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How It’s Supposed To Work

So, the way I’m supposed to write goes something like this: (Table A) 1. Get a brilliant idea 2. Flesh out idea in a rudimentary outline 3. Name characters, decide on location, that type of jazz 4. Sit down every day and just flippin’ write it. But… Other than blog posts and emails, I haven’t written anything in months (and months and months). It feels wretched, but sometimes life...

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Readability

On Twitter yesterday, someone posted a link yesterday to a Readability Meter. Now I’ve never paid that much attention to these tools, even though a lot of them come with Word and WordPerfect and such. As it was one of those days (you know the ones), I decided I could fritter away a little time testing some of my stuff to see what US grade reading level someone would have to have to understand my...

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Inspired by Madness

My ambusher found this site yesterday (See, the Facebook section of my About Me page for details). I say ambusher only because stalker is such a loaded word.  I wasn’t hiding exactly. India Drummond is, after all, my real name. So, hiding in plain site. Apparently my crimes include de-friending people on Facebook and having an email address she didn’t know about. This led me to the...

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Found Money

I got a funny email yesterday from a site called “Constant Content“. Hi India, Constant-Content has credited your PayPal account $65.00.  Thanks for choosing Constant-Content.com as an outlet for your writing. Now, I suppose the letter itself isn’t that funny… the funny part is that I’d forgotten completely that I’d even signed up back in March! I went based on a link...

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A Character By Any Other Name

I tend to rename my characters several times during the first draft… and I usually retitle my books as well. Ordinary Angels started out life as Angel In Blue Shorts. In that book, Alexander had originally been called Andrew (after the patron saint of Scotland) but a run-in with a friend’s asshole husband (who bore the same monicker) ruined that one. Zoë Pendergraft was originally Petula...

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WAG #9 Mocking the Cherry

This week’s exercise was: “WAG #9: Warning!” Last week the topic was to make something ugly sound beautiful, so this time let’s do the opposite! Choose an unfamiliar object (in other words, one you have no history with) that strikes you as beautiful, appealing, or somehow desirable etc… some ideas might be: a child, a sunset, an attractive shop window, a scenic view, a piece of art, an...

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Secrets – WAG#7

WAG #7 Instructions: “Imaginings” This one is people-watching with a twist.  Observe a stranger and sketch a brief background for them, including a secret. Then describe why they are in that particular place at that particular time (where you ran into them) and how it will affect their future. Feel free to be creative, but don’t forget to describe the concrete reality that made you pick them in the...

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Research

One of the things that WAG has helped me see, is that there is nothing like actually looking at a place… feeling it, smelling it, and being in the middle of it… to help a writer set a scene. Yesterday I went to Aberlemno where there are some beautiful examples of Pictish stones and also to Restenneth Priory, which was built by the king of the Picts in about 715 AD. (Both places are just outside...

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Writing Outside the Comfort Zone

This week I’ve been concentrating on preparation and research for my new Urban Fantasy project.  I’m excited by the project, but getting words on the page has been much tougher than I thought. I haven’t actually set word-count goals yet, but normally I’m bursting to get writing, and didn’t feel that way this time. I asked myself why.  After all, I love this project, so why...

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Research

This week, I’m planning to do research, one of my favourite parts of writing, actually.  My new Urban Fantasy novel takes place here in Scotland, and now it’s time for me to find some of the more magical spots in the countryside including some of the hundreds of standing stones, stone circles, henges, cairns and various prehistoric to Bronze Age rocks.  I also want to visit some castle ruins,...