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

Introducing The Heroine

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

As most of you know (those who have been following me for a while now) I have a thing about characters lol. I do a lot of character sketches. It goes back to my childhood, playing with dolls and dolls houses. I just love making up life stories for people 🙂

Sooooo, back in June I embarked on a Pocket Novel course, and my first step was to come up with a heroine. Please let me introduce you to Kate, the heroine of our story……

Kate has just turned 30. She has shoulder length chestnut brown hair and hazel eyes. A size 12/14 but constantly battling with her weight, she has a mole on her cheek and pale skin that easily burns. Most at home in jeans which she wears with pumps, she can be “girly” when required and enjoys dressing up for nights out with her girlfriend.

Single, she is still looking for Mr Right, but finds it hard to trust men after being hurt badly by an ex (who cheated on her). She works as a secretary in a large office in town (which bores her rigid) and at the weekends enjoys long walks with her dog. She lives with her dog Buster in a large Victorian house that has been converted into flats. Whilst she’s at work, the lady below, Mrs Peel has Buster.

Kind and thoughtful, she loves animals and has volunteered at the local Shelter. She bites her nails and suffers from confidence issues. An only child to divorced parents she has a good relationship with her mum. She rarely sees her dad, especially now he has a new girlfriend who is her age. She has a best friend Francesca, who she’s known since school, they work in the same company.

During her parents bitter divorce she spent a lot of time with her grandparents. Sadly her grandfather is now dead but she visits her grandmother every week without fail, in the sheltered housing accommodation she now lives in. Her hobbies are reading (mainly romance) and dancing. She likes to go to the local clubs on a Saturday night and goes to Salsa dancing classes when she can be bothered. Her gym membership is rarely used.

Often described as stubborn, she can be reluctant to change her mind after she’s made a decision about something, or assumption about someone. She dreams of one day having a husband who dotes on her and 2 children. She loves children and is beginning to worry that this may never happen.

So that’s Kate. I need her to be likeable, sooooo dear reader Do you like her? and is there anything else you’d like to know about her?

A Fun Packed Day

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I had a lovely breakfast this morning which included “black pudding”…now, we dont get that at Swanwick 😉 So i was really set up for the day and the first part of my course “A Complete Introduction To writing Romance” with Kate Walker.

Kate talked about characterisation and that by creating in depth characters to begin with, a plot and conflict can be formed. Thoroughly enjoyable, i learned a lot 🙂 Kate has a book out at the moment about Writing Romance, so i can highly reccomend that if youre interested in the Mills & Boon/Harlequin avenue.

After a lunch of salad it was time for Stephen Wade to give a talk, entitled “A Man of Many Hats” He talked about his 65 published books, which genres range from biography and poetry to true crime. He read us examples of his poetry and even put on the Russian accent required when reading his poem about the Russian and the dinner lady. A very amusing and entertaining guy, and, husband to Kate Walker 🙂

His advice to aspiring writers? Wear lots of hats! 🙂

After a small break it was time for an after tea session. I chose to do “Finding Your Place: Bringing Settings To Life” with Carol Fenton. The session was all about showing us how good description of a setting can add mood to your work. Carol gave us photos we had to write about, and my mind went blank (typical!!!). Some of the other delegates read out some of their descriptions, which were excellent! 🙂

One of the books Carol Gave us as an Example was Waterland by Graham Swift. I approached Carol after the class and asked her if she knew if there was any truth in the rumour that Swift wrote the book (which is set in the English Fens) with out even visiting the area. Carol didnt know, but we both agreed that if that was indeed true, what a marvellous writer.

And thats what we want isnt it? To be able to write as if we know an area inside out, even if we dont 😉

Tonights speaker is Irene Yates, and unfortunately i wont be attending 😦 My feet are killing me! lol. So im in my room, with my fluffy slippers on *snigger*

Later this evening there is going to be a pub crawl….ha ha ha, no chance. So it’ll be drinks on the terrace instead, or rather, in my case “drink” 😉

Silly Man…..

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Here’s my snippet inspired by Sundays picture of the champagne 😉

Orson sat down at the bar and ordered a drink, Vodka, neat, and drank it down in one gulp.
“Steady there fella.” The bar man laughed. “Another?”
“Yeah, keep em coming, no, give me the bottle, room 320.”
The bar man nodded and placed the bottle on the bar.
Orson poured another drink and helped himself to ice from a chrome lidded ice bucket. The tongs were so cold they almost stuck to his fingers.

It was some time before he noticed that he’d hit the almost full bottle hard. His head was beginning to swim and aware that his legs seemed to belong to someone else.
“Vodka and coke please?”
Orson turned in the direction of the voice. A woman stood next to him. She smiled and he was struck by the greenness of her eyes, which matched her dress perfectly. He pushed the bottle in her direction.
“Bad day?” She asked.
Orson looked down at his left hand and twisted the gold wedding band that was beginning to cut into his finger.

The next thing Orson knew was waking in his hotel room, flat on his back on the bed, naked. He tried to lift his head from the pillow and groaned. The pain was intense.Trying to look around the room from his horizontal position he could see nothing out of place until he noticed the bottle of champagne, turned upside down in its bucket. The 2 glasses lay on their sides on a small side table. Swinging his legs to the side of the bed he sat up slowly. He felt sick and dizzy. The pain in his temples throbbed with an intensity he’d never experienced before. He looked round for his clothes but couldn’t see them.

“Shit, my wallet!”
He staggered to the wardrobe and looked at the safe. It was open and empty. It was only then that he noticed all his clothes, even his shoes, were missing.”
The telephone rang.
“Yes!”
“Good morning Mr James, this is Reception. Just to let you know your wife has just arrived. She’s asking if she should come up, or meet you down here for breakfast……Mr James? Shall I send her up?”

*evil snigger* I do like a bit of conflict lol. Poor old Orson, what is he gunna do? Lol

Any ideas as to how he’s gunna get out of that? 😉

She Lay Down Deep Beneath The Sea

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Remember the picture prompt on Sunday?……well, of course my characters have to come with some backstory. I didn’t bother doing any description because you already know what they look like lol

Ellie & James

Ellie and James have recently moved in together. The situation being forced on them when Ellie’s stepfather threw her out for not being able to pay rent (and hence depriving him of beer money). James managed to find a pokey bedsit over the top of a Kebab shop in their local high street.

Ellie is 20, streetwise, able to look after herself, she’s had to. Since her father left when she was 8 she’s had many step fathers, most of which have only hung around for a few months. Loud and often offensive, she finds it hard to show her true emotions and suffers from low self esteem. She finds it hard to trust and comes across as a very angry young woman, her childhood has been hard. She loves James to bits, but can’t bring herself to tell him exactly how she feels. She can be cold, and often callous towards him, but can’t seem to stop herself.

James is 19, softly spoken, but cheeky and charming. His parents were horrified when he quit college to get a job so that he could move in with Ellie. He is a talented guitar player and at college was doing a course in Electronic Engineering, which would have led to a University place. He met Ellie in a pub 9 months ago and was immediately smitten. He loved how out going she was, and was drawn to how different she was from the normal girls he’d dated. All of James’ friends think he’s mad moving in with Ellie. They predict disaster and have warned James he’ll end up getting hurt. James believes he can rescue Ellie, show her love, and that he can make up for all the hurt she feels.

Today, Ellie has made James some lunch. He’s on his break from the local cafe, where he spends most of the day serving greasy fry ups to truck drivers. They argued last night, about Ellie’s lack of interest in getting a job. So today, she’s tidied the flat and actually got dressed (albeit in yesterday’s clothes) to show James she is making an effort. He’s pleased to see her dressed and believes her promises of spending the afternoon job hunting. But James has failed to realise the significance of the bottle of Vodka on the table.

When he returns from work this evening he will find her passed out on the couch, the empty bottle on the floor. He’ll fall into bed exhausted and wondering whether he’s made a big mistake.

Hmmmmm, ok, I think I was influenced with this, big time lol. I went to Margate yesterday, to the Turner Contemporary to see the Tracey Emin exhibition.

I always find Tracey’s work, not exactly depressing, but full of pain and so emotionally charged. I guess that’s because I know her background, what she’s been through. So by the time I got home and wrote about Ellie & James I was feeling, I dunno, reflective?

I think this is the painting that influenced James & Ella’s story:

But there were lots of others such as:
Never Forget Me
Just to say Awake & Alive I thank you (painting of a woman laying on a couch)
I did not say I can never love you. I said I could never love

I could go on and on lol

On the wall at the entrance of the exhibition, there was a write up on what had influenced Tracey to do this collection. How an idea of trees in an olive grove when her father died had turned into how she felt, like being beneath the sea. Aren’t ideas brilliant? The way we can go from one to another to another and get to a point that is so detached from the original, but makes perfect sense.

Have you written anything recently that you can say was totally inspired by something specific? Would love to hear what you’ve been inspired by lately 🙂

Breakfast or Lunch?

Posted on June 3, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Today’s picture is another drawing by Martin Karlsson, currently on display outside The Tate Modern. I’m not sure what this one is called, sorry, but I love it. He’s caught the action so well 🙂

As I’m a huge fan of characters, rather than do a story for this one I’m going to do 2 characterisations….will share tomorrow 🙂

What story would you come up with for this pair? Would love to hear your ideas!

Character Sketch – Say Hi To Shirley & Daniel

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Shirley is a single mum who has brought up her son Daniel with no support from her family. Her ex, Daniels father, is in prison for murder. When their relationship broke down because he was violent towards her, he stalked her for 3 years before finally stabbing to death Shirley’s next door neighbour Tom. He thought the guy was her new boyfriend.

All that happened 10 years ago now and Shirley is scared about his release. Daniel is now 15 and remembers little of the events. He is a quiet boy, caring and sensitive, not at all like his father. Shirley is very proud of him. He’s doing well at school and wants to be a policeman.

Shirley works part time as a receptionist at a local vets, within walking distance of her home. She enjoys it, as she loves the animals, but they’re not allowed any in their rented flat. As Daniel is still at school she claims benefits, so although they can’t afford luxuries, they manage. Daniel has been looking for a Saturday job to help out but can’t find one.

Shirley sometimes gets lonely, the other receptionists at work have set her up on several blind dates, but she finds it hard to trust anyone now, seeing all men as bullies and possible psychopaths. Daniel hasn’t had a girlfriend yet and Shirley is petrified of losing her little boy.

At 5 foot 6 she is painfully thin (but not through choice) and often looks pale and drawn. Her hair is a natural golden colour. Daniel looks like her and is also painfully thin, but has his fathers dark hair and eyes.

Shirley loves to do cross stitch and has started making them into cards, which she gives to the local Cats Protection League shop in town. She volunteers there every Saturday morning after walking to the library with Daniel where he uses the Internet, as they can’t afford access at home. Shirley feels guilty that she can’t give Daniel the things he wants.

Daniel is a loner, he doesn’t have any close friends that he sees outside school. He enjoys reading and playing on his games console (one of the other receptionists at Shirley’s work gave it to her when her son got the newer model). He loves his mum to bits but there’s a little piece of him that hopes he’ll see his dad again when he is released…..

Awwwww, poor Shirley & Daniel, I so want them to be happy 🙂 But, in the life of a fictional character, things are never easy. Will the ex track them down? I have a sneaky suspicion he will 😉

A-Z Reflections

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Yay, I’m an A-Z Survivor lol 😉

The guys over at the A-Z Challenge would like all the participants to do a reflection post. Well, Ive kinda done that already, when I did my Cast List post a couple of days after finishing.

But, what I didn’t talk about was:

What were the highlights of my April Challenge?
Ooooo, there were loads, every single day! It was a great experience, hard work, but fun! 🙂

What i learned?
I learned to plan, schedule, and make sure I was ahead of myself for at least a couple of days. I started out writing the characters daily, but that was madness. I did however do the last one, Zac the dog, “live” as it just felt right to 🙂

What changes i might make next time?
Hmmmm, that’s a hard one lol, to what I did, nothing, but to the A-Z Challenge? I tried my best to visit as many participants as possible, but I think I only managed about 700 in total. Next time it would be great if the organisers had the blogs separated into different categories, so that I could support my fellow writers 🙂

What surprised me most?
That I stuck it out! Lol, no, seriously, probably how much people enjoyed reading my character sketches 🙂

Special bloggers i met in my A to Z journey or a post/posts that especially moved or impressed me?
I met some lovely bloggers through the challenge, picked up some great new followers, and added to my own following list…..but, the blog I enjoyed reading the most throughout the month was Tale Spinning by Stuart Nager. I can’t wait to see Stuarts work on the Swan Rise Apartments in book form. If you get the chance, go and have a read before he removes all the stories at the end of this month. You won’t be disappointed 🙂

So that’s definitely it til next year now…..how sad 😦 I hope I’m still around next year to participate 😉

Did you take part in the A-Z Challenge? and if you didn’t, will I see you there next year? 😉

The Cast List…..Reviewed

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Well, that’s it, I did it…..I achieved a whole month of characters for the A-Z Challenge! Pleased is an understatement lol 😉

It’s funny, so many people asked me if these characters were real. It didn’t even enter my head to base them on real people, consciously, and anyway, I don’t know 26 people lol. But reading them back, I can see little parts if myself in some of them, and a couple are probably too close for comfort for a couple of friends. I think the one who is most like me is Scarlet so she’s the one I have a soft spot for. She has my personality, and most of my physical attributes. I didn’t mean her to be me it was an accident lol

My favourite? Ooooo, I think it would have to be Queenie and the one I’d most like as a friend is Gloria as I’m sure she would be fun to be around.

If I was single (and if he was real of course), I would definitely go on a date with Harry as in my head I think he looks like a younger Hugh Grant *swoon* lol.

So now what? What to do with all these people crying out for my attention? Begging me to write their stories 🙂

I have a plan……I had already decided what I was going to do for Nano 2012, but now, I’m thinking that can wait until 2013, this project will be my novel this year 🙂 I am excited, but apprehensive, as I know how much work will be involved.

I’m going to try to connect all the characters stories into one story, a daisy chain so to speak 🙂 So in theory, 26 short stories of about 4,000 words each, which means I’ll have to do one a day *gulp* I’ve done 65,000 words in a month, so I know what a struggle this will be. I guess I’ll have to start thinking about my ending (remember Adele Parks? Lol) and how they can all be pulled together 😉

So thank you readers, for taking an interest, your comments have been brilliant, and definitely stirred up some ideas I can use….if it ever gets published you will all get a thank you in the back of the book, I promise 🙂

I can see some natural connections already….. Like Queenie & Fred or perhaps Harry & Scarlet (ah, see, I will get Hugh Grant! Lol)…..is Gloria the single mum who lives next door to Ella? And I think Ivy definitely gets her hair cut by Benjamin. Could they all be linked together via Zac in some way, or is that too naff? Or how about they all live in the same street? Turn it into a soap opera? Lol

So my question today dear reader, is, should I actually bother? lol 🙂

And if my husbands reading this, I’ll apologise in advance…..November 2012 will be a stressful month, I hope you have lots of chess matches booked *snigger* 🙂

Z is for…..

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Zac, who has been removed because I want to use him for my Nano 2012 novel.

Sorry you missed it 😦

A-Z Challenge

Well, that’s Zac, and yep, he’s a dog 🙂 I never said all my characters would be people did I 😉 The obvious thing that springs to mind is that Zac gets lost, or stolen, but don’t worry, he will be reunited with his family, I’m sure of it 🙂

So that’s it, 26 days of characters! Wow, it’s been hard work, but I’ve enjoyed it 🙂 the question is, did you? 🙂