Posted on by Caroline · 4 Comments

The Writer’s Slump

Writing takes a lot of time, concentration and an engaged mind but due to being human that just isn’t attainable 100% of the time – if only we could all be vampires! then we’d get a lot more done!

Some days you’re just too tired, distracted, busy, or even just hung-over! And you can’t summon the energy to write…

Okay, I admit it! I have found myself in this situation over the last couple of days…and I’m naming it ‘ The Writer’s Slump’

I had a busy weekend and have had little time to write and now it’s Monday I’m plain exhausted!

So what can you do if you find yourself in this situation (yes, I’ve been here before…)  ?

1) Acceptance – whatever the reason may be, some days writing just isn’t going to get done. The quicker you accept this, the better because otherwise you’ll spend you’re day feeling guilty for not getting anything done and you don’t need the grief! Give yourself a break and, when you are ready to write again, you’ll be fully recharged.

2) Don’t Force It – if you try and write when you’re in one of these moods the quality is invariably going to be downright terrible. So don’t sweat it! Just take this time to do something else – for example, write a blog post about how you feel (it’s working for me!)

3)  Make a Plan – Put a plan together for your writing when you are feeling up to it in the next day or two. This way, you will be ready to go all out writing ninja when you’re feeling in the mood but relax in the meantime!

4) Have Fun – While your not in the mood for writing don’t fret! Do something enjoyable – maybe you’ve put off doing something recently to spend time writing? Watch a new film, bake something tasty, read a book or play a game on your playstation or xbox (you must have a game sitting there that needs finishing!)

Posted on by Caroline · 7 Comments

How to be a Successful Writer (Using the Hogwarts’ Houses Method)

Writing takes a combination of skill, determination and passion and I think this can be broken down using what I like to call the Hogwarts’ Houses Method (that’s right!)

The first thing you need to be as you begin your writers journey is brave!

 
Yes! No writing will get done until you switch off that little voice inside your head that tells you that you can’t do it. Forget the fear of being judged and Gryffindor the hell out of that first draft! 

If you want to (and I bet you do) think of that evil little voice as voldemort….and who does he think he is anyway?!

Now you’ve got to have a few brain cells to rub together to get down to business with the rewrite (don’t worry just a few!) So this is the part where you can stroke your chin thoughtfully and take a leaf out of Rowena Ravenclaws book. Take your time and perfect the writing to the best of your ability!

  
Once you send your work off to Literary Agents you may find yourself in the place that most writers do; rejected. So we need to be extra Hufflepuff here people! They aren’t phased by anything and are suuuuupppppper patient. These are qualitites that you’ll need to succeed ultimately. You need to play the lonngggg game but, with a bit of hufflepuff loyalty to your writing, it’ll be more likely to pay off!
  
And some people mock Hufflepuff so I thought I’d give this little reminder…

 
Finally! You’re allowed to go a little Slytherin (gasp!) that’s right, even they have some qualities you’ll need. Just a little sprinkle of cunning…

  

No I’m not saying go write your name in blood on the walls near the chamber of secrets! (But that sure would be one hell of a promotion technique if you did!) I’m just saying you need to be imaginitive to help achieve what you want. If you wana get your book out there through traditional means or self-publishing you have to find creative ways to promote yourself! Connect with people! Make other cunning little friends and help them to achieve their goals in return! But please people let’s not become death eaters about it…
  
Whisper in people’s ears! This might work for you. Or better still, tweet, blog and network!

And remember, there’s thousands of free ways to promote your work so don’t splash out too much money on this – you’ll only get muggled off….

Thanks for reading!

Posted on by Caroline · 13 Comments

Is Writing Addictive? (I ask as I’m writing away like a crazed maniac…)

As I begin writing this I’m literally starving.  But before breakfast I wanted to get this blog post up because it’s been whizzing around my mind before I went to sleep last night and in the few seconds after I woke up today (okay I had a lie-in don’t judge me!) 

So yes, I am obsessed with writing. I know this because (clearly) it comes before food and is therefore now at least as essential in my list of things to do today. (Alright I wouldn’t die if I stopped writing but….my soul might? Too far? Probably…) 

Before I started writing my book series I’d never found anything to write that I was so obsessed about. This, I think (and hope), is a good thing. At least in terms of drive and determination. I will do anything it takes to finish this series and get it out to the world! Because there’s a burning need inside me to do so. 

Call it what you will; an obsession, a calling, the onset of some sort of psychotic episode…but whatever it may be, I just can’t ignore it!

Today is one of the first days that the UK has had warm weather in literally months. And I’ve got a couple of days off (lucky me!) but you know what I’m doing? Sitting in my flat writing, and I intend to do so all day long. To be fair I live in a top floor flat with a large sash window to my left and the sun is shining through so I’m technically sunbathing right? (RIGHT?)

Writing is addictive in its many forms. I only started a blog a few weeks ago and now I find myself thinking about what to blog and am constantly checking in on what my fellow bloggers are writing! 

Anyway – I admit it, I’m a writing addict. There! I said it! 
  

Posted on by Caroline · 11 Comments

Getting Published is like Volunteering for the Hunger Games

Okay MAYBE I mean this more metaphorically than physically but, think of it this way:  you’re competing against a whole hoarde of other amazing writers, all of whom are at least equally good as you are and each of them have specific skill sets that are going to help them in the publishing world (just like the contestants of the hunger games! – but their skill sets lie mainly in killing people…)

So you have to go all Katniss first of all. Publish your book? Holy crap! This is gonna be scary but…..you’ll have to volunteer to do it or you’ll never get anywhere…

  
Then you have to submit to Literary Agents. They have so many submissions to get through so what’s gonna make yours stand out?  And how do you do that? The same way you win the hunger games of course!

  

So you carefully phrase your query letter trying to sound confident, friendly, competant, and super likeable and you click send…It’s done. It’s too late to back out. It’s all left to fate now…

  

Your mum goes all Cinna…

 
And you go all Katniss…

 
You don’t hear back from an agent for literally weeks! If only they’d say something ANYTHING!

 
And then you get a response! They liked your work (yay!) they think you have potential (double yay!) but they’re unable to offer you representation at this time…your intial response is to go a bit Cato…

  
But you pull yourself together and remember that, one way or another, you will be published! Whether it be traditionally or self-published you’ll get your novel out there because you love to write! And that’s what really matters after all….
So the moral of this twisted hunger games/publishing tale is to persevere and never give up hope! 

  
Because Katniss Everdeen wouldn’t have won the hunger games if she had and you won’t get published if you do!

Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favour…
 

Posted on by Caroline · 9 Comments

This Sentence Has Five Words

So I came across this little piece of brilliance today and thought I’d share it with you:

  
What a simple, fantastic and clever way to show how sentence structure can alter the way a person feels when reading! 

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the content of your writing (which of course is super important too!) but how easy it may be to forget the importance of how that content is formatted!

Sing for me writing! Sing!

Posted on by Caroline · 10 Comments

A Good Night’s Sleep Can Make All the Difference

Last night I was struggling with my writing (I’ve now reached 56,163 words in the third book of my fantasy YA series! Woohoo!) but I came to a halt and couldn’t find my way forward. So I went to bed (my brain was pretty frazzled from a busy day!) and this morning a voila! The problem I was struggling with had somehow been worked out in my mind.

Perhaps it was just getting a little persepective, or maybe it was just a well rested brain that was ultimately the key but either way a good night’s sleep can make all the difference!
 
What helps you when you get stuck writing?
Thanks for reading! 

Posted on by Caroline · 8 Comments

Inspirational Quotes Just for You!

I have a little pinterest board devoted to inspiration quotes for writing (isn’t pinterest the greatest?). 

Some days I just feel so hopeless about my work (I’ll never be published! No one will like my novels anyway! A slug could literally write better books! Why world why!? ) – these kinds of days are pretty damn depressing  

So I thought I’d start sharing some of my favourite quotes with you and hopefully they’ll inspie you as they have me…

Today I share with you three of my go-to quotes for those days when I’m holding a flaming lighter beneath my work and a little voice says “Hey you, do you really wanna burn three years worth of notes?”

And I scream, “YES! Burn suckeeeer!”

But they hold up their little paw (I imagine this friend as a furry little creature – and yes, I am crazy) and point me towards my quotes page on pinterests

So here they are (I’ll display them as a countdown to my favourite to build some tension…drum roll…):

3)

 
Thank you Ben Franklin for this fantastic, simple piece of advice. I try to live my life this way. I wittle away the days writing frantically and then I plan adventurous holidays where I can strtech my own metaphorical wings and live life to the full and see incredible things. Life is worth living and experiencing and writing is there to turn these experiences into stories that might just resonate with others one day…
2)

 
Beautiful, wonderful W.B Yeats really knows what he’s talking about when it comes to writing. A lot of his work was inspired by heartache and unrequited love – the poor guy! But what a gift he has given to us all by turning his pain into words and inspiring us to use our own personal experiences to make our writing more powerful. 

And finally…

1)

 
Okay so this isn’t a quote about writing I apologise! And I also apologise for alienating the men from this quote but I have a personal attachment to this one. I visited the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis last year and spotted this quote on the way out emblazoned across all kinds of merchandise. I didn’t actually purchase anything because it was the end of my trip and I was tight for cash but I’ve regretted it ever since because that quote just stuck in my mind. 

After the emotional rollercoaster that is the museum (and I can’t recommend it highly enough if you ever get the opportunity to go) but as a woman this quote just hit home with me and reminds me every day of the struggles women have faced throughout history (and still do in many countries).  It’s shocking to think that, not even that long ago, women would have been looked down on for writing and authors like Mary Ann Evans (with well-known pen name George Eliot) wrote an essay entitled ‘Silly Novels by Lady Novelists’ to make sure her work was taken seriously (deep breath girls). 
Even J.K Rowling said that she abreviated her name on the cover of the Harry Potter books so boys wouldn’t be put off of reading it! I think JK put the end to that nonsense! But that was only, what, fifteen years ago?

So ladies write for all the women who couldn’t! And show the world what they were missing!
As always, thanks so much for reading! I always love hearing your feedback so even if the only thing that pops into your mind as you read this is ‘I really fancy tacos for dinner…mm yeahh with salsa, sour cream, guacamole. Oh, do I have guacamole? I’m sure I do…yeah definately’ pop it in the comments box!

Posted on by Caroline · 11 Comments

The Writer’s Journey (Lord of the Rings Style)

So I thought I’d do a post on the ups and downs of a writer’s journey – but then I thought! How about relate that to another epic journey! And what’s more epic than The Lord of the Rings?

So here goes…

One day a little voice in your head nags at you telling you to write a book. You love reading! Challenge accepted!

You don’t know the way just yet…but it can’t be that hard right?

  

Then you come up with that idea (you know the one that possesses your very soul!?) and you just can’t stop thinking about it! You can’t share it with anyone yet though because it’s just too special…

  
Then you start writing. It’s all going pretty smoothly. You had the start thought out already anyway! This is easy!

And then you hit a block. You can’t pass it. It seems insurmountable! The words just won’t come!

  
You spend hours, days, weeks even! Thinking about how to move on! You doubt yourself! You just can’t see a way forward, but then…

  
You finish your first draft and are pretty damn smug with yourself but then you start reading through it…

  
The rewriting begins! It’s a long process (you didn’t realise how long!). You can’t organise your thoughts, the project seems too large to ever complete!

 

But somehow you make it! You finish the novel! Now all that’s left is to ask a friend to read it. They finish it and tell you it’s great, they loved it! But how can you trust them? They would say that, wouldn’t they? They don’t wanna hurt your feelings…

 

But then you look through your novel one more time and…it’s alright! It reads well! You love the characters! It’s the story you fell in love with in the beginning! 

You made it!

   

I hope you enjoyed this post! Good luck with your writing – and remember if a hobbit can destroy the one ring…you can definately write a book worth reading

  

Posted on by Caroline · 10 Comments

A Case of Writer’s Eye

Writing is something I’ve always dabbled with but it wasn’t until my early twenties that I really put pen to paper and finished my first novel. But what I never anticipated was how this would ultimately change my reading experience forever! 

After the dreaded rewrite of my first novel (which was written so terribly that it needed countless go-throughs to get it right!) I learnt so much in the way of editing (in thanks part to my proof reader friends including one in the publishing business) that I caught what I now call ‘Writer’s Eye’.

Writer’s Eye is the way you look at a piece of writing. A reader, who may never have considered the work behind the words sees the story glowing off of the pages, letting themself be fully immersed and absorbed. 

A writer, however, sees the words, the grammar, the spelling, the way they might alter a sentence or add some description. 

And the mistakes! 

 

Would you believe how many mistakes I’ve spotted in books since I started writing? Only tiny, small meaningless things like missing words and punctuation. But I also find these things in my own novels! After ten, twenty even thirty re-reads I still find tiny errors! 

  
Our minds are on autocorrect!  – even when I’ve had several friends read my books their minds have also corrected the mistakes! 

Don’t get me wrong writer’s eye doesn’t ruin books for me it’s more that I now see the words on the page as well as the beautiful story they weave together. And that is, afterall, what books are for. 

How about you? Have you caught Writer’s Eye!?

Posted on by Caroline · 11 Comments

How to complete a novel in progress

First things first – DON’T GIVE UP! Full stop. Exclamation mark. Hashtag!

If you’re reading my blog then you probably aren’t at the stage of giving up completely but I can imagine you teetering on a tightrope with your arms swinging wildly. So I say again don’t give up!

Writing a novel is hard. If it was easy everyone would do it! But you’re not everyone. 
  

If you’ve gotten this far then your novel is almost certainly something that you have felt or still do feel incredibly passionate about. If you’ve lost that sense of excitement try to list three things that got you feeling that way in the beginning. 

Here are three of mine for my novel Creeping Shadow:

1. The fantasy world I fell in love with – magic, a lethal curse, a death-defying task, forbidden love! (I still get excited about these things now!) What drives you is your passion. Find it! Name it! Put a ring on it!

2. Mystery – I am a big fan of twists and one of the things that drove me towards the end of Creeping Shadow was ‘the big reveal’. I couldn’t wait for my characters to discover that big shocker at the end! It’s a good technique. If you don’t have a twist then how about just a bit of a suprise? Have a think about your characters and storyline, is there any details you could hold back until the end? – whatever you do the end needs to be climatic afterall it’s what the rest of the story is leading towards!

3. And perhaps the biggest factor of all – my characters. I LOVE my characters. Love love love! Think about yours (particularly your protaganist) and ask yourself how you feel about them. If the answer isn’t that you want to shout their names from the rooftops, hire out a town crier to tell everyone about them or bring them to life frankenstein-style and marry them in Las Vegas (too far?) then you need to do some serious character development. Some people benefit from character profiling but I personally just take time to imagine them in different scenarios. I think about the most exciting moments in my story and play out the scenes, heightening the stakes and even imagining terrible things happening to them and their loves ones (I know, I know I’m an imaginary murderer) but try it! It should really tug at your heart strings when those characters mean something to you and it’s helped me come up with some fantastic moments I can adapt for my novels!

So if you’ve given this a go and you still feel like giving up on your novel then you’re probably in a pretty dark place by now (finger on the dial button for takeaway? Angrily stroking your cat who, let’s face it, has had enough of your pestering? Watching your go-to feel-good film and sobbing loudly thinking you could never come up with a story as good as that one?) – believe me when I say I’ve been there!

But what you need to do (and by all means take time to scoff that takeaway, try to win back your pets love and skip back to the start of that comfort film amd watch it again before doing this) is continue writing, one word at a time. If you’re stuck trying to fill a gap between one scene and the next just skip it! You can fill it in later. I’ve done this countless times and, trust me, when you go back to it at a future date you’ll find it easy to fill that space. Just focus on getting a first draft done. Focus on getting to the end. Don’t worry about how well it reads, the spelling, the fact that you mentioned a character walked into a scene then forgot about them for three hundred pages! Don’t worry! The first draft is made for fixing.

And the final resort:  Write the end of your book and work backwards. (That’s right break all the damn rules!)

The middle is always the hardest. You’ve run out of gas from you’re high speed, super exciting beginning that you’ve had cartwheeling inside your mind forever and you can see the end in the distance like a tiny dot on the horizon. But this is not a race. That dot can be closer than you think. So, if all else fails, write the end and I bet you it will spark a hundred new ideas for the middle.

And one final thing to encourage you…

The moment that you finish your first draft feels like this:

  
That’s right…still don’t wanna finish it? More fool you…More. Fool. You.