James Whitworth's Novel Blog

Epilogue

2008-09-20T23:24:00.003+01:00

So here we are.

365 days on from the moment I recklessly committed myself to write a crime novel in one year.

And what a year it’s been.

While I always hoped I would make it, now I’m here with 500 sheets of A4 paper next to me, I can’t quite believe I’ve written a novel. It’s not been easy; in fact, it’s been very, very hard.

So how have I managed it?

The invaluable advice of Kate Mosse’s 52 tips for writers has unerringly come to my rescue http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/intro.asp. My thanks to Greg and Kate Mosse for their permission to use their year’s worth of tips.

Scrivener http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html. Simply the best writing software on the planet. It helps you write by not getting in the way. Full screen mode had been my home for much of the last 12 months.

Calow Classics http://www.calowclassics.net/ for providing the soundtrack to my year.

Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/. Their blog competition kept me writing when I most needed it.

Everyone (except that really weird woman from Denmark) who has taken the trouble and time to email me. I have been quite amazed by the reception my blog has generated; something that is a testament to how many people are in a similar situation, chiselling away at the coal face of words.

...and of course my wife & friends (the circle - you know who you are).

...and finally.

As promised, the title of my book. Hopefully this time next year, Amazon, Waterstone’s, Blackwells and the rest will have a new title on their shelves.

Death’s Disciple.

But for now I’m having a week off.

As I lovingly caress a pint of beer in some remote village pub, I will think about the last twelve months. I will think about how hard it’s been, how much fun it’s been and how amazed I am that I have made it this far.

But most of all I will think about the sheer unmitigated joy, 52 weeks on, of typing those two final words.

The End.

Week 52 - The End (of the Beginning)

2008-09-19T17:31:00.004+01:00

This has been a bad week. In fact, it’s been a terrible week. If this week had been a record, it would be a Celine Dion album on which she is backed by Kenny G.

But it’s also been a good week. In fact it’s been a wonderful week. If this week had been a record, it would the Beatles’ Revolver; Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks or Jacqueline du Pre playing Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

This has been week 52.

Throughout the last seven days I have worked a number of hours that would make a junior doctor think it had been a long week. I have burned the candle at both ends, in the middle and now am just left with a sad lump of wax.

Nine days ago, I was far behind where I should have been. It called for drastic measures - and that is what it got.

In all my life I don’t think I have ever yawned as much as I did this morning (obviously excepting sitting through Powerpoint presentations and “O” Level maths).

I have subbed my final draft, I have re-written parts, I have changed sections. Sometimes just a word, sometimes whole paragraphs, once an entire page. I have worked in the morning, I have worked when I should have been doing something else (no change there), I have worked in the evening and I have worked in the wee small hours as my wife lay in the next room dreaming of Manolo Blahnik shoes and Colin Firth (hopefully separately).

And has it been worth it?

(insert drum roll).

Yes.

With a day and seven hours until my deadline, it looks like I’m going to make it. Bar a few changes tonight and a name change tomorrow (to avoid the law courts), I am finished.

52 weeks, 365 days, 94,000 words.

A novel.

Tomorrow - on day 365 itself - I will post my final blog. On it, I’ll let you know the title of my book and also what I plan to do next. Because, shocking as this is right now, writing the thing is only the first half of the journey...

Week 51 - Building Blocks of Success

2008-09-12T18:05:00.004+01:00

Do you remember when you were a small child and you had one of those brightly coloured toys that was made up of different shaped holes? You had square blocks, round ones and so on and you had to fit the right shaped blocks into the right shaped holes.

Early learning at its best. Except even then I wasn’t overly fond of playing by the rules and I can vividly remember trying to hammer a round peg into a square whole.

How about that for a sign of things to come?

For the past eight days that’s what I’ve been doing. With the exception of a brief reprieve on Saturday to pick up some CDs from Calow Classics, all I have done this week is work.

If my name was Jack, I would be a very dull boy right now.

It must be said that there is a sense of the fate about it all. As inevitable as a Thomas Hardy heroine’s bad luck, I have too much work to fit in the available time. With just a week and a day to go, I am drowning in final draft pages, notes and those little scarps of paper I always meant to type up but now litter my desk like confetti from a Royal wedding.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Why? Because if you have no deadlines, if you can carry on and on like an Oscar acceptance speech, if there’s always more time then chances are you will never finish anything. Which means you’ll never be in with a chance of publishing anything...

Let’s be clear. It’s incredibly tough, I have bags under my eyes that would probably exceed an airline’s carry on quota and the last time I took time off Gladstone and Disraeli where squaring up to one another; but I can’t think of a better way to spend my time.

Unless I get my Fisher-Price garage down from the loft...

Week 50 - Sweet Sixteen?

2008-09-04T18:29:00.001+01:00

It’s not just time that is running away faster than the Prime Minister from his Chancellor; it’s my thoughts.

As my total of weeks slams into the fifties, I am trying my level best not to think about that week 53. The week beyond the year. But like taxes, death and my wife’s ever-expanding shoe collection, there’s a sense of inevitability about it all.

Suddenly, now that the finish line is in sight, I am starting to think about the next stage. Selling the thing.

...but not yet. As of today, I still have 16 days left. Sixteen days to finish the final draft and open that bottle of something special that has been waiting patiently for the last year.

But how close am I? Well - as ever - I am behind where I need to be. There’s certainly more than 16 days’ worth of work to fit into those few remaining hours.

It was, of course, ever thus. Where would be the fun if it all went to plan?

So for the next two and a bit weeks, it’s time for caffeine-fuelled, bleary-eyed, hermit-like work madness.

By this time next week (Blog 51), we’ll probably know if I’m going to make it. The following week (52) we’ll know for sure.

And then...on 20th September as the clock chimes the end of my year-long odyssey, I’ll let you know the title.

Week 49 - Notes from a Greek Island

2008-08-28T19:42:00.001+01:00

The days have winged heels, Homer said (the Greek fellow, not the yellow one).

This week has been one of jet lag without the benefit of actually going abroad. The jet lag was caused by a Bank Holiday here in the UK which crept up on me and messed up my already fragile plans.

As predictable as traffic jams on a Bank Holiday, is the fact that I am running out of days at an alarming rate. Then along came that extra day’s holiday and where did I find myself?

Surrounded by thirty-seven women.

Now I would like to claim that these were Novel Blog groupies; but they weren’t. They were - and believe me I counted them - the number of women who entered the cinema I was sitting in with my wife before another man came in.

I don’t think you need a PhD in Cinematic Theory to realise that this can’t have been a James Bond film. No it was...Mamma Mia!

I always worry about those exclamation marks. They seem to say - this is going to be loud and screechy. And it was. The hoards of women surrounding me wept, clapped, sang and even danced as the film unfolded before my cynical eyes.

Of course, I didn’t enjoy the film. True, I did get cramp in my feet which manifested itself in what someone could be forgiven for thinking was foot tapping; and the silly smile that kept crossing my face must surely have been a result of too much fibre in my diet. And what some believed to be laughter as Julie Walters strode across tables while singing Take A Chance On Me was definitely caused by me choking on one too many Malteesers.

That’s not to say the experience was a total waste of two hours (and let’s be honest, two hours in the presence of Amanda Seyfried is hardly a waste).

I was struck how much the plot resembled a crime novel. There was a list of suspects (i.e. possible fathers), a set of clues and red herrings and finally a denouement with a twist.

Looking at it this way, I can satisfy myself that Monday wasn’t a day lost to the thief that is time, but rather a research trip that just happened to be made up of dozens of slightly insane women having the time of their lives.

When all is said and done, my plans didn’t meet their Waterloo. They actually made another step towards my goal; and as planning goes, that’s the name of the game.

Week 48 - Battle Weary

2008-08-21T18:10:00.001+01:00

Looking at the calendar this morning, I had one of those moments when the sheer enormity of your situation really hits home.

It’s now less than one calendar month until the end of my year-long novel writing journey. In less than four weeks it will all be over...but will I have a completed novel?

I know one thing for sure, it’s going to be close.

Throughout the past year, Kate Mosse’s 52 tips for writers has been a frequent source of inspiration and this week she has done it again. Her tip 48 is on “Fine Tuning” http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/48.asp and that’s exactly what I am doing. Having read through my novel again I am about to embark on the final draft - essentially small corrections and hopefully a little bit of polish.

For anyone who has made it this far - this close to the end - her words really resonate. There is definitely a little bit of battle fatigue setting in; energy levels can seem at an all time low and the thought of re-reading that particular scene again makes you want to desert and run for the hills.

But that would to be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on a level of which the English cricket team would be proud.

I think - I hope - that I have left enough time to work through the final draft.

Sheer force of will is what’s required, along with a lot of hard work and probably too much caffeine.

Maybe then I will be able to avoid a batting collapse and make it through the worsening light to stumps.

With just four blogs to go, it won’t be long until we have the answer.

Week 47 - Beginning of the End

2008-08-14T18:43:00.002+01:00

“The moving finger writes and having writ, moves on.”

Too right Omar (and Agatha).

There’s been a lot of that this week as my red pen has skimmed through the pages of my second draft. Mostly it's been typos, but now and again I have found inconsistencies that have so far escaped my notice.

The worst moment was when I realised that I had left a strand dangling that I had completely forgotten about. I say strand, more like the contents of a Lancashire textile factory (when they still existed).

It shows the value of this two-week process and has been quite an eye-opener. Some parts of my novel I have actually enjoyed re-reading and even found myself getting caught up in the plot.

Other parts not so much.

But that, I guess, was ever thus. In fact, it raises a point relevant to a number of emails I’ve had from people following the blog. These can be summed up from Suzanne in Surrey who asks how I am feeling about the impending arrival of week 52 and what that means for the book that's been such a major part of my life for almost a year.

What she’s talking about is letting go. From comments I have read as well as things I’ve read on other blogs, it seems that one of the main barriers that prevents new writers from completing their book is that they are not working to any time frame.

Even if they manage to reach the end of their story, there is always the opportunity for a re-written chapter here and a change to structure there. Without a deadline, the story will just go on and on...

This may be one of the main things that separates the professional from the amateur. The professional HAS to stop at a certain point and hand the book over. He or she knows that the book could always be a little better, but what good is that if it never gets to sit on a bookshop’s shelf?

It’s all about knowing when to let go.

Which is what I’ll have to do in five short weeks. It’s the only way it’s going to land on a publisher’s desk.

Of course, it won’t be easy.

It’ll be murder.

Week 46 - Campanology

2008-08-07T17:49:00.003+01:00

For the past week, I’ve been hearing things.

It’s been like my very own Turn of the Screw, with Henry James’s dense prose passed through some cerebral oscillator to emerge on the other side as a cacophony of bells.

Or to be more precise, I’ve been hearing that moment just before the bells ring. Like the beginning of Time on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon when you know there will be dozens of bells ringing out their discordant alarm and you brace yourself for the shock that is coming.

This can mean one of two things. One: my wife has been playing too many Neil Diamond albums; or Two: my deadline is approaching faster than you can say, “Oh, God. Not Sweet Bloody Caroline again.”

It’s probably both.

As I come to the end of week 46, even my failed algebra brain can work out that the end is approaching. I have spent the week going through my second draft armed with nothing more than my trusty red pen.

The good news is that it has been deployed into action considerably less than at the same point in my first draft. The bad news is that it is still making its mark on pretty much every page.

The key, as any Home Guard Corporal can tell you, is not to panic. I’m still on track and I need to take solace from the fact that the book isn’t as bad as it might have been. Some parts - whisper this only - border on the printable.

I have another ten days of red pen action, before I spend the remaining five weeks of my 52 on the final draft.

Deadline day is 20th September. Until then I need to stay calm and continue to work my way through my 52-week plan one step at a time, placing all the various pieces together to form the final work. When I look at it this way, it stops the whole task from looking too daunting.

After all, it’s just another brick in the wall.

Week 45 - Temperature's Rising...

2008-08-01T07:46:00.003+01:00

There it has sat. A brooding presence; sleeping for now, but easily woken. Its yellow mass, while seemingly benign, concealing passions, betrayals and deeds most foul...

As you should be able to tell from that florid paragraph, I am now seven days into my ten-day “lay-aside” period. I think I must be suffering withdrawal symptoms from writing every day. I cough and extended metaphors spring forth unbidden.

I need to get out more.

It’s funny though how habit has trained my mind in a daily writing mode. Of course that can be nothing but a good thing - normally - but for the last week my world has been one long twitching cold turkey.

Seven weeks remain. Just seven out of 52. It’s all starting to get a little tense. But I have resisted the temptation to take a peek at that manuscript because I know how important those final seven weeks will be.

Come Monday morning, I will be sitting here with red pen in hand as I prepare to make changes for the final draft.

The clock is ticking. Its morbid chime resonating like the footsteps of death that walk the mist shrouded alleyways of my mind...

I definitely need to get out more.

Week 44 - Read on Lizzie...

2008-07-25T08:08:00.004+01:00

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a novel in need of a publisher must be in want of a third draft.

So there it is. Sitting on my desk, feeling all pleased with itself.

487 sheets of yellow A4. A prologue, 33 chapters and an epilogue. 97,000 words. 43 weeks’ work.

And it’s still not finished.

On Tuesday evening I pressed the “print” button and sat back for much of the following hour as page after page were spewed from my printer.

For the following ten days, that’s where it will stay. A brooding presence; a splinter in the finger of life.

The plan is that I put the novel aside for ten days so that when I return to it, it will be with fresh eyes. That’s the plan. The reality is that we’ve moved beyond that point. That was all well and good for the first draft; that white livered prissy relation. The first draft was quite happy to sit out the ten day cooling off period, like the fourth sister in Pride and Prejudice, fully aware she’s never going to be asked to dance and so sits there quietly watching but not taking part.

But time has moved on.

The second draft is an altogether different proposition. The second draft is more like Elizabeth Bennet, Austen’s striking prototype feminist who knows her own mind and will not be bowed by her parents’ wishes.

While I know I will leave the second draft alone for ten days, I also know it won’t be easy. It’s sitting there now; aware of its stature while knowing that it’s not quite the finished article. It still needs me to complete it - just as Lizzie needed Darcy to help make her all she could be - but it’s not going to sit there quietly.

It’s on my mind throughout the day: could the first chapter do with just one more re-write; is the prologue “there” yet; does character B arrive early enough; can I afford the ink it takes to print another draft? These are the questions that dance around my head like characters from a Regency ball.

None of this is helped by the fact that the weather has suddenly gone all hot and humid. I’m never at my best in hot weather; it seems to melt my ability to concentrate. Perhaps, before my wife returns home from work, I might go for a quick dip in the lake.

Of course, I’ll be needing my wife’s help soon. She’ll be the first person to read the novel and I need her to be able to remain fully focused. So it’s probably better not to mention those two words that have been known to buckle her knees and start her incoherently babbling.

...and what are those two words? Second draft? New novel? My husband? No alcohol?!

Sadly not (although the last one comes close).

They are, of course, Colin Firth.

Week 43 - Chic(ken) Lit

2008-07-18T17:16:00.003+01:00

This week I have written a chapter of my book.

Nothing out of the ordinary there, except for one thing: I already had all my chapters completed and have spent the last five weeks editing and refining my second draft.

During this process it became clear that the book was missing a certain something. At first it was difficult to pin down the missing ingredient; a bit like when you fancy some fried chicken, there’s no Colonel Sanders emporium to hand, so you end up in one of those “southern fried chicken” places. It should taste the same, but it doesn’t; and besides, even the flies look nervous.

And so it was with my novel. Finally I realised that there needed to be an extra scene to bridge some action and act as a conduit for my plot to travel down.

So I started to write the scene…and write…and write. Before you could say, “Of course I’ll go large on the three piece meal,” I had written a long chapter. What’s more, it was great to get back to creating. The editing process is fine in its own way, but there’s nothing like creating something from scratch. It was fun to return to my characters and send them in just one more direction.

Now that’s done – I have reached the end of my second draft. At the end of the weekend, I will be printing it out and then placing it in my bottom drawer for ten days before I embark on the final draft.

Another part of my 52-week journey is over and the final one is about to begin. But before the work of the final draft, there are a few days to enjoy the completion of my second draft. I just need to decide how to celebrate.

Anyone for a Bargain Bucket?

Week 42 - Mobile Anticipation

2008-07-11T08:04:00.004+01:00

On Tuesday morning I received a text message from my mobile phone provider to tell me that Apple’s new iPhone would be available to order from 8am. The new phone would be sold on a strictly first come first served basis, as demand was expected to be high.

I read the text, thought about all those people who would be besides themselves with excitement, and then went back to work.

That afternoon one of the news sites I subscribe to had a story about O2’s website crashing due to the millions of people trying to order the new phone. The company soon issued a statement saying that due to unprecedented high demand, there was essentially little chance of getting your hands on the new phone over the coming weeks, but the wait would be worth it.

Picture those gadget obsessed tecno-geeks (I know - those in glass houses...). They must have had their day/week/life ruined by that message.

Why? Because anticipation is a powerful master. It can turn normally sane people into gibbering wrecks. I once attended a launch party for Apple's Tiger operating system and one of the tie in treats was a bottle of Tiger beer. The only catch was that you had to roar like a tiger to get your hands on the drink. As I was weighing up personal dignity versus alcohol, my wife brushed me to one side, made a noise that could have got her the next Frosties commercial and promptly grabbed the beer.

The anticipation had got to her and she went to lengths beyond her normal character to get something she could have bought for 75 pence at the local supermarket (then again, the fact it was alcohol may have been the bigger motivator).

The point is that we like to be teased a little and have our sense of anticipation raised, but there has to be a satisfactory conclusion; we need to be sated. This is equally important in the books we read, arguably nowhere more so that in the crime novel.

Can you imagine reading The Murder on the Orient Express to find the final pages missing? Torment unimaginable. Similarly, would we mourn the unfinished state of Dickens’ last novel so much if it hadn’t been a prototype murder mystery?

The fact we need to bear in mind is that the reader wants to be teased; they want to have the carrot of crime dangled in front of them as we lead them through the byways of our plot; but they want...they need...they demand that they get to eat that carrot before the end of the book.

I was reminded of this duty to deliver on the unwritten contract between reader and author, as I was writing an additional scene during the final stages of my second draft. The book seemed to be lacking the level of anticipation that would keep a reader turning the pages and I realised why. So this week I added the scene and set up another level of anticipation.

All I need to do now is deliver on my promises later in the novel by adding another scene that offers the right level of resolution.

Hopefully, by the time the novel is published, everyone who reads it will feel happy at the outcome.

Even the techno-geeks, who might have got their new phone by then.

Week 41 - Back to Square One

2008-07-04T07:59:00.002+01:00

Now that I have turned 40 (that’s weeks of the blog) and I am beginning to head towards the end of my novel, I thought that there was an obvious topic for this week.

Beginnings.

Last weekend I reached the end of my second draft a whole two weeks ahead of schedule (probably helped by the early exit from Wimbledon of a certain female Russian player). It was time to sit back and take stock. What do I actually think of my novel now it’s in a second draft form?

It’s better - much better - than the first draft; but then again, I’m a better fast bowler than my Grandmother was...it’s all relative....

While the book has certainly improved, it is clearly not “there” yet. The early chapters still seem to be in need of some work; probably as they were written first, they’re not of the same standard as the later chapters.

I have also identified three new scenes that need to be written, which I plan to do over the next ten days.

But most striking of all is the prologue. We all know how important the beginning of a novel is, which is probably why I have re-written the prologue EIGHT times.

Last week marked re-write number nine. Interestingly, I did not exactly re-write it as cut huge chunks from it. It has gone from 1500 words to around 400...and the odd thing is that it’s about three times better. Go figure, as the Americans say.

Kate Mosse discusses how important the start of a book/chapter is and uses examples such as George Orwell’s 1984 (for my money his Coming Up For Air has the best opening line in literature) http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/15.asp

My prologue is certainly not up there with the likes of Orwell and Dickens, but after it’s ninth re-write it’s getting there.

And that’s a beginning.

Week 40 - A Question of Ring Roads

2008-06-27T17:24:00.002+01:00

This morning, stuck on Sheffield’s new Inner Ring Road, my passenger asked me what I was doing this weekend. It was the kind of question that is asked without any real desire to elicit information. It’s what linguistic professors call phatic conversation.

“How are you?” is a classic example. No one who asks really wants to know that your knees crack with a sound reminiscent of a starter’s pistol; that the egg sandwich you had for lunch is repeating more often than Dad’s Army on UK Gold; or for that matter that you’ve been feeling a little down of late and could do with a hug.

Thus it was this morning when I responded to the enquiry about the impending weekend by saying: “Well actually, I’m going to see a tree.”

The rest of journey passed in silence.

To be fair, it was probably not the answer they expected – “oh, nothing much…” would have been nearer the mark – but then they did ask…

As it happens, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Last Christmas my mother was gifted a tree to be planted in her name by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. This weekend, I am taking her to see it on an open day.

All well and good, I hear you say, but what’s that got to do with writing a crime novel?

Admittedly, I have taken a rather tortuously convoluted route to my point (although it has nothing on Sheffield’s new Inner Ring Road), but at least I have arrived where I want to be (unlike Sheffield new Inner Ring Road…)

As I head towards the end of my second draft (and the denouement of my plot), the descriptive passages recede to be replaced my more and more dialogue. It’s a natural evolution of the writing process and helps increase the sense of immediacy, but is does bring the quality of your characters’ dialogue into sharp focus.

More so that anywhere else, it is vital that the dialogue is realistic. Any false notes would bring the reader up short and instantly diffuse the tension. So how do you make sure your dialogue is as realistic as possible?

Simple – listen to people speak. There’s no substitute for it…but remember, you can be too realistic. If you wrote exactly how people speak there would be dozens of “errs and umms…” as well as countless contradictions.

Selective realism is what we’re after as writers; so in the case of dialogue, you will also need to take on the role of editor.

After all, when someone asks you what you’re doing at the weekend, there’s no need to tell them you’re going to see a tree.

Especially if you’re stuck on Sheffield’s new Inner Ring Road…

Week 39 - What's It All About, Malfi?

2008-06-20T17:58:00.003+01:00

Among all the emails I routinely receive in a week (African “businessmen” asking me to let them have my bank details so I can become rich; offers of help to improve sexual prowess; press releases for tinned fruit...) there was one from Ian in Dundee.

It was a request for help. Apparently, Ian is writing a crime novel and although he has a synopsis and has completed a first draft, his second draft is adrift in a sea of uncertainty.

And he thinks I can help.

I’m flattered, but I can’t help but think that sometimes this blog gives a rather rosy view of the state of my own endeavours. That’s probably for two reasons: firstly, I am always trying to put a positive spin on my week’s work, after all, no one wants to read a weekly sob story; and secondly, I tend to write the thing on a Friday afternoon - a time when it’s almost impossible not to be approaching a level of unrestrained bliss.

The truth, of course, is that this whole second draft malarky is no picnic. Or at least it is a picnic, if it resembles one of those school trip picnics when I camped in an ant-infested field, got sun burnt and David Hutchinson threw up all over my potted meat sandwiches.

One of the problems Ian seems to be suffering from is a common one: when you’re writing your first novel, you really have no idea what to expect. Yes, we can guess it will be hard work; we accept we probably won’t get quite as much sleep as we’d like; and the manager at Starbucks is probably going to wish we spent more time buying drinks and food and less time nursing our small ( sorry, tall) black coffee that went cold a few hours earlier.

But beyond this, we don’t really know what to expect.

I referred Ian to Kate Mosse’s tips for writers: http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/intro.asp These are always instructive, but I especially thought that her week 39 tip might help. She discusses John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi (if you haven’t seen/read it, do) - and makes reference to the famous speech where the Duchess inverts our expectations to such dramatic effect.

This is often a good idea. When I have a character who isn’t going anywhere and has become about as interesting as an insurance seminar, I make them do something out of character that will surprise the reader. Now I am not suggesting you turn your mild mannered spinster into a drug crazed snow boarding assassin, but perhaps she could have been a spy in the war; or have once been suspected of a terrible crime...

It doesn’t have to be too dramatic, but it will breathe new life into your work and may just get your book back on track.

After all, that’s the ultimate aim: to finish the book and hopefully sell a few copies and perhaps even make enough money to write the second book.

Speaking of getting rich, now where did I leave my bank account details...

Week 38 - Second Drafts and Other Assorted Topics

2008-06-13T19:38:00.001+01:00

As I reach the two thirds stage in my second draft, the Q word is starting to raise its head.

That’s Quality of course.

Structurally, the book is beginning to pull itself into shape; characters have been embedded and the plot gaps and contradictions have been ironed out.

But is it any good?

If I am honest with myself, I would have to answer: “I don’t know.”

That, of course, is one of the central problems we face as writers.

It’s an odd thing, but I often read published novels and just accept that they’re of a certain standard because they’ve been published. But when I think about it, their dialogue can be clunky; the plot resolution can be as satisfying as watching a movie via dial up internet access; and the characters are as memorable as that Powerpoint presentation you sat through last week on paperclip overspend...

Yet the operative word in all that is, “published.”

Assuming the author’s father/husband/old school friend happens not to own the publishing house, the chances are that they thought it was good enough.

So who’s wrong?

The answer is no one - taste is about as subjective as it is possible to get (just look at teenagers and their bottom revealing jeans, or the whole of the 1970s for that matter).

The simple fact is that we are not always the best placed people to assess our work. It’s a bit like learning the guitar: we know how it should sound - and we know how it sounds when we hear it played well, but when we strum the strings, it sounds different.

We need to develop our inner ear...we need to have some belief...and sometimes we just need to let rip like an Eric Clapton encore.

I think I’ll dig out that Derek and the Dominoes album.

Week 37 - Poop Poop

2008-06-06T18:28:00.002+01:00

Today I said goodbye to an old friend.

When I say old, he was only two years old; and when I say friend, I really mean a car.

Our two year old Land Rover has been replaced - a victim of ever increasing road prices, tax and repair bills. Not, I concede, the greatest tragedy in human history, but slightly sad all the same, because I didn’t want to change the car.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the new car - in fact it’s a car many people would probably prefer to a Land Rover: sleeker, nippier and more stylish.

But that’s my point.

While the new car is the kind of car people would expect people of my wife and mine’s age to own, the Land Rover always said: my job is what I do, but this is where my heart lies...the great outdoors.

Yes, it’s only a car; but it made me think about the whole writing process (bear with me, the link’s not as tenuous as it first seems).

I am now almost half way through my second draft and as I sit here in Starbucks, it occurs to me how we are often not what we appear to be. Not I grant you, the most original thought ever produced by a cognitive being, but then it is 7.30 in the morning.

From all the emails I get (ignoring the rather dubious ones I get from a Spanish woman who suggests I send money as she knows a publisher in Spain) most people who are doing what I am doing - writing a novel - are not full time writers. They work in banks, council offices, travel agents and so on.

When people they work with see them on a day to day basis, do they have any idea what they’re thinking about? If they wonder at all, perhaps they would guess they’re thinking what to have for dinner or what they would do if they won the lottery.

Would they ever imagine that they are trying to figure out how to strangle someone with piano wire; or how high a cliff can be for you to survive being pushed over; or how your boss’s recent vapid comment could provide a clue to his identity as a murderer...

Would they be surprised? Would they care?

Possibly; possibly not. But that’s not the point. The point is that as writers we live in a largely internalised world and one of the things this (hopefully) teaches us, is that the least likely person may be penning some serial killer classic or diabolical crime (have you ever seen anyone look less like the kind of person who can think these things up than Agatha Christie?).

We know that how we look does not relate to what we do or write. It seems like an obvious lesson, but one that many people seem to have forgotten in our homogeneous times.

We are not what we do to pay the rent, we are what we want to do to pay it; just as we are not the car we drive, but where we want that car to take us.

Which is why I’m sorry to see the car go.

Just like when people find out that you’re a writer, the car surprised people and upset their expectations.

And it was great for driving through puddles.

Week 36 - Humble Beginnings

2008-05-30T18:15:00.002+01:00

As I was making the fundamental error of trying to work on my novel while a certain curly-haired nature presenter was waxing lyrical on the television, it occurred to me that creating a second draft is a strange experience. It makes you wonder about your frame of mind when you wrote the first one. I’m finding that some pages contain paragraphs that are near-perfect and don’t need as much as a semi-colon moving.

Others seem to have been written in a drunken haze by a short-sighted chimpanzee.

No wonder you always hear that no writer writes a good first draft. I’ll take comfort from that, even if I imagine the likes of Ian Rankin and PD James don’t have to make quite as many changes as I have.

Of course, it’s satisfying to correct such sentences/paragraphs/pages and there’s nothing like the feeling that you’ve really bottomed that particular section. Yet it can be time consuming. I read recently that J.R.R Tolkien’s son said of his father that his life was a constant battle against time. I certainly know what he meant.

As it happens, I am still managing to hold onto the coat tails of time; but as the weeks pass, it becomes more and more difficult.

One of the ways I try to counter this is working at the same time every day. It helps fool the brain into thinking a particular time is work time and it seems to be working...so far...

Another tip - taken from Kate Mosse’s Tips for Writers - is to speak your dialogue out loud. This not only helps make your dialogue sound more natural, but it also helps get you through those times when you’re struggling to stop your mind wandering. It makes for a great change of pace and never fails to re-focus my attention on the novel.

Unless, of course, Kate Humble’s on television.

Weeks 34 & 35 - Dodging the Draft to the Lighter Side of Life

2008-05-23T17:29:00.001+01:00

I’m still scratching.

After deciding that a week away would be just the thing to clear my mind and recharge the writing batteries, I settled on the Cairngorms. What could be better than a week of isolation to forget all about the pressures of deadlines, second drafts and all the other assorted madness of daily life?

The Scottish mountain range – now a national park – certainly didn’t disappoint; but there was just one problem. Even though I had left my laptop and all my papers behind, try as I might, my novel had somehow hitched a ride on my consciousness and had followed me all the way up the A9 to spend the week with me.

Like President Clinton, although I thought I had successfully avoided the draft, it kept coming back to haunt me.

There I was, surrounded by beautiful scenery, the sound of spring birdsong and midges the size of oranges and what kept popping into my head? Was my murderer giving themself away by doing this or should they do that? Is Chapter Two too long; why am I no nearer coming up with a title?..

What my week surrounded by heather did (that’s heather with a small “h”, just in case you’re wondering), was make me realise the extent to which writing a novel takes over your subconscious. Like the midges, however much you try to pretend they’re not feasting on your Sassenach blood, they’re always waiting for their next slurp of O Positive.

Not that I should complain. After all what’s the alternative? No ideas…no sudden inspiration for a new character…no new plot strands that demand attention with all the subtly of a Capercaillie lek?

I’ll take the midges anytime.

As, I am sure, would have Peter Harvey – Sheffield journalist and author – the news of whose death greeted me on my return from north of the border.

For years Peter wrote a column six days a week in the Morning Telegraph and even in retirement, he still managed to file a weekly piece. A family friend, Peter was the embodiment of a writer who produced the goods time after time.

Unlike the midges, he will be missed.

Week 33 - The Deadline Redemption

2008-05-09T18:07:00.003+01:00

As predicted, this week has been a flurry of late nights, far too much caffeine, and many bleary eyed mornings (apologies to the woman whom I almost sent flying when my sleep-walking self failed to notice her as she emerged from M&S at 8.15am carrying a week’s shopping.)

What is it about deadlines? It’s not as if I don’t face them on a daily basis; so why is it I always get there with only seconds to spare?

The term "deadline" apparently comes from the line around the edge of prisons which if the inmates passed, they would be shot. Sound like some editors I have known.

I would recommend Donald Murray’s Writing to Deadline (available from Amazon) for anyone struggling to hit those all important dates/times. While predominately aimed at journalists, most of the book applies to all kinds of writing. After all, fiction writers may not have daily - or hourly - deadlines, but they have deadlines all the same.

I met my deadline - just - but ended the week with no time to spare as well as feeling as if I haven’t slept in days (possibly because I haven’t slept in days).

My reward is a full week off. The novel is going away and I am going to try not to think about it. Then I have 10 weeks to polish the second draft - getting to the meat of the thing and attempting to re-write it so that it starts to resemble something a publisher may actually want to buy.

Of course, as my 52 weeks begin to run out, the deadlines will loom larger and panic will begin to set in (again). Being positive, it’s possible that I might finish the next section ahead of deadline. But then again, it’s possible I may open the batting for Yorkshire this summer. I have a strange feeling I needn't wash my cricket whites just yet.

There is a secret about deadlines that many journalists and writers tend not to air, because it is traditionally an area we moan about (and let’s face it, we like a moan). It is this: deadlines are actually fun. Without them, I for one, would probably never complete a single piece of work. There is a rush about writing to deadline. It’s exciting, it’s thrilling and it works.

Any old fool can jump off a cliff with a bungee rope tied to their ankle, but if you want a real adrenaline rush, write to a deadline. There’s nothing like it to get the creative juices pumping and even more importantly, to get the job done. We need deadlines and it never fails to amaze me how smoothly the words flow when you have an editor jumping up and down, demanding the work within the next ten minutes...even if your editor is you. It’s what separates us from people who put down their work - finished or not - at the end of the day and walk away. Stress-free perhaps, but where’s the fun in that?

It all reminds me of an old Peanuts strip. It’s the last day of the long summer vacation and Charlie Brown is desperately trying to find someone - anyone - who has not started the book they were given to read over the summer. Of course, he’s the only one. Lucy tells him that she read the book in the first week so that she would have the rest of the summer free without the task hanging over her. Charlie Brown fumes and slopes off to a late night session with Gulliver’s Travels.

Lucy, I often think, is the kind of person who will go on to a successful career in something respectable. Charlie Brown, on the other hand, will probably end up a writer.

Week 32 - Eight Days A Week

2008-05-02T18:20:00.001+01:00

With just seven days to go until the end of my “structure re-write”, I have eight chapters to work through.

Time for some deep breaths.

The saving grace here is that as I have progressed through my novel from those tentative early chapters through the awkward teens to the assured twenty somethings, I have found that less and less work is required on the structure.

While I would like this to be because my writing has improved from dull cliche-ridden juvenilia to assured maturity, with Hemingway-like dialogue sparkling like a Tiffany’s diamond; it might actually be that I just had more of an idea what the hell was going on by Chapter 25.

My new character - Dr Styles - is now firmly embedded within the text and with his inclusion, the book’s structure is now taking on a fully formed shape.

Just in case you’ve forgotten, I have broken my second draft into three stages. The first was a read through with red pen in hand, marking out all the structural inconsistencies and contradictions. The second period - seven weeks in total - is the re-write based purely on structural changes (i.e no prose polishing).

This has proved to be harder than anticipated. The temptation to re-write passages that while structurally correct, look about as polished as the floor of my local kebab house at 3am on a Saturday, has been very strong.

Yet if writing to deadlines teaches you anything, it’s how to stick to time constraints. So with a little luck, and the age old tradition of working too many hours in the day or so before deadline, by this time next week I will (have to) have got to the end of the middle stage of my second draft.

I then get to take a full seven days off. The idea being that you lay aside your novel completely so that when you return a week later to write the second draft properly, you approach with the fresh eyes.

It will also be my last break for four and a half months. After that, I have a clear run through the summer to finish my second draft and then write the third and final draft, to be completed by the end of week 52 on 20th September.

But that’s all in the future - and better not to dwell on too much. For now, I need to get to the end of my current task - take a week off - and then begin what I hope will be the enjoyable task of writing the second draft.

It’s a lot of work - and there will undoubtedly be many temptations in the summer to distract me from my task - but at the end of it, what would I rather have: a sun tan or a novel?

Week 31 - Where's Your Grammar?

2008-04-25T18:48:00.003+01:00

There are few things likely to get writers of any genre - whether fiction writers or journalists (or those of us who have a foot in each camp) - as riled up as issues of grammar.

All right, I may be exaggerating. There may be more pressing issues to discuss: pre-emptive strikes on Iran, the current financial meltdown, the height of Gwyneth Paltrow’s heels... These are all worthy of our time; but there’s just something about grammar.

Those of us attempting to eek out a living from the written word are understandably protective of the tools of our trade, just like any other profession.

The difference is that while a painter may lovingly look after his collection of brushes, he is unlikely to be presented with Joe Bloggs using them to spread glue in his scrapbook collection of beer mats of the Western Hemisphere.

Yet those of us who use words daily have to endure cavalier misuse everywhere we turn. However, most of us try to be philosophic about it and be satisfied by mumbling under our breaths something about the loss of the eleven-plus (even if we’re far too young to actually know what the eleven-plus was).

The real trouble starts when writers disagree among themselves. Just like the miss rule in snooker or the off-side rule in football (or for that matter, all the rules in American Football), no one really seems to agree on certain interpretations or even worse, be able to explain them to others.

A few weeks ago, I got a call from someone to say that they had spotted a mistake in my website - I had written: “...in the mean time feel free to follow my work...” They were adamant that “mean time” should be one word, while I was convinced it should be two.

Now I am not suggesting that this resulted in pistols at dawn (more like lattes at lunch), but there was a healthy debate which finished without agreement.

While I was sure I was right, I thought I’d better check. So I looked it up and saw that in the context I had used the phrase I was right. Just as I was wallowing in my self-satisfied moment of righteousness, I got a call to say that my doubter had looked it up and he was right.

This raised a question that writers and journalists can discuss until the cows come home (as long as they come home before the pubs open): which grammar book do you use?

I was using The Oxford Writers’ Dictionary while Claimant B was using the Longman Guide to English Usage. If they can’t agree, how are us lesser mortals supposed to?

I have always found the Oxford book a good guide; but of course you also have to take in to account any house style - whether you’re writing for a particular newspaper or for a publishing house.

Neither of these books will help you write better, though; only more accurately. If it’s a matter of style, I really don’t think you can beat Harold Evans’ Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers.

These musings on grammar have been a result of my finally reaching the point in my second draft where I have introduced my new character. His name is Dr Styles and I intended for him to be a professor of English language - and by definition an expert on grammar.

The problem is that as characters tend to take on a voice of their own, I might end up disagreeing over a point of usage and that could cause all sorts of problems.

Time for a re-think.

In the mean time, I will continue to write and offer this piece of advice. Always keep a good style/grammar guide by your side; and if things get a little heated with a fellow scribe, try to have a mature discussion and if you can’t agree, agree to disagree.

Or just throw your grammar guide at them. They clearly need it more than you do.

Week 30 - Echoes of the Golden Age

2008-04-18T17:56:00.002+01:00

I have now been back for three days from my short mystery-related break.

Many people have emailed with guesses as to where I was going. Surprisingly (to me) Baskerville Hall was a popular guess. I’m not so sure that would quite make the romantic getaway I intended - especially as it doesn’t actually exist beyond the pages of Arthur Conan Doyle!

In fact, I was not so far away - in terms of geography at least. I spent three days on Burgh Island, situated off the south Devon coast and the setting for Agatha Christie’s Evil Under The Sun (and the inspiration behind And Then There Were None).

Within seconds of setting foot on the island, it was clear that this was no ordinary hotel. The owners have taken its Art Deco design and gone the whole way with a 1930s theme. There was a superb band playing songs of the era http://www.artdecomusic.co.uk/ and dinner was black tie with the ladies in ball gowns.

It all made for classic Golden Age happenings, even down to the gathering of the guests in the dining room (albeit without any rotund Belgium detectives in evidence.)

It was a lovely break; but as ever, when you’re in the middle of a writing project, you’re never fully “off duty”. The hotel provided much inspiration and got me thinking about the classics of yesterday. Over the years the novels of writers of the period - especially those of Agatha Christie - have been criticised in some quarters for having “wooden” characters. This has always seemed a little harsh to me - and not really very near the truth.

Obviously, modern crime fiction has moved on a long way from so-called “cosy” murders (although the success of the Agatha Raisin series bucks this trend). Any prospective crime author who ignores the classics of the genre does so at their peril. I have just finished Mrs. McGuinty’s Dead and the characterisation is on a par with many modern novels. It’s certainly worth a read if you are only aware of the author’s more famous works.

Of course, while reading is important, it’s the writing that counts. My short break has reinvigorated me and I returned home itching to get back to my book. It is beginning to tighten up now and the second draft is starting - slowly and sometimes painfully - to resemble a novel. This week will see me introduce my long delayed new character and hopefully he will add that final ingredient to the book so that it all begins to gel together.

The weeks are beginning to pass at a quicker and quicker pace - and it’s with a mixture of excitement and abject terror that I realise that I have just reached week 30. While all this Golden Age reminiscing is fun, it’s time to pick up the pace and get down to the serious slog of writing.

After a cocktail, of course.

Week 29 - ...and the winner is...

2008-04-11T17:45:00.003+01:00

When you undertake a project that will last a year, there are always going to be good and bad weeks.

This has been a good week.

As the banner at the top of this blog states, I am now the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Official Blogger for the next 12 months.

This came about after I bought a copy of what is the writers’ bible back in early September. I read on the inside cover that they were holding a competition for the best blog dealing with a writing or illustration experience. As I was just about to start my 52 week crime novel odyssey, it seemed a moment of Kismet. So I entered and last week heard the news that I had won.

I have received many congratulations - which is nice, including a message from Greg & Kate Mosse and Keith, designer & owner of Scrivener. http://www.literatureandlatte.com/index.html

Definitely a good week.

Of course, the writing world continues and I have still been working through all the structure issues of my first draft, hacking away at its rock face to create something that might resemble a second draft.

Lest my recent success goes to my head, the second draft is proving to be harder work than I imagined. I am hoping that this is because the earlier chapters will need more work because of how the book developed later. Progress has been so slow that I have not got to the point where I am introducing the new character I mentioned last week.

I have just six weeks before the end of this stage when the actual re-writing begins and I still have 24 chapters to work on. Hopefully, the structure will need a lot less work as I progress, especially as I am going away for a few days - taking Kate Mosse’s advice for a bit of distance. http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/28.asp

I will be staying in a hotel that has been the location for one of the great detective novels of the twentieth century. It should be a great experience and will hopefully inspire me to infuse a little of that golden age magic into my modern detective novel.

In the best traditions of the genre, you will have to wait until next week to find out where I have been - and what it was like!

Whatever happens over the next six weeks, I know that a lot of hard work lies ahead, so I will have to turn down all the requests to attend premiers and royal banquets that will result from my blogging success. Sadly, I have yet to receive an invitation from Carla Bruni.

Never mind. It’s still been a good week.

Week 28 - Hello Again

2008-04-04T18:26:00.000+01:00

The next stage has begun.

After a few days’ diversion around the byways of note collation and overdue filing, I am back on the main road. I have started my second draft.

As I have previously mentioned in this blog, I am now in uncharted territory and am learning as I go. The current stage is planned to run from now to the end of the first week in May and is focused on structure.

What this means in practice is that I am back on the computer and going through my notes from my read through of the first draft and making changes where necessary. So I am adding and expanding scenes, as well as the strangely addictive experience of cutting scenes. I have just expunged a character from my novel and while in my head she still inhabits the same landscape she did before, she is no longer evident in the book.

The theory is that I make no changes to the prose until the big final stage (10 whole weeks) where I will be fine tuning and polishing my words. It’s actually quite difficult to leave sentences alone when it’s clear they need a little work; but I am trying to stay focused on sorting out my structure.

The next 5 weeks will hold some real challenges. I have to introduce a brand new character at some point and then work him in to the rest of the book. I must admit I have put this off and now that the time is almost here, I am still not sure how I am going to do it.

I just know that somehow I will.

That’s the beauty of working to a deadline - a big one as in the 52 weeks I have given myself to write the novel - but also the smaller ones along the way.

It’s also what makes all the hard work and caffeine abuse worthwhile. Whisper it quietly in the earnest world of letters, but it’s actually quite fun. Knowing that there’s a character waiting for me to give him life and make him interact with others is a strange but exciting feeling.

I also need to weave a new plot strand into the earlier part of the book and this is proving quite challenging - but I have the next week to sort this out, so I will let you know how I get on.

Of course, that’s one of the problems you face with a second draft. You already have a book in place - written in black and white and it can be painful to undo - or even delete - work you slaved over. What’s also noticeable is that as I am back at the beginning of my book and am revisiting scenes that I wrote six months ago, I am making some surprising discoveries.

It’s just like meeting old friends - it’s great to catch up, but sadly some have aged better than others. Of course, that’s life.

And fiction.

Week 27 - Wet Sounds

2008-03-28T17:18:00.000Z

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

2008-03-22T19:46:00.000Z

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

2008-03-14T18:21:00.000Z

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

2008-03-07T07:33:00.001Z

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.

Week 23 - Talking Clocks

2008-02-29T18:02:00.000Z

“Time is a jet plane,” Bob Dylan sang, “it moves too fast.”

Too right, Bob. We all know that as the years pass, they begin to pass quicker and quicker. But what about interior time? The time in your book. Surely this is controlled by the author?

Do I preside over my novel like some keyboard-attached Time Lord, speaking with all the authority of a town crier with a new Timex?

Of course not.

The truth is that as I near the end of my first draft, it is beginning to dawn on me that the time frame of my book is about as accurate as the Departures board at my local station.

Somewhere - at some time - time has got away from me.

Now, I know this is not fatal - that’s what second drafts are for - but it brings home how important it is to have an eye on the clock; especially when you’re writing a crime novel.

This morning, while merrily typing away in my penultimate chapter, my detective - according to my plot outline - needed to walk out of a building and head home to bed. Fine. Except that it was about ten in the morning. He'd had a busy morning, but that would have been taking it too far.

I was stumped. Had I lost twelve hours, or gained a dozen?

What had happened was that I was so carried away with the progress of actually writing scene after scene and seeing them turn into chapter after chapter, that I had managed to take my characters out of a linear time and place them in some alternative temporal dimension. All well and good if you’re Ray Bradbury; but not so great if you’re not.

Better planning seems to be the answer - but as ever, it’s better to get your times right at the beginning. If not, your carefully planned novel might suddenly derail and all you’ll be left with is a train wreck of a synopsis.

Blood on the Tracks, indeed.

Week 22 - The Road to Recovery

2008-02-22T08:11:00.000Z

The road to recovery is long and paved with the pot holes of the writing life. But it’s still a road and it’s still going in the direction I want. I just wish it wasn’t so damn steep.

Thanks for all the people who emailed me to wish me a speedy recovery. It’s always nice to hear from people, especially when you’ve not been too well.

The emails have helped, but it’s still been tough. When you fall behind - and are trying to catch up - life can throw all kinds of debris in the road to make you take the wrong turn.

The past week has been hard and I have put in many extra hours in the evening to try to make up for my week of fluids and daytime TV. The good news is that I have made progress; but it has been far from easy.

First of all I had to re-write the 600 words or so I wrote when I was ill. They were terrible. I like to think they were the result of all the drugs that were fighting to prop up my immune system, but I fear they were just bad.

It makes you realise how much effort you need to put in to your writing to make it half-decent. Take your eye off the ball and things soon untangle (and you find your prose full of mixed metaphors).

One thing has really helped. My characters. At the risk of sounding all precious and creating images of me in a garret drafting perfectly formed sentences, while eating dust to survive in a world too imperfect to be worthy of my work; my characters really have helped.

After a break from writing, if your characters are even slightly well formed, they should began to “speak” again a lot quicker than if they are just paper-thin devices to hang a plot on.

One thing I have found that really helps develop the identity of characters is to have an image of them in your head. If you’re lucky - or just visually inclined - you can do this automatically. If like the rest of us, you find this a little tricky, Kate Mosse has a good tip here: http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/20.asp She suggests you look through exhibition catalogues, coffee table books etc until you find a face that fits.

Once you have a picture of your character in your head, you should find that it really helps to write about him or her.

And believe me, when you're struggling up that steep road to recovery like the literary equivalent of an Hillman Imp, any help is much appreciated.

Especially a friendly face.

Weeks 20 & 21 - Notes from a Sick Bed

2008-02-15T17:02:00.000Z

Just when it was all going so well, the Kit Kats stopped appealing.

On track to complete my first draft... hitting a chapter a week... Life was good.

Then the wheels fell off in spectacular fashion.

You know you’re properly ill (as opposed to not being able to face another day of pointless meetings when people talk about singing from hymn sheets - whatever that means) when the things that really motivate you are suddenly as appealing as an All You Can Eat buffet in Michael’s Meat Market is to Paul McCartney.

For me, I knew I was ill when a packet of Kit Kats remained untouched for a whole week.

And if the Kit Kats don’t appeal, writing a few thousand words just isn’t going to happen. Not that I didn’t try - I even managed to write a couple of hundred words. But they were terrible.

Even through my drugged up mind, I could tell they were horrible. The tablets I was taking had no Doors of Perception effect on my writing; the only similarity my writing had to those doors was that it was wooden.

So I retreated to the couch, tried to watch some TV (have you ever sat and tried to watch daytime TV? The Spanish Inquisition had nothing on the horrors in the daytime schedule. I found myself missing the test card.)

When I finally began to feel human again, a whole week had gone by. I was seriously behind, with time to my deadline getting closer at an alarming rate.

As I write this, I have yet to catch up; although I have started to make some progress.

I will get back on track. I will make the time up. How do I know this? Because I want to get back on track and I want to make the time up. That, of course, is the key.

My week off made me realise that it did not matter if you got behind, as long as you were passionate about what you were doing. Without wanting to sound all evangelistic: if you don’t love to write...if you don’t need to write, then a set back will be just that. If you do love/need to write, it will be no more than an interruption.

I don’t think I have ever read a book on writing that does not make this point: you have to want to write. What they tend not to say is that there’s nothing like a week of coughing up bizarrely green stuff to make you see if this applies to you.

The good news is that it does. I am now hard at work to make the time up. It’s not easy, but I will get there now I’m on the mend.

How can I be so sure I’m on the road to recovery? That’s easy. All the Kit Kats have gone.

Weeks 18 & 19 - No Access to Bad Habits

2008-02-01T17:20:00.000Z

A combination of internet provider issues (they didn’t) and a trip to the Lakes and north Norfolk (they looked closer together on the map) has resulted in there being a longer than usual wait between blogs.

It got me thinking about habit, though. Just like brushing your teeth, writing can - and should - become a habit. I was always conscious that I had missed a week’s blog; something that would not have happened if the blog had been more ad hoc.

And this applies to writing. While I have been without access to the internet, my trusty MacBook has travelled with me and has been a blessing. It’s amazing what can happen when there’s a laptop impatiently sitting in the corner when you haven’t written anything for a couple of days. Habit again.

Not that I’m saying you should never take a break - you should - but when fate plonks an excuse in your lap to avoid writing, kindly refuse the offer and start typing.

Which is what I have been doing, between all the other stuff that crops up when you write.

One such thing is responding to anyone who is kind enough (or sometimes clinically insane enough) to respond to the blog (you can do this by emailing me at jimmymac53@googlemail.com). One such person who did this was Karl from Durham, who asked for an update on where I was up to on the novel as he was trying to keep pace with the 52 week plan.

The answer is that I have just completed chapter 24 of my planned 30. Yes, these are only the first draft and there is a massive amount of work ahead on the second draft, but even so it is beginning to get quite exciting thinking about the fact that all going well I will have a full novel sitting on my desk by Easter.

I am quietly amazed by how far I have come - something that I can solely put down to the fact that I write daily (or at least six days a week).

My novel has one more murder to come, which I am setting the scene for next week. I plan to combine the disappearance of a character with a romantic interlude for my detective, hopefully mixing a bit of suspense while providing the calm before the storm.

Chapter 26 - the week after next - will be concerned with the discovery of the body and the implications for the rest of the characters.

One of the advantages of working to one chapter a week, is I have a good idea of where I am going to be at any one time. Of course, things can - and do - frequently change; but I still keep moving towards my goal having at least a general idea of what will happen along the way.

Which is why it’s essential that I work every day. Something my internet provider would do well to emulate.

Week 17 - Can I Ask Who's Speaking?

2008-01-18T08:00:00.000Z

Now Christmas, New Year and the January sales are out of the way, the writing life is settling back into a good work routine.

I am managing to keep to my Chapter a week plan - albeit with many coffee-supported early morning starts. But all in all, I have established a pattern of writing six days a week and hitting my word target almost without fail.

And that is where a problem arises.

I may have ticked the quantity box; but how am I doing in the quality stakes?

This is a tricky one. My Chapter total and word count are there on screen in black and white (or black and yellow in my case). That’s great, but now I have achieved that level of productivity, I am plagued by that one question that haunts all writers at one time or another.

How do I know what I am writing is any good?

There’s gut instinct of course; there’s the opinion of any friends or family you may choose to show your work to; and there’s even those services that advertise their wares in writing magazines. All have the potential to offer advice of differing levels of merit (although let’s face it; if your own mother says your work is terrible, you’re in trouble.)

The truth is that an author is often the worse person to judge their own work - we are just too close. So what do we do?

I think the answer to this is stack the odds in our favour. By this I don’t mean bunging an agent a handful of notes while tapping the side of your nose; but rather following some general guidelines to make sure that our work hits all the right buttons.

One of these which I find most useful, is making sure each main character has some kind of distinctive dialogue trait. This doesn’t mean a catchphrase or the like, but rather something that helps the reader identify who’s talking. It might be a certain character ends most sentences with a question (the written equivalent of the dreaded Australian intonation). Then again, they may use a phrase more than others in the book.

You don’t need to go over the top, or you will risk plummeting through the abyss that is cliche; but a little verbal twitch can do wonders for your writing.

In her 52 tips for writers, Kate Mosse calls this process using a “trigger” to help cement a character’s identity in the minds of your readers. See more here: http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/16.asp.

It’s a great idea - and one that will go someway at least to answering the question of whether your work is any good.

And if your mother still hates it, don’t worry. You may have been adopted.

Weeks 15 & 16 - The Morning After...

2008-01-11T18:00:00.001Z

To say that Christmas only last two days, it certainly went on a long time. Not that I’m complaining - it was great to take a rest from the daily slog.

I enjoyed the holidays; but was left with that oh so familiar feeling when the first week of January arrives: the back to work syndrome.

On my final blog of 2007, I compared writing a novel to climbing a mountain and said that I had just reached base camp. I thought it was a good analogy - and was quite proud of my achievement. Then I went back to work.

It’s amazing how steep that mountain is when you look up at it after a 10 day break.

What surprised me was when I finally opened up my computer and loaded Scrivener, I actually enjoyed writing again.

I had needed a break - and I'm sure it did me good - but I was confusing starting writing again with other tasks that January likes to drop on us - such as paying the avalanche of credit card bills that are the inevitable result of all that Christmas shopping. What on Earth convinces us that Uncle Ted would want a motorised tie rack or that Aunt Jane could not possibly survive another year without a battery operated tin opener?

The truth is that sometimes when you are caught up in deadlines (self imposed or not) we can forget why we are doing what we are do.

We love to write.

No one makes us do it - and let’s face it, we could probably earn more money and have a more secure future if we took that job in the local council’s housing department. But we don’t. Or at least, if we happen to do that job, we write so we won’t always have to do it.

Writing is hard. Writing can be frustrating. But can you think of a better way to spend a career?

Of course not. That’s why we do what we do.

Happy New Writing Year.

I can’t wait.

Week 14 - Fiction's Foothills

2007-12-20T19:39:00.000Z

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

2007-12-14T16:54:00.000Z

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

2007-12-07T18:16:00.000Z

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

2007-11-30T18:52:00.000Z

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

2007-11-24T16:37:00.000Z

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?

2007-11-17T16:37:00.000Z

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...

2007-11-13T18:29:00.001Z

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

2007-11-03T15:26:00.001Z

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

2007-10-28T08:44:00.000Z

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

2007-10-19T14:58:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-12T17:45:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-05T16:53:00.000+01:00

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

2007-09-29T15:04:00.000+01:00

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.

2007-09-22T16:30:00.000+01:00

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...