Being a farmer and a mum, often my writing time is snatched in between feeding kids, husband or animals and every other job you can imagine. Because of this, I’ve been known to write in a variety of places.
Today I’m being very naughty and using the shade of a tree for my workspace. I’m scratching out some plans for my third book, Purple Roads. I have a notebook full of ideas and now I’m just beginning to work out each chapter so I’ve got an idea of where things are heading to. Now, that’s not to say that my characters won’t have different ideas and make me change what I’ve got planned as I get further in. They often do – and most of my characters are pretty pushy when they get ideas!
And to tell you the honest truth, I’m probably procrastinating slightly, as it’s pretty daunting staring at a blank Word Document, wondering how the hell am I supposed to write the opening line, let alone 100,000 words! I’m just avoiding the starting bit!
The other couple of photos you may have seen before are my working desks. One is my outdoor office, that I use fairly often during harvest and the other one is my ‘normal’ office, that I’m particularly grateful for during winter!
This is a really important little note book. It’s small enough to fit in my hand bag or just sit along side me on the passengers seat of the car – and it goes where ever I am at the moment.
This is the start of Purple Roads.
In here I document every single thought I have, every comment and idea about a character or the plot. I try and spend time ‘in my characters head’ so I know what makes them tick, I know what they like to eat, drink, the music they listen to, their plans for their life and who their friends are. You can probably almost read a few ideas I have for Anna Butler, one of the main characters in Purple Roads.
Once I’ve got every character straight, I can start plotting. To be truthful, I don’t do a lot of that. I have four for five major points I know I need to get to, but often I don’t know how I’m going to get there until I sit in front of the computer and start writing. The characters themselves, often take me to places I haven’t thought about or been before! I can find myself tapping out parties or weddings that I haven’t thought of. Sometimes, during the final edit, before I send it to the publishers, these ideas can make it and at other times, they are cut and scrapped. I love my red biro!
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