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Kathleen McGurl

~ Where past and present collide…

Kathleen McGurl

Tag Archives: Writing

How I write my novels

27 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

work-in-progress, Writing

I’m at that delicious between-novels stage. I’ve sent the first draft of my latest to a few beta-readers and to my editor, and am hoping they’ll take a good couple of weeks or more to get back to me with feedback. I have an idea for the next one, but I need to pull together various notes and try to make a complete story out of them, which will take a while. There’s also some research needed.

While first-drafting I tend to ignore everything else, including this blog. But now I’ve a bit of time to raise my head above the parapet and see what’s going on. Over a month since I posted here – shocking!

Anyway, I thought I’d do a brief post on how I go about writing my dual timeline novels.

Firstly, I start with the idea: a number of notes jotted over time on my phone, in notebooks, on backs of envelopes or whatever is to hand. Then I have to do some thinking to try to pull the notes into order, and see if I’ve got enough story. When I think I have, I’ll then have a go at writing a synopsis – about 300-500 words, outlining the novel.

After that I write character sheets for the main characters in both timelines, interviewing them. They tell me their deepest fears, what makes them happy, what they dreamed of last night, as well as boring stuff such as hair colour, date of birth, name etc.

Then I write a plan – a spreadsheet with a couple of sentences on what’s going to happen in each chapter. I aim for 90,000 words in each novel, and around 3,000 per chapter, but I need to begin and end with the contemporary story, which means there has to be an odd number of chapters. I go for 29 or 31. Sometimes there’s a prologue from the historical timeline, acting as a hook – depends if I feel the novel needs it or not.

Next it’s time to start writing. I’ve got two stories to write and interweave. I don’t write the chapters in the order they end up in the book, though. I will always write the first one or two from both timelines to get into it (and to send to my editor for approval if she asks for it), and then I usually steam ahead on the historical story right to the end, before going back to the contemporary story to slot around it.

One novel I wrote in sequence, alternating the chapters as they appear in the book, but this felt too choppy and I found it harder to get really immersed in each timeline and set of characters due to constantly changing.

This latest novel: stupidly I decided to write the whole contemporary story first. Mainly because I hadn’t yet done enough research on the historical period. Then when I got to the parts where my contemporary character needed to find out the truth about what happened in the past, I couldn’t write it, because I didn’t know myself what had happened, because I hadn’t written it! D’oh. Had to break off, do the research, write the historical and then finish off the contemporary.

So from now on, after the first few chapters, I am going to write the whole historical tale first. This definitely works best.

I write each chapter in a separate Word document. On my planning spreadsheet, I keep a word count per chapter and a rolling word count, so I can see whether the dramatic highs and lows are coming at the right point in the novel. Once all chapters are written I open a new document and copy all the chapters in, in the right order. That’s the ‘initial construction’ draft. I will then edit that, move scenes around if needed, fill in blanks, deal with my notes-to-self that I make in capital letters while first-drafting. Once that’s all done – that’s my proper first draft, and the first one I let anyone read.

There’s loads more work needed of course, as any novelist will tell you. My editor and beta readers will have opinions on what works and what doesn’t, and hopefully will provide ideas on how to improve it. I’d expect another couple of drafts before it goes to the copy-editor and then the proof-reader. But getting that first draft done and sent always feels like a great achievement. The novel may be far from finished but at least I’ve got something to work with now.

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My two favourite words…

27 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Girl from Ballymor, Pearl Locket, Writing

I just wrote “The End” on a (very rough) draft of my next novel. It is SUCH a satisfying moment! All the more so this time, as I have been racing ahead to finish a draft before going travelling – we leave in just 6 days time.

Having finished it before we go means I can print it off and take the printout with me to edit. I prefer doing the first, major edit on paper, with a red pen. It’s easier to be ruthless when you can put a big red cross over an entire page and scribble something different in the margin or on the reverse.

Of course, once we are away travelling in our motorhome printing will be a bit tricky. I’ll be taking my laptop of course, and we have various arrangements to allow us to be online (see here if you are curious!) but printing would involve taking a memory stick to a print shop and explaining what I need in broken French or even more broken Italian. It’d probably cost a fortune too. So I was keen to get to the point where I could print it at home and take it with me.

In other news – The Pearl Locket is currently on sale in the UK at 99p, but only for a few more days.

And don’t forget my new book The Girl from Ballymor is available for preorder in both ebook and print format!

Between novels

29 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by kathmcgurl in Uncategorized, Writing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

inspiration, novel, Writing

I’m in that wonderful, exciting, refreshing but also terrifying space between novels at the moment. I finished a draft of my last, still-to-be-titled, one over the weekend, and sent it to my editor today. There will still be plenty of work to do on it no doubt, but for the moment it is out of my hands.

Meanwhile ideas for the next novel after that are filling my mind, so although I’d planned to have a bit of a break I have spent a lot of time today scribbling notes and putting together a Pinterest board to inspire me.

There are a number of things I do when planning a novel before I start actually writing it. I’ll do them in roughly this sequence:

  1. Scribble notes about key scenes, in a lovely new notebook of course!
  2. Decide on names, ages etc of main characters
  3. Draw up family trees for main characters, especially important if genealogy is to be a theme in the book
  4. Draw up timelines for the two timelines in the novel
  5. Build up a Pinterest board of inspiring images
  6. Note down main areas where I’ll need to research ahead of writing, and order any necessary books
  7. Create detailed character sheets for the main characters so that I can really get to know them
  8. Scribble details of the main settings, draw a map or house-plan if necessary
  9. Write a one-page synopsis for my editor to (hopefully!) approve
  10. Write a chapter plan – two or three sentences outlining what will happen in each chapter

So although ‘the Irish novel’ has been sent off ready for the next stage (rather like a five-year old child being sent off for his first day at school), the ‘drowned village’ novel is already swilling around my head. You know you need to write a novel when you find yourself waking in the night with scenes for it playing out in full colour in your head.

It’s funny – to my readers Daughters of Red Hill Hall is considered my latest novel, but I feel as though I’m two novels on from that!

Well, what shall I write now?

23 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by kathmcgurl in Uncategorized, Writing

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Daughters of Red Hill Hall, Writing

I finished the first edit of my novel yesterday, and sent it straight off to my eldest son who’s my beta reader. I’m looking forward to hearing what he thinks of it, then I’ve time to make some more changes as necessary before sending it to my editor just after Christmas. Phew! It’ll be lovely to have time to start something new, before I get my editor’s comments on it and have to rewrite the whole thing, ooh-er.

Want to know what its title will be? Not sure if I should reveal that yet…Oh, go on then, you’ve twisted my arm. It’ll be called The Daughters of Red Hill Hall. It’s dual timeline, and both timelines feature the stately home Red Hill Hall, and two girls who are the best of friends at the start of the novel, until… I’ll say no more. Publication will be around April 2016 – will let you know when I have a definite date.

Anyway, after completing the novel and also sending a synopsis for the next one to my editor, I thought I’d have a few days off from writing. But I’ve sat here this evening with itchy fingers, so I wrote a guest blog post for someone else, and then this blog post. A change is as good as a rest, they say, and certainly it’s the case that writing something other than the novel I’ve been working on since the end of April feels refreshing and fun. Counting up, I realise that I’ve only spent 7 months writing this one, which is a lot faster than any previous novel. And in June I hardly wrote anything, so it’s really 6 months work. Not bad going, considering I work full time as well.

It’s good to give yourself a pat on the back now and again. Even if a minute later I’m back to the usual writerly mental state of feeling full of self-doubt and insecurity!

 

The next novel has been printed!

02 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

editing, Writing

On Saturday I finally finished the first draft of my next novel. It needs a fair bit of work to whip it into shape, but from this point on I’m editing rather than first-drafting. I feel more than ready for this change of tempo – it uses different parts of your brain and I am kind of looking forward to it.

I say ‘kind of’, because that first read through is a terrifying prospect. What if it’s rubbish? What if the plot doesn’t hang together and the prose is dull and lifeless, and the characters are unlikeable and inconsistent?

When I am writing a first draft I try to keep forward momentum going at all times, and never go back to edit. If I write something which will require a tweak or addition in an earlier chapter I just write myself a note and keep going. Otherwise I know I would never reach the end. This method works for me but does mean there can be quite a lot to tackle in the first edit – the one I must do before I let anyone at all read it.

Anyway, just now I printed off the entire novel. I will read it through with a red pen in hand and scribble notes as I go. Then I’ll get going on the edits. Deadline is Christmas. Wish me luck!

Endings

30 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Writing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

books, Emerald Comb, endings, Writing

Endings are tricky beasts, aren’t they?

Beginnings are dead easy. I’ve sat in writing classes and written dozens of beginnings, usually with no previous idea of what to write, and often done within a six-minute time limit. Some are better than others, but most could become the start of a story or even a novel.

But endings are another matter. Short story endings need to neatly finish off the story, include the twist, or link back to the beginning, or show the ‘universal truth’ your story is trying to illustrate. Novel endings need to tie up loose ends, leave your characters in a good place, and satisfy your reader. And they mustn’t end too soon – I think novels need a winding-down scene or two, where the main action has finished, to allow the reader to say their farewells to the characters they’ve lived with for the past few days or weeks.

I was looking through the reviews I’ve had for my novel, The Emerald Comb, earlier today. It’s been well received with (to date) 48 four and five star reviews, but there are a handful of three, two and one star reviews as well. The one thing the lower rankings have in common is that they all criticise the ending. They say the ending seemed rushed, and that things were left not quite resolved leaving the reader feeling perhaps disappointed or frustrated.

I find this very interesting, because (and this is a bit of a spoiler, so if you haven’t read it but would like to, skip reading this paragraph) nothing is kept from the reader. There’s no unresolved plot line. By the end of the novel, the reader knows the full truth of what happened. However, the main character Katie does not know everything. I wrote it like this on purpose – one of the themes of the novel is that no amount of research can necessarily uncover the full and complete truth of what happened in the past. If your ancestors really wanted to hide a secret, they probably could, and you’d never know. After exhausting all research angles the best you can do is make an educated guess or conjecture. And that’s what Katie is left with, although the reader knows everything. In my mind the story is resolved, but perhaps the critical reviewers identified so much with Katie they didn’t see it that way! (I’ll take that as a compliment on my skills at characterisation then.)

Some of the other reviews praise the ending for being realistic, and one reviewer stated she was glad I went for the ending I did, rather than the more predictable alternative which some might have expected. There’s someone who really ‘got’ what I was trying to do!

You can never please everyone, but it has made me think hard about the ending I had in mind for my current work in progress, which is another tale of genealogical mysteries. How can I stay true to my themes and yet be careful not to disappoint readers? I think there’s a fine line I need to tread here. Hope I can get it right!

Thankfully, no one’s criticised the ending of The Pearl Locket (so far). Although a number of people have told me it had them reaching for a tissue…

Seriously considering a sequel…

20 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Writing

I know The Emerald Comb has only been published a month, but a couple of reviewers have mentioned they’d like to see a sequel. I wrote the book as a standalone novel, with absolutely no intention of writing more about these characters, but now I’m thinking hmmm, what if I took other characters from Katie’s family tree, and gave them secrets to hide, which leads to Katie having another mystery to solve?

I pondered this on the drive to Mum’s today, and by the time I got back, had the makings of a plot buzzing around my head. It’ll be fun to revisit some of my characters. I do feel I know them pretty well.

I’ve never tried writing a sequel. I know there are pitfalls – you need to make sure the book works for people who haven’t read the first one, also ensure if someone reads book 2 and then book 1 you haven’t given away the surprises in book 1. It’ll be a challenge, but I think I might have a go. Have to finish the two writing projects which are already underway first, though!

What do you think – have you written novels with sequels? How did you find it? As a reader do you enjoy sequels?  Should I go for it?

From Family Tree to Emerald Comb

24 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Writing

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

book, Genealogy, Promotion, Writing

In the summer of 2009, the 1911 census was made available online. A friend told me about it, and one evening I thought, hmm, I wonder if I can find my grandparents on that census? I decided to have a look for my mum’s father. He’d had an unusual surname, and I knew he’d been born in Worthing, so I thought I’d be in with a good chance of finding him.

That idle thought was the beginning of an obsession with genealogy. I found my grandfather easily, then began tracing back through the censuses and other records, as far as I could go. Over time this led me to not only find out loads about my family tree, but also to discover and meet distant relatives I hadn’t known about, and eventually to the inspiration for genealogy-based novels.

My first novel was based on some characters and events from my own family tree, but one problem I had with that one is that I felt too constrained by the truth, by my own research. My characters had to marry, give birth and die on the dates my ancestors had. They couldn’t be completely free. But of course writers love making stuff up, and I’m no different, so the obvious next step was to write a novel based on an entirely fictitious family tree. What if you’d researched your whole family tree and thought you knew your ancestry for the last couple of hundred years, but your ancestors had secrets they’d buried deeply? What if you really did find a skeleton in your family history closet?

The Emerald Comb V3 cover small

And so began the story which became The Emerald Comb. It was a lot of fun to write. I outlined the two plots – the contemporary story and the 1840s story – and drew up an entire family tree spanning two centuries. Actually I had to draw up two trees – the ‘real’ one and the one my character Katie had discovered in her research. They’re not quite the same, as readers of the novel will discover.

My own genealogy research helped with this novel – I knew what you can find out online, and what processes researchers will go through. Katie’s not based on me, but I reckon if she was real and I met her we’d have lots to talk about!

The Emerald Comb explores the idea of identity. Just who do you think you are, and how important is it important to know your ancestry? Katie thinks it’s crucial, but her husband who was adopted, thinks not. Both of them change their beliefs during the course of the book.

Launched this week, and available to buy as an ebook from all outlets. Price is £3.79 at the time of writing. It’s been well received so far – I’ve had some wonderful early reviews!

Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Buy from Amazon.com

For more blog posts related to this book, click on the book title at the top of the page!

Blocked?

15 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

writers block, Writing, writing advice

Writer’s block.

You hear so much about it. Writers complaining they are blocked, they cannot progress, they’ve been stuck on the same scene for weeks and just can’t seem to get it written. Writing it is like wading through treacle, and every time they try to write a bit more they end up getting nowhere.

I know the feeling. It is like repeatedly banging your head against a huge boulder, trying to smash the rock with your head so you can get past it. I’ve been there and done that, it’s not nice. But I have found a solution.

Don’t try to break through the blockage. Go around it instead.

That scene you’re stuck on – leave it. Just leave it half-written. Write something else instead – the next scene, the next chapter, a bit near the end of the book which you’ve had in mind for ages. Or if blocked on a short story, start another one instead. New characters, new problem, and see where you get to with that.

You can always come back to the unfinished scene/chapter/story later. You might then find it is easy to finish. Or even that it is no longer needed and you have thought of a better way of getting your characters where they needed to be at the end of that difficult scene.

Writing novels is all about forward momentum. But if there comes a time when going directly forward is not possible, you’re blocked, then deviate slightly to the left or right and find a new forward.

It works for me.

 

Just call me superwoman…

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by kathmcgurl in Blogging

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

bournemouth, Running, swimming, time, Writing

Life has been SO busy lately. If we’re Facebook friends you probably know about my husband’s cycling accident, 6 weeks ago. He crashed on a slippery road coming downhill, and broke his hip and wrist. His hip was operated on the next day to pin it, and the day after that he was on his feet on crutches. He’s making a good recovery, though still has to use the crutches for a few weeks yet. So I am having to do a lot extra in the home – all the cooking and cleaning instead of sharing it, all the driving around, shopping, taking him indoors to physio appointments etc.

The day job has been manic lately. I won’t bore you with the details but I’m definitely being pulled every which way and then some. Could do with cloning myself to get it all done.

I’m over the moon at having a two book deal – it’s what I’ve worked towards for ten years. But with contracts come deadlines, and the pressure’s on to get book 1 revised and back to my editor, also to get the first draft of book 2 completed. Both are on target, just about.

With the pier-to-pier swim completed that means no need for swimming training, but him indoors has discovered that a short swim in the sea is really helping his recovery. He hobbles in on crutches, then I take the crutches and leave them on the beach, then swim with him, then help him out of the water at the end. On beautiful Bournemouth beach and in weather like we’ve had, this is no hardship so I’m not complaining. But it’s all time out of my busy day.

Earlier this year I signed up for the Bournemouth half-marathon, which is in early October. So I need to pick up my running – get out there and start building up the distance. I’m so slow a 10km run takes me nearly an hour and a half.

And then today I realised that I have to do the ‘blue’ jobs as well as the ‘pink’ jobs. A U-bend under the in-sink disposal unit (aka the muncher) clogged up. I have never, repeat never, unblocked a U-bend in my life before today. (I have led a sheltered life and there has always been someone around with greater plumbing skills than me.) But I managed it, and then did a silly dance around the house because it is now official – I AM SUPERWOMAN and I can do ANYTHING!

Ahem. All this is really just a long-winded excuse for the lack of blog posts lately.

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