Bad, Bad Boy

I just couldn’t help myself.  I know I am supposed to be finishing my novel, but this just had to be started.  Ok my confession.  I really wanted to write an Christmas story.  I have been composting a few ideas for a couple of days, but nothing seemed quite right.  Then I had an idea this morning.  Not a great idea, but an idea that might work.  So I have started writing it.  It will be a short story, and I will publish it here for you to read.  Yes even Russian search engines deserve a bit of Christmas cheers.

In my defence I have written some more of my novel.  A thousand words of so sneaked in last night.  It is nearly at the climax so hopefully the first draft will be ready by the new year.  Honestly I will finish if.

But there is this other story ….

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Somehow it seems shorter.

It’s now December, and the madness that it Nanowrimo is now over for another year.  My fifty thousand words are under my belt, and I have the coveted purple ‘Winner’s banner.  My novel is not finished this year.  It is drawing to it’s conclusion, but I feel there a few thousand words left to go yet.  I have exceeded last years word count by a good margin, yet it seems to me to be shorter somehow.  I have checked the word count, and that’s correct.  I have yet to read the thing over.  I’m saving that dubious pleasure for when this very first draft is complete. Maybe it’s the story itself that seems shorter.  There are scenes in it I know I will probably cut, or at least heavily rewrite on the next run through.  Perhaps it’s because the novel doesn’t have the feel I envisaged at the start.  It is definitely more grown up than I imagined.  Or perchance it is the story version of that difficult second album bands so often lament.  The main reason is that I know this story could be so much better.  Last years effort was silly.  Deliberately silly.  A novel about carnivorous Pies from outer space could not realistically be anything but silly.  It was almost a fifty thousand word ‘off the cuff’ remark.  This years novel is also silly, but it is aimed at an audience that just might enjoy that escapism.  I wanted the novel to be a book for nine to early teens to enjoy, but in it’s current form I think it only goes so far towards that age group.  Much of it if more grown up, and that, in my opinion, would bore a younger audience.

Anyway, enough of this nonsense.  If you are a real person reading this I apologise for my near incoherent babbling.  If, as I strongly suspect, you are a dodgy Russian search engine, then I apologise too, but as I don’t know the Russian word for sorry it probably won’t really mean very much.

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They think its all over

But hitting the target was only part of it.  Yes I have written a little over fifty thousand words of my novel, but that’s not the end of it.  Now comes the difficult part, actually finishing the novel.  Last year the end of the novel happily coincided with the target.  This year I think there is at least another ten thousand words left to finish the story.  Then I it will be all over. 

Except it won’t.  Then I will feel guilty about all the typo’s and sentences that do not make sense.  My manuscript will lie on my hard drive and taunt me like some malevolent guilty secret from an E.A. Poe story. An aside, I’ve just remembered the story I had been planning to write in this years Nanowrimo when I finished last year.  Must do that one next year.  Once I’ve corrected typo’s and sentences.  Then I’ll be finished.

Except that while correcting the mistakes I will cringe at the shortness of some chapters, and the bloated nature of other.  I will find hanging plotlines waving about that need to be reconnected.  Secondary characters will be sulking that I dropped them so completely that it was unrealistic to the overall plot.  So I will be compelled to rewrite and proof again.  Then when that process is complete.  It will be all over.

Except that despite all I have said about the quality of this novel, I secretly do want that free proof copy sitting on the self like last years one.  Just to have it.  You know.  So I will need to format the manuscript to get it to be compliant with the publishers specification.  And I will need to create cover art, and blurb, which of course will need proofreading.  And this will take a while because it never goes right first time.  But then, really then it will be all over.

Except that I will want real copies to annoy my friends with.  And they will find more errors.  So I will have the perfect excuse to edit for the electronic editions.  Well I have to have a copy on my Kindle. 

Finally, it really will be all over. No more messing around with that cursed book I started back in November. The novel will be put to rest gathering dust, next to the last one.

And then it’s November first once again.

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No stop it, no more lovey doviness

Right that does it.  My nanowrimo novel keeps trying to turn into a romantic novel. I don’t know where all this slushiness is coming from!  It is supposed to be a kids action adventure, but all my minor characters are flipping falling in love with each other!  One of them has even got his eye on my female main character.  I might have to put some bromide in my laptop!!  Do all authors have this problem with their characters I wonder.  The wordage is creeping up.  I should be able to hit the 50k well before time, and unlike last year I suspect it might go well over that particular milestone.  Oh well, time to write onwards and upwards.

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Three fifths and counting

I had some serious catching up to do.  I have missed a couple of days writing due to illness hitting the family.  Balancing a laptop on your knee whilst perched on the toilet was too difficult for a man of my age.  The story is jumping around a bit.  My male main character has still not battled back to prominence, but I am planning to throw him into a life threatening situation soon.  The fairies have made a comeback, and may have a more significant part to play in the story.  Unless I forget about them of course, in which case they might reappear during the rewrite process.   I think the rewrite will be more serious than last years effort.  I feel a bit guilty about ‘Man Eating Pies’!  I loved writing it, and really liked how the story turned out, but I really should have done a rewrite of that one.  In the end I did a rather poor proofing of it and tossed it out in the wind to fend for itself.  I will take take better care of this years novel.  At the moment it is very rough, it needs more laughs, and the dialogue leaves a lot to be desired, but I think it will be a fun story in the end.  Can’t wait to see how it turns out. I suspect there will be too many fairies.

 

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Out of enthusiasm

Ok last night I hit a block.  Not an ideas blog.  I knew exactly where the story was going.  It was just a dull chapter that needed to be put in.  I suspect it will change drastically during the re-write.  It was a shame because I was shy of the 20k mark by only a few hundred words.

 

I have now surpassed the 20k mark (slow day at work).  I am going to send two of my characters to a country I’ve never been to, lucky things.  I hope this will liven up the story a bit, and also give one of my characters more of a roll, so I don’t have to change the title of the book.

 

I also need to give the fairies a bigger role!!

 

Oh nanowrimo what are you doing to me?

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They warned me this might happen

Ok the Nanowrimo novel is going a bit strange.  I’ve read in the pep talks from the Office of Light and Letters that your story can take on a life of it’s own.  Being a novice writer I had dismissed this as artistic bunkum, however it has started happening to my story this year.  Now the dilemma I face is this.  Do I let it go it’s own way, or reign it back to the story I thought I was writing.  The story line that is getting a bit wayward is quite dark and sinister, which in itself is not a problem, however for the age group I hope to aim the story at, it may be a little too much.  The sub plot is something that sadly happens everyday, and is a subject that should be talked about and not hidden.  However I am not an expert on the subject and do not want to try and expand the plot for fear of getting the subject matter wrong.  This may seem cowardly, and lazy, but hey I’m on a deadline.

So I feel I have to don my metaphorical Indiana Jones hat and whip, and get this story back on track.  I have a plot device to do it, I just hope it fits well enough that you can’t see the joins.

Apart from this unexpected hiccup, I am enjoying writing this story, and am pleased with my progress so far. As I said in a previous post, I am trying to avoid the 1667 target each day, and apart from Saturday when I allowed myself a day off, I am exceeding this amount anyway.  I start my writing off in the car in the morning, usually as a new chapter, but not always, and although I probably only manage a couple of hundred words in this small window or oportunity, it sets the seed for the writing later in the day.

Anyway, that’s enough words wasted on the blog.  Must get on.  If you’re reading this feel free to leave a comment.  I’d hate to think I am just writing this rubbish to fuel search engines!

 

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It’s writing itself

Last years Nanowrimo book was a slog.  Not because of the target of a certain number of words.  It was a slog because I had to think about the story everyday.  What could I make happen next, do I need new characters, what are they like etc.  This year it seems much different.  The plot just seems to be unfolding as I write.  I am having to do little thought into that basis of the plot as the story seems to just present itself.  The characters too are appearing very clearly to me.  It’s quite spooky as I had a vague idea about the plot lines before I started, but the story isn’t working out that way at all.  I’m very much enjoying how this all seems to be manifesting itself, but the problem is that things like work, sleeping, and eating just seem to be getting in the way of the writing.  It’s tempting to throw a sickie to get a clear days writing under my belt, but that would be very bad.  Friday night is usually the evening I get a few hours to myself to play on the playstation, or watch boring programs I’ve recorded that my family would not want to see, but this week I’m actually working out if I can get another few thousand words written instead.  It’s only three days in, but I am having lots of fun with this years Nanowrimo novel.

 

Happy writing

 

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Why am I writing this damn blog...

....when I should be working on my novel.  Well Nanowrimo has begun for 2011.  I have managed about seven hundred words so far as we speak, but the majority of my writing efforts will be done in the evening.  For those who have read my previous post, and I don't mean the random search engines, I chose the young adult/early teen book.  I started one of the other ones, but got a bit boreed, so started this one.  I have to say I am enjoying the feel of the story so far.  There's a little bit of the present, and a little backstory so far, and my villianous bully character is shaping up nicely, mwah ha ha ha haaa!  Well best get back to it.

Decisions, Decisions!

Less than a day to go until Nanowrimo starts.  Wow that went fast, perhaps too fast!  The question is do I stay awake until midnight and start writing, or wait until I get home from work tomorrow.  Last year I have to admit I did a fair amount of writing at work to get my word count up.  This year I will try and do less on paid time.  I hope to make better use of dead time, the odd five to ten minutes waiting in cars for example.  If I can get a couple of hundred words down in these little windows it will greatly help to reach my goal without too much rushing, and panicking.  I am still debating which story to write, so in an attempt to help me I shall try and use writing them down here as a mechanism for helping me decide.

Story 1:
Working title: Banshee
Plot: Early teen boy, bullied by peers, a little odd, possible with something like aspergers syndrome, meets and forms a relationship with an unusual old woman who may be into witchcraft.  Humorous adventures ensue, etc., etc.
Positives: lots of scope for toilet humour, and fun unrealistic capers
Negatives: 50k words might be too long for a children's book should I decide to foist it upon the unsuspecting public.

Story 2:
Working title: Bye Bi Christmas
Plot: A womanising, commitment averse photographer is cursed, and he is falling in love with a cross dresser.  Can he overcome his prejudices? Has he really found love? Can the curse be lifted? And why does his best friend look so good in a miniskirt?
Positives: Lots of scope for funny scrapes, male bashing etc.
Negatives: Back-story very similar to film "Ghosts of girlfriends past"

Story 3:
Working title: Warrior
Plot: Fantasy adventure in a jungle environment.  A teen girls world is turned upside down when she helps save her best friends life during a coming of age ceremony.  Outcast, betrayed and alone, she is the only one who can save her people from disaster, but will be killed if she ever returns.
Positives: Lots of adventure and excitement.  Positive female roll model protagonist.
Negatives: Keeping the pace going whilst maintaining good description, and characterising.

So there you have it.  As midnight approaches I will have to make up my mind out of these, unless of course another idea pops up!

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Sometimes it seems like an impossible climb!

 

This is kind of how I feel when I started my first Nanowrimo last year.  Fifty thousand words to write in a month, crikey.  However much you break it down into the sixteen hundred or so words a day it still seemed like an insurmountable task.  With little more than a silly title to go on I had little idea of how I was going to proceed into the story.  I took the easy way out.  I wrote as a timeline diary of events.  Each day of November became a day in my story, each daily entry preceded with a location and time.  It wasn’t a great plot device, but it helped me through the month.  I also fell into the trap of trying to hit the daily target.  There’s no problem with this, and indeed is a great motivational tool for the first timer.  This year I am going to try and ignore the daily target.  There is a school of thought that your average Wrimo novel chapter is around sixteen hundred words long for a reason, and this could stifle the authors creativity.  So this time I am going to try and fly without the safety net, and see how I get on!  The other lesson I learnt is to not tell people too much about what is going on in the story.  I got inundated with ideas for my story last year.  It got kind of tricky to let people down lightly; not including their ideas.  This was my silly story, and I wanted all the ideas to come from my twisted mind, not anyone else's.

As the month went on, sometimes the top of the climb didn’t seem to far away, other times it seemed to stretch further into the distance.  At these times you just have to reach for the next branch and grab hold.  Sure enough you will get to the top.  At the end there are a mixed bag of emotions.  Relief that it’s all over, emptiness that there is no more writing to do, curiosity over how others have done.  You have a manuscript of sorts. Sure it’s full of typo’s,, sentences that don’t make sense, mangled grammar, but a manuscript all the same.  If you are brave enough you can read through it, and cringe at all your mistakes.  If you are braver, and thick skinned, you can encourage others to read it, and smile as they pick out all the errors.  Then all too soon, it’s time to let go.  Leave the story alone for a little while.  Get back to real life.  Have a rest.  Give yourself a little distance between this mad, crazy word dash, and your normal existence.  Then you will feel serene for a while!

 

That is until you decide to do a rewrite of course….

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Let me at it

I know its less than two weeks away, but I am eager to get started on my Nanowrimo jaunt this year.  It’s weird because those that can write can pretty much do it any time of the year.  We can even set ourselves the same challenge of writing a set minimum target in a specified time, so why am I finding this event so exciting.  Let me digress a little, there is sort of a point.  My wife, Jane, has entered got a place in the London Marathon next year.  This race is very important for her.  Now she could run any marathon she wanted to.  There are far more challenging ones, there are many that are easier to an entry for, as I’m sure the thousands of unlucky applicants for the London Marathon would attest to.  She could even just run the distance on her own, not as part of a race.  The twenty six point two miles is the same challenge, possibly harder as you need more self-discipline to run alone. However this is not the main point of taking part!  Jane has her personal reasons for wanting to run this race in this particular year.  All the runners have their own reasons for wanting to run this particular race.  The reason this race is so important is that it is iconic; a thing to be a part of; a massive social gathering.  As a species we are social animals.  We want to be a part of things with other humans all trying to achive the same goal.  We want to compete, to show off, to collude, to empathise, and to support.

In the same way all the people entering Nanowrimo are doing the same.  There are the atheletes, who write all the time, possible making a living at writing.  There are the first timers, who have perhaps not written anything creative since leaving school, but fancy having a go.  There are those like me who have done it sucessfully once, and want to see if it was a fluke or not.  What Nano provides is a framework.  A start and finish line.  It gives those of us with busy lives and families permission to set time aside to write.  It gives us something to love and hate, to get frustrated with, to cherise, and nurture.  At the end we can, if we like, sigh with relief and thank goodness it’s all over; or it can spur us on to write more, to learn how to proof and edit, and self publish.  For the atheletes, new or already established, those with real talent, it might mean the possibility of a best seller.  The important thing, whatever your reasons and motives for writing in this event is that we’re all in it together.  This is why Nanowrimo has grabbed my imagination.  I’m never going to write any great works, no bestsellers, but I am going to enjoy the journey, the ending, and the support and attention of my family, family, and of all those other Wrimo’s who give each other a friendly nudge in the forum, mail, and twitter feeds when we reach out for help.

Sunday mornings are good for rambling blogs.  Later I will look back at this and cringe.  I will be tempted to delete it, but won’t.  Happy writing!

 

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Fading Fast

Not having to earn my living at writing, or having an adoring audience to please means that writers block isn’t something I’ve encountered. I have no illusions as to how good my work will be, so if my story lines hit the skids I just switch hit it off into another tangent, however ridiculous the new storyline might be.  Those words are my little creations and I care about them just as much.  No my block is language block, and I am sure it’s to do with aging, and this content delivered age we live in.  The age thing manifests itself when I am on a roll.  I can be rocketing towards the end of a fantastic sentence, with the perfect turn of phrase to end it, when poof! It’s gone!  And can I remember what I was going to write.  I imagine that little wordy snippet, dancing just out of reach, cocking a snoot at my struggling brain.  It happened this morning.  I was sitting in the car waiting for one of my kid’s school to open, tapping away.  Desperate to capture the words before the doors opened when it happened.  I was at a loss.  Should I put in some inferior phrase, and go back to it hoping, probably in vain that my gem would revel itself.  No, not this time.  I metaphorically stamped my feet, stated that “I’m not playing any more, it’s my ball and I’m going home”, and stomped off.  That’ll show me!

The other theory is that we’ve all bought into this multi-dimensional would whizzing through the airwaves, down wires, through screens and speakers.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the internet, and all that it brings, but socially we have embraced it too wholeheartedly, almost unconsciously, and made it an indispensible part of our daily routines. This is all well and good if we did it in a balanced way, but we have rushed at it, lapping it up as I imagine indigenous peoples lapped up refined food, and alcohol from the various invading explorers over history.  We devour social networks, bathing in a dozen communication method, paring down out language to shoehorn our messages into 140 character blocks.  We check our smart phones and tablets by the minute, getting nervous if we are away from the social cloud for too long.  As I alluded to rich language is fast becoming  a victim of our need to relay and receive messages as fast as possible.  Tv programs, web pages, news, movies, all written in a rapid development style, to be the forefront of today's attention.  I am one of the worst offenders.  I used to read a lot, at least two novels on the go at once.  Now I barely open a printed book at all.  I have a kindle, pc, tablet, even my phone where I could devour fantastic pieces of literature, but I don’t because there is always something more instant that can fill my mind and time, preventing me from thinking for myself.  When you stop thinking, it is very difficult to start again.

 

So here's my plan.  I am going to pick up a book and read it.  Not just a page or two at a sitting, but really read it. I will drink in the prose, mull and digest it.  I will let my mind flow over, in around and through the words, words that some other human being has strung together in a meaningful way to get a message, a story across that can’t be told in a short sharp snippet.  I am going to find words that are unfamiliar to me, and find out what they mean, when they are used. 

Hopefully, there’s a chance, however small, that doing this will enrich my vocabulary, exercise my brain, and bring a little more colour to my writing.

And if this all sounds pompous and pretentious then so be it.  Maybe the would needs a little more pomposity, and now and again, what's the harm in pretending!

 

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Getting in a little practice with a little indulgence

With Nanowrimo looming large I have started getting into practice.  How? Well starting to write a novel of course.  I have bought a small tablet device which I am using as a notepad in those little in between moments, such waiting to pick up or drop the kids off at school, of snatched moments at home, etc.  The screen is sensitive enough to type reasonable quickly, and bright enough to read out doors, i.e. in the car.  I have ordered an adaptor cable so I can plug in a proper keyboard for those moments when I get half and hour or more to do some serious writing.  For £120, it’s far cheaper than an iPad with a keyboard, and I still have the dubious pleasure of being able to play Angry Birds, possible the dullest, but very compelling game I’ve played since Farmville.

So why write a novel now.  The main reason is to get back into practice before November.  I have half a story that needs to be written.  Unfortunately it’s the first and last quarter of the story.  The middle bit will need to compost a bit more.  I have launched into the first chapter, and am longing to do rewrites already. I plan to keep this one going until Nano starts then shelve it until December.  I will then pick it up and finish the first draft, by which time I will be sufficiently distant from the Nanowrimo novel to give that a rewrite, proof etc.  When that is done, I will be able to do the same to this one.  I am hoping that that is a going to prove a productive workflow.  If it does work, I have a couple of other stories I want to get into.

The current novel is an adventure story.  It is inspired by the stories of Edgar Rice-Burroughs.  It will be suitable for older teens and adults, but there is some graphic violence in it, and possible some mild sexual scenes, so I might have to put one of those warning stickers on the cover!  It’s set in the jungle, but not on our planet, or time frame.  So there is a fantasy fiction element to the overall theme.  So as I write this, chapter one is underway!  Starting has been the hardest part as I had no compelling reason to start.  With the Nanowrimo event, there is a definite start date, which is very useful, but with writing just for the sake of it I have to be self-disciplined, and that is not something I am good at.  With that initial barrier aside, the blank sheet of electronic manuscript paper written on, my only obstacles of the multitude of diversion activities drifting my way.

 

Onwards and upwards.  There are words to abuse, grammar to mangle, and the lives of fictional characters to mess with.

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I'd rather be watching tele!

With November rapidly approaching it's time to think about cranking up the brain cells to attempt another assault on the English language.  Yes November is Nanowrimo month, or Write a Novel in a Month month, or to misquote it, write 50,000 or more words of complete drivel, and bore family and friends stupid with your faux author like antics.  I hasten to add this is purely self deprecation, and many of the thousands of participants are very accomplished writers, I speak only for myself. 

Last year was my first attempt at this challenge.  Man Eating Pies was born.  I hit the target with about 157 words to spare (I think).  There was an incentive to all those who completed the challenge; to get a proper printed proof copy of your novel.  In my excitement, I am 43 and things like this get me excited, I rushed odd my manuscript as soon as could, not even considering the possibility that my small tome might be full of numerous spelling mistakes, dubious grammar, and even sentences that made no sense whatsoever.  I had even forgotten to end one of my small, but possibly important plot devices.  This would not really have mattered, however I did  encourage a couple of people to read some of my creation.  I was soon crestfallen as my well meaning readers reeled off error after error.  Not too down hearted, I went through the whole thing with a gappy toothed comb.  Not exactly a rewrite, more of a patching up.  Consequently, the book, small cough, is in its second print edition.  It has been sold in three countries in printed form, and two in digital form.  One day the sales might reach double figures.  I do discourage people from trying to buy my book, as they need the money more than I do, and honestly, apart from a few cheap gags, some tenuous reference to inter species sex, and a lot of violence, it's really not very good.

So, on to this years effort.  At the time of writing there are just over seventeen days until this years challenge.  I have several ideas for a story, one silly, one a kids book, one an adventure aimed at teens, one an adult book that will require serious thinking.  As with last year I think I will be going for quantity not quality, so I'm guessing the silly one will out!

I will publish updates here, but probably not the story itself.  Write you soon.