Tag: Writer

How I write

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 6 Comments

Writing

Just a quick post to update you a little on how I’m getting on with writing every day this month.

Not bad so far. I’ve written properly, working on my WIP Reunion, most days. The days I don’t have given me the opportunity to start planning my next story – which to me counts as work on my writing.

That’s been really nice, to get back to planning which I always enjoy. But doing work every day on my writing has made me compare how I’m doing now writing/working on writing every day with my usual ‘method’ of working on it most days but not every single day.

The highest word count I’ve managed in one day, writing this way, is about 600 which for me isn’t bad. However a few times before this month, when I wasn’t working on my WIP every day, I could do well over 1000.

So the question I’m pondering is this: is it better to write every day and do less each time, but have the total add up to quite a lot, or is it better to write a bit more sporadically but write in heftier chunks?

I’d love to hear your thoughts! 🙂

A WIPpet for Wednesday

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 25 Comments

OK, so not the most fantastic of titles but it’s the best I could do. I hope this WIPpet finds you well and getting into the swing of 2014.

For this week’s WIPpet Wednesday I thought I’d share with you 15 words from chapter 1 of my current WIP Reunion. Like many of my fellow WIPpeteers, I’m finding it hard to… well find parts to share that don’t give away half the plot.

So this week I’m keeping it short but sweet. This line is further on in the same chapter from last week’s excerpt. Anna is thinking about the people she might see at the school reunion.

It would be good to see Lizzie and Rachel again, but they wouldn’t necessarily go.

I will try and be less stingy with the excerpt next week! Looking forward to reading yours.

Wanna join in the WIPpet Wednesday fun? No problem – just share an excerpt from your current WIP on your blog. Make sure it relates to the date somehow. Then go here to add your details to the list. And you’re off!

Thank you K. L. Schwengel for hosting! 🙂

The Ta-Da Award

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 12 Comments

ta-da

The lovely, talented ReGi McClain has kindly nominated me for a new blog award called The Ta-Da award. I have to answer ten questions, which you’ll see below, and nominate some people to give the award to.

Since I’m really lazy, and most of my contacts are very busy people, I’m not going to nominate anyone. But here as promised are the questions and my answers:

1. What was the best experience you had on purpose last year?
Going down to my cousin’s wedding in Cornwall (it’s the most south western area of the UK) and spending time with my extended family. It gave me the chance to dress up which I don’t often do. We went to a pub for the reception and a random man at the bar told me I dressed well!! Surprising, but sweet!

2. What was the best experience you stumbled into last year?
Meeting another author and blogger (apart from Kate Frost) Jade Reyner face to face who I hadn’t met before. OK so it was kind of planned, but I didn’t expect to be able to meet her when I first got in touch with her via our blogs and Twitter. It was so lovely to meet another blogger who lives in my area of the UK – she’s wonderful which wasn’t necessarily a given! – and it means there are 3 of us now who can meet up together.

3. What was your greatest intentional accomplishment last year?
Self-publishing my debut novel The Inheritance. It took a long while to get to the point of self-publishing it but it has been worth every single second of effort to get to that point. I’ve learnt so much and really enjoyed the experience.

4. What was your greatest unplanned accomplishment last year?
I reached my 100th post on WordPress on the 18th December! So I was really happy about that and it was totally unplanned. Seems unbelievable that I’ve done that many posts as I only started in March last year.

5. Did you spend some time with someone you adore last year?
Yes, I spent plenty of time with my wonderful husband Ian who I totally, completely and utterly adore!

6. Were you nice to someone you don’t like last year?
I’m not sure actually. Possibly but thankfully I don’t generally come into that much contact with people I really don’t like. Usually though if I’m with someone I don’t like I try to at least be polite.

7. What was the most amazing thing you learned last year?
Finding out that I’d had nearly 9500 free downloads of The Inheritance when I did my free promotion for it. (Not sure if this answer counts but it’s what you’re getting!)

8. Who did you teach last year and what (G-rated thing) did you teach them?
I taught my dog not to nip at me when I’m drying him off after walks/when he comes in from the garden.

9. What events did you attend last year?
I went to a couple of book launches with my good friend and fellow WIPpeteer Kate Frost. They were good times, although the second one was held at the beginning of August, we were in a cramped bookshop and it was VERY hot and sticky. Yuk!

10. Did you travel anywhere? Even just downtown?
Hubby, dog and I travelled to south west Wales in April for a week long holiday in a cottage on a farm. It was great!

So there you have it. I hope you’re all having a fabulous weekend. Catch you later. 🙂

My 1st WIPpet Wednesday of the new year!

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 24 Comments

Hi all! Hope you had a fantastic Christmas and New Year and that you haven’t eaten or drunk too much!! 😉 I have to admit, I put on a bit of weight which I’m not happy about. 😦 I’m trying to tackle it by healthier eating. So we shall see if I can lose a bit again.

Anyway, on to the WIPpet Wednesday excerpt. It’s the 8th January today, so just to be annoying I’m going to take you back to chapter 1 and give you 8 lines from my current WIP Reunion. At this point in the story, Anna is at home working. She’s a full time writer (ah, bliss) and she’s just picking up the day’s post (or mail to you American folks!!) which has arrived.

A couple of envelopes were identical, she noticed with a frown, rectangular and plain brown. One was addressed to her, the other to Melissa. The post mark was Holmsborough.

She opened hers and quickly read what it said. It was an invitation to a school reunion – her secondary school. It was going to be held at the school itself and would happen in a couple of months’ time.

Immediately her mind transported her back to her painfully unhappy school days. She saw again the school corridor and herself rushing down it, trying to get away from the catcalls and taunts she’d had to endure on a daily basis.

So there you go. I look forward to reading your comments and I will certainly check out other WIPpeteers’ offerings.

If you would like to take part in WIPpet Wednesday, it’s easy. Simply post an excerpt of what you’re currently working on writing-wise which relates in some way to the date. Then add your name to this linky. And you’re done.

Thank you K. L. Schwengel for hosting!

 

A brief WIPpet Wednesday

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 23 Comments

Hi all.

This is going to have to be quick as I haven’t got a huge amount of time today. But I hope you’re all well and not too stressed out by the pre-Christmas rush.

My WIPpet this week is a tease (again!). I’m sharing 21 words from chapter 12 of my work in progress.  My maths works like this: 18 for the 18th + 2 + 1 (from 2013) = 21 I’ll let you figure out the rest!!

The scene I’m sharing is from Reunion and it follows directly on from last week’s.  Anna is trying not to think about her experience with Will a week ago.

Anyway she should try and forget about Will and think about Peter instead.  He was coming down to see her tomorrow.

I’m guessing we’re not doing WIPpet Wednesday next week seeing as it’ll be Christmas Day.  Yay!  (for Christmas Day, not because I don’t want to connect with you guys via WIPpet Wednesday!!)  I hope you all have a wonderful time.

To be a part of WIPpet Wednesday just post on your blog an excerpt of whatever you’re working on writing-wise. Just make sure it relates in some way to the date. Then add your name to this linky.  Thanks goes to K. L. Schwengel for hosting.

All that’s left to say is Merry Christmas to you all!! And I just realised that this is my 100th post on my blog!! So yay for that too. 😀

Post breakup

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 14 Comments

Breakup

I thought I’d be a bit kinder this week and share with you 23 lines from the first chapter of Reunion. They follow immediately on from the revised beginning of the story which I shared with you a few weeks ago, where Anna is confronting her boyfriend Elliot about his cheating. She proceeds to kick him out.

You may recognise some sentences in this week’s excerpt because this passage has parts in it that were from my original beginning. So apologies if some of it seems the same. I have, however, changed a fair bit of it so hopefully it won’t overlap too much.

At this point in the story Anna has just kicked her cheating boyfriend out. Her best friend Melissa, who currently has nowhere to live, is moving in with her. Anna is still struggling with her emotions over the breakup and Melissa is doing her best to help her to move on.

My WIPpet maths goes like this: 6+11+2+1+3 = 23 lines. So there you have it. Hope you enjoy it.

‘He did you wrong, Anna. He cheated on you,’ Melissa said looking Anna straight in the eye, a no-nonsense expression on her face. ‘You were absolutely right to give him his marching orders.’

Anna didn’t answer for a moment. There was a pain in her chest which had been there since she’d thrown Elliot out and it wouldn’t budge.

‘That’s the last of them,’ she said finally, heaving Melissa’s suitcase through her front door and ignoring her searching gaze.

Melissa picked up one of the many bags in the hallway and took it into the slightly tidier front room. ‘Well it’s all in the past now anyway. It’s a new start for both of us.’

Anna nodded and followed her from the hallway overflowing like a swollen river with suitcases and bags into the relative tidiness of her front room. Her hair was coming loose from its ponytail and falling into her eyes, so she vigorously tugged her hair out of its band and retied it, pulling it tightly until it hurt. Tears were threatening to fall, but she held them back like water by a dam.

Why should she give way to tears when there was no point? Elliot would win if she did that and yet… The world is your oyster. The thought popped into her head as she was standing a little dazed in the middle of the front room. Well it was, wasn’t it, now that Elliot was no longer a part of her life. Or the oyster is your world as he used to say. She scrunched her eyes up; try as she might she just couldn’t seem to get him out of her mind.

‘You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?’ Melissa’s voice brought her back from the brink.

‘Only a little,’ Anna lied unable to keep her voice steady.

As you may have seen on my blog, the free promotion of my debut novel The Inheritance ended yesterday and it went really well. I’ve had nearly 9500 downloads, most of them in the US so I’m happy about that. Hopefully it’ll lead to more sales. 🙂

If you would like to take part in WIPpet Wednesday, all you have to do is post an excerpt of your current writing work on your blog. Then add your name to this linky. Only rule is that it has to relate in some way to the date. Happy writing! Thanks to K. L. Schwengel for hosting.

Another brief WIPpet (cos I’m cruel!)

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 26 Comments

Shock

OK so it’s not the best image ever, but it’s the best I could find! And yes, as the title of this blog post suggests, I am going to be mean again and share just a few sentences.

I’m sharing 33 words from chapter 13 of my current WIP Reunion. How I’ve worked it out goes as follows: chapter 13 for 2013, 30 words for the 30th October, then 1 + 2 = 3 (from the 10th month and 2 from 2013) so 33 words.

So there you have it. As with last week, I’m not going to give too much away about the plot because this is quite recent writing that I’m sharing with you here and I don’t want to share everything because that would spoil it!

All I will say is that at this point in the story, my main character Anna has done a bit of a double take as she mistakes her boyfriend for someone else…

For a split second she thought she was seeing Elliot. Then Anna recovered herself. It was the bathrobe. She’d never thought that Peter and Elliot looked alike. But their hair colour was similar.

Yes, I am mean.  It’s partly laziness so that I don’t have to search around for ages for 30 lines/paragraphs etc.  It’s also like I said last week, that I really don’t want to give away too much of the plot.  I don’t want to spoil it for you guys before you come to read the finished product!

I hope all you NaNoWriMo writers have fun with it.  If I had more energy (and wrote MUCH faster) then I would join in too.  But as it is I write/work better at my own pace.  I am looking forward to seeing the results of your energetic writing in December!  There – another challenge for you – to have something to show me!!  Just kidding – I’m sure you’ll all be brilliant!

If you would like to take part in WIPpet Wednesday, just post an excerpt of whatever you’ve been writing lately on your blog.  Rule: it must relate in some way to the date.  Then add your name to this linky.  Thanks goes to the lovely K. L. Schwengel for hosting. 🙂

Harnessing the power of Twitter

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 10 Comments

Twitter

I joined Twitter just over 18 months ago. I’ve found it to be incredibly helpful to my writing and I’ve made contact with other writers through it, some of whom I’ve even met and become good friends with.

But for quite a while I wasn’t engaging fully with other authors on Twitter. Although I had over 1000 followers and I was following over 1000 people, following people and gaining new followers was slowing to a trickle. I just wasn’t very active on it. Most of the time I would do a post on my blog, tweet about it once and expect people to respond.

If I’m honest with myself, I did realise that wasn’t enough. But I was busy doing lots of other things, writing and blogging to name two, and so I neglected Twitter.

A couple of weeks ago I was given some good advice by another writer, Terry Tyler. She was commenting on my guest post for Joanne Phillip‘s blog which I’d written as part of my blog tour to promote my debut novel The Inheritance. She suggested that to publicise myself more online, it would be a good idea to make sure I’m active on Twitter by retweeting about 20 people a day. That way I would likely get more people retweeting my tweets and therefore be seen by more people.

I decided to take Terry’s advice. I’ve been trying to retweet around 20 people a day as she suggested and I’m seeing the results. When you retweet other authors, they really appreciate it – as I do when people retweet my messages about my novel. It leads to more people following you, you have a greater presence online and it helps towards that vital marketing of your book. Your tweets end up being seen not just by your followers, but by their followers too and so on.

I’m going to continue to take a more proactive attitude to using Twitter and harnessing its power to promote my writing. So far it’s paying dividends.

When the words just won’t come

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 21 Comments

Words

I will be honest with you that the title of this blog post isn’t entirely true of my writing right now, although it has been in the past.

But I have been finding that the flow of my WIP is slowing at the moment. Before I began writing I made a comprehensive plan of the plot and in which direction I wanted my story to head.

Of course in actually coming to write it things change and I’ve found that the characters I’d planned have evolved and taken new paths. That’s all well and good. But sometimes you get to a stage in writing a story where things just go a bit stale.

As I said I know where I want to take my story ultimately but I want it to flow seamlessly, with one scene merging into the next so that the narrative doesn’t feel forced.

Right now I’m feeling my writing’s a bit barren. I’ve had a lot of things to focus on apart from this WIP because among other things,as you may have seen from other posts, I’ve been promoting the publication of my debut novel The Inheritance. So I’ve had plenty of distractions.

That’s not the real reason for this dryness in my writing though, I don’t think. I just need to somehow regain a bit of momentum with it, to really tell the story and focus on the general plan I originally came up with and not get too bogged down in dialogue between characters which doesn’t go anywhere.

When I’ve got past this difficult stage of trying to sew the story together seamlessly somehow and I eventually finish the first draft, I’m actually looking forward to sending it out to beta readers and getting their opinions on what’s working and not working, particularly in this part of the story.

Ultimately I want to be able to finish and publish this story by the end of next year but I’m not sure I’ll manage it. Especially seeing as writing a new post for my blog feels a lot easier than moving the action in my WIP along with no visible seams!

What do you do when you’re finding it hard to find the right words to carry a plot forward?

‘The Inheritance’ is almost here!

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 10 Comments

TheInheritance

I wanted to update you all on my progress in publishing The Inheritance. I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be publishing it this Saturday 14th September and to launch it I’m having a blog tour. I’m so excited!

It’s been well over a year in the making – nearly two years in fact – but now it’s finally finished and it’ll be ready for you to download on both Amazon UK and Amazon.com from Saturday.

Some of my lovely fellow writers have agreed to host/interview me on their blogs as part of my blog tour. The dates are as follows:

Saturday 14th September I’ll be doing a guest post on Kate Frost‘s blog about how I became a writer.

Monday 16th September I’m doing another guest post on Joanne Phillips‘s blog about how I came to publish The Inheritance.

Tuesday 17th September you’ll have the chance to read an excerpt from The Inheritance on Jade Reyner‘s blog.

Wednesday 18th September Briana Vedsted will be interviewing me on her blog about the process of writing The Inheritance.

Thursday 19th September you’ll be able to read another interview with me on Martin Lake‘s blog where I talk a bit about myself and how I went about writing The Inheritance.

Friday 20th September Laurey Buckland will interview me on her blog where as well as talking about writing The Inheritance, you can find out what exactly I haven’t done in my life yet that’s on my to do list.

Sunday 22nd September I’ll draw my blog tour to a close by returning to Kate Frost‘s blog for an interview.

Phew!  That’s a lot of stops, but I really hope you’ll visit these wonderful writers’ blogs and find out a little bit more about how I came to write and publish The Inheritance.  I’ll also be updating my blog all next week so you’ll be able to keep track of what stage I’m at in it. 😀