Week 17 - Can I Ask Who's Speaking?

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...

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

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

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

But that is exactly what I have done.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But those chapters are still shrouded in mountain mist.

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

Merry Christmas.

Week 13 - The Scene of the Crimes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a research trip after all.

Week 12 - A Boy and the Black Stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and yet...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 11 - The Heart of the Matter

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

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

Here goes:

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

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

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

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

And then I read that quote...

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

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

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

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

There are no speed cameras on First Draft Highway.

Week 10 - My Space

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

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

Where do you work?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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