Paula R.C. Readman's Blog, page 18

Now Autumn is Upon Us.

I’m desperate to get back to my writing as I plan to write one book a year. Of course, publishers and readers expect you to churn them out. Maybe two or three, if you are writing a series, but I can’t do that. I’m a perfectionist and need time to think, to get to know my characters individually, and to know what makes them tick. I need to let the storyline develop enough to uncover things I might not have thought of straightaway. I have a fear that after the book or story is completed, something I didn’t think of earlier will pop into my head afterwards.

Stories that aren’t well-thought-out and characters underdeveloped will be cursed by the reader. We need to remember the stories we have created in our heads might not be the ones we have put down on paper. We might think we truly know our characters, but do we?

If you rush a book just to get to the finish line, you may not give yourself time to think things through. You need to get the first draft down so you have something to work with, but the first draft isn’t the finished book. Whether you’re an artist working with pencil and paper or a writer at a keyboard, you need to sketch out your idea. Create a theme to tell a story. As an artist, you’ll need to find the right composition for your picture. So it is the same for a writer.

Finding the right artistic arrangement of all the elements for your painting or story takes time. Sketching out your ideas, whether in a thumbnail or as an outline, allows you to play around and find the right storyline or composition for your painting. You don’t want to waste valuable time having to rework the finished painting or story.

Writing a short synopsis allows the writer to play around with the main characters, the theme, the setting, etc. Who has the best point of view to carry the story forward? Once the first draft is written, you will know whether your choice has worked. I rewrote one of my novels three times to find the most suitable POV. It’s also a good time to make sure your plot line is strong enough. Is there enough tension between the characters?

Artists used thumbnail sketches in the same way. They helped to find out whether their idea for the painting would work. Artists need to know where their light source is coming from to create shadows and tones in the right areas of the painting. Getting this right, suddenly a flat surface becomes a three-dimensional piece of art.

It’s the same in writing. Once you have created the right tone for your story, your readers forget that the world you’ve drawn them into is fictional.

The problem I’m currently facing is overcoming a stumbling block. I know who my characters are, the main backstory for the two timelines I’m working on, and what the theme of the story is about. The sticky problem I’m encountering is how to smoothly transition from one timeline to the other. I’m not satisfied with the idea I currently have because I’m worried the readers might become confused if it’s difficult for them to understand what’s happening, where, and when.

Back to the drawing board.

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A Gaelic Writer.

More from my trip to Scotland for the Indie Book Festival. The first speaker on Saturday 9th September 2023 was the award winning Gaelic children’s author, Ceitidh Hutton. Ceitidh also writes English contemporary fiction, with a sprinkling of Gaelic and Scottish humour in them. She was short listed in a Gaelic Literature Award for an unpublished manuscript, ‘ S toigh leam slug salach.’ 

Ceitidh Hutton

Ceitidh chatted about her latest work including her fourth book in her Gaelic Grumpa Series, Nollagig Grumpa. This series of books are suitable for children and adults alike are written in Gaelic are colourful fun tales about a grumpy but kind-hearted character, Grumpa and his grandson.

Both Ceitidh and I are dyslexic, though Ceitidh is also dyspraxia. She registered with the Scottish Book Live Literary Program, and is the Runaire/secretary for the Society of Authors in Scotland and also a member of the Alliance of independent authors.

Ceitidh chatted to us about her latest works, where she finds her inspiration, and about her life on her island home of the Orkney.

I always enjoy meeting other writers, especially when I click with them straight away. Ceitidh and I have more than our writing in common. At the moment, I’m in the middle of reading her book “Blas,” so once I’ve finished, I shall post a review here.

Last night a storm rolled in. Heavy rain and strong winds. Luckily both of my cats, Willow and Brutus came in early. I laid in bed reading feeling safe and relaxed knowing they were sleeping peaceful in the house with me.

Chat again soon.

How Not to Write a Novel.

I said I would never write a blog post about how to write a novel, but the problem is, I’m both a reader and a novelist. These two go hand in hand. To be a good writer, one has to be well-read. You just can’t read a couple of books and think you know how to write a novel. Writing a novel is far more complicated than just putting down words. Writing involves a lot of thinking, planning, rewriting, and, most of all, editing until you’re sick of your story.
Like building a house, you need a good foundation. What I mean is you need to start with a great storyline. What is your story going to be about? Which of your characters is going to be the main character? Whose point of view is going to carry the story forward? These are some of the questions you as the author will need to answer before putting the first word down.

Remember, the most important thing is to hook your readers and carry them off into your world of make-believe. Once your reader opens your book, you have complete control of their thoughts. You want them under your spell. Anything that snaps the reader out of the illusion you have created means you’ve lost control of their mind.

While in Pickering, North Yorkshire, I picked up a new book from the Pickering Book Tree bookshop. What drew me to the paperback was first the title and then the cover.

Okay, so selecting a novel purely because the name “Moat” appears in your family tree is a bit crazy, but I did read the blurb. An abandoned place, haunted by secrets, I found intriguing. I knew nothing about the author, but after a quick Google search, I found out that the author was born in Kent, and this was her debut novel published by Chronos Publishing in October 2023. Yes, I guess you have spotted it. I bought the book in September, and it wasn’t released until October.

Moat Hill Hall is told from the first-person point of view, but it jumps around quite a bit from one character to another. At times, this became confusing, along with the jump in the timeline. The author tried to clarify this by using chapters to show a shift in time, but then a few paragraphs down she jumped back into the present. This meant I lost the plot, and I couldn’t get things clear in my head. (Yes, that might just be me.) I did understand the author was trying to give the reader the backstory of the house, but it added to the confusion.

I was a hundred pages into the novel and still not settling into the flow of the narration, and this was worrying me. After another forty-odd pages, the wordiness of sentences, misspellings, and paragraph constructions started to jar me out of the book. As for the mystery and secrets, I began losing interest and starting to wonder if the book had been self-published.

There isn’t anything wrong with being self-published as long as the book has been professionally edited. There are three stages to editing.

Structural editing: Here the focus is on the overall plot of the story. Does it work? Is there enough tension building up to the centre of the book, which drives the reader to keep turning the pages? Check the timeline, develop characters, expand or tighten scenes, clarify details, and maybe delete unnecessary wordiness, scenes, or dialogue.Copy edit: Here the focus is on line-by-line editing. After a structural editing, you need to check the changes you have made. Once again, you are checking for unnecessary wordiness, spelling mistakes and typos. Proofreading: Here the focus is a read-through of the complete novel checking that nothing is missing, no mistakes, no typos and everything flows. Pay careful attention to the opening paragraph. Will it hook the reader? Check the ending. Does it tie up all the loose endings?A final read-through by someone else may give you some unexpected pointers before you submit it to an agent or publisher if you aren’t going down the self-publishing route.

A quick Google of the publisher of Moat Hill Hall told me all I needed to know. Their Submission Guideline stated: “Please note – whilst we will accept submissions, we will not publish any manuscript that has not been professionally edited, proofread and formatted. Whilst we do not expect all submissions to have been through this process, there will be costs associated with this, if we agree to publish the work, that the author will be liable for.”

Chronos Publishing is merely a printer. They print your book as it is. You need to ensure that your manuscript has been fully professionally edited because they won’t be spending time or money on this. The expense firmly rests on the shoulders of the author.

Another confusion in Moat Hill Hall was the fact that the author used the same name for two characters: Ralph Evans, the owner of Moat Hill Hall, whose deceased wife was Alice, while the main character Rosie Rudley’s friend was also named Alice. Whenever Rosie mentioned seeing Alice or Alice appeared in the book i.e. “Is that you, Alice?” Rose called. I thought the ghost of the deceased wife had made an appearance. Moreover, the eyebrows in the novel have minds of their own and perform astonishing tricks, as depicted in the picture below.

I’ve underlined the part. Just so you’re clear April Ralph’s wife is speaking here.

All I can say is that I’m disappointed by the book. I continued reading it in the hope that I could leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads, but it was so poorly written that I couldn’t. There’s nothing positive I can say about it, apart from the fact that it has a lovely cover. The mystery and secrets the blurb talks about seemed to have been left in the author’s head. The plot quickly fell apart and lost its intrigue. I think the author is a lover of classic Victorian romantic novels. Her writing style was too much “tell” and not enough “show”. Even the Victorian writers had more tension in their romantic scenes, whereas Moat Hill Hall’s felt flat.

If you want to know how NOT to write a novel then this is the book to read.

I guess, if I’ve created a positive outcome for the author from my review it will be a rush to buy her book for a learning curve on how to write better.

Keep on writing, reading and dreaming.

A spider on the move

I love spiders. Here’s a sweet harmless garden spider. These creatures create the recognisable spider web. They takes 30 to 60 minutes to create one and we destroy them in seconds.
While clearing my garden at the weekend I came across many of them and recorded this one when I placed it in an area I wasn’t clearing.

Today I’m busy painting.

How To Listen

Listening is an art. If we listen carefully to what is being said we have a better understanding of the conversation. Sometimes we are in too much of a hurry to get our point across that we don’t take in what’s being said.

When to listen.

I was blown away by a comment I received on my Instagram page about a podcast of a short story of mine. Two years ago, one of my short story Chimes at Midnight was accepted by Tony Walker for his Classic Ghost Story podcast.

Chimes at Midnight has been listened to over 18k times on Tony’s YouTube account. It’s such a delights to know others enjoy hearing him read my story as much as I do. Here’s the comment I received. Elizabeth first commented on the Meme above, and then tied it in with listening to my short story.

Gothic Tale brings happiness

Just knowing others are still discovering my short story on Tony’s podcast channel is wonderful, especially as it makes them want to hunt out more of my other works.

Chimes at Midnight is in my mind an amazing story in itself. The tale most or less wrote itself from the opening line. By the time I scribbled down the last line it read too much like a poem. I knew I had to change it. There are elements of the original draft of the story still at play within the final draft.

I do hope you will check the podcast out. click on this Link . It will give you a taste of my writing.

Thank you for reading my blog. Have a brilliant day.

The secret to a happy, and stress-free life is to unlock your creative soul. Be it painting, writing or photography or one of the many crafts available be creative.

Chat again soon.

Another great review.

Review are always welcome. Even negative views are welcome as far as I’m concerned. Please let me explain. Not everyone will enjoy my dark tales. As long as the reviewer is being honest in their review and have taken the time to write down their opinions on the plot line, characters , setting etc then I’m happy. Just a couple of lines are fine by me.

As a writer, I have done my best when creating my dark tales and have edited the manuscript along, with the publisher. I know reading is down to personal taste so there’s always a chance that my tales aren’t dark enough for some gothic readers.

Have positive reviews is wonderful, but a nice mixture of honest reviews isn’t all bad, as it shows your work is being well-read across the board. Of course, we authors do want positive feedback as a reward for all our hard work.

Here’s my latest review of my new book.

Thank you for your support.

Reviews are always welcome

Dreams

Night Dreams can be a source of inspiration for your writing as your mind unlocks your most inner thoughts, but only if you can remember them. It’s why all new writers are told to keep a notebook by their bed. Many of the world’s greatest writers have had inspiration hit them while in the arms of Morpheus. Lucky for us, they were able to remember them and used them when creating their books.

Henry Fuseli The Nightmare (1781)

Dreams are supposed to have meanings, and there are plenty of books available to help you make sense of your dreams, especially if you want to dig deeper by unpicking their meanings. I, for one, don’t believe dreams have meanings. Dreams are just your brain defragmenting your unconscious mind for all the useless information it has gathered during the day. Your brain is sorting and storing it in different areas to make it easier to recall should we need it.

I’m more of a keeper-dreamer. What I mean is, some people don’t remember, like my husband, while I can recall my dreams in vivid detail. My ex-husband used to say, “You don’t have dreams but have epics,” as I retold my dream from the night before to him. As a small child, I recall my grandmother explaining that I need not fear night dreams, that they couldn’t hurt me, as she held me close after waking me from a bad dream.

The other night, I dreamt about my mother. She left us many years ago after spending her final years in a nursing home. She was unable to walk as her health went into decline. In my dream, she had informed me that she had joined a gym.

This is my favourite photo of my mother.

The strangest thing about the dream was my acceptance of her statement when I said, “Mum, you look amazing,” as she came over to greet me on my arrival at her community, an upscale retirement complex. A tidy estate of lovely homes with wide streets surrounded by trees and landscaped gardens. There was something fresh, bright, and alive about the place. The smiling, nodding faces of the array of people as they passed by Mum and me made me feel relaxed. Mum took my hand and excitedly told me she had joined the gym, and her coach was pleased with her progress.

‘The coach says I will be able to run my own classes soon,’ Mum said with a beaming smile.

‘That’s amazing,’ I said, unable to take in the brightness of her smile. The mother I knew would sit watching TV all day until the white dot appeared in the centre of the screen. Bingo and TV were once her only passions.

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‘I’m off to the library to get some new books. Come with me,’ she said taking my hand. ‘I really enjoy reading these days.’

Once again, I’m in a bright, new library with my mother, but this time I am watching her choose books. The shelves are filled with books by classic writers, but I do not see any modern writers at all. As my mother’s book selections are being scanned, I seize the opportunity to speak to the librarian.

‘I’m a published author,’ I said, reaching into my bag for one of my business cards. As I pulled one out, I noticed my book covers were missing and my details weren’t right, but I handed it to the librarian. ‘Maybe I could do a talk on my writing journey for your community,’ I suggested.

The librarian studies my card for a moment before meeting my eyes. With a smile, she said,. ‘I’m sorry, but we can’t accept your books here, because you’re not dead.’

‘Not dead, I’m not dead,’ I said, turning to my mother who faded before me.

At that point, I woke up. Heaven wasn’t quite as I imagined it to be, but everything did have a crisp white feel to it. Lots of happy people dressed in white or pale colours, doing healthy activities in a beautiful garden. At least I knew my mother was happy there.

Maybe I will be able to use this dream in some way, or just the emotions that it created in me as its narrative unfolded. The sense of being able to speak to my mother, share in her happiness, the sense of peace it gave me, or even the sharing of a personal, positive moment with her in a beautiful setting.

Have a great day, and keep on writing.

The Long Journey

On Leaving Essex to travel up to Helmsdale in the highlands of Scotland, we knew was going to take us a few days. First of all, we had never done such a long journey before so it was a bit of an adventure. The sat-nav my sister had lent us for our trip came in handy. The first part of the journey north was familiar as the route we took was the same when travelling to Whitby, North Yorkshire. But soon the landscape began to change.

Dunnet Head: An old Mill.

Growing up next to a working mill in Essex I had to stop and take a photo of this building. To me it looked to have the same stance as the water mill where my father worked in the 1970’s

Molusham Mill in Essex.

There were many ruins of crofts, and buildings I wished we could have stopped to explored but unfortunately our time was short.

On Friday 8th September, in the evening, we listened to Glyn F. Salisbury talking about his writing journey and how his father had inspired his interest in writing. Glyn and I met online after he joined my online writing group in 2017. I set up the For Writers Only Clubhouse in 2016 after my friend Nicky suggested I would be good at running a Facebook writing group. For Writers Only is more of an online magazine rather than a group. Its a place to find interesting articles, chat, share information or anything to do with books, writing or the publishing world.

Glyn set up his physical writing group in his café as a place where like-minded people could meet and talk about books and writing. He would share with me his book news in my online group and send a copy of his book ‘Treading a Dark Path to me. Glyn and I had never met in the real world but had chatted a couple of times over the Internet. During this time, he had gone through a difficult time after his wife had passed away and the closure of his café. Glyn and I joked about me joining his writing group, but as he lived in the highlands of Scotland, and I in the south of England that was impossible. To allow me to attend one of his writing group meetings Glyn created a spiritual me as you can see in the picture below in 2017. He even provides a glass of wine and a notebook. As you can well imagine it was lovely for me to finally meet up with Glyn and Carolyn in the real world.

Carolyn and IGlyn and I

In his presentation, Glyn shared the story behind his adventure series, R.U.N.E. It consists of three books, totalling over 250,000 words. Additionally, he mentioned a standalone fourth book, Beneath Loch Ness, which is connected to the trilogy. He also discussed his book, The Wrath of Wick, which sparked the inspiration for his nine-part Warlock Saga. Glyn also gave us an insight into how he designed his book covers.

Glyn is an author who gives talks and readings from his books to the residents in the local nursing homes as well as running his own writing group. Hopefully, Russell and I will be able to return to Scotland and attend another book festival in the not-to-distant future in person again.

Welcome, it’s a New Blog

This is going to take a while to find my footing again. I have a lot to share with you, but I’m not too sure where to start. My husband and I have just come back from a week and a half traveling around the north of England and Scotland.

Though the journey was long we were able to do it in stages as we travelled up from Essex. First we stayed with my niece in Scunthorpe for a night and then we headed in to Scotland to stay with our friend, Dave. He had just bought a wonderful home in Crail, Fife. The harbour was picturesque with amazing sea birds, and seals swimming.

Crail Harbour, ScotlandOur Journey to Scotland

After staying a night with Dave we continued our journey to Helmsdale. Helmsdale was another wonderful small fishing port. Russell and I were booked into a hotel close to Scotland’s Indie Book Festival. We arrived at Helmsdale in time to hear Barbara Stevenson talk about her work. Her writing is full of musical references. Now she’s busy writing her fourth book in a series of Neolithic whodunits set in Orkney (The Maran Mysteries) She explained to us how she’s including music in these books as Neolithic people used drums within festivals and funerals by beating a rhythmic tune as the people walked along. Barbara also writes dark fantasy and supernatural horror set on a fictional North Sea island where time plays tricks.

Barbara Stevenson aka B.K. Bryce with her sister

Must stop writing now, I shall share more tomorrow with you.

Welcome to my new blog. Keep on writing and reading

Busy getting my mind in order

Now the summer is fading into autumn it is time to get back to the keyboard and start working on my Granny Wenlock novel.