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.

Rollercoaster return to Blogland

I am sorry for not blogging for a long time (most of August actually) but it is amazing how little time I have had despite a desperately wet summer holiday. This past week or so has been roller coasting a bit for me for a number of reasons.
I have managed to develop a new strand of plotline for my novel which is exciting and adds a little more sci-fi to an historical novel. The picture shown was one of those I have used for visualising the first chapter of the book. (It is Wheal Coates engine house at St Agnes for anyone interested). I have made some progress and hope to get going on it this week. However I need to make more time to develop it all so I am planning a time management strategy...sad but true.

I then have a had a strange email conversation with an editor at a Christian Publishing house about the activity club material I wrote on Daniel. I had sent my synopsis in early July and had had no more, assumed it was a non-starter, then got an email on Friday asking to see the full material for day one. really excited so sent that off by email as requested, then this morning got what sounded like a rejection letter, saying the material did not fit their current list etc. Quite deflated but picked myself up and went to help our new pastor and his family move into their home. Four hours and fish and chips later I come back to my PC to fina another email saying that our emails must have been at crossed purposes and that the company are appointing a new CEO and he/she may decide to review the mediums they publish. So I think it means they may not be finished with my stuff yet. Left feeling a little bemused but cautious about being too hopeful.

Also Kat and I begin a new venture this month called the Bodmin Bookworm, aiming to encourage creative writing through schools and linking them together as a 'virtual' after school club at school, home and the local library. Kat's sister has designed the logo and I am now on the case to get publicity on the go. Kat is going to be the editorial manager for the blog so once it is up and running and I am sure we will both be signposting you all to look at it.

I guess we keep writing and exploring. I have been inspired and encouraged to hear how Debs and Karen have got stories accepted for magazines and clever Cal has got an agent, there is hope for me yet too. Well done ladies, great job