I created a little video in Widnows Media Player for fun. I want to share it on here but I'm worried about copyright permissions.
I finished the first draft of Drift in December 2009. Then Ellie Goulding released her song Starry Eyed. The song has always felt like it was written for the story - the whole story not just a part of it.
I used the song as the backing track for the trailer. She is HUGE and I don't want to get in trouble for using it. Someone said I should ask, so I sent an email to her record label and if they'll let me use it then I'll upload it here.
As I've been trying to take a break from Drift, it was a very good creative distraction. Plus, I've really enjoyed making it.
Well, I love scrapbooking so for fun I created a digital scrapbook of Drift on my favourite website Mixbook: www.mixbook.com
It wasn't as easy as making a personal scrapbook because I didn't have Fern's photo albumn (becuase she is a fictional character) so I had to search the web for free pictures.
Finding the right 'free' picture wasn't easy either as I didn't want to take away from the reader how they may have imagined the scenes or characters I've written about. Therefore, I tried really hard to find universal pictures that illustrated the point I was making without giving away too much.
I also don't want to give away the plot of the story... as I'd like it to be like a visual blurb. Now I've got a few pictures I'm happy with, I'm thinking about trying to make a trailer next as this is somethign a lot of other authors have done and it looks like fun.
Today, I went to Castle Lodge to meet Maureen Blundell. She is an editor but runs workshops every so often.
She agreed to meet me and look over the first 2,000 words of Drift. It was really useful sitting with someone and discussing my work. Although, Maureen was constructive in her criticism, she still managed to be motivating about my writing and ambitions and offered excellent industry advice about publishers that would be interested in my chosen genre.
Despite coming away feeling like I had a lot of work to do, I felt really confident and positive. I know I am one step closer to my dream.
The general feedback was regarding my tenses - a known problem. It was interseting to find that I over explain some things. Her insight on what information was important at the start and what wasn't was useful. We discussed how I could include the removed parts later on if they were important. She suggested that the story needed to make it more clear that 'Fern isn't your average girl' and we discussed ways of doing this without slowing the pace of the story. Sometimes it felt like brainstorming. My head was buzzing by the end, with so many ideas that I almost didn't attend the evening social.
I would definitley have a one-to-one with Maureen again. And, I would definitely recommend her to other serious writers.
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