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.
Friday, 23 May 2008
Friday, 9 May 2008
Week 33 - The Deadline Redemption
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.
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.
Friday, 2 May 2008
Week 32 - Eight Days A Week
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?
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?
Friday, 25 April 2008
Week 31 - Where's Your Grammar?
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.
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.
Friday, 18 April 2008
Week 30 - Echoes of the Golden Age
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.
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.
Friday, 11 April 2008
Week 29 - ...and the winner is...
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.
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.
Friday, 4 April 2008
Week 28 - Hello Again
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.
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.
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