BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Thursday 30 April 2009

Should I just give up?

Am i just kidding myself thinking that i can ever write a book? I'm crap at grammar, punctuation and now tense :(

I'm feeling tense




I'm confused more so than usual. I'm trying to write Megan's thirty in first person present tense but i have no idea if I'm writing present tense, past tense or both.
Here's an example excuse the language


e.g The first place Olivia took me to was a complete shit hole. (Past/present?)


Now the next sentence goes:


it was worse than my seventies flat and that was saying something. (Past/Present?)


now should this sentence be as follows if I'm writing in present:


it looks worse than my seventies flat and that's saying something.


If it is then does it go with the first sentence as i don't think it does and i have no idea how to change it I'm confused Help!!

Monday 20 April 2009

Update




Well I've been busy-ish over the last couple of weeks writing wise. I've just finished reading See Jane date which is another book about how to write chick lit. I found this book really useful. It has tips by published writers and is written by a published author and editor. I'd recommend it to any women fiction writers.


The next book on my list is A novel in a year. I've only just started it so I'll let you know what i think of that one.


I've just printed out my whole novel Megan's thirty in order to go through it highlighting and post-it noting it for spelling mistakes, grammar, repetition, cliches and deleting anything that doesn't feel right like characters or parts of the plot. To be honest I'm dreading it, when i saw how thick it was i got a big shock. I still have to write the prologue and epilogue yet, as well as possibly a new chapter one. It really is the never ending story.

Friday 3 April 2009

My whole life is a cliché



Recently on Authonomy I asked the question: I've been accused of having cliches in Megan's Thirty or even being cheesy. Here are some examples sweeping me off my feet , dragged through a hedge backwards. I guess you could call them sayings that have been used a lot in other books.
What I'm wondering is do people avoid these cliches at all costs, include some and not others or make their own up
Any ideas?
Some answers I received were:

"Avoid them. At all costs. Like the plague."

"Readers, but more specifically agents and editors, love a writer that can take a cliche and make it peculiarly his. The converse is also true."

"Think up something original - it can be an entertaining way to spend a few hours - or turn the something into a metaphor instead (but, again, an original one).

It's what makes writing difficult but fun."

"depends what your genre is and whether you are allowed to subvert them for comedy or linguistic purposes:

eg 'sweeping me off my feet but having the consideration to set me gently back down lest I bruised myself on the concrete' ...

'dragged through a hedge backwards, without recourse to a TV Makeover show crew lurking on the other side'.

'sweeping me off the corns of my feet' would be an example of linguistic tweaking."


Great advice, only trouble is my life is a cliché. I use these sayings everyday of my life but it seems in writing, people don't like things like "sweep me off my feet" So I have to create some of my own I've thought of one that I'll put in Megan's thirty to replace one that's been used a lot. But i have a lot of thinking to do. Who knew writing a book was so complicated?