A Life of Their Own

Hello all, and many apologies for my absence. I don't know what I've been doing. Service planning and assignments as well as working on The Poison Maiden, I suppose. All is going well.

I am now on 18,563 words, which is nowhere near what it should be. 

However, in terms of character development, I feel I am making progress - I seem to be learning more about the characters through dialogues and by gauging their reactions to certain situations. 

It's funny - I remember a time in my life, a while ago now, that I thought I knew everything there was to know about my main character, Visha. I would have sworn, at that time, that you could give me any situation to write her into and I would know exactly how she would react. 

Ah, the arrogance of youth. I was still in school then. I have learned otherwise since.

The fact is, a well-rounded enough character can surprise even the writer, because humans are erratic. If we, the writers, know anything about ourselves, it is that. Humans are largely upredictable, and a writer trying to force a character to do something that clearly doesn't fit is not going to come away with a decent story.

I think to Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World, in which the characters are infuriated by their author's wishes for them. (Possible spoilers if you wish to read). As such, they try to divert his attention by doing outrageous things that he needs to tie up and explain while they slip away, out of the story. 

A wonderful read for those of you into philosophy, I highly recommend.

Now I'm not saying that our characters have a life of their own in quite such a sense (though I like the idea), but I do think our characters' unpredictable behaviour comes from somewhere in our subconscious. we store all sorts of information about human behaviour from our day to day experiences, and though we may not be able to bring these experiences or insights to mind on a conscious level, they are there, waiting to be discovered.

And I think writing taps into that and explores our human experience, which might otherwise be forgotten or ignored. What a wonderful privilege we have. 

My Shiny New Toy

I did it - I bought a netbook. And I got a much better deal than I had anticipated - I got the last in the store, ex-display (so over half price) Sony Vaio, which is basically all the qualities, memory and hard drive space of an ordinary laptop, just really little, like a netbook. So I paid not a lot more for a proper laptop that's compact, which is the main thing I really wanted. Bonus.

I'm still getting used to the little keys, but I'll get there I'm sure. Now I feel as though I can take my writing anywhere, without llugging a massive rucksack with my cumbersome old machine and it's power cord as the battery is screwed with me. I can fit this in my handbag and take it on the bus. I can tuck it under my arm and pop over the road to the coffee house, or over the road to the local library.

Incidentally, that's what I'm doing right now. I've just tapped out 600 more words over lunch, and I've managed to begin a new thread of the story, which opens out a lot of things, ready to be explored. I know I'm being vague, but please forgive me. I'm protective.

Other news, I finally bought a paperback 'Wise Man's Fear' so that I can actually read the damn book without fear of breaking a first edition hardback. I'm such a geek. Mind you, it's not exactly the kind of book you can just pop in your handbag.

I have a question for you. I'm looking for some software to help me with my worldbuilding, which I know will be a fair commitment pricewise for a lot of them. Does anyone know of any good software that won't break the bank too much?

Sorry for being brief, but I think I need to leave. We're now on the third time through of Jonny Cash, and it's driving me a little bit crazy.

See you all soon.

Raw Talent vs. Editing

Is that a valid question? Not exactly a question, but you know what I mean. I've been thinking about my Nano novel, and Nano in general, and I know that the point of the thing is just to write, with the presupposition that you'd edit whatever you came out with afterwards. 

But I'm looking at what I have of this novel and my other Teen Fiction novel which, may I note, I have been working on for years. Comparatively, the older one is a million times better in terms of writing style, pace, voice and wording. I guess it wouldn't take a genius to work that much out, because obviously I have been working on  it for a lot longer than the Nano one. 

My point is due. I have several. I have put literally hundreds of layers of editing and rewriting into the older novel, and goodness knows how much time. I'd like to think I have really grown as a writer since I set out with that project, especially looking at the initial drafts of first chapters and comparing them to what I have now. 

However, I'm looking at what I've come out with for Nano (The Poison Maiden), and it makes me blush because it doesn't look good at all. I will, of course, add the word 'Yet' to the end of that sentence. 

But that's my point. Does it make one a bad writer if it's only in the editing that the writing becomes good?

The Netbook I have my eye on...

I've been thinking a lot about this, and while in my most pessimistic of states, I have thought that the amount of editing I have needed proves that to be the case. But I'm picking myself up on it, because actually, I don't quite believe that. While there are some writers out there with raw talent, who can whip something great up in a matter of minutes, I don't think even they would consider their work finished without at least a little tweaking. 

And I think it's all a matter of how you work; I used to take a lot of time over my first drafts, labouring over how each sentence sounded. I began to realise, though, that I was not getting very far this way. And actually, I enjoy the process of editing, going back to a piece of writing and reworking the words. 

So just because this Nano way of writing is entirely new to me, doesn't make it a bad thing. I think that if I keep on with it, resisting editing and getting the story and the world down, yes I will have a big task to edit through it and put all those layers of fine tooth combing, but actually, isn't that what it's all about? 

Writing isn't easy, well, good writing, that is. Good writing takes time, and lots and lots of revisiting. If I learned anything at Uni, I learned that. 


3. Put time into my work.

What do you think?

NaNo Write-up

I suppose it's not too late to wish you all a Happy New Year. Resolutions, lists of things to get done, everything gets a new start, a new look. So naturally, we think about our writing goals, and what we can realistically get done in a year. Trouble is, I don't know what's realistic any more. My first goal for this year: write a list of goals for this year. When I have the time, of course. 

I seem to be treating time as an enemy, which it feels like most of the time. I go back to the age old question of whether I am using my time wisely enough. So there you go: 

          1. Use time more wisely.

Since I haven't actually written since NanoWriMo, I should fill you in on how it went. It won't take a genius to work out I didn't get 50,000 words. The goal for me was never necessarily to hit the word count in a month, because I was almost certain I couldn't do it (probably my first mistake - telling myself that). What I wanted to get out of it was the initial push to get that first few thousand words down on paper and to get a story flowing. I wanted to get myself into the habit of writing every day, even if just a few lines, and hoped that it might stick. I wanted to get down these ideas that have been with me for a very long time, but I never had the skills to articulate them. I wanted to take on a new genre and have a bash at creating an entire world. 

What actually happened, you ask. Well, I certainly got that initial push, and I ended with roughly 12,000 words, which no matter what it looks like in the grand scheme of things, I am proud of. Although, reading Peter Brett's blog, he has just cut about that much from his novel-in-progress, which gave me a disheartening perspective. You see, the problem is that I tried after November to continue the pace; but then Christmas hit. Only having 5 days off and hosting Christmas for the parents didn't leave me that much time. 

I have barely touched it since then.

I certainly got down my ideas, even if only in crudely formed sentences and somewhat lacking descriptive details, but that was the point, just to flipping well write. So many ideas and potlines have opened up in my head while I've been writing. It's that pressure of knowing you have to write what comes next, not whatever scene comes into my head as I have been known to do. Actually, the ideas came a lot more easily. I found it fascinating to see how far my characters had come, and how much had actually happened in the wordspace. One of my greatest weaknesses in writing has always been writing so much without saying anything. Words and words and words but very little story. When asked 'what's it about', I find myself speaking about the underlying messages and what the characters are like, not about what happens. 

Creating a world was fun, but exhausting. There are still so many details which need researching. I know the beauty of a fantasy world is that nobody can check accuracy, but actually most fantasy worlds have elements of truth to them. For example, the system of rule and the monarchy, government or leadership doesn't necessarily have to be based on or reflecting anything we know of. But my point is, I know so little about that sort of thing that I would like to research it, just to see the patterns, or similarities in various systems in order to work out a new one. 

At the moment, consistency is very overstretched. I realised when reading through my novel, that chapters 1-4 all supposedly happened in one single day. If anything, I felt that was a waste of plot, shoving it all into one day. You see I seem to have gone the opposite way and made too much happen too soon. 

So, already I am beginning to see things which need improving. However, I am simply noting them down and  plan to continue along the same path as I did with Nano. 

         2. Finish Draft 1 of The Poison Maiden.

I shan't try and conjure up goals in a single post, but will keep them coming over the next few weeks. That's as good a place to start as any, right? 

Speak again soon.

Week Two: Progress

My lovely new desk

Please excuse the delay of this post. It was meant to go out Sunday last week, but, well, evidently it didn't. I have been making progress, which is really good. Last week was definitely a better writing week. Part of the reason is, da-da-da-da... I

  have a shiny new beautiful desk. It fits nicely into the space we have, and it has a nice little shelf for the printer. Shanequa has been enjoying having the company too. I also had a lighter week, at 21 hours, so I had a bit more time to play with (and no assessed services...). I do, however, have 2 exegesi (what's the plural??) and an assignment to do for Preacher training, which has been competing for my time.

The good news, though, is that I have been getting into the swing of writing. I've been popping off upstairs while The Husband dutifully sacrifices his much demanded time to make sure I don't have the option to be tempted to play Skyrim. Isn't he dedicated? I mean, even when I'm not in, he's making sure I won't be tempted when I do get in... It's amazing. The guy's a sweetheart.

I'm still not as far as I need to be, but I'm further than I was 2 weeks ago. I'm at just over 8,000 words now, which isn't bad. I'm on another long week this week - it was 40 hours, but one shift's been cancelled and one shortened and I haven't recalculated.

So, the actual story. It's coming along, and I've been getting more and more ideas and plot twists, which I've been writing down on memos or scrap pieces of paper, as you can see on the picture. It's really interesting to see how the plot is developing so quickly when I'm not jumping back and ahead and writing scenes far further along in the story.

I've not had so much time this week, but I have the weekend off. Friends visiting though... I'll let you know how it goes.

First Week Blues

Pumpkin Soup and Goat's Cheese Bread for Bonfire Night

It's not going well. My word count as it stands is a pathetic 2,370. It should be 13,328.

I am positively screwed. 

What doesn't help is that I just so happened to get pretty much a full time week last week, which is brilliant because I can buy things... but It means I have had no time to write. I had an assessed service yesterday, which I have been dedicating any free time I have to planning. I also realised last night that I had not backed up my work, and then proceeded to leave my phone (and the only copy of my novel) in my assessor's car. I have it back now (phew) and I am backing it up as we speak. 

Oh, dear readers, things are not going well. 

But, the optimist in me wishes to say a few words. I have a much lighter week this week, and no services until New Years Day (groan), so hopefully I can at least try and catch up. I'm really struggling to let go of the quality control freak part of me, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of just getting words down and, more importantly, getting story down. At the moment the exposition feels shameless and clumsy, and the storytelling very rushed, but I will press on. 

In good news, we finally ordered a desk today, hurrah! It's more of a 'workstation', and yes, we ended up going to Rymans - Thank you Tom :) . It's narrow enough to fit into the space we have, and it had space for all my CDs too, with a lovely printer shelf on top. I think it'll do me for a while. 


We went into Game today and made another very exciting purchase. We Pre-ordered Skyrim. Oh yeah. Except the midnight launch has been cancelled. I was cross for about a second, but then remembered I have work on Friday anyway so couldn't have gone.

I also got to make my pumpkin soup and goats cheese bread for Bonfire Night which was lovely. The soup was pink. I thought it wasn't orange enough and put red food colouring in for a giggle. 

Anyway, the more time I spend here, the less my word count is climbing. How is everyone else's Nano Novel going?

P.S. Read this. Patrick Rothfuss makes me laugh. And he is now also doing NaNo. The rest of us don't stand a chance.

And So It Begins...

NaNoWriMo is just a day away, and I'm feeling the pre-nano nerves. It's the biggest project I think I've done, in terms of the most challenging. My coursework at Uni always involved lengthy planning and countless rewrites and edits (our guidelines were along the lines of 40 redrafts), so this is going to be a very different experience.

If I'm completely honest with you all, I don't feel even remotely prepared. So I've worked out some of the history and chunks of plot and named a fair few characters, but do I feel like a can turn it into a novel in a month? No. I do not.

But then that, ladies and gentlemen, is the point, I suppose. To launch into it and just keep going, letting just the process of writing inspire you. At least I hope that's how it will work anyway.

On the plus side, I've been in the 'Hands-on History Museum' today, and have been reading all about Victorian school ethics, which might come in handy. The places work takes me...

Rob and I have decided that it might help me to keep track of my plot and where I am to put timelines and reems of paper to scribble on all over the walls of the house. No desk yet, but I'm hopeful for this Saturday. I think, however, that most of my novel writing, as ever, will probably occur on my phone, on the bus, while a service user is sleeping, while waiting for dinner to cook, or while himself is playing/watching wrestling.

Well, I don't have much more to say tonight, and my dinner just went 'ping', after Halloween pumpkin soup proved too complicated at 9:00pm having just got in from work.

An average word count should be around 1700 words per day, although I'm guessing I'm going to go over the word count by a lot.  What are your Nano strategies? (Warning: I do not guarantee that I won't steal them. You have been warned.)

See you all on the other side.