Saturday 22 December 2012
Terry L Probert: Writing Plans for 2013
Terry L Probert: Writing Plans for 2013: Before I wrote Kundela I wanted to capture the stories of the men and women who drove possibly the biggest advances in agriculture since the...
Writing Plans for 2013
Before I wrote Kundela I wanted to capture the stories of the men and women who drove possibly the biggest advances in agriculture since the mechanisation of farming at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.
This is my main focus for next year and I am seeking people to help me by recording their story.
Background for the book
To my mind the thirty year period between 1960 to 1990. During this time farmers focused on minimum till practises and big advances were made in the delivery of irrigation systems that meant a dry country like Australia could maximise production on limited rainfall.
From the mid seventies Australian companies became world leaders in the design and manufacture of farming plant and almost weekly a new design or practise would emerge to make farming more viable. To support this march of progress, these companies employed and trained many skilled people to carry this knowledge to the farming community and in turn train the buyers how to get the best from their purchase.
I look back at this period with fondness for the pride and enthusiasm we had then. We in Australia were making stuff and had many talented people who could sell their skills on the world stage.
So this is a call out to anyone who ever wielded a pen, drove a tractor, setup a pump, designed a plough or partnered someone involved in the ag industry during this time to tell their story. To be part of it all just drop me an e-mail at probertconsulting @bigpond and I will send out some info to take it from there.
This is my main focus for next year and I am seeking people to help me by recording their story.
Background for the book
To my mind the thirty year period between 1960 to 1990. During this time farmers focused on minimum till practises and big advances were made in the delivery of irrigation systems that meant a dry country like Australia could maximise production on limited rainfall.
From the mid seventies Australian companies became world leaders in the design and manufacture of farming plant and almost weekly a new design or practise would emerge to make farming more viable. To support this march of progress, these companies employed and trained many skilled people to carry this knowledge to the farming community and in turn train the buyers how to get the best from their purchase.
I look back at this period with fondness for the pride and enthusiasm we had then. We in Australia were making stuff and had many talented people who could sell their skills on the world stage.
So this is a call out to anyone who ever wielded a pen, drove a tractor, setup a pump, designed a plough or partnered someone involved in the ag industry during this time to tell their story. To be part of it all just drop me an e-mail at probertconsulting @bigpond and I will send out some info to take it from there.
Wednesday 12 December 2012
Kundela Chapter 9 a sneek peak
We are in the final editing stages of Kundela and I'm extremely pleased with our progress. It's amazing what a difference a few restructured sentences and some proper punctuation can do to a manuscript and I have Merlene Fawdrey to thank for that.
To give readers a little tastes of what is in the book this is a sneak peak from one of my favourite chapters. Joe and Laura have just found the camp of the bikies who have trashed the homestead and are hell bent on revenge. I will only leave this passage on the blog for a week before I take it down.
Thanks for dropping in.
Enjoy
Joe may have been over sixty, and with adrenalin now surging through his veins, he forgot his recent tiredness. Running back to the site where they’d kept watch, he picked up his rifle and settled into a sniper’s position. Taking aim, he took a deep breath he relaxed, letting half of the air escape slowly his lungs. He caressed the trigger with his right index finger. It was cold and, feeling it come against the trigger spring, he knew exactly what he needed to do. The rifle punched into his shoulder as he sent the first bullet toward the shell under the Harley where the girl had been tied.
To give readers a little tastes of what is in the book this is a sneak peak from one of my favourite chapters. Joe and Laura have just found the camp of the bikies who have trashed the homestead and are hell bent on revenge. I will only leave this passage on the blog for a week before I take it down.
Thanks for dropping in.
Enjoy
Joe may have been over sixty, and with adrenalin now surging through his veins, he forgot his recent tiredness. Running back to the site where they’d kept watch, he picked up his rifle and settled into a sniper’s position. Taking aim, he took a deep breath he relaxed, letting half of the air escape slowly his lungs. He caressed the trigger with his right index finger. It was cold and, feeling it come against the trigger spring, he knew exactly what he needed to do. The rifle punched into his shoulder as he sent the first bullet toward the shell under the Harley where the girl had been tied.
Tuesday 4 December 2012
Why you should include a timeline in preparing a story.
During the last eleven or so months I attended a longditudanl workshop on novel writing hosted at the Melton Library and given by Merelene Fawdry. In that time I listened intently making copiuos comments in the margins of the comprehensive study notes she provided. As Kundela had been almost completed I was able to follow her teachings whereby through ignorance and luck I'd managed to include and understand many of the points we were learning.
The whole process filling me with pride, allowing me to say 'I am a writer.'
Jump forward to this November and to when I started writing Toby Farrier. The planning was first class I had chapter outlines set and made sure there was a logical flow to the story. I developped a story board for tracking the action and places. Much moe reliable than drawing on the memories securley filed away in my head. I even wrote a story about a bus ride for the characters helping to fix their little nuances into my memory banks. Character charts completed for the main players helping to prompt me for things like hair colour, relationships, and other minute details. So you would think that writing this book should have been a simple matter of blasting the words down. After all the bones of the story had already been written.
Not so, because now after 25,000 words I realise I have a problem with the timing of the action.Or more to the point I should have planned a timeline. My only course of action now is to go over the story and plot the happenings. Taking care and drafting a line of sequences with dates and times to flow the series of events.Either that or find a good reason for Toby to have a party on the last Monday before school breaks up for the Christmas holidays.
Thanks for reading my rant and if you are planning a story of any kind learn from my mistake and jot down notes as to the timing of events. It is much easier.
Okay it's now time to get back to Toby and get his story finished.
The whole process filling me with pride, allowing me to say 'I am a writer.'
Jump forward to this November and to when I started writing Toby Farrier. The planning was first class I had chapter outlines set and made sure there was a logical flow to the story. I developped a story board for tracking the action and places. Much moe reliable than drawing on the memories securley filed away in my head. I even wrote a story about a bus ride for the characters helping to fix their little nuances into my memory banks. Character charts completed for the main players helping to prompt me for things like hair colour, relationships, and other minute details. So you would think that writing this book should have been a simple matter of blasting the words down. After all the bones of the story had already been written.
Not so, because now after 25,000 words I realise I have a problem with the timing of the action.Or more to the point I should have planned a timeline. My only course of action now is to go over the story and plot the happenings. Taking care and drafting a line of sequences with dates and times to flow the series of events.Either that or find a good reason for Toby to have a party on the last Monday before school breaks up for the Christmas holidays.
Thanks for reading my rant and if you are planning a story of any kind learn from my mistake and jot down notes as to the timing of events. It is much easier.
Okay it's now time to get back to Toby and get his story finished.
Sunday 2 December 2012
Lauren E Mitchell
Lauren E Mitchell is the Municipal Liaison contact / organiser and gee-up person for NaNoWriMo. To manage all of these tasks and manage to exceed the target word count requires a big effort from one individual and I'm sure there were helpers along the way but Lauren made it happen. Therefore a big thanks to you Lauren.
To the others in my buddy list I watched as your word count powered to and past the target congratulations to:
To the others in my buddy list I watched as your word count powered to and past the target congratulations to:
- SatyaPriya
- Lauren E Mitchell
- Mergwen
- Black Cockatoo
- Aimz_ICR
- Chrismackauthor
- VinnFjordwall
Friday 30 November 2012
Melton Wordsmith members past & present dominate the Melton Short Story Competition.
A wonderful night at the Arnold's Creek Community Centre where the Melton City Council presented the prizes to the Melton Short Story competition winners. I was pleased to see that my writing group Wordsmiths of Melton members past & present had a good representation among the winners.
Congratulations go to Julee Stillman, Loraine Jones, Craig Henderson, and Toni Iannela who all picked up gongs. To hear Julee's winning entry read to the gathering added an extra dimension to the evening.
A big mention to the council for supporting the writers of our area and promoting the idea that anyone and everyone has a story to tell. Competitions like this one extend an idea into desire and then over time a writer crafts a story and with every word they improve their craft. Bringing well known authors to Melton to talk to aspiring writers is inspiring and offers excellent role models to follow.
The winning entries of the younger writers were beautiful and listening to them being read with my eyes shut woke every sense to the descriptive action.
Well done everyone.
Congratulations go to Julee Stillman, Loraine Jones, Craig Henderson, and Toni Iannela who all picked up gongs. To hear Julee's winning entry read to the gathering added an extra dimension to the evening.
A big mention to the council for supporting the writers of our area and promoting the idea that anyone and everyone has a story to tell. Competitions like this one extend an idea into desire and then over time a writer crafts a story and with every word they improve their craft. Bringing well known authors to Melton to talk to aspiring writers is inspiring and offers excellent role models to follow.
The winning entries of the younger writers were beautiful and listening to them being read with my eyes shut woke every sense to the descriptive action.
Well done everyone.
Monday 26 November 2012
Time to get back to Toby
After a week of doing other things I am trying to get back into the story of Toby Farrier. With 18 chapters and 24500 words down already I know I won't meet the 50,000 word target by the end of this month. However the novel is turning into quite a good story and I think it's worth seeing it through until it finishes around the 70,000 t0 80,00 word mark.
Toby has a few dramas to face yet and I hope to get chapters 19 and 20 posted tonight.
Cheers,
Terry L Probert
Toby has a few dramas to face yet and I hope to get chapters 19 and 20 posted tonight.
Cheers,
Terry L Probert
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