As I sit here writing this blog post, my mind is being bombarded by the voices of the characters in the novel I’m currently re-writing/editing, ideas burgeoning for the next novel, and the pull towards the feeds of Twitter and Facebook whilst sitting on my laptop.

Some days, I’m able to rebuff these distractions with ease, focusing solely on the task in hand with the characters I’ve chosen to be with. Those days are joyous, walking or running alongside the characters, and allowing them to lead me down paths that weren’t even on my map. But other days, it’s a passage into the depths of a dank, dark well.

I’ve explored different ways to manage these moments, from not linking my laptop to the internet connection whilst writing, to eating jelly beans to aid my concentration. But these don’t always work as I can still find my mind wandering. So I’ve tried listening to classical music, as music with lyrics can be just as distracting as the voices in my head. Classical music is great until I hear something like Handel’s Messiah, and then I’m joining in!

What I’d dearly like is a room of my own – as said Virgina Woolf – but that’s not about to happen any time soon; even the Guide Dog in training we board demands of my time and attention. Family need clean clothes, a clean house, and feeding, never mind the need to be spoken to and have their troubles soothed. One could say that as my eldest is at uni, although home for two weeks currently, my other daughter is about to take her A levels then disappear off to uni this September, and mu husband’s old enough to care for himself, that I should have plenty of free time. I do in many ways, but the days always seem cluttered with things that require doing, not necessarily with things I want to do.

So it’s frustrating when I do get time to write, that I find myself distracted by things I mentioned above. I still need to find fool-proof ways to deal with distractions, and if any of you have a genius solution to this problem, I’ll gladly receive your ideas.

Happy Word Flow One & All

Of course I’m talking about authors, not groups such as ABBA and Queen – so that’s what happened to my dress sense in my youth, those that know me will say.

I lived in Buckinghamshire until the age of nine-years-old, then moved to Derbyshire. I would frequently visit Chatsworth House, with my family, and it was from there I fell in love with the Mitford sisters, well Nancy Mitford to be precise.

Deborah Mitford married Andrew Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire, and they turned his ancestral home into Chatsworth House, one of Britain’s most successful stately homes. Deborah wrote twelve books, but I was enamoured by Nancy’s novels.

Nancy’s novels were witty, humorous, and ascorbic. Two of my favourite novels, ‘Love in a Cold Climate’, and ‘In the Pursuit of Love’, were verging on autobiographical, and appealed to my curiosity about love and how to be a young woman, living with an eccentric family.

I’ll briefly mention Unity Mitford, who many may know, was a friend and admirer of Adolf Hitler, and Diana Mitford, who also believed in the fascist movement, and married Oswald Mosely. They were not part of the Mitford sister’s history I admired, but I still found them fascinating to learn about.

I lived not far from a town called Buxton, which was where Vera Brittain lived. I read her memoir, ‘Testament of Youth’, which recounted her experiences during the First World War. I was fascinated by the history of the War, and the roles women played during those times. I loved visiting places Vera had actually been.

The last authors I enjoyed reading during my younger years were Sylvia Plath and Anita Brookner. ‘The Bell Jar’ by Plath remains my favourite book to this day, and I’ve re-read it numerous times. Anita Brookner has written a plethora of novels, and I always longed for her next novel, which seemed interminable as she only brought out one a year, at that time.

All these authors wrote character-central stories, which I believe has influenced my own writing. Whether I’m writing crime or contemporary fiction, my preference is to weave the story around characters, and delve into their complex inner world.

Happy Word Flow One & All