look back

Nano this year, whilst I succeeded in making the post count, was not what i deem a great success. I didn’t work on my historical novel but instead wrote a lot of crap about fairies. It sucked. It was horrible, but i have to deal with it and move on.
I did however manage to glean an interesting character from it, so maybe she will be useful one day.
in the emantime i relaxed over new year and wondered when i will ever finish ‘rest for the wicked.’ i have the prequel all planned too so yeah, it needs doing.

Plotting…

I started to plot my Nanowrimo novel a few days ago, ok, well rather I bought a new notebook from Paperchase and decided it needed a high purpose. The idea I had for an epic romance/historical drama still flutter about in my head, so I think it would be an excellent time to get it kick started. Particularly as i will need to do alot of plotting for this story.

Normally when I write I just start witht the first line and go from there, I enjoy seeing where it takes me and what happens next, it helps the characters to live for themselves and once they do the telling gets so much easier. This time I am plotting, simply because the timing is so important and the period of history is inflexible. Historical events are a great framework of facts and figures of what is known about the time period, but how you dress it will be the key part to keeping people interested.

I remember when i was growing up, the books by Cynthia Harnett were totally delightful to read and not in the least boring way of learning a little bit about history. My favourite (of which I found a 1st editon for £3 in a charity shop years ago) was ‘The Load of Unicorn’ which was to do with scribes and the advent of printing as a boy from a scribe’s family was sent as an apprentice to Caxton. There was intrigue as well and you really learned a lot about that small section of time. ‘The Wool Pack’ was another favourite and I hope I can make my historical novel just as interesting and educational.

Sso far i have a vague outline of each chhacter’s story and the time line for each, its like having the fabric but not the framework. Now i need to start on the hard facts and then follow that with initial research. I have had books for this for some time too, so it will be great to finally dive into them and also will teach me alot too about that particular decade of history over which the story takes place.

Some timely words of inspiration

It is your job to write 1000 words a day about Joe and his aunt. Write the story, and if you get stuck then just write 1000 words on what kinds of clothes Joe wears, or what happened at his first day at school. That way you’ll eventually find your way into the story. You might not know what the story is until you’ve written the whole first draft and you can suddenly see what it is. That’s fine – that’s part of the writing. – Fiona Robyn

This morning when i checked my mail i had an invite and a link to an authors blog whose post contained the above advice which is incredibly timely and just what i needed to boot my butt back into creativity again. The practical kind of creativity that will have me dashing out of work and home to the General to start typing.

woot!!