Celebrating our successes

There is a theme going at one of banks here in NZ - celebrating success.
We kiwi's are apparently really good at celebrating other people's success, but not so much our own.

So, i just wanted to share some of my successes.

This year (and it's only in it's 4th month!) i have:

1. Become a provisionally registered Early Childhood Teacher
2. Graduated from Waikato University with my Diploma of Teaching
3. Started my first real job in seven years ('cos there are many people out there who think being an at-home mum is not a real job!)
4. Edited 4 chapters of the first story i ever wrote and had kind of given up on.

I wonder if i can somehow make this theme into a story??!

So, please share with me.
What are some of your successes?

Research and Editing

Over the past few weeks i have been doing lots of research for my early medieval period story, Secrets and Lies.
As i am editing this draft and inserting bits of history and solid facts about the place and time, i am finding this story becoming so much richer!
This editing is made easier by the notes i took as i read through it on my kindle. I am moving through this quite fast - though not as fast as i would like (i am not a writer full-time!).

What have you found that has made your editing easier?

Scary Stuff: Copyright Infringement

*shudder*
I just read a legal document shared on Facebook about Kate Walker, author of many many Harlequin novels and 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance being a defendant in an infringement case.
To think that she was accused of copying someone else's work, to me, is ludicrous!

What i got from the legal mumbo-jumbo was basically the accuser's unpublished work had a similar theme or trope as that of Kate Walker's work.
I recently read a fantastic new author's work and thought "hey that sounds a bit like my idea" - our characters are by no means the same, their struggles aren't the same, but my small 10,000 word first draft is about best friends turned lovers which shared the same trope - that's it!

So, similar ideas do not mean copyright infringement - using exact phrases and words as someone else is.

Have a read of the legal document here

And to Kate Walker - thank goodness the case was dismissed!

Book Review - Jackie Ashenden

I have literally just finished Jackie's debut story Falling for Finn and i can't believe no one picked her up for publication earlier. 
Her writing is fabulous! Raw, real and so emotional.
I've followed Jackie's struggles with writing, her bumpy road to publication and i just wanted to say that if that struggle is what produced this story? I can only hope i go through that same process. Phenomenal and no wonder she was finally, finally snapped up!
Here is my review of her awesome story. If you haven't purchased it yet - this is a MUST!

Jackie Ashenden has written a story so mindblowingly good! She goes so deep into her characters psyche you are left without a choice but to love them and know them. This story is raw, beautiful and hot! One of the love scenes left me nearly turning off my kindle so they could have privacy! The emotions and intensity are so real.

It is so refreshing to have a story with real epithets, real, modern cussing that feels so natural.

Awesome, awesome story Jackie and for a debut - wow!When's the next one out ;)

Researching

OMG i hadn't realised just how long it would take or how tricky researching would be.
I've spent the last 5 or so weeks reading through my first draft and researching in history when i will place it. I chose the Hebrides - i don't know why, it seemed to call to me :) - and have narrowed my timeframe to be somewhere between 1103-1156.
The 12th century is rather interesting and because i've chosen the Outer Hebrides it is particularly hard. So many disputed rulers, from Ireland, Norway, and the Isle of Mann.

I've been looking for a peaceful period and i think i've found it during these dates. I do know that just after 1156 is when the Hebrides is broken up into the Inner and Outer Hebrides by a man called Somerled, which will fit perfectly for my last story planned for the trilogy - if it gets that far!

Now i've realised i need to know things like how people travelled in the 12th century, what they ate, what they hunted, how they built their houses, what they farmed, what they wore... and i haven't even really begun to look at the terrain of the Hebrides, which in my story has importance.
I'm rather enjoying it but i can tell if i let it, the research will become very consuming.

So i think i am going to approach the research when i need it. I'm going to start editing until i come to a part that needs specific information. Do you think that would work?

How do you do your research?
I can definitely see the merits of hiring researchers like Nora Roberts does!

Editing

So a few posts ago i asked for help with Editing. Where to start?

One of my writer friends suggested i load my story to my kindle to have a read through first, looking for flow and any major mistakes/flow problems. This is working a treat. I have noted about 170 parts that need either tiny tweaks or major rewrite or even deletion and i'm only 3/4 of the way through!

Another writer suggested i scrap the whole first draft and start again! Apparently this worked wonders for her story. I for one, am too afraid to! But after doing lots of research for 'when' and 'where' i'm going to set my story (it is currently in fantasy land!), i'm going to try and majorly edit to fit and failing that - *gulp* - i'll start over!

Another writer, Jackie Ashendon replied with the following:

Good question. Okay, what I do is first read over the whole thing before I do anything. Then I always do the big things first - characters and conflict since both drive the plot. Are your characters consistent? Does the internal conflict work? Have you gone deep enough with it? Are their motivations clear? Have the h/h got clearly defined character arcs?

Once you're good with that, then look at each scene. Do the scenes move the plot/conflict along or are they just filler? Or do you need to add more, etc, etc.

After I do that kind of stuff, then POV fixes, language, grammar etc is next and that's usually the easy fixes. I know some people advise doing the small things first but there's kind of no point fixing POV in a scene if you actually don't need the scene at all.

I think a combination of all this makes sense to me.
I've already noticed that my hero's GMC is seriously lacking - so that will be the first thing i work on, Oh and he seriously needs to alpha up! I can't believe i wrote him so wussy!
Then i'll take a deeper look at my heroine's GMC - just to make sure my h&h clash and meld with the right things!

So thanks for the advice everyone, i feel i am better equipped at tackling this edit :)

Does anyone approach their edits differently?

World Building

When i write a story i try to write "what i know". But when i've set a story in a city or country that i don't know much about, or have created from scratch!, then it requires some research and building.
For my Princess story i have created an island in the North Sea, close to England. I've researched the surrounding countries's history to get a sense of where they came from, how their culture and buildings etc were formed. I've searched about the sea, trade with these countries... It is endless.

With my Secrets and Lies story, i built a whole new fantasy world. I'd written and drawn maps, worked out seasons etc, researched herbs. But i've now decided to ground this story somewhere real, so have relied on history again. Doing research to find a good historical time to work in with my story. I've researched a place - the Hebrides. Now i have to do more extensive research of this place - seasons, climate, names, people etc.

My writer friend Nicole MacDonald created a world Gar'nyse for her BirthRight Trilogy. The things she's researched is incredible and she created names using a fantasy name generator. Her creatures are created from myths and her own ideas.

Kaily Hart has written a wonderful article about world building, Check it out Here!

How do you create your world for writing? And it doesn't have to be fantasy or historical as Kaily tells us.
Do you keep copious notes about your story? Your world?