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.

Cake and Sloe Gin

So much for every Sunday... It just so happened that my last two Sundays have been the busiest ever. One of these was the Hubby's birthday, involving painstaking cake crafting, which was much more trouble than it was worth, I feel. It tasted good though, and Rob was suitably impressed. I had a crisis with the icing, and had to resort to butter icing, then ran out of butter. It worked out in the end though. 

My other latest project in the kitchen department is making Sloe Gin. I was introduced to Sloe gin a couple of years back and absolutely love the stuff. It's a very warming Winter and Christmas drink.

My father-in-law part owns a farm in Essex, on which he grew up, and we went to visit the farm in August. Whilst there, we noticed how many hundreds of Sloes and blackberries there were on the bushes, so we went picking crazy. It was wonderful - the four of us picking berries until it got dark and we couldn't see well enough to pick anymore. I came home with 2Kg of Sloes and 500g of blackberries.

I only realised later, however, that it was far too early to pick sloes. Oh well. So I put them in the freezer until I was ready to make the Sloe Gin - some people favour this method, some people say it's bad because it waters it down. Well, we shall see.

It's looking quite red at the moment, so I'm hopeful. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on how that one goes.

A post or two ago, I told you about a good friend of mine who is a textiles designer - well she now has her shop up and running. Please head over and take a look at 'Summertimehols' - she has some stunning work for sale.

News on the study - well, we've cleared it, so there's now room for a desk. However, we need to wait for my first paycheck before we can even consider getting one. I'm considering drawing one on the wall in the meantime. Maybe it would trick me into working... I don't know, though, I have to say it really is rather comfortable sat here lounged across the sofa with a blanket round my legs. I do have the house to myself, though, so himself isn't playing Xbox and shouting at the screen to distract me. Men.

As far as writing goes of late, well it's mostly been sermons. With the holiday months this quarter, we were quite short staffed, and so those of us still training and usually only allowed 3 services a quarter were given four. That alongside the assignments for the training and the new job and various other commitments, I'm afraid I've not been finding much time. And I know it;s the age-old excuse.

My problem is, I simply haven;t got used to it all yet, so I'm gradually starting to make the best use of my time...(very gradually). I find that even when I do have time to sit down and write, it;s the last thing I feel like doing, or I just don't have any ideas or anything to write. I fear this could be one of the big challenges for NaNoWriMo. But what's life without a good challenge?

So, does anyone have any words of wisdom about time management? How have you learned to focus when you have a short amount of time with which to work?

Succor Dice and Nano

It's been a busy few weeks, but in a good way. You see I finally started my new job, which I accepted in May. Having gone away to get married and go on Honeymoon, I missed the induction, so the process has been slow. But I started last week, and I have to say, I'm really enjoying it. I'm working for a company called 'Danny's Dream', which provides support to those with learning disabilities, encouraging social integration and providing person-centred care. 

The down-side is, of course, that I have less time. Less time to blog, less time to write, less time to do housework (shame). But here is what I propose on the blogging front; I will aim to spend my Sunday afternoons blogging, so I *should* have one every week. No promises though.

I hope nobody minds if I geek out a bit. No? Good. Here it comes.

So, I wanted to tell you about the 'latest thing Peter Brett has sent me'. What a genuinely lovely man. Sat on our doormat yesterday was this lovely envelope with a warded sender sticker I would recognise anywhere. 

Never has a customs label been so valuable... 

Anyway, I suppose you are more interested in what was inside the envelope. Even though that alone was enough to keep the geek in me happy for days. 

I opened the precious envelope (ok, I'm exaggerating) and what tumbled out was my entrant's prize for Peat's Cosplay contest. No teasing please, I said it was geeky... I had never done Cosplay before, but I am so taken with the Characters of The Demon Cycle books that I thought I'd give it a go. Because Peat is so lovely, he decided that everyone deserved a prize for their efforts, so sent every single entrant one of these little packages:

The Dice are called 'Succor Dice', which are part of a game featured in The Painted/Warded Man. It's to do with rolling three of the same wards, I think, though there are not any detailed rules for the game. 

So there you are, my latest Geek-out. How sweet is Mr.Brett? We are some very lucky fans. 

In Personal Writing news, I have decided to enter this year's NanoWriMo. Terrifying, but I think it'll be fun and rewarding too. I have another novel brewing away in my head, so I thought, seeing as I'm giving CQ a break for a while, I will have a go at getting it onto paper. 

It's going to need a lot of preparation, as it's a big project. It will eventually reach way over 50,000, I'm sure, but it's the starting that needs to be kicked into action. I'll keep you posted on how it is going.

So, anyone else entering NanoWriMo this year, and have you started planning? It's never too early.