Katherine Holt's Blog (9)

So apparently it's my 100th post. Fancy that! I remember when this blog was little more than a cheeky gleam in Blogger's eye. But what to do to celebrate such a milestone? I could have a contest - but for that I'd need a)prizes and b)competitors, and that just seems like a lot of work. I could do a look-back over blog posts of the past, perhaps compiling a hall of fame or sighing, doe-eyed over happy memories, reliving the highs and lows of the past 2 years. But that seems kinda lame. If I…

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So I've been laid a bit low recently, by a number of things. I'll not bore you with the details, but rest assured that none of them were all that bad, and I was just being a bit Eeyore with everything.



Nonetheless, spells like that are often quite good for giving me the kick up the backside I generally need to get things done, and as a result, I wrote A PLAN. This detailed the things I wanted to achieve this year, and a schedule of things to do to achieve them.



My writing… Continue

Aaah, word play:) I went to see Tangled last week. I could say that as a storyteller, I am interested in any example of the craft, particularly in the romance genre, so felt duty bound to attend. But I'll be honest; it's a Disney fairy tale so I am ALL over it.



The good thing about the recent animated films rather than the older, classic Disneys is that they are dynamic enough to appeal to adults as well as children, without stooping to sly, rude humour. Not that I've anything… Continue

AAARGH!



This is the point I am currently at with my WiP. Throughout the planning and drafting, I've had a consistent problem with Points Of View. There are two schools of thought for me on third person POVs in fiction and in my mind they are thus:



The Julia Quinn Method:



Pro: As and when needs be, for effect and good story telling, points of view can switch between hero and heroine. Mainly the POV tends to be the heroine's, but the reader gets an…

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As an illustration student it was drilled into me that you must regularly save your work. Computers crash and discs and hard drives fail - save two copies, save three, save after every tiny edit on photoshop.



I've never lost work as an illustrator, and I've tried to take this lesson through to my writing. I work on my WIP in two different locations on two different machines, as well as occasionally on my phone. In order to have a constant, growing back up which I can access…

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So I've spent the last fortnight procrastinating and over-analysing and similar, and I think I'm finally ready to start my first draft. It's not like it's my child for heaven's sake, but I've been pulling my hair out about ruining the story (and not having a working toilet, but that's another matter entirely!) and not actually getting on with it.



I mean, I may well end up ruining it, but that's where a second draft comes in!



Is anyone else in this position too? It's scary…

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Happy Christmas-ish!

Admittedly it's a bit late, but I hope it found you and yours well.

Writing-wise, the plan had been (as the plan always is) to use the hols productively and, having finished the plan of the novel (previously titled Destined, for want of a better one) I started the first draft! Woo!



Then, 300 words in, it didn't feel right. Anti-Woo. I get this thing with openers where if the feel isn't right I can't get into the other 70,000. My opener,…

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Note, this post contains asterisks. Not necessarily because I think you'll need them, I just LOVE asterisks.



Because nothing grabs you like an Austen (or indeed, Black Adder!) style title. But Katherine, why so D&D*? Well, I've spent some many, many hours reading book blogs by editors, agents, writers, and interns and holy crap, it's depressing.



They say it pays to find out about the industry before you try to enter it, and I can see why. I am now D&D-ingly…

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