Lack-of-progress update / IT Crowd

Moss - not your typical M&B hero

This summer has been such a wash-out that you'd think I'd have stayed in, writing. Well, I have stayed in, but to cheer myself up, I've been watching re-runs of the IT Crowd. The trouble is, I've now watched so many episodes that whenever I try to add more to my new Medieval romance, in my head, my hero sounds just like one of the IT Crowd characters - Moss. Not exactly the effect I'm trying to achieve with my alpha male, twelfth-century warrior...

So I have made some progress since my last update, but it's been painfully slow. Hopefully now that there are some breaks in the rain, I can get out for some walks and bike rides, and clear my head.

Can I learn anything from my experience? Umm...(sounds of barrel being scraped out)...I suppose that I should aim to create characters who are so strong that I can predict what they would say or do in any given situation. Just as long as they don't sound like Moss.

A long overdue update

This summer has been a complete washout - in more ways than one. Why is it that I always think I'll have more time to write over the summer, when it always turns out to be the complete opposite? I've had a lovely time visiting people I haven't seen for a while, but I've fallen badly behind schedule with my first draft. Ah well, I'm back to work now and getting back into my writing routine too.

I got some good news yesterday, though - I found out that I've won a copy of Pamela Hartshorne's first time-slip novel - Time's Echo. I love her Mills and Boon romances (writing as Jessica Hart) and I also love time-slips, so I'm really looking forward to reading it.

As an additional bonus, it's set in York, where I lived for nearly ten years. It's always fun to read stories set in familiar places. I can picture the action more vividly if I've seen the sights that the characters are seeing.

Of course, I also love the way that books can take you to a place you've never been before. What do you prefer - reading about new or familiar places?

In search of heroes

It takes a special kind of hero to look good in lycra

Yes, I know I've been quiet, but now the Olympics are over, I can get back to posting here more regularly. I will admit to being distracted during the games, but who can blame me with the inspiring heroes and heroines performing there?

I'm going to stick with the heroes in this post. I write historical romance, set in post-Roman and medieval Britain. My heroes are driven warriors, struggling to carve out a life for themselves in dangerous times. I'm always looking for inspiration for my next hero, but living in a time so different from the ones I write about means there's a dearth of brooding warlords roaming the streets.

But now my eyes have been opened. The Olympics were full of exactly the type of man I model my heroes on. Maybe they've swapped their destriers for bicycles and swords for javelins, but they've all made sacrifices to achieve their goals, struggled against set-backs and fought tooth and nail to gain the edge over their rivals. Every Olympian is a winner, whether or not they are a medalist. And they all have a story to tell. If I find myself needing fresh inspiration, I now now where to turn.

Roll on Rio!

Sun at last!

After months of pouring rain the sun has come out! While it's not been good for my word count, being able to go out for walks and bike rides has improved my mood no end. I was going stir crazy after so much rain.

My word count has actually gone backwards. I'd written three chapters, only to decide that I'd started in the wrong place. I've just finished the new chapter one and I'm much happier with it now. It's just a bit depressing that I've got fewer words down now than I had this time last week.

Progress report and Scrivener

I started work on my first draft this week and so far I've exceeded my target of writing eight hundred words a day. It doesn't sound like much, but if I set out to write, say, fifteen hundred words, I freeze and convince myself I'll never do it. The best way I've found of fighting the fear is by convincing it there's no reason to start whispering to me in the first place. I know I can easily manage eight hundred words and once I've got going I can usually do much more.

My progress has also been helped by the discovery of Scrivener. I downloaded it a while ago, on the recommendation of a writing group friend. However I was in the middle of my previous novel at the time and because it looked complicated I didn't think it was worth the bother of switching over from Word.

I wish I had. It's quite simply the best way I've found of organising my writing. And it's not so complicated. I spent an hour going through the tutorial project and that's all I needed to grasp the basics. Now all my research notes, outlines, character sheets etc are one click away, on the same page that I'm working on. Previously I had to save everything into folders, or bookmark web pages and I was always mislaying things.

There's no way I can talk about all the features, but there are two I've found particularly useful this week. Firstly, it's dead simple to create a template. Eg a blank character sheet or location sheet. I used a tip from Jessica Hart and cribbed her scene sheets. I've found these so useful for planning each scene and it saves me a lot of time in the long run as I don't have to work it out when I write the scene. The second thing is the target setting gadget. I can set a target word count for each scene and as I type, a red line gets longer and gradually turns green as I approach my target. It's a great motivator.

I can't recommend Scrivener highly enough. Give it a try if you haven't already. (I use the Mac version BTW, but a Windows version is also available.)

Plotting

I feel like I should be rubbing my hands, going, "Bwa ha ha ha ha!" at regular intervals when I say that I'm plotting. And in many ways, planning a romance is a bit like being an evil mastermind. I take two lovely characters, ask myself what's the worst possible thing I could do to them, then go ahead and do it. And like an evil mastermind, I have enormous fun watching them suffer :)

Anyway. Progress report: I've got a feel for my hero and heroine now. It took me a long time to get to grips with my hero. Then a single phrase jumped into my head while I was out on a walk and it immediately showed me his internal conflicts and the turning point of the story. I even managed to write it down before I forgot!

I finished the outline today. Now it's time to start the first draft. I'm setting myself a low target of 800 words per day, because I've got other writing projects I'm working on at the same time. With a target of 70 000 words, that brings me to the end of October. It seems like ages away, but I bet it speeds past.

New books and research

My book from Nicola Cornick arrived today - Whisper of Scandal. As it looks like being a wet weekend, I'm going to enjoy curling up in my conservatory to read that. When I'm not chasing around with buckets, trying to catch the drips...

It was a bumper post today. I also got Hedgerow Medicine by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal - the first of the books I bought with the Amazon token. It's a fascinating read. It lists fifty British herbs and their uses in medicine. Not only that, but it gives instructions on how and when to harvest, store and create recipes. I've been wanting to get a book on herbal remedies for ages, because several times I've found my characters needing to treat ailments or wounds. I've spent hours searching websites, looking for information on the herbs they would have available. Now I've got all the information I need in one book.

I've been hooked on historical fiction ever since I read my first Rosemary Sutcliffe book, but it's only since I started to write it myself that I fully appreciated how much research is needed. Not so much into the events surrounding the chosen time period - although that's important too - but the everyday details. Like what my characters would eat, what utensils they would use, what they would wear etc. When I was writing the first draft of my post-Roman Britain story I kept stumbling over niggling details that weren't vital to the plot, but were really difficult to find out. I've now read so much about the archaeology of Roman and post-Roman Britain that I wonder if I shouldn't go the whole hog and do an archaeology degree.

Of course, now I've completed that ms I've decided to set my next novel in twelfth-century England and Wales. So I've got to start my research from scratch. It's a good thing I enjoy it!