Back from London

Posted on by

Last week I spent some days in London to attend the launch of Melinda’s last book in her Sin Eater’s trilogy. I also squeezed in a play – Hamlet, played by Andrew Scott ( ❤ ). And it’s been great – as always London did not disappoint!

But there had been some hick-ups beforehand. I had planned a 3 day/2 night stay in London in an AirBnB where five of us would stay and than the host did not answer to any of my attempts to contact her. The listing had disappeared. Negative reviews came in … and with less than a week to the trip and other people depending on the same AirBnB I got nervous pretty fast. As the host did not react, I called AirBnB and thankfully, the hotline guy was ever so helpful and promised to look into the matter. It took another two days for them to establish what they could not reach the host either. Nothing else to do but to cancel and rebook.

I need to say, I was pleasantly surprised. I got several suggestions for other flats from AirBnB’s team, the refund of the already payed flat went smoothly and I was able to get a very suitable replacement by simply switching the booking. Well done, AirBnB. With hopefully everything settled I flew over on Tuesday and yes – indeed all worked out fine.

The apartment was perfect. Andrew Scott’s performance was stunning and Mel’s book launch in the Crypt was a highlight all by itself.

Time to move on…

Posted on by

With SCBWI’s last meet-up in Stuttgart only a few days ago and so many new people to talk to about writing, I have come to a decision: I need to move on to a new project.

Don’t get me wrong, Dire Tidings is not dead. The idea is great. I’ve got awesome characters. I’ve got an intriguing fantasy world. I’ve got plenty ideas for situations, events and conflicts. But I have been working on it for the last 14+ month and I came to realise that the one thing I don’t have is a grip on the plot. At least not in a manner that will have result in success.

The idea grew in several stages and the whole fantasy world has been growing ever since. Honestly, I am overwhelmed. And right now, I am not ready to tackle what will be needed to bring it to a satisfying end.

I do believe that it is healthy to admit to ones own shortcomings. And I do admit to myself: at this point in my writing career I am not ready to pull of such a huge project. Not yet. I lack the skill and the stamina to do it. Simple as that.

So Dire Tidings is on hold for the time being. Sitting there, it will mature and in time I’ll be back to salvage what I can. Certainly, like wine, it will get better over time when non essentials are stripped away and the core of the story will remain.

Not, that I am lost now. A quick look into my idea-book and I’m already set to re-start. I picked up a new idea that feels promising and will start brainstorming possible plots, premises and characters.

Feels good. 🙂

 

Another SCBWI day

Posted on by

Another successful SCBWI meet-up in Stuttgart!

The most amazing thing happened – we got more writers at the first SCBWI meeting than ever before. While it’s been Catherine, Linda and me for most of 2016, last Saturday we were 10 writers and illustrators at the meeting. TEN! And even better, some of the new people are non-native english speakers, too, and are writing a YA novel.

The whole day was near perfect. I got the first possible train to Stuttgart and was at the library ahead of time. Usually, it’s not that big a deal to get a table with three chairs as it’s been just the three of us for the past year, but since so many newcomers had announced to show up, it was a good idea in terms of reserving space for everyone. While signing up on Facebook for an event and actually showing up are, as we all will agree, two different things, this time actually everyone showed up! Needless to say, the day was a productive and inspiring one.

After shard lunch some of us headed back to the library again to work some more or read the works of others. When everyone but Linda had left, we spent some time discussing a MG idea she’s been developing. It’s intriguing and I hope to read the manuscript one day.

Furthermore, I think I am getting ready to send out the first chapter of my WIP to the ladies and see what they think about it.

Welcome to 2017

Posted on by

It’s a new year!

I have not, as planned, finished the first draft of my WIP in 2016. In fact, I’m not even close. Dang.

Still, I won’t write off 2016 as a total failure, because I have learned a lot during the past 12 month – especially in the “get to know your craft” department. I know there are thousands upon thousands of books on the craft from “On Writing” by King to “Bird by Bird” by Lamott – from “Stein on Writing” by Stein to “The Art of War for Writers” by Bell … I could go on and on and chances are high a copy found its way onto my bookshelf.

So in retrospect, 2016 has been great for learning. I’m positive that’s important, too.

In the meantime the ideas for my WIP have been growing and evolving along with my steadily raising grasp of the craft. With the next SCBWI meet-up ahead I’ll go ahead and get something ready to send out.

 

Another SCBWI Meetup in Stuttgart

Posted on by

The summer holidays are over and it’s time to do the thing again.

In absolute honesty, I did not make much progress on my WIP during the last eight weeks. It turns out family vacation in the alps and writing just don’t quite fit together. But since school has started again and I’m slowly and to a part grudgingly resuming my early bird schedule, I’ve been able to get some work done.

What’s always helping – and I mean it when I say ALWAYS – is a meet-up with the ladies from SCBWI in Stuttgart library. Whenever I get to spent a day there with fellow writers, I can’t but come away freshly motivated and with new ideas.

So here’s a big “Thank you” to the SCBWI in general for providing such an enabling community to be part of – and to Catherine and Linda in particular, for spending time with me.

January 2016, in hindsight

Posted on by

I won’t deny it. I think 2016 is starting out great.

I ticked a couple of tasks right off my 2016 bullet list early in January. If of interest you might go and read the posts from earlier the year.

Two more things happened in January that makes me really happy. First. One of my characters manages to surprise me big time. And second, even more important, I made progress with my writing habits. Hugely so.

It turns out 4:30 am is just the right time to get up an write. Well ok – it’s 4:51 by now but one needs to get the eyes open and some coffee into the belly, no?) However. I am sitting. very early in the morning and I write. Without kids interrupting, without husband searching some misplaced item and calling for help. If someone had told 2 months ago I would get up this early I would have laughed. Very loudly. Seriously – late riser and all that I used to be…

But, I had to do something about a meagre output I had at the end of 2015. I had to find some hour I could reserve for nothing but writing and plotting and honing my characters. Turns out, the only time I can possible manage writing in a reasonable reoccurring and stable way are the early hours of the day. The family is still asleep so I can spend time with my “imaginary friends” as my husband has started to call this whole endeavour. (haha, he is not wrong I guess)

I have started the experiment “become an early riser” in the 2nd week of January. And I am not just a little proud to report: it worked. It still works! Other than going to bed at 22pm instead of midnight it was the easiest thing. I cut myself some slack at the weekends – 5am is still good enough on these days. I kept it up for the rest of the month. By now it is not even an ordeal anymore. Guess there is a grain of truth in all this “form a habit in 21 days”- programs.

So.. yay me! I will go ahead and tick off another point on this bullet list.

And yes .. there was this wonderful moment a few days ago I wanted to share. The moment one of my characters kind of … surprised me. I was writing along happily at a scene where she had to draw a lot from a case. A very important draw. We are talking life to change draw. And what does she do? She takes two. That little b*tch took two lots instead of just one. Cheater! Ha! I loved it. Still, do. Worked it into the plot smoothly. I am still smiling when I think about it.

I attribute this headway, one might even call it a success, to one of the advice books I have been reading lately. J.S. Bell introduced me to the method of Voice Journaling to flesh out important characters. Works like a charm.

So … in hindsight. January 2016 has been a blast. If the year goes on like this it will bound to bring more surprises. Let’s see where February takes me. Spoiling us with 29 days this year! Now more coffee… and back to the blank page.

New submission to CC

Posted on by

There is no part of a story that is as fascinating as the hook. At least for me it is.

The first piece I submitted to the Critique Circle (CC) was the attempt on a prologue. I was already reasonably sure that it would not make it in the final draft – it was however the most revised and self edited piece I had at the time. And the purpose of the first submission was to test the language skills.

So I decided yesterday evening to submit one (of the 2 possible) new beginnings for my WIP the the CC crowd. See, there is a special queue with CC called The Hook. The task for the reader (and critique at the same time) is to read along as far as it is interesting. You don’t have to write lengthy explanations or point out spelling errors – you simply give feedback for the hook. If my hook works, most will read to the end. If I screwed up and the writing is bad/boring/confusing/whatever for the reader I will know where they dropped out and stopped reading. And maybe why. Should be awesome feedback.

I will have to wait for some time for the results. This particularly queue comes up only once a month – next is up the first week of Feb.

Book.review

Posted on by

This is a review for S. Evans book Novel Writing Mastery: Proven And Simple Techniques To Outline, Structure And Write A Successful Novel – I finished it 3 days ago and want to share what I learned. Honestly, there was not much new information, most of the ideas I had read somewhere else before. For me that’s a hint that I have done quite a lot of research on the topics of novel building, structure and such.

I like the first few pages where Evans busts some myths about the writing process. Most of it was not news but it is written entertainingly and – even more important – from an unemotionally point of view.

The next topic – on how to create realistic and compelling characters – held only few new ideas, but to recap the already known points is not a bad idea either. Useful for my WIP was the reminder, that each character has some dark side within her personality. I tend to forget that. Same goes for the behaviour within groups – there will always be a hierarchy.

I was a little disappointed about the third and fourth chapter. I was hoping to glimpse some new insights, some new approach to structure development but Evans (just) describes the already known snowflake method and some key components like forewarnings, consequences or goals that one needs to keep in mind when writing character arcs. But there is not much detail to these points and I miss a wider range of examples

Nicely done are the next parts that deal in detail with the beginning (Hook) and the ending (satisfaction). Can’t read enough about those – I think these are key.

What really helped and offered a lot of new information were the pats about publishing and the classification of a book. Especially the part about expected word counts for several different categories.

Best part was the bonus about poetry that comes as an add-on with the book. I enjoyed that very much. Especially since I was thinking about looking into that topic for a while. Evans describes the basics in an understandable manner – I might give it a try soon.

 

First test with Critique Circle

Posted on by

Few days ago I wrote about me picking and joining an online critique group – among the many available I chose Critique Circle.

Right after joining up and getting through the confirmation email process I started their “Welcome to CC” routine which left me with enough credits to submit my first piece of writing. It was up for its one week critique timeframe starting 6th of January. After submitting it all I had to do was wait and browse the forum. And of course – critique other writer’s work.

What can I say? This is fun and help at the same time. I like reading those bits and pieces of other writers. We are all just trying to hone our skills, advance our word-smithing and learn to put onto paper what we think someone else might enjoy reading. After a few days of critiquing several stories in different categories I have noticed that I do learn a lot – from the mistakes of others. Usually, when you buy a book there has been done some polishing going on with the original manuscript. Whatever writer, agent, editor, and publisher possible could do they did to make it as good as it gets. You don’t really get to see writings fresh from the author, let alone examples of the first rough draft.

So sometimes it is (at least for me) a little intimidating because as reader I don’t get to see all the work that went into the manuscript to make it smooth like it is when finally printed. But now I could (can!) see exactly that. And be part of it.

Whenever I notice something off in my fellow writer buddies texts, I learn. May it be a switch in POV, seemingly endless overuse of adverbs, weird dialogue tags, warped sentence structure … If I can spot it in their work, I might stand a chance to spot it in my own one day. I have since realised that spotting these things in the writings of others is a lot easier than spotting it in my own. But I figure writing is a craft like any other. The more you learn, the better you get.

During the week following Jan 6th I got seven critiques for my first submission. These helped me to come to a decision regarding my WIP. Apparently my English skills are good enough to justify me proceeding in English language. This was one of my major concerns.

Happy.

 

Critique Group Search

Posted on by

With yesterdays achievement a rather easy task I figured I might as well tackle the next item on my list. This time it was 1) not so easy to solve and b) involved some internet (re)search. Latter quickly blew my mind and the number of open tabs in my browser as well. This is what happened:

I had been searching for a critique buddy in 2015 – without success. Turns out I just searched the wring thing. Originally I was hoping to find a native English speaker here in town who would sit and talk with me, drink coffee, point out critique worthy things in my WIP and I would return the favour. Like a real-life-writer-friend. BUT, living in Germany lowers the number of native English speakers. How to find someone among those few who lives near enough for personal meet-ups and who is interested in investing the amount of time necessary? Not an easy task, if not downright impossible.

Dismissing this plan of action I pondered the possibility of an online critique group (CG). Imagine my surprise … there are thousands! Good start.

Now, how to choose one? I found a blogpost, more like 10 blogs, dedicating a post to CGs. I clicked all the links. Open in new tab, open in new tab, open in new …… Browser got slowly lagging and I quickly lost overview of all the tabs. I scanned through the different websites, bookmarked a few and dismissed others.

In the end I signed up with Critique Circle. Their website looked friendly enough. The system of credits they use seems ok. So I just went ahead. It won’t cost me money but time to help others by critiquing their stories. In turn I will get feedback from different natives on my language skills. And on my writing as well.

This is a big step forward and makes me happy.

Second item on bucket list done. Yay!