To be honest, Christmas shopping has taken its toll. I thought I’d be organised and get in before the crowds…unfortunately, the crowds had the same idea!
NaNoWriMo didn’t motivate me at all, although the main character in my current story has been making herself known to me. Her name is Alison (Al to her friends) and she’s in her mid-twenties. What’s unusual about her? Well, she has two shadows: one is evident in light, and the other only lingers in the darkness… I could tell you more, but things have a tendency to change as I write (or depending on how I’m feeling).
I don’t often talk about my counselling thingy, but we did an exercise which was very interesting. Basically, we each had to pick a person who knew us well, and we had to become that person and talk about ourselves as they might have. I bet you had to read that a couple of times to make sense of it (I know I did). It was so difficult, and it made me appreciate how hard it is for a writer to stay true to a character without aspects of their own personality coming through. I found that when I was writing Karma. I would type something that Paige did, then I’d stop myself, realising that it wasn’t what she would do but what I would do, and then hit the backspace button and try again.
Finally, to recall the letter I sent the last time I posted, I didn’t even get an acknowledgment. Why is that particularly disappointing when I’ve already been ignored by WHSmith, Tesco and Waterstones (Metrocentre)? Because it was my publisher who did not respond to me, that’s why.