Escapism

Ever so often, I turn hermit.

I vanish from the online social space and ignore my phone.* I disregard my characters and my writing and instead hide in books or TV. I don’t watch the news or pay attention to current events and make myself comfortable on my sofa growling at those who dare disturb this haven.

Why? Well it’s a default factory setting in my brain.

This month I entered a semi-hermit state. I’ve been ignoring most things and hiding in books, books and then some more books. I worked out that I’ve actually management to read over 30 books this month** while barely writing more then a couple of chapters. The only reason I haven’t tuned out the world completely is Write Hope.

The advantages of having hermit moments is that I only have to deal with the problems faced by the people I’m reading about. Most of my reading during this phase consist of the trash-pile (I really need a better name, suggestions?) which means 10 out of 10 times I have a happy end and despite imminent death or destruction my hero will find love have thrilling adventures and be sarcastic enough to make me smile. The disadvantage is when I come back and have to play catch up.

I never like that part.

Which means that I drag out my hermititus as long as possible (I’m really wondering if I can carry this one on to April) and yes I know that makes returning worse. It’s as nonsensical and the puppy-cleaning-glove I got for Christmas 4 years ago when I don’t own a dog, or a cat or anything with fur…

Yet as soon as I enter hermit-status there seems to be a flashing neon sign that attracts people who try break through the barricaded door. People who I haven’t heard from in months, years even suddenly need to talk to me.

Where is the logic in that?

 

*that’s not so hard because it hardly rings
**this consists of well over 20 new ones and around 16 I’ve skim-re-read so I only count them as 1/2

Phoenix (take2) & competition

On Friday I worked out that I’ve bought 32 books this month… O_O
As of tomorrow it’ll be 33.

I buy books, show tickets pretty much most things in even numbers, there are a few exceptions. Such as 13*, 21, 33 and basically anything ending in a 5. I will round 5 up to 6 though – go figure. It’s a somewhat annoying and expensive habit of mine.

Writing-wise I’ve reached an interesting time…

I haven’t written as much and I’m behind on my ROW80 targets (truth be told they’ve sort of gone out the window) yet while the quantity of words is lower, the actual quality is better then ever before so I won’t beat myself up about it.

I plan on writing another chapter today and putting the other pieces in the right before order. My main target for ROW80 was to finish the first draft of part one. I think I’m still on track for that.

I’ve told you my annoying habit (I think my shyness with strangers annoys my family more) so it’s time to confess the rest.

• one secret: Twirling in rainbows on a cold dark stage. Which was being let into a theatre and trying on the costumes, exploring backstage and dancing on the actual stage in costume.
• one interesting quirk: I really truly have no rhythm. I can see it. If I watch people dance/clap I can tell you if they are wrong but when it comes to doing it myself I can’t. Marieke is the perfect witness to this, we’ve seen a few** shows and I have to copy her in order to clap to the beat. If I don’t copy I go wrong.
• one of your best character traits: I am a very loyal friend and will do pretty much anything in the world for the people I love.
• one of your favourite things in the whole world: This one was hard, I included loads in the poem. That I live by the sea, the whole ghost and moving wall paragraph is one of the trips I took with Marieke. (One of our friends was playing a ghost in the musical Secret Garden and he had to move the scenery as part of the role – we might have teased him a bit ) Journey to Atlantis is a ride in Sea World, or it was went I went for my 21st birthday and having the entire cast of Dancing with the Stars wonder into the hotel bar in Philadelphia is another…

The lie?

I’ll get to that in a moment, going back to my habit and the slightly obscene number of books purchases (work bonuses are dangerous). I have been reading like crazy to keep up (14 1/2 for this month) and two of my favourite reads were: Cracked Up To Be & Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers.

So I’m going to give away Some Girls Are because I think it’s just that tiny little bit better then Cracked Up To Be.

To enter leave me a comment and you get extra entries for following me on Twitter, subscribing and if you guessed the lie you get another 2.

I lied when I said I’d been trapped behind iron bars. I’ve had plenty of chances with all the historical places I’ve visited. I’ve managed to avoid it so far. Not so lucky with ghosts though…

The competition closes on the 12 March 2011 and they winners will be announced on the 14 March 2011. It’s internal providing the Book Depository delivers to your country, you can check their list here.

Good luck!

 

*lucky in our family
** ok, LOADS

From the other side of the looking glass: Crit Partner

Being a crit partner has to be easier then being a writer, right?

Personally, I don’t think so.  Actually, I confess that when my friend asked me to crit her book I was utterly terrified.  Click here to see what she thinks…

It started innocently enough, sending me the odd chapter asking me what I thought of it… it ended with me taking 2 days of work to spent a long weekend sitting in front a screen dissecting, analysing and editing a 74,000 word document.*

Here’s the thing, while I love reading, crit-ing is something else entirely.

So if someone asks you to crit their work here’s a few tips;

Make sure you have enough time to do it
You might be able to read a 500 page book in a day but trust me, crit-ing will take you a LOT longer.

Find out what your writer wants you to pay attentions to; characterisation, flow, descriptions, etc…
Without a guideline of what your looking for you could overanalyse the entire text and miss that big giant plot hole; because you were to busy finding an alternative for the word ‘murmur’.**

Be brave
You have to be able to say, “This doesn’t work” or “I don’t like this”.
My friend handles criticism really well but that still didn’t stop me from panicking about it.

Offer suggestions
Once you tell them what you don’t think works; suggest an alternative!

Don’t forget what’s good
Crit-ing isn’t just about what’s wrong. It’s also about telling the author what you like.
Is it a certain character?
The language?
The world they’ve created?
Never forget to tell them about what you love. Every writer wants to hear that.

Read the whole thing
Sounds a bit obvious but what I mean is read the book consecutively, ideally in a short space of time. This will help you follow the story better. While I was crit-ing the final manuscript I noticed that there was an inconsistency in the story. One, which I never noticed before. ***

Write down your thoughts
Don’t worry if they aren’t important to the story. For example in one chapter the heroine struggles to get out of bed in the morning. I sympathised greatly with her because I’m not really a morning person either.****
It’s nothing to do with the story, (and my friend knows this about me already) but it gave her an insight into how I was feeling about the character at that time. I did this throughout the manuscript, personally I also think it makes it more fun for the person doing the crit.

Accept that the author has the final say
Not everything you comment on will get picked up. The author might read your suggestion but not agree with it. It’s their story so don’t get defensive about it. If you don’t like it, write your own.
You can do whatever you want in that…

And finally…
If you don’t feel comfortable doing a crit, you have to say NO.  Ask them to find someone else. If your heart isn’t in it, you won’t enjoy it and the end result won’t help the author either.
Just as every writer has their own style, so does every crit partner. You have to find the right match.

* Ok, that is a bit on the extreme side but I promised to get it back to her by a certain date and I never break a promise.
** My friend and I have this thing about the word ‘murmur’
*** I’d only read chapters over months before
**** Ok, I like morning but I take a while to get going…

Things that get forgotten (aka my poor carpet)

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been having a bit of a reading/writing frenzy.

I go through phases where I write continuously (these are rare) or read non-stop (these are frequent) but having both at the same time is a new one for me.

It’s causing my home to feel a bit neglected, I’m not quite sure when I hovered last* (or for that matter, dusted). There isn’t anything that has started walking of its own accord and my washing up get’s done (at the latest) the day after, but my carpet definitely could do with a once over…

I can easily forget about cleaning but thankfully my friend comes over for dance-fests** on an almost weekly bases, so I tidy up for that.***

Anyways… in the last 2 weeks I’ve written somewhere between 15,000 – 18,000 words, while reading the below:

• Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
• A certain slant of light by Laura Whitcomb
• Mistwood by Leah Cypess
• The princess and the hound by Mette Ivie Harrison
• Memoirs of a teenage amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
• The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon #
• The splendor falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore ##
• Sunshine by Robin McKinley ###
• Keeping you a secret by Julie Anne Peters ####
• Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles
• Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Unsurprisingly I’m a bit tired but a book tired is better then any other kind of tired…

Plus the last time I had a big tidy up it look like this:

And that was before I added the new bookcase in the living room. 

* For the concerned amongst you I will be hovering tonight

** That’s us watching dance shows, not us dancing, because my flat is tiny (and I can’t dance anyway)

*** I feel the need to point out that my mess consists of books and notepads and art supplies spilling over my coffee table onto the floor. So it doesn’t create bio-hazarders material. Like the stuff I found in the microwave the previous tenant left behind. (That microwave got relocated to the tip.)

# I highly recommend it, it’s very well done and deserves every single award and many more on top of that.

## Ok, I haven’t actually finished this one. It’s taking a while to get going, I’ve moved it to my dippy-pile.

### Sunshine will show up in other blogs, suffice to say it’s one of my favourite reads. I know I’m on 2-digts but I’ve lost count exactly how many times I’ve read it.

#### Very special book again, though I’d say read Annie on my mind by Nancy Garden first.

I promise not to have as many footnotes in my next post!