Journal Entries
Writer's Block 17
Posted Oct 25, 2014
I need to move on.
I didn't get anywhere in the Cinnamon Press competition with Dreaming in Stone, 
which means either that it isn't much good, or the competition was very strong, or both. Of course, there are lots of books by people who've bought up old houses in France, most of which show them meeting quirky locals and winning through. Although I've rather turned that genre upside down, my novel is probably just not original enough. 
I ought to self-publish it. I know people here have used Lulu.com and I'll consider that
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Latest reply: Oct 25, 2014
Writer's Block 16
Posted Jul 20, 2014
Well, I did it. I went back to the beginning of Dreaming in Stone and worked my way through it, rewriting.
I added a sub-plot - a sort of teen romance between Steve and Nathalie, which makes sense because it impacts on the main story. (Nathalie tells Steve his mother is having an affair with her father.) I also added a bit of description here and a chunk of back story there - filling out the characters and their lives. I changed the end, making Brian die in the fire that destroys the house. The result is stonger, I think, but bleak. I want to believe that both Alison and Steve will recover from this experience, but will they? 
I recently reached the end of the second draft, or thought I had. And I saw a competition, run by Cinnamon Press, for the best debut novel. They asked for £12 and 10,000 words. The prize was £1000 and publication. Now my general view of Dreaming in Stone is that it's not bad. it's not amazingly original and the middle might sag, but it's not awful. But I decided that I could afford £12, so I sent my 10,000 words off. I don't expect to win, but it would be nice to be on a long list.
Then I started worrying. Suppose, I said to myself, they do want it on their long list, they will then want the rest of the story. I've got it, but it's all in bits. So, I've started putting it altogether in one long document and, of course, as I read through, I find more bits that I feel need to be changed, bits that need to be added.
Will I ever finish this thing?
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Latest reply: Jul 20, 2014
Minorvogonpoet's NaJoPoMo 2013 - The Town Council Murder
Posted Nov 1, 2013
I threatened to write a story for NaJoPoMo. So here's the first instalment: A87814975
It might get out of hand and continue well beyond the end of November...
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Latest reply: Nov 1, 2013
Writer's Block 15
Posted Jul 21, 2013
Well, I've got to the end.
I sent Brian across a bridge over the Lot in the rain. I made Alison and Francois agree to part, as their relationship is running out of steam. And I took Alison back to St Therese, to talk to the architect about plans for the new house, in the spring as the plum blossom opens. All of this reads as if it's written by someone who's in a hurry to finish! 
I've tried to count the words of the chapters and pieces I might use in my novel. And it's not a novel. It's too short at only 46,000 words
So, I've got a few options. I can scrap the lot and decide to take up knitting, or rework it, adding pieces where I feel they're needed; or i can scrap Dreaming in Stone and start something else.
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Latest reply: Jul 21, 2013
Writer's Block 14
Posted Jun 20, 2013
I was going to kill my anti-hero Brian off. 
I'd got it all planned. After Alison and Steve left home, Brian was going to seek sympathy from his friend Carrie, who was likely to tell him that a lot of the problems in the family were his, Brian's, fault. He would then drown his sorrows in a nearby bar and try to drive home, only to crash on the way. But our tutor, Susannah said that Brian shouldn't go to see Carrie, because he'd done that before, making the scene repetitive. 
The idea that Brian might die in a house fire seemed a decent alternative. The house fire idea had two advantages. Firstly, the house is a key character in the story - although it doesn't do anything, it swallows money and is the subject of much of the dispute. In a sense, once the house has gone, all the arguments are over. Second, in the little village where our real French house is located, one of the houses did burn down, and this appears to have been the last scene in a marital breakdown, though the family got out.
I wrote my scene in which Brian accidentally sets fire to the house and dies. And thought no, I can't do that. It seemed too ghastly an end, one that poor Brian didn't deserve. He's never quite faced the truth about himself and his life; he's become increasingly alcoholic and prone to outbursts of violence, but he's not really evil. So I rewrote and came up with a scene in which Brian sets fire to the house but gets out.
But what next? I've spoiled my nice neat end - a funeral, various good-byes and the chance of a new beginning. The best I can do is write a scene where Brian sets off into the nearby town with a bit of money and some clothes that kindly people have given him and more or less disappears into a grey winter day. Alison will need to keep in touch with him, as she negotiates with insurers and banks, but Brian is a broken man, having lost everything he valued and the image of himself that he carefully protected. 
Then the last scene will show Alison returning to see the house being rebuilt. A new house is emerging from the ruins and the plum trees in the nearby orchard are in blossom.
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Latest reply: Jun 20, 2013
minorvogonpoet
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