Crowvus Book Blog

 Well, I won NaNoWriMo, actually with three days still on the clock to complete. That means I’m being inventive with writing my words if I want to get all my badges and, in turn, that means that I’m getting this blog written. I’ve been meaning to write a NaNoWriMo blog all month (Virginia wrote one which is available here ) but I’m only just getting round to it on 28th November. I can’t share great words of wisdom, because I’m not a great researcher like Ginny is, but I can tell you that this is the first time I have ever – ever, mark you – completely pantsed a novel. Here’s how it happened… Before NaNoWriMo comes Preptober, and I took it seriously this year. I came up with this idea of “Me: A 50 Piece Jigsaw”. This would be the story of a girl whose dad dies and so she joins the circus (or, more precisely, the fairground) whilst realising that she’s actually psychic. Oh, and there’s this villainous doctor in the shadows who is trying to “cure” people of psychic-ness and her friend...

 Yesterday was Lord of the Rings Day. Every January, we sit down for an entire day and watch the three Lord of the Rings films back-to-back. And that's the extended versions. It's a perfect way to spend a January Saturday, when Christmas is over and before the gardening season truly begins and you feel bad for being inside! I thought yesterday, as I was crying at the Fellowship of the Ring, that I would do a blog post about Boromir and how he's actually a pretty awesome character. Then I thought, when I opened Blogger to write, that all of the Fellowship play important roles, and there's someone there who would appeal to everyone. So, in this 9 part series on characters, let's take each of the Fellowship and discuss the role they play in the story. What's their character arc? What's their purpose? You never know - it might teach us a thing or two about designing our own characters. WARNING: This contains spoilers. Obviously! The first one we're going to ...

During this coronavirus craziness, it can seem almost impossible to remember the places we've been to. We have a slideshow of photographs which come up on our computer and looking at them now is like seeing a different world. Isn't that how it is with writing anyway? We find a place which speaks to us and, not only while we're there but every time our imagination transports us back, we move into another world. Invariably, because of the genre I write, I head back to another time, too. Bear with me as I take you on a little journey through a few of the places which have brought me great inspiration... 1 - The Big Burn, Golspie I don't know how many times we'd driven past the little sign for The Big Burn. It's an oddly insignificant little walk, but there is a waterfall there which you can walk up and over. Standing back a little bit, on that first walk we took there, I was struck by how strangely human it looked. The picture above was how I first met t...

Editing One of the things that is a real privilege about being from a family of writers is having the opportunity to read raw, unedited first drafts. There is something very exciting about how those first thoughts and forays into a deep, rich imagination make the transition from brain to paper (or screen). I’m told that I’m bad for laughing at the mistakes that people make, and a first draft is always a great opportunity to do that too! The best example was almost certainly one of my own: High Fantasy novel I wrote as a child/teenager/young adult: The king was returning from a big battle and about to enter the capital city with his annihilated army. Naturally, he was concerned, so he said, “how can I tell them that their sons and fathers will be returning?” So, since then, I’ve been known for missing out “not”s in sentences. Of course, when you have passed that exciting First Draft Stage and you’re beginning to look at preparing the book for going out into the wider wor...

Day 6 - Writing Relationships Photo by  Git Stephen Gitau  from  Pexels Relationships are tricky – not just in real life, but in writing as well. We essentially have a relationship of some description with everyone that we meet – and certainly anyone that we meet more than once. I was shopping in Tesco during the October holidays and spoke with so many people I knew – ranging from current pupils to one of the conductors on the train which was a part of my commute eighteen months ago. These relationships can be difficult to recreate in literature. We tend to dwell on the meaningful, and they are tricky enough! But how often are we writers guilty of neglecting those people who are important ‘friendly faces’? When I’m writing established relationships, I tend to make it all about inference. Think about introducing, if appropriate, a nickname for one of the characters. Or what are you inferring if the teenager in your YA manuscript calls their parents by their f...

Day 5 - Your Target Audience It's Day 5 of NaNoWriMo, and I'm still keeping my word count on target. Ok, so I didn't do well yesterday, but I made up for it today so I'm still on track to finish on the 30th November. So...your target audience... From Pexels You want people to like your writing, don't you? Everyone likes different types of writing but, fortunately for us authors, readers tend to fall into categories. These could be age related (middle grade or young adult) or genre related (fantasy or romance). Because readers tend to conform to one of many groups, it makes writing for them a lot easier. If you're writing a romance novel, you should know that people who enjoy reading romance books will be expecting a happy ending, at least for our star couple. If you don't give the reader what they are wanting, this could end in dissatisfied customers or bad reviews. When you're writing, think about who you'd like to read your book...

Monday 4 th November 2019 – Settings and Locations: Part One - Buildings A sense of place is imperative in a story.   After all, we all love to belong.   This is the first of three blogs on the theme of Settings and Locations, and this one will be looking at buildings. This is the trickiest blog I’ve written so far, mostly because this is an enormous topic, and there’s so much to cram into one blog! Wanderford Hall was an ancient building of stone, lined internally with brightly polished wooden panels. The floor was made of thick wooden boards that had been reclaimed from the destruction of the Catholic church in the village some two hundred years earlier. The entrance hall was overlooked by an enormous painting of the Battle of Bosworth Field, in which his ancestor had fought. Its very presence stood contrary to his father’s puritanical beliefs, but he had been unwilling to paint over it and lose a part of his heritage. The wooden staircase radiated with th...

Sunday 3 rd November 2019 – The Writer’s Desk Photo by  Frans Van Heerden  from  Pexels I’m a person who loves my own space.   That being said, I’m anything but a “neat-freak”.   I’ve never managed to find a writing space which will work for all my books.   Sometimes, I’ll sit alone in a quiet room, other times I write with my two sisters and we’ll put out inspirational Spotify playlist on.   And on some occasions, I’ll give up on the laptop altogether and write by hand. The most important thing I’ve found is that I’m flexible with where I write.   No two books are the same, so why should two writing desks be any different.   Here are a few staples I tend to rely on, though: Always have a pen or pencil to hand – even if the majority of your writing is done on a laptop, you can never underestimate the number of times you’ll need to jot down notes to ideas, from a character’s age, to a major plot twist. Food! Eating ...

Friday 1 st November 2019 - Beginnings No matter what anyone tells you, your beginning is spectacularly important. No pressure or anything, but if a reader doesn’t gel with your first line, your second must be amazing.   The general rule of thumb is, the further a reader is expected to go to find the story, the easier it will be to lose them. Starting a book can seem a bit like a rocky, uphill struggle - but it's worth it! One of the most well-known beginnings: In the beginning was the word It’s difficult to rival that one! But it’s a statement of truth (let’s leave fact out of it, as most of use NaNoWriMo writers are in the business of fiction), and that’s what most of my first lines are. Petrovia Lodge was all that could be expected of a country house for a family of a not inconsiderable income. Day’s Dying Glory In a country at peace, men of war are confined to their homes and families. Beneath Black Clouds and White The springy hea...