The good news is that since Monday I have exceeded my weekly minimum 500 words. Now I just have to keep with it.
I did 382 words on the novella, and am now ready to tackle the next scene, bringing my hero and heroine back into close proximity; after a short chapter where they weren't together, but the hero was there in the discussion that took place...
I'd intended to get on with that scene, but I had to get this other story out of my brain. I really couldn't write a scene between one couple, when another pair were telling me about their history.
Some characters have less patience than others...
So I decided to write the notes down in whatever order they came out- settings, back story, snippets of dialogue, secondary characters and important moments all mixed together.
As the story is set around Christmas and there is a snow involved, it was useful to be able to sit at my desk and look out of my office window, watching the snow fall, noting the movement and appearance on different surfaces.
In less than two hours I'd added 880 words to my total. And my brain is now clear to get on with the Nottinghamshire novella, while my subconscious continues cogitating this Christmas story.
It's always bothered me that whenever I start to write what I intend to be a short story, or a piece of flash fiction, I get to the end and it has turned into a scene from something that needs to be so much longer to be right...
But I've decided there's no point worrying about it. I'm grateful that I have enough ideas to choose from for when my current project is completed. And unless I make a concentrated effort to stick with one story, I won't get anywhere, so I mustn't let myself get side-tracked as I have before.
So week one of my new plan has been a success- so far...
Total: 1,262.
Carol Bevitt's blog on her writing and inspirations, along with occasional literature related news...
Saturday 19 January 2013
Thursday 17 January 2013
Those Moments of Indecision...
This week is passing quickly, and I'm only just getting back into routine.
I've completed 75% of my weekly writing total, and I'm now at a scene in my Nottinghamshire novella that takes some thought in how I proceed with it.
Writing modern romance there would be no problem about the hero being in the heroine's bedroom, but even in innocent extenuating circumstances it was an issue back in the early 19th century.
Likewise, I'm trying to walk a line between the acceptability of conduct in the country, compared to that of society in the town; and the difference there is between the conduct of a lady of noble birth and a young woman of good (but just comfortable) family - without a personal maid, or someone who can be called upon to go with her when she ventures out of the home.
If you live in a small village now, then you probably know quite a few people by name, and others perhaps only by sight.
A couple of centuries ago everyone would probably know who was who, so any seen transgression would soon be known about - and probably the subject of gossip.
In public it's relatively easy to have your characters conform to social conventions - in introductions the social 'inferior' is introduced to the person of higher status, not the other way round...
I have a facsimile reprint of the 1737 book, 'The Rudiments of Genteel Behaviour' by Francis Nivelon, and it has some plates of basic figures with a brief description - I can safely say from this instruction I could perform a reasonable curtsy. :-)
There's even an instruction for placing your hands when dancing a Minuet.
Which reminds me of an article I saw in one of the online newspapers last night that you may like to hear about.
"Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice will be turning - gracefully - 200 years old this month. To celebrate the BBC are screening a 90-minute recreation inspired by the book’s great event, the Netherfield Ball. Pride and Prejudice: Having A Ball at Easter aims provide a detailed look into the parties of the period." (Telegraph)
When I was in primary school, our winter PE lessons consisted of country dancing, and I now realise that many of those dances we did then would have been the same or similar to those danced all that time ago...
As to my writing problem, I'm just going to write it and let protocol come round in the editing process...
I've completed 75% of my weekly writing total, and I'm now at a scene in my Nottinghamshire novella that takes some thought in how I proceed with it.
Writing modern romance there would be no problem about the hero being in the heroine's bedroom, but even in innocent extenuating circumstances it was an issue back in the early 19th century.
Likewise, I'm trying to walk a line between the acceptability of conduct in the country, compared to that of society in the town; and the difference there is between the conduct of a lady of noble birth and a young woman of good (but just comfortable) family - without a personal maid, or someone who can be called upon to go with her when she ventures out of the home.
If you live in a small village now, then you probably know quite a few people by name, and others perhaps only by sight.
A couple of centuries ago everyone would probably know who was who, so any seen transgression would soon be known about - and probably the subject of gossip.
In public it's relatively easy to have your characters conform to social conventions - in introductions the social 'inferior' is introduced to the person of higher status, not the other way round...
I have a facsimile reprint of the 1737 book, 'The Rudiments of Genteel Behaviour' by Francis Nivelon, and it has some plates of basic figures with a brief description - I can safely say from this instruction I could perform a reasonable curtsy. :-)
There's even an instruction for placing your hands when dancing a Minuet.
Which reminds me of an article I saw in one of the online newspapers last night that you may like to hear about.
"Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice will be turning - gracefully - 200 years old this month. To celebrate the BBC are screening a 90-minute recreation inspired by the book’s great event, the Netherfield Ball. Pride and Prejudice: Having A Ball at Easter aims provide a detailed look into the parties of the period." (Telegraph)
When I was in primary school, our winter PE lessons consisted of country dancing, and I now realise that many of those dances we did then would have been the same or similar to those danced all that time ago...
As to my writing problem, I'm just going to write it and let protocol come round in the editing process...
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