My Life as a Writer

How do you imagine a writer works? Is it all just about laying out the words on paper from the first to the last? Does a writer simply scribble away, with multiple crossings out until that final moment when the work is willing to be shared? Well the answer is yes, but with a caveat for independent self-publishing authors, when the words are done there is more work to do. I’m a planner, a list person; I have a to-do list almost every day! So it would make sense to me to multi task in order to reduce the time taken to publish once my work is done. Those other non-writing tasks I have to consider are;  Book Cover   Jacket Copy   Dedication   Editing  Proof reading   Layout /structure for publishing formats   Publishing retailers / Exclusivity   Marketing plan   Pricing  Giveaways / Competitions   Reviews  Right now, as I’m about half way through the first draft of ...

As I'm in the process of writing The Poppy Garden, I'm filling you in on the major points as I go - but I'm not going to bore your with daily updates and word counts.  That's not why you are reading this and I think that would be pretty boring. Instead I thought I'd fill you in on what I hope and dream for this book, to me this isn't just a novel and by that I mean to me the goal of this book is not just a paper back or e book you pick up read, hopefully enjoy and then move on to your next purchase.  I have different aspirations for this book and at this time I'm not quite sure how to make them happen. I started writing this book as my way to honour the memory of my Grandfather and the men he flew with.  While I don't have enough information as yet to write their particular story I'm focusing on the methods they used to cope with PTSD when it wasn't recognised as a condition. The definition of PTSD is; a condition of persistent mental a...

Once the Prologue was drafted it was time to get on to the main bulk of the story.     The first chapter flowed quite organically, even though there were sections which were extremely hard to write.  I read once that if you want a reader to cry while reading, the writer must be tearful in the writing.  I quite agree with this I feel if you want your readers to feel emotion you have to feel it as you write.   This sometimes is quite hard to achieve, you can often spend hours working and only really write 50 words, or you may write several pages then have to delete them.   It’s also hard sometimes to fit working on my book in to my day.   I want to write everyday, however, I have a day job, I have a dog to walk, a home to take care of and basically a life that I have to live as well. Sometimes juggling my day works really well other times it’s not so easy.   I generally have a plan to set aside two hours a day to write, ther...

The first part of the Poppy Garden story happens in the prologue, here it serves to introduce my two main characters and fix them in a relationship and setting.   It’s almost like a snap shot a moment in time, like looking through a window on someone’s life seeing how it ticks before the story really kicks in.   I don’t want to spend chapter after chapter building a back story before the main event occurs because the main event is why you reading the book, I don’t want readers to get bored waiting for the main event but I also want to create an understanding of how things are before to enable and create an understanding of the impact one event can have. I’ve become quite fond in my work of using flashbacks to illuminate the back story.   I’ve used this technique in my other books to explain a situation at a key point or to signpost something in the future or something in the past that will trigger connections for a reader.   My synopsis however is of...

So, right now you know I have an idea, an outline and I have two main characters. You might be interested to know what my plan for them is and how the process continues. Now it's time for me to tell you without hopefully giving too much away, this is going to be a fine balance to find!   Here we go: What would you do if the love of your life didn't know who you were? What if he forgot you? Forgot the first time you met, your first kiss, the day he proposed and the day you married?  What if six months after your perfect start it was all taken away in the blink of an eye? So this is where we start,  if you ever read any of my work you will find I spend a lot of time dealing with "What if" which are two very plain words but put them together and their impact can be volcanic.   In this story there are a lot of what if elements, it's like walking along a road and coming to a fork every mile or so with a choice that needs to be made a...