Week 27 - Wet Sounds

One morning this week I made my regular sojourn through a city still largely in the arms of Morpheus, on my way to Starbucks.

It was cold, it was raining and my motivation was not at an all time high. As I opened the door to the coffee shop, a particularly well aimed drop of rain ran down my back. Things were not going well.

Then I heard the Beach Boys.

Now the music normally played in Starbucks is nothing if not appropriate to the season. Christmas means crooners, Sundays see smooth jazz gently caressing your ears and most mornings classic seventies’ rock with a bit of singer songwriter thrown into the mix is deemed the perfect accompaniment to your coffee and cake.

But the Beach Boys...in March?

Now lest I get the staff into trouble with the Starbucks bean counters (I couldn’t resist that pun, sorry), I will not give clues to which store I was in. I am sure that going off the official corporate playlist could well end up with the Barista in front of a Barrister for flagrant abuse of the AMC (apposite music clause).

I was so surprised to be musically asked to go surfin’ at 7.30am in a landlocked city that I made mention of the fact to the lady behind the counter.

“The weather’s so depressing,” she said, “I thought what the hell! We need cheering up.”

And that was just what she did.

It’s not that I am a massive fan of the band, in fact I seldom hear whatever music is playing once I begin to work, but what cheered me up was that one little rebellion in a world all too happy to spend its days on auto pilot.

It also got me thinking that sticking too rigidly to a plan, when the conditions seem far from appropriate, may not always be the best idea.

So this week, I have put my own plan on hold for a few days and spent the mornings organising the mountain of notes that I have amassed over the past six months.

They are “stored” in a Moleskin wallet that looks like a mini version of one of those concertina files. The problem is that they are written on a wide variety of items. Among the expected post-it notes and box file cards, I counted five till receipts, ten car park stickers (still considerably stickier that the post-it notes), two passport photos and a folded up flyer for “A Night in Bed” (don’t ask).

I was partly inspired by Kate Mosse’s Tip 27 that I had read the previous night: http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/27.asp but most of all I was inspired by tales of California Girls and Hot Rods (what or whoever that is).

I am now back on track and about to start my second draft; but I feel a whole lot better for the small change in routine. I have also got rid of a job I have been putting off for months and best of all, I have found a great plot idea that judging from the handwriting, must have been jotted down when I was researching one of my character’s liking for malt whisky.

All this due to someone who decided to rage against the coffee machine and go surfin’ in March.

Week 26 - A Game of Two Halves

It’s time for the pieces of orange.

After 26 weeks, I have reached half-time in my year long match between Time FC and myself.

While personally being as adverse to half-time analysis as a 2-0 down Manchester United would be to an Alex Ferguson team talk, I think I can make an exception.

Half a year ago I kicked off on my year-long odyssey to write a novel - while carrying on with all my other full time commitments - within a 52 week period.

It’s not been easy, but then again it never was going to be a walk in the park. Despite this, I have made some progress, having just finished the read through of my first draft. Allowing myself a couple of days to recover (and thus avoiding covering my keyboard with excessive amounts of chocolate) I will be beginning my second draft the day after Easter.

At least that was the game plan.

Just as a last minute goal before halftime can result in Sir Alex throwing a football boot in the direction of his best player (allegedly), I have decided to take a minor diversion, via a change in the formation of next week.

After reading through my novel, it has suddenly become clear that I can sometimes have the memory of a forgetful fish who has just banged his head on the side of his bowl.

My first draft contained a few too many time conflicts and contradictions to convince me that the same might not happen in the second draft. Therefore, I am resorting to the literary equivalent of the football manager’s flip chart.

Scene cards.

While many people use these before they start to write, I bypassed that stage as I knew better. Only of course, I didn’t. So I am going to take the next few days to go back over my structure and use scene cards to ensure I know exactly where I am and exactly when I am. I’ll be using Scrivener’s superb “Corkboard” feature for this http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html, but real cards would be almost as good.

It will be five days well spent. It will also give my characters a little more time to breath, something Kate Mosse recommends in her 26th tip: http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/26.asp

And if that means I miss the half-time break, so be it.

I never did like oranges.

Week 25 - The View from the Crows' Nest

Having reached the end of my first draft, I was reminded of those old maps that had blank white areas around the edges to indicate lands that had yet to be charted.

Once the evening of euphoria caused by completing my first draft had metamorphosed into a dawning despair, I realised I had no idea how to write a second draft. In the cold light of day, I knew it wasn’t just a case of writing everything again, only better. That might be fine if you have endless days ahead with nothing to trouble you but the gentle caressing of finely turned phrases.

I don’t.

I have to carry on with my full time job, writing articles, interviewing people, taking photographs and so on.

I needed a plan.

So I decided to research and lo and behold, going against all known laws of the internet, I found what I was looking for almost straight away.

For anyone at a similar stage, I recommend this link http://www.essortment.com/all/writebetternov_rtsk.htm It’s a succinct guide to working through a second draft - I have printed it on one side of A4 and have annotated it with rough dates for each stage.

At the moment I am reading through my draft and marking passages that need to be extended or cut; characters who need to be introduced or indeed cut out (sorry Amy); and any gaping contradictions (what do you mean the murderer can’t be in two places at once?).

I am about half way through and the task has already borne fruit. I have a much clearer overview of the novel as a whole (it is six months since I wrote the first chapter); I am also happy to see that my writing improves around the time I started to write daily: proof, if it was needed, of the importance of habit in the writer’s life.

It also highlights the importance of being your own critic. Some of it is terrible and my red pen was used liberally; but most of it can be saved. The odd word may even remain unchanged.

Now is not the time to worry about typos and unpolished prose, but to get a handle on the overall structure of your scenes and make notes for when the real writing begins again.

Not that we should get sloppy. I am indebted to Andy Calow - he of Calow Classics http://www.calowclassics.net/ - for pointing out a typo in last week’s blog. As he is responsible for providing the soundtrack to my writing via his classical music shop, it was only fit that I took note.

So as I select some appropriate music from my iTunes library care of Mr Calow, it’s time to get back to my red pen and leave the keyboard alone for a couple of weeks as I work my way through a box file of A4.

Slowly but surely, I am navigating my way towards the second draft.

Week 24 - The End of the Beginning

The other week I was walking in the Peak District. Not walking as in from the car to the cafe, but proper walking. Out on the hills being buffeted by wild wind and the odd wildish sheep. After a couple of hours, I stopped to have a drink. Turning around, I looked back over the path I had walked and was amazed to see how far I had come.

Just like this week.

On Tuesday night I typed two of the most magical words in writing: "The End." After 24 weeks, a number of setbacks, a few too many wee small hours sessions, I had arrived at the end of my first draft.

Now, I would not be telling the truth if I said that I never doubted that I would make it this far. There were times when the whole project - writing a novel in a year, while holding down a full time job - seemed to be on the par with waiting for my local library to get some new books.

So how have I got this far? The main reasons are:

1. I wanted to get this far. It's no exaggeration to say that if you don't really want to achieve a big task, the chances are you won't. Trust me, I know.
2. Habit. Write everyday - or at least six days a week. It is habit forming and your characters will begin to live because you spend so much time with them. Be warned though, this can lead to MWS - mumbling writer syndrome; whereby mothers move their children away from the odd person who is walking through town saying things like, "This would be a good place to hide a body" & "How much weed killer would you need to put in someone's drink to kill them?" (Don't try that at home - I have a feeling the answer is not very much).
3. Organisation (or , let’s be honest, at least the semblance of it). For this I have used Scrivener: www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.htm It has probably made the difference between the printed MSS that now sits on my desk awaiting the red pen of revision and tears and wailing unbecoming of a thirty-something.

I am now talking a whole 5 days off - trying not to think about my novel so that when I go back to Chapter One on Monday, it will be with fresh eyes.

I may not have yet completed the literary equivalent of the Pennine Way; but I'm out there, in the middle of the hills with nothing but empty scenery around me.

It's a little scary; it's a little daunting. But it's also very, very exciting.

The only problem is: however closely I study my Ordnance Survey map, there doesn't seem to be any instructions on how to write a second draft.