Week 14 - Fiction's Foothills

It is 14 weeks since I began the Novel Blog. Over these weeks I have received many emails from those writing or thinking about writing a book. They have certainly helped the time fly; so thanks!

Indeed, it seems incredible that that time has passed so quickly, and even more amazing that I have just hit my target of getting to Chapter 20 by 21 December.

But that is exactly what I have done.

Now, lest you think I am sounding like a smug git, I would say that it has been anything but easy. In fact, it has been damn hard. Along the way, there has been a death in the family, I have had to resist the temptations of friends, Spooks and a beautiful wife (didn’t do too well on the latter two. Or the first); and all of life's other demands have been trying to distract me from that keyboard.

Somehow, though, I managed it - and I have identified three main practical reasons which might help others struggling to write with all of life’s distractions banging on the window of your study.

1. I discovered Scrivener - a writing software that has done nothing less than revolutionise my work flow. It really is that good. Not only does it manage not to come between me and my work, but it actually helps me write more. Sadly, it’s only available for Mac; but then again, if you own a PC it’s time you bought a Mac anyway. Find it here: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html

2. Starbucks started opening at 7 am. Brilliant! I have liberated that former “dead” hour between 7 & 8 am and now write for 75-90 minutes a morning. Of course, not everyone works/lives near an early opening coffee shop (and some people would rather go to Africa to be eaten by an elephant than enter a Starbucks), but if you can grab an extra hour before whatever fills your day, it will be habit forming in all the best ways.

3. I write a chapter a week. Whatever happens. Trust me, once you have set this standard, you can not bear to write less.

Of course, I still have a long way to go. If writing a novel is akin to climbing a mountain, then I have just reached base camp.

That is where I am going to spend the holiday season before returning to complete chapters 21-30 and finish my first draft by Easter (20 March).

But those chapters are still shrouded in mountain mist.

For the next 10 days I am going to make merry, enjoy the company of all those people who have been so patient with me over the last three and a half months and prepare for the ascent to Chapter 30.

Merry Christmas.

Week 13 - The Scene of the Crimes

The term “research trip” has always held a fascination for me.

Visions of searching through dusty archives in some long forgotten room in the British Library; or spending weeks in an Oxford college, reading through erudite dissertations with a Casaubon-like commitment to the purity of research always spring to mind when I hear that phrase.

Especially so this week as I have been on the first research trip for my novel.

Did I discover some long lost work of literary genius? Aristotle’s treatise on comedy, or perhaps a lost Sherlock Holmes story?

Sadly not. But I did eat some lovely fish and chips.

Earlier this week I visited the town where my novel is set. Although I know it well, there is nothing like actually being there. I walked the streets my characters walk, I drank in the pubs, I looked at the views. I even took pictures of where they live.

This showed the extremes of fiction writing. One character lives in a flat that is very real and has a quite unsuspecting occupant; another lives in a house that in reality is an empty muddy farmer’s field.

Both are equally real to me, although only one is visible on Google Earth (unless you have a very special edition).

Walking in my characters’ footsteps was inspirational and also suggested new roads - literally and metaphorically - that they might go down.

It also showed the problem of using one’s memory to set scenes when I discovered the quiet courtyard I had set a murder in, is in fact overlooked by a pub.

But perhaps best of all, I got to hear the locals talk. No book can help here, you just have to experience it. The subtleties of local dialect can breath life into a book and there is no better way to experience this than by going to the location.

Of course, if your book is set in Sydney this can be a problem. On the other hand, if it is set somewhere like Scarborough (mine is not set in either place) - it’s not such an issue.

And it doesn't have to be all work. I went with my wife, we dined out, went for walks on the beach and generally had a good time. And if I occasionally broke off from dinner to scribble a note on a napkin, she didn’t mind.

She also bore up well when I mentioned that one of my characters was a bit of a whisky connoisseur and the pub we were in had a large selection of malts.

It was a research trip after all.

Week 12 - A Boy and the Black Stuff

There’s no escaping the fact that life can get really busy at this time of year.

I always find it odd that I start complaining when the department stores put out their Christmas stock in September; yet it gets to the first week in December and suddenly there doesn’t seem to be enough time to fit everything in.

One thing is different this year: I’m writing a novel. If you’ve been with me from the first blog, you will know that my plan was to get to Chapter 20 before a well-earned Christmas break. I started Chapter 19 this morning, so I am on track.

This has been helped in no small way by the fact my local Starbucks has started to open an hour earlier. I can now go in anytime after 7 am and start to type away.

This has proven immensely useful and very productive, although at a slight moral cost.

I should really dislike Starbucks. In fact, I really want to dislike it.

Look at what comes under the negatives in my Starbucks Plus & Minus spreadsheet (OK, it’s a virtual spreadsheet, but you get the drift).

American Corporate Giant; Anytown syndrome; All look the same; puts the “little man” out of business; play the same music; Starbucks and laptops is such a cliché...

and yet...

I love the place! The plus column: The coffee’s great (black, of course); the staff remember me and what I drink; I like the music; and I tried the little man’s coffee shop: it never opened on time, the staff were terrible and it was about as conducive to writing as standing up on a rush hour tube, while some drunk itinerant treats the carriage to an energetic chorus or two of “It’s Not Unusual”.

As for the cliché - it must be a cliché for a reason. And that reason is sometimes it’s good to go against what people say and just do what seems right - like starting a sentence with a preposition.

At the end of the day, I just can’t argue with the facts. I am more productive because getting to write in a place that seems geared to it inspires me to keep going.

Kate Mosse suggests certain favourite quotes help inspire the writing process. She offers some examples, such as: Dem Wandersmann gehört die Welt in allen ihren Weiten (to the wanderer belongs the whole wide world). You can see more here: http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/12.asp.

As ever, good advice. But my own sure fire quote to get the creative juices flowing is: There’s always time for one more drink (E.Morse).

After all, the next chapter is only a cup of coffee away.

Week 11 - The Heart of the Matter

In a long forgotten book about writing fiction, I read a piece of advice that has stayed with me ever since I decided to write a novel.

Now prepare yourself, as I am going to share this with the world.

Here goes:

Write the first draft with your heart and the second with your head.

It is certainly a piece of advice that I have taken to heart. Before I began my 52 week writing plan, I was the living embodiment of prognostication being the thief of time. I was responsible for more drafts than the army in World War Two.

Unfortunately, my drafts seldom made it past the first few chapters. The equivalent of the Allied Fleet on D-Day making it out of Portsmouth Harbour and then thinking, “We’ll give that another go soon” and then promptly becoming distracted by Crosby & Hope’s latest Road film... You get the idea.

The problem was that I was stopping too often to check that I wasn’t contradicting myself and that the plot was tighter than a pre-ghosts Scrooge. I was so far from writing with the wind in my hair, that a level of dust only previously seen on a student’s Alcohol Free Drinks Guide, had begun to build up on my book.

And then I read that quote...

It was a real epiphany. For the past 11 weeks, I have done just that and the result has been a revelation. This morning, nestled on a corner table in Starbucks (why is it that writing with a laptop isn’t the same in a Mark One cafe?), I finished chapter 17. That’s 10 chapters in 10 weeks.

Of course, I’m not saying that they are flawless - in fact, they have more “flaws” than a tower block - but the simple fact is that they are there.

As Kate Mosse says in week 11’s tip, book editors these days do not expect to edit; they expect the manuscript to arrive in near-perfect condition. Fine. But that is what the second draft is for. That’s the time to write with your head.

In the heady days of the first draft, put your foot on the pedal, open all the windows, and drive at full speed.

There are no speed cameras on First Draft Highway.

Week 10 - My Space

When you tell people you’re a writer, the classic question you always get asked is: where do you get your ideas from? It’s a question most writers dread - and I’m going to treat it with the disdain it deserves (or I could offer my usual reply: a PO Box in Dorset).

Instead I am going to focus on a question I’m often asked, once the typical opener has been deftly side stepped.

Where do you work?

It never fails to surprise me that people have such wide ranging ideas of what my workspace should look like. Some - usually the more romantic - have a decidedly “Garret” idea. You know the thing: some poorly lit attic apartment, furnished with a rickety chair and a woodworm-infested table and probably with a view of the Eiffel Tower.

When I crush their Parisian Artists Fantasies, I almost feel a little guilty.

Then there are the business types, who seem to think I set up a “word processor” on the kitchen table and tap away while warming my feet on the Aga, only to promptly clear away all my mess once someone who has a proper job returns home.

When I crush a garlic clove into their drink, I seldom feel guilty.

As to the answer to the question, the truth depends on who you’re asking.

I know writers who can pop along to their local park, take out a notebook, and chapters flow like cider at an under 17s school disco.

Then there are the ones who have a study that is filled to bursting point with all the electronic wizardry needed to send a man to Mars. They tap at their multi screen set up and revel in their dedicated space.

Whatever works best for you is the way to go (bearing in mind your choices may be limited by family, money and power points).

Personally, I have adapted a second bedroom into a study of sorts, but still have to manoeuvre my way through ironing piles, bags of old newspapers and a collection of shoe boxes that seems to magically reproduce whenever my wife goes anywhere near a high street.

Kate Mosse’s tip number 10 is to find somewhere right for you. It’s a good point - I think most would agree that a dedicated space is the ideal, but whatever is available, even if it’s under the stairs (not in a Harry Potter way, of course), then go with that.

It’s exactly in such a space that I have just completed my next chapter. After 10 weeks of writing, it feels like the place I go when I need to write; and when I’m not writing, it sits there making me feel guilty.

A writer’s space should be a cocoon - even if it is not physically separate from the rest of the house. It’s a place to write; it’s a place to think; and possibly most of all, it’s a place to avoid people who ask you where you get your ideas from.

Week 9 - Early Humbug?

They’re starting to do it. I have lost count of the times I have read interviews with authors who have said that their characters have taken on a life of their own. Whenever I read this, I always think, “Oh come on, how precious can you get?”

Well, what do you know? There I was writing the introduction for one of the two main characters in my book. I always knew when they would first appear within the novel (about a quarter of the way in), but I assumed that they would say what I wanted them to say.

As I was typing the initial description of my character, I started to get a weird nagging feeling. A bit like when you have headphones on and the music is blotting out the rest of the world, but you suddenly get the feeling that someone is talking to you.

As my fingers tapped away at the keyboard and I approached the first lines my new character would speak, a voice in my head was saying, “I wouldn’t say that, I would be more likely to say this…”

The really odd thing is that the voice was right.

So, the second of my two main characters is now in the novel and is already thinking for himself. This is even stranger because my other main character is quite happy for me to get him to say whatever I want.

This raises an interesting question: does this mean the second character is a stronger/better character?

Only time will tell.

In the meantime, I am continuing to try to write a chapter a week. But how and when?

When I started this blog nine weeks ago, I was writing at the weekends and tying up loose ends in the week. Since then I have noticed that my writing week is changing. I am tending to write almost every day - with perhaps one day off a week - and this seems to be working.

I would be interested in finding out what sort of writing weeks others have: email me at: jimmymac53@googlemail.com and let me know!

This was prompted by Kate Mosse’s Tip Number 9: Don’t Spend Your Ideas Too Freely. In essence, this means the more you talk about something the less effective it will be when you come to write about it, as the mystery will have been revealed.

This is especially interesting for me as I am writing a mystery novel. When my wife asks me how I am doing, can I give away any plot developments, or will this lessen their impact?

It’s a moot point, because I am not telling her anything: she will have to read this blog! It’s the only place where I will be revealing elements of my story as I progress.

Kate should be proud - I am not just avoiding spending my thoughts too freely, I am turning into the Ebenezer Scrooge of Ideas!

Week 8 and a bit...

It had to happen. Life finally caught up with me this week and the plan to complete last week’s chapter was left in tatters as real life intervened and sent my weekly plan to life’s shredder.

I suppose I should not complain. The reason I was unable to produce my quota was that I was involved in a book launch – one I had edited, as opposed to written – and the ever-stretching elastic that normally contains all the things I need to do in a week, finally gave up the ghost and snapped.

Come Sunday night – my normal deadline – I had only written 700 words of the 2500 I was aiming for. I had to raise the white flag of authorship and switch off the computer, skulking shamefaced to bed.

As if I needed a lesson in the importance of deadlines, once I accepted I was not going to hit my word length, it all went pear shape. I didn’t write another word for two days.

While not exactly up there with the day J.D. Sallinger decided he’d had enough of the whole “publishing your work to widespread critical acclaim” thing, it was still a localised disaster.

Or was it?

As it turned out, when I did finally get down to finishing the chapter, I found that I was writing with a renewed vigour. It’s amazing what a break – even just a few days – from a predefined routine can do for the creative juices.

It turns out that missing a self-imposed deadline once in a while, is not quite the calamity it initially seemed.

Of course, as the monk said to the tailor who was showing off his new horsehair cloth, probably better not to make a habit out of it.

Week 7 - To Cut Or Not To Cut

Ah, the pain of cutting loose those precious words.

One of the most agonising parts of writing a novel is when you get a phrase or paragraph which stands out as a shining example of why you should be at the top of the best seller's list, instead of sitting in a malodorous box room tapping away at a keyboard and drinking endless cups of cold coffee (you always forget it's there until it's cold - it's a law of nature).

Anyway, you finally produce a beautifully created section of text and you sit back in your woodworm-infested chair to admire your handy work. You start to visualise it on the back of your book's dust jacket as the perfect way to pull in millions of readers. You're filled with a warm glow that can only be replicated by gorging on Reddy Brek and you start to mentally draft your acceptance speech for the Booker...and then...

...and then you realise that however wonderful that section of perfect prose is, it doesn't bloody fit! Like a see-saw occupied by an elephant and a super-model, it has tragically over balanced the whole chapter. However you try to cut other sections, you realise that you need them to propel the plot or place that cunningly disguised clue. Your heavenly half a page simply does not work.

Finally, you're left with a simple but painful choice: you can leave it in and see the rest of the book collapse under its weight, or you can cut it out. Clearly, there's really no choice at all and this is the only thing that lessens the pain.

Kate Mosse suggests a scrapbook for these sacrifices at the alter of the scissors icon. You never know when they might come in handy, but more than likely they will form the debris on the road to success.

It's painful, yes; but it's also what separates successful writers from those who drown in the slush pile of the writing life.

After all, if writing is something that you intend to make a living from, it's better to be ruthless than roofless.

Week 6 - Writing Is Hard

One of my university lecturers used to make the whole group chant this at the beginning of every creative writing seminar. He would circle the class, like a cross between Malcolm Bradbury and some crazed hyena on heat and look for any member of the pack who was falling behind. "What is writing," he would cackle hysterically (OK - I may be getting slightly carried away, but you get the point) and some poor soul would have to stand up and intone his mantra: "Writing is hard!"

This would then be followed by two hours grappling with different forms of poetry: iambic pentameters, Elizabethan and Petrarchan sonnets and so on. Not the happiest memories, but in the best traditions of morality tales they did teach me a lesson. I was a terrible poet. True, the total output of my published works amounts to one poem (easily my best - but still not that good) so there was the most modest form of success. But much more importantly, it taught me to really love words. Not just like them in a "thanks for the date, I'll call you" way; but to love them in a "every waking moment is a torment unmatched in the annals of hell when I'm not with you" manner.

While I may never trouble the short list for the next poet laureate (or for that matter, the poetry corner in the local church newsletter), trying to write poetry has significantly helped my prose writing. The point here is that you don't need to write for publication - and you certainly don't need to write for some trochee-obsessed academic - but if you write poetry for yourself, it will provide a strong foundation on which your words of prose may live.

If you feel like dipping a toe into the babbling brook of poetry, then I heartily recommend Stephen Fry's That Ode Less Travelled. It is an inspiring book in all the best ways and will give anyone even remotely interested in poetry the tools of the trade without having Stephen circle you cackling like a failed witch from Macbeth. Here's the link: http://www.stephenfry.com/shop.html.

Poetry has certainly helped me develop a rhythm to my writing as well as find my own voice. As I got to the end of this week and my self-imposed deadline was approaching a day earlier than usual (in order that I could queue up to be one of the first people to buy Apple's new operating system...I know, sounds a little sad. But if you own a Mac, I know you'll understand (note to self - try not to aleienate the 99% of the population that use that Windows thing).

Anyway...as I headed towards the deadline quicker than a Leopard chasing its pray, the value of developing your own voice became apparent. As can happen sometimes (but not often enough) when writing, the characters took over. My rather poor typing skills were no match for their actions; but finally, I got to the end of the week's chapter and I even managed to introduce a new twist that I hadn't seen coming.

Yes, writing is hard; but it can also be the most rewarding experience. As long as there's no one chanting at you at the same time.

Week 5 - A Capital Week

I have spent this week in London - a city that seems both to be full of writers and creative types while at the same time providing thousands of distractions from actually writing.

This week was always planned as a "rest week" as I knew I would be away and that as a result, my novel would not progress much. I have to say that I needed a break - especially as I am about to enter the next stage of writing where my aim will be to write a full chapter a week between now and Christmas.

Of course, taking a break from writing is a bit like looking forward to catching up on sleep on a Sunday. However tired I am by Sunday, I am invariably wide awake at some ungodly hour. Then come Monday, I am shattered.

Writing is the same. When I should have been hanging around trendy (i.e. over-priced) bars and cafes waiting to be chatted up by some supermodel type and introduced to her publisher husband, what actually happened is I kept getting ideas, or snippets of dialogue would pop into my head. This would see me scribbling furiously on anything close to hand (usually my left hand) and being the subject of pitying looks from laptop tapping fellow customers.

I could have explained that I had left my laptop in the hotel as I was here to relax, but as I probably resembled a demented green ink wielding madman, I thought better of it.

Still, I managed to come away from the capital with some nice character sketches (London is nothing if it's not full of mad, bad and just plain weird people).

I have the weekend to recover from taking a week off and then it's back to the slog for the next eight weeks.

Next week's tip is Find Your Voice. This is something that can be really hard for a writer. It's not just that we find ourselves writing with other people's voices, but sometimes we have too many voices going around in our heads (like Dickens, who dreamed of conversations with his own characters).

I am hoping that my week in London will have helped strengthen my own characters' voices - and that none of then suddenly develops a Cockney twang.

Week 4 or 28 Days Later

28 days later.

I am pleased to report that four weeks into my 12 month novel plan, I still have a wife and friends, I have avoided the temptation to sign up to Facebook and most incredibly of all, when I look out of my window I am pretty sure there are no virus infected zombies roaming London's streets. And if that's not enough, I have written quite a nice scene set in a cafe.

Despite a family funeral and an irate incident with an incandescent news agent (don't ask), I have completed the next chapter of my novel. A full chapter in a week - actually a two-day session that almost wore the letters from my keyboard - has got me more or less in tact to the end of month 1.

There have been some surprises already. The first was that the writing software that I have been using for two years was no longer up to the job.

It was a bit like when you look in the mirror and that favourite shirt that you thought made you look like George Clooney, is now giving off a decidedly George Formby vibe. My previous piece of writing software had become as appealing as a piece of chewing gum left on a lamppost overnight (note to self: stop watching old movies in the afternoon when you should be working).

Drastic action was called for. So I trawled the net, read some reviews and downloaded some trial software. 20 minutes later I was up and running with Scrivener - a piece of writing software that actually manages not to get in between the writer and the writing. I highly recommend it: here's the link where you can download a free trial and practice using its many features http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html

Speaking of practice, week three's tip - culled from Kate Mosse's 52 Tips for writers http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/02.asp was Practice (be sure to visit Kate's site - there's even a link to the best blog on the net!).

Kate suggests taking a paragraph and then re-writing it without using any of the original words. Instead of trying this as a quasi-academic exercise, I applied it to the last paragraph of the chapter I had just finished.

When I re-wrote it using Kate's idea, it suddenly fell into place. It reminded me of the old joke: a man stops a passer by in New York and asks the best way to get to Carnegie Hall. "Practice my friend, practice", comes the reply.

Next week will see me spending more time than I would like on our railways so I'm going to have less time to keep my novel on track. Luckily, the next tip of the week is "Reasonable Objectives".

Now there's timing Virgin Trains can only dream of.

Week 3 and the Curious Incident of the Notebook at the Bus Stop

OK, so it's time to let you know what kind of book I am writing.

It's a crime novel with all the elements you would expect (but to paraphrase the great Eric Morecambe, not necessarily in the order you would expect them). It's set in a coastal town in the north of England and the main characters are a policeman and a journalist. Not exactly a marriage made in heaven, but neither was Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne's, but that seems to work.

Basically, it's a modern detective story with more twists than Chubby Checker's back catalogue (note to self: might be an idea to update pop culture references).

I had given myself two weeks to write the next chapter - and this has turned out to be a good idea. It is already becoming apparent that I am unable to write from A to B. Instead of an ordered A-Z narrative, my desk looks like an explosion at a alphabet spaghetti factory.

I blame the notebook. Following Kate Mosse's tip no.2 (see last week's blog), I have carried a note book all week. On Tuesday, I suddenly had an idea for something that would happen in the last quarter of the book. Now normally, I would have jotted the idea down on anything that came to hand (the morning's paper, the back of my hand, the woman in front of me...); but as I had the notebook with me, I used that.

I'm not sure what happened next, but the next thing I knew I had got on the bus, travelled for half an hour, passed my stop and ended up in an area of the city that is so run down, the muggers go around in pairs.

I had written two whole scenes - around 1000 words of something that is due to happen a good dozen chapters from where I am now.

What I need now is some software for my novel that helps me bring these various strands together. And what do you know? I found it. I'll tell you about my recommendation for writing software next week when I'll also be reporting back on Kate's tip 3: Practice.

I will start by practicing getting off the bus in the right place.

First Week Shock and First Success

As if you could ask for a better example of the unexpected things that can put a stick in the spokes of progress, a relative died this week. Sad yes, but a release from the non-life they had been living.

Despite this final chapter, I can report that I have made some progress. I've just written the final sentence of my chapter 11.

"11 chapters in a week!" I hear you call.

Lest you feel inadequate about my speed writing, let me confess. It has actually taken me in excess of two years to write those first 10 chapters (please don't do the math; it's depressing). Hence the blog.

A few weeks ago, I re-read the first 10 chapters and discovered that as they were written with such alarming gaps in between, there were inconsistencies that would make a Cabinet Minister blush.

So I decided to write the novel in a more orderly fashion over 1 year. Yes, it means I have a slight head start. But let's face it, they're all going to have to be re-written as characters' names change more often than my wife's shoes (and if you know my wife, that's often; and if you do know my wife, how the bloody hell do you know her? Is that why she keeps telling me she's working late? You cad.)

It must be said it is a tad optimistic to think this will continue (a chapter a week, not death of relatives); so I will be using hints from Kate Mosse (her of the Labyrinth fame). On her blog, she has 52 hints for writers - 1 a week. This surely is Kismet, so I will be using one a week and letting you know how it goes.

Here's the link: http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/intro.asp

Week one was, "write every day". Simple, yes; but also effective. One night when it seemed I wasn't going to do as much as turn on the computer, I decided to jot down a particularly nice piece of dialogue that I had overheard, and would you believe it, 500 words were the result. The motivation of writing even a little every day, really helps. I recommend it.

Week 2 is Carry a notebook. Again, sounds simple, but we'll give it a go and hopefully this week will be slightly less dramatic.

Of course it had its compensations: despite the hurdle that is mortality, I have completed a chapter in a week. Hurrah!

Welcome to the 12 month Novel Blog.

Hi & welcome to the dawn of my novel blog.

My name is Jimmy Mac and this is the first posting in what will be a weekly blog based around my progress in writing my novel.

First things first: that’s novel as in “a fictitious prose narrative”, not as in “new or unusual”. Although it might be that too. Well, at least new. Kind of...

Basically, this is the plan.

Over a 12 month period, I will write two drafts and then a final version of the novel finishing on 20 September 2008. I am looking for around 75,000 words which will be divided into roughly 30 chapters.

I will do this while holding down a full time job and attempting not to descend into hermit-like weirdness or developing a cavalier attitude towards personal hygiene.

That’s about it. I will keep you updated with my (lack of) progress and share the trials and tribulations of being a budding author (Note to self - avoid clichés like the plague.). Bugger.

Hopefully, those in a similar place will take solace (but not plot twists) for their own efforts and will be able to offer their own tips, encouragement or constructive abuse over the following months.

Over the first weeks, I will tell you a little about myself just so you can understand my situation better without boring the David Copperfield out of you.

Until then, feel free to email me with comments etc. at jimmymac53@googlemail.com

Jimmy Mac
Current Status: a pile of notes, loads of ideas, and a blank white screen...