- Barbara Copperthwaite
WEEKLY ROUND UP: The write stuff
Secrets and lies and layers are added as I go.
Wow, another week has whizzed by! Aside from launching Blood Type, my fortnightly chats with crime authors about their writing process (to read the first one, with Lesley Tither, click here. It’s really fun and informative) the picture sums up my week. Writing, writing, writing. My story is growing really well now, and bits of it are weaving together nicely.
It’s amazing watching how the kernel of an idea grows into something complex as I write. Secrets and lies and layers are added as I go. I’m past the stage where I’m dotting about all over the place, writing random bits of scenes without much of a clue as to how they will come together. Instead, I now have them all linked in my mind and am writing chronologically through the tale.
Of course, then I get ideas about how a bit I’m writing will later influence something else that happens, and I have to scroll through the manuscript to a point where I might be able to use that idea, and WRITE IN BIG CAPITALS THAT THAT BIT MUST BE SLOTTED IN HERE. In fact, my first drafts are always incredibly messy, capped up, note-filled creations. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? and DOES THIS MAKE SENSE? and a particular favourite of mine RESEARCH MORE!!
When I finish, I look back at the final document and the one I started out with, and it always feels like a miracle has happened by magic. That what started as random words is made into sentences, paragraphs, scenes, pages, chapters…and finally a book.
This morning, though, I won’t be writing. The sun is shining into my bedroom as I type, and it’s making me itch to get outside with Scamp! I’m heading out with my camera now to lose myself for a few hours.
Have a fabulous weekend, whatever you’re up to! xx