Miscellaneous Ramblings and Useful Stuff

Over the weekend I pulled out the ms of Maggie's Child. It has been resting for a few months. Why? I thought I would have a peek to see if the fairies had been to turn it into a best selling novel. Guess what? I was disappointed.

The reason I wanted to go through another stage of edits, was because I had found a useful tool on the Internet. It is software much like Autocrit, but free and all the editing options are open, with Autocrit they are part of a fee paying package. Pro Writing Aid, has proved to be a valuable help. I copy and paste my work, (minimum 200 words), into the allocated space and it turns it into pretty colours. Now that is not a good thing. It means it has found repetitive words, clichés and many other taboo writings. I could not believe I had used so many words such as, had, knew, felt, looked and oh so many more. I copied and pasted back into another file, the pretty paragraphs, this way I could work on changing the wording and tighten up my writing. It is a little long winded, but worth the time. I pretended it was a creative writing exercise and battled on through the mire. All in all it turned out to be a fun process.

Below is the overused words it found in the passage above, and marked it in red:
Over the weekend I pulled out the ms of Maggie's Child. It has been resting for a few months. Why? I thought I would have a peek to see if the fairies had been to turn it into a best selling novel. Guess what? I was disappointed.

--- --- --- --- --- ---

The reason I wanted to go through another stage of edits, was because I had found a useful tool on the Internet. It is software much like Autocrit, but free and all the editing options are open, with Autocrit they are part of a fee paying package. Pro Writing Aid, has proved to be a valuable help. I copy and paste my work, (minimum 200 words), into the allocated space and it turns it into pretty colours. Now that is not a good thing. It means it has found repetitive words, clichés and many other taboo writings. I could not believe I had used so many words such as, had, knew, felt, looked and oh so many more. I copied and pasted back into another file, the pretty paragraphs, this way I could work on changing the wording and tighten up my writing. It is a little long winded, but worth the time. I pretended it was a creative writing exercise and battle on through the mire.

This is the cliché report.

Cliches

Congratulations! There were no cliches in this section of your text.

Redundancies

Congratulations! There were no redundancies in this section of your text.

Paragraphs Containing Cliches and/or Redundancies

This is the repetitive words and phrases (the pretty coloured bit):

The reason I wanted to go through another stage of edits, was because I had found a useful tool on the Internet. It is software much like Autocrit, but free and all the editing options are open, with Autocrit they are part of a fee paying package. Pro Writing Aid, has proved to be a valuable help. I copy and paste my work, (minimum 200 words), into the allocated space and it turns it into pretty colours. Now that is not a good thing. It means it has found repetitive words, clichés and many other taboo writings. I could not believe I had used so many words such as, had, knew, felt, looked and oh so many more. I copied and pasted back into another file, the pretty paragraphs, this way I could work on changing the wording and tighten up my writing. It is a little long winded, but worth the time. I pretended it was a creative writingexercise and battle on through the mire.

Pro Writing Aid is not the same as a real life editor, but it is a resource tool that can help when you are battling with a stubborn manuscript.

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What else did I learn this weekend? Oh yes, author Heather Woods guided me through manuscript formatting over Skype. It was a great lesson. She set up her computer so I saw only a screenshot, and she worked through a copy of my work, showing me step by step how to get those pesky chapter headings to stay in place. After the lesson I played around and worked for hours getting so much satisfaction from seeing my manuscript sit neatly in orderly rows. Thank you, Heather.

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In view of the fact my writing 'to do's' are now piling up, I am going to keep with the once a week postings here. I write advertisements for a company and they keep me busy in between times. The once a week posts have taken pressure off of my shoulders, and freed me up for viewing other blogs. I follow over 1,000 and feel guilty if I cannot get to read them all. I am sorting out Google reader and making my viewing life a little easier. Oh, talking of Google, don't forget to clear your browsing history before they share all your information on 1st March. Not heard about it?Google use your search information for advertising purposes. Check out this video with the instructions of what to do. Mine is now cleared, purely because I do not like the idea of my search information being share around.
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I rarely put up personal information here, but just have to share with you that in September I shall be flying to the UK to celebrate Seren's first birthday, and from there will fly to Vancouver to see my son for the first time for three years. Excited? Moi? What do you think? 
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On 5th March I will be hosting an interview with the lovely, Ann Best, so put it in your diary.
Enjoy your week, and please share your news with me in the comments. I love to hear what is going on in your writing lives.

Fear in Writing

Writing descriptions can be a nightmare for me at times. I read novels with wonderful sentences that light up my world with visions and colour. I flick back to my work and see an outline and grey. Dialogue is not a problem, I can get my characters to chat along quite happily, but when it comes to their surroundings, I lack in words. I can see the rooms, fields and clothing, but to start describing them often draws a blank. I scour my mind for the poetic description required, but even though I am a poet, there is a nothingness of nothing. To overcome this, I tend to scour books or the Internet for the correct image, and semi-meditate over it,(go to sleep). I jot down words as they come to mind, anything at all. I then make myself write a few paragraphs using all those words, but they have to be dialogue free, and descriptive. It does not need to relate to the wip I am working on at the time. It is surprising how it releases the mind and whether it is a subconscious thing or not, but often I find the perfect description amongst the paragraphs I have scribble down.

The Haywain by John Constable

Elle is visiting the site of the Haywain by John Constable, and I have table-mats with the picture imprinted. This was the area I used to live in, and have walked to many times. I took the children picnicking, we walked the dogs through field upon field, and mile upon mile. We rowed up the river and back again. We fished near the mill. All of this was carried out every year, several times a year, but do you think I can describe the old scene in the picture, or my memories?

I kept wondering why, when all those memories were still fresh in my mind, could I not put pen to paper and write about the scenes Elle could see before her. Then it dawned on me. I simply cannot do it justice. Such an widely known place did not deserve to be let down by my scribblings. How was I going to overcome the problem?

After several attempts I gave up. I wrote a different chapter and worked on something completely different. Then it came to me...describe a completely different scene. Find something I am not so close to and not so well known, and see if the inner fear of being criticised for not getting it right, would disappear.

I found a selection of various English countryside pictures and used the one that stood out for me the most. The project worked. Slowly I was able to lose the pressure I had put on myself to write the perfect scene and just write. So the saying, 'write what you know', does not always work for me. Sometimes I can block the knowledge through fear.

Has this ever happened to you? How did you overcome the fear?

Who Will Rap My Knuckles When...

Who will rap my knuckles when I break writing rules? Recently there was a link floating around cyberspace connected with top author advice from past masters. I find it strange that there are such rigid rules out there in the writing world. Guidelines are good, but if a plot has the reader in their grips from the onset, then I cannot see the harm in bending or even breaking a few rules.

They advised us not to use back story...why not? If it is not boring reams of the stuff and helps the reader understand the character or situation a little better, then why not use a smidgen of back story?

Never show a story from different character angles...why not? If it is in-keeping with the story and does not fracture the flow of reading, why not allow a couple of characters chance to shine?

Only use said in dialogue...she smothers a yawn...why? Why can't the character say something 'smarting, or sharply?

'I don't like you when you do that,' she frowned at him when he turned her way.

'I don't like you when you do that,' she said.

Who did I hurt with the first sentence?

Don't drink and write at the same time? Rewind....WHAT? I assume he meant alcohol and even that rule is stupid. A good old glass of red village plonk, can soon relax the tense mind of a writer and allow the imagination to flow. So long as you don't end up dancing on the table. Maybe he was just concerned with spilling it over the laptop, so I will forgive for that word of warning.

This is where the self publishing freedom comes to life. A reader will read what they enjoy, regardless of broken rules. Heck, some readers won't even know rules have been broken, they are just enjoying a good read.

In my first novel I have broken rules, but an agent claims "I write well", so she didn't appear to mind my rule breaking. Granted she didn't take me on, but you get what I mean.

I have read some great books recently, and noted with joy that rules have been stretched and twisted. The stories never lacked a thing...nada...nothing. They all held my attention and are selling well. So after four years of really studying what to do...I might not! (It is O.K., OK, okay, to use the odd ! said one, but another said...NO!) I tend to follow that rule, and rarely use !, I like italics for emphasis.

So there you have it, how Glynis intends to break the rules, unless somebody raps her knuckles hard. 

It Was A Dark & Stormy...Week

During some extremely severe storms, (Cyprus has had enough rain fall in January to cure our drought for two years), I have been inside the home much more than normal. My life is 80% outside living, but the walls protected my from the north wind chills, and I have settled into a routine of writing, rather than writing, walking and sitting in the sun.

After two weeks my brain became stifled. I needed the stimulus of my usual daily pattern and it was not happening. My writing became bland. I felt it deep inside. There were no lifts to the voices of my characters. Inside they were as grey as the weather outside. Elle couldn't paint, she couldn't feel the warm sun on her shoulders, see the sun sparkle off of the sea and she couldn't express herself. The weather had a lot to answer for in its effect on us both.

Two days bloomed into glorious sunshine and we both inhaled the creativity it inspired in us. Elle grabbed her artistic materials and absorbed the glory of a bright, new day. My fingers were worn to the bone with her activities. Many surprises came our way, much sadness and loss. Wow! Reel back. Loss?

Yes, I killed off two characters. The grey weather had brought about a melancholy afternoon of note writing, kicking ideas around and finally forming them. Despite the glorious Spring moments we were now experiencing, I was not in a Spring-like mood. I could not let her have joy while I was surrounded by grey ideas, while I was ready grey words formed on grey days. I sat outside and allowed the warmth of those two days re-activate my mind, but the previous weather period had fed me with a need to burst Elle's bubble when she finally found sunshine-a faint rainbow in her cloud. (We writers can be so cruel).

Shortly after this warm weather spell came the rains again. I was shut inside refusing to look through a window. Elle became quiet. I became anxious. The weather was taking its toll. So one afternoon I pulled all curtains shut, turned up the heating and took myself back to the previous summer. I pretended my curtains were shading me from sunshine. Then bam! Elle was off again. She too felt the warmth and ambled along into an incredible discovery. Her life turned around and she showed me a new path to follow. One which has taken the novel off on a different angle to the one I thought I had planned.

How incredible the weather could have such a startling effect on us both. Writing is not just about words, it is about feelings, emotions and giving a character personality. It is about the writer using their surroundings as stimuli. It is about unity between author and muse.

Does the weather ever have and affect on your work?

Author Interview: Introducing Heather Woods

Welcome to my blog, Heather.

Please tell The Important Ones a little about yourself.

Answer:  I’m a mum in her forties with two heavenly, hellish teen girls. Heather Woods is my pen name. I chose the name because when I was thirteen we were given a free lesson in English to read any book we wanted. I happened to choose a Mills & Boon romance. Five minutes into the lesson the teacher prowled past and, with a ruler, flipped my book closed so she could see what I was reading. Her gasp of horror rang through the classroom. Trrrruue Lerve! Everyone else shoved their romances under their jumpers while she spent the remainder of the lesson crucifying me for my execrable taste in literature. I was beyond mortified and that night, as a I lay in the dormitory listening to the snores all around me I plotted revenge. I would write a romance, a trruee lerve, and I would do it in her name.

Of course, revenge is a double edged sword. As it turned out that all my hours of writing and writing and writing stood me good stead. I wrote my first romance at sixteen and grew up to become an author for real. I became utterly it.  In practising writing romance, I read romance and loved it. So instead I use the name to honour her. Which in turn she, no doubt, would find double edged.

They say you write about what you know, and having read Finding Anna and a competition entry of yours, I notice a sailing theme. Is this a hobby of yours or a way of life?

Answer: I’ve worked on yachts for many years, I’ve written books about yachts and my partner has his own yacht. My long term plan is to own a beautiful catamaran and sail all over the world with her, writing to earn my pennies and keep us afloat.

On your website, Writing – for the love of it, you have a wonderful opening book gadget so folks can read a snippet of your novel. Did you design it?

Answer: Yes! I’m so glad you like it. So often excerpts look too long and you put off reading them. This way you can include an excerpt as long as you like and make it far more enjoyable and much less daunting to read. My books sales rose six fold after I started using this method!

What is your writing day like? Do you have to fit it around others in your life?

Answer: Groan. My working day starts at about 8.30 in one of two ways. I freelance with web design so my client’s needs come first and I do all their web design updates etc. If I am not busy with clients my day pans out as follows -  twitter, facebook, google + and blog posts. I try to write a blog post at least four times a week. The hard work is paying off as my site traffic has increased by over 2400% but it’s time consuming. After that it’s goodreads and emails, then it’s more twitter and prowling the internet, learning and learning and learning. Then I write. Through blogs, writing, emails etc I write about 5000 words a day. I usually finish working at around seven or eight pm.

If you could dine with one person who would it be and why?

Answer: My mum died just a few weeks before my daughter was born. I used to think I’d do anything to be able to introduce the two of them but I also know that saying goodbye all over again would be ghastly.
So I’d have to say I’d choose God. (Wonder what He’d think, running second best to my mum!)

You are given one question to ask them, what would your question be?

Answer: Tricky. I have 12 burning questions.

Is there life after death?

Are there ghosts?

Could animals communicate with humans if we could speak their ‘language’?

Are aliens on earth real?

Is there life on other planets?

What is deja-vu?

Why is death so final?

How much of the Bible is true?

Which version of our world is more accurate Buddha’s and The Bible’s?

What really happens in the Bermuda triangle?

What would happen if we had no ego?

Are we reincarnated?

So what I’d have to do is write them all down on cards and spread them on the table before Him and my question would be. ‘Could you answer the question that would benefit me the most to know?’ (He’d better not reply, ‘Yes’ and leave it at that!)

If I had to write a cookery book it would be titled: How To Recreate A Disaster on a Plate. What would yours be called and what sort of foods would you write about?

Answer: Well I qualified as a chef in first career so I’m a pretty good cook. When I can be bothered. Which is not often - one daughter is a vegetarian - the other currently refuses to eat wheat or dairy. My partner is anaemic and needs loads of red meat. Truth to tell, after years of patience and efforts to please them all, frequently failing, I now eat out a lot. Out of tins! I open a tin and tell them all to get on with it! So my recipe book would be inventive things to do with baked beans, tinned spaghetti and tuna that didn’t involve cooking or mess.

Formatting a manuscript is my weak area. I cannot get chapters titles to sit in the right place and appear to have a dead brain when laying out my paragraphs. Do you find this sort of thing easy or is it a frustrating part of your writing. Do you have any tips to pass along.

Answer: I don’t find that tricky at all. Before I start writing I set up my Word with three defined settings for leading paragraph, heading and normal and I don’t have to worry about formatting again. What I can’t do is figure out where apostrophe’s go. Still. After years of writing. That aforementioned English teacher – well…

In a recent discussion it was established that I am not alone with dragging around one handbag (purse), for years until it wears out. Are you a handbag and shoes girl?

Answer: Oh my word. I loathe, loathe buying shoes and handbags. My handbag tends to be a gift from my children which they replace when they feel the current one has reached its sell by date. Shoes tend to be an afterthought.

Do you have any other books up your sleeve?

Answer: I’m currently working on three books, Running Lights, Dateline and The Red Balloon. I’m hoping I will finish The Red Balloon one day which is all about the secrets of losing weight successfully – but as I haven’t properly discovered them yet, it remains to be seen!

Thank you for sharing with us, Heather, please tell The Important Ones where they can find you in Cyberspace. Do you have a Facebook page? Are you on Twitter?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heather-P-Woods/176943379026392

Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/heather_w66

Website http://www.love-writing.co.uk

Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/103515258452932763804

Authors Helping Authors: Writers Doing Right. Indies Unite.

All I ask is you take time out for this FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN. It was started by the wonderful author, Eden Baylee. Her reason?


A young son...a brilliant mind...a child of a fellow author/writer has been struck with Leukaemia. Literally struck overnight. He thought he had flu, went home for some parental comfort.

 Joshua is the 21-year old son of author, Maxwell Cynn. Max writes speculative fiction, science fiction, and romance. His son has been diagnosed with Acute T-cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The cancer has invaded every part of his body: brain; spleen; liver; lymph nodes; and he has a mass in his chest. Joshua has had to suspend his studies while undergoing aggressive chemotherapy and will not be able to graduate this semester. With three-and-a-half years of a 4.0 GPA toward a degree in philosophy, his peers and professors consider him brilliant, as of course, does his father. Joshua would have been the first person in Max's family to graduate college.

I do not have much to offer, but have pledged exposure for other authors on this blog (advertising or interview) and on New Book Blogger (permanent sidebar links to books), and brought Maxwell's book. Others have pledged books, proofreading, critique service, cover creation and so much more. I have come across Max many times during my writing period in Cyberspace and he is a good person. A proud father. 

I am happy to spread the word of this wonderful pulling together of the writing community. If you would like to help or even just spread the word, please go to the website and read more. Use the links below to share on Twitter. (copy and paste will work).

Indies rally to help an author's son fight #leukemia. Donate & get excellent perks! > http://bit.ly/xB0DAx#IndiesUnite4Joshua Pls RT

@IndieGoGo is now LIVE for #IndiesUnite4Joshua. Help an author's son fight #leukemia & get A+ perks > http://bit.ly/xB0DAx Pls RT

Find out about #IndiesUnite4Joshua. Fight #cancer, get perks & support indie authors & their books! >http://bit.ly/xB0DAx Pls RT

#IndiesUnite4Joshua is now LIVE. Help an author's son fight #leukemia & get amazing perks >http://bit.ly/xB0DAx @IndieGoGo Pls RT

Indie authors unite for a great cause. Find out how U can donate and get A+ books & more >http://bit.ly/xB0DAx #IndiesUnite4Joshua Pls RT

GO GO @IndieGoGo! Indie authors give back in #IndiesUnite4Joshua. Pls. donate or spread the word > http://bit.ly/xB0DAx Pls RT

@IndieGoGo helps #IndiesUnite4Joshua fight #cancer. Donate, get perks & support indie authors >http://bit.ly/xB0DAx Pls RT

#IndiesUnite4Joshua is a campaign to fight #cancer, get perks & support indie authors. See how U can help > http://bit.ly/xB0DAx Pls RT

Amazing indie authors have donated their books for #IndiesUnite4Joshua. See who they are & how U can help > http://bit.ly/xB0DAx Pls RT

@IndieGoGo helps #IndiesUnite4Joshua shine a light on #leukemia. Pls donate & spread the word >http://bit.ly/xB0DAx Pls RT

#IndiesUnite4Joshua is about authors coming together to help another in need. Find out more >http://bit.ly/xB0DAx Pls RT

Indies ROCK! Amazing indie authors have donated for #IndiesUnite4Joshua. Who are they & how can U help? > http://bit.ly/xB0DAx Pls RT

Indies go to @IndieGoGo for a great cause. Donate to fight #leukemia > http://bit.ly/xB0DAx #IndiesUnite4Joshua Pls RT

Indies use @IndieGoGo to help an author's son fight #leukemia. Find out more > http://bit.ly/xB0DAx #IndiesUnite4Joshua Pls RT

Thank you for taking time out to read. Thank you if you can help make a difference.