The Word Cloud

This is a link to my blog about the germ of an idea that has taken root in my mind as I watched TV last night - which may prove interesting if you have ever wondered how someone get's an idea for book!

Hi all,
Perhaps you can help dig me out of no man's land? Appreciate it if you can.

I've been writing non-fiction for a while, and editing and twiddling and polishing and plotting for existing works - my own and others - and now I'd like to write a totally fresh project.

'How nice,' I hear you say. 'What is it?'

That's the prob. I haven't the faintest idea.

I fancy changing genres for the hell of it - perhaps something historical? Perhaps set far away? Perhaps even Sci-Fi?
I'm tempted to try a whodunit, or a wild caper. Something light and fun; something I've not done before.
I'd like to write 'Hitchhiker's Guide'. Oh, has it been done already?

I miss the whoosh of writing with abandon and would like to remind myself how that feels.
So particularly those who know how I write already (but others welcome), do you have any blinding suggestions for me? I don't mind doing a bit of research but don't want to get bogged down in it.

I've thought of using one of my older short stories as a template for a full-length novel (i.e. the synopsis already done?) and may do that.

Friends have urged me to write about my travels, or something set in Africa (since I lived there for a while), but that's essentially non-fiction again. ('I had a farm in Africa, below the Ngong hills' - oh, that's been done too?)

I want to find a new world and populate it with my imagination; to have the freedom to take the story any whacky way I please.

I've thought about adapting an ancient story to modern times - a Greek myth, or a Bible story, or a legend. Maybe. If I can think of a good one that hasn't been done.

In fact I have so many ideas but none of them with any legs; I'm tired of hopping along.
My pencils are nicely sharpened and I'm tapping my teeth. What's the next bit?
Any creative juices out there? Muchly appreciated if so.
Thanks.

Hi all,

Today I talk about why I decided to self-publish, why it is such hard work, and why I love doing it. I talk about how I got started in my writing career, and where I get my ideas from.

Read the rest here:  Why I Decided To Self-Publish

Dave

 

One boy named Lucifer is in possession of a silver amulet but this is no ordinary amulet, oh no, this is an amulet so powerful that it can bring men back to life and give anyone everlasting life and it has other hidden powers that are too extreme to even mention. However there is a power out there so evil that will stop at nothing to get this amulet and if they do then they will use it against the rest of the world. One day the Sapphire Queen and her Men turn up to take Lucifer away and protect him from the danger that he may have to face. Evil is out to kill the boy and the boy is out to kill evil. Will he be able to survive this long perilous journey or will he suffer more than he could ever imagine? Only the fate of the silver amulet will decide!

This is a story idea that I had and I would like your opinions on it so please comment! 

I know my life has now moved into its next phase, as we were invited to a wedding on Saturday and not by the marrying couple but rather by the belligerent father of the groom! 

Anyway, my husband and I duly attended the wedding and was mortified with the proceeding sermon, based on the women’s duty to honour and obey, submit and love, oh and respect came later, her husband.  Yes, you heard me right!  This is a young couple, in their mid twenties being bound by some antiquated ideas of a bye gone era, and without flinching they both said ‘I do’.  I sat with needles in my bum waiting for the bit about ‘any objections speak now or forever hold your peace’, but it never came! Is that legal? 

The worst part, only in the finishing did it touch a little on the husband’s duties, announcing that he should endeavour to love and lead his wife well – and that was it!!!! Shock and horror (I am currently choking on the mere thought).

I am part of a 100% equal marital partnership and am way too selfish (even back then) to have ever agreed to anything less.  This couple are local Afrikaners, a notoriously conservative bunch, especially in my area, but that is no excuse. 

You have to honour and love yourself before you get married and I don’t think they could possibly be there yet, or they wouldn't have agreed - surely?

I hope I’m not opening a can of worms, sorry to those who don’t agree ... but this is my blog, after all.

Why is it that when you write more ideas for other books come to you. Two years ago I hadn't really thought about writing much. I've always WANTED to be an author, but until 2 years ago I didn't actually write anything. Sure I wrote sometimes for a magazine and occasionally did the odd script, but writing novels? No. Then a friend of mine heard me reading out some of my course work, it was creating writing and they siad that I should make it into a long story. Which I then decided to do. I wrote and I wrote. I then went on my old lap top and saw a story I wrote when I was eight. It wasn't that good adn didn't have an ending, so I decided I should re-do it. I was still writing the other book and I thought that I could tie those two books together. Then came more course work and another idea popped into my head. The 3rd book in the series was made. I had too many ideas for my first book then so I needed to have a 4th book so I could carry on the story of the character in the first book. One of the characters in the first book then really took to me and I had to write her her own book. That's 5 books in the series now. Not to mention the other 4 books that aren't to do with that series that I need to write. I've finished three books this year, so that's an accomplisment, but i have all those others to go! Plus my short stories! Why can't my brain stop?! I can't sleep at night! Oh, and I have the book I'm writing with my sister which we're making into a film so that I can get a better grade in GCSE drama.... and the scripts for the TV show I'm writing... and the magazine articals for the mag that my friend makes.... WHY?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apologies for the naff title, but I've been revising and that seems to have dulled my creative streak for titles.

The reason I decided to write this particular blog, was to shove down my thoughts in a place other than my head, to hopefully make room for Vicarious Liability.

I realised the other day, (when I got bored with my two and a half year old original story), that I could write another one as well.

And so began my thoughts for a new premise, which in turn started me thinking - can I actually write comfortably outside of the supernatural? Unfortunately I have come to accept that although Vampires are my favourite writing tool, being a teenager and writing about vampires isn't really in my favour, as my sister always says: "You rewriting Twilight?" NO I AM BLOODY NOT.

Therefore, after calmly accepting that I must (for now) lay the vampire idea to rest *no pun intended* then perhaps I should think about something else and expand my horizons (you see the relevance?)

But then I realised something else: I am a teenager who hasn't experienced nearly enough of the world yet to write about it. I can't write about reality because there is too much of it that can be refuted. With the supernatural you are safe because no one is going to tell you that with a particular type of vampire it's impossible for them to fly.

So therein lies my challenge, to try something new and write about *ick* real life with people who don't have magical powers.

Can I do it? I sodding hope so or I've just spent three nights lying awake thinking about it.

Okay, so that title has absolutely nothing to do with me writing a blog. The song I was listening to just said "I need a heartbeat" and so I wrote something along those lines.

 I'm currently writing a story in which the main character is a werewolf. I'm not a fantasy person, never have been. I'm a thought-experiment, philosophising, breaking the boundaries of what a story should be, kind of person.
 And so I'm afraid that this is not really my normal kind of ground. But I'm going to write it to the end, and I hope it will be brilliant as a study of denial and acceptance of what we have done or something of that sort. But who knows, it might end up as a simple novel of simple themes. I've exceeded the 10K mark, which I'm extremely pleased with, I only expect it to get to about 40 to 50 thousand words though. It'll be my biggest finished project I've done to date. (The list of finished projects can't really qualify as a list, if we're being honest here.)

 I'm curious though, what do you look at your stories as? Because when I think of writing a story I generally want to do something magnificient with it. I have tried (and failed for the time being) several projects where I really want to create some literary power. I wanted to change the idea of the telling of a story, where there were stories in stories in stories, where the author had died and other characters were picking up the pieces, or where the story itself was not real and that what was happening was an exercise in insanity. I love the idea of the writing being told in the mind-frame of the characters. So there are flows that are happening because the character can do no other due to what is happening to him or herself.

 So, what am i doing here? Goodness knows. I'm just curious about other people's thoughts on writing, and would love to hear about them.

 Hope to hear from you all!

Whilst driving through a village tonight, a village quite a number of miles away from mine, I observed a woman who was approximately 16stone in weight, about 5ft2ins tall, shaved/cropped bleached hair, around the age of 58yrs old, with a great big whopping tattoo which covered her upper arm.

I want you to take your first thoughts and tell me what I may have been thinking, how did I feel about her?

Much Love x

Wimbledon is over for another year. Not really satisfied with the outcomes, but it was a good fortnight. Now back to work.

I made a really stupid mistake. I've been with my agent for several years and forgot that I have to sell my ideas to her, rather than just dash off a quick email. Not very clever of me because she can only judge an idea on the words I write to her. Consequently, I wasted her time and mine not packaging the idea correctly in the first place.

Having sorted that out, she didn't say 'nay' and so I take that as a 'yey'. She added several good words of advice. But talking to her has reminded me just how good a manuscript has to be to be accepted these day and so I am going to start again, from the beginning, and just make sure the idea is well constructed and the characters are compelling.

Many publishers are publishing their own ideas at the moment. They put out briefs: 'We would like a series of six stories, each 30,000 words, with a female character called Bindy who loves horses,' or something similar. I know that some people can write like this and I am sure I could if a proposal came through that inspired me, but that hasn't happened yet and so I am approaching writing the hard way again by writing a full length m/s (60,000 to 80,000 words) about a theme that has set my creative juices flowing.

In the meantime, I have a short story that needs to be perfected in the next couple of weeks and so my main story will have to bubble away on the back burner, hopefully become tastier and tastier.