On Thursday night I took my mum along to Whitley Bay Playhouse to see Viva Vera! an evening with Ann Cleeves, Brenda Blethyn and Jon Morrison. I know you are wondering what this has to do with my book but bear with me.
As 'A Special Place' is my first book and with all my quirks that I have, I spend a lot of time thinking to myself am I doing this right, am I doing this the right way. When I was at university I kept being told, you need to mind map your assignments that's how people with dyslexia manage to contain there thoughts. I tried it once but it wasn't for me, why would I spend hours making a lovely flow or spider diagram and they would be lovely because I would do it in different coloured pens when really I could do the research and write what the research tells me. This is how I approach my book writing I have lots of coloured cards with characters details on but other than that I let my fingers type the story and sometimes it leads to very interesting places. For instance the other day I was researching how to walk down a hill.
I have been to a few of these authors evenings before I wrote my book but the desire to write it was there and thought that listening to them this is not something I can do. That is not their fault, it probably had more to do with my mindset at the time. Thursday was different and although Ann Cleeves writes amazing books and we don't write the same genre. She was asked how she writes her books and like me she replied that she lets the story take her where it wants to go. Her words gave me the freedom to write the way I write without worrying about whether or not I was writing it properly. So a big thank you for that, only another five thousand worries to go!