Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "plots"

What does a writer take on holiday? Some might say nothing to do with writing, if it is supposed to be a holiday. Away for nearly a month, driving around the north of England and Scotland, the first essentials were clothes of every description to cater for any kind of weather. Then the other essentials, cameras to record our travels, including card readers and battery chargers, kindle, knitting and a bag of toys (electronic) to keep the rest of the party occupied while I wrote.
Fresh air, walking, seeing new cites and remote rural areas, meeting interesting people and getting inspiration for settings and characters, all important ingredients of a trip.
At a secluded cottage one can pretend to be a writer who has cut themselves off from the world. But with the right equipment an author can write anywhere.
Take a clockwork lap top and at least one memory stick with the current novel and all other writing. If wi fi is available the blog can also be kept up to date.
Always have a notebook handy for those pleasant times when the sun shines as you sit by the river with your coffee, or on the cathedral green with afternoon tea.
Take the paper manuscript of the novel in progress; if the electronics fail you can read, edit, check the plot lines…
Did I do all these things? Yes.
I downloaded photographs every day onto the lap top ready for my website and Facebook and when rain or mist descended I typed up the notes scribbled in the sunshine.
I’ve edited my novel and knitted a scarf for a family member visited on the way home.
Of course the other advantage of taking manuscripts, paper and electronic... if one should arrive home to discover the house blown up in a gas leak or flattened by a meteorite, at least the writing has been preserved.
Luckily our house was still standing when we returned.
And did the driver complain that I had taken too many bags on holiday? Yes.

You can see some pictures of places visited on my website; in the picture quiz and in Beachwriter’s Blog.

http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapter...

When we stayed for a week in a cottage in a secluded cove, I was glad to discover there was no reception for mobile phones, nor was there a land line in the cottage. At the very top of the cliff, if you held your phone high in the air, you could be lucky and get reception. A peaceful place for a holiday and proof for writers that there are still settings where mobile phones cannot be used; where characters can escape without being traced or where persons in peril cannot call for help.
The plots of crime fiction, spy thrillers and romances changed for ever when mobile phones became ubiquitous. No running along dark lonely roads or knocking on strange doors to fetch help, a quick call on your mobile and an air ambulance or armed response unit could be with you in minutes. No wonder authors enjoy putting their heroes and villains in spots where there is no mobile reception.
But you can’t always trust your characters. Reading through the third draft of the third novel in my trilogy, I realised several of my leading characters, in several scenes, had casually used their mobile phones when they knew perfectly well there has never been any mobile phone reception at Holly Tree Farm. Some minor plot changes were needed for the fourth draft.
Proof reading and editing the manuscript of one’s novel is not just about lost commas, the wrong ‘their, there and they’re’ and ‘from’ turning to ‘form’ when you’re not looking. Whether you work on the computer or from a paper manuscript, continuity is just as important as on a film set. Robertson or Robinson, Thomas or Thompson, Sean or Shaun? Minor characters have no regard for accuracy and frequently change their Christian and surnames from chapter to chapter. On to the fifth draft….
But ‘Lives of Anna Alsop’ will be on Amazon Kindle soon and in the meantime you can catch up with the first two of the trilogy ‘Brief Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘Three Ages of Man.’