I Like…..

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

No “fiction” post today, as I didn’t post a prompt pic on Saturday.

When Ayesha Schroeder’s blog post hit my inbox recently I was feeling a bit glum lol. Now don’t ask me why, just, I dunno, a bit bleugh if you know what I mean.

Was it because I still have no WIP?

Was it because I can’t seem to focus?

Orrrrrr….was it because the dieting was a complete nightmare? *slumps and reaches for the chocolate*

I dunno, but reading Ayesha’s post made me smile, big time and I am happy to take up the request to follow her lead. That got me thinking. Could I write a book that includes all of my favourite things? Wouldn’t that be cool 🙂 So my list is things I like, that I’d love to incorporate into one of my novels.

I Like…..

Ghost Story type films
Cake
Freshly laundered sheets
Beaches Snap Ayesha

(Brighton)
Cats Snap again lol

(my 2 babies always keep me company when I’m writing)
Christmas, Birthdays, Mothers Day, Valentines Day…..any special event really lol
Eating Out in fancy restaurants
Visiting art galleries and museums
Curling up on the sofa with a latte and a good book
Romantic gestures

The smell the rain leaves when it falls on a summer day
The feel of grass on my bare feet
Flicking through old notebooks

(A page from one of my old journals, including a pic of me when I was 14 lol)
A cool breeze on a hot day
Soft fluffy slippers

Soooo, how am I going to incorporate all that into a novel? Lol….yeah, perhaps not *goes off to make notes*

So….What do you like? 🙂

The To Do List 20th to 26th August

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I should really go back to the last to do list, and see what I managed to achieve….but, what’s the point in beating myself up right? It was 2 weeks ago now lol.

My week at Swanwick taught me lots, but the main thing I came away thinking was that I need to be more focused lol. Yeah yeah, I knew that anyway, but, being surrounded by dedicated published writers made me realise that if I want to achieve my dreams, I really need to pull my finger out 🙂

So…..

1. Finish my current read. That should be easy as I’m really enjoying it.
2. Go through all my Swanwick notes and look up web sites, books, authors etc, who were recommended to me. This will probably take me a couple of days! Lol
3. E mail people I said I would at Swanwick.
4. Catch up with my prompts.
5. Start implementing the desk idea. Ahhhhh, now this is exciting 🙂
6. Start making notes on my M & B novel. 😉

There, that should be pretty achievable ha ha ha!

what are you up to this week?

Six Sentence Sunday 19th August

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I managed to keep up to date with my prompts during Swanwick. The following sentences are from a piece I wrote whilst I was there 🙂

The morning sun was beginning to rise as Sam made her way down to the lake behind the hotel. The shadows from the trees fell onto the still water, and gave the lake an eerie feel. Sam shivered as she sat down on a bench and watched a solitary duck glide silently through the murky water.

She felt sleepy, the tablets had begun to work. She knew she had to time it perfectly, or for the second time, she would fail. She waited, listening, to make sure there would be no one around to rescue her.

Oh dear, very depressing….well, you know what prompted this don’t you lol…..

Home Again Home Again Jiggety-jig

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Awwwww, it was sad this morning, leaving Swanwick 😦

I had a great week, lovely to see people, but this morning, I didn’t get chance to say goodbye to everyone I wanted to. I’m so sorry if i didn’t, but hey, perhaps I’ll see you on Twitter 🙂

The journey home wasn’t too bad, only 1 small hold up. The house was really quiet when I got in, although the cats were pleased to see me 🙂

Soooooo, now, I’m gunna need a few days for everything to sink in, go through my notes, and have a think about what direction I want to go in next. Make a decision on what kind of writer i really want to be. I feel like I’ve been bombarded with information (all of it good) and my head is swimming lol.

Sooooo, normal service will resume here on Sunday 🙂

In the mean time, i will be catching up with e mails, blogs, and comments….and perhaps, doing a few Tweets lol

Sex and The Writing School – Swanwick The Last Day

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

What a great start to the morning! At 9.30 we were talking about sex, well Erotica to be exact 😉 Della’s class was excellent, and I learnt so much! Now trying to get my head around whether I could actually try writing some *gulp* 😉

Was interested to hear that one of the top sellers in the Erotica market are books based on Gay men. Apparently, Gay erotica is read by heterosexual women. Well, I think I may have to do some research now lol

During the break I decided to go for a walk, and I made a new friend lol

After my chat with the cows it was on to my last short story session with Linda Lewis. Linda gave us a tip on a technique which involves not only writing the beginning of a short story, but the end. I’m afraid, even with that tip, I still didn’t manage to come up with an ending for the start of my story I’d written in an earlier class *deep sigh* Why am I so crap at endings?

In the afternoon we attended the AGM and then it was Dregs Party on the lawn. I didn’t have any dregs to bring, but I did manage to grab a glass of white wine and actually change into a dress 🙂

The evening speaker was Helen Lederer who’s talk was entertaining.

She read an extract from her book which was very funny 🙂

I spent the rest of the night in the bar with Jayne, Maddie and Kate putting the writing world to rights until they deserted me to go to the disco *all say awwwwww* No, it was fine really, I wanted to finish packing!

So that was the last day 🙂

I’m so sorry I’m behind with replying to comments and your blogs. It’s been lovely, but I do miss my little online community 🙂

Oh, and thank you to everyone who has followed me on Twitter @vikkithomp I’m still not sure exactly what I should be doing and I don’t even know what a hash tag is! Lol

So if anyone could direct me to a Twitter for dummies type thingy, It would be much appreciated????? 🙂

Going home this morning after breakfast….sad, but happy and inspired…..roll on next year! 🙂

I’m feeling SOOOO Inspired! – Swanwick Day Five

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Yesterday was the third class with Linda Lewis on short story writing. I struggled with my homework so Linda scribbled my “words” on her flip chart and then the rest of the class bombarded me with ideas on a story lol. Thing is, I didn’t realise that I didn’t have to use all the words 😉

Then it was on to Sharon Kendricks course…..and at this present moment, all I seem capable of saying is wow! Lol *goes off to have a cappuccino and a cigarette to recover*

Ok, where do I start 😉

Sharon gave us a 12 chapter break down of a Mills & Boon book, so that we would know approximately where things are suppose to/should happen. It made it look easy, but, I know that’s not the case lol. We (as in, the class) came up with a hero, a heroine, back story and established that it was a “secret baby” story set in Rome and London. Brilliant. So interesting and informative, and Sharon is a great tutor. She had us laughing all the way through her classes 🙂

It’s probably been the highlight of my week, and now, I’m determined to try my hand 🙂

Late afternoon was spent in my room, trying to catch up with some writing, whilst outside it was torrential rain 😦

The speaker last night was the highly acclaimed David Nobbs who’s anecdotes and memories had most of the delegates roaring with laughter.

A quick drink in the bar and then it was time to hand my raffle tickets in….I sold 417 tickets at a quid each, so I’m pleased with that 🙂

And my final news of the day…… I’ve joined Twitter ha ha ha! I blame Della Galton & Peter Jones 😉
My Twitter name is @vikkithomp lol. I did want to use the blog name but decided against it. So if you want to follow me, lol, please 🙂

Are you on Twitter?

All E’ed Out – Swanwick Day Four

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I can’t believe I forgot to tell you who our speaker was yesterday….shocking! Seee, brain dead already and it’s only day four *snigger*

Our speaker was the lovely Alan Samson from Orion Books. His talk was very interesting, and my favourite quote? “The book belongs to the author. An editor should be invisible.” which was said by Max Perkins, who is considered to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest literary editor ever.

So now I’ve got that out the way, what have I been up to?

I spent the early morning, writing, in my usual spot 😉

Then after breakfast it was a talk from Rebecca Woodhead which was all about E Publishing. Fascinating stuff, in which she told us the secrets of her success, one of which is about building your “tribe” lol. What that actually means is that you need to build up your loyal following.

After a break for tea it was “Ask the E Panel”. A Q and A session with Alan Samson, Rebecca Woodhead, Jan Davison and Jonathan Telfer (both from Writing Magazine).

One of our delegates asked the question “If you’ve already published an EBook, does that ruin your chances of getting a traditional publisher and agent?” The panel were in full agreement with their response, and the answer was a definite NO and that, in most cases, it actually enhances your chances, especially if the EBook sells well and you have good reviews! OOOOOOOOO!!!!!! 🙂 I kinda thought that would be the case, but it was great to hear from this well respected group. Alan Samson added that he would never take an existing eBook that had been published elsewhere. So remember that people. If you want to go down the traditional route, please don’t post your WIP’s on your blog 🙂

We had the afternoon off, so I spent it catching up with online stuff, reading my book and doing some writing. I had a wander around the beautiful Lakes in the sunshine and actually managed to find a bench in the shade.

The evening speaker was Sharon Kendrick who is a Mills & Boon writer. She gave a thoroughly entertaining speech and i’ll be attending her course today 🙂

The rest of the evening was spent watching plays that were written by, directed by, and starring my fellow delegates. Great stuff! And Simon Hall as the Song Police got my vote 😉

So my question today, dear reader, is…..will you be going down the EBook route, in the hopes that it will give you a publishing deal? I still can’t make up my mind lol 😉

Being Stewardly – Swanwick Day Three

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I decided yesterday morning, whilst eating breakfast, that I would skip some lessons that day. I really valued everything I learnt here last year, but, I found myself utterly exhausted and completely written out by the end if the week.

Soooooo, I had a fairly lazy morning. When I say lazy, I don’t mean laying on my bed knapping, I mean writing, real writing (fiction from my prompts) oh, and selling raffle tickets….no, that should be attempting to sell raffle tickets lol (one of my Stewardly duties).

Me and Jayne have managed to flog approx 280 tickets! 🙂

The prize? A free place at the school next year!!!! 🙂

Other Stewardly duties today have been to point a delegate in the direction of the Lake, give another some change, help a lady who was locked out of her accommodation block, and direct people to various classrooms and halls lol

I did go to Linda’s class, and we got some homework *gulp* I’m still trying to come up with a short story based on this lot 😉 Any ideas guys?

The last “class” of the day was Twitter vs Facebook with Della Galton and Peter Jones which was a lively debate on which social media network is best.

The result at the end when the audience voted? 16-16 lol….a complete draw!!!!!

We then discussed which was better for authors, and then the vote went 12 to Facebook, 21 to Twitter. What would you vote for?

The evening was spent trying to sell more raffle tickets and attending the Buskers night, arranged by Mark 🙂 Here are our “Buskers”

Falling into bed at 00.40….Zzzzzzzzzz

Day of Rest? – Swanwick Day Two

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Ha ha ha, yeah right 😉

Up and ready to go at 7am yesterday morning, but it did give me the opportunity to do some writing on a bench outside in the morning sunshine 🙂

After breakfast it was off to my first course, which was Characterisation with Steve Hartley (the children’s author who was the speaker last night). A great session where Steve told us all about the Behaviour Model which is based on Carl Jung. If you follow the system it helps you focus on keeping your characters behaviour consistent throughout your novel. Very useful!!!!
I know this photo is gunna look really confusing but you need to know the whole system for it to make any sense.

After tea on the lawn it was off to the Short Story writing class with Linda Lewis who was as amusing and interesting as ever 🙂

I had my one to one with Linda where she critiqued a short story for me. She pointed out where I was going wrong and we discussed my thoughts about giving up short story writing. She’s given me a lot to think about, so I’ll wait til I get home before I make a decision and look into some of the advice Linda gave me.

After a roast beef lunch it was off to Show and Tell with Roz Southey which was an excellent workshop, but, I think I came out even more confused than when I went in! Lol. For me, it’s one of the hardest parts of writing 😦

In the evening, our speaker was Stephen Leo Davis the author and screenwriter. A very interesting man who told us about his experiences of writing for the TV and the film industry over the last 38 years. Two things he said that I took away from the talk….

1. There are no professional tips (ie shortcuts)
2. Learn how to control the fear of failure

My evening was rounded off by watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics in the bar

Do you struggle with show and tell or is it just me? 😉

And now…..I need sleep lol

Arriving at Swanwick -Day One

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

After leaving home at an ungodly hour this morning we made good time up the M1 and arrived bright eyed and bushey tailed (kind of) at The Hayes just before 12….where we were given our badges *snigger*

Yep, I’ll be acting as a Steward all week, helping the newbies 🙂 So far today I’ve had to sort out 2 people being locked out of their rooms and find a lady a TV….no mean feet I might add in a conference centre where there doesn’t appear to be any TV’s lol

Jayne and I were in charge of allocating rooms to people staying in the main house. It was good fun, but hard work as neither of us had ever stayed in that part of the centre!

Jayne being very efficient 🙂

Lunch was good, as was dinner, so I’d already had 2 desserts by the end of the day *gulp* 😉

After the Chairmans Welcome and dinner, it was on to the main speaker. Children’s author Steve Hartley who me and Jayne had already met when he arrived just after lunch. We couldn’t find his room number so at one stage we thought he would have to sleep in his car 😉 Nooooo, it wouldn’t have come to that 😉

His talk, entitled “Things I know now that I wish I knew then” was all about how it took him 15 years to get published. He gave us a list of rules:

1. Be professional
2. Polish your MS until it shines so much you need sunglasses to read it
3. Find your voice
4. Get lucky…do everything you can to increase your chances

An interesting exercise he suggested was to try to sum up your “voice” in a sentence. WOAH! I don’t even know where to start with that one, but I will try 🙂

His talk finished with fitting 11 of our audience into a huge pair of knickers….don’t ask! 😉

After that we found ourselves in the bar with Peter Jones and Della Galton discussing diets lol. Very appropriate after the food we’d put away today 😉

So then, it was room, fluffy slippers and a cup of tea 🙂 Which is exactly how I shall be starting this day 🙂

Could you describe your “voice” in a sentence?