Pam's Writing Exploits

Same Universe, Different Series

2012-02-13T10:08:00.003Z

This week's WriYe was more of a prompt than a question:

Stories in the same universe, but not necessarily part of a series. Same Universe, Different Series (SUDS). Maybe.

The first thing that leapt to mind was fan fiction. I love writing fan fiction as a way to get myself writing. Without having to worry about creating characters or settings, I can just get into the story straight away. Once I'm there I'll find myself making up new characters for people to interact with and then, sometimes, they even take on more of a life of their own and I start writing stories about them, with only passing reference to the canon characters of the universe they inhabit.

One example of this is Dawn Bell. She started off as a minor character in a Heroes fanfic I was writing, based on a dream I had. Se was just as someone that Peter and Claire happened to bump into and then go off to another adventure. But I really liked her as a character. She'd got an interesting ability, to be able to 'push' abilities from one person into another. In the story she first appeared in I had her push Claire's healing ability into Peter so that he could heal a gunshot wound.

Then I started thinking, what if someone wanted to use her ability to get more power for themselves? And suddenly she was the star of her own story, with just a quick reference to Peter and Claire at the very start of the story and a whole raft of new original characters to interact with.

Same Universe, Different Series.

It's not just fanfic writers that use this trick though. How many stories have been set in the Marvel universe, with crossovers between various characters, other characters making a debut in one series only to go on and get their own stories, and hidden references to other superheroes in various comic books, TV series and films.

I could probably think of more examples, but I'm going to stop there. I'm getting all nostalgic about Dawn Bell now - high time I resurrected her for another adventure, I think...

The Weird Things You Do When You Plot

2012-02-01T07:48:00.000Z

The latest WriYe Blogging Challenge was to admit the weird things you do when you plot. Honestly, I don't think I do anything weird when I plot!

Generally when I have an idea I jot it down in my notepad (or in my phone if I don't have paper to hand), then transfer it to my computer to flesh it out. I think about characters, then the story, then the details of the settings, and jot notes down as I think of them, then I rearrange them into some sort of order and save it.

Next I open a copy of the file, change the font colour to something bright, and start expanding on the sections in a black font, deleting the coloured text as I use those ideas. By the time I've finished doing that I've usually got a pretty cohesive plot outline, and sometimes even a couple of short scenes drafted out if inspitation has struck!

Sometimes I'll use Star Trek Online's character creator to get an idea of what my characters will look like, and that can help me when I'm writing later, or if the character is supposed to have a particular quirk. I'm not sure if that counts as weird, but it's the oddest thing I can think of!

OU Creative Writing update

2012-01-27T13:41:00.001Z

Just thought I'd give an update on the Open University course I'm doing. The course description says:

By the end of the course you should be able to
Write fiction, poetry, life writing and drama with a mature and sophisticated style and a greater awareness of elements such as repetition and analogy.
Understand more fully the possible relationships between fiction, drama, life writing and poetry.
Carry out background research for your writing, including the use of information technology.
Empathise with characters and fully imagine and realise different eras and imaginative worlds in creating new work.
Understand how dramatic writing methods might be transferable to other genres, for instance, to improve and develop prose style and voice.
Demonstrate knowledge of dramatic writing, including knowledge of conventional layout for at least one medium.
Demonstrate knowledge of the strengths and limitations of writing for different dramatic media, and what might be needed to write dramatic adaptations of fiction or life writing.
Write with a greater awareness of formal constraints.
Exercise a disciplined practice including willingness to revise and redraft.
Present manuscripts and media scripts to a professional standard.
Give objective evaluations of your own and others’ work through constructive criticism.
Produce a piece of writing of substantial length which in its style, complexity and editorial awareness is drafted and redrafted to a high standard.

I'm really enjoying it so far, and the radio script writing was a lot of fun. The next assignment is to start planning a story which will comprise the end of course assignment. Must start thinking!

Sidekicks and Secondary Characters

2012-01-26T10:18:00.006Z

A sidekick is a superhero partnered with another in a lesser capacity. Used for comedy, to relate to readers, but also to move plot, and in some cases to become an integral part of the mythos.

Or so says Comic Vine, which should know about sidekicks.

Sidekicks can often be as heroic as the people they are following. Take Ron Weasley in Harry Potter, or Amy Pond in Doctor Who.

They could be a younger person learning the ropes, like Robin to Batman. Robin eventually went on to become a superhero in his own right, as Nightwing.

Or the sidekick could be an essential part of the hero's armour, like Ando in Heroes. Without him, Hiro wouldn't have been able to get anywhere, because he couldn't drive, or to understand anyone in New York, because he didn't speak English.

For some reason most of my completed longer stories seem to be ensemble casts, but there are one or two which have had secondary characters - I don't think this is one of my strengths as a writer, and it's definitely something I need to work on more!

My main problem with secondary characters is that they either don't have any character at all, or I get too attached to them and end up giving them way to much background and character, then having to cut it all back out again when I realise they've become a main character and they shouldn't be.

Sidekicks are easier in some ways. Everyone loves it when Robin sometimes steps up to save the day. Sidekicks can have a developmental arc that is more dramatic than the hero's - they could go from a shy and scared kid to a brave teenager who helps to save the world. The key is to give them a bit of depth and not let them take over the story.

Yeah, I'm still working on that...!

Heroes and Villains

2012-01-18T14:43:00.004Z

Keeping with the theme of characters, today's WriYe blog is about villains and heroes.

Nobody likes a know-it-all, or a goody two shoes, and someone who appears pure evil isn't necessarily the most interesting villain.

Take Adolf Hitler, for example. I don't think I've ever seen him portrayed as anything other than a one dimensional man intent on world domination. Now I don't want to get into any political debate, but I'm sure the man must have had more to his personality than being a Nazi.

He must have had hobbies, or friends. Maybe he liked to listen to music in the evening. And surely he must have fallen in love at some point.

What if you wrote a story about Hitler making the decision to open concentration camps while looking at a picture of the woman he loves, or while carefully tending his garden? Doesn't that instantly make him a more interesting character and a more intriguing villain?

The same is true of heroes. A perfect hero is boring. Give him a fault, a flaw or an irritating habit, or load him up with lots of problems in his personal life. Then when he triumphs in spite of all his problems we can really cheer for him.

Naming Characters

2012-01-12T10:25:00.006Z

Today's WriYe topic is 'How do you name your characters?'

I have two ways of naming characters. Sometimes I know what a character is going to act like and I choose a name that's appropriate for that characters, and other times I just pick a name I like and the character in part grows from that.

To give an example I'll go through my characters for Alive!

Keller Anis - Her first name just popped into my head when I was creating the character. It sounded strong but still female. I gave her a surname taken from the star anis plant, because the name was interesting and it seemed appropriate for someone who travels in space.

John Park - John was a character before he had a name. I wanted a nice normal name to fit with his nice normal, laid back character, so settled on John. His name did influence his character a bit, because he wasn't Korean until I called him Park - which I then discovered is one of the most common Korean surnames.

Shanran Dak - Confession time. Shanran was originally a character in a Star Trek fanfic set some time in the 26th century. He was Shanran Dax then, but obviously I couldn't keep the name Dax, so I altered it to Dak. Actually the character he became then deviated a lot from the original Dax character I'd written, so his name may have influenced the character a bit.

Dr Anna Smythe - Anna was always going to be a predictable, stable character, so I wanted a name that reflected that, but also hinted at her being a classy lady. Smythe is very similar to Smith, but sounded more upper class, so it fitted well with the idea I had of her character.

Dr Connor Rivers - I wanted a kindly name for the ship's doctor, something that sounded respectable, friendly and like someone you could trust.

Elliot Macintyre -The same with Elliott, I wanted something that sounded friendly, but that sounded a bit younger than Dr Rivers. I've never known an old Elliott, so that seemed to fit the bill nicely. Macintyre had a nice lively sound to it as well, also pointing to a younger man... or at least that's how my mind worked when I was choosing his name!

Jackson Brown - I really can't remember how I ended up naming Jackson. One thing I did try to do with the humans though was to keep their names all grounded and be quite normal. I hate sci-fi where all the humans have exotic names. Of course there would be some odd names - just like the Pixies, Summers, Lourdes' and Brooklyns we have now - but I always find it very difficult to keep track of or get involved with too many people with pretentious/made up/strange sounding names. I think I came up with Jackson's character before I named him, but I really can't remember. He actually started as a much more minor character than he ended up being.

Delta - The red-eyed cyborg saboteur needed a more interesting name. She's a bit of a mystery, so she didn't get a last name to add to that sense of her being someone we don't know much about. I liked the name Delta for her because it hinted at something robotic (ie. Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma...) and it could also be a girl's name (eg. Aussie singer Delta Goodrem).

Creating characters

2012-01-03T09:52:00.001Z

Throughout the year I'm going to be doing WriYe - basically a group of people on a forum who get together and encourage each other to write a certain amount of words/projects/challenges throughout the year.

One of the challenges suggested was to write blog posts on set topics throughout the year, so I though, 'why not?'

The first topic is 'Characters'.

I find characters can be the easiest and at the same time the most difficult parts of any story. If they're not done well the whole story can fall apart - after all, is anyone interested in a hero that you can't understand, or a villain who doesn't seem to have any personality at all?

When I'm creating a story I usually start with a train of thought from my main character. Sometimes a story will even start with a character rather than a plot. I have to decide how old they are, and what gender, and then I just get them thinking about something that's going to happen in the story. Quite often what I write won't make it into the finished story, but it really helps me get to know my characters. It gives them a personality, a speech pattern, and opinions. Sometimes the character hasn't even got a name at this point, but after I've written a few paragraphs of their thoughts I've usually got a much better idea of who they are.

Another thing I use to create character is clothes. I describe my character and then try to delve a bit into why they dress the way they do. Does the woman in the red dress wear it because she likes bright colours? Or is she a hooker? Is she wearing the dress because her boyfriend has told her he likes to see her in it? Does she feel uncomfortable in it? Has she tried to hide it under a cardigan, or is she accessorising with diamonds? Is it an expensive dress, cut to flatter, or does it pinch a bit too tight and show all her lumps and bumps? Is she mutton dressed as lamb, or is she absolutely stunning?

When I'm writing descriptions I also try to think about any tics or characteristics the character has. Do they appear to be nervous? If so, how is their body language showing this? What is their hair like? Is it tidy or does it look as if they keep fiddling with it, or running their hands through it? Are they playing with something in their hands, or are they relaxed?

Here's an example of the way I create a character. (It's just train of thought typing, so please excuse any typos, etc...)

She's sitting at her desk in front of the computer, reading her emails. She keeps looking around as if she's not supposed to be doing something or she's afraid of getting caught. 'Come on, reply. I need to know the answer now. Do I have that job or am I stuck here? I hate this place. It's mind numbing. There's nothing for me to do here, I'm always tired, I go home feeling miserable. Maybe if I get this job I could get a pet. I'd have more time. I wouldn't have to drive 50 miles to work each day. I wouldn't be so tired in the evening. I think I'd like goldfish. They're relaxing. And I want time to read. I wonder if Shelley would like to catch up for lunch sometimes? I'd be able to take lunch breaks and actually get some fresh air. I'd like that. Still no email though. What will I do if I don't get this job?'

She looks up quickly as someone walks past, clicking from one window to another on her computer. She keeps tugging at a tube bandage on her right hand - the resultof RSI from her job. Her hair is pulled back untidily into an unflattering ponytail, more to keep it out of her face than for any style reasons. She's wearing a woollen dress in an odd faded mustard colour. It looks well worn. She pulled it on because it's comfortable. She has to leave the house so early in the morning to get to work on time that she doesn't pay much attention to her clothes as long as they're clean.
She's not wearing any make up - again, there's no time for it. Bags are showing under her eyes and she has a spot on her chin. She's in her thirties maybe, but she looks older and very tired. You'd feel sorry for her.

From this I could start to think more about how she acts with her colleagues, the way she acts and speaks, and why she needs the new job. I've also somehow come up with a friend for her - Shelley - although I don't really know who she is yet.

The story may be how she escapes from the horrible job she hates or it may be that she has to stay there, but either way I have a better idea now of who my character is and how she might act.

Day 29 – A song that makes you feel guilty

2011-11-03T11:57:00.003Z

I was sent the link to a drama set to music a few years ago. It was performed by a youth group and told the story of a woman who is walking with God and then gets pulled away by alcohol, sex, pressure to look like supermodels, and money. She reaches the point where she is starts cutting, and then is about to kill herself when she decides she can't do that and tries to break free. God steps in and pulls her back to himself and fights off her 'demons' for her, and she suddenly appears with a clean white shirt and the blood on her arms gone.

The drama is set to Everything by Lifehouse, and even though, thankfully, I've never been in remotely like the situation of that woman, it still makes me feel guilty about things that I have done in the past that have been bad for me, bad for other people, or just plain stupid.

Today's prompt - Fighting your demons.

The video is here and I really recommend it! And a write up about the drama is here if you're interested.

Review - 101 Uses for a Dead Meerkat by Massimo Fenati

2011-11-01T09:35:00.001Z

For those with a slightly black sense of humour, the “101 uses for...” series of books attempts to find things to do with, traditionally, a dead cat. But in this book the author has decided to use meerkats – one of the nation’s favourite animals in recent years.

The book is full of pictures of meerkats being used as book stands, fairground rides, clothes pegs, tent poles, spy cameras, and, rather disturbingly, as stockings. Unlike the cat books, the meerkats were coloured in, standing out from the black and white line drawings and taking away some of the fun of trying to spot the dead animal.

It was an entertaining enough book, but for the price, I couldn’t help but feel that it was just an attempt to cash in on the current craze for meerkats.

101 Uses for a Dead Meerkat by Massimo Fenati

£9.99, published by Boxtree.

ISBN 0752227924

Day 28 – A song that no one would expect you to love

2011-10-25T12:50:00.001+01:00

My tastes in music are quite eclectic and I really don't know what people would expect me to like, so this is a toughy. Instead of straining my brain I'm going to try to get the phrase ' A song that no one would expect you to love' or something along those lines into a flash fic.

Yes, I'm boring today, sorry...

Day 27 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry

2011-10-17T12:49:00.003+01:00

When I'm angry I like listening to loud songs that I can practically shout the lyrics too, and preferably ones that I can put on in the car and turn up really loud. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, and when I Googled 'angry songs' it came up with a list, most of which I didn't know.

The two songs that I did know from the list of about 50 were Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know and I hate you so much right now by Kelis.

I think today's prompt is 'hating someone'.

Day 26 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy

2011-10-10T11:56:00.000+01:00

I absolutely love the new Twining's Tea advert with its beautiful animation and the soundtrack of Wherever You Will Go by Charlene Soraia. I don't know about something I listen to when I'm happy, but the song makes me feel happy and uplifted.

There are so many places I could go to get inspiration from this song. I could do a freewrite based on a picture from the advert; the title of the song 'wherever you will go' reminds me of the passage from Ruth in the Bible where she swears to stay with her mother-in-law wherever she goes*, so perhaps I could rewrite that in a different setting; I could use a cup of tea as the prompt; write something about being happy; the list just goes on and on.

* But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

(Ruth 1:16-18, New International Version)

Review - Beyond This Wilderness by John Thomas

2011-10-07T11:19:00.000+01:00

Starting out gently, this story of spooky goings-on in a village church by Christian author John Thomas make for a spine-tingling read.

Starting quietly with a series of apparently minor disturbances at a village church, Beyond This Wilderness draws in the reader before launching into its main tale of an evil which was thought long buried.

Set in a tiny village on the Welsh border, the book opens with a series of letters between the parish priest and the bishop of Shrewsbury concerning a strange series of break ins happening in the village church.

This leads into the main part of the book - a 'testament' from a former vicar of the church where he reveals what the curse that lies behind the break ins is, and explains why the teenagers who have been found in the church have been acting so oddly.

The 'testament' is written in very old fashioned language, making it less easy to read than the letters at the beginning, but the Victorian phraseology and language make the story seem more real and pull the reader into the events on the page.

Published by Twin Books in 2011, Beyond This Wilderness has an RRP of £10.55.
ISBN 978-0-9534304-6-8

Day 25 – A song that makes you sad

2011-10-04T15:32:00.010+01:00

There are pieces of classical music that will make me cry, and I know there are several songs as well that I've heard as backing in films that have made me cry, but the one that leaps out is from the recent Phantom of the Opera film, when Christine agrees to stay with the Phantom to save Raoul's life.

Pitiful creature of darkness / what kind of life have you known? / God give me courage to show you / you are not alone.

Today's prompt: Being alone.

Day 24 – A song that makes you laugh

2011-09-30T10:16:00.000+01:00

This song makes me laugh, smile, want to sing and dance, and makes me think. It's Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrman.

The song which uses the text of a column written by Mary Schmich in the Chicago Tribune in 1997. She wrote it as what she would say if she was to give a graduation speech, and it was then picked up by Luhrman and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today's prompt: What is the best or worst piece of advice you've ever been given? What happened when you followed it? Or if you didn't follow it, what would have happened if you had?

Inspiration from the obituaries

2011-09-27T14:25:00.006+01:00

I was reading the obituaries of the local paper and came across this fascinating entry:

Service at Shrewsbury
Crematorium, on Friday,
October 7, 2011, at 12 noon.
Dress code is fancy dress
(Funereal theme).

So many ideas came from this straight away - who was this man and why would his family want a funereal fancy dress cremation? What sort of conversations would the people have at the funeral? What would people say when they saw people dressing up to go to the funeral? Would someone go as the Grim Reaper? The moral of the story is sometimes the most interesting parts of a newspaper can be the classifieds - births, marriages, deaths, wanted adverts and for sale columns. If you're short of an idea try looking for something unusual in the back pages.

After all, the same newspaper that yielded this obituary also turned up

Wanted - one tonne of oats - cash sale

Day 23 – Your least favorite song

2011-09-12T11:54:00.000+01:00

The Crazy Frog. I really hate The Crazy Frog. Part of the problem is that he's just plain annoying, and part of it was that he butchered Axel F, which is one of my favourite movie themes of all time.

The faithful Google image search turned up this image of prizes at a funfair. Why anyone would want to win a Crazy Frog is beyond me - unless they want to dismember it sloooowly, or use it at as guy on a bonfire perhaps...

But I digress. Today's prompt: The funfair.

Day 22 – A song that you want to play at your wedding

2011-09-05T10:48:00.001+01:00

I love Madonna's Crazy for You, and I think it would make a great 'first dance' song. I don't think it would be quite appropriate in a church wedding, but for the reception it would be perfect.

I'm not married, so you can't see any pictures of my wedding day, but I found this fabulous picture of a bride in the Kremlin gardens. There are so many things to prompt me to write in this picture. Wonderful as the bride's hat is, it's the two ladies in black who intrigue me most - the one looks confused and I have no idea why the other is looking at her dress like that. Imagination, it's time to fill in the gaps!

Day 21 – A song from a band you hate

2011-08-28T12:19:00.006+01:00

Just like with my favourite band, I don't really have a band I hate. I have very wide ranging music tastes and if I find a song I don't like so much I generally just switch the radio over onto another station. There are plenty of artists that I don't think I'd get on with if I happened to find myself talking to them, and plenty of songs I don't like for one reason or another, but it's difficult to think of a band that I really don't like.

Just off the top of my head I'm going to say I don't really like the Lightning Seeds, but I've only heard one song of their that I know of, and that was Three Lions, which I really didn't like.

The Google image search pulled up this picture and my overactive imagination looked at all the hats and though, 'hey, it's a cowboy convention!'. So today's prompt is: what happens at a cowboy convention?

Day 20 – A song from your favorite band

2011-08-23T12:08:00.001+01:00

I have a slight problem with this one, because I don't have a favourite band. However, when I was a teenager, my favourite band was Take That - yes, I was a Thatter - and so I'll pick one of their songs.

I think I'm going to plump for Never Forget, because it's a fantastic feel good song and I always remember going to a concert, finding my seat was really close to the stage, and singing along with Never Forget, waving my arms in the air, and leaving with a really good buzz.

Today's prompt then, is to write about a concert, from any point of view - stage manager, artist, someone in the crowd, security, car park attendant - and to include all five senses in the piece.

Day 19 – A song that you want to play at your funeral

2011-08-19T15:38:00.004+01:00

An easy choice today - In Christ Alone has been one of the songs I've wanted at my funeral pretty much since the first time I heard it.

The song is written by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, and I'm not going to say anything else today except to share some of the lyrics and this link to the song.

[...] Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied - for every sin on Him was laid; Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay, light of the world by darkness slain: Then bursting forth in glorious Day, up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory sin's curse has lost its grip on me, for I am His and He is mine - bought with the precious blood of Christ.

[...] No power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand 'til He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

Day 18 – A song that describes you

2011-08-14T15:18:00.003+01:00

I don't know about you, but sometimes I find myself in situations where I feel like I'm back as a little kid, way out of my depth, and really not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. For that reason, the song that keeps coming to mind when I was trying to think of a song that describes me was Just a Little Girl by Trading Yesterday.

When I did an image search it brought up the expected pictures of cute toddlers and chubby babies, but this picture leaped out at me. I don't know if it's the expression on the woman's face, or just that it was different, but I'm going to use her as a character in a story.

General update

2011-08-02T10:57:00.000+01:00

I've been quiet recently, sorry, and part of that is because work has been really busy. In between meetings and trying to fit in sleep, I (foolishly!) decided to try Camp NaNoWriMo in July as well. This works on the same principals as the main NaNoWriMo in November, but happens throughotu the summer months.
What I wrote wasn't anything I'd plan to edit or send off anywhere, it was purely for fun, but it did the job of getting me writing large amounts on a regular basis again, which is something I'd been getting very bad at over the last couple of months.
I actually enjoyed it so much, and the support from the NaNo forums, that I've signed up to do it again in August.

Meanwhile, I got my final result from my OU Creative Writing course, which I passed comfortably, and which I'm very pleased about. I've signed up for the advanced course which starts in October. It should be interesting as it covers different areas of creative writing that I haven't really looked at before, like screenplay adaptions and so on.

I hope you're all having a good summer and I'll try to be more regular with my blog now!

Day 17 – A song that is a guilty pleasure

2011-07-19T10:48:00.004+01:00

I've changed my font colour especially for this post. Why? Well one of my guilty pleasures is Raise Your Glass by Pink. Aside from it giving me an excuse to turn my blog pink for a day, and to post the beautiful picture of cherry blossom over there, it's a loud song that I love to turn up to full volume and sing along with in the car. I've never done that outside of my car, and some people who know me would be astonished that I like the song at all, let alone that I'd sing along with it.

Today's prompt is a choice - include something pink in a story that's essential to the plot, or have someone propose a toast.

Review - Making the Rounds with Oscar by David Dosa

2011-07-11T09:39:00.000+01:00

I love cats so I was really fascinated by this book telling the true-life story of Oscar, one of the resident cats at an old people’s nursing home in America.

The book follows Dr David Dosa, one of the staff, as he realises that Oscar seems to have an uncanny knack for knowing when patients are about to die and making sure that he sits with them at the end of their lives. His behaviour is so accurate that the staff even rely on him for a second opinion on occasion.

The book also looks at the condition of dementia, which many of the patients suffer with. A fascinating story with some lovely moments which cat lovers – and even some people who don’t like cats – will really enjoy.

Making the Rounds with Oscar by David Dosa

£7.99, published by Headline Review

ISBN 9780755318131

Day 16 – A song from your childhood

2011-07-05T12:30:00.003+01:00

Back to the 1980s for this one and Kylie's first album - complete with big curly hair - for The Locomotion! This song had a silly dance that everybody could join in with and absolutely everyone at my middle school knew the words. It was obligatory for school discos and for parties, and all the girls wanted to be Kylie.

Since I've already had the school disco as a theme, today's prompt is going to either a children's party or wanting to be a pop star - or both!

Day 15 – Your favorite song at this time last year

2011-06-29T10:18:00.004+01:00

I had a whole bunch of favourite songs at this time last year - Shattered by Trading Yesterday (see Day 7), Best I Ever Had by State of Shock, November Rain by J'Lostein (You Tube artist), and Fire and Redemption (Heroes theme) by Wendy and Lisa featuring Shenkar.

My usual Google search of images didn't turn up anything particularly inspiring unfortunately, so instead of using the songs I'm using the artists as a prompt today. J'Lostein is a fantastic singer with a beautiful voice and a unique style. On her website she makes a joke about looking as if she eats babies, and it's true that her appearance is almost a complete opposite to her style of music.

So today's theme is 'Appearances can be decieving'.

A new challenge

2011-06-28T15:57:00.003+01:00

I really need to finish the 30 day song challenge...

But I found another interesting prompt challenge to try later - the 100 Themes Challenge. I don't plan on doing all of them, but if I'm stuck I might dip in and out.

The themes are:
1. Introduction
2. Love
3. Light
4. Dark
5. Seeking Solace
6. Break Away
7. Heaven
8. Innocence
9. Drive
10. Breathe Again
11. Memory
12. Insanity
13. Misfortune
14. Smile
15. Silence
16. Questioning
17. Blood
18. Rainbow
19. Gray
20. Fortitude
21. Vacation
22. Mother Nature
23. Cat
24. No Time
25. Trouble Lurking
26. Tears
27. Foreign
28. Sorrow
29. Happiness
30. Under the Rain
31. Flowers
32. Night
33. Expectations
34. Stars
35. Hold My Hand
36. Precious Treasure
37. Eyes
38. Abandoned
39. Dreams
40. Rated
41. Teamwork
42. Standing Still
43. Dying
44. Two Roads
45. Illusion
46. Family
47. Creation
48. Childhood
49. Stripes
50. Breaking the Rules
51. Sport
52. Deep in Thought
53. Keeping a Secret
54. Tower
55. Waiting
56. Danger Ahead
57. Sacrifice
58. Kick in the Head
59. No Way Out
60. Rejection
61. Fairy Tale
62. Magic
63. Do Not Disturb
64. Multitasking
65. Horror
66. Traps
67. Playing the Melody
68. Hero
69. Annoyance
70. 67%
71. Obsession
72. Mischief Managed
73. I Can't
74. Are You Challenging Me?
75. Mirror
76. Broken Pieces
77. Test
78. Drink
79. Starvation
80. Words
81. Pen and Paper
82. Can You Hear Me?
83. Heal
84. Out Cold
85. Spiral
86. Seeing Red
87. Food
88. Pain
89. Through the Fire
90. Triangle
91. Drowning
92. All That I Have
93. Give Up
94. Last Hope
95. Advertisement
96. In the Storm
97. Safety First
98. Puzzle
99. Solitude
100. Relaxation

Day 14 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio

2011-06-26T16:09:00.001+01:00

One of my favourite albums from a few years ago was Celine Dion's The Colour of my Love. The album had a lot of really good songs on it, including Refuse to Dance, which has a really interesting violin part. But I think my favourite song was Next Plane Out.

I like the melody, I like the orchestration - including the wonderful violins in the last choruses, and I like the almost poetic nature of some of the lyrics. The opening lines conjur up a wonderful picture, and the song starts with the sound of rain, bringing it even more to life.

I listen to the sound of the rain fallin' down my window
Prayin' for a gentle wind
To bring my baby back again

So today's prompt is going to be describing someone sitting by a window, watching the rain and waiting for something.

Day 13 – A song that reminds you of someone

2011-06-23T16:03:00.002+01:00

A Whole New World from Aladdin was the first duet I ever sang, and so of course it reminds me of the person I sang the duet with.

When I googled the song name one of the first pictures that popped up that wasn't Disney-related was this one. I presume this family is at an aquarium, but what if they were in a submarine, or an underwater city?

Today's prompt is to write something about an entirely different environment to live in, whether that's on the moon, under the sea (hey, there's another Disney song!), in a sub-zero place or in a floating city in the sky.

Jazz Night on Every Day Poets

2011-06-20T12:55:00.001+01:00

My poem was published on Every Day Poets on June 17 and it seems that people like it as it's currently in the top ten favourite poems of the year list!
If you're one of the people who rated it, thank you! If not, then please go and read it and let me know what you think.

Sounds exciting, no?

2011-06-09T14:03:00.000+01:00

Advanced creative writing develops your writing ability by widening your generic range and developing your knowledge of style. The course works on the forms introduced in the Level 2 course Creative writing (A215) – fiction, poetry and life writing – and supplements these with dramatic writing, showing you how to write for stage, radio and film. You’ll explore how these scriptwriting skills might enhance your prose style, improve your writing across the range of forms, and further develop your individual style and voice. The course offers guidance on professional layouts for the dramatic media, and is a natural progression from A215.

More here...

In the Newspaper

2011-06-01T15:19:00.004+01:00

As a journalist I'm used to writing the stories for the newspapers, but I'm not so used to be in them as the story myself. This was in a while ago about Write for Japan, but I've only just found the pdf to post the article up here. Quite a nice write up I thought.

A Good Six Months

2011-05-31T14:45:00.004+01:00

Well the first six months of 2011 have been pretty good on the writing front, what with being included in Write for Japan, having Jazz Night accepted by Every Day Poets, and with the creative writing course going well.

In a non-fiction vein I've got into podcasting as well, and written two podcasts for 365 Days of Astronomy - End of an Endeavour (broadcast May 31) and The Universe in your Phone (broadcast May 28).

My goals for the second half of 2011 are:

Edit, edit, edit...
Start submitting the short stories I've been writing to magazines.
Finish the OU creative writing course and sign up for the advanced course.
Do NaNoWriMo with the story I almost started for my last assignment (provisionally entitled Flux).

Decisions, decisions!

2011-05-23T09:28:00.004+01:00

The last month has been pretty hectic, which is why I've been quiet for a few weeks, sorry...

My final assignment for my OU course is due in at the start of June, so I'm working on that at the moment. I'm torn between whether to do the whole thing in fiction or whether to throw in a bit of autobiographical travel writing as well. And then I came up with an idea for a new novel, so now I'm wondering if I should use that instead. Decisions, decisions!

And some news - my poem Jazz Night, which I originally wrote as part of the OU course, will be published on Every Day Poets on June 17. I'll post the link here when it appears.

Revisiting The Last Sin Eater

2011-04-12T11:17:00.002+01:00

In November I spent a very long month researching and writing about Shropshire's last sin eater, Richard Munslow. After a couple of months' break, I've been digging out the story again to start editing it.

Aside from finding the usual plot holes, inconsistencies and things that just don't work, I've also been trying to pull out bits of the story to use in my latest assignment for my creative writing course. The current assignment is to do a piece of biography - and Richard Munslow is a fascinating subject for that.

Now I've just got to condense the month's worth of research and writing into something a couple of thousand words long!

Write for Japan now on sale!

2011-04-01T09:38:00.002+01:00

The Write For Japan book has gone on sale this week to raise money for the Red Cross's relief work in Japan. The book has 34 short stories by 34 different authors from all over the world, including my sci-fi story Generation Three.

I'm really glad the book has gone on sale and that I could contribute to it. The disaster in Japan is one of those things you feel helpless about - you want to help and you don't know how. Without wishing to sound clichéd, it was a privilege to be able to join in with the project and do something that will hopefully raise a decent amount of money which can be used to help the people who have been caught up in the devastation in Japan.

If you like short stories and you would like to help support the relief work in Japan, please buy the book:
• Lulu - £6.99
• Smashwords - $3.99
• Kindle - £2.86
• Createspace - coming soon...

Write for Japan - Generation Three

2011-03-23T09:21:00.000Z

Here's a short preview of the story, Generation Three, that I've written for the Write for Japan anthology.

Zen is a teenager living on a generation ship which is travelling to a new star system where humans will create a new home.

Zen looked at the picture of herself and her family. Her dad looked out of place, his blond hair and blue eyes standing out among the Japanese features of the women in his life. For the first time Zen caught herself wondering what her life would have been like if her grandparents hadn’t decided to be part of the generation ship mission.

She went over to her bunk as the deceleration warning sounded. As she strapped herself in she noticed something white sticking out between the bunk above hers and the wall. She reached up and tugged at it, then frowned as she looked at the object in her hands. It was about the size of a small display unit, but it was made of thin pieces of... Zen hesitated for a moment, trying to remember the word from her history lessons. Of course, it was paper, and the item was a book.

Carefully, she opened the front page. It was covered in writing; some in English and some in Japanese kanji characters.

‘Oh!’ the exclamation was entirely involuntary as she recognised the name at the bottom of the page. The book was a diary, and it had belonged to her grandmother.

Writing to a time limit

2011-03-21T13:13:00.001Z

Writing is so much easier when you have a deadline to write towards. Take naNoWriMo, for example. I've managed to complete the challenge - 50,000 words in 30 days - for the last four years, but trying to keep up that amount of writing at other times seems to be pretty much impossible for me.

This week I had good motivation though - I had to complete and edit my submission for Write for Japan and send it in by Sunday 27th. Knowing that there was an end date, and that after that there would be publication (the writer's Holy Grail), and that it was all for a good cause did wonders for my motivation.

The sad thing is, now that the story is done I'm feeling unmotivated again. Must find another deadline to work towards...

Write for Japan & poetry

2011-03-16T15:19:00.005Z

The Write for Japan project is well and truly off the ground now. To find out more visit www.writeforjapan.com, and please, please, please do consider donating.

All the authors are writing stories on the subject of destruction and/or hope. I don't know exactly what form the stories will take, but I'm looking forward to finding out. My story - Generation Three - is a sci-fi one set on board a generation ship, taking the human race to find another world after the Earth became uninhabitable.

And changing the subject completely, my poem Jazz Night has been accepted by Every Day Poets!

Poetry and charity books

2011-03-14T16:19:00.003Z

Not much to say today. I didn't think poetry was my 'thing' but I seem to have done alright in the poetry part of the creative writing course, and one of my poems is now being considered for publication at Every Day Poets!

In other news... I'm getting involved in a project called (provisionally) Write for Japan, which is hoping to produce a book of short stories to sell for charity to help with the aid and rebuilding work for victims of the Japan earthquake. I'll keep you posted...

#FridayReads

2011-02-17T15:48:00.001Z

I think I've said it before, but I do think one of the best ways of improving your writing is to read a lot. And then read more. And then go to the library and read some more.

One of the things I like to do is check out the #FridayReads hashtag on Twitter*. You get a huge variety of ideas from other people's suggestions. A lot of them might be things you don't fancy, but every now and then something will catch your eye that proves to be a real gem.

So what am I reading at the moment? Well I just finished a Star Trek YA book called The Edge (good read, nice plot, and easy to settle down with), I'm in the middle of an intriguing historical mystery Death of a Dancer by Caro Peacock (great descriptions of Victorian London and good characterisations), and my pile of books to read includes a fantasy, a Christian romance, local history and a diary-style how-to guide.

* On Twitter you can flag up certain subjects, talking points, ideas, etc, by using the #. Every Friday lots of people will pick a book and tweet about it, adding #FridayReads to their message. Other people can then search for the list of messages with book recommendations by searching for #FridayReads.

Entering flash fiction competitions

2011-02-07T10:11:00.002Z

I am a firm believer that in order to write well you have to read a lot, and not just a lot of one type of story, but a lot of every type of story. One way I get my daily fix is from Every Day Fiction, which drops a nice piece of flash fiction into my inbox every day. Sometimes I'm not particularly impressed with what I read, and other times I can't stop thinking about the stories, but because they come from writers all over the world they're always different.

I've mentioned EDF before because I submitted a couple of stories to them last year, but this week they're running a competition to write a flash fiction of up to 250 words based on a 10 word prompt. I've just submitted my entry for the competition, entitled 'Purity', and I hope I'll be able to submit another as well before the competition closes on Sunday.

If anyone would like to have a go at the competition, the details are here.

Things I learned from Marvel...

2011-01-26T11:21:00.002Z

I have a confession. I love comic books.

When I was younger I would read He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and She-Ra Princess of Power, then Thundercats, and from there I found Power Pack, which was the support strip.

From there, because the strips I was reading had Franklin Richards in them, I found the Fantastic Four, and my love affair with all things Marvel began, backed up on TV by Spider-Man and X-Men. For some reason the DC heroes never caught my attention as much. Superman and Batman just weren't as exciting.

But anyway, this week I figured out two very important things when writing a fanfic about a Marvel character - red headed girls are essential to any good story (Mary Jane/Spider Man, Jean Grey & Mystique/X-Men, Pepper Potts/Iron Man, and my personal favourite Firestar/New Warriors etc.), and you can't go wrong with a name beginning 'St' (Stark, Storm, Stane, Stern, etc.).

Happy new year?!

2011-01-20T14:36:00.002Z

I am a terrible blogger, I'm sorry... I kept thinking I should write a blog, and then I never seemed to get round to it. Much like my writing so far this year. My OU course kept me busy with the first assignment due in in the second week of January, and I think with all the rushing around getting that done and in I forgot what it was like to write for fun.

I've signed up to WriYe, which is essentially like NaNoWriMo but with a more structured feel and it lasts a year. That has sort of helped get me writing again, but my total words for the year stads just shy of 10,000 at the moment, which is really pathetic when you consider I'd written that much in a week in November.

Of course it's the quality that counts and not the quantity, but even the 10,000 words I've written this month don't necessarily feel that I'm writing good fiction. In fact, the best things I've written were two made up newspaper reports about the same ficticious event written in different styles - one like a women's magazine and the other like a tabloid like The Sun. That sort of kick started my writing again, but I'm still not feeling particularly inspired.

I think I've just discovered the point where writing becomes hard work.

Tips from Children's Author Catherine Cooper

2010-12-01T16:05:00.002Z

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed children's author Catherine Cooper about her novel The Golden Acorn: The Adventures of Jack Brenin. She started off as a self-published author selling 1,500 copies in a year - a tremendous achievement for any self-published author. But then she entered the Brit Writers' Award and her publishing fortunes changed.

Here are the two halves of the interview: A Self-Publishing Success Story: Award Winner Catherine Cooper and Realising a Writing Dream: Children's Author Catherine Cooper

I don't know about you, but after reading a success story like that, I'm feeling inspired!

50,000 words in 30 days? No problem!

2010-11-30T14:23:00.002Z

I typed the final words to bring my story of The Last Sin Eater over 50,000 words this afternoon. It's a great feeling to know you've written so much on one subject, regardless of how good or bad that may turn out to be once you go back through it, becauseit proves that you can stick with a story for more than a few hours at a time.

Of course, the story isn't finished yet. Over the last few days I've thought of several places where the story should change direction, and looking back over some of what I've written, I can see a lot of places where I've just been world building or writing character profiles rather than moving the story on.

But the bones of the story are in place. I now know my characters really well, I know their world and their situations, and even if it's not all down on paper yet, I know where I want them to end up.

At the start of November quite a lot of people - and a lot of those were in creative writing forums on the OU website - said they didn't see what use NaNoWriMo was. They complained that you couldn't possibly write a good novel in one month, and that it was a waste of time.

Those people, I can't help but feel, have not grasped what NaNoWriMo is about.

It's morning pages gone into overdrive; it's an outflowing of creativity every day; it's getting a draft of a story down on paper that might otherwise have languished in your imagination for years; and it's a challenge to be overcome so you can look back and say, "well look at that, maybe I could write a book after all".

And there is nothing useless or un-worthwhile about that at all.

A quick update

2010-11-22T13:15:00.002Z

I feel really bad for not having updated in the last couple of weeks, so I'm very sorry about that. I've been really busy with NaNoWriMo and with my creative writing course, and life in general has been busy as well.

The Sin Eater story is going reasonably well, although I feel that I haven't concentrated enough on the practice itself yet. Parts of the story I feel quite happy with, like a scene I wrote where Richard is having a panic attack over what he has done and his brother John is trying to calm him down and find out exactly what has happened. I'm happy with the character of the vicar as well, who is a secondary character but has some quite important scenes with Richard.

Richard's wife Ann, however, isn't coming out as well formed. I can't seem to decide if she accepts what has happened or if she's angry, and some of the things she has done will need fixing later. I can't imagine any nice Victorian woman laying into a respected doctor in a church at a funeral, even if he did suggest that her parenting skills weren't as good as they could have been.

I also keep tripping up over Victorian customs. I want it to be as well researched as possible, but obviously this is a work of fiction and not an historical text book. The funeral arrangements seem to have been very extravagant, but then that gives me scope to decide how much of that the Munslows would have had. Periods of mourning are something I have to remember as well, and trying to work out the timeline properly is still giving me a few problems.

That aside though, I'm enjoying the trip into Victorian England and I think, as a general rule, it's going well... Only 12,000 words to go!

Wow! Just... wow!

2010-11-04T11:02:00.000Z

I had to share another cover design with you this evening. This, my friends, was created as part of the official NaNoWriMo 30 Covers, 30 Days project, where a whole host of incredibly talented professional designers pick one participant each to make a cover design for.

I got the email about it from the NaNo office at the end of October, but I didn't want to say anything because it was just that my title had been suggested and would be put in a pool for the designers to choose from:

We loved your title and synopsis. If you give us the okay, we'll send them to the designer team, and the designers may use them to create a cover design for your novel-in-progress (we say “may” because we’re sending the designers a few options to choose from).

These designers are donating their design time for this project to NaNoWriMo, so this is totally free of charge to you. You're under no obligation to do anything with the cover once you get it. In fact, the covers that the design team creates for the "30 Covers, 30 Days" program are not intended for commercial use. The covers will all be web-resolution images that will not be large enough for use as printed book covers. Think of it as a one-of-a-kind of NaNoWriMo souvenir that you can post on your Novel Info page, your blog, or website.

And so, without further comment from me, this is my cover as designed by the amazing Evan Gaffney.

"First of all I thought the synopsis was terrific, and I knew it would provide an opportunity to pore over old photographs, one of the great perks of working on book covers. The idea was to evoke spirit photography, in which the "ghost" of a loved one would be superimposed on an image in the darkroom. The little orbs were meant to suggest floating germs, as ineffable as the ghosts of their victims...

"This particular image, frame included, was in my files, and I'm glad I stepped away from the computer to rediscover it. The little glowing circles were added in InDesign--no lens flare involved, although I see the similarity. I must thank my dear studiomate for suggesting Archer for the title."

-- Evan Gaffney

The Sin Eater's family

2010-11-02T07:28:00.005Z

Crisis over! I've tracked down some of the notes I'd got on the Munslows and I've managed to piece together the family tree again, so the only thing I can't find is the outline of the plot. Fortunately I can remember most of what I was planning, and it was always likely to change a bit when I came to put it down on paper anyway.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was planning to visit the church at Ratlinghope, Shropshire, where Richard is buried. The weather was beautiful that weekend, so I did manage to get out there, and after driving round in circles for a bit I found the church.

The grave has been recently restored by the church, but it is still difficult to make out the words carved on three of the four sides of the monument. The church was very helpful with extra information though, and they'd even printed a leaflet about Richard and his family, along with the inscriptions from the grave.

The main problem now is going to be not getting confused between all the family members who share names. There are two Richards, two James', two Marys (although one is Mary Ann) and two Anns (although one might possibly have been called Annie). At various points in the timeline there are also three Elizabeths, three Georges and three Thomas' - two of whom are around for most of the story!

How not to start NaNoWriMo...

2010-11-01T11:32:00.000Z

My NaNoWriMo warm up - writing 750 words every day throughout October - was a success, and as a result the website rewarded me with this very natty turquoise horse badge for keeping going through the month. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is a great site to motivate you to write.

So what have I been writing? Well I sat down to start my story this morning and realised I couldn't find any of the notes I'd made. I'd collected information from Richard Munslow's family tree, about the practice of sin eating, a rough plot outline, the inscriptions on the grave at Ratlinghope, and various bits and pieces about Victorian life, and I couldn't find any of it.

I tried to read the inscriptions again on pictures on the internet, but they're just not good enough quality to be able to read anything. I did take pictures of the grave when I visited it, but I can't find the lead to get them off my camera and on to the computer.

I did find the family tree again, which I'd printed out, but now I'm confused as to whether a young Richard Munslow is the sin eater's son or nephew. If he's the son he must be a twin with Elizabeth, but she doesn't appear on the census when he does, and if he's a nephew then I've managed to lose one of the sin eater's seven children.

After all of these problems I did manage to get down to writing a few scenes where I didn't need to know all of the missing details, and I'm still hoping to have 5,000 words written by the end of the day (I've got 3,000 at the moment). Hopefully my notes will turn up on a memory stick or my PC...

Flash fiction competition and updates

2010-10-25T11:53:00.000+01:00

Lots of updates here, so sorry for dotting around all over the place.

First, I found an interesting competition for flash fiction while I was browing the web this week. The 30 word story contest is being run by SmokeLong Quarterly to celebrate it's 30th issue, and runs throughout November. There's no entry fee, you can submit up to three entries, and the prize is publication in a special 30th edition of the magazine.
It says: "This is what we'll be looking for in the stories submitted for our contest - very short gems that are sparse, yet evocative."

The creative writing course is going really well and the first assignment is due in this week. If you want to try out what we have to do, you have to do a 200-300 word freewrite on one of a choice of subjects and then use that as the basis for a 750 word piece of fiction. I'm not going to post up the topics here just in case it's not allowed by the university, but last year's themes have included a search; learning to swim; a scrapyard; hearing a piano; and a bunch of keys.

The final very quick update is that I've now managed to keep my streak on 750words.com going for 39 days, and at 30 I became an 'albatross'. Lucky me. I get a phoenix if I can keep it up for 100 days.

Yes, it may just be a very small little image, but it's amazing what an incentive it can be!

The Last Sin Eater - update

2010-10-14T08:28:00.002+01:00

NaNoWriMo doesn't start for another couple of weeks, but I'm already stocking up ideas and research for my story. I've been looking into the practice of sin eating, trying to find out what the reaction of the Victorian church would be to the sin eaters, and if it doesn't absolutely chuck it down with rain this weekend I'm planning to visit Richard Munslow's grave to take some pictures and get as many solid facts about him and his family as possible.

In the meantime I've been browsing through the NaNo forums looking at other people's story ideas, and I came across a very talented participant called Teri King, who goes by the user name songbird0530, who offered to make covers for other users' potential novels.

After I gave her my quick synopsis she came up with this beautiful design for my story. I have to say it's nothing like I would have imagined myslf, but it's absolutely perfect.

It includes the farm, representing Richard's occupation, a grave to signify death, and the phrase "and for thy peace I pawn my own soul" from the sin eater's prayer. I love the way it's a very empty scene as well, with the grave just lurking in the foreground, giving it a strangely uneasy feel.

Teri's own story sounds very interesting and it's the sort of story I'd buy to take on holiday with me to read on the beach. Her story is called 'Learn to Love Again' and is about a cowgirl torn between two men.

Her blog is here and I'll be watching to see if she puts up any snippets of her story.

Song Challenge - Day 12

2010-10-08T10:50:00.004+01:00

Day 12 – A song that you can dance to

I heard Wham's I'm your Man on the radio this morning and it brought back good memories of school discos when I was about six or seven. You know the kind of thing, when you got Agadoo playing and you did all the actions, and it didn't matter that it really didn't make sense (why did we 'push pineapple shake a tree'?), then everyone did the Hockey Cokey, and sung along with Startrekking. Then of course, all the cool boys would show off their breakdancing skills while the girls all gathered around to admire them. Boys take heed - girls like a guy who can dance!

And so today's writing prompt will be 'the school disco', with all its bright colours, 80s hair and silly songs.

Creative writing - OU course first impressions

2010-10-06T13:40:00.000+01:00

So I started my Open University creative writing course last week and so far I'm really enjoying it and finding it interesting and very useful. The course book, commonly referred to as the 'Big Red Book' or BRB by students, is packed full of tips and tricks to improve the amount and quality of the writing you do, and includes lots of exercises to stretch you out of your comfort zone.

One of the things I haven't found much success with yet is the morning pages, which is basically what it sounds like - you write three pages of whatever comes into your head before you do anything else each morning. I'm having problems with this partly because I have problems getting out of bed in time usually anyway, and partly because my brain doesn't seem to want to work that early in the morning.

However, the freewriting from prompts has been brilliant, bringing up a few little ideas that might turn into something more later.

To combine the two (for the most part) I've been doing my daily pages on www.750words.com, which was born out of the idea of morning pages. So far I'm on a 21-day writing streak. That, apparently, means I'm a flamingo. In nine more days I'll be an albatross, but I really want to push for the 100-day-streak phoenix...

The sin eater's story

2010-09-27T16:19:00.003+01:00

I can't believe it's almost NaNoWriMo time again! For the uninitiated, National Novel Writing Month challenges writers to pen 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days - that's 1,667 words a day. The novel doesn't have to be complete at the end of the month, or even readable, but the idea is that you finish November with the first draft of something that you can edit and improve on, and that you'll have improved your writing by just doing it so much.

Fortunately, the Open University Creative Writing course doesn't have any assignments due in November - possibly because they expect many writers to take part in NaNo? This means that I'll be able to concentrate on my novelling for the month while using the techniques recommended on the course to hopefully improve my productivity, creativity and technique.

Of course, before I start I have to have an idea. I've been struggling for a few months trying to think of something interesting to write about for the challenge, and I think I might have finally found something. There was a story on the BBC website this week about the grave of the last sin eater in England being restored. His name was Richard Munslow and he lived in Ratlinghope, in Shropshire, fairly near to where I live. Not much is known about Richard, although he seems to have been something of an unusual example of a sin eater, so I started wondering about who he was.

As a result I think I'm going to write a fictitious version of his story based on the facts that we do know about him. I think this will be an interesting project because it will tie together local history, folklore and creative writing - all things I'm interested in.

As an aside the course starts next Monday, so I'll post up a preview of the course materiels and so on later this week.

Song Challenge Day 11

2010-09-23T21:02:00.006+01:00

Day 11 – A song that reminds you of a certain event

Fleetwood Mac's The Chain is a classic for this. It's been used by the BBC for its Formula One coverage for years and years, and so it always reminds me of watching grands prix, especially the flyaway races where I'd have to get up really early in the morning to watch qualifying and the race live on TV.

This picture came up on the faithful Google search and it is, indeed, a chain. I've got no idea what I'll write about today. Perhaps a freewrite starting with this picture; perhaps something about a race; perhaps something based on one of my trips to a grand prix; or maybe aomething about getting up in the middle of the night.

Newspaper blackout poetry

2010-09-15T13:48:00.004+01:00

I really enjoy reading Austin Kleon's newspaper blackout poetry. In a nutshell, you take a newspaper article and cross out words you don't want until you're left with a poem.

These are my attempts at blackout poetry using an article from the New York Times (you can see the word 'blows' that I used in both). It's fun and challenging, and as a journalist I find it quite satisfying to know that the articles I write may have a future beyond their original purpose!

Song challenge: Day 10 & OU course

2010-09-09T10:05:00.006+01:00

My OU course materiels arrived yesterday. Having a quick flick through the books it looks like it's going to be a very interesting course - more on that later when I've had chance to really have a read. The course starts on October 2...

On to today's song challenge - Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep

This song doesn't make me fall asleep, but it's on my playlist of songs that I play when I want some music to fall asleep to. It Looks Like Rain by Jann Arden is a beautiful bluesy type song with soft piano and relaxing vocals.

I'm not sure what I'm going to write about today, but I think I might just do a freewrite on the prompt of 'a singer in a club'. I can easily imagine this song being sung late at night in a club with dim lights and small tables. I'll see where that takes me and go from there.

Song challenge: Day 9

2010-09-06T09:00:00.001+01:00

Day 9 – A song that makes you happy

This one's easy - I've been humming Fireflies by Owl City for the last few days and it's got such great lyrics that it always makes me smile. And who couldn't love 'Cause I get a thousand hugs / from ten thousand lightning bugs / as they try to teach me how to dance?

Today's story prompt? Getting taught to dance by a firefly seems like a fun thing to explore.

Song challenge: Day 8

2010-09-04T10:53:00.000+01:00

Day 8 – Your favorite song

My favourite song at the moment is Shattered by Trading Yesterday. I found it while I was watching a Heroes clip on YouTube, and it was used as the soundtrack. It fitted beautifully with the video, and the lyrics create beautiful pictures, which are open to some very different interpretations depending on who is listening to them and what kind of mood they're in at the time.

Some of the lyrics I might use as a prompt are:
• 'Yesterday I died, tomorrow's bleeding. Fall into your sunlight.'
• 'And I've lost who I am and I can't understand why my heart is so broken, rejecting your love.'
• 'Let me go and I will run, I will not be silenced.'

Or alternately I could just indulge myself write a Heroes fanfic, perhaps based on Peter's opening lines in the video, which are some of the best lines in the whole series in my opinion...

Song challenge: Day 7

2010-09-03T08:00:00.001+01:00

Day 7 – A song that you wish you could play

I love saxophone solos in songs, and one of my favourites is in George Michael's Careless Whisper. It's a beautiful song with a wonderful melody and touching lyrics, and then the saxophone comes in for its solo and it's just amazing. I don't play the saxophone, but if ever a song made me wish I did, it's this one, so that I could play the solo.

The lyrics talk about never dancing again, so I'm going to call the story I'm going to write from this 'Last Dance', and see where that takes me.

On a different note, my application to study the OU course in creative writing has been processed and I should get my course books at the end of next week. More on that when they arrive...

Song challenge: Day 6

2010-09-02T09:44:00.007+01:00

Day 6 – A song that you used to love but now hate

I wouldn't say I hate this song, but The Flame by Cheap Trick used to be one of my favourites, but now I don't especially like it. There's nothing wrong with the song, but it brings back bad memories for me, so I don't like to listen to it any more... and I've lost the only tape I had it on, which doesn't help!

The writing prompt I'm going to take is from the lyrics, which mention fire, rain and lightning. I think I can come up with something along that theme without too much difficulty...

Song challenge: Day 5

2010-09-01T09:54:00.008+01:00

Day 5 – A song that you know all the words to

Difficult one this, because I know the words to a lot of songs! In the end I've plumped for Ain't No Sunshine, as sung by Eva Cassidy.

To inspire me for the writing I did a Google search on the song title and it brought up this image from Flickr, so I'm going to do something about this girl. She looks like she could be waiting for someone...

In case anyone is wondering where the stories are... well, I'm polishing them as I write and then submitting them to Every Day Fiction. Unfortunately one of the rules of submission is that they aren't published anywhere else - including on blogs - and so I can't post them here. If they get accepted I'll post the links, if they don't I'll post the stories.

Song Challenge: Day 4 & OU Creative Writing update

2010-08-31T10:32:00.006+01:00

Day 4 – A song that you hear often on the radio

This one has to be All Summer Long by Kid Rock. I've heard it twice in the last couple of weeks, and I don't listen to that much music radio, so that's pretty impressive.

I'm going to cheat a bit on the story part of this test. Rather than use the song as inspiration for a flash fiction, I'm going to use the picture of the house on the single's CD cover, and use that as a setting for a story. I'm thinking kids exploring an abandoned farm house during the school summer holidays and finding something interesting...

On to a slightly different topic, I've posted off all my registration forms for the Open University creative writing course and now I'm waiting for my books and so on to arrive. All the course material is supposed to be sent out by September 10th, so when it arrives I'll post more about it.

Song challenge: Day 3

2010-08-30T14:24:00.003+01:00

Day 3 – A song from your favorite album

I don't really have a favourite album, I just have lots that I listen to a lot. Among the dozens that I listen to a lot - ranging from Seal to Disney to movie soundtracks to Dixie Chicks - is Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway album. It's something I like to put on when I'm driving and sing along to.

One of my favourite songs on the album is Because of You, which I think is really beautiful. The faithful Google image search brought up this lovely picture of a young dancer dressed as a fairy, so she's going to be the subject of today's fiction. Just a short scene today, I think, about the dancer's preparation for her performance.

Song challenge: Day 2

2010-08-27T12:37:00.002+01:00

Day 2 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere

The Dixie Chicks' Wide Open Spaces always reminds me of Indianapolis. I first heard the song when I was in a mall there, and when I went back the next year I made a point of finding out who sang it and buying the album. It seemed to fit very nicely with all the driving I was doing, the late summer sun and the feeling of freedom the place seemed to have.

Strangely when I typed 'wide open spaces' into the Google image search, as well as bringing up plenty of scenery it also brought up this colourful little guy, so today's fic is going to be something to do with lizards. And possibly Indianapolis.

Song challenge: Day 1

2010-08-23T13:54:00.006+01:00

Day 1 – A song that you can play on an instrument

I've been learning to play Big Girls Don't Cry by Fergie on guitar so I can perform it at a charity concert later this year. It's not the only song I can play, but it's the first one that came to mind when I read the question.

For the scene/story/flash fic I'm going to write for this one I'm going to steal a scene from the music video where she's standing by the doorway watching her boyfriend do a drug deal (as in the screengrab here - click the link to watch the full video).

I'm going to delve a bit into her feelings as she watches him and what leads to her decision to leave. I might post it up here if it turns out okay...

The 30-Day Song Challenge

2010-08-17T10:24:00.029+01:00

This musical challenge is apparently making the rounds on the interwebs so I thought I'd give it a go. The idea is to share a little bit about yourself by choosing one song a day, for 30 days, on certain themes - and because this is a writing blog, I'm setting the extra challenge of writing a short scene or fic inspired by each song I pick.

Day 1 – A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 2 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 3 – A song from your favorite album
Day 4 – A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 5 – A song that you know all the words to
Day 6 – A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 7 – A song that you wish you could play
Day 8 – Your favorite song
Day 9 – A song that makes you happy
Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11 – A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 12 – A song that you can dance to
Day 13 – A song that reminds you of someone
Day 14 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 15 – Your favorite song at this time last year
Day 16 – A song from your childhood
Day 17 – A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 18 – A song that describes you
Day 19 – A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 20 – A song from your favorite band
Day 21 – A song from a band you hate
Day 22 – A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 23 – Your least favorite song
Day 24 – A song that makes you laugh
Day 25 – A song that makes you sad
Day 26 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 27 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 28 – A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 29 – A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 30 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad

Weekend ahead

2010-08-13T15:32:00.002+01:00

This time last week I was on the train with 200 members of the Royal Navy. This week I'm sitting at my desk trying to get motivated to write and thinking about the 101 things I should do when I get home - starting with getting the washing out of the washing machine, and doing the washing up.

Somewhere this weekend I want to try to finish the first draft of a short story I've been working on as well, but whenever I sit down to write fiction at the moment I seem to come up with ideas for things that are entirely unrelated to the story I'm trying to write. I need to try to find the balance between getting the ideas down somewhere to work on another time, and making sure I don't get too sidetracked.

Maybe I should just start with an outline for the bits of short story I don't have, and fill in from there. Girl gets chased, girl gets caught, girl is dead, boy finds girl, boy's dad explains about the monsters, boy goes hunting monsters, and so on... I'll give it a try and let you know how it went on Monday.

Taking a creative writing course

2010-08-10T11:46:00.003+01:00

I'm in the process of studying for a degree with the Open University and as I was looking through the prospectus for my next course I noticed they have a creative writing course. It looks quite interesting, because although I know my writing is generally good, I'm sure I've picked up some bad habits, and I'm sure there are a whole bucketful of good practice ideas that I could use to improve my writing.

The course starts in October and I'll post updates and useful things I've learned as I go through the work. If anyone else is doing this course then drop me a note - I can always use a study buddy!

Writing on the train

2010-08-09T12:48:00.002+01:00

I've just been away on holiday for a week in sunny Plymouth and had to get the train there from Birmingham - about 4 hours either way. Fortunately I had a good book and my laptop with me, so I was able to occupy myself pretty well.

I actually found the journey was a good source of inspiration - I found myself on the same train as 200 members of the Navy who were all heading off for furlough. Listening to them chatting (nothing about what they'd been doing in service, just normal chatter) gave me a few ideas for scenes, and the reactions of some of the other passengers sparked a few character ideas as well. And then there was the guy who managed to get locked in the toilet...!

I only managed to write one short story during the journey, but that's better than none, and I finished my book as well as having the experience of meeting some great guys.

The book, which I highly recommend, was part of the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. If you like dragons, swordplay or historic novels, read and enjoy!

Some thoughts on editing

2010-07-29T14:30:00.003+01:00

Things I've learned from trying to edit my story:

• If you've read a passage 10 times through and still can't see where it needs changing but know it needs to be changed, highlight it and come back to it later with fresh eyes.
• A change of font can help you see things you hadn't picked up before.
• If you ask your family to proof read for you, don't expect them to pick up everything that should be changed.
• Make sure anyone you ask to proof read has a good grasp of grammar and spelling, and make sure it's the same spelling you use! If you're British and you ask an American to proof your story, don't expect them to pick up your spelling mistakes.
• Things always look different on a printed page than on a computer screen.
• Something that makes perfect sense to you may not to a reader who hasn't spent the past two years engrossed in the story...
• If you ask for honest feedback, don't be offended when you get it! (Unless it's completely useless, like 'your story's really bad, I didn't like it' with no suggestions to improve it.)
• Treasure the good comments but don't be afraid to change things.
• Always keep a copy of your previous draft, just in case!

No motivation...

2010-07-20T14:58:00.003+01:00

Someone please give me a kick up the backside to do some editing... Maybe I should bribe myself with something...

Writers block & dreams

2010-07-15T15:25:00.001+01:00

Some days the writing just flows and other days ... it doesn't.

For the last week or so writing has been a real struggle. My imagination isn't coming up with anything especially interesting, and my vocabulary seems to have shrunk whenever I try to get anything down on paper.

I've been trying to do some more refining of Dark Magic as well this week, and I don't know if it's because I've been looking at it too much, but although I know where I should be changing things, I haven't been able to find the right way to do it. For example, I know I want to turn one of the early scenes into a flashback scene rather than a memory, but I can't seem to find the right way to transition.

The only thing I seem to have written that was good - and which surprised me because the subject matter wasn't something I usually write about - was a very vivid dream I had. The following night I woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep so I went to the computer and wrote down the dream - 600 words of blood, strange powers and healing.

Maybe I'll post it later, but I don't know... It was a dream about some of the characters from Heroes, and I don't want to do a Mary Sue (although helping Claire Bennet to heal Peter Petrelli was a nice dream to be in the middle of...!).

The sci-fi saga is over

2010-07-09T10:14:00.003+01:00

After six months of frantic writing, Alive! finished this week. Reading back through it there are several things I'd change if I'd been writing it as a straight novel, not in parts, but generally I'm pleased with how it's come out.

For those who like stats, it finished at 34,500 words, was completed in 25 installments, filled 75 A4-type pages on the net and would be 189 pages of an 8.5"x5.5" book (I'm looking into editing it properly and making print copies available via Lulu or some other POD publisher).

If anyone wants to read the finished story click here - it's going to stay up on The Novel Factory site for the immediate future at least.

Doing big, scary things

2010-07-02T10:53:00.002+01:00

I've been thinking, and I decided that I didn't like the idea of publishing with CreateSpace after all. The main problem was that it's based in America and I'm in the UK, so anyone I talk to who may want to buy the book will have to pay a lot extra for shipping.

So I was looking around the sites I have bookmarked and discovered that one of my favourite publishers, Wyvern Publications, is starting a new children's imprint called Pixiefoot Press. After a few days of dithering, and another day trying to make sure my synopsis makes sense, I've submitted Dark Magic to Wyvern for consideration.

Fingers crossed!

The six word competition

2010-07-01T12:37:00.003+01:00

I decided at the start of the year that I wanted to enter more writing competitions to give myself targets. The Arvon Foundation's six word story competition caught my attention today. Here are my attempts:

Competition entered, judges awed, prize given.

Rope knotted, chair kicked away. Goodbye.

I've also entered the Txtlit competition - write a story within the length of a text message. I seem to be veering towards microfic/flashfic at the moment...

Is fiction better with no dads?

2010-07-01T09:34:00.003+01:00

An interesting article I read today says that fiction is often better when there are no dads in the picture. It's an interesting idea and certainly one that holds true - Harry Potter, Maximum Ride, Oliver Twist, Treasure Island, Jane Eyre, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Anne of Green Gables, and dozens of folklore and fairy tales (Aladdin, Dick Whittington, etc) prove the theory.

Of course there are other stories where the father figure is prominent - Twilight being a good example. It has three good father figures in Charlie, Carlisle and Billy Black, and these all add to the story and make it no less intriguing for their presence. (The story wouldn't work without Carlisle, and why would Bella be in Forks if there was no Charlie?) But this does seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

Love Whisper Of The Flowers

2010-06-30T13:47:00.002+01:00

I've tracked down more information on that picture I want to use on the cover of Dark Magic. It's actually from an album called Love Whisper Of The Flowers by an artist called Mickey. I believe it's Taiwanese or Chinese, and the album was accompanied by beautiful drawings for each track, including The Sincere Happiness (not, as I'd previously thought, 'lincere').

According to this translated page, the album was released in Taiwan in 2003 as Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros Story and the images were drawn by illustrator 'Prince - William'. Unfortunately now I've hit a dead end. I can't seem to track down any more information on the illustrator or anything else about the album itself. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Dark Magic - finishing NaNoWriMo 2008!

2010-06-11T10:17:00.003+01:00

I have finished my story from NaNoWriMo 2008! What started out as A Dark Faerie Tale then turned into The Dark Lady and has now ended up as Dark Magic.

The book is available here for US$8.50, which is about £5.80, and I'm really excited :)

I have to say I love the cover, which was one of CreateSpace's layouts. I found the picture online when I did a Google search on copyright free images. It was being used on three social networking sites by people who obviously really liked faeries, but I haven't been able to track down its creator. If it's you, or if you know who did design it, please let me know, because I'd like to get in touch to ask if it's okay to use it on the book and to find out if they'd like paying!

So now to answer a few questions about the book:

Why CreateSpace print-on-demand and not a traditional publisher?
Well I don't think I'm going to sell that many copies, to start with, and when I completed NaNo I got a code to use for a free proof from CS. I can still order more copies if I want to to sell elsewhere, and the book has its own website, so I figured there was no reason why I shouldn't sell it this way.

Faeries? Don't you mean fairies?
Nope, I like the spelling f-a-e. To me, a fairy is a fluttery little thing rather like a butterfly, while a faerie has more depth and more character. I wanted my characters to be real, solid girls who just happened to have wings and magic. I couldn't seem to fit that in with them being fairies.

Why doesn't Poppy get her own story?
I don't know... There didn't seem to be the opportunity to give her anything of her own, so she ended up being the nice helpful friend who's always there when you need her but doesn't like taking the lead.

Sum up the characters in three words each.
Columbine - shy, dark, powerful.
Poppy - fun, hungry, excitable.
Lavender - loyal, clever, quiet.
Persephone - cute, caring, happy.
Ginevra - fiery, brave, mouthy.
Lily - determined, imaginative, serious.

Character profiles: Jackson Brown

2010-05-28T10:13:00.001+01:00

Name: Jackson Brown
Age: 35-40

Position: Inventory & logistics and assistant engineer, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Can seem to be quite inapproachable at times as he prefers to keep his own counsel. He is always certain of his own mind and isn't slow to tell other people if he thinks they or a situation is wrong, bad, or being handled wrong.

Misc: A mixture of hired muscle and a steady mind, Jackson is in charge of dealing with port authorities, sourcing cargo, and dealing with any problems that arise. One of Dak's most trusted friends, he is also the one the captain turns to when something needs to be done.

“Jackson seems to be alright, and judging from the language he used when I told him he was restricted to the medical bay this morning I would say he’s well on his way to recovery,” Dr Rivers said, smiling slightly.

Inspiration & character creation: Jackson began as little more than an additional crew member but has become more and more part of the plot as the story has progressed. He has a sense of mystery around him in the story - partly because sometimes when I write him I'm not even sure myself what's going on. It was fun to give him a more key role in discovering the saboteur on board the Crazy Horse - especially as I'd noticed his main role up to that point seemed to be to get injured!

I didn't base his character on anyone in particular, and although I'd had his name in the back of my mind for use in a story for a while, he hadn't really got any personality to go with the name before Alive!.

Finishing a story

2010-05-24T09:24:00.004+01:00

I'm reaching a few deadlines during the next couple of months. First, I really need to finish editing my NaNoWriMo story from 2008, The Dark Lady.

Lavender crept out into the passage, trying to ignore the feeling that the pictures were watching her. At the end of the passage she found a large round room, lined from floor to ceiling with shelves containing jars, scrolls, bottles, small wooden boxes and dusty old books.

Fascinated, she went closer to see what was in the jars. She reached out a hand towards one when a voice stopped her.

'I wouldn't do that.'

She turned to see Columbine standing in the doorway, arms folded across her chest and black and green wings held out wide, blocking the exit.

'Columbine!' she cried in relief. 'I know you said you want to be here, but this place isn't good for you!'

Columbine shook her head slowly. 'I wouldn't expect you to understand,' she replied. 'You have never been afraid of your own magic, scared that it will run away with you, and worried that you might do something terrible.'

'No, you're right,' Lavender replied. 'But there still have to be better places to learn how to control your magic than here, with that dark faerie.'

'She is my friend,' Columbine returned, coldly.

'I thought I was your friend too,' Lavender replied quietly, looking Columbine straight in the eyes.

Columbine paused, and for a moment Lavender thought she had got through to her. But before she could be sure, another voice cut in, and Lavender wheeled round to find the dark faerie had somehow appeared behind her.

'I'm impressed you got out, but you've caused enough trouble now,' the dark faerie hissed at Lavender, throwing a bolt of black magic at her.

This story has been lying around not doing very much for the past year. I did get it proofread, but never really got around to editing it. Now I'm finally getting the chance to edit, and I'm on the second read through now. On the first go through I fixed a section that didn't make sense and took out a large chunk that was really just waffle. Now I'm onto more nitpicky things. I'd like to get it finished by the start of June - I'll keep you posted...

The other story that's coming to an end is Alive. I've been doing weekly updates since January on this story and it's due to come to a close in July. There's no fixed date yet, but I'm already starting to tie up loose ends.

I reckon I've got about 6-8 more installments to find out the truth behind Delta the cyborg and figure out why she was sabotaging the Crazy Horse, figure out whether or not to leave Colonel Leonard and the missing child unsolved, and help Dak get out of trouble for taking a drug mule on board.

100 pages in 30 days

2010-04-28T10:07:00.006+01:00

I know I've been quiet for a while, and I'm very sorry about that. I've been taking part in Script Frenzy during April, trying to draft out a comic book script based on Alive! And finally, today, I managed to hit that magic 100 pages... then I validated the page count and found it was 135 - how did that happen?!

Of course, the story's not finished yet and so the comic script isn't either, but I'll try to get it finished once the story ends, and then maybe try to find an artist who'd be willing to draw it for me.

Not enough hours in the day

2010-04-21T11:09:00.002+01:00

Why is it that when you think you've got everything sorted out and you know exactly what time you're going to have to spend writing (or whatever else you choose to do) something comes along to change all your plans?

In my case it's been a change of workplace that's added to my commuting time, giving me less time to spend doing other things, including writing.

I have still been able to keep up with Alive! though, and that story is due to end in July. I think the Crazy Horse might just have reached Mars by then...!

Character profiles: Elliott Macintyre

2010-04-15T10:13:00.003+01:00

Name: Elliott Macintyre
Age: Early 30s

Position: Second in command and helmsman, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Fairly laid back and experienced in startship operations, Elliott is the one Dak relies on to make sure paperwork is in order, timetables are kept and the ship is all working properly.

“Hey, Brown, open your eyes, look at me, Jackson.”

The voice sounded far away and Jackson wished it would go away. His head hurt like the worst hangover he’d ever had, although he couldn’t remember drinking anything.

“Brown,” the voice wouldn’t shut up, and now whoever it was talking was shaking him as well.

“Go ‘way,” he groaned, keeping his eyes shut.

“Hey, you scared me for a minute, Brown,” Macintyre said, sitting back on his heels as he opened the first aid kit he’d grabbed from the bridge. “Hey, stay put,” he added as Jackson tried to get up. “You’ve got a gash on your head and you’re leaking red stuff all over the place. Keep your butt on the deck ‘til I’ve cleaned you up a bit.”

Jackson made a noise which could have been taken as a grumbling assent or as a swear word. Elliott ignored it as he poured a liberal amount of coagulant powder onto the three inch cut on the hairline of the other man’s head, then wrapped a bandage around it.

“There was a hull breach,” Macintyre continued. “Looks like you were in your bunk when it happened, and you got thrown out and hit your head on that cabinet there,” he pointed to a low cupboard with a brown-red stain on the corner. “Don’t you remember anything?”

Jackson shook his head then winced in pain.

“You sit there a while longer before you try moving,” Macintyre told him. “You’re not bleeding any more, but you’d better let the doc see you to patch up that cut. If you can stay put for a minute I just need to check on Anna. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Firestarter

2010-03-22T14:19:00.002Z

In mooching around the internet this week I found this article on top tips for writers. As well as some useful tips and tricks, it also started off with some questions which could be used as the basis for a story. One of them was: What if a young girl could start fires with her mind?
I think I might use that as a prompt...

Character profiles: Dr Connor Rivers

2010-03-15T10:16:00.000Z

Name: Connor Rivers
Age: 45-55

Position: Senior doctor, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Serious, intelligent and with a weakness for a good whisky.

Dr Rivers sat upright studying a hand held computer pad. He looked worried, but he often did when he had patients, thinking through every possible complication and treatment.

Inspiration & character creation: Dr Rivers was one of those characters that was necessary to create for reality's sake but didn't have a fleshed out character when I started writing. I knew it would be likely that people would need a doctor on a several-month-long interplanetary trip, but I wasn't sure how much he'd get involved with the rest of the story.

Of course, after Pilar Perez got ill, he became more central to the story, providing background information and eventually turning into something of a sounding board for Dak. He also seemed to be quite fatherly towards Anna, which was a nice development.

Character profiles: Anna Smythe

2010-03-09T11:50:00.001Z

Name: Dr Anna Smythe
Age: 25

Position: Trainee doctor, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Quiet and caring, Anna is a thoroughly nice person. She can be quite shy in large groups but she makes friends easily.

Misc: Not long out of medical school, Anna is working on the Crazy Horse to get experience in the field. She is eager to learn and very competant at what she does.
Although she is fully qualified she very rarely introduces herself as 'Dr Smythe', although she has been known to take refuge in her professional standing if she feels unsure or nervous in a situation.
She seems to be comfortable on board the MF Crazy Horse, although at first glance it would appear to be a station entirely unsuited to her character. Much of that seems to be down to Dr Rivers, who treats her with an almost fatherly manner.

“Mr Perez? It’s Anna Smythe. Are you alright?”
“Señorita Smythe?” Carlos went to the door and put his head against the cool metal. “My wife – is she...?”
“She’s doing just fine,” Anna replied. “I just thought you’d like to know Dr Rivers says she’s stable, though he doesn’t think she’ll be waking up before we reach Mars.”
Carlos breathed a sigh of relief. “Then... Can I see her?” he asked.
There was a pause before Anna answered. “I’m sorry, I can’t let you in to see her. Not without someone else to watch you. Captain’s orders, sorry.”
“But she is alright?” Carlos asked again.
“She still needs to get to the proper hospital facilities on Mars, but don’t worry, she’s fine at the moment,” the trainee doctor reassured him.
“Thank you, Señorita. And you will take good care of her?” he asked.
“I will, I promise,” Anna answered seriously.

Inspiration & character creation: Anna is in some ways a character who is still in development. Because I made her quiet and shy, she hasn't featured prominently in the story so far, and when she has it's been mostly professional.
Her inspiration was the traditional English rose - pale complexion, blonde hair, beautiful, refined and intelligent. I really don't know what path her character will take as the story progresses, but I like that. She's very much a predictable, stable character, whereas most of the other people in the story are liable to lose tempers, make rash decisions and get into arguements. In that way she provides the backbone and in some ways the conscience of the story, although the last thing I want is for her to become goody-goody.
In some ways she could be likened to KayLee in Firefly, but in other ways she's a very different character.

Goals for the next few months

2010-03-05T11:19:00.003Z

Submission deadlines and themes I'd like to meet:

Two 500 word flash fictions on the theme of sci-fi and fantasy
Up to 5,000 words on the theme 'End of the Rainbow'
2,500-5,000 words about werewolves
3,500-6,000 words on the theme 'Zero Gravity: Adventures in Deep Space'
1,500-15,000 words on the theme 'Whodunnit Halloween'
Up to 7,000 words about the exploration and colonisation of outer space and the solar system
At least 3,000 words of sci-fi set off-Earth

Don't know how I'll get on with this, but it's good to have something to work towards.

Character profiles: Shanran Dak

2010-03-04T10:07:00.001Z

Name: Shanran Dak
Age: 45

Position: Captain, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Grumpy, stubborn, smart as hell and very determined.

Misc: The captain of the MF Crazy Horse isn't always an easy man to get along with. He's conscientious about completing a job, but always wants to do it on his own terms. Because of this he doesn't get on well with people in authority, which can occasionally get him into hat water, and isn't shy of telling people exactly what he thinks.
If he's given options he will always look for the one which will benefit his ship and crew the most.
He trusts very few people, and even among his own crew there are few that he completely trusts all the time. Jackson Brown is probably his closest friend, although he has also been known to enjoy a drink with Dr Rivers and John Park. His loudly professed opinion of women in general is that they cause trouble, but despite this he carries two women on his crew, perhaps suggesting that his bark is worse than his bite?

“Major, what the hell are these orders about?” Dak snapped, taking the seat as Macintyre closed the office door and leaned against the doorframe. “You want me to carry passengers on our next run? Are you out of your fricking mind? You know we don’t have the facilities to do that, not to mention the inclination.”

~*~

“He won’t change his mind,” Macintyre stated, folding his arms as he watched John finish transmitting Keller’s schematics to the stranded ship.

“How do you know unless you try?” Keller countered.

Macintyre laughed and shook his head. “I’ve been working with Dak for long enough now to know a hopeless cause when I see one. Even if he thought he was wrong – which he doesn’t by the way – then you’d be hard pushed to get him to admit it. Trying to change his mind’s nearly impossible.”

Inspiration & character creation: It was fun coming up with the character of the captain. He started out as an idea for a first officer on a much more classy ship than Crazy Horse - think more Enterprise than Serenity. Something wasn't quite right about him in that position though, so Macintyre became first officer and Dak got a promotion.
His character was partly inspired by Joss Wheden's Firefly character Malcolm Reynolds, but I also liked the idea of having a grumpy captain and the challenge of trying to make him sympathetic and likeable. I hope I've succeeded!
His ethnicity is a mystery, even to me, but his name seemed more Indian-feeling than western. I'm probably going to get complaints from Indian people about that now, so sorry in advance, but if you think I'm wrong just remember that this is the 22nd century and Keller is a made-up western name...

Character profiles: John Park

2010-02-28T10:13:00.000Z

Name: John Park
Age: 38

Position: Odd job man, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Laid back and likeable, John is good at finding information and tracking down hard-to-locate objects - as well as talking his way into free drinks at the bar!

John went into the kitchen area and Dak heard him open one of the storage cupboards and open a can.

“That’s coming out of your rations,” he called, going over to join John in the kitchen.

John shrugged, taking a swig from the can. “I’ll get us more at Mars,” he told the captain.

Inspiration & character creation: John wasn't Korean until I decided on his last name. Park seemed to suit him, then I realised there seemed to be a lot of Korean actors and actresses with that surname - Enterprise's Linda Park and Battlestar Galactica's Grace Park to name just two. I Googled it and what do you know - it's one of the most common Korean surnames. You learn something new every day!

Sci fi web comic - Crimson Dark

2010-02-25T15:07:00.004Z

I'd like to introduce you to the wonderful webcomic that is Crimson Dark. I only found it this week but I absolutely love it.

It's drawn by an Aussie called David Simon and the story revolves around a space ship and her crew in the 27th century. The crew are all a bit odd, each with their own quirks, and the stories are really good.

I think the reason I like it so much is that it reminds me of Alive!, or at least, of how I'd like Alive! to be - whether or not it actually comes across with the same feel I'll have to leave to you to tell me. Feel free to leave comments on here.

The graphics are partly 3D and partly traditional, and they are amazing. If I could draw like this, Alive! would be a web comic!

To read the comic click here.

Character profile: Keller Anis

2010-02-24T18:43:00.008Z

Thanks to the brilliant character creator in Star Trek Online I can actually show you how I envisage some of my characters. First up is Keller Anis, engineer of the MF Crazy Horse in my seriel novel Alive!

Name: Keller Anis
Age: 30

Position: Engineer, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Stubborn, dedicated sometimes to the point of losing focus on other things, serious at work but relaxed off-duty.

Misc: Keller is a very talented engineer and looks on her ship almost as her child. She believes she can fix anything, given the time and equipment, and so far hasn't been faced with a situation to prove her wrong.
She can be stubborn and hard headed at times, and often butts heads with the captain when she believes her solution is better. They have a love-hate relationship where they both respect each other and can rub along quite well, but often find themselves argueing. The captain reserves his favourite insult - 'damned woman' - especially for Keller.
Keller enjoys playing basketball and has rigged up a net in the engine room storage bay.

Captain Shanran Dak frowned and punched a button next to the speaker. “Dammit Keller, could you try not to scrape the paint quite so hard next time?” he growled into the microphone headset he was wearing. “She gets enough battering through the asteroid belt without you adding more dents.”

“I’ve told you before, Captain, I’d have no problems fixing the dents up if you’d get me a proper repair kit,” Keller replied. “Besides, don’t blame me – you were steering,” she added.

Dak scowled at the speaker and swore under his breath as he punched buttons on the control panels to shut down the ship’s engines. “Damned woman, got an answer for everything,” he muttered.

Inspiration & character creation: I really don't know how I came up with Keller's first name. It just popped into my head one day when I was thinking about Star Trek - I know, geeky, sorry! Her last name came from the 'star anis' plant.
Her original incarnation was as a half-Betazoid half-Romulan counsellor in the 27th century in a Trek fan-fic, which was never designed to be read by anyone other than me. I didn't really flesh out her character very much to start with, although she's always had a stubborn streak. When I started writing Alive! I was looking for a strong female character and she came to mind. A few tweaks later and she appeared in current form.
The quote above was actually the first line I ever wrote for her in Alive! and once she'd said that it helped set her character even more for me.
I think Keller is now one of my favourite characters - strong, clever, argumentative, stubborn - and I'm looking forward to exploring her more as the story progresses.

Some inspiration

2010-02-24T11:44:00.003Z

I came across a couple of really good reads on the net this week that I wanted to share. The first was a page of tips for writing fiction, put together by successful writers and published in The Guardian.

The second was a blog post about what expectations people have of writers and whether they're reasonable or not. Bottom line? Writers need a break sometime, so don't be afraid to take some time away from your writing if you need to to avoid burning out.

Writing with no idea where it's heading

2010-02-19T11:21:00.004Z

I've started several new stories this week but have no idea where they're heading or what they'll turn into - if anything.

Well, that's not strictly true. One of them is going to be a short story about a teenage werewolf and her (yes, I said her) boyfriend, and I've got that pretty much mapped out. Now I just have to sit down and write it. If it turns out well then I might submit it for an anthology - I know Wyvern Publications is going to be doing a Fangtales anthology next year about creatures of the night, vampires and so on.

The other ideas aren't anything like as developed.

Oh well, on with Alive, where Dak is about to find signs of sabotage and Macintyre's tracking an odd smell...

Postcrossing - bring back snail mail!

2010-02-08T12:35:00.003Z

I've joined in with the postcrossing project, which seems to be gaining popularity with a lot of young people across the world. The project is very simple - sign up, get an address from the system, send a postcard. Once the other person receives the card they can post a picture of it on the postcrossing site so that other people can see it. And of course, you get postcards from all over the world as well.

This doesn't really have a lot to do with writing a suppose, but I find thinking about other places helps inspire all sorts of settings for stories, and reading letters from other people does give insights that can help flesh out characters.

And it's fun!

Writing stories for Suite101.com

2010-02-04T10:14:00.003Z

Where do you get ideas from when you're writing stories, either fictional or features? This week I've been challenging myself to write 20 stories for Suite101.com and I've been finding story ideas in the most unusual places.

I've recently finished an Open University course in archaeology, and I suddenly thought 'if I've spent all this time researching and reading about the history of these cities and cultures, why not put that to use?'. The result was a raft of stories on Anyang, Meroitic religion, the Aztec empire, Rome and Teotihuacán. A few years ago I studied medieval history as well, so that gave me materiel for two more articles on 14th century women.

Other ideas come from people I talk to. I recently met a man who is a volunteer 'ancient tree hunter', which made a very interesting interview. Other people I know keep tortoises, make jewellery, own sheep and recommend hydrotherapy for their dogs, so that produced another four articles.

Another article came from a survey I read on healthcare myths that pregnant women believe, which I used as a basis for a healthy eating article.

My other four recent stories came from me. I'm involved in Guiding, which is celebrating its centenary this year; I like making things and I was looking into different styles of rag rugs; I've recently started playing Star Trek Online; and I was looking for story ideas.

And in case you'd like to read any of the stories, they're here:

Keeping Track of Your Tortoise
Anyang - The Last Capital of the Shang Dynasty
Hydrotherapy for Dogs
Etiquette when Visiting Farmland
Generating Feature Story Ideas
Meroitic Beliefs and Religion
Politics and Religion in the Aztec Empire
The Expansion of Rome
British Women in the 14th Century
The Religion of Teotihuacán
Women in the 14th Century
Rob McBride - The Tree Hunter
Healthy Eating for Mums-to-be
100 Years of Guiding
How To Make a Rag Rug
A Guide To Jewellery Making
A Guide To Star Trek Online

Haiku and Alive update

2010-01-26T14:54:00.002Z

Very quick updates today. First, a haiku that I threw together as an entry into a Star Trek inspired competition. (Excuse my Trekker-ness for a moment...)

Where I want to be -
Space, the final frontier...
Beam me up, Scotty!

In case you're not sure what haiku is, it's a three line poem with five syllables in the first and third lines and seven syllables in the second line. I used to really enjoy writing them when I was at school, so when I saw the competition I had a burst of nostalgia and decided to join in.

The second thing is that the third part of Alive! is online now - poor Pilar...