Category Archives: Writing

Reading, Writing, Editing and Planning, Oh My!

Posted on by
Reply

I finished Hope’s story on Thursday, much to my relief. Because coming up to Christmas things will start to get really busy, even if I’m not working.

I’m hoping to start Grace’s story in January, because when I write, I like to keep the flow going by writing every day, and with Christmas, then New Years, there would be too many disruptions for me to keep the continuation of the story. And as I explained last week, Grace’s story is actually going to be the second story, even though I’ve written it last. There is an overarching story over all three stories, and threads of that will need to be woven in with Grace’s story and then continued on when I edit Hope’s story. This is the story of their dad, who left the girls when they were young, after their mother died. I also plan on writing a prequel novella and sequel novella to wrap up the story.

And talking of stories, I’ve headed back into Finding Sam Healey and reworked my first chapter or two. The first part of the book are letters, so that part has been edited. And now I’m into the diaries part. I’m enjoying what I’m reading and sometimes surprise myself with how much I like what I’ve written.

I’m toying with my next few stories and starting to think about my plan for next year. There will be at least two books published, possibly three, but we’ll see how we go. Planning the next twelve months will be fun.

Winning at Writing

Posted on by
Reply

November was National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and I took part, and won. I finished writing 50,000 words on 27th November. But I haven’t finished writing the story yet, there is about 5k left to go.

I wrote Hope’s story, Hope is the eldest sister out of Faith, Grace and Hope. She got together with Thor (Thorndon is his real name, but he hates it), and their romance was instantaneous. Then it imploded, and imploded again.

When I write a story, I like to have a general outline of how I want the story to go. This story deviated so far off that general outline, that to be honest, I’ve probably been pantsing most of it, or discovery writing is the new term for it.

Hope and Thor have an interesting relationship, and its grown. I kind of had in mind that Hope would be devastated after a fellow racer is injured and that Thor helps her to find her way. But characters sometimes have a way of hijacking your story. But I have to say, I like where the story is going.

My next mission is to write Grace’s story, and hers is a Second Chance romance. This one will be interesting, because I have already written about Lachlan being involved in her life in this story (because originally Grace was the eldest), and that means that they are already back together. Oh yeah, Spoiler Alert!

I’m taking a break over the Holiday period, because a) I need to find a job and b) I need to work out how I want Grace’s story to go. Hopefully it will come to me, otherwise…eep!

Visual Writer

Posted on by
Reply

When writing, we often talk about pantsing or plotting, and now it’s starting to be recognised as a continuum, rather than one or the other. Which is kind of nice, because I don’t really fit in either camp. I do plot, yes, but I also only briefly outline my story, and allow the story to take me where it wants to go.

Which brought me to another interesting fact. Some people are visual thinkers and others are verbal. What I mean by that, is some people think with words, others think with pictures. It is just one of those things that makes us all different.

When I’m writing, the story will play out like a movie in my head. For an example, in my recent story, with Hope Hart and Thor, Thor was having an argument with another person (spoiler alert averted), and I could see them bickering back and forth, and my fingers honestly couldn’t keep up with the words that they were saying to each other. I felt like I was Hope, standing on the sidelines watching this bickering unfold before me.

I also dream in colour. I remember because the colours are so vivid, and I have woken up a couple of times with a deep red dress or gold ring on my mind. I also dream every night, although my psychologist told me that trying to remember and interpret my dreams was a form of overthinking – which is a negative thing. While I don’t try to interpret them anymore, sometimes a dream will disturb me enough to impact me through the day.

So, technically, I’m a plotting pantser, who see’s movies in her head when writing, and dreams in technicolour glory! Lol.

Enough Mucking Around, Time to Get Serious.

Posted on by
Reply

It’s nearly two weeks since I quit my job, so now I have to sort it out.

I’ve been writing, gardening, studying, spring cleaning my house, now I need to get back out there and find a job. The thing is, I don’t know what I want to do, and whether I want to be fulltime or part time.

Fulltime work would give me the money to be able to continue my writing and cards until the money from those keep coming in, but I’m also trying to get my proofreading business off the ground, and my cards, and my writing, so would part time suit that better?

I’d love to be able to not work at all, and just focus on my cards and writing, unfortunately I have had less than stellar sales in my books, and I haven’t sold any cards yet, so it really isn’t such a good idea to just try and exist on thin air.

I have a partner and a son. We share the costs of living between the three of us. And if I’m not paying, then unfortunately, there would be a few bills that didn’t get paid.

Now, if I could get something that paid mega bucks for few hours, that would be fantastic, but the chances of that are relatively slim. I’m no executive or manager, so I’m not even going to apply for those sorts of jobs. Fortunately I live in an area full of orchards, and now is a good time to find a job. There’s apple thinning, then pruning, then picking, then packing. That will last through until May. If I put aside enough money, I might not have to work over winter, which would be more than ideal, however I don’t see that working out.

Oh well, one day at a time, one step at a time. I’ll get there. I’ll work out what I need to do for the next part of my life journey.

Multiple Beginnings

Posted on by
Reply

So, I did a thing this week. It was rather an epic thing. If not the smartest thing I’ve ever done.

I love my job, I really do, but there is one aspect of it I don’t like, and we’ve had to be doing it since the end of last year. And that is mowing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind mowing, but when you’re mowing a rest home. No, let me rephrase that, Push mowing a rest home lawn.

For weeks, I’ve been stressed about mowing and weed-eating the lawns. I struggle with weed-eating, because it hurts. I have tennis elbow which started about the same time we started mowing the lawns. Anyway, I know what stress looks like in my body, and my eyebrow was starting to twitch. I also noticed that my multivitamins weren’t working quite like they used to, so I brought more vitamin b to help me with my stress.

But it all came to a head on Tuesday, when we were supposed to mow. I hadn’t had a lot of sleep the night before, and to be honest, I was looking for a fight. So, I started one, with my boss.

And then I quit. I told her where she could stick the job, and I told my boss in Auckland as well.

To start with, I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, and after talking with my immediate boss (who is an absolute sweetie to be honest,) she made me promise that I would think it over before I made a final decision. After an epic walk home, I had a sleep. I literally slept on it.

That night, I wrote a formal letter of resignation to my bosses. If there was a chance of not mowing, I probably would have stuck around, however, that wouldn’t have happened anytime soon.

While I’m sad to be leaving my job, I’m looking at this as an opportunity to move forward, find something new to do, and look at doing part time work so I have more time for my writing and other business ideas that I have.

And while I’m nervous, because I don’t have anything lined up, I’m also confident that something will come up that will make me as enthusiastic as I was about gardening.

And talking about new beginnings, I also started writing Hope’s story, the next character in my Racing Harts story, and I’m already 18k in. I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo, and so far, I’ve clocked in over the daily limit to get the story done by 30th November. I’m quite excited about this story, and even though it is the second story in the trilogy, I have a feeling that it will eventually become the third story, so I am kind of aiming it that way as well.

I hope you all have a good week out there. Think of me, and if you know of any part time work, let me know.

Back to Writing

Posted on by
Reply

After two weeks of not writing, I am now back into it. I was trying to decide whether to try and write and finish a book before the end of the year, and decided, why not.

I started writing Hope and Thor’s story, the next in my Racing Harts series. Hope is currently the middle sister, and she races Sprint cars. However, I have decided that after writing the third story, Grace (the eldest) and Hope might swop ages, and Grace will become the middle child, only because Grace, who races Rally Cars, will fit between, race and time wise, between Faith and Hope. The motorbikes race over the summer, then the rally cars over the winter, then sprint cars during the speedway season. But that’s a problem for future Karen.

And to make things more interesting, I’m doing NaNoWriMo. That stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s because November is a quiet month in the United States, where this idea came from. I’ve participated in SoCNoC which is Southern Hemisphere version when KiwiWriters was a thing.

What does NaNoWriMo actually mean? Well, it means that you write 50,000 words over the 30 days of November. Some people will cringe at that and think it must be hard. Some will wonder why I would put so much pressure on myself. I, myself am wondering why I wanted to do this, but then I look at Hope and Thor, and I know how much I enjoyed writing Faith and Cole’s story, that I wanted to continue. And if I finish before December, it means that I wrote three novels this year. Which is pretty darned cool and might mean that I have more than two novels to publish next year.

Of course, to overcommit myself further, I’ve signed up for the New Zealand Certificate in Business – a Level 4 study of setting up a small business in New Zealand. I thought that since I want to get serious with my writing, cardmaking, and proofreading, that I really should get some understanding behind me to start the business. I’m scared that I’m pushing myself too much, but if I can just get Hope and Thor’s story written before December, then I can have most of December and January off before pushing into new writing projects.

But we’ll have to see if I get NanoWriMo first.

I’m Finished. Now What?

Posted on by
Reply

I finally finished Faith’s story this week. Oh, how that woman tested me. I certainly was losing Faith, but I knew how I wanted the story to end. And dammit, I ended it my way.

So now that’ I’ve finished Faith’s story (one of three sisters who are into racing, hence Racing Harts being the series name), what do I do with the story.

Well, I let it sit. For a while. Some authors jump straight into editing, but to be honest, I kind of like to let mine sit for a bit longer, normally about six months. Then I will pull it out, do a quick read through, making note on sticky notes (which I LOVE), and then I work through and start editing, changing bits here, things there, adding in a dash of spice, a touch of pepper, stir and mix. Then I send it to my critique partners. The read through it, laugh out loud then confirm that it’s a bunch of bullsh!t and I feel terribly bad. No, seriously, by the time I’ve edited it the first time, I think it’s crap. My critique partners come back with thoughts, any comments about plot holes – (what happened to this guy in your story?), and generally their opinion about the story. These are actually very helpful, and after drinking plenty of whisky, I actually allow myself to sit down and read what they’ve said.

The final part of my editing process is going through the story AGAIN, and then listening to it being read on my computer. It really picks up lots of errors and missing words that others had missed, because we sometimes all know where the story is going.

Once I’m happy with the story, I send it to my lovely editor who reads it through and then comes back to me with edits that may be required. Mostly they’re grammatical errors, because for some reason writers write, they don’t talk or do grammar. (Writers don’t math well either.)

So, there you go, that it what happens to my story from start to finish, which generally takes a year from starting writing to publishing it.

Now, I’m not doing much writing, because I am in the process of formatting Compromising Positions and getting it put up for pre-order.

I hope you had a great week. Take care out there.

Catherine

Changes Afoot

Posted on by
Reply

Some people don’t like change. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. It all depends on whether I’ve initiated it or not. Overall, I’d like to say I’m adaptable and it isn’t often I dig my toes in and resist change.

Change is something that happens regardless of whether you want it to or not. Change can be positive if embraced and negative if you don’t want to accept it. Change is inevitable, you can’t stop progress.

I’m a ‘routine’ kind of girl. I get up in the morning at the same time, prepare the coffee, get dressed, make breakfast, use the bathroom, bush my teeth, wash the dishes, (hang out clothes from the washing machine if I put it on), and then I have writing time.

My work day is different every day, and I have some things on in the evenings, but I try and do editing and some admin in the evenings. Weekend, I get up later, and I tend to tidy around the house, or outside for most of the weekend, but then Sunday afternoon, I’m writing up my blogpost, preparing my facebook feed and getting ready for work on Monday.

Routine helps me to get things done. I discovered this after a long bout of not writing because of procrastination and realising that while I thought I didn’t have time, I had plenty, I was just wasting a lot of it.

And I’m starting to feel like I’m wasting time again and something needs to change. I want to be more productive, do more writing, more editing, get more books out there, but I’m also aware of burnout and not wanting to wreck myself, because I still work a fulltime job.

I have a five year plan. I’m now down to 4 and a quarter years, but I think my five year plan is achievable. I might not be making millions in year five, but I intend to have a good crack at the six figure income by then. My five year plan is so that I can finish working at the end of that time, and rely solely on my writing income.

In saying that, I’m looking at updating my website and completely branding myself – I would say rebranding, but my website has been an ecclectic mess of my branding anyway, but bringing it all together cohesively would be great. So say tuned people.

A Car Wreck of a week

Posted on by
Reply

Normally I tell you what I did this week past, but instead I want to start by saying I AM OK!

This week has been good, writing-wise, and I came up with another story idea! That’s two stories and one to plot…

Thursday wasn’t such a great day. My co-worker and I were in a car accident, and we both suffered some impressive bruising and a crushing ride sideways in our work van, which is now a write off.

My boss thankfully gave me and my co-worker Friday off, and we are extremely grateful for that. Because I had to travel to Wineborough to catch up with my Dad who has his birthday this week. His first birthday since the passing of my stepmum.

It was a lovely day with Dad, we (my son and I), weeded some of his garden and made things a little easier for him, then took him out for lunch.

And then, to make my poor bruised body feel even more miserable, I have a cold! So a great way to start a week. NOT!

But hopefully this week, I will finish Faith’s story, and then I’m not sure which story to write next.

Hope you had a better week that I did.

Take care out there.

Catherine

Creating New Things

Posted on by
Reply

Hello there, how are things? Well, it’s been a busy week. What with work, and stuff.

Actually, work has been quiet lately, I’ve been busy with writing, planning and editing, and it’s been a lot of fun.

I was planning on writing Hope’s story next in the Racing Harts story, but I’m not sure now. The reason? I had a dream the other night, and have a plan for a sequel to my ice planet story – oh, sorry, Shards of Ice. It’s based in the future from the original story, and it’s their son, who’s an arrogant so and so, but he’s redeemable. The story idea is just about all there, but then, so is Hope’s story. And then I have my Dragon shifters story that I need to get back to, but I have a feeling that story might have to be written, divided up and then edited and published in one big heap…only because at the moment, it seems to be a neverending story, and I really want to split it up with different characters in each story. I guess this needs more planning.

I’ve also been working on a personal project for my partner’s sister, I started it two years ago for her 50th birthday, and then ended up in lockdown, so didn’t get to give it to her. I’m revamping it and making it better than it was, and I have to have it finished by next week, because my partner is heading up north to see her.

I also have another personal writing project that I want to work on, it’s a non-fiction book, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. It is something that would benefit all creatives, not just writers. This is still in the planning stages, so won’t be happening anytime soon.

And I’ve also been talking to a friend about websites and colours, and I have some new colours that I want to try out on my website, make it a cohesive site, bring the fonts and colours and covers together. I think it will work, I have the colours, I just need to find time to work on the website now.

I love being creative and having creative time, what about you?

Take care out there.

Catherine