Where have I been?!

I’m very sorry for such a long silence my readers. I feel very guilty for that. I’ve been a busy little beaver since my last post though. But this time I’m not going to say that I’ll talk about it at another time. I’m going to tell you all about it, right now.

First off, I’m moving at the end of July. No I don’t mean I’m moving blogs. I mean I am actually physically relocating to another place. It’s not just a run of the mill move to a new city though. Oh no. I’ve taken it one step further. I’m moving to a whole new country. Specifically Germany. I’m off to Hamburg to look after two twins and help out a very nice family as an au pair. I’ve spent a large portion of the last month sorting that out, specifically signing the contract after talking it through with my parents and arranging a couple of chats with the adults in question. SO, come August this blog won’t just be about writing and reading, it’s going to be about living in a new country, speaking a new language and doing new things. Basically it’ll be a whole load of NEW. I plan to write a post giving a bit more detail about this at a later date though so keep an eye out for that.

Secondly, I’ve been reading. A LOT. I’ve bought a few books and rediscovered some of my older favourites. Most importantly I returned to my oldest and dearest book series by Terry Brooks again (you might remember THOSE blog posts) and I’m happy to say that reading those books has reminded me about why I write and why I write what I write (again, another blog post about that). Reading those books again has fired me up, inspired me and given me that little nudge I needed to get my butt in gear and actually write something for a change. So yeah, in the last month I’ve been reading several books that I really enjoyed. I may write a few reviews, I may not, it all depends on how busy I end up becoming as August approaches. I would like to though, just so I could share with the world what I love about books and what makes me rage and want to throw things out of the window (fortunately that kind of writing rarely appears and I seem to be very good at avoiding those books).

I’ve also been writing more. I finished the first book of the Feral Diaries (working title) and I’m currently in the process of typing them up. Yup, that’s right, I wrote each and every word of that series by hand. Shame on me. The good news about that though is that I can read through the paper copies once it’s copied up and make my notes on them before enacting the revisions on the computer file, a way that I tend to prefer working in all honesty. I have been sharing the chapters, or entries as I’ve been calling them, over on a writers board on LiveJournal called RunawayTales. I’m doing this because I used prompts from their community to write the entries and I also want a tiny bit of feedback now. They are totally unedited though which I think may be putting people off giving constructive criticism. The entries are member locked though so unfortunately you can’t see them. What’s good though is that it’s done. The novel is finished and will soon be in a digital form and ready for editing.
Also speaking of writing, I’ve been earning some money for it. If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed the odd tweet here or there about me writing for work. Now you can’t find what I write anywhere under my name, I don’t even know what the stories are called or where they’re sold. You see I’m a ghost writer of short stories. I write them and someone pays me a one off fee for each story. I’ve currently got 3 under progress, all due by the end of the month. I’ve got a small novelette due next month as well. What it’s made me realise though is that I can write short stories and there is probably a market for them too. So I’m looking into selling some of my own under my own name.

This brings me onto another thing that’s been keeping me quite busy for the last month; self-publishing. I’ve been looking into self-publishing for a while, trying to figure out if I want to go that way and which books I want to self-publish. I realised though that it’s all well and good thinking about it now but really, I knew nothing about how to go about doing it. So I’ve been looking into it. I’ve been researching self-marketing, ebook publications, paper book publications and people to stay away from. I don’t want to turn my back on traditional publishers though, not yet. So I decided to take a step towards the hybrid author route. Some of my work will be self-published, other bits will, hopefully, be done through a traditional publisher. First though I need to get some work ready for publishing. Which I should probably go do now…

Thoughts of Fantasy

I didn’t quite explain myself very well yesterday when I mentioned the new schedule. Mondays are about writer/novel based thoughts while Wednesdays are all about progress. Finally, Fridays are focused on my experiences of writing. Today I’m going to focus on the Fantasy genre and my thoughts on this. But first I just want to tell you all that this post almost didn’t get written. Not because I don’t know what to talk about but because I’m exhausted. I’ve proved to myself and the people that I work with that I need to get at least 8 hours sleep if I’m going to be a functioning person. Not falling asleep until half past 12 at night and then being woken up at 4 before getting up at 7 does not make me an awake girl. So if this post seems a little weird and rambling, completely lacking in coherence that’s why. Anyway, on with the post.

I’ve always loved fantasy. It was the first kind of story that I read. How could it not be when my childhood readings consisted of fairytales and Enid Blyton stories. Yes, many of her short stories, aimed at the younger children were fantasy. How could they not be when they featured princesses and elves and magic, all set in a far away kingdom long ago. I loved them all. They just gave me this chance to escape into a land of make believe and that need for escapism has stayed with me, even today.

When I got older I started to read The Hobbit, before taking a brief foray into the world of R.L.Stine and other horror writers. I was always drawn back to fantasy though. And I’m talking old school epic fantasy here; The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Shannara. That last one is one I know I’ve mentioned before, in particular here and here, and there’s a reason. I started reading the series when I was about 12 and since then have continued to read it. I like seeing how Brook’s writing has developed and how, as he’s grown more confident in his writings he’s moved away from common fantasy tropes and instead worked with some very original material of his own.

The one thing all epic fantasy shares though is that fight for survival. The characters are always striving to combat and beat a foe that is much stronger than them, a foe that threatens to destroy the world the good, and not so good, guys live in. Always though, the author manages to make this epic idea a lot more personal for the characters, showing their families and homes, essentially the things that the protagonists are fighting to protect. It’s a nice thing really, showing what it is that these characters that you follow, for almost 500 pages, are willing to risk their lives to protect. Often they die and that makes their sacrifice bitter sweet. The thought that the authors have so much skill that they can make a huge analogy about the battle between good and evil and bring it down to the bare bones, personal level is humbling. It’s the mark of a good fantasy writer in my book.

The inability to do this, is in turn, the sign of a bad one. If there’s no real threat to the world, if the challenge isn’t dire enough, if there just isn’t enough motivation, personal motivation for the characters to battle on then the words seem wooden and the characters lacking. I rarely see this in the books I read. I don’t know if I’m just lucky or the writers of fantasy are just that good. There’s also the struggle with creating a good antagonist faced by many authors. It’s too easy to create a villain that’s just hammy or just plain rubbish. Occasionally too much is revealed too soon and the tension goes; particularly if the villain is so laughably one dimensional that you’re left wondering how on earth they got to be such a threat in the first place.

Most appealing for me about fantasy is the Worlds they are set in. Vast tracts of land with centuries of history and culture created for these stories to unfold in. It amazes me that one person can keep all of this on track and under control, particularly when I can barely remember what I did last week. The art of world-building is an interesting one, it has dozens of websites devoted to it, but many of the great fantasy authors created their worlds before the advent of the internet. They created them when resources and books were hard to come by or lugging a 700 page book on human anthropology back from the library was painful and inconvenient. I have the greatest respect for those authors, particularly as I work on building my own world.

I could go on for many more words but they would more than likely be hopeless fan-girling and gradually lose all meaning. Or I’d start repeating myself. So, before I get any more incoherent than I may already be I will end with this;

I have moved away from epic fantasy in my reading, and my writing, particularly in the last year or so. This is quite sad for me really as it’s a genre I love. Now though I’m turning back to it, particularly once NaNoWriMo is over. Ideas have started to form, I’ve gotten some amazing sounding epic fantasy novels lined up for reading and the stories are coming together. I see bright things for fantasy in my future; once NaNo is over. I see bright things, new and interesting things that I plan to share with you all once I’ve got them straight in my head.

Keep Writing.

1 drawing down, another half finished, just another 33 1/2 left.

Yup, I've managed to finish one of my drawings, probably one of the most experimental of the lot and am starting to get in the mood for experimenting with the others, rather than just doing a straight up drawing/sketch onto the paper.

So here's a picture of the first illustration I've managed to finish out of the 35 I set myself.

 

My chosen theme for the Sketchbook Project was 'Travel With Me' so I decided to do a colour map of a fictional country with the journey of the characters marked on in red. I plan to stick this to one page and print out a bit of jargon to about it to stick the facing page. Thankfully I've chosen to hand bind my Sketchbook once I've decorated the front and that should give me some room for sticking a load of stuff in. The map itself was first sketched onto a full A4 page and then coloured lightly with pencil crayon. Then I soaked it for a couple of minutes in warm tea before sprinkling instant coffee granules on it to give a more gradiated look. Once that was done I left it to dry slightly and then dabbed it with the teabags before shoving it under the grill on a low heat to finish it drying. Once that was all dry I got my watercolour palette, a small little white box, and started lightly painting in some of the detail. The place names and the journey route I inked in with a pen.

This is another illustration I'm working on. I figured I'd show some of the dangers of travel, in this case, getting stuck on a desert island. I think I'd been watching Castaway with Tom Hanks and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Pearl which is why I've gone for palm trees. It's drawn in soluble pencil crayon over a very very light pencil sketch and once the whole thing's done I'm going to run a paintbrush over it lightly and then cut it out and stick it in. I did originally draw this straight into the book but couldn't remember if I'd used normal crayons or water soluble ones. I figured I'd just start again on a new sheet.

 So I thought I'd include this picture to show my creative workspace. I've got the majority of my art books, sketchbooks and the more frequently used notepads in the shelves and my journal by my bed, that's the little blue/green book close to the left hand side. You can, if you look closely, make out all the Terry Brooks books I've amassed, as well all my work for the Sketchbook Project. I'm going to have to pick up some PVA glue and tissue paper for some of my drawings for that but hopefully that won't be too hard to store, even in my little room.


In other news, I've gotten really into bookbinding. I've managed to bind one book so far, a rough paper one that's just going to be used to sketch out designs for my webcomic pages, nothing fancy. I've managed to create a whole list of book types that I want to bind though which is just a little odd, even for me. There's some that can wait but there's one definate idea that I want to have bound by the end of the year. I'll expand on that in another post soon once I've worked out a few details, along with any other book binding attempts I make.

In the meantime keep an eye on this month's to-do list to the right of the maind body of the blog. You'll be able to see the targets I set for myself this month and how I'm getting on with them.

Research and language creation

Looking at the title I've just realised that I'm absolutely rubbish at coming up with titles, for blogs and for stories. I need to work on that.
Anyway, back to the task at hand. Last night, while watching Lord of the Rings, extended edition, I was inspired. It was great. I was just sat on my bed, surrounded by paper and writing stuff about the world that I'm planning to set most of my stories in. I ended up doing lots of organising, which let's face it, I love. I've finally found a way to bring in the elves and dwarves and other crazy creatures that make fantasy more fantastic. I blame Terry Brooks for this of course. Him and Tolkien. First I had to figure out what kinds of creatures I wanted to include within Geniania (that's the world, yes.. the name needs a little work) and then I had to figure out why they didn't appear in the history of the countries I'd already written about. I've got the first few figured out but may well include others later as I write stories in other countries.
I'm also, dare I say it, looking at creating languages for these other races which is both exciting and nerve-wrecking. I probably won't use much of any languages I do create, just a few words. Either way though I'm hoping that it's going to be a fun and interesting thing to do, even if it has little baring on the stories themselves.
People are probably reading this and wondering why am I putting so much research and work into backstory that won't be relevant to the stories themselves or that the readers may well never hear about. People could think "it's fantasy, why do you need to research anything? You can just make it up and say it's that way because the world says so" There's a simple answer to both of those questions. It makes the world and its people seem much more real. I could simply start writing without doing any of this research but I'd probably get stuck halfway through and get my facts all mixed up.
There's other stuff I need to research too but it's not really world specific, more story specific and it would give things away. All this research could very well see me in the library at some point though so I need to track down Nottingham Library as well as Cotgrave and West Bridgeford so that I can have a wander around.

Out with the new. In with the old

My plot is coming along nicely. I've got most of the points figured out, I just need to work out a couple of details, mainly for the later part of the story. I'm one of those writers who prefers to have everything figured out before writing a single word of the story, it's weird but that's just the way that I am. There's a slight feeling of impatience within me though, like I really want to start writing even though some points still aren't clear to me. I think part of it is because soon I'm going to be forced to spend days at a time working on my webcomic, rather then writing. The first page is set to be released on Saturday.. very nervous about the response, particularly as the third page, set to be released the weekend of my graduation week, isn't finished yet. In fact I have to redraw it. Any way this blog is getting off topic from writing into comicing and although comicing does involve writing I need to say what I was going to say.
I love Terry Brooks. I've rediscovered what it was that I loved about the novels. They're good old-fashioned sword and sorcery novels that have an element of our past and history within the way they're written. Like a film produced in the 70s and 80s. It might not be the past/history for most people but given that I wasn't even born then it's the past for me. Anyway, too often now fantasy novels are written for the action, there's very little character development or the main characters are ridiculously young and are coming of age. With Brooks though it's different. Oh don't get me wrong there's action... great sword battles and slashing fire between enemies. But he also focuses on the characters, letting readers know what they're thinking, suggesting their past and issues they may have to the reader rather then shoving it down their throats. I can't help but think as I read them "That's how I want to write, I want the best of both worlds" It's how I used to write, or at least try to write, as long as I can remember. I'd try desperately to get a balance between character and story. I was only about 12 at the time though so I struggled to figure it out properly. Gradually I just sort of wrote what I want to, often trailing off within the first few chapters as the characters just sort of got stuck and the story went nowhere. Now though, I'd decided "Screw those coming of age stories that come up in fantasy. I want a proper fantasy novel with swords and sorcery and dragons and monsters." I can't find one to read though... other than Brooks' Shannara series. I'm going to write one.
Right after I finish my BBQ Pork with mushrooms.

Bye Bye Writer's Block. Hello shiny new novel plan.

  Mere hours after I got those Terry Brooks novels down, yes the ones that I spent much of the last blog gushing about, I had the inspiration for a new novel/story. I'd barely read a few passages of 'The Sword of Shannara' and I was already being hit by various ideas. Thankfully the vagueness of them meant that I could shove them all together into one big story but I'm just so glad that I'm no longer writer's blocky.
I really do suggest to any writer or artist that is suggering from writer's block to find the thing or things that inspired them before and go back to it. Although it might not work for everyone it certainly worked for me, almost instantly. Unfortunately I'm still grouchy.. less so then I was but still.. pretty grouchy. I'm just putting that down to hormones and ignoring it though.
 I'm so happy that I've managed to get back on track with writing though. There's just so much coming out and I'm actually enjoying writing for the sake of writing again. For the last three years I've had to write for my degree, it took away much of the fun that I'd previously found in it. Now though, with my degree at an end, I'm finding that I can enjoy it again, now that there's not this horrible pressure to write something and to write something in a genre that I just don't like. Those three years stretched me as a writer though I will admit. The lecturers pushed me into writing in genres I'd normally ignore and stir clear of. They forced me to consider character voices, different levels of description. Basically I studied my writing style indepth and evolved it. Maybe it's made it better, maybe it's made it worse. I really won't know until I write something that I enjoy writing and get more then 10 pages done.
  Who knows, maybe this story will start off a series, all set in my world. For all the future knows I could be the next Terry Brooks... except female and British and younger. I'd like that though. I'm not bothered about the money, I just want people to read what I've written, to share it with the whole world. I know that's what the internet is for and to be far I do plan on putting it online somewhere but I have a great love and respect for the printed word and would love, dearly, to see my words printed and bound in a book with a beautifully illustrated cover.
 But that's enough philosophising for one day... I'll leave you now as I return to my writing and give you one message.... Write what you love and failing that, write what you know.

The Bane of my Existence and my Love

I've been hit with the bane of any writer's existence... Writer's block. Just a day after I had that massive surge in creative ideas from my walk they all vanished. Me being me of course, I forgot to write them down. Now I'm stuck with the desire to write but nothing to actually put words to. I've been sat, staring at paper and a map, hoping desperately that something will come to me and I'll be able to write. At least that's how I spent most of yesterday and part of today. It's annoying me, and as a result, making me crabby and irritable. I'm snapping at my mum and sister despite knowing that it's not their fault.
I've got this desperate urge to write, to create a story, but I just can't. I can feel these half-formed ideas floating round my head; freeze-frames of a scene, names of characters, parts of a plot. None of them are staying around for very long though, certainly not long enough for me to jot them down and most definately disappearing as soon as they begin to form into bigger ideas and full plots.
I don't know if writer's block is that way for everyone. I've got the drive, hell I've got a setting. I just don't have anything to write about. Maybe I'm being over-ambitious, wanting to write a story that spans a whole world. Maybe instead I should concentrate on a single country in that world I created and write something set there, possibly one of their historical events. As I write this I'm getting a couple of ideas but nothing that can form an entire novel. It's doing my head in.
In desperation I've turned to some old classics, novels that in the past have sparked 101 ideas as I've read them. I'm not talking about Lord of the Rings, the kind of background Tolkien did, while amazing, is just not something I'm ready for at my level of writing. I'm talking about Terry Brooks and his Shannara series. I had to spend a sweaty 30 minutes rooting around the back of the attic searching for them before my mother pointed out that they were in the cooler entrance part of the attic... not happy about that. However I am happy, that with the minimum amount of lifting I have all of Brooks's books that I own spread out on my bed.
It amazes me that, for someone who started writing at 26 in the 1970s, he has over 10 books written, all set within the same world. I have 12 of his novels, I'm missing the last of one trilogy and two other prequel type trilogies, as well as a stand alone novel that bridges a gap. I found out about them yesterday and now all I can think of it 'Want them. Want them!'
I should probably explain why I love Brooks's books so much... but I can't. It may be that if you read them in the order that they were published you can see his skill as a writer growing. The characters become richer, more well-rounded. The world that the series is set in becomes more real, taking shape in my mind. Brooks was the first fantasy novelist that I read (At least the first grown up fantasy novelist that I read.) before I even so much as thought about Lord of the Rings or touched the Hobbit, despite my dad's best attempts. I suppose the fact that he was my first look into the genre that I love writing in may be the reason that I love him so much. We'll see eventually... when I finish all 12 books I own. Who knows, maybe as a graduation present I might get some of the others.
If this reading sparks any ideas you can be sure that this time, I'll be writing them down. Hell I might share some amazing insight with you... yeah right :P