Aspiring author seeks help

RegalDeadbeat
RegalDeadbeat Forum Participant Posts: 7
edited May 2016 in Your Hobbies #1

While I'm away in my caravan I like to take advantage of my surroundings and scribble away in an exercise book creating stories.

I am thinking about beggining a story (full length novel - who knows?) about a pair of crime solving friends who just happen to tour the UK in their caravan.

I am thinking of setting these adventures in the 1950s or 60s (haven't decided yet) and I was wondering if there is anyone out there who remembers what caravan holidays were like back then?

I would be extremely grateful if anyone would share their memories with me so that I can get a feel for the times.

 

Comments

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,300 ✭✭✭
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    edited June 2016 #2

    Remember once being told that, if creating a story, it's always better to draw on your own experience first.

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,300 ✭✭✭
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    edited June 2016 #3

    Regal? Have you decided what to do?

    do you write tales of your travels to post in the story section on here? 

  • RegalDeadbeat
    RegalDeadbeat Forum Participant Posts: 7
    edited July 2016 #4

    Hi Steve. 

    I have been keeping a journal of my travels, which I intend to type up someday. I will be drawing on these experiences and locations for the stories.

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,300 ✭✭✭
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    edited July 2016 #5

    OH writes for the story section and does articles for the village magazine. Good idea to start small? Short stories first possibly

  • RegalDeadbeat
    RegalDeadbeat Forum Participant Posts: 7
    edited July 2016 #6

    I was planning on short stories involving these characters and their adventures in a caravan.

    Off to Padstow at the end of July so I may start to write the first one while I'm there.

  • Vixensax
    Vixensax Forum Participant Posts: 10
    edited August 2016 #7

    What a lovely idea good luck, keep us updated with how you go on

     

    Jx

  • mjh2014
    mjh2014 Forum Participant Posts: 130
    edited August 2016 #8

    I recently re-read Enid Blyton's 'Five Go Off in a Caravan'. Hokey and class-ridden as the plot may be, there are some lovely descriptions and details of caravans and caravanning in the mid to late forties... 

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
    1000 Comments
    edited August 2016 #9

    I started a whodunnit in my head at one site - two women turned up with a huge Winniebago and masses of little dogs - the driver then disappeared and wasn't seen again - with the other lady eventually leaving on her own - I couldn't help wondering what the
    dogs had been eating!  Wink

    My first camping trip was in the early 50s I still have a few pictures of the caravan being craned onto the ferry - and us children cleaning our teeth in a water trough somewhere!  The smell of the Elsan was quite unforgettable - as was the smell the snake
    my sister brought inside made!  My father just found an orchard in Brittany and asked the owners if we could park.  I don't remember spending nights en route but we must have done.  Pretty sure there weren't any sites of the sort I use today. 

  • RegalDeadbeat
    RegalDeadbeat Forum Participant Posts: 7
    edited September 2016 #10

    My daughter has Five Go Off in a Caravan. Maybe I should re-read that.

    Thanks Pippah45, that's the sort of think I need to know and thanks for the support Vixensax. Things are going slow at the moment though. (Other ideas keep popping into my head. I need to settle on one.)

  • Merve
    Merve Forum Participant Posts: 2,333
    1000 Comments
    edited November 2016 #11

    The one thing I do remember is the gas mantle lights we needed at night- being very hot bloodied I had to sit outside so I didn't melt! I doubt that the fiery furnace that Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo found themselves in was
    as hot!!!

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
    1000 Comments
    edited November 2016 #12

    It's Abednego, Merve. You've obviously been swigging the contents of that Nebuchadnezzar. Wink

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