How to?

Lately there's been alot of talk of how one manages time to write and what their strategy is in the process of writing.

So I thought I'd better add to the list.

One- Time management.

• Some use every minute they have. A minute here and a minute there. Me, I cant do that. It takes me a good ten minutes to get back in the flow. I find when the kids are at school and hubby is at work is the best. If you are not as fortunate to get these things then I find the tv or give them a book to read is a great baby sitter- for hubby and kids, hehe.


• Try getting up before they do or staying up later than them.


• If you are a lucky one who can write with the 'mum, she's looking at me meanly' calls from the kids or the 'Go Eels!' calls from the hubby. Then well done, you're better than me and can probably get more work done.

Two-Writing Strategies. (these work for me most of the time)

• You have ideas in your brain or on a note pad, grab it and find the idea you want to base your ms on.


• Get an exercise book and leave a dozen or so pages for character info. Then write the beginning, only the beginning. Even if its in point form. Make sure it has the characters meeting or re-meeting and the base of the story ie, conflict etc. What ever your target line requires.


• Then the middle of the ms. What needs to be in the middle, the progression of relationship, on the border of something tragic about to happen that effects the characters and their relationship.


• Remember this is a very brief line of your ms.


• Then write your ending, point form is fine remember. How they got through their ordeal and the moment, you know the one. The moment when it all fits together and they realise they are one.


• Now with this done, you should have even more ideas than when you started and you can fill in the gaps.

Please remember, this is a brief description of how i can get my ms done. It will not fit for all and I don't believe I'm the best example of the how to in the writing department.

I hope this has helped someone out there as this is why we put ourselves out in the world- to share.

With this all being said, considering its the school hol's, I haven't gotten very much done and my ms needs more editing and i have to prep for June.

Good luck everyone in your journey and happy writing

Kez

50k in 30 days!

I did it, I joined the 50k in 30 day challenge and looking forward to it. (Shudder)
This will be my first challenge. I haven't even done the BIW challenge and I've jumped right into the big one. Eeek!
I just told my husband and his response was not very helpful, something along the lines of, 'I guess we wont see much of you in June.' But he quickly added the don't worry because when you make it and sell one, I can buy a new motorbike.
Sigh.
You have to love him. He is very supportive and with out him I don't think my romance knowledge would be as good as it is.
A friend once asked me, 'are you settings or scenes all fiction or have you experienced them?'
I blushed as I recalled some of the scenes she had read in that ms and could only reply, 'a little from collum-a and a little from collum-b.' He he.
Anyhow, I hope to talk to you all again soon.
Happy writing
Kez

Road to success...

I believe there is a long road to success in our profession, but it doesn't have to be a lonely one. Get out there, meet people like yourselves; even if it's only in cyber space.

Don't hide from the world, we want to hear from you even if you haven't finished your first ms. I know how hard it is, I'm with you experiencing what you are.

Gene Fowler once said, 'writing is easy: all you have to do is sit in front of a blank sheet of paper and wait until blood forms on your forehead'

Jeez, I can sometimes relate to that, and I'm sure most of you out there does too.

Once apon a time I believed that it was truly easy. Eek!

I though, yeah, I finished writing it. My first finished ms after dabbling with the idea of writing for years.

It seemed great to me, it was my baby, surely HQ will love it too. With in the year maybe I could be published.

I know, I can hear you all laughing at my naivety.

I gave it to a couple of my teacher friends to have a look and they loved it. Looking back at the original now, I want to kick them for lieing. Well I don't think they were lieing as such, but they could have at least let me know my grammar and what not was atrocious to say the least.

It was no where near up to the standards of publication and yet at the time I sent it out to HQ.

Well you can guess the result. Boohoo.

But its rejection was well deserved but still embarrassing and heart breaking.

I still have this rejection notice to remind me.

So five years on; yes, i said five. I have realised how hard the business is to crack and how unbelievably naive i was.

But I will tell you all something right now.

The day will come for all of us who don't give up!

When Suz called me and told me her fabulous news, i was crying in joy for her. She had cracked it. She did not give up!

Now, with this joy of course -being the human I am, I did feel a little of the green monster trying to bring me down into the negative dungeon of doom.

But I realised that I had to use this joy and this eagerness to have what she has accomplished and put it to good use.

Get back to that computer and keep pouring you blood into your work and one day someone will notice!

Since I have started I have grown and I have tried to help others where I could.

I want to also add a congratulations to Suz as she deserves all the success in the world. I hope we are all as lucky as she.

And please remember, DON'T GIVE UP!

Happy Writing

Kez

It's Done!

Yes, it's done. I took Rach's advice and left my ms alone; after a little more tweaking. Hehe.

But I sent it on its way to Vic for the VP contest.

Alas though, it was sent with minor booboos.

I can hear you all gasp from here.

Let me explain- I originally wrote my fist ms- targeted for Desire, on my old computer which at the time was called 'Old Trusty' let me just say, it was anything but trust worthy. Ask Suz. Actually one day it blew up and silly me hadn't saved fresh hard copies. I can hear you tsk tsking. I know, I've learnt my lesson. Anyway it had xp programed on it and since then my husband brought me a laptop which I call my 'sidekick'. But to my disappointment, my laptop isn't equipped with Microsoft word, it only had works.

Well, they don't coinside, do they. So my book which is word compatible cant be edited on my laptop which is also formatted with my new printer.

I have downloaded word viewer from the net but this doesn't allow me to edit. But I thought to myself, no worries. I'll edit it on one and print from the other.

Ha! I had it all set out with 2.5cm all round, bla bla, but when i transfered it over to print- it moved everything about and wouldn't let me fix it! Ahhhhhh!

So I called my bestfriend for help, her son had word and a fast printer and we put it through that.

But God want on my side this day. It ran out of ink after making only 3 copies, VP want 5.

I turned in defeat and decided either I was going to not send it at all or send it not formatted properly.

Are you on the edge of your seat yet? My friend darted back over and said "come on, we'll duck into town, get more ink, come back and print and then go back and send it." At this point I should tell you, we're 30min from town. Add it up.

Anyway, with it all printed; 250 pages, I noticed a few problems.

• the first 3 copies, their numbers didn't print properly; I think it prints so fast it missed it. Hehe


• then I noticed the last 2 copies back page was two lines different from the first 3. I wanted to scream.But at that point I said lets go. Send it before I think it's all an omen and I shouldn't send it to anyone.

So there it is. The melodrama of trying to send my ms and I know if I purchase word these problems wouldn't exist, but sometimes all the wishing and need can't compete with $.

I hope I don't lose too many points. But I'm keen to get some feed back, it's not about the winning.

Am I the only one who has melodramatic problems with this stuff?

But thanks to the encouraging words of support from Rach, Amanda and my bestfriend/sister, WE got it out there.

I guess in the end you realise your friends are another necessary key to success!

Happy Writing

Kez