Intermission: The Conversation

As a child, and frequent cinema visitor, it was some years into my movie going career before I encountered an intermission. This must have been sometime around the late 70s into the early 80s. I'm trying to recall the movie - I think it must have been an older one that was doing the rounds. …

Orkney Views and book ideas

A rather self-indulgent post as we enter Lockdown 2.0. Some views around Stromness on Sunday and Monday of this week. I hoped to get some inspiration for a plot line whilst on this most recent trip. Nothing obvious came to mind whilst I was there. It may have been because of the circumstances or perhaps …

Ease up mother

I've been trying to do a bit of reading in and around all the other things I'm not actually achieving. Every year I look at War and Peace and think 'this year...'. However, it's not to be. Certainly not in 2020. So, instead I'm just plodding through the biography about Ida Lupino. The biography is …

Googley Eyes and Post-its

So, what have I been up to this week? In terms of writing not a great deal. My characters have done that thing when they decide they don't want to go in the direction I had plotted out for them. Talk about inconsiderate. What it means at Pirate Towers is that word productivity has slowed …

And the sub plot thickens…

So, tell me, how is it that everything seems to be coming along nicely, there's a plan, the word count is ticking up, and then WHAM! a side plot just hits you out of nowhere? Churchill Barriers: Orkney. These were built in WWII to keep the submarines at bay. Enormous concrete blocks were put in …

Motivations and Inciting Incidents

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com Our designated movie night this week was set aside for John Wick. 'It ticks all the boxes' I was told. Keanu Reeves. Tick. Yep. All boxes ticked. I actually quite enjoyed this absurdist hitman killfest and am quite looking forward to the other two. I also found it quite …

Paper. Pen. Post its.

Current favourite notebook I had July all planned out. You see, I finished my second Western on Monday and thought I'd get back to it after a bit of a break and then sort out the plot holes. In the meantime I had planned to work on something else. But it hasn't quite worked out …

Violence

Photo by NEOSiAM 2020 on Pexels.com It all started off so well. I had an idea, I had a hero, I had a plan. I got a third of the way in and realised that it needed....'something'. It needed more than a bit of mild peril. It needed something really juicy and it needed it …

Counting words

Cat attack The chattering magpie outside my window woke me from a very deep slumber this morning. In this household we have learnt that the cacophony is the soundtrack that accompanies our cat's life. He is an impressive hunter and is prepared to take on pretty much anything that moves. This has its downsides of …

Introducing Characters

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com I think the idea for this post started off as one thing and has turned into another. It was perhaps originally intended to address something along the lines of 'when is it too late to go into detail about a character we've met before?' Or something similarly snappy. However, …

Diaries and Research

"You should do something that involves your passion for vintage." My cousin said to me the other day. I thought about this for a moment and of all the Instagram posts of people I follow who dress in original 1940s tea dresses, style their hair with vintage scarves, drive vintage cars and seem to be …

Procrastination

In the spirit of thinking about the writing process and planning I decided to press on with another book idea. Ordinarily all of this creativity shouldn't be discouraged, surely? The trouble is I have my first project still lurking in the background. I have left the characters in limbo. I can hear their whispers, wondering …

Planning Tools

I wrote a book. I wrote a book and then scrapped it. From the ashes of that book I wrote another. The difference between book 1 and book 2 was a plan. You'd think that planning wouldn't be such a novel idea seeing as it's something I implore my students do on an almost weekly …