The writing process

Yeah, my trusty Asus workhorse.

gOOd Reads, Novel, Novelist, Writer, Writing, Blogger, Free Books, Free Serialized Books, 

Simplifying my (writing) life

Hi, as usual, I started to write about one thing and ended up writing this. The problem is I get side-tracked by trying to solve problems. This time I decided to simplify my writing life. My site was on Wix, my research was on Pinterest and Google, my writing on Open Office, my research in Keep and Collections. My blog was in Wordpress, and my Email accounts are on Outlook, Hotmail, and Gmail. That's only the writing I have on the computer! I have two writers books and other notebooks and papers not to mention a collection of envelopes, yes envelopes. Then there's the artwork for the covers and images for the blog and other things. I use another three or four apps for image manipulation. So many different systems, so many passwords, so much confusion. I rebelled!

Order out of confusion

Now I'm using one system that does it all. OK, I miss a few specialised functions, but there's always another workaround. So far I've only found one thing I can't do. I like to tag descriptions to my images and toggle them on or off. Blogger calls them 'Captions' but my site, now on Google Sites, doesn't. I think I have a fix for that now using an addon to Docs.

Yes, folks, I've embraced the dark side. I'm using Google Apps for everything now. If you didn't know it Blogger is a Google app. Every app uses the same simple interface and everything works together seamlessly. Yes, I know Microsoft Office does all that and a few others do else well. I used to use Open Office which is a free clone versus a Mircosoft Office discounted.at eighty pounds or more for a genuine license. If you know me you know at all, then you know that is not going to happen. 

Google Suite does everything I need and it outputs my books straight to an epub and Microsoft Word format which most of the publishers, including Amazon, will accept. So I don't need another editor and formating app. Another thing I don't need any more is a high-end photo-editor. That stuff is a mystery to me I'd end up messing for hours, correcting exposures, adding effects, resizing, making collages, extracting stuff and getting nowhere. Now nic added an extension for Open PhotoPad to my browser to do it all in place. No more copying files, or swapping file formats. One interface, which I am already familiar with, and just one login. 

Yeh! Well almost, I find myself working on nic's system more and more. He installs the stuff and checks it's OK before he trains me to use it. While he's working on my system I work on his. He is old school and only uses email to connect to people, no social media, not even a cell phone, positively twentieth century, and it's not like he does emails very often. The only thing he's sent this year, yes this year, was to me testing my email system! 

------------------------------ o O o ------------------------------

I borrowed his system and messaged

someone on his contact list... 

Was I wrong to do that? 

------------------------------ o O o ------------------------------

What? Moi pry! No, never! He let me use his email while he was fixing my laptop, and I clicked the wrong button by mistake. He said he had nothing to hide, and he was right. I tried to Facebook message someone in his contacts list, just to touch out, but I think I was shutoff or shutout. Ops! Anyway, it didn't work, I don't understand the reply. Was I wrong to do that? He said it didn't matter but I think he seems a little sad. 

Ooo! Check this out. I just split an image in three and relocated it all in the blog I'm writing in Blogger. It was so easy. Practically one-click stuff. Now that's what I'm talking about! It's the 'magic bean' comment after the next heading. 

My Blogsite (nicah.nichalacortes.com) is running, and the website (nichalacortes.com) is almost there. It should be live in by the time you read this; I can work on it, but the public can't access it yet. I don't understand the details but it works, the documentation says that you can't download files from the website but nic did something to it and now it does. It just needs prettifying now, it too generic like the blog. That's the next thing. I've gone off-topic again, I'm supposed to be telling you how I write. 

Research

The magic bean is an essential part of writing

The thing that defines my writing is what I'm writing. When I'm writing my blog I write freestyle, for a novel my writing is structured. As you can see I have a subject, but I write as I think and feel. You're getting me, my thoughts unfiltered. It's just a hot mess huh. When I'm writing a novel I follow a plan, a structure, the storyline. I'm writing for, or through someone else, my character's words and thoughts. It's all been planned out in minute detail, every word of it and hopefully, it's not such a mess.

I guess the takeout from that is that I need to plan my blog the same way as I plan my books. I'm not analysing any of my books here, and I'm afraid they don't stand up to much analysis. Moving quickly on, I centre my research in three areas. 

And here it is split in three.

Locations have been covered in a previous blog so I'll try not to repeat myself. There are two aspects to consider when picking a location for a story, reality versus fiction. Reality can be tricky, fortunately, there is no shortage of late Victorian or Georgian villas in central Fareham to chose from. Originally the Turner house was in another part of town but as the story evolved, (It was bland and boring. Yes, more bland and boring than it is now, I have a masters in boring story writing OK!) new characters were added and vast swathes of boring verbiage was edited out until the location had to move to make the story work. 

Google Maps and Street View have already been mentioned and they are great for some places. I couldn't just pop to Berlin or Concord to check where to the location of the nearest station or coffee shop is. Nothing tops being there or having been there, remember, that romantic stroll with sunlight dappling through the trees around the lake in April can be a whole other scene when you hear a branch snap behind you on a frosty, foggy, moonless night in November. The location is the same, the emotions are key. Choosing locations that work are what I focus on.

I find checking the Estate Agents details online is invaluable for research for the location as well as the exterior and interior, layout and furniture of the houses I use. Is that creepy or just nosey? Whatever, it links to my next heading.

And part two

Possessions I can't think of the word I want, I try not to obsess about it and let it stop me writing but it is immensely annoying and I try not to let it consume my thinking. (At times random words just pop into my head, words not related to what I'm writing. Sometimes they are foreign words in a language I've never learned. I check them, I Google them, and they make sense in the context of what I'm doing. I probably heard it on TV when I was watching a foreign language program. It all started after my stroke, but I digress.)  

Cars are a good example of possessions. Marte's mini for example. Yes, her father indulges her spending habits and she loves shopping but the way she loses it when her little mini is damaged tells the true story. It's her prized possession, it's the source of her independence and freedom. Compare her to Kellie who doesn't care about cars or clothes or possessions, as long as she's got a computer she's happy. 

The story of the Marte and Turner's car and the neighbours have the same cars is based in fact. There were a couple in the street who had his and her cars and another couple in the street did the same. When couple one upgraded their ride, couple two did too. When I asked one of them about it, I was answered with a frosty 'I don't know what you're talking about'. Only the models and locations have been changed to protect the innocent, so there was no search needed there.

The most important possessions, the things the story hinges on is the Camoes. I already had the stories of the twins and their sister, they were inspired by real people and stories I'd been told when I was younger. I needed something to hang them on. Then I saw the cameo on Pinterest and that was it. I've tried to find it since but no joy yet. But it was my inspiration for the 'Searching' story. Which leads me to.
  

Last third.

Characters in the books. As a writer of fiction, my characters are generally fictional but they live in the real world and interact with real people. I've heard this blend of fiction and reality called faction. In 'Loveless', 'Hopeless', and 'Faithless' it serves to authenticate the story if it's handled well. How well remains the be seen. The point is that takes a lot of research to do it and have it remain authentic. If you are going to use a historical character research them if possible find a likeness of them, check for a Biography printed or online (if nothing else use Facebook). Don't steal direct quotes, always attribute. 'I was there when Goering told the reporter said he'd change his name to Meier if any British plane reached Berlin.' (attribution and use the reporter's name to collaborate it) is better than claiming he told you. Check and recheck quoted. The Goering quote is used twice that I know of. Once about Berlin and again about the Rhur.

Events also need to be researched thoroughly. The Goering quote comes for two different books. Which is right? Berlin or Ruhr, or it could be both. 

Kellie & Anja totally Bossing it.

Scenes are different from locations. Locations are about description, scenes are about drama. The location is a grassy riverbank, the sound of water, the reflection, the birdsong, the sunny day it's expansive. The river is cold, deep, wide and, fast. You get the idea. You see a body caught in an eddy downstream. Her drama is finished. She's dead. You can't help her. 

The drama is not about describing the dead body. It's about noticing something out of place, a flash of red, a woman's shoe caught on the edge of the reeds. It jars. That's where the drama is. Focus down on the detail. The more detail, the more drama. Describe the shoe. Heels or slippers? Whom's heels are they? Were they yours? How did she get them? 
Remember when you last wore them? How old was she? Was she married? Was she a mother? Nobody wants to read a description of a drowned young mother's dead body. Describe the emotions make it feel real.