#AprilPrompts Growing Day 6

The subject for the April prompts challenge today is growing.

This started me thinking about two different aspects of growing. It reminded me of my daughter and of my own growth as a writer.

My daughter was premature and she weighed 3lb 10oz at birth or 1.652 kg. She wore premature baby clothes for babies 3-5 lb and they were still too big for her. We took her home from hospital when she was four weeks old weighing 4lb 5oz.

She looked like a new born baby for several months. I remember taking her to the library when she was three months old and she still only weighed 7lb. I got her a library card; they must have thought I was mad.

She was later than most children passing some of the normal stages of growing. She was late crawling and she didn’t learn to walk until she was two.

She is now ten and no one would ever know she had been a premature baby.

The other subject I wanted to write about is my growth as a writer.

I always knew that I wanted to be a writer but I think lack of patience and self belief stopped me from ever submitting anything. I just wrote for my own enjoyment.

In 2011 I took part in NaNoWriMo for the first time. I didn’t make the word count but I met a lot of writers through the facebook page, which led to me joining Writebulb writers’ group.

It has been an amazing few years for me. I have learned so much, and my writing has improved immensely. I have had work published in the writers’ group anthology and have some pieces ready for this year’s children’s anthology. I also am nearing the finish line on my own WIP which is a Thriller novel.

My confidence is growing every day and I am excited by what the future might hold for me as a writer.

Do you ever feel cheated by an ending?

Have you ever read a book that has let you down with the ending?

This has happened to me a few times.

One book by a great Author finished with an open ending, where it didn’t really finish. Nothing was achieved by me spending several days reading it. Nobody won and the baddies weren’t stopped. The sad thing is that it was a brilliant book that had me excited to reach the end.

Another Author who did this to me was the Horror writer Shaun Hutson. It was many years ago and I can’t remember which of his books it was (I loved his books in my 20s and devoured everything he did!) It had what I like to refer to as the “Called in for your tea” ending. It was almost like he had been called down for dinner and had called out “Give me a minute I just have to finish the book.”

Obviously not true but that is what it reminded me of. It was rushed and finished abruptly.

Sometimes TV lets you down with the ending too. I remember a series called Sea Of Souls, where identical twins who were separated at birth meet again. One is married with a son the other is single. The single one sets out to steal the other ones life. She succeeds! It ended with her murdering her sister, stealing her husband and son and getting away with it. You work out that the husband knows, but has decided the newer model is better but the confusing thing is that the child doesn’t realise that the imposter isn’t his mother.

This is unrealistic, the child would have known.

This episode left me wound up for days, I was so annoyed by it. It is years since I saw it but I still think of it sometimes. Maybe the author wanted to leave a mark on people’s brains; he/she certainly did on mine.

Open ends are becoming increasingly popular nowadays, I see it a lot in short stories.

Call me old fashioned but I love a great ending, if it is going to be left open I want some more to come.

Should you leave a bad review?

This is a subject that has been used in many blog posts that I have read recently.

Most people say that they wouldn’t leave a review under 3 stars and I have always agreed with them.

Is this the right thing to do?

I have come across a lot of badly written e-books since I bought my kindle last year. Most of them were free or very cheap so I wasn’t particularly ripped off but I feel strongly that it is the responsibility of the Author to make sure that what they produce is good enough to justify asking people for money for. Even if it has been given away for free you are still asking people to give up their time to read your work.

Maybe we should leave bad reviews.

I am not suggesting that we should be spiteful or bitchy, but maybe we should let potential readers know that they shouldn’t waste their time or money on a particular book.

I have heard people say that what one person hates another might love and this is true. I have seen 1 star reviews for books that I have loved, sometimes I feel like there are people out there who just get off on leaving nasty reviews. I am sure that if a book is genuinely good the positive reviews will far outweigh the negative.

We all have different tastes and I am not saying that I would leave a bad review on a book because it was not quite my kind of thing, but I think we should leave low star reviews on books that are poorly written or not edited properly.

I know of people who have left bad reviews and have suffered abuse from the Author or their families. This is childish behaviour. I have also seen Authors react positively to bad reviews and take on board the comments. It must be painful receiving bad remarks about something you have put so many hours into, but that is part of the job description.

Authors have to be tough!

Managing your time

I often hear writers saying that they haven’t had the time to write. I refuse to use this excuse for my lack of writing as it would be selfish.

I know of writers who work long hours, raise a family and still find time to write. What these people have is good time management, and the motivation to drive them forward towards their goals.

I have the luxury of not having to go out to work. I have worked since having my daughter, but my hubby was happy for me not to so I could stay at home and concentrate on writing.

It doesn’t actually mean I write more though, if anything I am actually less organised with my time.

When you have to juggle work with housework, children and writing you seem to plan your day better. When you have loads of time on your hands you seem to just waste it.

Maybe that is just me!

I am definitely writing more this year so far though. I am charging through the re-write of my novel and am very happy with how it is going. I have also managed to write a lot of short pieces including children’s stories, poems and flash fiction work.

I think I just need to treat it more like a job and give myself working hours. It only actually takes about 1 hour to write 1000 words on a good run, which isn’t a bad amount to be aiming for daily. I could produce the first draft of a novel in 3-4 months in theory!

 

The best time to write. Are you a morning person?

It never ceases to amaze me how many people are up writing while I am fast asleep.

I am a lazy person who can’t function without at least 7 hours sleep, preferably more! Part of me envies those people who get their writing done early.

I get most of my writing done while my daughter is at school, but I can’t help but wonder what my writing would be like if I shoe horned my butt out of bed early and wrote something before life got in the way.

Just think how much more I could fit into my day. I could read more books, take my dog for longer walks (extra thinking time) and go out to lunch more.

I cannot convince myself to actually do it though.

In my defence it is cold at the moment and the heating is not left on over night, but there is no excuse in summer.

It isn’t as if I need perfect conditions to write in. Some people need their own room, no noise, a view of the garden etc, but I am not one of those people. I can write standing at the worktop while watching the dinner cooking, I can write while my daughter is playing in the same room and I even used to write while listening to my ex neighbour shouting, screaming and swearing.

I just need to free up some more hours in my day. I will have to work at it.

When it is warmer!

When can you start calling yourself an Author?

I recently created my own “Author’s page.”

A lot of my fellow writers had their own and after much consideration I decided it would be a good idea.

Before the introduction of e-readers, when you had to be published the traditional way or through vanity publishing, you probably wouldn’t have called yourself an author unless you had at least one book in the shops.

E-publishing means that a lot of writers now have the ability to publish their masterpieces reasonably easy.

I am hoping creating my page will motivate me to finish my novel. In the past I have allowed myself to procrastinate for long periods. My WIP was started over two years ago, and I am writing my second draft. I do not want to allow myself to drag this novel out too long; I have the sequel to write!

To be a successful writer I have to start thinking of myself as a writer. “Fake it 'till you make it,” is something I have heard many times.

I have wanted to write novels since I was very young. It is not a hobby, it is what I am, a writer. I have had a piece published in an anthology, “The other way is Essex,” and will hopefully have two pieces in a Children’s anthology to be released by summer this year.

My recent experience signing books at Chelmsford Library helped to make me feel like an Author too!

I have read many affirmations that tell you that all you have to do to get what you want is to think about it regularly.  The power of the mind!

I am a big believer in affirmations and visualisations; I just have to put them into practice.

That is why I decided now is a great time to create my new page.

Reading to your children.

I read to my daughter from the day I took her home from hospital. She was born prematurely at 32 weeks, and we were told that she could be behind in her development. I had always known that it was important to read to children to help with language and bonding.

She came home from the hospital at four weeks old. I had baby books, and I read to her every day while she lay in her crib. When she was three months old we moved into a new flat and I got her a library card. She weighed seven pounds at the time and was still very small and I can still remember the strange looks they gave me.

I loved picking out rhyming books, and would make all the animal noises. I would make sure I was alone though! I would take out twelve books every three weeks and I would read them to her every day. I think I enjoyed it more than she did.

When she learned to crawl I would keep the pile of books on the coffee table so she could pick them up whenever she wanted. If I sat down she would automatically bring a book and climb on my lap for me to read. When it was finished she would get another, then another and so on, until I had read them all. This routine could happen several times a day.

By the time she was two and a half she would memorise her favourite books and read them to her imaginary friends.

She was behind in a lot of things. She didn`t walk until she was two and struggled with fine motor skills, but she has always been at least a year ahead in reading, literacy and mathematics. She was reading Harry Potter books when she was six and I love to see the excitement on her face when she receives a new book that she loves. It reminds me of my childhood when I loved books so much I would take them to bed with me and cuddle them. I was a strange child!