Tag Archives: Interviews

My Writing Process Kat Dunn

Posted on by
  • What you have written, past and present

DANGEROUS REMEDY was my debut novel, published in 2020. MONSTROUS DESIGN is the second in the series, out June 2021, and I’m in the midst of writing the third and final book in the series, 

Before my debut I wrote a whole host of finished, part-written and completely abandoned novels, none of which I let myself take seriously.

  • What you are promoting now

MONSTROUS DESIGN is the sequel to DANGEROUS REMEDY, and comes out 10 June 2021. The first book in the series saw Camille, her girlfriend Ada, and their band of outcasts rescue a girl with strange powers from the guillotine in revolutionary Paris. In the second book, the gang is split between London and Paris struggling against Royalist forces that are growing ever stronger. Think duels, necromancy, betrayal, and a cast of queer, found family misfits.

  • A bit about your process of writing

I work a 9-5 day job, so I write evenings, weekends, lunch breaks and early mornings. It’s not always been easy to find the time to write, and I’ve had to put aside other aspects of my life to make it work. But I’ve been writing since I was a small child, and there’s nothing else I’ve ever wanted to do with my life.

I usually have anything from 5-10 ideas fermenting in my head at once, but I try to focus on 1-2 projects at a time. I’ll usually write a draft in 3-4 months, go back straight away and fix all the bits I know are wrong, then chunk it over to someone else (whether my editor, agent, or a friend) to get some more direction for the next round of edits. 

  • Do you plan or just write?

I used to think I was a planner, but the more real planners I meet the more I realise I’m somewhere between planner and pantser.  

It feels like someone’s dumped out a jigsaw puzzle into my brain, and I have some pieces that are obviously corners or edges, or here are a whole heap that connect together to make a building or cloud or something, and then there’s the mess of unknown pieces. So I’ll try to write the bits I know out in a very sketch note form. I like scrivener for this, because I can make a document for each puzzle piece and then start grouping them and moving them around, while making notes of all the things I think should happen in that scene. 

Then writing it is like putting the puzzle together. Sometimes it zooms along, sometimes you realise what you thought was a cloud was actually snow and it’s in the wrong place and you have to pull things apart…. You get the idea. 

  • What about word count?

Apart from a few outliers, I end up somewhere between 80-110k for most drafts. Things grow and shrink during edits, but I don’t have an over or under writing problem. I write the right number of words, they’re just the wrong words and have to go in the bin.

  • How do you do your structure?

I really love books about story structure. I don’t think there are really any hard and fast rules (and a lot of those rules are western-centric and automatically dismiss other forms of storytelling). But I like knowing what sort of patterns are out there, and pulling them apart. 

DANGEROUS REMEDY and MONSTROUS DESIGN are fast paced stories that take place over a handful of days each. I didn’t get to play around with structure too much, but I did use the structure to think a lot about what information I share with the reader and what I withhold until the right moment. I love a good twist and to make them work you’ve got to do a lot of work before you can whip back the curtain and reveal the truth. Having a clear idea of my structure helps me work out where I need to lay seeds. 

  • What do you find hard about writing?

I’ve found it tricky know how to structure stories that are driven by emotions and character over big flashy plots. I’ve been working on a side project where this has been my main challenge and I’ve learnt so much. It’s made me think about my writing in a really different way and prove to myself that even though I’m a published author now, there’s still so much more to do and learn.

I find editing harder than drafting. It stops being potential and starts being a real thing, which will always disappoint me a bit for not being exactly the thing in my head.

  • What do you love about writing?

I had to think about this for a while. It’s like someone’s asked me what do I love about air. I like that it means I can breathe? I’ve been through a lot of difficulty in my life, and for a lot of it been on my own, so writing has been as essential as water or sunlight. It means I can exist. It gives me purpose and meaning and joy. 

If I have to say something specific, I think my greatest joy is when character drives plot and plot drives character in a really effective way – a slow burn character arc that takes a hero to a villain. I love writing in moral grey areas, where good people do terrible things and terrible people do good things.

 

My Writing Process Helen E Field

Posted on by

The Mystery Shopper & The Hot Tub , Helen E Field, writing, writer, how I write. My mother once told me that when I was 10yrs old I informed her I was not going to have a ‘boring life.’ Well, I guess I must have succeeded because according to most people I know, I have led a very interesting life. Important for a writer I think. To me, I’ve just lived it exactly how I wanted – a free spirit if you will. ‘work hard, play hard’ could well be my motto. I started writing funny poems about all my classmates at school from the age of ten and I haven’t stopped writing them ever since. I have a business writing bespoke funny poems for and about people and I used my ability to write these funny poems to publish a range of greetings cards. I also began a journal at ten and nearly 50 years later I am still writing it – I have an old sea chest full of them! At school I was often picked out by my English teacher to stand up in front of the class and read the essay I had written; the one that I recall even now, was entitled ‘The Goldfish Who Could Speak.’  The class were in stitches!

I left school at sixteen and worked in retailing and hospitality. I started my own hospitality training consultancy in 1998, training managers and staff all over the UK, Europe and USA and speaking at conferences. One strand of the business was to design and implement mystery shopper programmes. It was the trigger for my debut novel ‘The Mystery Shopper & The Hot Tub.’

I have three incredibly talented grown-up children and a saintly husband! Pre-Covid, we embarked on some serious travelling around the world – clearly curtailed for the past ten months but we’ll be off again as soon as we are permitted! 

What you have written, past and present.

I have had numerous professional articles published in various hospitality publications over the years. One article in particular when published was deemed ‘an important academic paper’ which thrilled me, given I’d never gone to university. I wrote the entire article in one hit of 8,000 words in one evening and they didn’t change a single word! 

I completed The Mystery Shopper & The Hot Tub last Autumn and am currently writing the second book in the series, which I hope will be out by late Spring.

What you are promoting now.

I am promoting my debut novel The Mystery Shopper & The Hot Tub, for which I also wrote a free download called ‘The Big Dilemma’ that readers can access at the end of the book. It is women’s humorous fiction. I would say that you have to have a sense of humour and not be overly politically correct to enjoy it!

I do not have social media – my choice – which makes promoting a bit more challenging. I’m a face-to-face kinda gal and would much prefer to talk about the book in person or on the radio, but Covid has put a stop to that.

A bit about your process of writing. 

I don’t honestly think I have a process. I just write when I feel like it for as long as I want to. When I’m really in the flow, I can write for hours at a time without stopping. If I don’t feel like it, I don’t write. It’s pointless. When both my brothers were diagnosed with prostate cancer and my mother developed Alzheimer’s all in the same year, I was very flat and exhausted. I just couldn’t write ‘funny’, so I left my manuscript for a year and went back to it, when I felt more in control of things.

Do you plan or just write?

I would say I was more of a ‘seat of the pants’ writer. The only thing I could remotely describe as planning, is that I decide what I want the ending to be and kind of work out how to get there! My stories are very visual – a number of readers commented that they thought the book would make a great TV/film. I often think of ‘scenes’ that I know I want to include – particularly the mystery shopping assignments, which have been based on real life assignments that I have actually done myself or been de-briefed about by an assessor. They are very funny, not least because they have actually happened.

What about word count?

I never even considered word count when I started writing my first book. I literally just wrote it exactly as I wanted. When I finished it was around 120,000 words. I discovered afterwards that that was a lot of words for a book of my genre. I had to do some ruthless editing that made me weep as I removed whole chapters and chunks of writing to get it down – even now it’s around 105,000 and 443 pages long.

This has provided me with a problem I hadn’t anticipated.The print cost of a book of this size is significant, but to sell at a price similar to ‘competing’ novels I will be making very little money indeed on paperbacks.

Big lesson for me for book number two – keep an eye on word count!

How do you do your structure?

I am a story teller and I think my book reflects that. I never sat down and thought ‘how am I going to structure this novel?’ I just wrote the story it as it came to me. I would get to the end of a section and think, OK so what would be really funny to happen now? Then I wrote it. On editing, I made a few changes if I thought that the flow of the story wasn’t quite right, but really nothing major.

What do you find hard about writing?

I really don’t find anything about writing hard. I genuinely don’t understand writers who say they sit at their laptops struggling to get words out. I write so prolifically and easily it’s a mystery to me.

What do you love about writing? 

I love making up stories. It’s a bit like being a child again I suppose. In the real world we can’t pretend, but in stories you can create whatever crazy characters and wild incidents you like. It’s like creating escapism for yourself and for others to enjoy and I do like making people laugh.

Advice for other writers. 

My genuine advice to other writers is likely to get me into trouble from the many organisations that offer writing courses, advice, manuscript assessment etc etc. It is easy to forget that it is in all these people’s financial interests to tell you your writing isn’t good enough. For me there is only one group of people who have the authority to tell me that and that’s my readers. No-one else matters.

I can truthfully say that if I had read all the articles and advice about how to write before I started my book, I would never have written it. I would have been paralysed by indecision over absolutely everything. Never in my life have I come across such contradictions, nonsense rules, imposition of politically correct notions or subjectivity,  in an industry. This became the main reason I decided to go down the self-published route. 

I came across a quote many years ago, which I had printed on cards and gave them to my children as a good rule to live their lives by. It’s not a bad one for writers either.

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” 

Leonardo da Vinci

The Mystery Shopper & The Hot Tub is out on the 14th of January and is available from amazon.co.uk

 

 

My Writing Process Glenda Young

Posted on by

Glenda Young, author, writer, The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon by Glenda Young is published 1st October (£7.99, Paperback, Headline)

1.      A bit about you.

My name’s Glenda Young and I’ve loved writing ever since I was a child. I live in the northeast and my novels are set in the coalmining village of Ryhope where I was born and bred. You don’t need to know the village to enjoy the books, which are gritty and dramatic and have a feisty, young heroine at their core. All of my books are stand alone books and you can read them in any order. 

I’m a life-long fan of the soap opera Coronation Street run two Coronation Street fan sites – Corrie.net online since 1995 and the Coronation Street Blog which was launched in 2007.
2. What you have written, past and present.

I’ve written six novels to date published with Headline. The first four are now available and these are Belle of the Back Streets, The Tuppenny Child, Pearl of Pit Lane and The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon. Still to come are The Paper Mill Girl and novel six which has the title to be confirmed. The novels are gritty sagas, inspired by my love of soap opera, really dramatic with lots of action and some great women characters!

I’ve also built an impressive reputation as an award-winning short story writer.  Plus, I have an unusual claim to fame! I’m the creator of the first ever weekly soap opera Riverside to appear in The People’s Friend, the longest running women’s magazine in the world. My short fiction has appeared in magazines including Take a Break, My Weekly and The People’s Friend. In 2019 I was a finalist in the Clement & Le Frenais Comedy Award.

As a life-long fan of the soap opera Coronation Street I’ve written TV Tie-In books about the show including Coronation Street: The official colouring book, Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street, A Perfect Duet. The Diary of Roy and Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street, and have written major updates to Coronation Street: The Novel and Coronation Street: The Complete Saga.

3. What you are promoting now.

My fourth novel is The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon. It’s a dramatic, gritty story set in a small village in 1919. It begins with a new born baby girl being left on the doorstep of a very grand house. The baby is left in a basket that has a scarlet ribbon tied around the handle. The housekeeper of the wealthy McNally family takes the baby into her care and names her Jess. Sworn to secrecy about the baby’s true identity, the housekeeper brings Jess up as her own, giving Jess no reason to question where she came from. But when the housekeeper passes away, grief-stricken Jess, now sixteen, is banished from the place she’s always called home. With the scarlet ribbon the only connection to her past, will Jess ever find out where she really belongs? And will she uncover the truth about the ruthless McNallys?

4. A bit about your process of writing.

I write in the mornings when I can concentrate better. I stop for coffee and have a break, do some thinking and then return to writing. I try to write 2,000 words per day. I find I’m much more able and creative in the mornings than in the afternoon. I live close to a lovely beach so I walk on the beach in the afternoons or go for a bike ride. This helps clear my head after writing all morning.

5. Do you plan or just write?

I always plan, even if it’s just a short story I’ll make a list of say, ten things I want to include from start to finish. I plot and plan loosely as I think all writers know that once you start writing your work takes on a life of its own and you should go with the flow to a certain extent. I liken my plotting and planning to building a frame on which to weave my words. It’s always flexible to change as I go but I always have a structure in place so I know what I’m doing and where I’m going, even if sometimes I go off on a side road for a little while.
6. What about word count?

For novels it’s usually around 100,000 words and for short stories for women’s magazines, it can be anything from 700 words up to 3,000 and beyond.

7. How do you do your structure?

For my novels I take sheets of A4 paper, one for each chapter and lay them out on the floor. Then I take my plot points and spread them out on post-it notes across the book, moving them around until I’m happy. Then I type up chapter plans, just a couple of paragraphs for each chapter so I know what I’m doing within each one. Then once I start writing, characters appear I never planned for, incidents happen I never envisaged and the book takes on a life of its own. It’s quite scary how it happens and I don’t truly understand it. Perhaps that’s the secret?

8. What do you find hard about writing?

Switching off. When I’m writing a novel it’s all encompassing, my entire concentration goes into my work for the duration I’m writing it. I’m living in that world and I love it, it’s all I can think about as I immerse myself into the story.

9. What do you love about writing?

Everything! From getting that initial spark of an idea to seeing my books on the shelves of the bookshops and getting amazing reviews online and in the press and on radio, etc. There’s nothing I don’t like.

10. Advice for other writers?

Never give up. Never.

http://glendayoungbooks.com

@flaming_nora on Twitter.

Niall Edworthy: My Writing Process

Posted on by

Niall Edworthy

I have been writing in one capacity or another since I finished studying thirty years ago. I worked as a reporter for broadsheet newspapers and international news agencies Reuters and AFP in the 1990s. In 1996 I was commissioned to write the Official History of the England football team. The following year I was invited to ghostwrite a travelogue for actor David Jason. Soon after I gave up journalism and focussed on books. I live in the Downs above Chichester, commuting down 14 steps to my, ahem, fancy office (converted shed, no sun after 11). When I’m not writing, I tend to be reading although I’m suffering a little reader’s block right now, unable to settle on a title and bouncing back and forth between half a dozen on my Kindle. I pursue all the boring middle-aged activities, sometimes with passion, more often with relief after a day at the computer. I cycle a lot up in the hills, and I have grown to love gardening and cooking – semi-mindless activities that allow my brain to drain after writing. If the Test cricket’s on, I have to chain myself to the desk and resist the temptation.

What you have written, past and present.

I have written over 40 books, roughly half of them ghosted for well-known public figures or ‘ordinary’ people who have had extraordinary experiences. I have written memoirs, military history, sport, humour and natural history.

What you are promoting now. 

My first novel, Otto Eckhart’s Ordeal. It is hard to slot into a genre but if you were in a bookshop (remember them?), you’d probably find it in Historical Fiction. Set in 1937 and based on a true premise, it tells the story of an aimless, young historian dispatched by the Nazis to go fetch the Holy Grail for the glory of Germany. It is a coming-of-age, adventure story with a dash of romance and, dealing with some grim characters at a grim period of history, I have tried to write it with dark humour.

A bit about your process of writing. 

I’m reasonably methodical. Once all the research is done and the story laid out loosely but with direction, I go at it every day if I can. I need momentum and I need to be deeply immersed in the world I am describing or creating. It’s no good grabbing an hour here or there. I need a good long stretch for each session. I start early, between 7 and 8, and tend to work through to a late lunch. If I have written a good amount I often feel drained and don’t go back to my computer. If it’s been a frustrating effort and I haven’t got much down, panic propels me back to my keyboard.

Do you plan or just write?

I am a planner, but the plan changes a little every day. I think it’s important not to plot too hard, and to keep all options open. I read a good description recently that sums up my approach: Starting a book, you are at John O’Groats heading for Land’s End but not entirely sure of the route you are going to take.

What about word count?

Big difference between fiction and non-fiction. If all the research is at my fingertips, I average about 1,500 words a day for non-fiction, but can push to 2,500. With fiction, I’m delighted if I have 1,000 words in the bank at the end of a session.

How do you do your structure?

As clearly as possible. Structure is everything in building a story. You are reminded of the challenges facing the architects and engineers of skyscrapers – if they are an inch out at the bottom, it won’t be long before the building starts to lean and they have to demolish it and start again. In fiction, structure is more flexible because the characters will soon start to take you to places and scenarios you hadn’t foreseen.

What do you find hard about writing?

Where to start? Lack of company – not being able to wander over to the water-cooler for a good moan from time to time. Anxiety about money – it’s not the path to fabulous wealth. Fretting about the next project while I’m deep in the current one. The time it takes to set up new projects, writing proposals, pushing them on publishers, knowing all the effort may come to nothing. (The writing itself is the easiest and most enjoyable part of the process.) The occasional jerk on Amazon, who writes an ignorant, cowardly and malicious review. Why bother torpedoing someone’s huge effort to produce a book? It’s not personal.

What do you love about writing? 

Again, where to start? I like the independence. I like not having to commute, to set my own agenda. I’m writing this in my shorts and slippers with very un-combed hair wondering where I might cycle this afternoon in the glorious autumn sunshine. On the actual writing, it’s a great feeling when you know in your bones you have written a passage that will stand the reader’s scrutiny. A cricketer who has played the perfect cover drive will recognise the feeling.

 

Advice for other writers. 

Know what you want to say before you write. Short sentences. Be bold. Find your voice. Get up early. Trial & error is the only way to learn – most writing is more effort than inspiration. If you have a setback, dust yourself down and keep going. Have a second source of income. Read as much as you can to immerse yourself in words and expand your range of reference.

 

My Writing Process Taryn Leigh

Posted on by

writerMy Writing Routine

I try to write whenever I can have moments alone, which are long enough for me to take my mind into the world of my characters.

Because writing currently isn’t my full time profession, this means that I cannot have a formal writing routine, but instead have to write when I get the chance.

My name is Taryn Leigh, and I’m a South African based Author, whose first book was published in the UK.

Although I write books that are considered to be romance or contemporary fiction novels, I try to ensure the reader can walk away with something of value after reading the book. Because of that, my books deal with real life struggles that women endure.

My first book was called Perfect Imperfections, and is available in Paperback, Audiobook and on Kindle.

My current book is called The Secret Letters and launched on 09 August in Paperback and Kindle.

What you are promoting now. 

My latest novel, The Secret Letters, which deal’s with real topics of gender based violence, and the mental battle that comes with that.

It’s also a story of love and hope, and how to overcome your worst nightmares, especially in the arms of someone who loves you.

A bit about your process of writing. 

I look out for stories that peak my interest, and then I let them mull over in my mind for a while, as I start to imagine the lives of the characters, as if they are real people. Only once I feel that they feel real to me do I start to put pen to paper and plan things more formally.

Do you plan or just write?

I have a very broad plan. Mostly the main characters and main events. I normally know how it should start, when the big reveal should be, and how it should end.

The rest, I just write and see how the characters develop over time, who they meet, and what additional relationships are formed.

What about word count?

I am conscious of it, but more towards the end of the book, because if I worry about it the whole time, I won’t get the story out.

I aim for 80,000 words or more, that can then be edited down during the editing process.

What do you find hard about writing?

Finding time to be alone, the rest, I absolutely look forward to.

The other part is editing and writing a blurb. It seems so hard to condense over 400 pages into a few lines.

What do you love about writing? 

Meeting my characters. Might sound strange, but they feel like real people to me. They make me laugh and cry as I write their stories. They take me on adventures, I just love it.

Advice for other writers

Find your own voice and be authentic. Don’t try to write for the mainstream. You need to believe in what you are writing and the story will just flow.

Also dont give up, even when you feel stuck in the book, just keep going, it will all come together eventually.

 

My Writing Process Rachel Billington

Posted on by

A bit about you. 

Place matters to me. In books and in life. I’m a hybrid: city and country, I need both. London, always London, apart from two years when I worked in New York and met my husband, Kevin, there.  In 1968 we bought a fourteenth century house in Dorset. We still have it. I’ve always written. I edited a magazine when I was eleven. I published my first novel in my twenties. I have to write every day. When I had four children in day school, I still wrote. I can’t imagine how people manage without writing. Now I have five grandchildren and my youngest wrote a book so I illustrated it. That was a surprise. From 1998-2001 I was President of PEN. I am Associate Editor of Inside Time, the National Newspaper for Prisoners. I write for every issue. I have always reviewed and written comment pieces for various newspapers.

What you have written, past and present.

I’ve published over thirty books. 23 novels, last 3 historical, Glory – The Story of Gallipoli and Maria and the Admiral. My favourites before that are A Woman’s Age, Bodily Harm and Lies and Loyalties. All very different subjects which publishers complain about. I have also written six novels for children, including Poppy’s Hero and Poppy’s Angel, about a girl whose Dad is in prison. Plus four religious books for children and a sequel to Jane Austen’s Emma.

What you are promoting now. 

Clouds of Love and War is about a Spitfire pilot in WW2 and a young isolated woman. It tells the story if their love affair against a background of war. Eddie wants to escape the world and reach the clouds. But he hadn’t counted on killing. Eva wants to paint and she wants Eddie. The war makes their coming together rare and remarkable. 

A bit about your process of writing.

Until my last book, I wrote longhand with a pen (black ink) and then paid a friend to put it on the computer. Once it was there I went through many drafts, editing down, particularly the opening chapters because I like to write forward without doing more than minor corrections until I’ve finished the whole book. This means I am over-writing early on and self-editing as I progress. 

Do you plan or just write?

It depends on the book. Longer books need more planning, chapter by chapter, bit shorter books can be freer. Often I know everything except how the story will end. But sometimes the ending is what inspires me to write the book. Characters come first of all and continue their wayward path through the book. When their personalities change, I change their names. Sometimes I’ll run through three or four. I write to surprise myself.

What about word count?

Again it depends on the book – or rather on the subject, although my books were much shorter when I started writing, one was only about 60,000 words while Glory was well over the 200 hundred mark. Circular books tend to be shorter, books with a strong narrative flow longer. The book I’m working on at the moment, They Were Sisters, is about 120,000 words.

 

What do you find hard about writing?

I find it all difficult but absolutely enthralling.  I do find it really hard when my characters are suffering. I wrote a novel called ‘The Missing Boy and found the thirteen year old’s unhappiness horribly upsetting. I long to write books with happy endings but seldom achieve it. 

 

What do you love about writing? 

I love being totally in charge of interesting people and events, but totally on my own. I love the look of a blank page – or blank screen. I love the way I challenge myself to make my brain imagine and invent.  I love the excitement when an idea comes into my head; my heart beats as fast as if I was running. I love using words like an artist uses paint. I love the balance of certain sentences, like a musical phrase.  

 

Advice for other writers.

Write! If you’re not sure what to write, write a diary. Write every single day. When you do set off on a bit of work, finish it. This very important. Anyone can begin a piece of writing but not many can get to the end. Keep at least something about it secret. Great ideas can dissipate if shown too much light of day. Only show it for criticism when you have gone as far as you can. Never despair. Often the best writing comes out of the worst. Good luck!

 

My Writing Process – Roger Bray

Posted on by

 

I was raised in Blackburn, Lancashire and served for ten years in the Royal Navy before coming to Australia in 1983, after I returned from the Falklands. Writing is something I have always enjoyed and fiction was a favourite.  I loved being able to write anything within the bounds of the particular subject and not be restrained by anything except my imagination.  One restraint I did learn at school was other people’s perceptions of what is age appropriate for a juvenile to be writing.  Apparently graphic death scenes weren’t. 

My writing stayed in the background for many years until I was invited to write short stories for a couple of magazines which were well-received.  I then dabbled with a novel for a couple of years before getting into my stride and writing my first publication The Picture.

At the moment I am halfway through my fourth novel, currently untitled.  It is a story set in the UK and across Europe and deals with sex trafficking and organised crime from the perspective of an investigative journalist who is fighting his own battle with past tragedy while trying, against his better judgement to report what he has found.

As with all my novels I come up with a very broad idea of where I can see the story going.  I write and rewrite parts and scenes in my mind until I see a path then I commence.  That is how far I plan, maybe I’ll do some research at the start to get me on the right track but broadly speaking, once I start I write linearly.  I stop and research as I go and edit sections before moving on.  My word count is whatever I manage for the day but overall I aim for 90 – 100,00 words for a novel +/- as the editing progresses from me to beta readers and to my editor.

My basic day of writing would be re-read what I had last written, editing as I go.  I find this gets me back into the moment.  I then continue and write until I run out of steam or find myself veering off or woffling to pad out the chapter.  Either way that is the end for the day be it 3 or 8 hours later.  Rinse and repeat the next day until finished.

The hardest part of writing isn’t any sort of blockage, though they happen but I tend to get over them by just writing — sitting down and writing, getting words onto the page is, I have found the best solution.  Even if what you have written isn’t great it gets the process moving along and gives you something to edit.  It is difficult to edit a blank page.  The hardest part for me is staying within the storyline.  I have some great ideas which, unfortunately, don’t fit the arc, but I can waste hours trying to make them fit because I think they are so good — usually mistakenly.

In my current novel I have edited the first 2/3 of the novel to delete some of these great ideas I had but have turned into a bit of a millstone later on, something I have to be firm about.

I find the least enjoyable part is the whole process from writing The End onward.  There are lots of moments of doubt once I release my latest to a broader audience (broader than me and my wife’s cat).  Is it great or is it rubbish?  Typos – the bane of my life, plot holes or bits that grate when read?  All these things need identifying and fixing.  Nothing wrong with having any of them, that’s life as a writer but the process of sorting it out is no longer writing, no longer imagination and art.  It’s a drudge.

Any advice I can give? Keep going — you don’t fail until you stop trying.  Writer’s block?  No such thing — keep writing through, it, you can edit rubbish, you cannot edit a blank, tear stained page.

Website https://rogerbraybooks.com/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rogerbraybooks/ 

Twitter https://twitter.com/rogerbray22 

My Writing Process – Ada Bright

Posted on by

First, thank you very much to Frost Magazine for inviting me to be here, specifically during this week which is quite a big deal for me!

My name is Ada Bright and I am a writer born, raised, and still living in Southern California.  I make a point of it because I’ve learned that alot about me can be traced to this little factoid. I am laid back about life and stressed about that three pounds I gained in 2017, I don’t own a coat that can withstand temperatures below 68 degrees Fahrenheit, foodie menus float my boat, and I am very leary of how you store your dishes considering the fact that I’m ready for the earth to roll and shake beneath my feet at any moment. Also, I’m married to a very cute, blue-eyed guy who gave me no blue-eyed children (0/3), I have a photography following, and my mother lives with me and still does my laundry (but none of this stuff can be blamed on California living).

Today, September 12, Canelo Digital Publishing is releasing a book I wrote with British-born-and-raised Cass Grafton called The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen. It is the first book we’ve written together, but it’s sequel will follow shortly behind – being released in November of this year. The tagline for our first book is “a comedic tale of time-travel and friendship” and honestly, that about sums it up. Cass and I have been friends for nearly two decades and the many varied and often hilarious differences we’ve discovered in how our two cultures have shaped us is as much at the heart of this book as our love for Jane Austen’s novels.

Even as we work on the marketing for these novels (and start outlining a third in the series), I am also working on a romantic mystery set right in the US. This is quite a shift to try to work alone. I realize that what Cass does effortlessly (keep in mind the structure and order of the story throughout) I struggle with. My natural rhythm of writing is to compose a scene in my mind almost entirely, then write it all on the page in one quick lump of words (after that initial rush, I’ll slowly revise everytime I read through it). Therefore, I jump around from scene to scene as the inspiration strikes. Since I don’t have Cass to give me order, I’ve been meticulously writing scenes on sticky notes and moving them around on the floor to figure out the order they need to go in. It’s been fun and overwhelming and a bit of a housekeeping mess, but I think, in my own meandering way, I’ve found a way to thread it all together. 

Writing is like that for me. I write because the words give structure to my mind. I wrote as a child to understand my feelings and my choices. I wrote as a teenager to entertain my peers with “friend fiction” (Yes, that boy at the mall who took your lunch order did fall in love with you immediately! Or, even if he didn’t, I’ll write a story that will make you feel like he did). I write today because I hope that what makes me feel excitement, joy, and love will entertain others as well. 

Thank you again for having me, Frost Magazine!