For Sale


So now we’ve all recovered, finished doing our Ernest Hemingway impressions, it’s back to normality *picks party streamer out of her hair* 🙂

Today’s picture was taken in Rochester. At the time I was doing a treasure hunt on Flickr. You were given a list each week, and you had to take photos for each item on the list. It was great fun, actually, I’m not quite sure why I stopped.

Anyway, this one was for the clue “For Sale”

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Lots of scope there, but sometimes that makes it harder, don’t you think?

So what story does this image conjure up? I’ll share what I’ve written in my notebook tomorrow 🙂

Character Sketch – Say Hi To Shirley & Daniel


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…..

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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 😉

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?


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Me!!!!!! Well, ok, I was, but not now lol

I’d been avoiding watching this film for years and I’m not sure why. Did I think it would be too intellectual for me? Probably……I actually thought it was about Virginia Woolf lol….the power of a title eh? 😉

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that actually, it’s a character driven plot (if you can call it a plot per se) that centres on just 4 characters. Two married couples. Martha & George (Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) the older couple, have a volatile relationship (lots of conflict, I like that!) and poor Nick & Honey, the younger couple (George Segal and Sandy Dennis) who get dragged into a night of merciless personal attacks. It’s basically 2 hours of screaming, fighting and general mud slinging lol.

That makes it sound very simplistic doesn’t it? But trust me, if you haven’t seen it, it’s not. It’s full of mind games and very clever manipulation. I am in awe of Edward Albee who wrote the original script for the play. Its a fascinating piece, that’s given me quite a few ideas for my own stories, especially the way the characters interact. A bit too complex for a short story though.

And as for the title? The one I was so scared of for all these years? It’s actually a pun on the Disney song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” from the Three Little Pigs. Here’s a quote from Albee, explaining the title:

‘I was in there having a beer one night, and I saw “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” scrawled in soap, I suppose, on this mirror. When I started to write the play it cropped up in my mind again. And of course, who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf means who’s afraid of the big bad wolf….who’s afraid of living life without false illusions. And it did strike me as being a rather typical, university intellectual joke.’

Now that’s what I call inspiration!!!!!! Something scrawled on a restroom mirror *laughs* incredible. So it just goes to show, you must take your notebook everywhere! 😉

Have you ever found something inspiring on a restroom mirror? Or in any other interesting places? I found this on the back of a toilet door in Cafe Nero once, but I don’t have a clue what to do with it lol 😉

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Critiquing With Confidence


I’m part of an all female writing group, called The Mermaids. But, from what I now know about writing groups this is in fact, a critique group. We submit our work via e mail and then meet up once a month to give critiques. This months meeting is on the 14th and I have a whole folder of stuff I have to read and use the red pen on lol

I read a post a couple of weeks ago over at 4am Writer entitled The Power of a Critique which has prompted this post 🙂

I use to hate critiquing…..all I ever use to write on my fellow writers work was “really liked this well done” lol. Probably because (a) I didn’t want to upset them, put them off writing or come across as, oh, what’s the word? Superior? Especially when (IMO) my writing was probably worse. And (b) because really, I didn’t know how to critique.

That all changed when I started attending classes at The Write Place where Elaine gave us slips of paper to use when we critique. The slips contained a list of questions to apply to the work we were critiquing and now, I use this set of questions all the time. I hope they’re helpful to any of you who struggle (as I did) when asked to critique a fellow writers work 🙂

(1) Did the title grab you?
(2) How about the opening paragraphs?
(3) Characters: Were they believable?
(4) Was there a strong plot?
(5) How about the ending, was it satisfying?
(6) Does it suit the market that the writer is aiming for?

I’d also like to add my own one that’s not on Elaine’s list……
(7) Did the dialogue work?

We use these questions in class to critique short stories, so I’m not sure how they would relate to a novel, or one chapter of a novel.

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How do you feel about critiquing? Love it? Hate it? Muddle through? 😉

As a side note…..yesterday I read on Clarbojahn’s Blog about the OREO method of critiquing. Some good advice *nods in agreement* 🙂

Notebooks – Finding What Works For You


Firstly, thank you so much, everyone, for your suggestions yesterday on how to get myself motivated, I really appreciate it 🙂 One thing I realised (along with many others!) is that I need to be more organised lol…..so I’m hoping this will help 🙂

I usually skim read The Writers Forum magazine when it thuds onto the doormat…..stick it in my pile of TBR magazines and then forget about it for 3 months. But this month, an article by Simon Whaley caught my eye so I just had to read it 🙂

In Notebook Know How, Simon explains how he has different notebooks for different things. Now, I’ve always been the one notebook for everything kinda gal. But reading Simons article made me realise that yep, he’s right, I can never find anything lol. I’m now on my 13th notebook, and though I can mostly remember what was in a previous book, I haven’t got a clue what was in say, book 4 lol

So as from the beginning of May I started working with 7 notebooks, all at the same time. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, 7 is a bit excessive, but, I can’t seem to cut it down to any less than that (Simon himself says that he has 6). Here are the books I’ll be working with:

Ideas Book – Where I’ll put ideas for stories, titles, articles I’m interested in, name ideas for characters, blog ideas and useful web site addys.
Prompts Book – Where I do my daily prompts.
Characters Book – As you know, I do a lot of characters, so a notebook dedicated to them will make it a lot easier when I’m trying to find one.
Goals/To Do List Book – I’ve decided to start each week with a set of goals, so a notebook dedicated to them would make sense.
Novel Notebook – A notebook dedicated to my current WIP novel, anything and everything that relates to it.
Dumping Book – The book that I take to my writing class and take out and about with me for free writing sessions.
Nano 2012- I’ve prepared a notebook for my A-Z characters, so I can add stuff that I come across which might be useful.

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Simon says (i lovethat!) he uses his dumping book and then at the end of every day transfers the information into the categorised books. He says the transfer process also gives him an opportunity to develop the ideas further. Yeah, I can see that, extra work yes, but good to go over stuff I think.

How many notebooks do you work with and why?

I’ll let you know whether it was a good idea or a bad one in a couple of months LMAO 🙂

B is for…..


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

Sorry you missed it 😦

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The A-Z Challenge

Well, the first thing that strikes me about Benjamin is that he’s not a very nice bloke and I feel sorry for Cleo….. Just what is she getting up to while he’s out all day? I think that she knows about all of the affairs….so why does she stay? 😦

Yesterday’s prompt about ordering in turned into the start of a story about a couple who order pizza and the delivery guy ends up being her brother she hasn’t seen for years….curiouser and curiouser lol. Today’s prompt is write about a hot wind……is there such a thing? 😉

A is for …..


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

Sorry you missed it 😦

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The A-Z Challange

So that’s my first character, do you like her? I’m not sure. I think she’s the type of girl who is lovely when you get to know her, but on first meeting you’d probably get the impression that she thought she was something special, if you get what I mean lol.

Thank you soooo much to Janet at Postcard Fiction for The Versatile Blogger award. I am deeply honoured 🙂

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I will have to do the “7 Things About Me” and nominations in another post, perhaps stagger it over a few days lol.

Yesterday’s prompt about the antidote to pain turned into the start of a story about a girl who suffers from CIPA which I haven’t got an end to, but, has been an eye opener to write. Today’s prompt is write about ordering in which is something we’re experts about in this house 😉

People Watching


I’m starting to think about characters…..people, for my A-Z Challenge which starts tomorrow *gulp*

Everyday most of us come into contact with other people. We live with them, work with them and think about them when they’re not there. Some we like, others we cant bare the sight of!. Meeting new people can be fun, but for a writer, it can be a facinating 🙂

In real life, when you meet a new person you learn a lot about them in the first few seconds. That’s the crucial moment when you form opinions and judgements. You base those on the way they walk, how they sit, if they’re smiling or what they’re wearing. You try to figure out what they’re thinking by their facial expressions. Even small details like the smell of tobacco or a stain on their tie will influence your opinion.

Then there are their gestures. The way they look over their glasses, the way they throw back their hair or constantly play with a ring on their finger.

Characters need to be real, as real as you and I 😉 They’ll have faults, bad habits, talents and tastes. They will have complex personalities, and all of it needs to come across in our stories, if we want our characters to delight our readers.

F Scott Fitzgerald said “Plot is character and character is plot.” I rest my case 😉

So people watching is a great idea when you need inspiration for characters. A cafe, park, restaurant, even a waiting room can have me scribbling away in my note book 😉

Do you people watch? Do you use what youve seen in your stories?

Try describing a friend or family member (they never need to see it). Its great fun and you can use certain aspects to create a fictious character 😉

The photo above is The Bookcrossers meeting the Hen Night Bunnies….. dont ask lol 😉

Yesterdays prompt about the backseat turned into a story about a young woman who arrives home to find that the birthday cake she had just bought is gone and in its place is a bag of money and a gun…..not sure where thats going yet lol. Todays prompt is the antidote to pain. That sounds very interesting 😉

Sunshine


I’ve been awarded the Sunshine Award by C. B. Wentworth so thank you so much honey 🙂

It’s lovely to be nominated for these awards, such an honour 🙂

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My only problem is that for some reason my pictures come out scrambled *stamps foot and pouts* and I don’t know why 😦

Anyway, I’m not going to go down the traditional route with this, what I will do is write about sunshine 🙂

Wednesdays prompt was “write the horizon at dusk” and as i sat here, trying to come up with some sort of story it sparked a memory…..soooo, as it also involves sunshine, i’ll copy here what i wrote 🙂

As a child i spent all my summers at my grandparents caravan on the Kent coast. My cousins and I would spend our days running through grass, searching for crabs on the beach when the tide went out and enjoying the sunshine.

We’d make secret hide outs in the bushes, play hide and seek among the sand dunes and have glorious adventures accompanied by the British weather. (Ha ha ha…for those of you in the UK you’ll know exactly what i mean about British summers…..rain! lol)

But the part of the day that i loved the most was dusk. The sun dying on the horizon, the seagulls making their way home (where do seagulls go at night?) and the children being called in by their parents.

We would go in to steaming hot mugs of tea and biscuits, for dunking 🙂  Sometimes, we’d sit on the steps outside, clutching our mugs, watching the sun dissappear. The dampness the evening always seemed to bring would start clinging to our clothes. Then my grandmother would tell us to come in and the door would be shut. If you left the door open it was as though dusk would creep into the caravan and slip into your bed. No one wanted a damp sleeping bag.

Sometimes i’d sit at the front, at the large window and watch the final glimpses of daylight in the distance. I remember wondering what would happen if the sun didnt rise the next morning. But it always did, and then, we would be running through the grass again. The early morning dew seeping through our flipflops, the grass tickling out toes, as we made our way back to the beach.

Nothing ever changed in the night, but we wished so hard that it would. The night always seemed so magical, as if anything could happen while we were tucked up asleep.

Happy days 🙂 I’m afraid i havent got a photo of the caravan, but i have got a photo of the beach.

Yesterdays prompt about eating it raw turned into a strange story. It started with a wife moaning at her husband for eating raw cake mix and turned into an argument about her brother who had just been released from prison LMAO 😉 Todays prompt is in the back seat so im sure i can come up with something for that 🙂

A-Z Blog Challenge


Ok….I’ve signed up lol….yes, yes, I know, some of you will be thinking I’m mad, but, I have an idea, a plan 🙂

One of my favourite parts of writing is characterisation. I love coming up with characters, I guess it goes back to my childhood and playing with dolls.

Sooooo, I intend to come up with a character a day, their first names beginning with that letter. I’m not gunna plan any posts, but I will plan the names in advance. That will be my only preparation 🙂

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I find a lot of the time stories emerge just from creating a character, so who knows, I might even end up with 26 stories by the end of April 🙂

I didn’t get to do the prompt today, but only because I had to go over to Hertfordshire to do a delivery lol. Still, it was a beautiful day 🙂

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So I guess I’ll be doing yesterday’s prompt with today’s which is you ate it raw which sounds like fun 😉