Wow! Another Year Already

Wow September the 8th, I get to this part of the year and it brings to mind that the year is about to enter its fourth and final quarter.

My birthday is in just over a week on the seventeenth and although this once filled me with wishes and expectation when I was younger, it now makes me look back on the last twelve months and take account of what goals I have made. What I have accomplished and even more so, what I have not accomplished in the last year.
For one, I said I would have sent my manuscriptout to an agent. And buy and large I suppose I did, only it keeps coming back complete with rejection letters. I wanted to start a new novel, Not a sci-fi but a crime thriller, and that is on its way. I’m at least a third of my way to finishing the first draft. I’m very excited about this one. Its fast and gritty, with honest characters that are filled with many conflicting values and principals. Its great to write about bad guy turned good and god guy turned bad. They say the secret to a good book is conflict, and inner conflict is even better it is also a great motivator.
Its no secret that I’m a great sci-fi fan but the crime thriller genre is a page turner for sure.
The novel’s called, “The Promise” it follows a father and a promise he made to his wife sixteen years earlier. He is bad guy turned good. The only thing is a bad life has a habit of coming back, wanting its flesh even when you have no more to give. The promise he makes is about his daughter who has just turned sixteen. She has no idea what her father once was, where he made the money they live by today. How will she cope with the idea of living off blood money?
I really do love this one, and I hope so will the agents and publishes when its finished.
In the mean time my other novel “Purple” is still out there awaiting representation so any up and coming agents fancy a read and I haven’t sent it you then please don’t be shy.
A friend of mine was on his annual holiday and by chance bumped into an agent at a hotel bar. The conversation moved on to my friend telling her that he knew someone who was trying to get published. (Thats me he is talking about, incase you were wondering.) She told my friend the same as every writer out there knows. They have many thousands of query letters and synopsis per month and it all starts with the query letter, if thats ok then its the synopsis and if their still reading then its the first fifty pages or so and if you are still in the running, then they request the full manuscript. And even then you are likely to be rejected. Its a numbers game, a mood game. For instance if the agent had a bad night and had had enough of sci-fi then the next sci-fi novel would not get past the query stage.
In the end you can have the best query in the world and a synopsis that would bring tears of joy to the eyes. A manuscript that any full time author would give his right eye for. Your query can still be binned at the first glance.
I try not to take this as a negative but to reassure myself that if I keep sending them out and keep writing more, then one day it will be my manuscript that the agent see’s, and that day they were looking for a manuscript just like mine.

I have made big improvements in my personal life, finically and emotionally.  I look forward to what I have to come in this next year, who knows what may come.

Image from http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk

Don't we love to talk

 

As people we love to talk, we love to socialise and network. Dale Carnegie had a great quote: -

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

I suppose your wondering where I’m going with all this? Well it’s the “why” we as a species like to talk and network or dare I say it, “Gossip.”

Gossip can be a very good vehicle for moving a story on, or for-shadowing a future event. Two characters discussing another character is very helpful when you need an aspect of their personality for-shadowed.

So to understand Gossip we need to know why we do it in the first place.

We can express ourselves through the arts, I.e., music, religion, writing, politics, and even science. But what do we talk about most of the time? It’s not the above list I’m sure. I have read that two-thirds of all human conversation is gossip. This may come as an unwelcome reminder of our interest in the personal lives of others. But if you think about it most gossip is not negative. Most is just chitchat about who is having a baby or what colour someone’s going to paint the lounge. Whatever the moral status, gossip serves an important evolutionary purpose. It’s like a verbal grooming, ape’s pick each others flea’s and stroke each others fur. As for our social grooming, we talk and gossip.

The term gossip once meant, "A person related to one in God, The word later came to mean a close (female) friend or companion. This later translated into the modern definition of gossip, "small talk, and rumour" or "to talk about the affairs of others," I like this one.

Somewhere along the line of our evolution, we evolved the capacity for language; gossip replaced our physical social grooming. According to Robin Dunbar, a professor at the University of Liverpool and a leading researcher on human gossip, “language evolved specifically for the purpose of gossip.” It functions to make a bond within your social group, It can resolve conflicts, build social networks, clarifying social status, also it can help to influence others. Gossip is therefore a powerful way of strengthening the social bonds we already have.

Stated by Kate Fox, "Gossip generally involves more than the sharing of information about people's lives and relationships: it usually involves the expression of opinions or feelings about this information." Although opinions may not be directly stated, they may be heavily implied through tone of voice or body language. It shows their views on the subject matter. It’s not necessarily negative. However, this is not to say that negative views do not exist, as they definitely do; and these negative comments serve a very important function.

When someone engages in negative gossip with a trustworthy person they are strengthening the social bond with that person.

Although other animals have mating calls and grunts, only the human species uses language to such a degree. Gossip is what humans use to establish and maintain relationships, resolve conflicts, build social networks, influence others. Gossip undoubtedly works as a social mechanism. So when someone asks if you’re gossiping, answer with a big fat “YES”. As, we are all very good at it.

As the apple fell

 

I came across a blog that has a weekly prompt for writers. All you have to do is keep within 100 words. I thought that's intresting and gave it a go. The prompt was 'As the Apple fell.' I tried to submit it to the site but all submissions are now closed. It would be a shame to wast it so please find below a very very short story.

Enjoy.

As the Apple fell, I mean thats all it took just one moment. I moved, she moved. Her hand brushed mine as we moved to catch it. Our eyes met over the Granny Smiths. Her’s green, mine steel Blue.

‘Wow your fast.’ I said as her long dark hair was falling back into place.

‘No problem, I just kind of reacted.’

She placed the apple in my hand and held it there. I placed my hand on hers.

She caressed mine with her thumb.

‘Would you like to go for a coffee? or some fruit maybe?’ I asked.

All this because the Apple fell.

Genre Writing

Some writers only write science fiction novels, others romance and poems. Some only write non-fiction such as technical manuals on boats and cars. Some focus only on one genre and others on many.I think that when starting out like myself, we can get drawn into writing only what we know. But I believe we grow through what we write. We explore our selves while learning about others, discovering how people think. Interact with many and ask questions to even more. I know this is true because I'm like a child when first meeting someone with a different take on life. I just cannot stop asking questions.

So when it comes to genres, well I want to try them all. So far I have wrote a science fiction novel and a supernatural thriller. I am working on a crime thriller now. I have enjoyed writing every one and hope to write many more. With the books making the rounds i.e. The Shades of Grey Trilogy, I'm thinking of having a go at romance. As I see it, I'm just widening my writing horizons every time I write in a different genre. So lets not pigeon hole ourselves and write free.

Character Relationships and Development.

 

Sometimes I think we can get so court up in the big full-on relationships of ours characters that it is possible to lose sight of the whole picture.

We are told that when developing characters that we should make a personal profile, by giving each and every character there own back story. Basically a life before the plot.  This is to give us (The writer) the ability to write from their (The character) life experience. Now this is good as long as you keep the exercise to the point of view characters. I say this because when I first started writing in a more than caesural manor, it was this that through me the most. Know one has ever told me that the least important the character, the less back story you need to create. Making a full and colourful life for all your characters will be fun, but I'm not sure if its necessary. To be clear I'm not the kind of writer that writes a full profile on any of my characters. I make them in my head and they stay in there. I was asked to explain this once and my explanation spooked me as much as it did the person asking. They said 'How do you make these people up?' my response was a few moments of fumbled thought and a few scratches of the head, then. 'Its like there is a small room in the back of my head, where there are many little people. (I mean little people in my head) They kind of listen to what I want and when I'm stuck I hand over to them. They then spend what ever amount of time is necessary to make things work. I can be washing the car or cooking the tea but when they have finished working with the plot or character problems. I get an alert that things are ready to move. This normally comes in the form of that magic called inspiration. I stop what I’m doing and go find my laptop.' Now the weird thing is that in my imagination this is what happens, a group of people live in my head waiting to help me when I am stuck on plot or character. Snapping into action when required.

Am I schizophrenic? I think not, I just have a good imagination. When you look at your own life and the complex relationships that are held there, you may see a kind of scale. First there is your close and most important relationship, your wife, husband, partner. These are the ones you know most. Then there are siblings, uncles, aunts, friends, work colleague and so on, the list goes on. What we have to remember is that when we interact with these people in the real world, we do so on a much different scale. Some people don't get on with their mother or father. Some cannot be in the same room with there brother or sister. Some people place friendship far above the family connections.

Also if you give yourself such strict guides as character mapping, you can take the ability for a character to be lied to, or be manipulated by another, because you know too much about them. In life we fight to see the genuine within people but get it wrong more times than any of us would like to admit. By mapping every character I think its possible to take that ability away from your characters and make them a bit predictable. I would be very interested in your view on this, as I find characters fascinating and think its this that drives me to write.

Please comment or send me an email.

First draft, kill the editor for now

 

Every now and then someone will ask me for advice or my opinion on something they have written. And I am happy to do so. With the caveat that I am a new writer myself and my advice is that of a new writer. You could ask why am I giving advice out in the first place. And that would be a question I ask myself each and every time. (Luckily I don't do it often.) I think we all learn and grow with many personal variations and tangents. That said I also believe that we are all the same and we follow a curve of learning that is quite unbending and unforgiving. With the odd exception we all learn the same way. Some are faster than others but the curve is the same. We start at A and continue through to B and C finishing eventually at Z. If we live long enough to reach Z that is. Remember time is very real and we take as long as we have. If I traveled back in time to talk to Shakespeare at the end of his life, I would ask 'Have you learnt everything you need to know about writing?' I bet his answer would be, 'no' You could do this to all the greats in all the fields of art and you would (with the odd exception) get the same answer.

So when I say I'm a beginner writer, I suppose I'm saying I have started my journey and except that I will never finish it, but isn't the joy, in doing not finishing. Don't you get the most smiles and satisfaction at the point when you have figured out the plot twist you have been waiting for. When you know your eventual reader will want to know more, but not why they want to know more. I enjoy writing one word in front of another and seeing what happens. This all happens in the first draft, the rest is polishing or improving the work, bring it it up to standard. But the creative bit has been done. So my advice to all that write is, to enjoy your muse, your inspiration. It's what makes art, well art. If your rolling between the sheets with the long haired bottle of inspiration. (my muse has long hair and is female for that matter.) Lock the editor away in the box room or a small wardrobe for now. And enjoy the muse. She likes to feel special you know.

Getting the words on the page

 

I'm trying to work out what the problem is with getting words on the page. It's like I have thousands of words in my mind but when I start to write I get tripped up on the smallest of things. I can see where I want the characters in my book to go but when my fingers hover over the key board, I stall. It's like someone has put a sheet over my head and I can just make out the details through the fabric, but only if I concentrate.

If I get up to put the kettle on for a drink or leave to do something simple like stretch my back. Then Wham, the sheet is lifted off my head and I see it all again. As soon as I sit my but down in the chair, then down comes the sheet. It would be fantastic if I could plug my mind into the computer, I would finish a novel a day.

I remember reading somewhere that writing a novel is like holding a hammer and chisel.

Before you is the complete story, but it's encased in solid stone. Its my job as a writer to chip away slowly and mithodickly, uncovering the story that's held within the stone. Always being careful not to damage the treasure inside.

I think that sometimes my arm is just too tired to Weald that hammer. maybe a day off is needed.

Learning To Write, The Lesson Goes On

This being my first post about writing this year, I thought it may be a good time to update you all on how far I have come along this road we call Writing. At the turn of the year it was two years and three months from when I decided (after reading a book I thought of being badly written) I was good enough to write a novel.

Since then I have finished a novel called Purple, which is about a man and his family. How an alien race attack his home town. The protagonist John Valley has to fight to find his son and wife whilst coming to terms with his birthright which has given him extraordinary  powers.

I began another novel called Sole Man this one is a supernatural thriller about a man who moves to a new home only to find he has unlocked an unusual ability. I'm currently only half way through this one. Mainly because Purple decided to push its self back into my life with (you guessed it) a part two, I called It A Lost Nation. This follows Purple but two years on. A kind of what happened next. I know that the books say that I should have finished Sole Man first but I just could not get Purple out of my head. With all the short story ideas, some written and polished, others still just notes on my computer, I'm finding that I'm pretty annoying to my family with all the change of subjects.

I suppose this is one of the biggest lesson, that you have to finish the story because if you don't it just stays an idea. last december i sent Purple to a Pod cast show and  the first chapter was read out on air. Paula B (thats the host) says that the story and suspense was good but it needs cuts and a good copy edit. I think her words were 'this is un-readable in its current state. At the time I thought ok, thats fine, maybe I should go over it again. It wasn't until the first week into January that I decided to take a look at it.

Now keep in mind that I thought it was almost at a publication quality. The very first sentence I found two things that need changing and the punctuation was not good. I must have changed every sentence on the first page, then on the second page. I have since cut two and a half thousand words from the first twelve thousand words of the book. I'm acutely getting worried that this will not stay novel length by the end of this edit.

That said, it sounds so much better for the cuts. I think Stephen King said in his book On Writing that you must kill your darlings. Well it wasn't just my darlings that I'm killing it was some very bad stuff that had no right to be in the book in the first place.

I began writing because of the thought that I could do better than a published author, well I have since read more of that authors work and have enjoyed most of it. He had a bad book I suppose. I can only throw my respect to all authors that have managed to get published. Maybe I will never be one of them or maybe I will. All I can say is that I love to write, I love the way the characters come to life in my head, how they become part of my life. And as long as I can write I will, published or not. I will learn and the lesson will go on.

Reflection!

 

When we reflect I cannot help but wonder why. People I speak to seem to reflect back on there life with the filter of  regret. I can honestly say there are only a handful of friends and family in my life that follow my interpretation of reflection.

 

Above is a collage of words from my tags of the last year. I can say that these are the most important words from my last year of posts. When I look over these, it makes me reflect with in, I see happy, sad and great social times. The last year has brought me the death of my father. The finish of my book. The realisation that I need to do more. Also a great growth within my self. My first blog almost a year ago was (and you can look this up in my archives if you wish) To Van Dyke or not To Van Dyke That is the Question. Since than I have posted fifty seven times subjects ranging from information about my writing  to family holidays, great social events such as the Royal Wedding and some very personal events too.

This is the past and we should learn from this, not repeat it.

We hold onto the past with notions that to persist and repeat will bring better results. It will not.

Most conversations I will have over the next twenty four hours about the future, will involve the past. Trying to make a better future by clinging onto a changed or modified past.

The glory days are just that.

We anchor ourselves with Memories but we set ourselves free with Dreams.

 

We look forward and shape the future, use your glory days, don't repeat them.

On this I wish you all a very happy and productive New Year. I look forward to the new challenges it will bring.

 

 

It's a finger nail biting moment

 The time is 07:46am I received an email last night from a popular podcast show called The Writing Show. It's hosted by Paula B and she informed me that she will be looking at my book in her next show. The show is posted today and because it's in America I'm not sure what time. I have checked twice already. They are a few hours behind and I have no clue as to what time zone she lives in. Oh he'll I'm nervous, its that someone else is reading my work with a critical eye. I have listened to Paula B's podcast for years now and very much respect her view, I even look forward to listening to it because I know it will help me with the book. Still the nerves are here. You will be able to find this podcast athttp://www.writingshow.com or on iTunes it's labeled as slush pile workshop 22.

The time is 8:22pm I have now listened to the podcast and before I give you my update I thought I would explain why I time stamped the post. Why not post the bit above this morning then post this update? Well because I think i wanted to keep it together and I like the format it's like a diary of today's events. And who wants to keep getting emails that I'm posting every two hours. Back to the podcast, Paula B read my chapter and that was strange in its self. I have listened to her read other peoples writings for years. She was kind with a large scoop of honesty. In brief my story is good, my plot is good. It's very cinematic. These are some of the good points that she talked about on the show. The main point was copy edit, copy edit, copy edit. I have to say that this does not come as to much of a shock, I must be the worst speller in the world and punctuation, well I'm still on that learning curve. In my defence I wrote the first chapter to Purple back in 2008 and I have learnt so much since then. I suppose my challenge now is to bring that what i have learned to the book and stop being lazy. Give it a listen and by all means give me your opinion especially with the word tw*t (for a full disclosure of this word listen to the podcast) as this seems to have a different meaning in the states and I think I may need to change it.

Rewrite

I awoke this morning with a vision that my book was not finished. This is obvious as I'm only one 5th of my way into the A Nation lost. Then it must be my first novel Purple. Some people tell me they rewrite there books eight even ten times before feeling a little satisfied. I have only done this five times. So I have made myself a promise. Is that in the down times when i am slow on words for A Nation Lost, I shall rewrite Purple chapter by chapter page by page. I am strangely excited by this, can I make the prose tighter? I know I can. Can I make it flow smooth? Yes. Should i just leave it and move on, Am I a fool for trying this? Maybe but I have learnt so much going over my stories and my novel that I can only believe that this is helping me be a better writer. After all this comes from within us. In the end it is us that have to say we are finished.

First person, third person. narrator, omniscient or limited which one?

This is one of the biggest shell we say surprises I have had since I began to write fiction. For instance when I wrote the hundred and fourteenth word and that word being 'END' I was not aware of the amount of work that will go into this fictional journey. I have been over the manuscript at least four maybe five times each time thinking this will be the final time. Then I find myself picking it up a few weeks later and bang it's crap again.

Second and third draft, I would say spelling was an issue. Third draft was more more plot holes. Now I have started the next novel to this story, and I now find I have a problem with the way I wrote the point of view of the first book. I wrote first person in the first book, my narrator is third person. This I'm fine with, its the amount of each that is the problem. for instance in the first book I think I was more narrator and less first person. where in the second I'm edging the other way.

I suppose the question I'm asking is this ok considering these are different books or do I try and keep the same flow throughout all the books could this be my inexperience speaking? Could this be the show don't tell thing? but surly you have to tell sometimes.

I may need to go have a cup of tea and sort these out, it seems my mind maybe running away again, it's small grey and round, very wrinkled probable throbbing too, if you see it running down the road, please don't tread on it, I need it.

 

Halloween flash fiction

Hi to all the young witches and vampires out there. It's halloween again and I love this time of year, frights and costumes are getting better and better each year. England seems to be getting better at this the more time goes on. So in celebration of this ever so special time of year I wrote a very short story, in fact its more like flash fiction than a short story. Enjoy.

Comments are always welcome.

 

There is a Monster at my window

It was strange, and looking back it was quite understandable to be scared. Come on there was a monster at my window.

It had come for the last three nights, just after midnight (I knew the time because there was a clock with glowing hands hung next to the window) Each night it would tap tap tap on the glass with its long white finger nails. Just three taps, then it would show me its teeth in a fierce snarl. Its eyes would glow red with a wave of fire flowing within them. I thought it could probably shoot fire from them.

Tap Tap Tap on the window.

By the forth night I thought it best to tell my parents. My mum looked at me over the toad in the hole.

“A monster, what in your bedroom?” said my father.

“No it is at my window, it taps three times then”

“Well” he interrupted with a mouth full of sausage. “Well if it’s outside you don’t have to worry about it. Anyway I’m here and won’t let anything happen to you”

I slammed my knife and fork down in the hope to shock them. “SAM” my mother shouted. “SAM”my father shouted both together, my father carried on after they looked at each other. “Sam you will not get the right sort of attention by doing that”

“You do it” I said soon to regret it.

“Now go to your room until”

“But the monster at my window” I interrupted.

“There is NO monster at your window” said my father.

As I walked up the stairs my legs went heavy. I thought tonight would be the night. Them taps would become bangs and then it would break through and kill us all.

The monster did not fail me. In the hope to ignore it I kept my head below the covers checking the time every now and then. But the closure it got to midnight the more I checked. The big hand of the clock was one minute from twelve. The second hand was at the six. Thirty seconds until it would come. I checked again ten seconds, five four three two one.

TAP TAP TAP

Its face was big and covered in fur the colour of fire and wood. Its fingers were scaled and the long white nails were taping on the glass. It opened its mouth and a split tong swung out from between its blue cold lips.

“MUM, DAD ITS HEAR NOW, ITS GOING TO EAT ME” I shouted.

Moments later the door swung open and standing there was my dad, stud behind him was my mum.

“Samantha What are you shouting for” said my dad.

“She's petrified” said my mother. She sat down next to me and held me close.

“Tell me what happened princess” said my dad he would always call me princess when he wanted to calm me. I like that about him.

“It was at the window, it comes every night just after midnight”

“It could be because it halloween tomorrow night” said my mother to my father.

“Halloween or not I won’t have it scary my little princess. Tomorrow night I will be here at midnight and show her she has nothing to be scared about”

“What about tonight” I said “please stay, it might come back.

My father moved over to the window, the curtains where always bulled back, they swooped to the side leaving a diamond shape to see through. He moved them aside and looked out, his hand moved to the latch “NO DON’T” I shouted. He looked at me and smiled, them he open the window and poked his head out “there you go nothing out there, its all clear”

As they both left the room my father said “Now go to sleep and no more shouting”

No sooner had they closed the door the monster was back at the window but this time it was making a noise. It was like someone licking fire with a sizzle each time its tong touched its face.

In a gruff voice the monster said “Tomorrow night I will be here for you” it then hissed and vanished with a flash of fire.

The next morning I told my father all that had happened, he reassured me that all would be ok. He said “halloween is just a silly night for silly kids and you are no silly kid, are you?” I chose not to answer.

That night came round far to fast for me. My father came into my bedroom at eleven thirty and we watched the minuets pass, he kept telling me jokes that didn’t understand. Then there was only two minutes left.

“Not long now princess, then you can get some sleep” he smiled that smile and moved over to the window.

“No dad please stay here, don’t go over to the window it will” The monster rose from behind my father, it s teeth beard and fire flowing from its head like hair. My father looking at me did not see it, but his smile faded fast when he saw my face and the glow emanating from the fiery hair.

He turned, they where face to face, eye to eye. He walked toward the glass pain and reached for the handle.

“NO” I shouted “NO DAD DON’T”

He turned the handle and opened the window. My heart was beating fast, sweat was beading down my face with the heat that flooded the room.

My farther grabbed hold of the monsters head of flames, all I could think was how his hands must of burnt. They fell to the floor.

“MUMMY” I shouted as they rolled about on the floor, my fathers cloths were on fire now. “MUM DADS GETTING HURT”

She did not come, the monster was on top of my Father and rose its fist ready to smash it down. Then the most unbelievable thing happened. The flaming hairy monster bent down over my fathers neck, teeth bared dripping with saliva. And it kissed him on the lips. I waited for him to burn, but burn he did not. He kissed it back.

“Darling you are so wonderful, look she is so scared, how wonderful” it said in a not so gruff voice.

“Yes I know” he sat round “Samantha meet your mother”

“What… mother, no no no no its not mother its not” I’m now ashamed to say I cried, but given what I had just been through I think you will give me that.

When I rose my head my farther was a flaming monster too, in shock I backed against the wall.

“No no no no”

“Is that all your going to say” said my mother “because tonight is you night. My darling you are to come of age tonight”

A few moments later my hair burst into flames.

The end.

by Steven Glenn.

What to Write

You know some times it's not that I cannot find something to write about, its more that I have too many subjects, and trying to pick one is like walking into a bakery wanting a cream cake and there being an large selection of your most loved cakes. In the end you take to many at once and kill the treat or forget it and walk out. That's the great thing I have noticed and the worst thing I have notice about having an interest such as writing story's. There is just so much out there that it can be hard to pick one thing to say. So i will pick one, query letters. I have sent out my query letters for my novel Purple. Two are still to come back. A month has gone and all the others have come back with form rejections, one had just been signed in pen saying 'not for us'

I do have a plan, yes a plan and people who know me would probably not be surprised at that. The plan is to hit all the UK agency's first, because I'm from the UK and that makes sense to me. Then the US and so on. After going through the writers year book i was shocked at how few agency's applied to me. Thinking it a doubting task at first but then that there was not many to choose from. I have to wait for all the replays from the ones I have sent out. 90 days is what I'm told is the normal cut off. So two more months to wait. In the mean time I will develop something or not, who knows. :-)

I would like to know if anyone has not had a reply from an agency or what's the longest you have had to wait. That would be interesting.

You Have to Write I have been a bit of an idiot, yes that's right a right royal idiot. "why, why tell us?" you may be asking. Well as you know I finished my first novel a couple of months ago and have since been sending query letters and chapters out to agency's. That all said I have not been writing! "so what" you may interrupt If there is one thing I have learnt about writing fiction, and I say fiction because that's what I write this may also apply to non-fiction. That is you must write everyday to stay in the mood. I have numerous ideas for story's and most are of novel length but am idea in the mind is just an idea and worth zilch until on paper or in computer in my case. So last night I started by writing 455 words of my next novel. It's not a lot but it's a start. ( I also slept like a baby last night, seems that when I write I sleep better, so even more to be happy about)

You have to write

I have been a bit of an idiot, yes that's right a right royal idiot. "why, why tell us?" you may be asking. Well as you know I finished my first novel a couple of months ago and have since been sending query letters and chapters out to agency's.

That all said I have not been writing! "so what" you may interrupt If there is one thing I have learnt about writing fiction, and I say fiction because that's what I write this may also apply to non-fiction. That is you must write everyday to stay in the mood. I have numerous ideas for story's and most are of novel length but am idea in the mind is just an idea and worth zilch until on paper or in computer in my case. So last night I started by writing 455 words of my next novel. It's not a lot but it's a start.

( I also slept like a baby last night, seems that when I write I sleep better, so even more to be happy about)

Query and Submissions

First of all, hi and thanks for all the emails on the last post, it did seem to get people talking. I thought it about time I had an update on my novel. At present it's gone through a number of rewrites, in which I mean I have deleted some stuff and added some stuff. Seriously it seems that each time I go through the manuscript I make more to fix on the next rewrite and how can I keep missing spelling mistakes it's like someone waits until I have finished and places new spelling mistakes where the old ones were. Anyway enough of my shortfalls. I finished work on Friday and decided that this would be the weekend that I do my query letter and synopsis. And like a good boy I did. I finished a one page query that can be adapted to most agents, I also completed a 556 word synopsis, including the surprise ending as every help book or web site shouts this at you to do. I even managed to sum up the 103,000 word novel in a 73 word tag line. So haven't I done well. I do have to say sorry to my wife Joanne as I did keep throwing paper work at her, on her one day off "oops" I have even pre dated the letters to give me a deadline as to when I will have everything ready.

My novel is a science fiction thriller. This is not good in the world of publishing. Of all the agents web sites I checked only a few excepted science fiction and when looking into there recent published books I found very few that were science fiction. So this could be the time when perseverance has to win through. It's the adversity in life that makes us improve our work.

I'm going to start with a selected 7 agents and wait. Then depending on what happens with them I will move on to the next ones. I will keep you updated if anything happens. By the way the dead line is the 17th of September. So there you go I have to send these off now. Incedently the 17th is all so my birthday.

Writing Stuff

I have been writing or should I say rewriting my novel, this is to send to someone who is going to give me some feedback. on things like Story, plot, characters and so on.

This being my first novel length story, I have learnt quite a bit about how I write and have seen many problems while also seeing many good points. A bad point for example is the show don't tell rule. I seem to be breaking this over and over again, this will lead to many rewrites, not of the whole book just the relevant bits. I am also noticing that I break into the 'he thought' and 'she thought' quite a bit at times. This again make for the show don't tell rule. when I'm in there head and conveying there thoughts then I'm telling and not showing. this is ok if say I want to get the characters from one part of town to the other with no relevant story needed to be told about that journey.

Example : He thought, it best to lead his team straight to the station, when reaching the tall door, he thought. God I'm pleased to have got them here safely.

This although a bad sentence gets rid of many pages of description that would have been written if I showed then getting to the police station. The story should dictate whether it is needed or not. The problem is when I'm writing and its 11:30pm my eyes are falling closed on every breath. then it seems easy to replace five pages with one sentence.

But now that I work through the manuscript my tardiness is obvious. It makes me question the rule (there are many rules about this writing lark) just write no matter how bad you can sort it out in the second draft. now I'm in second draft it seam I should have been more decisive.

I think you learn as you write.

Character Development

I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine, it involved my take on character development. I know there are many ways of doing this, like writing down the characters life in great detail, give the character a life story on paper. Where they were born, when they got and so on picking out all the life changing events. So you have a sense of what this character would do in any give situation.

Now I may be wrong here so this is not advice more like my experience so far. In other words I withhold the right to change my mind.

Someone has asked me if they can read my novel called Purple.(working title) So before handing it over to someone who has edited a book for someone before. (in other words her opinion has weight)

I could not help but go through the novel again, Just to iron out any spelling mistakes and minor issues. I think it best to leave it in its raw form until i get feed back.It seems each time I go through words I can find more and more stuff. Now I came across a character that I could not remember, I know gosh horror what should it be a cut throat or hung from the rafters. My friend asked me, did I not right a character profile about all the characters first? My answer was no I did not. And this is why. I write of the cuff, let's say I have an idea. Then I will sit down and begin to write, not plot development or characters. Just stat with the place and person, then work through the situation. Other characters might come, new situations will develop or they may not. Then it becomes one of the tens of other two or three thousand word files. Some have a much higher word count. The thing is each and every one of these characters I know inside and out from the start. Each character is fully formed I know what they will do and how they will do it.

As for plot that's a different issue. I will when I work out how I do it tell you. Up to now I don't know If my plots are worthy. That's until I get something published.

Procrastination or incubation

I'm in a dilemma, this is that I'm not, or maybe I just cannot, but I must do this first. You know if you give me some time I will.

Am I procrastinating? maybe.

In all seriousness, I am suffering from a dilemma. I have been told that when finishing you first draft of a novel you must move on to some other project. This is to give yourself distance from the characters and plot that has drilled them selves out of you brain for the last twelve months or so. I have done this by writing the start of a new book. I have written the first three chapters and hit a wall, that wall being what comes next. The problem started when I began to revise my first book. All I can see is where I need to take the characters into a second book. I can see the sky. The people and most exciting of all the new characters that are beginning to pop into my head.

Every time I start to work on forth chapter of my new book that is supposed to distance me from this. I write like I'm writing for the second part of my first book. I getting confused so you must be very confused.

My question is do I give in and start on the second book, while revising the first. Or preserver with the forth chapter of my new story?

I'm I just incubating the new story. It did start strong, then I hit the wall. I think it was that I have no idea where the story is going. It's not that I need to know the ending, it's just that I need a goal to aim for. That goal can move change or do what ever it wants. I just need something there to lead me.

Comment always welcome.

Spelling Mistakes

This is a quick post regards my spelling. A good friend of mine informed me that he keeps finding spelling mistakes on my blog. All I can do is apologise profusely about this. I write my blog mainly on the go using my iPhone 4 with the WordPress app. If you have read my profile you will know that my day job is a decorator, as all decorators, my hands tend to be large., my finger tips are more like stumps and far from nimble. Although the iPhone is an amazing phone, it spell checks everything you write. You may say that should solve the spelling problem. Well no not really, you see it also replaces words if you spell them wrong. It can replace it with some thing that is totally opposite to what you intended to write. When like me you get on a roll, you neglect to check back. It is actually advised not to check back especially when writing a long bit of prose, it can wreck the flow and I do agree with this.

I am what you would call a discovery writer, I start with an idea then take it from there, no plotting or character development until the story is completely finished. This way the story evolves as I write, making it very enjoyable for me to write, its pretty much like I'm reading the story as I write it.

As anybody who rights a lot will tell you reading your own words is well just that, you read what you want to read not what is there.

If I can come up with any more excusers I will promptly post them, until then I promise to work harder at finding these rough trees within my forest of words.

Any suggestion then Please comment.

Novel Ideas

 

To write a novel or a story is enormous undertaking for the professional or amateur writer. I am an amateur writer and this blog is me putting some sort of record to the journey. Admittedly I am starting this part the way in, I have almost finished the first draft of my novel. My current word count is 97,365.43, with about 10 to 20 thousand to the finish line. You could ask 'how could this be a true account when I have missed the first leg of the race?

 

Well from what I have learnt over the past 18 months (and yes its been 18 months since i started this novel) there are few problems at this point apart from finding time to sit and write. I have never suffered from writers block if anything its more info overload. My head just overloads with story ideas, every one I meet has become a possible character in a story. I have many short and unfinished stories with no time to do anything with them until I have finished this one, I also have notes on my computer of possible story ideas, they are a plenty. So if you have trouble with these things then reading this would be of little help. But if you are all ready in the journey and fancy reading about someone in a similar position then here I am.

At this moment in time (meaning today) my main objectives are number one a blurb, because I have such difficulty telling someone about this story. When ever someone ask 'wow a novel, whats it about?' I start to fumble and flounder about the story as if I'm making it up on the spot, my face grows red and then I find myself trying my best to just get away from the subject as quickly as possible. Just to hand over my phone with say 200 words describing a brief synopsis could work and not make me feel like a hack.

Number two in the list of objectives is finishing the first draft. It seams I just cannot finish or find the time to finish. My weekly word count has dropped significantly since passing the 80,000 word mark. Not through lack of inspiration but through every conceivable problem with home or work, just slowing me down and the thought of going through this 100,000 word project to find all the spelling mistakes is mind bending to me.(any suggestions would be very much appreciated)

To finish this post I should tell you that my goal is to post on here as often as I can, I have been told that to tell others, motivates you into action. I would also like to say because I write does not mean I can spell. So spell checker is my best friend and I apologise for any misspellings that might happen. I will talk about my software that I write with (scrivener) and by the next post I should have a first draft of my blurb which I will post for comments. Help and advice is always welcomed.

Please comment or send me an email, just to say hi if you wish.

How do my characters right my book?

I am after all a writer (unpublished),  I say this because for some time I have felt that I do not write anything. Like the characters write themselves. I had an actual fight with one today, he wanted the story to go one way and I planned for it to go another. So what do I do? I don't expect an answer because I all ready know, I follow the character's wish after all it is his story.

I think its this that make's me want to keep pounding on these keys day after day. When I started to write this book I never expected, shall we say...side effect. I thought it would be me sweating over every word, planning every chapter, but no I just write what they say and what they want to do. I follow the story and get as excited by the plot turns the same as I would if I was reading it from another author. I have heard this before but never really believed it, I thought they are being modest or something. They are not, it truly happens, I give birth to the idea and carry it through puberty lets say. When they know what they are doing it's their game and I'm the spectator from that point on. I might change my mind as I still have many pages to write but this is my experience so far, if it changes then I will tell, I promise.

 

I would like to thank Mr. John Valley (lead character) and his associates for taking me on this ride and opening my eyes to their world. I have a big action scene to write tomorrow which is always exciting and a little hard with much going on. If you wish to comment or ask anything than please do.