Unspoken Words

The Novel

Yes, yes, yes, I know I said I’d start writing it in June.

No, no, no, I haven’t started yet.

What’s it to you, Big Nose?

I’m still reading as much contemporary science fiction as I can, and mostly enjoying it. I’m also reading up on science fact – latest theories on time travel, black holes, worm holes, parallel universes and that kind of thing. There’s some really interesting stuff out there (no, really, there is). Anyway, I consider this to be an essential part of my preparation for writing the novel and won’t begin writing until I feel that I’m ready. Right now, I’d expect that to be just after Christmas. Maybe even January 1st. But if I’m not ready then, it’ll be when I am.

However, I still intend to have the novel written and revised by the end of 2010. That has always been the case and that’s still the case, so, even though the start has slipped by months, I plan to have it ready on time. How? Well, simply put, the original plan was really lazy and assumed a typing speed of around 30 words a fortnight with time off for good behaviour, or something equally as silly. I know I can write it faster than originally planned, comfortably in fact, so that’s what I’ll do. Okay?

Critters Bar

I love that place. But I haven’t been there in over a month. What? Well, Ian Rochford has kindly taken over the admin role (thanks Ian), and I’m taking time out not only from Critters Bar but from all such writing forums and online gathering places for a while so that I can concentrate on the novel. It’s hard. I do miss the interaction. But it’s got to be done. The last 12 months I’ve managed to set myself free from all kinds of things in order to free up time for the novel, and pulling out of Critters Bar for a while was the last step. I will be back, I’m just not sure when right now.

Goldfish Bowl

Still meeting up with other writers locally every couple of weeks, and last night we had a workshop on ‘the opening’, the second such workshop as we had one on characterisation a couple of meetings ago. Anyhow, it seemed to go down pretty well and though we were relatively light on numbers the discussion was very worthwhile and we ended up over-running.

Writing

The last stuff I wrote was during the July Blast story-a-day initiative in Critters Bar, and I think I managed about 16 or 17 pieces during the month, something like that. Not quite one a day, but still. Anyway, Dogzplot Flash Fiction took one of the pieces (Chrono-something) from the July Blast recently:

http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2009/10/chromo-something-bob-jacobs.html

and the good folks over at The Pygmy Giant recently took one (Imperfectly Formed):

http://thepygmygiant.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/imperfectly-formed/

and Every Day Fiction are due to put one up (Broken Waters) on November 26th:

http://www.everydayfiction.com/

Yes, yes, yes, I know they’re very short. Yes, yes, yes, I know they’re very simple. If you want something longer and more meaningful you’ll have to wait for the novel, which is thirteen-point-something months away from being completed (let alone published). But it’ll be worth the wait. Honest.

And those places are all worth a visit if you’re looking for some short fiction to read.

Okay. That’s all for now, folks.

I’ve often heard people say that if you’re a writer you should write every day. If you don’t write every day, you can’t be serious. Set yourself a daily target and make sure you hit it. If you don’t hit it, you can’t be serious.

Do you write every day? If so, do you set yourself daily targets? If so, do you meet them? If not, how do you feel when that happens?

I ask because I meet up with a bunch of local writers every couple of weeks at the Goldfish Bowl writing group, and recently a local writer was invited along to talk to us. It was a good evening and I enjoyed listening to him talk about his writing and how he approaches it.

Of course, not everyone approaches writing in the same way. Different writers will have different approaches. The end result is the important thing and I doubt that you can tell what process the writer has gone through by looking at the final product, the published novel. I have a couple of books in which writers talk about their approaches. I find it interesting. But each of us has to find what works best for us, and what works for you might not work well for me.

I don’t know what works best for me yet because I’m just setting out to write my first novel. Maybe the process I go through will change as I progress, evolve until I find something I’m comfortable with.

One of the points the local author made I thought was really helpful. He said that he doesn’t have a daily target. He has a weekly target. He prefers a weekly target because if he has a daily target and misses it, it’s frustrating, whereas with a weekly target it doesn’t matter if he misses a day and he can always catch up.

It sounds simple, and it is. And I can’t help wondering how many writers out there are feeling frustrated because they’re setting themselves daily targets and failing to meet them.

Maybe you’re one of those frustrated writers yourself.

I like that simple idea. When I come to start cranking out the words on my own novel, which won’t be too long now, I’ll be working to a weekly target, not a daily one.

As it happens, the local author has posted a copy of his writing schedule on the internet:

http://www.snowbooks.com/Emson_schedule.html

You can see how he did as he wrote his novel, along with some notes that he added.

Are you a frustrated writer?

I played tag this week. Not the kind of tag where you run around and get tired. The kind where one person writes something, then another person adds to it, and so on. A tag story.

I know. It doesn’t sound like Writing For Grown-Ups, but wait a minute, hear me out. I’m almost ready to embark on writing my first novel, switching from writing short stories, so why do I want to waste my time with a tag story – even a tag novel?

The tag novel is something being run by the Goldfish Bowl writing group, which meets locally every couple of weeks. Each member gets one week to add a chapter, hopefully around 1500 words or more, then passes it on. I got to write chapter 6.

So, what did I inherit? Well, actually it was quite interesting. Five different people had each written a chapter. There was something running through from start to finish, but it kind of jumped around a little, and everyone seemed to have their own idea as to where the story should go. Which is pretty much what should be expected, unless something else has been agreed up front. Five different people, five vastly different styles, and five different directions, and a few ambiguities.

I printed out the existing stuff, which amounted to about 8,600 words (I think). My one week condensed down to 2 days, as I’d left it to Tuesday evening to get stuck into it and had to hand it on the next evening. No problem, I thought. 1500 words, a walk in the park.

I started out by reading the first five chapters, taking reasonable time to follow what the previous contributors had added. Then I sat and thought about where the story might go. It had a few threads that seemed contradictory, and I thought it might be a good idea to bring those together. Two main threads running through the story, and I wanted to keep those going. I also wanted to give it a sense of direction that the next contributor could follow, if he wants to.

I thought it needed livening up a tad, and I once heard some advice about sending in a man with a gun in these situations, so that’s what I did. Line one, door opens. Line two, man walks in with gun. Go from there.

And I started plotting.

Now, this might seem like a frivolous waste of time, but plotting is something I’m still getting to grips with for my own novel, very much in the planning stages at the moment, so spending time plotting from someone else’s foundation was actually quite fun. And creative, too.

When I had some plot to run with, I started writing. Cool. By the end of the evening I had about 1450 words down. And I wasn’t finished. No problem, I still had another evening to play with.

The next morning, driving to work – which for me is a 90 minute journey each day – instead of listening to the radio or CDs, I drove in silence …and plotted some more. By the time I reached work I knew where I wanted the story to go from where I’d left it the previous evening.

Lunchtime, I crashed in about 600 words – and shoved down a ham salad. Cool.

When I got home I had a break, bit of fresh air in the garden reading, then sat down to crack on. Couple of hours later, I was done. A bit of tweaking here and there, checked chapters 1 to 5 for continuity issues, and sent it on its way. Job done. Chapter 6 written.

By the time I’d finished, my Chapter 6 amounted to 3000 words almost bang on the button. Now, I’ve been writing short stories for 5 years, and maybe one, if that, has made it to 3000 words. Most have been 1500-2000, and much of my more recent stuff has been very short indeed. So, 3000 words is quite an achievement for me.

Not only that, but I did that in two evenings. My plan for completing a novel assumes that I will write only 2000 words a week. So, frivolous though it may be, I just did the equivalent of one and a half week’s novel.

The quality of what I’d written is very much draft standard, spell-checked and proof read, but not outstanding writing. For my novel I would expect to come back later and revise, and maybe spice up the writing a little. But gosh! I’d sat down and done some plotting, then crashed out 3000 words in two evenings. And it felt good!

Maybe playing tag is fun, and not altogether wasteful.