blog tour

Today is Blog Tour day when writers answer questions about their writing process.  Last week,  author Beth Elliot posted hers.  Check it out at: http://regencytales.blogspot.com/2013/my-writing-process-blog-tour. html

Thank you, Beth for inviting me to take part in the tour.

What am I working on?

I am rewriting my novel, Chergui’s Child, which has been on the go for about 12 years!   5 years ago it did the round of agents and didn’t get far.  So I put it aside, thinking I’d probably return to it at some stage because I still believed it was a story worth telling.  I’ve been working on it for the last eighteen months or so.  I’ve changed the structure but the storyline remains the same.  Hopefully it will be ready for re-submission around Easter.

Thirty-year old Olivia is struggling to recover from a trauma five years earlier, when she is summoned to the hospital bedside of her dying aunt, Dorothy.  Shortly after Dorothy’s death, Olivia learns that she has inherited a  fortune.  She also hears of a startling revelation which will result in her embarking on a journey in search of something she should never have lost.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I describe my writing as 'quiet fiction', a term I hadn't heard of until a tutor on my Masters in Creative Writing course suggested this is what I write.  Quiet fiction or realistic fiction is about real people involved in real situations.  No blobby, tentacled monsters here.  I don't think my novels, therefore, will differ significantly from others of this genre.  The one characteristic each one will have is that it is located in a 'foreign' country.  My debut novel, Water's Edge, is set on the shores of Lake Luzern. Chergui's Child mainly takes place in the south of France. My 'back boiler' novel, Christiana, which one day I will finish,  is based in Positano, a magical little town on the Gulf of Salerno in southern Italy ( featured in the film Under the Tuscan Sun).  Using such locations allows me to travel in my head, which although not as good as the real thing, is pure escapism, and free....  



Why do I write what I do?

I write the sort of thing I enjoy reading/watching.  I confess to having little interest in science fiction, horror/fantasy stories.  I do like to read/watch stories based on reality.  And on the whole, I prefer to read and watch contemporary things.  That said, I loved Anita Shreve's Seaglass (set in 1929) and Fortune's Rocks (set at the turn of the 20th century), and have watched countless series on telly which are not contemporary.  Although I enjoy a good plot - hence my current interest in police procedurals  - deep characterisation and interactions with people in relationships are what fascinate me: the superficial conversations and what's simmering away underneath, the subtext. I therefore enjoy writing about people.  Chergui's Child is plot driven, but Water's Edge is more character driven.

I've become very interested in the revision process, particularly line-to-line editing, having realised that a thorough edit can make a huge difference to the quality of my writing.  This inspired the writing of a guide describing the process I use. Words'Worth: a fiction writer's guide to serious editing has recently been published by ThornBerry Publishing.




How does my writing process work?

Hmm, do I actually have a process?  Probably not, certainly not in terms of thinking of plots.  I start off with an idea which could come to me gradually without prompting, or something I've sat down on a beach to devise.  I tend to write a chapter plan although this will often change throughout the writing.

What is consistent is that I keep lots of documents on my laptop, often in table form, on all the information I need to hold on to whilst writing. This will include information I've researched on a location, characteristics of key characters, dialects where relevant, subplots.  If I didn't do all this, I'd be lost, especially if the novel is told by multiple viewpoints.

I also now spend hours and hours editing my work.  It's laborious, tedious and drives me bonkers but is well worth it at the end of the day.  I can look at a bit of text I've tightened up and see how the writing is more pacey and succinct.

I write both at home and in rented premises.  I could do it all at home but this would feel a bit isolated.  I'm lucky that I have access to a wonderful place, The Melting Pot, an organisation offering desk space to social enterprises and odd bods like me who are not profit driven.

As for times for writing, no routine whatsoever.  In a way I wish I had one, but I lack the discipline.  All I can guarantee is that just about every day I will do some writing or editing ( I have an editing business, Choice Words Editing) or promotion of my work, but that's as far as it goes....




Next week

Anne Stenhouse, an e-published historical novelist with MuseitUp of Canada.  Anne's books are dialogue rich reflecting her previous writing life as a playwright. Mariah's Marriage is set in London, 1822 and Bella's Betrothal in Edinburgh, 1826. Full of Regency sparkle, each novel has a darker theme complementing the romance. Anne blogs at: Novels Now blog http://wp.me/31Isq



Kate Blackadder, a published writer of short fiction and one novella. Kate has had around 35 stories published, in women¹s magazines, in competition anthologies and in New Writing Scotland.    She blogs at: katewritesandreads.blogspot.co.uk