Anyone writing a book??

[Winegum]

I'm writing my first book and have just completed 60,000 words. It's great fun, sometimes hard going, sometimes it flows well, sometimes I think it's rubbish and sometimes I think it's good. We live in an isolated spot and it's a writers paradise, I feel so lucky. Does anyone else have the writing bug, and if so how's it going?

Jude

[f1steveuk]

It's funny, writing is what I did for a living in the UK, and since being here, I haven't had time! I was often asked "I'd love to write, how do you do it?" my answer would be, get a pen and paper, or a PC, and write!

Good luck with it anyway, I can say when you see your first book on your own coffee table, it puts a daft smile on your face for months!!!

[Just Katie]

Hi Jude, what is your book about?

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Just Katie "]Hi Jude, what is your book about?[/quote]

BMW's ?....................................................[Www]

[DZ]

I am not a writer but greatly admire people who have such a talent, especially whenever I am engrossed in a really good book  I often wonder, do writers set about writing a book when they have the plot clearly developed in their heads or does it tend to develop and change while they are writing?  How does it work for you, Jude?

By the way, there was a thread on this Forum quite recently started by someone writing a short story and wanting to hear the Forum's opinions, but it suddenly just vanished.  I wonder why?

And does anybody remember the wonderful story about the Bnnett family, "Vive les Anglais", serialised on this Forum way back in 2005?  I wish there were more chapters coming.

[Suninfrance]

Something I've always wanted to do but just don't know where to start - any tips?

Jan

[Winegum]

F1steveuk: It was just the opposite for me. In the UK my full-time job got in the way of all the things I really wanted to do. Now I'm a time-millionaire. What did you write? I keep picturing my book on the coffee table!

Just katie: It's an autibiography with a message. All to do with having the courage to move on and follow your heart.

Bugbear: Of course it's got BMW's in it!!

DZ: With an autobiography I didn't need a plot but I did have a message. I have another book (fiction) on the back-burner, for that I had a plot, and then I sort of filled in as I went along. Things kind of flow out of the end of the pen! The fiction book needs a big re-write.

Suninfrance: Write about what you love, the things that you're passionate about. I think good books come from the heart. Also, although I'm writing with the intention of getting published I'm under no misaprehensions that it will happen. I'll just be happy that I actually finished it. And then I'll start on the next!

Jude

[f1steveuk]

Last book was about Malcolm and Donald Campbell, called Leap into Legend, I was staggered to see the other day that second hand copies on www.amazon.co.uk were going for £221!!! I worked in F1 for seven years, World Rally Championship and Moto GP, but tend to write about technical history, things I like (makes it easier). TV wise I wrote doco's about cars, boats, areoplanes, Jack the Ripper, Kenndey and Dallas, Russian space programme, but have only recently be persauded by my better half to try fiction. BMWs?? Ducati's surely!!

[Tag]

A few years ago I did a book about the civil war and genocide in the Vendée for Brits visiting the area and am now using the research as the basis for a historical novel. About 20000 words in so far.

[Winegum]

Steve, you would surely be able to write great fiction with the wealth of knowledge you must have from the past. How great to have been able to earn a living writing about stuff you enjoyed.  I'm looking forward to writing fiction after this autobiography is finished, I like the idea of not being constricted by times and dates and truths.

By the way, Bob said how's the bidding on E-Bay??! (My hubby).

Jude

[f1steveuk]

Such a small world!!!! 11 hours to go and it's £2.38!!

Yes fiction is more fun. The historical stuff is SOOOOOOOOO interesting, but as soon as you write " then on March 3rd, at 2 o'clock, Major Browm scratched his ear", you have to spend ages proving it from at least ten sources. Then, whenit hit the shelf, or screen, seconds later, Major Browns brother, who refused to be interviewed, writes and says "you got that all wrong"!!

Now the fiction stuff! I write " and the aircraft took off vertically, and accelerated to mach 2 in under five seconds...." and when someone asks how, I say " because I said so!"

Writing is like painting, model making, anything creative (even riding a bike), if your not in the right mood, you make mistakes and it becomes hard work, or a chore. But if your in the right mood, well you can do a couple of chapters (depending on wine intake!)

[Winegum]

Love your comments Steve, and yes I went to an art class once and the elderly gentleman who was teaching came over and looked at what I was about to paint (a wonderful moody lake seen from a photo I had taken in Canada), and he said, with a kind of twinkle in his eye, 'Do you love that picture?' And I said yes. And he smiled and said 'You should paint what you love.' I guess that applies to writing too. So I'd better get on and type up Chapter 16!

Jude

[f1steveuk]

One thought, even if your not writing to publish (maybe just recording family history for later generations), check out www.lulu.com not a small Scots lass with a loud voice, but a very good self publishing, binding site

[Winegum]

Thanks Steve I'll do that.[:)]

[Winegum]

Tag, how are you enjoying writing fiction?

Jude

[Tag]

At the moment Jude it is hard work. But at least I have the basic research already done which helps a lot. Strangely, I think the constant rain and grey of this late winter have made matters worse. Hope to be on the up now though.

Tim

[Loiseau]

Hello Tim,

Sounds interesting, your new venture!  Good luck with it. 

I really admire people who can write fiction - I just don't have the imagination for it.  And it must be so much more difficult to market than a guidebook, where your target readership is quite easy to identify.

I am doing a new one at the moment, but on Northern France this time.  It's keeping me away from the Vendee more than I would like!

Angela

[lucky luke]

Angela,

If it's as good as your Vendee guide then it will be worth it. Your sacrifices will help thousands visiting or living in Northern France.

Thanks for the work!

LL

 

[Loiseau]

[:$]  [:$]  [:$]

Wow, thanks LL!  Didn't realise you were a Vendée-lover.  
I shall attack the final cutting with a light heart after that encouragement!

Love the research - but the writing/editing is driving me crazy!

Angela

[f1steveuk]

Oh the editing and proof reading, horrible!!! Once you have read your own work about four hundred and ninty times, it seems dull. boring and I am sure you get word blind and miss more than if someone else did it! I prefer to give my work to two people to proof read, preferably someone who knows nothing of the subject. If it makes sense to them, then it can't be too bad. Hopefully!

[Loiseau]

Oh yes, Steve.  I give all mine to three nit-picking people, with very different strengths:
- one lectures high-achieving adults on grammar - and is always picking me up on sentence length etc;
- one is a sub-editor on a national  newspaper - and great at noticing where I have mentioned some character and not said who he is and why he is famous (sometimes with all the cutting, I have lost this vital fact!);
- and the third is now a teacher, but used to work with me on listings for a monthly magazine (and believe me, that was a nit-picking job!).
- and for a couple of war-heavy chapters on this one, I have also enlisted a military historian (just in case "Major Brown's brother" is going to be reading it.

From past experience, they all pick up different things (even typos), and when I give it all a final read I can *still* find the odd mistype that all of us have missed.  Scary!

Angela

 

[storeysinfrance]

yes... on my second now... not for publication but more a document for my children for when im long gone so that they know what really happened when dad went walkabout to france... part theraputic, part a chronicle of absurdities, part looking back on a life lived - its a bit like an extended diary... with all shades of grey from dark to... not quite so dark. first was called french letters: the apprentice, current one is french letters: the far side of the world.

neil (24)

[Winegum]

That's interesting Neil. I'm on my first book and it's sort of an autobiography with a story. If I can't get it published I'll be happy to have it to look back on and read when I'm very old, and the Grandkids may enjoy it - if I have any. I did a lot of 'walkabout' in Canada in my younger years, and have never really stopped 'moving on'. Some people have regarded this way of life as a tad irresponsible, others just shake their heads and say 'There she goes off on another tangent' I guess I just like tangents!

Will you not try for publication at all?

Jude

[Winegum]

Hey Tag ... The sun's been out for two days so I assume you've got another chapter finished?! It has the opposite effect on me, I feel guilty about the weeds and forsake the book to go and sort out the garden. [:)]

Jude

[Loiseau]

That is such a great idea to do something on life history.  Won't the future generations value it!

I did a lot of genealogy research, which threw up some interesting aspects - and a few juicy black sheep.  But I have never got around to putting it on paper...   And paper is the vital thing.  Just locked on a computer, it will all be obsolete in a few years. [:(]

The other thing one must do is to label all those old photographs.  My father-in-law showed us a whole boxful one day, and talked about who they were, and World War I etc.  Then he died a few weeks later, and we could never remember...

Thanks, whoever suggested the lady who produces one-off books.  I am sure that could be really useful.

Angela