TEACHING AT THE WEA

Here is yet another picturesque scene from my morning run which didn't even put me out of breath today but only because I had to keep stopping. The paths around the block were too icy and the fields slippery with soggy mud so walking was much safer.

The run gives me time each morning to think about the tasks ahead and today I had yet more paperwork to do and my teaching plan for the WEA to finalise ready for the first of my creative writing courses which begin tomorrow evening.

One is held at Sleaford RC Church Hall on Wednesday evenings between 7pm and 9pm starting January 16 and the other is at Fydell House, Boston on Tuesday afternoons between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.

The aim is try and get people writing and confident to write. I'll be teaching them how to generate ideas, develop characters and themes, plus how to plan their writing and learn to critique effectively - which is always useful in helping your own writing to come along as well as that of other people whether the work is a short story, a script or a poem.

Fydell House is also the setting for the 20th Century Crime comparative literature course I'll be running from next week, Tuesday, January 20th, between 10am and 12 noon. We'll be looking at the crime novel past and present and comparing novelists Peter Robinson, Raymond Chandler and Val McDermid and how their work differs, or is the same in parts. Much has changed since Chandler penned his first novel in 1939 and it will be interesting to compare his work to that of the two modern bestselling authors - both, like Chandler, have seen their work adapted to the screen.

I hope the snow stays away, or at least doesn't get any worse. One thing that does put people off from going out is bad weather, especially on Lincolnshire's rural roads, and attendees are vital for the courses' success.


The Boston Standard gave the courses a mention HERE so if you live in and around the neighbourhood why not drop in and get involved. I guarantee you will be inspired.

More information about courses, how to enrol, fees and concessions, can be found at the WEA link above.

SNOW DAY

The snow has finally landed. It's been promising to arrive all week and last night it started. The odd light snow flake led to powder dust cover on the land yesterday morning, with heavier snowfall overnight which made running a bit tricky today. I managed to negotiate my way around icy patches but there were times when I had to stop and walk because it was too slippery underfoot. The run wasn't really challenging because of it but I still enjoyed getting out there.

It was a good job I went early because now the snow flakes are huge and sticking more easily to the ground. I do have a nice view from my office window, as you can see above, but I'm still trying to avoid distractions so I'll try not to stare at the fall for too long.

Distractions, or procrastination, plagued me on Saturday when no more than a few thoughts about dialogue between my flawed heroine Lou and her bully boss Sharp came to mind. I told myself off for not doing more and then set to work yesterday to try and move my crime novel along.

I now have six chapters framed so the beginning of the book is starting to take shape. I've been listening to my characters and adapting my plot slightly to ensure their world stays realistic.

Today, however, distractions are necessary because I have work to plan for my teaching that starts this week. I'm really excited about the creative writing and 20th century crime literature sessions I'll be holding for adults in the community. The journalism course is slightly different this year so there is much to do in preparation to ensure it all goes smoothly.

Meanwhile, my husband is not very keen on this thick snowfall. As he helpfully reminded me, our roof leaks. Although it was bodged to hold it up until better weather came, and the funds to fix it properly, the extra snow weight could mean disaster.

That's certainly taken the romance out of this year's picture postcard winter scene.

UPDATE :

It snowed heavily all day and I tried not to look and dream out of the window, or worry about the roof which has held up so far, but stayed on course and got all of my tasks done. By the time my head came back up from my paperwork and computer, the snow had thickened and left quite a clichéd blanket outside.

I even managed to frame chapter seven of the novel. I reckon that now gives me a good start and the beginning of the middle of the story. I now need to go back and rewrite, make those chapters fit, and make them tight, and then it will be on to what I think will be the most painful part of writing as I tease out that middle and look towards the end of my story.

THE LAST SNOWS OF SPRING

I ran this morning but stopped in my tracks half way round the block at the sight of a single flash of colour that burst bright pink through the fog. It was a cherry tree and the only one in flower. Two green and yellow finches (I think) were picking at the grass at its base. They scattered on my approach into nearby trees that had the first new black buds pushed up from naked branches.

It was freezing but I didn't mind standing around to take in what nature had to offer as I got my breath back. I got that weird fleeting sense of summer around the corner from Spring. It's a smell you can't put your finger on. It isn't a scent - more of a sense that things are changing and will get better in time even though winter is not quite done with us yet.

The windmill in the nearby fields looked like this the last time we had a very heavy snow flurry which is supposed to be revisiting us again. I wonder how I'll run in that. I pondered on it all during my usual breakfast of tea, toast and cigarettes and then set off on a productive working day.

I finished the first draft of chapter three and outlined the scene for the next one. I've got my victim Jo where I want her but I need to get into the mind of her captor. He doesn't say anything in that scene. His actions speak louder. All I will say is that he doesn't rape her, he seems to have no interest in that. He hasn't shown much of himself yet. Perhaps I was in too much of a good mood to get into a degenerative mind so I left him and Jo for now to pop back to Lou's world to see what she's up to.

Chapter four sees Lou is in the office with Sharp, her obnoxious hard-nosed editor. He's more worried about the town's elite and advertisers than hard-news and he blames everyone else for falling circulation figures. He's sadistic, greedy, and cruel. He enjoys humiliating his reporters and making their lives difficult.

I've got to lead Lou into the investigation and forward into the middle of the story. The characters are galloping onwards but I'm not sure they're going anywhere so I have to rein them back in line with the plot. I'm prepared to be flexible if parts don't work for the characters as they develop, but I must ensure that they do go forward and this book has action and purpose. I must not fall into the trap of allowing just an array of characters to strut their stuff.

I'm working from the beginning on the 20,000 words I've got down so far. The devil is always in the detail but planning in scenarios that I've imagined so far doesn't always fit the tune the characters sing as they go.

The chapters and their content will change. For example, should that running girl be seen first? Perhaps that escape could come later. Most critique I've had on this book suggests the setting is the strongest feature so I might start there. Some readers like to be led to the action gently rather than taken to the heart straight away and others like to see the crime first and then how it's solved. I suppose all of this will play out as the story progresses and the time comes to look at the best way to present it.

I'll think on that a bit more when I go out on my run in the morning and then see where my writing takes me when I get back into my story.

PROMISES, PROMISES ...

I love the lamp that I got for Christmas but it does remind me of the promises I made to myself to stay on track and write my first crime novel.

Today is, after all, the day when most annual resolutions are broken.

I didn't run this morning and I haven't written a word or had a thought about my book. After a staff meeting in town I had errands to run, and a few calls to make, so I excused myself because I did a fair bit of walking instead.

I didn't write because my head was filled with tasks of the day which included sending off a copy of my book Devils Let Loose to a publisher to consider a re-write and a re-publish. I'm also researching another writing business project that I'll need publishing help with so thoughts and ideas on that have taken up most of my brain space.

Sadly, what bit was left was used to distraction on Facebook. I enjoyed a discussion about my exotic lamp but I also got involved in political debates when I promised myself that I would steer of that subject this year.

I blame Twitter for drawing me in after work - but then if it hadn't, I wouldn't have known that today is the day that I was destined to break the pledges I made to myself.

Ah well, we're all human. Tomorrow I'll get back on with the job and that is to write up the scenes I've created so far for the novel and see where they fit into chapters.

THE BONES OF CHAPTER THREE

Chapter Three has begun but I haven't posted it because there's more work to do before I can call a first draft finished. It follows the (now improved chapter two) argument between Lou and her ex Neil, who asks for her help, and it revisits the running girl whose desperate bid for freedom opens the book, and who we later learn is Jo - the sister of Lou's love rival Jacqui.

We see Jo waking up to find herself back where she started, wanting to be defiant and not give in, but overwhelmed with complete despair. I'm trying to get inside her head so the chapter is filled with all that convoluted stuff as I work my way in to the crux of her dilemma.

There are some clues as to why she is there but I'm not sure yet how much I want to reveal about that. As I explained in the post below, it's still important to get it down and then I can think about where in the book I want to get it out.

I want readers to know Jo's alive but I also want them to feel her fear and sense of lost hope that she isn't going to escape from this. Jo is strong, so she won't give up easily in her fight for life, but I only want to give bits of the picture and build up the danger for Jo so the reader fears for her throughout the book as my flawed heroine Lou stumbles her way to solving the mystery.

Lou finds the old murders that have started again after a 10 year break, of mutilated women killed in their own fire ravaged homes, is relevant to Jo's disappearance. By following the plot thread from one end, Lou will take the reader to the other end of the book and find out whodunnit and why. Those things I know but what I don't know yet is how my characters will react to the journey ahead of them in finding that out too. Today's writing has been an exercise in testing what I have in store for Jo and what characteristics she needs to cope with that.

Real work beckons tomorrow and Friday so time for writing will no doubt be brief. My busy period is about to begin so I need a new writing routine. When I studied for my MA, I worked all day, came home, had tea and then worked all night. I think this book will take the same kind of dedication if I am to stick with it to the end and reach my June deadline but at least these skeletal chapters are helping me on the way.

Writing can be murder so it's no wonder that the crime genre fascinates me the most.

GET IT DOWN - GET IT OUT

Image from here

I've had some useful feedback on Chapter One and Two of my crime novel over at the Writer's Café with honest, harsh and encouraging criticism given freely by two separate reviewers.

All my usual sins are mentioned such as cliché, galloping or moving on at a snail pace, syntax and sentence structure, bad grammar, convoluted writing or over descriptive scenes. I agree with most of it and I know I'm guilty of complicating or cluttering up scenes that would have more impact with a simpler approach. I think I'm still at the stage of getting it down as it tumbles from my head, rather than getting it out into a structured and engaging story but my voice is in there and will, eventually, come out from the debris.

Often the creative side of my brain ignores grammatical demands and the need for fine prose as I write. Addressing those aspects comes much later in the process for me. It's just the way I do it. Of most importance when I start any project is to the get ideas and thoughts down that later develop into characters, plots, and themes. Next is to worry about the technical aspects of how they all fit, interact and come together to tell the kind of story that has the reader gripped and wanting more. Stereotypes or clichés help me to recognise what I'm creating as it goes down but I take the margin further into originality as I try to get it out and that comes after the initial sketch. I think that's where both chapters are at present - half sketches of the first design stage of the foundations of my project.

Convoluted sentences and clutter that amass as I write will be culled as the fine artwork of the book develops. They're really strings of thought that help me to feel my way through the story and the experiences of the characters. The stuff I hate to lose is stored in a "Redundant Info" file to be used elsewhere in the same project or in another if it fits.

I'll bet all writers see their glaring faults after a break from the intensity of getting their ideas down into some form of structure when they go back time and again to tease out and show, in the best way they can, the story the are trying to create.

Useful as it was, the harsh criticism over at the Writer's Café put me off writing today. Writing hurts as any successful or amateur writer will testify because so much emotion or passion is invested in it. Keeping updated blog posts on my novel's progress means I have a duty to stick at it and not get put off at the first hurdle. Tomorrow I will start chapter Three and move ever onward to the desired end of 300 decent, workable pages. I need new chapters, however convoluted and clichéd, to inspire new thoughts and words with hopefully more purpose and direction as my story unfolds and reveals more about how to get to where I want it to go.

In other words. I'm still getting it down but it may be some time before I get it all out.

STAR JUMPS AND WRITING

Image from here

As I suspected Grandaughter No 1 wasn't that keen on the morning run when she stayed overnight at the weekend although she did want to come out with me and did.

It was cold and foggy and we ran a quarter of the way around the block when she announced that she'd had enough of running so we walked but as it was very cold she couldn't wait to get back to the warmth of home.

"You know you don't have to go out and run Granny," she told me. "You can stay in and just do star jumps."

She then proceeded to show me and said, probably much to her very busy mum's consternation, that she was going to do them herself every morning and get mummy to do them too.

Star jumps don't build up stamina and staying inside to exercise is not as nice as going out and tasting the cold air so my regime continues. Sadly, my writing today has fallen away but only because of other work that has taken precedence.

A feature due to appear in a magazine in a couple of weeks' time looks like it might fall through for legal reasons which is a bit of a blow but these things happen although it has put me off freelancing features and why I'm looking for a more permanent,stable and reliable position where I can enjoy using my writing skills on a daily basis.

I'm also working on my teaching plans for the adult education course I'll be running from next week until March and of course my University journalism part time teaching course which starts again in the middle of this month.

I did, however, finally manage to get the first two chapters of my crime novel loaded up on the Writer's Café site so that is still progression of a sort I suppose.

Meanwhile, as my workload over the next three months begins to build up then writing on my novel will have to eat into the evening hours if I am to stick to my regime.

If only writing was as easy as star jumps, I could get Grandaughter No 1 to do it for me - especially as she has told her mum that when she grows up she wants to be a writer like Granny and do shorthand.