Workshop Writing Tips- Ms Lord

I have read several of Gabrielle Lord's crime fiction novel. Not that I'll make a proper comparison to Patricia Cornwell but lets say if you like her work, you'd really enjoy Gabrielle Lord's books. She's a great writer and does a lot of research for her work as you can imagine you would need to. At the moment she is doing an action adventure series for teens called Conspiracy 365. One low cost book comes out each month with the further adventures of a teenage fugitive trying to solve the puzzle of his fathers disappearance and piece together clues left by his father. Besides people wanting him dead, other people are also trying to get to the answers first.
On writing, Gabrielle gave a great analogy about writing a story. She said at first it's like dumping all your picnic gear on a heap on the ground. Then bit by bit you sort it out, shake out the rug and place everything in order on it, shaking the ants and debris along the way. I like that!
When asked about how to get writing done, she mentioned another authors description of 'bum glue' as well as saying that it is tenacity and doggedness that give the determination to write and stay writing. She says she does not leave the house until she has written a thousand words. She can do more but not less.
She spoke about plot which she described as the movement of the story. She said the seeds of the plot are within your characters.
Gabrielle had brought in these plot layouts she put together for us to see. Obviously a crime fiction story needs to have a tight plot. She had a sheet of cardboard with the characters in little boxes on the left and then lots of boxes with facts and important clues and events that would happen continuing from the left to the right with interaction lines joining them so she can see the whole story all plotted out. This is obviously a great framework to write your story within.
So that's what I gleaned. Very useful stuff.

Last night I went to a writers Christmas dinner which was excellent. I got to see some now familiar faces, meet up with a local writer I have been trying to meet and of course meet other new people as well. At the auction I was thrilled to get a signed Tohby Riddle book, No one Owns the Moon. I just love Tohby Riddles illustrations. I also got to hear Markus Zusak talk again. He tells great stories as well as writing great books. All very inspiring and getting to know people is great fun too. I need to get more writing and less socialising done!