Introduction

Greetings, and welcome to Miss Cole's Writing Blog!

I have recently finished the first, hand-written draft of my first novel.  I decided to start up this blog to talk about writing, chat with others like me hoping to get published, and generally share thoughts and feelings about the wonderful world of creative writing.  You never know, one day I may be posting a "WOO HOO I'M PUBLISHED!!!" announcement.  A woman can dream ;)

So, to begin with, let's look at the basics: your writing space and your writing method.

Writing Space

You gotta have a place to write.  I tend to write just about anywhere, but I have a set-up at home in my office/laundry room.

Seriously, there's a loaded clothes horse right behind the chair. 

This is rare footage of a tidy workspace.  Yes, there's a TARDIS hiding out on my desk and yes, an Oxford English Dictionary/Thesaurus is extremely useful.  Cups of tea help the creative process too.  If I took pictures of my desk every day for a year, there'd always be tea.

My Method

My notebooks.  Left and Right: Barnes and Noble.  Centre: earthworksjournals.co.uk

My method? Hand-write first, a notebook per story, then type up later.  These three notebooks contain my first novel and the beginnings of a sequel.  At the end of 2009, I got myself into the habit of writing a scene daily and have done so every day since then.  I make myself write at least two pages a day and even have a specific pen to write with. This is my way, and it's been very effective for me.

I feel writing is an extremely personal thing.  I don't believe there is "A Way", only your way.  The story you tell is as individual as you are, and the way you write it is up to you.  My way is messy because I don't write things in order.  One day I may write a scene from the beginning of the story and the next I may writing something from the end.  I have to have extensive contents lists for all my notebooks so I can find the scenes I need as I type them up.

So yeah, I'm a messy writer ;) It's complicated, but it's the best for me.  I'm definitely not telling you all to work this way!

Anyway, that's the intro.  See you next time with tips, exercises from a writing group I used to attend (it sadly shut down not too long ago), progress reports and anything else writing related I can think of.  I'll break it all up with photos too!

Happy Writing!