Maria Savva's Blog, page 70
March 18, 2009
Follow me on Twitter.com
It seems that Twitter.com has really taken off recently. When I was first invited to join by a friend, I wasn't really sure what the point was. For those of you who don't know what Twitter is I'll explain... Basically, you have a page on the site where you can leave short messages about what you are doing. The word count for these messages is very limited so you can only write a couple of lines at a time. I think the idea was that friends and family would be able to keep in touch with each other easily by brief updates. Now though, it seems that everyone has joined and it's turning into a bit of a craze! All the celebs are taking advantage of it to boost their profiles.
As well as people you know, once you are on the site, you do find that random people will start 'following' your updates. If you find anyone interesting on the site you can click a link to 'follow' them. It's a bit of fun, and for authors who want to get their names out there, I think it's a good website to join.
You can find me twittering at http://www.twitter.com/Maria_Savva
If you decide to join, please click the link to follow me :)
As well as people you know, once you are on the site, you do find that random people will start 'following' your updates. If you find anyone interesting on the site you can click a link to 'follow' them. It's a bit of fun, and for authors who want to get their names out there, I think it's a good website to join.
You can find me twittering at http://www.twitter.com/Maria_Savva
If you decide to join, please click the link to follow me :)
March 17, 2009
The art of writing...
I write novels and short stories and people are often asking me 'How did you think of that?' or 'How did you write that?'. So I thought I'd take the time to explain how I go about writing, although I'm sure all authors have different approaches.
I always start out with an idea for a book or short story, but then as I start writing I find that the creative process takes over and as the characters develop, the story unfolds more or less on its own without much effort on my part; I think this is all to do with the subconscious mind working away in the background.
I do think it is important to have an idea of how you want the story to progress and even to write a short plan before you start out to make sure that you don't just end up going nowhere with the story. I would imagine that most writers, me included, have a reason they want to write their particular novel or story - somthing they want to say - and so its important that the message you want to get across is not lost along the way. I usually write a very brief plan before I start writing my novels, about an A4 page, setting out what I envisage happening in the book and how it will end. I don't usually find I need to plan for my short stories; the idea is usually just in my head and then I start writing it and develop it as I go along.
I have found that although I can more or less stick to a plan for the first draft of a novel; the ending is usually different to what I had planned, as the story takes a different route along the way. I can usually write the bare bones of a novel in about 6 months and then I edit it until I'm happy with the manuscript; the editing process in my experience takes longer than writing the story itself, although I truly believe that a book is never 'finished' and it would be possible to edit it for ever and still find more things to change/add!
I always start out with an idea for a book or short story, but then as I start writing I find that the creative process takes over and as the characters develop, the story unfolds more or less on its own without much effort on my part; I think this is all to do with the subconscious mind working away in the background.
I do think it is important to have an idea of how you want the story to progress and even to write a short plan before you start out to make sure that you don't just end up going nowhere with the story. I would imagine that most writers, me included, have a reason they want to write their particular novel or story - somthing they want to say - and so its important that the message you want to get across is not lost along the way. I usually write a very brief plan before I start writing my novels, about an A4 page, setting out what I envisage happening in the book and how it will end. I don't usually find I need to plan for my short stories; the idea is usually just in my head and then I start writing it and develop it as I go along.
I have found that although I can more or less stick to a plan for the first draft of a novel; the ending is usually different to what I had planned, as the story takes a different route along the way. I can usually write the bare bones of a novel in about 6 months and then I edit it until I'm happy with the manuscript; the editing process in my experience takes longer than writing the story itself, although I truly believe that a book is never 'finished' and it would be possible to edit it for ever and still find more things to change/add!
