This week it being the 13th March, I thought I’d share about 13 lines from chapter 3 of my current WIP which has the working title ‘Reunion’. At this point in the story my main character Anna and her friends have arrived at an old stately home for a spa weekend.

‘Hey! Hey, what do you think you’re doing?’ Anna and her friends turned to face the questioner. They were faced with an angry looking woman of about their own age, who was being followed by an entourage of women dressed in various shades of pink. The woman speaking had an L plate stitched to her T shirt. They were obviously there for a hen weekend.
‘What do you mean, what are we doing?’ Lizzie asked. ‘We’re just going into our rooms.’
The woman shook her head forcefully. ‘You can’t do that. Those are our rooms.’
‘There must be some mistake,’ Anna said. ‘We were quite clearly told to come here to the second floor, turn left and that our rooms were the third and fourth on the right.’
She watched as the woman’s face turn redder and redder.
If you would like to join in with WIPpet Wednesday simply post a section of your current work in progress that relates in some way to the date (e.g. 13 lines or words for the 13th), then add your name to this link. Thanks again to K.L. Schwengel for hosting.

I don’t know about you but sometimes at weekends I find it harder to focus on my writing than on a weekday. I don’t work weekends and although I love having the time free to spend with my husband and our lovely golden retriever, I find the time slips through my fingers and before I know it it’s gone.

I have done some writing today; I’m trying to do some now but it’s hard. I’m being distracted by pottering around the house, looking at the internet, tempted away from my writing by updating this blog, and generally unable to keep on track with my writing and tasks in general unlike on a weekday. The trouble is I tend to feel guilty if I haven’t done a great deal of anything at the weekend. As the weekend approaches I kind of think ‘oh I’ll do that at the weekend, I’ll have more time then.’ But then the weekend arrives and I just can’t be bothered! A lethary envelopes me and I can’t seem to see through the fog of my own inertia!

I guess the whole point of weekends (if you’re not working) is just that: they’re end of the week; you’re supposed to have a rest and take it easy. But I feel bad when Monday arrives and the house isn’t looking as good as it could, or the word count of my novel hasn’t increased as much as I’d like. It would be nice to either have a weekend where I somehow manage to get plenty done on the house AND on my novel. And do all this without overdoing it! It’s a shame that, to coin a well known saying, I simply can’t have my cake and eat it too!

What are your thoughts on weekends and work?

Well this is my first Thursday’s Children on my new blog and it’s another chance for me to tell you what inspires my writing. Hmm…various things I guess, one of which I shared last week. So this week I want to talk about what has inspired my current WIP. This WIP is partly to do with my main character, Anna, going to a school reunion and having to face the bullies who made her life hell while she was at school.

I didn’t enjoy school , so I know what my character’s going through. Growing up isn’t easy for anyone, and it’s especially hard if you have zero self confidence. My character Anna has changed an awful lot since her school days. She’s blossomed from a dumpy teen into a beautiful thirty something woman, with a successful career as – would you believe – an author. Her self confidence is much greater now she’s an adult. I guess it’s similar to my own story as I suffered a great deal from a lack of self confidence, particularly in my teens. It doesn’t help that girls can be very catty when they want to be and the same is even more true of teenage girls. They can make each other’s lives difficult. This is something that my story deals with. Having said that some of the bullies in my story are male, so that’s interesting to me too.

The story I’m telling, whilst not about teenagers, does have plenty of flashbacks to Anna’s past and her experiences at school. Our childhood and teenage years shape us into the people we become as adults and that’s what I’m drawing on in this story. I’ve often imagined going back to my secondary school and seeing my old classmates as they are now, what they would look like years later, how they might have changed. That was one of the main ideas for the story: what happens when someone revists their past. I’m also thinking about the ramifications of that; what the effect of the reunion is on Anna and her friends. I’m developing my character: how does she change as a person as a result of meeting people from her past?

What are your thoughts on how people are shaped by their school days?

If you want to take part in this Thursday’s Children blog hop simply blog about what inspires you to write and add your link to this linky

Thanks to Rhiann Wynn-Nolet and Kristina Perez for hosting

Other awesome authors include Raewyn Hewitt Kate Frost Regi McClain

Hi everyone. This is my first WIPpet Wednesday on my new blog. I’m hoping I can get it to work properly, not being used to WordPress. So hoping this works, here are the first six lines of chapter three of my current WIP (it being the 6th March today):

Anna and her friends stopped in their tracks to admire the beauty of Wodefrey Place. The stunning eighteenth century mansion house loomed ahead of them, seeming to tower ever upwards. Tall columns marked the imposing entrance. Standing on top of a hill, the house commanded an estate of more than three hundred acres. It was so quiet there Anna felt as though the house and its grounds had been placed under a spell, and would not wake for another hundred years.
‘Do you think we’ll be allowed in?’ Lizzie asked in a stage whisper, making Melissa burst out laughing.
‘They’d better after all the money we’ve forked out to come here,’ Rachel said.
‘I don’t suppose they’ll have a problem letting me in anyway. I am dressed for the occasion after all,’ Anna deadpanned.
Three pairs of eyes turned to her, scrutinising her outfit. Anna had worn a classic-looking little black dress with a smart coat and kitten heels. Dark sunglasses were propped up on high on her head and her hair was swept back in a chic chignon.
‘You do look like Audrey Hepburn reincarnated,’ Melissa said.

I’d love to know what you think and if you’re not a WIPpeter just share some of your work and add it to the linkie via K.L.Schwengel’s blog

Other great blogs include: Kate Frost Raewyn Hewitt Rhiann Wynn-Nolet Michaele Stoughton

It may be a bit of a cliche, but having a new blog is a new start for me. Also I began writing my new story just under two months ago, so it’s all change for me. It’s funny, isn’t it, how when something is new in your life it can feel strange and slightly surreal. Whether it be a new job, house, or baby, whatever, all these things can take a while to get used to. But at the same time new experiences or new things can be quite exciting. And it’s funny how our perception of things change with time. For example, when I first came to the city of Bristol, UK where I now live with my husband, it felt entirely different from how living here feels now. It’s like a totally different place for me now; I can barely associate my first impressions of Bristol fourteen years ago with how I see it now.

I guess that’s inevitable – time and experience of places and even people changes things for us. Things that were once so new and exciting for us can sometimes become bland and boring. But it is interesting to mentally revisit places and situations that seemed so different to us a while ago; to compare our first impressions with what they are now. And it’s good to make the most of ‘new sensations’ while they still are just that: new.

Hi everyone and welcome to my brand new WordPress blog!  I’m just getting started so I’m still finding my feet with it, but I’m planning to personalize it and make it my own.  I can still be contacted via my old blog (elainesstories.blogspot.com) but I’ll probably use this one more now.  I hope you enjoy it!