Flaming Nora

15 sheets of paper, one for each chapter. They're all blank right now, I mean, right at this minute. I can see them from the corner of my eye as I type up this blog post. This displacement  blog post.  I want to start plotting, and yet... and yet I'm too scared to start.  For once I begin I will lose myself to the story, a rollicking one at that. It could be my strongest yet.  Another adventure begins. I'll see you in October.  Post-blog note: One hour later and the planning is starting to make some sort of sense. I love the physical cut and paste, the poring over my work as I plot and plan all the twists and turns. I'll leave it looking like this for a day or two on my study floor. Post-it notes will be moved, destroyed, added.  And only when I feel it sits right, that the action is spread evenly across the whole work, will I start typing up my chapter plans.  But these will be written loosely, for anything unexpected that could (and shou...

Pre-research research Today I had the synopsis approved for the third novel I'm going to write. And before I set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) there'll be two or three weeks of head-down, serious research to do.  Past experience tells me I'll enjoy every minute of this - and it's often hard to know when to stop because once I start, there are so many rabbit holes to fall into full of jewels and gems and things to make me go "Ooh!" (or in my case: "That's fantastic! I could wrap a whole chapter around that one paragraph/sentence/word!"). But before research proper begins in a couple of weeks' time, I'm doing a lot of reading right now. It's what I'm calling my pre-research research. This means that if you call round to see me and I'm sitting in the garden with my feet up on a lounger, iced lemonade by my side and sun-specs on, I'm not lazing around. I'm pre-research researching. Oh yes. And in this, ...

Today, I start writing my second novel.  Planning has been done. Character lists have been drawn up. A map of Ryhope village in 1920 is pinned in front of me. Pictures and photographs have been dotted above my writing desk. Behind me, not pictured, are files of research with more pictures, maps and plans. I have no more excuses, no more reasons not to write, to begin, to start a new story. I will bring characters to life, take them from my head and set them down in print. They do not yet know they are going to exist. But they will... and they will live and they will love. They will dance and they will sing. And so, here I go. Twitter has been shut down. Facebook has closed. Email is on mute for the next few hours, because today I begin writing book two. And my work will be watched over, as it always is, by David Bowie, the creative genius who has spurred me on every single day since I was 11 years old. Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below : I'm...

Only when I'm writing can I feel this free At night I lock the door so no-one else can see I'll never tire of writing here all by myself Next week I wanna write with no-one else Find out more about me and my books. Click on the image below : I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

This week I had a holiday, a few days break to my favourite Yorkshire sea-side place and to visit my mum-in-law in Yorkshire too. I also had a birthday so it's been a great week.  It also meant I had a break from writing for a few days.  That doesn't  mean I had a break from thinking and planning and talking to my characters though. No. That all still went on. But what did happen is that I started dreaming again. I love dreaming and I do it a lot. I have vivid dreams, in colour, that I tend to remember well the next day. But when I'm writing, I stop dreaming. Now I'm not Freud (as you know) and I don't know Fancy Brain Stuff (as you may also know) but it seems to me there's a clear link between creativity during the day time and not dreaming at night. Or at least for me there is. Anyway, I dreamed. I had a great week's holiday and I ate ice-cream. Today I'm back to writing again with two chapters to complete before a deadline next week. Find o...

This is me as a writer, in my head. This is me as a writer, in reality.  Two chapters are written and the third is underway. I'm on a deadline to produce and submit six chapters before I go away on my jollies next month.  That's OK, it's doable. I've done myself a schedule. Ooh, it's a lovely schedule, on a spreadsheet, all colour co-ordinated with a nice font and I love tweaking it and updating it and...  ... it's so easy to get distracted. It's so easy to do anything other than sit down and write. But when I do, I get lost in the power of words, the power of my story, the power of being me as a writer. The me I have always wanted to be.  (Note to self: that's far too cheesy a thing to be admitting in a public forum). So the writing is going well, as is the tweaking of the schedule and the colouring-in of the spreadsheet.  But I'm worrying too. Is there too much dialogue? Not enough? Are the characters coming alive for the reader ...

I've spent today planning and plotting all 20 chapters of my novel. This is what the floor of my writing study (aka our spare room) looked like this morning.  One piece of paper represents one chapter of the  book. Eagle-eyed readers might have spotted only 19 sheets of paper above. Aha! That's because I've already had my first chapter accepted, and have been given the go-ahead to finish the book with the first 5 chapters due in a matter of weeks. Eagle-eyed readers might also spot that chapter 18 looks a bit empty. It was... I've jzuzzed it up a bit since I took the photo. Tomorrow I am ready to lose myself as I start again to write... and write... and write. And just when I thought I'd done all of the research that I needed to do,  I met someone at the weekend, a vicar no less. He offered some wonderful stories of the time and the place I am writing about. An afternoon at the vicarage to hear more of his tales has been planned, Biscuits may be involved....

Crikey. I've never had a 4* review before. In fact, I've never had a review. But I've just been given a 4* star review for my novel Triple Whammy , available for Kindle. Crikey. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

My novel, Triple Whammy , has now been published on Amazon for Kindle. It's a story of love, friendship and a psychic cat. But don't let that put you off. Please buy it - here. It's been at the back of my knicker drawer too long.

The novel has now reached almost 60,000 words. I have two chapters left to write and then it's down to editing and rewrites before I let it go to the outside world and let someone else read it. There are scary and exciting times ahead.

I've reached a milestone in the writing of my novel, having hit the 40,000 word mark. That's about half way and while it may not be much to some of you reading this, it's the most I've ever written in my life. I think I deserve some cake.

For those interested in such things, I've now writen 27,000 words of my novel. That's more than a quarter of the way through, although less than half. Tim Dowling, Guardian writer and novelist, has nicked my(*) Flaming Nora picture for his article here at The First Post . He lists the devils against getting on with novel writing as being, in no particular order, and which I agree with him totally as being: Food, Family, Internet, Everything Within Reach of Your Desk and The Enormity of What You Are Doing. (*)I know it's not mine, it just feels like it is . I've been using it as my blog icon since I started blogging back in 1956.

I realise that when I give updates on the word count of my novel in progress, the posts aren't as thrilling as readers might like. However, there's an enormous sense of achievement in putting together words that make sense after a writing session and therefore, I'm very happy to say, the novel is now up to 21,000 words. I feel that it's a milestone of sorts as it's approx. a quarter of the way through. All I need to do now is put in the time to repeat those 21,000 words another three times and I'm there, all done. What I'll do then? I haven't a clue.

Ok, it's time for an update on how the novel is progressing. I know that writing this blog post is an excuse not to write any more of the novel for a while but I understand displacement activity is common while writing. This morning my good intentions of writing came to nought when displacement knocked me sideways as I heard the kitchen cry out to be cleaned and the bedroom carpet said it needed to feel the warmth of the Dyson tickle its tufted tum. Word count so far: 6,126. Chapter one is complete and I am right happy.

I made a vow to myself in the summer to do two things before the end of this year. You can find out what those two things are by clicking here - but only if you'd like to. The first of the two things has been taking care of itself without any input from me. The second has been more problematic but also more exciting. And so, I am as pleased as punch to say that after much thought, scribbling and planning, I have today started writing my very first novel. I have no idea if it will be any good (although I'm writing it as if it will be). All I know is that if I don't get it out of my head and down in print, I'll go a bit mad. Wordcount so far: 1,444. Only 58,556 to go.