Seek and Ye shall Find

Seek and ye shall find and I did. It's all very well looking for grammar and typos in your manuscript but what about taking a closer look at the plot itself or even your timeline.

I'm so glad I took to writing my outline as I have stumble across a big problem that I was blind to see. In chapter 11 in the early morning my hero was standing outside a hotel waiting to hear what the police had to say about a dead body.

In chapter 12, it was night time and my heroine was woken by someone moving around her house.

In chapter 13, my hero was woken next morning by a phone call to tell him about a murder at the hotel.

Err, Can you spot the problem?

Phew....I'm just glad I did.

Rewrite: Chpt 11- Same morning outside hotel)  hero woken by phonecall and told about murder, goes to wait with other reporters outside hotel.

Chpt 12- Early Afternoon) Hero takes a trip to Whitby library to find out about other murders in local area.

Chpt 13- Early Evening) Heroine was woken by someone moving around her house.


Check Everything, Then Recheck!

Happy Glitch Hunting to you.


Jarmara

Looking for Glitches in my Plotline.

At the moment I'm making an outline of my 1st novel. The reason I'm doing this so late in the day is because I want to make sure I don't have any mistakes. In the novel there's a series of murders and I need to make sure the one which causes the downfall for my killer is right.i.e the time the death took place etc.

I just know there are readers out there who note every detail of a mystery so if I was to slip up on one tiny detail someone somewhere will make a note that I've missed it.
The outline has thrown up one and two interesting areas where I can improve the overall plot line and make the story stronger, so it hasn't been a waste of time on two levels. Here to a great novel :-)

Happy writing,

Jarmara

Me and R. J. Ellory

Well, what do you do when all you want to do is dance and sing?
 I'm feeling so positive and very, very happy. :-)

Bridgehouse Publishing editor emailed me on Sunday to let me know that the small changes I needed to do to my oh so dark crime story are fine and I haven't lost my sparkle.... So I'm very happy.

Once all the stories are back in, and she has finished the editing they will then go off to R J Ellory so he can work on his foreword for the finished Anthology.... It's all so exciting.

I've been busy rewriting my synopsis to my first novel of three I want to complete this year.
I'm feeling confident enough with my writing now to seriously think about having a go at trying to get an agent interested in my work. I have sent my MS off before without worrying too much whether it came back or not, but that was just to test the water.

But now I'm feeling more positive about what I want, and this is the right time for me to go for it.

I just hope the market is ready for little ol' me, because I just don't take prisoners when I set my mind to something.

Good luck and best wishes with all your writing projects,

Jarmara

Busy back at my keyboard.

Busy working on editing my first of three novels this year. Two amazing things have happened in the last couple of days. Firstly, I met amazing lady called Barbara while I was at a talk given by Sophie Hannah. (Sorry I have no pictures to show you :-( )
Barbara and I got chatting about books and her life as a Land army girl during WW2. I could have listened to her all night.

Secondly, while at a car boot sale on warm sunny Sunday, I got chatting with a gentleman selling books. He had offered me an opportunity which could be very interesting and lead on to other things as far as my writing is concerned. But more about that later in the year.

The talk with Sophie Hannah was interesting and very funny as she knows how to work an audience. She told us how her books are being made into TV programmes which will be shown in June this year.

It was interesting to find out where she gets her idea for her latest book from and how she came to write it. It's called 'Kind of Cruel'. Out of all her books I found her new latest one hard to get into and I love her work. I was even worried that I might fall out of love with her work as it took so long to get into it.  By the time I finished it, I wouldn't say I was bowl over by 'Kind of Cruel'.

Anyway that's enough from me now. Chat again soon,

Jarmara

What would be George Orwell's view?

At the moment, I'm feeling badly bruised, battered and quite frightened by what has happened. I don't handle conflict very well even though I felt that I had done what was right at the time by asking at the libraries I went to, especially after my son had phoned to find out what the policies were about taking photographs in the Essex Libraries and we were told to ask before taking any photographs. 

Still all I can do now is to put this behind me and move on with my life.

 

If life is stranger than fiction then one needs to ask the question whether George Orwell ‘s work of fiction is a mirror image of what our country is turning into as we all grow more nervous about stepping out of line.

As all around us hidden cameras track our every movements, records our driving and soon will be fitted into taxis.  Are we becoming a nation which allows the government to survey us ,record and keep data on where we go and what we do in every aspect of our everyday life, but we will stop someone from recording, or capturing a moment of enjoyment as a group at an event.
Throughout history people have looked for ways to record the everyday man’s enjoyment of life through art, whether it was cave painting or on canvas. Then with the birth of cameras and film, the Victorian filmmakers travelled the world to record every moment of man's existence. We have films and pictures of the worst mankind can offer i.e wars, poverty etc   through to the joys we can share with others i.e family events, festivals, racing etc.

Without such pictures we wouldn’t know or understand how our ancestors enjoyed life.

Yet here we are today with technology at our fingertips and we are scared to use it just in case we are breaking some law or upsetting someone by just photographing a group of people listening to an author talking about how he wrote his book.

It’s a shame that George Orwell wasn’t giving the talk as I would’ve been very interested in knowing his view point on what has happened to our society.   

‘We must plan for freedom, and not only for security if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.’  Karl Popper (1902- ) Austrian- born British philosopher    The Open Society and its Enemies

From now on, I shall stay focused on my writing and my next posting will only be about my progress towards getting my work published.

As Clarence Darrow, American Lawyer said ‘Someday I hope to write a book where the royalties will pay for the copies I give away.’

Happily back writing,

Jarmara

Just not allowed!

Dear Readers,
I hope you enjoyed my slide show of the Essex Book Festival. But if you didn't get chance to watch them then I'm afraid to say you've missed them as I've been asked to remove them from 'YouTube' by the Essex Libraries.

Jarmara :-(

More from the Essex Book Festival

We spent another wonderful evening listening to author giving a inspiration talk. Simon Brett had us all laughing from the moment he spoke. He had stories from all aspects of his life as a producer in radio and television as well as being a father. He talked about the way he creates he characters, work out his plots and takes time out to go down the pub for lunch.

He pointed out that it is only in fiction that one would expect a sweet, little old lady to solve a murder or a crime. If you ever get the chance to hear a talk given by Simon go, otherwise you will miss out on a wonderful evening. I have listen to his radio series and have enjoyed them as much as his books.

Best wishes,
Jarmara