My Writing Year 2016

Today, as tradition requires, I shall be looking back at all the lovely things I've been doing this year (excluding general story sales).

January - I started the year with the usual teacakes and goal setting with writing chum Tracy Fells and I shall be posting how I got on with them after Christmas. I re-joined the RNA New Writers' Scheme and Anita Chapman was my guest, talking about social media.

February - This month was the fifth anniversary of the day I started writing. I wrote a post on writing ghost stories and my blog guest Phillipa Ashley wrote about breaking writing rules.

March - Big news this month was that I was signed by the Eve White Literary Agency. I was interviewed by Helen M Walters in Writer's Forum about what I look for as a story competition judge. Debbie Howells was my guest, talking about writing psychological thrillers.

April - Went on a fabulous Lake District holiday.

May - Visited beautiful Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. Elaine Everest was my guest, talking about the new novel, The Woolworths Girls. Had my first attempt at dumper truck racing!

June - Had an inspirational weekend in Florence. Went to the RNA summer party.

July - There were three lovely guests on my blog this month: Lynda Stacey (writing a debut), Becca Puglisi (show not tell your setting) and Helen Yendall (magazine writing).

August - Wendy's Writing Now had its 4th birthday. I was interviewed by Simon Whaley for an article in Writing Magazine about writing seasonal stories.

September - Had our annual holiday in Greece - this time the wonderful island of Ithaca.

October - Three guests this month: Julie Day (writing with asperger's) Cass Grafton and Ada Bright (successful co-writing) and Emily Royal (the RNA NWS). This month saw my story Too Good to Last published as an audio which you can listen to here. I was judge for the Nottingham Writers Group Rosemary Robb Ghost Story Competition and wrote another post on writing ghost stories.

November - This month, I  went to the RNA Winter Party. My blog guests were Kate Blackadder, Chrissie Bradshaw and Gill Stewart (writing cross genre). My story The Artist's Apprentice was published as an audio which you can listen to here.

December - The final month of the year saw a new updated version of Wendy's Story Timeline (interactive timeline). My final guest of the year was Patsy Collins talking about her new writing guide. Finally, I had four Christmas stories published in magazines and The People's Friend made an audio of another of my stories, The Girl in the Striped Sundress which you can listen to here.

All that's left is to wish you all a Merry Christmas... and I'll see you back on my blog after the festivities are over!

Writing Cross Genre - Guest Post Gill Stewart

Please give a warm welcome to this week's guest in the spotlight, Gill Stewart. When Gill asked if I would be interested in a blog post on writing cross genre, my answer was a resounding 'yes'. Writing across genres has always interested me and having recently published the third in a YA mystery/romance, Gill is a bit of an expert.

Over to you, Gill.

This month my third Young Adult mystery/romance, No More Lies, was published. This is the final book in a trilogy following the story of George and Finn’s growing romance, but in each book there is always at least one mystery to be solved. I didn’t set out particularly to write romance or mystery, and definitely not both! It’s just that the first book developed that way and the others naturally followed on.

By the time I came to writing Young Adult, I was already published in two genres – sweet romance (as Gillian Villiers) and women’s contemporary fiction (as Gilly Stewart). So what made me venture into this new arena? Firstly it was because I’ve always loved reading YA. And when I think back to some of the favourites, they often feature either romance or some kind of mystery to be solved – or both. Think Anne Of The Island crossed with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban; that would pretty much be my perfect book!

So, although these thoughts weren’t conscious, they must have been there at the back of my mind. Music and Lies started first and foremost with the setting: a rather wild music festival. I’d found myself at an off-beat music festival as the (unwilling) responsible adult for 3 thirteen-year-old boys. The lack of willingness was on both sides – I wasn’t sure I wanted to be there and the boys definitely didn’t want me around! We came to an uneasy truce where I sort-of kept them in sight and they pretended to ignore me completely.

The festival was in the depths of a forest, with almost no mobile signal, and the feel that a great deal of illicit substances were being consumed. What would it be like, I wondered, if a girl a little older than these boys found herself at such a festival, unsupervised? And the idea of George going to the Forest Fest was born. The other characters gradually came to life – Finn, the strange, reserved boy who George becomes more and more attracted to. So it was going to be a romance! And then the knowledge that there were crimes taking place, that both George and Finn were keen to solve, although for different reasons. Ah, so this was going to be a mystery, too, was it?

Once I had this template in mind, it was easy enough to move on to the second book, Bright Lights and Lies. I definitely wanted to continue developing the relationship between George and Finn and by moving the story to a big city – Glasgow – I could incorporate the story of a sleazy journalist, homeless people and George’s favourite band. For the final book, No More Lies, the location changes again, this time to the Scottish Highlands, in winter. For once it seems that things really will go smoothly for George and Finn, until Finn learns the truth about his own past, and mysterious stray dogs begin to turn up on the doorstep. Yes, we have another mystery waiting to be solved!

There are definitely some advantages to writing cross-genre:

• As someone who occasionally struggles to have enough ‘plot’, I now had plenty!
• It was easy to vary the pace of the book by moving from one strand of the story to another.
• I had 2 hooks on which to hang the marketing: both romance and mystery.

But on the other hand there were definite disadvantages:

• I had to make sure that both strands were given sufficient prominence, but that neither overshadowed the other
• I had to make sure I didn’t ‘lose’ one of the threads at certain points
• The mysteries required a great deal of research
• How would I market this: as a romance or as a mystery?

Would I do this again? Yes! But next time I will Do More Advance Planning. As a typical ‘pantster’ writer, I was going into the mist and really not knowing what was going to happen next. This meant that when I had reached the end I had to do a lot of editing. If I had planned better I could have saved a lot of time.

Despite the challenges, I’ve loved delving into 2 genres at once, and would definitely recommend it to anyone else who is looking for a new challenge, and a bit of fun.

Find me at:

GILL-MARIE STEWART - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gill-Marie-Stewart/1565665140343048

             @paisleypiranhas

GILLY STEWART - https://www.facebook.com/GillyStewartWriter 

             @GillStewart2

No More Lies  by Gill-Marie Stewart

Time to tell the truth?

Finn is not happy when dippy Aunt Lulu drags him off to spend Christmas on a community farm in the Scottish Highlands. Things look up when his girlfriend George joins them, though. Finn needs to start making some decisions about his life, but when abandoned dogs turn up on the doorstep, and Aunt Lulu starts revealing uncomfortable truths, it all gets a bit overwhelming …

George can’t sort out what is going on with her and Finn, so she concentrates on getting to the bottom of the mystery dogs. Impulsive and unpredictable as always, her actions lead her and Finn into danger once again.

No more lies: it's time for George and Finn to tell the truth about their feelings and move forward. But will that be together or apart?