Sheila's Guests and Reviews

This summer I'm unpacking my garage back into my basement, having finally recovered from winter's flood. Sometimes I feel like a multi-armed alien, carrying books and boxes and longing for extra arms and legs. But mostly I just feel lucky that I'm able to move back before the heat upstairs drives me crazy. So... where will you be this summer? And will you meet any aliens? I'm delighted to welcome author Peter Thompson to my blog today. His new novel, Summer on Earth, is advertised with the very cool tagline - The story of a boy, an alien, and a summer they'll never forget. Can you resist it? Peter has kindly offered to let us in his secrets of how to beat writers' block. Readers of Summer on Earth will be very glad that he's not blocked. So, welcome to my blog Peter, and over to you.. . How to beat writer’s block by Peter Thompson Have you ever had writer’s block? If you are a writer, this is an all too common problem. I had a case of write...

A week with no post? Now that would be interesting - no ads to throw away, no bills to pay, no forms to fill... But a week with no blogposts? I have to stop a moment and wonder what on earth I've been doing all week. Reading, I guess: I did put some more book reviews on gather . And writing. And rewriting. And housework, and pulling weeds (ah, that's the trouble with the weather getting nice). Remember that February Wrimo challenge our local writers' group was doing? Well, February's almost done, so I guess I have to confess I didn't succeed in my self-assigned task to write the third of my Hemlock books. In fact, a lot of last week was spent splitting up what I'd written to make two separate books. Somehow the events I'd planned for Hemlock 4 were appearing in Hemlock 3 and they really didn't fit. They prefigured entirely the wrong conclusion, resulting in a serious case of writers' block. So now I have two novels half-written in the month instea...

Not so very long ago I was writing the second in a series of middle-grade novels. It was going pretty well, as I remember. But then I got distracted when someone invited me to join textnovel. I set my magical teenagers aside so I could write a romantic mystery. Then I worked on my website and my blog. And then I caught up with some reading, long overdue. Last weekend I decided it was time to get back to those mysterious teens. And today I finally got round to opening the file. I was pleased to see I'd already written forty out of fifty chapters. How hard could this be? So I greeted my characters with glee, rereading from chapter one and happily pleased to remember the tale. I watched their new school year begin. And then... And then I realized I hadn't the faintest idea what I'd written. Plotlines that I'd completely forgotten were taking me places I'd no recollection of seeing. It was fun, for sure, and I was thoroughly intrigued with the read till it all came to a...

I used to wonder what Writer's Block was; I couldn't imagine not having something to write about. Then someone asked me to pen a particular piece and I finally knew. Writer's Block is when you don't have the right something to write about. My usual problem's more like Writer's Glut - so many ideas I can't decide which to use. And that's where Writing Prompts came in. I joined Gather and other online writing communities. I found "Use this sentence," "Start with these words," "Include these word-pairs," "Build on this paragraph," and "Man called X meets woman called Y then something explodes," etc... And I wrote. I wrote an awful lot of stories based on prompts. They piled up in an overflowing folder on my computer. Then I sorted them into mysteries, drama, scifi, childrens, tragedies... I edited, re-edited, fixed and changed them, and lost all sight of where they'd came from. Then slowly, oh so slowly...

I wanted my characters to talk to me. I wanted the end to be more than just six letters on a page. But perhaps I should be more careful what I wish for. There I was, imagining my book was almost done. But now the wedding seems as distant as it was at the beginning, and my characters keep talking, everyone at once. David wants me to know he's not giving up on Emily. But he has to have some time to think, so he can work out what's best for her. Emily wishes I'd tell her what's on David's mind, because Elsie's not really so bad, and he really shouldn't worry. Meanwhile, I know he's glad he gave her the ring. I know they'll get married in the end. But wasn't that meant to be soon... I guess it can't happen now until I get some more free time for writing. But never mind. I'm quite enjoying their conversation.

My textnovel 's up to 60,000 words, and the characters are ready to move on. They know what happened. I know what happened. "So just write it down for us," they say, "and let us get on with our lives." But it's not that simple. I've spent so much time on these characters now. David took me to work with him, introduced me to his mates in their cubicles. I really felt like I finally understood why he's so organized. Then there's Emily. It wasn't hard to see why David liked her, but she took quite a lot longer for me to get to know. She's wary, but nice. David's mother, Jessica, seemed happy to have me round. I've sat in her living room drinking coffee, nibbling on cookies - gluten free. She's had a really tough life. And the other one? The character that hides behind emails and word docs and all that. I simply quoted his stuff at first because I still didn't know him. And then I found out... They make me feel like a reporter...

I tried to take Phillip Margolin’s advice. I wrote a paragraph for each part of the book, and felt like it was really taking shape. But then I tried to expand my paragraphs and found the story dissolving into lists of facts. “This happened. Then that.” I tried to ask all the questions to help it grow. When did this happen? How did it make you feel? But it really wasn’t working. My characters squirmed in the interview chair and looked at me like I was crazy. “Come on. Who cares?” Then the phone rang and I went outside to take my friend’s dog for a walk. My friend is very nice and has a very nice dog; a beagle that stops the smell the flowers, the dandelions, and every blade of grass. Then she runs, and we laugh, and my characters chase after me. “Hey, did I tell you about…” When I came home I started writing chapters again.

I've read lots of blog posts and articles recently which ask "Where do you get your ideas?" But last week I went to a Willamette Writers' talk on "Turning ideas into novels" by Phillip Margolin. And yesterday I tried to follow his advice with my ideas for Book 2 of Hemlock, which now seems to have morphed into Books 2 and 3. Margolin had lots of interesting and amusing anecdotes. But more importantly, he had some very wise and practical advice. I'm probably not organized enough to keep files full of ideas in my "office" as he suggested, though I've plenty in my head. But once I've got my one idea and written my one scene (25 pages or less), I'll take all the help I can get turning it into a novel. Ask the questions, Margolin said. "Who, what, where, when, why and how?" Look at your scene. Who's there? Where? Why? etc. And when the scene's over, how will they deal with the aftermath? He said you only need one idea ...