SueJEaton

The usual questions writers are asked are,

1. Where do you get your ideas?
2. How do you find a publisher?

This week I shall answer question 1. Where do the ideas come from. Simple answer – no idea.

More complex answer – anywhere and everywhere.

Ideas don’t come by sitting in front of a computer screen or blank sheet of paper. Ideas come from being out there, listening and watching.

Isn’t there a name for people like that, I hear you say? Well yes but that’s mainly if you’re stalking the same person. Sitting in a café, on a bus, or in a park casually observing the world around you not so much.

It’s a good excuse to go for coffee and cake. You can tell everyone you’re working. And I’m fairly sure that cake while you work has no calories.

I recall listening to a conversation while I was waiting with my husband in A&E. It was fascinating – people forget that the curtains, while obscuring the view, don’t stop noise. I have to admit to being disappointed when they found a bed for my husband. I’ll never know how things turned out.

Seriously, if you want your characters to sound like a human and act like a human, get out there, watch and listen to humans.

#scifi, #scifistories, #horror’ #horrorstories, #coronabooks, #waterdragonpublishing, #paperangel, #comiccon, #

I have done it! I have finally found a way into Chapter 3 of my WIP!

Tuesday morning after time in the garden I thought of an opening sentence. Once I got that down on screen the rest followed. I’m not quite ready to share yet. I just let the words come so it will need putting into a coherent order. I’ve tucked it away for a day or two then I’ll go through it again and change what needs changing.

I thought I was going to be stuck on Chapter 3 for ever.

I’ve tackled it from Jeb’s point of view as overall he will be a bigger character than Iris. At least that’s how the story is developing at the moment.

These characters do have a life of their own. Danielle is taking over, not satisfied to sit in the background. She’s even found herself a bit of romantic interest while my back was turned. She’ll let me know how that turns out eventually, I suppose. I hope she does as I’ve no idea at the moment.

#dystopianfiction, #scifi, #scifistories, #horror, #horrorstories, #waterdragonpublishing, #coronabooks

I am totally stuck with chapter 3 of my WIP. The problem is  – well one problem is that chapter was originally the opening chapter of a story that has now taken on a life of it’s own and gone in a completely different direction to the one I had planned.

What I should be doing is putting the original away and starting it from scratch so that it fits with the rest of the story. What I can’t seem to do is exactly that. I know it’s what I should do but actually letting go is so difficult.

I like some of the phrases even if they don’t fit any more and am reluctant to leave them out. I have a file where I carefully store such pages in case they prove useful in the future. It’s easy. I can do it – I think.

What I really need is time in the garden where I can crack on with tasks that require no thought thus allowing my mind to wander and consider the problem of chapter one. To perculate ideas and – hopefully – come up with the right solution.

This is problem two. What with tornadoes, hail, sleet, a bitterly cold last wind I’ve been stuck in the house going over the same old same old over and over again.

Until today!! Today I have been able to get out with my trusty helpers and enjoy a bit of digging and weeding. That is one brave robin, picking at the insects while Neville supervises at the other side of the herb garden.

Let’s hope it’s done the trick.

In my last blog I told you how I like to live in the 17^th century. Well, just to prove this, last weekend I bought some bananas. Not so strange as a rule. However, this diet I’m on prefers you not to eat bananas due to the high sugar and carbohydrate content. I like bananas and as I’d had a blood test which told me everything is fine I decided to treat myself to a few.

I sat down for breakfast with a bowl of chopped bananas and vanilla yogurt when Alexa told me that on that very day in 1633 bananas had been introduced in the UK. An obvious fact tucked away somewhere in my memory – or spooky?

As some of you know I am more comfortable with the Julian calendar which celebrates the new year on March 25^th.

My house was built when the Julian calendar was still in use and I like the less complicated way of life that exists in the 17^th century.

My garden is happier with plants that would have been grown then and the herbs and cottage garden flora flourish while new varieties fade away even without the aid of the dog.

So, Happy New Year to you all. I’m just off to sharpen my quill and stroke the obligatory black cat.

#horror, #horrorstories,#coronabooks,#scifi, #scifibooks, #waterdragon,#theceresillusion

I have a list of things to do. Nice things. Things to do with books. Reading, writing, editing, blog.

Lovely things were said about my chapter last night at my writing group and it’s spurred me on. I’m enjoying writing this book and I want to crack on with it.

However I made a fatal mistake – I moved the cat.

I wanted a shower but, as it was raining and Luna didn’t want to go out, she was asleep on the heated floor in the bathroom. I foolishly decided she had to move.

Now she’s harrassing me while I try to work.

The floor is dry and it’s safe to go back in but no. She’s on the table and walking back and forth across my diary and keyboard while giving me the evil eye.

I’m not going out today, perhaps I could have done without a shower. The thing is I am particular partial to nice smells around me. I love working in my herb garden. It’s where I think as I complete routine tasks amid the wonderful aromas. Today it’s raining so I had to be content with my favourite shower gel, matching body butter and spray so I could sit and breathe in the scent while working.

I’m not getting much done!

For those of you who are interested in procrastination (and aren’t we all at some time or another) I have been working hard at perfecting this art.

Thursday’s are put aside for literature, either reading or writing or both. A bit of filing, book reviews, following leads, catching up with book fairs, competitions or ComicCons may be necessary as well. Filling in diary dates as well as crossing off thse completed.

This morning I sat down knowing I had a number of things to do so I started by planning my day. I mean, 30 minutes of planning can save you hours over the day can’t it?

I began a list – there was that word LIST.

Immediately I found myself lost in the satisfying world of list making. A well-ordered list looks so efficient. I won’t forget anything if it’s on a list. I can work through it, cross off each completed task (I have a special pen for that) and sit back with a warm glow of a job well done.

Only that’s not how it works. In reality any task begun gives rise to others which join the list. The list then has to be broken down into subject areas such as THE WIP, COMPETITIONS, SUBMISSION FOLLOW-UP, BOOK FAIRS/COMIC-CONS.

By now it’s time for coffee. After coffee I put the lists into Excel because they look pretty and I can colour each completed task in. I usually print the lists so I can pin them up and see at a glance what I should be doing if I wasn’t procrastinating.

Heavens to Betsy – is that the time?

As I said, last week I’ve been struggling with an ending for my WIP. I’ve come up with a solution – we’ll see how that pans out in the long run. That’s for the future.

However, I took chapter 2 to my writing group last night. I was happy with it to a point. As I read it out I felt it was a bit of a clunky info dump but I need the reader to understand where we are and what is going on.

Luckily for me the lovely people there, although feeling the same, were able to give me some ideas that hopefully will make it more interesting.

I’m not going to dump what I’ve written, that can be stored for another time. It may come in handy even if I never use it.

So – short chat as I want to get this idea down before I lose the impetus.