My characters have me over a barrrel.

My characters have gone on strike.

They refuse to do what The Half Baked Plan says they must. They insisted it is my fault, letting them have a free rein for the first 83,000 words or so, explaining they have patiently toed the line pretty well these last 9019 words, BUT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. They’re not doing it anymore, they don’t like my plan.

The pesky buggers just will not do anything except sound like robots, talk crap, and look like cardboard cutouts in a place setting that has hosted a million movies!

So, I’m winding back thousands of words to before they got the sulks. The annoying thing is I am now going where I was headed before I got the insane desire to plan the ending. Hhmmmmphhhh.

We can outlast YOU, easy!

A change of tack, but still on writing.

I recently signed up for courses on FutureLearn. My theory is that all of it will help my brain and help my writing by understanding how people lived and reacted in the past. By September when the courses will gang up on me, I should be finished my first novel and into the next.

The courses are:
England in the time of King Richard III – University of Leicester (starts next week)
Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland’s History 1912-1923 – Trinity College Dublin (September)
Psychology and Mental Health: Beyond Nature and Nurture – University of Liverpool (September)
Hadrian’s Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier – Newcastle University (late September)
Exploring our oceans – University of Southampton (end October)

As if that wasn’t enough, last night I signed up for another at Coursera, begins June 20, and I’m expecting to enjoy that immensely. It comes at the right time, before I begin the serious editing process word by word.

Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade (Fundamental English Writing) – Mt. San Jacinto College

So, those who wince every time you read one of my posts (dangling participles? unattached verbs? changing tense? and other annoying shit) expect improvement when I brush up my skills.

“Crafting an Effective Writer” is a course designed to help you review the basics of grammar and punctuation and discover your own unique writing voice in the process. You will end the course by writing an original paragraph full of confident sentences and vivid detail. Along the way, we will guide you through a review of the parts of speech, subjects and verbs, and clauses and phrases.

So I’ll be good for one paragraph then. 🙂

Writing

Advice to Aspiring Writers from Hugh Howey

This is a link I just have to share.

For some time now I have weighed up the pros and cons of self-publishing versus the expected merry-go-round of manuscript submission.

This article puts into perspective what has been going around in my head. I’m all for keeping control of my work, mainly so it has some hope of getting there, instead of being pulped, and not being able to do a thing about it unless the publisher relinquishes the rights.

The odds of a perceived failure are huge when one goes the traditional route. And, if I’m expected to undertake the bulk of promotion anyway, I may as well organize the rest.

This article is a real eye-opener.

Hugh C Howey – My Advice To Aspiring Authors [please google – I had to remove the link as it was attracting massive amounts of spam comments]

🙂

Writing, Writing 101

Writing 101, Day Two: A View

A piece of writing for the Writing 101 challenge – I am trying to relate all challenges to my novel. This is a new scene which may or may not stay. If it does, it precedes what I have written so far. 🙂 Of course, I am days behind in the challenge.

Writing 101, Day Two: A View

Today, choose a place to which you’d like to be transported if you could — and tell us the backstory. How does this specific location affect you? Is it somewhere you’ve been, luring you with the power of nostalgia, or a place you’re aching to explore for the first time?

Today’s twist: organize your post around the description of a setting.

Love gave Jarryd new eyes.

He couldn’t remember the view ever looking quite this good.

Amusement drifted through the mindpath, and he felt a rumbling laugh vibrating under him. Jarryd patted the dragon’s green neck, grinning to himself. It would take more than his dragon laughing at him to stop his thoughts turning to the girl waiting for him back in Skerby.

He could see his stepfather’s keep ahead, the stone glistening high on the seaward side where the sea pummelled past on its sweep over the rocky island.

Below him the estuary opalised. Blues, grays and yellows, amid swathes of brightly coloured algae, twisted and writhed as the waters ran out to feed the salty behemoth ~~eagerly awaiting~~ beyond.

Jarryd glanced back behind him, tracing the path of the largest river as far as he could see. He couldn’t see the Great Waterfall, but he knew it was there, with its mists clinging, climbing, hanging over the mills and houses lining the shores below. Above the waterfall, he could see the waters of Lake Turras glinting, a vast inland sea, to the foot of the mountains blurring the horizon.

He sighed as he turned to look at his destination: almost home. The view seemed to darken.

He dreaded his mother’s reaction to his news.

Christine R

Trying to keep the brain cells alive.

Category Archives: Writing

My characters have me over a barrrel.

Advice to Aspiring Writers from Hugh Howey

Writing 101, Day Two: A View