Adele Parks Envy

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Sorry, no characterisation for the A-Z Challenge today, I have a day off lol

I went to a talk given by Adele Parks recently and I am now, officially suffering “Adele Parks Envy” lol. Yep, she’s tall, slim, attractive, finds it easy to engage an audience, funny and has written 11 books, all of which have been best sellers! What’s not to envy? Lol *pouts* 😉

Seriously, I thoroughly enjoyed her talk 🙂

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Someone in the audience asked her if she plans her novels. She replied by saying yes, but that she knew plenty of successful writers who don’t. She went on to say that when she is reading a novel she can actually tell if it’s been planned or not, because the middle tends to lose its way a bit. Things happen that often don’t fit in with the rest of the story.

Hmmmmm, I’m not sure that’s entirely true, but, I see her point.

Talking about her working day, she said that she looks on being a writer like any other job. Every morning, she goes to her office, sits at her desk, and works. Even if she’s not in the mood. If the words don’t come for the novel she’ll do some characterisation, or catch up with work related e mails. But no matter how she feels, she’ll still show up to that desk. (Ohhhh, if only I had a desk, let alone an office!).

She talked a lot about characterisation (at this stage my ears pricked up) and about how much work she will do on the characters. Their star signs, their background, their likes and dislikes, tiny little details that will never make it into the book, but allow her to know her characters inside and out. Yep, I know that one, and it’s what I try to do with all my characters (I found myself nodding lol).

The one piece of advice I will definitely be taking away with me is that she said when she starts to “plan” the next novel she comes up with the characters first, then she comes up with a dilemma, then she comes up with the ending, how it’s all going to pan out…..only then will she start writing the story.

This is where I completely fall down *slump*……endings *shudders* and is why my novel (65,000 words done in November 2010 for Nano) is still unfinished.

I guess we all have something we don’t feel confident about, something that we don’t think we’re good at or dread doing when it comes to writing. Mine is definitely endings. I love dialogue (and have been told I’m good at it) and I love characterisation (you can all be the judge as to whether I’m any good at that) but endings and tying it all up so that it’s satisfactory? 😦

So what do you struggle with? What do you feel you fall down on? Or are you confident with all aspects of your writing? 🙂

So what did I learn?
(A) I need a desk and an office lol.
(B) I need to plan a bit more, especially my endings.
and
(C) I will never be Adele Parks…..but there’s no harm in dreaming 😉

13 thoughts on “Adele Parks Envy”

  1. She has the same style of planning that I do. I don’t plan out my novels, but before I start writing I come up with the main characters, and then an overall dilemma. That dilemma usually ends up changing partway through the story, but it helps me at least to get a start.

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    • Lol 😉

      It’s funny, I have lots of friends who have a spare room in their house for writing (I’m so jealous!!!!) and there seems to be a fine line between an office and a study. Their study turns into an office after a while. *whispers* I think they think it makes them sound more professional 😉

      xx

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  3. The end always presents itself. Your character will tell you where they should go. 🙂

    I struggle the most with transitions between events. For some reasons, I can’t figure out how to show time moving in days or weeks. It messes up the story flow and I often look to other novelists to see how they do it.

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    • Sometimes they do hon, but most of the time…..*deep sigh* 😉

      Ahhhhh, yeah, I struggle with that too. My writing tutor says just put a large gap between the paragraphs and indicate in the first line that it’s however long later lol. Harder in a short story than a novel though IMO.

      Xx

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  4. I struggle with backstory a bit. I like to begin a novel in the middle of all the action, then one has to go back and insert backstory so everyone can understand why my protagonist does what she does! I’ve already got the ending planned out, but at times, I think the story is going one way and it shifts….so, we’ll see. But I feel your pain!! :).

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  6. I definitely like to plan a bit. I prefer to have a spine of a story so I have an idea of whether the story works or not. I then begin to flesh it out. Sometimes in the writing it changes a little because a character might led it in a different way, but I cannot just write without having an idea of where I am heading. It helps me focus and edit.

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