Plotting and Planning for Novel No. 3

Today I spent the afternoon in the University library, of which I'm an alumni member. There are no students about, I had the top floor to myself. It was quiet and peaceful, just perfect for the task in hand.

From the two page synopsis I wrote to outline my third novel, I took the plot points and expanded each one. Then I scribbled onto post-its and finally, started sticking them down onto 16 pieces of A4. 16 pages for 16 chapters, which is where I like to head. At approx. 6,000 words per chapter that takes me, more or less, to the 100,000 words which I'll turn in before the deadline of February next year.

The next step is writing up the chapter plans, loosely embroidering some stitches around the framework I've created, but always knowing that things will - and should - change, as I go.

After chapter plans comes the writing, right? Wrong. First comes more thinking, more day-dreaming. What colour is my heroine's hair? What's her dog called... or should she have a dog? I need to see my characters clearly before I start writing and I'm not there, not yet. But I will be. Once the thinking and the dreaming and the characters settle deep in my mind, I know I'll be ready to write. But it won't be for a week or two yet. There's more thinking to do, as important for a writer as any other distraction  - well, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

I've done all my research now apart from a day's workshop at Beamish museum where I'm going to make my first clippy mat. And after that, the writing begins. I'll disappear into the study each day through the autumn as the weather turns cold. I'll write around Christmas, lost in my work. I'll surface in January and at the end of that month will have my first draft. It'll be rough and need smoothing but I'll have it in my hands.

I'm going on another adventure.

Wish me luck.

---

Find out more about me and my books at: Glenda Young Books

I'm on Twitter @flaming_nora and Instagram @flaming_nora

Corrie Weekly Update - The return of Claud and Aud

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, the fabulous Claudia returned.

---

Find out more about me and my books at: Glenda Young Books

I'm on Twitter @flaming_nora and Instagram @flaming_nora

My short story published by Blackthorn Press #amwriting

Very proud to say I've been shortlisted in the Ryedale Book Festival short story competition. I'm one of the final ten whose short stories have now been published by Blackthorn Press in an anthology called 10 Short Stories.

You can find out more about the Ryedale Book Festival here. 

The award-giving night will be held in September at the Talbot Hotel in Malton, which is just a stone's throw away from one of my favourite places, Scarborough.

A weekend has been booked and I'm looking forward to it already.

---

Find out more about me and my books at: Glenda Young Books

I'm on Twitter @flaming_nora and Instagram @flaming_nora

Writing... whatever the weather

I love the summer and warm weather. People are nice to each other, friendly. They wear their summer clothes and they eat ice-creams and let's face it, who isn't happy with a 99 in their hand?

But the heat is no good for writers. Or at least, it's no good for me.

I'm indoors, editing my second novel. It's so hot my fingers stick to the keyboard. I'm concentrating on my work hard, for long periods of time, that I don't notice I'm dehydrated and when I stand up, I wobble. I wander downstairs for iced water, and the house feels swampy inside. I open more windows, but the breeze hides outside, somewhere. Indoors there's no air-conditioning, this is northern England after all.

In the study where I write, I have a door to my side which opens to a balcony. But the door remains closed. When I open it my paperwork flies, that pesky breeze that I couldn't find before is right there, swirling notes and photocopies around. I close the door. I open all of the upstairs windows. If the breeze is there, why won't it come in now?

I uncross my sticky legs. I blow on my hands to cool them down. I concentrate, I work. I melt. I head back to my editing, learning with every page of my editor's notes, making my novel stronger, tighter, better.

It's hot, it's sticky, but it's not this writer's weather.

Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie Weekly Update - Don't spit in the hotpot

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie there was a lot of good stuff, actually. 

Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Soaps and Sagas - an interview with the Romantic Novelists' Association

I'm very proud to say that I've been interviewed by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

I feature on their blog this week where I talk about soaps and saga and my passion for writing.

If you'd like to read it, it's here.

And if you'd like to know more about the covers of my first two (of three) novels coming soon with Headline, you can find out more here.


Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Belle of the Back Streets - cover reveal

VERY proud to be able to share the cover of my debut novel "Belle of the Back Streets" - it's out in hardback in November this year with Headline. 

It's set in the northeast coal mining village of Ryhope in 1919.

All details at https://www.headline.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781472256560 

Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Secrets and Lies in The People's Friend Fiction Special

I've a short story in The People's Friend Fiction Special No. 160 which is out in the shops now.

It's a very short, one page story called Missing! And it's about, well, a couple who go missing. Their daughters are frantic with worry - but where have the couple gone and why are they being secretive?  You'll have to find out by reading it all but be warned, it's not what it seems.

Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Writing something saucy for My Weekly magazine

I've a short story in My Weekly's burlesque special pull-out called For Your Eyes Only.

My story is called The Spice of Life.  It was a real pleasure writing something saucy.

Here is the cover of the Special and it's in the shops now.

Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie Weekly Update - Hospital Weatherfield Ward

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie there was too much doom and gloom. Again. Bring on the new producer, bring on the new owners of the Rovers - and let's make this the best show on telly again.

Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

London bombings - 13 years on

I originally wrote this blog post on the 4th anniversary of the 2005 London bombings when I worked in London.  It's worth reposting. 

On my way to work this morning, I walked through Russell Square Park just like I’ve done for almost every working day of the seven years I’ve lived in London. But this morning I took a different route through the park to stand by the oak tree planted as a memorial to those who lost their lives in the London bombings, four years ago to the day.

I know how lucky I was that day. I know. I was one of thousands of Piccadilly line commuters who, if we’d left the house a couple of minutes earlier / later / hadn't stopped to buy a paper, could have been on the tube train which exploded between King's Cross and Russell Square tube stations.

When I did eventually reach central London that morning, I then walked to work past Tavistock Square where the bomb on the bus exploded later that morning. I heard it from my office.

The memorial oak tree in Russell Square park flourishes and grows and at 8.30am today there were already flowers laid at its base in memory. I stood in silence and thought about those who died, their families, before picking up my bag and walking on with a lump in my throat.

I have some horrible memories of the morning of July 7, 2005 which I won't write about here. However, my abiding memory comes from the day when the Piccadilly line reopened after many weeks of being closed after the attack. Only a handful of commuters went to work by tube on that first day. I forced myself to be one of them, despite how hard it was.

I was one of only three people in the tube carriage all the way from north London to King's Cross. At King's Cross, my husband got off to go to work. He kissed me on the cheek and asked if I'd be ok. I said I would be. I had to be. The two remaining passengers in the carriage left King's Cross on the tube, we didn't look at each other. I got off at Russell Square station which was newly painted, scrubbed sterile, and took the lift up to the ticket hall. With me in the lift were only half a dozen or so commuters. Two were in tears, another was being comforted by a Transport for London worker and it was obvious from their tearful conversation that the passenger was the parent of a young person who had died in the blast.

We all rode the six storeys together in the lift, some of us holding back sobs, some openly weeping. The lift doors opened, we turned the corner to head through to the ticket hall only to be met by a barrage of television cameras and a large, booming member of the Metropolitan police urging us: “Come on, ladies and gentlemen, big smiles for the cameras! Big smiles, you’re on TV! Come on, ladies and gents, let’s see those smiles!”

None of us smiled. 

Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora