Time Travelling for Stories

Yesterday I time travelled. It was a family outing. My dad (Smithy to the locals of Brisbane) took us in his pride and joy - his 1956 Desoto:

We headed out to a small town outside of Brisbane called Marburg where there was this adorable old pub:

Then we browsed an antique store.

I figured out why I love old furniture, old buildings and old cars - because they have stories.

On the drive home I felt like I had travelled back in time. Smithy and Tim were in the front seat and I sat in the back with my girls. I was a kid again, looking out the window, singing tunes, imagining stories and yep, even falling asleep before we made it home (although this time no one carried me inside).

And was it inspirational? How does A MURDER IN MARBUG sound?

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Dusty Manuscripts

While I'm working on the production, placement and promotion of MY ZOMBIE DOG (I promise to share the steps and any insightful tips I pick up along the way), I'm making some time for more writing. I've a couple of manuscripts that need editing but a few more that are only partially done. I've decided to revisit THE PIRATE GIRL, it's been years since I wrote anything towards that novel. Emily, my 13 year old writer and critic, suggested I spend some time reading through my notes and what I have so far.

"Nah, I remember it," I informed her, "that's the one about that girl... what's-her-name and it had that guy too, you know... the guy."

Okay, maybe I'll invest in a little reading time first.

Do you have any under-the-bed half-finished manuscripts you'd like to rework one day? Or maybe something you'll never let see the light of day?

Zombie Dog will be nom nom nomming her way into your hearts (or brains) soon.

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Writer Reading

I'm in the middle of reading Be The Monkey which is a conversation on the future of publishing and ebooks between J A Konrath and Barry Eilser. I've seen this book raised online often, so I may be the last writer to read it.

The text explores the growing popularity for digital books vs traditional publishing and they certainly put forward a good argument for self-publishing. It's definitely worth reading if you are uncertain of which path to take or just want to support your decision to produce an ebook rather than paper copy of your novel.

The speakers are well informed on the subject, J A Konrath running the popular blog:

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

And Barry Eilser hosts:

The Heart of the Matter

There is a lot of talk about the future of books, will paper eventually die out? I doubt it, I love books as do most writers, but I love ebooks too. Probably like most of you, I worry for the popularity of the traditional book, and most definitely for those cute little boutique bookstores I love to frequent, and I've found some new ones up here in Brisbane. But what about the traditional publishers? Does anyone worry for them?There are some that I love and look for in bookstores. One of my favourites was Black Dog Books - why? Because they had a little dog as their logo. Now they've merged into Walker Books (which are still a great children's book publisher). I'd be sad to see some of these publishing houses go. I guess they can turn to publishing digital books, but once again, what about the bookstores? What will they sell?

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Dreaming Writing Prompts

In our new home we seem to have an adjusted rhythm to our day. It's warm and sunny in Brisbane (if you ignore today's drizzle), so I get up early, anywhere between 4:30 and 5:30am. Brisbane also seems to be a healthier city - in the mornings you see a constant whirl of cyclists and in the evenings everyone is out for a run. It's also culturally essential to join your local gym.

The cold winters of Yass were more encouraging of hot chocolates and an extra layer of fat (just to keep warm, mind you), so we have also started having a workout every day. This means by early evening we're all ready to crash and when we sleep we sleep goooood. Quality sleep is also good for dreaming, and for recalling dreams the next day. I though the girls and I could use them as writing prompts for short stories.

My dream:

Our new house was situated on an island with only one road in and out. That flooded and we had to get ready incase our home also flooded. The kids, dogs and I sat up on the roof - mind you at this stage our street had not even flooded, let alone the two story house.

Emily's dream:

Grandma came to visit. She did not warn us she was coming,  nor did she knock, she just quietly let herself in and waited by Emily's bed until she woke up (this would be considered a scary dream).

Matilda's dream:

There was a terrorist planting bombs in Brisbane. Hard to spot, he was dressed in a giant squirrel costume.

The next day it poured and our street looked like this:

Later, Grandma called Emily for our new address. We are keeping a keen eye out for a giant squirrel.

Here's some previous posts on ways to record, remember and reuse your dreams:

7 Tips for Keeping a Dream Diary

Turning Dreams into Stories

Forgetting Dreams

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No More Excuses

The last quarter of 2011 was a whirlwind for me, and I've allowed that to flow onto 2012. No more.

Time to get back to writing and blogging. It's hard to break a slump, here's some ways I find helpful.

• Write something small, maybe a diary entry.
• Browse and comment on writing blogs, they're very inspirational.
• Get up before the family and don't let yourself away from your writing until you have at least one page.
• Listen to a podcast on writing. I love Writing Excuses because the episodes are short but extremely helpful and they always end with a prompt.
• Join a writers group.
• Take a writing class.
• Find a writing exercise (in how-to books, podcasts, blogs or anywhere). Just try doing one writing exercise unrelated to your bigger work-in-progress.

I've chosen to start my writing off with a blog post, but I might work my way through the rest of the list.

My new writing spot in Auchenflower, Brisbane:

Our furniture hasn't arrived yet, so we are camping out - in:

How do you lure yourself back into writing after a break? Are you in the zone now, or in a writing slump?

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Coincidence in Writing

I'm up in Brisbane this week, organising my move before I dash back down to Yass. One of the down sides of moving interstate is that I'll be leaving some good friends (and amazing students) behind. I've been kind of sad that we won't be catching up as much.

But this week there is a friend of mine from Yass visiting their relatives in Brisbane - so today we are catching up. This has me thinking about the luck of coincidence that we are both up here at the same time, and I thought I would share a post I did previously on the use of coincidence in fiction:

The Hand of Fate should not write stories.

Coincidence. It happens all the time, and never more than in stories. Many narratives depend on coincidence, but is it a good or bad device? Like most tools, if used well it can make a story move neatly towards the conclusion, but if abused it reeks of lazy writing.

A lot of mysteries and thrillers will include coincidence as a way of bringing a crime to light (but not usually to reveal the culprit). Steven King masterfully winds coincidence into his horror stories to give them a dark fateful theme. So how should you use coincidence?

Narratives are small worlds or micro-communities. We don't want a cast of thousands in our story, so we zoom into a portion of life. This makes coincidences more likely to take place. Here's some tips I picked up from my recent writing course with Sydney Writers Centre.

Bring it in early. Have your coincidence set things rolling. Your protagonist has a fight with her boss when she's fired, later that day, while walking her dog, she drops her mobile phone. Not a good day for her. She starts searching the bushes in the nearby park for said phone, and what does she find? The dead body of her ex-boss. Coincidence. Now your protagonist is a suspect and has good reason to try to solve the crime herself. See how coincidence has moved your plot along?

Coincidence shouldn't be used to solve crimes though, we want to think our amateur detective is using their wits, not luck. And please don't end your story with coincidence - most readers hate that! (including me) Okay, some like it, and some fateful endings have been successful.

Ending with a coincidence, or 'by the hand of God', has a name: Deux ex Machina. This is where a plot problem heads to such a point it seems unlikely to be solved, and then, by the hand of God, all is resolved by fate. 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', is an example where it seems the two lovers will get away with murder, until fate steps in. Although a successful film, this ending always makes me feel robbed of a proper resolution. Having said that, I did like the ending to the first 'Sherlock Holmes' movie, but at least Sherlock used his wits to solve the crime first.

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Writing 2012

2012 - it's arrived, but I won't have time for the end of the world, I'll be too busy with changes to my world.

I'm proud of my productivity in 2011, got quite a bit of writing done and learned a lot about the craft. This year my focus shifts to publication. I'll need to:

Edit - Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. I've a few manuscripts that need polishing. I need to prioritise my manuscripts and work through them one at a time.

Submit - Time to circulate finished manuscripts. I had a taste of this when I had a meeting with a representative from a popular children's publishing house for MY ZOMBIE DOG. The main thing I came to learn? Putting your work out there does not have to be scary, this is a very supportive industry.

Connect - I'll be attending writer's workshops and events in Brisbane and I'll focus on growing my blog and online groups.

Read - In 2011 I read 102 books. My plan is to lower that goal this year and pay more attention to what I'm reading. I'd like to read and implement 5 good guides on writing/publishing and learn from the fiction I read. It's also time to delve back into reading blogs, I gain so much from those and promise to share links to the best ones with you.

Write - But of course! My optimistic goal is to finish WARRACKNABEAL KIDS and THE PIRATE GIRL. I flunked NaNoWriMo in 2011, but will aim to write one new novel this year in November. My other favourite type of writing? Lists. I'll be making lists for each of these resolutions with ideas and steps to achieve them.

Those are my writing goals for this exciting year - the year of possibilities. My whole world is not just writing, I've started going to the gym and want to get super-fit, I'll be renovating my new home in Brisbane and plan to add a library. As a family we are aiming to reduce waste and excess. Packing up a house really brings to light how much stuff (i.e. crap) you accumulate. 

2012 - BRING IT ON!

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