Unspoken Words

Happy New Year to everyone.

For me, 2010 will be the Year of the Novel. I set out at the beginning of 2009 with the intention of writing a science fiction novel by the end of 2010, and soon realised that I needed to put in some effort towards catching up with contemporary novel-length science fiction, adjusting my way of thinking from short stories to novels, and continuing to develop my general writing skills.

Authors I’ve read in 2009 include Ian M Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Neal Asher, Ken Macleod, William Gibson, Eric Brown and Richard Morgan, among others. I’m still reading science fiction short stories, too, and am working my way through a bunch of anthologies as well as recent issues of Analog and Asimov’s.  The likelihood of finding someone to publish my novel is small and may well depend on me being able to get some short stories published in professional science fiction mags, so although the novel manuscript should be written and polished by the end of 2010, getting it published is likely to be some way off yet.

Oh, and I joined the British Science Fiction Association late in 2009. My first copy of the regular BSFA magazine Vector arrived recently, and as a BSFA member I’m able to nominate for the BSFA Best Novel award (and others, including the Best Short Fiction award).

Of the non-SF novels that I’ve read in 2009, two stand out as being particularly memorable. One is Rape: A Love Story, by Joyce Carol Oates, and the other is The Woman In The Dunes, by Kobo Abe, which I’ve just finished reading (and absolutely loved). Both were new authors to me.

Back in December I took the train up to London for the Ride the Word event at the Cafe Yumchaa in Soho. I’d been wanting to go to a live reading event for some time and missed the Sparks event in Brighton the previous week because I came down with a bug, and the Short Fuse event in Hastings the following weekend because of a family issue. So, it was nice to get to the Ride the Word event, where a bunch of authors who had contributed to the Short Circuit book edited by Vanessa Gebbie read. As well as meeting up with Vanessa, it also gave me an opportunity to say hello to a few people that I’ve ‘met’ online over the last few years, including Tania Hershman, Sarah Salway and Alex Keegan. I also picked up a copy of Balancing on the Edge of the World, by Elizabeth Baines.

Just before Christmas the Goldfish Bowl writing group met up in Canterbury, and Don took the prize for the best short story on the theme of The Origin of Father Christmas. Katherine Spink also brought along a copy of the short anthology that she’s put together containing a varied bunch of stories by group members.

The Critters Bar writing forum kicks off with Flash League III in early January, an all-play-all flash fiction writing competition with weekly rounds and cash prizes for those with the most points at the end.

Whatever you’re up to in 2010, I hope it’s a great year for you.

What’s the best writing how-to book you’ve ever read?

What’s that? You don’t believe in them? Move along please. Thank you.

I’ve read a leaning tower of them since I began writing almost six years ago. Some I’ve found really useful, some less so, but all of them have had something to offer.

If you like how-to books, you’ll no doubt have your favourites, as do I. Without doubt this year my favourite has been Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time, by Jordan E. Rosenfeld. Once in a while a book comes along that really makes a difference, and this – for me – is one such book.

Rosenfeld breaks the book up into four major sections:

• Architecture of a Scene
• The Core Elements and the Scene
• Scene Types
• Other Scene Considerations

Right from the first chapter I knew I was holding in my hands a book that was going to help me to prepare for writing my novel, and I haven’t been disappointed. It has affected not only my writing, but my reading, too.

More details available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Scene-Crafting-Powerful-Story/dp/1582974799

If you’re like me and you’re making the change from writing short stories to writing a novel, add this to your list of wants for Christmas.

And feel free to share your own recommendations.

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 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.

Hey Mister Contemporary-Science-Fiction-Writer. Yes, you. You know who you are.

I’m well stuck into reading as much contemporary SF as I can in an effort to find where the bar is set and understand what I have to compete with if I really want to get published. So, at the moment I’m at exactly the halfway point in the latest novel by a well-known contemporary SF writer.

I read his first novel a few months ago and it was a bit so-so, but I finished it. I know there’s a whole pile of stuff he’s written inbetween, and I’m sure some of it must be pretty good, but I’ve jumped forward to his latest because what could be better than seeing what’s out there now!

And it was going well. Approaching the halfway mark, I was thoroughly enjoying the read. It’s soooo much better than his first novel.

Then the story stopped.

It stopped for six pages of blah-blah-blah (in small font).

It stopped – in the middle of the action – while the author blabbed on in great detail about the history of a character. And I mean great detail. Long, boring paragraphs of overwritten tripe on pages that turned brown and curled at the edges.

Itswank.

I should thank him. I should thank him for showing me how not to write. I should thank him for being lazy enough to believe that because he’s made it he can churn out any old crap and get away with it.

I learned something about writing today.

I may never sell a novel, and if I do I may never sell more than one, and if I do the chances of me selling as many novels as this guy are teeny-weeny-weeny indeed. But the chances of me stopping the story in the middle of the action to bore the reader shitless by blabbering on about a character’s background is abso-cocking-lutely nil.

Itswank.