Diary of a hack in training

I hope you've all had a splendid Easter break.

Me?   Well, I've been a busy little bee.  Sort of.

Having been on holiday since 27 March I've been trying to throw myself into the spring cleaning.  My grand plan for my time off was to tackle one room at a time.  By this,  I mean really tackle them - tidying, dusting, cleaning windows, wiping paintwork, brushing away the cobwebs - yes, I'm ashamed to say there were lots of cobwebs.  In all sorts of places.

And to add further insult to injury, the garden is now demanding my attention too. The weather's been so cold in Lancashire recently that yesterday - Easter Sunday - was the first day I dared venture out to tackle the wilderness that is our front rockery.  Whilst my DH was peeling the vegetables, and slamming in the leg of lamb, I donned my gardening gloves and set about attacking the weeds with gusto.  Of course, the problem with both cleaning and gardening is that the results are only temporary. The hard work and effort you put in only looks good for a short time, and then it all needs to be done again.

Oh dear.  I'm the first to admit that I run out of patience with these things.   I soon get bored of housework and chores.  I set out with such good intentions, but I'm very easily distracted, and at the moment I have a much more important task on my mind which is attempting to 'interview' the hero and heroine in my WIP.  This might sound like a very odd thing to do but it was an idea given to me by the lovely Claire Walker whom I met on my writing retreat at Weetwood Hall in Leeds.

Claire's idea is to try to get to the nitty-gritty of your characters by asking them a set of questions. These can be anything you like, and the process is more or less along the same lines of an interview you might find in a magazine.  I'm writing mine in the first person from the POV of the reporter (me) and I'm loving it.  The words are flowing fast and over the last couple of days I've written almost 10,000 words!  I feel as if I'm now getting to the stage of knowing my characters inside out and back to front and this feels quite exciting.  The first chapter of my WIP is now complete as I've entered the Prima competition to write for Mills and Boon, and as soon as I finish my interviews with Drew and Anastasia, I can press on with telling their story.  This was Kate Walker's advice to me a couple of weeks ago - "tell their story," she said - and I'm going to try and follow her advice to the letter.

I'm conscious too that it's only around 20 weeks until the end of August, when I'll need to send off my manuscript to the RNA New Writers' Scheme.  20 weeks might sound like a long time, but it really isn't.

What I really need is a magic spell.  One that will instantly stop the weeds growing,  the dust settling and the cobwebs from appearing.

Anyone know any fairies?

Until next time

Kim x