How It All Began...

Not all writers deliberately begin with the intention of writing a full length novel. James Patterson (yeah, him again... I like his books a great deal and owe a lot of inspirational credit to him for the first incarnation of the now-redundant prologue) first mentioned the character of Maximum Ride in another novel, and she stuck in his mind to such a degree, that her own series of books were created.

Mine starts with a computer. A barely-working old windows '98 model in a very fetching shade of grey. This was way before flat screens had completely replaced their more boxy predecessors, and as my parents upgraded to something a little less grey and a little more flat, I inherited their old modem. It was practically on its last legs, and the function of connecting to the Internet was just too complex for its ageing components. So what did I have on this computer with the exception of minesweeper, solitaire and the ever so addicting space pinball? I had MS Word 97.

I've always been a writer, even from the very early year five and year six classes in primary school, during which my nine/ten year-old mind was always whirring with plotlines, characters and narrative. I spent many evenings in bed listening to audiobooks, and when the tape had come to the end of its side, I would resist tuning it over and come up with my own works of fiction inside my head; often featuring a specific story that could go on for months and months at a time.

Anyway, back to the book. What I remember most about the beginning of my journey wasn't a deliberate intention of writing 75,000+ words. I was bored, as any teenager who lived in the middle of nowhere would be. Sat behind my trusty grey computer, I'd grown tired of space pinball and absent mindedly opened up Word without a second thought. I just remember thinking, "Okay Jenny, you're bored and you like writing... How about setting yourself a little short piece of descriptive writing task?" And the rest, as they say, is history.

The story somehow seemed to blossom. Names and ideas were cropping up everywhere; soon enough, I was somehow on chapter four, and all of a sudden, I could see paths opening up for the story to go down. It must have been only about twenty pages long, but back then, for a 13/14 year old, that was magic. Then, disaster struck. I can't quite remember what happened to the original first few chapters, and as hard as I try, I can never decide if they were lost when my faithful old computer blue-screened and crashed for a final time, or were simply rewritten to accommodate a less juvenile style of narrative. Whatever happened though, the first few chapters were completely changed, with many of the original ideas replaced: bar possibly the key theme and the so-called 'bad-guys.' All that remains of what was around back then is the prologue, which, funnily enough, I decided to remove altogether from the manuscript.

And so it snowballed. I got bought a laptop, and my writing quota peaked and then subsided again - sometimes I could write 2,000+ words a day for consecutive days, at other times, I went weeks without a single word or thought on the matter. But none of those months really count in the end, as finally... Finally, last December (2011) it was loosely stitched together in one word document for the first time ever. Only at a mere 68,000 words or so, it still needed much work doing to it. But that came later. Finished. I knew then more than ever before that writing was the only real direction that I wanted to take (other than music - but that's a very different dream!).

So there you go. The formation and growth of an idea. It wasn't complete when I started it, and it almost certainly isn't anywhere near completely finished now. But it's there. And before my tone ends up on that ever-so cheesy level of whimsical self-praising, another blog draws to an end. Remember, if you're liking what you're reading, tell people, or get in touch: all comments, promotions or even random greetings are accepted and replied to.

Peace. x

The 'Hard Work' Stage of Blogging (Or basically another post to entice people into checking out my blog)

So here we are, the second post, and I'm reliably informed that I've made it further than 50% of people that start a blog these days. It's several days after I started, and I'm already feeling the burning desire to just give up waiting until I get 200 followers on twitter before posting my first chapter - but patience is a virtue, so I'm sticking to it.

For my second post, I'd decided I was going to divulge more about the genre or general idea of the book. I'm not a fan of likening or comparing it to other works (because I would rather it became a benchmark of its own) but instead I think it would be appropriate to list some of my main sources of influence to give all you potential readers out there an idea of what you're letting yourselves in for. In no particular order:

The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan - This has been a firm favourite series of mine for a while now, and many of the storylines that revolve around travelling and quests have had a particular impact on some of the themes I've tried to connect with. Also the recurring Greek Gods and 'higher powers' of the books: many of which have both negatively and positively had an impact upon my own deity-like creations.

The Maximum Ride series by James Patterson - I've always loved how these novels were so fast paced, and that the action was so vivid and continuous throughout.

Darren Shan - The horror side of my work that I've tried to lace in alongside the reality.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by J.K.Rowling - Again with the theme of travelling throughout, and need I even mention Rowling's genius when it comes to character development.

The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer - Unfortunately, I have to give a great deal of credit to Meyer for the way she crafts the detail in her narrative. I'm not a huge fan, however I do admire the depth of detail she works with.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - The last book I read; an amazing psychological exploration that I got through in three days - captivating!!

Cherri Bomb, Courage My Love, Hole, Orianthi, Paramore and We Are The In Crowd - Not actual works of fiction, but still a huge influence on the way in which I write. All of these names in rock music (be them young, old, classic stadium fillers or rising stars) share the common, female fronted theme. I've always admired a strong female frontwoman or guitarist within a band, and I've tried to emanate this fierce attitude in my somewhat reluctant protagonist (more on her later!) at various points throughout.

So before I go off on a music-based tangent, I guess I'll draw my second post to a close. Remember, if you're a fan of fiction that isn't geared towards the stereotypical teen vampire romance novel, or are sick of hearing about the pornographic raunchy romps of a charismatic businessman, spread the word: follow me on twitter, promote my account and check out the blog from time to time.

Peace. x

The First Post

Okay, I don't really know where to start with this... I guess an introduction is in order...

Hi there, I'm Jenny, and I write (and always have written) fiction for leisure. I've just finished the second draft of a novel which, for the first time with something I've completed, I feel could potentially go places (trying not to sound big-headed there!). Whilst on holiday recently, I read an article in a magazine about how to get yourself known as a writer and one of the ways in which was reccommended was through the internet: the stratosphere of blogging, twitter etc. So I came home, and thought about it for a while. The book as its first printed incarnation came into being in the form of my second complete draft, and I decided that now was a better time than ever to start up this blog. In no way is the novel finished or perfect, and I'm hoping that as my blogging progresses, so it will too. Basically, I'm planning on charting my journey of trying to become a published author through my blog.

If anyone's reading this, I'm assuming you're wondering what kind of a genre it is that I write for. I've never really discussed it with anyone I know before: I find it awkward talking to people that I'm close to, but then again, this is the internet, and we're all as anonymous as we want to be around here. I've always been particularly interested in 'fantasy' fiction - or anything with an aspect of magic or the paranormal/superhero/mythology to it. My book (as yet untitled) revolves around this particular idea. Without wanting to liken it to anything specifically, it's a: 

Travelling-in-a-VW-bus-fantasy-in-an-alternate-version-of-history-told-in-first-person-about-just-your-average-teenage-protagonist-guitarist-with-various-weapons-and-otherwise-trying-to-make-sense-of-what's-happened-to-her-whilst-running-from-the-'bad guys'-and-trying-not-to-get-caught-breaking-the-law-for-weapons-offences.

kind of book. 

There we go, I just sold it to you. Right there. So here it is; here's my blog. If you're interested, let me know, all messages returned. :)

Peace. x