Most of my attention over the past few months has been focused on getting my non-fiction book, Walking the English Coast, ready for publication.
I’m taking part in Misha and Beth’s Five Year Project and my five-year goal is to write a novel and get it published.
Most of my attention over the past few months, however, has been focused on getting my non-fiction book, Walking the English Coast, ready for publication.
And there are several other projects I ‘ve been working on. Here’s an update:-
I have sent my novel of for another review, to an adult historical fiction author. Here are her comments and recommendations.
I’m taking part in Misha and Beth’s Five Year Project and my five-year goal is to write a novel and get it published. This is my update on progress this month.
I have sent my novel of for another review, to an adult historical fiction author. Overall, her comments were very positive: “you quickly drew me into this very different world and in no time I was happily living alongside your characters.”
So now I have a very, well edited first 300 words and a reasonably well-edited 10,000 words. Only 78,000 more to go!
I’m taking part in Misha and Beth’s Five Year Project and my five-year goal is to write a novel and get it published. This is both my monthly and my end-of-the-year recap on how I’m doing.
First step: write the first draft. Tick!
Second step: edit the first draft – in progress.
Continue reading “5 Year Writing Goal: end of year 2013”
Do you know the feeling when you suddenly realise you have made a horrible mistake? And does this sometimes hit you in the middle of the night? Well, that happened to me during the early hours of this morning.
I am working through the second draft of my novel, The Reluctant Scribe, set in 7th century China and the Tang Dynasty. There is a scene where I write “eight of us stood in our line on the marble step”, and another line goes “I followed the Dean who led me across the marble“, and another -“I shuffled from foot to foot, sliding my toes across the marble tiles”. I am sure there are other mentions of marble if I continue looking…
I am going to have to run a word search for every reference to ‘marble’ in my novel, and find a more appropriate replacement.
Thank goodness for technology.
That is, I am sure, only one mistake among many.
I compared the life of my 7th Century Tang scholar to my life in the 21st Century today. It led me to ponder on the effort of being a writer in that era, how hard to become proficient in calligraphy, how expensive the basic implements and how time-consuming the process. As modern writers, aren’t our lives incomparably easier?
This week, I had a couple of busy days due to work commitments. Friday was set aside as a writing day, but I am afraid it just went by in a blur. I didn’t do any serious writing. I did, however, do hours and hours of research for my next story assignment.
My latest Birkbeck writing task is another exercise in genre fiction. Our assignment is to construct a 1,000 word excerpt from a historical novel and post it up on our Birkbeck intranet site.
The first big decision I had to make was to choose a place and era to set my excerpt in. I felt horribly out of my depth. I did science subjects at school, not history. What if I got some historical details incorrect? Or the wrong geographical details? So, somewhat tongue in cheek, I decided to Continue reading “15K in May: writing in the Tang Dynasty”
Ruth Livingstone 