Side Projects

...are a major distraction.

How do you fit it all in?  Writing a novel, blogging about it, tidying up short stories for potential digital release, keeping up with your reading - books and magazines, day job, oh, and having a life in between.

Answer:  Clone yourself.  No, but seriously, why is life so full of distractions?  Don't know.  But there's always something that needs doing; something that diverts your time away from the thing you should be doing, the thing you want to be doing, the thing that feels like it will never be finished.

I wish I knew the secret, I really do.  All you can do is keep pushing on.  Work out how much spare time you have and divvy it up between the things you have to do and the things you want to do.  Even if it's just an hour a day on your novel at least you'll be moving forward at a consistent pace.  Then slot the other projects in around that.  For example an evening might look something like:

• 6pm - 6.30pm:  Eat
• 6.30pm - 7pm:  Read Writing Magazine (for example)
• 7pm - 8pm:       Write novel
• 8pm-8.30pm:    Make corrections to novel, or work on side project
• 8.30pm - 9pm:  Write blog
• 9pm - Bedtime: Have a life!

Sometimes I try and squeeze 30 minutes in before work - just making corrections to the previous day's word count.  Those are the days when I don't iron my shirt!

Once you settle down to write, try and get into the zone and stay there.  Make sure you have everything you need with you, so that you don't have to keep getting up from your computer or writing desk.  (I have a little fridge in my study now for water and chocolate).  Try and keep that connection between artist and art.  Live the words you write.  Feel them, taste them, smell them.  Get inside your character's head and run with them.  They're the only people who should be distracting you when you write!

NEW FAVOURITE HERO

Finally, a superhero we can all believe in...Grammar Man!  I hope he keeps a bag of apostrophes handy for all the poor shop signage up and down the country.  And restaurant menus - they're often the worst offenders.

If I have one criticism it's that he's made more of a mess than the original graffiti.  Perhaps in future he could do his corrections in chalk, or now that he's established and in the public conscience, maybe he could sign off with a simple exclamation mark!  We'll know it's you, Grammar Man.

Keep fighting the good fight, innit isn't it !

How long does it take to Write a Novel?

A year?  Two years?  Five?  A lifetime?

I wish I knew.  It's taken me about two years to get to where I am now; beginning a third draft and preparing to make some big changes.  My biggest problem?  Having to write part-time; snatching a couple of hours in the evening, getting up early at the week-end, making notes on the KLM city hopper as I chase around the endless white corridors of food factories.  I find it difficult to maintain consistency in ideas.  Far too often I will cook up something that I really like and try and make int fit into the story.  Or I forget a character's motivation in a particular chapter and end up making them do something meaningless, or completely out of character.

Concentrate on character and make notes as you go along, even if its' just a brief synopsis of each chapter that you can glance at every time you sit down to write.  With this third draft I am really scrutinising the previous day's work, making corrections, checking that my characters are being true to themselves, thinking about the plot and how events early on will shape the rest of the story.  I think I may have found my style of writing.  Hey, I'm a beginner after all!

So how long does it take to write a novel?  Flicking through this morning's Telegraph 'Review' supplement I came across a critique of Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  The author set himself the challenge of writing a novel in a year.  That meant he had two weeks to draft and revise each of the book's twenty-six chapters, whilst holding down a day job as a Financier.  Supposedly he received an advance from his publisher in the region of £100,000.  The stuff of dreams.

Is Rules of Civility any good?  I haven't read it so I can't pass comment.  The reviewer gave it three stars and accused it of feeling 'a bit second hand...'  Still £100,000 for a year's work - you've just bought yourself the time to write something even better.

I think to write a novel in a year you have to believe in your characters from the get go.  For me that suggests that you've spent some time thinking about them, shaping them in your head, not to mention having done some considerable research in the background.  Perhaps I'm wrong.  Maybe I'm a little envious.  I'll keep pushing on until my novel is ready.

Kindled! (And other snippets)

Yes.  Kindled.  Set alight.  Well sort of...

I took the plunge and swallowed a bit of pride and allowed the contentious Kindle to settle between my fingers.  Have I been converted?  Um, fifty-fifty.  It's not a book, which may seem a very duh observation - what was I expecting? -  but that was my first emotion as I began to read from it (The Once and Future King, T.E. White).

What I don't like about the Kindle:

• You can't smell the pages (come on, we all do that!)
• I don't know what page I'm on - only what percentage of the book I've read.
• I can't flip through the pages in an absent-minded fashion or rest the open pages over my eyes as I nap in the beautiful British sunshine.
• I still need to turn the bedside lamp on to read at night.
• I can't chuck it across the room when I get frustrated with the plot/characters/denouement.
• I can't use it to remedy a wobbly table
• Okay I'm scraping the barrel now!

What I do like about the Kindle:

• If i suddenly decide I want to read let's say...The House at Pooh Corner then I can download it to my Kindle in little more than a minute (without embarrassment).  Perfect for our 'have now' society.  Instantania!
• I can hold it, I can lay it down on the table, I can prop it up, any angle, and the pages don't flop shut.
• When taking a flight I needn't use up my baggage allowance on books - I can have all that in just 200g (approx - I used my kitchen scales)
• It meant I could buy my short story (yes, I know, I bought my own short story - someone has to - available now at amazon.co.uk if you're interested!)
• The author portrait screen savers are a nice touch.
• Actually there are quite a few things i like about the Kindle.

But the Kindle is not a book, and for me it will never replace the pleasure of penetrating the hardcover of my favourite author's latest; of wandering the aisles of a good bookshop (especially the second hand ones with hidden gems in every darkened nook and cranny); of that moment of deliberation, torn between wanting to preserve the integrity of a paperback whilst at the same time having an overriding desire to break its spine and fold the pages down flat.
 
The Kindle, for all its worth, will never smell like a book, it will never feel like a book, and it will never read like a book.  Like good tea sipped from fine china, words are best enjoyed on paper.



Even more exciting than the Kindle was the arrival of the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook 2012.  If you don't own a copy of this then put it on your shopping list or go to your local library and get a hold of it.  Aside from containing the most up to date directory of contacts for the publishing industry it is also crammed full of advice from established and first-time authors of all genres, commissioning officers, agents and publishers.  It offers support and encouragement to people like us who are striving to get our manuscripts out there.  It's big and red and shiny!  It smells great!  I love it!

Back in Business

After a fantastic Wedding and a well-earned break it's back to the serious matter of trying to make it as a professional writer.  More on that in a minute.

First, as promised, a quick wedding snap

It was an amazing, whirlwind day with lots of pacing and palpitating, but mostly deep joy and happiness.  I think i finally relaxed in to it after my speech, and then it whizzed by, just as everyone had warned us.


Anyway you didn't click on blog of whispers for wedding advice (or did you?), so here's a bit of an update and some thoughts on conflict (not marital!).





For some time now I've been struggling with Amy's character.  She just wasn't coming alive on the page and the conflicts she had felt forced and superficial.  I think i was trying to make her conform to the plot rather than letting the plot be driven by her actions, hence she's been walking around with her arms tied behind her back.

So I've made a bold decision and taken her character back to the roots to give her a second chance at life - and this time she gets to call the shots!

I also realised in revisiting those first couple of chapters that i have failed to resist the urge to tell rather than show.  There's a lot of information in those first pages that doesn't need to be there.  Stuff that should be revealed gradually and subtly.  By tweaking and restructuring I've managed to use subtext to tell Amy's story and build her character.  But a character is not much without.............

Conflict

Conflict creates a need for a solution and by exploring the character(s) attitude towards the conflict and the way in which they come to a solution gives us the basis of a plot.  That plot should drive towards the resolution of the initial conflict.

Along the way that initial conflict may generate secondary or tertiary conflicts, which gives the story its subplots.

Conflict can be physical, emotional or spiritual and caused by love, hate, religion, money, politics, sporting affiliation, musical preference, the choice between red or white wine with a meal, in fact any important or trivial decision to be made between two characters.

Good conflict creates tension, suspense, suspicion, anger, upset, and ultimately relief.  Some characters create conflict knowingly, even deliberately, but others can create conflict unwittingly, simply through seemingly innocent actions, maybe because they are not aware how others view them or feel about them, or because they don't know what is expected of them.