{"id":4429,"date":"2014-01-26T07:31:27","date_gmt":"2014-01-26T07:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=4429"},"modified":"2014-01-26T07:31:27","modified_gmt":"2014-01-26T07:31:27","slug":"my-writing-process-if-i-have-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=4429","title":{"rendered":"My writing process – if I have one."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a>
This is the first book in the Coorah Creek series – and it’s out in just a few days. Yay!!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do I write.. and why? These are scary question that I have this week been thinking about, because the lovely Gwen Kirkwood (who writes lovely historical novels \u2013 mostly set in Scotland) tagged me in the \u2018my Writing Process\u2019 blog tour.<\/p>\n

Last week Gwen talked honestly about how she writes last week on her blog http:\/\/gwenkirkwood.blogspot.co.uk\/<\/a> ..\u00a0\u00a0 so I guess it\u2019s now my turn to do the same\u2026<\/p>\n

I’m not sure I even have a defined writing process – but here goes\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>What am I working on at present?<\/b><\/p>\n

This is a great opportunity for me to test-drive the title of my new book. It has the working title of The Last Brumby Run \u2013 but I am afraid no-one is going to get it. If\u00a0you don’t\u00a0\u2013 I should tell you that brumby is the Australian term for a wild horse \u2013 what the Americans would call a mustang. What do you think?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s is the second book in my series set on the small outback town of Coorah Creek.<\/p>\n

Dan Mitchell is a former special forces serviceman, now working as the ranger in a magnificent national park. He is still haunted by some shocking things he saw during his service in Iraq. \u00a0When the order comes to clear the wild horses from the park by whatever means, he\u2019s determined to save them.<\/p>\n

Enter Rachel Quinn,\u00a0a beautiful nature photographer,\u00a0who is also\u00a0running away from her past.<\/p>\n

With the whole town helping out, they must save the wild horses,\u00a0 and in doing so\u00a0they may just save themselves.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m more than half way through writing it \u2013 and am desperately in love with Dan. (Please\u00a0don\u2019t tell my husband!)<\/p>\n

How does my work differ from others of its genre? <\/b><\/p>\n

Gosh \u2013 that\u2019s a hard one. I write contemporary romance \u2013 with a bit of adventure. A lot of people do that.\u00a0 I love dark, damaged heroes \u2013 and I\u2019m not alone in that.\u00a0 Most of my work is set in outback Australia \u2013 but my last book Bring Me Sunshine was actually set on a cruise ship in Antarctica.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This has the be the most remote setting ever – Antarctica. I loved writing this book..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hmm \u2013 maybe that\u2019s my thing \u2013 I love wild places<\/p>\n

I travel a lot \u2013 and places capture my imagination. I wonder about the people who live there. I wonder about people who travel here. How they deal with new and at times strange or even frightening places. \u00a0In my writing, I try to really capture these places \u2013 and how they impact on people.<\/p>\n

If you get the chance \u2013 try walking out at night into a remote place with no people, or noise or light. Look up at the stars for a few minutes. You will feel the place. Emotions are closer to the surface in wild places\u2026 maybe that\u2019s what inspires me.<\/p>\n

Why do I write what I do? <\/b><\/p>\n

I used to be a journalist. I met a lot of people \u2013 a Pope, Prime Ministers and a President, a few rock stars and actors \u2013 and a lot of \u2018ordinary\u2019 people. I often found that those so-called \u2018ordinary\u2019 people had the most extraordinary stories to tell.<\/p>\n

And travelling as much as I do, I meet people from many cultures. I learn so much every new place I go. I learn about people. And about myself.<\/p>\n

People are endlessly fascinating.<\/p>\n

As a reporter, I had to stick to the facts when I was writing. Now, as a novelist, I can let my imagination take flight. I can try to imagine the stories behind the faces.\u00a0 And I always try to do justice to those people I have met along the way.<\/p>\n

How does my writing process work?<\/b><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t plot. I really don\u2019t. It scares me silly. When I begin a book, I always have the opening scene in my head.\u00a0 I also have one of the key characters in my head. It may be either the hero or heroine \u2013 they start telling me their story in that first scene.<\/p>\n

I also have the closing scene in my head \u2013 it always has both hero and heroine in it. My job is to fill in the big bit in the middle.<\/p>\n

I know what themes I am writing about, and I usually have a few key plot moments in my head, but I like to let my characters drive the story. Often I\u2019ll start writing and they just take over.. and sometimes do things I didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n

I reality, I guess this is my writing subconscious driving me \u2013 but as I write \u2013 it does feel like the characters are telling their story. When I start hearing their voices in my head, that\u2019s when I know the story is going to work.<\/p>\n

Right now \u2013 Dan is trying to tell me (and through me Quinn) exactly what happened that terrible day in Iraq. And why Quinn has brought a little light into the dark places of his soul.<\/p>\n

I am still waiting for Quinn to tell me what is in the small package she carries with her always, carefully wrapped in tissue paper and locked away in the deepest recesses of her heart.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m listening Quinn\u2026.<\/p>\n

And now I\u2019m also passing the baton to two of my writing chums and stablemates also published by Choc Lit.<\/p>\n

Laura James is one of the most enthusiastic people I know when it comes to reading and writing \u2013 especially books that touch the heart. Possessing little in the way of domestic skills \u2013 she\u2019s found a better use for her kitchen.\u00a0 It\u2019s from there that she produces \u00a0issue-driven romantic novels, short stories, and flash fiction.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll be blogging about her writing process next week at \u00a0www.lauraejames.co.uk<\/a> .<\/p>\n

Kathryn Freeman lives just down the road from me \u2013 but I didn\u2019t know her until we met through our publisher. She trained as a pharmacist, but quickly realised that trying to decipher doctor\u2019s handwriting wasn\u2019t for her. Instead, she spent twenty happy years working in medical communications, which I gather involved writing a lot about medicine and drugs and other icky stuff. She now juggles the two disciplines of medical writing and romance.\u00a0 Some days a racing heart is a medical condition, others it\u2019s the reaction to a hunky hero\u2026<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll be blogging next week about her writing process at http:\/\/kathrynfreeman.co.uk\/category\/blog<\/a>\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do I write.. and why? These are scary question that I have this week been thinking about, because the lovely Gwen Kirkwood (who writes lovely historical novels \u2013 mostly set in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-19r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}