It’s a magic moment really. The moment when the manuscript you wrote with such excitement, the characters you thought were so fabulous, the conflict you just knew was SO different, the story you lovingly crafted into a work of art, suddenly turns to crap in the space of a second. Something silly might have triggered … Continue reading “The Magic Moment”
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Checkmate
Yep, my chess player has finally been checkmated. Thank God. Here’s a snapshot of some ms stats: *Number of times entire ms rewritten – 3*Number of times beginning rewritten – 6*Size of ‘deleted scenes’ folder – 227k*Number of times hero/heroine conflict changed – 3 *Number of times I wanted to kill hero/heroine – 20*Number of … Continue reading “Checkmate”
When Your Hero is a Complete *$%#&#
Okay, I’m admitting this up front – I love a good b*stard. I really, really do. I like reading about them and I loooove writing them. There’s is something very satisfying about a sexy, arrogant SOB who gets his comeuppance at the hands of the heroine. The powerful, autocratic alpha male brought down by some … Continue reading “When Your Hero is a Complete *$%#&#”
Jackie Lays the Blame
So there I was, nursing my disappointments, holding on to them really tightly. And feeling tired and burned out and like it was all too hard. And I was doing really well, had my ‘giving up’ speech all prepared, the towel fully ready to be thrown in. And then some wretched people decided to write … Continue reading “Jackie Lays the Blame”
The Ten Percent
This was meant to be a fabulous motivational post for but since this week has been disappointing writing-wise, I’ve kind of lost any motivational type attitude. Not that I had much to start with. This year has been a hell of a year. Lots of very, very hard stuff to deal with. Lots of hard … Continue reading “The Ten Percent”
In Which Jackie Waves a Big Stick
It’s always the way. You come back from holiday and life kind of descends on you like the 1000 tonne ACME weight descends on the coyote from Roadrunner. Actually, I shouldn’t complain (though I am, obviously), because spending four days down in Queenstown, in a beautiful hotel, isn’t something to complain about. It’s just the … Continue reading “In Which Jackie Waves a Big Stick”
The Joy of Rewrites
It should come as no surprise to any of you that my approach to writing is rather emotional (I approach the rest of life rather emotionally as well, not just writing but that’s an entirely different story).So when something is wrong with a story, EVERYTHING else is wrong too. The kids are a nuisance, the … Continue reading “The Joy of Rewrites”
Crash
It was inevitable. What goes up must, at some stage, go down. Yeah, the drug that was the character high has now worn off. Big time. Everything is as it was – crap. Oh, not entire crap because I still have had that great character revelation and I still feel good about it. I just … Continue reading “Crash”
Epic Moments – The Joys of Pantsing
Do you ever have moments when the scene you’re writing suddenly becomes epic? When you know absolutely that THIS scene is a pivotal moment in your book? A scene that totally makes the rest of the story? A scene that is so powerful that you just know you’re gonna have to rewrite the rest of … Continue reading “Epic Moments – The Joys of Pantsing”
Nothing to Say So Here’s a Picture of a Man Instead
Iam feeling generally unenthused about everything at the moment, most especially writing. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I always write. Every day, mostly. But the writing has become a bit of a battle lately and nothing’s going right. So to save you all from a fantastic vent, I am posting a nice pic of a … Continue reading “Nothing to Say So Here’s a Picture of a Man Instead”