A Life Writing

So what are my tense problems?

2009-03-17T19:34:00.007+11:00

This year is all about sucking up my pride and accepting I need to work at the craft of writing fiction. So when a grammar GODDESS offered to give a once off critique of one of my short stories I took her up on it. Possibly the most valuable hour I have had in a long time. Short version, I'm seeing why people get confused as to the tense of my stories, al-la:

Mandy walked through the front door. She smiled at the man seated behind a dusty display counter. It’s filled with old beat up box cameras, broken watches frozen in time and no end of gaudy costume jewellery.

Do you see where I am screwing up? It's is a contraction for it is, not it was which is what I should have used for a past tense storyline. Dammit! How about another?

Mandy considered leaving the store, she’s less concerned about being ignored than she is about feeling a bit creeped out by the guy.

Did it twice in that bloody sentence. Past tense with considered and concerned, but then I go throw in a she's (contraction for she is) and a she is--so not even consistent in my contractions. *sigh*

As we sat there and went through the rest of the story the present tense errors started to leap from the page - The store is, Soon Mandy is, at least there’s no cramps. They are all sprinkled throughout the entire work which is supposed to be written in past tense!

Mandy walked through the front door. She smiled at the man seated behind a dusty display counter. The counter was filled with old beat up box cameras, broken watches frozen in time and no end of gaudy costume jewellery.

Mandy considered leaving the store, she was less concerned about being ignored than being a bit creeped out by the guy.

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A New Beginning

2009-03-11T07:51:00.005+11:00

Well three days ago I began my second novel. The first novel can wait on the back burner for a little while longer before I go and revisit it for a second draft. I also want to see if I can write the first draft of a second novel through to completion. This new novel I am setting my expectations much lower, doing it in a more traditional 3rd person omniscient past tense style with a target of around 70,000 words.

This novel, here on referred to as the "Ye Olde Egyptian[1] Curse Novel" already has a number of major differences to my first attempt at writing:

· I'm more improved in writing using a past tense - frequent feedback to the original novel and various short story attempts advise I seem to use a present tense style, but keep slipping into past tense, and it's confusing.
· A larger cast of characters spread across what will hopefully be some interesting and relevant sub plots
· Third person POV[2] and already I have left the main protagonist to go to other scenes - my first novel was over 125,000 words (500 pages) from only the protagonist’s POV. Boooooooring.
· I’m doing more structural outlining through the use of Microsoft’s OneNote[3] which has been very VERY handy for a lot of my preliminary research and keeping track of which character is going to be where.

So there it is, another start, another novel, another year.
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[1] Resist the temptation to roll your eyes at another Egyptian theme, the exercise is the main thing
[2] Point of View
[3] http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/onenote/default.aspx

Finished Beginners Course in Grammar

2009-03-01T16:03:00.006+11:00

Man, oh man, does my head hurt. As the lovely Elizabeth M Murphy stated at the beginning of the Grammar Workshop I undertook at the ACT Writers Centre, "If you are under the age of 45 in Australia you most likely DON'T have a decent grounding in grammar." See, beyond the very basics - such as nouns are names, verbs are actions - grammar as part of the scholastic syllabus had little to stuff-all attention when I was a kiddy-wink.

So this meant that before the last four weeks of two hours each Thursday night, I didn't know what a conjunction was, or a predicate, couldn't have spotted a subordinate clause if it hit me in the face and don't get me started on prepositions and prepositional phrases!

The question is though, do I know those things now? Well barely, and I have only just scratched the surface of grammar. So has the course helped me?

YES!

One of my most common mistakes is the run on sentence. Not always because I make them too long, but because I never knew where to put a comma other than where it kinda looked OK to put one. I've also received further pointers and advice on active voice. I now know where I have been going wrong in mixing up some of my tense. And heaps of other little hints and tips along the way.

It's important to note the course wasn't direct at grammar for fiction or novel writers, in fact it was more about writing for business. But I know that grammar in fiction can also assist in readability so I am very glad I have done the course. Don't think I'm treating this as a panacea for all of my bad writing habits. A book can be written perfectly from a grammar perspective, but still be as dull as dog poo drying on a footpath...

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A Writer's Haiku

2009-02-22T20:30:00.004+11:00

Found myself trying to get some words on the page tonight and I'm failing dismally. So naturally what does a writer do when they can't write? They surf the web.

I went over to The Writer magazine website and on their front page I did spy a link to "12 new writing prompts to try". Hell, I needed a prompt so I took a look. One of the prompts was to write three Haiku poems in under ten minutes. Me I'm not a poetry guy but I thought I would give it a go anyway. The first two sucked pretty bad, but I like what I came up with for the third:

A Writer's Haiku
Writing is so hard
My brain does not want to work
When will the words come
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Chicken, Chargrilled Vegetable, & Avocado Pizza

2009-02-21T09:22:00.008+11:00

I'm going to take a leaf out of wonderful Justine Larbalestier's Blog, which I have been enjoying immensely, and write not just about writing. As per my original post back in 2006 this blog is more for me than anyone else. So if you come here to see how I am doing with writing and don't care about other interests that's fine. I have tagged the posts appropriately so you can avoid what you don't want to see. Anyway, enough of that.

Chicken, Chargrilled Vegetable, & Avocado Pizza

We have a number of foods that are a staple part of our diet, and the pizza food group is one of them. I really like our Chicken, Chargrilled Vegetable, & Avocado Pizza as it has a great range of tastes all on the one base.

400 grams of chicken thigh fillets (thigh fillets have a stronger taste than breast)
“Bazaar” Gourmet Pizza Base (available most Aussie supermarkets - we don't use any other base)
Tablespoon of Tomato Paste
Half tablespoon of sundried tomato pesto
150 grams of chargrilled vegetable antipasto (Woolworths has a nice 400 gram jar if you don’t have a favourite)
One ripe avocado
Handful of button mushrooms
Kalamata olives (as many as you like to taste – ones that are already pitted remove some hassle too)
Bega So Extra Light Tasty Grated Cheese (we don't normally rate "light" cheese too highly, however this one isn't too bad)

Roughly cut the chicken thighs into large bite size pieces. I really enjoy a chunky style pizza, but you can cut smaller if you like. In a frying pan on a high heat along with a touch of olive oil, cook the thigh pieces until nice and brown on the outside but do ensure they are cooked through.

Lightly spray a pizza pan with oil and plonk the base on it. On the base put a big tablespoon of tomato paste and a smaller tablespoon of the pesto, swirl hims around with the spoon until the base is evenly covered with the paste mix. If the coverage is a bit on the thin side don't be afraid to put on a bit more tomato paste.

I like to throw a very, very small handful of cheese on the base at this point. Don't go crazy, just thinly sprinkle it around.

Put the cooked chicken onto the base getting a nice even coverage. Nobody likes a lopsided pizza.

Cut the antipasto into thick pieces and layer on and around the chicken.

Slice the olives into halves or quarters and sprinkle them about everything. Olives give a nice salty tang to a pizza which we really enjoy, but it is easy to go overboard with them. If you're unsure then start with less on this pizza and try more later if you are after a bigger kick.

Next thinly slice up that yummy avocado and lay evenly across the pizza. Take care not to nibble on too much of the avocado, you need to leave enough for the pizza!

Thinly slice the mushrooms and lay over everything.

"Now, where's the cheese?" If you weren't living in Australia back in the '80s you probably won't get the Peter Russell-Clarke reference, but that's OK. Cover the pizza in cheese but don't DROWN it. I come from a time when cheese on a pizza meant it was two inches thick and all that did was seal the top and not allow the flavours underneath to come out. Trust me on the cheese, less is more, and if it doesn't work out for you then can always try again next week.

Finally into a pre-heated oven for 18 minutes at 185c or 365f. Now once done I like to sit the pizza for a couple of minutes on a bench. This does two things: first it cools down slightly so you don't give yourself a nice blister on the inside of your mouth on the first mouthful, but the other reason is it gives everything time to settle and gel slightly so the toppings don't just slide off when you serve the pizza.

Enjoy!

A return, of sorts

2009-02-16T18:45:00.002+11:00

Hmm, is this thing on? Hello? *taptaptap* Well anyway I am tinkering around and might just start things up again. After a break of a year and a half the writing bug is back. Lets see how long it lasts this time.

That Mental Shift

2007-03-16T23:24:00.000+11:00

There's a time when you find there is a small click in your mind. It's not too loud, barely audible, but you usually know when it happens because you do hear a tiny little snick and find that something you have been grappling with now has amazing clarity.

I've had it happen a few times writing the first draft of my novel, times when my brain refused to go forward no matter how much I cajoled, threatened, begged or even beat upon it. when the despair would be close enough to be palatable it would come to me, that mental movement that I required to either see my issue in a new light or deal with a situation in another manner.

Right now I am trying to get that mental shift to come to me again. The process I need to make whatever part of my grey matter realise that it has a job to do and the sooner it just accepts it and gets on with the job the sooner both of us will be happy.

So what am I waiting on my mind to work out? It's simple, I have to get into my head that despite the fact I have faced my demons and written near 500 pages of a first draft, I now need to go back and start from the start and work on that draft. Take it from my basic idea and turn it into something engaging, something that others will want to read so they can leave their own lives behind just for a few chapters at a time. They want to be stimulated and taken places that their own imagination can't take them.

If I can get this next draft done I'll be close to taking them there. I just need to hear something. That little snick. That mental shift.

Emotion for Impact

2007-03-06T12:31:00.000+11:00

I've read numerous times how showing the emotion of a character can often have a much greater impact than an outright telling dialog. I've often struggled to remember good examples of this, but now I won't have to.

In the April 2007 edition of The Writer magazine (US) there are two FANTASTIC examples of before & after writing relating to showing more emotion in your writing. Unfortunately I can't reprint it here due to copyright issues but I'll give you the detail for you to check it out for yourself.

The first is actually an example of clarifying a Turning Point, but I think it also doubles as a great example of emotion v's dialog. It's the Before and After on page 27

The second is an actual example pitched directly at emotion and is another excellent example of how to get into the head of a character instead of listening to them talk. It's the Before and After on page 46.

So, how about an example from me? I'll give it a go:

*******************
Before
"So do you want to come down to the park?" asked Jack.
Jill fidgeted, "I don't know. Looks like it might rain."
"What do you mean? It's a clear blue sky."
Jill couldn't look him in the eyes, "Well it might, you never know. And I don't like to get wet."
"Why don't you admit you just don't want to go? You're never upfront with me," Jack said before storming off.
*******************

Ok, that is some lousy dialogue, but what I am trying to go for there is showing how Jill doesn't want to go anywhere with Jack. I could re-write it with more dialogue, try to get across my point in words, maybe they could have an argument. Or I could try again, with the same amount of dialogue, but this time with more feeling and see which one has greater impact to the reader:

*******************
After
"So do you want to come down to the park?" asked Jack.

Jill felt a lurch in her stomach. Jack was always asking her to go places with him, but he creeps her out so much. She's never felt comfortable around him and his incessant gaze is just too intense.

Looking down she played with a thread at the hem of her shirt and said, "I don't know, it looks like it might rain." Out of the corner of her eye she could see his hands open and close by his sides, clenching into fists.

"What do you mean? It's a clear blue sky."

She kept her head down knowing that if she looked at Jack he would see the real truth in her eyes. Her pulse quickened with fear. What would he do if he realised she wasn't interested in him, in that way? "Well it could rain, you never know. And I don't like to get wet."

She winced, immediately knowing it for the lame excuse it was. But what could she do? Jack always scrambled her thoughts and she just hated that she could never come up with those fast snappy responses that quick thinking people can. People smarter than she is.

Jack's voice lowered, "Why don't you admit you just don't want to go? You're never upfront with me." He turned and stormed off.
*******************

Ok, a pretty bad example I think, but it's an off-the-cuff scene. I like to think the second scene has stronger impact even though they havn't actually said anything more than in the first attempt. Do more "words" equal a better scene? I don't think so, as I could have made it a lot heavier on the dialogue and still not gotten accross what I intended with how Jill felt.

If none of the above helps, or you think I am talking out of my ass, then get yourself a copy of The Writer and see what I mean for yourself. They really are great examples.

Critique

2007-03-01T22:30:00.000+11:00

I didn't realise I had been quiet for a while. Rest assured I have been busy with writing projects. Ok, by saying that I'll be honest and admit to not having started the REAL re-write of my novel yet, but I have been getting some advice in regards to it and I have been critiquing other work too.

I usually get a favorable response to the critiques I give and it is something I enjoy doing. Not for the first time I was told this week that if I can look at someone elses work with such a clinical eye then my own work will be fantastic. Well unfortunately some early critique of my own early work shows that is not the case. Because of this I have been trying to work out why I seem to do such a good job at examining other people's writing yet fail a bit of some really obvious stuff regarding my own.

I think I know why.

It's not that I was expecting to be a brilliant writer with my first novel, far from it. But I think I missed a lot of basic structure in my first draft and first read because I have half an idea of what's coming next.

Because I think I know where my own story is going I am probably not giving it the writing detail that I should be. When I am critiquing other peoples' work I, of course, have no idea where the author is going so it is much easier for me to identify when I think a story or character is weak.

Like with everything I guess I just have to make myself write the same way technical documentation is written, with the assumption the reader has no idea about the subject and needs to be told everything.

Of course this then runs into the risk of over telling, so of course there is a fine line between improvement and making the story worse.

But hey, it's my first novel, I have a long way to go and a LOT to learn.

Forgive Me, For I Have Sinned

2007-02-21T20:03:00.000+11:00

Yes, it's true.

I finished my short story and after a quick edit of the first draft I sent it out to a few people for comment.

The resounding feedback from Jen I got was not enough detail in the ever so bad things that happened to the three guys in the story. In fact, the only blood in it was from one of them who got punched in the nose. Now for a short story with a mysterious beast that basically rips them to shreds (although is never explicitly stated) well this is something worth pondering. Thanks, Jen. Your feedback AGAIN is invaluable.

Today over lunch I was also talking to my friend Cravon and he commented to me, the same as Jen did, that he felt there should have been more description for the bad things: blood, gore, general painfulness, that kind of stuff.

From both Jen and Cravon it's a valid comment seeing as there really is no description of those things at all.

So I said to Cravon, I said, "I think I was avoiding it being too chunky because I might want to submit it to a writing competition one day..." *WHAM* There it was. Instead of writing the story I think I wanted to write, I pulled my punches being all concerned about whether a magazine might look at it or not based on the bloodiness.

Naughty naughty naughty!

It is supposed to be a horror short story for crying out loud. Horror. Does horror worry about namby pamby magazines? No! Does horror worry if someone might think something is too gory? NO! Does horror worry about the body count? NO! I say NO!

One of the number one killers of an interesting story is writing to a perceived audience. Or writing in caution because your thinking about who might read your book one day, such as your mother. Barroom brawls are less violent, cussin' and a fussin' is not as effective, and raunchy sex scenes basically stop before anyone can get started.

So I'll be going back and doing a third draft of this work - to be honest I actually hesitate to call what I sent a second draft - and I'll be pulling out the stops, as I should have done from the very beginning.

So forgive me, I will try harder next time. Honest I will.

An Update

2007-02-15T10:24:00.000+11:00

Just in case there are people following my blog, other than the fantastic Fly Girls, I thought I would do a quick update.

So far I have resisted pulling out my manuscript and starting any work on it, but it's been tough. It calls to me, it calls to me with the siren song of the cooling fan on my laptop.

To make sure I don't pull it out before I'm ready I've started a short story. Very short, target word count about 2,000. I'm going to use the process to try and hone my scene setting and description skills. You have to be tight in a short story, extremely tight, so it will be an interesting process.

Even though I can write 2,000 words in a couple of hours, even an hour if I'm on a roll, this is more about delicate and deliberate writing than a purge of my brain onto the computer screen. This means my 300 words a day still stands but I won't be looking to do much more than that each night in an attempt to make each 300 of those words actual "good" words. If that makes any sense...

Once I've finished doing the short story, probably a week or two, I'll start the revision of my WIP.

So that's me.

So I've Been Tagged

2007-02-09T07:38:00.000+11:00

On Jen T's blog she has tagged me. What the hell is that? Do I need antibiotics? No, I'm now in a game where I get the three books that are closest to me, go to page 123, go in 5 sentences then write the next 3 in my blog along with the book and author's name.

Ok, so my computer is in the lounge room, no books in here. The next closet room is has one of my book shelves, that is about six meters long and floor to ceiling. Oh and full of books. Crap.

Fine, so I grabbed three books which are up there with my favorites. I've read these three numerous times already and I'm sure I'll read them a lot of times again in the future.

**************
GHOST BEYOND EARTH - by G.M. Hague (Graeme Hague)

Normally the outer door was opened by pushing a single large button - large enough to accommodate the bulky gloves of the spacesuits. However, this would also start a chain of reactions, including bleeding the atmosphere from the airlock chamber. This was to prevent the astronaut from being spat out into space with the escaping air as the door opened.

**************
THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION - by Peter F. Hamilton

Thetis retreated, his subconscious grousing away. But he knew better than try and argue with his sister when she was in that mood.
We're going after it? Oenone demanded.

**************
MAGICIAN - Raymond E. Feist

Her body trembled as she said, "I don't have words, Pug. You're the only one who tried to ... understand me. You see more than anyone else."

**************
Oh and why not what I have been writing....

UN-NAMED WORK IN PROGRESS - Glenn

I blanched, “What?! You can’t give me a bath, you’re both old enough to be my mother!” Straight away I wished I could take back my outburst. Azaya’s eyes narrowed and Julie hissed at me to shut up.

**************
So who am I going to tag...? No freakin idea as I am sure all the Fly Girls have been taken and I don't seem to have any other fans ;-) Tell you what, give it a crack and let me know in the comments so I can link to your blog

I'm Finished. Or am I? 127,000 Words

2007-02-08T09:22:00.000+11:00

It's weird. I've written The End, but I'm not that excited... Where are the singing angels, the sounding of the trumpets? The golden light to bathe me from above?

Man, I don't know. I've reached the end, but I don't know if I have done it cleanly. Have I wrapped it up properly? Or have I finished it in the spirit of a "first draft"? Have I just wrapped it up for the sake of a finish and will revisit the finish in the second draft? I don't know.

I was working on it for a while last night and the events progressed to the finish, using the same ending I wrote a month or two ago, but ultimately I was just pushing words around on the page.

I could have fiddled and tweaked and massaged it all to hell, but in the end I thought screw it, this book is ending.

So is it finished? It feels finished. So I guess it must be.

Now it goes into a drawer for a few weeks before I do the first major revision.

I wonder what I'll do in the meantime?

Are you disappointed with my post? Thought I would be more thrilled? Yeah, me too.

The End is in Sight - 122,500 Words

2007-02-04T19:11:00.000+11:00

Oh it's getting close now, I can almost taste it. After a 5,000 word weekend I'm definitely in the final straight and this first draft is very close to being finished. My protagonist is in his final challenge and I have thrown a couple of curly issues his way. With a bit of luck there is less than 10,000 words to the end. I have nothing more I want to do, I don't want to send them anywhere else. Closure time isn't far away. I wonder if he'll survive?

Man, it feels like it has taken a long time to get to this point, but fact is it has been not much more than three months since I started. So what will I do when I finish the first draft? Shelve it. Shelve it for a minimum two weeks, maybe four - if I can resist that long. I'm just going to print it out and stick it in a drawer and attempt to forget about it.

Already I know there is some major work to be done in the second draft. I've had some mythology that has been evolving while I've been writing, and attitudes at the start of the book seem to have matured somewhat by the middle which will necessitate changes to the early part.

Not long now, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting pretty bright.

"On Writing" by Stephen King

2007-01-30T19:26:00.000+11:00

While away on my short camping trip I thought I would re-read Stephen King's great book on the art of writing called "On Writing". Now I've read this book before a few years ago, when I was going through a phase of buying lots of "how to" books on writing fiction hoping they would inspire me to keep writing. Unfortunately they didn't at the time. But I think I enjoyed Stephen King's the most out of all of them.

On Writing is a little different to most of the other texts out there on writing fiction. SK starts out the first third of the book in almost autobiographical fashion so you can maybe gain some insights into his head space when he writes. Lets just say for someone who is oh so very famous now he came from oh so very humble beginnings. A very poor family, terrible ear infections, dead end jobs and even alcoholism and eventually drug addiction to boot (can't even remember writing Cujo). The one constant he had through all those times was writing. Writing writing writing and a never say die attitude. I think this is one of the things I admire about him most, despite all the rejections, despite all the setbacks, despite being truly dirt poor white trailer trash, there was always writing.

The middle of the book talks about how SK writes today, his regimes, his thoughts on the craft and his utter, utter disdain for the adverb (have I used one yet? God I hope not...) and his ideas behind plot and story. It's interesting to note that SK is another author who doesn't do a lot of pre-planning or plotting before he starts to write. He just gets his initial idea, shuts the door to his office, and dumps everything out of his head in his first draft. It's the second draft when he "writes with the door open", when he lets others see it. But that first draft, it's just one big ole purge.

The end of the book talks about almost dying after being hit by a car while on one of his daily walks. This man came so very close to death, and then crawled back from it. Maybe it was payback for the author he tortured in Misery :-)

I really enjoyed On Writing as SK talks about most of his writing coming from a gut feeling, an instinct, and not worrying too much about what is going to happen next because your characters will let you know. He talks about doing his 2,000 word a day quota and if he is done by 10:30am then great, if he is still plugging away at 3:30pm it doesn't matter, just as long as he gets that 2,000 in. Now that I am writing every day SK's book has been very inspiring and I'll keep working to my goal.

For my next book - yeah keep talking positive - I'll be upping my daily word quota to a minimum1,000 a day. I'm hitting that mark most nights now, but for the next book I want to get really serious. When I get to book number three and I have quit the day job because of the $300,000 advance I'll get, then I'll go to 2,000 a day just like SK.

AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAAAAAaaaaaaahahahahahahaaa

*sigh*

Yeah so anyway, if you are keen to buy another book about writing, but are a bit tired of the same ole "You must know the book's premise" etc (not that it doesn't have it's place) then On Writing is something you can enjoy a bit more for it's very readable quality and advice.

Writing While Away

2007-01-28T19:08:00.000+11:00

Alrighty, I've learned a few of things from my little camping trip away.

One, I still need to write, the very thought of not writing for five days was something that concerned me greatly. To the extent that I even got my daily quota out of the way on Wednesday before I left just in case I didn't do them later for some reason. So I actually only wrote for four days. But even today, still on holiday knowing that my computer was only a few hours away, I still did a few pages while sitting in a cafe enjoying a coffee.

Two, I can write by hand, but I hate it. I hate it because it is too slow, it takes too long. My brain is galloping ahead with settings, dialog etc, and my fast cramping hand is still scrawling the first sentence. I did 2,500 words over the four days where I was writing in a journal so I did well and above my self imposed minimum 300 words a day, quite happy about that.

Three, despite being able to do that meagre output, the massive downside is when I got home this afternoon and I typed it into the computer I gave myself a splitting headache and actually started feeling a little queasy. I suspect this is a combination of looking at the journal, down to the keyboard, up to the monitor, down to the keyboard, back to the journal etc etc etc (I can type reasonably fast, but I can't touch type). This is actually a real shame because I did enjoy scrawling in the journal when my hand wasn't giving me grief. I wouldn't do it all the time, but a change of scenery without looking like a pompus twat in a cafe with a laptop would have been nice. The headache and nausea is going to rule out transcribing from paper to computer in the future though.

But I did survive, there was output, I made it, and now I'm back. I don't think the handwriting I did was of the greatest quality due to not being able to delete and re-write an entire paragraph in a minute. But it was enjoyable all the same and tomorrow I'll be keen in getting some more words done on the ole faithful puter so I can get into the home stretch of this my first novel.

Away For a Few Days

2007-01-23T20:18:00.000+11:00

Well five days actually, returning Sunday (Australian time, makes that Saturday night US time). Off camping tomorrow to unwind a bit, relax, and try writing some of this damn book by hand. Yup, not looking forward to that, but even if I did have a laptop I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving it in a tent all day. So anyhoo, for those wonderful people following my progress, I'll be back soon.

Writing Addiction

2007-01-21T20:11:00.000+11:00

To think I have spent so very many years wanting to write (and not being able to) yet now that I have started I can't seem to stop. Not only can I not stop, but I think about it all the freakin time!

From this coming Wednesday I am supposed to be away on a long weekend camping trip and whilst I am looking forward to it, I can't help but think about what will I do if I don't do any writing for the five days I'll be away. I don't have a laptop and running the computer in the tent isn't exactly an option. Mind you, as a highly intelligent friend at work oh so cleverly suggested, what's wrong with a pad and pen? Well for one, I am a reasonably quick typist and for two, I hate writing by hand. At the end of the day that's probably what I'll do because I just can't bear the thought of not writing for that long.

Last week I was in a meeting with some managers, very important things were being discussed I'm sure of it. But personally I was thinking about the character I had just killed off. I have no problem with killing characters, no problem at all. My issue with this particular character is that in killing him I am possibly putting the stops on my protagonist being able to leave to do the next thing he has to do. So I spent the whole meeting tossing up the pros and cons of killing the guy v's just almost killing him but not quite. To say I got nothing out of the meeting is an understatement...

So I'm always thinking about writing. Like when I'm lying in bed. Or driving the car, or on the motorbike. Doing the shopping, cooking dinner. Just about anything, in the back of my head I'm non stop thinking about what I am doing with this book and the things that have happened in it and the things that still need to happen yet. It doesn't stop, make it stop!

And when I'm not thinking about this book, I mean actually NOT thinking about it, what am I thinking about? I'm thinking about which story idea I want to write next. For crying out loud!!!

A Fresh Set of Eyes

2007-01-18T18:48:00.000+11:00

The lovely Jennifer Talty has done me a great service just recently, she gave me a short critique on one of my scenes. She had written saying that her interest had been piqued at how I was describing a nightmare scene that I had done. At first I wasn't going to send it to her as I have been wanting to finish the first draft before having anyone really see it. But she was keen and in the end I'm glad I sent it to her.

I made no bones about the fact that the scene was pretty much straight from my brain onto the paper without the benefit of any editing. At first I thought I had done the wrong thing by sending her an un-edited version of my brain dump. As it turns out the things she has picked up on I don't think I would have fixed in an edit anyway. And I agree with everything she has shown me.

So what advice has Jennifer given me?

1st: I need to watch the length of a lot of my sentences. They can be too long, with too many commas, when shorter sentences can give more impact to what I am doing.
2nd: I need my protagonist to be a bit more involved. This was supposed to be a powerful scene where he was witnessing something quite disturbing. I had failed to show what he was going through mentally and physically and instead left him almost a viewer of his own scene.
3rd: She picked up on a couple of instances where I had really overstated what was happening when it was already quite obvious.
4th: She rearranged a couple of sentences for me to show how they could have greater impact compared to how I had done it.

And heaps of other ideas, tips and techniques.

Being shown those things has really opened my eyes. They are great suggestions, she has spotted stupid mistakes I have been making AND she gave me examples in every case of how it can be improved. So you're probably thinking I'm now going to go back and re-write that scene and make it perfect and glowing using all of Jennifer's recommendations. Well if you are, you would be wrong.

No, Jennifer hasn't wasted her time, quite the opposite. She has basically opened my eyes to some things I sub-consciously already knew were there, and some other things I hadn't realised at all. These are all going to be featured in some form or other throughout this entire manuscript.

So instead of trying to fix this up now and possibly end up stalling myself in the process, I will be sticking with Plan A and forging ahead to finish this first draft of my book. From this point on I will most certainly be conscious of what Jennifer has said, and trying to apply wherever possible, but at the same time it's even more important to get this draft finished and put to bed than it is trying to make it a literary masterpiece in this first run.

Jennifer, I am indebted to you. I asked for an opinion and most certainly got one. Your delivery was great and I wasn't at any point thinking, "Who the hell is she trying to tell me how to write." (although my reply email might have got her on the back foot momentarily (hehehe)). Certainly once the second draft is done you will be getting the whole schlamoo in one hit and you will see where these silly ideas have come from.

Thank you.

A New Milestone - 100,000 Words

2007-01-14T15:47:00.000+11:00

Say it with me, folks. Big words now, big noise, from the pits of your stomachs, ONNNNNE, HUNDRED, THOU(big mouth now, big mouth)-SAAAAAAND, (really deep for this one) WHHOOOOOOORDS!!

Yuh that's right, 100,000 words, or 101,297 to be exact. Hey what do you know, I have a novel on my hands. Doesn't mean they are readable words, but there is a lot of them all the same, and I think I have close to a quarter, or half as much again before this project is finished.

I think my writing has improved immensely since I started this project and I find myself thinking a lot more about how the characters are interacting with each other, how the settings are impacting on them, and trying to do my best to evoke emotion in the reader. I certainly know what I did today evoked disgust with what I wrote, but it was good disgust.

Let me explain. I needed a powerful scene, powerful emotion, I needed something that would hopefully hold a reader the same way a train wreck is about to happen that you just can't look away from.. I think I got it, or at least I'm getting it, I might have gone a little overboard with how the characters are talking to each other in some very confrontational scenes. The second draft should tighten it up a bit, focus the words a little more.

So yay for me, another month or two and I might be done with this first draft *sigh*

A Little Bit of Fun

2007-01-12T19:36:00.000+11:00

Ok, so you're sitting there, nothing is coming to you, your mind is a blank. So instead of trying to force yourself to think of "what happens next" why don't you do something silly instead?

I was messing around with some work mates filling the Inbox of a colleague who had the nerve to be on holidays while we were at work. So we were just sending stupid emails back to each other for the sake of it. I thought I would mix it up a little and try to include words starting with the same letter in different emails. The following gibberish is the result:

I've been frequently frustrated by my foiled and failed attempts to provide forthwith a flurry of furious humour of what would no doubt be personal faux pas, instead I'm forced to resort to fabricated follies of flatulence.

Well I wouldn't want to prevaricate on the possibility of procrastinating positions of power with the prevailing pervasiveness of posturing by prominent pedestrians in the halls of this place.

Do you think the culmination of consecutive correspondence may have the consequence of convincing her not to continue her crusade as a contributor to our all conquering cavalcade of curiously compulsive contact?

What did I discover by doing this? It's a great way to take your mind off whatever it is you are struggling to work out! The rules are simple, a silly sentence using words that start with the same letter preferably of multiple syllables. Try to avoid using a thesaurus if you can so you are flexing that mental muscle to the fullest.

Give it a go, you get to waste a little time and you might actually have a chuckle in the process.

There's something missing

2007-01-09T22:07:00.000+11:00

At this point I haven't read my work in progress from start to finish (I'll save that for when the first draft is finished) but I know something has been missing from my writing. What I have written so far, I feel, has been heavy on dialogue and being a first person point of view I feel a little locked into a lot of dialogue with this format. Still, I try to throw in description here and there, to show what the characters are doing, to try and give an idea of how they are feeling instead of them just saying, "I feel guilty" or whatever. But the thing that is missing is stuff like this:

There was a ruined church along the way, an old Methodist meeting house, which reared its shambles at the far end of a frost-heaved and hummocked lawn, and when you walked past the view of its glaring, senseless windows your footsteps became very loud in your ears and whatever you had been whistling died on your lips and you though about how it must be inside - the overturned pews, the rotting hymnals, the crumbling altar where only mice now kept the sabbath, and you wondered what might be in there besides mice - what madmen, what monsters.

Stephen King, "Salem's Lot"

THAT is what is missing from my writing so far. Those poignant moments in text where the imagery is just slammed into you and the subtle nuances in what is said can leave quite the chill up your spine. I know I gave it a crack in one of my earlier scenes, trying to write something that was atmospheric, descriptive, really attempting to set a mood with the reader, and it was OK in a fashion. I won't really know how effective it is until I do a full reading. But I'm always humbled by what Stephen King has been able to make me feel with his writing over the years and Salem's Lot was only his second published novel.

Backup Your Work!!!

2007-01-07T18:54:00.000+11:00

Well this weekend has pretty well been a write-off. I did my words yesterday (Saturday) and was looking forward to another productive day today, but my computer wouldn't start. Long story short, it looks like my computer took a power spike that has wiped it out. It's taken me all day to get my other computer up and running to a point where I can use it (now 7pm Sunday).

What's my point? Well if I didn't have a backup of my novel on a USB stick (plus CD-Rom) my 90,000 words I have done so far - and all my other very important files - would be gooooooooooone...

My personal regime is copying my novel onto a USB stick every night when I am done for the day. Every other week I also burn a copy of my novel onto a CD-Rom. I do this because USB sticks aren't renowned for their reliability, so I make sure I have a backup, backup.

What else do I do? Well what would happen if (god forbid) my house burnt down? In case of this I also have an offline copy of my novel in the form of an email sent to a friend. Sure, if my house burnt down loosing my book will be pretty low on my priorities, but the thought of going back and starting it from scratch isn't a thought I relish and it takes me all of thirty seconds to send a copy to a friend.

Now I'll just wipe the sweat of fear from my brow and see if I can concentrate enough to punch out a page or two tonight. So what have you done recently to protect your work in the event that your computer blows up?

He Wrote, She Wrote: How to Write

2007-01-03T18:29:00.000+11:00

I was following links of blogs to blogs to blogs and found one by Jennifer Talty where she has posted about a year long online course (or series of posts) about, funnily enough, writing and finishing your book. The course is by Jenny Cruisie & Bob Mayor who between them have forty-six published novels, so it sounds like there is some good knowledge there to tap into!

The syllabus looks very interesting and covers everything from starting, plotting, characters, scenes, sex (yes sex), publishing, editing and a whole heap more. In the site's FAQ they make no bones about that the intention of providing this free series of courses for the next twelve months will lead to a published non-fiction book on how to write.

Hey, if they deliver the online content for free, who am I (or anyone) to begrudge that?

Anyway, the first "lesson" has been published encouraging people to think about their one sentence idea, that sentence that basically kicked off your book. I had a think about mine and came up with:

“Can a *** based on an ancient myth surrounding *** be the answer James has been seeking to cure him of his ***?”

I've deliberately censored the key words surrounding my plot idea, but it was an interesting exercise all the same in trying to keep it down to a short concise statement/question of less than 25 words.

Is not telling anyone my idea a sign of the true novice writer, someone so naive that they would actually think someone else could "steal" their idea? Well I don't care if it is. Check back with me after I have published my first book and see if I think different.

I've added the site to my own bookmarks and plan to check it out to see how it goes. If you want to have a look at He Wrote, She Wrote: How to Write then follow this link.

It's a Brand New Year

2006-12-31T10:33:00.000+11:00

I'm actually composing this on New Year's Eve just in case I'm not in a great frame of mind to write it up tomorrow, today, whatever...

I only had one resolution last year and that was to lose a bit of weight. I was 88kgs/197lbs and determined to get my weight back down to 80kgs/179lbs which I hadn't seen since I was a teenager. Well I reached that mark and then some with the lowest weight around October of 70kgs/156lbs.

Funnily enough writing a book wasn't one of my resolutions despite wanting to write something for about ten to fifteen years or so. That's another story I'll save for another post one day.

So, if you really want to know, my next New Year's Resolutions in order of preference:

Of course to finish my book, properly, that is the #1 priority and right now I give myself a 100% chance of success in doing that.
Submit my book to a publishers or agents, not sure the best route yet. I give myself about a 85% chance of actually doing that. Getting the book published isn't something I am making a resolution, I think that road may take longer than next year.
Is to keep the weight off that I lost thanks to last year's resolution and not let my weight get back over 75kgs/168lbs. I rate those chances above 95%.
Do more woodturning. That's write, I turn wood into shavings on a lathe and in the end I either have pretty bowls or pens, riveting stuff. I'm not that good at it, but it's a very relaxing hobby and I need to do it more. 90% chance of making that happen.
Maybe drink a little less (and pigs might fly). Hmmm. Yuh, we'll just wait and see.

Best of luck to you and yours for the next 365 days. Dare to dream a little for this year, you never know what you might surprise yourself with.

The Second of Two Full Days - A New Milestone!

2006-12-30T19:13:00.000+11:00

I made it, I did it, and I did even more than yesterday. You want to believe I am a happy author today. There was a lot of ground covered, some new ideas that came to me, a worrying time when I felt I was writing my plot into a corner but then another idea came to me which fixed all that beautifully and by 6pm I was done.

How many today? 7,200 words, which is almost a thousand more than yesterday. Grand total for the two days, 13,500 words! Tis a day to be proud, tis a day to be happy, tis a day to go and buy me some Jack Daniels and celebrate I think.

Now a shrewd reader might also be wondering about the total word count at this point, and that's why I am so happy right now. I have hit, and passed the 75,000 word mark. So my original target count for the entire novel has been busted and I think I have at least another 30,000 words left in this first draft EASY. Total novel count by the end of the today is 81,800 words! Here are some more stats on the progress:

Word count 81,800
Started on the 26th of October means a daily average of 1,278 words a day
MS Word says I have been editing the document for a little over 87 hours
Page count is 308 which averages out at 265 words a page

Here are the last averages at 50,000 words just for comparrison:

Word count 50,200
Started on the 26th of October means a daily average of 1,321 words a day
MS Word says I have been editing the document for a little over 54 hours
Page count is 190 which averages out at 264 words a page

Cheers!

The First of Two Full Days

2006-12-29T22:58:00.000+11:00

Almost a week ago I wrote that sometime soon I would be working on my novel for two full days. The first of those two days, yesterday, has now passed and I'm pretty chuffed. To say I wrote all day is probably a bit of a stretch. I actually got in front of the keyboard around 9am all ready to go, but thought I would check out a couple of my favorite blogs first, which invariably led to links of other blogs and oh my where has the time gone it is 45 minutes later.

Dammit.

That's what I get for not logging into my Writing profile which only includes my novel, iTunes and Internet Explorer with a blank list of Favorites and is pre-loaded with thesaurus.com (for givin' me words that mean the same as other words cept fancier like), dictionary.com (for tellin' me what them fancy words mean in the first place) and google.com.au (for research, no really).

I also fiddled around a fair bit during the day, I would have a spurt for five hundred words before hitting a lull. Then another five hundred and I decided I need new music. Another five hundred and it's time for another coffee. Plus of course there was lunch. And more coffee, and tea, and so and and so forth. If anyone that's reading this is a writer then you can probably empathise.

But despite that, despite that, I was still able to get out a goodly number of words by 5pm when my brain finally told me enough was enough and I could go stuff my creativity where the sun just don't shine. So how many words had I achieved? 6,300 which for ME is a really big deal. That's a little more than twice that I have written in a single day before. Now if you are a writer and reading this and your thinking to yourself, "Geez, he led me on through this post only to give me whole total of 6,300 words? What a hack. I don't get out of bed for anything less than 10,000." Well then yay for you, but this is me we're talking about here and if I can get close to that again today then I will have covered a huge amount of ground.

Hell, I could even be pretending I'm a real writer and might actually do this for a living one day. And I might win the 33 Million Powerball on New Years Eve too...

...like a sparrow builds a nest from scraps...

2006-12-28T22:23:00.000+11:00

I read a great quote the other day:

"Writers are vacuum cleaners who suck up other people's lives and weave them into stories like a sparrow builds a nest from scraps."
Garrison Keillor

I read it in the December issue of "Writer's Digest" magazine (US). It was something that really struck a chord with me because I just happened to be eating breakfast in a cafe reading this particular magazine for the first time.

While I was reading - and enjoying some bacon and eggs with toast - there was an older lady and a young (teenage) Asian girl sitting next to me and the lady was telling the girl something of her childhood. Without going into it, her story sounded just fascinating. If I was a braver person I would have said something to her about writing her life. As fact it sounded incredible enough, if it was turned into fiction with some splashes of action, some dashes of daring and buckets of romance; wow, what a novel!

So the next time you are out at a cafe you might want to pay attention to what is being said around you because you never know what might be heard. And if you do hear something interesting then for Pete's sake write it down! There is probably no end of books that started from an overheard snippet of a conversation when the magical 'what if' gets applied to it.

Hurdles

2006-12-23T10:21:00.000+11:00

Right now I feel like someone who is doing a 110m hurdle race and I have clipped the sixth hurdle and now my rhythm has broken. The first five hurdles were easy; gliding over them with effortless grace, the sprint between hurdles in perfect time and motion. A well oiled machine. After hitting the sixth hurdle my sprints in between are choppy, out of cadence. Clearing the next hurdles have been akin to the jumping of a flightless bird, arms and legs flailing madly. I now have the grace of a brick that has been lobbed underarm onto the lawn expecting it to roll smoothly.

From the day I started writing this book (October 26th) I stuck to my guns and wrote every single day. Sometimes the minimum 300 words, occasionally over 3,000. But since I missed a couple of nights the week before last, I have lost my forward motion. I even missed another three nights this week just gone. Wednesday night was out having Christmas drinks with work colleagues. Thursday night I was still, shall we say, "recovering". Last night, I have no excuse, I was a lazy bastard. So 1,200 words that I have to make up today in quota before the book is where it should be at this point.

BUT!

There is hope. I have the next week off through to Tuesday the 2nd of January and I plan to write every single day again to get me back into rhythm. Not only that, I want to dedicate at least two days to writing ALL day, or be in the act of writing, just to see how it goes. I may achieve nothing, or I might just make some really good headway. I'm at 65,000 words now and I would like to hope I can crack 75,000 by the time the week is done, anything beyond that will be a bonus.

Be not like the brick; be instead like the athlete in flight.

"A Dash of Style" by Noah Lukeman

2006-12-22T07:33:00.000+11:00

I've just finished reading "A Dash of Style - The Art and Mastery of Punctuation" and I have to tell any budding author reading this, it's a great book.

Noah has written this book specifically for fiction writers, because lets face it, we can get away with more shall we say 'creative license' than other forms of writing.

The first part of the book is devoted to the period . / the comma , / and the semicolon ; Noah gives us many great examples on each, showing us what all these punctuation marks can do for pace and maturity in a book. I really enjoyed how he describes looking at your work and having a good think about each mark you place. What is it like without it, what if you add a semicolon, does it build suspense etc etc

In the second part he touches on colons : / dashes - - / parentheses ( ) / quotation marks " " / paragraph breaks and section breaks. This is the only area I was slightly disappointed. The information on dashes and parentheses was really good, but I thought the quotation marks was a little thinner that I would rather. Speech in a book is one of the most visible punctuation areas and I struggle a little with using it effectively. Still, it gave me more knowledge than I had before, and I suspect you could write a whole book on effective use of quotation marks.

The last section includes the question mark ? / exclamation point ! / italics / points of ellipses ... and the hyphen - By this time the book feels like it is in wrap up mode, but there is still a great amount of knowledge imparted with great examples from familiar literature.

At the end of each section Noah includes exercises you can try out with your own work. I have done a couple of them and my writing is definitely better for it.

I am VERY glad I bought this book and already it is a reference for my own writing. Noah Lukeman's style is engaging enough that you can read it without putting yourself to sleep. Anyone who is writing fiction will get great use out of "A Dash of Style - The Art and Mastery of Punctuation".

Passage of Time

2006-12-20T07:55:00.000+11:00

I'm having a bit of an issue and it's not the one where I feel like I have lost a bit of momentum. No the issue is passing time within the story. I'm finding it a bit difficult to have a sequence of events from the current scene where I am now, to the next one which I already have mapped out in my head.

It would be too easy just to say, "...they jumped in the car and drove off into the distance with a lazy wave over their shoulders. Next stop, the town where things will happen..."

I feel I have to give a logical sequence of events leading up to getting in the car. Or maybe I don't? Maybe I could just chuck them in the car and push them on their merry way. But then I worry about continuity in the story and having to come back and fill in the gaps later.

Am I putting words on paper just to fill pages? That's the other question. All this worry I might end up with 5,000 words in the cutting room floor file, or an editor might send it back with instructions to 'cut out the fluff'. Still, when I think about it, I believe I need this sequence in the book. It is part of building more of a bond between my protagonist and his support people, so that hopefully when something bad happens to him/them later the impact is greater insert evil laugh here

Don't mind me, I'm just rambling. I have the week off for Christmas and I hope to have at least a couple of days where I will attempt to write, or be in the writing process, all day. Nice plan, we'll see how it turns out.

Welcome to Struggletown. Population, Me.

2006-12-14T20:07:00.000+11:00

Urgh. Man, things are tough going at the moment. Remember my post a few days back about not not writing for a couple of days? Well it seems no sooner had the words left my fingertips I had friends stay for a couple of nights and thanks to catching up and maybe a little too much Jack Daniels I missed ANOTHER couple of nights writing.

So last night I had to write 900 words before I made up the quota for the what I missed and last night's duties. It was hard. Tonight was also hard, I seem to have lost a lot of my momentum and it's a real effort to get myself back on track. Tonight I finally pushed out about 1,200 words but they came tough, real tough, and I am not even too sure of the quality.

I hope I can get back on track again soon. And anyone else who wants to come visit? Go get stuffed. And I mean that with as much love as you could imagine.

Oh yeah, the book is at 61,600 words which is about 234 pages. I guess I have around enough for a novella, but that isn't enough, I want me a full length book and I will write me one or die trying! Do you think I have rah rah'd myself up enough? Tomorrow night will tell.

"Buzz Cut" by James Hall

2006-12-10T20:47:00.000+11:00

On the weekend I finished Buzz Cut by James Hall. This is the first book of his that I have read, and it will probably be the last. When the lead character has the name Thorn, for me that should have been the warning sign.

Basically the book is about a guy Butler Jack, a psycho, who get his kicks out of jamming 40,000 volts through people and quoting the history of words, he takes control of a luxury cruise liner looking to extort the owners for big money.

I won't give away too much because people might want to read the book, but I have to say I didn't like it.

First is motivation. I couldn't get into what drove the main characters in the book. Why does ole Butler Jack happily kill people, why does the owner of the luxury liner not want the Feds brought in when the body count is piling up, why does Thorn - our fearless hero - find he has to hunt this guy down at all costs. The things that motivated all of them didn't convince me enough to feel empathy for any of them.

Second is the antagonist, Butler Jack. His thing, his "schtick" as it were, is a fascination for the history of words. Just before he would kill someone he would start sprouting on about how "ransom" came into being or other stuff. You know what it did for the flow of the book? It shot it in the leg and left it limping along like it was never going to make it home. Just when I thought something interesting was going to happen we got the full lowdown on how Florida got its name. For crying out loud stop killing the pace with this mundane crap!

Third is the names: Thorn, Sugerman, Butler Jack. They might do it for other people, they just didn't do it for me.

Unbelievable characters, an unbelievable plot that didn't work for me, and motivation that just wasn't believable at all.

1 Star.

Even though I give it one star I respect James Hall. I respect him because he is a published author and I'm not. I have got a long way to go yet.

Must, Write, EVERY, Day!

2006-12-10T20:29:00.000+11:00

Wow, what a tough few days. I've just had confirmation that I must attempt to write at least my 300 words every day otherwise the wheels risk coming off in a big way.

Friday night I bought a bottle of red on the way home and it kept me company for most of the night. I've written when tipsy before, it's not pretty, I now try to avoid it. As always when you have had a few drinks under your belt you think you are capable of the most amazing things. Well one night, not too long ago, I had a drink or two before I started writing and found I was banging away at the keyboard at a furious rate, the ideas just flowing out of me, it was great, it was spontaneous, it was WRITING!

It was shit.

The next day when I read what I had done the night before, most of it went into the cutting room floor file. So I try not to write and drink if I can help it.

Friday night was a wash, what about Saturday? That was no good, I was baby-sitting my nephew for the weekend. I took my novel on USB stick so I could work on it if he got interested enough in a movie or something, but unfortunately being two and a bit, his attention span is is what you would expect from a two and a bit year old, so I got nothing done. That evening I was just too tired and the little bugger kept getting out of bed. Oh it was a real fun game. Not.

So come to Sunday, haven't written a thing in two days, I'm tired from my lack of sleep the night before, and I am getting really twitchy, I am like an addict going without my fix. But the nephew is still going off like a frog in a sock and I didn't get anything done. Finally got home this afternoon and sat in front of my computer, feeling better, knowing that I now had 900 words to churn out just to meet the quote for the last few days.

And I was staring at a mental blank wall. I started to panic a little, I have to admit, what if I can't think of anything to write? Is this the beginning of the end? What if I can't write anything?!

Thankfully I used a technique which has worked for me before which is to let my mind wander a little, type out some gibberish crap and then thankfully, THANKFULLY the words started flowing. 2,800 words later I've not only done the quota for today and the prior two days I missed, but I got some extra good stuff out as well. I'm disappointed I missed out on a good Saturday, but I have still done my minimum and that's what counts.

Really must not do that again - if I can help it.

To Think a Broken Arm Would Cause So Much Hassle

2006-12-05T21:31:00.000+11:00

No I don't have a broken arm, neither does my guy. It's one of the other characters in the book. Something happens and a bunch of guys are injured, one of them ends up with a broken arm. That seemed good, seemed to give me the cause and effect to move from one scene to another, but then problems.

A quick bit of research showed a broken arm had a number of issues: splintered bone, infections, inability to straighten it out without risking more damage. So damn, that won't really work. Fine, I give him a dislocated shoulder instead. But wouldn't you know it, I don't think that would hurt enough. Damn. OK fine then, a compromise, a fractured arm then, will that do, will that be OK? I don’t think the character was happy being hurt in any fashion but in the end a fractured arm has turned out to be the best without totally ruining any believability the injury might have.

Why do I have to feel like I need to write believable fiction? Why can't I just write a bunch of crap? Why couldn't I break his arm at an awful angle and just have a couple of burly guys pull it straight and strap it to a board? Because I hate it when I read it - crap - that's why. A book of fiction full of stuff that is so impossible just detracts from a good story. Well for me it does anyway. I can only suspend my disbelief so far, ya know?

So I wasted a good hour or so tonight writing, rewriting and further writing just those few pages that involve the arm and the consequences of it (it may still end up in my "cutting room floor file"). Felt like such lost time and I only had 600 words by the time I was done. Was ready to throw it in for the night but after so much struggle I wanted decent output, I just don’t feel satisfied unless I crack four figures in a session anymore.

Thankfully the total word count by the end of the night is 2,100 words and another notation in my word file for things that will need serious attention in the second draft *sigh* Still, gotta take the good with the bad.

Ladies & Gentlemen, We Have Passed the 50,000 Mark

2006-12-02T17:48:00.000+11:00

Happy day. I hadn't intended to at the start of the day, but I passed the 50,000 word mark after putting out another 3,000 words. The book is still progressing quite well and I am keen to get to the next couple of scenes. It feels like I have been writing in the current setting for ages, so a change will be nice.

I know 50,000 words isn't a lot in the grand scheme of a novel, but it is the first time I have been able to put so much into a book AND still have a lot of story yet to come!

75,000 words as my first draft target now seems so achievable it's ludicrous. Instead of revising how many words I would like to do, I think I will just let the book write itself and end when it feels like. This makes me very happy as it means the finished book should actually have some substance to it. Doesn't mean what I have now is all quality, but I'm happy with how I feel I'm improving my writing each day. I'm thinking more about the different nuances that can be applied to characters and settings and without going all "literary" or anything I'm quite pleased with some of my output.

Today's writing featured more of a nasty nightmare that I hope is a little scary and not too gruesome. I don't want to be a writer that relies on blood and gore for reaction if I can help it.

I'm still resisting the temptation to print out what I have written so far in case I get too twitchy to start re-writing before I plan too. I still need to stay focused on moving forwards.

Some stats on getting to this point:

Word count 50,200
Started on the 26th of October means a daily average of 1,321 words a day
MS Word says I have been editing the document for a little over 54 hours
Page count is 190 which averages out at 264 words a page

I also had the first comment today made to one of my posts. Thanks Yvette, you're too kind.

Political Correctness - The Death of us All

2006-12-01T18:40:00.000+11:00

I found a concerning editorial on the web the other day. It's about a book written by John Dale called Army of the Pure. It was actually commissioned by publisher Scholastic Australia to encourage young kids to read and has been described as "almost flawless". Pretty good so far? I think so.

So reading further I learn the book is about a "group of kids in a soccer club who stumble upon a terrorist plot to blow up the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney's south, and are chased by an extremist group who also happen to be Arabic-speaking." Hey, this sounds like something I might like to read, could be a pretty good yarn.

So why is it concerning?

The problem is if I did want to buy it, no book stores - according to the article - are stocking the title, deciding instead to self censor on the basis of what is referred to as the "Muslim issue".

If I may use the vernacular: what a crock of shit!

Lets ignore the Muslim tag for the moment, hell lets use "the M word" instead, what about any book that has Nazi Germans as the antagonist? Better pull all them from the shelves lest someones feelings get hurt. Mario Puzo has a lot to answer for as well then, all of his Godfather books, well that is just blatant Italian stereotyping isn't it? Yank them from the shelves before someone reads another copy. Mathew Reilly's book "Temple", well hell, EVERYONE is the bad guy in that book, Germans, Americans, British. Take that book of the shelves right now, wouldn't want to get them in a huff, specially the US, they got the bomb don't you know...

As a hopeful author, and I mean really hopeful, is this the sort of treatment I might expect when I'm trying to get a book published? Do I risk my book of FICTION being taken too seriously and that on the remote chance someones feelings get hurt my book won't see the light of day on shelves? What if a Native American features in my story, or an Australian Aboriginal, or *GASP* a Caucasian westerner!!! No wait, I've got a better idea. I work in information technology, I think I will make it my personal crusade to get out there and burn any book that calls someone in IT a "geek", I'll be protecting all IT workers around the globe. Did I say Crusade? Hurry up and rip apart those medieval books too then, nasty lot those Knights and their quests.

Am I sounding ridiculous? Well I bloody hope so. If book stores want to drive would be Authors to POD publishing then keep up the good work, because if this is where it starts, where does it end? BTW I want The Simpson's removed from the air due to taking the piss out of Aussies in one episode. Our PM doesn't spend his day drinking beer while floating naked on a farm dam in an inflatable tube. Don't be silly, he's wearing a g-string.

Click this link to read the full article written by Karen Brooks for the Courier Mail

POV (Point of View)

2006-11-30T07:28:00.000+11:00

I was following links through various blogs and came across the blog by Yvette Lynn, who is a publisher for Amira Press. She has written a great entry about POV and the importance of not "head hopping" within a scene too quickly as it can be very distracting to the reader.

More she stresses the importance of that old ooooold adage, "Show, don't tell." The short version is don't flick back and forth between two characters in a scene talking about how they feel, the thoughts they have, the emotion in their head. Instead stick to one POV and use the actions of the other to show how they are feeling, and if you do it well it can be contradictory to what they are saying ie: "No, I'm not angry, I'm fine. Nothing wrong at all," she said as she smashed my Mother's priceless heirloom to the floor.

For the long version lick this link to have a look at Yvette's great post on Head Hopping.

Where Did the Ending Come From?

2006-11-28T22:00:00.000+11:00

What the hell? I'm writing away tonight, struggling a little with the next scene, when out of the blue I know how the book is going to end!

I don't know how the book leads up to the end, or even the pages immediately before the end, or how everything is going to tie in at the end. Only that the final page of the book hit me and I had to write it down immediately.

I'm exhilarated, I wasn't expecting this, I was figuring the end would eventually work itself out, somewhere near the end. But to have the finish of the book pretty well tucked away, it's a final roadblock I may not have to worry about later. I say may not because who knows, the end might change, except this has hit me with such clarity I don't think it will.

I'm also disappointed in a way. Where's my surprise end, where is my moment of, "Oh, so that's what happens."? But what am I going to do? Piss and moan or just get on with the job of writing the next half of the book?

I suppose I should be happy I got the first part of the scary scene done, the final page of the book, and another 2,100 words all in one evening. Well, I am :-)

Got Past the Ceremony

2006-11-28T19:27:00.000+11:00

Just warming up before I start tonight's writing, kind of like a limbering exercise I guess...

Anyway, last night I sat at the keyboard with no idea how I was going to kick the ceremony off, or what it was going to entail, or how it was going to segue into the next bit. So I just started writing, let my mind wander, and then a few thoughts came to me. Banged them out, got inspired, check the web for some technical information (Wikipedia for the win), yup that might work and VOILA! I am past that bit, something I thought was going to be a real barrier, but with the basics I have down it might just work.

At 1,200 words last night it's really thin on the ground, make no mistake, but when I come back to it in the second draft I'll really flesh it out along with some study resources I bought from Amazon.com the other day (should be here mid December).

Well that's enough flapple from me, time to get writing for tonight. Hopefully I can write something a little dark and scary (post ceremony consequences doncha know) so I'll be putting on some Tool "10,000 Days" to assist the mood.

Another Milestone - Book odo reads 40,700 words

2006-11-26T18:01:00.000+11:00

Another weekend gone and another weekend with a good amount of output. The novel is over 40,000 words now which is four times larger than anything I have written on a single subject to date. Dialogue seems to be flowing easier, ideas are coming to me readily and tonight my guy got a bath, lucky devil.

I don't think he will be so lucky tomorrow night.

My fingers are now at the threshold of the dreaded ceremony. Dreaded because I'm still not sure what is going to happen but the door is shut, the bolts are thrown and the three protectors are in position waiting for the next thing to happen. After pushing out two back-to-back 3,000+ word days I'm calling it quits for the night and will see if anything stews in my subconscious in the next 24 hours.

I still have a very long way to go and I'm even rethinking my word target for the first draft. But rather than strain my brain about it tonight, I think I'm going to pour a nice glass of Jack Daniels, on the rocks if you don't mind, and congratulate myself on another good weekend.

Cheers.

Constant Reminder

2006-11-25T17:11:00.000+11:00

I need to keep telling myself that even though sometimes it feels like I am spending way too much time (days writing) on a particular scene. What I need to keep remembering is that twenty pages, about 5,000 words, can be read in about ten minutes or so! This isn't to say that you can't spend too much time on a scene, we've all seen some really long winded books that spend thirty pages just getting the protagonist to go through a door into a new room. But honestly, when I start to think, "I've spent the last five days working on this bit, I've been here too long," like I have today, I then force myself to think about how I started the book originally.

When I first started the book I wrote about twenty pages to begin with and was pretty chuffed. Thought I'd done well, introduced my guy and moved the story forward about three scenes in that time. Then I read Stephen King's new book "Cell" and in the first twenty pages the protagonist has only walked a short way down a street, is buying an ice-cream and then the world starts going to hell. Barely anything has happened yet and its twenty pages already! I read that in about ten minutes! And I've got THREE scenes in my first twenty pages?!

Damn.

So I went back and re-read my start, and to be brutally honest with myself it had no substance to it, no depth. So I re-wrote just the beginning scene, all on its own, and it went from a mere four pages to twenty! It's much better, really sets a tone for the rest of the book and I am much much happier with it. In the second draft it may even grow beyond that but I'm not thinking about that at the moment.

Redoing the first scene will probably be the only re-write that will happen in this 1st draft. Because if I keep going back and fixing the things I don't think are working right I'll never keep moving forward and finish the bloody book.

I think I'm making sense...

A Milestone - Book odo reads 30,700 words

2006-11-21T21:05:00.000+11:00

Have cracked the 30,000 word mark tonight with an easy 1,600 words written to get me over the line, much yay for me. I'm finding my "minimum" target of 300 words a day now incredibly easy to achieve. I'm getting better at filling in information that I wasn't including when I first started, such as a little more scene description, character interaction, more "thoughts" from my guy.

I'm tempted to up my daily target to 600 words, maybe even 1,000 words a day. But then I will have nights like last night when I don't really feel like writing much and instead just knock out a lazy 400 before sitting in front of Mythbusters and ER. I figure at this point I won't push my luck in case I hit the wall of dreaded writer's block.

That said a couple of ideas have come to mind of what is going to happen next so I should be good for the next 10,000+ words or so. I'm also happy that getting past 25,000 words means I am 1/3 of the way to my first draft target total of 75,000.

Another good day - Book odo reads 28,700 words

2006-11-19T13:01:00.000+11:00

Saturdays, Sundays, both primo days for writing. Just knocked out another 2,700 words and I might, just might have my ceremony issue licked. Not totally mind you, but I gave my guy a nasty dream and I have an idea of how I can work that into a ceremony style kind of thing. I'll see what the next few days of writing bring.

In my guy's dream he finds himself in a dark grove. The inspiration came from a lunch time walk the other day alongside a lake. I went through a particular group of trees, it was a bit damp, a bit chilly, a bit gloomy and I thought to myself, "Hmmm I wouldn't want to be walking through here at night, especially if there was a mist or something." Sold, queue up one nightmare for my guy. Seems to have worked pretty good too, although it will need a lot of tidying up in the 2nd draft.

A good day - Book odo reads 26,000 words

2006-11-18T13:21:00.000+11:00

I like writing on weekends, it just feels like I don't have as many time constraints as I do during the week. So today I punched out 2,600 words, before I started running out of impetus, and the book has reached a milestone of 100 pages. Very happy about that because it's barely 1:30pm.

I'm getting worried though, I'm fast reaching the point where I need to put my guy through some form of ceremony and I'm not sure if I can pull it off yet. See, he has something wrong with him, and the ceremony could/should/might fix him up. So it has to be cool and dark and hopefully a little scary but I'm drawing a bit of a blank what I am going to do.

Unless something hits me between the eyes soon I'll probably just gloss over it - put a basic filler mumbo-jumbo ceremony in there as a place holder - and move to the next part which I already have the workings of in my head. The second draft is where I'll attack those parts that are a little thin on the ground. Even though the book is fiction, and you can make any old shit up, it still has to have an air of realism about it so it's more palatable to the reader.

For me I feel it's critically important to keep this first draft moving forward as much as I can, if I let myself begin to agonise over what is supposed to happen or about what is supposed to come, well the book could grind to halt and now that it has some inertia behind it that is something I can't afford.

Overall though I am feeling confident I can push on with my 300 word a day minimum. Even last night, after I set up this blog, I was giving thought to skipping my words for the evening. But no, I tethered myself to the keyboard and hammered away until the book was 315 words fatter. I didn't have that sick guilty feeling later which was nice.

Status of the novel right (write) now.

2006-11-17T21:46:00.000+11:00

What am I writing? Well unfortunately I am going to be very cagey about specific plot and content. The reason for this is I am concerned as hell about someone "borrowing" my idea. Call me paranoid, meh. These are the vital statistics I can give you if you're interested:

Started writing the novel 26th October 2006
Horror/thriller type of theme, first person POV, set in present day (although I might change that last part)
I set myself a daily minimum target of 300 words
Currently sitting at 23,400 words with a daily average of 1,063 words
1st draft target of 75,000 words
2nd draft target of 100,000 words+
MS Word says I have been editing my document for 1,600 minutes (26.6 hours)

MS Word Configuration is in a format most recomended by publishers:

Courier New Font 12pt
Margins 1" top, bottom, left, right
Paragraphs set to attached image below
With current format the novel at this time weighs in at 91 pages

Another would-be writer blog - geeeeez

2006-11-17T21:17:00.000+11:00

Oh Christ, can you believe it? Yet ANOTHER person has decided to put up a bloody blog about their attempts at writing. Well don't worry, this is more for me than it is for you, but if you want to have a peek along the way then you are welcome to.

The reason I am doing this blog is so I basically have a personal diary relating to the blood sweat and tears of my first novel that I have started writing already. Will it ever get published (the novel, who cares about the blog)? Well I hope so, it's certainly the intention anyway. It's a shit load of work so I would hope I'm not doing it for nothing

Along the way I will post things that I think are helping me in my first real attempt at writing a novel. I say first real attempt because I have tried before but have never really gotten past 10,000 words. This time, this time I will finish the damn thing if it kills me.

Anyway that is enough of the introduction - next post: where the novel is at right (write) now.