How can you ever have time if you never find time?

That is a quote from Matrix Reloaded - or at least I think that it is. I don't have the time to watch the movie to check.

I also don't have the time to plant out the Sedum that I bought four weeks ago, read all the books that have now spilled from the shelves to the floor, do last year's tax return, plan a family holiday, patch and paint the wall from the renovations that I did over two years ago, finish the report that my boss is waiting for .... or write.

The list of things that I don't have time to do changes from month to month as some things eventually get done but writing always seems to come last. I have the same 24 hours in a day that everyone else does so the problem must be what I am doing with them. I must sleep a lot more than other people.

I have tried Nanowrimo, BIAW, setting aside one evening/week for writing, ten minutes a day on a kitchen timer but it just doesn't stick. Suggestions welcome.

I recently started a new job. In the first few weeks you have to give it 110 percent to build relationships with and the confidence of your colleagues so I knew that writing would take a back seat for a while - but that time is now over.

I am making an April resolution about writing. I am going to write something/anything - minimum 200 words/day .... starting Tuesday.

Knowing Your Market

How important is it to know the market you are aiming for?

Is it a matter of just reading two or three books in the line or even just the first three chapters and the last chapter before going 'Yep I can write for that line.' Or is it about reading 50 books of that one line or many books across the various lines to try and work out just where your voice fits. Also you may think your voice fits somewhere but in fact it fits a completely different line. It's a hard one to work out, and whoever thinks writing a novel is a piece of cake needs to be hit over the head. :)

You also need to research that market and the only way to do that is read and find out what the editors are looking for. I always try and read the first book of new authors of the line I want to write for because then I can see what the editors are looking for. Also I might find a fabulous new author that I want to keep reading. That's what I want for my work, what we all want. We want the editors to read our partial and synopsis and go "Sign this new author now before someone else does!"

For me I've always know what line I wanted to write for and it's the line that I read the most - M&B Modern/Harlequin Presents. I love the brooding Alpha male and I enjoy reading about how he finds his soul mate. I was reading these lines for many years before I decided that I was a writer trying to break free. So you could say I researched my market rather well.

So how much research do you do? Heaps or none? How important do you think it is to Know Your Market?

Nicki

Mowing the lawn, shoveling the snow and why it's like plotting - or not.

The similarities between mowing the lawn and writing struck me one day last year when I was, you guessed it, mowing the lawn.

A few people nearby pay someone else to mow their lawns. I guess they don't write their own books either. A lot mow their lawns in methodical strips, ending up with neat stripes across their lawns, some even do this diagonally, so it looks a bit different.

Not me. I go round and round in ever smaller circles, or sometimes squares. Some bits need long stripes, but I often get bored with that and do short strips across the other way. Sometimes I do the fiddly bits under the play equipment first and sometimes last and sometimes I just do them inbetween the other parts. I never know just what I'm going to do when I start out. All I know is that the mower must be started first and at the end the whole lawn should be a bit shorter than when I began. I never get those lovely diagonal stripes, but occasionally something that looks like a flower appears, or there are lacy bits around the edges, it's always a surprise.

Shovelling snow is a completely different thing. I apply logic to that. It's planned out and done in exactly the same way every time. First a wide path down one side, then strips across leaving not quite a shovel width between each one and then each remaining strip shovelled into the path made by the first lot of shovelling.

Weird huh?

So am I a plotter or a flimmer?

Neither I suspect. I'm somewhere between the two.

I tried plotting, it doesn't work for me. It takes the joy of creating characters and situations and turns them into, well something arduous - like shovelling snow.

I've tried flimming, all but completely without any idea of what needed to happen. The writing is much more enjoyable but the end product is not particularly cohesive (why oh why are my current heroine and hero in London?) There might be flowers and lacy bits but they need a background so they can form a single collage. A bit like the boundaries of the lawn.

Given that I've spent the last three days staring at a blank screen, I'm going to attempt to plot out the remainder of the wip. Not too much, just enough.

Do you plot? Do you fly in the mist? Or do you do something that isn't quite either?

H! :)

H Maree Davis