A Writing & Life Update

As you know, I am doing Margie Lawson’s Empowering Character’s Emotions. Today I have spent the day printing out all my finished and partially finished manuscripts. Yes, it has taken me all day, well on and off getting things ready for hubby to go away. Food to cook, clothes to iron etc.
The one thing I am looking forward to is seeing how my writing has changed, because some of these manuscripts I wrote a few years back. Yes, I know I am slack for not editing them before now. Well I did do some editing, but that was before I knew what I was supposed to do, not that I know it all now.

Margie’s course is still going well, except that I am a bit behind on my assignments.

I had a few days out with my Mum last week, she had a fall at the nursing home, and cut her let pretty bad, today we found out she also broke one of her toes. It is hard to watch her at the moment, she is very scared, cannot understand what is happening to her. She knows it is because of the Huntington’s, does not understand why she cannot control things better. All we can do is hold her hand and be there for her. Life sucks sometimes.

Okay enough whinging for me, back to my editing, first I have to make hubby a cup of tea, because I said I would. LOL.

Until next week.
Happy writing.
Sandie.

Working with Margie

Empowering Characters’ Emotions with Margie Lawson is going well. Of course there are gaping holes in my writing, too much yellow highlight, not enough body language. Too much tell, no enough showing.

The joys of being an aspiring author, I have no idea why I thought the writing was the easy part. LOL. On a bright note, I am really enjoying Margie’s course and think I’ll do the Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More in May. I can see a lot of work in front of me as I rework my way through my WIPs I’ve already started to edit.



I’ve had to have a rethink of my Regency romance, the English law pertaining to inheritance due to women. Nothing like having your great idea derailed. With the help for the RWAus Historical loop girls and some research, I think I may have an answer to my heroine’s dilemma, however I will have to do some rewriting when it comes to my subplot. At least words are being added to ‘Lady Mounthall’s Lover’, unlike ‘Having Her Best Friend’s Baby’.

It’s not that Lexie and James’ story wasn’t working, it is more a case of hours in the day. I’m editing one complete novel, as well as writing and editing another as I go. I’m testing out my CP, Heather Brown’s, idea of writing one day and editing the next, to see if that will help when I come to the end of the novel.

I’m still reading Paula Roe’s blog each week, to stay on top of her ‘A Novel in 3 Months’, as I’m using some of her writing techniques with ‘Lady Mounthall’s Lover’, it is all good. Of course, I am still finding out things about my characters, especially my Hero, The Duke of Chesterfield. I discovered the other day he has alternate motives to pursue heroine, Lady Josephine Mounthall.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how “Lady Mounthall’s Lover’ is progressing, I’ll be posting an update on my Novel blog later this week. For now, it is time to organise dinner for my hubby.

Catch you next week.

Sandie

Margie Lawson - Empowering Character's Emotions & Other Things

I am starting Margie Lawson’s ‘Empowering Character’s Emotions’ today, (well later tonight). I’m really looking forward to this course and hoping to be able to put the needed emotion into my characters and novels. There are a few Aussies doing the course with me, Diane Curran (who was the one to give me the push to the course on line), Suzanne Brandyn (Suz is one of my fellow NewMait members), Natalie Hatch, Shayne Collier (Shayne is a fellow Bootcamper), Chris Weston, Louise Ousby and Lesley Smith, I think that’s all of us so far.

Diane has set up a separate loop for us to be able to discuss the course between us, as well as talk about homework set down by Margie.

On the writing front, I’m moving forward slowly. I’m enjoying Paula Roe’s ‘A Novel in 3 Months’ and have managed to get myself into some form of routine. Writing a plan for each scene before I start writing each day is helping, so hopefully by the time I’m finished the editing won’t take too long in future.

‘Having Her Best Friend’s Baby’ is delivering a few surprises, like the parents from hell for my poor heroine. No wonder Lexie has issues. As for my hero, well he has enough on his plate trying to avoid his new step-mummy who has her sights set on him (this I did not see coming).
With my Regency romance, I’m really enjoying this one. Except for the fact that the heroine has changed her name three times LOL. H/H have had their first meeting and she is not impressed, he on the other hand has already started to work out ways to get the newly widowed Lady Mounthall into his bed.

I have the outlines with GMC and character charts on my novel blog if you’re interested.
Well that’s all my news for now.

Sandie

Writing by Mini Plotting

As you know I’m following Paula Roe’s, ‘A Novel in 3 Months’, you may also know that I’m a pantser, not a plotter. I may however have come across a way to be both. Twice a week Paula posts the steps she takes in getting her novel plotted and ready for writing. I’m taking those steps as well, it’s just that I’m writing as I’m plotting. Yes, so as not to upset my temperamental characters, each morning I plot (or draft) what I want to happen that day in the scenes I’m writing. So far, it’s working, I’ve had no hissy fits where my characters stop talking or just go off on a tangent of their own desire. I’m a happy girl.

I’m also a girl who is working on two novels, a contemporary and an historical, as well as editing for CC. I’ve split my days into three parts. In the morning I’m working on the historical, the aim is to complete one scene a day. The lengths vary so this is affecting my word count each day.

Did I mention I’m doing BIAW with the RWAus Historical loop? Well I am, you know what I’m like with challenges. Okay back to my daily routine.

After spending a couple of hours on my historical, I then move onto editing. I’m aiming for five pages a day. Seeing, as it is a novella of around 13,000 words, I’m hoping to have this finished by the end of the challenge. I’m also hoping to increase the word count to about 15k.

After lunch and as long as I’ve reached my five pages of editing, I move on to my contemporary ‘Having Her Best Friend’s Baby’. This is working out well, and I’m happy with where I’m going with the story line. If you would like to find out more about ‘Having Her Best Friend’s Baby’ have a look at my Novel’s Blog.

All of this has been running very smoothly, until today! Today I’ve done nothing on any of my projects. Today, I’ve worked on blogs. This blog, my Historical Blog, the RWAus Blog for ‘Cruisin’ the Blog’ and this week’s ‘Bookshelf Saturday’. Tonight, I need to sort out my office so I have somewhere for a friend who is coming to stay for a night or two. So no writing for me today.

Tomorrow is another day, and with any luck, I’ll be able to make up for my slackness today.

Sandie

A Few of My Favourite Things

Do you find that Valentine’s Day does silly things to you? Like thinking about your favourite novels or movies? So, I started to think about my all time favourite novels, and was surprised to find that I’m A Jane Austen nutter. Okay, I already knew that.

My Favourite Top Romance Novels

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
3. Emma by Jane Austen
4. Gone with the Wind by Margret Mitchell
5. Emma by Jane Austen
6. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
7. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
9. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
10. The Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens

My Top Ten Romantic Movies

1. Gone With The Wind
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. The Notebook
4. PS. I Love You
5. The English Patient
6. City of Angels
7. You’ve Got Mail
8. While You Were Sleeping
9. Notting Hill
10. It Happened One Night

My Top Ten Heroes from novels, film & TV

1. Rhett Butler ~ Gone with the Wind
2. Mr. Darcy ~ Pride and Prejudice
3. Heathcliff ~ Wuthering Heights
4. Sir Gideon Trevithick ~ Captive of Sin
5. Christian ~ Night’s Cold Kiss
6. Mr. Knightly ~ Emma
7. Mr. Rochester ~ Jane Eyre
8. Gerry Kennedy ~ PS I Love You
9. Derek Shepherd ~ Grey’s Anatomy
10. Johnny Castle ~ Dirty Dancing

My Top Ten Heroines from, novels, films & TV

1. Scarlett O’Hara ~ Gone with the Wind
2. Elizabeth Bennett ~ Pride and Prejudice
3. Catherine Earnshaw ~ Wuthering Heights
4. Beth Marsh ~ Little Women
5. Lady Charis Weston ~ Captive of Sin
6. Jane Eyre ~ Jane Eyre
7. Emma Woodhouse ~ Emma
8. Antoinette Petrescu ~ Night’s Cold Kiss
9. Emma Hart ~ A Woman of Substance
10. Elinor Dashwood ~ Sense and Sensibility

Did you notice anything unusual? Yes, I have favourite Heroes and Heroines whose stories are not on my top ten list, but they are not far behind. I should really do a list of my favourite recent releases, I might save that for another day.

Honestly, did you really think I wouldn't put a photo of Mr. Darcy up? LOL.

Hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day with your special someone.

Sandie

January in a Nutshell

Hi I'm back - I haven't really been slacking off, except for posting a blog here. School has gone back and I'm back in writer's mode. So here is what I got up to during January as far as my writing goes:

Edited and submitted SMU for CC

Editing IT for CC and The Billionaire’s Lie (was If I Were A Rich Man)

Worked on and continue to work on My Website – It is coming along, I’m happy with it anyway.

I’ve joined up to do three reading challenges for the year –
eHarlequin 2010 Book Challenge: Not sure how many novels I’m suppose to read. Anyway at least I may get a few of my HM&B novels read.

100+ Reading Challenge: Read 100+ novels during 2010. I can do that, although I’m not off to a good start. I’m blogging about this on my Review Blog.

2010 Support Your Local Library: I’m doing the Mini Challenge with this one, I have to check out and read 25 novels/books from my local library. I’m also blogging about this on my Review Site.
Both of these are run on J. Kaye’s Blog.

RWAus

I’m working my way through the alphabet to update the RWAus Goodreads, Shelfari and Library Thing shelves with our members novels. I think I need to spend about an hour a day on these sites, doing it on weekends is just not working.

You can also find the RWAus at these places:
RWAus Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Myspace
Bebo

The lovely Paula Roe, is blogging once a week ‘A Novel in 3 Months’. This is really cool, I’m working on ‘Having Her Best Friend’s Baby’ for this exercise, if you haven’t dropped by Paula’s blog, do it is well worth reading and following.

Okay, I know I said I wasn’t going to start or work on any novels until I get all my editing done, BUT I’m not getting any sleep because my characters are driving me nuts chatting all night. So I’m doing 500 words a day Max, and that may shut them up.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately.
See ya.

Sandie

Birthday, Procrastinating & Editing

It was my birthday the other week, nothing special; except for the fact; our children bought us a twilight dinner cruise for Christmas, and book it in for my birthday. (I have such sweet kids). Despite the fact that I’m not a boat person, it was a lovely evening. Motion sickness tables worked well, thank heavens. We had about ten dolphins lead us back into the dock. The food was great, as well as the entertainment. If you ever make it to Nelson Bay, NSW drop by Moonshadow Cruises for either their twilight dinner or dolphin cruise.

Decided to work on my website the other night and ended up deleting the site completely. Luckily, I had the page contents save in word, so it was just a matter of cut and pasting. I’ve added separate pages for each of my genres, as well as splitting my link pages. This process is going to take some work to add all the extra information.

As for editing, well that came to a crushing stop last week. Having migraines for two days didn’t help. Neither did procrastinating the other days. I got back into it a bit yesterday, but then I got myself caught up in the Romance Bandits invasion on the The Romance Dish. If you haven’t been over to have a look, you really do need to it is great. Anyway, today I plan to edit most of the day, which should keep CC out of my ear for a while.

Now I’m going to start work on Sunday’s Cruisin’ the Blog’ for the RWAus blog and February’s new releases for the end of the months ‘Bookshelf Saturday.

Have a great one.
Sandie