Invasion of the Technical Gremlin

Writing can be hard at times and sometimes it can be downright impossible.  Especially when your house is visited by Technical Gremlins.  Yes, it's true, they do exist.  Here's what I had to say about them in my latest column:

Invasion of the Technical Gremlins

Do you think there is such a thing as a Technical Gremlin?  You know; a little creature that creeps about and wreaks havoc with all the gadgets and technical items in the house?  

What if the gremlins divide themselves up into specialty areas – Mobile network Gremlin or WiFi Gremlin or (and this is the worst one) Printer Gremlin.  The unsuspecting human prints off a document one evening and the next morning, the printer absolutely refuses to recognise the human or his computer.  It’s as if, overnight, the printer has been taken hostage and hypnotised. 

And there’s my favourite Gremlin Printer comment – “another computer is using this printer”.  That’s funny – I could have sworn everyone was out except me.  Is there someone else living in my house who is using the printer?

And don’t forget Sky Gremlin.  No – not the one who flies about in the sky but the one who randomly removes On Demand from the Sky menu.  That movie you thought you would watch suddenly disappears off the face of the earth in a little puff of Gremlin smoke.

I am quite worried now.  I recently purchased a high tech washing machine. It has flashing lights and a computer and could almost make me coffee.  What if a Washing Machine Gremlin takes up residence?   

And how do we solve the problems?  Is there a Gremlin Helpline we can call if we have an infestation?

I might have to move house.    May 2014

I am just trying to imagine what they might look like.

My Writing Process Blog Tour

Today I am joining in the 'My Writing Process' Blog tour. I was invited by Jean Bull the author of the delightful novel "Gypsy Moth", and you can read more about Jean on her blog - http://jeanbullswritingblog.blogspot.co.uk.

It has been really interesting to read the various blogs of the authors participating in the blog tour and I hope my answers about my writing will be of interest to others. It was great to get onto the New Writer's Scheme of the Romantic Novelist Association in January and that was when I began to write my romantic suspense novel.

What am I writing?

The Stranger Within by Vanessa Woolley

One decomposed body.  One unsolved murder.  One secret.  One more chance to fall in love.

What would you do if the very person you trusted turned out to be a killer?

I am currently working on a romantic suspense novel set in the rugged setting of North Cornwall. This is a new venture for me - my previous experience with romantic writing has been to write a Mills and Boon story a couple of years ago. I am writing this type of romantic fiction because it is generally the sort of work I like to read. I have always enjoyed a bit of mystery and suspense, even in films, and if there is a gorgeous hero and feisty strong heroine, I am always engaged. Hopefully my novel will bring those elements together. I have also enjoyed creating a villain, although I would like to think my baddie is not the standard cardboard cut out type.

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

I am not sure I can answer this question accurately. I have read quite a few books in this genre and there are many different styles. My story certainly isn't a hard paced thriller with FBI agents chasing the heroine across the desert, nor is it one with baddies and guns. It's reasonably timely, set over only a few weeks but my heroine is facing not just the peril of a would be killer still out there, but the fear of falling in love and facing past hurts. It's only when she faces fear head on that she is forced to reconcile her past.  And it's got a hunky surfing hero for good measure.

Why do I write what I do?

I always believe you should write what you like to read. I love romantic suspense novels but never really thought about writing one myself. Having said that, I also love to read historical romance but somehow see myself as a twenty first century sort of girl.

How does my writing process work?

I am a planner and a note taker and I can't function without some semblance of order. To me, a romantic suspense novel is plot driven just as much as it is character driven. I have a chapter by chapter plan, and in some cases a scene by scene plan.

 I am at the three quarter stage of the first draft (69,000 words) and have been sticking to the script however there have been moments when my characters have led me a merry chase. It's fun when that happens as it means I have to sit up and take notice of them. It's as if they are saying to me - "hey - stop making us do things we don't want to do and throw that script away!" I write in my lovely weatherproof summerhouse where it is quiet and peaceful and far away from the noisy house and all its temptations. I try to write daily although this can be difficult. But if I can get at least three - our full days a week I feel I am progressing.

 


Next week I will be passing the baton on to my fellow writing group buddy Kate Peridot. Kate is a published children's author and is currently writing a young adult novel.

You can follow #my writing process on Twitter

It's May and the skates are on... Getting off the plateau and back onto the roller coaster

It's been a while since I last posted.  The icy and wet days of January and February seem to have faded and now as I sit in my Writer's hut, the sun streaming through the windows reminds me that time is marching on to my first draft deadline of end of June.

The Stranger Within is making good progress although at 57,000 words, I was hoping to be further on by now. The story is now beginning to resemble that of a high plateau.  If you think of a graph with the peaks and troughs representing mini climaxes (Ooh er Mrs) and inciting events, my story has now reached a slightly flat piece of ground which despite the terrain, I could only describe as hard work.  It is a romantic suspense piece, so Red Herrings are dripping like red rain drops and even I am beginning to wonder just exactly who did it (only joking).  I am enjoying my hero (don't we all) but most of all, my anti-hero is shaping up nicely.

The next two weeks will see me push forward as much as possible and no doubt I will be back on the roller coaster of peaks and troughs I need to make the story work.  Targets are always difficult to maintain when you  have no one standing over you with a big stick, but as the summer looms and family life intervenes, finishing the book has to become a priority.

Look out for my posting on 12th May when I take part in the My Writing Process Blog Hop.

Fourteen thousands words and not even one week in

Well.  I am relatively impressed with myself. Despite it being half term and the fact that I have a heavy head cold (thanks Absent Husband), I have managed to write 14,043 words. Am really happy with the way the story is progressing. Have just managed to get the inciting event in today in Chapter Three which is about the best place to have it.  I do find it difficult to keep the balance of description and dialogue.

One other thing, how many ways can you describe a rugged handsome, good looking man????

A good day's work

The good news is I am three days in and 10,161 words on.  Feel really good about this.

I haven't felt the best over the last couple of days.  Absent Husband has been coughing and spluttering everywhere so now I have it. Today I felt too hill to go down to the writing shed so I wrote on the sofa, squashed for a large chunk of the time by Faithful Hound.  Still, I did write the whole of Chapter Two, 4201 words.  A good day's work.

Writing new novel Day One - I began backwards

Today is the day I began to write my romantic suspense novel.  My plan is to write everyday with a first draft of around 60,000 words finished by the end of March.  I have chosen to blog about it after each writing session.  This will mean:

My hands will be knackered from all that typing (I hope).

If I don't write much on the story, the embarrassment of trying to explain it to the blog will hopefully give me the mental kick in the you- know-what for the next day.

And so to Day One:

The sun was out (yes seriously!) and by 9.30 I had walked Faithful Hound and put the washing on, and the long day stretched out before me so down to my shed I went.  The shed, unused for over a week, was cold and it took a while for the heater to warm it up.  Faithful Hound protested slightly and moved his cushion closer to the heater:

Two and half hours and four thousand one hundred and seventeen words later, I finished the end of the penultimate chapter of the book.  Yes, that's right - the PENULTIMATE chapter.  I chose to start there (in the middle of the climax) in order to set my mind on the right direction from the beginning.

Well, if J K Rowling could write the last chapter of the last HP book before she wrote anything else - so can I.

I rewarded myself with chocolate and a walk around the garden where I saw the plain and simple beauty of these snowdrops:

Bring on Day Two.

Out with the old and in with the new

Isn’t it wonderful when you have a clear out at home?  It’s so nice to open a cupboard and see the virtually empty space with only the necessary items in situ, or to look across at tidy, uncluttered shelves?  Spring is all about tidying up and clearing out the winter mess in preparation for the summer.  We do it with ourselves too.  Going on a diet after Christmas and joining a gym is virtually the same thing as sorting out our homes.

However, like the New Year fitness resolutions, spring cleaning can also be tricky.  I have written before about how difficult it is to throw things away.  Sometimes more things get put back than thrown out.  This year I had an early spring clean forced on me as I was having work done in the house in January and therefore needed to “sort things out” (as Absent Husband put it more than once).  This deadline meant I had to be ruthless.

So I started with a large cupboard in our family room.  This held years of puzzles, board games and various assortments of video and DVDs.  Yes, videos.  I looked longingly at each one, mainly great Disney films, and wondered where the time had gone.  I pulled out boxes of wonderful Duplo (Lego for little ones) and found myself immersed in building a secret garden scene complete with animals, just like the one my daughter used to create.  And then suddenly I noticed the time and realised I been doing it for over an hour.  Clearing out does that to you.  You find something from the past and all the memories come flooding back.

But the clear out had to be done quickly – I had a buyer coming to collect the oak cupboard and new built in furniture being installed all later that week.  So the Duplo and the videos were hastily dealt with, videos to the tip (nobody has a video player anymore) and the Duplo consigned to a box in the loft informally known as “the grandchildren box”. 

I took several cartons of games and puzzles all in good condition to a local charity shop and they were, as ever, extremely grateful to receive them.  As I looked around the shop, I was struck by how many things like mine were in it and I wondered how they manage to sell all those things.

The job was done and I can now look across at my beautifully tidy shelves safe in the knowledge that I won’t have to do anymore clearing out.  Well not in that room anyway.  And if I feel the inclination to design a secret garden again, well, I know where the Lego is kept.