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Making it up as I go along

Making it up as I go along

Tag Archives: Honno

Milestones

18 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Editing, Ghostbird, Honno, Workshops, Writers, Writing

Island Life, Word Birds & process #13

Yesterday I embraced two milestones. It was four months since Ghostbird was published and I submitted the third draft of my new story to my editor. The reasons I failed to mark the day here (as my Sunday blog post) are also two-fold: I was finalising said draft and then attending another splendid workshop under the auspices of Honno – my publisher.

Regarding the first – let the nail-biting commence.

The second part of the day  involved one of the most useful workshops I’ve been to in a while. Led by Katherine Stansfield (author of The Visitor & a poetry collection  called Playing House) it focused on editing. At this stage in my own process, timely to say the least. Having been through it once, as the workshop progressed I realised it was less about learning anything new (although I absolutely did!) and more about affirmation. Recognising that the way I’ve been doing things is pretty much okay, because there is no ‘right’ way.

There are however a number of useful guidelines which as a writer I have learned I would be a fool to ignore. Not least, if you have a good editor, listen to her.

Even before I properly understood what copy edits or line edits were, I knew what kind of a self-editor I was. (Those of you familiar with this blog know too: I ‘edit-as-I-go’ and #pfft frankly!) In the first instance, each writer has to take a great deal of responsibility for her own editing process. And if she is fortunate enough to have a generous editor on her side, it makes the experience one of discovery and learning. So it proved for me throughout the superb editing of Ghostbird. My fledgling story emerged – a small bird with her wings fluffed up, ready to fly.

Yesterday, Katherine’s major gift to us was her generosity. It takes a brave author to expose the more daunting aspects of her road to publication in order to illustrate a workshop. Although her third book has now been accepted by a well-known house, it hasn’t been an easy road. She shared the ups and downs (including scary emails from her agent!) and gave us the nuts and bolts of her process.

I recognised a lot of what Katherine shared. This is the other strand of the affirmation. Knowing the slog is worth it and throughout the editing process, from pitch to publication as it were, most writers have similar experiences.

Your Moment of Cliché: It’s hard work, but it’s worth it.

Huge thanks to Katherine and as ever to Honno – the Welsh Women’s Press.

woman-writing-vintage

The spaces in between

18 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Ghostbird, Honno, Not Writing, Promotion, Word Birds, Writing

I talk quite a bit about ‘not writing.’ I don’t mean writers block – I’m either writing or I’m not – there is no blockage. I mean the times when for one reason or another, the head is distracted and there is little or nothing to be done about it. In recent weeks, with my focus almost entirely on promotion for Ghostbird, I find my writing time severely curtailed and my poor Sisters (working title – book two) languishing in a kind of creative limbo.

It goes, I am learning, with the territory. Published author friends warned me that once the book deal was signed my word count would suffer. They explained how necessary it was to enjoy myself because this ‘first time’ moment would never come again. What they didn’t fully explain was how much more than mere ‘happy dancing’ would be involved. How I would have so little time to work on my next book.

I am fortunate in that I’m being guided through the promotional minefield by an experienced and astute woman – my publisher’s marketing maven. Were it not for her, I would be floundering. Instead, I’m making progress and learning a lot along the way. In addition to the minutiae and nitty-gritty (and the excitement!) of the whole pitch to publication thing, there are guest posts to write for the blog tour and Q&As to answer. Although I love the creative challenge of this kind of writing, it’s not the same as getting on with my next story.

While I muddle through during the day and attend to business, I’m even more thankful for my crack of dawn mornings. By nature (and in spite of writing a book featuring an owl) I’m a lark. Early mornings suit me; I like the way they have no expectations, only the ones I impose. And I impose nothing. I feed the cat, make a pot of tea and return to my bed and my notebook.

These then are the spaces in between, when my mind is seduced by the sweet word birds singing snippets into the tangles of my bed hair. Pencil sharpened, I cover page after page, comforted by the knowledge that my scribbled words are there, waiting for me.

‘When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me I am in darkness – I am nothing.’ *

11 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Authors, Ghostbird, Honno, Quotations, RiverBook, Virginia Woolf

Well, almost. Maybe with a little less drama?

That said, at present the only words I seem to be dealing in are answers to questions. (Great questions & both they & my answers coming soon to an interview blog near you.) It’s part of the ‘author’ thing & I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying the fact of being asked. Of course I am. And it’s lovely getting to know my sister writers at Honno.

I was invited to my first Author Group lunch last week & made to feel like one of the family. There is a lot to be said for small independent publishing houses. Everyone knows everyone. I appreciate it more than I can say. What a great group of women writers: talented, generous & encouraging. What with one thing & another, this is an amazing experience which I am determined to embrace & enjoy. The days are flying by & I am flying with them.

It is also true to say I’m keen to get on with my next book.

Even when I know what I’m going to call a new story, I still give it a working title. The current manuscript is nicknamed RiverBook. When I set it aside – to bask in the momentary ‘glory’ of Getting a Book Deal – it stood at 79k. There have been days recently when I’ve wondered if I’ll ever find time to get on with it & make it to 90k which is roughly my goal. Fortunately these moments are rare & I take heart from other writers who assure me, if you have another draft in progress, at this point in the publishing process it’s normal for the wordcount to suffer.

The infamous ‘they’ say a second book is the hardest. There are expectations. Because I began writing RiverBook with no solid anticipation of a publishing deal for Ghostbird, I felt no pressure. I’ve been enjoying the writing for its own sake, pulling together the randomness that is this new story. (I use the word ‘random’ deliberately. I am an irregular writer by which I mean my story construction isn’t linear. I write the story as it comes & a great deal of it comes in no particular order.)

I need to crack on though. See if I can do it. And however RiverBook looks when I do get back to it, it’s good to know I have an almost complete first draft to focus on. It’s a mess, but it’s my mess & I can’t wait to dive in again.

Unlike Mrs Woolf, I’m not remotely concerned about ‘darkness’ or the lack of regular writing. I think I understand what she meant though. When I’m not writing regularly there is a sense of something missing. I definitely need to conjure some smoke.

* Virginia Woolf

A Different Kind of Beginning

02 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Editor, Ghostbird, Honno, Introduction, Janet, The Mabinogion, Wordpress, Writing

Never mind the mechanics – I reckon I have them as sorted as I’m likely to. Let’s do this, WordPress.

For the past nine years I’ve been scribbling on Live Journal. I’ve written thousands of words but LJ is a desert now & with my book coming out next year, I need a more public profile. If you have chosen to read me here, thank you kindly & this is where I’m at.

Writers are always being asked where they get their ideas. The question makes most of us smile because more often than not an idea is ‘a moment’ we can’t necessarily describe. Ideas can come via overheard, snatched conversations, from random names or a glimpse of a strange house on a hill. From a photograph or a line in a poem. They may be carried on bird wings & dropped on our windowsills. Ideas invade our dreams & often, on waking, we are left with little more than a sliver of memory.

People do like to know though, otherwise they wouldn’t ask. This then is how Ghostbird came into being.

I have Irish blood & a Welsh heart & have always been drawn to myth & legend. When I came to live in Wales it was inevitable that I would read The Mabinogion. As I read Math fab Mathonwy – the fourth branch – I found myself irritated by the machinations of the various men involved in the myth of Blodeuwedd. It immediately struck me as a feminist issue! Equally, I was puzzled by the idea that to be turned into a bird was a curse. To be a bird was surely to be able to fly. Blodeuwedd could escape the fate assigned to her! And therein lay the kernel of my story. Meaning no disrespect to the original – which is marvellous – I re-imagined the myth of Blodeuwedd from her point of view – as a positive act of reclaiming. I wrote it as a short piece & from there the first glimmerings of the novel fluttered in my brain.

My decision to have a teenage girl as my main protagonist remains a mystery to me. No way was I planning (nor have I written) a YA story. The book I envisioned began with the idea of transformation – & a witch woman. I honestly don’t recall at what point Cadi appeared. I do know, once she did, I had my story. It’s taken me several years to write this book. Not because I haven’t put in the hours, rather because I was finally learning to write.

As the well-known cliché has it, I’ve always written. All my life – letters, journals & stories including full-length novels. (An earlier self-published one is a story I still love but it suffered from a lack of sound editing & professional production.) Writing Ghostbird has been an unravelling of my subconscious as a writer. Digging up the bones so to speak & discovering that, after all, I could do it.

Not that I haven’t had help.

The path to publication is another cliché. Nevertheless, it is a path. When I submitted the first fifty pages of Ghostbird to Honno – the Welsh Women’s Press – & secured my Meet the Editor slot with Janet Thomas, I had no way of knowing how eventful & winding that road would become.

If a writer is fortunate enough to be gifted sound, professional advice, she is a fool if she ignores it. Janet has accompanied me from the moment she uttered her first, ‘I love it, but…’ As I mentally ticked the boxes (because she was right) I knew I was in good hands. Janet is the mistress of the missed opportunity. Her eye is eagle & nothing escapes it. I have re-written, edited, chivvied & borderline bullied this book to within an inch of its life. The result, I trust, will be pleasing.

I’m currently writing the first daft of my next book The fact that it’s temporarily reduced to bridesmaid status is something I’ve had to accept. Yes, I’m itching to get back to it but for now, while I immerse myself in the excitement & joy of ‘Getting a Publishing Deal’ I’m having the time of my life & enjoying every moment.

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