Writing Locations

Recently I saw Love Actually - as I'm sure many others did in the lead up to Christmas, and I loved it, but every time I watch that movie my favourite scenes are Colin Firth's, and his villa in France. As a writer, I look at it as the perfect retreat to sit and write, and he even uses a typewriter!
I wish I had a similar kind of get away, but I can say I love the idea of having different, beautiful places where I could retreat to merely to write, particularly with all the distractions and available procrastination opportunities available in everyday life.
My biggest question would be if the character had internet connection there, or even electricity, because in my mind he doesn't. Today between internet distractions like You Tube and social media, a forced detachment from the online word might be exactly what many writers need.

In a beautiful place like that I hope I would be able to sit and write for hours. However, on the flip side, I fear I would spend more time on scenic walks and daydreaming. Scientific studies, however, have also suggested that different and interesting environments are actually very beneficial to attaining focus and concentration in your work.
In any event, it is a beautiful place, and one I would love to live in and write in one day.

Character Profile

Character - Avian
From -The Order's Experiments


Avian is originally best friends and partners with Ellie as a trainee in the Order. She is a highly intelligent young girl with a high IQ. She is described as slender, pale, with natural white blond hair and crystal blue eyes, a 'snow queen' by description. She grows nervous and withdrawn as the book continues, presumably as a result of not coping as well as she'd hoped in the Order, so is assisted by Fallen in her martial arts and fighting skills to regain confidence. She's the quietest of the Order trainees and the least violent. She has a patient, kind and gentle disposition with a mild sense of humour. She's the person people seem the least bothered with, the most easily forgotten, but as she gains initiative she becomes her own woman.

My 10 Tips for Writing

1. If you find that you have a story in your mind, and that it you loose all motivation to write it after the first few lines try finding a story or idea in your mind that's still developing, develop it as you write your first draft. This avoids you having a developed story grow boring, like a movie you've already seen twenty times before in your head. You don't want to grow tired of your story before before you reach the second chapter.
2. Allow room for change. Sometimes great ideas will come halfway through writing your story.
3. When you hit a block, try skipping ahead. Remember, you can bridge sections later.
4. Or, in a block, try to develop a new character or add depth to a current character. Add a layer in and write it out properly, integrating it into the draft.
5. Gain a proper, in-depth understanding of all your characters, the more real and believable they are, the more engaging it is for the reader.
6. Make them real, with faults, and don't simply try to live through them, make them different from yourself, but close enough so you can write them truthfully (check with Mary Sue test)
7. You don't have to have solid themes beforehand, it's great if you do but otherwise, once you're part way through check what themes are developing naturally. You can then choose whether to work form them and/or to keep them running through the book.
8. You also don't have to make themes to obvious, and you can have more than one, you can have several main themes and others in the background, remember, the more well thought-out and in-depth layers you have to you work, the more interesting it is.
9. Read your book out loud to yourself to check your writing, and read parts backwards, sentence by sentence to check them, (reading backwards helps prevent you from reading what you think is there and helps you read each word objectively).
10. Lastly, write fearlessly. Remember that writing is power, you can always come back and change your work, but the more you write the better at it you will become naturally. Also, cultivate your mind, look at how other writers write, find new material and be unafraid to try new things out in your writing.

Character Profile

Character - Lucy
From - The Order's Experiments

Lucy is a computer technician and warrior-in-training with the Order. She is a bright, outgoing, friendly and considerate person, with a generally casual and happy attitude. At fist she seems like a shallow, bubbly, unthinking character, but she is also intelligent, diligent, and sensitive when required. Out of all the trainees she has the least trouble dealing with the Order, having joined of her own free will and possessing the greatest ability to use the Order to her own advantage. This is shown by her ability to hack into lower systems of the Order to track other trainees, find and use the subway system, and understand the mind drug the Order puts in their food. Because of her ability to see the Order's security cameras she is the most informed of all the trainees, but because of her immediate value as a computer technician she is not made to suffer many of the hardships most the other trainees do. She is the character other characters go to to feel better, having the most knowledge and the healthiest attitude towards the Order, she is able to console and often distract people when they have been effected by the Order. She also keeps an element of normality about her, not only being talkative and humorous, but with a continued interest in music and socialism making her an ideal loyal friend.

Character Profile

Character - Kedana
From - The Order's Experiments

At first glance, as a plot tool, Kedana is a symbolic character for the development of Fallen. After Kyra first instigates Fallen's change towards being more human, Kedana is able to continue Kyra's work to help Fallen regain his humanity, such as calling him Sorric rather than Fallen. She is symbolic of all the good of his past, so in accepting her he starts to make peace with what he lost. However outside of Fallen she is still her own person. She's academic, a day dreamer, spiritual, humble, self composed and learnt piano from her family. She admired Fallen's mother and became an adopted member of the cultural Fallen family through being tattooed and taught as a child by Sorrally. Through this she is also able to continue the culture of the Fallen family, making her even more necessary to Sorric Fallen's development. She also acts as the 'normal' influence, she has an understanding of the outside world, while, like most teenagers, feels separated from it and akward. She uses Sanctuary to over come these feelings of alienation.

Character Profile

Character - Sorric Fallen
From - The Order's Experiments

Born into an unconventional old family Fallen was given an educated but sheltered upbringing. He lost his home when he was six years old and ran away to the streets before joining the Order almost ten years later.
Fallen has a cold unforgiving nature and tries to avoid human contact on survivor's principle. His mentality is clear and focused and he takes extra care to keep it so, keeping memories of his happy childhood firmly locked away. He describes his mind often as a fire where distracting memories are burnt so he can stay focused. He is strategic, quiet and determined with a slight superiority complex he constantly attempts to keep in check. He rarely expresses himself however through the corse of the novel his attitudes begin to change. Through coming into the Order he is forced to face his lost childhood, and grow to accept his past.

Character Profile

Character - Kyra

From The Order's Experiments.

Born to a secret underworld organisation she ran away when she was nine years old to live on the streets. She's spirited, loving, animalistic, strong and independent, with a survivor's complex and drive. She's determined and thirsts for humanity, she values freedom and self-reliance and will often struggle to ask for help.

Throughout the book she shows her ability to carry herself upright through difficult situation. Despite having an animalistic, spirited nature, she handles it well with discipline. She misses the streets as she is pulled further into the Order, missing the freedom she once had.