whose surname was ‘Hardon’. But he was ex-army and always announced himself on the phone as ‘Major Hardon here’. Seriously. You couldn’t make it up, could you?!
Also, I can spend hours with this random name generator that gives the history and etymology on names from everywhere imaginable. A fabulous find. Was serious for a moment there. Hope you noticed.
7. When you’re writing, do you ever imagine your book as a television show or movie?
Absolutely! It always feels like quite a decadent, showy-off thing to do but I find it helps when writing dialogue in particular. I also have a soundtrack for each of my characters – the music they listen to is an important trait.
8. Have you ever had a character insist on doing something you really didn’t want him/her to do?
My characters are a willful lot! I find that they’re like rolling stones; I’ve created their general shape but they’re deciding for themselves which moss they pick up as they roll through the story. Secretly, I think that’s the best thing about writing. I love it when it all takes off of its own accord. As I’ve mentioned before, my characters have come out with lines that I’m actually stealing to use in ‘real life’. How bloomin cool is that?!?
9. Do you know how a book is going to end when you start it?
I think so. My characters might have other ideas though. Cheeky buggers.
10. Where do you write?
My study is the best place. It opens into the garden and, if I get up early enough, I can watch the sky change colour and hear the birds wake up as I tap away. I’ve tried writing on my laptop but it just seems to make me naughty. Plan: Sunday morning, laptop on sofa in sitting room, Something for the Weekend on TV. Relaxed writing. Words generally achieved? Absolutely sod all.
11. What do you do when you get writer’s block?
Writer’s block… hmmm… I just wait it out. Play out scenarios in my head until something goes ‘ping’. Reading helps. Actually, I find blogging a good kickstart. Oh, and I swear a lot, irritate lovely bf with speeches about how crap I am, demand wine and am a generally stroppy moo.
12. What size increments do you write in (either in terms of word count, or as a percentage of the book as a whole)?
I try to write at least 500 words in a go. My goes just need to be a bit more frequent! This snippet, for me, made writing a novel seem achievable:
500 words per day
= 3,500 words per week
= 14,000 words per month
Therefore
6 months to write an 85,000 word novel
13. How many different drafts did you write for your last project?
I’m hoping a second draft of the WIP will make it readable – I tend to edit as I go along. Yeah, lazy.
14. Have you ever changed a character’s name midway through a draft?
Only accidentally!
15. Do you let anyone read your book while you’re working on it, or do you wait until you’ve completed a draft before letting someone else see it?
I can’t bear the thought of it. Some of my work pals have read the first 2,500 words of the WIP but I found it mortifying. However, my boss laughed so loud in the staff room at one point, other people wanted to read it too, eeeeek!
16. What do you do to celebrate when you finish a draft?
I’ll let you know when I get there. Am hoping for a huge champagne-fuelled shopping spree. I will clearly be both rich and thin in 67,000 words time!
17. One project at a time, or multiple projects at once?
One at a time is quite enough – my temptation to tackle other things (short stories, articles, learning French, getting a new job) is generally due to procrastination.
18. Do your books grow or shrink in revision?
I plan to hack. Superfluous words suck. If in doubt, chop ‘em out!
19. Do you have any writing or critique partners?
Lovely bf is my chief critic and my sister was guinea pig when I was doing the OU Creative Writing course. Reasons: Little sis lives in Holland so cannot be wrestled during brutal honesty. Lovely bf is used to being clubbed round the head with a frying pan following ‘helpful advice’.
20. Do you prefer drafting or revising?
Revising is funky – sometimes I read a bit that I think is really good but can’t remember writing it at all. ‘How did I think of that?’ I chortle quietly, rocking in the corner… Writing can really make you go a little peculiar…
And I’m gonna tag JJ and Helen.
Frolicking with Le Freak April 7, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces, Journal , add a commentLovely bf took me out for an airing this morning. A little walk, he proclaimed, would be just the thing. Just the thing for what, exactly, I didn’t like to ask.
Hours, we were walking. Hours! I think it may have been a punishment. Yesterday, I was feeling a little high-spirited. A day in the sunshine, a pile of books, newspapers and my new found love: Le Freak. I was emboldened by Le Freak. Friskified, even. There was talk of lots and lots of sex to be had ‘later’.
When ‘later’ arrived I was, needless to say, totally and utterly conked out in some sort of car-crash position, dribbling onto a cushion and sporting a sunburnt face. Cue mumbling and slight swearing from lovely bf.
So. Today I have been taken on a very long walk. I am banned from more fortified freakiness of any sort.
But lovely bf is now in the garden, teaching the dog how to play golf. And I am here. And guess what is in the fridge, just steps away? Yes, my new love. Love should always be kept in the fridge. Keeps it fresh, don’t you know.
Oh Deer March 30, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces, Journal , 10 commentsHaving finally recovered from my recent corporate escapades (standing up, talking and holding my tummy in all at once) it was time for a reality check last night.
Thursday night rehearsal with the Orchestra of the Undead. I do so look forward to it, as you can only imagine.
I zoomed along, wondering whether a few hours’ blowing would transform my slightly sore throat into a touch of the Mariellas. Oh yes. Tomorrow I would be dead sexy. On the phone, at least.
KER-POW (as they say in Batman). A deer the size of an elephant leapt out of a hedge at 100 miles per hour. I jammed on the brakes. I shouted. ‘Get out of the way!’ I gave a little scream. I am a girl, after all. The deer did not understand.
Oh, it was horrible, horrible. I could see it in my mirror, twitching, lying in a shape it shouldn’t be.
Some men got out of their jeep thing. They attended to the deer which I had broken. I hoped they wouldn’t shoot it in front of me. The deer scowled and ran off. It wasn’t broken after all. Just a bit pissed off.
My car, on the other hand, is extremely broken. Smashed lights and the driver side so caved in that I cannot even open the door. More Mechanical Misery. Oh Deer.
My New Master Plan March 25, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces , 3 comments
Number 2 Son is A Philosopher March 22, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces, Journal , 6 commentsIn response to something or other on TV:
“You can’t just go round having fun all the time. You actually have to be happy too.”
Genius, no? It’s making me Think Things again. Oh ‘eck.
Patching Things Up March 17, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces, Journal , 12 commentsI went to the Outside World today. Brave, I know. I hadn’t even made an appointment. I just went. Got in my clapped out car and, vroom vroom, beep beep, tootled off to the patch of world known as Royal Tunbridge Wells. Crumbs, I’m posh.
Anyway. Lovely bf said we could go to the cinema, now that I have ceased with my phlegm-expulsion habits. We watched Becoming Jane. ‘Twas quite good. Not as good, though, as the adverts at the start. There was one which had someone sticking coffee patches on their arms. (It was something like that; I’d had a little drink or two with lunch and was having a spot of bother with my concentration department.) It reminded me of my friend who gave up smoking but took up sticking nicotine patches all over herself to stop her getting grumpy.
I invented a marvelous invention which I had quite forgotten. When considering the patches, I was rather disappointed that said patches came in only two flavours: fags and hormones.
My fabulous idea was for spliff patches. I’m sure they’d be quite easy to rustle up. A bit of spliffy-stuff and a plaster. How difficult can it be?
Prototypes can be sent in a plain brown parcel to:
Mitzy Raven,
Middle o’ Nowhere,
The English Countryside.
First class please. Pretty please?
Of winter loveliness February 8, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces, Journal, Writing Bits , 5 comments
Guess who’s been out to play with her camera in the snow?
It’s almost unbearably beautiful outside. Sometimes, just sometimes, a moment is so perfect, so still, that even breathing would vandalise it.
Am calm now. Shhhhhhhh…
Ah. Yes. January 31, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces, Journal , 6 commentsThis is me today. And quite a lot of other days. There’s just always something else, isn’t there?
Oh, it’s not fair. Why can’t I draw stuff like this? I think I have the wrong brain?? That would explain a lot really. Sigh. I used to use ’sigh’ a lot in email titles. And as stand-alone proclamations. But that was a different ’sigh’. I think that one still exists but just doesn’t get used anymore. Words are funny buggers, aren’t they??
