Writing Progress

Well the inspiration gleaned from the visit to the mine ruins is definitely working. I sat down this past week and have rewritten three chapters. I have been able to use photos I took on the day to describe scenes and events in the early stages of the book. I have found my characters more believable and have been able to work the principle of 'showing not telling' through the MS so far. I find myself being uber-critical though, chopping every adverb I see, when actually sometimes they are required. Also I am worried it is not pacy enough; are my characters people will care about?; Are my plotlines too complicated for 8-12 year olds?
However all this worrying and self critique aside I am writing again and that makes me smile lots and lots. I felt lost without being able to write and making the time has meant my house is a mess and I am pressed with my other jobs to do, however a good friend reminded me today that I should be writing because I am passionate about it and not allow the guilt that so easily pervades my thoughts to stop me. Writing should be a joy, a blessing and a balm for the soul in a world that is an ever increasing 'microwave' culture. Yes being published will mean deadlines and more pressure, but to enjoy being creative within that is a privilege I hope to enjoy one day. I am looking forward to the prospect of being published one day and all that may bring, but for now I can meander down the river of pleasure, enjoying creating and experiencing the new worlds and new characters, I am creating, exciting my spirit and stimulating my creative senses.

Creative Evolution

There has been a creative evolution for me over the past few days. It started when I visited some tin mine ruins nearRedruth, called Wheal Peevor, where I took over 60 photos of the ruins there. I had been looking for a place that would be the 'muse' for a few chapters in my book and this was it. I played around with sepia to age some of the photos and the whole place was fantastically atmospheric and there is brilliant light the further west in Cornwall one travels. There was also an abundance of gorse that was brilliant yellow in flower. In addition we had the wonderful experience of having the the place entirely to ourselves...breathtaking.
Following the photography on Wednesday I was inspired to do some sketching of a scene in my new sketch book from one of the photos, creating the detail of a scene from one of my many photos. I am not gifted at all in painting or drawing, but the experience was useful in rounding the scene in my head. I was able to add the original picture and text detailing the scene which was really brilliant to help me visualise the scene in my head too.
The final stage of the creative evolution at this point was the story mirror. I had two 99p IKEA mirrors sitting at home ready to be decorated. My little five year old daughter wanted to do to fairy mirror, which involved pink tissue paper, glitter and grasses from the garden! It was lovely doing this with her and it also inspired me to do something for myself. I used the time to create a mirror that had hints and images about the novel I am writing at the moment. I was able to use words, pictures, colour and texture to create a feature that will hang above my writing desk as a constant source of encouragement and inspiration. The next stage, which will begin this week, is to actually write from all this creativity and create the scenes in my head and change what I need to change. This has inspired me, raised my self confidence and made me believe that what I am writing is worth reading too. I have been inspired to write by being creative in other ways and it has been an exciting couple of days. I hope the mirror gives enough hints to raise an interest in the story behind it.

Creative Writing

I am in the middle of restructing a number of things about my book before I can continue writing it. I have changed character names and I am off later in the week to Wheal Peevor - ruins of mine workings site - to help me sort out some opening chapters that I am not totally happy with. This weekend my five year old daughter asked me to help her make a notebook, which I happily did, deciding to make myself one too. I am no artist, as the picture below proves, however this did give me the opportunity to visualise a character on paper and add details about them to it to help me develop my characters and details of the book. The character below is one of my villans and I was very pleased as my art attempt inspired a whole backstory which is written around the picture. I am hoping to add photos and maybe sketches of the mine workings to this sketch book as well as some of my central characters and places. Inspiration and motivation is coming in lots of diferent forms and I am feeling regenerated in my enthusiasm for my book again. The next stage will be chopping and changing chapter lengths as they are too long and full of adverbs! I have discovered that I use them quite a lot and need to look at my 'show not tell' pieces carefully. I will be writing new bits soon but feel I have to deal with these barriers before I can move on with it.