Rachel Caldecott

Rachel Caldecott

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From Lodeve, France
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  • Rachel Caldecott
    Wondering how much detail for medical procedures is acceptable in YA fiction. Thinking lobotomies here.
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    Barbara
    Barbara
    No idea. What sort of biology stuff do they lean at school at that age; how much detail? I learnt all sorts aged 14 plus (anatomy, physiology) but that was back in Switzers, no idea how the UK compares. How much can be seen on TV? I suspect YA have seen all sorts. But like I said, I have no idea. It might depend on how you handle it.
    Rachel Caldecott
    Trying very hard to concentrate on finishing WIP... trying very hard to avoid thinking about re-writing (completely) my last book... trying very hard to get some sleep... But Brexit worries are stopping everything!
    KateESal
    KateESal
    Ach, know the feeling. Watching it all with mingled horror and wonder from Spain... It's really interfering with my creativity (that and the broken wrist!)
    Rachel Caldecott
    When Unbound rejects you, can you really sink any lower?
    Barbara
    Barbara
    They're a crowd funder, am I right? Maybe they're looking for stuff with mass-appeal for an adult readership. After all it'll be the adults who will be parting with £ for funding it. Did they give you a reason? ... Either way, dust yourself off (you CAN write!!!), and move on. Maybe a new novel tickles your imagination?
    Rachel Caldecott
    Is anyone else suffering from writer's block because of worries about the state of the world?
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    Robinne Weiss
    Robinne Weiss
    For me, writing is a good escape from it. Sometimes, though, I find myself sucked into reading news for too long, ignoring my writing to depress myself with one more article ... I try to save news reading for after writing.
    Carol Rose
    Carol Rose
    The messed-up state of the world is such a constant that my answer also is no. If I suffer from writer's block at all (still not sure I've actually ever been blocked, more like simply not motivated for the moment), it's due to other things in my day-to-day life. The closer I am to whatever is going on, the more that takes precedence over things like writing. :)
    Rachel Caldecott
    Rachel Caldecott
    When my mum and brother were terminally ill I wrote like anything - couldn't stop. It was the only way to block the pain and my sense of powerlessness. The powerless in the face of the inevitable (nature/god), just has to be lived through, but the powerlessness in the face of mankind's stupidity and foolishness is not. Different emotional reaction and one that is blocking me.
    Rachel Caldecott
    My husband's theory about why my M/S hasn't found an agent yet is because in my 'world' telepathic communication between species is the norm. He thinks, if only the main protagonist has this power, agents might like it more. Sounds clichéd to me.
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    Quillwitch
    Quillwitch
    Makes sense when you think of it, because then, where is the challenge if everyone has it? And you have to understand that childrenś and YA books thrive on clichés.
    Leonora
    Leonora
    But my sense was that your novel is a political allegory, so to change that might spoil it. Unless you can do it in a way to bring more cowbell to your idea?
    Leonora
    Leonora
    But my sense was that your novel is a political allegory, so to change that might spoil it. Unless you can do it in a way to bring more cowbell to your idea?
    Rachel Caldecott
    I finally have the house to myself... so I can write undisturbed... and I can't think of a thing I want to write! It all seems pointless and I'm feeling talentless and sorry for myself... I know this feeling is temporary and all writers suffer from this self doubt dis-ease from time to time... but it feels HORRID!
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    Nikky Lee
    Nikky Lee
    The Block sucks. Have you tried looking at prompts? One exercise I did once with a writing group was taking the first line from a poem and turning it into a story. I found this approach helped me a lot. There's also this, which might be handy: http://writingexercises.co.uk/firstlinegenerator.php
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    Emily
    Emily
    So typical! The same thing happened to me a week ago, first time in ages I had a big block of time... and nothing. Well, what I *needed* to do, I couldn't. Very frustrating....
    Rachel Caldecott
    No creative writing (since a flurry after Pete's input the other day), but I have produced a 10cm high pile of photocopies & original documents to support my application for French residency. (Just mine, 3 more to go) that's nearly one ream of paper = 6% of a tree.
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    E G Logan
    E G Logan
    I do sympathise. I spent an hour this morning sitting on a grey plastic chair in the comune trying to progress my residenza with the local police... Then trying to avoid explaining Brexit to them. (Explaining to an Italian bureaucrat how Britain can't organise itself out of the mess?)
    Sounds like you got the same advice I did. And fortunately I do have utility bills going back to 2000.
    Rachel Caldecott
    Rachel Caldecott
    I still have my old Italian residency papers - sadly expired - but overall I found the Italian bureaucracy easier to deal with than the French. Good luck with Brexit. Let's hope we can all get back to being creative, positive people again.
    Rachel Caldecott
    My charming daughter said, "Maybe you are not meant to be a writer. Maybe you are meant to be a taxidermist or something." Ha, bloody ha!
    Rachel Caldecott
    Just realised that in my latest re-write I put every scene with a particular secondary character into what is, effectively, a flash forward (without even thinking about it). Now I realise that I've completely buggered up the whole thing. Sigh!
    Rachel Caldecott
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    Katie-Ellen
    Katie-Ellen
    Unsettling for you. 'Toffs and racists,' hmmm.
    KateESal
    KateESal
    Total sympathy for your fears. Not sure what's going to happen to us (living in Spain) either. Just keeping fingers crossed at the moment, hoping (against hope, I fear) that the UK will pull back from the brink and making sure our Spanish papers are in order. Good luck.
    Rachel Caldecott
    Received another email from a producer friend in Hollywood. She's asked to see re-write, determined to help me... (she already like the last version and had suggested similar changes to @AgentPete's) so fingers crossed... she's proposing to talk to contacts at Penguin, & Orion films about it (not the constellation). Now all I need is an agent! Having said that... NOTHING may come of it, but one can but dream.
    Rachel Caldecott
    Another reason for backing off writing for a while has been a series of odd symptoms with my right eye. So yes I'm getting Glaucoma, and yes I have Posterior Vitreous Detachment. Not painful, and nothing to be done about it. But I have been freaking out for a couple of months and I have a terrible incapacitating fear of 'opthalmos' (as they call them here in France). I suppose it could have been a worse diagnosis :(
    Rachel Caldecott
    My entry for the Flash Club is the first thing I've written for ages. I have been feeling crushed by life, desperate about our lack of financial security and the latest near misses with agents, (of the "Sorry, it's very good, but just not for us at the moment" variety). But thanks to Litopia, I might just claw my way back out of the pit.
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    Barbara
    Barbara
    Glad you started writing again. Maybe it's time to continue with your new novel? You never know where it will lead you. Keep going, Girl!
    Robinne Weiss
    Robinne Weiss
    You're in good company, Rachel. I'm in a similar funk, feeling like this is never going to go anywhere and I really need to think more concretely about how I'm going to make money now...*sigh* I have no solutions, but I do know that if we hang in there long enough, the pendulum will swing the other way, and we'll find our feet.
    Rachel Caldecott
    Today I was befriended by an Afghani refugee in Paris (we have the lady, Danika, who I wrote my short story about, in common). He said I was "glorious". When I said, "no, you're very sweet, but I'm not glorious", he answered "You are really and perfectly glorious, because you are mother." My first reaction was to think he must miss his mum so much, and secondly... I wish my kids would see me that way!
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    Robinne Weiss
    Robinne Weiss
    How lovely! And you are glorious because you are a mum ... even more so if your kids don't see you that way. It's a thankless job, and one we pour our entire selves into and do every minute of every day to the best of our ability--that's pretty awesome. So go ahead and feel glorious today!
    Rachel Caldecott
    Kicking myself for being so needy. I think now that I shouldn't have posted Virtual Reality on the writing group just yet. I'm sure my neediness comes from my lack of confidence as a writer (coming from an education in visual arts and not writing). VR is only my 2nd piece... Note to self: I must give it more time before asking for approval/advice from Litopians. Thank you for your tolerance <3
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    Barbara
    Barbara
    Don't sell yourself short! It's perfectly ok to post work early. I always think that having people look at my work early will stop me from becoming fixed with it, and makes me change tac before I'm too locked into my thinking. The writing group is here for when you need help, no matter at what stage the work is. You're a good writer! You're not needy. It's alonely job. We need a bit of support every now & then
    Amber
    Amber
    Oh. That reminds me. I was going to read it yesterday. But don't kick yourself. It's a waste of time and energy.
    D
    Hi Rachel,
    You still want me to read 'A Field Of Bodies' the way it is now or do you want to tweak it a bit. Considering you've got excellent advice as always from @Carol Rose, @AngryPI and Fellow Writers :)
    Rachel Caldecott
    Rachel Caldecott
    Hi. Don't worry about reading it yet. I'm going to work on it. You can tell I'm new to writing by my level of excitement everytime I have half an idea - I go off half cocked and tell everyone about it. However, I'm glad I did this time, because, as you so rightly say, I've had some excellent advice from @Carol Rose and @AngryPI
    D
    Deleted member 604
    Let me know when :)
    Rachel Caldecott
    Having a slight panic. The novel I started a while ago and I thought was going to be about one thing, seems to be going off on a completely different tangent. Don't know whether to rein it in or go with the flow. Either way, it's going to be a tricky book to write.
    Rachel Caldecott
    Difficult to concentrate when we have another terrorist attack in a village just down the road. Meanwhile the university, where I hope my son will go in September, was the scene of violent racist clashes last night. Meanwhile, Litopians have come up trumps and helped me a lot with the deep pov.
    Thanks guys!
    Rachel Caldecott
    I'm feeling chuffed. Nothing to do with writing, but with my other hat on, I've had a minor success. I was asked last night to find help for a young Syrian refugee who has ended up in Montpellier. I wrote an appeal, and this morning a British woman with a Syrian husband living in Montpellier contacted me with the view of helping this lad. :) Human nature at its best!
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    Louise
    Louise
    That is SO brilliant Rachel!
    Tom&#039;s House
    Tom&#039;s House
    Hello Rachel. I lived in Montpellier for a couple of years with my wife and two little girls — in a little villa on the Route de Lodeve. In my day thosein most need were likely to be Algerians. Don't believe they got much help. I look forward to reading your stuff when I am around here enough that you can share with me.
    Rachel Caldecott
    Wondering whether it is permissable to re-submit a manuscript to a pop-up session after @AgentPete 's advice has been taken into account and the opening radically changed? Or would this be considered hogging his time?
    Barbara
    Hey Rachel, your 'fight' scene in chapter 19 is just superb! Totally superb! Really gripping.
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