Month: June 2012

Save Our Heroes to Save Our Souls.

I love Dorset. My stories are set around the beautiful towns, villages and coastline. If you have never been, I encourage you to visit, even if it’s raining…

In a move to cut spending and claw back some of the country’s deficit, our Portland Coastguard service is being closed down. What this action tells me is saving money has greater value than human life. Can this be right?

Our Coastguards are true heroes who risk their lives to rescue hundreds of others every year.

I don’t want my stories to tell tales of those lost at sea. I have no desire to write about the lone youth, stranded on a rock who never again will feel the comfort of his mother’s arms. And I don’t want to read headlines that, on a daily basis, shout tragedy. We live by the coast and we acknowledge these terrible and sad accidents happen, so why take away our life savers?

 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/30225

Please sign our petition to keep a very important, life-saving service, even if you’re not a resident of the South West, please consider supporting our cause – it’s a wonderful part of the country to visit and we’d like to know we have the capability to help all those in peril on the sea or stranded in beautiful, but remote spots. Please, please sign so London HAS to take note.
And please share.

Thank you very much.

Laura x

 

Trying Something New.

I have spent the past couple of days trying my hand at developing a synopsis before having written the story. I have not tried this before, but I understand it is common practice amongst many writers.

Currently, I am 60,000 words into the first draft of my work in progress and until last night, I had no clue as to how the story would end. I took my ‘Keep Calm and Eat Chocolate’ notebook, my trusty purple pen and Sarah Duncan’s advice, and started writing a series of  ‘And then’, uncertain where my scribblings would lead.

In a few hours, spread over two days, I noted down what I considered to be the relevant points of the story. I took the synopsis as far as I could – a fraction over half way, but with a need to finish it, I had to decide on how to end the story. I took the radical move of making it up as I went along, resulting in a few pages of rubbish.

And it was rubbish.

But I was getting words onto the sheet.

Yesterday, I reread my notes. They were wishy-washy, there was very little structure, the chronology, like a time machine, was all over the place, and the final part, like me without a map, had no direction whatsoever, but this made me happy. I had a starting point and I knew what improvements had to be made.

This time, I took a different, larger notebook and settled down to transcribe from the smaller pad. I refined the relevant points, put the events in the correct order, discovered exactly who my characters are and what made them that way and…fanfare please…found my ending. I was so pleased, I announced it to Gajitman, who, bless him, stopped racing in the Alps, put down the controller and listened to me.

I have a real sense of where I’m going with this WIP now.

It seems developing the synopsis before writing the story, works. It totally focuses one’s mind, too.

Which comes first for you? The story of the synopsis?

Laura x

Seasons in the Sun

It’s June, it’s raining and it’s summer. And I missed spring.

The beautiful season of renewal and new beginnings bypassed me as I dealt with the loss of my mother – emotionally and physically.

I say dealt, but I’m still shuffling some of those cards. They’ve not all yet made it to the table.

This last fortnight, I have been sorting and clearing my mum’s house and have spent many hours being reminded of times past or discovering little gems of information I never knew. Some of it made me cry, plenty made me smile and one or two things made me exclaim ‘Mum!’. All of it helped me understand more about myself. It turns out, I’m more like my mother than I realised. That’s a good thing.

That’s a wonderful thing.

Life is a little less perfect without Mum in it, but my family and I are focussing on a positive future, whilst learning how to remember the good times with a smile and not a tear.

Here comes the sun.

Laura x