Not been on here in a looooong time!

I'm sorry to all the fans of my writing, I WILL be finishing the stories. I'm going to look back over them and start fresh, as I have grown myself and my writing has too.

Please bear with me, I'll be updating as quickly as I can, but with a three year old, a man-child husband, an overbearing mother and a puppy, my life rarely runs in straight lines!!!

And THANK YOU for the reviews!! I love you all. xxxxx

A little something of me

I'm thirty-three, from the UK and have been writing since I could spell and reading before I could read (This is actually half true. I made my parents read me Fraggle Rock's "The Tale of the Doozer Who Didn't" that many times I memorised it by the time I was 20 months old. My folks thought I was a prodigy!!!)

All in all, I LOVE writing. I am writing my own novels right now (Three, I get a lot of ideas) but am petrified of rejection, so am hedging with sending to publicists. Watch this space, eh?!

I love writing poems and am known by friends and family for little ditties in cards at Christmas and birthdays. I'm quite funny and witty... even if I do say so myself (And I do!)

I will ALWAYS be there for advice or proofreading should anyone ever require. I am very friendly and only believe in CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Being mean or poking holes is just mean and I cannot abide it. We writers pour our souls into our work and it is very hard for it to be ripped to pieces.

But I do have a few pointers (And, please, I am not trying to patronise anyone. I make as many mistakes as anyone and have gained my knowledge through experience. I only want to help people be better writers.):

1. Proof read! I cannot emphasis this enough. It sounds so simple, but everyone makes mistakes, don't they. C'mon, guys we're all human. Seriously though, read and read, then re-read again your work. It makes for a better experience for your reader and we all want that.
2. Ask yourself "Would my character do this?". A lot of people force their players to do things the writer wants them to do, say or suddenly develop characteristics they do not have. I understand this, I do! It's OUR stories, so they should do what WE want. This is not always true. I've seen a lot of perfectly wonderful stories halted in their tracks by a sudden change in personality or direction that is not organic and has the reader going "Huh?". Stephen King once said (and I'm paraphrasing here.) that good characters take on their own life and no matter how much you want them to do something, the story just wont gel because you have bought such life to your art that it just wont work. This is especially true of Fanfic because the characters are already established by their own creators. The reason we love them enough to want to write about them is because of who they are and it's not our place to change that. Plus people will spot it in a second! I have found characters that I have created (In Fanfic and my own stories) will not do certain things if it goes against their nature. It's like they're shouting "Hey, Dannie! Get a grip. I will NOT do this!)
3. Know the differences! There, their, they're. etc. Social media and texting has made people sloppy and I am a stickler for correct grammar and spelling. Again, it stops your flow dead.
4. Also with things like numbers. Writing four then putting a 4 breaks the flow. This also applies in your tenses. Starting a story in the past tense "She had ..." then a sentence later changing it to "She has ..." just confuses things. A lot of writers do differentiate POV characters by changing the tense, and this works well, but not in the same paragraph.
5. To this end, Google is a writer's best friend (Told ya I was a poet!!), if you're unsure on spelling, grammar, punctuation or even if you could use a different word, pop open a new tab and look. I am forever Googling EVERYTHING! Seriously, the Man-child is always teasing me if we're watching a film and I have to know what happens, I'll Wiki it before it's even started. Or the "What have I seen her in before?" last twenty seconds with me before I list off all previous films etc. I find I've acquired a lot of trivia this way (Just try Wiki surfing, it's actually a lot of fun and you learn all sorts). Everyone asks for me to join their pub quiz teams!!! But not just the basic stuff, read about myths, heroes, history. There is a flip load of ideas out there to be had.
6. Bad language. I used to be a swine for this myself. The odd curse or naughty word is fine, if you feel it works in the scene. I mean, have you ever heard of someone stubbing their toe and exclaiming "Oh, POOH!" Shouting "Oh, F*&k!" makes the pain less somehow!! Unless you have a toddler, which is essentially a featherless parrot always on the hunt for naughty words to repeat at the worst time!). But don't have every other word as the F word. I live in Derbyshire and know people who take like this (Hell I talk like that most of the time!!).
7. Don't rush the story just to publish another chapter. I would rather wait two weeks for a wonderfully written chapter than have three shoddily written ones in four days. I haven't added to my stories in years and I still get asked to finish them, if your work is honest and true then your faithful readers will happily wait.
8. Always write down little thoughts and ideas. Big trees grow from little acorns.
9. And finally (Yes, I sometimes know when to stop! ;) ) Have FUN! If it's hard, take a break, write something else, move things around a little, see what happens. Mental blocks are harder to get over than physical ones.
10. Please feel free to call me a bossy cow! ;)

I do hope I can be of some help to people. Love your craft, we are the ones who bring light and life to people who need it.

Blessed be, my darlings.