Back to Writing

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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.

Imposter Syndrome

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When I first got my Insurance Assessing Certificate, I felt like I could get called out at any time for being a fraud. When I first started writing, I wondered if anyone would tell me that I couldn’t write stories. I felt like a fake, that I wasn’t actually capable of doing my job.

It’s called imposter syndrome, and surprisingly, a lot of people get it. And the best part – if you get it, chances are you are probably capable. It’s a feeling of inadequacy in your skills.

So, why do you get that feeling? Mostly, it’s because you feel insecure, either in yourself, your abilities or your environment. It is a form of anxiety that affects most of us at some stage in our life.

Funnily enough, I’m qualified in gardening and organic gardening, and yet don’t get imposter syndrome about my work. I think this is because I am confident in my abilities, I know what I am doing, and I know the environment that I’m working in.

And slowly, I’m feeling less like a fraud when I’m writing, because with each story I publish, the more I learn about my skills and craft.

And I’m about to embark on starting a new business doing something that I once had a lot of imposter syndrome around, proofreading. I studied it a few years ago, as an opportunity to read some great stories, but I was worried that people would think I wasn’t good enough. The fact is, I’m not perfect, and admitting this has really helped to realise that I can actually proofread and provide the feedback needed, so I’m starting up a side business to proofread, I’m still working out the nuts and bolts, but it will all come together. When, I don’t know, but hopefully soon.

And the Edits Start

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Last year I wrote Finding Sam’s Family, which I changed the name to Finding Sam Healey, to reflect the Finding Yourself series which started with Finding Amy Archer. I thought having the surname worked better than ‘family’. While I’m editing, I refer to my book by the initials, in this case, FSH. FAA was Finding Amy Archer. It’s just something I do.

When I’m editing, I do a quick read through, taking notes on post its before I sit down, with said post its and work through the story, and incorporating any of the changes I thought of. This might be as simple as ‘change the start of the story’ to ‘first person POV (point of view). Once I’ve worked my way through some of the edits, I will bundle up a bunch of them and send them to my critique partners for them to read and make sure that it makes sense, that they like the characters, and the storyline follows logic.

Once I get the critiques back, I work through them and make any changes that may be needed. Sometimes it can be hard to swallow some of what the partner’s say, but sometimes it is crucial to the story, so changes are made. If both say the same thing about the same part of the story, then I know that something needs to be worked on.

Once I’ve edited the next section, I send away to the critique partners and I get it back, and this continues until the story is edited thoroughly. I then put it through a spell / grammar check, and I listen to the story being read back to me. It’s surprising how many words are missing, or wrong words used until you hear it back.

Once that’s all done, I normally book it in with my editor, unless I have already done that. But a novel can take me a couple of months to get through, so even though I’ve started editing, it might not be finished until January, all depending on how I go.

At this stage, I’m looking at booking the editor for February, and hopefully release Finding Sam Healey May next year.

At this stage, I haven’t started writing anything new. I like to have a break, plus still trying to work out if I want to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. I’ve done it before, and I’ve done Camp NaNo, which I also won. I like to have a break to allow my creative juices to flow, and they are flowing. I have about five story ideas lurking in the depths of my brain.

Hope you all have a lovely week. Take care out there.

I’m Finished. Now What?

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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

Romancing Aotearoa and Beyond

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Why did I choose this tagline to go with, and who or what is Aotearoa? I live in New Zealand, and the Maori name is Aotearoa, which means Land of the Long White Cloud. And when you are flying around New Zealand, or at sea looking back, all you can see is a layer of cloud on the horizon.

I was born and bred here. I have only ever ventured overseas twice, once when I was fifteen, to Australia for three weeks, and again when I was 35 to Fiji for a long weekend. I never did my OE (Overseas Experience) and I have never regretted it. I’ve always loved the country that I live in and want to stay here.

So, Aotearoa, New Zealand, it is a beautiful green country. Green as in the colour. We have a lot of native bush that is various shades of green, with the occasional splash of yellow or red. We have lots of pasture, which are home to sheep, beef and various other animals.

But it is the native bush that has me. I love the bird song that comes with the native bush. We have some weird and wonderful birds, most of them pretty drab by overseas comparisons, but they are beautiful none-the-less. The Tūī (parson bird), bellbird (korimako), fantail (Pīwakawaka), Weka, Pukeho, Kākā, Kea, Kākāpō, shining cuckoo, morepork (owl), grey warbler (Riroriro); their dawn chorus birdsong is unique and beautiful, except at 4am when the bellbirds first haunting single note reverberates through the forest.

The smell of the forest after a rainstorm, the dampness of the leaflitter, the coolness of the breeze through the trees, the noise of the branches and leaves rustling, it’s a magical place that transports me to New Zealand when there were no inhabitants here, before the Maori, the Mori Ori.

New Zealand has a population of just over 5 million people, so we have a lot of space compared to many countries, and I guess that is part of my love for the country, the wide open spaces, the national parks where we can experience birds in their native environment.

I just love New Zealand. What more can I say? If you want to see for yourself, check out this video for Helicopter Lines

Changes Afoot

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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.

Coming Up with Ideas

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Sometimes I get asked how I come up with ideas for my story. So let me tell you about the three that are currently vying to be the next one written, and how I came up with the concept.

First is the Cinderella story. I wrote a New Zealand version of Beauty and the Beast, and I wanted to follow it up with another modern-day retelling of a fairy tale, I just couldn’t decide which fairytale to rewrite. One day, while sitting in the work ute, a story started to formulate in my brain about a woman who has a business that a stepmother is trying to sell out from under her. I have a well-developed plot for this story, but not names, but they will come.

The second story is a follow on from my ice planet story. My original story started from a dream, and this one kind of developed from a half-awake moment, where I thought of a name, Ko’nul, the son of Vyvica and Kelvaras. Ko’nul is the eldest son, the heir to Vyvica’s throne, but he’s a reprobate. He ends up with amnesia and looked after by woman who works in a bar, where he ends up working too. It’s a story of redemption.

The third story, which isn’t quite developed, is the next Racing Harts story, which is Hope. She races sprint cars, and her mechanic is AWOL. But then Thor turns up, and he is exactly as he sounds, tall, blond, beard, braids. He’s American and sent to help Hope with her sprint car, but other than that, I don’t have a real plot for this story yet. But ideas are percolating.

Which story do you think I should write next?

A Car Wreck of a week

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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

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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

A New Season

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Yay, spring is here! Well, not technically, but today is the first of September, which is the first day of Spring, but we’ve had daffodils flowering since April, so perhaps it’s actually autumn???

Well, it has been a busy week for me, not at work, but writing-wise. Had two days off work last week because of rain, which sounds nice, but it isn’t. Not normally, but these two days I used to format up Compromising Positions ebook for Advanced readers, and I put something out in my newsletter about that. If you didn’t get my newsletter, why not? You should be able to sign up if you are on my website.

So, I have a pre-order up for Compromising Positions as well, it will be launched on 1 November 2024. Two books in one year! I know!

Not only that, but after to-ing and fro-ing over my plot in Racing Harts, Faith’s story, I have finally decided on the course of action, and I’m near the finish line, only like 5 or 6 chapters away. Considering I knock out about half to a chapter each time I write, that could be done by next week. And I actually did write every day last week, except for the weekends, because, well, I like to have a break too.

And I am working through the Sam Healey edits. Slowly, very s l o w l y… I’m dragging my feet on that, and I can’t really explain why. I guess I felt that formatting Compromising Positions was more where I needed to spend my time. (I wasn’t procrastinating at all, I promise…)

Anyway, how is your week going? Anything exciting happening in your world?

Take care

Catherine