My Book, Our Blog

I suppose since this blog is strongly tied to my novel I should give a little more info about it. My main writing interests are fantasy and historical fiction. I have projects in both, but as I am also at uni and working, I really needed to just put one of my writing projects on hold and focus  on the other, or I was never going to get either of them done (and I’d probably crash and burn at uni, too!).  
                I decided to drop the historical fiction, since that was requiring a great deal of research more than any writing at this stage. The fantasy can just be written – no concern there for historical or contemporary fact.
                It’s developing fairly well so far. I’m not much of a planner, so I’ve jumped all over the place, writing scenes from the beginning, from the middle, from the end. Now I’m working on tying them together and since I haven’t really planned, this means that some of the scenes I wrote at the beginning of the year will no longer happen, because the story just hasn’t tended that way. Sometimes it’s disappointing, because I really liked that scene, but I just store it up in another file, waiting for the day I can insert it back into the plot, or even into my next story.
                Since I’ve gotten serious about writing I’ve picked up a lot of advice from a wide range of people. I’ve talked to fellow writers, done a workshop, attended some writing festivals and talked to published writers. Some topics I want to post on in the near future include planning techniques, clichés, characterisation, plot, dialogue, writing software and getting published.          
                Since this is a blog for all writers, I’d like to hear what you’re having trouble with, or hurdles you’ve overcome. As a community, I’m sure we can find some answers! Until I get suggestions, I’ll be posting about several topics I’ve come across in my own writing and discussion with other writers.

This was more of a second introduction – the next post will really get into it: Planners versus Wingers

The Adventure Begins!

Welcome to the beginning of my journey into the world of blogging. I’m not a blogger, by nature, but I’m writing a novel and heard that a great way to kickstart the creative juices is to keep a journal. Then I thought: why not start a blog, instead? I was a bit dubious about both journal and blog, at first, but as they say, you never know if you never go.          
                I suppose the main intention of this blog is really an experiment. If I do ever become a successful writer, I’m going to need communication skills talking to actual people and that includes communications on the web, so this could be practice. Getting ahead of myself? Maybe, maybe not.  There’s nothing wrong with being optimistic and I’m killing two birds with one stone, really – a foray into a sort of online publishing and a method of inducing creativity (hopefully!). I’m definitely keen to see if the latter is successful.
                I wouldn’t say I’m stuck with my novel, but I don’t really have a plan, either. I’m in freefall and I think at this point it’s time to gather myself and all my plotlines together and try to weave them a little more tightly. They do this fairly well, already, but the problem is that the novel is in multiple POV and I strongly focus on the main character – not unexpected. My problem is with the two minor protagonists. They’re there at the beginning and they’re there at the end – I’m all over the shop with this book – but they seem to drop off the face of the earth during the middle.  I’m slowly working them into the storyline, but sometimes I’ll sit at my computer for hours and only get a few hundred words down. I don’t have the time to be that inefficient and I’m hoping that knocking out a few hundred blog words first might loosen my tongue, so to speak.      
                When I first thought of doing this, it was going to be a recount-of-my-day sort of thing, but I eventually decided I’d be better off with a writing-themed blog where I can share the lessons I've learned and hopefully hear from people on the same journey. I know there are a lot of writing blogs out there already, but this one is for me, so there!
                More seriously though, most of the writing blogs I've read are by established writers and the content often wanders into what's going on with their latest book or where they had their last holiday - I'd like to keep this one revolving around writing techniques and novel progress.


                I hope you're keen to get involved - until next time!