Tag Archives: Lesley Pearse

Experience?

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Lesley Pearse was great last night. I didn’t buy a book as she only had her most recent one for sale, which is the follow up to a previous book…..but…..I will be buying at least one of her earlier books at a later date.

Wow, has that woman had a life or what!!!!! She told us her complete life story through the hour she talked, and I think I’ve come to a conclusion…. I will never be a great author because I haven’t had enough life experiences lol. Lesley is on her 3rd (or is it 4th?) marriage, her mother died when she was 3, she was sent to an orphanage, she had a wicked step mother, had to have her 2nd husband committed, was a single mum, took 7 years to publish her first book…..shall I go on?

Is that what you need to be a great author?

I will always remember Emma Darwin’s words at Swanwick. She said that most writers are told “write what you know” (I’m sure we’ve all heard that one!), but Emma says “write what you don’t know but make the reader believe you know it”. When it came to the time to discuss my first 3000 words of my Nano 2010 novel with Emma, the part she loved was actually based on personal experience, the only part that was personal experience in the whole 3000 section lol.

I rest my case 😉

Didn’t manage to finish today’s prompt about the summer garden. I did about 200 words and got stuck, not knowing which way I want it to go lol. Today’s prompt a word left unspoken sounds interesting 😉

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Lesley Pearse signing my friends book.

Titles

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I spent most of yesterday writing and typing up a short story for my OCA exercise re, marrying 2 notebook ideas together. I’m not gunna publish it on my blog as I think it might be good enough to send somewhere for a short story comp. it’s really annoying that these competitions request that your story cannot have appeared anywhere else *pout* 😦

Anyway, so I have a completed short story….now, a title lol.

I never start with a title, I always write the story and then when it’s finished I think about what to call it. Most of the stories I’ve written don’t ever have titles (do you think they mind? Lol), but I like to ‘name’ those that get typed up 🙂

I have pages and pages of title ideas in my notebooks. I tend to find them everywhere. Something that I overheard someone say, the chapter heading in a book (non fiction), the title of a piece of art, 2 or 3 words from a poem or quote…..I have hundreds lol. So when it comes to naming a piece, I go back through my lists and pick something appropriate. Unfortunately, sometimes I come unstuck lol…. My last Nano novel was/is called Deliberate Act which I thought suited it perfectly. But then hubby pointed out to me that there is a film called that……oh dear, will need to rethink that one then 😦

Yesterday’s prompt, the one about nearing midnight inspired the story of a woman waiting for a phone call. Her son is on a life support machine, but, how should she feel about that when he’s a rapist and murderer? Lol….. I really will write something happy one day, I promise 😉

Today’s prompt is write about a summer garden

I’m really proud of myself that I’ve kept to my ‘goal’ of writing everyday 🙂

Tonight I’m going to see Lesley Pearse give a talk. I’ve never read anything of hers, but I’m always interested to hear what an author has to say 🙂

What If?

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I managed to do my story regarding the horizon. I wrote about a woman who presents on breakfast TV, The Horizon Show. Ratings are falling and the producers have bought in a young, attractive blonde to take over……she ends up pushing the bimbo down the stairs 😉

I’ve enrolled with The Write Place but unfortunately i couldn’t make it to the first meeting 😦 However, the lovely Elaine sent me the notes from last weeks class 🙂 Every week she sets some homework and this weeks was centred around a ‘what if?’ situation.

I love What Ifs? Been using them for quite a while now, for times when I get stuck 🙂 You can completely change a story by applying one and my note books are full of What if scenarios.

She also sent me info on a Lesley Pearse talk which is happening in a couple of weeks. I’m not really a fan, but, I always find it interesting to hear what successful published authors have to say, so I’ll definitely be booking tickets for that.

Then there’s Sally Quilfords Pocket Novel Workshop which I want to attend, and Peter Jones at the Essex Book Festival. I’ve applied to be a ‘giver’ for World Book Night and I’m also considering the Ian Rankin talk at the University of Sussex.

Phew…..the diary is filling up! Lol

Today, I will be trying to do some work on my course. My assignment is due in on the 20th *gulp* and I’ve not started it yet 😦 Plus, I need to do today’s prompt, which is the sound of silence (after Simon & Garfunkel). My brain feels a bit fuzzy this morning so I’ve no idea as yet what I’m going to write about 😉