Tag: Writer Resources

Make 2013 the Year of Your Novel

This is it.

where do you get your ideas?
This is part of Val McDermid’s back catalogue – how much do you want a pile of books with your name on the spine? Now’s the time to start…

This is your year. 2013 is the year you invest in your writing self and get that book written.

Have you been messing about, tinkering with ideas, going on self-publishing courses, gazing out of the window as shreds of story drift past?

Have you been re-reading the 14,573 words you’ve written so far and wondering how on earth you can get it to 20,000, let alone to novel-length?

Make this the year you start… and finish… and publish that novel.

Invest in yourself, set aside the time, focus.

To get you started, I’m running Where do you get your ideas? one-day workshops in California this month. If you’re near Carlsbad, Palm Springs, San Diego, Santa Monica, Sacramento or Los Angeles, check on the workshops page here for dates and how to book.

What will you get from the course?

You’ll get inspired, wrung dry, spurred on, started or re-started. This is a full-on writing day that will send you home with new 3D characters who have a past and – most importantly – a page-turning future. They may be minor players with plot-twisting roles to play, they may be fascinating villains or spellbinding protagonists. They may be lovable, charming, loathsome or comical… but they will nag at you and demand to be given life on the page.

You will end the day with a packet of techniques you can use every day to spark ideas for characters, their traits and quirks and flaws, as well as atmosphere, setting, props and catalysts.

You will have new writing buddies who could become your partners in crime (or romance, or fantasy…) to share mutual moans and be each other’s mentor and motivator – so valuable in the lonely process of writing.

Armed with all this, everything else you have learned will make sense and take shape – dialogue, pace, structure, themes… writing techniques that are essential but useless until you have those bestselling ideas.

*dingdingding* Come and get ’em!

NB Courses in the UK begin in March, and the week-long intensive retreat will be in Transylvania in September. 

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Got all your ideas for NaNoWriMo?

where do you get your ideas? all keyed up for NaNoWriMo
Mists and mellow fruitfulness – it’s the season for NaNoWriMo

It’s on the doorstep, howling to be let in. Forget about Hallowe’en tomorrow – it’s NaNoWriMoe’en…

Are you ready? Got your ideas lined up, got names for your characters and your setting? How about sub-plots and your supporting cast? Are your main characters rounded and complex, or do they feel like rice paper?

If you’re keyed up, your imagination might be locked up…

Some people are admitting to an excitement bordering on panic, which doesn’t help the flow of creativity we will all need in the next four weeks.

Here, on various pages, you’ll find help in conjuring up great names, settings, real life stories to plunder, images to inspire you, character quirks for your key people… All you might need is a tiny nudge to unlock a whole world.

Raid as much as you like, and feel free to share with your writing buddies. Open to all, no catches, no sign-ups – November is mutual help for authors month.

 [That’s not permission to filch, though – if you share it, do please share the credit, too!]

I’m going to be with you through the caffeine-fuelled, RSI-inducing month – my NaNoWriMo name is Abbs Pepper, so if you’d like another writing buddy, say hello.

Good luck! Happy scribbling! All power to your fingers…

 

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The place to get inspiration for your writing

English: Collage of photos of authors
Collage of authors (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Where do you get your ideas?”

This is the question most asked of writers, at conferences, book launches, festivals – wherever authors meet would-be authors.

For those who spit out ideas without really trying, it’s a tough question to answer – the ideas just come, usually too many of them to use.

If you’re itching to have a go at a novel or a screenplay, but can’t find an idea to fire you up, it’s frustrating to be told that ideas are everywhere. But don’t be fooled by writers who tell you the ideas are flocking like ants around honey. Long-established, successful, famous authors hit blocks too. Think of the agonising pressure on a best-selling writer whose Muse has shoved off; facing the blank page when the publisher is thumping a desk shouting ‘deadline!’ and the advance has been spent already…

Blocks happen at any stage. The central idea for the new book before a word is written; part-way through the book when the story runs out of steam; a hero who won’t co-operate; no hint of an ending; a good main plot but no subplots; wooden characters; horrible dialogue… the bear pits lurk on every page.

This site is devoted to showing you how to release your imagination from its cage, unblock the flow of ideas, and touch a spark to the blue paper of your creativity.

Now the metaphors are nicely mixed, my work here is done.

Tell me what you need, what you don’t want to be told, where you’re stuck and I’ll try to address your particular problems as best I can.

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