Fi Phillips

It's been a busy few weeks since I last posted on this blog. I've weathered the emotional storm of my son's last year at primary school (I knew I should have taken tissues to the leaver's concert - darned un-waterproof mascara), tackled the first half of the summer holidays with my children (zoos, ice creams by the sea, computer games), and through it all, I've worked on my novel. The task that I set myself was to rewrite my novel bearing in mind the advice I'd received from my manuscript assessment. This meant re-engineering some existing chapters, scrapping others and creating some completely new ones.  The patching together of all of these has been a challenge. I've removed a lot of bit-part characters, reduced the number of villains, given one of my favourite characters a larger role, and I've cut the point of view down to two characters. I've also made my main protagonist, Steve Haven, much more pro active which has felt good. One...

So November is over and NaNoWriMo is wrapped up for another year. The usual target for each participant is to write 50,000 words. My personal target was to complete the first draft of my second children's novel during the month. So, how did I do? Well, I didn't complete the draft but I did write the first fifteen chapters. That's approximately half of the novel. What stopped my progress, besides real life, was the fact that my original chapter plan unravelled slightly when I started writing it. I realised that changes had to be made to my plot and I also found that a certain amount of extra research was required. Personally, I'm delighted with last month's progress. NaNoWriMo has provided the kickstart I needed to begin novel number two and I can happily continue with writing the rest of the book. So where does chapter fifteen leave us in the novel? Well, Isabelle and Blessing have a mystery to solve, Cormac is stood outside Hartley's shop, and Steve and...

So my completed novel (final title - Haven: Shadowbinder) is put to bed for a while. In the meantime, I'm starting my plan for the next novel in the trilogy. I haven't got a title yet (Haven: something...) but I do have a premise and a couple of A3 sheets of paper. Drawing from the experience of writing the first novel, I'm attempting to put together a chapter plan. I already know what the first chapter will entail, and the last one too. How the story will get from the beginning to the end is another puzzle to play with. I have a list of the characters in book one (met or just mentioned), an idea of which of these will appear in book two, and a list of new characters to introduce. I also have to tie in the story arc that covers the entire trilogy - bringing it from the shadows into a blurred sighting in book two (to be brought into complete focus in the final novel). My task is to throw around all of these bones until they settle into a coherent, secure skeleton, ...

One of the main incentives for starting this blog was to write about the process and progress of writing my novel. I've written about so many things here that the novel news has taken a back seat so I thought I'd take this opportunity to bring you up to speed. Firstly, the title of the novel has changed. What started out as 'Split' is now 'There is a Dark Divide'. The new title is a direct quote from one of the characters in the novel. It speaks of not only the central storyline but also the world in which the storyline takes place. Secondly, in writing the novel (I'm halfway through the first draft), I've discovered a number of things that I didn't know from my original notes.The characters have told me things about themselves, details of their past and their attitudes on life (especially Hartley, he's very vocal).  I decided to keep one of the first characters you meet in the novel alive (rather than killing her off in chapter three). This ...