Thursday 25 February 2010

Busy Bee



I have really made use of my time off today and just had some great news from the Shropshire Star who are coming to talk to me and Mom tomorrow about our books, and Shropshire Women Magazine have said yes (fingers crossed)to a feature I put to them a few months ago, so hopefully me and Mom will be getting a bit of coverage soon.

This morning I have submitted an article a dog magazine, completed my competition story and posted it off to my favourite and much loved proof reader (my Mom) and started research on my next book. Phew!

It's been such a great week off so far. I have to cram all my work into time off like this, or the odd lunch hour at work but it's worth it.

So now I shall retire to my writing shed and do some reading!

Wednesday 24 February 2010

The Writing Shed



Having a week off work, I was thrilled to think about getting down to lots of writing, yet within the first few days, I was wondering what to write about first. My fellow bloggers came to the rescue with great advice, so I made a plan. But some plans never go that easily.

I juggle my writing time around my animals and do tend to get distracted from my writing if I feel I need to be doing something else. My writing environment is very important. I like to feel relaxed and happy.

Today the weather was so nice, I wanted to be outside, yet wanted to write as well - ughh! So I came up with another plan. I created an outdoor writing area. My writing shed, where I can relax and let the hens run free while my writing gets a free range too!.



This is my new writing shed. I had a clear out in my summer house. I decorated it in a Cornish style sea shack years ago. I had been using it to store rubbish, but thought it may be a nice area to write. I painted the wall years ago and hung all sorts of things up to resemble the seaside. It was lovely on such a nice day to get in there and do some writing. The best thing was I could keep an eye on the hens who tend to go missing if I leave them to their own devices for hours on end.



I managed to write a short story while enjoying a little fresh air, and in the end, I even had some company!

Monday 22 February 2010

Temptation



I can resist this lovely piece of chocolate, in fact it will be enjoyed as an entire bar by my ponies tomorrow, but today, as I was reading the Writing Magazine, I discovered my Achilles heel.

I flipped the page onto a writing competition. It was terrible! All the plans for my week off went out of the window because I wanted to enter it!

I had intended to do so much this week. Editing my novel,sending of an article and an idea for another children's story to a possible publisher, yet I took a look at this competition and immediately had to start writing ideas down.

I wandered around Tescos creating my story while I did my shopping and then sat for a while in a very snowy garden while the hens scratched in the snow as I scribbled down my plot. I had been gripped by a possible story idea that I couldn't refuse to write.

It felt wonderful to have such a burst of creativity, yet frustrating that I wanted to write about so many things at the same time.

How do you prioritise your work? Deadlines for competitions are obvious. I suppose that is why I halted my plans for today, maybe even my whole week off. I just wondered what is the right thing to do? Go with your instinct or carry on with your original plan?

Saturday 20 February 2010

A Fairy Tale



At our Christmas meeting of Wrekin Writers, Sue our Chairperson set us a fun challenge. We all had to write down what we would like in our Christmas Stocking. She then read them out and everyone had to guess who had said what. Some were easier than others, most people guessed mine correctly - a fairy inside a snow globe.

It was a great way of learning about someone's personality and I will use it in the future when trying to develop a fictional character.

But sometimes real life is even more magical than fiction.

My mom is always giving me tesco carrier bags full of things! I say things because in the past she has given me several pairs of large and very sensible knickers, dusters, dish cloths, bin bags, scissors, postage stamps, apples and carrots for the horses and chocolate.

Today was no exception. When I got home and unpacked the carrier bag, I found a large rope (this was in case I needed towing out of a hedge in the snow again which is another story that I will not go into now),carrots,apples,chocolate and something else. I unwrapped the tiny ball from the bubble wrap to find a fairy inside a snow globe!

Mom had been looking since the meeting to get me one and hoped to give it to me for Christmas but couldn't find one. The one that appeared magically inside the miscellany of goodies was the one I had given her years ago, she just thought that it was time this little fairy came back to me.

How magical is that?

Sunday 14 February 2010

Love



Love. One little word that has so many different meanings. There are so many ways of saying it or showing it.

Battles and conflict have started and ended because of it, Writers and Musicians through the centuries have been inspired by it. It would be such a miserable world without it. What would Shakespeare have done if love didn't exist? The Beetles would never have been able to write 'All you need is love' and Valentines day wouldn't be celebrated as it is on this day.

But it doesn't have to be just in the romantic sense. Love is an amazing and generous thing. It shares itself with a massive audience and appears in many different forms.

As a writer, what ever genre you may specialise in, Love seems to come into it. Historical fiction;Murder Mystery;Humour;Sci-fi;Crime and even Horror, Love always finds a way of creeping into the plot of a story.

What an amazing word, and even if you are not celebrating Love today as a 'Lover' I hope that you can still appreciate what an incredible thing love is.

Saturday 6 February 2010

The Sauce of Inspiration



It's OK folks, you haven't logged into my other blog (inside the chicken coop) by mistake. Just felt this post wanted to be here instead.

My hens are always digging up old china, bottles, and metal etc, but today the 'Time Team' chicks came up trumps when they had their first complete find. It was an old H P Sauce bottle. It's not ancient, there are probably loads of them around, but it's still nicer than the plastic bottles we have today, and of course it has a little bit of history.



This simple sauce bottle really made me think. I wondered who had shaken the last drop of sauce out of it, and what were they eating at the time? What were they talking about? What were they wearing? Where were they going next? It's endless isn't it? How the smallest objects can make you think about the wider picture? It's a great way of building a character for a story (do they like red or brown sauce?!)

That's the wonderful thing about writing. It makes you wonder about things. Some things, even if they appear insignificant, could be the source of an idea that leads on to a great story or article.





Above is just a small collection of what my little 'Time Team' have found. I don't think I can claim treasure trove just yet, but I certainly have history and a brilliant source of inspiration.

So next time you find a penny in the street, a car park ticket, a cigarette stub on a pavement, it could be the source of inspiration for your next piece of writing.

Good luck
Di
xx