Flaming June indeed!

There are, as I type this, two bumblebees on the outside ledge of my office window sill. I won't describe in detail what they are doing, but if I say that I'm tempted to tell them to get a room, you'll have the basic idea. Yesterday's six hour downpour seems to have everything more vibrant and livelier. I was grateful, not least because I didn't have to heft watering cans all round the front garden. I just wish that my gorgeous scented climber rose Etoile de Hollande was a little more robust. The rain bent two stems down onto the lawn. The flowerheads are so big that they occasionally look like those anorexic stick-insect celebrities who end up resembling lollipops. One thing I can guarantee is that will never happen to me. However, the rest of my garden is blooming. The Black Knight delphiniums are glorious, the New Dawn climbing rose is giving the arch a run for its money and I have an attack of the Sweet Williams. Everything looks clean and fresh and fit for a carnival.

In fact, the rain has had another effect. I am rebelling against the strictures of my GP and her 'a little gentle exercise' because of my swollen knee. This morning, I am working in timed chunks and having a little dance for a few minutes in between. Is the resultant uplift in my spirits enough to counter the increased pain in my knee? Don't know. The jury's out on that one. But, with the help of Jurgen Wolff, I am embarking on a 30 day "Light Writing" programme that will not only focus my writing, but also help me back on the weight reducing/health bandwagon. I thank the powers that be that I only have to wait another 48 hours to see a physiotherapist and finally, I might find out what is wrong with the wretched knee and start back on the road to recovery. I found it very instructive that two of Jurgen's questions were 'how happy are you about your fitness level' and ditto about your writing productivity. Whilst I'm averagely ok with the second - 7/10, I am far from content with the first - 4/10. Hence the dancing. My only real sorrow is that I cannot cope with the local swimming baths mixed changing arrangements. I'm sure I've wittered on about this before, but I adore swimming. I've tried to get my head round meeting some geriatric leerer as I come out of the shower - sorry pal, no way am I taking my cozzie off until I get in the changing cubicle - but I can't. How can anyone shower properly with a swimming costume on?

My only other idea is to get to know one of the locals with a pool who wouldn't mind me ploughing up and down a few times a week. So, for the moment, I am reduced to walking Rufus to the nearest patch of green and throwing a ball until he flops on the grass and the odd, very odd, bit of dancing in between writing chunks. No wonder I've put 5lbs on in the last 6 weeks!

Of course, if some enlightened editor accepted my agent's view of "Duty of Evil", a swimming pool wouldn't be an issue. So, all together now, positive thinking. Om...swimming pool for Avril...om...

Looking at the big picture

The life gurus and coaches are always suggesting that we do a 'life audit', a de-cluttering of our belongings and houses, thereby freeing up the brain to join in the serenity such an activity engenders. To be truthful, I've been a regular de-clutterer for a long time. When I was forced to move house 6 times in 2 years, I soon learned to cut the rubbish out with a ruthless hand.

I think that as a writer, we should do the same thing. Having taken part in Jurgen Wolff's Massive Action Day on bank holiday Saturday, I felt empowered to, not just focus on my tasks and increase my productivity, but also to extend that to the 'writing stuff' section of my filing cabinet. BTW anyone who needs a bit of focussing and allowing themselves the time to be creative will benefit from Jurgen Wolff's MAD days. It is a day when we reach out from our solitary cells to join in an interactive day of creativity, encouraging others, asking for help with problems and listening to Jurgen's tips on how to make the job of creating easier.

Anyway, back to the the filing de-clutter thing. This morning, I decided was 'the day'. I spent some of Saturday playing with Scrivener, software that many writers use, which keeps every part of a writing project, from synopsis, through scenes, chapters, research and the like, easily accessible in one folder. The software isn't a doddle. It needs time and for the user to progress through the interactive tutorials. I thought a productive way of gathering together all my writing odds and ends would be to make a project in Scrivener called Catalogue of ideas and plots. First job was to empty the filing cabinet of all the flotsam and jetsam I have gathered over the last 25 years and collate it. That alone took nearly two hours, mostly because I have 'bits' all over the place, a dreadful admission for a professional librarian to make. Then I looked through all the material, some of it going back to the late 1980s and added it to the Scrivener file. I can't make up my mind whether the result is encouraging or awful. One thing has emerged. I love plotting, playing what-if with ideas, twisting them round. I'm not so good at the follow-through. So here, ladies and gentlemen - as they say in the best circles - are the results.

I have two Luke Ballard alternate history mysteries plotted and unwritten. I have three Georgia Pattison, musical mysteries plotted and unwritten. I have, wait for it, ten full length plots for romantic suspense novels, including four that are partially written. I also have ten short stories plotted with some unfinished, including one, handwritten in, I think, 1992, which lasts for 3 pages and then stops abruptly just where it is getting interesting.

So, do I feel better for this 'writing audit'? I honestly don't know. Only time and the ease of reference to the different plots in the Scrivener file will tell. Watch this space.

Displacement with Focus - Pardon?

Image by Manic Toys via FlickrI have spent a lot of time over the past few weeks reading about and practising focussing my efforts, mainly on my writing, but the techniques can easily transfer to other part of life. Next Friday is the royal wedding, which I thought a great opportunity for a party. This has morphed into a gown and tiara party and lots of champagne.
Now as many of my friends know, we had a flood in the basement a week before Christmas owing to a frozen pipe in the ground floor loo. Christmas was fun, if a bit character building, having to turn the water on and off as we needed it to prevent more damage. However, the refurb has taken far longer than we thought. We are now a week away from the party and there is still much to do.
I began a romantic suspense short last week and am a third of the way through the 15000 words. I have the beginning. I know the end. And the middle? Ah, yes, the middle. So, today I am taking the day off from my desk, picking up a paintbrush and hoping that in the midst of what is a fairly mundane occupation, some kind of inspiration will thrust its way past my sub-conscious and tell me what the middle of the story is. Wish me luck.

A Helping Hand

All writers need a helping hand from time to time. I know that for the last couple of months, I have gone through a very lean patch. Displacement activities, procrastination, anything to avoid looking at the screen or notebook. I've always been a proponent of the 'stick your bum in the seat and write' school, so this was confusing. Why was it happening? Did I need a rest and my brain had gone on strike? A crisis of confidence? Laziness? All I wanted to do was either lie in bed looking at the trees and listening to the birds or read.

Time for action. I spoke to professional opera singer Janet Shell about the rise and fall of creativity and what can either help or hinder it. I joined Jurgen Wolff's Massive Action Day and managed 6 hours of concentrated, focussed activity. I bought his book called 'Focus' and read it. It has been a real revelation. There is a wealth of advice including breaking up tasks into small sections, using a timer and committing to work in a focussed way on the chosen subject for the duration. And then, the alter-ego suggestion. Depending on what you are doing, you work out what qualities are needed to perform the task and give that 'person' a name.

So, I am now right out of my comfort zone and trying to write a romantic suspense short - well 15,000 words short. So, I have summoned up 'Auntie Barbara', who is a cracking romantic novelist to help me. She is everything I am not and can deal with a suspension of disbelief that Avril is unable to. The other person who is developing in my mind is the one who wants to jeer when I fail and one who I want to prove wrong. In my head she is called Pansy, the Bitch Queen and no way can I let her win.

So, armed with timed tasks on which to focus, Auntie Barbara and Pansy, I am forging ahead with the story. I wrote 1500 words yesterday and have just plotted out the end. So, hurrah for Auntie Barbara and yah-boo-sucks to Pansy.

You can find tips on Jurgen Wolff's site. It isn't just for writers. www.focusquick.com. The book is available in the usual places. Hope this helps anyone else out there having problems.

Strange writing habits

Do any of my fellow writers have writing habits that make people narrow their eyes and think 'if she's normal, I don't want to be?'

There was a post on another blog a couple of weeks back asking what we all needed to get the juices really flowing. I did include Scrivener on my list because I am fast realising just how useful it is, especially allied with Dropbox so everything is safe. But when I came to think more deeply about things, it occurred to me that I'd been less than honest.

Want to know how Luke Ballard and his world of elemancy came into being? Those who know me well will laugh and shake their heads, but, truth is, I'd had the idea of 'Henry's black-eyed boy' in my head for about 5 years, not knowing what to do with it. Then in 2009, I took a deep breath and bought my heart's desire. A Mont Blanc Boheme fountain pen that cost £1,000, all but a few quid. So, here I was with this pen and a gorgeous notebook the assistant had given me. So I needed something to write in it, didn't I? All the way back to the east coast of Yorkshire from Manchester, my brain had little to do apart from think and up popped Henry's black-eyed boy again. That allied with a suggestion from my husband that I find a believable alternate world and, in the space of a two hour journey, Luke Ballard was born. He slid into my conscious somewhere around junction 27 of the M.62 and has never left. Duty of Evil was the result.

So, fast forward to Book 2 and again, stationery played its part. This time I was in Germany, bought a great A4 book and a really comfortable Faber-Castell Grip Plus pencil - bit cheaper this, it was only about £6. We'd gone on holiday for a rest, so only did a few of the trips, which left quite a lot of time at our disposal once I'd had a couple of daily swims. Paul just wanted to sit with a beer and gaze into space. I plotted the sequel to Duty of Evil. Now it's book 3 time and I am getting stuck in the real history of the time, something fascinating because it involves the village I was born and the estate of the family my father worked for in the 1930s. Odd bits of plot have been seeping through, but this is where I find Scrivener a bit too organised, so until I know where I am going, I am reverting to type. Yesterday I got my birthday present a couple of weeks early. Yes, it's another pencil, this time a Parker Sonnet.

I shall, in the short-term at least, revert to my other standby. The shower door. Ah, but this isn't any old shower door. This is one that is hung on my office wall to form a huge glass board. I scribble ideas at random, go and sit in my chair and stare at it, then make connections and let the creativity flow. What is useful is that the closing bar to pull the shower door shut is a perfect ledge at the bottom of my 'board' for the pens. I use different colours for different plot strands. So, my idea is, using a mixture of what works for me - i.e. new pens/pencils, notebooks and the shower door and the Scrivener software, I'm going to try and plot the whole of the book before I get down to the writing in earnest.

But first, I'm going to play with my new pencil and see what transpires...

The joy when it all flows

There are times when I am just so damned privileged. Here I sit in my fabulous office, writing on a state of the art Mac. The sun is shining, the words are flowing, English pastoral music is playing and all is right with the world. Last night I enjoyed a great rehearsal for St Matthew Passion, which we are performing in Scarborough and Bridlington on 15th and 16th April. My husband is back from the wilds of Nottingham and this afternoon, I'm having my nails done. Yes, shallow is my middle name.

Of course, there's always a weed floating about. Today, mine is called Rufus. He is our rescue golden retriever, a cracking dog, utterly beautiful - and knows it - and also completely naughty. If anyone in my locality is missing a bird-feeder, complete with nuts, then it was your garden he romped into the other day. Today, he chose someone else's garden - how I wish they would mend their fences, then he couldn't get in. Thing is, most of the time, he is a sweetie, but now and again, he gets the devil in him. If I am quick, I can head him off at the pass, but this morning I wasn't. Punishment for both of us is immediate cessation of the walk and Rufus back on the lead and home. So this morning's walk, instead of being a soul uplifting jaunt along the beach, throwing bits of wood in the water for him to swim to and retrieve, ended up being a 15 minute toilet trip and little else.

Still, if that's the only negative in my life, I shall count my blessings and thank the man upstairs for his generosity.

New Year, new determination

The circle turns once more and we are again at a beginning. Our politicians are full of the joys of doom and gloom and it would be so easy to slip into a negative frame of mind. So I have, very selfishly, decided that 2011 is a year for my determination to come to fruition and knickers to the gloom merchants. The truth is that we have very little control over what happens to us in the large scheme of things, BUT we do have control over how we react to them. And, when a whole raft of nasties come along that threaten to swamp us in despair, we have friends who will catch hold of our hands as we slip down the well of depression and pull us back up to the surface.

So, what are my determinations in 2011? To cherish my family and my friends and try to keep up with them. To lose weight and get fitter - a perennial one for me, but I seem to be more resolute than usual this year. I can't influence finding a publisher, but I know my agent will be trying to do just that. I am a great believer in visualisation though and Paul designed a book cover for "Duty of Evil", which I then wrapped around another book and he photographed me holding it. The picture is in my eyeline as I type. So, it's not 'if' but 'when' the books find a publisher. I am also determined to polish No 2 - "A Taste For Treason" and write No 3 - "Sweeter Than Flowing Honey". The research for "Honey" is absorbing as it deals with the county of my birth, Lincolnshire and the childhood home and first job of my father. I shall say no more.

Here's hoping that all my friends and family have a wonderful 2011. I certainly intend to!